novatownhall blog

I’m sure we’re not going to change any minds on this topic here, until the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man comes to visit for a weekend and we spend a day at the range. And I don’t want to keep beating a dead horse who, had he been carrying, would have at least had a fighting chance against the thugs who cornered him in the parking lot where the tragic miscommunication ensued. “Hand over your wallet.” “Neigh! NEIIGGGHHHHH!” Blam blam blam blam blam!

But let me just pose this common sense question. Where would you feel safer walking at midnight: In an area where only criminals have guns, or one where law-abiding residents can carry firearms?

Across the river from Virginia – where citizens can carry firearms for self-protection – is Washington, DC, where they cannot. The DC gun ban has been a spectacular failure, and the DC firearms death rate is by far the highest in the nation.

As Jonathan Rauch argued with regard to ending “hate crimes” against gays,

If it became widely known that homosexuals carry guns and know how to use them, not many bullets would need to be fired. In fact, not all that many gay people would need to carry guns, as long as gay-bashers couldn’t tell which ones did.

Exactly.

John Stossel noted yesterday that

Criminals have the initiative. They choose the time, place and manner of their crimes, and they tend to make choices that maximize their own, not their victims’, success. So criminals don’t attack people they know are armed, and anyone thinking of committing mass murder is likely to be attracted to a gun-free zone, such as schools and malls…

How, then, does it make sense to create mandatory gun-free zones, which in reality are free-crime zones?

Another common sense question: If you were a criminal thinking about where to set up shop, would you choose the area where the citizens are empowered, or where they are sitting ducks?

An article appeared in a local newspaper that deserves perview.

http://www.loudountimes.com/news/local/

It seems that we need to find “other” ways to reach our youth in order to educate them.  It isn’t bad enough that the county school budget becomes more bloated every year.  Now they intend another program to promote a “sub-culture”.  This belongs in Humanities class-not English.  I can only wonder about the next “experiment”!

The article is on rap/hip-hop used for poetry.

Jacob already noted this, and of course it’s the big story of the day in the conservative blogosphere: But for the record, I’ll miss William F. Buckley and I am grateful for all he did for me.

As a college kid in the early 1980s, still trying to figure out what I thought, I religiously read The Nation, The New Republic and National Review, basically unconsciously covering all parts of the political spectrum (New Republic was a middle of the road publication back then). If there was a “truth,” it definitely seemed like it would inhere somewhere within this troika of magazines.

By 1986, National Review had become my philosophical home, in large part because of Bill Buckley’s commentary. At age 25, I became a “conservative” for life. My first vote for a Republican was for George H.W. Bush in 1988. (Then, my first vote against a Republican was for Ross Perot in 1992, but that’s a story for another day).

Apart from his fantastically helpful idiosyncrasy of including in every op-ed column a single word I would need to look up in the dictionary (a mantle since picked up by R. Emmett Tyrrell), and the fact he was right about so many issues back when “conservatism” was by no means assured a place at the table of policy respectability (the Reagan Era was not judged a success until long after the Reagan presidency was over), Bill Buckley’s work ethic was the stuff of legends. He wrote extensive commentary in the magazine on a weekly basis, maintained a nationally syndicated 2-3 times a week column, did the weekly Firing Line television show for a decade or three, and of course wrote all the books and ancillary essays.

He penned op-ed pieces in the limousine on the way to the airport, for crying out loud. It took me an entire weekend to write a 5-page, double-spaced paper at the time.

While trying to overcome laziness and my own wide-ranging stupidity, having WFB as an example of what a human can do was immensely valuable. I never met the guy, but throughout my 20s he was one of my few mentors, at a time I needed all the help I could get.

I didn’t go to Yale. I wasn’t rich. My forebearers – back to the beginning of time, as far as I could tell – were blue collar. I started a family during college and consequently we were not well off. But I never got a whiff from all of WFB’s writings that he was in any way intrinsically different from me. I eventually learned that he was wealthy, but in the miles of column-inches I never read anything that set him apart.

And what a legacy he left! I have a ton of his essays and my stock of NR magazines, but there are gems like the Firing Line interviews with Malcolm Muggeridge discussing Catholicism and other topics – such important cultural artifacts.

The specifics of WFB’s contributions in the ideological arena are not within my range of expertise to discuss, simply because the content was, in essence, the content of the conservative revolution which took place in America from the 1980s on. There are much better informed people out there who can limn out the details of what Bill said and when, and what followed.

