Buss: The condoning of cowardice

Buss: The condoning of cowardice: 
"...Qualities traditionally considered “good” — bravery, sacrifice, even just fulfillment of basic job duties — are apparently no longer necessary in the face of evil. 
Instead, some thought leaders tell us that we’re not to go too hard on those who display cowardice and fear. 
...Something has changed following Parkland. 
The overwhelming narrative has been to assign moral agency to inanimate objects: the guns. Everybody else, and the morality of their action or inaction, is somehow irrelevant.
...one Parkland student David Hogg defended the inaction. 
And while he’s only one student, the predictably disappointing cable news media have made his point of view the defining meme for the moment.
Peterson, “just like every other police officer out there at heart — is a good person. 
...Peterson’s rectitude has been defended by others who claim that the “good guy with a gun” couldn’t stop the bad guy with a gun, and therefore armed officers aren’t the answer to stopping school shootings. 
But he doesn’t get to be the “good” guy with the gun unless he had proven he was willing to actually be good. 
That involves going to every length to stop the shooter and protect students — his most basic duty.
Otherwise he’s just a guy with a gun.
...So now a growing number of Americans seem comfortable with the position that courage and bravery are hard qualities to live by, and so, not expected even in an instance that cries out for them. 
We’re willing to give a pass to those too cowardly to stop evil, even if it comes in the form of an AR-15.
It’s a downright terrifying prospect for our future. 
Because no matter how hard gun control advocates want a world in which no one has guns, and no one is evil, that world will never exist. 
We will always need good guys — those who are actually “good” — to stop the bad."
Read it all!

SO MUCH WINNING: The United States will dominate the oil industry for the next 5 years...

Instapundit » Blog Archive » SO MUCH WINNING: The United States will dominate the oil industry for the next 5 years, Internation…:
"SO MUCH WINNING: The United States will dominate the oil industry for the next 5 years, International Energy Agency forecasts. 
“Oil demand will keep expanding over the next five years, and the United States will fulfill most of the world’s growing appetite, the International Energy Agency said on Monday. . . . The IEA projects the United States will pump 17 million barrels a day of crude oil, condensates and natural gas liquids, easily defending its title as the world’s top producer of petroleum products.”

"I remember when Barack Obama mocked Sarah Palin for suggesting that we could “drill our way out” of our energy problems.
You know, kinda like he mocked Trump for suggesting he could bring back manufacturing, or when he mocked Romney for suggesting that the Russians were a threat."---Posted by Glenn Reynolds"

NYC Homeless Staying In Shelters Longer | The Daily Caller

NYC Homeless Staying In Shelters Longer | The Daily Caller:

"Homeless persons in New York City on average stayed nearly 100 days longer in shelters in 2017 than four years ago, according to an upcoming report from the Manhattan Institute.
Under Mayor Bill de Blasio, the average adult homeless person stayed in the shelter for 383 days in 2017 compared to the 293-day average stay in 2013.
“The more comfortable an adult or a family feels in a temporary housing situation, the weaker the motivation could become to move back into the community,” Stephen Eide, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told the New York Post, which first reported on Manhattan Institute’s study expected to be released this week."

Tariffs on steel, aluminum are long overdue - MarketWatch

Tariffs on steel, aluminum are long overdue - MarketWatch
"Yesterday, President Donald Trump said that he has decided to impose tariffs of 25% on all steel imports and 10% on aluminum imports, promising to sign the measures next week. Trade remedies for steel and aluminum are long overdue.

Trump promised quick action after announcing investigations of the national-security threats imposed by steel and aluminum imports nearly a year ago. 

Delays worsened the import crisis for thousands of U.S. steel and aluminum workers, many of whom are facing layoffs and plant-closing announcements.

The crisis in steel and aluminum trade is driven by the development of massive amounts of excess production capacity, which has led to import dumping by China and a number of other countries singled out in the Commerce Department’s reports on its Section 232 investigations into the impact of imports of steel and aluminum products on national security.

The United States is the world largest importer of steel, and imports exceed exports by nearly four to one. 

Ten steel furnaces have closed since 2000, and we have lost 52,000 U.S. steelmaking jobs (37.8%) since January 2000..."

