Welcome to Idiot-Ville. Population: NPR

I heard this little gem last night on NPR when I was driving home. During a discussion of attacks on illegal immigration in Long Island, one of the interviewees claimed that using the phrase 'illegal immigrant' caused violence.

The story explains that Steven Levy, the Suffolk county chief executive is against illegal immigration.

Levy has taken a strong stance against illegal immigration, but he rejects efforts to connect those policy positions with acts of violence against Hispanics.

"It's a real disservice to try to say these things only happen in those areas where there might be a debate over the issue of illegal immigration," says Levy. "It's dangerous, because it gives the impression that if you don't have a debate over illegal immigration, Latinos are safe. That's not necessarily true."

Levy points out that even cities that welcome illegal immigrants struggle with crimes of racial hatred.

But Phil Ramos, who represents eastern Long Island in the New York State Assembly, says Levy does not appreciate that his words have violent consequences.


"If you say the word 'illegal' enough times as buzzwords in your speeches, these people cease to be human beings," says Ramos. "And that's what leads a group of six or seven young men to hunt an Ecuadorean man on the street like an animal, and just stab him and kill him."

Ramos was a police officer here for 20 years before he retired and ran for public office.

 Yeah, this makes sense -- there's now no difference between a man who claims "Illegal immigration is a violation of our laws and causes severe problems in our society" and a guy who says "lets beat illegal immigrants to death."

For what its worth, I'm against both illegal immigration AND beating innocent people to death.

Only a few moments later, the same program did a story on new breast cancer screening recommendations from a US Government task force. 

The message that breast cancer screening saves lives has taken root, and powerful breast cancer advocates who promote this message have earned women's trust. Perhaps that's why there's such a backlash against new recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that advise against routine screening for women under age 50.

The task force recommendations were based on science studies that evaluated the effectiveness of mammograms. In one study, researchers determined that for every 1,900 women in their 30s and 40s who are invited to have a mammogram, one death from breast cancer was prevented.

When public health types look at these numbers, they conclude that it's not necessary to test every woman, every year — given the risks that accompany testing, including false positives, anxiety and scar tissue from biopsies.

But here's the rub: Individual women don't tend to think like public health folks. The 1 in 1,900 figure means little to a woman who has a sister, cousin or friend with the disease.

Nearly every woman interviewed for this story was profoundly hacked off, and I bet you that every single one would also be in favor of government run healthcare. Of course, nobody made the (to me) blindingly obvious connection that THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE GOVERNMENT RUNS HEALTHCARE.

Well I Stand Up Next to Reason, and I Chop It Down With The Edge of My Hand

I heard this bad joke recently:

So this devout Muslim guy walks onto an Army base.

He yells "Allahu Akbar!" and shoots 40 unarmed soldiers, killing 13 of them.

Turns out he considered himself more Muslim than American, contacted known al Qaeda sympathizers, and had been under investigation by the FBI at one point.

And a few days later, a large number of yammerheads are assigning blame to every single part of his life except his religion which commands him to slay infidels.

It appears this is a joke without a punchline, sorry.

Harry Potter: Libertarian Manifesto

I'm reading the Harry Potter series to my son, Fang. The farther we get, the more convinced I am that J. K. Rowling is a libertarian.

Here are my reasons:

1) Any wizard or witch can ride on a broom. That's pretty freaking cool right there. No control or regulations whatsoever on your own personal, high speed aircraft. No helmet law, either.

2) One of the few collective institutions is the wizard school, Hogwarts, where everyone is taught how to turn people into newts, create dangerous and exciting potions or poisons, see the future to cheat on the stock market, and beat the lie detector when they get busted for insider trading. I made the last two up, but you get the idea.

3) Everyone gets a wand. If you've got a wand and you know the spells, you can disarm, torture, maim or even kill. The only thing stopping you is your own conscience, or the fear that the other wizards might fling you into Azkaban, the wizard jail, which brings me to ....

4) The wizard government sucks. With very few exceptions, government committees in the wizard world are ignorant, cruel, clumsy and corrupt. And the head of state, the "Minister for Magic" is wimpy political expediency personified, bending or ignoring rules to suit himself. What kind of government keeps Dementors on staff, and turns them loose without a referendum?

