Banning Guns Might Not Work All That Well

Police struggle to stop flood of firearms into UK

Statistics released earlier in 2018 had shown gun crime up 11% in 2017/18, and in the same period, the Metropolitan police said discharges of lethal barrelled firearms rose by 23%. Compared to 2015/16, there has been a 67% increase in the capital alone.

Sixty three percent of non-citizens on welfare

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/census-confirms-63-percent-of-non-citizens-on-welfare-4-6-million-households

About the "Caravan"

https://accordingtohoyt.com/2018/11/05/examining-the-migrant-horde-pt-3-the-rogues-gallery-by-bill-reader/

What does all this leave us with? Well, given the uniform participation in flag carrying and anthem singing, it seems that “foreign nationalists” would be a fair characterization of the average crowd member. I can’t tell you in precise detail how likely any one person is to commit violence, but I can say from the above they have a pretty alarming number of people with criminal histories in the group, if the published numbers are to be believed. And, of course, actions speak louder than words—we’ve seen at least two caravans get violent with border police, throwing rocks at them, and forcing their way through the border fence. As for the reports of shooting at federal police, and throwing Molotov cocktails— well, your mileage may vary, but I consider the first instance of that kind of behavior a generous excess. And in the context of  Islamic terrorism being a constant problem and threat, Univision has independently reported Bangladeshis in the crowd. DHS, meanwhile, says that’s only the beginning.

In the end, not only are we not obligated to take these people, we have ample reason to be every bit as brisk as President Trump has been. It’s my hope that he continues to stand firm.  They’re transparently disinterested in becoming Americans. They see America as a kind of prize to be taken, and never mind the opposition. They are already massing in disturbing numbers. If there was ever a time for America to demonstrate her exceptionalism, and handle this better than Europe handled the same challenge, now is that time. They say they’re fleeing violence and lawlessness. But they’re casually disregarding our laws, if not simply expressing contempt for them. And they’re getting violent with people who oppose them. They are demonstrating, in fact, that they are not just beholden to their home countries, but to the very behaviors that have made them intolerable.

These are not people casting off their old lands. On the contrary, they are taking their screwed-up homes on tour, and showing the world just how bad they are firsthand. But I will say that increasingly, nobody can look at their home countries and suppose the way things are is an accident. For people trying to flee lawlessness and violence, it’s curious how insistent they seem on bringing them along for the journey.

America the Horrible?

Progressives say that the United States is racist and misogynist, but they still want everyone in the world to come here.

https://www.city-journal.org/html/america-horrible-15970.html

It should be a mystery to committed progressives why any Third World resident would seek to enter the United States. Not only is rape culture pervasive in the U.S., but the very lifeblood of America is the destruction of “black bodies,” in the words of media star Ta-Nehesi Coates. Surely, a Third World person of color would be better off staying in his home country, where he is free from genocidal whiteness and the murderous legacy of Western civilization and Enlightenment values.

But the same left-wing establishment that in the morning rails against American oppression of an ever-expanding number of victim groups in the afternoon denounces the U.S. for not giving unlimited access to foreign members of those same victim groups. 

Democratic Socialism Threatens Minorities

Nothing better protects victims of bigotry than a system where they can pursue their needs and wants outside the realm of popular control.

Instead of individual capitalists deciding what to produce in their endlessly varied, constantly competing private businesses, “without any democratic input from the rest of society,” control over industry and decisions about what to produce would reside in state planning agencies. And imagine their decisions perfectly, if improbably, reflect the actual democratic will of workers, whether in the nation; or a state, like Ohio or Utah; or a metropolitan area, like Maricopa County or Oklahoma City.

Popular control is finally realized! So: How popular is Islam? How many Muslim prayer rugs would the democratic majority of workers vote to produce? How many Korans? How many head scarves? How much halal meat would be slaughtered? What share of construction materials would a majority of workers apportion to new mosques?

Under capitalism, the mere existence of buyers reliably gives rise to suppliers. Relying instead on democratic decisions would pose a big risk for Muslims. And Sikhs. And Hindus. And Jews. And maybe even Catholics. 

Right now, under capitalism, vegetarians and vegans have more options every year. But there aren’t very many of them. Five percent of Americans are vegetarians. Three percent are vegans. Would “the workers” find a societal need to produce vegan meat or milk substitutes? No one knows the answer.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/a-risk-that-democratic-socialism-poses-to-all-minorities/566528/

Minnesota's Green Fail

Minnesota’s massive investment in wind power has reduced CO2 emissions from the electricity generation sector slightly, but that reduction has been below average compared with the nation as a whole. Why? Because the most effective way to reduce CO2 emissions, if you think that is a worthy goal, has been to replace coal with natural gas. Wind power has many defects, one of which is that it is windiest in the spring and fall, when demand for electricity is at its low ebb, and least windy in the summer and winter, when electricity demand peaks. So what fills those gaps? In Minnesota, coal does.

So Minnesota’s colossal investment in wind energy has been a total failure, in its own terms–a failure for which the state’s consumers and businesses have paid dearly. Historically, Minnesota enjoyed the advantage of relatively cheap electricity. Generally, electricity prices were around 18% lower in Minnesota than the national average. This was a big deal in a state where some other costs–e.g., the price of heating your home in the winter–were inevitably higher than average.

So what has happened to that 18% price discount during the years when billions have been spent on windmills and transmission lines? It has disappeared. In fact, 2017 is the first year on record in which the price of electricity in Minnesota is above the national average. Way to go, greenies.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/10/green-energy-fails-every-test.php

On Google and doublethink

Here, I just want to take a step back from the memo controversy, to highlight a paradox at the heart of the ‘equality and diversity’ dogma that dominates American corporate life. The memo didn’t address this paradox directly, but I think it’s implicit in the author’s critique of Google’s diversity programs. This dogma relies on two core assumptions:

• The human sexes and races have exactly the same minds, with precisely identical distributions of traits, aptitudes, interests, and motivations; therefore, any inequalities of outcome in hiring and promotion must be due to systemic sexism and racism;
• The human sexes and races have such radically different minds, backgrounds, perspectives, and insights, that companies must increase their demographic diversity in order to be competitive; any lack of demographic diversity must be due to short-sighted management that favors groupthink.

The obvious problem is that these two core assumptions are diametrically opposed.