"Alpha Males"

Back in June of last year, I wrote about the concept of the so-called "alpha male," also known as an "incel," or, to use the proper scientific term, "douchebag." For what it's worth, I still think the whole "alpha male" thing is stupid. As has been frequently noted elsewhere in various forms,

"When men refer to themselves as "alpha males," I hear that in the context of software, where alpha versions are unstable, missing important features, filled with flaws, and not fit for the public."

Indeed.

If you are so insecure in your manhood that you have to pump iron and post it on your X account, grow an enormous beard, wear clothing full of pseudo-manly slogans, drive an enormous pickup truck festooned with giant flags and angry decals, and ostentatiously pack iron and a giant Bowie knife for a visit to the local Dunkin Donuts, your testosterone level is probably insufficient to support reproduction, anyhow.

With this introduction, I call your attention to a recent New York Times guest essay by Sarah Bernstein: How Our Messed-Up Dating Culture Leads to Loneliness, Anger and Donald Trump.

Ms Bernstein writes that 

The manosphere would have us believe that this situation was inevitable, that women have emasculated men with their success and now complain that there aren’t enough real men to go around. In truth, our culture is broken because while we have acknowledged the limiting nature of the peasant-to-princess story line, we have not done the same for the prince. Over the past 60 years, as girls and women have fought their way into classrooms and boardrooms, society has expanded its idea of womanhood accordingly, yet our definition of manhood has failed to evolve alongside it. 

That's a brilliant observation, IMHO. What does it mean to be a man in the 21st Century?

As I'm fond of pointing out to my wife when I manage to get a stubborn lid off a jar, we men don't have much opportunity to rescue damsels in distress since the dragons died out. We don't have to fight off marauding tribes of Mongols and Visigoths, and wild animals don't usually pose a threat to our homes. We don't have to build a crude shelter for our families, leave it every day to hunt and trap game to feed them, and start all over again in a new place when the game runs out. 

Our roles nowadays are different. We commute to office jobs, hunt and gather at the local supermarket, and defend our homes against the threat of raccoons and termites. Warfare is carried out by professional warriors - men (and women, too, Mr Hegseth) recruited, trained, and armed to do it ... not by a levée en masse waving sharpened farm tools and following their lord into battle.

As much as we'd like to fantasize, there's no need for an "alpha male" any more, if there ever was. Today's "alpha male" is the one who can pick out the good stocks, find the bargains, install the software, and change the tire ... all of which can be done every bit as well by any female, with or without a preceding Greek letter. He's the guy who can do the shopping, fix the dinner, change the diapers, and read the bedtime stories. He can cut the grass, take out the garbage, walk the dog in the rain, and wash the car. He defends his home by installing better locks and keeping the insurance up to date.

And if he still needs guidance, there's a website called "The Art of Manliness" (yes, really) that can help.

Men, just accept that times have changed. Change with them. We live in a time when women can do everything we can do, and sometimes better. Don't mansplain and don't make assumptions that you may regret.

And remember that the Golden Rule works for the sexes, too.

Have a good day, and don't spoil it with any "alpha male" crap.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Here We Go Again

As I write this, the person who murdered at least 18 people and injured dozens more in a mass murder by gunfire in Lewiston, Maine, is still at large.

I'm tired of writing about the carnage we can lay at the feet of the gun lobby and those besotted with a desire to own and brandish military-style deadly weapons. Nobody listens, anyhow. Instead, I thought I'd perform a public service and offer something useful at times like this ... 

Mass Shooting Checklist

1. Send thoughts and prayers. Tearful performance in front of cameras is optional.

2. Lower flags to half-mast.

3. Declare that the aftermath of a mass murder is not the right time to discuss remedial actions. Consult the diagram below to determine an appropriate time.

4. Describe the precipitating cause as “mental illness,” “troubled childhood,” or “workplace issues.” Divert attention from the gun as the instrument of violence by noting that people are killed by knives, explosives, strangulation, and other methods as well.

5. Argue over semantics of the term "assault rifle."

6. Invoke the supremacy of the Second Amendment and describe firearms deaths as “the price of freedom.”

7. Ensure proper terminology is used (NOTE: never use the term “murder” or “murderer.” Approved terms include “incident,” “active shooter incident,” “shooter,” “perpetrator,” “suspect,” or similarly fuzzy expressions which do not reflect negatively on the Constitutionally-protected status of firearms. Minimize use of the term “gunman” ... the more generic “shooter” should be used instead, as it implies that the victim might have been shot with a bow and arrow, blowgun dart, or the like.)

7a. If the suspect is Muslim, use "terrorist." 

7b. If the suspect is Christian/White, use "lone wolf" and cite "mental illness" or "troubled past" as motivating factors

7c. If the suspect is Black, use “gang member.”

7d. If the shooter is Mexican/Latino, use “illegal immigrant” or “alien,” regardless of the actual citizenship status; “gang member” may also be used.

8. Congress takes no action other than to vote against funding for mental health care. 

8a. NRA increases donations to members of Congress just in case.

9. Ensure at least five copies of this checklist are on hand at all times.

That's all. Hug your children when they leave the house, duck at loud noises, and put kevlar clothing on your Christmas wish list. Nothing else will get done, anyhow.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

"Alpha Males"

As if there weren't enough rampant stupidity going on nowadays, we now have the rise of the "Alpha Male."

The dictionary definition of an "alpha male" is "a male animal having the highest rank in a dominance hierarchy;" it is often applied to the social hierarchies of gorillas, chimpanzees, and other simians, but it has come to have its own meaning in today's human societies as a man who is "the most dominant, powerful, or assertive man in a particular group." Typical "alpha males" include champion athletes, senior military leaders, CEOs of major industries, and so on.

But nowadays, with the culture wars raging around us and insecure (mostly white) men seeing their perceived social and political dominance declining, it's become important to a lot of frightened men to self-identify as "alpha males," as if wishing would make it so. They tend to abound on Twitter, with a prime example being the fellow who identifies himself as "Nick Adams (Alpha Male)" and another being Der Furor, who strikes me as being one of the least alpha of the species. This is a typical example of one of Mr Adams' tweets (a twofer, as it also includes his worship of Der Furor) ...

He seems to have missed the irony that the most recent "Titan" in the news was the one that imploded and sank in the Atlantic. 

There are plenty of other ludicrous signs, posters, and flags depicting the flabby and inarticulate 77-year-old Furor as an imagined magnificent specimen of the "alpha male," such as this one ...

 

and this one ...

These are, of course, stupid. Indeed, they remind me of the characters who refer to themselves as incels.

