Conceal Carry vs. Light Rail

At lunch yesterday, I read a short blurb in the St. Paul Pioneer Press that a man whose car had been hit by a light rail train in Minneapolis had died of his injuries.

Light rail is one of the holy grails of the modern liberal. It is everything he desires: urban planning, environmentally-friendly, slightly European-feeling, and it expands government. The fact that it is a billion-dollar boondoggle that will never pay for itself is of no concern to the proponent of light rail. In Minnesota, we currently have one light rail line that runs from downtown Minneapolis to the airport and eventually to the Mall of America in Bloomington.

Around the time light rail was being approved, there was a bill for introducing conceal carry in Minnesota. Conceal carry is something that every modern liberal hates: weapons, individualism, putting people in control of their own defense, and very non-European feeling. The hysterical liberals in newspapers, on tv, and on radio bemoaned the lawlessness that would be unleashed in our state and all the gun deaths that would result. But the most devastating thing to the liberal was that it made them feel so Texan (bad!) and not so European (good!).

A conceal carry bill was passed and was signed into law in April 2003. A little over one year later, in June 2004, the one light rail line in Minnesota opened between downtown Minneapolis and the Mall of America. Since April 2003, there have been 0 gun deaths in Minnesota committed by citizens with conceal carry permits. Contrarily, since June 2004, there have been 6 deaths caused by light rail trains. Liberals love to say that conceal carry is a “public health issue.” Would it be uncharitable to say that light rail is a much greater public health menace than conceal carry?

Wisdom of Tolkien 7

At the Council of Elrond, Gandalf tells the tale of being captured by Saruman in Orthanc. Saruman, through his pride, has desired to become a power in Middle-Earth.

"'For I am Saruman, the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!'

I looked then and saw that his robes, which had seemed white, were not so, but were woven of all colours, and if he moved they shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered.

'I liked white better,' I said.

'White!' he sneered. 'It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken.'

'In which case it is no longer white,' said I. 'And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.'"

The Wisdom of Tolkien 6

During the Council of Elrond in the Fellowship of the Rings, Boromir speaks about the might of Gondor, and the safety Gondor provides for all the people who live in the lands behind Gondor. Aragorn, though, puts in a word for his people—the Dúnedain, the wandering Rangers of the North:

Peace and freedom you say? The North would have known them little but for us. Fear would have destroyed them. But when dark things come from the houseless hills, or creep from sunless wooods, they fly from us. What roads would any dare to tread, what safety would there be in quiet lands, or in the homes of simple men at night, if the Dúnedain were asleep, or were all gone into the grave?

And yet less thanks have we than you. Travellers scowl at us, and countrymen give us scornful names. "Strider" I am to one fat man who lives within a day's march of foes that would freeze his heart, or lay his little town in ruin, if he were not guarded ceaselessly. Yet we would not have it otherwise.

Again, I am put in mind of modern Americans who neither understand nor appreciate those who protect them, both in the armed forces and in law enforcement. I have been in neither profession, but I am grateful for the sacrifices made by those men and their families to make sure that the rest of us live in peace.

Unexplained Fuzzy Math

The eco-doom mongers have decided that the oceans are rising faster than even they anticipated. But in reading this article, it seems that even if the oceans are rising at the rate they are saying, it only comes up less than 1/3 of a meter by 2100. For some reason, the “reporters” who write these articles are never very interested in following through on the math. 3mm x 100 years = 300 mm or .3 m. Why the inflated number, the article doesn’t specify.

Professor Steffen, who has studied the Arctic ice for the past 35 years, told me: "I would predict sea level rise by 2100 in the order of one metre; it could be 1.2m or 0.9m.
"But it is one metre or more seeing the current change, which is up to three times more than the average predicted by the IPCC."
"It is a major change and it actually calls for action."
Dr John Church of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research added: "The most recent research showed that sea level is rising by 3mm a year since 1993, a rate well above the 20th century average."

Has anyone on any ocean beachfront noticed any rise in water? We are almost a quarter of the way to Al Gore's prediction of a catastrophic rise in ocean levels, but I haven't seen actual evidence of higher levels anywhere, besides people just saying that the levels are rising.

Waste of Time and Money

Now, in an effort to spend even less time doing actual school work, Twin Cities schools are teaching yoga to K–5th graders.

Minneapolis schools started practicing the Yoga Calm program in 2007. Since then, yoga instructors Kathy Flaminio and Julie Hurtubise have trained nearly 1,000 educators throughout the metro area.