Read on!

China is selling a lot of steel to third countries, which then process the steel into products sold into the United States.

State Dept. Was Granted $120 Million to Fight Russian Meddling. It Has Spent $0. - The New York Times

State Dept. Was Granted $120 Million to Fight Russian Meddling. It Has Spent $0. - The New York Times:
"WASHINGTON — As Russia’s virtual war against the United States continues unabated with the midterm elections approaching, the State Department has yet to spend any of the $120 million it has been allocated since late 2016 to counter foreign efforts to meddle in elections or sow distrust in democracy.
As a result, not one of the 23 analysts working in the department’s Global Engagement Center — which has been tasked with countering Moscow’s disinformation campaign — speaks Russian, and a department hiring freeze has hinde  red efforts to recruit the computer experts needed to track the Russian efforts.
...The United States spends billions of dollars on secret cybercapabilities, but these weapons have proved largely ineffective against Russian efforts on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere that simply amplify or distort divisive but genuine voices in the United States and elsewhere.
...On Wednesday, Mark E. Mitchell, a top official in the Defense Department, said much wrangling remained before any of the promised $40 million is transferred to the State Department.
“We’re still a ways off,” Mr. Mitchell said..."
Read on!

Lunch video-----Dom Raso: Truth is They Want to Ban Every Gun

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Andres Anduaga, Mexican man, assumed identity of U.S. citizen Abraham Riojos for 37 years - Washington Times

Andres Anduaga, Mexican man, assumed identity of U.S. citizen Abraham Riojos for 37 years - Washington Times:

"SAN DIEGO — California court records show a Mexican man assumed the identity of an American citizen and received more than $360,000 in U.S. government benefits for nearly four decades.
Documents obtained by the San Diego Union-Tribune reveal Andres Anduaga used a fake birth certificate in 1980 to develop a seemingly legitimate persona by applying for a California driver’s license, Social Security number and U.S. passport. The official U.S. documents identified him as Abraham Riojos, born in Texas in 1958."

20 New Science Papers Find Climate is Driven by Solar Changes | Principia Scientific International

20 New Science Papers Find Climate is Driven by Solar Changes | Principia Scientific International
"Earlier this month, the first installment in the accumulating list of hundreds of new peer-reviewed scientific papers supporting a skeptical position on climate change alarm was made available. Included on the list were 38 papers linking climate changes to solar forcing: 38 Sun-Climate Scientific Papers, January-March 2017

Just in the last few weeks alone, another 20 scientific papers were identified which link solar variations to climate changes, which means 58 papers have already been published in 2017.

20 New Sun-Climate Papers

High Solar Activity (Warming), High Crop Yields – Low Solar Activity (Cooling), Low Crop Yields

---

1. Huhtamaa and Helama, 2017

...“The rapid mid-15th century cooling, which followed a major atmospheric circulation change over the North Atlantic (Dawson et al., 2007; Meeker and Mayewski, 2002) and coincided with the culmination of the Spörer solar minimum (Miyahara et al., 2006), has been evidenced in various summer and winter season reconstructions of the region (Haltia-Hovi et al., 2007; Helama et al., 2009b; Klimenko and Solomina, 2010; Luoto and Helama, 2010; Zhang et al., 2015).”

“The culmination of the ‘LIA’ [Little Ice Age] in Finland has been commonly dated to the late 17th and early 18th centuries ad (Luoto, 2013; Luoto and Helama, 2010; Tiljander et al., 2003), which is synchronous with the onset of the phase of the lowest yield ratios in our reconstruction. The Maunder solar minima (c. 1645–1715) and several volcanic eruptions preceded the culmination (Shindell et al., 2003).”..."
Read on!

#1 Movie this week 1983-----TOOTSIE - Trailer ( 1982 )

The NHTSA Says Electric Vehicles Can No Longer Stay Silent at Low Speeds

The NHTSA Says Electric Vehicles Can No Longer Stay Silent at Low Speeds: 
"A new ruling mandates that, by 2019, electric and hybrid cars must emit artificial sounds so pedestrians, cyclists, and the blind can better detect these ultraquiet machines. 
...The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates the added noise will prevent 2400 pedestrian injuries each year after September 1, 2020, when every new hybrid and EV must be equipped to make sounds. 
Automakers must equip at least half of such models by September 2019. 
Only vehicles under 10,000 pounds GVWR are included; electrified motorcycles, three-wheelers, and medium- and heavy-duty trucks are exempt. 
Want more logic? 
Gasoline and diesel vehicles with auto stop/start systems aren’t required to make extra sounds while stationary, while EVs and hybrids must..."
Read on!

