Off today

The littlest chicken is having some GI work done today, and may run into tomorrow.

Light blogging possible, but not likely!

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I've been thinking ...

... about T Jefferson's thoughts on rebellion (I'm wont to do that from time to time). I also notice that Kevin references this letter in his musings, and it makes me wonder something.

Is rebellion the mechanism that Jefferson envisioned to keep elites in their place? That in the course of human events, some of them might meet gruesome ends? I think it's reasonable from reading this letter that Jefferson intended that any citizen who engaged in rebellion should be set straight as to the facts of a situation, and then released .... kind of like a 'Don't do it again (wink wink). Specific to Shay's Rebellion, it was Jefferson's hope that the leaders be dealt with lightly, certainly not hanged.

It's been my long-held opinion that violence has been held back far more than the founders' (well, at least one!) would have hoped. When was the last time any public official was tarred-and-feathered? Run out of town on a rail?

Anyone? Beuller?

The constant threat of violence, to me, is one of the great deterents of our age. Ronald Reagan sought peace through superior firepower; the eminent promise of overwhelming force in the event of attack. It kinda worked.

By the same token, Jefferson, at least to me, envisioned that the constant threat of disgruntled citizen violence was what the doctor ordered to keep our liberties safe.

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Vox nails it

I may not fully understand how American politics works, but I do know it's not to help the citizenry:

... if you don't understand that the Republican Party leadership is a bunch of moderate Democrats attempting to keep the Republican grass roots reasonably in line, you can't possibly understand how American politics works.

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Hmmm. Are we doomed?

I saw this little item at WND:

Ron Tripodo has lived in Canton's Bridgemill subdivision for two years. For most of that time he has been involved in a flagpole fight. The 16-foot tall fixture hasn't flown well with the Bridgemill Homeowners Association.

"I got a letter saying, 'Take your flag down. You can put it in your backyard' and I just refused to do it," Tripodo.

This week, a year and a half after the flag flap started, a Cherokee County judge agreed with Tripodo and denied the suit.

Now, I don't have a problem with anyone flying the flag, right-side up or otherwise. I think the homeowners' association didn't check off all their boxes before they sent that letter.

But I've always wondered why in hell a person would want to live in a subdivision with a HA, and then not want to live by the association rules.

As an amateur radio operator, I've marveled at the same attitude from hams, willingly living under restrictive covenants, and then whining like little babies when they're not allowed to erect towers for their antennas. It's like, rules for thee, but not for me.

Eventually, enough folks will sue HA's until they'll be irrelevant. That's when we'll know that the rule of law is dead!

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Projection much?

They seem to want so badly for the TEA party to be racist:

"We are going to take on the barbarism of war, the decadence of racism, and the scourge of poverty, that the Ku Klux -- I meant to say the Tea Party,"

So says the Honorable Right Rev Walter Fauntroy, a civil rights activist and former congressman.

So if they're looking at the TEA party as racists, would they be surprised to find the TEA party staring to act like racists? Just a thought, Mr Fox.

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Is there a difference ...

... between a thing being illegal, and being against the law:

MikeB is also an admitted criminal, as he illegally carried firearms in his past.

Now I know that those two descriptions are very similar, but I do make a distinction.

To me, something that is illegal, is intuitively wrong, like stealing. On the other hand, one might find that defending yourself from attack is against the law, but certainly not illegal.

And yes, I know that one begets the other, and I'm splitting hairs, but do you see where I'm coming from?

As a 2nd amendment absolutist, I could care less if MikeB carries a gun or not; what concerns me is the event of his using his firearm illegally. Same goes for convicted felons, who, likely as not, carry whether it's against the law or not.

Am I making sense?

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This is good

One of the most poignant things I've seen in a while:



It's always perplexed me why SCOTUS won't ignore obviously bad law, just because some other SCOTUS said the crapiness was Unicorn-generated Skittles.

h/t HotAir

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It's not you ...

... it's me. Obviously:

In the February recording, Rauf said the book "taken" by Obama mapped out a "blueprint" outlining how the West and Islam can reconcile. "What has to be done by the U.S. government. What has to be done by the Jewish community. What has to be done by the Christian community. What has to be done by the media," stated Rauf.

Yeah, it's never Islam that needs to adjust .... always the other guy.

