I may have been caught by one of my coworkers singing this song in my office. Stupid open door policy.

A mildly disturbing trend over the past several years is for cops to decorate their equipment with some version of the Punisher logo. It probably filtered in from the troops using it. Here’s the problem. The Punisher murders people. We enjoy him because he only murders bad guys. Kinda like Dexter Morgan from Dexter. Except that show thrust the protagonist’s insanity to the forefront of the show, whereas the Punisher’s writers rarely deal with Frank’s issues.

Soldiers in a combat zone using the image of a character who straight up murders his opponents? I get that. For police to use it shows a dangerous mindset.

The writers for Punisher addressed the issue in a recent issue.

You boys need a role model? His name is Captain America, and he’d be happy to have you.

The reader has certain rights. He bought your story. Think of this as an implicit contract. He’s entitled to be entertained, instructed, amused; maybe all three. If he quits in the middle, or puts the book down feeling his time has been waited, you’re in violation.

Someone’s making a documentary. The trailer is a bit overblown (advertising, I guess). Still, I’m hoping to learn more.

The members sue the government that propped them up.

The story makes it sound like these poor people who saved for years to buy a taxi medallion now have nothing to show for it and want just recompense. I call bullshit on that for a couple of reasons:

1. Most of the medallions were owned by firms who then rented them out to individuals. Firms that were happy to use the force of government to enforce their little cartel. Excuse me if I don’t have sympathy that they now reap the whirlwind.
2. People get wiped out when assets lose value – whether it be market or government causes. It’s only been in the last couple of years that my house in Tampa slightly came above water.

I hate to sound cold, but if you’re investing into a government-enforced cartel, I’m not going to weep when your investment loses value because an unjust cartel is broken. Anymore than I would weep for all the folks complaining about how their Stens would lose value if we could repeal the NFA. Particularly when the taxi cartel rested on its first government-enforced protection to keep prices high and service middling.

Dragonforce- when caffeine just isn’t enough to get you going.

My browser is getting pretty full, and of course, a lot of those are links to articles from Reason. So, in the interest of closing browser tabs…

Irish democracy lives in New Zealand. Since the nation is pretty much an archipelago, I wonder how many “tragic boating accidents” gun owners have had down there.

From the Volokh Conspiracy comes an article about why we shouldn’t treat victims as policy experts. Both sides do it, and it’s just as wrong. Can victims become policy experts? Of course. However, using their stories to drive public policy is not a good idea. Laws named after victims are never good.

Clarence Thomas rarely speaks during SCOTUS sessions so he can bring his full force in written word. At least, that’s my head cannon. He’s disappointed me some over the last few years, but he’s still my favorite justice. Although Gorsich is quickly coming up fast.

Another good article on getting rid of qualified immunity. It’s a legal principle made up of whole cloth by judges to protect prosecutors and cops. Let the whole thing go over to the malpractice world, like most other professions.

Confessions Of a Former Climate Skeptic. A lot of folks I know think climate change is a hoax. Or if not a hoax, then it’s not as bad as the dire projections (some truth to that). I blame the activist scientists for that. The ones who immediately said that economies must be wrecked through invasive government schemes in the hopes that the Iron Law Of Bureaucracy can be subverted in this one instance. Unfortunately for both sides, climate change is real, but government cannot get us out of it. Human ingenuity and bringing people out of poverty are the keys.

Finally, we have a new law that stops the IRS from stealing money from people who have not broken the law. It’s like you need an actual crime to take people’s stuff.

When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar; you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say.

Saw this on Facebook. Unfortunately, I don’t know who was the original author to give proper credit. Still, they bear reminding.

1. Thou shall not attack the person’s character, but the argument. (Ad hominem)
2. Thou shall not misrepresent or exaggerate a person’s argument in order to make them easier to attack. (Straw man fallacy)
3. Thou shall not use small numbers to represent the whole. (Hasty generalization)
4. Thou shall not argue thy position by assuming one of its premises is true. (Begging the question)
5. Thou shall not claim that because something has occurred before, it must be the cause. (Post Hoc / False Cause)
6. Thou shall not reduce the argument down to two possibilities. (False dichotomy)
7. Thou shall not argue that because of ignorance, claim must be true or false. (Ad ingorantum)
8. Thou shall not lay the burder of proof onto him that is questioning the claim. (Burder of proof reversal.)
9. Thou shall not assume “this” follows “that” when it has no logical connection. (Non sequitur)
10. Thou shall not claim that because a premise is popular, therefore it must be true. (Bandwagon fallacy)

Solid Iron Maiden, which makes it a cut above anything else.