A few days back, I noticed this post over at Days of our Trailers, and was going to leave a comment… until I saw that MikeB302000 beat me to it. Staggered by the blind faith and insistence on unproven ‘realities’ in his comment:
Where are those guns in Chicago coming from, do you suppose? Wherever that is, Indiana for example, if they had tighter restrictions, do you think that might make a difference? I do.
… I decided to respond with:
“…do you think that might make a difference? I do.”
And that is why you will always be the “the woman with the earrings” to me – no facts, no figures, no statistics, no history to back up your opinion, but it is your opinion, so by God, it is correct.
Did you know that for the past 10 years, once-Great Britain’s firearm-related crime rate has grown seven times faster than its population? Seven times. Let that sink in for a moment.
Now, last I checked, England is an island, and controlling the influx of firearms would be pretty easy. Yet, despite having almost every last firearm banned, their firearm-related crime continues to climb. Furthermore, almost the entirety of Europe has “tighter restrictions”, and yet firearms are still making their way to England…
What does that do for your “thoughts”?
I wrote that comment before I wrote this post, and did all of its preceeding homework, on the same topic, so I will freely admit that my “seven times” number is a little off – in reality, once-Great Britain’s firearm-related crime rate grew 7.94444… times faster than its population. My error.
However, MikeB302000 simply could not let the topic go, responding with:
Linoge, What could “firearm-related crime rate has grown seven times faster than its population” possibly mean? Would you mind explaining that?
*blink*
*blinkblink*
Are you serious?
I mean, really, are you honestly being serious?
For the sake of being perfectly and absolutely clear, assume once-Great Britain’s population is growing at a rate of X. As such, the statement “once-Great Britain’s firearm-related crime rate is growing seven times faster than its population” would obviously indicate that its firearm-related crime rate is growing at a rate of 7X.
In this particular case, 7 should actually be 7.94, and X equals 0.036 or 3.6%.
The country’s population is growing. Its firearm-related crime rate is growing faster.
Is that really so hard to comprehend?
Granted, we are talking about an individual who has openly admitted, of his own free will, that he has no repeatable, accurate, or impartial method for determining facts from fiction, so I guess I should not be surprised.
…
… but still, seriously?
(Damn you, Thirdpower, for bringing this to my attention… Damn you to hell. Stupidity of that magnitude leaves me with a blistering headache.)
mikeB can be some fun but he is a bit obtuse.
-kaveman
That might just be the understatement of the year.
As I have said before, I sometimes wonder if he is on our side and just does “his thing” to make our opposition look stupid. Can someone really be that brain dead and still manage to function in the world? Of course he does work for the U.N. so it may be that functional isn’t really a requirement for his job.
I personally don’t believe he cares at all about firearms. He’s just found a way to get people to pay attention to him. The only times he comments is on posts that generate a lot of traffic.
Speaking of crap for brains
I’ve grown tired of him. I can only take so much denial of facts from a person. I don’t mind if you disagree with my opinion, but don’t tell me facts are not facts. As such, I find myself reading his blog less and less. My guess is by the end of the year I won’t even remember what his website is.
He does work for the UN?? Like setting up whorehouses in Bosnia, making drug-deals, and maybe a little child-prostitution as well?
dirtcrashr,
His IP address usually resolves to a U.N. food program in Italy.
I’m not certain of the extent of immorality to which he is involved.
Joe: Unfortunately, I still have a relatively difficult time buyin into that theory… His weblogging far preceeds his infatuation with gun-control, yet still contain within them the vestiges of the same kind of totalitarian theory he puts forward concerning the Second Amendment. I am certainly not saying that he is absolutely not a sock-puppet generated to play the fool, but that would be one hell of a fabrication, maintained over a very extended period of time. Even the VPC Blog administrator/writer gave up over half-a-year back now.
Occam’s Razor may be getting a little rusty these days, but we have no real reason to doubt that he is exactly who and what he says he is.
As for functioning in society, I still remember the last time I went to a DMV, or tried to deal with cell phone and cable companies over the phone. As long as he is breathing and responsive (though not necessarily usefully so), I am quite sure he will have a successful career at any bureaucratic organization…
Thirdpower: I am not sure that he does not, at all, care about firearms and the politics around them, but I completely, 100% agree that his prime motivating factor for commenting anywhere is to drive up traffic to his own sad corner of the ‘verse. His comments’ drive-by, sraight-from-the-script, uncited, unsupported, and generally irrational natures are just enough to get people’s attentions, and maybe click on his name. I told him that no links to his webpage will be permitted at my site for just that reason.
Reputo: In all honesty, I have not visited his webpage since his whole “all firearm-owners are responsible for all firearm-related crime, especially if they did not commit it themselves” schtick – I just keep running into him at the pro-rights sites he trolls, and I take my shots when I can. At this point, though, even that may not be worth it.
As an addendum to your comment, though, I would add that if you can honestly show me that data I treat as facts are, in some way, actually flawed, I will certainly examine the information, and if it is accurate, adjust my stance accordingly. I am certainly fallible, and have been known to make mathematical errors in the past.
However, if you start insisting that 2+2=1 (assuming base-ten notation, etc.), then you can pack sand.
Dirtcrashr: Joe beat me to it, but his IP consistently and repeatedly resolves to the World Food Programme in Rome (Lazio), Italy. It could be that he is simply spoofing that address (not difficult), but his posting/commenting times seem to correlate to someone in the appropriate time zone. As for what he does over there, the Good Lord alone knows, but as you pointed out, consider his employer.
The Lazio IP was showing up at my place for a good while…and he hasn’t commented at my place in a several months now. But many of his visits have been under a generic IP that I can’t determine the origins of.
I think the UN IP is a spoof
clearing out the rodents
I really cannot blame Breday for going this route: I am now and forevermore going to be deleting comments by mikeb302000 because all he ever does is come here and try to stir up arguments. This is not a person…
quote of the day
I could hardly say it better myself: In face of all this hard data, the antis’ theme has become “commonsense gun control.” That, I think, is more than just “we only want a moderate amount of gun control.” I think…