“DO IT AGAIN, ONLY HARDER THIS TIME.”
Hecate, at Hecate’s Crossroad channels TSM on California’s newest ammunition law.
It’s not about crime, it’s about control.
Month: October 2009
Quote of the Day – Columbus Day Edition
Quote of the Day – Columbus Day Edition
Why would kids in kindergarden need to appreciate that Columbus was “mean” or that he was “bossy”. Well, if you are asking yourself this question, then you have failed to appreciate the purpose of this deconstruction of history, brought to you by the politically correct ideologues of the postmodern left.
The “whole terminology has changed” because the purpose of history is not actually to teach history–silly you! The point of this lesson is to indoctrinate little kids into the dogma of the left. This is their first taste of political correctness, and it won’t be the last.
As always, read it all.
I Love Mike Ramirez, Part XXXV
I Love Mike Ramirez, Part XXXV
Now THAT’S FUNNY!
Gout Sucks
I woke up yesterday morning at 5AM, crippled. My left ankle was swollen and hurt like hell. I had planned on attending the Tucson Tea Party “Tucson’s Last Stand” event at Tucson Electric Park, but seeing as I couldn’t walk, that idea went right out the window. It looks like they drew a pretty good crowd, though.
I just wish I thought it actually meant something.
(A full day on Indomethicin and I’m walking fine again.)
They Don’t Build ‘Em Like They Used To
They Don’t Build ‘Em Like They Used To
Thankfully:
Reality Bites
Reader Bilgeman thought this was important enough to email to me. He was right:
Health Care Speechwriter for Edwards, Obama & Clinton Without Insurance Now
For the first time in my life, I am without health insurance and it is a terrible feeling.
In the past, I paid attention to the health care debate as a speechwriter who prepared speeches, talking points, op-eds, and debate prep material on the topic at different times for John Edwards, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and others. Now, I’m paying attention because I’m a citizen up the creek without a paddle.
Throughout my life, I have been very lucky because my insurance has always been there whenever I had a crisis. When my 10-speed hit a patch of leftover winter sand, and I went flying into a telephone pole, it covered the x-rays and stitches and concussion diagnosis. When a half a ton of sheet rock fell on me, my insurance paid for the cast on my foot. When my depression kicked in and I was hospitalized and painting ceramic pieces in art therapy to boost my self-esteem (sheesh), it made sure that when I got home my medical bills didn’t make me reach for a razor. And when there were growths in my uterus, it covered that medical procedure and every regular check-up, lab test, broken bone, sports injury, and antibiotic prescription in between.
Since I care more about my country than my personal pride, here’s how I lost my insurance: I moved. That’s right, I moved from Washington, D.C., back to Massachusetts, a state with universal health care.
In D.C., I had a policy with a national company, an HMO, and surprisingly I was very happy with it. I had a fantastic primary care doctor at Georgetown University Hospital. As a self-employed writer, my premium was $225 a month, plus $10 for a dental discount.
In Massachusetts, the cost for a similar plan is around $550, give or take a few dollars. My risk factors haven’t changed. I didn’t stop writing and become a stunt double. I don’t smoke. I drink a little and every once in a while a little more than I should. I have a Newfoundland dog. I am only 41. There has been no change in the way I live my life except my zip code — to a state with universal health care.
Massachusetts has enacted many of the necessary reforms being talked about in Washington. There is a mandate for all residents to get insurance, a law to prevent insurance companies from denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition, an automatic enrollment requirement, and insurance companies are no longer allowed to cap coverage or drop people when they get sick because they forgot to include a sprained ankle back in 1989 on their application.
Even if the economy was strong and I was working more, I still couldn’t afford my premium.
Remember, kids: insuring everyone will bring costs down!
And fine her $950 for not having health insurance!! (It’s cheaper than $550/month!.)
For the record, my portion of the health insurance that covers me and my wife is a bit over $400/mo., and my employer picks up the rest. I’d love the opportunity to pay only $225/mo. for the whole thing, myself, and carry it with me no matter where I live or who I work for. But the current insurance laws prohibit that.
Reality bites, doesn’t it? That is, unless you’ve mastered the ability to deny it. (Our chocolate ration is about to be increased!)
Not That I’m Not Honored, but WTF?
Not That I’m Not Honored, but WTF?
Checking the referrer log, I discovered this.
I don’t even own an HP printer!
Next, The One Will Walk On Water
Next, “The One” Will Walk On Water
It’s the headline of every news outlet in the country: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize!
Everybody together now: FOR WHAT?!? I suspect I now know the reason why CNN “fact-checked” that Saturday Night Live sketch with such earnestness.
I’m with the London Times:
Rarely has an award had such an obvious political and partisan intent. It was clearly seen by the Norwegian Nobel committee as a way of expressing European gratitude for an end to the Bush Administration, approval for the election of America’s first black president and hope that Washington will honour its promise to re-engage with the world.
Instead, the prize risks looking preposterous in its claims, patronising in its intentions and demeaning in its attempt to build up a man who has barely begun his period in office, let alone achieved any tangible outcome for peace.
Honestly, I didn’t think the Nobel Peace Prize could get any more “preposterous in its claims, patronising in its intentions and demeaning” than when it was given to Al Gore, but I was WRONG!
