Free ice cream ...

... machine is broken.

Taking a few days off in Florida with the wife and kids. There may be some light posting, but don't hold your breath!

pm

Going Galt ...

... or 'How to stop economic growth':

What’s the use? I see these guys—I see them with tears in their eyes—looking for work. And if there’s so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there’s no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them. So…basically what I’ve decided is not to open the mine. I’m just quitting. Thank you.

Video at the link.

I can't say I blame this guy ... the more the government gets involved, the more things get fucked up.

pm

Tax the poor?

I say yes:

The situation is even bleaker once we consider another unfortunate feature of the current system. A large number of Americans are incentivized to either support or tolerate tax increases on the rich. Why? It is a lot easier to vote for increases in government spending when all the additional costs are borne by other individuals.

The article is about a flat tax, which has been beaten to death. It's just my unlearned opinion that the income tax should be flat, and should probably be no more than 5% on your income. I don't believe that business income should be taxed because it will end up as income to someone, eventually.

And then I wake up ...

pm

Yes, BB guns are not toys ...

... but I don't know of any that are 'marketed' as such:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I also like how the agitproptress begins her report in a gun store* (where I've never seen bb guns for sale) rather than, oh, Walmart.

Also note that the mother comes very close to admitting that she's responsible for what happened by letting her boys play with a bb gun unsupervised, but stops short.

pm

Don't worry ...

... it'll never happen here:

Her official order bans Roth from attending public meetings at Town Hall, precludes him from possessing or purchasing firearms and ammunition, and orders him to surrender his firearms to law enforcement [emphasis added].

pm

A thought ...

... on how to attack these sorts of things:



It seems to me that instead of not-Cantonians sending emails to Alan Stumblefuck Schulman (though you can if you want), your emails would make more impact at the Canton Chamber of Commerce. If you let them know you'll steer a wide berth around Canton, then maybe they'll put some pressure on the councilman. We can assume the chamber lives in Canton. Maybe Schulman will listen to them.

pm

John Lott ...

... on the Norway massacre:



h/t Ace's headline sidebar

Common sense ...

... the last paragraph says it all:

After massacres and disasters, governments ask themselves, "What laws can we pass so that this is less likely to happen again?" It's a perilous question. Carnage often leads to irrational policy. But attempts at an answer are inevitable. More often than not, mine is, "It's unwise to rely only on the government." It's an impulse that is often mocked when cautious types are seen buying emergency supplies, or organizing disaster drills, or scoping out unattended bags at the train station, or applying for a concealed weapons permit and gun safety classes. But it beats trying to say safer by launching foreign wars and infringing on civil liberties. And I suspect the mocdoeskery is often a defense mechanism against a hard truth: that there is no entity that can give us the degree of safety we imagined having; that re-burdening ourselves is sadly necessary.

Of course, the question that governments never ask is "What did we do to motivate this man and how can we change the states' behavior to lessen desire to do these heinous acts?". Because passing laws against a particular act does nothing to reduce the desire to perform the act.

The gunman in Norway, except for the massacre, seems to be rational in his opposition against rampant immigration ... as opposed to Jared Loughner, who is bat-shit crazy. No law that has been or can be passed will stop a Loughner; it can only provide a reason to keep him locked up, but after he does something.

There is also no law that can prevent a motivated individual from doing what happened in Norway.

pm

I for one ...

... welcome our robotic overlords:

“Blackfish” is a remote controlled, sawed-off jet ski meant to patrol ports for terrorist swimmers up to no good. “Harbor Wing” is a 60-foot, 10-ton, environmentally friendly sailboat with a catamaran’s hull, packed full of surveillance equipment meant to aim a stealthy, sailor-free eye on far away horizons. Both vessels would surf around without a human on board.

Cyberdyne, here we come! h/t Ace's headlines sidebar

pm

Wow ...

... I don't suppose the citizens know how to fix this:

A man who doesn't want anyone to know who he is has been sitting in the Utah County jail for three weeks. Police say he was arrested on minor charges, but they can't just let him out.

