Category Archives: Crime

Animal’s Hump Day News

Happy Hump Day!

Just overnight, our juncos are gone, headed south for the winter.

Dark-Eyed Junco

One day there were a lot of them about, gleaning seed from under the feeders; the next day they were gone.  Juncos are one of our last summer birds to leave in the fall.  Friday is the first official day of autumn,  but our brief Great Land summer has already given way; we had our first hard frost Monday night, it’s raining more, the leaves on the birches are turning, and the fireweed is all come up in red.

Winter is coming!  Next month we’ll start getting snow, if things go as usual, and that’s fine.  Our winters are every bit as beautiful as our summers.  We have a full heating oil tank and two and a half cords of firewood put away.  We’re ready.

And so…

Continue reading Animal’s Hump Day News

Animal’s Hump Day News

Happy Hump Day!

Housekeeping note:  Since my Wednesday links posts have always been long, and are getting longer, I’m going to try sticking the actual links below a “Click to Read More” tag.  This will help me to keep my already crowded front page a tad less cluttered while I consider how to go about a more involved revamp of the site. I’m still using the 2014 theme for WordPress, and while I like the looks of it, it may be time to update.  It’s been almost ten years since the last major site revamp, so we’ll see.  And, of course, please do let me know in the comments if you like/dislike and changes or have any other comments.

And so…

Continue reading Animal’s Hump Day News

Rule Five Political Violence Friday

In our current-day “everything is politics” times, it seems a larger number of people are willing to use violence to gain political advantage than there have been for some time; Issues & Insights has some thoughts.

The University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats’ June survey of 3,543 adults has produced a lot of data noise but it also includes some useful information. Of course the media want to ring the bells over one finding in particular: an increase in the percentage those who agree that “the use of force is justified to restore Donald Trump to the presidency.” According to the project, in early April only 4.5% of those polled agreed with that statement. By late June, though, it had risen to (a rounded-up) 7%, “the equivalent of an estimated shift from 12 million to 18 million American adults.”

The media-wide implication is that the growing support for using force to put Trump back in the White House is fueled by the extremism (and dare we say “semi-fascism”?) of Republicans and MAGA followers. A prime example of this bias is found in the headline over a story in The Hill. It reads “More say violence could be necessary to restore Trump to White House.”

But as always, there’s more to the story, and there’s much more than The Hill’s implication, which should come as a surprise to no one.

Democrats’ inclination to use violence to achieve their goals was also seen in the results of other questions:

  • More than 16% of Democrats think force is justified to restore the federal right to abortion.
  • More than 22% Democrats agree that “the use of force against the police is justified to prevent police brutality against black Americans and other minorities.”
  • More than a quarter of Democrats would approve of the use of force “to protect the voting rights of Black Americans and other minorities.”

The gist of it?  The Left is more willing to engage in violence to further political goals than the Right.

That anyone would have to do a “study” to determine this is just a bit ridiculous.  Remember the summer of 2020, when COVID lockdowns went out the window so people could riot, loot and burn to protest the death of a misogynistic drug addict?  Over a billion, maybe close to two billion, in property damage due to vandalism, arson, rioting and looting.  Oh, the Left will say “but it was insured,” as thought that justifies burning people’s small businesses that they spent lifetimes building.  Oh, and at least twenty-five people were killed, and around sixty thousand police officers were assaulted.

Now the Left points at the January 6th, 2021 event, which caused at most a tad under two million dollars, and the only fatality was an unarmed Air Force veteran shot in the neck by a panicked Capitol Police officer, who never faced any consequences for the act.

There’s just no comparison.

The AntiProfa and Black Lives Matter groups have been responsible for most of the violence.  Oh, yes, there have been some arrests.  But if you think it’s over, wait until next year, and watch the reaction if a Republican wins the Presidential election.

Especially if that Republican is Donald Trump.

We have some interesting times ahead.

Animal’s Daily Urban Meltdown News

Before I start, check out the latest episode of Blood and Gold over at Glibertarians!