5) Spoiler Alert. When the bad guys are finally stopped for good at the end of the fourth book, its not the Ministry  -- its the wizard militia who finally pulls it off.

6) Harry's world is a very dangerous place. People fall off their brooms, break their legs, fly magicked up cars into trees at high speeds, grow cat fur on their faces by mistake, have all the bones in their arms turned to jelly, fight dragons, etc. And nobody gets upset and starts a Wand Control movement, or insists on caging all the dragons or restricting potions classes to the politically reliable. They just roll with it.

I'm sure there are more. Post them in the comments, or disagree entirely if you find that more pleasing.

Hey Congress, Go and F Yourselves, Right in the A

"The $1.3 trillion-dollar bill would require individuals to buy health insurance,"

That's all I need to read, right there, you dirty-arse-licking, pud-pounding, page-fondling, shite-eating, muskrat-humping, limp-donged, Viagra-snorting, Botox-jonesing, head-traumaed, dusty-vagged fecktards.

Eff. You.

The Liberal Whisperer, Part XVI

Liberal: I don't understand how anyone could be against this health care bill.

Conservative: We don't want more government involvement in our lives.

Liberal: But you'll take Social Security!

Conservative: But that's already in place.

Liberal: I still don't understand why anyone could be against this bill.

Conservative: Even if it were a good idea, we can't afford it right now.

Liberal: Why can't this huge Democratic supermajority get this thing done? Bush got everything he wanted for eight years without a supermajority. Absolutely everything.

Conservative: You mean like Social Security reform, Harriet Meiers, the Dubai Ports deal, and Immigration Reform?

Liberal: I would respect the Republican's position more if they did something more than just object to the House and Senate bills.

Conservative: Well, the Republicans have tried to offer suggestions and amendments to the Democratic bills, but they've been blocked. In some cases they've been physically barred from attending meetings on the subject. In spite of all that, they have offered a much smaller and non-intrusive bill for consideration. So you should respect them now.

Liberal: I still don't understand why anyone could be against this bill.

There really is no talking to these people. They not only aren't listening, they couldn't even process the facts at hand if they did listen.

And I've learned that there is no greater political and philosphical meter for reading the core of this nation than the degree to which liberals run away from their own views in public. Conservatives are, and have always been, proud to espouse and own their views (even when they fail to live up to them): smaller government, lower taxes, and a strong America at home and abroad. Liberals are almost never willing to admit what their policies really are: large and intrusive government, high taxes, and a neutered, internationalized America.

When Obama won last fall a fair number of people figured it was a core realignment and that somehow, decades of basic American conservatism had shifted to liberal leftism, and from Obama on down the liberals threw off their cloaks of moderation and have scampered to the left.

How wrong they've turned out to be. The next few months should be entertaining, at least.

MeatAxe Reports: Posting Light This Week

Now Hear This:

I'll be in Boston at the User Interface Engineering conference for a couple days, so posting will be light on my part.

Upon my return I'll not mention anything I did at the conference, as I'm pretty sure that interface geek stuff would bore you all for tears.

Im off now to make sure I'm not illegally transporting ammunition components into the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts. In other words, cleaning a few spent .22lr cases off the floor of my car. Apparently you can get arrested for having these dangerous items without a government-issued permit.

Now Hear This: This Blog is an H1N1-Free Zone

This post is the last one in which we will use the word "H1N1". On MANP we refer to this particular virus as the "pig sick."

GDP? BFD, FYI.

Everyone was shouting yesterday about the rise in GDP -- we're up to 3.6% increase, apparently. There was barely restrained glee from the White House and mumbling from various parts of Congress.

Three quick points:

1) This has very little to do with the $780 billion stimulus plan that was passed by Congress earlier this year. Most of that money hasn't been spent yet.

2) Mainly responsible for the increase are Cash For Clunkers and the $8000 new-homebuyer tax credit. On the one hand, paying people to buy cars and houses is odd. Still it puts money back into the hands of the American people, instead of leaving the Congresscritters to decide what to do with it. So I can't complain too much.

