An atrocity, certainly—

Georgia massage parlors turn into war zones as police unravel deadly shooting scenes

"War zones."

AS police "unravel shooting scenes."

End homelessness in Los Angeles? That's an ambitious project for a city of 4 million.

I presume they'll use Brazil's approach: move them out the of the way and out of sight.

If you want to see fun and games WRT firearms and shootings, go to google.com and search on this:

mass shooting surge

Looks like Gannet is preparing the battle space on HR 127 to get people to favor passage.

• Darth—

> Looks like Gannet is preparing
> the battle space on HR 127 to
> get people to favor passage.

Just mouthing off here, but I don't think it can happen. It's not a matter of sports loyalty to Bidenoids vs. Trumpanistas. Neither team on the gun debate has shown the social or political competence to cause any meaningful persuasion.

IIUC, the NRA fell apart due to typical organizational corruption. By 2021, there's no reason to think they were capable of leading the discussion on GC.

But the people who like guns are sincere, as are those who think the desires of the gun owners can and should be overwhelmed.

• Truly innovative housing, including novel reuse, is often attractive. But this seems almost suicide-inducing.

These days it’s GOA (Gun Owners of America) who is doing the lion’s share of fighting the political battles.
A lot of us life members can’t wait for the NRA to fail, as long as it takes down Wayne La Pierre in the process.

Good news - Trump is recommending that people get vaccinated.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/16/trump-americans-covid-vaccine-476479

But this seems almost suicide-inducing. ~ Crid at March 17, 2021 7:56 AM

Apparently it was. The tweet is no longer available.

==========

Neither team on the gun debate has shown the social or political competence to cause any meaningful persuasion. ~ Crid at March 17, 2021 7:56 AM

With one or two exceptions, no one on either team is offering cogent arguments for their points of view. That's because the majority of voices in the debate are letting emotions rule the debate and only debating the issue in an echo chamber. They're not hearing the other side and are focusing on the bugbear in the debate, the gun itself, not the causes driving the shooters.

What's driving seemingly normal folks to engage in random shootings? Those folks may not be "mentally ill" according to the DSM-V, but surely there is something mis-wired in them that we should be focusing on identifying. Well-adjusted people do not snap and go on shooting sprees. What do the perpetrators of crimes like this have in common? What drives them?

> The tweet is no longer

A mundane, low-rise postwar school conversion.

"Our bathrooms have two toilets!"

"We have plenty of space for neighborhood kids to play!"

What's driving seemingly normal folks to engage in random shootings? Those folks may not be "mentally ill" according to the DSM-V, but surely there is something mis-wired in them that we should be focusing on identifying. Well-adjusted people do not snap and go on shooting sprees. What do the perpetrators of crimes like this have in common? What drives them?

Conan the Grammarian at March 17, 2021 8:57 AM

The anti gunners like to add in all gang violence in order to make the problems seem a lot worse than they actually are.

When you take out the crime rates of the inner cities, there is no real gun violence problem in America. At least not compared to other causes of death for each age cohort.

The devil is in the details, here's the relevant piece -emphasis mine- within the article:

Following the confrontation at the school, Dr. Epstein left, but would soon find a letter from the expensive college prep school sent to her, her estranged husband, and the attorneys for both parties.

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1371941404306513927

The 30 day clock is now counting down - a window for signers to recant their support for the Newsom recall (now at 2 million signatures).

Perhaps this explains the onslaught of BS coming from the Governor, blaming political opponents, racists, and now anti-vaxxers for his troubles?

When told me about them not being dishonest and just plain morons, this popped in my mind:

I don't have any social media clout, so spreading a name such as Caldwell Syndrome is not going to happen.

https://twitter.com/moldbugman/status/1303567130093264900

Note, near bottom of the page, the illustrative photo selected for the #1 city…

At first glance, it looked like "police." Wokies can really fuck with your head.

Journalist/lawyer/Newsweek contributing editor Dahlia Lithwick shows all the exhausting, expensive lengths people have to go to in order to get vaccinated - and talks about those who have gone through very similar experiences.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/will-this-vaccine-debacle-help-us-realize-why-abortion-access-is-such-a-big-deal/ar-BB1eEKCa?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBnb7Kz

I wonder how far out into the suburbs Garcetti plans on chasing the LA homeless, and for how long he thinks it will work? Or would he be afraid of a backlash from the suburbs?

Or does he just plan on incarcerating them all in a makeshift FEMA-style camp someplace and hope the ACLU doesn't find a courtroom quickly?

Or will they be giving out bus tickets to cities in Texas or Arizona instead? Seems to me NYC did something like that at one point.

The cheapest plan would probably just pick a place in the desert and provide free drugs and booze. If any are still alive after that and drift back into LA, the Olympics will be long over.

"Caldwell Syndrome"

That Revel quote regarding Utopia is spot on.

Worthwhile photographic gag, calls to mind Amy's friend Gary.

I've never understood that argument, "When you take out all the people effected by problem X, X is not really a problem".

Yes, when you don't count the people affected by gun violence we do not have a gun violence problem.

When you don't count the people who died of Corona, there is no Corona problem.

etc. etc.

You can't not count the people who are having the issue.

I've never understood that argument, "When you take out all the people effected by problem X, X is not really a problem".

Yes, when you don't count the people affected by gun violence we do not have a gun violence problem.”

When you don’t account for outliers, you can’t do a valid statistical study.

Knowing where the problems are can be the first step in a tailored solution. Maybe high crime areas need more police, and/or they need to enforce their already plentiful gun laws already on the books?

