Shot in the Dark

Tag: Berg’s 18th Law

  • Boelter

    Berg’s 18th Law got its biggest workout ever over this past weekend.   Nothing the media writes/says about any emotionally charged event – a mass shooting, a police shooting, anything – should be taken seriously for 48 hours after the original incident.  It will largely be rubbish, as media outlets vie to “scoop” each other even…

  • Missing The Forest For The Dust

    Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails: I notice a common theme running through Berg’s Third Law (disasters) and Mother Jones Corollary to the Tenth Law (vicious lies) and 18th Law of Media Latency (48 hour rule): the media rushes to lie about Conservatives, so thoughtful readers will wait for the dust to settle an…

  • Open Letter To All Progressives

    To: Every Single ProgressiveFrom: Mitch Berg, Obstreperous PeasantRe: Berg’s 18th Law To some extent, I created Berg’s 18th Law to protect me, and people like me, from going out on long, brittle factual limbs. The law is pretty clear: Nothing the media writes/says about any emotionally charged event – a mass shooting, a police shooting,…

  • A Rohrschach Blob

    The recent school shooting in Arlington Texas was all things to all people. To “progressive“, it was a sign that “gun violence“ was still a huge bogeyman.To some fairly reductionist people on what is sometimes called “the right“, the news that the shooter was a black teenager, especially after a video of a chillingly violent…

  • This Is A Job For The Counselor Squad

    Shot: Vandals of sorts “attack” Lisa Bender’s house: Chaser: And in response Bender filed a… …well, let’s look at the Channel 5 story: The Minneapolis Police Department told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS there is an incident report filed concerning an act of vandalism that occurred at the home of Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender last week.…

  • On The One Hand…

    I’m rooting for the guy in this video who, attacked by small mob of “Anti”-Fa sympathizers in Albuquerque, including one who tried to beat him over the head with a skateboard, came up shooting: Another video shows the man certainly tried to retreat: So let’s go over the elements of a self-defense case (as best…

  • Responses

    Two mass shootings over the weekend. Senate Majority Leader Gazelka had an excellent response: As does Representative Munson. Let us, indeed, think about the “why”: Speaking of “why” – law enforcement will be looking for patterns. And while we’re on the subject: As a friend asks – “do they make these in a lab?” “Copycat…

  • Silence Is Golden

    When the police and prosecutors talk with you in relation to allegations of criminal activity, you have the right to remain silent and ask for a lawyer to keep you from saying something stupid or even just inadvertent that can end up putting you in jail.   And it doesn’t even have to be anything you…

  • A Good Congregant With A Gun

    First things first – with regard to the massacre in Christchurch New Zealand, Berg’s 18th Law is in full effect: “Nothing the media writes/says about any emotionally charged event – a mass shooting, a police shooting, anything – should be taken seriously for 48 hours after the original incident.  It will largely be rubbish, as…

  • More Berg’s 18th Law

    Mark Conditt, the suspect in the Austin Texas Bombing Spree, blew himself up yesterday as the cops closed in. Manley said there appeared to be no specific reasons why Conditt targeted the people who were killed or injured in the attacks. The recording, which officials won’t release while the investigation is underway, does not clearly…

  • Berg’s 18th Law Times Two

    Shot:  School shooting in another gun free zone ended cold by a good guy with a gun. Top story in the media:  strippers and snowfall. Chaser:  Austin bomber blows self up as authorities close in. The chief described how authorities tracked down the suspect’s vehicle to a Round Rock-area hotel. Police began following the suspect’s vehicle,…

  • Count The Proposals…

    …that the DFL, Dave Pinto, Linda Slocum, and the Dreamdicle Kids are pimping, that were already in effect in today’s Maryland school shooting: People under 21 can’t possess a gun in Maryland. Magazines over 10 rounds are banned (and appear to have been irrelevant, although Berg’s 18th Law is in effect). “Universal” Background checks are in full…

  • As Long As You Want To Trash The Constitution To “Save Lives”…

    First things first: Berg’s 18th Law is in full effect. (“Nothing the media writes/says about any emotionally charged event – a mass shooting, a police shooting, anything – should be taken seriously for 48 hours after the original incident. It will largely be rubbish, as media outlets vie to “scoop” each other even on incorrect…

  • Another Gun-Free Zone, Another Mass Shooting, And A Couple Good Guys With Guns

    First things first:  Berg’s 18th Law is still in full effect;  it’s been mere hours since a man murdered 27 people at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church, near San Antonio; anything you read in the media will be crap. One thing we do know?  Churches in Texas are “gun free zones”.  Nobody in that church was legally authorized…

  • Just Watch

    We’re barely outside the Berg’s 18th Law theshold with the Las Vegas shooting. But buried on paragraph 17 of The Guardian’s coverage of the atrocity is a hint as to why the story may well soon disappear from the mainstream media: Paddock’s motive remains unknown. “This person may have been radicalised, unbeknownst to us, and we want…

  • Voice Of America

    Berg’s 18th Law is still in effect; we don’t know what motivated the Vegas shooter. But I take heart from this, a guy I’m proud to call a real American hero: Mandalay Bay being a gun free zone  (and at 400 yards, firing back with a handgun would have been a triumph of optimism over feasibility),…

  • Berg’s 18th Law Is In Effect

    The shooting in Vegas was an atrocity. But it hasn’t been 48 hours. Until 48 hours have passed, you’re better off getting your news from the crazy lady at the bus stop than the MSM. Given the targets, it’s every bit as likely this attack was spawned by “Punch A Nazi” entitlement as anything. (And…

  • Lie First, Lie Always: The Reverend Nancy Nord Bence Can’t Seem To Tell The Truth. Ever.

    My first carry permit instructor, the late great Joel Rosenberg, drilled into his students’ heads one key, overarching idea; that shooting in self-defense was, at best, the second-worst possible outcome to an incident.  “You’re setting off a nuclear bomb in your life”, he said. Shooting in self-defense is fraught with peril, for even the most…

  • Waiting Game

    Berg’s 18th Law says to ignore all news about mass shootings for 48 hours; the mainstream media will be more into scooping their competition than getting their facts straight.   On the other hand, the CBC isn’t the most sensationalistic source out there: “It seemed to me that they had a Quebecois accent. They started…

  • Shocked. Shocked, I Tell You.

    I held off talking and writing about the Cascade Mall shooting on Friday, where a man the media immediately and hopefully desdribed as “Hispanic-looking” killed five at a Macy’s. LIke any good Mitch Berg, I observed Berg’s 18th Law (“Nothing the media writes/says about any emotionally charged event – a mass shooting, a police shooting,…

  • Workplace Violence

    Three different cases of workplace violence in America today; first, a bombing attempt on a charity 5K run on the Jersey Shore which went off just before the race got there, followed by a dumpster explosion in Manhattan that injured 29, followed in turn by a mass stabbing at the Crossroads Mall in Saint Cloud, Minnesota that ended…

  • Berg’s Seventeenth Eighteenth Law Is In Full Effect

    A mass shooting in München (Munich) is just breaking. Motives are nowhere close to being known – some sources claim “terrorism”, others are invoking Anders Breivik the anti-immigrant Norwegian who killed 70+ a few years ago. Berg’s Eighteenth Law is iron-clad. UPDATE:  Hmmmm: A witness who wanted to be identified only by her first name, Lauretta,…