Category Archives: culture

A Misunderstanding

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Senator Cory “Spartacus” Booker (D, NJ) has one in spades. The article at the link was centered on Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Robert Francis O’Rourke’s mild disagreement with Booker’s position on gun control, but one of the false premises that inform Booker’s misunderstanding was exposed.

Booker argued that just as a driver’s license demonstrates a person’s eligibility and proficiency to drive a car, “a gun license demonstrates that a person is eligible and can meet certain safety and training standards necessary to own a gun.”

First, Booker’s analogy is badly flawed.  A drivers license does not at all demonstrate a person’s eligibility to drive a car. Eligibility to drive comes from the person being a US citizen (or, according to many Progressive-Democrats, from their presence in the US and in a State, whether that presence is legal or not) of a State-determined minimum age, and from no other criteria.  The drivers license then demonstrates a minimum level of proficiency and knowledge of State driving laws. Other restrictions on driving then impact whether the person will be allowed to retain that license; they do not change his eligibility criteria to drive, for getting a license.  Indeed, that license must be granted on a will-issue basis on satisfactory completion of training; licensing courses cannot be used to restrict driving.

On the larger issue, a person is eligible to own a gun and to bear it solely from his status as a citizen of the United States.  Here’s what the 2nd Amendment says:

…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

There’s nothing in there about eligibility criteria. The only addenda to that are State-mandated criteria related to whether the person has a violent felony history.  All a gun license demonstrates is that State-mandated levels of safety and training standards, which include knowledge of State laws, have been met.  And that license must be granted on a will-issue basis on satisfactory completion of training; licensing courses cannot be used to restrict owning and bearing.

Military Academy Athlete Grads Go Pro Immediately?

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President Donald Trump supports this, and he’s actually serious.

I am going to look at doing a waiver for service-academy athletes who can get into the major leagues, like the NFL, hockey, baseball, and they’ll serve their time when they leave professional sports. I imagine that would make recruiting a little bit easier[.]

This is foolish.  These guys got an excellent education at good engineering schools as well as a strong military and leadership training.  In return for paying zilch for that education, they accepted a multi-year commitment to serve on active duty in our armed forces and to begin that service upon graduation.

Delay that service in favor of a professional athletic career?  Let’s leave aside the morality of such a thing and what it says to the less athletically stellar cadets who don’t have professional sports careers in the offing.  Look, instead, at the practical outcome.

A professional baseball career can last for years—a decade or more (ignoring outliers like Cal Ripken), even longer if AAA ball counts for this delay, serving as it does as continued prep for the majors and as rehab opportunities in later stages of a career (more on this in a bit).

A professional football or hockey career lasts quite a bit shorter—because of career-ending injury or accumulation of injuries.  What’s the value of a soldier, airman, marine, or sailor who’s so banged up that he can no longer ply his athlete’s trade by the time he reports for active duty?  Here we include that baseball player sent down for rehab.  What’s the risk he poses to the soldier, airman, marine, or sailor serving beside him in a fight?  What’s the additional medical cost this guy poses to the service required to wait on his appearance for duty?

How much time does such a man have left for his military career if he’s able to complete his professional sport career reasonably injury-free?

On the flip side are these two examples.  David Robinson, Navy Academy grad and basketball star, served his commitment promptly on graduation and then went on to a highly successful NBA career.  He needed no delay.

Napoleon McCallum, Navy Academy grad and football star, served his commitment promptly on graduation and then went on to a highly successful NFL career—until he had a career-ending injury during a Monday Night Football game.  McCallum’s injury, admittedly, was exceptionally gruesome, even for a terminating one, but blown knees that end careers are common in football:

[He suffered a] ruptured artery in his left knee, and tore three ligaments, tore the calf and hamstring from the bone, and suffered nerve damage in the knee. …McCallum’s surgeon told him that there was no chance of him ever being medically cleared to play again.

How fit for military duty would McCallum have been had he had that injury before serving his commitment?

This is a bad idea that needs no further serious consideration.

Abortion and Busy-ness

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Recall that Georgia has just enacted a law barring abortions once the baby’s heartbeat has been detected.  Busy Philipps, actress and talk show host, objected.

Every woman deserves compassion and care, not judgment and interference when it comes to their own bodies.

Another, more accurate, phrasing might include Every baby deserves compassion and care, not interference or dismissal when it comes to their own bodies.

Philipps went on.

Women and their doctors are in the best position to make informed decisions about what is best for them[.]

How sad. What’s best for the baby doesn’t even enter into it.

More Censorship

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Jack Dorsey has chosen to have his Twitter company censor another conservative account, this time @AOCPress.  Their crime? They mock a Progressive-Democrat (I’ll leave it as an exercise for the student to figure out who).  Dorsey insists the parody account (an obviously parody account—it was labeled “parody”) mislead fellow tweeters.  Because, apparently, Dorsey’s customers are mind-numbingly stupid and can’t recognize parody.

Dorsey seems not to like parody in general, too, at least when it comes from Conservatives.

Twitter has also banned an account parodying former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, and another that mocked Russian president Vladimir Putin.

This is free speech Left-style.

Wrong Vote Outcome

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They didn’t vote the way they were supposed to, so there’ll be a whole new election.  No, not for Georgia governor, but for Mayor of Istanbul.  Based solely on Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s plaint that there were “numerical mistakes,” “irregularities,” and outright “corruption” in that mayoral election—Erdoğan’s party didn’t win there; the Republican People’s Party’s Ekrem Imamoglu did—the Supreme Electoral Council has completely annulled the election and required a new one to be held.

Echoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D, CA) claim that if her Progressive-Democratic Party didn’t win big in 2020, President Donald Trump would refuse to accept the outcome, Erdoğan did just that in Istanbul:

a margin of only 15,000 votes in a city as large as Istanbul was too close to be fair.

And

He [Erdoğan] said a difference of “13,000 to 14,000 votes” was not enough in a city of 15 million inhabitants.

So his election board tossed the results.  This, after AKP spokesman Omer Celik, speaking for Erdoğan, promised

At the end of the day, we will accept the final result regardless of whether it is to our advantage or disadvantage[.]

Former German Greens leader Cem Özdemir, who has Turkish roots suggested that this shows Erdogan to be a

bitter old man, who has long passed the zenith of his power. …  In the world of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, everyone who thinks differently to him is a terrorist, and every election he loses is a sham election[.]

Apparently not so far past.  And there’s that echo, again.