Sleepless in Midland

Trump's question about Islam is "What the Hell is going on?" Answer is in their holy text.

Donald Trump is famous for, among other things, advocating a ban on entry of Muslims into the U.S. While not necessarily a bad idea in itself, Trump has no follow through. As for the duration of the ban, it's until "We figure out what the hell is going on!"

It's not hard to figure that out. Dan Calic has a pretty good explanation in On the Path of Submission to Islam. Mr. Calic starts with this:

Islam has brought a war against the civilized world. While the majority of the world’s 1.65 billion Muslims are peaceful and are not terrorists, the concern is with the fundamentalists, who are the terrorists. Estimates vary, but if for example 90% of Muslims are peaceful. This means 165 million are fundamentalists. That’s more than the population of France, UK and Canada combined!

He goes on to describe "The Project," a paper taken from a Swiss villa owned by an individual active in the Muslim Brotherhood. The Project spelled out Islamic goals, including these gems from the religion of peace:

Networking and coordinating among like-minded Islamist organizations
Avoiding open alliances with known terrorist organizations and individuals to maintain the appearance of moderation
Infiltrating and taking over existing Muslim organizations and redirecting their goals in line with Muslim Brotherhood goals
Using deception to mask the intended goals of Islamist actions, as long as it doesn’t interfere with Sharia law
Establishing financial networks…to fund the conversion of the West
Conducting surveillance, obtaining data….
Monitoring Western media to warn Muslims of plots fomented against them
Build networks of schools, hospitals and charitable organizations…dedicated to Islamist ideals….
Using Western institutions until they can be converted into service of Islam
Involving ideologically committed Muslims in democratically elected institutions on all levels in the West
Supporting jihad movements across the Muslim world
Inciting hatred by Muslims against Jews and rejecting any discussion of conciliation and coexistence with them
Develop a comprehensive 100 year plan to advance Islamist ideology throughout the world

A 100 year plan would start slowly and gain momentum along the way. It's gaining momentum, in case anyone hasn't noticed.

What is it about the word "no" that women don't understand when they're dispensing cake and ice cream?

Yesterday I attended a going away party for a friend, and as advertised, there was abundant cake and ice cream. There were well meaning women who cut the cake, put it on plates, and carried the pieces around to the attendees. Kudos to them. They were so kind.

However, I'm avoiding sweets and didn't intend to eat any of it in spite of the numerous, kind, offers. Too bad a simple "No thank you" was not a satisfactory answer. Over and over again I had to explain that I didn't want any and face down the look of someone who thinks I'm crazy. It grew tiresome.

No means no. What is it about the word "no" that women don't understand?

Post script. I remembered a former alcoholic friend who quit going to his favorite restaurant. The reason, he explained, was that they practically forced him to drink. I scoffed at that at the time. But now it makes perfect sense.

No 'specific, credible' threat to US -- so we're OK then?

We probably should hand out some kudos to our anti-terror squads in law enforcement. Although when terrorist acts happen here they become tremendous news events capturing headline news for days. There really haven't been many in the U.S.

This headline is both encouraging and discouraging. Homeland Security chief: No 'specific, credible' threat to US. "We don't know of anything going on right now," to paraphrase what he's saying. That's fine as far as it goes. But that pair of Islamic killers in San Bernardino showed us that a small murderous band can travel under the law enforcement radar and attack with 9/11 like surprise.

This seems like a smart move:

Security officials are also reviewing whether additional screening may be necessary for air travelers coming from Belgium. Belgium is one of 38 countries whose citizens generally do not need a visa to visit the U.S.

There's a characteristic all these terrorists have in common. It's become a joke, but they all adhere to this thing called "the religion of peace." A bit more profiling by everyone with the opportunity to do so certainly is in order.

There's a reason for Reagan's 11th commandment -- Pres Trump may need Ted Cruz somewhere down the road

Donald Trump has a way of offending people, some of whom he may need in the future. The way he keeps referring to "Lyin' Ted Cruz" is reminiscent of the way prominent Democrats kept saying that George Bush lied to get the U.S. into war in Iraq. Maybe there are some who believed it, but anyone who was paying attention knew that it was the Democrats who were lying.

