Blogger Doesn’t Look So Bad, Now.

I hit Jeff Soyer’s Alphecca blog last night – or tried to. All I got was a blank white page. Jeff reports:

Hosting Matters moved my site to another server last night and totally fucked up everything. I’ve lost my index page, archive files, folders, email accounts, etc. Please let others (maybe a blog post) know what’s happening. They say they’re “working on it”.

Bummer. It seems to be working now, but I can see how this would cause a serious pucker factor.

I See Winston Smith Works for Houghton Mifflin…

Read Jeff Jacoby’s Sacrificing Truth on the Altar of Diversity in today’s Boston Globe. Teaser:

YOU’RE A publisher of children’s textbooks, and you have a problem. Your diversity guidelines — quotas in all but name — require you to include pictures of disabled children in your elementary and high school texts, but it isn’t easy to find handicapped children who are willing and able to pose for a photographer. Kids confined to wheelchairs often suffer from afflictions that affect their appearance, such as cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy. How can you meet your quota of disability images if you don’t have disabled models who are suitably photogenic?

Go read how.

Long Day, Book Meme.

I was out the door at 05:45 this morning, and back in said door at 19:33 this evening. Don’t look for scintillating prose from me right now. However, I will accept Zendo Deb’s open invitation, and borrow her Book Meme. (Hell, if you’re not a regular reader of her site – and why not? – peruse everything on her front page while you’re at it.)

1) A book that changed my life: The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. I. This is the book that made me a SciFi nerd, and is probably in large part responsible for me being an engineer.

2) A book I’ve read more than once: Robert Anson Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – the book most responsible for my political outlook. I’d have used this one in answer to item 1, but if I hadn’t read the Hall of Fame, I’d probably have never started reading Heinlein. I’ve read this a dozen times at a minimum. It’s not unusual for me to read a book more than once, but this one holds the record for me.

3) A book I’d take to a desert island: The Foxfire Book. Well, you did say “desert island.” I’d like to survive the experience.

4) A book that made me laugh: And wince, and grimace, and get pissed off. P.J. O’Rourke’s Parliament of Whores. Pretty much anything by P.J. works for me, from laugh-out-loud to throw-it-across-the-room. Runner-up, Scott Adams’ The Dilbert Principle.

5) A book that made me cry: Flowers for Algernon. Actually, the original short-story which is included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

6) A book I wish had been written: One explaining the Theory of Everything that includes detailed plans on how to build a functional interstellar faster-than-light drive and a shield to protect the vessle it powers.

Perhaps someone is working on it right now. Hey, I can dream!

7) A book that should never have been written: Battlefield Earth (No link. On purpose!) God, that was abysmally bad. L. Ron Hubbard should have been hung for that dreck. Close second, Dahlgren by Samuel R. Delaney. I want the time I wasted on these pieces of excrement back.

8) A book I’m currently reading: Honor: A History by James Bowman. I’m about halfway through it. I don’t agree with everything he says (just most of it), but it’s damned interesting, well researched, and well written. I recommend it strongly based on what I’ve read so far.

9) A book I’m planning to read: When they finally release it in the U.S., A Land Fit for Criminals by David Frasier. If you want to read a review of it, Theodore Dalrymple has one in the Summer, 2006 issue of City Journal. I can’t wait to read what Tim Lambert has to say about it.

10) Five people I’ll send these questions on to: As Deb put it, “Since I don’t do that, feel free to join in.”

I did. Make yourself welcome to join us.

It’s 3:25PM. I’m in Tucson. And it’s Raining.

Back from Houston. Still busy. Been reading. Much food for thought.

Maybe I’ll actually get some writing done next week.

Don’t hold your breath.

It’s 9 O’Clock. I’m in Houston. And it’s Raining.

And I have a cold.

Why do they make airliner seats only 80% as wide as my ass?

Like I said, probably not much blogging this week. I don’t want to hear anybody complaining. I’m not in the mood. 😉

Our “Friends” in the Media Strike Again.

