The duce you say?

To many foreigners - and to some Americans - the tolerance of guns in everyday American life is simply inexplicable.

(...)

Why is it then that so many Americans - and foreigners who come here - feel that the place is so, well, safe?

"I have met incredulous British tourists who have been shocked to the core by the peacefulness of the place"

A British man I met in Colorado recently told me he used to live in Kent but he moved to the American state of New Jersey and will not go home because it is, as he put it, "a gentler environment for bringing the kids up."

This is New Jersey. Home of the Sopranos.

Brits arriving in New York, hoping to avoid being slaughtered on day one of their shopping mission to Manhattan are, by day two, beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about. By day three they have had had the scales lifted from their eyes.

I have met incredulous British tourists who have been shocked to the core by the peacefulness of the place, the lack of the violent undercurrent so ubiquitous in British cities, even British market towns.

"It seems so nice here," they quaver.

Well, it is!

Violent paradox

Ten or 20 years ago, it was a different story, but things have changed.

And this is Manhattan.

Wait till you get to London Texas, or Glasgow Montana, or Oxford Mississippi or Virgin Utah, for that matter, where every household is required by local ordinance to possess a gun.

Folks will have guns in all of these places and if you break into their homes they will probably kill you.

They will occasionally kill each other in anger or by mistake, but you never feel as unsafe as you can feel in south London.

It is a paradox. Along with the guns there is a tranquillity and civility about American life of which most British people can only dream.

What surprises the British tourists is that, in areas of the US that look and feel like suburban Britain, there is simply less crime and much less violent crime.

The duce you say?
DKK
BBC News
Via American Thinker Blog

The will to use it!

Even in North America, we are not running out of fuels. Between the Bakken, the Marcellus Shale, Alberta’s tar sands, and two centuries worth of coal, North America is rich in fossil fuels. What we now face is our own decision not to use them.

Canada Free Press
But why do we have to read this in Canada?
DKK
Via Say Anything Blog

Bonus quote:

One of the most extensive oil deposits in the world—the huge Bakken Formation— underlies North Dakota and Saskatchewan. The Bakken holds up to 500 billion barrels of oil, double the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia.

Didn't I just say something like this?

Change, Change, Spare Some Change?

To understand how much Barack Obama's campaign has changed -- or how phony it was from the outset -- consider this statement by his campaign manager David Axelrod:

The white working class has gone to the Republican nominee for many elections, going back even to the Clinton years.

In other words, as Bill Clinton correctly translates, "we don’t really need these working class people to win."

What happened to the Obama who wanted to get past the old divisions and categories, and to reject the politics of "getting to 51 percent" any way possible? I guess the American working class is just too bitter for such an approach to be sustainable.

Change is about all you'll have left if Obama gets his way.
DKK
Powerline: Change you can forget about.

Why Would He Lie?

The Mexican national who was the star witness in a controversial prosecution that resulted in the sentencing of two Border Patrol agents to more than a decade in prison pleaded guilty to multiple drug charges in federal court Thursday.

This guy was caught smuggling drugs AGAIN while waiting to testify against the Boarder Patrol agents. You don't think he had a motive to lie do you? The prosecutor fought to have that information withheld from the jury, and won!
DKK
Wizbang Blog

Will BDS defeat the left -- AGAIN?

A man heckling First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna outside the 92nd Street Y was arrested after he punched a wheelchair-bound girl whose parents had told him to shut up, authorities said yesterday. German Talis, 22, was shouting obscenities at the Bushes, who were leaving the building Tuesday, when he crossed paths with Wendy and John Lovetro and their daughter Maureen, 18, who has cerebral palsy.

How bad does the Bush Derangement Syndrome have to be for someone to beat a wheelchair bound woman? Does the left have no shame and will BDS levels rise causing enough reactions like this to make them unelectable?
DKK
NY Post

The fifth person charged in the case, suspected Venezuelan intelligence agent Antonio Jose Canchica, remains at large.

What, Hugo Chavez's is a hero of the people, he would never use money to try and buy Argentina's election! He doesn't have to, he is the people's Messiah of the South. It will really be a great world when Obama can claim his seat here in the north!

DKK

Miami Herald: Uruguayan pleads guilty in Argentine cash smuggling case

Via Michelle Malkin

Insta Funny!

PHOTO CONTEST: WHO'S LONELIER? Nonsmoking bingo players, or New York Times subscription salesmen?

DKK
Instapundit

Doomsayers Listen Up!

The world is running out of oil. Global warming threatens our very existence. The gasoline-fed V-8 engine will soon go the way of the dodo bird. In fact, cars as we know them are doomed. Who knows how bad it could get? Someday there might even be another Rambo sequel.

I say, get off the planet while you still can.

How homo sapiens managed to claim the top of the food chain mystifies me, for no other creature on earth-with the possible exception of the manicured French poodle-exhibits such unrelenting silliness. Never in all of recorded history has life been so good for so many, yet all humans can do is bite their nails with worry about the gloomy future that awaits us all. Best-selling books, the nightly news, and countless Web sites stoke the fire of fear. Life is awful and getting worse.