John Doe, as they have been forced to call him, was arrested for trespassing after he was spotted hanging around the parking garage of the Provo City offices, looking into cars. Police told him to leave three times, but he refused and was arrested July 1.

From that day since, he hasn't told anyone who he is, where he came from, or what he was doing in Provo.

So he was looking inside cars? And that's it?!

He's been getting three hots and a cot for 3 weeks now. Time for some citizens to put an end to this ... let the guy go. h/t David

pm

Truth in a letter ...

... to the editor:

How will he do it? A second Obama term will involve greater restrictive laws for private citizens' gun ownership. According to the Huffington Post, the Department of Justice has been meeting to plan options for enacting gun controls by bypassing the legislative process though executive orders or regulation making by federal bureaucrats.

Obama will use his appointed, unaccountable czars, who will make up the rules as they go. And he will use the imperial courts. By appointing the right kind of judges or jurisdiction shopping, predictable rulings are easy to obtain. Whatever mischief bureaucrats aren't able to secure often can be accomplished through liberal activist judges.

But then, you knew that already, right?

pm

More about this

The 19 yr old who was shot (?) for running away from police:

On Thursday, the medical examiner revealed that Mr. Harding died not at the hands of the police, but from a .380-caliber bullet fired by his own weapon that traveled through his neck to his head.

I would immediately suspect an extreme violation of Rule 2 if this is what happened.

And the public doesn't seem to be too happy about it.

pm

The Norway massacre

I'll leave it to the reader to get their own information, but I'm going to quote an Ace of Spades commenter:

Not buying this.Something ain't right.

I tend to agree, based on what I've heard so far. The news is saying that the gunman had a machine pistol (some say automatic rifle and a handgun) ... that's a relatively specific description (at least for the uninformed media) and it sends red flags up for me.

Machine pistols (with exceptions) are sort of a training-intensive thing, requiring lots of training and practice to become proficient. That means lots of rounds of full-auto practice. A machine pistol, I imagine, would be the absolute worst spray-n-pray weapon around, as far as effectiveness. and given the firearms laws in Norway, it doesn't seem likely he'd be able to train that much. So unless the shooter has some military or police experience in his background, I'd tend to call bullshit.

Also consider that there are few (if any) machine pistols that have a cyclic rate under 1000 rpm. So if we assume he has 30 rd mags, and assume a reload time of, say ... 3 seconds to be generous, then that means for him to have been an active shooter for 90 minutes, he'd have had to have ...

let's see 30/1000 * 60 = time [in seconds] required to fire a whole magazine, plus 3, equals time to exhaust and reload; 90 min * 60sec/min = # of secs available to fire, divided by what we got in the first calculation equals # of mags he'd need, which is ....

1125 ... do you realize how heavy 1125 loaded mags are?!

So ... until we know more specifically exactly what the weapon used was, it's hard to imagine how this was done.

But the bottom line is that someone intent on violence brought an illegal weapon to a place where folks didn't think anyone would want to harm them, and reaped the expected whirlwind.

pm

You don't say ...

... cities are running out of money:

In a scene that is going to play out in scores of cities across the nation, unions are going to come to grips with the fact that pensions are not sacrosanct.

The headline I saw was '50% of something or 100% of nothing.'

Indeed. h/t Ace's headlines sidebar

pm

This is good perspective

From Mr Doom! at AoSHQ:

The biggest fallacy of the modern fiat-money age is that citizens and politicians alike think we can raise our “income” any time we want by printing currency. In effect, there is a belief that we can bring real-world wealth into being ex nihilo via the printing-press, or avoid insolvency by issuing yet more debt.

There's much more, in easy-to-understand language ... I jut pulled a juicy quote to tease you. RTWT.