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So here's what happens ...

... when you stop paying people to buy a house:

The annual-on-annual plunge of 32.4% is more significant. Analysts have asserted that the slowdown is the natural reaction to the end of the homebuyer tax breaks, but this proves that something else is going on.

Yep, gird you loins ...

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Good points

A little over a week ago, a couple of gunbloggers posted a thread at Defensive Handguns about home defense using an AR-15 pattern rifle. Lots of folks had lots of things to say over at Sebastian's, and it went beyond just using an AR for defense: using handloaded ammo, full-auto, even suppressed weapons. I even threw in my pennys' worth.

Now, since I'm a firearms absolutist, I had to agree with most every point made. But the most logical thing I've seen in a long time is something said by commenter ctdonath:

The problem with “in common use” is what frequency constitutes “common”, and what the boundaries of the category in question are.

AR15s are, without question, “common”. There are many millions of them around. Arguable that no other single design is more “common”.

That's the teaser ... he starts making epic sense right after that (RTWT).

Now, the absolutist in me says that there's no reason for any of these 'tools' to be illegal. And if you can get an anti-gunner to stipulate that there's no way to prevent a criminal from getting what he wants, firearms-wise, then all the other arguments are just circular.

Just like the 'in common use' argument - how can it be in common use if the government restricts it?

Alan & Company at Snarkybytes explore related thought about the McDonald decision, as it relates to the NFA. Alan posits that since the NFA is a tax on firearms, and you cannot tax an enumerated right, the NFA is null and void. Newbius chimes in that since the GCA '68 is written on top of the NFA (and FOPA '86 is written on top of GCA), then the whole house of cards comes down.

So here's my absolutist question. If all of these laws have such tenuous constiutionality, why are Alan Gura and the SAF not soliciting a case to test this? Miller has been misquoted to death, and works in our favor (military weapons); why not bring that up? Why not test the NFA once again?

I'll volunteer to attempt to purchase a post-86 machine gun (with short barrel and suppressor!). When I'm denied, we can start the ball rolling.

What do you say, Mr Gura?!

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Now ...

... pay attention!



h/t Ace's headlines sidebar

Hey Honey ...

... the NRA's on the phone.

Got a call yesterday from the NRA (Sebastian must be playing a trick!) soliciting donations (or membership, whatever).

I told the nice lady that I wanted absolutely nothing to do with the NRA, and have a nice day!

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JPFO alert

What is your line in the sand?

Sorry

Affliction woes .... no free ice cream today!

About Roger Clemens

I'll have to admit, I stopped actively watching baseball after high school, and swore off paying attention after all of the strikes. But I want to rant about Roger Clemens and congress, for just a minute.

Roger Clemens is set to be indicted by the feds on several counts of lying to Congress in relation to a steroid scandal investigation. If he took steroids, oh well ..... keep him out of the Hall of Fame. If he didn't, let him in (assuming he gets the votes).

But lying to Congress? Pot, meet kettle.

First of all, by virtue of the fact that there is nothing in the Constitution empowering Congress with regulating the use of steroids, I consider any attempt by Congress to regulate or criminalize steroid use as illegitimate. Basically, it's none of the government's fucking business.

But it is absolutely unfathomable to me that members of congress can, with a straight face, allege that Roger Clemens should go to prison for lying to them.

Like congress doesn't routinely lie to the American public? Well, of course they do; but they've written their own get-out-of-jail free cards with regard to what they say on the floor of the house.

Did Roger Clemens lie to Congress?

Who gives a fuck. Because nobody cares.

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My sentiments ...

... exactly:

Were they actually doing that, I would support this-- wholeheartedly!

But they're not. Next to a hole in the ground created by Muslim excess and Islamic equivocation over the rightfulness of murdering the infidel, they want to erect and advertisement -- not for peace, not for understanding, not for dialogue, not for anti-terrorism -- but just for Islam.

And they didn't bother to ask if anyone would have a problem with this, and that's because they never cared. It was never about that -- it was about, just as suspected, erecting a trimuphal tower to the might of Islam.

And they didn't ask about that, and now that people have -- since they weren't asked in private, we have to tell them in public -- they still don't care.

So don't tell me this is about tolerance and moderation and building bridges.