I don't need to think of myself as an "alpha male" in the current context, or in any context. I try to be a good father and grandfather, deal honestly and courteously with people*, pay my bills, vote, and generally be a good citizen. My sporting days are long past: I ran on the cross-country team in high school (with no particular distinction), played and coached soccer, and (for a while) was a nationally-ranked amateur ballroom dancer in my age and experience category. Today, I work happily in my garden, exercising my alpha authority over weeds and predatory insects. I try not to take myself too seriously ... and when I do, Agnes is always happy to help get me re-grounded.

In a dramatic (and appropriate to our discussion) moment in the series Game of Thrones, Tywin Lannister (played by the brilliant Charles Dance) chastised his petulant nephew King Joffrey by telling him, "Any man who must say 'I am the king' is no true king" ...

And if you have to tell people you're an "alpha male," you need to seek some other Greek letter for yourself ... perhaps mu, for moron.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* Until they give me reason to do otherwise.

Time to Reset the DUMBCON

The way things have been going lately, it's hard to keep track of the prevailing level of stupidity. I've done my part to help with that problem, starting with my creation back in 2009 (14 years ago, can you believe it?) of the original five-level National Stupidity Condition, or DUMBCON, based on the military's defense condition, or "DEFCON" plan.

I tweaked that scale numerous times over the years, adding additional levels until it reached a high of ten levels - one more than the number of levels in Dante's Hell - in July of 2018 ...

In March of 2020 I decided that the system was unwieldy and that it had become too difficult to discriminate among so many levels of stupidity, and so I returned to the original five-level structure, with a modification of colors and an update of the definitions of the individual levels ... only to go back to the ten-level version in January, 2021 - less than a year later - thanks in large part to Der Furor's incitement of a violent mob to storm the Capitol in an attempt to stay in power.

By January of 2022, I had reconsidered yet again and decided to go back to the structure I'd implemented in 2013, which added DUMBCON 0 to create a six-, rather than five-level system. I reset the DUMBCON Level to 2, where it has remained ever since.

But the DUMBCON Index, no matter how I often I tweaked it, wasn't sufficient to fully describe the level of utter stupidity represented by the likes of Empty G, Der Furor, Ted Cruz, Lauren Boebert, and Ron DeSantis, and so I created, in June of 2021, the Gohmert Stupidity Scale. Named for the proudly ignorant former Texas representative, it established the Gohmert (abbreviated ghm) as the basic unit of stupidity, and created a logarithmic scale based on the Richter Scale (used to assess the power of earthquakes) and the Scoville Scale (used to describe the heat of various peppers). The main use of the Gohmert Scale has been to quantify the stupidity of winners of my biweekly Ass Clown Awards.

But such is our brave new world of stupidity that I have decided it's time to reset the DUMBCON level and rethink the fundamentals of the Gohmert Stupidity Scale.

Effective today, February 28th, 2023,

I am increasing the DUMBCON level from 2 to 1.

Further, I am announcing a modification of the Gohmert Stupidity Scale which will attempt to better calibrate its accuracy by adding, in addition to the fundamental factors of ignorance and willingness to adapt to new knowledge, allowances for the role played in modern social-political-religious stupidity by such factors as greed, malice, and hatred. I am putting the final touches on the new scale, and will publish it in this space this coming Thursday, March 2nd*.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, it seems as if the defining characteristic of our time is proudly arrogant stupidity. If we can't fight it effectively, let's at least measure and characterize it. I'm doing my part to help.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* Unlike the wonderful new GOP health care plan, better than anything else out there, which was always going to be released in two weeks.

Who Lost Afghanistan?

"Who lost Afghanistan?" is the question on every set of lips in the chattering classes today. Republicans, predictably, blame President Biden*. Democrats, with somewhat more reason, blame Der Furor for the withdrawal agreement he signed with the Taliban in February of 2020. Neither of these is completely accurate, as you can read in this succinct short history of our Afghan mess from historian Heather Cox Richardson.

In my opinion, though, the real answer is: the Afghans.

The original reason for our military presence in Afghanistan was to root out Al Qaeda and kill Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of 9/11. This mission was accomplished when bin Laden was killed (in Pakistan, not Afghanistan) on May 2, 2011. One could persuasively argue that there was no reason for the US and its allies to keep a military presence in Afghanistan after that date.

But, we thought, having defeated the present threat, we could prevent future terrorism by investing in a strong, vibrant, modern Afghanistan.

The new mission, to the extent it was acknowledged, was to train and equip the Afghan forces so that they could defend their government against the Taliban threat, and modernize Afghan society by educating and empowering the country's women. A strong, modern Afghanistan would prevent the Taliban and al Qaeda from regaining power and using the country as a launching point for future attacks against the US and other nations.

Well, we see how well that worked out.

Not for nothing is Afghanistan known as "the graveyard of empires." The British learned it, the Russians learned it, and now we have learned it. To the extent that modern Afghanistan has ever had a functioning national government, it has been imposed and supported by the military force of occupying powers. Actual power in Afghanistan resides not in Kabul, but at the tribal level, and with the warlords who exercise control at the regional and local levels. The "Afghan government" has never had any real authority beyond the borders of Kabul. If you're interested in the absolutely fascinating history of great power attempts to control Afghanistan, read The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia, by Peter Hopkirk. Although Hopkirk's history ends before the arrival on the scene of the United States after 9/11, his depiction of the competition between Russia and Great Britain for control of Afghanistan is well-researched, well-written, and ... for history ... exciting.  

Make no mistake: I am furious at the shabby treatment of those Afghans who assisted our forces over the years and are now desperately trying to escape a vengeful Taliban. I am heartsick for the Afghan women who will, after a brief taste of freedom and modernity, be shoved back by religious bigots into a medieval role in which they will be kept robed, hooded, and uneducated.

But we can't want a modern, democratic Afghanistan any more than the Afghans want it. We spent 20 years and nearly a trillion dollars** under four presidents (two Republicans and two Democrats) to turn Afghanistan into a Central Asian version of the United States, and yet when the reckoning came, the Afghan military on which we spent so much money folded like a cheap card table, the president fled the country, and the Taliban strolled into Kabul virtually unopposed. We are but the latest in a string of empires that thought they could impose their will on Afghan society. It didn't work for Great Britain, it didn't work for the Soviet Union/Russia, and it took 20 years to accept that it won't work for us. Staying another few weeks, months, or years won't change the outcome.

Who lost Afghanistan? The Afghans have both won and lost ... they've won by freeing their country from external occupation and control, but they've also lost by failing to use the opportunity we gave them to build a thriving, modern state.