Remember that Wall Street doesn't produce anything; their reason for being is to make money, essentially by gambling (remember Trading Places?). If that involves breaking the country in the process, oh well.

pm

A serious question

Why the fuck doesn't John Boehner tell the media that the House constitutionally originates all spending bills, and as the Republicans are in the majority, it's incumbent on the Democrats to compromise their principals in search of a head-off-the-default (that won't happen) measure?

pm

JPFO alert

Rabbi Bendory gives Baltimore mayoral candidate a reality check.

Wow ...

... just, wow.



By now, I'm sure you've seen this. To their credit, the Canton PD has suspended this officer pending an investigation, but I'm not confident that anything substantive will be done. I can see how the officer may be retrained, or reprimanded, but as these investigations typically go, there's enough doubt for a sympathetic department to do the least they can about this incident.

That leaves the victim to sue for violation of civil rights (which he might win) without the obvious benefit of the officer having been punished (or criminally charged).

It would really be nice if elected officials would put some safeguards and teeth into the law to prevent these sorts of things. But then we wouldn't want to be seen as anti-police then, would we?

pm

Obama lies?

Lots

Obama held a press conference last Friday, July 15 which turned out to be a purely partisan effort to increase taxes and increase the American debt. His speech and the answers he gave to cherry picked questions from the press was fundamentally dishonest: in all I counted three dozen lies, deceptions and misleading statements.

There's a list, but I can't help but think that a Republican wouldn't do much better.

pm

Green helmets?

Bring it:

A special meeting of the United Nations security council is due to consider whether to expand its mission to keep the peace in an era of climate change.

There has been talk, meanwhile, of a new environmental peacekeeping force – green helmets – which could step into conflicts caused by shrinking resources.

Blue helmet, green helmet ... don't matter much. I wonder if the sheriff will get me for hunting over bait for firing up the burn pile?!

pm

Ace makes an excellent point

He understands that retraining won't cut it:

If a system is in place -- and I don't give a fig what's in the employee manuals; I mean the real governing system in place -- has all the incentives on one side of things (here, to just give out money willy-nilly; in the Army, to just promote Muslim officers even if they were giving "psychiatric research presentations" celebrating Islamic jihad -- then that is how the bureaucrats will act.

The path of least resistance .... RTWT, because it's worth it.

pm

Hope ...

... and change:

Gov. Chris Christie said today he has directed the state health department to "move forward as expeditiously as possible" with the state's medical marijuana program he put on hold in April, while awaiting for assurances from federal law enforcement officials that state employees and licensed growers would not be vulnerable to prosecution.

Good luck on that "not be vulnerable to prosecution" with Obama in office (or anyone else, for that matter).

Still, it's a good sign ...

pm

Tihs deserves a look

From Radley's morning links. The best line I read was this:

None of them said, “There’s a law against antigay hate crimes!” That wasn’t the deterrent. It was the possibility that I might have had a gun that saved my life Friday night.

Word!

pm

Ah, nothing like ...

... a well-turned phrase:

Here’s the takeaway, if there is one: You can clearly tell that the left is winning the culture wars when pale, soft, saggybacked needledicks like Olbermann feel safe talking smack about men who, were this country not busy catering to metrosexual twattery watched over by big government Nannies, would almost certainly put a well-deserved boot in Keith’s veneered teeth.

I like Jeff ... he makes me laugh!

pm

Rule 4?

Or can she just not aim very well?

Betty Walker escorted the children inside and came back with a .38-caliber revolver. Finding her husband holding the barking dog with both hands, Betty Walker fired two shots, one of which hit her husband in the chest and the other struck the dog in the leg. Robert Walker Sr. 53, later died at a local hospital.

I'll not beat up on the woman at all. Dogs are sometimes unpredictable, and having your husband in close contact with a pit bull is likely to un-nerve most anyone.

pm

OF course they did ...

... fold, that is:

A Salinas car manufacturing company that was expected to build environmentally friendly electric cars and create new jobs folded before almost any vehicles could run off the assembly line.

And this after losing over $500k in 'green' grants.

Get the government out of the economy.

pm

Why indeed

“Why should you die for a transfer?”

