Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 606 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

Scott Adams on Creativity

He suggests that you can’t generate creativity, that creativity is something that people just innately have or don’t have.

“There’s no way to stop creativity unless you kill the people who have it. Creators will change jobs, defy the government, move to other countries, and do whatever they need to let the creativity out.”

This blog started during a particularly low part during my career, when our company was floundering badly, and I wasn’t being listened to or respected. In fact, I was being downright abused, and sometimes wish instead of continuing with blogging, I would have just gone to look for another job, back before the financial crisis. But I don’t deny that a particular appeal to the medium was as a creative outlet. I think this point is particularly salient:

I’ve noticed that creativity so often springs from hardship or pain that I wonder if it’s a precondition. That would make sense from an evolution perspective. Humans don’t need to come up with new ideas when everything is running smoothly. We need creativity when we’re threatened and all of the usual defenses are deemed inadequate. In other words, the best way to generate creativity is to induce hardship on humans, which would be unethical. Conversely, the best way to reduce creativity is to – wait for it – make things nice and comfortable for creative people. In other words, anyÂ ethicalÂ attempt to encourage creativity will have the unintended effect of killing it. Happy creators are not productive.

I think he’s onto something here. When I think back, I’ve come up with some of my best ideas during times of extreme hardship. Interestingly, unemployment seems to stoke my game development itch. The last time I didn’t have a job or a prospect I wrote a pretty large chunk of an online text adventure game (which were still popular back then). Once I got a job, and felt “safe” it just kind of died. This bout of joblessness, I have all kinds of crazy game ideas popping into my head. My best work at my previous employer was when new leadership who listened to us took over, and it we all went from apathy into “save the company” mode. Things were very crazy and uncertain, and I was constantly worried about my job, but I did some of my best work for that company in those couple of years.

At least from my experience, Scott Adams was right. Adversity definitely seems to be what gets me thinking.

Licking my Wounds

My apologies for the lack of posting. Just got another rejection, this time from the academic institution I had applied to and gone to an on-site interview with. It was one of those jobs in a different field than I’ve worked in previously, but in a somewhat similar kind of role. I was attracted to the academic environment for its stability, and for the fact that I’d continue to work with researchers (who have very different IT needs, and bring you more interesting problems). The downside is the pay isn’t that great, but I’d trade pay for stability and a research environment.

I think I was the top candidate when I went in for the interview, but there was one other candidate who came along and had the exact experience and background they were looking for, so then it would seem my lack of direct experience in this field became a problem for them. My guess is at that point I became the number two candidate, but they didn’t want to get back to me until the other guy accepted or rejected.

So now I’ve pretty much exhausted all the jobs that looked interesting. Now I need to move forward looking for work. I am doing some part time contracting for my former employer now, but its not nearly enough to pay the bills. Not even enough to affect unemployment. But it does look better on the resume to say I’m doing some part time contract work for the previous employer. I’m trying to get the message across that I wasn’t let go in a round of cutting, but that the company actually close, and I was one of the last remaining people when it did.

I’m still in good financial shape. I’m not really concerned about that. But needless to say I don’t like being out of work, and not knowing when I may finally land a position.

Pissing off the Right People

The New York Times is in fits over the HR822:

This trashing of state and local prerogatives is not only unwise but unnecessary. In its wrongheaded 2008 decision recognizing an individualâ€™s Second Amendment right to keep guns in the home for self-defense, the Supreme Court still left room for reasonable gun limits, including restrictions on toting concealed weapons.

What New York City has are not restrictions on concealed weapons. What New York City has amounts to a prohibition for carrying a firearm at all, except for the rich and well connected. This should not pass any constitutional standard for a fundamental right. Since New York does not choose to prohibit concealed carry, but rather to restrict it in an arbitrary and capricious manner, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be forced to recognize other licenses from other states.

