Fresh Tasty Ideas

Apparently, Mars is in the middle of a warming period. The average global surface temperature on Mars has risen by 0.5°C since the 1970s. That temperature rise mirrors the Earth’s change as well.

I’m not citing this as evidence that humanity is not at least partly responsible for global warming. But perhaps this should give pause to people like Al Gore who are claiming as scientific fact that our emissions are the primary force behind global warming.

After all, the Earth had a mini ice-age that had a far greater effect on global temperatures than anything in the last 50 years. And the Earth has a long history of warming and cooling, long before Republicans drove SUVs. So relax, enviro-nutjobs — we should work on cleaning the air, but there are bigger problems in this world. Let’s not lose focus.

global warming, Mars, world, temperature, earth

Just how zealous are some advocates of gun control? One Dan Simpson, in complete disregard of the 2nd amendment, world history, and common sense, recommends that the government create special police squads (the SS maybe?) to sweep across the country, confiscating any and all firearms. Read his article, if you can manage:

LAST week’s tragedy at Virginia Tech in which a mentally disturbed person gunned down 32 of America’s finest - intelligent young people with futures ahead of them - once again puts the phenomenon of an armed society into focus for Americans.

The likely underestimate of how many guns are wandering around America runs at 240 million in a population of about 300 million. What was clear last week is that at least two of those guns were in the wrong hands.

When people talk about doing something about guns in America, it often comes down to this: “How could America disarm even if it wanted to? There are so many guns out there.”

Because I have little or no power to influence the “if” part of the issue, I will stick with the “how.” And before anyone starts to hyperventilate and think I’m a crazed liberal zealot wanting to take his gun from his cold, dead hands, let me share my experience of guns.

As a child I played cowboys and Indians with cap guns. I had a Daisy Red Ryder B-B gun. My father had in his bedside table drawer an old pistol which I examined surreptitiously from time to time. When assigned to the American embassy in Beirut during the war in Lebanon, I sometimes carried a .357 Magnum, which I could fire accurately. I also learned to handle and fire a variety of weapons while I was there, including Uzis and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

I don’t have any problem with hunting, although blowing away animals with high-powered weapons seems a pointless, no-contest affair to me. I suppose I would enjoy the fellowship of the experience with other friends who are hunters.

Now, how would one disarm the American population? First of all, federal or state laws would need to make it a crime punishable by a $1,000 fine and one year in prison per weapon to possess a firearm. The population would then be given three months to turn in their guns, without penalty.

Hunters would be able to deposit their hunting weapons in a centrally located arsenal, heavily guarded, from which they would be able to withdraw them each hunting season upon presentation of a valid hunting license. The weapons would be required to be redeposited at the end of the season on pain of arrest. When hunters submit a request for their weapons, federal, state, and local checks would be made to establish that they had not been convicted of a violent crime since the last time they withdrew their weapons. In the process, arsenal staff would take at least a quick look at each hunter to try to affirm that he was not obviously unhinged.

It would have to be the case that the term “hunting weapon” did not include anti-tank ordnance, assault weapons, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, or other weapons of war.

All antique or interesting non-hunting weapons would be required to be delivered to a local or regional museum, also to be under strict 24-hour-a-day guard. There they would be on display, if the owner desired, as part of an interesting exhibit of antique American weapons, as family heirlooms from proud wars past or as part of collections.

Gun dealers could continue their work, selling hunting and antique firearms. They would be required to maintain very tight inventories. Any gun sold would be delivered immediately by the dealer to the nearest arsenal or the museum, not to the buyer.

The disarmament process would begin after the initial three-month amnesty. Special squads of police would be formed and trained to carry out the work. Then, on a random basis to permit no advance warning, city blocks and stretches of suburban and rural areas would be cordoned off and searches carried out in every business, dwelling, and empty building. All firearms would be seized. The owners of weapons found in the searches would be prosecuted: $1,000 and one year in prison for each firearm.