And we have, after all this time, won ... in a sad, bitter sort of way ... because we have cut our losses and freed up blood and treasure we can better invest at home.

And that's how I see it.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* Republicans were perfectly happy to crow about what a grand statesman Der Furor was when he signed his agreement with the Taliban last year. This is a screen capture from the GOP website (since removed, as Republicans try - as is their wont - to rewrite history):

** And how much infrastructure here at home could we have improved with that money, eh?

The New Official Unit of Stupidity, Explained

You may recall that last Thursday I introduced my proposal for an official unit of stupidity, which I named the Gohmert (abbreviated ghm) in honor of the proudly intellectually challenged representative from Texas. Since then, rainy weather which kept me out of my garden has allowed me time to give the issue some additional thought, and I am ready to present my formal initial concept for what I have named the Gohmert Stupidity Scale.

One problem with establishing a scale of stupidity, as my friend and fellow blogger John has pointed out, is deciding what constitutes the baseline level of stupidity. I have tried to address this problem by relating stupidity to ignorance (which may be unintentional and correctable) and the degree of willingness to change one's opinion in response to facts and evidence. Thus, a lower Gohmert rating would represent honest error and the willingness to correct it, while a higher score would reflect stubborn resistance to changing one's mind in the face of updated information. 

John also suggested modeling the system on the Richter Scale, which measures the strength of earthquakes and uses a logarithmic scale in which each increasing level reflects a tenfold (or more) increase in power. This idea had considerable merit, as it allowed for the measurement of the rapidly-increasing levels of current stupidity. In a subsequent comment, John also suggested that the scale allow for negative values, which would represent good ideas and lack of stupidity. That's a good idea, but I need to think about it some more, and will address it in a future modification of the Gohmert Stupidity Scale.

My original idea visualized a simple one-to-ten scale, but I soon realized that this lacked the flexibility to account for the broad range of stupidity plaguing the nation. I moved on to a concept similar to the Scoville Scale which measures the degree of heat in chili peppers, although fellow blogger Mike has noted that the Scoville Scale currently has an upper measurement of more than 2.5 million units, which may not be high enough to account for the present need. 

After much thought and doodling and consideration of the inputs from Mike and John, here's my concept. As I noted above, it is based on a combination of the Scoville Scale, which is open-ended and allows for a wide gradation in values, and the Richter Scale, which allows for huge increases in value at higher levels. It is designed to measure the stupidity of individuals, rather than of specific ideas or actions, although it can be modified to address the latter ... it's easy enough to come up with ideas. Your comments and suggestions are welcome ... 

The Gohmert Stupidity Scale, v.1

(Measurements expressed in ghm, followed by a General Description)

0 -100: Normal behavior. Able to recognize, admit, and self-correct occasional errors without harm to self or others.

100-1,000: Silly, but harmless. Able to admit error and self-correct once action has been recognized as dumb.

1,000-2,500: Ignorant. Commits dumb acts out of non-malicious ignorance, and can self-correct when stupid action is pointed out.

2,500-10,000: Really Ignorant. Commits dumb acts out of ignorance and resists changing mind when faced with proof of error.

10,000-25,000: Extremely Ignorant. Commits dumb acts out of ignorance and refuses to change mind when faced with proof of error.

25,000-50,000: Stupid. Views own opinions and those of persons with similar beliefs as gospel and rejects contrary information. This is the level at which stupidity begins to have harmful consequences.

50,000-100,000: Really Stupid. Doubles down on stupid actions and beliefs when confronted with evidence; believes persons with contrary positions are obviously wrong.

100,000-350,000: Extremely Stupid. Easily swayed by individuals or groups that reinforce personal beliefs. Believes individuals or groups holding contrary points of view are not only wrong, but deliberately malicious.

350,000-750,000: Amazingly Stupid. Utterly devoid of self-doubt. Refuses to listen to other points of view and is totally convinced of the infallibility of deeply-held personal positions. Potential for danger to self and others.

750,000-1,500,000: Dangerously stupid. Aggressively rejects any other point of view and refuses to acknowledge any possibility of personal error or responsibility. May be dangerous to self and others when contradicted.

1,500,000-3,000,000: Normal extreme upper limit of stupidity. Refuses to accept validity of any contradictory point of view and rejects all contrary information and evidence as “fake news.” Believes  aggressive and confrontational response to opposing views, up to and including physical violence, is justified. Clearly dangerous to self and others.

> 3,000,000: Level of stupidity is no longer measurable by rational standards. Individual should not be allowed to breed.

So, Dear Readers, what do you think? Leave a comment with any suggestions for improvement ... we're filling a need, here.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming. 

Bilbo

The New Official Unit of Stupidity

As you know, Dear Readers, I have for years maintained the National Stupidity Condition Index (the DUMBCON). It was last revised and reset in January of this year, and I've seen no reason to make any further changes ... if anything, I could add more levels, but when we're already at DUMBCON Minus Four, there just doesn't seem to be much point*.

There is, however, a new approach to the measurement of stupidity that I think deserves some consideration. 

First, the background: during a routine Congressional hearing earlier this week, Texas Representative Louis Gohmert, already recognized as one of the dimmer bulbs in the already dim GOP chandelier, asked representatives of the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM):

"Is there anything that the National Forest Service or BLM can do to change the course of the moon's orbit or the Earth's orbit around the sun? ... Obviously, they would have profound effects on our climate."

This led to the predictable head-shaking and commentary on the intellectual capacity of some members of Congress, but one of the best comments I found was in a tweet by someone with the magnificent Twitter handle of Covfefe J. McBigly III Esq, who suggested that the unit used to measure stupidity be known as the Gohmert, abbreviated ghm.

I think this is an idea with real merit that addresses a serious deficit in our ability to establish a practical measurement of stupidity. The DUMBCON, of course, is a useful measurement of overall national-level stupidity, and my biweekly Ass Clown Awards highlight specific individuals whose ass clownery deserves special mention, but neither provides an immediately useful measurement for routine acts of lunacy. The only drawback I can see at this point is that good arguments can be made for other possible units, such as the Taylor-Greene (t-g) or the Giuliani (gi), but I think I'll stick with Mr McBigly's suggestion.

Therefore, I plan to use the Gohmert as my preferred unit of stupidity, and will devote some time in the next few weeks to developing an appropriate scale for its application**, which I will publish when it's done. If you have any suggestions for how to structure the scale, the Gohmert equivalents of various things in the news, or a nifty symbol that might be used in lieu of ghm, leave a comment.

Don't thank me, it's all part of the service. 