When police stopped a teenager stepping off the T-train yesterday to show his transfer as proof he’d paid his fare – $2 at most – he ran from them. They shot him as many as 10 times in the back and neck, according to witnesses.

I don't even know where to start ... geez, so much blood.

pm

First Aid Kits

Bob Owens has a look.

pm

Hurry, hurry hurry ...

... step right up and get your t-shirt!

I've got mine ordered ... how about you?

pm

Open carry incident ...

... this time in Upland, CA, and comes to us courtesy of Carlos Miller at PiNaC:



There's a part 2, about 11 min long, and be sure to read the comments. It's obvious that many there are not at the level of civil rights advocacy as firearms owners are, because many of the commenters thought that 'Black Shirt' was a bit overboard. I'm not sure how overboard one can be when you've just been the equivalent of felony-stopped on the sidewalk. He was a bit ... shrill ...but I don't think any of his questions were out of line, just his delivery.

Let's just say that I'm on the side of the open carriers. I think the situation could have been handled quite a bit better, even thought there had (allegedly) been a robbery at that very store recently. It's my laymans' opinion that the officers involved unnecessarily detained these gentlemen, and most likely violated their rights in the process.

I had a chat with a law enforcement buddy of mine about this. I was trying to get an idea of how 'bad' this stop was; as usual, my buddy (who is one of the most level-headed guys I know - certainly not an Only One) gave me some things to think about.

His over-riding comment was that the current situation was going to determine quite a bit about how he would approach it. Daylight vs darkness; good vs bad part of town, disheveled hobo vs well-dressed man were all parameters he said he would have to consider. And this got me thinking.

Why doesn't the firearms community start working with law enforcement to try to work out some of these differences, and then publish guidelines on how to act during an encounter, and what behavior to expect from law enforcement. I'm not immune to the concerns of law enforcement, but I do value my civil rights above their safety - I realize that law enforcement disagrees.

Let's say that the police received a call about a man with a gun. I understand that 'man with a gun' means different things to different people, so the 911 dispatcher really needs to get as much information (for officer safety, ya know). Questions need to be asked. What is the man doing? Walking? Running? Are there any calls right now of armed robberies? Where is the handgun ... in the man's hand? In his pocket? In his sock? Properly holstered?

Because working the police into a frothy lather worked well for Erik Scott.

And you know what organization is perfectly placed to handle this? The NRA. But they won't want to do it because they'd have to favor one constituency over another ... we can't have that.

It's clear that something needs to be done, and things will work out much better if we're proactive than if we wait for law enforcement to unilaterally decide for us what's in our best interests. Because it looks to me like all we want is to be able to go about our day in safety.

pm

Of course they did ...

... arrest a guy for slowing drivers down before the speed trap:

A man in West El Paso is claiming he was thrown in jail last week in retaliation for warning drivers about a nearby police checkpoint for speeding.

Don't you know the police are the Only Ones® authorized to be concerned about driver safety?

pm

My prediction?

Police will overstep on one of these, and reap the whirlwind:

Police in Georgia have shut down a lemonade stand run by three girls trying to save up for a trip to a water park, saying they didn't have a business license or the required permits.

Because that's what police do ... over-react.

pm

Put ME ...

... on this jury:

But now, a Colorado woman is accused of putting her hands on a TSA agent at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix.

Court records show 61-year-old Yukari Mihamae grabbed the left breast of the female agent Thursday at the Terminal 4 checkpoint.

Because I don't see any way I'd convict this woman.

Let the push-back begin!

pm

Should citizenship be automatic?

I am an American citizen; I was born in Tennessee almost 50 years ago to two wonderful parents who are also citizens. So I feel fortunate in my overall situation. In fact, that's one of the reasons I joined the Marine Corps.

My wife is of a slightly different view. While she feels fortunate to be an American citizen, she doesn't feel 'proud' to be an American, having been born here. That's a subtle yet distinct difference. So my question is this: Should full citizenship be automatic, or should someone born here (to two American parents) have to do something to be a full citizen?

pm

Blogger bleg

I was reading an article about Harold Fish, and I took notice that he spent $700k.