#1 This day 1967-----Love is Here and Now You're Gone - The Supremes

Seattle task force recommends ‘head tax’ to fund help for homeless | The Seattle Times

Seattle task force recommends ‘head tax’ to fund help for homeless | The Seattle Times
"A Seattle task force is recommending the City Council adopt a $75 million-per-year “head tax” on high-grossing businesses to help address homelessness.
Members of the community panel set up by the council reached consensus during their last meeting Thursday after about two months of work.
...Under the November proposal, the city would have taken 6.5 cents per employee, per hour, from companies grossing more than $10 million per year.
...With representatives from nonprofits, advocacy groups and businesses, the task force was told to consider “new progressive revenue sources,” including a head tax (also called an employee-hours tax) capable of raising $25 million to $75 million a year.
By choosing the high end of that range, the panel is recommending a tax that would yield three times more than what the council turned down a few months ago
The panel, co-chaired by Councilmembers M. Lorena González and Lisa Herbold, is recommending the council dedicate about 80 percent of the tax money to low-income housing and about 20 percent to emergency shelter and services...."
Read on!

You ought to know!

NYT Reports On Gang Violence In Sweden | The Daily Caller

NYT Reports On Gang Violence In Sweden | The Daily Caller:

"The New York Times published a report Sunday on Sweden’s growing problem with immigrant gangs — more than a year after the paper chided President Donald Trump for calling attention to the same worrisome development.
Entitled “Hand Grenades and Gang Violence Rattle Sweden’s Middle Class,” the report examines how weapons of war and clan-like violence have accompanied an influx of immigrants from certain parts of Europe and the greater Middle East."

The History of the 'Assault Weapon' Hoax. Part 1: The Crime that Started it All - Volokh Conspiracy : Reason.com

The History of the 'Assault Weapon' Hoax. Part 1: The Crime that Started it All - Volokh Conspiracy : Reason.com:
"The "assault weapon" controversy first became a national issue in January 1989, when a career criminal murdered five children at school playground in Stockton, California.
The failures of law enforcement before and during that crime—and the media and political failures thereafter—were similar to those related to the recent murders in Parkland, Florida. 
These failures are part of the reason why school shootings, and other mass attacks, persist in the United States today.

• This article is the first in a series detailing the "assault weapon" hoax from 1989 to the present.

The Stockton perpetrator, had whose name I won't repeat, had a difficult start in life.
...In a period of about two to five minutes (reports vary), he fired around 105 shots.
He hit 37 people, including one adult; five children were killed.
The police arrived five minutes after he had begun shooting.
By that point, he had killed himself.
The Stockton murderer could have been stopped before he started if the government had enforced existing criminal laws or had used existing laws to commit and provide mental health treatment for a plainly disturbed and imminently dangerous individual.
The same has been true for many subsequent mass killers.
In an article for the Howard Law Journal, Clayton Cramer I detail other notorious homicides, including mass shootings, that could have been prevented if existing laws had been used to commit and treat people who were well-known to be severely and dangerously mentally ill.
...Part of the problem was apparently that the Broward Sheriff, and the school administration, were diligently implementing the Obama administration's demand to shut down the "school to prison pipeline," by not arresting students...

• The next article in the series will examine the rifle the Stockton criminal used, and the misinformation that was spread about it.
• Future articles, will examine more of the past and present media inaccuracy about so-called "assault weapons," the many libels against law-abiding gun owners, and media coverage that has the effect of inciting copycats.

And of course the 1989 and 2018 stories of Presidents who imagined that they could find political advantage by breaking their campaign promises and betraying the people who elected them."
Read it all!

