Banning Books is OK if it's not Enforced?

I think that Sotamayer is profoundly unqualified to be a judge, let alone a Supreme Court Justice, but Elena kagan, the latest nominee, makes her look like a legal genius.

It is important to reject any destructive principle where there is a logical identification with its worst implications. It is vital to reject it if history bears out this connection. Anyone defending a restriction on speech if published in one media but not in another is fooling herself, too stupid to see the connection, or just plain lying about it.

None of which are qualifications for a Supreme Court Justice.

H/T to Sipsey Street

"Don't Taze my Granny!"

I used to think that William Grigg exaggerated a little on his blog Pro Libertate. However, I've read about enough cases, from different writers to no longer doubt that the police have become a serious problem in America. This latest one from Grigg via Lew Rockwell is Un Frelling Believable.

Goddamn You Billy!

Historically, Billy Beck's guesses have been more accurate that most other peoples' "facts". Now, as if I didn't have enough to worry about, Billy Beck speculates:

Among other bits & pieces of Western civ falling-ass down, I notes the fascinating story of Rham Emanuel blowing out of the White House.

What's happening, you see, is that he knows the commie fat is in the fire behind this Obama gag, and this is his first move to get behind Field Marshal Rodham.

You heard it here first.

Seriously, my own observations seem to indicate an imminent Clinton Coup. The only good thing I see about the possibility of Rahm Emanuel deserting to the Clinton camp is both Hillary and he are politically savvy power whores. Putting the two together could be like locking two scorpions in a bottle. If Americans are lucky, they will be too busy trying to sting each other to bother us much.

No Duty to Protect

My comments follow this story from Fairfax County, Virginia..

Shooting Victim Sues Police, Claims Brush-Off

The Fairfax County Police Department is facing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit for an employee's alleged refusal to protect and serve.

"You can see how the bullet got stopped by the cross," said shooting victim Najib Gerdak.

It was a necklace that saved the life of the 28-year-old. While he's thankful to be alive, Gerdak said he still lives with the pain and visible wounds from being shot five times.

"As soon as I open my eyes I feel the pain," Gerdak said. "You know, you get ready to go to work, you look at your body in the mirror, sliced from here to here. I have holes everywhere."

The painful injuries could have been prevented if Fairfax County police responded to his cries for help, he says. On Feb. 2, 2008, Gerdak ran into the Franconia police sub-station at about 3 a.m. after witnessing a road rage incident.

But when he got inside, Gerdak says, he found an employee asleep behind the glass.

"I had to knock twice because I didn’t catch her attention because she was asleep," Gerdak said. "I said, 'There’s two crazy people outside. Some guy is chasing a taxi driver,' and she said the cab driver needs to call his own dispatch."

Gerdak says he was turned away, and when he went back outside into the parking lot, one of those drivers involved in that road rage incident opened fire.

"I just felt an impact in my shoulder and I heard a gun blast and I knew I’d been shot," Gerdak said. "I felt my hand turn to fire. One second it was hot and then everything just started spinning."

Now, more than two years later, Gerdak said he still has two bullets inside his body. One is lodged near his groin, and Gerdak has decided not to get the surgery to remove it because it’s so risky he could lose the ability to have children. He’s decided to file a $10 million lawsuit against the Fairfax County Police Department and that employee on duty that night.

"You’re supposed to run into a police station, and they’re supposed to help you," Gerdak said. "If they can’t help you, then what? Are we all supposed to carry around guns now? I feel like nobody’s protected."

To this day, Gerdak said he does not know why he was shot, but he’s hoping this lawsuit will prevent this terrible incident from happening to anyone ever again.

Fairfax County Police would not comment on the lawsuit because it's ongoing litigation.

The man who shot Gerdak was sentenced to 66 years in prison.

Those of us in the "gun culture" have known for along time that the police have no duty to protect any individual. In some states this exception is actually written into the law. For example, the California Covernmet Code declares in Section 821 that:

A public employee is not liable for an injury caused by his
adoption of or failure to adopt an enactment or by his failure to
enforce an enactment.

