Category Archives: Rants

When someone gets going about something very strongly

Another Test of the NRA Meme(s)

Philosophy, Politics, Rants

I am sorry to see that once more a mad man with a gun(s) has come forth and provided us with data to test the NRA memes about how much we need “Good Guys with a gun”.  Before I start I wish to say I am heart broken that so many people have had to suffer and die.  To all the friends and families of the victims of the Las Vegas mass murder I can only say I grieve and sorrow with you.  My grief is not your grief, my sorry is not your sorrow.  I say this to you in the small hope that you get some small comfort knowing a total stranger grieves with you in some small way.

I do not know, and I will not even attempt to predict why this massacre in Las Vegas happened.  It is too early and we know too little to say anything definitive about motive of the perpetrator.  Nor will I enter into any discussion of pro and cons of gun control, this is not the time for this to take place.  What I will be talking about is the meme that the NRA is always pushing that the only way to stop a bad man with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

This is a very insidious meme.  Without a doubt this bad man with a gun was stoped by good guys with a gun.  The problem is that the good guys in question were highly trained professionals.  These good guys were not just someone who likes shooting, they were not just great marksmen, they are men and women who train for just this kind of crises.  They train individually and they train togeather.  They know what they are doing and they know what their team mates are going to doing and going to do.  An this is why the meme of a ‘good guy with a gun’ is so insidious.

This meme gives the impression that any good guy with a gun would be an asset in the kind of situation that happened last night in Vegas.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Don’t just trust me, go ask any policeman or other first responder just what the effect of a bunch of armed civilians running around in the CF that Las Vegas was last night.  I won’t even attempt to give you any of the many scenarios that come to my mind as I write this.  What I will do is talk about ‘seeing the elephant ‘.

Let’s do a little experiment here, go find a combat vet.  Find an marine, or an army fire team member.  Someone who has been in actual combat.  Someone, as Bill Malden put so eloquently “a member of the benevolent and protective order of those who have been shot at” and ask them this:  What happens to someone the first time they are in combat, the first time they are shot at?  I think they will tell you there are just three things you will do

1) Break and run-a-way

2)  Freeze

3) Follow training/orders

An they will tell you one other thing; until you are in actual combat you have know idea which one of the three you will do.  If you are real real lucky and well trained it will be 2 or god helping 3.  But you will not know till you really do see the elephant.

This is why I will always fight this meme.

Incloseing I’d also like to point out that Nevada is a functionally ‘Open Carry’ state.  That is to say that the state laws regarding the open caring of firearms are enforced with a very light hand.  Next Las Vegas was getting ready for several gun shows and there was an influx of people with many many guns for these show already.  Given this there should be a good number of ‘good guys with a gun’ in the area of the shooting.  I await with great interest to see the data on just what all of these gun toting good guys did when the massacre started.

The Tzar and Trump

Politics, Rants

It may just be the SciFi fan in me but somehow I can’t help but see the irony of what is happening now with Pres. Trump and what happened a hundred years ago in Saint Petersburg.  What is different is that the GOP has the opportunity to keep the government from falling with the leader.  Let me be clear that I feel that Pres. Trump will go the way of Tzar Nicholas II, I don’t.  I’m not even willing to say Pres. Trump will go the way of Pres. Nixon.  Flatly, I don’t have nearly enough information yet to make that prediction.

Pres. Trump like Tzar Nichols II is someone who should have never had the job.  The difference is that Nicholas didn’t ask for the job and Trump did.  It should be obvious to all who have eyes that see that Donald J. Trump has no clue how to be President.  He is doing exactly what he told us he would do, he is trying to run the United States like a closely held company.  A company where the Boss/Owner gets to do what ever he wants, anyway he wants.  The problem is, the United States is not a company, neither closely held nor public.  The boss doesn’t get to do or say what ever he wants when ever he wants to ever he wants.  There are other people with nearly as much power as the President and there are organizations of equal power that can and will oppose the President if need be. The President is not an autocrat and can not long act like an autocrat before other people in positions of power will bring this to his attention.  Otero in a most forceful and unkind manner.