For your inspection (h/t: AR15.com):

Intruder fatally shot

Fatality third in Escambia since ‘Stand Your Ground’ law passed

Law enforcement and attorneys say the local nurse who fatally shot an intruder at her Navy Point home Saturday would have been protected by state law before the “Stand Your Ground” law passed.

Then why mention the “Stand Your Ground” law at all? But wait, it gets better!

Rhonda Eubanks, 57, a Baptist Hospital nurse, was alone at her home on the 100 block of N.W. Gilliland Road, in a neighborhood southwest of Sunset Avenue, Sgt. Mike Ward said Tuesday.

Now that we’ve identified and given the location and employer of the shooter…

The woman used a .38-caliber handgun to shoot Vincent Demond Wesley, 29, of Pensacola, in the head as he charged toward her, Ward said. Investigators have no evidence that Eubanks had any formal training in shooting a firearm.

Doesn’t look like she needed any “formal training” does it? But wait – it’s coming…

Assistant State Attorney David Rimmer was at the scene Saturday and saw the location of the body of the intruder, Vincent Demond Wesley, 29, of Pensacola.

“Preliminarily, it looks like a justifiable shooting,” he said. “He was laying face-down, under the carport, only a few feet from her door.

“His head was closest to the door.”

Early evidence indicates that he was shot in the head approaching the woman’s front door, Rimmer said.

The woman was alone at her home — a mauve-shuttered house with a manicured lawn

Now anyone looking for revenge can identify the right house in that “neighborhood Southwest of Sunset Avenue in the 100 block of N.W. Gilliland Rd. – look for the mauve shutters…” But remember – she does head shots.

— about 7:45 p.m. Saturday when Wesley twice tried to enter her house, Escambia deputies said.

By the second attempt, she was armed and ready.

“It’s pretty crazy,” said Sgt. Mike Ward, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman. “(She) shot and killed the intruder.”

Deputies are not releasing the woman’s name in order to protect her.

But the PRESS IS! AND they’re giving her address, place of work, and description of her HOME! It’s apparently the PUBLIC’S RIGHT TO KNOW!

However, through neighborhood interviews, investigators have pieced together a series of events that ended with Wesley’s death outside the house on the 100 block of N.W. Gilliland Road near Jardine Road. The neighborhood is southwest of Sunset Avenue.

Just in case you MISSED THE ADDRESS THE FIRST TIME!

Starting about 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Wesley argued with someone whom investigators and neighbors could not identify.

Neighbor Debbie Palmer, 27, said she heard a gunshot as she was eating spaghetti at her neighbor’s apartment on Jardine Road, which is next door to Wesley’s apartment.

Before the gunfire, she heard someone beating on the shared wall and throwing items.

About 7:45 p.m., Wesley entered the backyard of the N.W. Gilliland Road home, deputies said in a report.

Wesley attempted to enter the home, startling the woman. Then he left and attempted to carjack a vehicle driving past the house, the report stated.

Neighbors confirmed that scenario, saying Wesley attempted to steal several empty vehicles before the attempted carjacking.

“I believe he got what he had coming to him,” Palmer said. “He had no right to steal anybody’s vehicle or anything.”

When the carjacking didn’t work, Wesley returned to the Gilliland Road home and began charging at the woman, who had retrieved a firearm, the sheriff’s report stated.

Fearing for her safety, the woman shot him dead.

The shooting death is the third of this type in Escambia County since the “Stand Your Ground” law was passed Oct. 1, Ward said.

The Florida statute — the first of its kind in the United States — allows the use of deadly force when a person reasonably believes it’s necessary to prevent the commission of a “forcible felony.”

Uh, “first of its kind?” Hardly. It’s not even the most recent.

Richard Piovesan, 44, of Pensacola died in a shooting on Oct. 12, which was 11 days after the law passed. He was shot following an argument with a neighbor over money and a piece of wood.

