Self-defense
Colorado: Another School District Arms Staff
(Greeley Tribune) The school board decided to hire additional officers or any of the current staff members could go through the extra training courses and obtain permits to have weapons. According to a resolution passed by the school board, staff members who sign up for extra duty to provide security must maintain a concealed carry permit, must participate in a refresher training course twice a year, must provide proof that they shoot 100 rounds at a certified range every month, and must complete tactical medical training. With advanced medical training on top of the firearm training, [Superintendent] Mondt said staff members who sign up for security duty will be an asset in any type of disaster.

Nathan: Thanks to “LastResistance.com” for this one.  This is not happening BECAUSE the school is a public school, but IN SPITE of it being a public school.  Now, Briggsdale is NOT one of your inner-city, high-risk school districts: it is out in one of the relatively empty areas of Colorado’s Eastern Plains, inhabited by wheat farmers and ranchers and the few tradesmen that supply those farms and ranches.  (It is another of those places I stomped around in a lot growing up and since.)  So if they were not generally law abiding people, most of the students and staff would continue to have rifles and pistols in the gun racks of their pick-ups parked outside school, and probably still be making nice gunstocks in shop class.  But still, this is interesting both for their resistance to popular culture (such as the generally liberal attitude at UNC in Greeley and the Metro Denver area) AND because of the tough requirements they are putting on the staff, as well as his comment: “any type of disaster.”  The community is pretty familiar with getting cut off by storms and even recently floods, so the biggest “disaster” they probably face is that they are too close to the Front Range when the cities blow up, and will have to deal with refugees and marauders of all types.

Home front – Self defense
A Psychiatric Trick or Treat
(National Review) Untreated mentally ill individuals are now responsible for at least 10 percent of all homicides and half of the mass killings such as those at Virginia Tech, Tucson, Aurora, Newtown, and the Washington Navy Yard, says E. Fuller Torrey…

Nathan: As Mama Liberty pointed out, of course ANYone who kills someone except in self-defense is, by definition, mentally ill and probably “untreated.”  But the point is still valid: as we have (as a society) been more willing to allow the obviously and seriously mentally ill to wander around AND as we have allowed the psychiatrists to dictate and “mainstream” the mentally ill AND as we have resorted to more and more “anti-psychotic” and other drugs which modify reasoning and other personality traits, we have seen this problem increase.  But even the mentally ill are likely NOT to act on their nightmares IF they know they face an armed “victim” or general population able to defend themselves.  So this “untreated mentally ill” schtick is in many ways just an excuse to disarm more and more of us.  And it must be rejected.

Mama’s Note: Actually, MOST people with mental and emotional problems never even come close to violent behavior to start with, any more than do most gun owners, grocery store clerks or dog lovers. In other words, MOST people, MOST of the time, have no intention to hurt anyone else. The idea that the mere presence of a gun (but not other weapons?) can somehow cause such desire is one of the more disgusting myths of those who would disarm us. Why don’t people then routinely run down pedestrians, just because they drive a car? They could, of course, but MOST wouldn’t dream of it.

The only area where mental/emotional illness can regularly be connected to gun (or other weapon) use is in suicide. Guns are, by far, the most effective means, and it is a tragedy that some choose to end their lives that way. But removing guns from their hands, even if it were possible, would not end the problems or distress that brought them to that decision – nor would it prevent them from using one of the many other options available. Further, they own their lives and, for good or ill, they have every right to live – or die – as they wish.

Government-ruined, Theft-funded Schools
How to Help Boys in the Classroom
(American Enterprise Institute) If boys are constantly subject to disapproval for their interests and enthusiasms, they are likely to become disengaged and lag further behind in the classroom, says Christina Hoff Sommers…

Nathan: The same is of course true for girls, but today, as this and many other recent stories point out, it is the boys that are the major targets of teachers and administrators in “public schools.”  And even in private ones, as the education establishment is increasingly feminized.  One commentator has even suggested that the solution is reestablishing single-sex education (which would also deal with a good many other problems), showing that the few male-only and female-only segregated classes (even in mixed schools) have much better records for academic success AND better socialization.

Environism
Big Wind’s Dirty Little Secret
(Rightside News) The wind industry is dependent on rare earth minerals imported from China, the procurement of which results in staggering environmental damages…

Nathan: It is not just the environmental impact in China (which is itself triggered by a regulatory regime in the United States which does not allow huge deposits of known rare earths in several states to be mined in an environmentally-sound manner), but the other direct and indirect impacts on the environment which are ignored by the fanatic proponents of wind power.  But that will not stop them from pushing for it.

Home front
Alcohol Crimes Decline After Liquor Sales Privatization
(Competitive Enterprise Institute) Economist Patrick McCarthy examined 111 California cities and found that a higher number of take-away alcohol stores actually correlated with decreases in fatal and nonfatal alcohol-related car accidents…

Nathan: Not “prohibition” but “privatization.”  Many states, for decades, had state (or city) owned and operated liquor stores to control the “dangerous substance.”  (I expect one or more states to try this path as MJ legalization spreads.)  Like most government attempts to mimic the free market, it failed for many reasons, and created more problems (as this study shows).  This could be predicted, and is one more example of how stupid government (and people in ANY large group) can be.

Space – Future of Freedom
Study: There Are 8.8 Billion Earth-Size, Just-Right Planets
(The Blaze) Astronomers using NASA data have calculated for the first time that in our galaxy alone, there are at least 8.8 billion stars with Earth-size planets in the habitable temperature zone.

Mama’s Note: That’s fantastic. Should be plenty of room for some free societies. Next question: How do we get there?

Nathan: We will find a way, Lord willing.  And freedom is the big motivator, I think, to do so.