freedom : Duthie On...

Here's why:

A California woman was shot to death as she pleaded with emergency dispatchers to come and help her. Her death will not make the network news programs this evening, but this is the latest reminder that we must take responsibility for our own safety and not rely on the police.

This post shows the difference that owning and knowing how to use a gun in self-defense can make. While I'm sure the woman in that 911 call was traumatized by the experience, thanks to being armed, she is still alive.

I don't think anyone should take lightly the notion of killing another human being, even in self-defense. But given the alternatives, defending oneself with a firearm seems a much better option than just hoping the police will arrive in time.

Cato-at-liberty » Victim Shot While Calling 911

Who would have predicted this:

Compact fluorescent light bulbs, long touted by environmentalists as a more efficient and longer-lasting alternative to the incandescent bulbs that have lighted homes for more than a century, are running into resistance from waste industry officials and some environmental scientists, who warn that the bulbs’ poisonous innards pose a bigger threat to health and the environment than previously thought.

Oh yeah, that's right...I did, almost a year ago:

So it seems to me that even granting the best possible assumptions for CFL supporters we are going to end up trading mercury emissions in US coal-fired plants for:

1. Mercury emissions from Chinese coal-fired plants
2. Mercury pollution at CFL facilities in China
3. Mercury pollution in the US waste stream

This just doesn't seem like a wise trade-off to me.

The article notes:

As long as the mercury is contained in the bulb, CFLs are perfectly safe. But eventually, any bulbs — even CFLs — break or burn out, and most consumers simply throw them out in the trash, said Ellen Silbergeld, a professor of environmental health sciences at Johns Hopkins University and editor of the journal Environmental Research.

“This is an enormous amount of mercury that’s going to enter the waste stream at present with no preparation for it,” she said.

Welcome to the party, folks.

Oh, and make sure to read the sidebar to the article, too, which contains the 11-step process the EPA recommends for cleanup after a CFL breaks. Thanks, but not in this house, at least not until the federal ban on incandescent bulbs kicks in.

One last thing...the article doesn't do the math, but here's an interesting quote:

Consumers bought more than 300 million CFLs last year, according to industry figures, but they may be simply trading one problem (low energy-efficiency) for another (hazardous materials by the millions of pounds going right into the earth).

Let's see...5 milligrams of mercury per bulb (.005 grams) x 300,000,000 bulbs is about 1.5 million grams of mercury, or 1,500 kilograms. That's one and a half tons of mercury that may potentially enter the waste stream or end up elsewhere in the environment. And that's before the federal ban on incandescent bulbs takes effect. That's a lot of mercury to trade for warming that may not even be happening anymore.

Shining a light on fluorescent bulbs - Environment- msnbc.com

Good for The Daily Show for taking on more than just conservative targets:

How can you possibly out-parody the self-parody that is Code Pink? The final moment of the video is just hysterical, and so representative of the clue-free nature of this debate. Also watch for the lib answer to the question, "so if we got rid of the police, we wouldn't have crime? (around 3:50). Priceless."

Is this what our future holds?

Robin Page compensated over 'race' arrest

A 64 year-old man was arrested for a "hate crime" for making a smart-ass remark at a country fair. It took 5 years and the use of the UK equivalent of the Freedom of Information Act for him to clear his name.

Bacon gift to Muslim officer costs Pc's job

A police officer, during a "secret santa" exchange, gave one of his fellow officers, who is a muslim, a pack of bacon and a bottle of wine as a joke. Granted, the joke was arguably in poor taste, but the recipient took it as intended, as a joke, and told superiors that he didn't have any interest in filing a complaint. Nonetheless, the officer was forced to resign. Not reprimanded. Not warned. Forced to resign. Over a gag, and one that the recipient didn't appear terribly bothered by.

Political Correctness is a form of mental illness, and it reigns supreme in the UK. Will it get that bad in the US? Only time will tell.

...at least one woman would now be dead, rather than her attacker:

Just remember that the next time someone tells you that restrictive gun laws save lives.

This is just plain outrageous:

They’re watching you right now.

They counted every beer you drank during last night’s Red Sox [team stats] game.

They see you sneaking out to the garage for a smoke.

They know if you’ve got a gun, and where you keep it.

They’re your kids, and they’re the National Security Agency of the Nanny State.

I found this out after my 13-year-old daughter’s annual checkup. Her pediatrician grilled her about alcohol and drug abuse.