In section 845:

Neither a public entity nor a public employee is liable for
failure to establish a police department or otherwise to provide
police protection service or, if police protection service is
provided, for failure to provide sufficient police protection
service.

And in Section 846:

Neither a public entity nor a public employee is liable for
injury caused by the failure to make an arrest or by the failure to
retain an arrested person in custody.

There are dozens of State and Federal court case across space and time establishing the principle of "no duty to protect" in the law. Police protection, inasmuch as it exists at all, only extends to society as a collective and not to any individual member of that collective.

"To Protect and Serve," is a lie..

Missionaries Arrested in Dearborn.

I am not a Christian. That should be obvious from the title and content of this blog. I find missionaries annoying and politely refuse their literature when offered. I read it all 30 years ago and occasional survey of the latest offerings indicate they haven't come up with anything new since then. Nevertheless, they have a right to practice their religion and that right is protected by the Constitution. Which makes the following article from freep.com particularly disturbing.

Four Christian missionaries trying to convert Muslims were arrested and jailed Friday for disorderly conduct at the Arab festival in Dearborn, police said.

"We did make four arrests for disorderly conduct," Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad said Saturday. "They did cause a stir."

The four, who were said to be at the Dearborn Arab International Festival with a Christian group called Acts 17 Apologetics, were later released on bail.

Haddad said that he's not taking sides in any dispute, but added that police have to keep the peace at a festival that draws 300,000 over three days.

"Everyone's space should be respected," Haddad said. "It's Father's Day weekend. ... People are here to have a good time, and it's our job to ensure security."

The Free Press reported last year on the growing number of evangelical Christians targeting Dearborn to convert Muslims.

OK, Christian proselytizers can be annoying. I've had few not take "no" for an answer and accuse me of doing Satan's work. I usually reply with something like, "Why yes, I do. I build airplanes." Then I walk away.

None have followed me yet: They probably don't get the joke.

I also know that Christians, despite any protest to the contrary, can at least threaten violence. Twice in the past 40 years Christians have threaten me physically. Not the vague "kill all the atheists!" rhetoric I expect from the sublimely idiotic but specific threats accompanied by baseball bats. Both times, me and my model 36 showed them the error of their ways. No shots were fired even though both times there were enough attackers that they could have overwhelmed me with only a couple of casualties.

I guess meeting Jesus wasn't on the agenda.

I find the idea that the Christians might have been disruptive at an Arab Festival a little far fetched. Muslims do have a reputation for religiously inspired violence. I wonder if the arrests were prompted by the proselytizers getting out of line or the crowd getting ugly.

H/T to the The Unwanted Blog

What's in a Name

Claire Wolfe blogs here about those who impede their own freedom without realizing it and how reclaiming it often comes in small steps. She uses a friend's realization the she can control her own name as a foil to illustrate the point.

I've never been overly sensitive about the name my parents gave me. I don't mind when people call me by my first name when those who know me always use my middle one. As La Esposa points out, anyone calling me by my first name obviously doesn't know me regardless of how hard he tries to sound comradely.

The article did make me think of the times I've change my online moniker. For example, once upon a time I was known as "enemyofthestate" but, as I assimilated the ideas behind gulching and withdrawing of consent, I realized that the state is no more an enemy than a hurricane, earthquake or any other natural disaster.

While it is a goodness thing to find ways to avert a disaster or, failing that, divert the effect there is no point in making myself an enemy of what is, at the core, an unthinking phenomena. It certainly wouldn't call myself "enemyofthetornado" or enemyofthetsunami" and I finally realized that "enemyofthestate" was no longer appropriate.

Hence I became "parabarbarian" which I hope better illustrates my new and (hopefully) improved methodology.

A Conspiracy of Conspiracies

Ferfal posts on America and Christianity A few of those commenting seem to to think the Big Bad Atheist Conspiracy is trying to eliminate their right to pray in public.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of the World, the God Incarnate, the Light of the World, the Messiah ,etc, etc gave definitive, authoritative, and unimpeachable instructions on how to pray if you want God to pay attention: Go into your closet and shut the door. Read it for yourself here

I consider those who have to make public spectacles of their faith to be like the hypocrites who "...love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men." When I see such spectacles they only reinforce my conclusion that there are no Christians left in the world.

