If this study is true, then nearly all firearm owners should be dead by now

Another study that suggests you are more likely to be a victim of violence if you own firearms than if you don't have a gun in the home.

With no opportunity to have a control group, these kind of studies have no significance other than to provide academics a chance for grant money.

But don't compare the stated 31,000 firearm deaths per year with the number of accidental deaths due to medical errors (225,000).

Or the higher suicide rates in gun-banning Japan.

Or the benefits of firearm ownership.

But do state: "The researchers say restricting access may effectively prevent injury." But don't add that tools used in some of those injuries would statically be switched to knives, clubs, baseball bats, cars, etc.

More on Bloom

I could have written "Moron Bloom" but this guy's response works:

A fellow UI professor left this on Bloom’s Facebook page: “I always thought you were a huge (expletive) ... but your Atlantic piece sunk my opinion of you further -- and I didn't think it could get that low. Go (expletive) yourself, you smug, self important jerk.”

A moderate call from a former student: As Caucus Day Approaches, A Debate Over Us Iowa Hicks

The title may as well have been "Bloom's not that bad of a guy, you should forgive and blah, blah."

As I wrote before, there are plenty of lanes heading out of the state, he should be in one of them.

Others are taking the high road, like making money:


Or, by making fun of the intellectually challenged professor:


Any way you look at it, the welcome mat has been pulled in.

My personal theory is that he's never fully embraced the citizens of the state and this has been an anthropological exercise with him being here. He can take the high road and gain instant liberal street cred if he leaves. He can claim he was forced out and if the fellow U of I professor quoted above is any indication, he's probably not well loved anyway.

If he wants out, let him.

Another elitist snob professor shoots his mouth off

University of Iowa journalism professor, Stephen Bloom, has been in the state of Iowa for awhile and doesn't really care for us:

"Those who stay in rural Iowa are often the elderly waiting to die, those too timid (or lacking in educated [sic]) to peer around the bend for better opportunities, an assortment of waste-toids and meth addicts with pale skin and rotted teeth, or those who quixotically believe, like Little Orphan Annie, that "The sun'll come out tomorrow."

How 'schizophrenic' Iowans should respond to Atlantic Monthly article

I'm trying to figure out where I fit in with his descriptions of citizens. I'm not quite in the elderly category yet, so I guess I'm not ready to die, I have a job so I would assume that doesn't make me a "waste-toid." I'm not a meth addict, although I am of the caucasian persuasion and do visit my dentist regularly. As any of my regular readers would agree that I'm not an optimist, so I guess he would assign me as either timid (if we ever meet face-to-face, that would fall apart) or lack in "educated" (okay, I don't have a fancy-assed college advanced degree like perfesser Bloom.)

I'm not an educated boob like he is. Well, I'm damn proud of that.

Apparently he's okay with sucking off of taxpayer's teats while drawing a salary at Iowa. After being here since 1993, you would think he might actually learn something about the state before writing an Atlantic article, Observations from 20 Years of Iowa Life

Living in the insulated Socialist Republic of Johnson County, he made the observation:

"When Obama spoke of those clinging to guns and religion, he was talking about the Iowa hamlets that will shape the contours of the GOP contest."

Great, condescending tripe from an overpaid university professor. (After almost 20 years, you think he would be more than just a professor?)

While throwing out a few facts, he would get a D in geography:

On the state's eastern edge lies the Mississippi River, dotted with towns with splendid names like Keokuk, Toolesboro, Fruitland, Muscatine, Montpelier, Buffalo, Sabula, Davenport, Dubuque, and Guttenberg. Each once was a booming city on the swollen banks of the river that long ago opened the middle of America to expansion, civilization, abundance, and prosperity.

Fruitland is south of Muscatine on the bottom ground about 3 miles from the Mississippi River and Toolsboro is on the bluff overlooking the Iowa River. I ought to know, I grew up around there.

“Good journalism isn’t just reporting,” Bloom said. “It’s making observations, making sense out of the world — even if readers might not agree with those observations.”

Maybe if Bloom had made some accurate observations, maybe he'd actually understand us natives. But I doubt that the New York transplant is capable of getting beyond his stereotypes even after being here almost two decades.

