Gun news today is a bit slow, so I’ll open up a speculative discussion. Last night I was looking at Netflix recommendations, and caught this long forgotten movie that has long been overshadowed by its much better predecessor. Up against the British Army, there was never really any question about who was going to win in the end, especially after the British sent two artillery battalions to Natal as reinforcements after the first invasion of the Zulu Kingdom had failed. But what about more evenly matched opponents? Ignoring the logistical impossibility of the Romans keeping an army supplied in South Africa, if you had put the Roman Legionaries up against the Zulu Impis, who would have come out on top? Let’s assume that the Zulu Army consists of about 20,000 Impis, about the same as the Anglo-Zulu War, and armed, organized and disciplined along traditional lines. Assume that the Romans deploy 3 legions, or about 15,000 men, and equipped, organized, and disciplined as a Roman army normally would be about the time of the Gallic Wars. Discuss.
Month: August 2012
Grasping Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
I think the best summary of the Missouri Senate campaign that I’ve seen so far starts with this:
Here’s the thing, if you’re running for the Senate and you have to cut a spot that assures voters that you think rape is bad and you now know that women don’t have a goalie in their vajay-jay to stop sperm in case of “legitimate rape”, you’re in big trouble.
I didn’t think I’d live long enough to see an ad worse than “I’m not a witch” but I was wrong. I regret the error.
I appreciate that the post highlights that this isn’t just about the risk of repeal of Obamacare, losing this seat impacts judicial nominations.
I’ll be honest, as a woman, if I saw Todd Akin’s name on a ballot, I don’t know if I could cast a vote for him even though I realize I would need to strategically in order to see my preferred political outcomes that have nothing to do with abortion become reality. When someone is so out-of-touch that they can’t take a serious look at the issue of a major criminal act, then I don’t believe they should be serving in government. When they are so unbelievably misinformed that they believe there’s some magic switch women can flip when they don’t want to become impregnated during a specific sexual act, well, they shouldn’t have any role in defining education or health policies.
As a female voter, I’m constantly hit with ads telling me that policies dictated by anatomy are ALWAYS AT RISK and that this election will be the one to see my rights DIRECTLY BANNED FOREVER. They stop only slightly short of saying that if a Republican is elected in this country, it will turn into a nation not unlike The Handmaid’s Tale. Needless to say, I tune it out.
Even with that filter in place, Akin’s remarks are simply inexcusable. The things he said aren’t even said in polite company, mostly because polite company probably wouldn’t be able to keep from making faces at the sheer stupidity of his understanding of how reproduction works even if they were left in stunned silence at his dismissal of the impacts of rape.
I truly hope that the women of Missouri get a better candidate later today. With someone like him on the ballot, there can’t be a true debate over the actual issues that women – whether on the right, left, or in the center – might want to discuss when it comes to healthcare and access to services. There won’t be room to make the argument that perhaps taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill to fund everyone’s favorite birth control because with Akin on the ballot, he might just assume that women don’t really need birth control at all since we can apparently just “shut that whole thing down.” It really doesn’t matter what he says now, those will be the arguments that people will hear. And really, is that unbelievable that those arguments might stick with a few folks? It’s less unbelievable than the idea that a 65-year-old father doesn’t know about the birds and bees and wants to make public policy on his misinformation.
UPDATE: I think this is an excellent post from Clayton Cramer on why Akin’s statement just isn’t backed up by data no matter what he claimed as his source. I guess what really disturbs me about that situation is that it’s not just a fundamental knowledge issue, it shows that he’s not remotely serious about his beliefs in order to defend them, and he doesn’t do any basic research at all before taking a position on public policy. Clayton sums it up best:
This is one of the reasons that I try to emphasize to ideologues of all stripes that if you go looking for evidence that backs your position, you will find evidence that backs your position, and you will miss the evidence that doesn’t.
Go read his entire post.
More Signs the Zombie Meme has Jumped the Shark
CSGV is lambasting it as serious. You know, I think if you put these folks in a dourness contest with a bunch of Puritans from early New England, the Puritans would have some pretty stiff competition.
And, oh, Guns and Ammo? The Zombie thing stopped being funny a while ago.
UPDATE: From the people who don’t want to ban your guns:
Yes, the Mossberg 500, one of the most common sporting pump-action shotguns in existence, and you have a CSGV loyalist who suggests the fact that these are sold is “Disgusting.” Yet they aren’t ever going to come for your guns. You can trust them on that. You’re paranoid for thinking that.
