Category: Crap For Brains

After 53 [now 54] Earth Days, Society Still Hasn’t Collapsed.

Cassandra in Greek mythology was the Trojan priestess who was cursed to utter true prophecies but never to be believed. Ideological environmentalism features a cohort of reverse Cassandras: They make false prophecies that are widely believed. Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich in his 1968 classic, The Population Bomb, prophesied, “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.” Ehrlich continues to predict imminent overpopulation doom.

Another reverse Cassandra was Rachel Carson who warned in her 1962 Silent Spring of impending cancer epidemics sparked by humanity’s heedless use of synthetic pesticides. In fact, even as pesticide use has risen, rates of cancer incidence and mortality have been falling for 30 years.

On the occasion of the 53rd Earth Day, let’s take a look at the prophecies of another reverse Cassandra, the Club of Rome’s 1972 The Limits to Growth report by Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and William Behrens. The book and its dire forecasts were introduced to the world at a March 1972 conference at the Smithsonian Institution. Let’s focus primarily on the report’s nonrenewable resource depletion calculations. The 1973 oil crisis was widely taken as confirming the book’s dire scenarios projecting imminent nonrenewable resource depletion.

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HANSON V. DC: “LARGE CAPACITY” MAGAZINE BAN

I’ve only been up for a couple of hours (as I begin typing), and the news is already full of stupidity that I’ll need to address. I’ll lead off with a case challenging Washington, DC’s “large capacity” magazine ban, Hanson v. DC. The judge, one Rudolph Contreras, denied a preliminary injunction against the ban. His… reasoning is… remarkable. Or something; I’m trying to be somewhat polite.

A weapon may have some useful purposes in both civilian and military contexts, but if it is most useful in military service, it is not protected by the Second Amendment.
[…]
[Large capacity magazines] are not covered by the [2A] because they are most useful in military service.

Oddly, Contreras cites HELLER in making that point. I can’t find that argument in HELLER, which was largely about whether non- military weapons could be regulated, and how, but there is this.

It may be objected that if weapons that are most useful in military service—M–16 rifles and the like—may be banned, then the Second Amendment right is completely detached from the prefatory clause. But as we have said, the conception of the militia at the time of the Second Amendment’s ratification was the body of all citizens capable of military service, who would bring the sorts of lawful weapons that they possessed at home to militia duty. It may well be true today that a militia, to be as effective as militias in the 18th century, would require sophisticated arms that are highly unusual in society at large.

Rather the opposite of Contreras’ weasel-wording, eh? Indeed, HELLER even cites the earlier MILLER, which establishes that militarily-useful arms are protected by the Second Amendment.

In the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of a ‘shotgun having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length’ at this time has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument.

Having chucked decades of SCOTUS precedent already, Contreras proceeds to demonstrate an amazing lack of judicial awareness of current events and Supreme Court decisions. Now that he’s established in his own deluded mind that standard capacity magazines are not 2A-protected, he addresses whether this particular restriction of such magazines is permissable.

WARNING: If you’re drinking, swallow before proceeding, for the protection of your screen.

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Illinois assault weapons ban still in effect after appeals court denies injunction

A federal appeals court Tuesday ruled to keep an Illinois state-wide “assault weapons” ban in effect, denying a request from a business owner who claims the ban is unconstitutional.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided to uphold a lower ruling by U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, who found the ban to be “constitutionally sound,” despite the request for an injunction, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Robert Bevis, a firearms store owner in Naperville, is appealing the gun ban signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Jan. 10. He contends it fails to meet a legal standard on what guns can and cannot be banned previously set by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bevis requested the appeals court to block the ban for himself and other business owners affected by the law so that they can resume the sale of the impacted firearms.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed legislation banning the sale of guns classified as assault weapons, rifle magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds and pistol magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds in the state on Jan. 10, 2023.

The legislation was introduced in January, six months after a shooting at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade left seven victims dead and wound more than 48 others injured.

The ban includes penalties for anyone who “Carries or possesses… Manufactures, sells, delivers, imports, or purchases any assault weapon or .50 caliber rifle.” Anyone who legally possessed such a weapon was required to register it with state police.