If he doesn't like us, I know that the bridges over the Mississippi also have an east-bound lane.

The War on Agriculture

Growing up on a small farm introduced me to several hazardous situations and my puny 98 lbs wasn't much against a 1200 lb steer. When I drove the Allis Chalmers C at age 5 while my dad threw hay to the calves, I had to jump off the seat to push in the clutch and brake pedals. Probably not the safest task given to me, but I did okay and didn't drive through a gate or ran over anyone. But new proposed rules regarding child labor in agriculture may change the landscape of farming. (Comments ended Dec 1st) While these rules would not apply to non-paid labor on the family farm (at least not now) they do apply if a kid hires out to work for a neighbor or family member. I baled hay for neighbors in junior high and I still have all my limbs intact.

The Labor Department can only regulate employer-employee relationships, so the proposed rules shouldn't affect 4-H, FFA or other educational programs, said Michael Hancock, assistant administrator for policy at the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division. And, they may not keep children from helping on their grandparents' or uncle's farms if they aren't paid. (emphasis mine) Proposed child labor laws would limit hazardous work by minors on farms

"Shouldn't" and "May not" are clues to what is really intended. Busybodies like Barbara Marlenga, a described "research scientist" but looks like her only function is to publish studies like: "North American guidelines for children's agricultural tasks: five-year assessment and priorities for the future." is quoted: "Youths who work in other industries — the child labor laws are much stricter," Marlenga said. "Why would we have unequal protection?" Sounds like someone my dad would have run off the homestead. Point is given that farming is a dangerous enterprise and I've seen the results of carelessness, but no one is advocating sweat shop like labor for kids. Even my dad wasn't that bad. But proposing safety rails if a 16 year-old is 6 feet in the air? That's maybe four bales of hay and don't even think about working in the loft. According to the article, child agriculture accidents fell by more than half from 1998 to 2009, so what's the problem? After looking at a letter signed by "more than 25 public-health and workplace safety experts" sent to a governmental busybody who oversees new rules in the Department of Labor, one name stood out: Michael J. Wright of the United Steel Workers. If fewer young people are employed in agriculture, the end result would be that adults would have to be hired. You can't organize children into labor unions. Little Johnny has no interest in Big Labor, he's trying to earn money for a car. The rest of the letter signers look to be academics who I would bet have never set foot on a farm operation, let alone operate any machinery. These guys make it sound as though children fresh out of diapers are running a sickle mower for 10 hours a day. This link http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/report_child_labor_on_american_farms makes it sound like farmers are involved in nefarious human trafficking. Human Rights Watch interviewed 58 under-18 workers (out of a few hundred thousand possible) and came up the the cute-sounding "Fields of Peril" report. At a 102 pages I'm still sifting through it, but with subject titles of: "Work with Dangerous Machinery, Equipment, and Tools", "Pressure to Work Fast, Sick, and Injured", and "Extreme Temperatures: Heat and Cold" makes me think that these namby girls don't know what hard work is. Through my short reading, many of the issues they cite are regarding large ag operations and migrant workers, those that are already regulated. The desire to throw down more regulations when the current regulations are violated, seems asinine to me. Those of us who know would say that farming is a 24-7 life. If you have a cow suffering through a breach-birth, your head cold doesn't mean squat when you risk losing a source of your income. At 20 below you better make sure those animals are watered and fed before you are. At least it was when I grew up. And like many others, I suffered through the heat in summer and freezing my toes and ears in winter. And I hated that at the time. But I'm glad I did it because it taught me what work is and gave me a set of skills that has benefited me and my family ever since. The problem I see is that these adults wish for a utopian life for youth and don't understand the benefits that physical labor brings to a child's life. No one is advocating slave-labor with children in chains in the hot sun, but I never knew anyone who died cutting corn from a soybean field in July. So after wading through this post, here is the interpretation: under-18 agriculture laborers are slaves and farm operations are trafficking in slave labor, big operations are violating current regulations and therefore more regulations that apply to all are needed and finally, bed-wetting academics and labor advocates know more about the welfare of youth than the parents. If these people had their way when I was a kid, my life would have been filled with gumdrops and sunshine while riding unicorns across bubble wrap fields where no one ever suffered a skinned knee or bruised elbow. Right. Just because these idiots are wimps they mean to scrape a whole segment of youth out of a lifestyle and out of employment.

