Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

There is a lot of truth to that. The biggest mistake is probably underminding how far society has advanced how good life is for many in the free society. Let the leaders lead, don't whine too much or become a leader. Have much hate for unknown reasons.. Go punch a punching bag then calm down, listen to some metal. Appreciate the art. The history. Be happy that you exist at all and are part of something.

 

I wish you were wrong. Thing is I agree with you.

History is a curse every time you want to be an optimist.

 

Well, the history does not support that. Capitulation and appeasement of the Munich agreement led to the biggest war in history. Unfortunately @Psalmanazar is right, the only thing that can stop some people from harming others is a credible threat of force or just plain use of force.

Using force on a large scale was always expensive, yes at the end it comes to money, so historically the way to maintain the credibility of the threat of force was to ensure that consequences are frightening and vividly remembered.

State monopoly of violence is dangerous but as long as the state recognizes the responsibilities and limitations, that means let me defend myself if the state protection fails, I do not see how living in the place with thousands of small private militias would be any safer.

 

I don’t want to live in a samurai movie but I believe the Night Stalker, Jeffrey Epstein, and Bernie Madoff all should’ve been executed. Anyone who didn’t support executing the Night Stalker or at least leaving him to die tied to a rock somewhere condoned feeding, clothing, and housing him over others. I’d rather the money get a bum off the streets and children fed.

 

Doesn't the death penalty cost more than life in prison?

I'm opposed not only because I disagree with giving the state the power to decide who lives or not, but also because the death penalty inevitably means innocent people will be killed by the state. And I'm not sure the purpose - it doesn't save money and it doesn't reduce crime, as far as I know.

 

Good luck Twin Cities, you'll need it.

Those outside of the Twin Cities, they are most likely going to hate it.

 

I like permanent solutions. If you perform the death penalty on someone they will never do what they are convicted of ever again.

The history of its application is terrifying in that the number of innocents killed keeps growing as they apply DNA evidence techniques to closed cases.

Warehousing people in prisons seems like a bad plan as well, especially when they let them back out citing coronavirus risks.

If we let the people in for non-violent drug charges out (50%) we would have plenty of space and revenue for the actual bad guys.

 

They'll do fine. Civilian armies of trained, armed thugs have no place in a democracy anyway.

 

I suspect "luck" is all they have, if they even have that. Sounds like the usual political/symbolic rhetoric and (ultimately empty) promises they call a "dramatic rethink" and "transformative new model" - in other words, they don't have a clue or a plan. Why would you need that when you have Righteousness on your side?

That said, maybe some good will come of it even with the unintended (or in this case intended) consequences. Were we not all taught in school that "democracy is a coldrum of experimentation"

 

The idea that crime disappears when police disappears, and people will not need protection anymore is not obvious to everyone, particularly criminals are not on board I think. And when someone needs protection, someone else will provide it for a fee. So that exactly what Twin Cities are going to get: private civilian armies.
When mafia moved to Las Vegas one of their primary concerns was to make the city safe for people coming to their casinos. What followed was not a very happy time for ordinary criminals.
EDIT: Just when I was typing it Washington Post reported that armed citizens patrols are already active in some cities and towns in Minnesota.

 

There's going to be some crime in a free society. Being a free person means the freedom to choose to do bad things too.

 

I found revolvers preferable to semi-autos though I certainly see the advantages of semis. A revolver can’t hold as many rounds, requires better trigger control and is thicker, but you never need to worry about it going bang. 100% reliable which is a nice quality in a gun. Semis need regular disassembly and cleaning to keep from getting gummed up with pocket lint. .357 mag is a nice, old school round. Lots of stopping power and loud as hell.

 

During training semi-auto loaders had to practice double jam drills on speed runs. Our instructor had me just continue as normal to make a painful point to the others about reliable operation. But I did get to experience a failure when after several speed drills one day I went to reload only to have the cylinder pop completely out of the frame. Retaining screw came loose. Instructor stood behind me and said "bet you wish you had a backup right now". Backups were allowed but I (like most) chose not to carry a second firearm during training.

 

The first thing that would happen in absence of law & order is a wide scale exodus of capital and people. The smart money is probably already making contingency plans. The cities will be left with those who either can’t afford to leave or who want to take advantage of the situation.

A common theme in dystopian fiction is the rise of companies so big that they basically become their own city-states. If the governments can’t provide the type of services that governments are known for anymore then its possible we could start to see that start to happen. Maybe not company specific as envisioned (yet) but I could see private cities where only residents are allowed. How many people would trade some freedom for security? More than you’d probably think.

 

Speaking of politically incorrect, JK Rowling has herself a bit of a twitter bruhaha.

https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1269382518362509313

 

I've been a Potter fan since I was a kid and as much as I still have a special consideration for the sense of wonder those books inspired in me, it is hard to look away from how much of a wreck Rowling makes of things in her public communications.

This isn't news though, she's been spiralling for a while. I'm not miffed that Dumbledore is gay, I'm miffed because there are real arguments that he might have been retconned into being gay for the express purpose of pandering. Same with Hermione Granger's appearance being mutable or whatever else happens.

 

I had read this same study and struggled to understand the difference between the similar rate of death at the hands of the police by race vs. the perception that African Americans are more likely to die than whites. But this study paints an entirely different picture, in my opinion (you need to scroll down a bit). They include data on deaths at the hands of the police of unarmed individuals. If unarmed, African Americans are just over 4x as likely to be killed than unarmed whites at the hands of the police. And the outrage over the past years up through George Floyd has been over unarmed victims, in my recollection,

 

I don't have a WaPo subscription. Do you have a link to the study itself?

 

I'm sure they will vote to fully restore the 2nd Am. rights they have stripped away over the years, now that the citizens are expected to be their own police. Ya, that's exactly what they will do.

Morons. I'll add them to the list of places I'll never move to.