It also includes penalties for anyone who “sells, manufactures, delivers, imports, possesses, or purchases any assault weapon attachment or .50 caliber cartridge.” It also bans any kit or tools used to increase the rate of fire of a semiautomatic firearm.

The legislation also capped the purchase of certain magazines for several weapons.

Gov. Pritzker, a billionaire Democrat, signed the controversial bill shortly after.

The attorneys who are representing Bevis, who owns and operates Law Weapons & Supply in Naperville, Illinois, argue their client has suffered because of the ban and that he may have to close his business.

In the lower court ruling, Judge Kendall ruled that “because assault weapons are particularly dangerous weapons … their regulation accords with history and tradition,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Bevis’s lawyers dispute this interpretation and instead argue earlier Supreme Court rulings clarify weapons must be found to be “dangerous and unusual” to be banned, per the report.

Because certain rifles are “commonly possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes,” they do meet the legal definition of “not unusual,” and thus cannot be banned, they argued, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Several legal challenges remain underway against the state’s ban.

The Biden 10-Step Plan for Global Chaos.

Why is French President Emmanuel Macron cozying up to China while trashing his oldest ally, the United States?

Why is there suddenly talk of discarding the dollar as the global currency?

Why are Japan and India shrugging that they cannot follow the United States’ lead in boycotting Russian oil?

Why is the president of Brazil traveling to China to pursue what he calls a “beautiful relationship”?

What happened to Turkey? Why is it threatening fellow NATO member Greece? Is it still a NATO ally, a mere neutral, or a de facto enemy?

Why are there suddenly nonstop Chinese threats toward Taiwan?

Why did Saudi Arabia conclude a new pact with Iran, its former archenemy?

Why is Egypt sending rockets to Russia to be used in Ukraine?

Since when did the Russians talk nonstop about the potential use of a tactical nuclear weapon?

Why is Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador bragging that millions of Mexicans have entered the United States, most of them illegally? And why is he interfering in U.S. elections by urging his expatriates to vote for Democrats?

Why and how, in just two years, have a confused and often incoherent Joe Biden and his team created such global chaos?

Let us answer by listing 10 ways by which America lost all deterrence.

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Smith: The NRA Has Won and America Is Stuck in a ‘Doom Loop’ of Gun Buying

[O]ne would think supporting policies that let Americans carry any type of gun, anywhere, at anytime would be a losing proposition for any politician, much less one who wants to be president.

And yet as I listened to Trump — and the parade of equally craven Oval Office hopefuls who preceded him onstage — I began to realize that he just might be right in his political calculation. Because, far from losing, the NRA seems to be winning. In fact, it might already have won, polls be damned.

Why would I believe such a thing?

It’s not because of the nonsense I heard longtime NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre spout last week, including that the Founding Fathers created the 2nd Amendment so that, from “the day you’re born,” Americans have the “God-given right” to carry a gun for self-defense that cannot be infringed upon.

Nor is it because, as former Vice President Mike Pence told the NRA faithful, “freedom is under attack,” and Americans are determined to not let the government take their guns. I’ll spare you the stories of people I know who think this so fervently that they’ve buried boxes of semiautomatic rifles and ammunition in their backyards.

I believe it because of what I’ve seen and heard in liberal California over the past few years — and how similar it is to what I saw and heard at the NRA convention in the conservative state of Indiana last week.

Consider that the past three years have been the most profitable in modern history for gun manufacturers, even as the country has been plagued by mass shooting after mass shooting. …

Of course, this was the NRA’s grand plan all along, this having America armed to the teeth. It’s a lobbying organization for gun manufacturers, after all. Under the veneer of patriotism is just naked greed.

Aside from the true believers, like the woman in the red, white and blue pants, I have to think most Americans know this by now. We were under no obligation to follow the NRA’s grand plan. LaPierre didn’t force us to buy more guns. Republicans didn’t make people start carrying sidearms to the mall like we’re sidling up to a bar in an old western.

Sure, the NRA has made it easier to do all of this. But I don’t think we can blame the gun lobby for the number of people in coastal California who, as CalMatters reported, are rushing to capitalize on last year’s Supreme Court ruling that made it easier to get a concealed carry license before state lawmakers can close the loophole.