I’d also note that the Court, in Heller, did not endorse prohibitions on concealed carry. It offered that as an example of restrictions that have been upheld, as an example of ways the right has been regulated. That’s a far cry from the Courts endorsing New York City, Chicago’s, or D.C.’s draconian prohibitions.

Netflix Needs to Fire its CEO

Bucks right has pretty good coverage over the latest outrage. Seems they are spinning off their DVD business like it was an infected appendix. I was willing to live with the price hike, but destroying the value of the service is enough to make me think about dropping it.

Woolrich Concealed Carry Chinos

Looks like they are a solution to many a problem.

Lautenberg and Ex-Post Facto

There’s really no circumstance where I think a lifetime ban on a fundamental right should be constitutional for a misdemeanor conviction, but one of the gravest outrages perpetrated by the federal courts is allowing the ex-post-facto nature of the Lautenberg Amendment to stand. John Richardson has a good example in regards to why. As far as I know, there’s never been any direct Supreme Court ruling on the ex-post facto issue in regards to Lautenberg, but it seems pretty clear to me that stripping a constitutional right post-conviction, without any further due process, ought to be a violation. One might argue that you get around the ex-post facto issue by virtue of the fact that an action is required, namely gun possession with a misdemeanor DV conviction post the date of the act, but when the act of possession is protected by the Constitution, it’s hard to see how that doesn’t amount to punishment after the fact.

Self-Defense in the UK

Extrano’s Alley has an account of a homeowner who is facing charges for taking the knife from a home invader and then stabbing him with it. Instapundit is covering this too, and a reader there notes,Â â€œUS gun rights groups should raise money (and publicity, and their own profile) to defend our innocent cousins across the pond.â€ I’m honestly not sure how much that would help. Prosecutors across the pond wouldn’t be taking these cases to trial if they weren’t pretty sure of a jury willing to convict. It’s a cultural issue, and I’m not sure American groups are going to be able to change that. I think that kind of change has to come from within.

Music to my Ears on Righthaven

Attorneys for Wayne Hoehn File Motion for Seizure of Righthaven’s Bank Accounts. Sweet.

Law School Textbook on Second Amendment

The totality of our opponents loss in Heller and McDonald probably didn’t really hit me until I saw this post over at Volokh on a new law school textbook on the Second Amendment. Understand that the Second Amendment is now a hot area in mainstream constitutional law. The textbook is co-authored byÂ Nicholas Johnson (Fordham), Michael Oâ€™Shea (Oklahoma City), George Mocsary (Connecticut), and Dave Kopel (Denver). This is an academic work that’s the culmination of many years of research into this topic. At first, it was not widely accepted, and now it’s mainstream constitutional law. All new law students will be learning this version of history, the true version, our version, rather than the revisionist claptrap whipped up by our opponents.

Old Picture of the Day Blog, Add it to Your Feed

Old Picture of the Day is my new favorite blog to follow. This weeks mystery person contest threw me, because of the context. Presented in another context, I think just about everyone would get it. But the shotgun shouldn’t be too surprising. From the Wikipedia Article on the March King:

As aÂ trapshooter, he ranks as one of the all-time greats, and he is enshrined in the Trapshooting Hall of Fame.^[15]Â He even organized the first national trapshooting organization, a forerunner to today’sÂ Amateur Trapshooting Association. Sousa remained active in the fledgling ATA for some time after its formation. Some credit Sousa as the father of organized trapshooting in America. Sousa also wrote numerous articles about trapshooting.

Perhaps a quote from his Trapshooting Hall of Fame biography says it best: “Let me say that just about the sweetest music to me is when I call, â€˜pull,â€™ the old gun barks, and the referee in perfect key announces, â€˜deadâ€™.”

Despite the fact that Sousa believed that “TheseÂ talking machinesÂ are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country,” there are more than a few recordings of Sousa’s band that have survived. Here’s one of them, pressed on a Blue Amberol Cylinder and played on an Edison Fireside Model A. The model A was introduced in 1909.

If you don’t have Old Picture of the Day on your RSS feed, you should add it.