Professor Hoplophobe

Iowa State Professor, Warren J. Blumenfeld, laments the fact that businesses engage in firearm promotions to generate sales. Reiterating the tired CDC gun death numbers while ignoring firearms used for protection, he wishes for a utopian society where guns are no more.

With a traditional gratuitous swipe at Sara Palin (Ha Ha), he reminds us that grizzly bears protect their young without firearms.

What he doesn't realize is that firearms protect us from grizzlys.

Who's Warren Blumenfeld? He's an Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Iowa State University.

In this paper, he equates traditional Christian denominations that believe that homosexuality a sin, with the infamous Fred Phelps. By the same token, I should equate his embracing of the homosexual "lifestyle" with the freak-show parades of San Fransisco.

Same logic applies.

He seems to think that protecting our borders is racism while calling La Raza a civil rights organization. Being a "well educated" major university professor, you think he would catch the irony there.

And he's a big supporter of the Weather Underground terrorist, Bill Ayers, as he and many others in academia (I assume) think the poor man was vilified during Obama's campaign in 2008. I guess trying to blow up the Pentagon or murdering police officers was a career stepping stone, not criminal actions.

Hmmm.

At least I'm not alone in my thoughts of the good professor, as Don Paulin gives his opinion in the LeMars paper after Blumenfeld issued his support of the "occupy" protestors in Des Moines.

I almost feel sorry for him except that my tax money goes to paying his salary at one of Iowa's public universities.

Here's a thought... If the taxpayers of Iowa start "occupying" the public universities in an effort to bring fiscal and logical sanity to higher education, do you think the good professor would give his support?

I doubt it.

Let's hoist a few

Gun owners who carry concealed weapons or have confronted another person with a gun are more than twice as likely to drink heavily as people who do not own guns, according to a study by UC Davis researchers.

So now we are a bunch of alcoholics?

Read the propaganda press release here of the study published by "one of the world's foremost experts on gun-related violence." A study which used 15 year-old data with a phone survey in which some respondents were not asked all the questions. And "more study is needed" line which means another grant will be coming his way.

I'm sure the study is not biased or flawed in any way.

Campus opinions on guns

I've found both sides of the gun debate at the Iowa State Daily and here's another piece by an associate professor who doesn't have sense of history and tends to pick only one side of tragic events. For instance forgetting that private citizens on campus stopped the shooter at the Virginia's Appalachian School of Law in 2002.

Read what he had to say at Arizona again [mis]leading the way on guns in colleges

The students learn some lessons

The University of Iowa thought some training for students was in order. These students learned how to confront an armed assailant on campus.

By throwing stuff.

LeeAnn Yeckley entered a training room at the University of Iowa Department of Public Safety wielding a red rubber gun.

Instantly, the 22 other “potential victims” pelted the UI graduate student with yellow Styrofoam balls.

In this situation, called “the swarm,” the balls represented different objects that can be thrown at an attacker before several brave people in the room attempt to bring the person to the ground and get control of the weapon.

Nevermind that one of the best defenses against an armed attacker is to be armed themselves. They have a policy against guns on campus.

If this policy prevents guns from coming onto campus, then why "train" students? Doesn't the policy work?

Smug teacher from Wisconsin

KurtP has a video of a pompous self-entitled teacher from Wisconsin whining about how much her life as a teacher stinks.

Please go there, because I don't want to put her mug on here and soil up the place.

Did UI Law Dean Gail Agrawal Illegally Vote In The Last Election?

State29 gives some insight into the University of Iowa law dean's possible violation of election laws.

Did UI Law Dean Gail Agrawal Illegally Vote In The Last Election?

This guy used to teach school

Carl and Mary Holvik, both retirees from Johnston, were also part of the Culver camp. He formerly taught school in West Des Moines and he is worried Republicans want to allow students to bring guns into public schools.

