In recent months, New Jersey has become the poster child for draconian gun control laws.

Charles CW Cooke tolls the butcher’s bill of innocents killed to assuage government’s need to feel like it is of some use:

There can be few clearer illustrations of the folly of draconian firearms regulations than this. The killer was a convicted felon who had previously been found guilty of weapons offenses and aggravated assault, and who is now on the run from federal authorities. The victim was a “bubbly, well-liked,” law-abiding woman who did not want to run afoul of the government even when she sensed that her life was in danger. If “government” is just another word for the things we do together, then, frankly, we failed — and damnably. All Carol Bowne asked was that she be permitted to exercise her right to protect herself in her own home; instead, she ended up bleeding to death in her driveway, as the paper-pushers and know-it-alls decided whether they would deign to indulge her request, and her killer sped away, without fear of retaliation or injury.

Looking at the hell New Jersey put Shaneen Allen through – an ordeal that only ended when Chris Christie reacted to national revusion over his state’s persecution of an innocent, law-abiding woman in the only way a human with a soul could -it’s easy to wonder who New Jersey think the real criminals are.

TREBEK:  And you have the board.

CONTESTANT 1:  I’ll take “Things Mitch Berg will never set foot in for 500”

TREBEK:  These vehicles…

(CONTESTANT 3 rings bell)

TREBEK:  Yes?

CONTESTANT 3:  What is “any self-driving car, ever?”

TREBEK:  Correct, and you control the board…

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

I’m off to spit on the sidewalks.
Nothing like hawking up a nice gob to really set the tone of the city.
Joe Doakes

Trust me – Minneapolis already has at least one lurker…

I’ll be on the Brad Carlson show after 2 PM today, talking about my upcoming book, Trulbert!

Go to Hands Off Our Cans to help push back against Bloomington’s City Council’s proposal to implement a Cuban-style trash collection system.

Here are details about Aluminum Overcast, as well as of the World War II-vintage B-17’s visit to Blaine on June 17-18.

Pre-orders of my new e-book Trulbert: A Comic Novella About the End of the World As We Know It are available at Amazon; the book will be released June 15.

From the American Cemetery in Normandy:

Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network – America’s first grass-roots talk radio show – is on the air! I will be on from 1-3PM today!

Today on the show,

• Representative Nick Zerwas joins us to talk about the special session (whenever it happens), Governor Flint-Smith’s ever-changing priorities, and much more.
• And on this D-Day anniversary, George Daubner of the B-17 bomber “Aluminum Overcast” will join us to talk about his plane, and the history behind it all.

Don’t forget – King Banaian is on from 9-11AM on AM1570, and Brad Carlson has “The Closer” edition of the NARN Sundays from 1-3PM.

So tune in the Northern Alliance! You have so many options:

• AM1280 in the Metro
• Streaming at AM1280’s Website
• Streaming on IHeartRadio
• On Twitter (the Volume 2 show will use hashtag #narn2)
• Via my UStream video and chat channel.
• Send us an SMS text message – 651-243-0390
• Good ol’ telephone – 651-289-4488
• Podcasts are now available; for my show and for Brad’s
• And make sure you fan us on our new Facebook page!

Join us!

The Northern Alliance went though kind of a weird, macabre, inadvertent phase in the mid ’00s; people would pass away just after we got off the air on Saturday.  Terry Schaivo; Pope John Paul II; and of course, Ronald Reagan, who passed away 11 years ago this afternoon.

Why was Reagan a success, in a way that seems to elude leaders since his time?

Ben Elliott spells it out pretty well.

Minneapolis ranked among the 10 most dangerous cities in the United States:

The magazine collected data from the FBI, including information on violent crimes and property crimes.

The scale for the study has a national average of 100. Minneapolis scored three times that.

This is the inevitable end result of “progressive” control of government.

You broke the thing, DFL; you bought it.

