Meet LA's Chinese American Gun Owners

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting report.

You may remember the experience of some Korean Americans in LA some time ago.

"Does China Need or Want Taiwan?"

Dignified Rant has an interesting new post on the topic.  Needing and wanting can entail all sorts of definitions and motivations ... though the bottom line is, as I think we've all been saying for a long time, Taiwan needs to make the price of invasion too high for China to pay. 

You know, Taiwan may be losing the public relations war (if this incident is any indication of how otherwise perfectly intelligent and reasonable people will naively believe the stupidest propaganda about Taiwan).  You know what?  Fight the PR war better, Taiwan, but at the same, arm up in case the moment ever comes when we go past words to sticks and stones.

Japan: Railway Employee Versus Unruly Passenger

You go, girl.

Quote of the Day: David Mamet on Communism

Playwright David Mamet has just written a piece for the Daily Beast.  It's all worth a look, and it gives us the quote of the day:

Karl Marx summed up Communism as “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” This is a good, pithy saying, which, in practice, has succeeded in bringing, upon those under its sway, misery, poverty, rape, torture, slavery, and death.  

For the saying implies but does not name the effective agency of its supposed utopia. The agency is called “The State,” and the motto, fleshed out, for the benefit of the easily confused must read “The State will take from each according to his ability: the State will give to each according to his needs.” “Needs and abilities” are, of course, subjective. So the operative statement may be reduced to “the State shall take, the State shall give.”

It's depressing just how readily this historical fact has been forgotten/buried by statist educators, activists, and politicians.

Taiwan: Security Issues Never Take a Holiday

While I've been obsessing about holiday recipes (naughty), Dignified Rant still has his eye on the ball (nice).

Larry Correia on Gun Control

Why should you care what a bestselling sci-fi author has to say about guns?  Because he was also a firearms instructor and competition shooter who has worked with law enforcement and knows more about guns than your average talking head on the news.  Read this, please, if you haven't already.  Here is a piece of it:

Gun Free Zones are hunting preserves for innocent people. Period. 

Think about it. You are a violent, homicidal madman, looking to make a statement and hoping to go from disaffected loser to most famous person in the world. The best way to accomplish your goals is to kill a whole bunch of people. So where’s the best place to go shoot all these people? Obviously, it is someplace where nobody can shoot back. 

In all honesty I have no respect for anybody who believes Gun Free Zones actually work. You are going to commit several hundred felonies, up to and including mass murder, and you are going to refrain because there is a sign? That No Guns Allowed sign is not a cross that wards off vampires. It is wishful thinking, and really pathetic wishful thinking at that.

On another day I might blog about how I personally think that most efforts at gun control are actually and ultimately efforts at people control, but you pretty much can anticipate what I'd say, right? As for arguments that nobody should own firearms except the police ...  Just stop and think about that for a minute.  Do proponents of this realize that they're basically arguing in favor not only of more crime but also a potential police state?  What happens if and when it gets corrupted and nasty and starts to abuse power and stomp on your civil liberties?  Anyway, it's too late tonight to talk much more about a complicated issue and meditations on self-defense (not only as a right but also even as a responsibility), so I'm just going to sign off with this and one of my favorite lines from Firefly.  You know the one, darlings. Oh, you know.

Dear Security Council ...

Here is a fascinating (and grim) look at the multiple letters sent to the Security Council by Israel's ambassador to the UN. Dating from February 27 to November 12 of this year, these missives detail the increasing rocket attacks from Gaza (as well as the Security Council's silence). Yep, nobody cares about people firing rockets into Israel, but heaven forfend the Israelis get sick of it and fight back, so cue now massive scurryings and utterings at the same UN.

How Do You Say "Let's Roll" in Mandarin?

Some terrorist hijackers got more than they bargained for on a Chinese plane.

Awesome: Dirtbag Gets Magnificent Comeuppance

Mwahahahaha!  Here's the headline: "Caught On Tape: Clerk Punches, Knocks Out Armed Robber; Clerk Then Makes Suspect Clean Up His Own Blood."  Somebody buy that clerk a beer!

Niall Ferguson on Cutting Defense Spending

Professor Ferguson has a few thoughts, including this:

Only if you believe the currently fashionable arguments that mankind is getting ever more peaceable, the Middle East is entering a happy new era of democracy and peace, and China does not pose a strategic threat to the U.S.

That is to say, HECK NO.

Not Fresh Hell After All? Taiwan and F-16s

It seems that the recent report of F-16s being denied was an inaccurate report, as Dignified Rant wonders, "Could good sense prevail?"   One never knows with this administration's foreign policy follies. Sell those F-16s already!

What Fresh Hell Is This? "No F-16s for You!"