Now then: New York City is in trouble with a huge influx of the “unhoused,”  Leftie-Lib Mayor Eric Adams is crying about it, and Governor Kathy Hochul has abandoned him to his fate.  And, frankly, the schadenfreude is strong with this one.

This week, responding to a state judge’s implication that New York State must do more to help New York City with its migrant crisis, Governor Kathy Hochul tasked her lawyer with writing an extraordinary letter, through which the governor made an implication of her own: the city, under Mayor Eric Adams—due to its incompetence in allowing dozens of migrants to sleep on Manhattan streets, despite having vacant beds, and in failing to supervise an inept-at-best contractor—doesn’t deserve further help. The governor is trying to save her own political skin, and she missed a key opportunity really to help the mayor by getting New York out of its spurious “right to shelter” obligation. But she’s mostly right, and Adams must understand that he’s not going to get help from fellow Democrats outside of the city. The mayor must unequivocally state that New York City cannot—and will not—accept any new migrants into its homeless-shelter system, which was never designed to accommodate a global economic-migration crisis and a conflict-refugee crisis.

To paraphrase Mencken’s famous quote, the people of New York are getting what they voted for – good and hard.  New York has been a “sanctuary city” for years now, and this was always the not only foreseeable but indeed the inevitable result.  All it took was an open-border policy by a feckless, dementia-addled President to send things past the breaking point, and believe you me, they’re broke.

The mayor expects the crisis to cost the city $12 billion over three years. Even in a well-resourced, high-tax city, this surprise burden is not incidental: split into $4 billion a year, it comprises nearly 6 percent of annual city tax revenues and eclipses annual spending on the fire department ($2.3 billion), sanitation ($1.9 billion), transportation ($1.4 billion), or correction ($1.2 billion). It even rivals police spending ($5.8 billion). “We are past our breaking point,” the mayor said earlier this month.

And, Mayor Adams, your own policies and the policies of your fellow Democrats have put you in this position.  It can’t be fixed by “more housing.”  It can’t be fixed by more money for addiction treatments or mental health care.  It’s gone too far for that.  We can’t fix the problems these people faced in their own countries, either; we have already poured trillions of American taxpayer’s down that particular rat hole.  No, it can only be addressed at this point by closing the damn border and kicking out people who remain here illegally.  The most cost-effective measure is simple:  When they are found, they get a one-way plane ticket back to their country of origin.  End of story.

Rule Five Lousy Mass Shooting Study Friday

Last week, City Journal’s Ian Kingsbury presented us with an example of a lousy “mass shooting and structural racism” study, and told us why it was a lousy study.  This is an essential read if you’re on the Second Amendment side.  Some highlights, with my thoughts:

Is there any limit to the degree to which “researchers” will discredit themselves to prove their woke bona fides? A new study published in JAMA Surgery suggests not.

The study, “Association Between Markers of Structural Racism and Mass Shooting Events in Major US Cities,” purportedly seeks to understand whether evidence exists that “structural racism” plays a role in mass-shooting events.

To test their theory, the researchers quantitatively examine the correlation between mass shootings and “structural racism.” They define mass shootings as any incident in which four or more people are shot, and they define “structural racism” according to various factors, including the percentage of black population in a major metropolitan area, the proportion of children living in a single-parent household, the violent crime rate, and measures of segregation and income inequality.

The definition of mass shootings looks a lot like the one the FBI uses, but the definitions of “structural racism?” Some of those might be racial, others economic, others cultural.  So their initial, operating assumptions are crap.

Worse, it apparently assumes that people can’t or don’t migrate out of those areas.

The assertion that metro-area demographics are a measure of structural racism is especially problematic. It ignores the fact that the Great Migration featured millions of blacks moving from the rural South to the industrialized North in search of greater tolerance and opportunity. In other words, freedom of movement has existed for generations, and the escape from structural racism largely defines black migration in the twentieth century.

But the authors of this study don’t let the lousy definitions and ignoring of historical trends color their conclusions.