What’s worse is Pres. Trump doesn’t seem to understand that the one thing the President can not do is make the Presidentcy loose its dignity.  POTUS is not just another owner/operator of a company.  He is not just the face of a company, he is not even the face of the government.  POTUS is first and foremost the head of state of the United States of America.  POTUS must not only be dignified but be seen to be dignified.  An one thing dignity requires is loyalty to those who work for you.  You must always show respect for those beneath you and the work they do.  You can not send them out to say one thing, one day, and then publicly say the exact opposite the next day.  This is not dignity, this is arrogance.

 

 

Understanding Fake from Real, a logical view.

Politics, Rants, , , ,

Yesterday Pres. Trump made the following statement “The leaks are real, the news is fake.”  This has some people very puzzled, and well it should.  Not for bad logic, but for the very poor speaking style of of our President.  What I submit he was trying to say was:

Yes, the leaks actually occurred but the content in them is false, therefor the news stories are fake.

Unfortunatly this is not the common usage of the phrase ‘Real Leaks’.  When someone says a leak is real you are saying both that the leak actually occurred and its content is true/factual.  This is because in politics, ever since we’ve had politics, it has been rife with rumors, fabrications, stories, and out right lies.  A leak is only a leak if what is being told is indeed true.  Everything else is commonly know as ‘disinformation’.

We should not expect President Trump to be familiar with this set of definitions, after all he come from a business where the truth is what you say it is.  All marketing is true for certain shades of truth.  Donald Trump is a promoter, marketer, a snake oil salesman and like all such his relegation ship to the truth is very loose.  This why no one should take anything he says at face value.  We can not go by his words, only by his actions because his words have no fixed truth level.  The run the gauntlet of 1 to 99, where 0 is a full falsehood, to 100 is an absolute truth.

So lets give the guy a little slack here, let him say what he wants and just not pay it any attention.

 

NOT!

My odd world view: A rant

General, Philosophy, Rants

Recently I’ve been giving some heavy thought to how people look at keeping their word. This was caused by my or ding a new cane when my old one broke.  This was over two month ago and for past month I’ve been talking with the store and getting promises that I’ll have it next week. This got to me thinking about how I look at giving and keep your word.

I’m not talking about the casual saying you’ll do or not do something or is something trivial is true or not.  I’m talking about the big life promises.  The kinds that go into making, and breaking those critical relationships of our lives.

I will be the first to admit I have a very hard nosed view about keeping my word.  More than once in my life it has been pointed out that I will say, “I’ll Try”, “I think (or believe)”, or “We’ll see” instead of “I’ll do it”, or “As good as Done”, or “I know”.  For me it is simple logic.  If I say “I’ll do X.” Then I have to do it, no mater what.  No excuses, no nothing, it gets done no mater what it costs me.  Extrem, yes.  But all me.

One of the things this view has created is my view of people in general.  I know, from long and sad experance that most people don’t have my attitude about keep their word.  When most people say “I’ll do X” they mean “I’ll try to do X but it may not get done and you have no way of knowing just how much effort I’ll give to get it done.”  This has lead me to rarely ask anyone to do anything for me and never ask with out having contengancy plans for when they do not do what they said they would do.  If it is not to important to me I often do nothing, if it is very important I figure out away to do it myself.

In my life I have been surprised by people being shocked, and/or offended that I don’t ‘trust’ them to do what they say they will do.  When I explain that sometime in the past they said they would do something they didn’t do it.  Invariably they say something like “But that wasn’t very important”.  I’ve been told I tended to look a bit dumb struck and say something like “What does that have to do with it?”  It has taken me something like 60 years to figure out what I wasn’t getting.  First most everyone “thinks or beleaves” that their word is important to them when in fact it really isn’t.  They have a very casual view of the importance of keeping their word.  In the words of one of my favorite TV shows when I was in High School: “I’t ain’t no big thing, brother.”

What is truely hilarious  to me is just how offended some folks get when I explain this all to them.  Those who get the most upset seem to be those who truely have the most casual attitude about keep their word.  I wonder how many people I have offended with this little piece.

