What Are Kids Learning In School These Days?

The NY Times runs an open letter from Heads of Schools Against Gun Violence. New York area headmasters deliver the expected liberal plea, but we wonder about their relationship to the reality-based community:

The United States leads the world in the number of guns per capita; it leads in homicides, suicides and accidental deaths involving guns; and it leads the world in the number of children killed by and with guns, every year. In these grim statistical categories, no nation comes close to our level of violence and gun-related death.

Really? So if I look up Mexico or Brazil I will see they have a lower gun homicide rate? Or are neither Brazil nor Mexico "nations"? Isn't that a bit, hmm, Euro-centric? Or First Worldy, or anyway, something that liberals would deplore if they spotted it in a righty?

The US is a violent country (although the violent crime rate is apparently higher in Britain.) These heads of school could make a perfectly plausible point relying on facts, not fantasy.

BUT DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT: PolitiFact debunked this when it was a Fecebook meme.

Comments

[Rob Crawford]

The US is a violent country

Not particularly, it isn't. About middle of the road, and if you don't live in a Blue Hell Ghetto, it's as violent as Canada.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--The United States leads the world in the number of guns per capita; it leads in homicides, suicides and accidental deaths involving guns; and it leads the world in the number of children killed by and with guns, every year. In these grim statistical categories, no nation comes close to our level of violence and gun-related death.--

Rwanda and Burundi have many more machetes per capita than the USA. They also have homicide rates several times ours.
Jamaica has a homicide rate several times ours despite having fewer guns and draconian gun control laws.

--Isn't that a bit, hmm, Euro-centric? Or First Worldy, or anyway, something that liberals would deplore if they spotted it in a righty?--

White liberals expect no better behavior out of American blacks and Hispanics than that of inebriated chimps so why should we hope they'd raise their expectations for those little brown people outside our borders?

[narciso]

This is a kamikazi scotsman strategy;

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/01/17/new-gun-control-ad-this-congressman-kinda-sorta-killed-those-children-in-newtown/

[NJJan]

Looks like NY lawmakers forgot one teeny detail -- they forgot to exempt law enforcement from the new gun law. Their firearms will be illegal.

[NJJan]

Link to article on lack of police exemption

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news%2Flocal%2Fnew_york&id=8958116

[clarice feldman]

What dopes--these are all the top private schools in NYC, NRA should take out a counter ad embarrassing them for this stupidity.

[Stephanie]

Well now NY really is like London. Maybe the NY cops can put in an order for extra Mace like the bobbies just did .

[NJJan]

At least London is beefing up with tasers. Poor NYPD are outlaws!

[narciso]

He is like a quivering mass of rotten blancmange;

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/01/17/Christie-rips-NRA

[Extraneus]

They can fix that anytime. They can pass anything they want in NY, obviously.

[sbw]

In New York State, the government has this sort of thing called a "chapter amendment" which is used to put lipstick on the pig for which the legislators actually voted.

It allows the leaders to change things after the fact so say what they really meant.

New York hasn't had good government since the middle 1700s and probably long before that.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--He is like a quivering [planet sized] mass of rotten blancmange;--

Hope you don't mind a little collaboration ther, narc.

[matt]

I have NYPD in the family. They are not allowed to carry off duty weapons or their duty weapons when they commute.

How many times does one hear of an off-duty officer preventing a crime? Uh Huh. That is how stupid NY gun control is.

[matt]

In the UK gun crime has skyrocketed and more and more officers are armed.

[NJJan]

The article mentioned that the police could be exempted in an amendment, but how stupid can they be? It shows how little care and thought goes into these speed bills that nobody reads. I know, that's the plan.

As far as Christie is concerned, he has always been a gun control advocate. His only conservative inclination is budget wise in controlling teachers unions, etc. otherwise he is same old NE rino

[Danube of Thought]

I'll take a dozen:

[narciso]

It's the old 'we had to vote for it' gambit, meanwhile, 'transparency is for thee, but not for yee'

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/01/17/Holder-begs-court-to-indefinitely-delay-group-s-lawsuit-fighting-for-release-of-Obama-s-executive-privilege-Fast-and-Furious-documents

[Jane on Ipad]

I am so mad that F&F has been dropped like a rock. It really pisses me off.

[Danube of Thought]

MEXICO CITY - In all of Mexico, there is only one gun store. The shop, known officially as the Directorate of Arms and Munitions Sales, is operated by the Mexican military. The clerks wear pressed green camouflage. They are soldiers.

The only gun store in Mexico is not very busy.

And yet...and yet...

[narciso]

You remember that their records were the ones, that were used to track F&F weapons, by Univision to that particular attack.