The attacks on Ted Cruz must be intended to mess with Cruz's head, otherwise they're meaningless. It's Trump who is concocting the fiction. But the insults probably are messing with Cruz's head. And he's unlikely to forget it.

Trump may have forgotten that Cruz will still be a U.S. Senator from Texas at least until after the 2018 election. So if Trump becomes president and names a loosey goosey supreme court nominee, look for a Ted Cruz filibuster. Poor Trump will have shot all his ammo. He'll simply have to repeat all his old personal attacks. There will be nothing new, and the insults will likely bounce off like bird shot off a metal roof.

P.S. It was Ronald Reagan who popularized that 11th Commandment, "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican," but it was Gaylord Parkinson who actually came up with it. If it doesn't rise to the level of a commandment, it's pretty good advice.

My Starbucks tall was too short -- class action lawsuit may be your cup of tea

It seems as though plaintiffs' lawyers are constantly on the prowl for some reason to extract money from deep pockets. Here's another example.

Last week a class action lawsuit was filed against Starbucks Corporation for shorting the short cups -- shorting all cups, actually. They claim that the actual quantity of the product bought is as much as 25% less than the advertised volumes. Source: Starbucks being sued for underfilling lattes.

Starbucks' website says a Short is 8oz, a Tall is 12oz, a Grande is 16oz, and a Venti is 20oz. Take your measuring cup with you next time. While I would do nothing to encourage class action lawsuits, it is refreshing to see an effort to get them to stand by their claims.

You've probably guessed that I'm not a Starbucks regular. My last order there was for a coffee without milk or sugar. What I got didn't taste any better than the stuff I make at home. Now that I think about it, maybe that's what I ordered.

Anyway, this came to our attention via Future of Capitalism where Ira Stoll notes that it's slightly better that class action lawyers do these things for civil damages than ambitious attorneys general.

Writer says end early voting -- better to let voters rank multiple choices

Deroy Murdock notes in Down with Early Voting! that about 15% of the votes in the Arizona Republican primary went to candidates who had dropped out prior to the election. He says:

Most of those voters probably feel like fools today, having squandered as much as four weeks ago the opportunity to affect the three-way race among Cruz, Kasich, and Trump. Rather than allow citizens thus to make fools of themselves, America simply should catapult early voting atop the ash heap of history.

Nah, keep it. Many of us appreciate the opportunity to avoid the crowds on election day. Besides, those early voters expressed their own preference for candidates they knew wouldn't have won anyway. Maybe they were sending a message.

So keep early voting, but make it more meaningful by adding the right to cast multiple, ranked, votes. Here's a page advocating Ranked Choice Voting. The examples there pertain to multi candidates in which no one gets a majority. In the case in Arizona, a vote for a candidate who dropped out could go to the voter's second choice if the system allowed it.

Seems like a better way. Don't throw it out, improve it.

Lefties admire Europe so much they ignore the lack of legal formalities Americans expect for themselves

Eli Lake makes an interesting comparison in The Trump-Cruz Police State Exists. It's Called France. Here's an excerpt:

Imagine if Ted Cruz or Donald Trump proposed a policy to monitor thousands of Muslim citizens even if they had no specific ties to terrorist groups. Then, for good measure, they called for a new law to allow the police to search the homes of suspected terrorists without a warrant and to place terror suspects under house arrest without a court order.

Sounds like a nightmare. One can imagine the indignation. Pundits and politicians of good conscience would intone against the politics of fear. Some on the right would respond that political correctness should not be a barrier to counterterrorism.

But what I have just described is not a Republican sound bite. Rather, it is the current counterterrorism posture of France. Since the attacks in Paris last November, the socialist government of President Francois Hollande has placed his country under a state of emergency. France's national guard has been deployed to protect sensitive religious sites and other "soft targets." The country of Voltaire, Diderot and Camus is in 2016 the police state that critics warn Cruz or Trump would bring about if given the chance.