Not my daughter’s boozing. Mine.

“The doctor wanted to know how much you and mom drink, and if I think it’s too much,” my daughter told us afterward, rolling her eyes in that exasperated 13-year-old way. “She asked if you two did drugs, or if there are drugs in the house.”

“What!” I yelped. “Who told her about my stasher, I mean, ‘It’s an outrage!’ ”

I turned to my wife. “You took her to the doctor. Why didn’t you say something?”

She couldn’t, she told me, because she knew nothing about it. All these questions were asked in private, without my wife’s knowledge or consent.

“The doctor wanted to know how we get along,” my daughter continued. Then she paused. “And if, well, Daddy, if you made me feel uncomfortable.”

Great. I send my daughter to the pediatrician to find out if she’s fit to play lacrosse, and the doctor spends her time trying to find out if her mom and I are drunk, drug-addicted sex criminals.

We’re not alone, either. Thanks to guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics and supported by the commonwealth, doctors across Massachusetts are interrogating our kids about mom and dad’s “bad” behavior.

The idea that the AAP has any business routinely interfering in the relationship between parents and their kids, much less suggesting that doctors should put kids in the position of reporting on their parents perfectly legal behavior is breathtakingly arrogant. Unless there's some evidence of abuse or problematic behavior reported by the child, a doctor simply has no business asking such questions.

Any doctor who showed such a blatant disregard for proper boundaries would no longer be mine, or my child's. It's one thing to make an effort to protect children where there's some evidence of a threat. It's quite another to treat parents as though they are criminal threats until proven otherwise.

Doc, what’s up with snooping? - BostonHerald.com

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty on the decision to appeal the U.S. Court of Appeals ruling overturning the D.C. handgun ban:

"We have made the determination that this law can and should be defended and we are willing to take our case to the highest court in the land to protect the city's residents," Fenty said in a press release. "Our handgun law has saved countless lives -- keeping guns out of the hands of those who would hurt others or themselves."

Someone should remind Mayor Fenty of a couple of things...one, the second amendment, which protects the right to keep and bear arms, making an outright ban rather difficult to defend, despite Fenty's assertion to the contrary, and two, the District's rather sorry record of protecting the city's residents from being murdered by...three guesses, and the first two don't count...handguns!

Of course, the timing of the appeal makes one wonder even more about the veracity of the recent Washington Post story I blogged about in which an upscale dinner party defended itself from an armed attacker with wine, cheese, and hugs.

Mayor To Appeal Gun Ban Ruling - News Story - WRC | Washington

This may be one of the most bizarre things I've ever read:

A grand feast of marinated steaks and jumbo shrimp was winding down, and a group of friends was sitting on the back patio of a Capitol Hill home, sipping red wine. Suddenly, a hooded man slid in through an open gate and put the barrel of a handgun to the head of a 14-year-old guest.

"Give me your money, or I'll start shooting," he demanded, according to D.C. police and witness accounts.

Ah, but thankfully, there's a happy ending...after offering the would-be robber some of their fine wine ("Damn, that's good wine," the intruder is quoted as saying...who knew that armed thugs could also be wine connoisseurs?):

[t]he girl's father, Michael Rabdau, 51, who described the harrowing evening in an interview, told the intruder, described as being in his 20s, to take the whole glass. Rowan offered him the bottle. The would-be robber, his hood now down, took another sip and had a bite of Camembert cheese that was on the table.

Then he tucked the gun into the pocket of his nylon sweatpants.

"I think I may have come to the wrong house," he said, looking around the patio of the home in the 1300 block of Constitution Avenue NE.

"I'm sorry," he told the group. "Can I get a hug?"

Rowan, who lives in Falls Church and works part time at her children's school, stood up and wrapped her arms around him. Then it was Rabdau's turn. Then his wife's. The other two guests complied.

"That's really good wine," the man said, taking another sip. He had a final request: "Can we have a group hug?"

The five adults surrounded him, arms out.

With that, the man walked out with a crystal wine glass in hand, filled with Chateau Malescot. No one was hurt, and nothing was stolen.

Just makes you want to sing kumbaya, doesn't it?

While it's wonderful that the family made it through this safe and sound, it's also just plain lucky. The idea, supported by many on the comments thread of the article, that all the would-be robber needed was a little love, and that this incident somehow "proves" that nonviolence is a better answer than violence in the face of such an incident is naive at best, even assuming that the incident actually occurred as reported (several readers expressed skepticism, given the timing of this article and the ongoing debate on gun rights in the District of Columbia).

