Saturday, February 23, 2013

The Pope Is Gay?

Maybe he is or maybe he isn't. Only he knows for sure. But it looks like some high-ranking members of the Catholic Church are gay, the Pope found out about it and the numerous cover-ups and general machinations, and is now stepping down. Two main things: 1) Secret societies are probably always going to end up terrible in some way, because people who love both secrecy and power are probably going to do some bad stuff. 2) Being gay and having gay sex does not belong to the category of bad stuff, so the Church should take a minute to think about the damage they do by making people feel guilty just for being human beings. The Pope is a human being and might be gay. That can happen, and odds are pretty good it has happened at some point in the Church's history. Because people are people and that's it.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Pretty Convincing

Former George W. Bush speech-writer Frum on guns.

Gun makers often design their weapons in ways that present no benefit for lawful users but that greatly assist criminals. They don't coordinate the issuance of serial numbers so that each gun can be identified with certainty. They stamp serial numbers in places where they can be effaced.
They reject police requests to groove barrels to uniquely mark each bullet fired by a particular gun.
They sell bullets that can pierce police armor.
They will not include trigger locks and other child-proofing devices as standard equipment.
They ignore new technology that would render guns inoperable by anyone except their approved purchaser.
Why? Why? And why?