The World of Yesterday and Today

08/16/17 UPDATE: Since this post is over 12 years old, many of the internal links no longer work. I have replaced what I could with Internet Archive and other links which may load very slowly.

In today's earlier post, I acknowledged the danger of predicting what tomorrow will bring. Here are some prime examples:

Mayor Declares City Violence A Crisis

"PHILADELPHIA (KYW) Police and prosecutors concerned with a spate of killings in the city begged the public Monday for more help identifying murderers...Within the past eight days there have been 21 homicides in Philadelphia, including three in the late-night and early morning hours after the prosecutor made her appeal Monday."

This wasn't supposed to happen. NRA promised us a different scenario.

NRA PRESS RELEASE: HESTON DARES CRIMINALS TO "MAKE MY DAY"

"NRA joins Mayor Rendell, Senators Specter and Santorum, in launching Project Exile to fully enforce existing federal gun laws and remove armed felons from Philadelphia streets...

"'If you're a felon out on the streets of Philadelphia today, I dare you to carry a gun,' Heston warned...

"'I promise you,' Heston told Mayor Rendell, 'If you and your prosecutors stick to the simple, proven model of Richmond, the murder rate in Philadelphia will decline and your citizens will be safer."

And how has following "the simple, proven model" worked out for Richmond, the template for Philadelphia crime-fighting?

Richmond's murder rate climbs again-- national numbers decline

"In the final hours of 2004, Richmond topped its 2003 murder rate by one, securing its distinction as one of the nation's most dangerous cities.

"The city's final homicide of the year _ called in to police around 8 p.m. New Year's Eve was number 95, surpassing the previous year's 94. In 2002, there were 83 and in 2001, 69.

"Murders in the United States dropped by nearly 6 percent in the first half of 2004 after rising for four straight years, the FBI reported. Numbers from the second half of 2004 have not been compiled.

"Richmond had the country's fourth highest murder rate in 2003 and was ranked the nation's ninth most dangerous city overall in 2004 _ beating out Miami and Compton, Calif. Richmond is the sixth most dangerous when compared to other cities with populations of 100,000 to 499,999."

Note to NRA Management:

We tried to tell you that "Exile" was a bad idea. It's time to follow your own professed beliefs and admit that gun control does not reduce violent crime--even those edicts that you endorse.

I'm still waiting for someone at NRA-HQ to cite the Constitutional authority for the feds to be involved in gun control at all. It's past time for the suits at Fairfax to adopt the motto "Repeal existing gun laws," and stop calling for their enforcement.

After all, wasn't enforcing existing gun laws what precipitated Waco and Ruby Ridge?

The World of Tomorrow

Predicting near-future potentials based on current trends is always a risky business—it’s one of the reasons why “The Wrath of Khan” fails modern audiences—the original Star Trek’s core audience lived to know there was no “Eugenics War” in the 1990s, no race of genetically-engineered “supermen,” no “sleeper ship” technology, and thankfully, no preponderance of chest-baring, aging actors wearing mullets—perhaps Gene Roddenberry should have placed the origin scenario from “Space Seed” a hundred, rather than 30 years into the future.

So this flash presentation, set 9 years from now, is going out on a limb—but it does seem to posit a pretty likely scenario. On the one hand, I am drawn to the potential like a moth to a flame—which means, as attractive and compelling as I find certain generalized “predictions,” it’s dangerous to disregard that invoking the name “Winston Smith” is purposeful.