(And be sure to dig into the writings over at NRO, where the folks who know are spelling it out.)

But here is one I can do.

Many years ago, I think back in the early 1990s, Bill wrote a column reporting on his and his wife’s struggles to quit smoking. The gist was they both had decided to quit smoking cigarettes, and after some time in the project they – two life-long smokers – were at each others’ throats. They sat down to discuss it, and recognized they could not both go through the ordeal and live in the same house with each other. The physical and mental stress of overcoming the addiction was too much – you could not have two baskets of crazed atoms in close proximity at one time.

So they had to decide – either we both keep smoking or only one of us can quit, if we want to stay together. Bill quit, and Pat resumed smoking and became the stabilizing force while he overcame the addiction to nicotine.

This story had an impression on me, both because I have my own addictive tendencies and because self-sacrifice seems to be such an essential part of life particularly manifested in our most immediate relationships. The decision Bill and Pat Buckley made was one I had never even thought about, but after I read his column I never forgot it. Throw aside all the levels of analysis that could be brought to bear on the question: It’s a pretty stark expression of life – human life, relationship reality – is it not? It makes you think, What would I do? What decision would I and my spouse make to preserve the relationship if it came down to that.

Pat Buckley died in April, 2007. Honestly, back when I read about the poignant story above, I assumed Pat had consigned herself to a much earlier demise to preserve the relationship. But they were only off by ten months. I hate it that Bill Buckley died; I hate it that Pat Buckley died. But I am glad they got almost the full time together. I think God looked kindly on their difficult decision.

Sad story linked at MonkeyWatch, although the ridiculous aspect is also hard to ignore. It’s surprising you don’t hear about more cases like this from eating contests.

This is why, while drinking contests may not be safer per se, they do provide a better likelihood of dying in your sleep. Which is nice.

Now that the cat is out of the bag it will be useful to begin cataloguing the growing scientific evidence which for some time has been showing that our trucks are not, in fact, changing the weather.

David Deming had a hint of this story back in December.

Back in 2002 there were already reports of Antarctica’s cooling trend.

For the entertainment value: A mocking look at two Chinese scientists who discovered evidence of the trend, back when the “man-made global warming” scam still had the aura of credibility.

Let’s not neglect to give credit to the forward-thinking visionaries at Time magazine in 1974.

Kevin Tapping’s work is showing data suspiciously pointing to the Sun as a possible factor in the Earth’s actual temperature. Good luck selling that one.

Russian scientist Dr. Oleg Sorokhtin of the Oceanology Institute in a report from January also fingers the pesky Sun among other factors for the current cooling period.

Stay tuned for much more on this topic in the coming months, as it will eventually end up in the mainstream press where I predict not every editor is going to be willing to follow the “global warming” true believers over the cliff.

Speaking of which, man can Al Gore not catch a break! He loses the presidential election in a year when the country was at peace and prosperous and the corporate shenanigans which flourished under the Clinton White House had not yet been discovered – and most likely the loss was primarily attributable to his First in Command being a bit of a scalawag. That election should never have come down to 500 votes in Florida.

Then, for his next career move, he hitches his wagon to the man-made global warming hysteria and tours the country warning of bigger, badder hurricanes … right before the hurricanes went on a two-year hiatus. He suffers the indignity of having to defend with a straight face his heavy use of SUVs and private jets because via the carbon-offsets marketplace he has “purchased” exemptions from the rules he wishes to impose on others. He wins a Grammy Award for his amazing picture book (or was it a Golden Globe – I forget) which has now inconveniently been revealed as hogwash. It’s a pretty amazing run of public crashing and burning. Luckily, he is a young enough man to have time for one more act, and I do hope he gets to finish his public career with a Richard Nixon-like image rehabilitation.

At very least, he can start saving all that carbon offset cash and put it into something fun, like off-roading and potato guns.

Heh heh heh.

..The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C — a value large enough to wipe out nearly all the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year’s time.

Following this story could make what was looking like a grim year rather enjoyable. Although, as we’ve seen, it sure does freak out some of our visitors.

I remember watching Buckley years ago on TV. The guy was brilliant, old school, and did not flinch. This WFB was one of several writers who helped mold my world outlook, and frankly I am real sorry to see him go.

William F Buckley on Bush: “I think Mr. Bush faces a singular problem best defined, I think, as the absence of effective conservative ideology – with the result that he ended up being very extravagant in domestic spending, extremely tolerant of excesses by Congress,”

This was stated years ago. I did not agree back then, to my eternal shame, I have since come to see my error. The world is a darker place now. Good luck sir,I hope to catch to you some time down the road.