Of course, individuals are entitled to their own opinions as to the proper response to crime, but I believe that if someone points a gun at you or your loved one, you should respond as though that person fully intends to use it. To my mind, that means subduing or disarming that person by whatever means necessary. To do otherwise is to rely on the charity of someone who, by the very act of threatening you with a deadly weapon, has demonstrated that they are distinctly lacking in that grace.

In the end, these folks made it through safely, and they seem to have done the best they could with the situation, given that they were clearly unarmed (as they must be, if they were following DC law). But it could have turned out very differently...unless, of course, you're one of the folks who believe that inside every robber or killer is a little kid who just needs a hug.

A Gate-Crasher's Change of Heart - washingtonpost.com

As an American of Scots descent who was married in a kilt, this makes me both angry and sad. How far one of the cradles of western civilization and freedom has fallen:

Kilt wearers could face prosecution if they do not have a licence for their sporran under new legislation which has been introduced in Scotland.

The laws are designed to protect endangered species like badgers and otters, whose fur used to be favoured by sporran makers.

What's really disturbing is the government officials who think nothing of threatening to take people's possessions if they do not obtain the new license, even though their possessions may be perfectly legal:

A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said the new rules had been put in place to bring Scotland into line with existing European legislation designed to protect vulnerable species.

"The licence will allow people who possess artefacts made from these species in circumstances compliant with earlier laws to keep them," she said.

"This could be family heirlooms of various descriptions.

"Having a licence for such an artefact, proving it was obtained legally, will ensure they will not be prosecuted or have it taken from them under the new regulations."

Perhaps we can start selling some new bumper stickers:

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Sporran wearers may need licence

This covers it about as well as I've seen:

Regarding immigration like a crime problem is the succinct answer to the comprehensive-reform crowd's best rhetorical device:  The searing question, What are you going to do about 12 million people?  The answer is:  The same thing I do about the millions of drug felonies that happen yearly. 

I don't expect to deal with every one, much as I might like to.  I don't have the resources and the public would not support such a sweeping program.  So, I am going to go after the low-hanging fruit (smugglers and felons who are apprehended by federal state and local authorities violating criminal laws), I am going to deal aggressively with the root of the problem (the employers who knowingly hire illegals — if I had my druthers, I would also address access to public welfare services and too-easy citizenship qualification, but that is probably too much to ask).  And I am going to strengthen my border and external enforcement to try to prevent the flow from getting here in the first place. 

But as for the rest, I am going to tolerate their law-breaking — not approve it or give it amnesty, but grudgingly tolerate it — as I do with the gazillion instances of people who use illegal drugs.  I am going to make life difficult for them; I am going to round up the occasional bunch of them so they don't get too comfortable in their law-breaking; and I am going to encourage other measures (analogous to drug testing in schools and certain industries) which, short of arrest, discourage the behavior.  But I am going to realistically accept that I can't, and don't want to, round-up every offender.  Illegal immigration is a crime problem to be managed and reduced, not exterminated.

Remember that...we don't need to round up and deport 12 million illegals, any more than we round up and jail every criminal in the U.S. We do the best we can with the resources available, and consistent with our notion of liberty, and we do so in the knowledge that while we can't catch all criminals, the ones we do catch and punish provide a disincentive to the rest.

Source: The Corner on National Review Online

How else would one describe this:

Fairfax County middle school student Hal Beaulieu hopped up from his lunch table one day a few months ago, sat next to his girlfriend and slipped his arm around her shoulder. That landed him a trip to the school office.

Among his crimes: hugging.

All touching -- not only fighting or inappropriate touching -- is against the rules at Kilmer Middle School in Vienna. Hand-holding, handshakes and high-fives? Banned. The rule has been conveyed to students this way: "NO PHYSICAL CONTACT!!!!!"

I'm used to political correctness and foolish school policies, given how long I've lived in the proximity of the reality distortion field that is Washington, DC, but this policy may be one of the dumbest things I've heard in years. Read the whole thing, although you may risk lowering your IQ just by reading about school administrators who think this is a good idea.

Source: Va. School's No-Contact Rule Is a Touchy Subject - washingtonpost.com via Instapundit

OK, so I'm thinking perhaps the solution might be smarter employees?

