Saturday, February 18, 2012

Captain Beefheart Festival 2011-2012 - 9th Night of the Living Van Vliet

Here's the explanation of the origin and the dates.

Thanks to Microdot for the title of the Festival.

Zen Comix has joined the festivities.


Lick My Decals Off, Baby is the fourth album by Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, released in 1970 on Frank Zappa's Straight Records label. The follow-up to Trout Mask Replica (1969), it is regarded by some critics and listeners as superior, and was Van Vliet's personal favorite. Don Van Vliet said that the title is an encouragement to "get rid of the labels", and to evaluate things according to their merits rather than according to superficial labels (or "decals").



woe-is-a-me-bop
oh-drop-a-re-bop-oh
everybody's doing it
please don't let them ruin it oh

The People's Right to Live Quietly


The Orlando Sentinal reports on what we've been saying for a long time around here.

Sudden shotgun blasts recently shattered the quiet of the homes that line West Crooked Lake in Eustis.

Boom! Boom! Madelaine Lock was visiting with her neighbor, and together they ran toward the lake. Boom! Doors flew open, and residents streamed outside. Five of them dialed 911 to summon police.

They needn't have bothered.

Out on West Crooked Lake, three happy hunters displayed the carcasses of five dead ducks. Eustis officers snagged the hunters and began to remonstrate with them. They needn't have bothered, either.

Remember the ordinances cities typically enacted that prevented people living close to one another from pulling out their weapons and firing willy-nilly?

Gone, thanks to the Legislature. That's what happens when big boys with guns want more room to play and the very powerful National Rifle Association pushes relentlessly.

Here's one of the best ways I've heard to highlight the absurdity of what the NRA is doing.

"It is OK to hunt ducks on a lake surrounded by residential homes, but it is against the law for these same residents to use fireworks?" asked Eustis police Chief Fred Cobb, whose officers were powerless to restore peace to the West Crooked Lake neighborhood. "If the Legislature is concerned about public safety, I don't understand their logic."
What's your opinion? Don't you think they've gone way too far in Florida? Did you see the NRA person's justification, that it's about "the constitutional right to keep and bear arms for the protection of yourself and your family." Do these people think before they speak? Are they repeating the same old nonsense so often that it's lost all meaning and context?

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Guns and the Incredibly Gullible Climate Change Deniers

The right wing is fact averse; this man is not, and he's serious about conservation.  Climate change denials are funded by big oil. 
This is one more way to fight the right wing ideology in place of objective reality.  Of course, by the time any of those guys on the right admit that climate change is real, that it is a largely man-made problem, it will be too late to do anything useful. 

Three cheers for this guy, for trying.

From Think Progress Green:

Conservation Hawks Founder: ‘If Climate Change Isn’t Real, I’ll Give You My Beretta’

When the grizzly charges, what do you do?
The founder of Conservation Hawks, an organization of sportsmen dedicated to fighting climate change, will give up his gun if global warming is a hoax.
“If you can convince Conservation Hawks chairman Todd Tanner that he’s wasting his time, that he does not have to worry about climate change, he will present to you his most prized possession: A Beretta Silver Pigeon 12 gauge over/under that was a gift from his wife, and has been a faithful companion on many a Montana bird hunt,” Hal Herring writes at The Conservationist. “I know the gun, and I’ve hunted and fished with Todd for years. He’s not kidding. You convince him, he’ll give you the gun.”
Let’s say you are walking down a trail in the wilderness with your wife and kids, and you come upon a grizzly sow, standing on a carcass. She charges, flat out. You’re in front of your family. What do you do? Just give up? Pretend it’s not happening? Let her maul you and everything your care about? Of course you don’t. You take action. That is how I see climate change. It’s real, it’s threatening everything we love. Not taking action is not an option.
Tanner rebuffed the argument that action on global warming pollution just means a government takeover. “You want to talk about government intrusion, think about what it means if we don’t address this now while we have the time and resources,” he said. “We will lose the freedoms that we have because somebody—and it will be government—will be in an all out effort to try and address the effects. To try and address the effects of our neglect. We’ll face the worst thing of all- losing our freedom. And we’ll already have lost most of hunting and fishing. That’s how serious I believe this is.”
So those of you who deny the threat of global warming — Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Rush Limbaugh, Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, David Koch — this could be yours if you can convince Tanner that there’s really just a scientific conspiracy to trick people that greenhouse pollution is dangerous:

A Beretta Silver Pigeon 12 gauge shotgun

Another Instance of Gun Culture Violence

In our gun culture, a gun is a means to power over other people.  It is true of lawful gun owners and criminal gun owners, a common denominator that we saw in the lap top shooting dad's behavior.  The way in which guns are used for dominance are the defining characteristic of the American gun culture, not the fantasy of guns but the reality.

Here is a horror story of one more gun owner, a man who does not appear to have prior criminal convictions, a man who is a part of the more macho gun culture variation unique to Texas.  This man wants us to believe that he has good sides to him -- as we know our gun nuts like to claim for themselves and their fellow gun lunatics, as justification we should trust them -- and that he meant well in a coulda shoulda woulda kind of way.... you know......except for the parts where he didn't, which seems to be true of so much of the gun violence.