I am curious, all of our left leaning friends here declare fascism to be anathema, but do they really know what fascism means? Here is a set of current laws, enacted for the public good, or some well meaning official tried to enact them.

1. You are required by law to sterilise your pet

2. You are not allowed to smoke in public

3. You are not allowed to own a gun

4. Fast food companies are required to put calorie information next to the item

5. Tobacco companies are liable for people using their product correctly

6. The government sets the temperature in your home

7. You are not allowed to smoke in your own home

8. You are not allowed to serve your own 18 year old son having a beer at your kitchen table

9. You are not allowed to park an SUV on the street

10. If you are obeise you can be denied government health benifits

My question is are these fascist in nature or not? Any and all are welcome to answer.

Wow, I just turned this on – the undercard is an incredible match between Pavlik and Taylor. The main event is Klitschko vs Ibragimov. For all I know it is a replay but I never saw the live version if it is.

If you are up watching TV, turn on HBO. The next bout looks like it will be a good one.

UPDATE: Looks like this is a big deal – Michael Buffer is the ring announcer. Yee hah. His events are the FDR Fireside Chats of our generation. But did FDR ever trill his “R”s like Buffer does, or say “Let’s get ready to rumble” with such authority? I don’t think so.

UPDATE II: Full disclosure – I am a huge Wladimir Klitschko fan simply because I saw some of his early heartbreaking losses. He dominated fights then got caught in the chin. He should have been the dominating heavyweight of this era. I am rooting for redemption.

UPDATE III: First round – not much going on. Klitschko just knocking down the guy’s jab. Interesting.

UPDATE IV: Second round – booooring. But Klitschko looks like a spring ready to get unloosed.

UPDATE V: Klitschko is like a cat playing with a lizard. Is he going to eat him or just keep batting him around?

UPDATE VI: Ok this is just weird. Round five. Klitschko is jabbing like Ibragimov is toxic: Don’t hit too hard or you might get some on you. He’s basically just parrying Ibragimov. Is this a fight or patty cake?

UPDATE VII: Six rounds. Meh. Halfway there. Kiltschko has the talent to cream anyone, it seems, but he is exceptionally careful.

UPDATE VIII: Seven rounds. Kiltschko’s hands are like lightening, but he doles out the shots like he’s being taxed to use them. Why doesn’t he mix it up? I recall thinking the same thing years ago.

UPDATE IX: Round eight. Kiltschko finally let loose, and his right hand was like a blitzkrieg.

UPDATE X: Round nine. I think maybe Kiltschko’s goal is not to break a sweat, and still win convincingly. On that score, he’s winning. He is a Ph.d, which is unusual for a fighter. Ahem. So no reason to think he might on occasion overthink the thing. He is still the cat with the lizard. It looks like he could end this in a second if he wanted to.

UPDATE XI: Round 11. Wladimir Kiltschko is the boxing version of every geek in the world. He overthinks and consequently underperforms. (I am in that group). If he simply went for the jugular he would be unstoppable, but I get the sense he is saving himself for a career after boxing. Do the least amount necessary to win, and do not get hurt in this brutal endeavor.

UPDATE XII: Wladimir Kiltschko won on the jab. Why go for the throat when a slap will do? Save your body. From Kiltschko’s standpoint, I can see it. From a boxing fan’s standpoint, it’s a little disappointing. We don’t necessarily want a clinical win. We want to see a destroyer of souls on the rampage. Oh well. At least he did not get caught on the chin in the end.

This is just funny.

The only thing new is the Democrats have now made it official that their guiding principle is “America sucks.”

As always, thank you Rush for pointing out the obvious which is too obvious for most of us to even notice.

You cannot make this stuff up. Apparently one brother-in-law, a Clinton supporter, stabbed his in-law for supporting Barak Obama. My personal response to finding a family member supporting the “empty-suite-with-a-smile” would be to stab myself. Seppuku is the only honorable way out of eternal shame in such circumstances.