AM Fruitcake

History for March 5

History for March 5 - On-This-Day.com:
Gerhardus Mercator 1512 - Flemish mapmaker, William Oughtred 1575 - Mathematician, credited with inventing the slide rule, Antoine Cadillac 1658 - Founder of Detroit, MI


Rex Harrison 1908 - Actor, Penn Jillett 1955 - Magician (Penn and Teller), Andy Gibb 1958 - Singer


1624 - In the American colony of Virginia, the upper class was exempted from whipping by legislation.


1770 - "The Boston Massacre" took place when British troops fired on a crowd in Boston killing five people. Two British troops were later convicted of manslaughter.


1836 - Samuel Colt's Patent Arms Manufacturing of Paterson, New Jersey, was chartered by the New Jersey legislature.


1842 - A Mexican force of over 500 men under Rafael Vasquez invaded Texas for the first time since the revolution. They briefly occupied San Antonio, but soon headed back to the Rio Grande.


1922 - "Annie Oakley" (Phoebe Ann Moses) broke all existing records for women's trap shooting. She hit 98 out of 100 targets.


1933 - The Nazi Party won 44 percent of the vote in German parliamentary elections.


1946 - Winston Churchill delivered his "Iron Curtain Speech".


1953 - Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin died. He had been in power for 29 years.

Senator seeks answers on why FBI waited weeks to act on Weiner laptop in Clinton case | Fox News

Senator seeks answers on why FBI waited weeks to act on Weiner laptop in Clinton case | Fox News:

"A Republican senator is pressing for answers on why the FBI waited weeks to act after the 2016 discovery of thousands of emails on ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner's laptop that potentially were relevant to the Hillary Clinton email investigation. 
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., fired off a letter Thursday to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein asking about the timeline, citing texts between two key FBI investigators.
The messages, first reported by The Wall Street Journal in late January, indicate that top bureau officials were aware of the discovery of thousands of emails from Weiner well before the FBI sought a search warrant in late October, and effectively revived the Clinton probe right before the election. "

The way we were-----The Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)

Boob-tube-----70's News Bloopers

How Canada ended up with Justin Trudeau

How Canada ended up with Justin Trudeau
"With all of Justin Trudeau's blunders - from blowing up Canada's relationship with India (and messing up in China, too), to welcoming floods of unvetted migrants to Canada, to running up the debt, to taking lavish vacations at taxpayer expense, to pushing for all kinds of political correctnesses, it's kind of natural to wonder why this has happened. 
Seriously, how could Canada have ended up with such an incompetent as its prime minister? 
His stupidities are legion and likely only to continue. 
A new Ipsos poll reveals that if a Canadian election were held tomorrow, Trudeau would be thrown out.    

In retrospect, it's worth looking at how Trudeau got elected because the election had consequences, all of which are on display now. 
When he was elected in 2015, he had a famous name but no signficant political experience. 
And at age 43 when he was voted in, he didn't even have much life experience, particularly as a cossetted rich man's son growing up in an elite leftwing bubble. 

...But in Canada's case, and this should be worth noting here, he was elected because of massive foreign funding, from the likes of the rabidly leftwing and secretive Tides Foundation, linked to George Soros and radical environmental movements.

In 2017, the National Post reported that Trudeau got elected after a massive influx of illegal foreign funds, mostly from the U.S.-based leftwing Tides Foundation, writing:

Foreign money funnelled towards Canadian political advocacy groups affected the outcome of the 2015 federal election, according to a document filed last week with Elections Canada and obtained in part by the Calgary Herald.

The 36-page report entitled: Elections Canada Complaint Regarding Foreign Influence in the 2015 Canadian Election, alleges third parties worked with each other, which may have bypassed election spending limits — all of which appears to be in contravention of the Canada Elections Act. ...“Electoral outcomes were influenced,” alleges the report."

Read it all! 

