The Garden of the Blind

While I was in my wife’s car this evening, listening to Bill O’Reilly, several things were called to my attention, typically because he was advocating their opposite:

1: Guns do not make people safer. People who own guns are far more likely to be injured by guns than people who don’t, and they’re far more likely to injure someone close to them with the gun. In a life or death situation, an aggressor is far more likely to try to kill or injure you if he feels that you might shoot him, making you much safer in a burglary or robbery if you are unarmed. The key exception to this is that in situations where you are assumed to be armed, then it is safer to actually be armed in some way. This applies almost exclusively to military and law enforcement.

2: Immigration, even illegal immigration, is not the root of all of society’s ills, such as violent crime, drugs, poverty, and overpopulation. Also, immigration law is the jurisdiction of the federal government and cannot be enforced by local or state officers.

3: We cannot assume that all people who have committed a crime will do so again. Certainly criminal recidivism is a real problem, but if we cannot believe in rehabilitation then our current justice system makes no sense.

4: President Bush probably cares far, far less about Bill O’Reilly than Bill O’Reilly believes that Bush cares about him. Of course, Bill’s ego will never allow him to see that.

5: I am definitely a moderate conservative.