From the Huff Post and the AP:

Jeffrey Allan Maxwell Trial: Texas Torture Suspect Says He Considered Freeing Neighbor

Jeffrey Allan Maxwell
By ANGELA K. BROWN   02/17/12 07:03 AM ET  AP

When asked why he told authorities he was alone when they arrived at his house, he answered: "Because you caught me by surprise. She'd been there 10 days, and I wasn't expecting you. Like I said, I got myself into something I couldn't figure out how to get out of."
He said the woman asked "all the time" if he was going to kill her, but he never planned to. He told the investigator that he regretted the abduction.
"I was sitting around every day trying to figure out how to get out of this," he told the investigator.
On the recording, Maxwell repeatedly denied torching the woman's house. But he said that during the kidnapping, he wiped down the house to remove his fingerprints and took her telephone.
Tony Bradford, the Texas Rangers investigator in charge of the case, did most of the talking during the interview.
The woman earlier testified that Maxwell hit her with a rolling pin and handcuffed her during the March 1 abduction from her rural home outside Weatherford, about 70 miles west of Dallas. She said he kept her in handcuffs and chained her legs to a bed, even locking her in a box when he once ran an errand. She told jurors that she bled profusely after one of the sexual assaults, which she said stopped after about a week when he became ill. Then he left her unrestrained when they were in the same room but still watched her closely, she said.
The Associated Press generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.
Prosecutors and Bradford demonstrated for jurors how the woman's wrists may have been attached to the skinning device, a thin metal strip with hooks attached that hangs by a chain from the ceiling.
Investigators have testified that they found whips, chains, sex toys, duct tape, the animal-skinning device, blood-stained sheets and guns in Maxwell's house.

Captain Beefheart Festival 2011-2012 - 8th Night of the Living Van Vliet


Ah, the Internet is a strange place for beings both alive and dead.

You see, back before the Northeast Underground joined forces with the Valley Advocate in January, my blogging persona already existed via wordpress.com. And before changing locations, one of the last posts I wrote for my old site was a short tribute piece connecting the passing of musician/ artist Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart) to the anniversary of the death of Minutemen songwriter and guitarist D. Boon.

Little did I know then the potential impact such an innocuous story could have. I mean really, how often does a blogger think they have the potential to reach an audience beyond the grave?

But sure enough, months later the following comment was posted on my Beefheart/ Boon story:

“Last night the Captain came to me in my dream. He said he was ‘going to the northeast’ because people like him in the northeast. He wants you to know he is ok. I don’t even believe in shit like that, nor had I ever heard of your site before. But I wondered if it meant anything so I put it in Google. If anyone believe[s] in that shit he says he is better now. He certainly looked well.”

And then Friday, there was this.

Go ahead. Try it. To this day if one types “Captain Beefheart” and “northeast” into Google my old post is the first link that pops up.

So, such unusual circumstances beg the questions: Did Captain Beefheart really reach out to one of his fans after his death? And what indeed are the odds that somewhere in the country a Captain Beefheart fan dreamt of a connection between Van Vliet and the northeast after I posted a tribute to the Captain on my Northeast Underground blog?

The whole situations is almost enough to give one the willies, or at the very least a good case of the “Abba Zaba’s.”

More Shootings in Alaska

Guess all those guns in Wasilla and other parts of Alaska don't make the place all that safe.  I was just looking for an update on the two drunken gun nuts last month who were shooting at each other, in the middle of the day, mistaking each other for a home intruder in Wasilla.....
These are all either recent events or updates of prior events.  I could list many many more just going back to December 2011, given the Alaska 'gun culture', but I didn't get that far.  Definitely, guns do NOT make us safer.  Gun culture makes us LESS SAFE, and as a result we are also less free.

From KTUU.com and the AP:

Sexual Abuse Suspect Shoots Himself as Warrant Being Served



Anchorage police say a man suspected in a sexual abuse of a minor case shot himself in the head when detectives tried to serve an arrest warrant.

APD spokesperson Lt. Dave Parker says 44-year-old John Fields was taken to a hospital Thursday and is listed in critical condition.

The warrant for Fields was for sexual abuse of a minor for the sexual penetration of a male between the ages of 13 and 16.

Police believe there may be other victims, and encourage them to call 786-8573.

Parker says Fields was known at times to introduce himself as either "Jack" or "John Michael Meyers."
 
and 

Kobuk Man Sentenced in Weapons Case

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—
Federal prosecutors say a 39-year-old Kobuk man has been sentenced to almost four years in prison for his conviction of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Elvin Wood was sentenced to 46 months.
Prosecutors say he pleaded guilty in a plea agreement in November.
According to prosecutors, Wood traveled by snowmobile from Kobuk to Shungnak last March and was carrying a .44 caliber revolver.
Prosecutors say Alaska State Troopers received reports that Wood was intoxicated in Shungnak and threatened a village public safety officer.
Prosecutors say Wood later acknowledged to troopers that he had been Shungnak and in possession of a firearm.
According to prosecutors, Wood has two prior criminal convictions punishable by more than a year imprisonment.
Kobuk and Shungnak are villages in northwest Alaska.

and this case of a toddler shot in the head (sorry, there is no video embed code provided; you'll have to follow the link):  http://www.ktuu.com/news/crime/ 
There are two separate videos, a toddler hit by bullet and a toddler shooting update.  And there is also a Holiday gas station shooting video.  There are probably others, but at this point I was still looking for an update on the Wasilla shooting. and
A man has been convicted in the deaths of two teenage drug dealers in Anchorage.
Twenty-five-year-old James Coven shot and killed Christon Lee and Matthew Peterson, both 19 years old, in 2009.
The Anchorage Daily News says an Anchorage jury deliberated for just a couple of hours before finding him guilty of first-degree murder, robbery, evidence tampering and misconduct involving drugs.

Prosecutors John Darnell says on the day of the murders Coven picked up an AK-47 used in the murders. Two accomplices pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and testified in exchange for more lenient. They testified that Coven walked up to a truck the teens were sitting in and stuck the barrel of the weapon into the cab and began firing.

Coven is set to be sentenced on May 18.
and
there is this and other updates on this abduction at gun point caught on camera :

Two Weeks Since Samantha Koenig's Disappearance, APD Says It's Making Progress

Two weeks after Samantha Koenig's disappearance, her father James says he's trying hard to stay hopeful.
Samantha was abducted from Common Grounds Espresso on February 1. Her father describes the past two weeks as a roller coaster.

