https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2019/08/14/venezuela_china_russia__oh_my_110466.html
Meddling? Or saving the Venezuelans from the oppressive Russians/Chinese?
Meddling? Or saving the Venezuelans from the oppressive Russians/Chinese?
Friday, August 16, 2019
Thursday, August 8, 2019
Permit holders or the Popo - who's more dangerous?
https://www.dailysignal.com/2016/08/09/these-gun-owners-are-least-likely-criminals-report-finds/
“With about 685,464 full-time police officers in the U.S. from 2005 to 2007, we find that there were about 103 crimes per hundred thousand officers,” the report reads. “For the U.S. population as a whole, the crime rate was 37 times higher—3,813 per hundred thousand people.”
The study refers to Texas and Florida, which it says mirror most other states, to compare permit holders with police and the overall population. It used data from 1987 through 2015.
“We find that permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors and felonies at less than a sixth the rate for police officers,” the report says. “Among police, firearms violations occur at a rate of 16.5 per 100,000 officers. Among permit holders in Florida and Texas, the rate is only 2.4 per 100,000.10. That is just one-seventh of the rate for police officers.”
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Murder and concealed carry - what's your bet?
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/14/murder-rates-drop-as-concealed-carry-permits-soar-/
The number of concealed carry handgun permits has skyrocketed since President Obama was first elected, while murder rates have fallen, according to a new report released Wednesday.
Since 2007, the number of concealed handgun permits has soared from 4.6 million to over 12.8 million, and murder rates have fallen from 5.6 killings per 100,000 people to just 4.2, about a 25 percent drop, according to the report from the Crime Prevention Research Center.
Sunday, August 4, 2019
Predictions Are Hard, Especially About the Future
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yogi_Berra
Neils Bohr, Yogi Berra, the quote is as funny from either source. The linked article is about the many and desperate predictions of the alarmists. It reminds me of all of the doomsday cults who talked themselves into thinking that the creator was ready to end the world and bring us all home to him or her, on some specific day or other. They were convinced! Certain! And they are all still here.
It would be foolish not to worry about humanity's impact on the climate we need for survival. However, equally foolish would be to believe all the belief about how much humanity could know about what has causes the world's climate to change over the many years.
"Correlation is not the same as causation. And any gap between the two grows wider with each additional component that affects climate. A non-exhaustive list of climate inputs includes the sun, the moon, Earth’s rotation, Earth’s orbit, ocean currents, volcanic activity, and clouds, all of which are beyond man’s control." https://issuesinsights.com/2019/07/29/will-the-global-warming-hysterics-never-tire-of-being-wrong/
My point is there's no reason to kill today out fear that we may be killing tomorrow. The alarmists believe that "saving the earth (for human use)" is worth massively increasing the power of governments, making massive reductions in human wealth and more or less giving those oh so enlightened beings, politicians, the chance to say what is good and what is bad in human behavior.
I'm not real keen on that. In fact, that anyone would be willing to do so is hard to believe.
Lastly, since AGW concerns are mostly an example of the "emperor's clothes" phenomenon, and therefore a matter of marketing (often called making people want what they don't need and can't afford) we find that we are extolled to hate big oil companies and all the evil "science deniers" they spawn. The "real" enemy then, is those few organizations that deliver the most useful product of all time at an absurdly low price every free citizen and therefore keeps more humans alive and living with more ease and choice than at any time in human history. Hmmm.
I'll know they are serious about their dire predictions when they sell all their coastal property and move to Colorado.
I'll know they are serious when they advocate killing and eating all pets as one of the desperate measures needed to save the planet (for the use of people), because there would be nothing that would stop unneeded carbon emissions faster than the cessation of feeding pets and no human rights would necessarily be violated.
I'll know they seriously believe that catastrophe approaches when they advocate the termination of all humans past a certain age, or past a functional capacity of health, or beyond the ability to produce more value than they consume - because certainly if the entire planet (specifically, the use of the planet by humans) is at stake we have to make some "hard choices".
I'll know they are more serious when US politicians simply admit that, even given the fact that the US is reducing emissions more than rejected world standards would have required, it will amount to nothing given the growing power generation of the Chinese and a similar boom in other nations just growing into industrial capacity. Why do they still guilt trip you and me when we can literally do nothing to solve the global issues?
The easy and obvious answer - fear gives them a path to power, and power is their aim anyway, AGW is the means to the end.