This is about a shameless attempt to grab up a piece of property on the cheap, a piece of property in downtown Manhattan that is only on the market at all because of the actions of some Muslims, and the shamelessness of other Muslims in plunking down cash of dubious sourcing to purchase the land at jet-fuel fire-sale prices.

RTWT, because the analogy that Ace uses is spot-on.

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Conundrum

The 9th court of appeals has declared the Stolen Valor law as unconstitutional, and Jazz doesn't like it:

I’m having a bad day because of this. I’m one of those annoying people who anger my friends on both sides of the aisle when I defend the constitution, even when portions of it become annoying. And I appreciate our right to free speech.

Jazz, I can fix this for you. Push for a law that defines the penalties for beating the shit out of a valor-stealer as a $10 fine and imprisonment at the local VFW bar for 30 days.

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This is not bad

Stolen from HotAir:



Too bad the Republicans will fuck it up just as badly as the Democrats.

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More citizen's awake ...

... and probably headed for jail:

Two men, a 19-year-old and a 21-year-old, were arrested after they confronted a deputy who Tased a man as he was being treated for injuries.

This, after the deputy 'helped' an EMS employee to gain compliance of the injured man.

Deputies will gain your compliance ... one way or another.

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Heh

What's that about global warming?

The claims of average temperatures rising don't mean a whole lot when the thermometers don't work:

Vox links to a little bit of an error by NOAA about those pesky temperatures.

I remember reading somewhere (so take this with salt) that the change from mercury thermometers vice temperature sensors caused a not-unsubstantial rise in measured temps about 15 years ago. Something about the cases around the sensors creating some kind of greenhouse effect or something.

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Rant

May I digress for a moment?

The county in which I reside has a 'transfer station' (dump!) where folks go to dump their trash (if they live in the county). As usual, there are a limited number of spaces where you can park to do your business.

Then why, WHY must residents insist on backing into the parking area (so that the one bag of trash they have to deposit is closer) and taking 1.5 spaces' worth of parking to do it?!

Can no one drive anymore?

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JPFO alert

Ambush ahead!

Does Hobby Lobby ...

... not realize that the economy isn't doing that well?

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Lost opportunity

A video going around shows that a Colorado man was beaten by a police officer. Not surprisingly, there will be no charges against the officer (though he and his partner were suspended for a whole 3 days).

But this man, Michael DeHerrera, his dad is a sheriff's deputy in nearby Pueblo.

Now surely Michael's father knows brutality when he see's it (or maybe he doesn't). To their credit, they did sue the police ... for a whopping $17,500!

$17,500? Is that all the ass-whoopin' was worth?

Lost opportunity.

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Death panels ...

... rear their ugly heads ...... again:

With the new ObamaCare regime in place, the issue of cost has now become openly part of the FDA process. This is a perversion of their mission, which is supposed to only involve product safety and effectiveness, not bean-counting. If Medicare doesn’t want to cover Avastin, that should be a separate issue handled by CMS and HHS.

Because the FDA is thinking about decertifying Avastin, so that the government won't be put into the sticky situation of refusing to pay for it.

As a commenter at HotAir mentions, this decision will be made by a panel, and they'll decide that it's ok for some people to die.

Seems like someone told us this would happen.

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I'm stealing ...

... this entire post from Ace:


Film teaser. And it's working, because I don't want t wait until 2011 to see this.



Neither can I!

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Here's some payback for ya

Via HotAir headlines, this article on journalism warning labels.

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Now if this ain't a kick in the pants!

CA Judge Walker obviously doesn't read what he writes:

Instead, he suggested, their only remedy may be a political one — as unlikely as that may be.

But isn't that what he just vacated? A political decision (as in a majority of voters wanting things a certain way)? And are all of the political decisions destined to be vacated until there's a political decision that Walker likes?

Srsly, you can't make this shit up!

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Yep, now this ...

... is classic!

h/t Dave Hardy

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But .....

.... I thought everybody knew this:

The Socialist Party of America announced in their October 2009 newsletter that 70 Congressional democrats currently belong to their caucus.
This admission was recently posted on Scribd.com:

Now I know that the socialist agenda is fundamentally poised against the constitutional system we currently have.

So now, it's time for Republicans to start making these folks own it.

Oh, wait ...

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Hard for me to fathom.

