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On Second Thought...

Gun Control Hartford CT 

The folks over in the U.K. seem not to have been especially impressed with the way that whole "strict gun control laws" thingie's been working out, and a recent poll there indicates that 80% would like to see a repeal of handgun bans and a return to a more US-style approach. The poll's not scientific; it's an online deal from one of their newspapers, but still - the newspaper (The Telegraph) is the U.K.'s largest. And the percentage is hardly insignificant, given that over 11,000 people responded to register their views.

But statistics from the United States show that guns are used by citizens to defend themselves around eighty times more often than they are used to take a life. A recent study published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy concluded that there is a negative correlation between gun ownership and violent crime in countries internationally, that is, “where firearms are most dense violent crime rates are lowest, and where guns are least dense violent crime rates are highest."

Chicago certainly supports the study's conclusion. But hey, they have way fewer stabbings and beheadings than the U.K., so there's that. Still a lot of folks, from DiFi to Pierced Organ keep pushing for U.K.-style gun laws here. When all they've got to peddle is fear, there's no need to let a few facts get in the way.

Nice Shot!

When I was in high school, I was given permission to opt out of attending classes there; instead, I studied at Carl Sandburg College for much of the last two years at the time. Security footage from the college made the national news, this evening:

Targeting Gibson Guitar

You may recall that a couple of years ago, armed agents from Barky's DOJ and DI agencies raided Gibson Guitar facilities in Memphis and Nashville. Now we know why:

Last week, Investor’s Business Daily published an editorial suggesting that Juszkiewicz’s Republican leanings had prompted the raids, noting that the owner of one of Gibson’s largest competitors, Chris Martin IV of C.F. Martin & Co., is a major Democratic donor that uses the same imported wood for its guitars yet that company wasn’t raided for violation of the Lacey Act.

“Now the Gibson Guitar raids make sense,” the paper opined.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and several colleagues are demanding answers from the administration justifying the targeting of Gibson.

 

California Goes Further Off The Rails

“True high-speed rail” 

Their so-called "bullet train" has always been a half-baked (if that) concept, but they're virtually guaranteeing failure by following the Porkland Streetcar model: "let's hire a company that's never had anything to do with the issues at hand!"

Before Tutor Perini was selected some financial analysts predicted that it would win the competition only because of its chief executive’s close ties to organized labor, one of the project’s biggest supporters.

And so it goes. The project's underfunded by 60% already, and the state's handed the rail contract to the only company out of the half-dozen that bid on the project that has zero experience with high-speed rail. Nada. Zip. None. And it's in the midst of litigation over construction problems with Los Angeles County's transit agency.

As Dr. Phil used to say: "What were you thinkin'?"

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Why Tutor Perini's Shares Soared Today

Democrats: Survival Training

Livin' ain't easy.

More Pork. Less Filling.

The interior of a Portland Streetcar. 

Tricky Rick Gustafson, honcho at Porkland Streetcar, Inc., has decided not to issue any more dates specifying when the fabled streetcars from Oregon Iron Works' United Streetcar will actually be delivered or placed into service. They ordered six streetcars from the company for a mere $20 million, then agreed that United Streetcar could keep the cash but deliver only five.

So far, the company's delivered two - neither of which are running. They were supposed to deliver a third by the middle of May, but that didn't happen, either. The first streetcar they turned over - four years behind schedule - has been found to be so riddled with defects that it will have to be returned for at least six months of repairs before it stands a chance of rolling with passengers.

Every time Tricky Ricky's set a startup date, something always goes wrong - so he's just not going to bother anymore. It must be nice to get paid six figures for screwing up, year in and year out, but then, that's what government "service" is all about.

The city of Tucson, AZ also made the mistake of ordering streetcars from United Streetcar, and they're getting really testy about the company's failure to deliver. Tolerance™, Tucson, Tolerance™!

Meanwhile, the City of Porkland has backed off the previous transportation bureau decision to do no road maintenance for the next five years. So they've set aside a whopping $500,000 to throw some asphalt sealer down on a few streets. Isn't that special?