Have a good day, and avoid anyone with a provisional Gohmert Index of more than 5.

More thoughts tomorrow, when we feature the latest batch of Great Moments in Editing and Signage. See you then.

Bilbo

* It's kind of like having a huge nuclear arsenal ... after you've already launched the first few missiles, the next wave just makes the rubble bounce higher.

** I'm leaning toward something like the Scoville Scale, which measures the heat of peppers in "scoville units," but am still considering all options.

DUMBCON Update

Well, Dear Readers, it’s finally happened. I have bowed to the inevitable and decided that it’s time once again to modify my DUMBCON scale and reset the current DUMBCON level.

If you’re a first-time visitor here, this is the story of why I developed the DUMBCON scale …

In July of 2009 I realized that things in America had become so stupid that there was a need for a scale with which to measure and describe the prevailing level of stupidity among my fellow citizens. I used as my model the five-stage “Defense Condition" (or "DEFCON") scale used by the military services to set their level of readiness in response to world conditions. I called my scale the National Stupidity Condition Index, or DUMBCON, and set the initial level at DUMBCON 1 - the highest level. I bypassed all the lesser levels just on principle.

The original DUMBCON structure served well until January of 2013, when I found it necessary to add a sixth level – DUMBCON 0 - to accommodate surging levels of national stupidity.

But such was the ever-increasing degree of stupidity that I was forced, a mere ten months later, to add a seventh level – DUMBCON -1 (Minus One).

Less than three years later, on December 21st of 2016, in response to the ludicrous chicanery of the presidential campaign, I added an eighth level – DUMBCON -2 (Minus Two).

After adding the eighth level, I tried to be optimistic and positive, figuring that things just had to get better … but a mere six months later I recognized that the country I love had grown so appallingly stupid that eight levels of stupidity were no longer enough to measure it. Thus, in June of 2017 I modified the scale yet again to add a much-needed ninth level - DUMBCON -3 (Minus 3).

Thirteen months later, in July of 2018, such was the state of the world that I decided to add an unprecedented tenth level – DUMBCON -4 (Minus 4). Yes, Dear Readers, we had finally exceeded the number of levels in Dante’s Hell.

A year and a half or so later, in March, 2020, I thought that my DUMBCON structure had become too large and unwieldy, and contained too many unused levels. I decided to reset the structure and the level to its original 2009 state, and we have been at DUMBCON 1 since then.

But here we are, less than a year later, with a sitting president who is at best clueless and at worst insane, tens of millions of Americans who believe the most ridiculous of conspiracy theories, a pandemic – downplayed by Der Furor and ignored by his followers – that has killed more than 375,000 Americans in less than a year, our international standing reduced to the level of “laughingstock,” and a Capitol building that has been stormed and ransacked by a mob clad in Der Furor’s regalia and waving his flags ... caught on video beating a police officer with an American flag.

I don’t know if any scale can effectively capture the level of dangerous stupidity that is convulsing the country I love, but I now know that my decision last spring to revert to the initial structure was wildly wrong.

Effective immediately, we are returning to the ten-level DUMBCON structure of 2018, and resetting the national DUMBCON level to Minus Four:

Here is my updated explanation of each level and it’s descriptive colors ...

DUMBCON 5 (Code Green) - ordinary, day-to-day stupidity. Congress is in session; people continue to pay attention to ludicrous personalities like Rudy Giuliani, Lin Wood, Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, and Louis Gomert; companies plaster thick layers of warning labels on products in an attempt to avoid lawsuits from people injured through their own stupidity.

DUMBCON 4 (Code Blue) - things are more stupid than usual. Congress ignores the blatant criminality and incompetence of Der Furor and his lackeys in favor of the assembly-line production of conservative judges and tax cuts for those who don’t need them.

DUMBCON 3 (Code Yellow) - things are getting pretty stupid. People continue to deny the Holocaust. Kim Jong-un looks like more of a statesman than Der Furor.

DUMBCON 2 (Code Magenta) - start shaking your head - it's getting really stupid out there. People continue to believe clueless blowhards like Alex Jones. Crazy persons use firearms to kill large numbers of people, and the NRA says that the guns are irrelevant to the discussion, that killers would just smother their victims with pillows or something. Ninety-seven percent of serious scientists agree that climate change is a real threat, but conservatives refuse to accept it because "the science isn't settled."

DUMBCON 1 (Code Orange) - stupidity beyond your wildest dreams. Go back to bed and hide under the pillows. Businesses increase prices because of "increased costs," but your employer wants you to accept wage cuts and IOUs or he'll send your jobs to Mexico. The GOP thunders about the immediate need to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, but offers no replacement. People insist that wearing cloth masks – a simple measure for protection against the danger of Covid-19 – is an unconstitutional and blatant violation of their God-given personal rights and freedoms, second only to their sacred rights under the Second Amendment.

DUMBCON 0 (Code Red) - A level of stupidity far exceeding your worst nightmares. Q-Anon supporters wholeheartedly buy into a ludicrous conspiracy theory that even the least-educated, religiously hidebound person in the Middle East wouldn't accept; local sheriffs announce that they will decide on their own authority which laws are constitutional and will be enforced; and people actually believe that a government that can't pass a budget - or agree on anything at all - will somehow be able to get its act together enough to confiscate weapons from the most heavily-armed population on earth.

DUMBCON -1 (Code Scarlet) - A level of stupidity so far exceeding your worst nightmares that all you can do is hide under the bed and pray. Ultra-conservative members of Congress sincerely believe nothing bad would happen if the government defaults on its debts; Congress, egged on by the far-right wing of the GOP, throws hundreds of thousands of government workers out without pay while forcing others to work without any guarantee that they’ll ever be paid ... but insists that the Constitution says members of Congress must continue to be paid no matter what; and the House, the Senate, and the President unite to replace Italian government as the poster child for dysfunctional rule.

DUMBCON -2 (Code Brown) – A level of stupidity that makes you wonder who comes up with all this s**t. Tens of millions of Americans once again vote for a manifestly unqualified megalomaniac as president and accept that he governs via Twitter rants and childish insults (piously intoning that “I don’t like everything he says, but I like what he does”). Courtesy and civility have almost completely disappeared from public discourse. Credulous Americans accept without the least shred of proof Der Furor’s drumbeat assertion that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him, and believe only “news” presented by organizations and websites so far to the right of Faux News that they are in risk of falling off the edge of the flat earth in which some Americans, amazingly enough, still believe. When a howling mob of his supporters storms and ransacks the Capitol in Washington and threatens to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and hang Vice President Mike Pence, Der Furor tells the mob “we love you” and “you are very special,” worrying only that the screaming mob looked “low-class.”