Fear and Lothing of the Death Lobby

General, Politics, Rants

Yesterday the Death Lobby (AKA the Gun Lobby) chocked up another victory in the US Senate with the defeat of four (4) amendments related to the dreaded Gun Control.  Not that any of these measures would have prevented Orlando.  Nor would they have taken a single firearm from anyone.  They were, obviously the first step by the ‘Govment’ to come and take away your most fundamental freedom.  Not speech, not religion, nor even life, but the most basic right to keep and bear a devise who’s designed to denigh another their right to life.

The Death Lobby is right, the right to keep and bear arms is the first and most fundamental right of Americans that we can not even prevent someone who is suspected of being a terrorist from buying one.  We can keep him from flying. We can keep him from buy both fuel oil and fertilizer at the same time. We can send him to Guantanamo with out even a single hearing.  But we can’t make him wait 48 hours to get his assault rifle.

I think we need to no longer say Welcome to America, the Land of the free and home of the brave.  We should instead say Welcome to Americal the land of the Armed and the home of the Dangerous.  We should accept the fact that we are no longer brave, we are fearful.  We have exchanged our love of law for love of fightfulness.

“That’s are line!”

General, Philosophy, Politics, Rants, ,

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/george-will-sexual-assault-statistics

This weekend George Will came out saying that “Focus on rape has made ‘Victimhood a Coveted Status.'”  This is funny coming from a movement Conservative. For the entire time I have been aware of politics as ‘The Only Game for Adults’ conservatives have been saying ” The {evil, bad, liberal} {fill in the blank} are attacking us.  We’re the true victims here.”  Will seems to be saying here “For shame, your saying your a victim.  You can’t say that.”

It’s almost as if he thinks that Conservatives have taken out both a copyright and Trade Mark on the word and music.  While I haven’t done even the mildest ‘rigorous’ study it seems to me that for the last six years, more and more, conservatives are taking the view that non-conservatives are making being a victim {fashionable, stylish, coveted…}.  To my way of thinking the is a most egregious case of the kettle calling the pot black.  This is just plain wrong and George Will should be turning bright red with embarrassment have even thought, much less said such a thing.

In the case of RAPE he should hide his face.  By Definition anyone who is reaped is a victim.  Having known a few rape victims I know just how hard, and how much courage it takes to tell anyone they have been raped…much less report it to the authorities.  Our society still makes the victims of rape feel like they have done something wrong.  That they are somehow have done something to be ashamed of.  That they are now, in someway, untouchable.  Until this has changed no one, most especially someone who is a public figure like Mr. Will, should think twice before saying being a rape victim is a coveted status.

More on the GOP/Conservative/Religious Right’s copyright/TM on victim/oppressed in a later post.

The 1st Amendment, Citizens United and the law of unintended effects

Politics, Rants

In 2010 SCOTUS came down with the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission I made the prediction that declaring that corporations were ‘persons’ and had The First Amendment right to Free Speech would have unintended consequences that would come to haunt the Supreme Court.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

This week the first of these consequences has come home to roost for the Roberts Court with the decision by the Court to take up two cases dealing with the rights of a corporation to exercise it’s right to freedom by denying their employees medical insurance that covers several types of birth control.  I will not go into the right or wrongs of these two cases here.  Rather I will deal with the conundrum the court faces in making any ruling at all.

The problem facing the court can be stated thus:

  1. Rule in favor of the corporations stating that given that they are legal persons they do have a protected right to practice their religion.
  2. Rule against the corporations stating that they are not legal persons, overturning/contradicting Citizens United, and they do not have any first amendment rights
  3. Rule in favor of the corporations stating the decision is based on something other than the person-hood of corporations and their first amendment rights
  4. Dito option 3 but ruling against the corporations .
  5. Rule against the corporations, even though acknowledging they are persons for Free Speech but not persons for anything else in the first amendment, or just for religious freedom.

The problem facing the court is as simple as it is difficult to deal with….the court never gave a clear and detailed explanation of why a corporation is a person.  Worse it did not show, in anyway, how a natural person implicit rights as enumerated in the 1st amendment is any way different those right implicit to a legal person  when they acknowledged that legal persons have the right to free speech.

I shall be very interested in following these cases and see what the court does.