Yeah. Sounds like a police state all right. Here in the U.S. it would be supported by supporters of whomever is president and opposed by his/her opponents. People seem willing to give up liberties for the ones they love. Happens at all levels, from family to top government.

As much as I hate admitting Obama might be right, ignoring terrorists attacks wouldn't be such a bad idea, but only if the msm would do it, too

President Obama is taking a lot of heat for attending a ball game in Cuba and dancing with a hot South American babe following the terrorists attack in Brussels. Well, he doesn't take Islamic terrorism seriously enough, that's a certainty. So his critics are right on that one.

However, specific attacks are a different matter. The terrorists and their prospective recruits consider terrorist atrocities major victories if they get a lot of publicity. That's the recruiting tool, not Guantanamo or Donald Trump's bombastic proclamations.

The videos on TV of the infidels running for their lives and the televised claims that Islamophobia is worse than terrorism probably do more to recruit adherents than any number of stories of the conditions at Guantanamo.

But ultimately, it's our friends in the media who are doing the dirty work. See ISIS Is Using the Media Against Itself:

The technique is not new. Indeed, modern-day terrorists have long embraced “propaganda of the deed,” a tactic that, in the words of the Australian Army information-operations specialist Jason Logue, involves ”planning and executing operations designed purely for their propaganda appeal.” However, ISIS understands the media like no other organization before it. It knows that, while territory and resources are crucial to the overall success of its aggressive insurgency in Syria and Iraq, the media is the arena within which the war of ideas is waged, where the group’s relevance—and, ultimately, its ideational longevity—can best be preserved and perhaps enhanced, even as it experiences territorial losses.

The title is a little bit misleading. ISIS isn't using the media against itself, ISIS and the media are using each other for their own benefit.

Finally, as if to prove the terrorists have won, we see this headline: Talent agency boss who 'confronted a Muslim woman in London and asked her to explain Brussels' is ARRESTED for 'inciting racial hatred'.

Tea Party wins one against IRS

The Tea Party movement and various Tea Parties took it on the chin after the IRS and the Obama administration, including its agents among the main stream media, put a bulls eye on them.

So it's nice to see a win every once in a while. See this rather unsympathetic article: Court rebukes IRS for tea party targeting, orders release of secret list. Excerpt:

A federal appeals court spanked the IRS Tuesday, saying it has taken laws designed to protect taxpayers from the government and turned them on their head, using them to try to protect the tax agency from the very tea party groups it targeted.

The judges ordered the IRS to quickly turn over the full list of groups it targeted so that a class-action lawsuit, filed by the NorCal Tea Party Patriots, can proceed. The judges also accused the Justice Department lawyers, who are representing the IRS in the case, of acting in bad faith — compounding the initial targeting — by fighting the disclosure.

Thomas Lifson wonders is Lois Lerner might be losing some sleep over this in Appeals Court issues nightmare decision for Lois Lerner and the IRS. One can hope.

Ms. Lerner got a get-out-of-jail-free card from Eric Holder. But there's always the chance she'll have to face justice in civil court. Ordinarily a plaintiff can't sue a federal government employee for damages. But there's an exception if the employee abused his/her position. There's no predicting how a judge or jury would rule, but to this lay person it sure looked like abuse, especially since it affected the outcome of a presidential election.

Does anyone doubt that the Chinese have a way to decrypt iPhones

Customers in China probably make up a fairly large percentage of iPhone purchasers. So when Tim Cook preaches to the American audience about Apple's responsibility to protect information on iPhones, one wonders if foreign customers get the same respect.

We all know how repressive regimes like to keep tabs on their citizens, and it seems likely that if a particular product prevented that, it would be banned. Or more likely, the producer would be required to modify it so that the government could spy on it.

Maybe this is simply paranoid speculation. But it makes perfect sense.

As does this: A third party claims to have found a way to unlock an encrypted iPhone. Imagine that.

Thanks, Donald Trump, now let's see that list of justices

There are some of us out here in flyover country who are one issue voters this season -- supreme court justices.