A reasonable person would conclude that this analysis fails to find a link between structural racism and mass shootings. Instead, the authors claim that demographics themselves (that is, the metro areas that black people choose to reside in) are an “imperfect” indicator for structural racism. They conclude that “structural racism appears to be associated with MSE (mass shooting event) incidence.”

In other words, “the study data didn’t support the hypothesis, so we bullshitted our way into the conclusion we wanted.”  This isn’t science, this is naked, partisan propagandizing.

And, of course, the legacy media snapped it up.

The researchers’ sloppiness didn’t get in the way of media coverage for the study. CNN plugged a story on it within hours of its publication. It’s only a matter of time, no doubt, before judges cite the study in their rulings or policymakers use it to craft the “science-based” policies that progressive activists purportedly favor. This study’s proper function, however, is to serve as a prime example of the medicalization of social issues and public health’s growing penchant for policy-based evidence-making.

Read the whole article.  Bookmark it.  Make notes.  It’s a good counter to a bad study.

Too much of the social sciences and medical worlds no longer have even a nodding acquaintance with actual, evidence-driving-the-conclusion science.  The study, by the way, was carried out by these supposed medical professionals:

Michael Ghio, MD; John Tyler Simpson, MD; Ayman Ali, MD; Julia M. Fleckman, PhD, MPH; Katherine P. Theall, PhD, MPH; Joseph I. Constans, PhD; Danielle Tatum, PhD; Patrick R. McGrew, MD; Juan Duchesne, MD; and Sharven Taghavi, MD, MPH, MS.

This isn’t science, and it certainly isn’t medicine.  This is naked propagandizing, it’s unworthy of anyone purporting to be a medical professional, and it’s sure as hell unworthy of anyone professing to be a scientist.  But just watch, True Believers, and be aware and ready to respond, because this “study” will end up in the quivers of the would-be gun-grabbers, and the Second Amendment community should stand ready to refute it.

Fortunately Ian Kingsbury has given us some ammo (hah) of our own to counter this crap.

Animal’s Daily Encampment News

It looks like people are getting fed up with the urban camping set.

Homelessness activists have lectured Americans about how they should learn to live with the large tent encampments of their “unhoused neighbors” on sidewalks and in parks. They have derided as bigotry observations that these encampments spawn violence. They have argued that the camps would disappear only when every unsheltered person receives permanent, subsidized housing, which even the most optimistic admitted would take years or decades.

Americans have stopped listening to the activists. Citizens and politicians of all stripes have recently taken steps to pass or enforce laws against public encampments, often in the same locales that once embraced a housing-only approach. They have begun to realize that the activists’ promises that encampments would be abandoned once the government provided enough handouts and housing were a mirage.

About damn time.

People in these cities (urban camping isn’t really a problem here in the Valley, but even Anchorage has this problem) are waking up to the fact that most of the urban outdoorsmen aren’t honest folks who are just down on their luck, nor are they stand-up working class people tossed aside by the evils of capitalism.  Most of them are addicts to one substance or another, be it meth or heroin or booze; many of them are on the streets by choice, especially in those jurisdictions that support them financially.

And the people who live in those cities are, justifiably, getting sick of it.  They are sick of being unable to go out at night.  They are sick of stepping over poop, discarded needles and lakes of urine during the day.  They are sick of the thievery, the breaking and entering, the vandalism, and the smell.  And now they’re making their voices heard.

Americans understand that the homeless deserve compassion and dignity, but they also know that nothing is less compassionate or dignified than letting people die slowly in illegal encampments. They refuse to accept that these camps, almost unknown to American cities as recently as two decades ago, are an inevitable part of urban life—and they are pushing back.

As I said – about damn time.

Animal’s Hump Day News

Happy Hump Day!

Boy howdy, have we made up for our cold, wet, rainy early summer over the last few days with unseasonably warm temperatures; at least the sun is out.