"I can't lose sight, I can't lose hope on this. That's what's driving me. You know, that kid's my heart and I'm hers," says Koenig.

Hope is what Samantha's family is leaning on.

Anchorage police say they are following up on any new leads and conducting more interviews. While many of the leads have come from the internet, police say rumors circulating online are also hindering their investigative efforts. Multiple rumors were recently posted on sites like Facebook, claiming Samantha's body was found.

"Everyone is aware there are rumors running rampant on the internet and those are very destructive. People should not post things they don't know to be true," says Lt. Dave Parker, police spokesman.

While police continue to gather details about Samantha Koenig's kidnapping, APD is also looking ahead.
The department is organizing a safety presentation for baristas at the APD Training Center. So far, anywhere between 100 to 200 baristas are expected to attend.

"We are going to come down and talk to them a little bit about situational awareness, a little bit about self defense, how to be aware of their surroundings, personal safety and things like that," says Sr. Patrol Officer Jennifer Haywood, who will help with the training.

Police are encouraging anyone with information about Samantha Koenig's abduction to call 786-8900.

Another Mass Shooting

We have too many guns; our gun culture is toxic and destructive, not the noble and heroic fantasy of the gun lunatics who are delusional in ignoring the reality of too many guns in this country and too many shootings.  We could reduce these occurrences, if not eliminate them entirely, if we choose to do so. It works consistently everywhere it has been attempted to reduce gun violence by reducing the number of guns in circulation.

But gun nuts put their fantasy fetish objects and their silly daydreams of how powerful and heroic they are over the plain and obvious reality of gun violence in this country. It hurts people far more often than it saves anyone, and when it is used to save, there are so very often better means to accomplish the same end.

THIS is the essence of our gun culture; people armed to the teeth doing what they think is right instead of relying on law enforcement and courts to more sanely, more peacefully, and less emotionally resolve conflicts.  I have no doubt every domestic abuser believes he is right, every person who wrongly shoots someone believes they were doing something important and necessary.  Guns in the hands of people kill people, and without guns in their hands, fewer people succeed at killing other people.

From NBC.com and the wire services by way of MSNBC.com:

2 dead, 3 wounded during fire, shooting at Los Angeles home


Patrick T. Fallon / AP
Firefighters battled a fire in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon at a house where two people were shot and killed and three were wounded.
A gunman and one of his victims were found dead inside the smoldering remains of a Los Angeles house on Thursday. Three other gunshot victims were rescued from the burning home earlier that afternoon by police and firefighters, authorities said.
The bodies of the gunman and victim were found after the fire was out and authorities were able to search the house, a 1917 single-story rambler in LA's East Hollywood neighborhood, the Associated Press reported.
The three other victims – two 38-year-old women and a 34-year-old man – had been shot by the time police and firefighters arrived. They were transported in serious condition to an undisclosed hospital and were expected to survive.
Read more at NBCLosAngeles.com
The incident began shortly before 1 p.m. when emergency personnel responded to the home. Firefighters did not enter the home because they worried the gunman was still at large, fire Capt. Jaime Moore told the AP.
Authorities said the shooting was called "domestically motivated" and said the gunman had a relationship with one of the surviving victims, the AP reported.
Authorities cordoned off the block and nearby residents were evacuated, said Los Angeles Police Department Commander Andrew Smith. Some neighbors were concerned that gusty winds could spread the flames in the dense East Hollywood neighborhood.
It took about 150 firefighters and two and a half hours to fight the blaze, according to the Los Angeles Times. When the fire was out, cadaver dogs combed the scene for other possible bodies.
Neighbor Angelica De Paz, speaking in Spanish, told the AP that she was about to run errands when she saw a man kick in the front door of the house where the incident took place. The man was in his 20s or 30s, she said, and he wore a black shirt and blue jeans.
About five minutes later, De Paz said, she received a call from a neighbor who said the house was on fire.
"I thought it was a joke," De Paz said.
Another neighbor, Darwin Urbina, told the AP that he saw a man of the same description sitting on a curb outside the house shortly before he heard shots.
"He had this intent look," Urbina said. "He just stared at me for a while."
Urbina, who has lived in the neighborhood for a decade, described it as marked by gangs and drugs.

Mike Meadows / AP
Firefighters battle a blaze at a Los Angeles home on Thursday afternoon. A 34-year-old man and two 38-year-old women were shot; police removed them from the home and sent them to the hospital. They were in serious condition but were expected to survive, officials said.

Freedom for all....

My dad used to tell me that the Soviet Constitution sounded pretty democratic if you read it, but as we all know, it was hardly a democratic society.

Likewise, for all it's "we the people language" (yeah, you were one of the people if you were a white, male, landowner), the US constitution can also be pretty anti-democratic.

But, in this case, we are talking about silent film star Charlie Chaplin, who was alleged to have communist sympathies by J. Edgar Hoover. Unfortunately, MI5 found that Chaplin, who grew up in London before moving to the US, had left-wing sympathies but nothing more. At the time of the investigation, Chaplin had been refused entry back into the US after attending a film premiere in London.

Ben Franklin's Advice for Battle



In a letter to general Charles Lee in February 1776, Benjamin Franklin suggested that the colonists arm themselves with bows and arrows, calling them “good weapons, not wisely laid aside.” He gave six reasons:
  1. “Because a man may shoot as truly with a bow as with a common musket.”
  2. “He can discharge four arrows in the time of charging and discharging one bullet.”
  3. “His object is not taken from his view by the smoke of his own side.”
  4. “A flight of arrows, seen coming upon them, terrifies and disturbs the enemy’s attention to his business.”
  5. “An arrow striking in any part of a man puts him hors de combat till it is extracted.”
  6. “Bows and arrows are more easily provided everywhere than muskets and ammunition.”
Franklin also recommended resurrecting the pike. His ideas weren’t used, but they were debated seriously even decades later. One theorist calculated that in a battle at Tournay on May 22, 1794, 1,280,000 balls had been discharged, an average of 236 musket shots to disable each casualty. “Here then, evidently appears in favour of the bow, in point of certainty of its shot, of no less than upwards of twenty to one.”

