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We all know that the Original Cyberpunk is a visionary of particular accuracy, so if he’s concerned for the fate of humanity, you probably should be too:

My pleasure this morning at the announcement of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Heller case — that there is in fact an individual, not collective, right to own guns — is soured by a correlating announcement from Spain: that, like humans, Great Apes now also have equal rights to life and liberty.

The supposedly big Supreme Court decision on the Washington D.C. gun law is today, and while it has the potential to be a landmark decision in defense of the Second Amendment, I fully expect the Supreme Court to pull one of their patented weasel jobs. The Court has a much greater tendency to get expansive in its interpretations when extending Federal power, not when limiting it. They’re not going to uphold the DC law because it’s too much of an obvious reach, but neither are they going to defend the Constitution as written and underline the individual right to keep and bear arms.

The most likely result is the overturning of the DC law on some meaningless technicality that will allow them to safely ignore the 20,000+ unconstitutional gun laws on the books and leave things in that nebulous state that requires more of the “interpretation” that lawyers find so profitable. I’ll be delighted to be proven wrong on this, but I’ll be very surprised if the Heller decision provides any clarification of the Second Amendment.

UPDATE – yes, we appear to have the full weasel in effect. Although perhaps that judgment is a bit too harsh since they did at least destroy the “collective right” argument. I should give them some credit for that. Ed Whelan of Bench Memos posts from the syllabus:

(a) The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense at home.

(b) The Second Amendment right is not unlimited. The Court’s opinion should not cast doubt on concealed-weapons prohibitions, laws barring possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, laws barring firearms in sensitive places like schools and government buildings, and laws imposing conditions on commercial sale of arms.

(c) D.C.’s handgun ban and trigger-lock requirement violate the Second Amendment. The total ban on handgun possession prohibits an entire class of arms that Americans overwhelmingly choose for the lawful purpose of self-defense. Under any standard of scrutiny, that ban falls. The trigger-lock requirement makes self-defense impossible. D.C. may use a licensing scheme.

UPDATE II – It may be worse than I expected. Scalia is apparently denying a military purpose to militia weapons in the majority opinion. That’s both ahistorical and insane.

“the most natural reading of ‘keep Arms’ in the Second Amendment is to “have weapons.”

“The term was applied, then as now, to weapons that were not specifically designed for military use and were not employed in a military capacity.”

“Putting all of these textual elements together, we find that they guarantee the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation.”

“Thus, we do not read the Second Amendment to protect the right of citizens to carry arms for any sort of confrontation, just as we do not read the First Amendment to protect the right of citizens to speak for any purpose.”

I’m guessing that a confrontation with the government is not going to fall within the aegis of this protected right, despite the historical context of the Constitution’s authors having very recently confronted their own lawful government with arms.

The BBC compiles an office lexicon:

At my old company (a US multinational), anyone involved with a particular product was encouraged to be a product evangelist. And software users these days, so we hear, want to be platform atheists so that their computers will run programs from any manufacturer.”

Speaking as a onetime “Transdimensional Evangelist” – yes, that was my actual title on the business card – I find this bit of office jargon to be very amusing. Coherently speaking, a platform atheist is in the business of denying the observable fact that platforms exist, all of the copious testimonial and documentary evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. Rather like a real atheist, or around eighty percent of them, anyhow.

It seems to me that “platform polytheist” would not only be a more accurate analogy, but a more melodious apellation.

It’s like Air America all over again as the Fraters see off a challenger to their porcelain throne:

That was then: “The battle has been joined. Let the Fraters Libertas and the Powerline conjure the old and tired patriotic tropes, while this new patriotic battalion forms and fires….”

“A new death star is born. Chuck Olsen and friends have started what will no doubt be an awesome new Minnesota lefty blog; our answer to the Fraters dicks.”

This is now: “Silly kids. They shouldn’t have underestimated the staying power of the Fraters dicks.”

The Fraters Libertas: Keeping it up like adenosine junkies.

Rachel has an amusing story about her reaction to discovering that one of her precious pups is a carnivore. But even the most civilized dog is a killer at heart; you can’t get much more effete than my Viszla and yet he is pure death on squirrels. When he was younger and we’d go running around the lake, he’d suddenly dash to the side and hit a squirrel without breaking stride. I always called him off, however, so he learned to make that one free strike count. Once, however, we ran right through a line of ducklings and he must have been more curious than lethally inclined, because when I ordered him to “Drop” it, he spat the little fuzzball out and it staggered off towards the mama duck, apparently no worse for wear.

