Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms

  • Why Would Anyone Need a Semi-Automatic Rifle?

    A sweet old lady in the pool the other morning asked me this question.  Actually, she asked a much stupider question,"Why would anyone need an assault weapon?'  I smiled indulgently and refused to engage her.  I knew she wasn't baiting me, and I like her, and 'tis the season to be jolly, and so in…

  • When Guns are Used to Thwart Crimes . . .

    . . . it is rarely news, and it is never big news, unless the liberal media can put a 'vigilante' spin on it.  Remember Bernie Goetz. the NYC subway gunman?  As I reported about a year ago: Bernard Goetz, mild-mannered electronics nerd, looked like an easy mark, a slap job.  And so he got…

  • Why Israel Has No Newtowns

    Excerpt: If the United States, itself awash with weapons, wishes to benefit from Israel’s experience, it must make sure it learns the right lessons. The first and most universal one is that ever more stringent gun control is bad policy: As is the case with drugs, as was the case with liquor during Prohibition, the…

  • On Calls for a ‘Conversation’ About Guns

    Liberals often call for 'a conversation' or a 'dialogue' about this or that.  Didn't Eric Holder a while back call for a 'conversation' on race?  What have we been talking about for 150 years?  Same with guns.  Our liberal pals must know that the gun debate has been raging for decades.  So what does a liberal…

  • Nasty Gun Grabbers

    There are some really nasty folk among liberals.  Read these librul letters to John Lott.  UPDATE 12/19:  Lott has apparently deleted the post in question.  Probably just as well given how vile the hate mail he receives.

  • More Reasons Not to be a Libertarian: Abortion and Guns

    This from the Libertarian Party Platform: 1.4 Abortion Recognizing that abortion is a sensitive issue and that people can hold good-faith views on all sides, we believe that government should be kept out of the matter, leaving the question to each person for their conscientious consideration. 1.5 Crime and Justice Government exists to protect the…

  • Guns and Punitive Taxation

    Seldom Seen Slim points us to the latest anti-gun outrage:  The Cook County Board of Commissioners on Friday handily approved the county's 2013 budget, complete with some $40 million worth of new taxes on the sales of guns and cigarettes. [. . .] A previously proposed "violence tax" of a nickel per bullet sold in…

  • On Suing Gun Manufacturers

    Suppose I sell you my car, transferring title to you in a manner in that accords with all the relevant statutes. It is a good-faith  transaction and I have no reason to suspect you of harboring any  criminal intent. But later you use the car I sold you to mow down  children on a school yard, or to…

  • “No Day Without Political Incorrectness” Department

                              Image credit

  • In the Face of Totalitarians

    In the face of totalitarians one cannot retreat into one's private life for they, being totalitarians, won't allow any private life.  So the conservative is forced willy-nilly to become an activist against his natural tendency.  He must draw a line in the sand and say "This far but no farther." A minor example.  My friends Peter…

  • Mayor Bloombrain

    Lawrence Auster on the good mayor's latest outburst.  Auster is much more of paleocon than I am.  I'm still a bit of a liberal in a good sense of the term.  Or is there no good sense of the term?  I hope to post later on Auster's hostility to such conservatives as Dennis Prager.

  • Government Did Not Build Your Business

    A very good Reason magazine article.  The author, Ronald Bailey, explains a distinction between tangible and intangible wealth.  Human, social, and institutional capital are forms of intangible wealth.  And while you are at Reason.com, read Sheldon Richman's article on the right to self-defense.  It makes a number of obvious points that liberals seem incapable of understanding. …

  • Gun Laws and the Supposed ‘Politicization’ of the Aurora Massacre

    Last year, when Republicans were being accused of 'politicizing' the national debt crisis I made the point that one cannot politicize that which is inherently political: The Republicans were accused of 'politicizing' the debt crisis.  But how can you politicize what is  inherently political?  The debt in question is the debt of the federal government. …

  • Why Dennis Prager Voted Against the California Tobacco Tax

    Excerpt: I warned 20 years ago that the war against tobacco was morally misguided. If morality was the animating impulse, why was there no similar war against alcohol, attempting to tax it out of existence, banning its ads, etc.? Cigarette smokers can hurt themselves, but alcohol is frequently involved in murder and other cases of…

  • Tobacco Insanity in Maricopa County and the Need for Smoke-Ins

    Peter and Mike teach in the Maricopa County Community College system.  One teaches at Scottsdale CC, the other at Glendale CC.  Over Sunday breakfast they reported that, starting 1 July (if I got the story straight), no smoking of tobacco products will be allowed anywhere on any CC campus in Maricopa County, Arizona.  And that…