wanusmaximus

The following is an article in Psychology Today by Satoshi Kanazawa. I found it very insightful as South Park has also shaped a lot of my views on the world.

Dawkins and his ilk (like Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris) consider religion to be the root of all evil, and envision and advocate for an utopian society where there are no religions and everybody is an atheist.  They believe that wars and violence will disappear if we eliminate religion from human society.  Dawkins and Co. are wrong on at least two fronts.

In front of a run-down shack in north Houston, federal agents step from a government sedan into 102-degree heat and face a critical question: How can the woman living here buy four high-end handguns in one day?

The house is worth $35,000. A screen dangles by a wall-unit air conditioner. Porch swing slats are smashed, the smattering of grass is flattened by cars and burned yellow by sun.

“I’ll do the talking on this one,” agent Tim Sloan, of South Carolina, told partner Brian Tumiel, of New York.

Success on the front lines of a government blitz on gunrunners supplying Mexican drug cartels with Houston weaponry hinges on logging heavy miles and knocking on countless doors. Dozens of agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — sent here from around the country — are needed to follow what ATF acting director Kenneth Melson described as a “massive number of investigative leads.”

Federal agents raided an Alexandria man's home and seized 75 guns after he sold three machine guns to an undercover agent beginning in April, authorities said yesterday.

John M. Walker, 50, was charged with illegally converting semiautomatic weapons into fully automatic ones, court records show. Fully automatic weapons are legal but heavily regulated. Walker was not a licensed dealer, according to Special Agent Mike Campbell of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Campbell said that people who buy such converted weapons on the black market are more likely to have criminal ideas for their use than legitimate collectors.

• I'm back in the States now. Everyone is so fat and there is "excess" everywhere. In our cars, food, houses, etc.
• United is the worst airline ever. I hate flying them. Too bad I have all of my mileage holed up with them. Greek hospitality leaves much to be desired. So does their food. I think that explains why you don't see Greek restaurants everywhere.
• I think I finally figured out why everyone thinks Asians look the same. Here in the United States, each person only knows a handful of Asian people. Therefore, the number of necessary distinct physical traits to tell each apart is significantly lower than a demographic that has more people (White peoples). While we were in Asia, we thought we saw an identical version of pretty much every Asian person we knew back home. In short, people tend to remember the minimum amount of physical enough to differentiate others, but get confused when other similar people are added to the mix.
• Also while overseas, it felt kinda like "home". Growing up here is a bit difficult, because you're not really American and you're not really Asian. You're stuck in a sub-culture: Asian-American. But I think I am more Asian than American. It felt good to be among people with similar physical traits (height, physiques) and similar thinking. And looking young was normal. I'm sick of white people always bringing up how young I look. It is NORMAL. I am ASIAN. I will flip shit the next time I get carded at the movie theater.
• It felt great to put my xd45 back on again. But also at the same time, it felt kinda good not having to lug it around everywhere. I need to look for something lighter.
• The marriage mentality in Asia is very different. Here in America, you are perceived as if something is "wrong" with you if you are old and not married. Americans tend to think that the good fish are the first ones to go and by the time you hit your old age, the secondary picks are the only ones that are left. However in Taiwan, the mentality seems to be that attractive people tend to get married at an older age. The more attractive you are, the pickier you are allowed to be and if you get married young, you are settling.
• Traveling with Carolyn was like traveling with your best friend.

June 2 (Bloomberg) -- A Chicago ordinance banning handguns and automatic weapons within city limits was upheld by a U.S. Court of Appeals panel, which rejected a challenge by the National Rifle Association.

The unanimous three-judge panel ruled today that a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year, which recognized an individual right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, didn’t apply to states and municipalities.

TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - The first round of Toledo police layoffs, in which 75 officers were let go, may already be having an affect on gun ownership.

"I just don't feel safe with the amount they're laying off," says Jonna Ewing. "I think it's going to be a longer respond time."