I just did some cleanup on Facebook, and I was struck by what folks will use to justify having voted for President Obama.

One of the commenters in the thread I was involved in mentioned his mindset at the time being that Sarah Palin being a heartbeat from the presidency scared him.

So I asked: And Joe Biden being in the same position didn't?!

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Wow ...

... I actually didn't see this coming:

But DNA is not as objective as you might think. In the first of a two-part investigation, New Scientist reveals that much of the DNA analysis now conducted in crime labs can suffer from worrying subjectivity and bias.

Let the retrials begin!

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Hmmm ...

... saw this yesterday, about a man who shot a dog that wandered onto his property. Trouble is, he's a convicted felon, so no-guns-for-you. But I was struck by some of the comments, of which the following is an example;

dave plomin wrote:

I love the logic of the lawyers who said that he "accidentally" shot the dog, IGNORING the FACT that he wasn't even supposed to have a firearm at ALL, being a FELON. Kudos to the judge who sentenced him. If only Chicago had more judges like that!

8/11/2010 10:44 AM CDT on suntimes.com

Now, having had dogs of mine shot, I'm keenly aware of where they go during their ramblings. And this guy was probably justified in shooting the dog - doesn't mean I like it, but probably justified. The animal shelter employee just made things worse by trespassing.

But notice in the article Mr Dooley owned at least 20 other firearms! That's unpossible! Felons can't own guns; there's a law! What the fuck happened?!

If you can't be trusted with a gun, you can't be trusted without a custodian ... it's that simple.

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Pay attention ... there will be a test!

Guns reduce crime?

The introduction of the flintlock coincided with the largest decline in homicide in English history. The homicide rate plunged to 6 per 100K in the 1600’s. The English homicide rate continued to decline slowly and steadily until well into the 20th century. For example, in 1900 the homicide rate was 0.96 per 100K.

Actually, no need for a test .... you know the answer!

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Could get interesting

A more complete run-down of the effort to disbar Elena Kagan:

In the days leading up to her confirmation, Freedom Watch and Declaration Alliance, based on evidence provided by pro-life groups, filed a complaint before the Supreme Court to have Elena Kagan disbarred for her having falsified a report, when she was associate counsel in the Clinton White House, by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists finding that partial birth abortion was in no medical circumstances a necessary procedure to save the life of a mother," Klayman said.

Now this is interesting, in that she changed the report to allow some leeway in the findings of the ACOG, when their actual finding was that there is no medical necessity for partial birth abortion.

But that flies in the face of the feminista narrative, so you can expect the MSM to cover it up. At least until it grows legs, and they have no choice but to cover it.

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Unpossible

Because Chicago has some of the more common-sensical gun control laws:

An 8-year-old girl who was jumping rope Tuesday night with her friends outside in Chicago's far South Side was killed by two gunmen who rode up on bicycles and opened fire.

I'll bet they weren't carrying rifles.

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Staghounds: Pantry Proof that Marxism can never work...

This comes to us by a circuitous route:

Have him list 10 household items. Then have him plan his year's requirement thereof. Give him a week to do it. Then have him give you the sole copy of the plan and keep a record of what he uses of each item. At the end of a year, check the actual results against the plan. For each item that he is within an agreed range of the plan, (e. G., within 5 rolls of toilet paper), pay him a sum. For those where he was 5+ out, he pays you the same sum.

Enough said .....

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Life imitates art ...

Excuse me, Mr President. That's not entirely accurate:

$10 billion of this money goes to the unions. Before the money gets to the "teachers" the unions skim off their share of mandatory "contributions".

The money skimmed by the unions goes directly into the union political advocacy/footsoldier network to get out votes for Dems.

So it's not for the children ... it's to help save their sorry asses in November.

Too bad it won't do any good.

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Now this ... THIS is awesome!

Seen a couple of places, but I'll link to Ace, a young woman quits her job, in fine style!

Be sure to visit Ace for comments ..... they're awesome, as usual!

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Those wacky police ...

... another in the Only One's series:

Ard had endangered other drivers and pedestrians as he veered into the wrong lane and even drove onto a sidewalk in pursuit of Victor, repeatedly attempting to shoot the teenager with a lethal weapon. After he ran down the youngster, Ard tried to cover up his crime by planting a gun on the victim.

