Kilted ...

... to Kick Cancer.

Ambulance Driver is spearheading a drive to raise money for prostate cancer research through the Kilted to Kick Cancer campaign. Here are some facts about prostate cancer:

• About 240,890 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in 2011.
• About 33,720 men will die of prostate cancer in 2011.
• About 1 man in 6 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.
• More than 2 million men in the United States who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point are still alive today.
• Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer.
• About 1 man in 36 will die of prostate cancer.

My dad recently underwent some newfangled targeted radiation treatment for prostate cancer, and by all accounts he's in the clear (doc said he's healthy enough that something else will kill him!). And as much as I regret admitting it, it's time for me to get checked as well.

Now, part of this campaign is for those involved to wear kilts and to post pictures on their blogs to raise awareness. I'm working on that, and the campaign runs through the month of September.

Until then, please consider donating.

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Apparently ...

... there's a new sheriff in town:

This started with a tip early this morning first to David Codrea and then to me that Melson's office had been cleaned out over the weekend and he was being transferred to a rubber room job at DOJ to keep him safely on the payroll and minimize his motivations to really lay the whole thing out for the Congress.

Melson's out, and US Attorney Dennis Burke has resigned.

Good fucking riddance.

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JPFO alert

Please use this valuable 2A awareness tool.

Thinky

Posted without commentary.

I've thought about this ...

... a bit more.

John Richardson over at No Lawyers - Only Guns and Money has a post about the northeastern firearms manufacturers and the adverse business politics in that area.

I commented.

And I thought a bit more about it last night. There are lots of southern states (all of them) that are clamoring for business. Why not start making some overtures to some of these states and localities about moving? I know that in Chattanooga, we've just recently gotten the Volkswagon plant (after lots of losses, btw) at the Volunteer Ammunition Plant Enterprise South site ... I think a big-name firearm manufacturer like S&W or Ruger would be most welcome here in the south.

And let's face it - there's nothing mysterious about manufacturing a firearm. They're mechanical items; make the parts correctly, put them together correctly, and it functions fine. Granted, the fit and finish is a bit different, but then it's the same problem with cars. You don't expect a Ford Fiesta to look and feel like a BMW 735.

And think ... if the government wanted to contract with a company to make, say, one million M3A1 grease guns, even the most average machine shops would be bidding.

Is the fit and finish of a Colt Python better than a Ruger GP100? Yes, but that simply doesn't translate into the northeast being the only part of the country able to supply sufficiently skilled employees to do the job. Heck, you could even put up some of your top gunsmiths while they trained the next generation.

My point is, it's high time manufacturers started voting with their feet. So come on down (south); the water's fine!

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Of course they don't;

then someone might make an informed decision:

Even shorter on hard facts, however, was Shukman’s report on a monster new wind farm off the coast of Cumbria, where a Swedish firm, Vattenfall, has spent £500 million on building 30 five‑megawatt turbines with a total “capacity” of 150MW. What Shukman did not tell us, because the BBC never does, is that, thanks to the vagaries of the wind, these machines will only produce a fraction of their capacity (30 per cent was the offshore average in the past two years). So their actual output is only likely to average 45MW, or £11 million per MW.

Reporters should really have a better grasp on applied mathematics, because even know what the guy's talking about, but it's written kinda poorly. What he means is that as the output goes down, the cost goes up.

But yeah ... greenies only look at the potential, rather than the actual benefit realized.

This sounds like ...

... good news to me:

New Jersey's highest court ordered changes Wednesday to the way eyewitness identifications are used in court, saying the current system is not reliable enough, fails to deter police misconduct and overstates jurors' ability to evaluate the evidence.

And they used actual scientific evidence!

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Another collectivist ...

... opines:

Mike Lawlor, undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning for the state of Connecticut, joins the ranks of other public officials who are choosing to simply ignore those rights they don’t believe citizens should have.

And it would be way too much trouble to educate law enforcement on what the law actually says.

Much better to have those pesky proles adjust their behavior, so we can feel safer.

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This guy's too smart ...

... to be this stupid:

In his jurisprudence, Thomas may be best known for his belief in a “color-blind Constitution”; that is, one that forbids any form of racial preference or affirmative action. But color blind, for Thomas, is not blind to race. Thomas finds a racial angle on a broad array of issues, including those which appear to be scarcely related to traditional civil rights, like campaign finance or gun control.

I'll agree that campaign finance is puzzling, but gun control? Really?

The 14th amendment was about stymiing the post-civil war South from abridging black's civil rights, including the right to firearms.