Cosmic Debt

One common concept in world religions is something called the rule of reciprocity, or the Golden Rule. That is to treat others as you would have them treat you. In that spirit, I sshare this with you--

One concept that many of us who practice spirituality understand is that there is no such thing as an accident.

There are some things that need to take place in the universe because of the universal law of cause and effect. It is up to us, however, whether we will be the initiators of such events. For example, let’s say we are driving a car and, God forbid, we hit someone. Even if we think it was a completely unavoidable "accident," we need to realize there is a reason why our energy put us into a place where we ended up being behind the wheel.

In life, as most of us have seen if we are old enough, there is no such thing as an unpaid debt, even though it might look as if there is. Let me give you an example.

There is a kabbalistic story about a man who was very evil. In this life, however, it seemed that he had everything. Whatever he wanted just seemed to come to him—money, friends, family, etc. But while many opportunities presented themselves for him to do good deeds, he never took advantage of them. Instead, he was selfish and cold, and contributed to the suffering of many other people. As a result, he could not bring himself to a higher level of care and spirituality. Nevertheless, though he was not a good person on the inside, on the outside his life seemed easy and effortlessly comfortable.

The angels in Heaven kept on saying, “God, why are You doing this? This man is so evil. How can You give him all these things?” To this the Creator replied, “Wait and you will understand.”

Finally, the man passed away. He went Upstairs and met the angels at the gate, and of course they gave him a ticket straight to hell. The guy immediately objected. “Wait a second. Didn’t I do something good in my life? I mean, once I gave charity. Once I helped a friend. You know, once I volunteered.” God replied, “Yes, you may have done some good things in your life, and for those you were paid in material blessings on Earth. Now it’s time for you to pay back the suffering you caused in the world.”

Don't misunderstand. I am not saying that everyone who has blessings in this physical world is evil. What I am saying, however, is that there is a spiritual bank account. Every blessing we have is a withdrawal from this account. Every positive action is a deposit. If you are taking out more than you are putting in, perhaps it is time to check your spiritual balance sheet.

The energy we put out in the world will always come back to us—even if not necessarily in this lifetime. Therefore, it is in our own best interest to add to the positivity in the world rather than detract from it. Nor do we have to wait for the “right time” or the “right opportunity” to do a good deed. It can begin with a simple action. Simple actions in our daily lives will wake up our consciousness so that we can change.

We need to examine our small gestures. Are they based on the consciousness that every being on this Earth has the right to be safe being who they are, no matter what their religion, race, beliefs, sex, etc.?

Are we willing to extend a hand to someone else who is different from us? Are we willing to fight for something that might benefit others but in the short term is not good for us? Are we peaceful when we can be? Do we extend tolerance when we want to create separation? Do we behave and treat others with human dignity when it’s hard to do so because it is not what we learned?

Every time we change something in ourselves for the better, we also make the world a better place, and this positive energy comes back to us in turn.

If you like this please share it with a friend.

Open Season on Liberals


Virginia Senate Kills Gun Data Privacy Bill


A state Senate committee killed legislation Wednesday that would put concealed handgun permit records off-limits to the public at local courthouses.

House Bill 25 would have prohibited circuit court clerks from disclosing information contained on a concealed handgun permit application or in an order approving a concealed handgun permit. The Senate Courts of Justice Committee killed the measure on an 8-7 vote Wednesday. The House of Delegates passed the measure last week by a vote of 81-17.

Republican Sen. Thomas Norment of James City County, the committee chairman, voted with the seven Democrats on the committee to kill the bill.
What's going on in the world of gun rights these days? First New Hampshire was a disappointment, Iowa may be next, and now Virginia.

Even under the dark clouds of Heller and McDonald, with a president who's done nothing but cooperate with them, the gun-rights folks are floundering.

What's your opinion? Do you think the country may be coming to its senses as far as gun control goes?

Please leave a comment. 

The Starbucks Statement



In a statement released Wednesday after this post was published, Starbucks reiterated that its policy is to comply with the law in the communities where its stores are. “As the public debate around this issue continues, we encourage customers and advocacy groups from both sides to share their input with their public officials," the company said. "We are extremely sensitive to the issue of gun violence in our society and believe that supporting local laws is the right way for us to ensure a safe environment for both our partners (employees) and customers."]

Santorum Attacks Romney

U.S. Immigration Officers Shoot it Out - 2 Dead



A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent is dead after gunfire at the agency's offices in a California federal building.

In the incident at the Glenn M. Anderson Federal Building in Long Beach, Calif., an ICE agent allegedly opened fire on two colleagues, leaving one wounded with multiple gunshots, another unharmed, and the initial shooter dead, ICE told ABC News.

Earlier, multiple published reports citing the Long Beach Police described a second agent dead and the third wounded, but those reports were mistaken, ICE said.

The incident began as an unspecified dispute between a supervisor and a subordinate.
This story is a perfect illustration of the problem which exists among lawful gun owners. Some of them are hidden time-bombs. It would be very difficult to identify them before something happens, but that is exactly what gun control is all about.

Through better screening and qualifying, many of the worst cases can be disarmed before they cause damage.  This applies to cops and civilians alike.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Good Cop, or Trigger Happy Bad Cop?