DUMBCON -3 (Code Gray) – Oy. Just, oy. A Republican congressman from Michigan says there’s no need for science-based policy measures because God will take care of any climate change problems.

DUMBCON -4 (Code Black) – Hiding under the bed and praying is no longer enough; it’s time to invest in a seat on Elon Musk's planned one-way manned expedition to Mars. Republican voters elect candidates who are avowed white supremacists, Nazis, and deniers of basic scientific facts. Despite the fact that the mob which vandalized the US Capitol was mainly dressed in Der Furor’s campaign regalia and MAGA hats and waving vast numbers of his flags, Republicans claim that “Antifa” and Black Lives Matter social justice protesters were actually responsible for the deadly riot and accompanying destruction. Even after having to cower under their desks in fear of a howling mob, eight senators and 140 representatives continued to object to the reality of an election their candidate lost by more than seven million votes. The last shreds of courtesy and civility have disappeared, exemplified by a mob that cannot put together a sentence that does not contain at least three screamed iterations of “F**K YOU!!”

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, we are returning to DUMBCON Minus Four.

God help us.

Have as good a day as you can. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

"Super Tuesday" and Thoughts on the Coming Election

Yesterday, March 3rd, was "Super Tuesday," the day on which voters cast their ballots in presidential primaries in 16 states. As I have in previous elections, I served as an "Officer of Election" at my local precinct, rotating among various jobs to help ensure a safe, honest, and accurate tally. 

As I have many times before, I came away impressed with the thoroughness of the preparations, the professionalism of my fellow Election Officers, and the intricate, interlocking measures to prevent fraud and error. Here are a few of my comments on what I observed at our local precinct yesterday and what it all means in the long run.

1. Turnout. We had a turnout of about 30% of registered voters ... not too bad, given Americans' abysmal rates of voter participation, but - given the stakes in this year's presidential election - a bit disappointing. 

2. The Participants. Virginia had only a Democratic Primary, because the Republicans intend to canonize Der Furor by other means. But Virginia election law provides for open primaries, meaning that any registered voter, regardless of party affiliation, can vote in any primary for any candidate. There'd been some discussion of Republicans voting in large numbers in a "spoiler" action to skew the results toward a candidate they perceive easier to beat in the general election, but I didn't see any overt evidence of that happening. We did have one voter who came in wearing a bright red MAGA hat, but that's silly and not illegal.

3. Security vs Certainty. We had one voter who delivered a long and heated lecture to our Precinct Chief, demanding to know what Virginia was doing to make sure that he could be absolutely certain that his vote for his candidate was properly recorded. He insisted that in order to be fair and accurate, there must be a way to track the ballot cast by a specific individual to provide proof that the vote had been tallied to that individual's desired candidate. The Chief did a good job of explaining election law and the concept of the secret ballot while acknowledging that any voting system requires a certain level of trust on the part of the voters. The secret ballot is one of the things that separates our election system from those of dictatorships, which are designed to ensure a desired result by ensuring that voters cast their ballots for the approved candidate. Nobody needs to know for whom I voted, or for whom you voted ... and if you aren't concerned about the implications of a president with an overtly authoritarian philosophy having the ability to find out exactly how you voted and punish you if you voted the wrong way, you have a problem I can't fix. I place 100% of the blame for lack of trust in our elections on the Republican Party, which has spent decades undermining the authority and integrity of government at all levels and spreading wild conspiracy theories about "rigged elections."

4. You Can't Fix Stupid. We have two precincts that vote at the same local elementary school. Usually, one sets up in the gym and the other in the cafeteria, but this time we were both shoehorned into the gym. The precincts were set up on opposite sides of the gym, and a row of bright orange codes linked with bright orange tape ran down the middle of the room to keep them separate. It was a bit cozy, but there was still plenty of room ... the problem came when we tried to make sure that people stayed within their own precinct. For purposes of making sure all the numbers balance for each precinct (number of voters checked in = number of ballots issued = number of ballots scanned and recorded), it's important that people stay in their own precinct. Nevertheless, all day long we had people who would check in, get their ballots, then go to the opposite side of the room to mark and scan their ballots. We caught most of them, but in the end, the total for each precinct was off by two ballots - one of us over by two and the other under by two. The reason for this was clear, and was carefully documented in the official notes kept by each Precinct Chief, but if those errors are later seen individually and out of context, I think you can see people who are looking for irregularities pouncing on them as proof of insidious corruption. I should also note that EVERY PERSON we intercepted and steered back to the correct side of the room said that we should have put up signs to eliminate confusion ... despite the fact that they'd had to STEP OVER ROWS OF BRIGHT ORANGE CONES CONNECTED BY BRIGHT ORANGE TAPE to get to the wrong side. You can't fix stupid.

5. The Results. I won't comment on the results other than to say that I fear the Democrats are on the way to helping Der Furor gain another four years to continue his campaign to Keep America Terrible. If Joe Biden is the eventual candidate, the GOP will spend the entire election (and the next four years should he win) screaming about Ukraine, Burisma, and other manufactured crises (ignoring the documented fraud and mendacity of Der Furor's clique). If Bernie Sanders is the eventual candidate, the GOP will spend the entire election (and the next four years should he win) screaming about the ghastly evils of socialism while ignoring their own evils. In a nation of over 300 million people, you'd think we could do better than candidates like Der Furor, Biden, and Sanders.

That's it for now. If you live in a Super Tuesday state, I hope you went out and voted. If your state's primary hasn't happened yet, be sure you go out and vote when it does. And by all means, make sure you vote in November. The stakes have seldom been higher.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

The Hell We Chose

Almost exactly two years ago in this space, Dear Readers, I lied to you in a post titled, The Last Time I'm Going to Write on This Topic. In that post, I laid out what I felt was an even-handed and honest summary of the pros and cons of our worship of the Second Amendment, and said I was through with writing on the topic because I was tired of being treated like the village idiot by my most conservative readers and friends. Nevertheless, since October 5, 2015, I've written on the topic many times.

Since October 5, 2015, we've had 14 people murdered at a Christmas party in San Bernardino (December 15, 2015), 49 people murdered at a gay nightclub in Orlando (June 12, 2016), and now nearly 60 people murdered at a music festival in Las Vegas (October 1, 2017). After each of those incidents (and all the other ones with less horrendous body counts), this is what happened: there were candlelight vigils; politicians spouted platitudes; heaps of flowers and teddy bears appeared at the sites of the murders; the gun industry denied any responsibility and shed crocodile tears; and outrage was expressed in the news media.

That's all.

