Constitutional Rights Recognized: Usual Suspects Outraged

 awesomeness, Crazy, dumbassery, history, Hmm..., news, politics, weapons  No Responses »
Jun 232022
 

Supreme Court expands gun rights, with nation divided

In short: the USSC recognized that New York’s law prohibiting citizens from being able to defend themselves when they are not huddling in their home fortifications is unConstitutional. Unsurprisingly, it was a 6-3 decision, with Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan caming down on the side of authoritarians and civilian enfeeblement.

And speaking of feeble:

President Joe Biden said in a statement he was “deeply disappointed” by the Supreme Court ruling, which he said “contradicts both common sense and the Constitution, and should deeply trouble us all.”

Justice Thomas was a voice of reason:

…wrote for the majority that the Constitution protects “an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.” That right is not a “second-class right,” Thomas wrote. “We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need.”

The garbage human-simulators currently plaguing society are predictably upset that civil rights supersede authoritarianism:

 

I imagine Libs of TikTok will have a bunch of entertaining meltdowns from the NPC crowd.

 

 Posted by at 2:01 pm

Meritocracy Bad

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 232022
 

Well, here it is, the dumbest, worst thing you’ll read today:

A Belief in Meritocracy Is Not Only False: It’s Bad for You

The author believes that merit is a terrible idea, and that it should be abandoned. And replaced with what, exactly? I know you’ll be stunned: he doesn’t say. Because repalcing the concept of advancement through merit – intelligence, hard work, determination, talent, whatever – even if a lot of the time it comes down to random chance (i.e luck) with *anything* else is self-evidently an awful idea.

Consider: some singers rise to *billionaire* status. Most singers end up singing in the shower, and not much further. Some shower-singers are probably objectively better than the billionaire singers. Well, so the fabulously successful ones may have gotten there through luck. What of it? Got a better way? Lotteries?

 Posted by at 12:37 am

That escalated quickly

 AARRRGH, awesomeness, Crazy, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 212022
 

This hydraulic fire gets out of hand faster than you can say “Uh-oh, I’m on fire.”

 

 Posted by at 7:33 pm

The commenters seem to like it

 Hmm..., humor, youtube  No Responses »
Jun 212022
 

Not being British myself I can’t comment on how accurate this “British Person Simulator” is, but the YouTube commentariat seem pretty uniform in their praise:

“Brittain is my favourite survival horror indie in the past decade, the attention to detail and various references to George Orwell’s works really tie it together.The only thing I would work on is the broken character face rendering which protrudes the teeth way too far out of the face.”

 

I imagine the “Canadian” and “Australian” simulators are similar horror indies.

 

 

 Posted by at 2:24 pm

One of the crazier shootings you’re likely to see today

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., Hmm..., weapons, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 212022
 

A Napierville (near Chicago) police officer has pulled over a car for running a stop sign and is talking with the driver when *another* car pulls up and the driver of that car launches himself towards the cop, wielding a hatchet. The cop puts him down *real* fast.

The big question is WTF was Edward Samaan, the weirdo in this tale, thinking.

 

The full dashcam, no meaningful audio:

The full bodycam footage:

 

Bet that civilian driver had one *hell* of a story for his friends and family later that day. I kinda hope he got let off with a warning; the interaction between the driver and the cop was seeming to be cordial and respectful. He blew a stop sign, which ain’t good… but I think watching a maniac get put down might be considered adequate.

One thing I’ll never understand is on display here. The Bad Guy gets shot multiple times in the torso/abdomen. He is *down.* It’s unclear whether he’s conscious; it’s quite clear that he is very, very incapacitated. And yet the cops that gather around keep shouting commands at him to roll over onto his stomach. Dude… he ain’t doin’ nothin’ nohow. He’s *done.*

 Posted by at 12:45 pm

This holiday will be a barrel of fun

 blather, Forward!, history, Meh., ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 202022
 

So last night the neighborhood resounded to the sound of random explosions. I was confused until I remembered that today is the new Federal High Holy Day “Juneteenth.” Yay, strike up the marching bands, fire up the amateur and unwise fireworks. So, how enchanting of a day is this going to be going forth? Here are some hints from Our Betters in the media:

How to Celebrate Juneteenth Without Misappropriating It

How thrilling: a “holiday” that comes with racialized lecturing. I don’t recall such things for, say, Saint Patricks Day or Bastille Day or Pearl Harbor Day or 9/11 or Leif Erikson Day. And where are the lectures on how to celebrate Yuri’s Night? Where, indeed, are the jeremiads on how to celebrate Apollo 11, or the Wright Brothers, or D-Day or VE Day or VJ Day or The Day The Berlin Wall Came Down or The Day The USSR Went The Frak Away or Trinity Test Day or Edison Lights A Bulb Day or Moses Browning Day Goddard Launches A Liquid Rocket Day? To be honest, though, some other holidays *do* come with lectures… Cinco De Mayo (Drink Like A Fish Day) and Dia Die Los Muertos (Mexican Halloween) tend to come with finger-wagging harangues about how we’re not supposed to view them as lightly as St. Patty’s Drink Like A Fish Day or Actual Halloween.  And of course Columbus Day tends to comes with screeds about how it *shouldn’t* be celebrated and the fact that history lined up in such a way that *you* exist should be seen as a monumental tragedy.

So, yeah, this one will be a hoot, at least until it is “celebrated” like all other basically meaningless artificial holidays:

 Posted by at 6:46 pm
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