Indonesia vs. Illegal Fishing Boats

Boom, baby.

"The Saudi Arabia of Maple Syrup"

Smuggling, shenanigans, and skulduggery!  Oh, Canada.

Thoughts on Broken Windows

William Bratton, NYC police commissioner, and George Kelling, criminal professor emeritus from Rutgers, take time to write:

Critics have posed a variety of arguments against Broken Windows.  Some assert that it is synonymous with the controversial patrol tactic known as "stop, question, and frisk."  Others allege that Broken Windows is discriminatory, used as a tool to target minorities.  Some academics claim that Broken Windows has no effect on serious crime and that demographic and economic causes better explain the reductions in crime in New York and across the United States.  Still other critics suggest that order-maintenance policing leads to over-incarceration or tries to impose a white middle-class morality on urban populations.  It is rare to have the opportunity and space to correct all the misconceptions and misrepresentations embedded in such charges.  We will counter them here, one by one.

Thoughts?

Headline of the Day: "Pope Francis Excommunicates the Sicilian Mafia, Takes the Cannoli"

Well, you can't talk about the mob without working in a Godfather reference!

Cocaine-Stuffed Pumpkins Found At Montreal Airport

I don't even know what to say.  Hey, at least they were seasonal!

Can You Handle Philosophical Arguments in Russia?

You probably Kant.

Nerd News: The Psychology of Murder

Looking into the psychology of murderers can be interesting ... unless it's your psychology professor who's the murderer.  Good grief.  Also distressing: the college is standing by him so he will keep on teaching.  What?  The guy slaughtered his entire family in 1967.  This is not some feel-good comeback story about how he got rehabbed or whatever!  Do you want a murderer teaching your kids?

Mystery Meat in China Has Been Disgustingly Demystified

And you thought the UK horsemeat scandal was bad!  Get an eyeful of this:

More than 900 people have been arrested in China for selling fake or tainted meat in the last three months, state media say.  Officials say they uncovered almost 400 such cases and seized more than 20,000 tonnes of fake meat. In one case, the suspects made fake mutton from foxes, mink and rats after adding chemicals, state media said.

I'm pretty sure the thing is actually worse than this.

Headline of the Day: Cold War in Upstate New York

Can you read this headline without laughing?  Ice Cream Truck Turf War: Sno Cone Joe stalked Mr. Ding-A-Ling, N.Y. police say.

Nerd News: the Atlanta Cheating Scandal

From earlier this week, which I missed because I was busy: SHAME:

Thirty-five Atlanta educators are expected to surrender Tuesday after being indicted in the biggest alleged cheating scandal involving standardized testing in American history. The list of suspects includes everyone from the former superintendent to principals and teachers. 

... Investigators say Atlanta's school district orchestrated a culture of cheating to benefit those at the top. 

Nearly 200 educators admitted to taking part in the massive scandal: they tampered with students' standardized tests and corrected answers to inflate scores. Some teachers had pizza parties to erase wrong answers and circle in the right ones. One principal allegedly handled altered tests wearing gloves to avoid leaving her fingerprints.

Quote of the Day: Undergrad Shenanigans at Oxford

Here's a thought from one of the students:

"Other than the small matter of it technically being theft it seems to be to be a great and noble tradition."

Technically!

Vultures: Soapboxing on the Oscar Pistorius Case

In the aftermath of the horrible news, there has been some repugnant, opportunistic "commentary" by various people with axes to grind.

Oscar Pistorius Charged with Murder

WHAT?  I wake up this morning and see this dreadful headline about one of the stars of the London Olympics.  More here.

Quote of the Day: Mark Steyn on Equal Justice Under Law

Just look at what l'affaire David Gregory hath wrought. Steyn observes:

Laws either apply to all of us or none of us. If they apply only to some, they’re not laws but caprices — and all tyranny is capricious.

Well, DUH.  Of course, I also feel compelled to offer this PSA: "The Fact That A Law Exists Doesn't Mean That It's Not Stupid."  (On a related note, remember this?  We're all felons now, eh?)  

Quote of the Day: Samuel L. Jackson on Gun Violence

From a recent interview during which the reporter asked about Newtown:

"I don't think movies or video games have anything to do with it. I don't think [stopping gun violence] is about more gun control. I grew up in the South with guns everywhere, and we never shot anyone. This [shooting] is about people who aren't taught the value of life."

Or more to the point, "don't care about the value of life."

Larry Correia on Gun Control

Why should you care what a bestselling sci-fi author has to say about guns?  Because he was also a firearms instructor and competition shooter who has worked with law enforcement and knows more about guns than your average talking head on the news.  Read this, please, if you haven't already.  Here is a piece of it:

Gun Free Zones are hunting preserves for innocent people. Period. 

Think about it. You are a violent, homicidal madman, looking to make a statement and hoping to go from disaffected loser to most famous person in the world. The best way to accomplish your goals is to kill a whole bunch of people. So where’s the best place to go shoot all these people? Obviously, it is someplace where nobody can shoot back. 

In all honesty I have no respect for anybody who believes Gun Free Zones actually work. You are going to commit several hundred felonies, up to and including mass murder, and you are going to refrain because there is a sign? That No Guns Allowed sign is not a cross that wards off vampires. It is wishful thinking, and really pathetic wishful thinking at that.

On another day I might blog about how I personally think that most efforts at gun control are actually and ultimately efforts at people control, but you pretty much can anticipate what I'd say, right? As for arguments that nobody should own firearms except the police ...  Just stop and think about that for a minute.  Do proponents of this realize that they're basically arguing in favor not only of more crime but also a potential police state?  What happens if and when it gets corrupted and nasty and starts to abuse power and stomp on your civil liberties?  Anyway, it's too late tonight to talk much more about a complicated issue and meditations on self-defense (not only as a right but also even as a responsibility), so I'm just going to sign off with this and one of my favorite lines from Firefly.  You know the one, darlings. Oh, you know.

Woe, Canada: the Great Maple Syrup Heist of 2012

That's $30 million's worth of maple syrup gone missing from a warehouse in Quebec!  Here's a playful, Onion-like take on the tale.

In Praise of the NYPD

Indeed.

The Butler Did It

Heh.  

Mark Steyn Considers Geert Wilders and the Dutch

Steyn is always fascinating.  As for Wilders, whatever else he is, he's also a lightning rod. Death threats are not okay, no matter what sort of person he might be.  As for Steyn's piece, this is how it begins:

When I was asked to write a foreword to Geert Wilders’ new book, my first reaction, to be honest, was to pass. Mr. Wilders lives under 24/7 armed guard because significant numbers of motivated people wish to kill him, and it seemed to me, as someone who’s attracted more than enough homicidal attention over the years, that sharing space in these pages was likely to lead to an uptick in my own death threats. Who needs it? Why not just plead too crowded a schedule and suggest the author try elsewhere? I would imagine Geert Wilders gets quite a lot of this. 

And then I took a stroll in the woods, and felt vaguely ashamed at the ease with which I was willing to hand a small victory to his enemies.