Vigils. Platitudes. Flowers. Teddy Bears. Denials and Crocodile Tears. Outrage.

No solutions. Not even an acknowledgement that there's a problem. In fact, Republican members of Congress have repeatedly blocked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from spending any public money on studying any relationship between the proliferation of guns and public health.

Nothing to see here, folks ... just move along. There'll be another coming along soon.

Yesterday I saw this comment on Twitter: "Children died at Sandy Hook & a competent president couldn't push through gun control. We live here now. This is the hell we chose."

This is the hell we chose.

Twenty children were murdered in cold blood at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December, 2012. If we couldn't grow the balls (or the ladies, the ovaries) to face up to that unimaginable horror, we well and truly deserve the hell we have chosen.

I hope you enjoy it more than I do.

Have a good day. Be safe. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

Fireworks, Legal and Illegal

Well, we've survived another Fourth of July, albeit with diminished hearing from all the ass clowns who insist on sharing their vast arsenal of firecrackers, cherry bombs, M80s, sparklers, Roman candles, and noisy, blazing fireworks of all kinds for a week before and a few days after the holiday. You'd never guess that many types of these fireworks are illegal in many states and municipalities.

Yes, you heard that correctly.

Many states and municipalities across the country restrict the sale and use of fireworks, because somebody might get hurt ... but you can buy all sorts of firearms without restriction*.

That noise you hear with what's left of your hearing is the sound of logic shattering.

Have a good day. Come back tomorrow for more Great Moments in Editing and Signage ... more seditious thoughts then.

Bilbo

* Don't get your knickers in a twist ... I know that the Constitution guarantees the right to "keep and bear arms," and says nothing about "fireworks." Nevertheless, the fact remains that we restrict sale and use of fireworks in the interest of safety, while tens of thousands of people are killed and injured by firearms ... which is pretty stupid.

Privatizing the Government

Donald Trump, coming as he does from a business background, believes that a profit-driven business approach will provide better and more responsive government than the traditional model of public service. In particular, he seems enamored of the idea (shared by many traditional and non-traditional Republicans) that much of the structure and many of the services provided to citizens by the government should be "privatized" - that is, contracted out to commercial entities which, driven by the desire to maximize profits, will manage them better than a traditional government staff. For example, he has proposed to turn the nation's air traffic control system over to a private contractor, believing that it will be better-run and technologically more up-to-date.

I personally think this is hogwash, but then, I wasn't elected to run the government*. I'm also quite sure that my conservative and - especially - libertarian friends will be chomping at the proverbial bit to see this done. But let's take it to the logical conclusion ... let's outsource the whole cabinet and let commercial, for-profit companies run it. Here's what my sources tell me are the various places Mr Trump might outsource your government:

Department of State: The Heritage Foundation.

Department of the Treasury: Goldman Sachs.

Department of Defense: Lockheed Martin.

Department of Justice: CoreCivic.

Department of the Interior: Peabody Energy.

Department of Agriculture: Monsanto.

Department of Commerce: will be eliminated. There's no need for it since everyone cheats America on trade, anyhow.

Department of Labor: Kelly Services.

Department of Heath and Human Services: A consortium of Merck, Pfizer, and GlaxoSmithKline. Martin Shkreli and Heather Bresch are the leading candidates to head the department.

Department of Housing and Urban Development: The Trump Organization.

Department of Transportation: United Airlines.

Department of Energy: ExxonMobil.

Department of Education: will be eliminated. In the post-truth era, there's no point in maintaining wasteful and unnecessary agencies.

Department of Veterans' Affairs: will be combined with the Department of Health and Human Services, then quietly ignored because it does not generate revenue and simply wastes money on irresponsible people who don't have health insurance.

Department of Homeland Security: The National Rifle Association.

That's how I think it's shaping up in the mind of Mr Trump and his business-oriented administration ... what are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let me know.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow, when we revisit Great Moments in Editing and Signage.

Bilbo

* Of course, if you look at the outcome of the popular vote, neither was Donald Trump ... although he won the election in the Electoral College.

Covfefe

In case you've been hiding in a cave in Outer Mongolia for the last few days, here are two tweets from Donald Trump, sent yesterday, separated by six hours ...

I have no idea what "covfefe" means other than a minimum of 18 points in a game of Scrabble, nor do I care. All I can say is that it makes about as much sense as anything else Mr Trump says. At the moment, I'm totally consumed with trying to identify tomorrow's Right Cheek Ass Clown for June, and it's driving me crazy.

Have a good day, and come back tomorrow to see who I finally pick. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

Like a Fiddle at an Ozark Hoedown

Two of my favorite movies are RED and its sequel, RED 2. They detail the adventures of a group of aging intelligence operatives (Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, and John Malkovich) who are kept under close government observation because they have been designated as "Retired, Extremely Dangerous (RED)." One of my favorite lines (from RED 2) is delivered by John Malkovich, who explains that he knew Bruce Willis's old girlfriend, a Russian agent, would "play him like a fiddle at an Ozark hoedown."

Well, it seems that Russians are still playing us like fiddles at an Ozark hoedown.

Yesterday, Russian president Vladimir* Putin helpfully offered to help Mr Trump out of his latest self-inflicted crisis by offering to provide the US government with a transcript of Trump's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Ambassador Kislyak ... presumably to clarify whether the men's discussions included highly classified information Mr Trump should not have shared with his guests.

What a neighborly thing to do! I can hear the fiddles playing in the background.

First of all, I'll stipulate that Mr Trump has the inherent authority, as president, to declassify and release intelligence information. But as my mother was fond of warning us as we were growing up, the fact that you can do something doesn't automatically mean that you should do it. In this particular case, the information that Mr Trump is said to have revealed to his Russian guests appears to have been provided by an allied nation under an intelligence sharing agreement ... with the proviso that it not be further disseminated without that nation's specific permission, which had not been obtained.

Some of my more conservative friends insist that this is not an issue, and that the presence of classified information in e-mails that transited Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server is a far worse transgression. As I've agreed before, Secretary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server for official State Department business was stupid, and the fact that classified information was included in messages that transited that server was illegal, not to mention stupid. But to equate that activity to Mr Trump passing highly classified information directly to senior officials of a government that is suspected of meddling in our presidential election is also stupid. It is clear that Mr Trump does not understand the relationship between his authority and his responsibilities, and while one can argue that sharing some counterterrorism information with Russia may be helpful, it must be done within the limits and constraints that protect the intelligence relationships on which we depend.