We made these choices. And now it appears we’re stuck in a San Francisco-style “doom loop,” when the sheer number of guns owned by Americans, and the violence and death they cause, is prompting still more Americans to buy more guns, leading to more violence and death, and so on.

So as much as I applaud Gov. Gavin Newsom for taking on the NRA and its political lackeys in his so-called Campaign for Democracy, we’re going to have to fix a lot of this ourselves. Somehow we’re going to have to break our addiction to guns. 

— Erika D. Smith in Trump and the NRA Might Be Right About Guns — And We Mostly Have Ourselves to Blame

They’re not stupid. They know what they want is useless for what they say it’s for, so what they really want is something else – disarm the populace because they know that what they really want to do will likely get them shot.

Democrat Congressman Pushes Gun Control Policy that Would Not Have Prevented Kentucky Bank Shooting

Kentucky House Rep. Morgan McGarvey (D) pushed for more background checks Tuesday, the day after a portfolio banker shot and killed five people with a gun he acquired via a background check at a local gun store in Louisville, Kentucky.

Breitbart News reported that Metropolitan Louisville Police Department Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said the portfolio banker got his gun “legally” from a Louisville dealer on April 4, 2023. Passing a background check is a federal requirement for getting a gun from a dealer.

On Tuesday, Rep. McGarvey used his time during a press conference to push to expand background checks to also include sales not made by dealers:

McGarvey’s background check push would not have prevented the attack on Louisville’s Old National Bank, as the attacker already complied with all gun controls in acquiring his firearm.

Breitbart News also noted that Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg (D) used the press conference to make support for gun control a litmus test for supporting the police.

Well, when he’s lived his whole political life as one big continuous lie, this is not unusual.

PRESIDENT BIDEN GOES ALL OUT (FALSELY) ON GUN CONTROL AGAIN

President Joe Biden wasted little time calling for gun control following the tragic murders of six innocent Americans by a mentally unstable person who was known to be a threat. Similarly, White House Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre demanded a litany of gun control in a press briefing following the tragedy in Louisville, Ky., before the basic facts of the incident were known.

Less than two weeks after a transgender student shot her way into The Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn., the president tweeted his gun control call.

“Congress must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require safe storage of firearms, eliminate gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability, and require background checks for all gun sales, and state officials must do the same,” President Biden said. The Tweet was accompanied by a graphic saying, “Ban Assault Weapons.”

He’s conceded there isn’t much more he can do on his own for gun control.

What’s The Truth?
The president’s desire to ban so-called “assault weapons” is never-ending, even though he runs into resistance from his own party, not to mention a majority of Americans. The data doesn’t support a ban on the more than 24.4 million legally-owned Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs). The president got pushback.

“First define what an ‘Assault Weapon’ is before you demand to ban it,” one Twitter user replied. That’s a good point. The administration has never defined what they mean by “assault weapon.” The president’s first and failed nominee to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) David Chipman, became flustered in his U.S. Senate nomination hearing when questioned before admitting, “Senator, there’s no way I could define an assault weapon.” Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives also flub firearm terminology when debating gun restrictions on law-abiding Americans. Similarly, the Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas was unable to define what an “assault weapon” is, even though he supports banning them.

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
aaaaaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
He’s wrongheaded about why – quite normal for a leftist bordering on full commie – but I don’t care as long as they give up and shut up.

The Grim Truth: The War on Guns Is Lost

…..That’s something that people who support gun control measures need to understand: The war is lost. There is no conceivable way for things to change for the better within the next 20 to 30 years, short of a national divorce. There is no way to change hearts and minds of Republicans or the courts. There is no way to change who is in office in most states. There is no way to replace who sits on the courts quickly or change conservative disdain for stare decisis……

 

No one believes this

Bower: No One Needs Guns Today Because We Have Police and the National Guard.

 

Republicans won’t vote for gun control legislation for three main reasons: They receive hefty campaign contributions from NRA and gun manufacturers. They’re afraid of being voted out of office by their gun-loving constituents. They honor Second Amendment rights above all other Constitutional rights.