UPDATE: Instapundit is staying on top of the snark.
Quote of the Day – Law Enforcement Edition
Swing, though, started in the wrong place. He didn’t look around, and watch, and learn, and then say, “This is how people are, how do we deal with it?” No, he sat and thought: “This is how people ought to be, how do we change them?” And that was a good enough thought for a priest but not for a copper, because Swing’s patient, pedantic way of operating had turned policing on its head.
There had been that Weapons Law, for a start. Weapons were involved in so many crimes that, Swing reasoned, reducing the number of weapons had to reduce the crime rate.
Vimes wondered if he’d sat up in bed in the middle of the night and hugged himself when he’d dreamed that one up. Confiscate all weapons, and crime would go down. It made sense. It would have worked, too, if only there had been enough coppers—say, three per citizen.
Amazingly, quite a few weapons were handed in. The flaw, though, was one that had somehow managed to escape Swing, and it was this: criminals don’t obey the law. It’s more or less a requirement for the job. They had no particular interest in making the streets safer for anyone except themselves. And they couldn’t believe what was happening. It was like Hogswatch every day.
Some citizens took the not-unreasonable view that something had gone a bit askew if only naughty people were carrying arms. And they got arrested in large numbers. The average copper, when he’s been kicked in the nadgers once too often and has reason to believe that his bosses don’t much care, has an understandable tendency to prefer to arrest those people who won’t instantly try to stab him, especially if they act a bit snotty and wear more expensive clothes than he personally can afford. The rate of arrests shot right up, and Swing had been very pleased about that.
Admittedly, most of the arrests had been for possessing weaponry after dark, but quite a few had been for assaults on the Watch by irate citizens. That was Assault On A City Official, a very important and despicable crime, and, as such, far more important than all these thefts that were going on everywhere.
It wasn’t that the city was lawless. It had plenty of laws. It just didn’t offer many opportunities not to break them. Swing didn’t seem to have grasped the idea that the system was supposed to take criminals and, in some rough-and-ready fashion, force them into becoming honest men. Instead, he’d taken honest men and turned them into criminals. And the Watch, by and large, into just another gang.
— Terry Pratchett, Night Watch
From a comment by Unix-Jedi.
I Can’t Wait to See the Brady Press Release
I Can’t Wait to See the Brady Press Release
Gun-toting soccer mom is shot dead
Meleanie Hain, the pistol-carrying Lebanon mom who received national attention for taking a loaded gun to her daughter’s soccer game, was shot to death Wednesday night with her husband in an apparent murder-suicide, police said.
Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. at their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street, police said.
The couple’s three children were home at the time and were not injured, and are staying with relatives and friends, police said.
Autopsies were scheduled for Thursday, police said. No other details were available at press time.
Neighbor Mark Long said Meleanie baby-sat his 3-year-old son and that she and Scott had been having marital problems for the last week. Scott left on Tuesday and Meleanie did not know where he went, but he came back Wednesday, Long said.
Meleanie Hain was thrust into the national spotlight when she took a gun, in plain view and holstered on her hip, to a soccer game Sept. 11, 2008, at Optimist Park in Lebanon.
Her permit to carry a gun was revoked by Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo on Sept. 20, 2008. DeLeo said Hain showed poor judgment in wearing her gun to the game.
Hain’s permit was reinstated by Lebanon County Judge Robert Eby on Oct. 14, 2008, but the judge asked her to conceal it when she goes to soccer games. Hain said she would continue to carry it openly under the Second Amendment.
Hain then filed a lawsuit against DeLeo for $1 million in U.S. Middle District Court seeking reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and costs, emotional distress and lost wages.
“She has been stigmatized unfairly,” her attorney, Matthew Weisberg said at the time.
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence then offered to defend DeLeo for free.
Daniel Vice, a senior attorney for the Brady Center, said at the time: “It is a case that calls out for common sense. … It’s ridiculous to bring a gun to a child’s soccer game.”
A hearing on Hain’s suit was postponed in May after one of the attorneys in the case was involved in an auto accident.
In an interview with The Patriot-News published Dec. 27, Hain said: “I am happy being a gun owner.”
She said she had no intention of changing her views on gun ownership and noted her critics had no intention of changing theirs.
She acknowledged the publicity had detrimentally affected her life. “I have read all sorts of slander, personal attacks, and even threats toward me, my family, and, yes, some specific to my children,” she said in the interview.
“The publicity surrounding me as a person makes me feel awkward and uncomfortable. As stated previously, I am willing to talk to the press because the issue is so important, but the focus on me, personally, has been difficult because it simply is not about me,” she said.
About the decision to sue DeLeo, Hain said she did it because she was wronged
“Just the fact that he was wrong is evidenced by the fact that my license was restored to me. … I am a victim of Sheriff Michael DeLeo’s. I am a victim of those in society as a direct result of his actions as well. The way people look at me sometimes when I am out running errands, I feel as if I am wearing a scarlet letter, and really it’s a Glock 26.”
For those interested, Ms. Hain was interviewed by Caleb and Breda on Gun Nuts Radio back in January.
I foresee much dancing in the blood of the slain.
Sebastian has more details. Her husband was apparently the shooter.