Hillary predicted not long ago that the next president may have the opportunity to nominate three supreme court justices during the next one or two terms, and that was before Antonin Scalia died. That's a scary thought. For the future of our republic those nominees need to be strong believers in the constitution as it was written, not as a justice might want it to be. That's the difference between strict constructionists and proponents of a living constitution.

Conservatives know that Hillary's nominations would probably not be good for the citizenry, especially those who favor gun rights. Ted Cruz is the only one we can probably rely on for good nominations.

But now Donald Trump is addressing the issue by saying he'll name people he would nominate. Hooray! Right now it's looking as though a Clinton/Trump match up is a choice between horrible and unknown. So let's get those names vetted before the election.

Good reason to be skeptical of online voting -- George Soros has a hand in it

Hardly a week goes by without some news of a major hacking. The airways are filled with commercials for companies that aim to protect us from identity theft. And the IRS is constantly warning taxpayers to take precautions with their tax filings to help the IRS combat its own scourge of hackers and thieves claiming tax refunds in other people's names.

It might seem like time to pull back from the internet-for-everthing mindset prevailing among so many people. Now we learn that a George Soros crony is involved in the online voting process about to take place in Utah. This comes to us by way of the Wall Street Journal via Breitbart.com in Smartmatic Group, an electronic voting firm whose worldwide headquarters is located in the United Kingdom, will be running the online balloting process in the Utah Republican Open Caucuses on Tuesday. Excerpt:

Besides formerly serving as vice-chairman of Soros’s Investment Funds and the billionaire’s Open Society Institute, Malloch-Brown is currently a global board member of Soros’s Open Society Foundation.

As further documented in his Smartmatic Group bio, Malloch-Brown also serves on the small board of the International Crisis Group, a Soros-financed international crisis management organization. Soros himself sits on the ICG’s small board. ...

Tuesday’s Utah GOP Caucuses are considered an important test for online voting, which seems poised to expand in future elections. Last month, Microsoft’s vote-counting technology was utilized in the Iowa Caucus.

What could possibly go wrong?

Exit question: How much different might this news be handled if he were a Donald Trump crony?

When businesses want more regulations it's to keep out competition -- case in point, H&R Block's lobbying for more regs on tax preparers

More regulations, fewer businesses. That's the normal course of action when government intersects business. Cronies in the federal government are being plied by lobbyists for H&R Block to make it harder for mom and pop competitors. See This Company Wants to Make It Harder for You to File Taxes:

Large companies can afford to comply with expensive regulations. Many of their small-business competitors cannot. So big businesses frequently lobby for stricter regulations in order to drive out small-business competition.

It is no accident that small business owners report government regulations and red tape as one of their greatest problems.

H&R Block seems to be trying to do the same thing to the tax preparation industry. Legally, anyone can prepare his own taxes. Anyone can also prepare someone else’s taxes for him. Approximately 350,000 independent tax preparers do exactly that. ...

Nonetheless, H&R Block wants Congress to require tax preparers pass a government exam, pay for continuing education, and pass a background check. These requirements would make working as a tax preparer much more expensive. The continuing education requirement would particularly burden seasonal tax preparers, who work other jobs the rest of the year. ...

That is not enough for H&R Block. It wants expensive licensing imposed on all tax preparers. If passed, these regulations would drive many independent tax preparers out of business.

Being pro-business is certainly not the same as being pro-free market. And in many cases it means crony capitalism.

Winter's last gasp in west Texas

The temperature here in Midland, Texas, this afternoon is a pleasant 55F after an evening in the 30s. This could well be the last taste of winter we have this season. And it is so pleasant.

Spring here lasts about five minutes, and the first 100F day typically occurs in the month of May. So by golly, I'm going to enjoy this cool air while I can. Too bad there's not some way to store cool air and issue it into the house in the summer. Oh well.

Number of reported rapes are up in Midland -- is it really a cause for alarm? Probably not.

The other day the Midland Police Department released its annual crime report which was duly reported in the morning paper at an article titled MPD: Reported rape up 27 percent in Midland. It states that forcible rape went from 36 in 2014 to 46 in 2015.