But the judge says it's ok ... because the police investigating the police asked Ard if he'd planted the gun and he said no.

Case closed.

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Do you miss me yet?

This is something that Pres Present will never, NEVER do:




That's present-day, btw.

Yes, he was a disaster as president (relative to Pres Present), but at least he realized it's not all about him.

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You really need ...

... to take a look at this.

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The Affliction

Just got my fall issue of Momentum magazine (it's a publication of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society), and there is a small issue on Marijuana and MS (pdf here).

The article goes through the standard mishmash of yes, there are some benefits but there are potential side effects, so you really need to discuss any therapy with your trusted health-care providers.

Has anyone actually listened to the side effects of all the drugs being hawked on tv lately? Vesicare is a drug used to treat overactive bladder. Here are some of the side effects mentioned on the official web site:

The most common side effects with VESIcare are:

• blurred vision. Use caution while driving or doing dangerous activities until you know how VESIcare affects you.
• dry mouth.
• constipation. Call your doctor if you get severe stomach area (abdominal) pain or become constipated for 3 or more days.

• heat prostration. Heat prostration (due to decreased sweating) can occur when drugs such as VESIcare are used in a hot environment.

Here is a more complete list, from drugs.com:

Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); back pain; bloody or cloudy urine; constipation lasting 3 or more days; fast, slow, or irregular heartbeat; fever or chills; mood or mental changes (eg, confusion, depression, hallucinations); pain below the ribs; pain while urinating; severe stomach pain; unusual or severe headache; urinary retention (unable to empty the bladder).

But noooooo, we can't have people self-medicating with a drug that they can grow in their own back yards, now can we?! I mean, how will the government get their cut? How will it be standardized? I mean ..... how?

Here's how .... they can't. And because there's no money in it. And because there's no control.

That's why the government will never get out of the way.

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Seen all over the place ...

... but I'll link to Mike.

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My kind of bank

Stolen from Sebastian, a Texas bank gets it.

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Hee hee

Now this sounds like it could get good:

I’m announcing tonight, that I am planning to build and open the first gay bar that caters not only to the west, but also Islamic gay men. To best express my sincere desire for dialogue, the bar will be situated next to the mosque Park51, in an available commercial space.

Now we'll get to see just how tolerant Islamists are.

My bet? Not so much.

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Think on this

Man wants to donate organs before he dies:

Should a person who is dying of an incurable illness be allowed to donate his organs before the disease kills him? Gary Phebus who is suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) wants to do just that: donate his heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, the whole shebang now.

RTWT, plus the comments.

I personally believe he should be allowed to do this, though the author's point about sloppery slopes is well-taken.

In the end, do we own our own bodies or don't we?

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Some get it

Muslims, that is:

Do they not understand that building a mosque at Ground Zero is equivalent to permitting a Serbian Orthodox church near the killing fields of Srebrenica where 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered?

Not to mention all the other interesting things about this deal.

Wonder how Muslims would react to Southern Baptists calling for the death of 'infidels' from the pulpits? Yeah, that's what I thought.

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The country formerly known as Great Britain

A store refuses service to a soldier - in uniform:

A soldier who had just arrived home from Afghanistan was refused service at a supermarket and told they didn't serve people in Army uniform.

But it gets worse:

The spokesman added: 'This had nothing to do with anyone being against the war in Afghanistan. It's a simple case of a misunderstanding of company policy.

'Years ago we had a policy which meant we wouldn't serve police officers in uniform, but that is no longer the case. The cashier thought she was doing the right thing.'

Years ago ..... but an employee misunderstood that no-longer-in-force policy? Yeah. Right.

Sounds like this is exactly about someone who got their panties in a twist about a was, and was afforded the opportunity to hurt a soldier in a Saruman-like small mean way.

Sounds like someone should have visited the co-op to explain things.

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Didn't see that coming ...

You mean the government didn't fix the problem?

Thousands of people who leased cars last year as part of the Cash for Clunkers program are having second thoughts and are trying to get out of their leases, reports LeaseTrader.com. The program provided up to a $4,500 rebate if a person signed at least a five-year lease for their car.

I don't want to say I told you so, but ... I told you so!

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When ...

... are we ever going to win this war?