[Extraneus]

'There is no plan': Looming defense cuts already have contractors shedding jobs

What winning & losing looks like.

[Janet]

Here is the problem with teacher groups -
Teachers Group Picks Left-Wing Terrorist Bill Ayers To Address Their Annual Meeting…

Are any of the Heads of Schools Against Gun Violence in The Association of Teacher Educators?

[matt]

That sounds like the opening credits of a modern spaghetti western, DoT.

Outside, the man with no name smoked a cigar, waiting....

[narciso]

Didn't Eli Wallach play the Mexican, Tuco, in at least one of the Sergio Leone films.

[Rob Crawford]

C'mon, we ALL know why they left out the part about John Barrow's gun stopping a lynching: the lynch mob was made up of Democrats in good standing.

[narciso]

One curious detail, from the ABC piece;

State Senator Eric Adams, a former NYPD Captain, told us he's going to push for an amendment next week to exempt police officers from the high-capacity magazine ban. In his words, "You can't give more ammo to the criminals"

Of course, one recalls he was often attacking Guiliani for one thing or another, but how did he miss this little detail,

[NJJan]

Narciso@8:56pm
It is easy to miss when you don't read the bill.

[narciso]

Well yes, and he's said enough foolish things including last year, for one not to give him the benefit of the doubt,

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--In the UK gun crime has skyrocketed and more and more officers are armed.--

matt,
Never point out that tidbit without the accompanying info that gun crime [and all crime] has skyrocketed precisely during the time the UK virtually banned private ownership of firearms except for double shotguns or the occasional bolt action rifle.
And the exact same thing happened in Australia when they did the exact same thing.

The corollary to John Lott's famous equation;
Less guns = more crime.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Didn't Eli Wallach play the Mexican, Tuco, in at least one of the Sergio Leone films.--

Yeah, he was "The Ugly".

[jorod]

Most gun violence occurs where democrats are in control and the welfare state is strongest.

[narciso]

How about you've been pushing this, for 16 years if not longer;

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/healer-chief_696204.html?nopager=1

[not_bubarooni]

Don't be rubes.

Everyone knows that "We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it."

I heard a solon say that on TV once so I reckon it must be true.

[Jim Miller]

As far as murders per 100,000, Venezuela is way, way ahead of the United States. And the rate has soared while Hugo Chavez has been in power, while ours has been falling.

According to this Wikipedia article, their rate is either 75 per 100,000 (unofficial) or 48 per 100,000 (official). Even the second number is about ten times as high as ours is currently.

(I have no idea what kind of gun laws they have in Venezuela -- though I was intrigued, recently, to learn that gangs inside their prisons have "assault rifles". The article with that info did not explain why those gangs did not use their weapons to break out. Possibly, the prison was as good a headquarters for their illegal activities as they could find.)

Moral: If you want to reduce murders, don' put someone like Chavez in power.

[Rob Crawford]

I heard a solon say that on TV once so I reckon it must be true.

I think you meant for a 'c' instead of an 's' in that fourth word.

[Cecil Turner]

The United States leads the world in the number of guns per capita; it leads in homicides, suicides and accidental deaths involving guns;

Even if that were true (which it isn't), it's a bull$#!t statistic. There's little doubt that if the government were able to rid the country of guns that gun violence would decrease . . . the question is whether thugs would just substitute other weapons and that overall violence would remain high (or increase). I don't think the UK statistics are quite as bad as John Lott makes out . . . but it certainly doesn't inspire a lot of confidence on the only meaningful measure of merit.

[matt]

Chavez made a bulk purchase of AK-47's, presumably the automatic ones, for his militias several years ago.

Venezuela has always been very violent, but when this occurred, the crime rates skyrocketed.We were on Bonaire a couple of years ago and wanted to go white marlin fishing out of La Guaira, and were told emphatically by our captain, who was Venezuelan, not to go.

[Threadkiller (Get off your couch and leave the GOP!)]

"More than a third of Americans — and 64 percent of Republicans — believe that President Barack Obama might be hiding something, according to a new poll Thursday.

Thirty-six percent of the surveyed voters think the president is possibly “hiding important information about his background and early life,” the Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind survey found.

Sixty-four percent of Republicans think the president isn’t coming clean, 33 percent of independents agree, and 14 percent of Democrats say so, too.

“This conspiracy theory is much more widely believed mostly because it’s been discussed so often,” said Dan Cassino, a professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson. “People tend to believe that where there’s smoke, there’s fire — so the more smoke they see, the more likely they are to believe that something is going on.”"

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/poll-obamas-hiding-something-86349.html

Surprised?

