LESS-THAN-SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF MEDICINE: More than a third of U.S. healthcare costs go to bureaucracy. But most bureaucrats vote Democratic, so it’s all good.
Archive for 2020
January 7, 2020
YOU DON’T SAY: California’s new ammo law hurts the wrong people — and doesn’t stop ‘bad guys’ with guns.
When California started requiring people to pass background checks to buy ammunition on July 1, hunters hoped for the best and braced for the worst. What happened was far worse than we feared.
The premise of the new law is that people who can’t have guns shouldn’t have ammo either. I don’t know anyone who disputes that. Bad guys shouldn’t have guns or ammo.
The law says if you do not appear on a prohibited-persons list and you have passed a background check to buy a gun during the time the state has stored those records in a database, you can buy ammunition. Simple, right?
Here’s where it fell apart: The state Department of Justice finalized regulations to implement the law just before it took effect. There was no time, and no effort, to raise awareness, no time for gun owners to verify they were in the database, and most critically, that their ID matched their information in the database.
In the first four months, the checks thwarted 101 ammunition purchases by prohibited persons, and a staggering 62,000 purchases by people who had every right to buy ammunition. More than half of the rejections were due to data mismatches, such as an address change; one-third were because buyers weren’t in the database.
That’s 620 good guys for every bad guy.
That means it’s working. No, really — the law wasn’t meant to stop bad guys, but to stigmatize law-abiding gun-owners. By that measure, the law is working as designed (if not as advertized).
Note: This one is actually a couple of weeks old, but the browser tab got lost in the holiday madness.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: “I’m Not Sure You Should Assume I’m Not Corrupt,” 1974-era Sen. Joe Biden warns 2020 voters.
Thanks for the tip, Joe!
WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS: Trump 2020 Socks for men and women.
PARTY LIKE IT’S 2029: Stephen Colbert and Jane Fonda Push Climate Alarmism — Only 10 Years Left!
IF IT’S MEATLESS, THEN IT’S NEITHER PORK NOR SAUSAGE: Impossible Foods is launching meatless pork and sausage as it prepares for a global push.
ARE THEY REALLY UNNECESSARY, OR DO INSURANCE COMPANIES JUST NOT WANT TO PAY FOR THEM? Unnecessary pelvic exams common among girls, young women.
IT WOULD TAKE A HEART OF STONE NOT TO LAUGH:
● Shot:
If there’s a place for cheap humour, it’s at Friday night work drinks after one too many, an episode of South Park or in a best man’s risqué speech. It’s certainly not on the stage that birthed the #MeToo movement, one that should respect its power for mass influence.
The awards were certainly not free from activism – powerful speeches were given by actors including Jennifer Aniston on climate change, Joaquin Phoenix on veganism, Michelle Williams on abortion rights and Patricia Arquette on the conflict between Iran/US. But any meaningful message is dampened when the man at the helm is making schoolboy jokes about paedophiles.
Describing his Netflix show After Life, Gervais declared “It’s a show about a man who wants to kill himself. Spoiler alert, season two is on the way, so in the end he obviously didn’t kill himself. Just like Jeffrey Epstein.”
When a joke about Greta Thunberg – “You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg” – features in the same broadcast as heartfelt pleas about climate change you can’t help but feel confused about the message Hollywood is trying to send.
—”Ricky Gervais cheapened the Golden Globes – but worse he overshadowed vital political statements.” Headline, the London Independent, today.
● Chaser: “Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past.” Headline, the London Independent, March 20, 2000.
Related: Liberal Reviews Are in for Ricky Gervais’ Performance and Their Tears Are Delicious.
“SURGICAL, DEVASTATING, AND UNEXPECTED:” Iran’s Miscalculation.
It is hard to understand Iran Supreme Leader Khamenei’s blunder in attacking the US Embassy in Baghdad. He either believed Trump was weakened by his impeachment, as western liberal Media breathlessly and continuously reported, or he might have been misled by John Kerry’s incompetent advice (apparently Kerry met again with Khamenei’s emissaries in Paris just few weeks ago). Whatever the reasons, his goal of triggering a limited war with America to rally his people around the regime has failed miserably.
Iran desperately wanted a war — drone attacks on Saudi Arabia’s heart of oil production, false-flag hits on oil tankers, unrest in Yemen – all aimed at this goal. Trump restraint in responding to these provocations must have been disappointing. But as Tehran resorted to attack the US Embassy in Baghdad, it must have realized it had overplayed its hand when the reaction was surgical, devastating, and unexpected: the elimination of the mass murderer Qasem Soleimani, commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, Khamenei’s right-hand man and chief executioner.
And yet I keep hearing that Trump is an angry toddler who just lashes out randomly.
NO MAN’S LIFE, LIBERTY, OR PROPERTY ARE SAFE WHILE THE LEGISLATURE IS IN SESSION: VA Gun Owners On Red Alert As Legislative Session Begins.
HIS WORK WAS A MAJOR PART OF MY YOUTH: Model rocket pioneer, Vern Estes, celebrates his 90th birthday. As was the employment of his engines in ways not intended — or, I’m sure, endorsed — by the designers.
“If only 1980’s NFL locker rooms were as progressive on women’s issues as….(checks notes) modern day Iran.”
HOW CAN JESUS BE THE ONLY WAY IF ALL RELIGIONS TEACH THE SAME STUFF? According to Reasonable Faith, they don’t, actually. In fact, there are huge differences, and not just those at the heart of the yawning chasm that separates Christianity and Islam.
IL MANDALORIANO — The Spaghetti Western trailer for The Mandalorian.
WHILE IRAN HEATS UP, LOOK WHAT TRUMP IS DOING ON THE BORDER: Actually, according to Issues & Insights, look at what is not happening on the border these days,
ASTROTURF: March For Our Lives Raised Nearly All Funding from Secret Six-Figure Donations.
The gun-control group responsible for a 2018 march on Washington, D.C. raised the vast majority of its funds from undisclosed donations over six figures, a recently-released tax document shows.
The March For Our Lives Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) “social welfare” organization launched in the aftermath of the deadly 2018 shootings at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, is bankrolled almost entirely by large donations in excess of $100,000. The group reported $17,879,150 in contributions and grants over the course of 2018, its first year of operations. 95 percent of those contributions came from 36 donations between $100,000 and $3,504,717—a grand total of $16,922,331.
Some enterprising reporter want to ask Michael Bloomberg about this?
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: A university ‘welcomed’ everyone but men in STEM events. A professor filed a Title IX complaint.