Diesel, usually known for being one of the funniest people alive, gets serious about the Virginia Tech Massacre. Not only is it a great post, but while so many ghouls have rushed to gorge on the corpses of the victims to turn this grotesque mass murder into a political point on gun grabbing, and more ghouls have turned it into a non-stop feeding frenzy, up to and including the useless sack of shit’s incoherent diatribe, Diesel takes a more introspective look at the chaos, and the aftermath.

Ron Coleman has a few words to say about the further abuse of the victims at the hands of the worthless Network in question. Oh, but look at that comments section…

… And Misha, oh, just what you expect from Misha, and nothing less.

Tommy Denton makes an excellent argument regarding the Second Amendment, in the Roanoke Times:

No matter how much mayhem and tragedy may be caused by gun violence in the United States, such costs are more than an acceptable trade-off for many people who are determined to preserve “the right to keep and bear arms.”

No matter how many emotional appeals to stop the violence — like the somber ringing of a bell 80 times at a vigil in Richmond last January to mark the 80 deaths of Virginia children by gun violence in 2005 — the sacred Second Amendment pre-empts the naïve notion that regulating the proliferation of firearms in civil society serves the greater purpose of public safety and ordered liberty.

That is one of the mistakes a lot of people make — believing that unrestricted gun ownership is the most free, when in fact, managed firearms ownership is actually the freer gun ownership. The right to keep and bear arms is enhanced by regulation.

H/T TAIR

Hugs, not guns.

I may be wearing the foil hat a bit too tight right about now, but earlier today, I just had this eerie feeling that a war over the right to free speech was about to erupt. First we have The Enlightened and Exalted Eminent Emancipator and Supreme Benevolent Benefactor of Cordial Considerate Civil Citizenship Most High™, For whom we are all most unworthy, “suggesting” a Blogger code of ethics to be “voluntarily” adopted. Most likely “voluntary” like how film makers “volunteer” to submit their work to the MPAA. Quick question, when’s the last time your local mainstream cineplex aired an unrated movie? Thought so.

Of course, the pretentious asshole denies that the goal was to adopt it as a internet wide policy, but the goal is pretty transparent. Let’s just look again at the New York Treason article. The very first sentence, the opening line, states:

Is it too late to bring civility to the Web?

Note where the “civility” is to be brought – the Web. That’s everything. All of it. That’s not, “Hey, want to join our droll, dull, insipid, boring, pointless, coma inducing discussion club? Come along.” That’s everyone. “The WEB.”

Last week, Tim O’Reilly, a conference promoter and book publisher who is credited with coining the term Web 2.0, began working with Jimmy Wales, creator of the communal online encyclopedia Wikipedia, to create a set of guidelines to shape online discussion and debate.

“ONLINE discussion and debate.” Again, it sounds pretty comprehensive. It doesn’t come off as saying, “would you like help getting your comments section under control? Here are a few tips.” So far, we have “online” and “the Web.”

A recent outbreak of antagonism among several prominent bloggers “gives us an opportunity to change the level of expectations that people have about what’s acceptable online,” said Mr. O’Reilly,

Again with, “online.” That’s pretty comprehensive. I think that includes my site, right? I’m “online.” Radioactive Liberty is on “the Web,” isn’t it?

Mr. Wales then put the proposed guidelines on his company’s site (blogging.wikia.com), and is now soliciting comments in the hope of creating consensus around what constitutes civil behavior online.

“what constitutes civil behavior online” again. I think I’m online right now as I type. I’m no technology expert, but I think that’s the way the Intertubes work. If it truly is voluntary, I have no further issue, but all the goal post moving and back-peddaling makes me even more suspicious.

When O’Cryly gets taken to task, he says he’s just offering tips and suggestions, or opening the topic for discussion. When it gets pointed out that bloggers already have every right to institute any policy they so choose, or that downmodding plugins are already available, and thus the whole thing is redundant, he asks what problem they have with people moderating their own sites. We have no problem with that, but it is quite clear what the ultmate goal is.

Then there are the efforts underway to re-institute the “Fairness Doctrine.” Of course, we already have McCain Feingold suppressing our freedom to exercise political speech near an election. Soon, the Socialist Swine hope, we will also have to have every conservative opinion “balanced” with an opposing opinion for an equal amount of time. I’m sure it won’t work the other way around, because to this very day, the Media deny their Left wing, and utterly obvious, bias.

Finally, I get home to find out, via my favorite daily read, that the Blogosphere has erupted into a frenzy over a company called JL Kirk & Associates attempting to extort money from a poor lady, Ms. Katherine Coble, and her husband by claiming that her story of how they conned her is libelous, and she must cease and desist.

It seems that the company thinks calling a spade a spade is libel, or in this case, calling a scum sucking, bottom feeding, lying, fraudulent, criminal organization a a scum sucking, bottom feeding, lying, fraudulent, criminal organization is libel. They even go so far as to insinuate that whether the allegations are true or not is irrelevant. Uh, Ok. Tell that to Enron. I’m pretty sure a lot of damaging and entirely true things were published about them. I don’t recall them suing anyone for libel.

So this brings me back to the original point. Is my foil hat on too tight? Will all these things quietly blow over, soon to be forgotten, or is the flame war to end all flame wars about to erupt?

You know the world has gone mad when I finish with a question, rather than declaring that I am always right.