Tomorrow:

Yeah, yeah, I know.  A friend of mine lives in Arizona, and he has been regaling me with tales of triple-digit temps.  But this is Alaska.  74 is hot, dammit.  We moved up here to get away from warm weather.  I know, I’ll get back to you in six months when it’s twenty below.

And so…

On To the Links!

Major revelations from the whistleblower hearings.

Shocker: Net zero is economically illiterate.

Democrats, FBI Are Struggling To Cover for Biden’s Lies

Try That In a Small Town.

Job growth in government is not a good thing.

Because it’s really cool to be able to write “Giant Viking House.”

Jan 6th was, at worst, hooliganism.  It’s nice to see Gov. DeSantis recognizes that.

I love a happy ending.

Ya think?

No shit, the Democrats started it.

They can create money from nothing, why can’t they erase debt for nothing?

No shit, Sherlock.

These assholes aren’t even trying to hide it any more.

Haw haw haw!

Some of us never did believe Biden.

Not only is this a stupid idea, the FDA has no business regulating cigar flavors.

Now if only we could have some American politicians regenerate some brains.

My RedState Stuff:

In Shocking Turn of Events, Gallup Poll Shows Americans Less Favorable to Immigration

Jason Aldean and the Conflict of Rural vs. Urban

Rents Are High—Regulation Is Driving Them Even Higher

Shocking Study: Bowel Regularity Connected to Mental Health

America’s Accelerating Debt, Rising Interest Rates, and Fiscal Irresponsibility Require a Balanced Budget

Brazil: More Guns, Less Crime

Mohamad Barakat: Serious Omissions by Legacy Media

What Is a Nation—And How Can We Protect Ours?

New Data Shows Hot Weather Devastating for the Endurance of Electric Vehicles

The Border Crisis, Texas, Washington, Jackson, and Calhoun

Diversity, an Undefinable Proposition

Retail Thieves Aren’t Starving

The American Economy Suffers Under Bidenomics

Did the Justice Department Illegally Fund Red Flag Laws?

The Barakat Case: Are There Larger Implications?

This Week’s Idiots:

Salon’s Heather Parton is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Michael Cohen (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

RealClearPennsylvania’s Brendan Boyle is an idiot.

The Boston Globe’s Kimberly Atkins Stohr is an idiot.

The Nation’s Jeet Heer (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

Poor Jessica Tarlov.  I used to kind of like her, but she’s descending into idiocy.

Amanda Marcotte (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Ja’han Jones is an idiot.

NPR’s Julia Simon is an idiot.

This Week’s Cultural Edification:

Tony Bennett was one of the all-time greats, and his passing at 96 last week was saddening.  While he’s probably best known for I Left My Heart in San Francisco, the state of that formerly-great city today has kind of soured me on the whole thing.

Instead, here’s another great Tony Bennett tune: What The World Needs Now, from his 1969 album I’ve Gotta Be Me.  We’ll miss you, Tony!

Animal’s Hump Day News

Happy Hump Day!

Your chances of being bitten by a venomous snake are rising.  Not mine, though.  There are no venomous snakes in Alaska.  And no, St. Patrick never set foot in the Great Land.

In fact, the only reptiles found in Alaska are sea turtles, namely, the Green, Loggerhead, Leatherback and Olive Ridley.  Now when I was a little tad back in Allamakee County, we had timber rattlers.  The Old Man and I once killed one that was damn near six feet long.  A snake like that can kill a grown man.

So, if you live in the lower 48, watch where you put your feet.

And so…

On To the Links!

John Lott drops some truthiness.

BAM! POW!

Buy your own damn e-bike.

I love a happy ending.

Biden can’t turn things around.  He’s senile, stupid and incompetent.

My money’s on Hunter.

Down in Norway’s deepest hole.  No, not that!  Get your mind out of the gutter.

Gross.  Ew.  Gross.

A few decades ago this guy would have been a circus freak.

Tucker Carlson grills GOP candidates in Iowa.

“Crisis” is something of an understatement; our schools are in free-fall.

China offering bounties for dissidents.

