Predictably, the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting has triggered some talk on the left – and in the mainstream media, but I repeat myself – of repealing the Second Amendment. I am therefore resharing a blog post I wrote some time back on why repealing 2A would not abolish the right to bear arms, only… Continue reading If you blow up the Constitution, you’ll regret it
Category: Politics
Sorry, Ansari: a praxeologist looks at the latest scandalette
This is an expanded version of a comment I left on Megan McArdle’s post Listen to the ‘Bad Feminists’ in which she muses on the “Grace”-vs.-Aziz-Ansari scandalette and wonders why younger women report feeling so powerless and used. It’s not complicated, Megan. You actually got most of it already, but I don’t think you quite… Continue reading Sorry, Ansari: a praxeologist looks at the latest scandalette
Decentralized threats as the mother of liberty
Dave Kopel gives us a fascinating account of the divergence between American and British gun culture in The American Indian foundation of American gun culture. I learned some things from this article, which is not a trivial observation because I’ve studied the same process from some different angles. While Kopel’s article is excellent of its… Continue reading Decentralized threats as the mother of liberty
As the pervnado turns
I’m a libertarian who tried to stop Donald Trump with my vote in the PA primaries – even changed party registration to do it. But Trump’s opponents may make me unto a Trump supporter yet. From Harvey Weinstein’s casting couch through John Conyers being the guy every female reporter in DC knew not to get… Continue reading As the pervnado turns
NRA loses the plot
Dear NRA leadership: are you out of your fucking minds? Supporting a ban on bump stocks in the wake of the Las Vegas massacre is a terrible idea, for all the usual reasons that there has never been any case in the history of the known universe in which supporting a ban on firearms or… Continue reading NRA loses the plot
Unlearning history
In some circles there’s lately a vogue for vandalizing or pulling down Confederate statues. The people doing it think (or say they think) that they’re striking a blow against racism. I think they’re, at best, engaged in a dangerous reopening of old wounds. At worst they’re threatening to inflict serious new ones. I’m a Yankee… Continue reading Unlearning history
Please give generously to James Damore’s fundraiser
I just gave $100 to James Damore’s official fundraiser. Damore, for any of you who have been hiding under a rock, is the guy who wrote a completely sane and reasonable memorandum, objecting on principled and scientific grounds to the assumptions behind “diversity”. He’s been fired and is, of course, the target of a full-blown… Continue reading Please give generously to James Damore’s fundraiser
Hey, Democrats! We still need you to get your act together!
Six months ago, I wrote Hey, Democrats! We need you to get your act together!, a plea to the opposition to get its act together. A month ago, a Democratic activist attempting a mass political assassination shot Steve Scalise through the hip. Today, Gallup’s job creation index at +37 in July—a record high. In my… Continue reading Hey, Democrats! We still need you to get your act together!
Your identity is not your choice
There’s been a lot of public talk about “identity” lately, stimulated by high-profile cases of transsexuality (notably the athlete now named Caitlyn Jenner) and transracialism (Rachel Dolezal). It needs to be said: most of the talk, on all sides of these disputes, has been obvious nonsense – utter drivel that should not have survived five… Continue reading Your identity is not your choice
You shall judge by the code alone
I support the open letter by Drupal developers protesting the attempted expulsion of Larry Garfield from the Drupal commmunity. As a Drupal contributor who has never in any respect attempted to tie the project to his beliefs or lifestyle, Garfield deserves the right to be judged by his code alone. That is the hacker way;… Continue reading You shall judge by the code alone
Hey, Democrats! We need you to get your act together!
It’s now just a bit over a month since Election Day, and I’m starting to be seriously concerned about the possibility that the U.S. might become a one-party democracy. Therefore this is an open letter to Democrats; the country needs you to get your act together. Yes, ideally I personally would prefer your place in… Continue reading Hey, Democrats! We need you to get your act together!
Spelunking the alt-right
Recently, on a mailing list I frequent, one of the regulars uttered the following sentence: “I’m told Breitbart is the preferred news source for the ‘alt-right’ (KKK and neo-nazis)”. That was a pretty glaring error, there. I was interviewed on Breitbart Tech once. I visit the site occasionally. I am not affiliated with the alt-right,… Continue reading Spelunking the alt-right
Dilemmatizing the NRA
So, the Washington Post publishes yet another bullshit article on gun policy. In this one, the NRA is charged with racism because it doesn’t leap to defend the right of black men to bear arms without incurring a lethal level of police suspicion. In a previous blog post, I considered some relevant numbers. At 12%… Continue reading Dilemmatizing the NRA
TPP and the Law of Unintended Consequences
Once upon a time, free-trade agreements were about just that: free trade. You abolish your tariffs and import restrictions, I’ll abolish mine. Trade increases, countries specialize in what they’re best equipped to do, efficiency increases, price levels drop, everybody wins. Then environmentalists began honking about exporting pollution and demanded what amounted to imposing First World… Continue reading TPP and the Law of Unintended Consequences
This may be the week the SJWs lost it all
This may be the week the SJWs lost it all…or, at least, their power to bully people in the hacker culture and the wider tech community. Many of you probably already know about the LambdaConf flap. In brief: LambdaConf, a technical conference on functional programming, accepted a presentation proposal about a language called Urbit, from… Continue reading This may be the week the SJWs lost it all
What Amending the Constitution Cannot Do
An underappreciated fact about U.S. Constitutional law is that it recognizes sources of authority prior to the U.S. Constitution itself. It is settled law that the Bill of Rights, in particular, does not confer rights, it only recognizes “natural rights” which pre-exist the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and which – this is the… Continue reading What Amending the Constitution Cannot Do
Why I joined the NRA
After 20 years of evading joining the NRA, I finally did it last week. I’ve never been a huge fan of the NRA because, despite the fearsome extremist image the mainstream media tries to hang on it, the NRA is actually rather squishy about gun rights. A major symptom of this is its lack of… Continue reading Why I joined the NRA
A short course in counter-terror theory
In the wake of the San Bernardino shootings, more Americans than before are trying to grapple with questions about the nature of terrorism, terror activity versus rampage killings, and what can be done to prevent these bloodlettings. I have been studying these questions for years as part of my self-training. I learned some of the… Continue reading A short course in counter-terror theory
On the shooting of Laquan McDonald
One of my regulars, mindful of the forensic analysis I did on the Michael Brown autopsy photos last year, has asked me to comment on the Laquan McDonald shooting from my point of view as a pistol and self-defense instructor.javporn The fast version: I would have said this was what cops call a “good shoot”… Continue reading On the shooting of Laquan McDonald
Why Hackers Must Eject the SJWs
The hacker culture, and STEM in general, are under ideological attack. Recently I blogged a safety warning that according to a source I consider reliable, a “women in tech” pressure group has made multiple efforts to set Linus Torvalds up for a sexual assault accusation. I interpreted this as an attempt to beat the hacker… Continue reading Why Hackers Must Eject the SJWs