 I am concerned that when there are other police present, when there is no clear drawing of a gun on the officers or anyone else, when no weapon is found in the hands of the person who is shot, that this should NOT be considered a justified shooting.  While the article claims that the previous shootings were found to be justified, I'd have to add that I don't find that credible if the city was also paying off a settlement over the shooting in a substantial amount to avoid going to trial.
While the article states there were weapons in the house, it did not state these were ILLEGAL weapons in the house.
I particularly object to the shooting with the child in the man's arms being at risk, had the officer missed.  That, in view of the man NOT having a gun, was clearly NOT a justified risk.
Arizona appears to be have a gun culture which is far too quick to resort ot lethal violence.
They're not the only ones.


From MSNBC.com :



Grandpa-shooting Arizona officer has five previous kills under his belt 
The Arizona police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man while he held his baby grandson has been involved in at least five previous fatal shootings, police said.
The officer, James Peters of the Scottsdale police, was on administrative leave Thursday after he killed John Loxas, 50, with a single rifle shot to the head Tuesday. Loxas' 9-month-old grandson, who was in his arms, was unhurt.
"There were at least three officers in position to engage the suspect," Sgt. Mark Clark, a spokesman for the Scottsdale police, told NBC station KPNX of Phoenix. "At least one of the officers thought he saw something in the suspect's hands."
KPNX reported that Peters has now been involved in seven shootings in the past 10 years, six of them fatal. The Arizona Republic reported Thursday that the city of Scottsdale agreed to a $75,000 settlement in 2009 with the family of one of the people Peters had killed; the city denied liability.
New Times, a Phoenix alternative weekly, profiled Peters in 2010 under the headline "'Dirty Harry' in Scottsdale? Badass Cop Bags Four Bad Guys in 10-Year Career." 
Police said that as a former member of the SWAT team, Peters had been involved in the department's most dangerous assignments and that all of the previous shootings had been found to be justified.
In the incident Tuesday, police were called to Loxas' home after a call to 911 reported that he had kicked over a trash can and threatened the owner when he complained. The caller said Loxas was walking around the neighborhood with his grandson and a weapon. 
"We have a neighbor out here that pulled a gun on us," the caller said. "He's got a baby in his arms. He's got a gun, and he cocked it."
Loxas had returned home by the time police arrived, and he answered the door with the baby in his arms. Peters and another officer told investigators they saw something in Loxas' hand, and when he turned, Peters fired a single shot, killing Loxas instantaneously.
Afterward, detectives determined that Loxas wasn't armed. But they did find several weapons in the home, KPNX reported.

Speaking of Militias.........

Rebellion or Insurrection  - 18 U.S.C. § 2383
“Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”

Seditious conspiracy  - 18 U.S.C. § 2384
“If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.”

That sums it up.

Claiming you're a social club, while engaging in paramilitary training, and accumulating firearms and explosives, including illegal materials and weapons for the purpose of insurrection is not credible. It's stupid, and it shows how easily this lot of warrior wannabes cave in on their big talk when they're held accountable for it.

I have no great faith in their courage in combat if they are such lying chicken-livered woosies in a court room.

But it goes to the heart of the idiots who are so ill-educated and ill-informed as to fail to understand what a militia - a REAL militia is and is not.  It's been defined, in the constitution, in court decisions and in law, most notably the Militia Act of 1903.

It is badly misunderstood, including by delusional people who actually find it plausible that invading forces have turned tail in the face of the firearms held by Billy-Bob Tractor Cap and his idiot son John, to borrow a colorful phrase used by a friend of mine long ago in referring to the poorly founded assumptions of some of our less cerebral fellow-citizens.  From an earlier story in the NYTimes, linked in this story:
"The court filing said the group, which called itself the Hutaree, planned to kill an unidentified law enforcement officer and then bomb the funeral caravan using improvised explosive devices based on designs used against American troops by insurgents in Iraq.
“This is an example of radical and extremist fringe groups which can be found throughout our society,” Andrew Arena, the F.B.I. special agent in charge in Detroit, said in a statement. “The F.B.I. takes such extremist groups seriously, especially those who would target innocent citizens and the law enforcement officers who protect the citizens of the United States.”
The Hutaree — a word Mr. Stone apparently made up to mean Christian warriors — saw the local police as “foot soldiers” for the federal government, which the group viewed as its enemy, along with other participants in what the group’s members deemed to be a “New World Order” working on behalf of the Antichrist, the indictment said. "
Here is the story, courtesy of the great 'Gray Lady', the New York Times :
Michigan Militia Defended as ‘Social Club’ at Trial of 7

The Clayton, Mich., property of David B. Stone Sr., leader of the Hutaree, which officials say plotted to kill police officers.



Thursday, February 16, 2012

Should public policy be decided by Science Fiction?

"an armed society is a polite one"
That comes from science fiction writer Robert Heinlein's book Beyond This Horizon. One sub-theme of the book is the carrying and use of firearms. In the novel being armed is part of being a man; otherwise he wears a brassard and is considered weak and inferior. Women are allowed but not expected to be armed. Duels, either deadly or survivable, may easily occur when someone feels that they have been wronged or insulted, a custom that keeps order and politeness.

Is a work of science fiction one we should be modeling society upon?

Gun Permit

where I had the best laugh of the day. I suppose this means that tough-guy Gds doesn't ever disarm and will never submit to even the slightest restriction on his "rights."

Iowa Gun Owners Want More

The funny part is how many times the pro-gun voices cry about the gun-control slippery slope.  Look what they're trying to do in Iowa, greedy and self-centered that they are. Fortunately, it'll probably go the way of New Hampshire.


BBC America's Poor

Since you can't get Panorama, you can get the World Service Podcast, which is found here:

Here is the URL since I know quite a few of you are feebs:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/docarchive

Of course, your "liberal media" doesn't run stories like this.

More British Anti-Gang measures...