…The Constitution was written at a time when there was no police force. There was no National Guard. It stands to reason citizens were given the right to keep and bear arms; if threatened, they were the militia. Today, if we need protection, we call the police. If government officials determine a crowd is getting too threatening, they send in the National Guard. They don’t call on individual citizens to come out and lend help with their guns.

Doing nothing about gun violence is unacceptable. There have been 130 mass shootings just since Jan. 1. The number one cause of death of American children and teens is gunshot wounds. Sixty-three percent of Americans want more gun controls. Republicans always fall back on the excuse that gun violence is a mental-health problem; which by the way, they don’t fund adequately. They call for more security to barricade children inside their school buildings. Republicans’ lamest excuse for inaction? “We’ve already done about all that can be done.” …

The idea that guns are carried openly on the streets in several red states is obscene. Iowa doesn’t even require a permit to open carry. I saw a photo recently of a guy with an AR-15 strapped across his back while standing in line to buy a can of pop at a convenience store.

This is just sick

— June Bower in Column: This Is a Republican Problem

Study makes bizarre leap about guns and lethality of shootings

There’s always going to be some anti-gun study floating around. We’ve seen that time and time again, and the media will always be happy to report on that study with nary a word of criticism about, well, anything.

In fact, it’s almost amusing how little criticism these studies get.

The latest, in fact, doesn’t actually make a whole lot of sense. Why? Because it implies that guns have somehow become more lethal.

A new study has found that fatalities from gun violence in the U.S. have increased over time, with more victims dying at the scene of a shooting before they can be transferred to medical treatment facilities.

The research, which was published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, examined gun violence incidents from 1999 to 2021, including firearm deaths due to assaults, unintentional injuries and unknown intent.

Using data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers discovered the proportion of deaths at the scene increased from about 52% in 1999, to almost 57% in 2021.

Nearly 49,000 people died from gun violence in the U.S. in 2021, according to the CDC.

The research letter summarizing the study said this increase in fatalities was likely due to several factors, including higher guns sales, social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a “lack of new federal firearm legislation.”

Now, the good news is that this study didn’t count suicides. That’s actually surprising because it’s a handy way to skew findings in an anti-gun direction. So it seems the numbers are pretty accurate.

Where I have a problem, though, is their findings. Higher gun sales and lack of regulation don’t make guns more lethal. In fact, during the time period the study looked at, there weren’t really any advancements in firearm technology that would account for any such thing.

We also know that so-called assault weapons started becoming popular prior to this time period as a result of the 1994 Assault Weapon Ban, so it’s unlikely that would play a role. The researchers do try to blame larger capacity magazines, which might play a role–if you can put more rounds on target, the chances of killing someone are increased–but I don’t see how they figure they made that case.

In fact, they seem to suggest they didn’t even really look at that sort of thing when they note, “Further investigation of the temporal and geospatial distributions of prehospital deaths, weapons used, patterns of injury, and variations by race and ethnicity and age is needed to guide effective interventions.”

So they reached a conclusion as to why this was a problem when they don’t know any of that other stuff?

I don’t know, seems a little sketchy, which is why I say this study kind of doesn’t make any sense.

Yet again, though, they seem to just know the problem is the lack of federal gun control laws while not comprehending literally anything else? Yeah, no wonder people are growing to distrust research more and more.

It’s only too bad no one in the media will look at these studies twice.

BREAKING: Another Would-Be Trans Mass Shooter Arrested

William Whitworth, a 19-year-old male who claims to be female and goes by the name “Lilly,” has been arrested in Colorado Springs, Colo., after threatening various local schools. Whitworth has been charged with two counts of criminal attempt to commit murder in the first degree, as well as criminal mischief, menacing, and more. His case, following so soon after Audrey Hale, a woman claiming to be male, murdered six people at a Christian school in Nashville, once again raises the question: wouldn’t we be better off treating this “transgender” business as mental illness rather than coddling and celebrating people who suffer from these delusions?