Is that cause for alarm? The MPD says no as there is no serial rapist stalking unaware women, these are cases in which the women accused acquaintances. Victims may still feel victimized, but there is a difference.

In "he said, she said" cases it's always smart to weigh additional evidence which is what every good law enforcement agency would do. In light of that, how many of those cases resulted in a conviction? We aren't told that.

The local police department conducts Women’s Self Defense, R.A.D. (Rape Aggression Defense) classes to teach women physical defense tactics. It's a good bet that no woman who completed that class was among those statistics cited above. I imagine they emerge from the class with skills like those kick-ass young women we see in the movies -- able to vanquish armed attackers two at a time.

Meanwhile, see Brutal Female Bodyguards Training in China.

How I met your mother -- it was love at first sight when she saw my mugshot

We've heard the story. It's a few days old, but it's still so relevant in a cultural evolutionary sense.

A rogue somehow got a flattering mugshot which was plastered on TV. Low and behold, he ended up with agent to negotiate a modeling contract.

His talent transcended his transgressions. What a country -- so full of opportunities.

For some reason this story reminded me of the Robert Redford movie in which he played a prison reformer who went undercover as an inmate to expose corruption. Press releases said they used real convicts as extras. So there we had scarred, tattooed, ugly convicts. And Robert Redford. What a lineup that must have been.

Good luck to Jeremy Meeks with his modeling career. May the only homes he invades be through his magazine ads and the only head shots he receives be through the barrel of a camera.

'Next Time, We Might Have to Kill Him’ -- msm loved replaying this clip hoping to perpetuate violence they can blame on Trump

The msm and many Republicans piled on Donald Trump because of the actions of one individual in the crowd who said Next Time, We Might Have to Kill Him. Now that's violent rhetoric, but it didn't come from Trump. It came from one lonely face in the crowd.

The guy did act out his aggression toward a protester by sucker punching him as he was being escorted out of the arena. That was an impolite thing to do. No, it was plain wrong. It hasn't happened again, and most of the attendees at Trump rallies are well behaved.

But that guy and his quote were on display all over the msm. Funny how progressives want to attribute improper actions of one person to others. Isn't that what racists do? You know, assuming motives and characteristics to masses of people based on minimal information about them.

And then to blame Trump for the rioters in Chicago. Pitiful. Give it a rest, Trump haters. It isn't working. Trump isn't my first choice for president, but the opportunity to root for the underdog is starting to present itself.

P.S. The guy was charged with a crime for punching that other fellow. That certainly seems appropriate.

Scammers pretending to be IRS agents are now kinder, gentler

We've all gotten them. It's a robo call from someone purporting to be an IRS agent informing you that you've got a tax problem which is about to become a legal nightmare if you don't call another phone number right now. It's a scam, but apparently it's profitable. Or at least it was, because they've changed tactics. Now they politely inform you that they just need to verify a few details, such as your Social Security number, bank account number or credit card number. It's still a scam. See Consumer Alert: Scammers Change Tactics, Once Again.

Don't call the cops -- there's nothing they can do, and the IRS is notoriously uncooperative with local police. Here's what the IRS alert says to do:

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money or to verify your identity, here’s what you should do:

If you don’t owe taxes, or have no reason to think that you do:

Do not give out any information. Hang up immediately.

Contact TIGTA to report the call. Use their IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting web page. You can also call 800-366-4484.

Report it to the Federal Trade Commission. Use the FTC Complaint Assistant on FTC.gov. Please add “IRS Telephone Scam” in the notes.

I suppose I should include this part.

If you know you owe, or think you may owe tax:

Call the IRS at 800-829-1040. IRS workers can help you.

By now you're probably thinking that the IRS is merely collecting for a scam, too, with the exception that they've got the power to ruin us if we don't pay. Yeah, I know. But until we get a flat tax or at least some honest to goodness tax reform then we're stuck with it.

Media shocked at Trump's statement that Islam hates us, ignores the truth in the statement

Donald Trump seems to have media outlets trained, in a perverse way, to react negatively to practically everything he says. Recently it was the Trump remark that Islam hates us. In the context with which he said it it made sense. But the msm is Pavlov's dog when it comes to Trumpisms -- he's bad. Really bad.