The left, in its tireless search for crises not to waste, is going – some of them, anyway – back to that old warhorse, the Metric System.

Charles CW Cooke:

Examined in a vacuum, there is nothing obviously virtuous about the imperial system of measurement. If the United States were starting from scratch, à la Thomas Paine, its people would almost certainly elect to conform to the global standard, if only because it would make it easier for scientists who work on collaborative projects. But this is rather beside the point, for we do not live in a vacuum, and the United States is not to be started anew. Instead, we are discussing the future of a well-established and extraordinarily successful country that is full of living, breathing, habit-forming people. Were Americans to follow Lincoln Chafee’s counsel and, in a “bold embrace of internationalism” agree to “join the rest of the world and go metric,” it would almost certainly make Germany and Lithuania and San Marino feel a little better about themselves. It may help things on the International Space Station, too. But it would not, pace Chafee’s blasé claim, represent an “easy” transition. Au contraire: To pull the roots out at this late stage in the game would be extremely tough. The imperial system developed as it did for a reason — to wit, it makes intuitive sense. To push people out of their intuitions is a hard task indeed.

I’m going to disagree with both sides.

For starters, as the old saw says, there are two types of countries; ones that use metric, and ones that’ve been to the moon.  We clearly don’t suffer much from using metric.

And beyond that?  Every American that needs to use metric – scientists, doctors, soldiers – already does.

And seriously – is it really that hard to switch between the two?  A meter is about a yard.  There are three kilometers to two miles.  A kilo is 2.2 pounds.  A liter is a quart with a little change.  There are about 2.5 hectares to an acre, not that anyone in n a country that is actually self-sufficient for food measures land in hectares (except maybe Australian and Argentina).  9 millimeter is the same as .38, .357 and .380 ACP.

Lately, we’ve been seeing something that I’m sure many of us had despaired of seeing in our intellectual lifetimes; the left starting to become frightened of the excesses of its own extremism.

Not so fast, says Charles C.W. Cooke; it’s not intellectual honesty, much less human decency, that is driving this brief fadlet:

Of course Jonathan Chait is turning against political correctness and campus self-indulgence. Of course Vox’s editor, Ezra Klein, is now peddling lefty academics who are willing to stand up to the mob. Of course the good denizens of Jezebel are beginning to wonder aloud whether a feminism that eats the likes of Laura Kipnis is useful. If neo-McCarthyism “becomes a salient part of liberal politics,” Schlosser writes in his conclusion, then “liberals are going to suffer tremendous electoral defeat.” The American Left has started to rebel at the exact moment that its own interests are being hurt? Naturally. This isn’t about standards; it’s about power.

They’re worried that they’re eating their own.

The NYTimes sloooooowly backs away from the “Settled Science” of 47 years ago:

The New York Times just published an extraordinary “retro report”—a short video paired with an article—looking back at Paul Ehrlich’s “population bomb” theory, the fear that an uncontrolled human population would outstrip the ability of the Earth to support it.
The Times lays out some of the evidence for the theory’s failure, including the fact that the world’s population was about 3.5 billion when Ehrlich first made his apocalyptic prognostications in 1968. It’s 7 billion now, and we haven’t starved, we haven’t run out of resources, and we’re better off than we’ve ever been.

Although they never really admit wrongdoing:

And the Times is still committed to an outgrowth of the same apocalyptic theory. It cites British journalist Fred Pearce: “In Mr. Pearce’s view, the villain is not overpopulation but, rather, overconsumption. ‘We can survive massive demographic change,’ he said in 2011. But he is less sanguine about the overuse of available resources and its effects on climate change.” Perhaps some day they’ll do a look back on the failure of the global warming hysteria—though at this rate, we should expect to see that some time around 2062.

Or not.  The existence of billions of people who weren’t supposed to be alive is pretty easy to prove.  The climate is nice and nebulous and ambiguous.  It’s the perfect lefty crisis-not-to-be-wasted.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

Progressives hate the Catholic Church because it put homosexual men in positions of authority where they could have sexual contact with boys.