3) What really steams me about this phenomenon is the repeated description of Cash for Clunkers and the $8,000 tax credit as "government spending ."

What a crock of shit. Why does the government reduce taxes and consider it spending? In order for that to make any sense at all, they'd have to assume that they actually own all your money, and they are entitled to tax every cent of it.

Thoughtgun Blast, Part the Second

Life

Never attribute malice where simple ignorance will suffice.

Health Care

Just because there is a procedure for removing brain tumors and a person who can do it doesn't mean that I should have automatic access to them, anymore than the fact that BMWs exist means that I should have one in my garage.

And if something is believed to be too expensive, address the costs and try to make it cheaper via the market, don't try and force everyone to buy the expensive product.

Enemies

Perfect:Good as Water:Fire

History

This weekend (10/25) was the 65th anniversary of Task Force Taffy 3's epic David vs. Goliath battle vs. a Japanese battleship fleet at the Phillipines. Go Samuel B Roberts, go!

When The Range Officer Threatens To Shoot You...

Last Sunday I went to the Wooster Mt. range, which is a fun little public outdoor range in CT.

The place was jammed and for the first time (since the Clinton Admin, anyway)  I had to wait for a spot on the firing line. After setting up my targets, I shot a few clips from my M1 Garand and was about to reload when the RO came up to me.

RO: You have a handgun in a holster. It needs to be on the bench in front of you. Now.

Me: Oh. Sorry. I didn't realize... I saw yours and thought it would be OK.  (Draws handgun, drops mag, racks slide, places cleared Para Companion and mag on bench)

RO: Range Officers are allowed to have holstered handguns.

(Brief interlude. I'm not really sure I understand the logic behind that rule. These guys are safety officers, not security guards.)

RO: Besides, you're printing pretty loudly, and we need to make sure everyone follows the rules cause its so crowded here today.

Me: OK, no problem at all. You're the boss.

RO: If people don't follow the rules, it makes me angry.

At this point, the RO reaches behind him and pulls out his spare mag and shows me the hollowpoint rounds

RO: You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

Me: Self deprecating remark, to the effect that he's the boss and Im not going to argue.

Later on that day, when returning from the target change, I had to squeeze between two of the shooting benches, and realizing that the RO was watching me, I gave him a grin and held my hands up in the air as I passed by the benches to show him that I was going out of my way to follow the rules about not touching any guns during the cease fire.

Finally, I shot up all my ammo and packed up. On the way out, I waved and said thanks to the RO -- being a RO is a tough job.  You get none of the credit when things go right and all of the blame when they don't. So I try to let them know I appreciate their work.

Anyway, in response to my call of "Thanks! See you next time" he guy says "Holding your hands up in the air won't stop me from shooting you."

I was a little steamed and said something to the effect of "That's the second time today you've threatened to shoot me." He replied that it was all in good fun and I kept walking.

An annoying incident, and while I don't think he was actually planning to shoot me, I thought it was a rather tasteless joke, and the kind of thing that could have frightened a new shooter or unnerved someone.

Any thoughts on gun range etiquette, specifically the issue of death threats?

Make The Stupid People Shut Up

I like this.

A lot.

I may put it up at work.

I admit that I stole it from this blog.

Sending Androids To War

Its Facebook Mobile for soldiers:

Google's mobile operating system Android has won plenty of adherents among cellphone makers and gadget manufacturers since its 2007 debut. Now defense contractor Raytheon is preparing it for a more urgent mission: saving lives in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Using Android software tools, Raytheon engineers built a basic application for military personnel that combines maps with a buddy list. Raytheon calls the entire framework the Raytheon Android Tactical System, or RATS for short. Mark Bigham, a vice president of business development in Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems unit, says the company selected Android because its open-source nature made developing applications easy.

Every part of RATS is tailored for use on a battlefield. A soldier could make an unmanned plane a "buddy," for instance, and track its progress on a map using his phone. He could then access streaming video from the plane, giving him a bird's eye view of the area. Soldiers could also use the buddy list to trace the locations of other members of their squad.

RTWT.

Then, in the comments tell me what you think Corporal Jones of the USMC should do when his fireteams won't stop texting each other or updating their Facebook status.

I Am Not A Brain Surgeon...