Taliban terrorists have declared they shot and killed a team of missionaries, including six Americans, because they were 'preaching Christianity.'

I'm certainly not saying that our troops aren't doing the job ... they are. It's just that the job they've been given doesn't go far enough.

The Afghan people need to be more afraid of US than they are of the Taliban; until that happens, the Taliban will still have control over the hearts and minds of the Afghan people.

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You don't say

Via Ace, Pat Caddell says that the state of the country is pre-revolutionary:



So maybe Mike Vanderboegh isn't crazy after all.

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Make me a sammich, bitch

Says Wikipedia to the FBI, in not so many words. An example of the snark:

May we talk a little bit further about ejusdem generis and your creative editing of the statute? I have reproduced the full statute below. (It is helpfully titled “§ 701. Official badges, identification cards, other insignia” – I note that your idealized version of the statute omitted the section title.)

Mike Godwin sounds like my kinda guy, and like Alan said, that's gonna sting!

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What did he expect?

Finding a dog ... at a dog park:

Stunned dog owners and residents of a Severn neighborhood are shocked that authorities won't be charging a federal police officer who shot and killed a Siberian husky Monday night at a community dog park.

You really need to read the article, because I can't go through it all with you here.

I've lived around dogs all my life; no pit bulls, and mostly small dogs (Pekingese as a small boy, Cocker Spaniels and the like when I got older) but dogs never the less. And I've got a word of advice to pansy dog owners:

Dogs play rough. Sometimes it even looks like they're not playing. If you can't wrap your pea-brain around this, then find your dog another home.

But if you ask an owner to get control of his dog, the least you should do is give them a chance to do so before you start showing folks how small your penis is.

And though it doesn't say in the article, if you don't identify yourself and you shoot my dog, expect have yourself put on the ground at gunpoint, in the push-up position, 'cuz I don't give a rat's ass who you are at that point.

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Now *this* is awesome

Breda points out that guns come in all shapes and sizes.

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Obamacare mandated insurance ...

... just squeaks by. And by just squeaks by I mean that Missouri voters by 3 to 1 don't want it!

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Nice thought ...

... but it'll never happen:

Our platform should be a short, readable, binding document – a platform that means something. We should promise in this platform to pass very specific laws when we have the power. We must insist that anyone who wishes to be considered part of the Republican Party support this platform. We must then, like the Founding Fathers in 1776, publish this platform to all of America. We must make it the heart of the election campaign.

But then Republicans couldn't have nuanced views about things. And read the article .... it's good for a laugh if nothing else.

I mean, yes, I'd like for the Republicans to do something like this, something that's a bit more liberty-oriented. But they won't, because they're just as bad as Dems, just on the other end of the scale (if we're very lucky).

The other part of the problem is that the GOP is never going to let party power get out of the hands of the blue-bloods who currently control the party and into the rank-and-file conservatives who actually hold their noses and vote on the clods presented by the GOP.

Oh no ... that would never do!

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How do you fight this?

And it's a serious question:

As police worked to unravel what caused Thornton to snap and randomly shoot co-workers as they fled out a back door into nearby woods or sought refuge under desks and other furniture, Hartford Distributors workers consoled each other as they learned who had made it out safely and who had not.

An employee working at a northeastern beer distributor goes crazy when he's confronted with evidence of his stealing product.

Ah, but since he's the only black man working amongst all of those white folk, it has to be Teh Racists.

Even though his union reps say that he's never filed a racial complaint, reports are that he endured years of racial discrimination.

But that's not my question. Nor is it 'Why can't the media get their heads and asses wired together (one report mentions Thornton had a handgun permit, others mention he was carrying a rifle ... wtf?)'.

The question is 'How do you explain an event like this so that everyone isn't blaming the tool, but placing blame where it belongs?'

I've wrestled with this for a long time; I've even entertained the idea of left-wing conspiracies, given the number of senseless murders just before big gun votes.

And it's harder given the fact that guns were invented to kill things (might as well admit it ... that we also use them in ways that don't involve killing seems to be irrelevant). I don't keep a pistol close to scare an intruder, I keep a pistol close so that I can shoot (and perhaps kill) him if necessary. But the killing is incidental to what I want ..... for the bad guy to stop doing bad things to me or mine.