Collectivists reach for everything.

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JPFO alert

JPFO reviews Gunfight.

This should come as no suprise ...

... what the state gives, the state takes away:

Thanks to a brain-dead state law foisted upon us by a Democratic state legislature (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-288.7), every time the governor—in this instance, Democrat Beverly Perdue—declares a state of emergency, it is illegal from that moment onward to carry a concealed weapon until the state of emergency has been declared over

.
This is what happens when you rely on the state for permission to exercise a fundamental civil right; you takes what you can get.

My advice to NC citizens? Carry how you feel is appropriate, and the consequences be damned.

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Wow ...

... just, wow:

The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday revived a suit against a police officer who shot and killed a handcuffed man after mistakenly drawing a firearm instead of a Taser.

A three-judge panel said the officer was not entitled to qualified immunity, so a lower court's grant of summary judgment in her favor was improper.

A jury could make other findings that would negate her immunity, like her history of confusing her weapons, the court found.

About a month after she first got the Taser, Noriega mistakenly placed her sidearm and Taser in the wrong holsters, and a week later she confused the two during a call, pointing a loaded Glock at her partner's head, the court noted.

A history ... of confusing her weapons; pointed ... a loaded Glock ... at her partner's head?

Wonder she hasn't been killed in the line of duty from friendly fire.

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Hee hee hee ...

Two of Mr Balko's favorite things - lemonade and filming cops:

A Concord man giving away lemonade at a farmer's market was threatened with wiretapping charges last Saturday when he refused to stop filming a police officer and a fellow vendor. Garret Ean didn't have a permit to sell lemonade, which drew the ire of the president of the Concord Farmer's Market.

Make sure you're not violating some sort of property rights if you do this, but yeah - gi ing away lemonade (and accepting donations) would be a great place for this movement to go.

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Good to know ...

... that all the real problems have been solved:

Federal agents are in the process of raiding the offices of the Nashville-based Gibson Guitar Corporation.

Gibson was also raided in 2009 for possible violations of the Lacey Act, which bans the importation of endangered plants and wildlife. Federal officials seized ebony and other woods they said were prohibited under the act. Gibson has said in the past it was “fully cooperating” with the investigation.

Yep, that'll help the country ... or something.

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Unpossible!

Everyone knows felons are forbidden from having guns:

A Sand Mountain man, arrested multiple times, is accused of threatening to kill several officials, including Dade County's Sheriff.

"It was completely loaded, ready to go," said Patrick Cannon, pointing to the weapon his officers discovered.

Yeah, how's that working out for you?

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Worth your time ...

Freeing your mind:

The resistance is growing. The revolution taking place between the ears is beginning to swallow up more of the market share. Millions of humans have begun to shake off the sheep of their Statist slumbers, and more wake up by the minute. They are beginning to see Politicians for who they are; paper tigers who point to pieces of parchment as proof of their perverse powers.

h/t Mike V

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JPFO alert

JPFO calls for repeal of phony Gun-Free Zone laws.

You just can't ...

... make this stuff up:

However, there has been controversy over the choice of Lei Yixin, a 57-year-old master sculptor from Changsha in Hunan province, to carry out the work. Critics have openly asked why a black, or at least an American, artist was not chosen and even remarked that Dr King appears slightly Asian in Mr Lei's rendering.

Government ... too stupid to survive.

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This ...

... is how to respond to a threat!

Just do me one favor. PLEASE wear body armor. I have some new ammunition that I want to try out, and frankly, close-quarter body shots without armor would feel almost unsporting from my perspective. That and the fact that I'm probably carrying a good 50 I.Q. points on you makes it morally incumbent upon me to spot you a tactical advantage.

You really need to RTWT to get the whole effect. h/t protein wisdom

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Bring your Kleenex

... you're gonna need it.

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Jumping on the bandwagon

Since so many gunbloggers are linking this, I will too. You need to RTWT.

A man may kill another in lawful self-defense even if the policy preferences of the state would prefer his death. If a right to self-defense actually exists, it is in a very real sense the highest law of the land and all lesser laws must pay it deference. It fundamentally defines the social contract, the nature of the relationship between man and the state.

But if there is no such inalienable right, the entire nature of the social contract is changed. Each man’s worth is measured solely by his utility to the state, and as such the value of his life rides a roller coaster not unlike the stock market: dependent not only upon the preferences of the party in power but upon the whims of its political leaders and the permanent bureaucratic class.
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More women ...

