Slouching Towards Chaos

In the Huffintgton Post, Janet Tavakoli has an essay entitled Third World America: 'Fast-Tracking to Anarchy'

To here credit, she sees the problems but, typical of anyone who gets published in the Huffington Post, doesn't see the causes and proposes the same remedies that haven't worked so far. It seems to be a common liberal desire to have someone else ride into town and save them from the bad guys. Sorry, Janet; real life is not a B western and Brad has left the building. The only savior you can rely on is yourself.

Denniger responds with some sensible ideas that might actually work in Janet's Heart Is In The Right Place -- all of which I predict will be ignored by the powers that be because, well, solutions that work will interfere with their power.

Chicago today could be a sister city to Fallujah

One has crooked officials, violent gangs with hooks deep in the government, ineffective law enforcement, crazy preachers screaming about the need to kill anyone who is different and a culture of corruption that has resisted all efforts to clean it up.

The other is a city in Iraq.

Is Chicago's Mayor Daley a Sociopath?

In the Chicago Tribune for May 21, 2010 John Kass reports that, at a press conference called by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley,

[a] reporter asked the obvious question: Given the numbers of shootings in the city, isn't the handgun ban ineffective?

The question was more than fair. In Chicago, the only people who are confident in their 2ND Amendment rights to bear arms are the criminals, the cops and the politicians.

Law-abiding citizens can't own handguns. They don't have an army of bodyguards, as does Daley. Political hacks have guns. They get out the vote for his machine.

And the retired neighbor who's never been arrested in his life? Oh, no. If he has a gun, it would be anarchy in the streets, according to Daley.

Confronted with a logical question, here's what the mayor did: He picked up a rifle from the prop table of guns, raised it and began to babble.

"It's been very effective," said Daley of the handgun ban. "If I put this up your butt, you'll find out how effective it is. Let me put a round up your, you know."

Hizzoner's press aides put out a statement claiming the mayor used "less than ideal" language.

So what? A normal person would at least feel some regret at making such a stupid threat. On the other hand, a sociopath, lacking any standard of common human decency, would not. Given that Daley has not expressed any regret for his words (a statement from a media flack doesn't count) I have to count his silence as evidence that he is not a stable, trustworthy person. Certainly not the kind of person who should wield power in a major city.

This single incident does not prove Daley is a sociopath. It could just be a colossal ego that doesn't allow honest questioning. However, given the kind of threat made and the lack of any rational explanation for what is blatant irrational behavior, the possibility must be considered.

Here We Go!

John Fritchey and LaShawn Ford, two of the idiots currently serving as State representatives in Illinois, have asked the Governor to call out the National Guard to deal with the violence in Chicago.

Two state representatives called on Gov. Pat Quinn Sunday to deploy the Illinois National Guard to safeguard Chicago's streets.

Chicago Democrats John Fritchey and LaShawn Ford said they want Quinn, Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis to allow guardsmen to patrol streets and help quell violence. Weis said he did not support the idea because the military and police operate under different rules.

They deny they want tanks rolling in the streets but, last time I looked, the National Guard is an extension of the US Army and the army is a "broadsword, not a scalpel". (Major General William Devereaux played by Bruce Willis in "The Siege"). Perhaps that is a small exaggeration but only by a little.

As crime rates in other, freer, jurisdictions have shown, this problem arises whenever people are denied the means of exercising their basic right of self defense. Soon the citizens of Chicago may be seeing this:

Because their duly elected government will not allow then to own and carry this:


This is not such an aberration. The history of the 20th century demonstrated the willingness of those who claim to be the rulers to slaughter those they claim to rule. This is just another example of a governments preferring to use massive force rather than allow the citizens to use reasonable force.

H/T to Denninger