Now I don't know of NRA offers liability insurance for a defensive handgun use, but does anyone out there have, or know about, insurance to help cover legal expenses involved in a successful defense?

pm

Cockroaches ...

... they don't like the light:

Members of the town council of Quartzsite, Ariz., have mysteriously vanished from their own government website in the wake of thousands of emails flooding in over reports of police intimidation and possible financial wrongdoing.

This is an update to this.

I would suggest that, as a start, citizens of Quartzsite start bringing three things to council meetings: a mop, a couple of feather pillows, and a 5-gal bucket of tar.

pm

And a woman ...

... shall lead them:

I had thrown on my shoulder rig and was heading out the door before I remembered the whole OC Ambassador mindset. I went back and changed out of the oversized shirt with stuff all over the front into a plain red fitted t-shirt. When I got to the pick-up spot, one of the counselors looked at me and said, “Are you a cop?”

The following conversation caused at least light bulbs to go off in two citizens' heads. h/t to Breda

I've mentioned on more than one occasion that it's women and minority shooters who can (and will) do more for our cause than anyone else.

pm

Here's a cop ...

... defending the public's right to film:

Aren’t we known for saying, “If you’ve got nothing to hide, what are you worried about?” This same mentality should also apply to us. If we’re doing our job professionally and within the law, what’ve we got to worry about if someone’s filming us — especially if they’re doing so without getting in our way?

The rest of the article is like that. h/t Radley Balko

He might want to float the idea that if no one is watching the watchmen, then the likelihood of someone offing the watchmen increases dramatically with abuse.

pm

Ha!

I'm gooder than Alan:




I knowed it ...

pm

I didn't realize you could do this

Search for all of Masaad Ayoob's articles, I mean.

Go to findarticles.com, type 'Masaad Ayoob' in the search box at the top of the page, and you get almost 1000 of his articles for your perusal.

I started at the end and am working my way forward. This is a worthwhile thing to do.

pm

Here's a tip ...

... the MB/MFM will never paint us in a good light:

"It happened a month ago, so understandable that Sen. Lori Klein has a different recollection of the incident than I do," Ruelas wrote on Twitter Monday night.

Different recollection my ass ...

Sen Klein remembers it differently:

I was asked to show the reporter my weapon so that they could take pictures of it. I ensured that the chamber was clear before displaying the weapon. That is basic gun safety and something that I do instinctively, just like virtually every gun owner.

A transcript shows that she did point her laser (and her handgun) at the reporters chest.

So know we can assume that (combining the two accounts) Sen Klein drew her handgun from her holster, cleared it of ammunition, and demonstrated the laser on the reporters chest (I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same thing since I think that most, if not all, reporters deserve it). She claims that at no time did she have her booger hook on the bang switch.

Did she violate one of the 4 Rules? Yes. But the 4 Rules are designed so that you must violate 2 rules before there is imminent danger of injury.

Did she do her best considering the situation? Yes.

Now, let's gaze into our crystal balls and imagine the headlines if she had refused to show reporters her handgun:

"Gun-toting senator carries pink man-killer". Oh, not believable? How 'bout this one:

"Gun-toting senator suddenly coy about carrying firearm". And I'm not even that imaginative.

And the story could say something like "The senator declined to show us her gun citing safety concerns" which might lead one to believe that maybe her handgun wasn't safe (or maybe the reporter points the reader in that direction).

This reminds me of nothing so much as the zero-defects crowd carping about some gun babes having pictures taken with their fingers on the trigger.http://www.snowflakesinhell.com/2011/07/12/bozo/trackback/

No one is perfect ... we know that. We have firearms safety rules that we try to follow religiously so that we can be as safe as we can with dangerous items in imperfect situations.

But what I've not seen yet is anyone advancing any hints on how we could do better in the senators' shoes.

pm

Robb Allen reminds us ...

