Nummification

Ace hits the nail square with the hammer here, as only he can phrase it:

We are indeed becoming a more childlike people. We are more and more shirking the expected obligations of adulthood, such as marriage and procreation, and even more basically, we’re rejecting the obligation of adults to actually think, in terms of numbers, and of best outcomes, and so forth.

The national mode of thinking is now Nummy. “We” — and by we I mean Americans, not “we” meaning us here right now — increasingly think in terms of cute, and easy, and glib, and dumb, and fun.

Why boycott Barilla? Do we really support a world in which every utterance, act, thought, belief, or gesture must be pre-cleared with the 100-million-strong leftist Committee of the Whole before we dare it?

Nicely put. Now I think I’ll go watch some anime and play some Final Fantasy XIV.

final_fantasy_xiv

Blackbeard’s ship being raised

Too bad I didn’t run across this, from the History Blog, for Talk Like A Pirate Day-

Engraving-of-BB-with-fuses-woven-in-his-hair-e1306554550502

The Queen Anne’s Revenge has been found and is being raised:

The Queen Anne’s Revenge, the flagship of the notorious English pirate Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard, has been lying on the ocean floor off the coast of Beaufort Inlet in the Inner Banks of North Carolina since it ran aground in May 1718. It was discovered in 1996 by Intersal Inc., a private research firm that has searched for several shipwrecks under the oversight of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources (NCDCR). The wreck and all artifacts belong to the state and in 1997 NCDCR archaeologists began a long-term project of exploring, mapping and documenting the debris field.

It looks like they’re going to get all of it that’s left

“The project calls for the recovery of all the materials. Everything. All the weapons, all the bits of the ship, all the personal items. Everything. If it’s down there, it’s coming up,” project leader Billy Ray Morris told FoxNews.com on Wednesday.

Morris and a group of 14 marine archaeologists, technicians and restoration experts from the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources believe the Queen Anne’s Revenge itself is a treasure trove, a unique repository of history from centuries ago. They plan to salvage the entire remains of the pirate ship by 2014. Cannon by cannon, plank by plank.

This will be a uniquely rich source of information about life on an 18th century pirate ship. There aren’t any shiny chests of treasure to hog the spotlight (Blackbeard and his crew had time to unload high value items after the ship ran aground which seems to have been a deliberate choice). It’s a treasure trove of social history with the additional cachet of association with and use by one of the famous pirates ever.

Awesome.

Sitting in the snow

SharanskyFreedom
Anatoly Sharansky set free in 1986

 

Maetenloch at AoS points to an insightful reminder from William Jacobson that the solution to tyranny is not “go along, let it collapse on its own, let it burn”:

As Sharansky was being led to the airplane that would take him from the Soviet Union to East Germany for the exchange, the Soviets confiscated his book of psalms. It would have been easy for Sharansky simply to keep walking towards the plane and freedom. But Sharansky understood that the Soviets confiscated his book of psalms not because they wanted the book, but because they wanted to show that even in this last moment, they were in control.

In front of reporters covering his departure, Sharansky sat in the snow refusing to move unless the Soviets gave him back his book of psalms. Here was this diminutive man, after 10 years in prison, on the verge of freedom, refusing to budge unless one of the world’s two superpowers gave him back his book. And give him back his book of psalms they did.

Do any of us still have the stones to just refuse? Refuse to go along with a travesty? Will we sit in the snow with freedom beckoning 100 yards away?

Other voices, other cultures, universal truths

crimfollowlaw

Sometimes it is interesting to get a perspective from ‘across the pond’- in this case, Gates of Vienna:

“Gun Control” is nothing new. In fact, it’s been around for much longer than guns have existed. It’s been a universal phenomenon amongst human societies. And it’s never been about public safety. It has been, and always will be, an act of caste stratification and population control.

In ancient Feudal societies all around the world, notably China and Japan and many parts of Europe and the Middle-East, peasants and plebeians were prohibited from owning weapons. When the ruling aristocrats and feudal land-owners required a military force, their trusted retainers would issue arms to conscripted peasant-levies, and send them into battle as vanguards of the main force. After battle finished and the troops had looted the field, the retainers would retrieve these weapons and send the serfs back to work. Why were the commoners prohibited from possession of weapons?

Simple.

To prevent uprisings.

Folks over here should keep this in mind when they hear the mindless cries to ‘outlaw those awful guns’. They’re the only thing that truly keeps you free.

Just because you’re paranoid

Doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. Via Ace of Spades:

Some random clicking led me to this NPR piece on red light cameras which was interesting.

What’s the point of a red-light camera — to make intersections safer or to generate revenue? That’s the question prompted by researchers at the University of Tennessee, who say the cameras are sometimes used in ways that are more likely to make money than to improve safety.

Real shocker that something sold to the public for “safety” would be perverted into a revenue maker that might actually compromise safety, right?

OK, you’re done rolling your eyes now I suppose…moving on…

In other news, water is wet, sun rises in east, and progs are batshite crazy.