Tyrone Fyoungious Preyer, 29, of Pensacola died in March by gunfire as he broke into an occupied home.

The most recent event has at least one neighbor thinking about protecting himself.

Since March, Charles Robbins, 50, has resided across the street from Saturday’s shooting.

So now you know where HE lives…

“I’ve been considering buying a gun ever since I moved here,” Robbins said. “This kind of tilts it in that direction. I’ve had my eye on a .45 (caliber handgun) in a pawn shop.”

Get the pistol, Mr. Robbins. Everyone who reads the paper now knows where you live and that you’re unarmed.

Read the comments. Some are excellent.

And remember: This would never happen in England. Ms. Eubanks would be sitting in a cell right now. Or more likely would be the victim of a violent crime, instead.

If you have anything to say to the “reporter” her email address is [email protected]
The dead perp:

DC Number: 312116
Name: WESLEY, VINCENT D
Race: BLACK
Sex: MALE
Hair Color: BLACK
Eye Color: BROWN
Height: 5’07”
Weight: 171 lbs.
Birth Date: 11/01/1976
Release Facility: OKALOOSA C.I.
Custody: MEDIUM
Release Date: 04/02/2006

Offense Date Offense Sentence Date County Case No. Community Supervision Length
11/29/1993 AGG BATTERY/W/DEADLY WEAPON 04/13/1994 ESCAMBIA 9305667 0Y 12M 0D
0Y 18M 0D
11/29/1993 GRAND THEFT,$300 LESS &20,000 04/13/1994 ESCAMBIA 9305667 0Y 12M 0D
11/29/1993 GRAND THEFT,$300 LESS &20,000 04/13/1994 ESCAMBIA 9305667 0Y 18M 0D
11/29/1993 RESISTING OFFICER W/VIOLEN. 04/13/1994 ESCAMBIA 9305667 0Y 12M 0D

A choir boy he was not.

Light to No Blogging Alert.

Not that I’ve been posting up a storm recently or anything, but work is overwhelming, and I will be in Houston most of next week with little to no time to post. Guess I’m going to lose that much-coveted “Large Mammal” status again. Oh well.

And the Ăźberpost? I don’t know if I’ll ever get it finished.

And, Since I’m Linking Rather Than Writing…

David Hardy has exposed yet another Joyce Foundation sock-puppet, “The Legal Community Against Guns Violence.”

As David says, “And, as might be expected, a search of Legal Comm. Against Violence’s own website reveals… not one mention of who are their officers, directors, or how many members they have. In fact, no names at all.”

Take a look at where Joyce Foundation money goes.

But I bet “The Legal Community Against Violence” produces opinions and op-eds using citations from sources such as the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, and Professor Saul Cornell among others, holding them up as paragons of impartiality.

See also the Geek with a .45’s discussion of the Joyce Foundation’s spreading tenticles.

Edited to add:

A little digging and here’s some things I found:

The Board President for LCAV is Owen J. Clements – Chief of Special Litigation for the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office! Doubtless he was one of the proponents of San Francisco’s ill-advised handgun ban.

The Executive Director is Robyn Thomas, whose previous position was director of the Tikkun Community in Berzerkely, so it’s probably safe to say that she is a raging socialist, at least. The previous Executive Director, Sue Ann Schiff, resigned in June – after San Francisco’s gun ban was overturned. Apparently Mrs. Schiff is also Jewish (I assume Ms. Thomas is, since Tikkun is a Jewish organization formed to oppose Israel’s policies with regard to Palestine.) I have a hard time understanding members of the Jewish faith who don’t grasp the concept of “never again.” What Mrs. Schiff, Ms. Thomas, and Mr. Clements all advocate is, essentially, surrender. Surrender to criminals, surrender to terrorists.

I do not grok.

Say Uncle has more, and a link to a “report” by the organization. As Uncle says, the Legal Community Against Violence, like the Violence Policy Center, is “apparently only against guns and not the violence.”