Progressives hate the Boy Scouts because it will not put homosexual men in positions of authority where they could have sexual contact with boys.

Makes no sense to me. Maybe Progressives are just haters?

Joe Doakes

there has never been a knot Gordian enough to simulate the intricacies of “progressive” favor and hatred.

I’m scheduled to join my long-time radio colleague Ed Morrissey on his top-rated podcast, “The Ed Morrissey Show“, this afternoon at 4PM.  We’ll be talking about my upcoming e-book, “Trulbert:  A Comic Novella about the End of the World As We Know It“, among (I suspect) plenty of other things.

And I’ll have a special, pre-order price for TEMS listeners!

Tune in!

A longtime friend of this blog from Mac-Groveland notes that the socialized trash racket is sniffing around Saint Paul, too:

Join us for a community conversation on organized trash collection this Thursday, June 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the Hamline Midway Library (1558 W Minnehaha).

Have you taken the organized trash collection survey yet? We’ll be closing the survey at the end of this week, so be sure to take the survey to be entered to win a $50 gift card to the grocery store of your choice.

If you’re a Saint Paul resident – they’re coming for your trash freedom; they want to institute a system where the City Council picks the winners and losers from among whomever has the most clout with…the City Council.

It’ll give Saint Paul a trash-collection system like they have in Sudan – or, worse, Maplewood and Minneapolis.

Take the survey, Saint Paulites.  This has to stop.

Bloomington residents turn out against racketized trash hauling (emphasis added):

Some angry residents want to take decisions on trash hauling out of the City Council’s hands. Residents are circulating petitions for both an initiative and a referendum that would allow citizens — rather than their elected officials — to have the final say on the issue.

Hard to say if the bolded parts are a little bit of editorializing by the Strib writer, John Reinan – but either way, it was a great turnout:

Nearly 100 residents testified for more than three hours at a public hearing on trash hauling Monday night. The city is proposing to implement a system of “organized collection.” In essence, the seven private haulers now licensed to do business in the city would carve up the territory and charge a single negotiated rate.

In other words, the city will pick winners and losers, and give everyone – resident and hauler – an “our way or the highway” “choice”.

The part that fascinates me, whenever people get to choose between freedom and socialism, is the rationalizations people choose for socialism:

[Supporters of the racket plan] pointed to the cost savings projected by the city, which add up to more than $8 a month for the average household.

“That will save the average person $103 a year,” said resident Greg Thompson. “Given the choice between choosing the color of the [garbage] bin and the name on the side of the truck, and saving 103 bucks, I choose the 103 bucks.”

You could choose bin colors and names.

Or you could choose prices.  That’s your call, in a free market system.  I, for one, stick with prices and service.

And if you believe that the “city negotiated price” is going to stay the same, once the trash haulers have no reason to compete in Bloomington, and that service will stay the same when the trash haulers have to cut cost corners to maximize profits (which is their job), you’re clearly a Democrat voter.

And you’re in ample company, as the Bloomington City Council is controlled by the DFL.  And it shows:

City residents last week received a mailing from Garbage Haulers for Political Choice, an industry group opposed to organized collection. That didn’t sit well with Council Member Andrew Carlson.

“What concerns me is, [the haulers] are negotiating in good faith — but at the same time, actively engaged with an organization whose purpose is to oppose organized collection. That doesn’t square up well with me,” Carlson said.

Complexity is hard.  If you’re a politician.

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

President Obama’s decision to ban local police from using IED-resistant vehicles comes just two weeks after he learned ISIS has 71 warriors in-country, ready to target five American cities for terrorist attacks.

 

Another amazing coincidence, no doubt.

 

Joe Doakes

I suspect it is – but it made me think.

Remember when the left assumed Ronald Reagan was a doddering idiot?  There was even a great SNL bit on the subject, back when SNL still did great bits.