KRDO in Colorado Springs reported Thursday that Whitworth made “threats involving schools in Colorado Springs Academy District 20.” This was where he himself went to school between 2014 and 2016; KRDO adds that “they attended both in-person and the district’s Homeschool Academy.” Whitworth did not have an accomplice; KRDO is referring to him as “they” because Whitworth himself apparently prefers to be referred to in the plural; after all, the demons said long ago, “My name is Legion, for we are many” (Mark 5:9). Curiously, however, KRDO begins referring to Whitworth as “she” and “her” later on in its report.

It is a peculiar manifestation of the madness of our age that even as a mentally ill individual plots to act upon his mental illness by murdering people, those who report on this fact still treat his mental illness as if it were perfectly normal and even torture the English language in order to accommodate it. Apparently, no one at KRDO had the vision or wisdom or simple guts to say, “Hey, this trans kid was just planning to kill people, maybe we shouldn’t coddle him and pretend that he’s in his right mind by referring to him according to the pronouns of his delusion and fantasy.” No one would have dared.

Nevertheless, all was clearly not sane or well at the Whitworth household. Police were first called out to visit the Whitworths last Friday, when they received reports that the sister of the reporting party had “threatened to shoot up a school,” had “anger issues,” and had spoken the day before about “school shooting.” When deputies arrived at the house, according to their report, “someone at the door” told them that “someone inside” was “very upset and punched holes inside the walls,” but nonetheless initially refused to let them in. Eventually, they were let in, however, and found “two holes that appeared to be punch marks in the wall,” as well as a door off its hinges. In a bedroom, they encountered the reporting party’s “sister.” It was “Lilly,” that is, William Whitworth.

When the deputies asked Whitworth if he was planning to shoot up a school, he nodded. When they asked him why he would do such a thing, Whitworth replied: “Why does anyone do it?” He was then asked if he planned this massacre at Timberview Middle School, which he had attended, and he nodded again. Asked why he picked that school, he mumbled: “No specific reason.” He added that he also planned shootings at local churches.

The deputies eventually found Whitworth’s manifesto, which he himself dismissed as “schizophrenic rants.” Asked if he was schizophrenic, he answered: “I hope not.” Well, it may not be that, Whitworth, but it’s something, and all the people who told you that “transgender people” were beautiful and courageous and stunning and brave and not at all mentally ill share responsibility for bringing you to this point.

Authorities also found floor plans of the school and directions for how to build a detonation device. They also found a copy of The Communist Manifesto (well, well, well), a list of weapons and 3D printer instructions, hit lists, and a list of various public figures, including conservative YouTuber Lauren Southern, whom Whitworth described as “Pathetic,” and Donald Trump, whom Whitworth dismissed as a “Con-mam” (sic). “Bad cops,” said Whitworth, were “useless garbage.”

William “Lilly” Whitworth, in sum, is yet another Leftist “trans” would-be mass murderer in a society whose leaders steadfastly ignore the existence of such people and blame their victims. Old Joe Biden, Merrick Garland, and the rest are virtually certain to ignore Whitworth as well since he doesn’t fit their narrative about how “white supremacists” constitute the greatest terror threat the nation faces today. Or if they pay any attention to him at all, it will be to affirm their solidarity with the “transgender community” and scold patriotic Americans once again for daring not to believe that men can become women. William Whitworth isn’t the only mentally ill person in this scenario.

2 Georgia men killed — one electrocuted, the other in explosion — during theft at power station

GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Two Georgia men are dead after attempting to steal copper wire from a power substation, Gainesville police told CBS News.

The men have been identified as Shane Joseph Long, 45, and Christopher Blair Wood, 44.

Police responded to the power station after getting a call from someone at a nearby business saying there was an explosion, CBS News reported. Both firefighters and police made their way to the explosion where they found the two men dead.

An investigation revealed the two men were thieves attempting to steal copper wire and other electrical components, police said.

Lieutenant Kevin Holbrook told CBS News that one of the men was killed by electrocution and the other man could have been killed by the transformer explosion.

Autopsies are still being conducted to determine the cause of death.

CBS News reports that nationwide, power stations have been reporting a rise in copper wire or metal theft. Holbrook the robbers sell the wire to scrap yards or third-party individuals.

Profits from these sales are generally low, Holbrook told CBS News.