One of the points I often see brought up is that many countries, particularly those in Europe, that have very strict gun laws (generally to the point of bans on private ownership) have among the lowest gun crime rates in the civilized world. In contrast, the US has one of the highest. This brings us to the question of why America has such a deeply-ingrained gun culture. It also makes us ask whether there’s anything we can do about it. Or whether we should do anything about it.

There is an obvious reason behind our gun culture: guns already existed when America was colonized. Modern men – men with guns – landed on a basically virgin forest and plains continent already interspersed with some relatively primitive native peoples.

So America’s history is a history of violence in various forms. Violence against nature and violence against other people. As the colonists “tamed the land” as it were, it was done with guns. Guns to shoot animals, guns to kill the natives and take their land, guns to defend yourself in the relatively lawless expanses of land, guns to drive out and defeat the British and the French and the Spanish.

Guns have always been a part of America. Since the very first days. Guns have been absolutely integral to the formation of this country.

In contrast, most European nations (in particular the UK, which is commonly used as a point of contrast) were rather completely settled, with land ownership and laws already well sorted out, by the time the gun was even invented. In these areas, guns were basically introduced as a tool and sport for the wealthy and privileged – people who actively worked to keep weapons out of the hands of their subjects.

It’s a rather significant difference, and that difference is lost on a lot of people who never stop to think about it.

But can we do anything about it? Should we? That’s a much tougher question. Gun control legislation in the United States ultimately achieves one thing: taking guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens. Given how common illegal guns are, new and more strict gun control laws will have little to no effect on how well-armed criminals are or how difficult it would be for someone intent on committing a crime to obtain a gun. Imagine the extreme case of an outright ban on firearms: criminals would be just as well-armed as they have always been, but law-abiding citizens would be completely defenseless.

If it were possible to simply make all privately-owned firearms (legal or illegal) disappear, we could start over with new and very strict gun control laws. In that unrealistic case, that might be worth pursuing. In reality, however, the criminals are armed and it seems there’s little to nothing we can do about it. This scenario, in my mind, calls for the relaxation of gun ownership and carry laws. What’s the point of a “gun free” zone like a university campus, for instance? All this does is create an environment where someone intent on committing a serious crime knows he will face virtually no armed resistance. As we have seen, this can lead to free-shooting sprees where the killer has dozens of minutes to do anything he pleases with no chance of being contested.

I think that we have this gun culture and there is little chance of actually changing it in an effective through any sort of legislation. I actually don’t mind living in a society that’s perhaps a little more dangerous if it also means a little more freedom and power.

I haven’t figured out Facebook commenting yet, but you can register a new user name and comment away. I will probably be playing with the layout and plugins for a little while, so what you see may well change here and there.

I can also post from my phone! Whee

My first impression of the KFC Double Down was a greasy brown bag. This is a sandwich so powerful that the bottom of the brown bag in which it was packaged was soaked in grease before making it out of the drive through window, despite being wrapped in wax paper and placed in a box.

The next thing that struck me was its heft. I conceptually realized it would be heavier than a regular sandwich, since there were two giant fried chicken breasts, but its sheer mass surprised me.

After one taste, I was convinced that there was no possible way this is only 540 calories. I couldn’t even look at it without my hand and face getting covered in grease. Each bite felt like 540 calories.

As I worked my way through it, a series of phrases popped into my head. It feels like the definition of indulgence. It’s almost as if a manager at KFC headquarters was personally offended by the very idea of good sense and decided to launch a war against it. Or perhaps some visionary looked at the fried chicken menu at a local KFC and decided it was just too damn wussy.

It feels almost like a joke. This is the sort of idea you’d expect to be introduced to make fun of someone or mock your own menu as a way of introducing a new healthy item.

Of course, I haven’t even mentioned how the thing tastes. It was actually fantastic, although it feels like there are a few bricks in my stomach. I couldn’t even begin to think about eating the fries that the combo comes with, and I’m in no rush at all to go out and get another.

All told, it was certainly an experience – the way getting into a fistfight is an experience. It’s exhilarating and you just know you’re doing something wrong that you will regret but there’s too much adrenaline and sweat (and… grease? Did I mention this thing is greasy?) to stop.

I’ve always been mildly curious about Scientology. There’s something so unreal about it. Any of you reading this probably have a good appreciation for how much (ha ha) I think of the average person’s reasoning ability, but the idea that anyone can actually “believe” in Scientology pushes even my limits.

So… perhaps there’s something more to it that we don’t realize? I have a theory.

I think the “religion” aspect of it is mostly a sham. The whole Xenu/spaceplane/miscellaneous craziness? Total cover.

I think that Scientology is really a way for the powerful
people of the world to share money and favors tax-free and in complete
secrecy. The whole religion aspect is a distraction and a cover.

It makes sense if you think about it. It takes millions of dollars in
classes and upgrades to get at the heart of it – all the poor idiots
who can’t afford that never get into the inner sanctum and never learn
all there is to learn, which is all well and good because then
Scientology gets all their money but these commonfolk never get a say
in the organization. Once you’ve bought your way into the elite, you
have the perfect cover for all sorts of activities and favors. You can
exchange all the money you want, and since it’s a “religion,” all the
money is untaxed and essentially untracked.

When you think about it this way, it really isn’t all that crazy, is it?

Let’s forget about the political aspects of the debate for a minute. Put all that aside. Forget about it. Let’s just think – together – for a few minutes.

Think about what you see when you commute to work every day. What do you see?

Think about what you see before you open your front door every day. What do you see?

I see thousands – literally, thousands – of little CO2, CO, and NOx generators all around me every time I leave my house. Tens of thousands, running all the time, just in my small city. How many cities are there around the world that are just the same? How many millions of cars, trucks, buses, tractors, trains, airliners, and motorcycles are running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, 10 years a decade? Each one burning fossil fuels, generating its own CO2 and pollutants.