Anyway, Arabic historian Raymond Ibrahim has penned an article titled You Better Believe 'Islam Hates Us' in which he cites scripture and verse supporting the premise that yes, Islam really does hate us. Or more to the point, people who believe in the Koran must either hate us or violate their sacred text.

Republicans should expect Chicago like demonstrations at the convention in Cleveland

The radical leftist organizations that instigated the riots in Chicago the night of March 11 are flush with success in their own minds. And they're planning more of the same with the help from some deep pocketed leftists.

That's what Thomas Lifson thinks. See Soros-funded group getting ready for ‘spontaneous’ demonstrations ‘caused’ by Trump’s rhetoric at GOP Convention?

People like George Soros know how to plan ahead to manufacture mob violence masquerading as social movements. It worked like a charm in Ferguson, Missouri, and laying the groundwork for energizing the critical black turnout in 2016, courtesy of #BlackLivesMatter and others.  #BLM is also serving as a useful vehicle for suppressing the Trump phenomenon.

Now, a group called Working America, funded by the AFL-CIO (which relies on raking off a portion of the paychecks of people forced to join unions) and by billionaires George Soros and Tom Steyer, is advertising for organizers in Cleveland.

Click the link to see a screen shot of the Craigslist Cleveland ad for community organizers and activists, i.e., spontaneous demonstrators.

Expect a lot of hand wringing and finger pointing at Republicans. In a perfect world, knowing that it's coming would dampen some of the impact the media will give to the demonstrators, and observers would see it for the astroturf that it is

Pundits wonder whether Chicago riots will help or hurt Trump -- they will help

Saturday morning the news was all about the riots in Chicago Friday night and the rioters' success at getting a Trump rally canceled. Will that help or hurt Donald Trump? That question has left some very smart people scratching their heads. See Rick Moran's Is the violence at Trump's Chicago rally a campaign game changer? and Richard Fernandez' Chicago.

The short answer is that they will help Trump. They've given Trump "victimhood" status, of all things.

As for the riots, maybe they'll subside, or maybe they'll become more frequent, but the Trump crowd appears ready to fight back. As Fernandez says in the aforementioned article:

Still, it is doubtful the Left has actually shut the Donald down.  They've most likely supercharged him. Saul Alinsky taught his disciples that confrontation -- of precisely the kind that just transpired in Chicago -- radicalized people far more efficiently than speeches, and exhorted organizers to seek every opportunity, not to "get along", but to let it all hang out.  By that standard the Trump supporters have been given a master class in radicalization.

Fight rules: #1. Don't start a fight. #2. Don't lose a fight.

One theory justifying Donald Trumps popularity is that Americans secretly yearn for a left leaning dictator -- as if the one we have wasn't enough already

That's scary enough. We've got one of those now. For example, recall how the IRS served as political agent against the Tea Party.

More recently, Obama's new idea of how to silence critics of climate change is down right frightening. See Attorney General Lynch Looks Into Prosecuting ‘Climate Change Deniers’.

Lovers of liberty are appalled at that. But people on the left don't see a problem.

Hopefully, those of us who respect the Constitution will remain resolute when President Trump, instead of tossing out insults, tosses his critics in jail.

Most Dems say they prefer socialism, when it's described in a certain way

There's a big disconnect. Many of our fellow Americans say they prefer socialism for our country. But what they don't realize is that the people who would attempt to run the country under such a system aren't smart enough to do it. That's not an attack on anyone's intelligence, it's simply an obvious fact. There are plenty of examples where it was proven to be true. Look at the various federal government agencies and try to find one you would use as a model for how the economy would be run.

How about the Department of Veterans Affairs? It has all the earmarks of a socialist environment, specifically, government run, worker rewards unrelated to accomplishment, under-served clients, and corruption aplenty.