[matt]

They're getting the band back together! LUN

[Janet]

A good Sultan Knish - You Cannot Be More Liberal Than A Liberal

"Modern American Liberalism is the movement of a wealthy white upper class meant to suppress the working class and the mercantile class."
and -
"What you cannot be, however, is more liberal than a liberal on any issue because there is no such thing. The issue is a means. Diversity is a means of creating a base that is dependent on the liberal elite and loyal to them. So are unions, and just about every liberal policy there is. And the means cannot be used to subvert the ends."

[daddy]

OT.

I don't know what you guys are talking about on this thread but if you hurry up you can still get tickets to Wasilla High Schools 29th Annual Gun and Outdoor Show.

The cost of admission to the show in the High School this Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm, will be $5.

Let's all get out there and cling to our guns and religion in support of Wasilla Warriors Hockey.

Go Warriors!

[Stephanie]

so TNT is showing a new show tonight called "King of the Nerds" a reality show to crown a winner for being the biggest nerd .

Question . How can you be a nerd and be a winner ? You're either a nerd or a winner . I didn't think those subsets overlapped .

[Stephanie]

oops . it's on tbs not TNT . the point still stands .

[Threadkiller]

How can you be a nerd and be a winner ?

You get 51% of the vote in a Presidential election.

[Stephanie]

Zero is not a nerd . a doofus yes but not a nerd . he's not a smart person .

[Threadkiller]

nerd = smart?

[daddy]

Re: Janet's 08:30.

So a large Teachers Association, a group that always nags us about how awful guns and violence are, have invited Bill Ayers to speak, a guy who is on record as saying that 25 million Americans need to be liquidated in order to achieve his new American order.

Yet its the NRA that are the bad guys.

[daddy]

Looks like NY lawmakers forgot one teeny detail -- they forgot to exempt law enforcement from the new gun law. Their firearms will be illegal.

NjJan,

Another perfect example of why the Congressman that disagreed with Dennis Miller was right today and why Dennis was dead wrong.

Guess they had to pass it to see what was in it.

[Walter]

So I've a .38 revolver + speedloader and 20+ years of concealed carry licenses in SF (including a laminated card with DiFi's home and work numbers when she was the mayor).

Should I sell it as a gun or is it more valuable as a collectible set?

[narciso]

Sometimes, Dennis is not cynical enough about what they intend,

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/01/17/In-His-Own-Words-Chuck-Hagel-s-False-History-of-Israel

[Danube of Thought iPad]

"There's little doubt that if the government were able to rid the country of guns that gun violence would decrease . . . "

And of course the leftist believes that if guns are outlawed, the country will be rid of guns. Just as, nearly a century ago, our moral superiors believed that if liquor were outlawed, there would be no liquor.

We have many, many politicians who, like Chuck U. Schumer, have absolutely no idea how gun-owning Americans feel about their guns. Fortunately, we have many more who understand those feelings very well.

I almost wish they would go ahead and outlaw them, just so I could watch what happens. If ever unintended consequences were to arise with cataclysmic force, that would be the time.

[Frau Ekelhaft]

It seems the AFT approves of bombs but not guns. Figures.
Where are the protesters outside? With bullhorns. And giant puppets of bloody-handed Weathermen. Pictures of Billy the Bomber as Hitler. Hecklers inside to disrupt the speaker and toss red liquid everywhere.
I can dream.

The organizers are as disgusting as Ayers.
Pfui!

[Frau Ekelhaft]

The chickenschmitz-
Billy the Bomber had to call the police when a journalist tried to talk to him outside his house.

[Frau Ekelhaft]

DoT - we are now living in an age of unintended consequences.

Jerry Brown in his own personal attempt at social justice and redistribution wants to take school funds from achieving school districts and give them to low achieving ones. It pays to fail.

The world turned upside down.

[daddy]

Polar Bear Update:

Residents of polar bear-besieged Canadian village cry out for more hunting

Scientists say that the reason this northern Canadian village is being overrun by Polar Bears is because of changes in sea ice brought on by climate change.

But Frightened residents say bears have stalked them, peered in their windows and killed their sled dogs... and say there are plenty of healthy polar bears and more hunting is needed.

Who you gonna' believe?

In private, many scientists dismiss [villager] views as folklore...scientists also suggest that the “perceived increase” of polar bears is actually caused by stressed, hungry bears wandering into communities.

Inuit hunter Darryl Baker scoffs at this contention. “Most of the bears coming into Arviat are fat and healthy. I skinned the bear that stalked my daughter last spring, and it had lots of fat on it.”

Tough call. Lets turn to the outcast Enviro Scientist.

