News

Happy Academic Freedom Day

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You can counter the Darwin Day celebrations with these articles on intelligent design and academic freedom. I got these in my e-mail from the Discovery Institute Center for Science and Culture.

Podcasts

John Lott debates gun control on Canadian radio show

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John Lott is probably the best known academic researcher on gun laws and the effects of gun ownership on crime rates. He discussed the topic on a Canadian radio station CKNW, and did a great job of covering many of the important points in the debate. The commercial-free show is available here. If you are a Canadian, or if you have never heard the other side of the gun control debate, then you need to spend 18 minutes listening to the case against gun control. The case against gun control is something you may never hear about in the mainstream media.

Here is a summary of some of the points he touches on during the dialog.

  • Lott begins by noting that guns can be used in tragic ways, but that they can also be used to prevent crimes. The only way to decide whether gun ownership should be allowed is to compare the ratio between the tragic incidents against defensive gun usage incidents.
  • Lott also briefly discusses the media bias in reporting on firearms. The media selects stories that result in actual violence, so that the vast number of defensive gun uses go unreported. These defensive gun uses seldom involve injuries, or even firing a shot. Instead, a crime is prevented by merely displaying or brandishing the weapon, which scares off the assailant.
  • Lott notes that gun control laws are only obeyed by law abiding citizens, never by criminals. Thus, the only purpose gun control serves is to increase crime rates by disarming the potential victims of criminal activity. He also argues that gun bans actually increase violent crime and murder rates in countries where bans have been implemented.
  • Lott compares crime rates in the USA and Canada using official United Nations surveys. Lott notes that most of the crime in the USA is due to gang violence, and as such is isolated to small areas within a few counties.
  • Lott addresses Canada’s gun registries and gun laws specifically. He explains why gun registries are virtually useless for lowering crime rates. Lott also discusses concealed carry laws in the USA, and their effect on crime rates.
  • Lott also notes that concealed-carry permit holders commit fewer crimes than off-duty police officers. In other words, private gun ownership doesn’t cause crime, and gun owners are extremely law-abiding.

But there is hope for Canada. This press release, (dated February 9, 2009), states that:

Saskatchewan M.P. Garry Breitkreuz has introduced a Private Members’ Bill to scrap the decade-old Canadian long-gun registry (see link below to Bill C-301).

The long-gun registry was originally budgeted to cost Canadians $2 million, but the price tag spiraled out of control to an estimated $2 billion a decade later. Breitkreuz says it’s time to pull the plug on this useless money pit, because the registry has not saved one single life since it was introduced.

Finally, this video clip is a hilarious knock on gun control laws.

Videos

New RNC chairman Michael Steele debates the porkulus on Fox News

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We have a new chairman of the Republican National Committee, former lieutenant-governor of Maryland, Michael Steele.

Steele’s first action on taking command of the Republican party was to clean house. In this clip, he goes toe to toe with DNC chairman Tim Kaine on the porkulus package. Boy, is it great to have someone who understands fiscal conservatism and can actually talk about it.

Economist Tom Sowell explains in this piece why Steele is a great choice for conservatives and libertarians.

Steele not only knows how to talk, he seems to understand the need to talk. In his appearances on television over the years, he has been assertive rather than apologetic. When attacked, he has counter-attacked, not whined defensively, like too many other Republicans. And when criticizing the current administration, Steele won’t have to pull his punches when going after Barack Obama, for fear of being called a racist.

For details on what is actually in the porkulus bill, check out Tom Coburn’s list.

Here are my favorites:

  • $39 billion slush fund for “state fiscal stabilization” bailout
  • $5.5 billion for making federal buildings “green” (including $448 million for DHS HQ)
  • $1.3 billion for NASA (including $450 million for “science” at NASA)
  • $1.5 billion for carbon capture projects under sec. 703 of P.L. 110-140 (though section only authorizes $1 billion for five years)
  • $850 million for Amtrak

Do Democrats even care about history? Stimulus packages did not work for FDR in the 1930s, or for Japan in the 1990s. Not only that, but Michelle Malkin is reporting that the porkulus bill contains a mechanism to nationalize health care. I already blogged in detail about how well nationalized health care works in the UK and Canada.

UPDATE: Here is an article that an atheist Obama supporter sent me that shows why the porkulus is such a bad idea. Needless to say, he is shocked – shocked – that Obama is doing exactly what he said he would do during the campaign. Porkulus!

UPDATE 2: Economist Walter Williams argues that not only will porkulus drive us into a depression, but that it is also unconstitutional. Here is economist Tom Sowell’s take on porkulus, “Using long, drawn-out processes to put money into circulation to meet an emergency is like mailing a letter to the fire department to tell them that your house is on fire.” Paul over at triablogue laments that we have not reached the day where we give equal credence to the conclusions of eminent black economists, like Williams and Sowell, in Washington.