I see thousands of homes and apartments. Tens of thousands, just in my small city. How many hundreds of millions are there in the world just like these? Each one – each and every one of them – consuming electricity. Computers, TVs, clocks, toasters, air conditioning, heating, aquarium filters, audio receivers, light bulbs, microwaves. Most of them burning natural gas, propane, or heating oil. Millions and millions and millions and millions, all over the world. Running all the time. Every day, every year.

Office buildings. Shopping malls. Warehouses. Airports. Hotels. Factories. Millions and millions of them, all over the world, always running. Always using energy, always generating CO2.

Look at these photographs of industrial pollution in China. This is happening on a massive scale. All over the place.

Now let’s ask a question. It’s a simple question, and I want you to ask yourself and answer – to yourself – as honestly as possible.

Can you honestly say that you believe that this does not have any effect on the global climate?

For those of you who answer no: what does this make you think about those who answer yes?

For those of you who answer yes: how is that possible?

Turns out that the Supreme Court has decided to hear him out, as explained in an excellent New York Times article.

Also see these quotes from the decision and dissent.

This is a pancake machine.

If you’re still with me, that means you haven’t bought one yet. This in turn means that you didn’t hear me properly.

This is a pancake machine!! Do I really need to say anything else?

On Sunday night, the internet connection at my apartment died. I
rebooted the modem and everything, but it wouldn’t come up. It was late
so I just went to bed and figured I’d check it the next morning. Seemed
to be working the next morning, if a bit slow, so I went off to work.

Then I tried to check my email by using remote desktop back to home. Didn’t work. Tried jonnythan.com, didn’t work. Figured the connection was down again and waited for Emily to get home. She got online just fine. Turned out that TW started blocking incoming packets on all common ports, leaving me to start looking for other hosts.

I found EvilHosting, a free host with no ads for non-profit web pages. Looked good, signed up. By the time they got back to me something else had happened – all the ports were opened again, so everything worked as usual. I do recommend EvilHosting, though.

I suppose TW may have had some network issues and temporarily closed everything. Or maybe they were testing some new software they may (hopefully not) implement in the future. Either way, while testing the other sites I host, I got the dreaded Firefox GET ME OUT OF HERE image, warning me that the site was hosting malware.

Wait, what?

Surely this is wrong, so I immediately fired off an email explaining that there’s some mistake. Then I started looking at the html files referenced in the warning. There were mysterious iframe scripts that were opening Chinese domain names. What the hell?

Checked the server logs and noticed that someone in the Netherlands was logging in as the user who runs the pages and uploading a few HTML files every week or so. These HTML files included scripts that install malware on unpatched Windows systems running old versions of IE. Not particularly effective, but they were still there and I was still blacklisted.

The most interesting part is that there were no failed logins from this user. Just some FTP transactions. So someone in the Netherlands found out this user’s password and proceeded to mess with the site. Thankfully the user account is a limited account and wasn’t able to do anything else on the system. Not that they even tried.

Changed passwords, informed user, Google dropped the warning, all is well.

I was going through the (extensive) archives when I found one that made me think a bit:

It’s certainly not the funniest entry from the archives, but what would the founding fathers think of the progress we’ve made in the past couple hundred years? It’s not the first time I’ve pondered the question; historically I would have taken the “horrified” approach almost immediately. PATRIOT act, no-fly lists, Gitmo, tax upon tax, enormous federal government bureaucracies, etc.

But the bearded man’s response is making me rethink that. I read a book a few years ago about the American Revolution that spent many, many pages trying to describe the world of England to illustrate how dramatic and world-changing the Revolution actually was. One of the things that stuck with me the most was the concept that wealth and power flow down from the monarch in a very real, absolute way. We have our concepts of kings, lords, and vassals from movies and literature, but having the system described in such a stark, academic way really struck me.

Comparing that world to the world we have now (the Western world, at least) is astounding – and I think that it would be absolutely mind-blowing to someone who actually grew up at least partly in a society that had an actual king from which all power, societal and economic alike, stemmed. Yeah, it’s not perfect. Far from it, of course. People, lots of people have very real and legitimate gripes and disagreements, but, ultimately, this is a very large, immense, complex, democratic and capitalist society. The experiment that began here on virgin land with 2 million people has ballooned into a worldwide, earth-changing society that has managed to, for the most part, stay true to many of its roots.

I think that anyone who was a part of the American Revolution would be shocked to see what it has led to. Shocked and proud beyond measure.

After they got over the whole airplane thing, at least.

Speaking of golf, lessons make you worse! In fact, they make you as bad as you were when you first hit a ball. Yeesh. I was shooting 45 consistently at the par-28 course and improving weekly when I took my first lesson (thanks to Em for the 6-pack as a birthday present!) I took a lesson, changed everything about my swing, hit the range a few times, and then started shooting over 50 again. I posted a career-high 66 at the par-36 Frear Park back nine. Yeesh.

But, hey, at least the sun is still there. I think that I literally didn’t see it once from June 18 until June 23. That gets old real fast, let me tell you.

Also speaking of golf, I ordered myself a new driver last night, which is nice considering I didn’t really have one before. So far all of the clubs I’ve bought have been from GigaGolf, a strange little company that makes clone golf clubs. They take popular designs from the major manufacturers and replicate them almost perfectly. Different logo, different colors, but the same materials and technologies. It’s sort of weird playing knockoff clubs, but I’m really not entirely sure why. The clubs are all very high quality and would look right at home on the sales floor, but they’re literally 1/4 the price or less.

But enough about golf.

…. and I guess that also means “enough about this whole post.”