The Anti-Racism racket.

Democrats hate America.

Chatbots aren’t taking our jobs.

He who laughs last, laughs best.

This is why our armed services are an utter mess.

Mike Pence fucks up, bad.

Americans favor nuclear power.  See, we ain’t so dumb.

My RedState Stuff:

Dylan Mulvaney, Frying Pans, and Fires

Politics, Political Parties, and Modern Whigs

Racism and the Military: Worst Practices by Biden Joint Chiefs Nom, Gen. Charles Brown

Joe Manchin, Missed Messages, and 2024

‘Homeless Encampments’ on the Rise as Leftist Cities Get What They Vote For

George Will Weighs in on Trump and DeSantis in 2024: Who Can It Be Now?

Three Great Movies That Couldn’t Be Made Today

China’s Great False Front May Be Cracking

Iowa’s Red Shift

The Homeless Problem: Why Aren’t More Families Stepping Up?

Michelle Obama for President? Not Only No But…

To Fix Failing Education – Privatize!

Manchin and Huntsman: Nobody’s Dream Team

President Trump’s Second Term: Fire at Will!

Wanted: Warriors

Alaska’s Pizza, Unions, and Economics

Heat Wave Aside, Climate-Related Damage Is at Historic Lows

This Week’s Idiots:

Salon’s Heather Parton is an idiot.

Mother Jones’ Arianna Coghill is an idiot.

The Nation’s Robert Borosage is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Hayes Brown (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

Slate’s Evan Urquhart is an idiot.

Salon’s Amanda Marcotte (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

Cori Bush (Moron – TX) (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

Charles Barkley outs himself as a raging asshole.

The incoming Mayor of Chicago is an idiot, and all his people are idiots.

Ilhan Omar (Horse’s Ass – MN) is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes is an idiot.

This Week’s Cultural Edification:

No music this week; instead, something else fun.

If you look up “noodling for catfish” and “adorable” on an internet search, you’ll find Hannah Barron.  Her vivacious attitude, entrancing Southern drawl, zest for the outdoor life and skill at pulling huge catfish out of muddy river bottoms make her well worth watching.  Here’s a sample:

Check out her YouTube channel here.

Animal’s Hump Day News

Happy Hump Day!

Wow.  John Lott Jr. nails it again:

A week ago, President Biden explained how when you “put a pistol on a brace, it turns into a gun.” Of course, a pistol is already a gun. Or how about his claim that the brace “Makes them where you can have a higher-caliber weapon — a higher-caliber bullet coming out of that gun”? Of course, if you are worried about recoil, why not just use a rifle — heavier guns dampen the recoil, and rifles weigh more.

But while it is easy to dismiss Biden as not knowing what he is talking about, you have to wonder if others are deliberately misleading people.

Hint: They are trying to deliberately mislead people.  And since, when doing so, they are talking to people who A) are committed supporters to The Side, and 2) also have zero knowledge about firearms, they can get away with it, and they’ll keep doing so.  Maddening.

With that said…

On To the Links!

Yeah, equal treatment under the law is dead.

CNN hasn’t fact-checked Biden for months.  Of course not; CNN is still a de facto arm of the Democratic party.

National treasure Dr. Victor Davis Hanson on waking up to woke.

No one is above the law – except Hunter Biden.

And who could blame them?

These things always backfire.

California has been getting jolts of Marxism for decades now.

Maybe try punishing shoplifters?

More on that: No, probably not.

It is unfair and wrong, and the Left doesn’t care.

Hell, I don’t want either of them, either. But if forced to choose, I know which way I’d go.

Where’s Hunter?  Nobody seems to know.

Get woke, go broke.

More interest rate hikes likely.