It's like Seinfeld in a nightmare universe.  I've been banging on repeatedly about selling those F-16s to Taiwan and the maddening reluctance of the current US government to do anything, and now Dignified Rant has the link to the latest example of rage-inducing foreign policy.  "Smart diplomacy" in the age of HopeChange means selling out an Asian democracy of 23 million in order to suck up to Beijing.  I am utterly disgusted.  As I've said before, how many democracies do you think there are in Asia?  Democracies that look to the US for support?  Hey, didn't I just post on another example of Beijing's strong-arm tactics?  on Japan's recognition of China's pushing of their sphere of influence in Asia?  

The news piece quotes an official from Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense:

"We are so disappointed in the United States."

So are the rest of us.  This administration's foreign policy sucks like a supermassive black hole.  *headdesk*

UPDATE: Not fresh hell after all?

London Appalling: Liberty, Property Rights, and Self-Defense

Here's a perspective, though it just might be summed up by the quote from John Adams at the very end.  There is something deeply perverse about denying free people to right to defend themselves and their property, homes, and businesses.  UPDATE: I had to read this twice because at first I couldn't believe it -- a modern Brit is thinking about the right of private citizens to bear arms!

James Delingpole Asks a Question

It's simple ... and simply devastating.

Japan Releases Annual Defense Report; China Predictably Angered

For Dignified Rant. The 2011 Japanese report was released on August 2, and it stated, among other things:

Japan's annual defence report had warned that China's naval forces were stepping up their activities in the East and South China Seas, and the Pacific. 

Japan was taking measures to bolster its coastal defences as a result of China's growing presence, it said. 

The report also warned of the danger of cyber attacks and said North Korea's nuclear and missile projects posed serious threats to national security. 

"Given the modernisation of China's naval and air forces in recent years, its sphere of influence is likely to grow beyond its neighbouring waters," it said. 

"China plans to expand its sphere of maritime activities, carrying out operations and training as an ordinary routine practice in waters surrounding Japan." 

Areas for potential conflict with China's navy included the "East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, as well as the South China Sea", it added.

Sell Those F-16s to Taiwan Already!

Pretty much, yeah.  Faster, please, so Taiwan can buy time against the Chinese military.  Hey, for all you folks obsessed with political compromise, this idea even has broad bipartisan support!

What Fresh Hell Is This: US Declines Taiwanese Request for F-16s

WHAT. You'll remember this, though: 45 Senators who backed the request and clearly have a better grip on the situation.  I repeat my opinion that this administration's foreign policy sucks, particularly where it involves throwing allies under the bus.  Hey!  How many democracies do you think there are in Asia, anyway?

45 US Senators Want F-16s for Taiwan

Check this out.  More here. See the 45 senators' letter to Obama dated May 26.  While I'm gratified that 45 senators have some grasp of what's at stake, I'm pessimistic because the top leadership (*cough* Ma!  *cough* Obama! *cough*)  is simply so ... well, apparently clueless of said stakes.  Take a look at this piquant observation by Michael Turton:

The F-16s aren't coming here because the Ma Administration doesn't really want them and the Obama Administration doesn't want to sell them -- Ma is just making noise -- and because, as a friend of mine and I were just discussing tonight, there's a growing spirit of resignation in DC that Taiwan is circling the drain. Apparently everyone has forgotten the simple lesson that you don't make the monster smaller by feeding it. I'm glad I won't have to be the official who has to explain to the public why the US wouldn't defend 23 million people in an allied democracy with its own armed forces but will go to war over some uninhabited rocks in the ocean because of the US-Japan Security Treaty.

*Headdesk*  In a similar vein, one might see a parallel with another tiny country that is an embattled allied democracy with its own armed forces.  (At least that country has a decent head of state instead of the disgraceful squish that Ma is.)  At least both nations have some solid Congressional support ... but that's not enough.

Israel and Iran's Nuclear Ambitions: Where Is the Point of No Return?

If/when push comes to shove.  *Gulp*.

Defending Taiwan: Hey, Let's Copy Hezbollah. What?!

Here is the quote from a recent article about military aspects of the Taiwan Strait: "Perhaps Taiwan should borrow a page from a non-traditional military power: Hezbollah." And then later: "Trying to buy or build a traditional conventional defense is becoming nearly impossible. As China invests more of its great wealth in a high-end military, Taiwan should consider going low-tech."  

Read the whole crazy thing written by a PhD egghead.  Now read Dignified Rant disassembling it.  Sometimes one does have to wonder about the mental stability of "professional" opinion on various matters.  Pay attention also to how the original article apparently doesn't realize that the ultimate goals and objectives of the parties involved matter.  China wants to annex and absorb Taiwan, whereas Israel doesn't have the same intention for Lebanon.