Moral dilemma:
If you honestly believe it's reprehensible to posses the means and will to
use lethal force to repel a criminal assault . . . How can you rightfully expect
another human being to risk his life to protect yours?
Quote from "Nation of Cowards" by Jeff Snyder
According to a letter in our local paper an 83 year old Yorkshire lady felt
moved to E-mail a tribute to the Queen Mother on BBC' message board which had
been opened for the very purpose. She got an E-mail back saying: "We very
much appriciate your interest in the message board, but are sorry to have to
tell you that your message has had to be removed. Your message has been removed
on the grounds that it contains language or contents which other readers might
find offensive. We would be delighted if you would remove any potentially offensive
language/contents from your message and then resubmit it.
The "offensive message? "A wonderful lady. God bless"
"False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms.. disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity will respect the less important and arbitary ones. Such laws makes things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailant, they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homocides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.
This was written in the 18th Century by Cesare Beccorra in his tract "On Crimes and Punishment."
Daughter Aki was operating on a cat the other day, and as it came out of anestethic it clamped down on one of her fingers and hung on until it died. Next day the finger swelled up, and it was clear that she needed antibiotics. Unfortunately she is not registered with any doctor in Edinbergh, but she brought her NHS card to a local surgery. They refused point blank to write out a prescription. She tried several other places, but no-one was willing to help her, nor would they register her as a patient. She then went to the Emergency department at the hospital, but after a 12 hours wait she was feverish and in pain, and no-one could tell her how much longer she had to wait. In the end she had one of the vets at the University write out an antibiotic prescription for one of her sheep, and she is feeling much better now.
"The learned Fool writes his Nonsense in better Language than the unlearned; but still 'tis Nonsense." Benjamin Franklin
The budget has just been announced and massive increases in spending on the NHS is in the pipeline. To finance it the Chancellor has increased the National Insurance with what most people seems to believe is 1 per cent, which doesn't sound too bad. This is not exactly the case, though. He was actually talking about one percentage point, which means an increase of about 8 per cent. In fact a single average earning person could use that amount to buy private health insurance that would give him garanteed proper health care now, instead of a possible one sometimes in the future.
While on the subject of the NHS what is the Government actually going to spend all that extra money on. More doctors and nurses are retireing than coming into the profession, and anyway they are now being told not to expect any money without increased productivity. To supervise this a new diretorate is being put into place. Some cynics have estimated that about 80 per cent of the new money raised will go into checking that the money is not wasted.
It's finally raining again after 5 weeks of steady sunshine. The rain has taken all the cherry blossoms here at Heimbu, and it looks like we've just had a heavy snowfall.
Local elections are coming up and the Government has suddenly become worried about the fact that the British National Party seems to be making some headway in a few areas. Five years ago the Peoples Party, aka New Labour, basically adopted all the Conservatives' policies, which has made opposition very difficult; how do you oppose when the other party is doing what you have always advocated? Now Blunkett seems to be trying the same strategy; trying to stop an openly racist party by adopting their viewpoints. I have to admit I'm not quite getting it, but then I'm not a politician.
I suppose it is not a politically correct view, but it seems to me that the only thing that stops this country from sliding into a one-party dictatorship is the Lords'. So far they have stopped the Government from abolishing the Habeus Corpus, the jury system and the independence of the police. It can't be long now before the Lordships themselves will be completely "reformed".
There is another law now percolating through the system that I find really scary. For some time now councils have had the power to evict council tenants that makes life a misery for the whole neighbourhood, but the Government is now looking at confiscating private houses through leaning on the banks that holds mortgages if "the houseowner does not confirm to accepted behaviour." Would unaccaptable behaviour include opposing New Labour.
"A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user."
Theodore Roosevelt
Should airline pilots be armed? Group-thinking leads to trouble here. Certainly no one should be armed against his will, but with equal certainty no one should be forbidden to arm himself if he so desires. Personally I would be much happier in a commercial airliner in which both the pilot and the attendants were qualified pistoleros. That situation cannot be achieved by legislation, but neither should it be forbidden - by legislation.
Col. Jeff Cooper
As more and more people are taking up Stav we are noticing a curious trend; some people seem very keen on teaching, but are showing a marked resistance to learning. As we are living in a time where degrees are important, but knowledge is not, I suppose I should not be surprised, but somehow I still am.
I'm afraid Bronwen has been rather unsporting lately. We have been hammering the local wood pretty hard, and the rabbits are getting paranoid. To put a not too fine word on it she has basically started to rob craddles. Last time we were out she discovered a squirrel dray and pulled out the babies one by one and ate them. The farmer was happy enough as the grey squirrels are serious pests, but still this is not on.
A teacher at a school not so far from here has got himself into serious trouble. It seems he return to the classroom from a sports class where he had been using the school's starting pistol to send runners off. Some of the kids noticed the pistol and became agitated, so he explained what it was. Now he is suspended, the whole class has been offered councelling, the parents are being interviewed on the telly, the politicians are hysterical and the whole country is going to Hell in a handbasket.
As I was writing the above news were coming in on another school massacre; this time in Germany with 16 people killed before the perpetrator shot himself. As usual in these cases, which seems to becoming more frequent, the laws regarding guns will be tightened, making it more difficult every day to actually survive similar incidents. Sometimes I wonder why my way of thinking is so seemingly different from the majority of people, but no-one seems to be able to come up with a logical explanation why disarming the law-abiding is the solution to the problem.
The Dear Leader has been on his morally high horse again telling the French what to do with the openly racist president candidate le en. Le Pen's answer that if he is elected he will close all refugee centres in France and ship all the people there over to Britain, where the non-racist British Government obviously will welcome them with open arms, has so far been met with deafening silence.
Has the RSPCA finally seen the light? They are now lobbying the Government for a new law that will give basic rights to all kept animals.
Freedom from hunger and thirst.
Fredom from discomfort, pain and fear.
Freedom to express normal behaviour.
Can we now assume that hunting with dogs is now condoned by the Society?
" llllose who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity...will
respect the less important and arbitrary ones... Such laws make things worse
for the assaulted and better for the assailants, they serve rather to
encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with
greater confidence than an armed man."
~Thomas Jefferson, quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria in "On
Crimes and Punishment."
"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are
neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that
those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity...will
respect the less important and arbitrary ones... Such laws make things worse
for the assaulted and better for the assailants, they serve rather to
encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with
greater confidence than an armed man."
~Thomas Jefferson, quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria in "On
Crimes and Punishment."