Now, we conservatives merely assume that Obama is a blundering idiot, a community organizer in a President costume, over his head like Klamydia Khardashian at an Oxford Union debate.

But what if the whole “Dumb Reagan” scenario has completely flipped?

Posting is a little light this week.  On top of a much busier than normal scrum of regular life events, I’m scrambling to get the manuscript for my upcoming e-book, Trulbert:  A Comic Novella about the End of the World as We Know It” (available for pre-order on Amazon now!) ready by my Thursday night deadline (so far so good), as well as work on some changes to this site.

Things’ll get into more of a groove next week, I’m sure.

As NYC’s mayor Bill DeBlasio notes, they matter a lot less when it’s black people shooting other black people:

“I think it’s clear that what we have primarily here is a gang and crew problem,” the mayor said last week. “You know, for those of us who were here in the bad old days—when we had 2,000 murders or more a year—a lot of everyday citizens were getting caught in those crossfires.” He added it’s “equally troubling when, you know, individual gang members shoot other gang members, but it’s a different reality.”

Translation: If young, largely minority men are killing each other over gang turf, then the violent crime revival is no big deal. It won’t hit the trendier corners of Brooklyn.

So whatever happened to Mr. de Blasio’s campaign that “black lives matter”?

Like every other crisis that “progressives” opt not to waste; they matter when it comes time to manage the public narrative.

This piece – “Ten Cracka Commandments“, submitted by “Christopher Driscoll”, ostensibly an African-American professor at Lehigh Universithy, as a suggestion for the rules white people should follow in dealing with race – was making the rounds of the clickbait sites last week.

All the usual disclaimers apply; unknown professor (likely trying to make a name, in an academic community where inflammatory publicity-whoring is as important as teaching), clickbait site, the fact that I’m referencing him at all gives him more attention than he’s worth, yadda yadda.

1. #AllLivesMatter won’t matter until #BlackLivesMatter. This commandment is a litmus test and the greatest commandment.

OK, since that would seem to be a matter of mathematical logic, that’s not too big a stretch.

2. Always remember that white privilege is real, even if you do not understand it. Use it to convince other people that black lives, including black women’s lives, matter. Show up for protests, write letters to representatives, and start discussions with other white people about black lives mattering.

OK, privilege is real.  I’ve even defined it, at least for part of “white culture”.

Now what?

What do we do, once we’ve made this assertion?

I’ve never gotten an answer on this.

3. Always remember that ignorance is real, and is a product of privilege. Treat the ignorant with compassion, but hold them accountable.

I love getting lectured about “privilege” by tenured academics.   But I do try to treat them with compassion.  For what it’s worth.

4. Never think that the critique does not apply to you. Just because you were at Barack’s inauguration and your dad was a freedom rider, or because you are the head of your local chapter of GLADD, that does not mean you do not have more work to do on yourself, your family, and your community.

Read: “Your zeal will always be insufficient to satisfy The Movement”.

Lavrentii Beria went from “Stalin’s #2 man” to “dead” in less time than it takes Mark Dayton to flip-flop on an issue.

5. Always remember that it is never a question of if violence, but whose violence are you going to defend. Unjust state-sanctioned and racist violence, or justified resistance; the choice is yours, the choice is ours.

This is where it’s probably a good thing we’re not having this debate in person. I’d start laughing right about here.  It reminds me too much of “last call” at the craphole bars I used to work at.

It’s a false dilemma.  Those aren’t our only choices.   The real range of options is:

• Unjust State-Sanctioned Violence:  the shooting of Eric Garner qualifies.
• “Justified Resistance”:  We can argue about examples – I‘ve written about a few – but it’s certainly a choice.
• Unjustified, out-of-proportion, opportunistic violence with a thin veneer of “resistance” daubed on the top:  The LA riots, the looting and destruction of innocent peoples’ property and livelihoods in Ferguson and Baltimore and, really, anywhere.
• Justified State-Sanctioned Violence:  It should be rare, and much more closely scrutinized than it is in much of the country.  But it exists.

