More proof that people are idiots.
Seventy-seven percent of Americans believe that the U.S. media is making the economic situation worse by projecting fear into people’s minds.
Normally I might be inclined to agree, except I’ve yet to see a journalist who actually understands the enormity of the problem. If it were accurately reported, I’m afraid people would be more fearful, not less.
Well, not so much. Via the WSJ online comes this story from John Rosenthal at The Hoover Institution Policy Review.
In june 2005, the child-murderer and law student Magnus Gäfgen lodged a complaint against Germany with the European Court of Human Rights (echr). In his complaint, Gäfgen accused Germany of having violated his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights and, more specifically, of having violated the prohibition on torture contained in Article 3 of the Convention.
On June 30, 2008, the European Court of Human Rights rejected Gäfgen’s complaint and cleared Germany of the charge of tolerating torture.3 The Court found that the treatment to which Daschner and Ennigkeit subjected Gäfgen did not reach the threshold required to be considered as torture (§69). On the Court’s assessment, it did, however, constitute “inhuman treatment” (§70), which is likewise prohibited by Article 3. Nonetheless, the Court found that German judicial institutions had acted in such a way as to provide Gäfgen sufficient “redress” for the offense suffered and thereby, in effect, to nullify any violation of the Convention. According to the somewhat surreal reasoning of the Court, Gäfgen had been, but was no longer, a victim of “inhuman treatment” (§82). He had “lost” his “victim status.”
The WSJ goes on to say,
Also in October 2002, interrogators at Guantanamo Bay asked for permission to use similar methods on al Qaeda terrorist Mohammed al-Qahtani. The Pentagon said no.
Now that Barack Obama has won the presidency, perhaps it is time for American interrogators to revise their practices to bring them into line with European ones.
So torture is not torture if the human rights courts say so. Oh the humanity. It’s all unicorns and rainbows over in Europe land.
Contrary to misguided opinion, gun free zones make people less safe not more. Anyone with half a brain should know this is true. A person whose made up his mind to kill someone isn’t going to be deterred because some bone head put up a sign declaring an area gun free. Now studies are showing this to be the case,
The other statistic that emerged from a study of active killers is that they almost exclusively seek out “gun free” zones for their attacks.In most states, concealed handguns are prohibited at schools and on college campuses even for those with permits.
Many malls and workplaces also place signs at their entrances prohibiting firearms on the premises.
Now tacticians believe the signs themselves may be an invitation to the active killers.
The psychological profile of a mass murderer indicates he is looking to inflict the most casualties as quickly as possible.
Also, the data show most active killers have no intention of surviving the event.
They may select schools and shopping malls because of the large number of defenseless victims and the virtual guarantee no on the scene one is armed.
As soon as they’re confronted by any armed resistance, the shooters typically turn the gun on themselves.
The idea of ‘guns’ is way more scary than a killer with intent.
And ‘science’ proves it. According to a study of bacteria on people’s hands women have a much more diverse (quantity and variation) bacteria ecosystem on their hands.
According to the AP, a 9 year old boy got a big surprise when he attempted to steal a campaign sign out of another man’s yard.
Shawn Turschak of Chapel Hill was tired of someone stealing McCain-Palin campaign signs from his yard. Turschak, with a degree in electrical engineering, hooked up a third sign to a power source for an electric pet fence Monday and also put up a surveillance camera.
The boy’s father got upset that his boy had been shocked, not that he was stealing signs off of private property. The Father should get his priorities straight.
Argentina and their disfunctional government never cease to amaze me. I do hope it never comes to this in the United States (There are rumblings that the next congress want’s to tax our 401k contribution). Here’s the story from Bloomber.com
Argentine bond yields soared above 23 percent and stocks sank the most in a decade as the government sought to take over pension funds, a move analysts said is a bid to seize assets and stave off the second default this decade.
…
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner proposed legislation today to nationalize pension funds, which would give the government control of $29 billion in retirement accounts.
What a total train wreck.
Pissing money away while ‘Rome’ burns. Congratulations to Defazio, Blumenauer, and Wyden for doing the right thing. Gordon Smith, Wu, Hooley, and Walden, you are all dead to me.
George W. Bush, you ARE the worst president ever.
Obama and McCain, neither of you will get my vote. You’re both too stupid for the job and you show a supreme lack of good judgement.
Police in Sherwood Oregon have their orders to shoot on sight.…any coyote they see.
Police in Sherwood now have orders to shoot and kill coyotes after people reported several encounters with the crafty canines, including a high school student who was followed home by two of them.
Coyote’s are getting to be quite the invisible problem here in the Portland Metro area. They are quite bold. How do I know this? Well, a couple of weeks back my wife and I had arrived home early one sunny evening in time to see one loping down the middle of our neighborhood street.
Come on Apple, you’re supposed to have a bunch of bright people working there. Today I received an email from Apple touting the new ipod touch. The headline, “iPod touch. The funnest(sic) iPod ever.”
Funnest? FUNNEST?!?! Bzzt! Not a word you idiots. A typo I can understand, bastardizing the English language? Nope.
Reminds me of the time the appartment complex down the road from my office put up a sign saying, ‘Turn Right and Your Home.’ After they were informed of their error, they took a marking pen and added an ‘ and an e to the word ‘your.’
Ah, it’s election season and the old myths about voters, voter intelligence, and whose side is smarter are getting trotted out. Rick Shenkman of the Washington Post has an excellent editorial which I will highlight here. He provides the supporting info, I’m just giving you the bullet points.
1. Our voters are pretty smart.
Laughable. 50% of voters by definition have to be below average intelligence. We don’t teach critical thinking skills, and I’m not sure we ever have. As a result, even if you’re of above average you may not be aware of how you’re being manipulated.
2. Bill O’Reilly’s viewers are dumber than Jon Stewart’s.
Ah yes. Regardless of which party you support, there’s always the belief that your side is smarter than the other’s.
3. If you just give Americans the facts, they’ll be able to draw the right conclusions.
Ha! Facts don’t matter, just the ‘truthiness’ or your position. People are motivated by emotion not facts, as a result their decisions are illogical and irrational.
4. Voters today are smarter than they used to be.
Having recently read Thucydides and Herodotus, I’d have to say that voters haven’t changed much in the last 2500 years.
5. Young voters are paying a lot of attention to the news.
Thankfully, no. Read the whole thing. I suspect it’ll be ignored. People prefer to believe they are better informed and smarter than they really are. Illusions are great.