As long as the Christians pray publicly the Conspiracy has no worries. We want them praying in public. It lets us know who can be relied on to obey the false Prophet we are preparing to unleash. If a significant number go back into closet then I'll make a motion to the Council of the Learned Elders to consider a delay in deployment. However, that is simply not going to happen. Organized Christianity sold out to Constantine and the core of the Faith is not in Christian hands anymore.

Wheels within wheels, bendrith.

Censoring the Internet and Unintended Consequences

To gauge how the Three Percent is reacting to the prospect of the FCC "regulating" the Internet, read:

Internet Control. Unintended Consequences

WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

Can Obama Shut Down the Internet?

Now, even if you think giving government this kind of power is a good idea, consider what it will be like when the motto, "all dot-gov data nodes must die" is on the lips, fingers, and soldering iron of every freedom-loving hacker on the continent.

Good luck with that.

Legal Home Invasion

in Barling, Arkansas

Last month, the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office, the 12th/21st Judicial Drug Task Force and the Barling Police Department all conducted a drug raid on a house in Barling, Arkansas. Even though the search warrant itself was completely accurate, law enforcement officers had entered the wrong residence. A man, woman and small baby were in the house when the drug force walked in, and the man and woman were handcuffed before the mistake was discovered.

The door was unlocked, which was probably a good thing. Important details such as whether the man or woman was unarmed or if the possibility of a confrontation existed when the officers entered the home are unknown. The odds of violent reaction to this situation were large, and all involved were very lucky everything was resolved safely.

Once the cops break into your home without the proper warrant you will have little chance for a fair trial. If you are lucky, you will be charged with some bogus, after the fact, crime like resisting arrest. If you are unlucky the cops will just plant some drugs to provide probable cause and charge you with resisting arrest anyways. The cops, their masters in the courts and legislatures, and sycophants in the media have created a situation where an honest citizen is ever more likely to be offered the choice between a rigged trial and imprisonment or an unfair gunfight.

Real drug dealers rarely fight the police because going to prison is just part of the cost of doing business. Most gangs will help take care of a loyal member's family while he is behind bars and gang membership provides some protection on the inside. The violent tactics being used by the police endanger the law abiding members of society far more than they do the criminal element. The fact that violent criminals now emulate the police when invading homes should tell the decent citizen everything he needs to know about the state of the police today.

Light Posting Ahead

Posting will be even lighter that than usual for the next couple of days. At work I am busy compensating for a failed controller card which took four of fourteen tape drives offline. At home I am busy cleaning a particularly nasty bit of malware from the womenfolk's computer.

If you are here hoping for Chapter Two of Zombie Story, it's coming but won't be ready by my -- mostly theoretical -- Thursday deadline.

The Wrath of God

Maybe the Christian God didn't consider the likeness worthy and decided to smite it with lighting. Isn't that what gods are supposed to do? On the bright side, the adult bookstore across the street was spared.
Jesus statue fire damages estimated at $700,000

H/T to The Unwanted Blog

Abby Sunderland Rescued

Here is the LA Times Report

Read the comments section. There are several people calling the parents things like " irresponsible and negligent at best" to let their daughter try such a trip. Or accusing her and her parents of being "obsessed with this record".

Yes it's dangerous to sail around the world alone. I'm a sailor from way back and I know that even in sheltered waters or close to shore you can get in trouble. A forty footer in open ocean can be a chancy undertaking. So what? Abby is no beginner and knows how to handle a boat. She hit some bad luck in the middle of the Indian Ocean and proved she is not only well trained but also smart and resourceful. She was prepared physically and mentally for the worst and had the innate courage to handle adversity.

Here parents should be proud they raised a young lady with such attributes. The idiots criticizing her can crawl back into their caves, shake their rattles at the dark and beg the fairies at the bottom of the garden to protect them from the Big Scary Outside.

I wonder if it ever occurred to the morons assailing her that the odds of getting hurt crossing the Indian Ocean in a forty foot sailing boat are about 1% or less of what she would face walking unarmed across Los Angeles or New York City.

