ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Could the ancient Romans have built a digital computer?

A GUN CONTROL APOLOGY:

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. has fired another salvo in his ongoing clash with Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn over guns, law enforcement and public safety.

In a letter to a Republican member of the U.S. Senate, Clarke has issued an apology “on behalf of my constituents” for Flynn’s blunt Capitol Hill testimony last week in support of an assault-weapons ban.

The sheriff accuses Flynn of being “embarrassing” and “rude,” and hostile to gun rights in the letter, sent to South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, a member of the judiciary committee that heard Flynn’s testimony.

“Please do not see (Flynn’s) arrogance as exemplary of the people of Milwaukee County,” Clarke writes.

If I were the Milwaukee police chief, I’d be keeping my profile low. Too many scandals.

And remember that Chief Flynn is the one who instructed his officers to knock even legal gun-carriers to the ground, just because. Have you noticed that the more politicians support gun control, the more likely they are to be thuggish and corrupt? Which I guess explains Chicago. . . .

If you see Chief Flynn, you can ask him about that. Or you can ask him about his illegal body cavity searches. Or his crime-statistics book-cooking scandal.

YOU USED TO BE A RIGHT-WING TROGLODYTE IF YOU THOUGHT HARRY DEXTER WHITE WAS A COMMUNIST SPY. Now it’s just a color piece in Foreign Affairs.

IS SENDING YOUR KIDS TO GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS PARENTAL MALPRACTICE? Minnesota Bill to Ban K-12 Speech That Denies Fellow Students a “Supportive Environment.”

SPACE: Everything you need to know: Comet PANSTARRS in March 2013.

Also, another asteroid passes by the Earth.

SCIENCE: The Neanderthals May Have Died Out Because of … Bunnies? “The bulky-browed primates, the scientists speculate, were unable to adapt their hunting skills to small game. And that was not a small thing, because big game are just that: big. Hunting larger animals — chasing them, felling them, hauling them home — expends considerable resources of time and energy. Small game, on the other hand, is less demanding of hunters. It might take more cunning to catch a rabbit, but it generally takes less physical energy. And this discrepancy might have made an important evolutionary difference, the thinking goes, particularly as large animals reduced in numbers.”

DANIEL HANNAN TO AMERICANS: Hey, your Constitution may be flawed, but it’s better than what you have now! Bazinga!

CHARLES C.W. COOKE: The Great Ammunition Myth. “Those who are vexed that the state is stocking up on ammunition — and troubled by fears that this might be a step toward D.C.’s assault on the citizens for whom it works — can relax for now. Whatever the federal government has become, it is not yet plotting violence against the people.”

Yeah, 46,000 rounds for the Fisheries Service isn’t that many — that’s about the level that a well-stocked individual should have!

But what about those DHS purchases of armored vehicles for domestic use? Though I guess that sort of thing is nothing new.

PROF. JACOBSON: New SPLC fear-mongering report — “explosive growth” of SPLC fundraising predicted. My local news channel — WVLT — ran a puff piece on this report tonight.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY: Pentagon’s Mad Scientists Want to Launch Killer Drones From Small Warships.

CAPTAIN’S JOURNAL: Surviving The Apocalypse: Thinking Strategically Rather Than Tactically. Personally, I’m trying to prevent the apocalypse. I think that’s a better approach, at present.

NICK GILLESPIE ON THE (LITERALLY COMMIE-LOVING) REP. JOSE SERRANO (D-NY): “In case you thought that only useful idiots like actor Sean Penn were willing to overlook the tyrant Hugo Chavez’s willingness to tyrannize his own people in the pursuit of ‘social justice’ and self-aggrandizement, there’s always Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) . . . It’s stunning what people will excuse if the right magic words are sprinkled over the repression.”

A man who “cared about the poor,” Chavez amassed a net worth of over $1 billion while in power.

WELL, OUR POWER’S OUT, but all the backup stuff works. We got to finish our program on HGTV, thanks to a big UPS that powers the TV, and we’ve got light and Internet. (And when you point this at the ceiling it lights a whole room). But I’m beginning to think the whole-house backup generator idea isn’t so bad. . . .

Here’s a post on cheap backup power.

UPDATE: Reader M.B. Locke writes:

It’s been a while since my last email, but your post on generators deserves a mention. We just had the opportunity to use the one we installed over a year ago, when a massive power surge took out our town for over 5 hours. Most in the neighborhood suffered melted surge suppressors and electronics damage (TV’s, treadmills, etc.), we only had a few popped GFI outlets. Can’t say for sure it was the generator that prevented anything, either way it served it’s purpose masterfully…half the house runs off it (12KW).

I had a post on selecting the right kind for your environment back in November, if you think it deserves a mention.

Here it is.

EVERYBODY DANCE NOW: From Gangnam Style to the Harlem Shake, Why We Just Can’t Resist a Dance Craze.

AT AMAZON, coupons galore in electronics.

RED LIGHT CAMERA UPDATE: “The Australian Federal Police is considering an investigation into Redflex, the country’s biggest maker of speed cameras, over allegations an executive bribed government officials in the United States. . . . Redflex’s problems stem from major contracts with the City of Chicago, worth 13 per cent of company earnings in the 2012 financial year.” Well, when you put red-light cameras together with Chicago, what do you expect?

AN EXCERPT FROM MICHAEL TOTTEN’S NEW NOVEL.

CHAVEZ FOULNESS: Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) Praises Chavez as ‘empowering the powerless.’

Related: Socialist Symmetry: Chavez Dies On Anniversary of Stalin’s Death.

Also: The Chavez Legacy In Venezuela.

And: From Roger Simon, a song in honor of Chavez’s passing.

I CERTAINLY HOPE NOT: Could Monkeypox Take Over Where Smallpox Left Off? “The number of cases of monkeypox and cowpox has started to climb, raising the possibility of a new global scourge spreading in smallpox’s place.”

FINALLY, SOMETHING SENSIBLE: TSA to allow small knives, sporting gear on planes. The Flight Attendants’ Union is upset, but with no good reason. These small knives aren’t weapons, they’re tools, and its quite awkward to have to travel without a pocketknife, something that every man needs to carry.

GOOD RIDDANCE: Hugo Chavez reported dead. But will we see true liberation in Venezuela, or just a fresh thug?

DEFENSIVE MUG USE: Dunkin’ Donuts worker stops robbery — with hot coffee.

SMART DIPLOMACY: Kerry Stammers: ‘Can’t Answer’ Why No One Allowed To Interview Benghazi Survivors.

ERIC HOLDER: Yeah, we can use drones to kill Americans in America, but don’t worry about it. (Letter here in PDF).

JOURNALISM: Washington Post quietly makes major change to Menendez story. “Without informing readers in the story or elsewhere, on Monday night The Washington Post deleted its explicit claim that the Dominican prostitute who recanted her allegation against Sen. Robert Menendez had appeared in a video posted to The Daily Caller. . . . Readers were not notified of the update anywhere on the article page of Leonnig’s story, and the time stamp was removed to make it impossible to know when the edits went into effect.”