Repeal the Second Amendment? Almost Half of Democrats Say Yes | National Review

Repeal the Second Amendment? Almost Half of Democrats Say Yes | National Review
"The vast majority of Democrats also support banning all semi-automatic weapons.
More than a third of the Democratic party would do away with the Second Amendment, a survey by The Economist and YouGov revealed.
Even 21 percent of the American public would support that plan, according to the study.
The poll was conducted from February 25-27, while the nation was still reeling from the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 earlier last month.
...The survey also showed that a majority of Democrats, 82 percent, are in favor of banning semi-automatic weapons, which include handguns as well as rifles. 
Only slightly over half of Republicans, 53 percent, are against this proposal.
...Half of the general population said that gun purchasers should be required to pass a mental examination before walking away with a firearm, with 68 percent of Democrats and 41 percent of Republicans supporting this idea."

War on Free Speech: EU Demands Facebook and Google Censor 'Illegal' Speech in One Hour

War on Free Speech: EU Demands Facebook and Google Censor 'Illegal' Speech in One Hour:

"The unelected executive branch of the European Union (EU) has ordered social media and tech firms like Facebook to delete content it considers “illegal” within one hour, as they ramp up efforts to censor the Internet."

Levin: ‘Phony Science’ of Climate Change Is About Control

Levin: ‘Phony Science’ of Climate Change Is About Control:
"On his nationally syndicated radio talk show Tuesday, host Mark Levin set the record straight on climate change when he said that the ‘phony science’ of climate change is about control.

“Every aspect of government’s involvement in this phony science called climate change is about controlling every aspect of what takes place in your automobile, what takes place in your home, what takes place in your business,” stated Mark Levin. “That’s what it’s all about. That’s their reality, to use Obama’s term.”

Levin’s comments came after former President Barack Hussein Obama spoke to an audience of people at MIT Sloan Sports Analytic Conference last week, where Obama’s remarks were supposed to have been kept “off-the-record” and “completely secret,” according to Reason.

As can be heard in the audio recording, apparently leaked to Reason, Obama said the following concerning climate change and science:

“You and I can have an argument about climate change in which you conclude, ‘we're not going to stop the Chinese and the Indians from burning a bunch of coal, it's gone on for a pretty long time, we're just going to have to adapt, and maybe we'll invent some new energy source in the nick of time, and that's why I'm opposed to the Paris Accords,’” said Obama. “I'll come back and say, ‘well no it just turns out if we just invest in some smart technology and we create a smart regulatory framework that incentivizes investment in clean energy, we can actually solve this problem now, and if we don't it's going to be catastrophic.’”

Below is a transcript of Levin’s remarks from his show on Tuesday addressing Obama on climate change:

“See, the vast majority of the American people are not involved in energy production. The vast majority of the American people have no idea how gasoline gets to the pump, how oil is used. They just use it.

“So when you have a slick salesman from progressivism saying, ‘All we have to do is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. We can save the planet, lower the temperature, stop the ocean from boiling, the rising of the oceans with more of this and less of that. And look, we’re willing to debate the particulars, but we’re not willing to debate the fact of climate change.’

Levin-“...only recently...with the advent of the Clinton-Gore administration, did it suddenly become the case that we have what they used to call global warming. Now we have climate change. And before that, of course, in the 70s they called it global cooling..."

Read on! 

Teacher Coalition Seeks to End Obama School Discipline Policy: ‘A Lot of Fear in Schools’ | Breitbart

Teacher Coalition Seeks to End Obama School Discipline Policy: ‘A Lot of Fear in Schools’ | Breitbart:
"The school discipline policy that may have allowed Nikolas Cruz to escape arrest by Broward County law enforcement and ultimately purchase the firearm he used to kill 17 people is in effect in over 50 school districts across the country.

“He probably wouldn’t have been able to buy the murder weapon if the school had referred him to law enforcement,” veteran FBI agent Michael Biasello told RealClearInvestigations (RCI).

In 2014, the Obama administration issued a “Dear Colleague” guidance that threatened school districts – whose disciplinary measures showed a disproportionately greater number of minority students affected – could be subject to investigation by the Departments of Justice and Education, regardless of whether the behaviors leading to the discipline were unacceptable.

Deborah York, now a retired teacher in Edina, Minnesota, tells Breitbart News she sees “a lot of fear in schools, not only physical fear of being assaulted or violently abused, but ‘system fear’ that’s coming from the top down about gag orders and data privacy, where you can’t talk among your fellow teachers, even to share information.”...

Lots here, read on!

Lunch video-----Welcome To Progressive Utopia

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