OK, this is a bit old, but...



Put down the guns and pick up the hankey!

Captain Beefheart Festival 2011-2012 - 7th Night of the Living Van Vliet

Here's the explanation of the origin and the dates.

Thanks to Microdot for the title of the Festival.

Zen Comix has joined the festivities.





Concealed Carry Dog Owner Commits Murder


Philly.com reports on another incident in which a CCW permit holder acted badly, very badly.  It seems he'd had an ongoing argument with a neighbor about not cleaning up after his dogs.  Maybe he thought if you wear a gun you don't have to clean up the mess and nobody can tell you to.

The two got into an argument on the front porch of the younger man's home that escalated into an altercation and a struggle over a 9mm handgun the younger man carried in a hip holster, Small said. During the struggle, the older man was shot several times, including twice in the neck, Small said. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene at 4:25.

The gunman had a license to carry a concealed weapon. Police were checking to see if it was still valid.
What's your opinion? Do you think this young man was an unfit gun owner? In retrospect it's easy to see, but with proper screening might not some of these dangerous characters be identified?

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

Gun-Rights Set-Backs in New Hampshire


NHPR reports

The New Hampshire state Senate rejected several controversial gun bills Wednesday. All of the proposals originally passed the House.

The move suggests that the Senate’s patience for 2nd Amendment legislation may be about up.

The Senate made brisk work of the so-called gun bills in front of them. “We spent a grand total of 6 minutes on 5 bills because we want to focus on the issues that are important to the New Hampshire people,” Senate President Peter Bragdon said.

The bills the Senate down include a measure allowing people to carry loaded weapons – including crossbows – in their vehicles and one that permits weapons in public places like college campuses, the Verizon Center and the state psychiatric hospital.
This is wonderful news. I love the way gun-rights folks keep talking like these gun bills are part of their 2A rights and therefore inevitable. It's heartening to see not everyone agrees with that.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

The Greatest, Funniest, Most Enjoyable Movie Ever Made

click to make bigger

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

How to lie with misquotations!

From The Future of Gun Control by Alex Altman published in Time 26 June 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 decision overturning Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban is the biggest gun rights ruling since the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791. The Court had not waded into this divisive issue since 1939, when it declared, "We cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear" arms. But on Thursday the Court broke its silence to do just that, ruling for the first time that the Constitution confers an individual right to gun ownership beyond providing for "a well regulated Militia," as the amendment states. The Constitution does not permit "the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home," Justice Antonin Scalia, the court's arch-conservative, wrote in the majority opinion.
The actual quote from US v. Miller is:
In the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of a 'shotgun having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length' at this time has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument. Certainly it is not within judicial notice that this weapon is any part of the ordinary military equipment or that its use could contribute to the common defense. Aymette v. State of Tennessee, 2 Humph., Tenn., 154, 158.
I have already pointed out, the Miller decision incorporated by reference, the decision of
Aymette v. State, 21 Tenn. (2 Hump.) 154 (1840). Aymette makes the following point.
To make this view of the case still more clear, we may remark, that the phrase, "bear arms," is used in the Kentucky constitution as well as in our own, and implies, as has already been suggested, their military use. The 28th section of our bill of rights provides, "that no citizen of this State shall be compelled to bear arms, provided he will pay in equivalent, to be ascertained by law." Here we know that the phrase has a military sense, and no other; and we must infer that it is used in the same sense in the 26th section, which secures to the citizen the right to bear arms. A man in the pursuit of deer, elk and buffaloes, might carry his rifle every day, for forty years, and, yet, it would never be said of him, that he had borne arms, much less could it be said, that a private citizen bears arms, because he has a dirk or pistol concealed under his clothes, or a spear in a cane. So that, with deference, we think the argument of the court in the case referred to, even upon the question it has debated, is defective and inconclusive
.I think that quote from Aymette puts paid to any attempt to try to say that Miller related to private uses of firearms.

Or as Justice Douglas, who was on the Court at the Time of Miller, said in ADAMS v. WILLIAMS, 407 U.S. 143 (1972)?
The leading case is United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174 , upholding a federal law making criminal the shipment in interstate commerce of a sawed-off shotgun. The law was upheld, there being no evidence that a sawed-off shotgun had "some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia." Id., at 178. The Second Amendment, it was held, "must be interpreted and applied" with the view of maintaining a "militia."

"The Militia which the States were expected to maintain and train is set in contrast with Troops which they were forbidden to keep without the consent of Congress. The sentiment of the time strongly disfavored standing armies; the common view was that adequate defense of country and laws could be [407 U.S. 143, 151] secured through the Militia - civilians primarily, soldiers on occasion." Id., at 178-179.

Critics say that proposals like this water down the Second Amendment. Our decisions belie that argument, for the Second Amendment, as noted, was designed to keep alive the militia. But if watering-down is the mood of the day, I would prefer to water down the Second rather than the Fourth Amendment.
Before you come up with any silly comment about Douglas not understanding Miller, keep in mind that while he was a member of the court even if he did not take part in the oral argument.

I would assume that he would have been privy to the discussions surrounding the Miller decision--Don't you??????

Anyway, taking a half-quotation, out of context, definitely changes the meaning from what was originally intended.

Captain Beefheart Festival 2011-2012 - 6th Night of the Living Van Vliet

Here's the explanation of the origin and the dates.

Thanks to Microdot for the title of the Festival.

Zen Comix has joined the festivities.