Anyway, back to the point. Rick Moran writes this: Poll: Majority of Dems say socialism has a 'positive impact' on society, and he quotes from Politico:

The two competing economic theories were described to respondents by the pollster. Socialism was defined as a system for those who believe “corporations have too much control and that the capitalist system is set up to favor the rich and powerful,” and that “the only way to police corporations and protect the citizens is for the government to take a larger role in managing the economy to make sure that every individual has equal access to basic necessities and public goods, even if that means that some people have to transfer their wealth to others."

What a distorted view. Little wonder so many people said they favored socialism -- it's all about fairness and equality. Mr. Moran wisely favors Webster's dictionary over Bloomberg/Des Moines Register for definitions.

Advantage of free trade demonstrated by shrinking protectionism to extreme

Just about every time I visit Mark J. Perry's website I come away much more enlightened. It happened again with his article titled The ‘logic’ of protectionism leads to an absurd conclusion: complete self-sufficiency at the individual level where he updated a hypothetical situation written years ago by Walter Block.

Start with the wish for protection of American industrial workers. The jobs they had have gone to China, other Asian countries, or Mexico. If that's the whole story then protectionist tariffs might be justified. But the fallacy is exposed when the principle is shrunk to fit a smaller scale. For example, suppose one state applied tariffs to imports from other states for the same reason. Shrink it further, and one city does it to other cities. Keep shrinking to the neighborhood level, then to the individual level.

The fallacy is obvious. Each of us cannot manufacturer everything we need to survive much less what we want in order to enjoy life as we know it. Read the whole thing.

Shoot an intruder and go deaf

There's a price to pay for shooting an intruder in your house. Forget the legal ramifications. A gun shot in typical room in a house is going to make a hell of a noise as well as a sudden, strong, air pressure spike in that room.

Anyone who has shot in an indoor range has experienced that, even with hearing protection. If the shooter is using some high caliber ammo, 357 Sig, for example, the effect is worse. Hearing protection is a must.

While many homeowners keep handguns nearby in case of a home invasion, they all hope they never have to use them. If they did, the answer to the investigating officer's first question will be, "Huh?" And the hearing loss man not be temporary.

So it was interesting to see this article at Hotair.com: Should suppressors (a.k.a “silencers”) be more widely available for gun owners? The answer to that question should be an easy one although the author struggles with it.

The federal government treats silencers like they do machine guns. It's legal to own one, but there's a gauntlet any prospective owner has to run through.

But some states are changing their laws on the subject. Here's Reuters.com in Not just for hitmen: Gun industry wants looser rules on silencers:

The U.S. gun industry is trying to shake off the Hollywood hitman image of the gun silencer and rebrand it as a hearing-protection device in a campaign to roll back regulations that date to the 1930s.

Industry lobbying has led to more than a dozen states legalizing silencers for hunting since 2011. Now gun advocates are pressing Congress to repeal a Depression-era law that requires a months-long screening process for silencer buyers - far more scrutiny than gun buyers face.

Sales of silencers - or "suppressors," as the industry prefers to call them - are booming. The number of silencers registered with the U.S. government more than doubled to 792,282 in February 2015 from 360,534 in March 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Protect those ear drums. Age related hearing loss is bad enough.

Trump doing better in states in which Dems can vote in Republican primaries

A long time Democrat acquaintance made a habit of voting in the republican primaries for Ron Paul. For the longest time I thought it was because he liked Ron Paul.

On reflection, it's more clear that he was trying in a surreptitious way to get a Republican to get the nomination who would be easy for the Democrat to beat.

That's probably what is going on here.  See Trump doing better in 'open' primaries; Cruz sees success in GOP-only contests. Excerpts:

Trump does better in “open” primary contests where members of either party can vote, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tends to do better in "closed" contests limited only to registered Republicans. ...

To date, Trump has won a dozen contests, seven of which were open to voters regardless of party affiliation – and two of which have a hybrid system. He has won only three contests that were limited to registered Republicans – Nevada, Kentucky and Louisiana. (His victories in the latter two states were relatively tight.)

By contrast, five of Cruz’s six victories came in closed or semi-closed contests. The only exception was Texas, his home state.

Trump's explanation:

Trump likes to boast he’s growing the party beyond its traditional base, bringing in Democrats and minorities and other groups who might not normally support a Republican candidate.