Clearly, since such sweeps could not take place all across the country at the same time. But fairly quickly there would begin to be gun-swept, gun-free areas where there should be no firearms. If there were, those carrying them would be subject to quick confiscation and prosecution. On the streets it would be a question of stop-and-search of anyone, even grandma with her walker, with the same penalties for “carrying.”

The “gun lobby” would no doubt try to head off in the courts the new laws and the actions to implement them. They might succeed in doing so, although the new approach would undoubtedly prompt new, vigorous debate on the subject. In any case, some jurisdictions would undoubtedly take the opportunity of the chronic slowness of the courts to begin implementing the new approach.

America’s long land and sea borders present another kind of problem. It is easy to imagine mega-gun dealerships installing themselves in Mexico, and perhaps in more remote parts of the Canadian border area, to funnel guns into the United States. That would constitute a problem for American immigration authorities and the U.S. Coast Guard, but not an insurmountable one over time.

There could conceivably also be a rash of score-settling during hunting season as people drew out their weapons, ostensibly to shoot squirrels and deer, and began eliminating various of their perceived two-footed enemies. Given the general nature of hunting weapons and the fact that such killings are frequently time-sensitive, that seems a lesser sort of issue.

That is my idea of how it could be done. The desire to do so on the part of the American people is another question altogether, but one clearly raised again by the Blacksburg tragedy.

gun control, Dan Simpson, Toledo Blade, liberals

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, and Joe Biden all chartered individual private jets down to South Carolina for their first debate. I guess they’re all too busy to practice what they preach!

And it turns out that carbon-offset credits (the “indulgences” used by the ultra-rich elitists who want to maintain their wanton use of energy while simultaneously chastising Americans for using too much energy) are bunk:

Companies and individuals rushing to go green have been spending millions on “carbon credit” projects that yield few if any environmental benefits.

Read the rest. Will we hear about this from our beautiful celebrities? No. And don’t forget to wipe your ass with one square of toilet paper. For Sheryl. She had breast cancer you know.

Obama, Clinton, environment, jet, democrats, carbon, offset, indulgence

One unique aspect of liberalism, in my opinion, is how it inevitably breeds self-loathing. On that note, it appears that 44% of the French think poorly of the French. I’m glad they can take over the hatin’ for us; we’re kinda busy over here in the US, working and stuff. I hear they don’t do too much of that in Paris.

self-loathing, France, liberalism

Apparently, Adobe can send a team of high-priced lawyers after you should you decide to use the word “photoshopped” in a sentence (link):

Trademarks are not verbs.

CORRECT: The image was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® software.

INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.

Lighten up, guys.

Photoshop, Adobe

Two girls in Australia murdered their friend, and they apparently had no motivation other than it “just felt right.” Can you imagine being the parents of the girl they murdered? I can’t even begin to imagine. These stories make me sick inside.

Australia, murder, crime

This is how we can all wipe out global warming:

I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting - Sheryl Crow

Somebody tell Cheryl that paper comes from forests grown specifically for creating paper.

global warming, Cheryl Crowe, news, toilet paper, liberals, stupid

I am of the somewhat cynical opinion that the Democratic party has, for the last 30 years or so, built an ideological platform around feel-good but utterly ineffective politics. Programs and issues that leading Democrats champion are, on the outside, full of promise and hope for Americans. Ever since Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” fiasco, Americans have been hoodwinked into one liberal feel-good farce after another. I still have yet to decide if these liberal politicians themselves buy into the hype, or whether they merely use a gullible American populace to acquire political power.

What issues am I referring to specifically? Obviously FDR and LBJ imbued the false notion that government is the primary solution behind any economic problem, be it personal or national. But today, the shenanigans continue. Minimum wage is an excellent example. Democrats consistently squeeze out votes by campaigning for wake-hikes to the federally-allowed minimum. And it shouldn’t be any surprise that statistics and economic principles take a back seat to ad-hominem attacks and various appeals to emotion. And again, I haven’t figured out if the Democrats who push for higher minimum wages themselves believe they are doing the right thing, or if they do it in spite of their better knowledge knowing full well how popular such a position is.