I like this line: "Such is is and uh ain't is ain't"



The path is the mask of love a way a way
The flow is the task above today there is no other way (repeat)
You gotta trust us when you need a friend
To find us you gotta look within
You gotta trust us (repeat) before you turn to dust (repeat)
You gotta see before you see you gotta be before be

(we love you)
You gotta touch without take
You gotta hear without fear
You gotta feel to reveal
You gotta touch without take
Such is is and uh ain't is ain't (repeat)

We're for you love you with you love you just a few

We love you we tell you true we love you
The path is youth let the dying die
The path is life yeah; let the lying lie
Let the dying die let the lying lie
(trust trust trust)

More Florida Gun Crime

I remind readers, every gun started out legal.  Every crime is because someone either used a legally obtained firearm for illegal purposes, which is common, or because they did not sufficiently exercise care in securing their firearm or in transferring their firearms to another legal owner for legal purposes.

We have so many illegal firearms, because we have so many legal ones.  In countries where there are fewer firearms, FREE countries, developed countries, there are far fewer crimes committed with firearms.  Their crime rate is lower, or involves far less serious force when it does occur than our gun violence.

These crimes, the notion that a firearm gives one person power over another, is the essence of our gun culture; it is entirely about controlling people, coercing people, threatening people, and if the world doesn't go your way, killing or injuring people.

From Ch 6 Miami News:

Two Men Sexually Assaulted Woman in Lauderdale Lakes: BSO

The sexual battery occurred in Lauderdale Lakes

By Lisa Orkin Emmanuel
|  Wednesday, Feb 15, 2012  |  Updated 1:48 PM EST
Deputies Search for 2 Men Accused of Rape
Broward Sheriff's Office
The Broward Sheriff's Office is investigating the rape.
Broward Sheriff's Office deputies were investigating Wednesday after a woman was sexually assaulted in Lauderdale Lakes by two men last week.
The 48-year-old woman was on State Road 7 at One United Bank at 2412 N.on Feb. 9. She was at the location at 5:30 a.m. to meet a coworker who was going to drive her to work, the sheriff's office said in a statement.
Two men approached her, one on a bicycle and another by foot. One man pointed a gun at her and forced her behind bushes near a drive-through teller, authorities said.
The second man hit and choked her. They sexually battered her and stole her phone and pocketbook before fleeing, the sheriff's office said.
Both men were dressed in black. Anyone with information was asked to contact authorities

Avoidable Firearm Injury - No Surprise, It's Gun-Lunatic Haven, Florida, AGAIN

An observation, as someone who has retrained dangerous dogs that are either people aggressive or dog aggressive (or both), MOST of the people who keep pit bulls (or other 'bully breeds' as they are commonly known) have as little understanding of how to safely keep a dog for self defense as they do firearms in this instance.  Like their owners and the owner's firearms, the dogs become a danger to themselves and the humans around them, instead of protecting anyone.  It is part and parcel of the same delusion, the same sick fantasy as the one embraced by the gun lunatics, who are so prevalent and who run amok in Florida injuring and killing people - like the woman shot in the head in Church.

We hear continuous claims about guns used for SELF DEFENSE!  "We GOTSA have our GUNS!  We just GOTSA!", claim the gun lunatics, over and over and over.

When things go badly - or go south, to use the colloquial expression for abysmal failure - the gun lunatics never accept the responsibility, never take the blame, never acknowledge that they were not safe or secure with their fetish object firearms.  They only focus on their fantasy that guns will save them and their loved ones, ignoring the dreadful reality that guns more often harm, or kill, those they claim to desire to protect.

They never admit they are not as competent as they want us to believe they are.  They never admit that they have accidents, that they don't hit what they are aiming at, that they are not the superheroes they see themselves as in their imagination, in their fevered wanna-be hero fantasies.  The reality is so much different, so much more destructive of innocent people, than that fantasy.


Guns don't make us safer, gun lunatics are as much a danger as any danger they use as a pretext for their fetish object.  But it is perfectly ok with them if others die or are injured or in fear, so long as they have that damned fetish object on their hip. 

It is too damned bad that this jerk won't lose his firearms AND dogs after this incident, but that's too much to expect in the currently uncivilized violent gun culture rampant across Florida. They try to put lipstick on the pig of that gun culture, but it is nothing more than a violent, uncivilized decline from developed civilization in the 21st century.  Too bad for Florida, too bad for the status and civilizations of places like it.

They're not free; they're just backward.  The greatest danger to Billy and his family and his neighbors is......Billy.

From  Florida, by way of NBC Miami and MSNBC.com  :

Cops: Fla. man shoots at pit bulls, hits 84-year-old mother

84-year-old Florida woman tried to intervene when dogs started fighting

By
NBCMIAMI.com
updated 2/15/2012 5:47:27 AM ET 2012-02-15T10:47:27
A man accidentally shot his elderly mother while trying to break up fighting pit bulls inside their home in Plantation, Florida, Tuesday night, police said.
The son told NBC Miami that he and his mother have seven pit bulls in their house; they own three and take care of four for friends.
The dogs became aggressive and started fighting each other Tuesday night, Plantation Police spokesman Detective Robert Rettig said.
The 84-year-old mother tried to separate them, and her 50-year-old son used a pistol to shoot at the dogs, but ended up hitting his mother, Rettig said.
The son, Billy, who only wanted to give his first name, said his bullet hit his mother in the leg.
"I saw the dogs were fighting. She was on the ground," Billy said.
"And I tried to break them up, and the one dog came at me," and with time of the essence, he shot, he said.
Read more news at NBC Miami
She was taken to a hospital with injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening, Rettig said, while cautioning that her injuries could be more serious because she is older.
Billy and his mom live in a gated home that looks more like a compound, with many signs that warn of the dogs.
Billy said he doesn’t feel safe in the area, so that is why he keeps the pit bulls for protection.
No charges are pending, police said.

If I am only an amateur...

What is legal Eagle45...

I made the following comment:
  1. I have made a post about the English Bill of Rights.

    Maybe you should familiarise yourself better before you pretend to argue it.

    I would also suggest that you not confuse the doctrine of self-defence with national defence. At common law, deadly force was discouraged.