... and guns:

“I think I surprise a lot of people, because I wear heels and pearls almost every day,” Herron said Tuesday, during a trip to the shooting range at Shooters Express in Belmont, where she is a member. “They’re surprised that I like to shoot, but even more that I like rifles and machine guns.

“I think it’s a lot of fun.”

Women are where the future of firearms rights is.

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Not sure ...

... how to take this:

"Some of these women locate their strength and empowerment in their firearm," Stroud said. "When they are unarmed, this has the consequence of increasing their feelings of vulnerability. It is as though their sense of empowerment resides in their gun, not in themselves, limiting the extent to which CHL use ultimately empowers those women who use this form of self-defense."

It sounds like Stroud is implying that because women have a CHL, they are more frightened as a result, rather than being more aware of the danger and not having the tools to do anything about it when they aren't carrying. If a woman gets a CHL, she is fearful enough - she's trying to do something about it.

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Not feeling it ...

... maybe later.

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Ok ...

... I did find something!

My buddy Jim's new bike ...

Unless someone steps up ...

... I got nuthin!

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JPFO alert

Take the JPFO t-shirt survey.

Thoughts about dash cameras

Don't think they'll help you:

But there was one glaring concern, and against the tide of defense support for cameras, I kept raising one issue that remained problematic: When the cops control the cameras, what happens when they are only used as a sword, and disappear (or are altered) when they're a shield? The Texas Court of Appeals answers in Martin v. Texas. Nothing.

Best get your own camera.

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Another Erik Scott update

Mike @ Confederate Yankee continues.

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this is how ...

... the Brady's spin:

“Three years and more than 400 legal challenges later, courts — so far — have held that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Heller was narrow and limited, and that the Second Amendment does not interfere with the people’s right to enact legislation protecting families and communities from gun violence,” the center said in a report optimistically titled “Hollow Victory?”

They can't help themselves.

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Has anyone told ...

... Mr Buffet that he's perfectly able to pay more taxes?

But for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in 2009 — I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more — there were 8,274 in 2009 — I would suggest an additional increase in rate.

Buffet points out that in 2010 he paid just under $7 million in federal taxes; if he's so undertaxed, why didn't he write the check for an even $10 million?

To be so smart, Warren Buffet really isn't that smart.

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I've decided

I'm going to write in Ron Paul no matter who's running next fall in the presidential election.

Mostly because it will piss a lot of people off.

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California ...

... is soooo fucked!

When California’s elected officials come back from their month-long recess they face a mountain of proposed legislation (almost 900 bills are lined up and waiting), including a new law (SB432) that would require hotels to eliminate flat sheets. Not having fitted sheets on hotel beds would now be a crime in California. This is not a joke.

It would be a crime to not have fitted sheets.

Wow. h/t HotAir

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I sure as hell hope ...

... Guerana's lawyer is a good one:

A representative from the office of Christopher Scileppi, Vanessa Guerena's lawyer, said Thursday they would not comment on Dupnik's statements. But Scileppi has said in previous interviews that there are plans to file a wrongful-death suit against the department.

Radley reports it's for $20 million ... I hope she gets every penny.

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Another to brighten your day.

Muppets Theme/Stray Cats mashup.

They keep trying ...

... hopefully they won't succeed:

The Board of Supervisors will take up an interesting piece of gun-related legislation when it gets back from summer break. The ordinance, submitted by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, is basically six pages of facts about how dangerous guns are.

Like this one: "Nationally, more than two thirds of homicides and over half of all suicides are committed with firearms." And this one: "The International Association of Chiefs of Police recommends that state and local governments mandate safe storage of firearms."

Six pages? We all know how dangerous guns are ... in the wrong hands. I'm sure it doesn't have anything to do with Mirkarimi running for sheriff.

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JPFO alert

Rabbi Bendory has some advice about flash mobs.

Yeah, this is good!

Definitely NSFW!



h/t Ace

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How can you not know ...

... that you're not in the restroom:

Robert Vietze, 18, of South Warren Vt., stumbled from his seat five rows behind her and emptied his bladder, a witness said.

"I was drunk, and I did not realize I was pissing on her leg," the 6-foot-4, 195-pound Vietze said, according to law-enforcement sources. He later claimed to have consumed eight alcoholic beverages.

Even at their darkest, it's still pretty light in a cabin.

And why is Vietze not in a coma?

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Property = Life?

There's a prevailing thought process around these days that basically states that there is nothing (property) a person owns that is worth the loss of life to prevent the theft of. And to an extent, I agree with that.

But what exactly does property represent?

At it's most basic, it represents a little slice of your life, in that you had to spend your lifes' time earning the money to trade for the possession. So in real terms, a thief who steals your watch has just stolen a part of your life.