My RedState Stories

Greta Thunberg’s War on Prosperity

Housing And Other Issues in San Francisco and Tokyo: A Tale of Two Cities

Guns, Tyrants, and Joe Biden’s Lies

Biology, Bipolarity, and Accuracy in Education

Alaska Salmon Fishermen Score Victory Over Environmentalists in Ninth Circuit Case

The Next Big Thing in Urban Planning: Wood

Homeless in the Great Land: It Happens Here, Too

We Can’t Save Russia From Itself – Or Ukraine – Nor Should We

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) and the Future

Wealth, Wealth Taxes, and Wealth Mobility

Science and Climate: Shattering the Climate Change Narrative

This Week’s Idiots:

The New Republic’s Matt Ford is an idiot.

The Guardian’s David Smith is an idiot.

The Nation’s Kali Holloway is an idiot.

The LA Times Jackie Calmes is an idiot.

Because they’re idiots.

The New Republic’s Michael Tomasky (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

HuffPost’s Daniel Marans is an idiot.

Washington Monthly’s David Atkins is an idiot.

The Daily Beast’s Michael Cohen (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

CNN’s Dean Obeidallah (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

SFGate’s Madilynne Medina is an idiot.

MSNBC’s Hayes Brown (Repeat Offender Alert) is an idiot.

This Week’s Cultural Edification:

 I liked the work Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn did as Brooks & Dunn, and one of their best albums was the 2005 platter Hillbilly Deluxe.  I suppose I like this album and the song that goes by the same title not only because it’s a fun tune, but also because the song really captures Friday nights in the small towns near where I grew up, in Allamakee County, Iowa.

It’s a great song and elicits memories of good times.  Here’s the official video for Hillbilly Deluxe.  Enjoy.

Rule Five Urban Meltdown News

A San Francisco store owner and immigrant from Afghanistan – Afghanistan – is aghast at what is happening in his adopted home.  Fox News says:

A San Francisco store owner who immigrated to the United States from Afghanistan says he is at his wits end with crime in the city after a gang of thieves stole over $100,000 in merchandise from his tobacco shop.

“The politicians need to get a grip on this because It’s worse than Afghanistan or Iraq,” Zaid, co-owner of Cigarettes R Cheaper in San Francisco’s Richmond District, told Fox News Digital. He was referring to crime in the city following a robbery Tuesday night, when a half dozen thieves smashed his windows and made off with about $80,000 in merchandise and $20,000 in cash.

“At least in Afghanistan the Taliban will cut your hand off and people are afraid to commit such a crime,” Zaid said, adding that he sees people stealing from nearby stores every day. 

“They know the police won’t do anything,” Zaid explained, adding that the thieves were in his store for 18 to 20 minutes and had plenty of time to “ransack” the place. Zaid added that police have told him that they are short-handed. 

Now let’s make one thing plain:  I’m adamantly against cutting off the hands of thieves.  If that’s not cruel and unusual punishment, then the term has no meaning.

But San Francisco has gone in precisely the opposite direction.  The police force is short-handed, yes, because the cuffs that were once put on criminals have instead been placed, metaphorically at least, on the police.  There has to be a balance, yes; Frisco is not there.  Not even close.

Zaid also told Fox:

Zaid, who immigrated to the United States in 1987 and opened his store in 2003, said things are worse in San Francisco than they have ever been.

“The city has gone downhill, especially the last 2 years since COVID, I’ve never seen it worse,” Zaid told Fox News Digital. “People are afraid to come shopping here because they are either going to get robbed or someone will break into their car.”

If things do not change quickly, Zaid said he will have to close his business. 

What a massive Charlie Foxtrot.  San Francisco has become such a shithole that an immigrant from Afghanistan is shocked at the disorder.  And I’d add that Mr. Zaid is precisely the kind of immigrant we should be encouraging:  He came here for the opportunity, he opened a business serving his community with products and services they want; to Mr. Said I’d say, frankly, if you want to come to Alaska, I’d welcome you.  And the problems you are experiencing in San Francisco sure as hell won’t be an issue here.

I’ve been worried for years now about the decay of our major cities.  Maybe San Francisco is leading the way, but cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore and Detroit are close behind.  Our major cities are destroying themselves, and some of they may well be past the point of no return.