The Media and Shooting
Interesting article in the San Bernardino Sun where they mention the lack of press attention Kim Rhode, despite the fact that she’s been setting all manner of Olympic records. It’s an interesting question to ponder whether it’s the media revulsion in regards to anything involving guns, or it’s just that not many people follow shooting. I tend to think it’s probably more the latter. The media has been willing to be a lot more fair to shooting as a sport these days, so it’s likely unfortunate the lack of media stories simply reflect the public’s lack of interest. Shooting really is a participatory sport. It’s fun to do. Even I find watching other people shoot is like watching paint dry. But that doesn’t seem to bother Kim:
“Ultimately, I don’t do it for anybody but myself and my country,” she said. “I’m happy with that and that’s all that matters.”
Spoken like a true shooter. Even if the media doesn’t care about shooting, we will still celebrate Kim’s accomplishment here. On a good day, when I’ve shot ATA trap at my club, I could do maybe 20 out of 25, doing 99 out of 100 in Olympic Skeet is something I can’t even fathom.
Not Interested in Dialog
If anti-gun groups ever wonder why we are single mindedly dedicated to their political existinction, they need to look no further than the ridiculous hate they themselves promote. Comparison America’s 4,000,000+ NRA members to a terrorist group like Al-Qaeda is pretty much a recipe for remaining on the fringe, and for no one to take you seriously. That even tops the SPLC. Additionally, it’s a recipe for keeping our people stoked and ready for a fight, which gets harder the more and more gun control groups become politically irrelevant.
Rhetoric being echoed by the likes of Jack Dunning here are not that of a group trying to seriously engage in political activism. If you’re activism starts out with comparing your opponents to the group that murdered 3000 Americans on 9/11, you’ve lost before you even start. This is just more trying gather mouth foamers among the left in an attempt to, what Sean calls it, if I recall, “save their phoney baloney jobs.” Otherwise, the would be no reason for several prominent gun control leaders to be promoting the likes of Jack Dunning. But hey, never interrupt your enemy in the midst of making a mistake, and of Oregon Ceasefire and Brady Campaign want to associated with rhetoric like this, who am I to stop them?
Dana Milbank Gets it Right Over at WaPo
I disagree with the Family Research Council’s views on gays and lesbians. But it’s absurd to put the group, as the law center does, in the same category as Aryan Nations, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Stormfront and the Westboro Baptist Church. The center says the FRC “often makes false claims about the LGBT community based on discredited research and junk science.†Exhibit A in its dossier is a quote by an FRC official from 1999 (!) saying that “gaining access to children has been a long-term goal of the homosexual movement.â€
Offensive, certainly. But in the same category as the KKK?
As I said, I’m not a fan of FRC’s political agenda, but putting them into the same category as the KKK is not only wrong, because it suggests beliefs held by millions of mainstream Americans are “hate,” but because it also cheapens the horror of exactly what the KKK stands and stood for. Given some of the hateful and false rhetoric about gun owners that is accepted and promoted by groups like Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, pretty clearly they would qualify as a hate group under SPLC’s standard.
Beretta CNC Fail
Tam tries to replace the sights on a Beretta PX4 Storm and discovers a quality control problem. Sounds like whatever program they use to generate the toolpaths from their CAD drawings didn’t quite get things right. That happens. But hey, that’s why you run one off and examine it closely before doing your production runs. I think Jason, when he was experimenting with making a one-off CNC AR-15 pistol and CNC 1911 (still in progress, pending Delorean engine rebuild), went through several mistakes before getting things right. The mistake is understandable, but selling the mistake is not.
UPDATE: “Beretta says it’s in the drawings and is a stress relief cut.“
It’s Markley’s Law Monday
Every Monday, Joe Huffman highlights examples appearing in the media of people violating Markley’s Law. What is Markley’s law?
That has to be some kind of variant of Godwin’s Law: As an online discussion of gun owners’ rights grows longer, the probability of an ad hominem attack involving penis size approaches 1.
This week’s example is pretty egregious. I’m wondering how Mr. Auslander thinks this is going to work for Bitter.
Civilian Engaged With College Station Shooter
SayUncle noticed a blurb from a local TV station that seems to indicate that before backup arrived, the shooter went over to the constable, and upon trying to remove the now dead officer’s gun, took 5 or 6 round of handgun fire from a civilian. This seems to have caused him to retreat, and no doubt prevented him from arming himself with another gun.
Where Being An Arrogant Bastard Hurts You
When the left gets upset at Mayor Mike, even they can’t help but to notice. As I said previously, I think NYPD’s policy of recycling brass casings by selling them to the highest bidder is the right thing to do, but I can’t help but snicker that even the left thinks Mayor Bloomberg might be, well, a bit full of himself.