I spent 23 years as an active duty Air Force intelligence officer, and another 20 years working as a contractor in support of Air Force intelligence programs. As a career intelligence professional, I don't like being played ... by the Russians or by my own elected officials who should know better.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* Just as a linguistic aside, the Russian name "Vladimir" comes from the combination of two words: "vlad" (ruler) and "mir" (world) ... hence "Vladimir" means "Ruler of the World." Similarly, the Russian city of Vladivostok combines "Vlad" with "vostok" (east) to mean, "Ruler of the East." I should also note that "mir" can also be translated as "peace," in which case "Vladimir" can be translated as "Ruler of Peace" or perhaps, "Peaceful Ruler." I'm sure Mr Trump would go with option 2.

"Rigging" Elections

The insanity of the 2016 presidential election will be over ... at least, the voting part will be over ... in just a few weeks, but the drama is likely to continue because GOP candidate Donald Trump is convinced that the only way he can lose is if the election is "rigged" and "stolen" from him. But at least he'll accept the results ... if he wins.

So, can a presidential election be rigged and stolen?

I suppose that it's theoretically possible, but the odds of it happening are infinitesimally small. Here's why ...

1. We do not have a single, centralized system of voting. Because of our federal structure, each of the 50 states manages voting in its own way. Consider the issue of equipment: some states use voting machines, but not all voting machines are of the same type (there are about 15 different manufacturers). Some voting machines provide a paper audit trail, and others don't. Some states use "direct recording electronic" devices which store votes in an electronic memory and may or may not provide a paper audit trail. Some states rely on paper ballots marked by hand and tabulated by optical scanners, and some use paper ballots which are counted by hand. Some use punch-card ballots (remember the infamous "hanging chads" in Florida in the 2000 election?). You can read more about the various kinds of voting systems here.

2. Since each state has its own voting processes and equipment, consider the infrastructure of people and expertise that would be needed to manipulate tens of thousands of voting machines across hundreds if not thousands of individual precincts.

3. There are urban legends about thousands of illegal immigrants and other unqualified and unregistered voters being bused from precinct to precinct to cast multiple votes. As far as I can tell, no one has ever actually positively identified such a large scale effort or identified or photographed a fraud bus.

4. Even assuming that everything above is true, can you imagine every one of the people involved keeping the secret?

5. If the election is said to be "rigged" in favor of Secretary Clinton and the Democrats, how does that square with the fact that elections are administered at the state level, and the majority of state governorships and legislators are controlled by the GOP? Check it out here.

6. Finally, considering that Congressional districts are gerrymandered beyond all bounds of reason and common sense in order to either maximize or minimize the impact of certain voting groups, it seems that any "rigging" has been done by those in both parties ... but mainly the GOP ... who have crafted the electoral map to their advantage. Want to fix "rigging?" Draw Congressional districts fairly. Check it out here.

This is what rigging is ...

Quit whining and cast your vote.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

Don't Get Sick

Now that I'm retired, I'm faced with all the malarkey that goes along with my status as an increasingly senior citizen. Social Security is one part of it, although I have to say that as long as you are a US citizen with well-documented earnings and can do everything online, dealing with Social Security is relatively painless. Unfortunately, if you have a spouse who is a Permanent Resident Alien (green card-holder), he/she must do virtually everything in person at a Social Security office, which is not fun*.

But the worst thing about retirement and advancing age is making sure you are properly cared for health-wise. It is illegal, of course, under the Affordable Care Act** not to have health insurance, but that is not to say that securing such insurance is easy or - despite the name of the law - affordable.

For those of you who have not yet had to worry about all this, here's a cautionary tale ...

First of all, along with Social Security comes Medicare, the federal government's national health insurance plan for the elderly. It has four parts: A, B, C, and D. In order to get "supplemental" health insurance that covers things Medicare won't (such as illness), you must subscribe to parts A and B. This is because all the other supplemental insurers want to bill the government first, and so they want to make sure you're square with the Feds. Part C - Medicare Advantage - involves additional fees and paperwork, and Part D covers Prescription Drugs*** and also has additional fees.

Let's talk about "supplemental" insurance for a minute.

Because the federal government is notoriously cheap and slow about paying doctors who accept Medicare patients, an increasing number of doctors do not accept patients whose only insurance is Medicare ... hence the need for "supplemental" insurance at an additional fee. When I was employed, Agnes and I enjoyed health care under an HMO with which we were very satisfied, and so I contacted that HMO again to try to register for their Medicare Supplement program.

Well ...

Because nothing with health care is ever easy, they sent us a package of forms and explanatory information that the mailman (excuse me ... letter carrier) needed a forklift to deliver^†. The application form was seven pages long (each page in triplicate), and began by asking me which of nine different programs I wanted to enroll in. This decision required reading 6,839 pages of directions which explained the monthly premium for each program, what it covered and didn't cover, and how much extra co-payment every conceivable sort of doctor's visit would require. I eventually made my selection^††, and proceeded to the next six pages of the application, most of which were dedicated to making sure I'd identified any other insurance I already had in addition to Medicare, so that the largest possible number of organizations could share in the billing should I ever get sick.

I then signed my name, attesting that everything I'd put into the application was true and correct, and that if it wasn't, I'd get my ailments back. I mailed the application to the HMO (they did, generously enough, include a postage-free return envelope), and am now waiting for the Green Eyeshade Brigade to render a decision. 

In the meantime, my health plan is simple: don't get sick.

Have a good day. Eat lots of apples. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* Had Dante known about this, he'd have made it one of the circles of Hell, along with the DMV (or your state equivalent).

** AKA "Obamacare."

*** Which are almost as expensive as printer ink.

† Just kidding. But it was close.

†† A key component of which involved coin-flipping.

The "Lighter" Side of Campaign 2016

The ongoing circus of the 2016 presidential campaign is depressing to everyone except, of course, comedians and cartoonists. Here are a few of the better election-related bits I've collected so far ...

 I feel the same way ...

I think I've found my candidate ...

One of the untold stories of the Constitutional Convention ...

How about considering a few of the alternative candidates? ...

True dat ...

Every day it sounds like more and more of a plan ...

Finally, here's the suggestion I heartily endorse for improving the quality of this year's campaign, not that it has the least chance of being adopted ...

And there's still three and a half months to go until the election. Oy.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

The Last Time I'm Going to Write on this Topic

I wasn't sure I wanted to write this post, for two reasons. First, it's depressing to think that yet again innocent people have been murdered by a gun-wielding person.  And second, each time I write something about the topic of guns, my conservative friends treat me at best like a wooly-headed liberal simpleton who doesn't understand the Constitution and at worst like a wild-eyed commiepinkoratbastard who hates America and wants to confiscate everyone's guns and turn us over to the Iranians for forced conversion to Islam.