I don’t quite understand the fear of spiders and such expressed by both men and women in the comments to her post, though. It’s not as if I like spiders or anything, but I find it amusing, to be honest, when I answer the call to arms and see Spacebunny pointing silently and accusatorily at an arachnid hanging out on the ceiling or wall. Two nights ago, I was typing away in the darkness when I felt something crawl over my fingers and saw a flash of movement in the light of the screen; I was pretty sure it was a spider. Sure enough, when I reached over to turn on the light, there was a decent-sized one standing just to the left of the laptop. I’m not sure if I felt more annoyed or disgusted, either way, I made a fist and crushed it, then went for a paper towel to clean up the mess. Mankind 1, Arachnids 0. Don’t interrupt me when I’m writing.

That being said, I doubt I ever moved faster than when I felt something crawling over my shoulder one night just as Spacebunny said “Did you feel something?” She went one way, I went the other, and if there was an Olympic event for “getting out of bed and turning on the light”, we would have tied for the gold.

Ellis has lots of questions, all of which can be answered in the first two:

Why put man into a position where you know he’s going to disobey without understanding that it is evil until after he has disobeyed? Why punish the descendants of that man for his crime instead of allowing each to choose? Why the 10 arbitrary rules? Why not 20? How does breaking off a piece of yourself and having it killed horribly somehow allow forgiveness of those made-up sins? No judge in the world would allow one person to take the death sentence for another’s crime. How is that justice? How does it make sense to condemn tens of millions of people to eternal torment simply because they had never heard of you? Why did he even bother in the first place? To amuse himself?

Is there something I’m missing?

Starting with the last question first, yes. And then, yes. That’s all you need to know in order to begin thinking rationally about the situation. I recommend kicking this around with pretty much any game designer, or even a significantly experienced gamer, for a perspective that will render all of the obvious answers to these questions perfectly comprehensible if not necessarily credible. Once you understand that you’re in the position of one of the little orcs in Warcraft trying to understand not only the purpose of the player, but the Blizzard designer, you will cease being so confused about the universe in which you presently find yourself.

That little orc can no more begin to understand the ambition of the Blizzard designer to buy a nice sports car in order to impress a certain girl and how that factors into the designer’s motivate to create the little orc than you can imagine the purpose for your creation. Amusement almost surely factors in – we are created in His image, after all – but is unlikely to be the sole motivation. Remember, it was only the Earth that was formless and void; a Christian multiverse concept presents possibilities that are far more interesting to contemplate than those provided by a mere defensive mathematical bulwark against the anthropic principle.

Rumor notwithstanding, the delay in posting the latest Thucydides section is NOT due to my moonlighting as a backup disco dancer. Still, one is forced to wonder: is there a song that the Freemasons can’t make better?

I never thought George Carlin was funny. Not even a little bit. It wasn’t due to his language or anything, whether it was Carlin’s lame routine about seven words or his cameos in movies like Dogma, I just thought he was lame, boring, and obvious from the start and never saw any reason to change my opinion. His uttered wisdom, such as it was, seemed design to impress those with average IQs; they were chock full of the illusion of intelligence rather than anything approaching the real thing.

The Original Cyberpunk was impressed by Carlin in his younger years, but he eventually grew out of it. I’m tempted to say that it’s amazing how many people never did, but then I reflect back upon that magical moment in Paris and all is right with the world again.

Now, how can I say this? “This book is bad.” No, that’s inadequate. “This book is stunningly awful.” No, still not there. How about, “Carlin’s collection of allegedly humorous quips and stories is a week-old turd sautéed in dog vomit over a flaming fart.”

Yes, I think that begins to get close to it.

UPDATE – CB fails to note the irony in his response: “Honestly Vox, Carlin just died. The body isnt even cold yet and your talking about what hack he was and how his death is ‘No Loss’. Have alittle bit of class.”

Let me get this straight. An individual who devoted his entire career to tearing down tradition and encouraging disrespect and believed that humans are nothing more than meaningless collections of atoms is no more, so we should therefore, on the basis of the respect traditionally shown for the dead, refrain from discussing him and the quality of his past work as if they were anything more significant than an empty espresso cup or the pile of partially digested intestinal refuse deposited in the backyard by the dog?