Yea, it's about cars but it a very good point!
DKK
Motortrend The Asphalt Jungle

Way To Go MSM

To sum up, then. The Shiite government proved itself willing and able to take on the most powerful Shiite militia. As a result, it has brought the Sunni bloc back into the government, which is a major step on the road to national reconciliation. And this was made possible by the passage of an amnesty law that is a key step in the benchmarks established to gauge Iraq’s political progress.

Yet the media claimed the Iraqi government actions were all a failure and things were falling apart! Wrong again! How much of their reporting can we trust.
DKK
John Podhoretz: Commentary Magazine

There's Gold In Them Thar Waters!

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil's discoveries of what may be two of the world's three biggest oil finds in the past 30 years could help end the Western Hemisphere's reliance on Middle East crude, Strategic Forecasting Inc. said.

Saudi Arabia's influence as the biggest oil exporter would wane if the fields are as big as advertised, and China and India would become dominant buyers of Persian Gulf oil, said Peter Zeihan, vice president of analysis at Strategic Forecasting in Austin, Texas. Zeihan's firm, which consults for companies and governments around the world, was described in a 2001 Barron's article as ``the shadow CIA.''

Image credit Danegerus.
We could improve our self sufficiency dramatically if we used all of our own resources, but we don't have the will to do that -- I guess gas isn't expensive enough yet.

Oh wait, you mean it isn't the ethanol they make from their sugar? But O'Reilly said....I read an article shortly after he railed on our not using ethanol that spelled out how discoveries of new off shore oil was more important in making them self sufficient.

There is fuel to be discovered and recovered if we would just look.

Self reliance and the ability to control your life is a key to happiness, that applies to a nation as well.
DKK
Bloomberg

Government Catch 22

Drought strikes. People, exhorted by the politicians and functionaries of municipal utilities exert themselves and conserve water. Then comes the reward for all their scrimping on water: Massive fee increases because the water authorities didn't make enough money what with people saving water and all.

ATLANTA — Many residents of the Southeast who sacrificed greener lawns and longer showers to reduce water usage during the region's historic drought are now seeing the other shoe drop: They're being hit with sharp rate increases as water utilities scramble to make up revenue lost because of conservation measures.

No where but government would you get charged more for using less, thing is you are trapped -- there is no alternative, no free market!
DKK
Blue Crab Boulevard

Update RRStar Blog Stats -- Bumped

The content of the RRStar (online Rockford Register Star) blogs are overwhelmingly from a liberal viewpoint in both content, links, and quantity.

I established this blog to demonstrate the type and quality of content I would be willing to provide the RRStar in an effort to provide them with a balanced portfolio of political blogs.

As such I have been keeping track of some stats for the RRStar blogs.

Again, here are the political blogs and the stats for April 11, 2008 through April 20, 2008:

• Applesauce is a prolific far left blog that addresses national issues. The content is mainly composed of links to the left wing of the blogosphere along with a short quips, photo, and video content. Occasionally there are longer posts that include opinions on the items linked. Comments are quickly answered, often with another quip.
  
• In Chambers is a blog that covers Illinois state politics. It appears to be right of center but that could be the result of its adversarial nature to the current state administration. There is no real interaction in the comments.
  
• Sweeny Report is a blog written by the Political Editor of the Register Star who blogs from the center right is a joooouuuurnalist. Postings are sporadic, concentrating on local, state and national issues and are mainly short thoughts on events with few links. He doesn't like to respond to anonymous comments uncharacteristic of blogs but consistent with a newspaper.
  
• Why We Vote is a group blog consisting of the thoughts of the members of the Register Star's voters opinion panel. The posts are mostly left of center (including those from the independents to date). The conservative member who was posting, sadly, passed away recently.

The Stats:

• Applesauce 36 posts with 44 out links 12 YouTube.
  
• In Chambers 7 posts with 31 out links 0 YouTube.
• Sweeny Report 8 posts with 7 out links 0 YouTube.
• Why We Blog 3 posts (2 left 1 unknown) 1 out links 0 YouTube.

I was locked out of the Blogger system but posted what links I had saved last night. There were 42 of them.

If your interested in balance in the RRStar blogs let me, and the RRStar know.
DKK

Update:
Totals since I started counting March 27, 2008 to April 20, 2008:

• Applesauce 86 posts with 89 out links 12 YouTube.
  
• In Chambers 18 posts with 191 out links 0 YouTube.
• Sweeny Report 16 posts with 8 out links 0 YouTube.
• Why We Blog 12 posts (10 left 1 right 1 unknown) 1 out links 0 YouTube.

DKK

It's about time!

The US, Britain, and France walked out of a UN Security Council meeting yesterday, after the Libyan ambassador made a typically disgusting statement.

UNITED NATIONS - Dilomats from the United States, Britain and France have walked out of a U.N. Security Council meeting after Libya compared the situation in Gaza to Nazi concentration camps.

Wednesday’s walkout was a rare protest by members of the U.N.’s most powerful body against one of their own members.

It came when Libya’s deputy ambassador made the comment during a closed council discussion of the possibility of issuing a press statement on recent Mideast events.

Why walk out now? This kind of antisemitism is nothing new at the United Nations.

It's way past time the gloves came off in dealing with the Evil that is the UN.

DKK

Little Green Footballs