"We've just had so many teachers interested," Flaminio said. "Teachers are changing the way that they teach. They're connecting to (students) on a deeper level."

With Yoga Calm, created in Portland, Ore., students learn 60 activities that help them develop skills, such as self-control, concentration and imagination. They also learn techniques for breathing and relaxation and how to monitor their pulse rate.

"They say they're feeling less stress," said Flaminio, a former Minneapolis schools social worker. "The attendances have changed because the kids don't want to miss yoga day."

Parents have questioned the use of yoga because of its religious connections to Buddhism and Hinduism. But in today's classrooms, teachers and trainers say yoga doesn't include chants or teachings about religion.

A couple things that popped into my mind while reading the article:

Despite the protests of the trainers, this seems very much like religion in public schools.

According to Wikipedia, “the Sanskrit word yoga has many meanings, and is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj, meaning ‘to control,’ ‘to yoke,’ or ‘to unite.’ Translations include ‘joining,’ ‘uniting,’ ‘union,’ ‘conjunction,’ and ‘means.’” Hmm . . . to control, to unite?

Seeing the photographs of the kids lined up in poses brings to mind images of rows of Chinese people participating in public exercises.

Are public schools really hard-pressed for money? Don’t stories like this make the average person think that there is money to spare in the public school budgets? There seems to be plenty of money to spend on training “nearly 1,000 educators throughout the metro area.”

Taking Credit

It is natural for people to want to look good in front of others. This is more true when a person has recently been called out for previous lies and evasions. This is especially true when that person is a politician.

In reading an article in the News & Observer (North Carolina) linked to by Glenn Reynolds, I noticed this report of a speech by John Edwards (who was speaking at Brown University):

In his half-hour speech, Edwards noted some of the ways in which he has spent time in the past six months. He talked of how his youngest children, Jack and Emma Claire, had their tonsils out. He described a December trip to a slum in Haiti and how he helped wrap the bodies of dead children.

The trip to Haiti and the wrapping of bodies of dead children seemed kind like a unique experience, so I did a little Web search and came up an article titled, “Hollywood in Haiti,” and it tells about the trip that several Hollywood-types took to Haiti in December. The group included

Paul & Deborah Haggis, Madeline Stowe, Josh Brolin, Diane Lane, Maria Bello, Bryn Mooser, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Michael Stahl David, and former Senator John Edwards . . .

During their stay in Haiti, the group visited the NPH/NPFS St. Damien pediatric hospital and its little patients, witnessed a moving funeral ceremony for two children who died in the night, went to the slums of Wharf Jeremy and Cité Soleil where Father Rick has built the street schools, helped download a container of humanitarian items, and attended the kick-off of a new project, Francisville, a site where vocational workshops and job training along with production facilities will be built.

Now good deeds are good deeds, and it is obvious that this group was helping a lot, but there seems to be a slight inflating of activities from John Edwards’s speech to the “Hollywood in Haiti” trip in December. From the press release, it is certain that John Edwards attended a funeral for two children who died while he was visiting the hospital, but the claim that was reported from the speech is that he actively participated in the wrapping of the dead bodies. This may have been the case, perhaps the pediatric hospital allows visiting celebrities to prepare children for burial, but it seems more likely that he witnessed these events. Again, we should be thankful for the good work and good deeds, but why the necessity to mention how he helped “wrap the bodies of dead children”? It’s almost like he is desiring very much to look virtuous in the eyes of the audience of his speech. Would it be too much to ask a politician to not try to make political hay from an event like this? I guess so, especially when you have an image to rebuild.

The Wisdom of Tolkien 5

When Frodo finally starts out from Hobbiton with the Ring, he is being followed by a couple of Black Riders. By chance, he meets up with Elves while still within the bounds of the Shire. Frodo has an interesting conversation with Gildor Inglorion.

[Gildor said,] "The Shire is no longer protection for you."

"I cannot imagine what information could be more terrifying than your hints and warnings," exclaimed Frodo. "I knew that danger lay ahead, of course; but I did not expect to meet it in our own Shire. Can't a hobbit walk from the Water to the River in peace?"

"But it is not your own Shire," said Gildor. Others dwelt here before Hobbits were; and others will dwell here again when hobbits are no more. The wide world is all about you; you can fence yourself in, but you cannot for ever fence it out."