Oddly, that's the same amount that Porkland City Council was going to spend each year on fluoridating the water supply - not counting the $5 million they were going to spend on building a fluoridation facility. Since that plan got decisively shot down by voters, you might think they could scrape together a little more cash for road repairs, but you'd be wrong. More bioswales, maybe.

Related articles

Tucson anger grows with streetcar maker Oregon Iron Works

Oregon streetcars: Money flows despite missed deadlines, cost overruns

Exclusive: Missing Man Not Missing

Amusingly, a news team in Maine was doing live coverage about an older gent who'd gone missing the previous day. The reporter and camera guy were standing in front of the old guy's house when who should happen by but the gentleman in question. Dang! Thought that guy looked familiar! The video's exceptional - the look on the reporter's face is perfect.

Silence Will Be Interpreted As Disapproval

A Chorus of Disapproval 

That's what a recently exposed directive from DOJ to staff says, and disapproval, you know, is Bad. It might hurt somebody's feelings.

Among the directives in the brochure is an order for workers to vocally affirm homosexuality.

They were also told to post “DOJ Pride” stickers in their office to indicate “that it is a safe place.”

What if it might violate your religious beliefs to "vocally affirm"? Well, that's too bad, because you can be fired for "intolerance".

It seems odd to some of us, but there is apparently a population of individuals who view absolutely everything through a lens of sexual activity. Themselves among the most intolerant people on the planet, they nonetheless demand not merely tolerance from others, but affirmation that their sexual proclivities are as important to you as they are to them. Their sexual activities are all-consuming characteristics of their identities.

One gay DOJ employee is quoted in the directive; “Silence seems like disapproval. There’s still an atmosphere of LGBT issues not being appropriate for the workplace (particularly for transgender people), or that people who bring it up are trying to rock the boat.”

Umm...maybe it's because "LGBT issues" are not appropriate for the workplace. It may be difficult for the little self-centered darlings to wrap what passes for their minds around, but the fact remains that normal people aren't obsessed with sex. Really, when's the last time you participated in a "Hetero Pride!" parade?

Related articles

DOJ Tells Employees to Verbally Affirm Homosexuality

Airline Emergency

Alexander Michael Herrera boarded an Alaska Airlines plane in Anchorage. When he realized that the plane was actually going to land in Portland, Oregon, he made a desperate attempt to escape, trying to open an emergency exit in flight before the plane touched down in a city that appears to pride itself on collective insanity.

Unfortunately, times being what they are, passengers took him down and tied him up with shoelaces and seat-belts; forcibly subjecting him to Portland. 

And some say he's the crazy one.

Mess Transit Follies Continue: CRC

Columbia River Crossing concept drawing of "deck truss" bridge 25 February 2011 

The transit agency in Clark County, Washington (C-Tran) was supposed to come out with a decision regarding a light rail "extension" into downtown Vancouver via the long-planned, low-clearance "Columbia River Crossing" bridge, but they punted. Despite having been studied and planned to death already, the C-Tran board decided that they didn't have enough information, and so they directed their staff to meet with TriMess staff in Porkland to discuss terms of an agreement for operation of loot rail, as well as to develop a plan for funding operations and maintenance that doesn't involve any new taxes.

And the whackos are crawling out from behind the baseboards, as demonstrated by the letter some guy in Gresham, Oregon wrote to the loot-rail-friendly Vancouver Columbian:

The initial light-rail line into Vancouver will certainly extend over time by orders of magnitude once people recognize that this is the train to the future of people-moving and we are about to let it leave the station without us. This component of the CRC is about more than a handful or even a majority of families in Clark County that may not want it. It is about their children and future generations of children, about the whole regions families and by extension, the entire family of man.

Yes, there we have it - 19th-century technology is the "train to the future", and if a majority of families in Clark County don't want it, tough noodles: it should be built anyway, majority be damned, because "the entire family of man" depends upon it.

Whatever he's smoking, it's not legal in Oregon without a prescription. As for the CRC: a fork should have been stuck in that turkey a long time ago; at this point, it's not merely done, it's virtually mummified.