Maybe. But maybe they think Hill/Bernie will do better against him than the others.

Presidential candidates are Rubik's cubes, but none of them will be aligned perfectly

What we have here running for president is a bunch of Rubik's cubes. A Rubik's cube straight out of the wrapper will have all sides perfectly aligned so that each of the six sides are one specific color. Start messing with it, and it gets misaligned pretty quickly. Getting it back to the original state is rather difficult for most of us. It's easy to get a couple of sides right. And it's not that hard to get three sides right. But getting all four sides perfect is impossible without knowing the code.

So what we have with the upcoming elections is a collection of Rubik's cubes. Each side of the cube represents an issue that appeals to voters. Some of the cubes have one or more sides aligned. However, none of the cubes have all sides aligned.

The typical voter will have to pick his favorite issue and pick the cube with that side aligned. That the other sides won't align is something the voter has to live with, because there's no way for the said typical voter to twist it himself to make it line up.

Donald Trump getting oral commitment from audience -- tactic proven by Obama to work

Fox News showed a scene from an Obama rally in Florida in which he asked an enthusiastic audience to raise their right hands and repeat after him a swear to vote for him.

The psychology professors on Obama's team in 2008 developed this tactic. Studies showed that if a person made a verbal commitment in front of others to do something, odds were that he/she would follow through and do it. It worked for Obama when the rock stars took a short break during their concerts to elicit a commitment for an Obama vote. It was only later when gadflies like your sleepless blogger learned of it.

Now Donald Trump is doing it -- Fox News is showing a sequence from an Obama rally in which he exhorts the audience recite an oath to vote for in the upcoming primary.

Familiarity with the tactic would seem to diminish its influence, but will it work for Trump as well as it worked for Obama? We'll see.

Updated: There's a photo!

Via Instapundit with "Springtime for Hitler" comparison from Ed Driscoll.

Is Don Rickles for hire as a joke writer? Don Trump, needs him for his insult comedy

Donald Trump alienates many in the TV audience when he tries out his insult comedy on his Republican opponents, because he's not that good a comic. Marco Rubio's efforts weren't half bad with the bit about the small hands. Trump is the one who needs help.

So where would Don Rickles fit in that mix? At least half of what makes a joke funny comes from the talent of the joke teller. That's why some comedians end up writing jokes for the ones with the best delivery. Some of the funny people we see on TV would be nothing without their writers.

Donald Trump has great delivery and would be a good comedian if he had good material. If only an insult comedian like Don Rickles would help him, his insult jokes might be funny.

While we wait: A Don Rickles compilation.

Hmm, could it be possible O.J. Simpson really is guilty of killing Nicole and Ron?

If this is true, it sure does make the LAPD look bad. Of course, the O.J. dream team did a *pretty good job of making the LAPD look bad, at least to the jury.

Now there are reports that a folding Buck knife was found buried on Simpson's premises but kept from investigators by a cop who wanted it as a souvenir. See Buried Knife Found at O.J.'s Estate

We're told a construction worker found the knife years ago -- we have heard several different stories, ranging from "several years ago" to 1998, when the house was demolished.

The weapon is a folding buck knife.

Our law enforcement sources say the construction worker took the knife to the street, where he saw an LAPD cop. He told the officer where he found the knife and the cop took it. Turns out the cop -- who worked in the traffic division -- was off duty at the time, working security for a movie shoot at a house across the street on Rockingham. Our sources say the officer took the knife home and kept it ... kept it for years.

In late January of this year, after the cop retired from the LAPD, he contacted a friend who worked in LAPD's Robbery Homicide Division (RHD). The cop told the friend about the knife and said he was getting it framed to put on his wall. He wanted his friend to get the DR (Departmental Record) number for the Nicole Brown Simpson/Ronald Goldman murder case, which he planned on engraving in the frame.

We're told the friend was indignant, and told his superiors. The brass was outraged and demanded that the retired cop turn the knife over, which he did.

The knife is being analyzed for blood evidence, according to the story.

*The one thing they did prove was that a good narrative can beat hard evidence.