And you’re right, Professor Driscoll.  The choice is mine.  I’ll take “2” and “4”.  Thanks.

6. Never tolerate racism from your friends or family. Whether it is coming from your eighteen-year-old friend, your thirty-one-year-old cousin, or your eighty-year-old grandmother, confront it always. Confronting racism does not mean you will lose your friend or family. It means you will help to make them act and think in less racist ways.

OK.  Professor Driscoll:  Stop using the term “cracka”.  It implies that white people are inherently slave-masters.  It’s degrading and insulting and racist, and I won’t tolerate it.

7. You cannot love cultural products without also loving the people who make those products. If you like black art or athletics, that appreciation is an entryway into recognizing that black lives matter.

Wait – racism is hatred, right?  You can’t simultaneously love and hate.

So if I “cannot” love cultural products – as I do Levi Stubbs and Walter Payton and Clarence Clemons and LeBron James and Jimi Hendrix and James Brown (both) and Prince – then I cannot simultaneously hate black people?

I mean, that seems reasonable – and seems to contradict the rest of your thesis, Professor Driscoll.

8. Never quote black leaders like Dr. King in order to criticize protesters and activists.

Bullshit.   I absolutely will.  You don’t make those rules.

9. Always embrace uncertainty. Life is uncertain; death is certain. Uncertainty promotes life; certainty produces death and destruction.

I love getting told to “embrace uncertainty” by tenured professors.

10. Never put white fragility ahead of justice. If you are more concerned to argue that you “aren’t racist” than you are with racism or with people dying, you’re priorities are skewed. Do you want justice or comfort?

I’m not concerned about arguing I’m “not racist”.  I’m not.  There’s no argument.

Everyone in the world is a “we-ist” – more comfortable around, and forgiving of, people like them than people not like them. I am, you are, everyone is.  There’s evidence it’s programmed into our DNA; babies recognize adults of different races very early in life.

I just have a hunch our definitions of “Justice” are very different.

UPDATE:  I’m informed that, counter to BuzzPo’s foreword, Professor Driscoll is in fact white.

Which changes none of my conclusions above – except that using the term “cracka”, like he’s a native speaker of ghetto argot, isn’t just presumptuous; it’s a comfortable, fat ‘n happy academic playing “minstrel show”.

… that a potential, currently unforeseen retirement from the state legislature by Phyllis Kahn would result in a shortage of completely daft, dotty ideas in Minnesota politics – fear not.

Alondra Cano is ready to step in, without breaking a sweat.

“If people want to go to the Y and exercise, well why aren’t all those bicycles and all those treadmills connected to a grid of energy where we’re ourselves generating our own electricity instead of trying to get it from somewhere else?” she asked.

Cano suggested pedal-based peanut butter as a possible alternative to a facility the city’s water department wants to build in her ward. She opposes that proposal, which goes before the Minneapolis Planning Commission next week.

She says the site, which is currently home to a roofing material warehouse, could be put to much better use.

“We have to really unleash our imagination and not be afraid to experiment with new models,” she said.

And this isn’t Ms. Cano’s first entree into the world of Kahning her constituents.

Given Minneapolis’ voters, I see a long, fruitful political career ahead for Ms. Cano.

My upcoming e-book, Trulbert:  A Comic Novella about the End of the World As We Know It, is now available for pre-order on Amazon.  The release date is June 15.  

In related news, I’ll be doing the traditional “book tour” in coming weeks.  So far, I’m scheduled for:

• The Ed Morrissey Show on Thursday at 4PM Central
• I’ll be interviewed by Mitch Berg on the Northern Alliance next Saturday
• I’ll be on with Brad Carlson this coming Sunday

And there’s more to come!