This came about apparently during a heated exchange with respect to Obama’s being a realist. Personally speaking, if Obama were a realist, he would be a conservative. The report stated that the two men fought and the whole episode ended with one man’s getting stabbed in the stomach. Maybe this was an attempted seppuku on the part of the Obama supporter, after finding out that there was a family member who supports ‘Her Shrillness’. From the article:

…[A] Pennsylvania man allegedly stabbed his brother-in-law in the stomach after the pair quarreled about their respective support of Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Here I was thinking that support for Hillary did not run very deep. With all the hype about her being the consensus candidate, the inevitable candidate I figured, “Who would care?” It’s like Giuliani (who at least successfully ran a city bigger than 30 states) when his candidacy went off the rails, there was this Republican consensus shrug. Apparently, 35 years of experience is worth fighting for.

continue reading…

It appears the need has arisen to access an archive of our Zimzo’s writings here. With the search feature in the old blog broken, we are left with Google, which is probably better anyway.

Here it is.

Quite the trip down memory lane.

You know that saying “you could not make this stuff up”? Well, this is really it.

A partial transcript

Amani, by phone: “In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate, I say to those cowardly infidels…”

Assud the Bunny: “Those criminals…”

(posted for Marjorie)

I KNOW THIS DOES NOT BELONG ON THIS BLOG BUT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ALL AMERICANS: IT IS AS FOLLOWS:

            The Merida Initiative is a new foreign assistance program designed to combat drug trafficking, transnational crime, and terrorism in Mexico and Central America .  President Bush’s proposed fiscal year 2009 (FY09) Budget includes $550 million as a part of a multi-year, $1.4 billion program. 
 
            Specifically, this program would provide training, technologies, and equipment to help Mexican authorities fight the war on drugs and organized crime. Some of the equipment includes helicopters, surveillance aircraft, ion scanners, secure communications systems, and other technologies. It is important that we continue to fight the war on drugs not only at home but abroad as well. We must work to ensure that drugs and criminals do not reach our soil.
 
CONTACT OUR SENATORS, CONGRESS PERSON AND OUR PRESIDENT NOT TO HAVE THIS PASSED. KEEP IN MIND HOW MUCH MONEY IS SENT TO MEXICO BY ILLEGALS EVERY YEAR, KEEP IN MIND WE TRAIN , WE LOOSE OUR NATION…. FUEL FOR THOUGHT. USE THE MONEY TO BUILD OUR BORDER WALL SOONER THAN LATER.

This is a bit of a downer, my friends:

In a few billion years, the Sun will fuse the last of its hydrogen into helium, turn into a red giant and expand to 250 times its current size. At first, the Sun’s loss of mass will loosen its gravitational pull on Earth, which will allow the planet to migrate to a wider orbit about 7.6 billion years from now.

This process has led some to speculate that the Earth might escape destruction – but survival now seems impossible…

And I, for one, am pissed.

My original plan called for a couple years of pure advocacy here in Loudoun County, followed by a statewide public education effort aimed at informing the citizens of Virginia about the substance of both American political and everyday culture – this ongoing for maybe five or so years. Beyond that, I envisioned a national effort to increase familiarity with the foundations and mores of “western” civilization, from the Magna Carta to the Mayflower Compact to “Wealth of Nations”: highlighting what we all know but no longer notice, which could take a decade or two of undoing the many years of really bad education in history that our nation has bequeathed to its upcoming generations. Next would be a few hundred thousand years of advocacy for the much more basic “human” values contributing to the endurance of our species: convincing people to have stronger families with more focus on having kids and gradually reverse the decadent liberal value system of the 1960s pop culture. Finally – and I’m not saying I would be around to witness this, but I’d hope in some small way those I know and love would benefit – I’d have hoped for eight or ten billion years of grassroots political activism to gradually reverse the problems wrought by television, and thereby convince my fellow Americans to eventually read more books and spend more time outdoors, hiking, doing their own landscaping, and generally things like picnicking, shooting guns evenings and weekends, and jarts.

But apparently it is not to be, as this lame-o planet of ours has so little self-sufficiency that in seven billion years we could all be at the mercy of the whims of the dying star we call our “sun.” Maybe if we had known this, we’d have been calling it our “lamp.” Because – WORD – lamps burn out, but “suns” supposedly give life to your planet.

If this so-called “life” the sun is giving us is suddenly going to be snuffed around 7,600,002,008 AD, I say please just pull the plug on it right now and don’t get our hopes up, ‘kay?

Turn it all dark so we can start looking for a terrestrial home with a little more backbone.

Crappy frickin’ planet we’ve ended up on, story of my life …

So, yes, I will be modifying the long-term plan. I’m thinking more emphasis on fundraising and paid workers rather than volunteers, since the “sunset” of our project might arrive earlier than we hoped and we will have to pay a price to speed up the process. The strategy will still be the same but these tactical changes are annoying.