I’ve turned on the subscribe to comments feature. If anyone wants to use it, it’s there. If not, no biggie. I find it useful when I comment on other blogs, because I don’t have time to spend all day revisiting. This will probably drive my hit count down, which upsets my inner traffic whore, but oh well. I think it’s a nice feature. Let me know if you notice any problems with it.
Month: August 2007
Maybe It’s Not a Choice?
OK, Idaho Progressives. This is how you disagree with someone without calling them names or becoming hysterical. Clayton wonders why more homosexuals can’t free themselves from the bondage of their sin. I think because for some of them it’s not a conscious choice, and they can’t simply reject it and hope to lead a normal life. Ask my friend Andrew, or any of the other gay people I know, and they’ll tell you that he is just plain not attracted to the opposite sex at all.
How many of us have known people growing up, who we meet later in life and have them tell us they are gay, and end up saying to ourselves “Well, that’s not a shocker.” because even from the time we were kids, it was just kind of obvious that something was not quite “normal” with them?
Does this mean there’s a genetic cause of homosexuality? I don’t know. If there is a “gay gene”, evolution is going to demand that it be rare. Mutations that prevent organisms from successfully reproducing don’t get passed on to subsequent generations, and eventually work their way out of the gene pool. This is the reason childhood cancers are relatively rare. It is possible that social pressures have contributed to the passing on of a “gay gene”, which, ironically, would mean greater societal acceptance of homosexuality will cause the there to be fewer gays in subsequent generations.
To what extent sexual orientation is or isn’t a lifestyle choice is important to consider, because that hinges on whether or not it’s appropriate for the government to prevent discrimination on the basis of it. I think for many people, it’s not a choice. They can’t simply get therapy, and become straight. They could refrain from having intimate relationships, sure, but that seems hardly fair if it’s something they have no real control over. I have no beef with someone who wants to give up homosexuality for a life of religious fulfillment, but I don’t think most homosexuals I know could make that choice and be happy. I’ve seen too many people who struggle with sexual identity, who take years to accept that they don’t feel right with heterosexual relationships, to believe that it was entirely a lifestyle choice.
More on Trace Data
I meant to post this yesterday along with my trace data post, but Dave Hardy did some more analysis at Arms and the Law.
This Month’s E-Postal
I’m afraid I’m going to have to take a pass ladies and gentlemen. My apologies to Carnaby Fudge, who is hosting this month’s match. My club doesn’t allow targets to be placed as close as 7 feet, so it’s just not going to be possible.
Working on New Feature
I really like the subscribe to comments feature, so I’m going to work on getting that added. My system isn’t set up to send e-mail, so it complicates things a little bit, as I have to get postfix set up and working. I got part way through it last night, but still have a bit to do. I’ll announce when it’s finished.
MSM: “Oops!”
What do you know, it was a TOW missile carrying tube after all.
MSM: 0
Blogosphere: 1
ATF Trace Data
It should be noted before reading this that the ATF states quite clearly on this data:
Firearms selected for tracing are not chosen for purposes of determining which types, makes or models of firearms are used for illicit purposes. The firearms selected do not constitute a random sample and should not be considered representative of the larger universe of all firearms used by criminals, or any subset of that universe. Firearms are normally traced to the first retails seller, and sources reported for firearms traced do not necessarily represent the sources or methods by which firearms in general are acquired for use in crime.
But the other side will be sure to draw conclusions, so I thought I’d take a look at some of the data.
- Pennsylvania recovered 5607 total firearms which could be traced to a state in 2006. 78% of all firearms traced to within state. 6% of all guns traced came from contiguous neighboring states. 3% came from Maryland and Virginia, which have a one-gun-per-month law.
- Delaware traced 585 total guns back to a state. 60% of all guns traced came from within state. 11% of all guns traced came from Pennsylvania. 10% came from Virginia and Maryland, both of which have one-gun-a-month laws.
- Maryland traced 4156 back to a state. 56% traced back to Maryland itself. Pennsylvania accounted for 5%. Virginia accounted for 11%. Maryland and Virginia both have one-gun-a-month laws.
- West Virginia traced 628 guns back to states. 73% traced back to West Virginia itself. 3% traced back to Pennsylvania. 6% traced back to Virginia and Maryland.
- Ohio traced 5695 guns to source states. 75% traced back to Ohio itself. Pennsylvania accounted for less than 2%.
- New York State traced 6085 guns back to states in 2006. 29% of guns traced to New York itself. Pennsylvania accounted for 8%. Virginia, which has one-gun-a-month accounted for 9%. It should be noted that New York City, where legal gun ownership is effectively prohibited, accounts for most of the traces for New York State. New York also has registration of handguns, which would make authorities unlikely to trace a firearm that originates within state.
- New Jersey traced 1878 firearms back to states. 26% of the guns traced in New Jersey came from New Jersey. 18% came from Pennsylvania. 7% came from Virginia. 3% from New York. 1% from Delaware.
Conclusions to draw? Well, there aren’t many. You have to control for a lot of other factors, like gun ownership rates, trace policies, etc. That’s why the ATF says not to draw conclusions from it. A large percentage of New Jersey’s trace requests are done by Camden and Trenton, both of which border PA directly. Given the intermingling of Trenton, Camden, and Philadelphia’s criminal cultures, it’s not all the surprising there’s a lot of gun intermingling too. We were high for Delaware too, indicating that there’s some criminal intermingling with Wilmington, which is also right over the border.
One might be tempted to conclude that strict gun laws are the reason New York and New Jersey trace most of their guns to out of state, however California, with strict laws, traced 71% of firearms to itself, which is on par with less strict states.
Get ready for the onslaught of people taking this data, and using it to push for more gun laws.
A Blogoversary
Keyboard and a .45 is a year old today. Congratulations.
Note to Self
Any data center server move from one rack to another, while the server is alive, is a potentially hazardous undertaking.  It went something like this:
Me: OK, we have to be careful with this part.
Intern:Â Right
Me: OK, ease it up a little more. WAIT! Something’s caught
Me: Oh crap!
Things are all fine now, but that was an unpleasant and unexpected emergency. Â Moving servers live is always fun, but it’s definitely safer to take them down first, but on servers that are downtime sensitive, sometimes you have to try it the risky way.
Reasoned DiscourseTM
After looking over the comments at Robb’s blog, I have come to the conclusion that this guy is an angry person who is unwilling to engage in any kind of reasonable dialog with people who disagree with him. If you can’t make your argument without insulting other people, how do you expect anyone else to take your argument seriously? Enjoy your echo chamber.