... about a time when Say Uncle wrote more than 30 words at a time:

There are a few things my loyal readers should know. One of which is that I have a penis. This is not a post about me having a particularly extraordinary penis but a report on how the penis affects thinking and cognition. Penis-bearing beings have several deficiencies but I’m only discussing one of those deficiencies today.

RTWT ... it's worth it, if only to make sure that Say Uncle is sentient!

pm

Too good ...

... not to post:

But if ordinary trench lawyers have failed to fulfill this duty, or even contributed to the publics' worse understanding, we're nothing compared to HLN's Nancy Grace. If we deserve a slap, what punishment is possibly harsh enough for a woman who has single-handedly made every person worse for having heard her shrill, nasty, ignorant voice?

RTWT

I never liked Nancy Grace; sure, when she first appeared she mouthed a few tough-on-crime platitudes that made sense, but she quickly sank into idiocy.

The high point (low point?) was Casey Anthony.

Funny how fame affects folks ...

pm

Ron Paul bleg ...

Given that he's apparently decided to run one last time for president, what is it, in the aggregate, that people find so distasteful about the guy?

Because I can guarantee we've had much, much worse presidents than him ...

pm

Not on the list ...

... because it's not a gun giveaway, but a raffle.

Tam alerted us to Kara's HoPE and that they were raffling off an Ed Brown engraved centennial edition 1911 w/ Galco holster system (in alligator skin). The package is worth a bit over $8000 - tickets are $40 each, and if you buy 5, you get 6.

FWIW, they're also raffling a Porsche Boxer, tickets $50.

pm

The knock against jury nullification ...

... is always that a bunch of leftists racists won't convict union white thugs for beating a black man:

The Kenneth Gladney beatdown case continued this morning in St. Louis County Court.
After a health care town hall meeting in August 2009 St. Louis native Kenneth Gladney was beaten, kicked and called racist names by Rep. Russ Carnahan’s SEIU supporters. Gladney spent the night in the hospital after the beating.

Yep ... not guilty. h/t to Ace

The best comment I saw at Ace's was this one:

What did the stupid jury need, video of the crime taking place?

Oh, wait ..

Yeah ... stupid jury.

pm

Yeah!

How you like me now?!



Ballsy ... she said yes!

That's Mila Kunis goin to the birthday ball ...

pm

Someone ...

... doesn't know what he's talking about:

“If someone pulls a knife on you, it’s okay to come back at them with a gun,” Carroll said, “But if they’re 18 feet away from you with that knife and you shoot them, you might be in trouble. Were you really in imminent danger?

And Mr Carroll is a former detective with the Chicago Police Department. Sheesh ...

Ever heard of the Tueller Drill? That's the one developed by Dennis Tueller, who wondered just how quickly a cutting edge weapon-armed attacker could cover 21 feet. He published his findings in SWAT magazine in the 1980's, and Massad Ayoob expounded on the idea.

pm

JPFO alert

JPFO's response to Mayor Bloomberg's deceitful tv ad.

Erik Scott update

Confederate Yankee has it. Hard to believe it's been a year since he was shot.

Be sure to check out the series (on the sidebar) and catch up with what you've missed.

pm

I wonder ...

... what the DEA is doing measuring medical effectiveness?

Marijuana has been approved by California, many other states and the nation's capital to treat a range of illnesses, but in a decision announced Friday the federal government ruled that it has no accepted medical use and should remain classified as a highly dangerous drug like heroin.

The decision comes almost nine years after medical marijuana supporters asked the government to reclassify cannabis to take into account a growing body of worldwide research that shows its effectiveness in treating certain diseases, such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis.

So the DEA, who is charged with combating illegal drugs, says marijuana should remain illegal, so they can combat it ....

Riiiiiiight.

Here's my very simple yardstick for medical use: If a doctor legitimately prescribes a substance to a patient, then it has medical use.

Here, DEA ... have a nice tall glass of STFU!

pm

I wonder ...

... where the line in the sand is?