But when someone goes crazy with a gun, it's like a collective match is applied to everyone's head.

And rational thought goes out the window.

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About polls

Here's a post from Jeff at protein wisdom about how the questions can affect the answers:

Ask “Would you like a Ferris wheel in your backyard?” and a shockingly high percentage of Americans might say yes. Complicate the question, however—“Would you like a Ferris wheel in your backyard if it tripled your electric bill and bumped off the family dog?”—and the number would drop.

The post is actually about how polls 'support' more statism, but only because of the questions the pollsters ask.

Worth the read.

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Wow ...

... Ace seems to be getting a bit rough:

Kill him. Make it a cause celebre, and make him an example to the next leaker.

String him up and choke him until he is dead, dead, dead.

Awww, all because a poor, misunderstood homosexual over-reacted about a break-up.

Little Pfc Bradley Manning is all butt hurt about a failed relationship .... he ain't seen nothing yet.

I have no problem with people being gay; they are what they are. But the military is a dangerous place to social engineer.

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Uh oh ....

I'm sure I'll hear about this on the evening news:

A new report by the Center for Public Integrity, based on testimony from people on scene and Coast Guard logs, contains evidence that the platform sunk because of a botched response from the Coast Guard, which failed to coordinate firefighting efforts and to get the proper resources to fight the fire:

And that's what caused most of the oil to be released .... seems that dastardly blowout preventer wasn't the problem at all.

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So why can't ...

... we snatch that fuck stick Polanski?

And he's down with a snatch operation to grab Assange:

Good for the goose, good for the gander, right?

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Security

After this little incident, some things have to change:

The audio message in Spanish is a bit garbled, but the text is clear.

It's offering $1 million for Sheriff Joe Arpaio's head and $10,000 for anyone who wants to join the Mexican cartel.

According to Wiki, the Pancho Villa expedition was largely a failure, but that was no fault of the military.

It's my opinion that if there is an attempt on Sheriff Arpaio's life, Cancun should be immediately off-limits to American visits, and Pres Present should have a come to Jesus meeting with Calderon and explain things to him.

Oh, wait .....

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Travesty?

Vox Day sends along this link to a father who was wrongly accused:

In November of 2006, I was accused by a family whom we considered our friends, of inappropriately touching their 4 year old daughter during a party out my home. The accusation was ridiculous, as in our house at the time were more than 15 adults. Regardless, I was arrested, placed in jail, released, lost my job, removed from my home for a year, lost all but our closest of friends, and shunned by our neighbors. For the first time in all of my years of living in the US, I have a criminal record. What makes all of this so shocking is I did nothing. There was no evidence beyond the word of a 4-year old girl.

RTWT.

This brings up memories, since there was recently here a case of a kindergarten teacher accused of molestation and sexual assault ..... she was cleared of all 22 counts, and is now counter-suing the authorities and several private citizens.

Plus, my wife works for Georgia DFACS, and we talk about this on occasion. She defends DFACS (naturally!) but understands that there are many in the field who are a bit ... zealous. So my wife would completely understand when I tell her that anyone from DFACS showing up on my door to collect my child had better come with a SWAT team (not that I want a SWAT team to show up at home!)

This incident has also made me much more aware of the fact that there was a young child in class with my daughter who kinda stuck to me. Her father is serving in Iraq (as did I, first time around!) so I have a bit of empathy for her. But after this, I'll be much more circumspect.

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JPFO alert

Will Washington's failures led to second American revolution?

Holy shit!

I never knew there was video footage of Annie Oakley:



h/t Breda

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Mesmerizing

For your viewing enjoyment .... h/t Ace

Tempus II from Philip Heron on Vimeo.

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Doc Zero strikes again

This time he skewers the Chevy Volt:

The number of Chevy Volts desired by those free people is zero. By government decree, there will be up to 55,000 of them gathering dust in the far corners of three-car garages by 2012. The government didn’t subsidize this boondoggle. The “government” doesn’t subsidize anything. You do.

The whole thing is, as always, worth the read.

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Good news ...

Sebastian's been following this one closely, and he has good news.

Some excellent good old fashioned police work have lead authorities to get a suspect into custody.

This in the murder of a shooter at a PA firing range, all to get his weapon.

As I commented at the post, they can't get this guy up against a wall soon enough for me.

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