...nor do I play one on TV. Because I am not a brain surgeon I tend to not hold strong opinions on the topic of brain surgery beyond "I think it's good that there are brain surgeons, and should I ever need one, I hope I get a good one." That's pretty much it. Now, there are many topics about which I'm vaguely knowledgeable where I might have a strong opinion or two, but I'm always well aware of of my own potential ignorance, and there of course a few things that I consider myself to be well-informed or even an "expert".

I can talk your ears off all day long about those topics, defend my opinions and positions quite well, and live very comfortably with the idea that some may disagree. I've even burned a few ones and zeroes in my day to "engage" some few folks on those topics on the Intertubes. Ahem.

So Friday night I'm headed home from work and I'm listening to the Air America chick and her dizzy friend/guest yakking about how health care isn't a right but should be, because it's all right there in the Constitution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Etc. Except, of course, I screamed at the radio speaker, that's a phrase from the the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution. One document is the instruction manual for running our country, and the other is an exercise in rhetoric, albeit a great one. And sure, one can use the Declaration, I suppose, just like one can use the Federalist Papers and other founding documents to inform one's interpretation of the actual instruction manual, the Constitution.

But the Constitution rules all.

All of which really just allows me to raise the whiney point that these people that prattle on about health care "rights" and such could not be more ignorant and misinformed if they tried. But it will never, ever matter to them. They use a founding principle argument only so long as it convinces themselves or others that they are one step closer to what they want: complete abdication of all effort and will to the blanket of a government.

Let Him Among You Who is Not A "Mindless Knee-Jerk Cheerleader" Cast the First Stone

Recently I took part in a Facebook comment thread discussing Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. (Probably, that was my first mistake)

Now, I agree with my esteemed co-blogger that its not Obama's fault that some Euroweenies wanted to smoke his pole, but it appears that not everyone is willing to shrug and leave it there.

There was endless bloviating, bombast and hysteria on what the award meant and the reaction to it from Obama's political opposition. But what struck me about this thread was this comment that appeared early on.

"The mindless, knee-jerk cheerleaders of the latest soundbite that add nothing to the debates going on..."

As if by magic, this remark was followed up with a slew of mindless knee-jerk cheerleading that added nothing to the debate.

 For example:

"If the Nobel folks offer a prize for Hypocritical Philanderism, I'm sure the Republicans will sweep the Emmys. All those scantily dressed golden statues... so titillating..."

And the mind-numbingly predictable

"If President Obama discovered a cure for cancer- Michael Steele and the rest of the Republican sore-losers would find a way to put a negative spin on it."

Death panel joke in 4, 3, 2, 1....

"Yes - curing them would cost the tax payers billions in social security they could have saved. Bring on the Death Panels!"

And finally this incisive political analysis by someone who apparently missed the ideologically driven genocide and death camps that were a prominent feature of the wars in former Yugoslavia, which the United States was called upon to quell, in spite of the fact that they took place a short car ride or flight from most major European capitals:

"Despite all of our politics, squabbling and division, I don't think most Americans understand the dangers of ideology or the importance of changing it quite like Europeans do. When Obama wins Top Chef or Project Runway, I'm sure Americans will be the best arbiters of appropriateness." 

Obama Administration Strikes A Blow for State's Rights

There's not a lot for a cynical libertarian to be happy about these days, but the Obama Administration has given me a small crumb of joy to impale on the toasting fork of my ideals.

Here at MANP, we're under no obligation to say nice things about people we don't like. (This is also true of the New York times, but they pretend it isn't.) 

Every once in a while even our bitter enemies do something smart, and in the spirit of even-handed magnanimity -- of which there is very little on this blog -- I sometimes mention it.

In that spirit then, lets have a grudging, desultory round of applause for the Obama Administration's recent move to tell federal law-enforcement agencies to leave medical marijuana users and suppliers the heck alone.

The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday.

Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws.
The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes.

This will affect marijuana dispensaries in about 14 states. There is plenty to hate in the way the Obama Administration and its lackeys in Congress are screwing up health care, cap and trade, the financial system,and the auto industry, but on the issue of personal liberty for medical marijuana patients, they are a shining beacon of hope.