    In fact, its use could render one the aggressor and lead to legal prosecution.

    The problem is, LegalEagle, you are using a shotgun argument.

    You arguments are like tossing spaghetti on the wall hoping that something might stick, but nothing does since you are obviously unclear on this topic.

    If you know anything about US Jurisprudence, then you know full well that Marbury says "It cannot be presumed that any clause in the constitution is intended to be without effect"

    You are saying that the most important clause is "is mere surplusage, is entirely without meaning, if such is to be the construction."

    You are violating the rules of US Constitutional interpretation as set forth by Marbury in your proposed construction,

  2. I should add that Marbury's rule of statutory construction reinforces my position that the proeme is indeed important.

    If it provides the purpose for which the Second Amendment was adopted, then it it highly important to its interpretation.

    You would render the "proeme" mere surplusage" by making the presumption that it has no effect.

    That violates Marbury.

    And if Marbury is no longer valid, then Heller is no longer valid since Marbury is where the concept of Judicial review comes from.

    Judicial review which invalidates popularly passed laws by local citizenry, especially those taxed without representation, were grievances in the Declaration of Independence.

    So much for the Second Amendment being the tool of Liberty--you have led it to be the exact tyranny complained of by the colonials.
Marbury, of course, refers to the case of Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803), but more about that after I post LegalEagle45's response to the above.

Marburys Rules of Construction:

"1) "The rights enumerated in this Bill of Rights shall not be construed to limit other rights of the people not therein expressed. For (not to mention the liberal and beneficial manner of Construction which we have a right to) the plain, natural, and obvious meaning of the charter is, to grant and confirm certain Rights, Privileges, and Immunities to all his Majesty's subjects who then did or ever should inhabit that tract of country in America usually called Virginia, according to the Descriptions and Boundaries of the original Charters, not before otherwise appropriated or disposed of by His Majesty's Ancestors." - George Mason, July 1773, Extracts From The Virginia Charters, With Some Remarks On Them Made In The Year 1773"

Thus the rights are construed liberally...

Laci wrote: "It cannot be presumed that any clause in the constitution is intended to be without effect"

Yep, and you seem to believe the 2nd is without effect, because you can not tell us what the 2nd protects. You say it is obsolete and "irrelevant since 1792", which directly contradicts this presumption.

You are not too good at this Lacy...
Problem, Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803) is a very important case in Supreme Court jurisprudence. One doesn't need to go very far to find that out. The first result in my google search was:
Marbury v. Madison - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marbury_v._Madison
Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803) is a landmark case in United States law and in the history of law worldwide. It formed the basis for the exercise ...
a little further down in the results one finds:

Marbury v. Madison – Case Brief Summary

www.lawnix.com/cases/marbury-madison.html
Facts, issue, holding, and rule of law in the landmark case of Marbury v. Madison – Case Brief Summary.
I made a post about this case earlier on in response to:
An anonymous idiot, said:

You mention Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803), quite a bit.

And for good reason. But anon missed this post: An Interesting Factoid. He also doesn't have an understanding of the fundamentals of Constitutional law.
The problem, LegalEagle45, is that this case is the first one studied in Law School Constitutional Law classes for precisely the reasons I gave in the aforementioned post:
Marbury is a landmark case in United States law and in the history of law worldwide. It formed the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States under Article III of the Constitution. It was also the first time in Western history a court invalidated a law by declaring it "unconstitutional", a process called judicial review. The landmark decision helped define the "checks and balances" of the American form of government.

Since it defined judicial review, it also provided guidelines for that review--the most important of which is the one I keep mentioning--that "It cannot be presumed that any clause in the constitution is intended to be without effect".

According to Marbury, One cannot presume that any language in the Constitution is mere surplusage--is entirely without meaning.

Sorta sad statement about the US educational system that you have to get your civics lessons from a Brit!
LegalEagle, while sounding as if he knows something about the law demonstrates that he does not have one of the extreme basics of US Constitutional law and Supreme Court Jurisprudence--knowledge of the case Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803).

That is the rough equivalent of not knowing what a stop sign looks like or which side of the road you drive on if you are able to drive a car.

Perhaps, this is why he was consistently making my argument for me through his ignorance.

Yes, LegalEagle, you just made a goal--

FOR THE OTHER TEAM

And you can't stop doing it.

While this is the most egregious of his mistakes, if one is at all familiar with the law, legal practise, and legal method, one would see that LegalEagle45 consistently got it wrong from citing cases and authorities which supported my case if they didn't just fail to refute it.

I should also add, as a landmark supreme court case, Marbury is actual legal precedent and LegalEagle45's George Mason quote is pure blather. Again, LegalEagle provides a quote which doesn't really make his point, but he keeps hoping that if he quotes lots and lots of people, it might snow the unwary into thinking he has some idea of what he is talking about.

As I said after reading his first response--thanks for making my case for me.

But in this instance, LegalEagle45, you really fucked it.

You fucked it royally.

Whenever I hear someone parrot "individual right, individual right, individual right", it reminds me of this:


Substitute "individual right" for "Brawndo".

One more nail in LegalEagle's coffin:

Marbury v. Madison (1803)


Marbury v. Madison, arguably the most important case in Supreme Court history, was the first U.S. Supreme Court case to apply the principle of "judicial review" -- the power of federal courts to void acts of Congress in conflict with the Constitution. Written in 1803 by Chief Justice John Marshall, the decision played a key role in making the Supreme Court a separate branch of government on par with Congress and the executive.

And another from Time:

Top 10 Landmark Supreme Court Cases

It has been 10 years since the concluding chapter of the 2000 election. On Dec. 12, 2000, the Supreme Court decided Bush v. Gore — just one decision in a long line of important cases. TIME takes a look at other landmark rulings