Do you also think that if an inordinate number of people are getting killed by speeding while drunk driving on a certain section of the Long Island expressway, the logical solution is a nation wide 55 mile an hour federally imposed speed limit?
And possibly a ban on alcohol sales to everyone?

This pretty much mirrors the gun grabbers arguments, and their solutions.

NicoleK, back in the 1970s or so, Richard Pryor said:

"Now they're calling taking drugs an epidemic - that's cos white folks are doing it."

I don't know if he ever repeated that, regarding anything else.

But...it's worth noting that, on the back cover of a 1980 novel by a well-known (white) author for teens, it says:

"(She) can't believe her father has been killed. Things like this don't happen in real life - a man doesn't get shot to death in a holdup at his 7-Eleven Store."

Lenona~ "Good news - Trump is recommending that people get vaccinated."

Why are you surprised by this? Who do you think paved the way for all the vaccines? He was mocked for Operation Warp Speed and for saying that we would have a vaccine in a year. We now have three and will reach herd immunity by late April or May. The Pfizer vaccine was ready in October. So yeah, he wants people to take the vaccine. You don't have to love the guy to acknowledge the truth.

So why didn't he encourage his voters to get appointments while he was still in office? Or, for that matter, emphasize the importance of masks at all times, in public, once ALL the doctors agreed on that? He could have saved a lot of lives.

He got the vaccine secretly in January, but the news didn't get released until this month. Unlike Pence, who got the shot on camera.

I also remember hearing a maskless Trump voter being interviewed - maybe in the late summer. Asked if she would wear a mask if Trump ordered her to, she said "yes, of course."

You really have no memory Lenona?

The first covid vaccine approved for use in the US happened Dec 11. Trump left office roughly one month later. You really don't remember what Trump was doing all through December and January?

Are you also unaware the vaccine wasn't approved for general use. It was supposed to be restricted to those who were most vulnerable.

Read that again. I said "get appointments." As in "be prepared, long in advance, even if it turns out to be unnecessary. Better be safe than sorry."

He could have started saying it long before the vaccine was even approved. Why not? All he would have needed was the right speechwriter.

It only takes a few seconds to say.

You can't get an appointment for a drug not approved by the FDA, Lenona. No hospital or doctor would accept such a thing. The bigger question is why do you think such a thing would be possible?

OK. But he still could have said, in a tweet if nothing else: "get an appointment as soon as the vaccine is approved."

And he could have tweeted that more than once, for almost the whole year. (How long does it take to tweet, anyway? I can't imagine he couldn't find the time to do it at least once a week, even in December and January.)

Just as, starting 12 months ago, he could have EASILY urged his voters to outdo the Democrats - and put them to shame - when it came to diligent mask wearing and hand washing. As in: "let's show them who the really smart ones are!"

Bottom line: there is no excuse for the POTUS not to try EVERYTHING to save endangered American lives.

For that matter, even after the inauguration, what excuse was there for him not to urge his voters to do everything Dr. Fauci is recommending and then some? Does he want to see half his base die off by 2024?

Ok. Whatever Lenona. Let me know when you come back to planet earth.

I hope you realize people who voted for Trump are at most looking at a 0.46% annual mortality rate from covid if no one ever got vaccinated. After four years that comes out to ~1.8%. And I'm not being anti-vax or anything like that. People at reasonable risk should get vaccinated. And people in high risk categories should be given preferential access compared to the general population. It is just that those are the numbers. And they are the numbers on the high side. The real numbers are probably under 0.2% after 4 years.

If you don't believe me here is the source on age adjusted mortality rates for covid.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2918-0

Pew has all the demographics for the last couple of elections. Run the numbers yourself.

You like to call me hysterical when I try to bring you back from fantasy land. Here you are shocked that Trump isn't an anti-vaxer. Information that was available to any reasonably informed person. Then you were offended Trump didn't tell people to do the impossible. Now you are offended Trump didn't send you tweets you didn't know you wanted until today while having some other fantasy about millions dying next year. Are you sure you can tell which one of us is hysterical?

You like to call me hysterical when I try to bring you back from fantasy land. Here you are shocked that Trump isn't an anti-vaxer.
__________________________________

Talk about hysteria. That is a lie. All I said was "good news." I never thought he was an anti-vaxer; I was just a little surprised he cared enough to say anything, now that he's out.

You conveniently left out the fact that patients who recover from COVID often have serious long-term effects.

Trump has never been very emphatic about the importance of masks (or even worn one very often - a terrible non-move), and you know it. Over and over, doctors have been saying that if he HAD been emphatic, instead of tantalizing voters with false ideas like full churches on Easter, 2020, we could have saved thousands of lives.

And it's no secret that thousands of people, last fall, and now, are saying they won't get the vaccine. This threatens plenty of people who CAN'T get it yet, for whatever reason. This attitude has been aggravated by Trump's making untrue, inflammatory statements like "the media will stop talking about COVID after January 20th." (Forgive me if that isn't verbatim.)

If he had time to say things like that in December and January, he had time to urge his voters to take the virus more seriously in general.

All he had to do was tweet, repeatedly, SOMETHING along the lines of "get an appointment for vaccination as soon as your doctor can allow you to do so." (Obviously, doctors should know their patients well enough to know which vaccine to recommend or not, etc., etc.) If Dr. Fauci or any other doctor told him NOT to make a tweet like that, I haven't heard.

There's no need to nitpick.

Yes yes orange man bad. Message recieved.

@NicoleK: I've never understood that argument, "When you take out all the people effected by problem X, X is not really a problem".

I read what Amy said in a different light:

"When you take out all the people WHO ENGAGE IN behavioral problem X, X is not really a problem."