In 2012, the Nunavut government conducted a long-awaited census of western Hudson Bay polar bears and came up with 1,013 animals, or about twice as many as the number projected by Environment Canada. Dr. Mitch Taylor, a lifelong polar bear scientist who, at times, has been ostracized by his peers for insisting that polar bear populations are generally stable, took some satisfaction from the results. “The Inuit were right. There aren’t just a few more bears. There are a hell of a lot more bears.”

[daddy]

Forgot the pic:

[narciso]

Interesting in checking a supposed rebuttal by Kessler to the NRA ad, one finds this, in his wiki;

Kessler's reporting played a role in two foreign policy controversies during the presidency of George W. Bush. He was called to testify in the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in which he was questioned about a 2003 telephone conversation with Libby in which the name of Valerie Plame, a CIA operative, might have been discussed.[4] (Libby recalled they had discussed Plame; Kessler said they did not.[5]) Meanwhile, a 2004 telephone conversation between Kessler and Steve J. Rosen, a senior official at American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), was at the core of the AIPAC leaking case.[6] The federal government recorded the call and made it the centerpiece of its 2005 indictment of Rosen and an alleged co-conspirator; the charges were dropped in 2009.

[daddy]

Narciso,

Since you pay attention to up here, our in-state Repub Party is back to the process of imploding all over again. Fines and fireworks on eve of Alaska GOP leadership hearing.

Outgoing Party Chair Randy Ruedrich appears to be behind lawsuits and orchestrations to prevent his replacement, Ron Paulian supported Russ Millette, from taking over after he won the Election to succeed Ruedrich. It's all playing out tonight at a small Party Headquarters building where many Milette supporters have been locked out, and as a bonus Dan Fagan has been back doing the TalK Radio circuit all week to give play by play. I'm waiting for the local nightly news broadcast at 10:00 for the latest.

It's like Deja Vu' all over again.

Anyhow, thought you might find it of interest. I think I just hate everybody but I'm not completely sure:)

[narciso]

'It's that extraordinary feeling, that we've been somewhere before' isn't it daddy, and Fagan is back, and so are the retainers for the House of Lannister, I mean Murkowski, are running the deal,

[Danube of Thought iPad]

"More than a third of Americans — and 64 percent of Republicans — believe that President Barack Obama might be hiding something, according to a new poll Thursday.

"Thirty-six percent of the surveyed voters think the president is possibly 'hiding important information about his background and early life,' the Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind survey found."

More than 50% of Americans thought he should have a second term as president, a nationwide survey on November 6 found.

[daddy]

Fun for everyone!

Make your very own EPA Secret Identity E-mail account!

Was listening to Glenn Beck on the headsets a bit today, and they revealed that the phony name EPA Boss Lisa Jackson used to skirt Govt accountability Laws in her E-mails, was made in the following manner:

First name is the name of your first pet, and the second name is the name of the street on which you lived as a kid. Lisa became "Richard Windsor."

So I'm Tuck Gabelsbergerstraße.

Tuck (a beagle)
Gabelsbergerstraße---(our street in Heidelberg)

I think Gabelsbergerstraße might mean Blackberry Street but I need Frau's help.

Anyhow, can anyone beat Tuck Gabelsbergerstraße for their EPA handle?

[Mark Folkestad]

Daddy, that may sound cumbersome to you, but my secret EPA e-mail addy would be Spanky Ninth Street South. I'm still screwed if I use the addresses of my two later childhood homes, Sixteenth Street South and Fifteenth Street West. Maybe I could use our lake home address? Indian Beach Road? Or town names? Montevideo has a touch the exotic/Latin about it, although we mangle the pronunciation.

[Mark Folkestad]

Oh, Daddy, my first pet was a beagle, as well.

[Mark Folkestad]

Gabelsberger would not mean blackberry. It was probably named after someone with that surname, most likely a fellow famed for inventing a form of shorthand writing. I look forward to Frau's clarification.

[Jane on Ipad]

Walter,

That's spectacular, and worth a bundle.

Daddy, that combo is supposed to be your stripper name. Mine is Mandy Sterling.

[squaredance]

Well, speaking of dog stories, I ran across this.

If only our fellows where a millionth as loyal.

[NJJan]

My name would be Tippy Parkview.

[henry]

Fun with the EO's -- apply them to the 1st Amendment. Not many words change, and the results are frightening.

[Mark Folkestad]

Oh, come on, I couldn't be the only one to have grown up on numbered streets! Jane, don't talk about this referring to a stripper name. If you knew how far I am from being a Chippendale, you'd hurl at such an association. I'm almost ready to. Yuck. Women would stick money in my clothes to get me to keep them ON. NJJan, that would be a cool secret e-mail name.