It will be interesting to see if all the anti-drug conservatives will start to change their thinking once the Zetas and other drug cartels are shooting it out in Hispanic communities across America, or if they'll stick with the "no matter how bad it gets, it would be even worse if drugs were legal" approach.

Vox has a bit on the War on (some) Drugs and wonders how many deaths in the drug trade it will take before it's more than those through drug use.

pm

Open carrier confronts police, walks away ...

... FUDs from NRA hardest hit:

Pete's decisions to go to his girlfriends aid, film the police, open carry a firearm, refuse to produce ID and to walk away from the police,without satisfying their request, were all perfectly legal acts. [there's video]

Dude apparently has a law enforcement background, so no blowing smoke up his ass.

All in all, though, I wouldn't recommend you go looking for trouble. h/t Ace's headlines sidebar

pm

Call to action! Update! T-shirt pulled from WND!

Just saw an email from Joseph Farah. He reports that his shirt was a mis-understanding and has been pulled.

pm

Worldnet Daily has started offering for sale a t-shirt that is suspiciously like the one offered by our friend Sean (no link for the thieving bastards). Sean asks that you do two things:

Review WND's t-shirt (ok, I'll link) - make it as bad as you'd like. And then give Joe Farah a note of disappointment - jfarah@worldnetdaily.com

Buy a t-shirt (so he can buy a Kriss subgun!).

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Firearm giveaways ...

... it's time for Aaron's monthly roundup.

It's come to this ...

... idiot savant jurors:

To begin with, as far as I’ve always understood, a jury’s not supposed to consider the penalty when deliberating about guilt. The defendant’s guilty or not based on the evidence; you worry about punishment after you answer that question. If she’s saying that her findings of fact would have been different had a nonevidentiary variable been changed, then she’s actually practicing a subtle form of nullification here.

Allahpundit (for once) gets it right. That a juror had the punishment in the back of her mind is a sign that we just don't understand how our justice system is supposed to work.

Given that I specifically didn't pay any attention to the media firestorm that I couldn't avoid (like Tam), I still didn't hear anything other than plausible theories on how Caylee died - I'm sure I can come up with at least three implausible theories on my ownsome.

But were I on the jury, I would hope that the only thing I would have on my mind is the evidence presented that Casey Anthony killed her daughter, not whether the prosecution would try to execute her if found guilty.

I believe in jury nullification and I also believe the good uses will far outweigh the bad; but this is just stupid.

pm

Is anyone ...

... surprised?

While most Transportation Security Administration employees are busy groping people or taking naked pictures of them, the cops say one of those employees was putting fliers' electronics down his pants.

They can't stop terrorist attacks, they grope you and they steal your stuff ...

Sounds like an organization that throws good money after bad ... and needs to be disbanded.

pm

Our judicial system really can work ...

... as long as citizens do it right:

Jurors cried and felt 'sick to their stomachs' after voting to acquit Casey Anthony of murdering her two-year-old daughter, one of the jury members revealed.

In the first interview with one of the jurors who made the decision, which has outraged much of America, Jennifer Ford told how the jury felt there was not enough evidence to convict the 25-year-old.

'I did not say she was innocent,' said Ms Ford, 32. 'I just said there was not enough evidence. If you cannot prove what the crime was, you cannot determine what the punishment should be.'

Please keep in mind that I know nothing beyond what the media has reported, but I believe in my heart that Casey Anthony killed her daughter Caylee. And from what I saw in the media, the prosecution didn't have nearly enough positive evidence that she did it.

It's tragic, yes ... but I think it was the right verdict.

pm

More evidence ...

... of the coming apocalypse:

A small town in Arizona is suddenly a YouTube sensation after a town-hall meeting devolved into a physical clash as a woman was forcibly removed from speaking during the public portion of the event.

Jennifer "Jade" Jones, 45, of Quartzsite, Ariz., was taken into custody by local police at the behest of Quartzsite councilmembers, over the objections of the mayor, who pleaded with officers not to remove the woman

RTWT

I grew up in a small town, and I never heard of anything like this happening.