Well, the VT shootings this past week have brought forward another great liberal lie: gun control. Much to my dismay, after the VT shootings, most Americans were in favor of more gun control laws and also in favor of pro-gun control politicians.

Here is yet another issue where liberals have the majority of Americans agreeing with them, despite a complete absence of evidence which validates the effectiveness of gun control. For starters, Seung-Hui Cho illegally purchased his weapon. So apparently, almost 50% of Americans are in favor of more laws which didn’t work in the first place (America already has over 20,000 gun laws on the books). Honestly, who is surprised that someone who intended to commit mass homicide wasn’t worried about breaking the law to buy a firearm? By definition, criminals do not obey the law. Ironically, gun control advocates expect criminals to abide by gun control laws even though they simultaneously steal, rape and murder. Is that the Webster’s definition of irony?

In Britain, gun crime has been steadily on the rise since a nation-wide gun ban took place in 1997 (See report for 2001, 2003 and 2004). Washington, D.C. (a thorn in the side of gun control proponents) experienced a massive surge in murders and other gun crime after a late-seventies ban on handgun ownership. The always-loony San Fransisco city council recently banned all handguns within SF city limits — I am expecting a steady growth in gun crime over the next decade or so.

In contrast, one can read about the story of Kennesaw, Georgia:

In March 1982, 25 years ago, the small town of Kennesaw – responding to a handgun ban in Morton Grove, Ill. – unanimously passed an ordinance requiring each head of household to own and maintain a gun. Since then, despite dire predictions of “Wild West” showdowns and increased violence and accidents, not a single resident has been involved in a fatal shooting – as a victim, attacker or defender.

The crime rate initially plummeted for several years after the passage of the ordinance, with the 2005 per capita crime rate actually significantly lower than it was in 1981, the year before passage of the law.

Prior to enactment of the law, Kennesaw had a population of just 5,242 but a crime rate significantly higher (4,332 per 100,000) than the national average (3,899 per 100,000). The latest statistics available – for the year 2005 – show the rate at 2,027 per 100,000. Meanwhile, the population has skyrocketed to 28,189.

That town has yet to see a murder in 25 years.

But don’t believe me, let Penn and Teller inform and entertain you.

gun control, liberals, democrats, Virginia, Cho, news

Over at stopglobalwarming.msn.com, they have a list of things you can do to stop global warming:

1. CFL lightbulbs
2. adjust thermostat
3. insulate your water heater

The emphasis is on you for a reason. Take a look at the page which details Sheryl Crowe’s global-warming-awareness college tour:

So what if she needs 20 light bulbs to primp and powder? You must make sacrifice anyways, comrade!

global warming, Crowe, hypocrisy, liberals, earth, environment

In a nutshell, here’s the fundamental problem with socialized systems:

It is, I believe, a fundamental fact about human life that most of us, given the opportunity, would be bone idle.

Britain is experiencing this problem first-hand. Approximately 20% of Britons aged 16 to 24 are classified as NEETS (Not in Education, Employement, or Training). One program, costing British taxpayers in excess of £100 million, has been scrapped after it was determined to be a complete failure. A separate £500 million program aimed at rewarding low-income youths for maintaining employment hasn’t made a noticeable difference in Britain’s “staying-on” rate (which is the lowest in Europe).

Why doesn’t the British government take a page from the book of Margaret Thatcher? These liberal handout programs (even if they provide money to people who find work) aren’t helping much. And to fund these programs, the British government is essentially punishing the employment-established Britons.

But it’s not a problem that is isolated to Britain. Here in America, we’re growing more and more dependent on the federal government as well. 1 in 2 Americans now receives income from government programs.

I guess I should get back to work. Millions in America depend on me for their income!

Britain, welfare, government, socialism, NEET