[Patriot4Freedom]

daddy - Whoo-hoo ! Sounds like a great idea.
I get to be named "Sir Rayen" - I always had aspirations to royalty. Thanks Dad, for naming our Dobermann Pinscher "Sir".

btw, Gabelsberger may mean "Person from fork hill/pitchfork hill/spire hill" in the classical definition. Most likely, as mentioned by Mark Folkestad, it was named after a Herr Gabelsberger, whose family probably came from a village named Gabelsberg at one time.

[Mark Folkestad]

Lenin got his mail, addressed to a fictitious name, at an address on Gabelsbergerstrasse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Xaver_Gabelsberger is the link to a brief Wiki article on the guy the street may be named after.

[henry]

By Daddy's naming convention I become "Flipper Rio Grand". (My first pet was a fish).

[Mark Folkestad]

Phooey, forget the Lenin mention above. He got his mail at an address on a street of the same name in Munich, rather than in Daddy's natal Heidelberg.

Henry, now that might be a great name for a Chippendale dancer, per Jane's formulation. You may have a new career ahead, perhaps on a triple billing with Jane as Mandy Sterling and NJJan as Tippy Parkview!

[henry]

Funny Mark. I have the poise and grace of a seasoned athlete, but no ability to dance.

[Mark Folkestad]

Excellent comeback, Henry!

[narciso]

It's a very Pythonesque world we live in, with Cleese's pet fish, and the interminable Count
name, mine would be Monty Bergenline, how vaudeville could one get.

[jimmyk]

Love that dog story at squaredance's link. Didn't someone here link a story about a dog who went to his owner's graveside every day?

So Ms Jackson really had a pet named Richard? We had a pooch named George, though we didn't choose the name. Just call me George Renfrew.

[centralcal]

G'morning. I am reporting in as Sandy Weatherly.

What a fun way of creating a new identity.

[clarice feldman]

be careful--most people use pet's first name and your first address as retrieval identification info for lost passwords.

[Threadkiller]

--"More than 50% of Americans thought he should have a second term as president, a nationwide survey on November 6 found."--

Total Americans = 311,591,917

Total votes for Obama in 2012 = 65,899,660

That doesn't add up to more than 50%.

[Captain Hate]

Love that dog story at squaredance's link.

Me too; except it gets me depressed at how unfavorably most of our elected officials compare to the character of the dog.

I had been regularly listening to the Andrea Tantaros show after Laura Ingraham went on hiatus but probably won't now since she, like Laura, is giving that a-hole Pat Buchanan a forum for his bigoted stupidity. I guess Pat gave her a start in politics but showing loyalty to that creep is as ill placed as when Palin campaigned for McRINO.

[narciso]

I don't think that's it, with her clerkship for Clarence Thomas, she had easy entree into the Domestic Policy shop, where she worked, before ending up for a time, at MSNBC's larval incarnation, and for a time, even See BS, I don't she needed Pat's help for that,

[OldTimer]

Yeah, TK...and how many millions of those votes are a result of being counted by Chuck Hagel's voting machines. (Couldn't resist :)

[Captain Hate]

Well narc, she gave him credit for something having to do with her career path before I turned it off.

[squaredance]

Note that with the story about the Inuits and bears that the Canadian leftists here treated the Inuits actually living out there with the bears with the most extreme sort condescension and contempt. Two things are worth noting here: 1) The Canadian "diversity" mobsters are constantly using "The first Nations", and in particular the Inuits, to push their toxic, Marxist claptrap, and 2) it is doubtful that any of these loons could survive a winter in one of these villages even if they did not have to deal with the wildlife. Throw in actually having to deal with just one polar bear; now throw in actually having to earn a living in one of these "villages". Take it from me: you can bet you Hudson Bay point blanket that these lunatics would be high-tailing it to the nearest 3 start hotel, and pronto two hours into the very first day of Winter.

Note as well that we can be fairly certain that of all things the Inuit would know about, a pronounced practical knowledge of the polar bear would most likely be towards the top of the list.

The degenerate level of insincerity, intellectual and moral dishonesty, and the actual contempt for the "native people's" is only equaled by their contempt for reality itself even when that reality is snarling right up against the glass.

These are the people running the Western World.

What pompous, self important scoundrels. Not only do they get it wrong about the bears, but they insult people that elsewhere they use to manipulate "policy".

[maryrose]

My stripper name would be "Boots Drakefield"Elegant yet racy at the same time.

[Ralph L]

Lancelot Ivanhoe

[kave]

Swear on the bible mine would be....

Fuzzy Liberal