Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
One of the things that frustrates those who are involved in self defense issues is the media’s stance on firearms. According to many news stories, guns aren’t merely weapons but are instead demonic devices that force otherwise peaceful people who come in contact with them to explode into violence and slaughter the innocent.
What’s carefully left out of these thinly disguised op-eds is the fact that firearms in the hands of average citizens save many more lives than are taken by criminals.
Remember back when you were a kid. Did your Mom or Dad ever say that you were supposed to tell the truth if you did something bad? Own up to it and take your lumps?
If you’re a productive, supportive member of society then something like this must have happened. Personal responsibility is the lesson.
Cori over at Rantingprofs has the scoop. MSNBC reported that the lead judge in the upcoming trial of Saddam Hussein was assassinated. The spin was that Iraq was such a dangerous and out-of-control place that the terrorists can kill anyone, even someone who had been living under such extreme security measures that his identity was kept secret.
Cori points out that the author of the MSNBC report seems to have forgotten that the judge’s identity wasn’t so secret after all. It had been published by Robert Fisk.
It eventually turned out that the first reports were in error, and the judge was safe. That still doesn’t excuse what appears to either be an attempt to ignore the facts in order to present a negative image, or an effort to cover for a fellow journalist that put an innocent man’s life in danger.
If you’ve been watching much television lately, you may have caught Burger King‘s new ad for its Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch Chicken Sandwich. The spot, which is titled “Fantasy Ranch” has won my heart with its mix of wholesome folksy music, blatant sexual innuendo, and complete lunacy, all twisted to the purpose of promoting the unhealthy fast-food agenda of a multinational conglomerate. Tell me that this concept doesn’t warm your cold, machine-like capitalist heart as it does mine.