I'm sick of stupid cartoons and memes that make those of us who are horrified by the endless slaughter look like idiots. I'm tired of hearing the same old excuses trotted out each time there's a mass shooting. I'm tired of the crocodile tears being shed by those who refuse to admit that there's a real problem here.

Last week my friend Bob posted a link to one of the closest things I've seen yet to an even-handed discussion of the gun mess in this country: an article by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry titled Both Sides Are Wrong on the Gun Debate. Here's Why. Mr Gobry makes some sound arguments that address both sides of the argument, and though I don't fully agree with all his points, his article is worth reading for anyone interested in an attempt at an actual, fact-based discussion of a serious problem.

Here are some of the places where I agree and disagree with Mr Gobry ...

Mr Gobry first looks at the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which enshrines the right of Americans to "keep and bear arms." He suggests that both conservatives and liberals misunderstand the Second Amendment and the relationship of the right to keep and bear arms to the maintenance of a militia as the Founders would have understood the term. I agree with this assessment, but believe that he failed to note an important part of the historical record: Americans' traditional mistrust of a large standing army. The Founders, after all, had had the experience of subjugation under a standing (British) army, and it should not be forgotten that an Amendment not often discussed - the Third - prohibits the quartering of soldiers in private homes, except as prescribed by law. The alternative to a standing army that could be a threat to individual liberties was considered to be an armed and ready citizens' militia. The "well-regulated militia" described in the Second Amendment had a specific meaning that has been lost in the shouting*.

Mr Gobry goes on to note the obvious fact that there are hundreds of millions of guns in private hands in the United States, and that no matter what new laws might be enacted in the future, all those guns will remain in circulation, and will be utterly impossible to confiscate** ... as Mr Gobry writes,

"Short of establishing a totalitarian police state ... there is no feasible way to make America a non-gun-saturated country. Whether or not it is theoretically desirable that there not be hundreds of millions of guns circulating in America, it is simply not the world we live in. Any credible gun-related policy needs to take into account this inconvenient, stubborn fact."

By most measures, there are more guns in private hands in this country than there are people. Take off the tinfoil hat ... nobody is ever going to be able to take away your guns.

My biggest quibble with Mr Gobry's article is with his next section, which is headed "We Don't Have a Cure for Mental Illness" and in which he writes,

"... in America, a determined crazy person will find a way to get their hands on guns."

It's true that we do not have a good record of identifying and treating mental illness, and that many of the people who commit horrifying mass murders with guns are indeed mentally ill in some fashion. But not every person who uses a gun to kill is mentally ill, although mental illness is a convenient excuse to deflect attention from other factors. The small child that kills himself or others because he found and played with his father's poorly-secured gun is not mentally ill. The person who commits suicide by shooting himself may be mentally ill, but may just be temporarily depressed and attracted by the allure of a quick and painless death. The cheap hoodlum who kills someone in the course of robbing a convenience store may be mentally ill, but is probably just high on the power he gets from wielding a gun. The gang-bangers who riddle a street party with bullets in drive-by shootings may be mentally ill, but are more likely drunk with the power of life or death over their enemies. Yes, mental illness is sometimes a factor in gun violence, but it's not the whole problem, and pretending that it is creates a smoke screen that ignores all the other social, economic, and political factors involved.

Mr Gobry goes on to note that people have a right to self-defense. No argument there. But I would suggest that a little common sense might be in order ... is it necessary to openly carry an AR-15 with a hundred-round drum magazine attached into the world's busiest airport because "you never know where something might happen"***? Regardless of any other arguments, as noted earlier in the article, the country is completely awash in guns, and many people clearly perceive a need to carry guns of their own in order to protect themselves from real or perceived threats. As Mr Gobry writes,

"... it is hard to see how it is possible to severely restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens to own guns without also unacceptably restricting human rights as they are understood in the Enlightenment tradition in general, and in the Anglo-American Constitutional tradition in particular."

I accept that. But I also think that the rest of us have a right to feel safe, too ... and since I can't judge the mental state and intentions of a person carrying a large gun in public, I don't feel any safer when they're around.

Here's another point: advocates of gun rights point out - perfectly correctly, if somewhat disingenuously - that new laws will not prevent new murders ... that criminals and the mentally ill will always find a way to get their hands on guns. No argument there. But should we make it easy for them to do so?

Here's my final point, and it's one that I've made before and for which I've been ridiculed by defenders of gun rights: it is often said that laws aimed at restricting or controlling gun ownership and use are of no value, as criminals and the mentally ill will ignore them anyhow. This is absolutely true. But then the logical extension of that argument is also true: if laws are useless because they will only be observed by the law-abiding, why bother with laws at all****? Please don't tell me that criminals ignore the law. It just makes you look stupid.

Mr Gobry gives a good summary of the situation in his article:

"What, then, can we do about guns? Well, the first step is to have humility. Humility to recognize the facts as they actually exist, and humility to recognize that there is no magic wand that will stop every bullet. Second, there are, indeed, practical steps to take, such as closing the biggest loopholes in gun laws, and embarking on a significant, but realistic, endeavor to experiment locally and incrementally with initiatives to combat mental illness. But embarking on these practical steps entails having the humility to recognize that the utopian (or, perhaps, dystopian, in the light of stop-and-frisk) vision of a gun-free America just isn't going to happen. And third, most importantly and most difficultly, Americans should evolve their culture toward a greater recognition, as the original vision of the Second Amendment and the example of Switzerland point us to, that gun ownership is a right, yes, but also a responsibility. But this humble recognition is hampered by the fact-free, boasting utopianism of both sides screeching through this so-called debate."

This is the last time I'm going to write about this topic. The people who most need to listen and think - on both sides of the argument - won't, and I'm tired of being treated like the village idiot for trying to promote some rational discussion of a terrifying ... and terribly complex ... problem.

Before I go, here's a look at the scope of the problem ...

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* Yes, I know how the Supreme Court has interpreted the Second Amendment. I respect their decision as the law of the land, which doesn't mean I think it was the right decision to make. Oh, and since we now have an actual standing army under civilian control, do we really need ... oh, never mind.

** By most estimates there are more than 300,000,000 guns in circulation. There are also about 11,000,000 illegal aliens in circulation. Neither the 300,000,000 guns nor the 11,000,000 illegal aliens can be - by any practical measure for which Americans would stand - rounded up. Get real.

*** Yes, it's happened. Read about it here.

**** Or as my father was fond of saying, if you lock your doors and windows, all the honest people will stay out.