Right now, most folks can ignore the more rabid 'patriots' - but when a police chief is arrayed against the mayor and council members, something will have to give.

pm

This will go exactly ...

... nowhere:

A plan by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, would attack head-on the issue of federal agents of the Transportation Security Administration "groping" airline passengers at security checkpoints by specifying that screeners "are not immune" from laws that limit physical contact with other people.

What would be interesting is if a local sheriff set up TSA-like checkpoints into the courthouse and started targeting all of the judges and attorneys (since they're the least likely to bomb, they're the most in need of checking).

Or maybe a group of sheriffs going to Washington and doing this to our elected officials (especially the women) ... see how they like it, especially since they're exempt from TSA searches.

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JPFO alert

The insidious semantics of 'gun control'.

The colonel knew ...

... that's Colonel Jeff Cooper:

Real police detectives, not imposters, are out talking to people who live in the 1600 block of Elkins Ln. in Federal Hill. Around 3:45 a.m. Friday, a man and woman got a rude awakening. Three men claiming to be officers were inside their home.

Col Cooper had this to say about intruders of all stripes: Not long ago it was easy to tell who the bad guys were. They carried Kalashnikovs. Now it is much more complicated, but one thing is sure - any man who covers his face and packs a gun is a legitimate target for any decent citizen.

Word to your mother ...

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Just so you know ...

... Republicans won't save you:

Pima County Republican Party leaders voted late Thursday to take party chairman Brian Miller’s keys to the GOP headquarters away and call a special meeting to try to remove him from his post.

Miller has been under fire from party stalwarts for the past month, with multiple meetings called in recent weeks after he criticized a SWAT raid in May that resulted in the shooting death of a man law enforcement officers said they suspected of involvement in drug dealing.

That man was Jose Guerena.

Republicans have an excellent platform for electing a new sheriff, but they're too stupid to use it.

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Independence Day bleg

How many firearms do you own? Just a number, not type or caliber. Anonymize if you wish.

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Happy Independence Day!

Be safe.

Think about where you live.

Be glad.

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The end ...

... it is upon us:

In a significant reversal, the Marine Corps has begun using optics at entry-level training, and could do so on a permanent basis beginning next year.

Every Marine is a trained rifleman ... a la Project Appleseed.

Look, I have no problem with infantrymen training with optical sights; that's what they will deploy with, that's what they will use day to day and that's what they should train with (and I'd also submit they need to shoot many, many more rounds in training).

But as an artilleryman, I can pretty much count the number of rounds I fired during Desert Shield/Storm/Sword - zero. If I think real hard, I can even count the total number of 5.56 rounds I've fired as a Marine - it's under 1500.

As to Marine training: as a Fire Direction Controlman, I had access to the very best computer solutions to the gunnery problem, but I still was required to keep manual back-ups going at all times because computers break, or the generator that powers it stops because someone didn't put fuel in it - and when the infantry downrange needs supporting fire right fucking now, you'd better be able to provide it.

If the average recruit isn't learning to shoot well enough, you need to teach him, before you start giving him all sorts of high-speed/low-drag gear to make him better. Make the rifle range 3 weeks long or 4 weeks long ... but teach the Marine to shoot. Then, if his mission demands, you've taken a competent rifleman and made him better.

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Doing my part

The illustrator of Go the Fuck to Sleep has written a pamphlet on jury nullification.

Go here to download a copy.

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Tick tock ...

... tick tock:

DAYTON, Ohio (CN) - Dayton police "mistook" a mentally handicapped teen-ager's speech impediment for "disrespect," so they Tasered, pepper-sprayed and beat him and called for backup from "upward of 20 police officers" after the boy rode his bicycle home to ask his mother for help, the boy's mom says.

Won't be long now ... h/t Alan

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Sometimes I can't help myself!

I was watching the open carry video, and started following the related video links. They quickly devolved from there to this one. Which ultimately led to this:



I am a bad, bad man for laughing so hard!

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