Thank You for Choosing Our Monopoly

Our local phone monopoly was, until very recently, Bellsouth. They were surprisingly responsive to problems, and did a general good job of keeping me flush w/ phone and internet (DSL) service. With all of the baby-bells coming home (read: AT&T is buying everyone) however, our monopoly has changed hands. Bellsouth and Cingular are now AT&T. So, naturally, our phone (and thus internet) was out from around Monday to late last night (Wednesday). When I call them, they alway sign-off the call with “Thank you for choosing AT&T.” That really is one of my biggest pet-peeves. I always have to fight the urge to say, “Had I a choice, I certainly would NOT have chosen YOU!” Harsh… I know… but damn… I really don’t have a choice. Our local cable monopoly (Charter) is worse (much worse) than AT&T. So what can I do? It always reminds me of the old 70’s SNL skit where the quote was, “We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the phone company.” It’d be hilarious if it wasn’t true.

I’ll tell you this though. The very day that either Google or Georgia Power, or anyone for that matter, releases broadband-over-power-lines, or even a decent Wi-Fi solution, I’m jumping to their ship for internet and VOIP phone. If my damned AT&T wireless cell phone worked at my house, I probably wouldn’t even have a home phone. Grrrrrr….

O Google!.. please release us from the tyranny of the local cable and phone monopolies, that we may bask in your glory and sing unto thee hymns of praise.

Ramen

Key To Crime Reduction: Promote Gun Ownership

That’s what the residents of Kennesaw, GA learned and have known since they passed a 1982 law requiring each head of household to own and maintain a gun. Since then, the town has become well known on the world stage, a tourist attraction, and mocked and jeered as becoming a “Wild West” town by leftist rags such as the Washington Post. Predictably, however, the Post continues its streak of coming down on the wrong side of nearly every issue by being completely wrong about crime rate trends. You see, Kennesaw passed its law in response to the passage of an opposite law in Morton Grove, IL, which banned gun ownership by everyone but police. So, of course, Morton Grove was praised and Kennesaw chided in the most righteous, mighty and ever present main-stream-media. They postulated that Morton Grove would see a precipitous drop in its crime rate, while Kennesaw would become a haven for gun-loving nut-jobs where simple arguments would end in a shoot out.

The statistics speak for themselves however. Since the respective gun laws passed:

Morton Grove:

• Population: Dropped slightly to 22,202
• Crime Rate: Increased by 15.7 percent immediately after the gun ban while the surrounding county rate only rose by 3 percent. Today the rate is 2,268 per 100,000

Kennesaw

• Population: Increased from 5,242 to 28,189
• Crime Rate: Decreased dramatically from 4,332, to 2,027 per 100,000

So, to sum up: Morton Grove experienced an increase in crime even while getting help from a decreasing population. While Kennesaw has seen a precipitous drop in crime, even under the challenge of a skyrocketing population. I may not be a statistician, but I think, just maybe, that the knowledge that a population is well armed makes even the dumbest criminals think twice about breaking into a home. Even more surprising to our friends in the media must be the fact that “not a single resident has been involved in a fatal shooting – as a victim, attacker or defender.”

This information gives a strong boost to the intelligence of our founding fathers considering their knowledge that gun ownership and freedom is so important. They found it to be of such paramount importance in fact, that it is addressed as the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution. They knew that not only can the government not be counted on to protect the citizens from each other, the citizens will surely need one day to protect themselves from the government. This has been proved throughout the 20th century. The entities which are far-and-away responsible for the most killings of people are governments. Most of these killings have been of their own citizens. No government, no matter how benevolent today, will not remain so for very long. Once any government ceases to fear its citizens, those citizens are surely doomed. I hear constant cries from idiots to take the guns away from citizens and only allow government approved officers (police) to have them. This was exactly the situation on the campus of VA Tech. I beg you to realize that passing laws banning guns only keeps guns out of the hands of the law-abiding.

Most of the information for this post came from a great article on World Net Daily. I highly recommend you read it for yourself. Reuters carried the story recently as well. They didn’t mention the stats so much as they talked about while the crime rate is down, and that of Morton Grove is up, Kennesaw is still a redneck town with a shop that has Civil War and KKK regalia. Sure, I’m sure that store is there. News Flash: Redneck racist idiots still exist in the south. However, the story is the gun laws and their respective effects on the crime and population stats in their towns. I wouldn’t expect Reuters to write a story that paints anything conservative or pro US Constitution in a positive light, but I would expect that they’d at least mention the facts amongst their blatant attempts to turn the world against us. Oh well.