I think in America we sometimes have the idea that all the trouble in the world, all the unsafe places are far away and no bother to us. We think we can fence ourselves in and avoid dealing with the barbarians in other parts of the world. But the world is always changing, and even today freedom wanes. Truly, freedom here is dependent on freedom "out there."

The Wisdom of Tolkien 4

One of my favorite dialogs in The Lord of the Rings is when Frodo wishes that Bilbo had killed Gollum when he had the chance, but to Gandalf (and Tolkien) it is Bilbo's pity that saves Middle Earth.

"But this is terrible!" cried Frodo. "Far worse than the worst that I imagined from your hints and warnings. O Gandalf, best of friends, what am I to do? For now I am really afraid. What am I to do? What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had the chance!"

"Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity."

"I am sorry," said Frodo. "But I am frightened; and I do not feel any pity for Gollum."

"You have not seen him," Gandalf broke in.

"No, and I don't want to," said Frodo. "I can't understand you. Do you mean to say that you, and the Elves have let him live on after all those horrible deeds? Now at any rate he is as bad as an Orc, and just an enemy. He deserves death."

"Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many—yours not the least."

And as we see at the end of the book, the pity of Bilbo saves Middle Earth and Frodo himself.

Although I am a conservative, and I understand the death penalty and the arguments for it, I have always been slightly opposed to it, and a lot of that has to do with the ideas in this argument. We should not be too eager to deal out death in judgement, for even the very wise cannot see all ends.

The Wisdom of Tolkien 3

In telling Frodo the sad tale of Gollum, Gandalf says that Gollum went into the Misty Mountains, telling himself that "there must be great secrets buried there." But it turns out that that was not the case. Gandalf says of Gollum:

All the "great secrets" under the mountains had turned out to be just empty night: there was nothing more to find out, nothing worth doing, only nasty furtive eating and resentful remembering. He was altogether wretched. He hated the dark, and he hated light more: he hated everything, and the Ring most of all.

To me, this is one of the best descriptions of the emptiness that is at the root of secularism. There is the illusion of freedom, the illusion of discovery, but finally, it is nothing. Cut off from people, cut off from the light it is only "resentful remembering."

Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of people in Gollum's circumstance today.

Wisdom of Tolkien 2

I discover that in reading fiction, I like the parts of the book where information is dispensed. In the Harry Potter series, that's books 6 and 7. In The Lord of the Rings, it's the "Shadow of the Past" from Fellowship of the Ring.

In this chapter, Gandalf explains the one ring and brings Frodo (and the readers) up to speed on what's at stake. In their conversation, there are many interesting things said. Here is one:

"The rumors you have heard are true: [Sauron] has indeed arisen again and left his hold in Mirkwood and returned to his ancient fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor. That name even you hobbits have heard of, like a shadow on the borders of old stories. Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again."

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"And so do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

Peter Jackson included a version of this exchange in the film—it was one of the more effective scenes in the movie.

I think this idea was understood by people once upon a time. There are always big ideas in opposition to each other in every age: in our grandfather's time, it was freedom vs. national socialism, in our father's time, it was freedom vs. communism, in our day it is freedom vs. radical Islamism.



We cannot pretend that we can shirk the duties of our age. We must always remember that the generations before us made sacrifices for our sake, and we must be prepared to do the same for those generations who follow us.

The Wisdom of Tolkien

I haven't read Tolkien in several years, but when I read that Peter Jackson and company are in pre-production on The Hobbit, I decided to reread The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In reading them again, I am struck by the wisdom that is present in Tolkien's tales. Here is a paragraph from the prologue to Fellowship of the Ring:

The Hobbits named it the Shire, as the region of the authority of their Thain, and a district of well-ordered business; and there in that pleasant corner of the world they plied their well-ordered business of living, and they heeded less and less the world outside where dark things moved, until they came to think that peace and plenty were the rule in Middle-Earth and the right of all sensible folk. They forgot or ignored what little they had ever known of the Guardians, and of the labours of those that made possible the long peace of the Shire. They were, in fact, sheltered, but they had ceased to remember it.

When discussing world politics with people, it is hard to make this point. So many people believe that it is our right to live at a time of no wars, sensible people, and a well-ordered life. They do not take into account the sacrifices of so many others so they can live in peace and prosperity. They begin not only to take their history for granted, but indeed, to even hate their history.

Tolkien, who fought in WWI, and lived in England during WWII (and had a son in the RAF), understood that we can't take peace, prosperity, or any of the good things we enjoy today for granted. The guardians are always guarding us, and the those who enjoy the fruits of the guardians labor would do well to be thankful.