Range Day with the 686.

Went to the Oak Tree Gun Club range in Newhall today with the California Bears shooting club. It's a long drive from Glendora but it really was worth it. In addition to trap and skeet, which don't interest me much, they have a very nice handgun range which I took advantage of while the rest of the club was busting clays.

I recently had my 686 machined for moon clips and wanted to make sure it was in shape for a Zombie Shoot next month so I concentrated on the plates at 12 and 25 yards. However even when using 38 special +P (the range doesn't allow magnum loads on the steel plates), that got boring so I switched to flipping a six inch plate at 50 yards back and forth. After my second cylinder (fourteen shots) at the longer range I realized mine was the only gun shooting. Ah crap, I thought to myself, did I miss the range officer calling a break? I set the empty gun down, stepped back and realized everybody had stopped to watch me shoot.

A couple of guys complimented me on my shooting. I thanked them then made a beeline for the restroom. When I got back, everyone was back to normal.

Yes, it was an undeniable ego boost to hear the congratulations but I don't mind admitting it was a bit intimidating too. I do not consider myself to be all that great a shooter. I mean, it was only fifty yards. If it had been at 100 or more then, yeah, I'd think I was doing good but fifty?

I had great time and I feel pretty confident I can beat up on the Zombies next month.

How is Rape a Libertarian Behavior?

Mike Vanderboegh blogs about the "Rape Trees" that have been found on the US-Mexico border for several years now. For further explanation of this disgusting phenomena see:

"Rape Trees" Found Along Southern US Border

An All Too Common Occurrence

Rape trees prove Mexican violence has crossed the border and there are women who need justice

Mike then asks, "Kindly explain the libertarian principles embodied by these."

I don't get what imagined libertarian principle he is trying to illustrate here. US and Mexican law insure that anyone from Mexico trying to cross the border without the proper "papers" must seek help from outside the law. The logistics of smuggling large numbers of people requires a substantial infrastructure meaning that organized groups are better able to provide the service.

Human smuggling does not have to be a dirty, evil business. During World War II, Catholics risked imprisonment and death to help Jews get to neutral Switzerland or, when lucky, to the United States. Before the US Civil War, the Quakers established safe houses for runaway slaves heading north to Canada. This network eventually what we today know as the 'Underground Railroad."

Last time I checked, the groups smuggling people from Mexico are not Catholics or Quakers but criminal gangs whose members routinely ignore the common human decencies. That they behave like vicious criminals is unsurprising. How this equates to "libertarian" is, frankly, a mystery to me.

The libertarian solution to rape is to arm the potential victims and their guardians. However, the criminal friendly gun laws law on both sides of the border makes that a difficult proposition bordering on the impossible. It is no surprise to me that career criminals plus unarmed victims yields a bad outcome.

Waste not? Not in California.

With the State drowning in its own debt, the idiots in Sacramento still look for more ways to waste money. This time it's a long gun registry.

California bill would increase rules on rifles

The sponsor of the bill, Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), actually tried to claim, "...that the number of handguns confiscated by law enforcement for crimes was nearly equal to the number of rifles and shotguns taken from criminals."

Weasel worded bullshit. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), of all crimes involving a gun, 86% were committed with a handgun. For the numerically challenged like Feuer, that means handguns were use over six times as often as long guns.

I suspect Der Feuer knows this which makes him a liar.

And, yes, dear reader, I know he is a politician. That just makes him a practiced liar.

Is the Race Card an Ace, a Deuce or the Joker?

Amy Alkon blogs about a controversy over Claudia Schiffer (IMDB entry) posing as a 60's era black woman with an exaggerated afro:


While the picture may be in poor taste and certainly doesn't do much for a woman as good looking as Claudia Schiffer, is it racist?

Grow up. Calling the image above "racist" only cheapens the word and detracts from genuine problems that may or may not be racial in origin but do affect members of different races unequally.

