The Smallest Minority: May Victims of Communism Day

A must-read:

The Smallest Minority: May Victims of Communism Day

"the total number of victims of Communism - that is, the domestic victims of their own governments - in the USSR, China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cambodia is 98.4 million people.  For all Communist governments during the 20^th Century, he puts the estimate at approximately 110 million. "

...

"The Communists are hardly alone in these crimes.  Rummel estimates that the total number of people murdered by their own governments during the 20^th Century is on the close order of 262 million, but the single biggest chunk of that truly frightening number is directly due to one pernicious idea:  That we can make people better."

He'd Really Rather Be A Dictator

Obama taking executive action on guns after Senate vote

The Obama administration was starting a process Friday aimed at removing barriers in health privacy laws that prevent some states from reporting information to the background check system.

removing barriers in health privacy laws

Yeah. Nothing could be wrong with that. Who knows why that have those laws, anyway? Why would you not want the government digging around in your health records? Remember, the government is us! You and me! We're all here to help each other!

How Far We've Fallen When Johnny Rotten Becomes The Voice Of Propriety

Johnny Rotten Says Celebrating Margaret Thatcher’s Death Is ‘Loathsome’

It's ironic and sad that the leftist, counter-cultural bomb-thrower, former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten, who was the cultural polar opposite of Thatcher during her time as Prime Minister, shows more gentlemanly respect than the modern left.

The Tool And The Hand That Wields It

Hat tip from Instapundit: Stone tools helped shape human hands

AROUND 1.7 million years ago, our ancestors' tools went from basic rocks banged together to chipped hand axes. The strength and dexterity needed to make and use the latter quickly shaped our hands into what they are today – judging by a fossil that belongs to the oldest known anatomically modern hand.

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Because the fossil is younger than the first tools, Ward's team believe it is the first evidence of anatomy evolving to suit a new technology. As stone tools became more widespread, those who had the wrist structure to use them would have had an evolutionary advantage over their weaker-wristed kin.

I find articles like this terribly misleading to the laymen, because they subtly promote the idea that the use of the tools caused the changes in the wrist. This is the old long-disproven Lamarckian theory. If you were to press the scientists on this, they would readily admit that, no, they're not saying that the tool use actually caused the changes, but that natural selection operated as a winnowing process, a sorting box -- the humans with the stronger wrists had better survival characteristics than humans with weaker wrists, and this produced more offspring.

This relies on several  assumptions, some of which are statistically ludicrous, none of which are proven:

1. That minute variations in wrist strength had survival advantages that managed to cause statistical variations in excess of the normal hazards of prehistoric living (disease, accidents, predation, violence, starvation, etc.).

2. There was a wide range of genetic variance in wrist strength and structure from which to select, and

3. Random genetic mutations that materially and positively affected wrist strength fortunately appeared at exactly the time that early humans were expanding tool use.

The last one, especially, requires an incredible confluence of rare events.

Draw your own conclusions.

I've Heard This Lie Before

Urban metrosexual "Republican" tries to convince us that anti-gunners don't really want to take our guns away. Universal background checks are "reasonable" and "popular." and won't lead to confiscation.

Not buying it. Because universal registration has led to confiscation in many, many places. And don't think I'm fallaciously conflating background checks with registration. The only feasible way to enforce background checks on private sales is through universal registration.

When Government Ignores The Law, People Should Ignore The Government.

Missouri Secretly Shares Entire CCW List With Feds Against State Law

This sort of casual disregard for the laws that are supposed to restrain it has become so commonplace, that I submit that our government has lost all legitimacy and forfeited the right to have any power over us.

It doesn't matter what laws we pass:

Congress ignores the law requiring it to pass a budget.

The President ignores

1. Laws governing secured creditors during the auto bailout
2. Law saying he can only make "recess appointments" when the Senate is actually in recess, and that only the Senate gets to determine when it's in recess.
3. The War Powers Act
4. The Immigration Act

Corruption of political parties is so endemic in Chicago, New York and Washington that it ceases to be remarkable

Government funds are doled out to "invest" in companies that are, coincidentally, owned by the President's bundlers and donors.

Ambassadorships are parceled out as rewards to supporters regardless of qualifications.

Laws are set aside for the elite -- it's OK for David Gregory to possess a 30 round magazine in D.C., because clearly, as an elite media reprentative, he's no danger to anyone. I wonder if a similar explanation would work for me (of course not).

I could go on for pages.

I obey the government only out of fear, not respect. I know I'm not the only one.

I Called This One: No Longer Safe For Gun Owners To Seek Mental Health Services

New York has begun confiscating guns from people who seek mental health services.

I called this a few months back:

The obvious takeaway from this is: gun owners, never, ever see a therapist. You never know what you might say in a moment of weakness or hyperbole that can be misinterpreted. Whether it's a "credible threat" is entirely in the mind of your therapist, the Department of Criminal Justice Services and the magistrate you'll be paraded in front of. Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya? If you feel a need to spill your guts to someone, find a friend and have a couple beers. If you don't have any friends, give a few bucks to a stripper and talk away. She'll pretend to be sympathetic as long as the money's coming, just like a therapist, and she's way hotter.

It turns out that, in New York, even being prescribed any psychoactive drug (which could include any of the widely-used drugs to treat depression or ADD),  makes you "dangerous" in the eyes of New York officials.

Stay away from mental health professionals and social workers.