SEATTLE – First, Washington State banned indoor public smoking.

Now, the City of Seattle may ban employees from making microwave popcorn.

No kidding.

A memo from the Fleets and Facilities Department addressed to "Employees at Civic Center Buildings" says there has been several evacuations in recent years due smoke alarms being tripped by burning popcorn.

If your employees aren't smart enough to pop microwave popcorn without setting off fire alarms, it might be time to trade up to a better class of employee. Of course, that would require firing the dumb employees, which isn't exactly a hallmark of most government entities.

So...I guess banning the popcorn, it is!

Source: City of Seattle may ban microwave popcorn | Top Stories | KING5.com | News for Seattle, Washington

A "reality check" from Popular Mechanics:

How much mercury do power plants emit to light a CFL?
About 50 percent of the electricity produced in the U.S. is generated by coal-fired power plants. When coal burns to produce electricity, mercury naturally contained in the coal releases into the air. In 2006, coal-fired power plants produced 1,971 billion kilowatt hours (kwh) of electricity, emitting 50.7 million tons of mercury into the air—the equivalent amount of mercury contained in more than 9 billion CFLs (the bulbs emit zero mercury when in use or being handled).

Approximately 0.0234 mg of mercury—plus carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide—releases into the air per 1 kwh of electricity that a coal-fired power plant generates. Over the 7500-hour average range of one CFL, then, a plant will emit 13.16 mg of mercury to sustain a 75-watt incandescent bulb but only 3.51 mg of mercury to sustain a 20-watt CFL (the lightning equivalent of a 75-watt traditional bulb). Even if the mercury contained in a CFL was directly released into the atmosphere, an incandescent would still contribute 4.65 more milligrams of mercury into the environment over its lifetime.

I'd be a lot more convinced if they weren't relying exclusively on mercury emission figures for coal-fired power plants. Last time I checked, coal was still the cheapest means for generating power, which means that all other things being equal, it's the less-polluting (and more expensive) means that will be idled by power savings from CF bulbs. Even if there is some reduction in output from coal-fired plants, the fact that PM's analysis appears to assume all reductions will be from coal-fired plants makes the analysis flawed at best.

Beyond that, PM also fails to address one of the major concerns of those of us opposed to CF mandates, namely where the mercury is emitted/located. Before we mandate the use of CF bulbs, as some governments are already moving towards, I'd like to see an analysis of the environmental impact of CF bulbs in the residential waste stream. Because despite the fact that CFs are not supposed to be simply thrown away, I suspect that most people buying them don't realize this. So is it more efficient to remove mercury at the source of a coal-fired plant, or to have to deal with mercury clean up in hundreds (or thousands) of landfills? And what of the Chinese factories where these bulbs are made? Are they included in the calculation of how much mercury is released into the environment by incandescents vs. CFs?

Source: Compact Fluorescent Bulbs and Mercury: Reality Check - Popular Mechanics

via Instapundit, who's a fan of CFs. More power to him, just so long as I remain free to choose otherwise (I should note that Reynolds is also opposed to mandates).

Want to protect yourself when the cops can't? Here's what the mayor of New Haven, CT thinks of the idea: 

"In response to proposed armed civilian patrols, I believe that individuals who carry weapons with the intent of enforcing their view of appropriate behavior in the neighborhood is a recipe for disaster."

This, in response to a local Rabbi organizing a neighborhood watch including members who will carry registered, concealed weapons. The arrogance of city officials in response is breathtaking, particularly since they've apparently already demonstrated that even with beefed up foot patrols by police, they are unable to prevent crime. But heaven forbid citizens should use their Constitutional rights to protect themselves and their neighbors...no, that's "a recipe for disaster."

Source: New Haven Independent: Edgewood's Packing via Instapundit

While celebrating this weekend, don't forget to take time out to remember the reason we celebrate Memorial Day...all the men and women who have sacrificed to make the United States what it is, and who continue to sacrifice to protect our lives and our freedoms.

Day By Day cartoon has some observations on the subject, too:

For those of you who've either never read it, or perhaps never heard of it:

I, Pencil

Arguably the most concise explanation of the power of the free market to give people what they need, in the most efficient fashion, and the why freedom is not only the best, but the only way, to meet those needs.

The Foundation for Economic Education, the publishers of I, Pencil, have a great library of economic literature available, with many publications available free of charge in HTML and PDF format. Check them out.