The modern use of "racist" as an epithet is largely a relic of the civil rights movement. Activists got a lot of mileage out of the stereotype of violent Southern troglodytes. As a convenient label the word also served to massage the egos of white liberals who were horrified by the fire hoses and police dogs but could take satisfaction in knowing that neither they nor anyone they knew would ever do such a thing.

In fact, most racism -- like most evil -- is banal. There’s nothing sensational about redlining. No archival newsreel can illustrate the pernicious effects of affirmative action nor what it means to be seen as a person who, without the assistance of well-meaning whites, cannot compete.

Pod People in England

The administrators who decided to leave the kid in a tree cannot be human beings. They have been replaced by vegetable pods

A boy of five was left stranded in a tree at school because of a bizarre health and safety policy - which banned teachers from helping him down.

The mischievous pupil climbed the 20ft tree at the end of morning break and refused to come down.

But instead of helping him, staff followed guidelines and retreated inside the school building to ‘observe from a distance’ so the child would not get ‘distracted and fall’.

The boy was only rescued after 45 minutes in the tree when passer-by Kim Barrett, 38, noticed the child and helped him down herself.

But instead of being thanked for her actions by the head teacher of the Manor School in Melksham, Wiltshire, she was reported to the police for trespassing.

Read the rest here but be prepared to be flabbergasted by the sheer unthinking callousness of the school administration.

H/T to David Codrea

Bellesiles II?

Patrick J. Charles is claiming that the laws of various American colonies up through 1800 support a "milita" interpretation of the Second Amendment and that the reasoning used in District of Columbia v. Heller is flawed from an originalist point of view.

Read about it here.

From the interview:

Upon sifting through each state/colony’s statutes a common thread began to develop. First, the phrases “bear arms” or “keep arms” were not in any laws concerning crimes, self-defense, homicide, hunting, game etc. Second, in state/colony militia laws the phrases “bear arms” and “keep arms” were prevalent.

I wonder which laws he examined. Perhaps this gem from Maryland's Acts of 1715:

That no negro or other slave within this province shall be permitted to carry any gun, or any other offensive weapon, from off their master's land, without license from their said master; and if any negro or other slave shall presume to do so, he shall be liable to be carried before a justice of the peace, and be whipped, and his gun or other offensive weapon shall be forfeited to him that shall seize the same and carry such negro so offending before a justice of the peace.

Hmmmm. I guess he's got me there. I don't see the phrases "bear arms" or "keep arms" in the above statute.

Who the Hell Does the Law Belong To?

What is it about reporters that they feel the need to belittle and slander any person who does the right thing? The intended victim in the following story did not "take" the law into his own hands, it was already his. In a Constitutional Republic (or even in a democracy) we the people own the law. It is not the exclusive property of the police and especially not that of ignorant reporters.

Homeowner Takes Law Into His Own Hands

MORGAN COUNTY - The Morgan County Sheriff's Department says a man on East Lacon Road took the law into his own hands. Dispatchers received a 911 call that the homeowner was holding a burglary suspect at gunpoint.

The Morgan County Sheriff's Department says it all started Tuesday when the victim noticed someone had kicked in the door to his home that he was moving out of.

The would be burglar returned Wednesday morning.

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"As soon as he pulled in the driveway the door was standing open again. This time some of his belongings were piled in a pile," said Investigator Robert Newman.

So the homeowner camped out and waited until dark.

"This individual comes up on the porch kind of looked around, turned around and stepped in," said Investigator Robert Newman.

Investigator Robert Newman says Kenneth Michael Stewart walked straight to the pile of belongings he planned to steal.

"As he stepped in he pushed the door shut and there the homeowner was with the shotgun leveled at him," said Investigator Newman.

Investigator Newman says Stewart cooperated with the homeowner until deputies arrived.

Even though this worked out in this situation, officers do not recommend taking these extreme measures to protect your home.

"In that situation it could've gone bad. If he had had to shoot his girlfriend was sleeping in the bedroom on the other side of the suspect. If he had had to of shoot it wouldn't have been good," said Investigator Robert Newman.

Kenneth Michael Stewart is being held in Morgan County jail on $7,500 bond on two counts of burglary.

Copyright © 2010, WHNT-TV

H/T to David Codrea