Weapons-grade indeed. Also firing that weapon wildly off target. People who like to casually toss off the "police state" epithet should spend a few weeks in a real police state. An incident like this would never have made headlines in such a place. Snarking is most effective when it reveals an underlying truth. In this case, it just reveals the illogical paranoia of the snarker.
@wally: I take it you have read some of the news stories on this case? If it took place in a vacuum, your charge of "illogical paranoia" might be relevent, but there have been enough instances of police abuse documented in places like Reason Magazine and Radley Balko's Agitator blog to make we believe we're dealing with a pattern of behavior.
Never thought I'd be defending the police to you, Robert. No question that police abuse occurs. How much it occurs, how insidious a "pattern of behavior" it is, is something we can debate. But a police state? Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany, 1984, V for Vendetta--those were police states. Any country where you're allowed to say any nutball thing you want on a blog is not a police state.
@wally: So it's just a question of semantics, and you object to Alan's hyperbolic description? I thought that might be the case (see, I occasionally figure out one of your points!)
Gun owners have an uneasy relationship with police. We usually have a law-and-order mindset and support law enforcement, but realize that, if Liberal Utopia was achieved and guns were banned, the police would be the ones going from house to house searching for illegal guns (after the voluntary turn-in period, of course).
When you say "semantics" I know by now you mean "mere semantics". But words are important, and their misuse pollutes the public discourse. Hyperbole can be a negative operator, whether it's Democratic politicians claiming that meddling with Medicare will "kill old people", or gun nuts claiming we live in a police state.
A newsroom comprised entirely of leftists/liberals is no more capable of ideological objectivity than an all-white newsroom would be of racial objectivity, or an all-male newsroom of gender objectivity.
Captain Louis Renault
"Round Up the Usual Suspects."
The Drawn Cutlass Philosophy
Be as decent as you can. Don't believe without evidence. Treat things divine with marked respect, and don't have anything to do with them. Do not trust humanity without collateral security, it will play you some scurvy trick. Remember that it hurts no one to be treated as an enemy entitled to respect until he prove himself a friend worthy of affection. Cultivate a taste for distasteful truths. And, finally, most important of all, endeavor to see things as they are, not as they ought to be.
Ambrose Bierce
The Foe
When I am free to walk the streets of Mecca or Medina as the agnostic I am and receive nothing but curious glances, I will believe Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.
Sign On. You Know You Want To.
A Few Words From Some Founding Fathers
All Men Are Created Equal. (Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father)
But Differ Greatly In the Sequel. (Fisher Ames, Founding Father)
Jeff Cooper's Rules of Gun Safety
All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.
Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist that this particular gun is unloaded, see Rule 1.)
Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target. This is the Golden Rule. Its violation is directly responsible for about 60 percent of inadvertent discharges.
Identify your target, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything that you have not positively identified.
Bob's Addendum To Cooper's Rules
A Gun is not a Toy. Don't Play With It.
Bob's Theory of Hush Puppies
Bob's Theory of Hush Puppies: The best hush puppies are oblong shaped, rather like dog turds. The worst ones are spherical, like balls. The spherical ones are usually made from the recipe on a pre-packaged box of hush puppy mix.
Restaurant Ratings
My restaurant ratings, mostly intended for BBQ restaurants, will be on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. Unlike most reviewers, I don't intend to play games with the rating scale by introducing fractions such as "2 and 1/2" or "4 and 3/4," I've always considered that stupid and a signal that the reviewer is trying to avoid making an honest 1-5 judgment.
Here is the breakdown of the ratings:
1 out of 5: waste of time, crap, unable to finish eating; apathy by staff/ownership
2 out of 5: edible, but no effort to impress; staff/management going through motions; desultory.
3 out of 5: average; reasonably good food, moderate effort by staff/management
4 out of 5: good; tasty, well-prepared food, staff alert, restaurant clean.
5 out of 5: great; excellent food, cooked fresh. Staff attentive and proactive, management responsive to complaints. Restaurant spotless.
On Self-Reliance
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
5 comments:
Weapons-grade indeed. Also firing that weapon wildly off target. People who like to casually toss off the "police state" epithet should spend a few weeks in a real police state. An incident like this would never have made headlines in such a place. Snarking is most effective when it reveals an underlying truth. In this case, it just reveals the illogical paranoia of the snarker.
@wally: I take it you have read some of the news stories on this case? If it took place in a vacuum, your charge of "illogical paranoia" might be relevent, but there have been enough instances of police abuse documented in places like Reason Magazine and Radley Balko's Agitator blog to make we believe we're dealing with a pattern of behavior.
Never thought I'd be defending the police to you, Robert. No question that police abuse occurs. How much it occurs, how insidious a "pattern of behavior" it is, is something we can debate. But a police state? Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany, 1984, V for Vendetta--those were police states. Any country where you're allowed to say any nutball thing you want on a blog is not a police state.
@wally: So it's just a question of semantics, and you object to Alan's hyperbolic description? I thought that might be the case (see, I occasionally figure out one of your points!)
Gun owners have an uneasy relationship with police. We usually have a law-and-order mindset and support law enforcement, but realize that, if Liberal Utopia was achieved and guns were banned, the police would be the ones going from house to house searching for illegal guns (after the voluntary turn-in period, of course).
When you say "semantics" I know by now you mean "mere semantics". But words are important, and their misuse pollutes the public discourse. Hyperbole can be a negative operator, whether it's Democratic politicians claiming that meddling with Medicare will "kill old people", or gun nuts claiming we live in a police state.
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