Just a reminder.

Because April 1 falls on a Sunday, April Fools Day (observed) will be on Monday, April 2nd.

Why is gun control not like gay marriage?

John Paul Stevens: ‘Repeal The Second Amendment’

… Serious gun control is coming. It’s like gay marriage — stalled with no progress for decades, and then, boom, it’s the law of the land in 50 states. I don’t know when it will happen, but when it does, it’ll happen fast.

I don’t think so.

First, that Justice Stevens opposes the Second Amendment is old news: he was one of the dissenting voices in Heller, so this doesn’t represent some sort of ideological shift.

Second, the trend over the past several decades has been away from government control and towards individual freedom. We’ve seen the decline of government price controls from the 1970’s, formerly supported on the Right by Nixon and on the Left by Carter. We’ve seen the rise of the civil rights movement which seeks equality for minorities and women in the public and private sphere. We’ve seen the rise of LGBT acceptance and the legalization of gay marriage.

And do you know what all of these have in common?

Greater freedom from government control.

And do you know what repealing the Second Amendment and gun control laws have which the rest of the stuff above do not?

Greater government control.

The arc towards greater freedom from government control can even be seen in the gun control debate: increasingly more states are permitting people the right to own a weapon, to buy a weapon relatively quickly, to carry a weapon and even to conceal carry a weapon.

Hell, even Heller represents a rise in greater freedom from government control when the majority recognized the Second Amendment as providing an individual right to bare arms rather than a collective right for states to arm a militia.

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The arc of history in the United States has, for the past half a century, has been towards greater freedom from government. Gun control does not represent freedom, so suggesting that gun control is like gay marriage is absurd: it goes against history and historic trends.

Fishy

I dare you to stick your hand in the fish tank.

Not sure what to make of this.

It certainly is a landmark…

Let’s see if what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

UH OH! A high school walkout’s being organized that WILL make libs do an about-face on lowering the voting age

My guess: these movements will be snuffed out in a heavy handed–and First Amendment-violating–way.

It’s Spring, you know…

Snow, in Spring here in Raleigh.

Okay.

So you want to learn Calculus?

This guy puts out some of the best explanatory videos on mathematics I have ever seen in my life. In this series, he explains calculus in a way I wish I had access to when I was in high school. In it he starts with a general overview, and in a series of 11 videos goes up to taylor series.

3Blue1Brown: Calculus

But… it’s March. WTF?

Um, guys? Guys?

“But always–do not forget this, Winston–always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler.”

The #LoveWins Jackboot

Someone didn’t notice the symbolism of their flyer.

Let me help by quoting George Orwell’s 1984:

[O’Brien] paused, and for a moment assumed again his air of a schoolmaster questioning a promising pupil: ‘How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?’

Winston thought. ‘By making him suffer,’ he said.

‘Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy–everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always–do not forget this, Winston–always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face–for ever.’

Memo to liberals: 1984 was a warning, not a “how-to” manual.

A fun video that should piss off nearly all of my left-wing friends.

What Is the Alt-Right?