I don’t think so. Carlin showed no respect, therefore he merits none himself.

What do they have in common? Both of them took a proudly triumphalist posture just as their perceived popularity began to visibly collapse. Neocon boasting of a permanent Republican majority was still being bruited about only two years before the 2006 electoral debacle, while as I noted in TIA, atheist identification and popularity have actually taken declined since the New Atheist literary wave began:

Most Americans believe that angels and demons are active in the world, and nearly 80 percent think miracles occur, according to a poll released yesterday that takes an in-depth look at Americans’ religious beliefs. The study detailed Americans’ deep and broad religiosity, finding that 92 percent believe in God or a universal spirit — including one in five of those who call themselves atheists.

Best-selling books can, but don’t necessarily, prove the popularity of the views contained within those books. In some circumstances, it is the reverse that is more likely the case, after all, the fact that I own more than a few New Atheist books doesn’t indicate that I agree or even think well of the arguments contained within them. It is, of course, quite funny to see yet more evidence that so many “atheists” define atheism so broadly as to include belief in God. But they’re entirely rational… just ask them.

And of course, in nearly half the major cases, the New Atheists ARE Neocons. Both Harris and Hitchens fit the bill rather nicely; they’re not conventional Republicans, but they support American military adventurism in the Middle East. Hitchens, in fact, is very nearly a true Neoconservative as defined by the elder Kristol, considering his former Trotskyite politics.

I have seldom been more wrong than I was about the Euro 2008 quarters, which just goes to show how often one can be misled by the level of performance shown in the group stages. Now, as most of the experts predicted, Germany and Russia are in the semis; the two that no one expected to make it this far are Spain and Turkey. I find Spain to be easily the most impressive, which one might conclude was the kiss of death for them were it not for the fact that the Russians were in their group and they crushed them 4-1. A few thoughts on the quarters:

1. Both Germany and Portugal had difficulties in the back, but since the German strikers had shown nothing in the previous three games, I assumed that it would be the German defense that cracked under pressure. It was the other way around. Ballack did finally come through in a big game for the Germans, but I’d much rather have Bastian Schweinsteiger on my team.

2. There was never any doubt that Gus Hiddink was a great coach, he took South Korea past the group stage of the World Cup, after all. Even so, his architected demolition of a talented Holland squad whose firepower had camoflauged their defensive weakness was remarkable. The fact that the Russian midfielders were shooting on goal anytime they were within 40 meters indicated Hiddink’s doubts about the solidity of the Dutch defending and the results vindicated them. I’d be surprised if he didn’t try the same thing against Spain, what does he have to lose, after all? As for the Dutch, I think Bommel’s absence really hurt them and I can’t imagine that the premature birth and subsequent death of the midfielder’s child – the Oranje were wearing black armbands on the night – helped any.

3. I can’t even stand to watch Turkey. I don’t like them. I don’t think they’re very good. I have no idea how they keep squeaking through at the last moment. Having either Germany or Turkey in the finals is like watching the Raiders play the Colts for the AFC Championship. You just want them both to lose.

4. As I mentioned when the tournament started, Italy was in deep trouble. Maldini was retired, Cannavaro was injured, and Toni was overrated. None of these problems were fixed, and to be blunt, I could have done a much better job managing the squad than Donadoni, whose decisions approached the inexplicable. What Aquiloni was doing out there against Spain, I’ll never know, he was practically invisible the entire match. The entire Italian attack consisted of lobbing balls into Toni, which works so long as he’s being defended by dwarfs who have no idea how to position themselves against an aerial assault. Toni didn’t score a single goal in the tournament; even at 34, Inzaghi would have found a way to put several in the net. He and Del Piero should have led the Italian attack, with Toni as a second-half substitue. I am so annoyed with managers in every sport who are infatuated with physical size and value it over actual on-field results; the fox-in-the-box strikers may not score the flashy highlight-reel goals, but they all count the same.

Spain deserved to win, although FIFA really has to do something about the tie games. Instead of penalties, it would be much better if they simply required managers to remove one player every five minutes of overtime and made it sudden death. This would be exciting, guarantee scoring, and almost certainly require less than the 30 minutes of overtime play now required before it even gets to penalties.

I’m sticking with Spain to win it all, although on the basis of my performance in the quarters, one might reasonably suggest that I’m not the most reliable analyst here.