Monday, February 26, 2007

 

L - My Boys Like Shootouts. What's Wrong With That?


1202007MSPMWG , -

My Boys Like Shootouts. What's Wrong With That?

Jonathan Turley at The Washington Post - Boys will be boys, unless their parents are deathly afraid of even the idea of guns. [scopeny]

Quote:
My 4-year-old son, Aidan, brought his orange Buzz Lightyear plastic ray gun to "the pit," as our neighborhood playground is known. As he began pursuing an evildoer -- his 6-year-old brother, Jack -- around the playground, a mother froze with an expression of utter revulsion. Glaring alternately from Aidan to me, she waited for a few minutes before grabbing her son and proclaiming loudly that he could not play there "if that boy is going to be allowed to play with guns."

While such "zero-tolerance" parents still seem to be a minority, this is a scene that seems to be repeating itself with increasing regularity. To these parents, my wife and I are "gun-tolerant" and therefore corruptors of children who should be avoided. Not only are such toys viewed as encouraging aggressive behavior and violent attitudes, they are also seen as reinforcing gender stereotypes, with boys playing with guns or swords and girls playing with dolls or cooking sets.



Thank You for Smoking

Peter Brimelow at LewRockwell.com - don't expect the smoking anti-nazis to tell you about the benefits, to some, of smoking. Do they out-weight the harms? Don't know. But liberty is supposed to be about the ability of each person to decide that for him or herself. [lew]

Quote:
None of these health benefits is enough to persuade doctors to recommend occasional cigarettes, in the way that some now occasionally recommend a glass of wine.

But consider this theoretical possibility: Should 60-year-olds take up smoking because its protection against Alzheimer's is more immediate that its potential damage to the lungs, which won't show up for 30 years if at all?

A theoretical possibility and likely to remain theoretical. Research into possible benefits of tobacco and nicotine is widely reported to be stymied by the absolutist moral fervor of the antismoking campaign.

...

Which leaves smokers defenseless against a second typically American disease: the epidemic of power hungry puritanical bigots.



Layers

We had our first big snowstorm of the winter Tuesday night through last night. It dropped 18 to 24 inches of snow here in my part of the Berkshires. My wife dug the cars out yesterday around noon, and our neighbor plowed our drive. I dug my wife's car out early this morning so that she could drive to Troy. Just finished digging out the other car. There was about a foot of snow around them.

When it's 6 degrees Fahrenheit outside, with a stiff breeze, it's important to dress warmly. Layers are the ticket. Below is what I wore this morning. Feet still got a bit chilly, but I was able to work for 15 minutes at a time (my son tag-teamed me on the wife's car).

The "Unlimited Freedom" T-shirt came from gwbush.com. The striped shirt is from Wal-Mart. My mother gave me the sweater. The orange fleece is from Land's End. The black raincoat I got at Dick's Sporting Goods, on sale, marketed for golfers. The Carhartt insulated hat I blogged when I got it at Agway this fall. The Gerry blue down mittens came from Wilderness House in Boston, many years ago. Don't remember where I got the red glove liners.

Layers



So Long, Ron... You Rat Bastard

Kim du Toit is not at all happy about Ron Paul's vote, with 16 other Republicans, and all but 2 of the House's Democrats, for H.CON.RES.63, "Disapproving of the decision of the President announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq." I posted the following comment: [kimdutoit]

Quote:
Ron Paul was, a long time ago, the Libertarian Party s candidate for president. But he s a Constitutionalist. He won t vote for any legislation that isn t explicitly authorized by the Constitution. Conservatives used to toe that line. Too bad they don t any more.

A liberal is a socialist who worships safety.
A conservative is a socialist who worships order.

Socialist is one of the foulest curse words I know.



Memoirs of a Superfluous Man

Mises.org Weblog has a PDF of Albert Jay Nock's Memoir's of a Superfluous Man. Looks interesting. [root]



The Walton Street Tycoons by Jim Lesczynski

L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - A book review. Convinced me. I went right to Amazon.com, and pre-ordered my copy for $9.95 plus $3.95 shipping. They expect it to ship on Feb. 24, meaning I should have it in my hot little hands a couple of days later. [tle]

Quote:
Not to give anything away, The Walton Street Tycoons is about the entrepreneurial genius of a big, bright double handful of almost junior high kids in an economically moribund community whose corrupt socialist leaders are jealous and want to shut them down and steal all they've accomplished with no more understanding of how it was done than the second-handers who tried to torture John Galt into leading them.

It's also about the way taxation, "safety", "health", and other regulation, and 100 extra points for Jim! professional licensure destroy what others have striven with all their might to build. It's about a new Renaissance that will result if all that can be done away with.



State of Fear

Michael Crichton - Mr. Crichton introduces his new book, comparing the current global warming pseudo-science with eugenics, the pseudo-science that led the nazis to commit their atrocities. No, the global warming zealots aren't likely to start gassing people, but yes, they have politicized the issue so that doubt and honest, rational inquiry are no longer allowed. [lew]



# posted by hondaestelle @ 8:59 AM
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