I ditched the waste of time that is reading Progressive blogs many moons ago. Why bother, really? They’re far Better than me, and I’m simply too dumb to acknowledge and accept that fact. Every now and then, though, something pops up on the radar, and I’m reminded why I stop.

Kevin Drum, formerly Californian and possibly still so, writing for a DC rag:

But this Wild West mentality is much harder to fathom. Do they really think that, for example, pizza delivery guys should routinely wear sidearms and engage in gun battles with crooks, and that employers should (apparently) have no right to prevent it?

In order, yes, engaging in gun battles with crooks is a good thing, especially if you win, and no, employers shouldn’t be allowed to prevent it (2nd Amendment, as I recall, but debatable.) We can go round and round about private v. public till the cows come home, but no employee of mine will ever be forced to ditch her means of protection.

Frankly, given the average age and disposition of pizza delivery guys, I’d just as soon not have a city full of sidearmed pizza deliverers, and Pizza Hut would probably just as soon not get sued when one of these guys ends up shooting someone who stiffed him on the bill or got into an argument over whether he ordered anchovies on his pie.

Any sign that such an egregious thing has happened anywhere in the world? No, not one. Just a florid imagination. Any sign that a homeowner that a pizza orderer has killed anyone for lack of anchovies? No, not one. And when did Drum become the Freud of the Pizza Deliverers? Is he running a clinic for them somehwere? What, specifically, does he know, that we don’t, about the disposition of pizza delivery guys?

What’s more, Pizza Hut is in the business of making money, and I imagine that most of their customers would prefer not to deal with a company that sends armed young men to their door.

Of course that’s what you imagine. Have you surveyed their customers? No, you haven’t - you’ve imagined it. Imagine this - customers liking the idea that their delivery men have sidearms. C’mon - it’s not hard - fire up the old imagination, Kevin.

The occasional angry postal worker to the contrary, workplaces would almost certainly be more dangerous on average if there were lots of loaded guns around, and surely employers have every right to make that assessment.

Who knows? Is the per-capita murder rate higher now that it used to be when people did carry loaded guns to work, as a way of life, like my father, two uncles, and both grandfathers did? I have no idea, but Drum is pulling made-up stuff out of his ear at this point. He doesn’t know, any more than I do. And he throws that statistical on-average bit out there, to cover his ass.

Look, I’ve had enough of these mealy-mouthed SOBs writing in magazines making shit up. The majority of his stupid post is imaginary. His point, so far as I can determine, is that employers have a right to stop the carrying of firearms in the course of a job. Well, on their property, I’d say yes. Once you’re off, and outside of the comforting & protective bosom of Pizza Hut, then no. But that’s an argument that reasonable people can have…that’s reasonable. Instead of sticking to that, though, we get Wild West and postal workers and gun battles. What a fool. Thanks for validating my decision not to read you idiots. Self-serving, sure, but who else are you gonna serve?

Via Hell in a Handbasket…

Too bad all them damn Texans got in your way, Pedro. You remember them? The ones that were carrying wallets that said Bad Motherfucker on them?

Typical Swedes. Typical ad-men. Typical Mexicans. Keep dreaming your vodka dreams. In a Lone Star World, it would be Texas all the way down to Guatemala. Probably further. Is it too late to start? I’d be in for that.

Well, I’ve got two years to think about this, but is it foolish for a man of my age to insist on wearing shorts and Hawaiian shirts when the weather is right? Is this going to be an issue for our kids, having their parents running around like dorks from a Love Boat episode? I don’t know, and I’m not sure I care.

I’d wear that every day, every where, if I could get away with it. I was never impressed by a suit or a sport coat. I know I’m certainly not going to change the dipsticks who find that kind of thing adds some level of authority. That’s a bit of a drag, that the suit is still important. Oh well, I’ve got three or four. Still, I’d kind of like to negotiate a multi-million dollar contract in shorts with other dudes wearing shorts