“I don’t want to give a kid a D if he has a permit and he is carrying heat,” said Holvik,

Hyperbole abounds at A wild scene outside Culver-Branstad debate

It's probably a good thing this "teacher" isn't dishing out his philosophical drivel to the little mush heads of the world.

Great thoughts from academia, 9/20/10

From a "professor emeritus", we have an essay published in AthensOnline, Fear of 'them' is bringing out the worst in us. This former "working" professor from Grinnell College in Iowa intends to lecture the American public from his perch.

We now seem to have approached a condition of neurotic fear that this dangerous but ill-defined category may include just about everyone. Here is a partial “enemies list,” drawn from widely different spheres: the entire Muslim world, undocumented immigrants, defenders of gay rights, advocates of gun control, supporters of legal abortion, “European” approaches to health care, environmentalists, the “liberal elite,” even (or especially) our own government.

"Widely different spheres," eh? These are all criticisms of the right and then he has to toss in the the hyperbole throughout the whole article.

Another "educated idiot" as my dad would say, who was an English professor at Grinnell, wrote poetry and has what appears to be a left-leaning outlook on life.

Teach your kids well

What lessons do you think this child is taking from being expelled from school (second grade) for have a toy gun in school?

David Codrea has more on an 8 year-old not being allowed back in school after a year's suspension for showing a toy gun to a fellow student.

Teach your children well, again

Toaster at Green Mountains Homesteading, reveals the danger that is the NEA

According to the NEA website, the Radical Communist Saul Alinsky’s Book, “Rules for Radicals” is recommended reading to all of their members :

"of our Association who are involved in grassroots organizing, especially Association Representatives (ARs) — also known as building reps or shop stewards — and leaders at local affiliates"

And

On the NEA website, in the Diversity calendar, there was a posting on October 1st that read this:

“OCT 1; Communist China Established

In Tiananmen Square in 1949, Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China, proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Saying that the “Chinese People have stood up!”

That post has subsequently been removed.

Teachers don't know much about history, then?

"Bill Ayers (the former Weather Underground member), you would think is so radical that he would be rejected. Instead he's been elected as vice president of a leading organization that writes curriculum. So Bill Ayers is writing social-justice curriculum for America's schools," [Worldview Weekend President Brannon] Howse continued.

Read more (if you can stomach it) at The NEA Recommends its Members Read and practice Saul Alinsky’s “Rules For Radicals”

Teach your children well

Education Secretary, Arne Duncan knows what's best for our kids:

"I think schools should be open 12, 13, 14 hours a day, seven days a week, 11-12 months of the year,” Duncan said. “This is not just more of the same. There would be a whole variety of after-school programs. Obviously academics would be at the heart of that. But you top it off with dancing, art, drama, music, yearbook, robotics, activities for older siblings and parents, ESL classes.”

Education secretary calls for 12-hour school days, longer school year

Better to keep kids away from family that way they can truly teach a child in the way they want, so they won't depart from it.

Why am I reminded of a Pink Floyd song...?

Political speech at commencement

Dr. Sandra Soto, Assistant Professor for Women's Studies at the University of Arizona, gave the commencement speech to graduating students at the university and was summarily booed. Proving that a commencement speech probably isn't the best time for a political diatribe.

And "academia" considers people in her position to be "smart."

Every county in Iowa is "urban"

At least according to a study comparing urban and rural gun deaths that was released today in the journal "Pediatrics"

The researchers sorted them by county and then compared the gun death rates for the most urban counties (those with populations of 1 million or more) and the most rural counties (the ones far from cities or with fewer than 2,500 people). They found essentially the same rate: about four deaths per 100,000 children.

Gun death rates among children similar in rural areas, big cities, study says

According to census records found at Iowa Data Center every county has had a population greater than 2500 since 1890. In other words, according to this "study", the whole state is one big urban center.

With a study that can't determine that Iowa is a rural state (with a few pockets urbanized), how can we trust anything that this guy is stating, such as:

"This debunks the myth that firearm death is a big-city problem," said lead author Michael Nance, a doctor at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "This is everybody's problem." The findings were published in Monday's issue of the journal Pediatrics.

He does get one thing right, crappy research is definitely everybody's problem.