The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. – Ayn Rand
Police: Woman In Home Kills Intruder
Mother Of 3 Children Opens Fire On Alleged Robber
ORLANDO, Fla. — Investigators said a mother of three children shot and killed an intruder who was trying to get into her home Tuesday night.
Image by Oleg Volk
And I guess she was compensating for something, too?
(h/t to Zendo Deb for this one, again.)
COP-KILLER!
A lot has been written recently about Major Hasan’s choice of weapons for his Ft. Hood rampage shooting, the FN Five-seveN handgun. SayUncle has some links, Tam discusses the SS190 5.7×28 loading in some detail, Michael Bane talks about it, and mentions a Brady press release from 2005 that describes the pistol as a “cop-killer gun.”
If you want real hysteria though, you have to travel back in time with me to July of 2006 when a Queens, NY District Attorney announced that an FN Five-seveN pistol was one of the weapons confiscated during a drug arrest. Apparently he read the Brady presser and thought it didn’t go far enough, as the DA’s press release contained this little bit of hyperbole, picked up and spread by media outlets such as Newsday, the TimesLedger, the Staten Island Advance, and local AM radio station 1010AM. It was also picked up by the Ass. Press:
Three men have been charged with illegally possessing two handguns, one of which is called a cop killer because it can break through most bulletproof vests and plates worn by police officers, prosecutors announced Thursday.
William Davis, 21, his brother Clarence Davis, 18, and their friend Gquan Lloyd, 18, all of Queens, were charged with multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon, District Attorney Richard A. Brown said.
During the execution of a narcotics search warrant Wednesday at the apartment the men shared in Far Rockaway, police found a defaced, unloaded Fabrique Nationale Five-seveN semiautomatic handgun, the first recovery of such a weapon in the city, Brown said.
“Its presence is troubling and makes the job of street cops that much more dangerous,” Brown said.
Of the 616 police officers killed nationwide between 1994 and 2003, 425 were shot with FN 5.7s, Brown said.
So far as I can tell, Officer Kimberly Mundy is the only officer who has ever been shot with an FN Five-seveN, and she’s still alive.
The piece I wrote in 2006 was about how the media, with all its professionalism and layers of editorial oversight, managed to pass DA Brown’s little faux pas on as fact, and then did very little about correcting the error afterward, but the Brady Campaign has never worried overmuch about little things like facts.
Quote of the Day
In the twentieth century…it has been said in a highly acclaimed book that “healthy, rational people will not injure others.” — Thomas Sowell, A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles, 2007 Edition, p. 163
That “highly acclaimed book” is Ramsey Clark’s 1970 Crime in America.
Think about that for a minute. From my perspective that sentiment is missing one word: “Healthy, rational people will not injure others criminally.” There are other ways to say it, but honestly, given Clark’s actions, I wonder if he didn’t mean it precisely as it reads – that anyone who deliberately injures another for any reason cannot be healthy and/or rational.
This is, once again, a statement illustrating the inability to differentiate between violent-and-predatory, and violent-but-protective.
I would very much like to read that quote in full context.
XKCD Obviously Reads TSM
Veteran’s Day
In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Thank a vet today, would you?
Unions are an Anachronism
Watch this short Reason.TV video:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzZ0nz7XVFo&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&w=425&h=344]
I’ve worked almost 24 years in an industry that supports mining. In that time I’ve watched the number of mining companies in my area drop from 10 or 12 to three or four, and I’ve watched as the big mining companies have broken their labor unions with the enthusiastic help of the majority of their workers. Those that were successful at breaking their unions are still in business. Those that didn’t aren’t around any more. Those that were successful currently employ about half of the number they did at the peak of the previous economic boom. Those that didn’t don’t employ anyone.
The economy currently sucks. Competition for everything is heavy, and profit margins are tight. Spending on luxury items is greatly reduced. Raises and benefit expansions are on hold. Some people are taking pay or hour cuts to remain on the payroll.
So United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99, which represents 15,000 Fry’s and 9,000 Safeway grocery store workers is threatening a strike if an “acceptable offer” is not presented by Friday.
In the interest of full disclosure, my wife worked for Fry’s for about three months as a non-union employee, and a sister-in-law is currently a union employee. My wife’s pay was about what those stores are offering “temporary” employees – $9.00-9.50/hr. My sister-in-law has been an employee for years. I have no idea what she gets paid.
Something tells me that Fry’s and Safeway will have a lot more job applicants than they’ll have job openings. The Union isn’t doing its members any favor, here. I would not be surprised if my sister-in-law didn’t have a job come Christmas.
Obama’s not a Socialist
Or so I am assured.
His father was. His mentor was. Several of his “Czars” are/were. His minister of twenty years is:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxfumgUTm5I&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&w=480&h=385]
Judge me by the people with whom I surround myself. – Barack Obama
I do. He is. And so is his agenda.
UPDATE: This video is from the 60th Anniversary celebration of Monthly Review magazine:
The Monthly Review sixtieth anniversary celebration at the New York Society for Ethical Culture on September 17, 2009, was a great success. A large crowd turned out to hear Grace Lee Boggs, John Bellamy Foster, Robert W. McChesney, Fred Magdoff, Michael Tigar, Toshi Reagon (providing music), and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and to celebrate MR’s birthday. We would like to thank all those who participated in this extraordinary event. Dr. Wright captured the tone of the evening, declaring that: “Militarism, capitalism and racism, domestic oppression, foreign military aggression, victims of neo-colonialism, victims of community and national racism, and the Cold War days in its infancy to the needless war in Vietnam in its [MR’s] second decade, through wars of greed in Afghanistan and Iraq in [its] sixth decade” were all incisively covered by the magazine. He spoke of Monthly Review’s indefatigable insistence on the need to put “people before profits,” and its unflinching criticisms of inequality, injustice, and the realities of capitalism. (See Daa’iya L. Sanusi, Amsterdam News, September 24-30, 2009).
But apparently none of these people are socialists! Hell, apparently there aren’t even any LIBERALS in America!
“Geek, I am surprised to find that I think I am really a Republican, and this frightens me. It isn’t that the Republicans are scary…well, some of them are, but not the ones I’ve actually seen. The people who really scare the hell out of me are the Democrats. I used to think I was one of them, until I saw how they really behaved once they have power. I can see that they’re just interested in power, and in instituting as much of a Socialist scheme as they can get away with…”
I probed. “Socialist? Really? A lot of people bandy that word about, and a lot of Democrats will tell you that it really doesn’t apply, and its inaccurate and misguided to suggest that’s what they…” Kurt cut me off, with a chopping motion of his hand and annoyance that is very uncharacteristic for him.
“Yes! Socialist! A little bit more and more, every time I look closer!” Kurt stopped to compose himself. “Geek, trust me, I know socialists when I see them. I came here to get away from all that krap in Germany, and I don’t like seeing it here, not one little bit.”
— Musings of The Geek with a .45, 20 Years Ago Today…
And from TSM:
I am a new NRA member. I have been a citizen for only fourteen years. I believe in the Constitution and the Second Amendment, and when I see Obama, I see Communism, and I am afraid.
— Mrs. Ly Chho, quoted 10/10/08.
34 Years Ago Today
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgI8bta-7aw&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&w=640&h=505]
Found a while back at Van Der Leun’s.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2prVpI7m4tM&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&w=425&h=344]