Didn't they hang horse thieves in the old West? It wasn't just because a horse was kinda important in those times; it was because a man's horse could be his life.

Look at all of the things in your house, the things that you have bought and paid for. Those objects represent a significant portion of your life. You had to spend your time (that you will never get back) going to work to earn money to buy these things.

Why shouldn't we exercise lethal options when someone tries to steal part of our lives?

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Thanks, Darleen ...

... for reminding me:

Venice, California, is a mecca for counter-culture types, but somehow I fail to see such a threat from an aging flower child holding an unlicensed mango as to warrant a SWAT-style raid — guns drawn, threats against witnesses, sloppy paperwork on cash seized, and wanton destruction of property

.
This in regards to the raid on a food shop that sells raw milk products to the 'owners' of the cows. The state of course, hasn't gotten it's bribe tribute protection money license fees so they've got to make an example of these hippies.

Someone at the local, county or state level ordered this raid. It's my opinion that that individual's safety might need to be tested, and soon.



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This is a good move ...

... getting out from under:

In an extreme example of the frustration felt by many bankers as regulators toughen their oversight of the nation's financial institutions, Main Street's chairman, Thomas Depping, is expected to announce Wednesday that the 27-year-old bank will surrender its banking charter and sell its four branches to a nearby bank.

Doesn't sound that extreme to me ... sounds like that's what more banks should start doing.

Also note a recurring phrase in the article ... "FDIC ordered". Having the government 'order' me to do anything just rubs me the wrong way.

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Legal terms ...

... and how you use them.

Sebastian goes through the PA laws regardi9ng what a citizen can and cannot do during a riot (since riots are all in vogue these days). I commented that one of his questions might be beest asked of the states' attorney general.

But it does bring up a bigger point that what you say to police (under your attorney's advice only) should closely match the verbiage within the local or state statutes regarding self-defense. For instance, if the conditions under which you can use lethal force are 'fear of death or grave bodily injury', then when you're speaking to the police (under your attorney's advice only) or in court, you need to make sure that you used lethal force because you feared death or grave bodily injury.

And you do have an attorney whom you've talked to about defending you, right?

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I have a question

If a business is incorporated under the laws of a certain state, receiving certain privileges and benefits from the act of incorporation, why then should said corporation not be bound to follow all laws of the state, even if the said corporation is a restaurant that serves alcohol and doesn't want to allow firearms and the law states that permit-holders may carry there?

What?!

More of this, please!



I can't even try to parodize something like that; not without the help of find-and-replace anyway! h/t Ace

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Now this is how you open carry!

From the Black Panthers:

“Who in the hell do you think you are?” an officer responded.

“Who in the hell do you think you are?,” Newton replied indignantly. He told the officer that he and his friends had a legal right to have their firearms.

Newton got out of the car, still holding his rifle.

“What are you going to do with that gun?” asked one of the stunned policemen.

“What are you going to do with your gun?,” Newton replied.

I can't comment on whether this is true or not ... sounds like a Black Panther to me.

And to think ... Sebastian doesn't think OC is a good idea.

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I wonder ...

What would the United States' credit score be with the big three credit agencies (Transunion, Experian, Equifax)?

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JPFO alert

'No Guns for Jews gets awards'.

I have one question for pols

Exactly how are we going to pay off the national debt?

If the pol is currently in office, and can't answer this question, he needs to be voted out. If a candidate can't answer this question, he needs to stay in the private sector.

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That time again ...

... Aaron's August giveaways.

Another step ...

... in the right direction:

The $1 that Andrew Rutherford was awarded after he successfully sued Seattle police for holding him at gunpoint too long will wind up costing the city more than $423,000.

So ... violating civil rights' does have consequences.

I'm also heartened that he originally sought a judgment in the millions, not the piddly 5 figures these open-carriers are asking for. I'm also heartened that the judge (female, no less) over-rode the jury's lack of a monetary award (maybe caused by a misunderstood instruction?). All in all, good job.

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What if ...

... citizens started putting pressure on the guys who gave large sums of money to unresponsive pols?

Let's face it ... unless you're independently wealthy (and even if you are), the bulk of your campaign money is going to come from big-shots.

So why don't we start putting some pressure on those guys when politicians (Rep West for starters) go back on campaign promises. Because if the big-money guys feel some of the heat, maybe they won't throw those big bucks at that candidate again.

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I'm back!

Got back early Saturday evening. Took yesterday to decompress, and now trying to get caught up.

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