Neils Bohr, Yogi Berra, the quote is as funny from either source. The linked article is about the many and desperate predictions of the alarmists. It reminds me of all of the doomsday cults who talked themselves into thinking that the creator was ready to end the world and bring us all home to him or her, on some specific day or other. They were convinced! Certain! And they are all still here.
It would be foolish not to worry about humanity's impact on the climate we need for survival. However, equally foolish would be to believe all the belief about how much humanity could know about what has causes the world's climate to change over the many years.
"Correlation is not the same as causation. And any gap between the two grows wider with each additional component that affects climate. A non-exhaustive list of climate inputs includes the sun, the moon, Earth’s rotation, Earth’s orbit, ocean currents, volcanic activity, and clouds, all of which are beyond man’s control." https://issuesinsights.com/2019/07/29/will-the-global-warming-hysterics-never-tire-of-being-wrong/
My point is there's no reason to kill today out fear that we may be killing tomorrow. The alarmists believe that "saving the earth (for human use)" is worth massively increasing the power of governments, making massive reductions in human wealth and more or less giving those oh so enlightened beings, politicians, the chance to say what is good and what is bad in human behavior.
I'm not real keen on that. In fact, that anyone would be willing to do so is hard to believe.
Lastly, since AGW concerns are mostly an example of the "emperor's clothes" phenomenon, and therefore a matter of marketing (often called making people want what they don't need and can't afford) we find that we are extolled to hate big oil companies and all the evil "science deniers" they spawn. The "real" enemy then, is those few organizations that deliver the most useful product of all time at an absurdly low price every free citizen and therefore keeps more humans alive and living with more ease and choice than at any time in human history. Hmmm.
I'll know they are serious about their dire predictions when they sell all their coastal property and move to Colorado.
I'll know they are serious when they advocate killing and eating all pets as one of the desperate measures needed to save the planet (for the use of people), because there would be nothing that would stop unneeded carbon emissions faster than the cessation of feeding pets and no human rights would necessarily be violated.
I'll know they seriously believe that catastrophe approaches when they advocate the termination of all humans past a certain age, or past a functional capacity of health, or beyond the ability to produce more value than they consume - because certainly if the entire planet (specifically, the use of the planet by humans) is at stake we have to make some "hard choices".
I'll know they are more serious when US politicians simply admit that, even given the fact that the US is reducing emissions more than rejected world standards would have required, it will amount to nothing given the growing power generation of the Chinese and a similar boom in other nations just growing into industrial capacity. Why do they still guilt trip you and me when we can literally do nothing to solve the global issues?
The easy and obvious answer - fear gives them a path to power, and power is their aim anyway, AGW is the means to the end.
Thursday, July 4, 2019
Do What I Say, Not What I Do
"Zarif’s comments prefigured the strategy that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is following today in his brinksmanship with President Trump. Playing on the fear, especially prevalent among European elites and American Democrats, that Trump is, precisely, an agent of chaos, Khamenei has taken a leaf from the book of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who in 2017 appeared at the World Economic Forum as the representative of enlightened globalism. “We should adhere to multilateralism to uphold the authority and efficacy of multilateral institutions,” Xi declared. “We should honor promises and abide by rules.”"
https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/politics-current-affairs/2019/06/what-iran-is-really-up-to/
I agree with Xi. He and the Chinese should honor promises and abide by rules. Perhaps one day they will.
https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/politics-current-affairs/2019/06/what-iran-is-really-up-to/
I agree with Xi. He and the Chinese should honor promises and abide by rules. Perhaps one day they will.
Monday, June 24, 2019
Tamny on CO Tax Hike
Tamny's gift for seeing things more clearly, for reframing the question, is unique in the econ world.
https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2019/04/26/gov_jared_poliss_rocky_mountain_tax_hike_is_a_self-defeating_non_sequitur_103716.html
https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2019/04/26/gov_jared_poliss_rocky_mountain_tax_hike_is_a_self-defeating_non_sequitur_103716.html
Sunday, June 23, 2019
Looking Back at Barbarossa
Stalin either believed Hitler, or was trying to "first punch" Hitler.
Trying to understand the decisions of a crazy idealist and a crazy, drunken murderer, whoa. Then millions died because they put these two in charge.
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol50no1/9_BK_What_Stalin_Knew.htm
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