Named for the windy season in Afghanistan that a friend is currently enduring.
One Hundred Days of Wind (01:05)
Saturday, May 29, 2010
One Hundred Days of Wind
Named for the windy season in Afghanistan that a friend is currently enduring.
One Hundred Days of Wind (01:05)
Deadly Force and Morality
Unfortunate as it is, the Roger Witter incident in Portland gives us the opportunity to consider one very important fact: human life is worth more than any property.
Mr. Witter wasn't protecting anyone from harm. Two shoplifters were leaving the scene without violence. Furthermore, he showed an utter disregard for the 4th cardinal rule of gun safety when he fired after them in the direction of a busy rail station.
He placed people in danger to serve a very surreal definition of civic duty. In the moment he pointed a firearm at someone and pulled the trigger, he equated a piece of merchandise with a human life.
Please think long and hard about that.
The most important lesson I ever learned about the defensive use of firearms comes from Massad Ayoob. Loosely recalled, it reads like this: human life is the most precious thing in this world. If you can't recognize its worth, you have no right to a tool that so easily robs someone of it.
I don't care what the law in a given locality might allow, or what a grand jury might say. Things can be replaced. Life cannot be. Pulling a trigger is easy; absolution is not.
Guns are marvelously efficient tools for rending flesh and bone. They can be a tool of malice or coercion in the hands of the oppressor or the criminal. They can also preserve life in the face of imminent harm.
Just be sure you know the difference.
Mr. Witter wasn't protecting anyone from harm. Two shoplifters were leaving the scene without violence. Furthermore, he showed an utter disregard for the 4th cardinal rule of gun safety when he fired after them in the direction of a busy rail station.
He placed people in danger to serve a very surreal definition of civic duty. In the moment he pointed a firearm at someone and pulled the trigger, he equated a piece of merchandise with a human life.
Please think long and hard about that.
The most important lesson I ever learned about the defensive use of firearms comes from Massad Ayoob. Loosely recalled, it reads like this: human life is the most precious thing in this world. If you can't recognize its worth, you have no right to a tool that so easily robs someone of it.
I don't care what the law in a given locality might allow, or what a grand jury might say. Things can be replaced. Life cannot be. Pulling a trigger is easy; absolution is not.
Guns are marvelously efficient tools for rending flesh and bone. They can be a tool of malice or coercion in the hands of the oppressor or the criminal. They can also preserve life in the face of imminent harm.
Just be sure you know the difference.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
As Good As It Gets
The President has picked Solicitor General Elena Kagan to take Justice Stevens' seat on the Supreme Court. Kagan is a safe bet for the administration. She's got excellent credentials, and there don't seem to be any significant controversies in her past. Confirmation will likely be somewhat uneventful.
In any case, no matter what her politics may be, it's unlikely she'll be able to shift the Court to the left in the way Stevens sometimes was.
The legal community seems to have a great deal of respect for her. While Dean at Harvard Law School, she was able to unite disparate political factions, and even to earn the respect of conservatives. Ilya Somin points out that she's got the intellectual credentials, and more important, she's willing to accept views that differ from her personal politics. On matters of the 1st Amendment, Rick Pildes thinks she would have voted with the majority in Citizens United.
Face it, folks. We weren't going to get a conservative. In the balance of things, this was the best possible outcome.
In any case, no matter what her politics may be, it's unlikely she'll be able to shift the Court to the left in the way Stevens sometimes was.
The legal community seems to have a great deal of respect for her. While Dean at Harvard Law School, she was able to unite disparate political factions, and even to earn the respect of conservatives. Ilya Somin points out that she's got the intellectual credentials, and more important, she's willing to accept views that differ from her personal politics. On matters of the 1st Amendment, Rick Pildes thinks she would have voted with the majority in Citizens United.
Face it, folks. We weren't going to get a conservative. In the balance of things, this was the best possible outcome.
Monday, May 3, 2010
S&W Highway Patrolman
This specimen was manufactured in 1979. The Steelers won the Super Bowl, Voyager photographed the rings of Jupiter, Greenland gained home rule, and Disco began its rapid downward spiral.
We also had the Jimmy Carter Rabbit Incident. That one never gets old.
Virginia Gets It
HB 1217 has passed in Virginia. The bill allows local elementary schools to teach firearms safety to students, using the NRA's Eddie Eagle program as a template.
Predictable but impotent resistance came from the Virginia Center for Public Safety, a Brady Campaign partner. The VCPC is an affiliate of States United to Prevent Gun Violence, who recently merged with Joyce Foundation beneficiary Freedom States Alliance (*).
A spokesperson for the VCPC lamented that firearms safety training did not belong in the schools, and that it is "up to the parents to teach that at home." With the latter, I agree.
The problem is, that's not happening. If parents were doing their jobs, this wouldn't be an issue.
Predictable but impotent resistance came from the Virginia Center for Public Safety, a Brady Campaign partner. The VCPC is an affiliate of States United to Prevent Gun Violence, who recently merged with Joyce Foundation beneficiary Freedom States Alliance (*).
A spokesperson for the VCPC lamented that firearms safety training did not belong in the schools, and that it is "up to the parents to teach that at home." With the latter, I agree.
The problem is, that's not happening. If parents were doing their jobs, this wouldn't be an issue.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
NRA Bashing
Apparently, some folks are unhappy with the NRA's actions leading up to the passage of SB 308. In fact, they're so riddled with angst, they're quitting the NRA and urging others to do so.
Why? The claim is that the NRA withdrew their support for the bill because the language re-legalizing carry in the insecure areas of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was stripped from the final version. Allegations have been made that NRA lobbyists pressured Senators to vote against the bill, and that they attempted to "sabotage" it.
As far as I can gather, this comes from three sources:
Of course, none of the three people who foamed at the mouth to me about it in person could tell me exactly what was said, who said it, or in what context it was said.
Well, if you're making a claim like that, I'd expect proof, not hearsay.
Why? The claim is that the NRA withdrew their support for the bill because the language re-legalizing carry in the insecure areas of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was stripped from the final version. Allegations have been made that NRA lobbyists pressured Senators to vote against the bill, and that they attempted to "sabotage" it.
As far as I can gather, this comes from three sources:
- a poorly-written article with a misspelled title
- a claim from an organization that's voiced hostility to the NRA before, and
- the utterances of two Senators who were opposed to the bill's passage.
Of course, none of the three people who foamed at the mouth to me about it in person could tell me exactly what was said, who said it, or in what context it was said.
Well, if you're making a claim like that, I'd expect proof, not hearsay.
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