2008 – Page 71 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Latest Rapsheet

In my continuing series of exposing the criminal records of infamous Philadelphia criminals, I present you with the criminal record of Philadelphia’s latest cop killer, Daniel Giddings.Â Daniel Giddings was responsible for the murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Patrick McDonald this past Tuesday.Â Giddings was killed when police returned fire.

Giddings record compared with those of other cop killers in Philadelphia is not as extensive, and only includes one arrest for aggravated assault and weapons charges that was Nolle Prossed (which means charges weren’t pursued).Â Six months after that, he’s picked up on similar charges.Â While awaiting trial, it would appear he was picked up on aggravated assault once again, and charges were withdrawn.Â In 2000, he’s finally confined to prison for a six to twelve year sentence.Â I would appear that he served eight, rather than the maximum he pretty clearly deserved.

But Daniel Giddings will be commiting no more crimes thanks to the Philadelphia Police.Â But it’s a tragedy we had to lose an officer in the process.

Keep the Change

Apparently the Obama campaign aren’t too keen on paying their restaurant tab.

More Fact Checking

See Dave Kopel’s excellent article here.Â SayUncle also has another round up.

End of Handgun Sports in Finland?

Looks like Finland, one of the few countries left in Europe with a healthy shooting and sportsmen’s culture, is considering banning handguns in response to the latest mass shooting there.Â Finlands laws for handguns are already rather strict, and would be a dream for gun control advocates here.Â My understanding is that licenses for them are on a may-issue basis, and police will only generally issue permits for .22LR pistols.Â Any other pistols not suitable for “sporting purposes”, with the police getting to define what that means, are denied.

Notice you don’t see the Brady Campaign dancing in the blood of these victims?Â Curious isn’t it?Â Maybe because Finland already has the restrictions the Bradys dream of, and it goes to prove that when gun owners agree to them, it’s only a matter of time before politicians, faced with a tragedy like this, say “That’s it folks, time to turn them in.”Â It also doesn’t fit their narrative that this is a strictly American phenomena, because of our lax gun laws.

And they keep telling us we’re paranoid.

California Hunters Coping With Lead Ban

Looks like California hunters are attempting to cope with the lead ammo ban, but it’s costing them.Â No doubt it will drive a lot of people out of hunting due to the higher prices for ammunition:

Another development, which Baker found “a little disturbing,” is hunters who don’t sight their rifles for copper bullets, which have different properties than lead.

“Any time you change ammo, you should always go out and sight it, even different brands (of ammo),” said Jeff Bettencourt of Ceres, who has been a hunter for 35 years.

That’s true, and it will drive the cost of hunting up even more.Â Copper based ammunition is twice as expensive as lead based ammunition, so this is really going to hurt sportsmen in that state.Â Do sportsmen in other states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio trust that Obama will put their concerns over these people?Â I don’t.

PETA Ice Cream

PETA is telling Ben and Jerry’s ice cream they need to start making their product out of human milk.

“PETA’s request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow’s milk in the food he serves,” the statement says.

PETA officials say a move to human breast milk would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health.

Eeew.

Astroturfing HopeChange

The Jawa Report has an excellent bit of Amature Journalism that outlines how the Obama campaign is likely behind an astroturf campaign to promote sleazy and blatantly false claims about Sarah Palin.

Looks like Chicago politics to me.Â Why would we want to elect a president from there again?

More Fact Checking of FactCheck.org

Here’s the news release from NRA fact checking FactCheck.org’s original fact checking of NRA.

Thoughts on Media Bias

Dave Hardy talks about how newspapers used to report the news.

Yup, reporters were more respected then. I recall reading of the Civil War … at one point Grant needs to get a message to President Lincoln, so he just sends it with a reporter who is going to DC. He adds a verbal message. The reporter only reveals that years after the event; Grant told him that it was for Lincoln alone. After Shiloh, I think, Grant for the only time gets blind drunk and passes out. A reporter (with whom he was riding) throws his coat over him to hide his stars if anyone rides by, and only reveals the event long after the war is over. A reporter is within earshot of Grant giving orders to his commanders, and is chastised — you’re not supposed to listen in at this level! Nobody thought anything unusual of a reporter traveling with army headquarters, it’s just that there’s an unwritten rule you won’t actually listen in to Grant and Meade giving orders for the day. No need for interviews: you’re there when everything is happening, out riding and drinking with them, etc.

Read the whole thing.Â I suspect a lot of the trust afforded the military of journalists had to do with the fact that information was just much harder to disperse back then.Â It’s much much harder to control information these days.Â That probably tends to create less trust than you could instill in people when information was much more difficult to spread around.

I also think part of the problem isn’t so much bias, but people’s perception of the media as providing accurate and unbiased information.Â Blogs are certainly biased, but we don’t claim to be anything other than biased.Â I think journalism would be better off if papers were just up front with the biases in their reporting, and everyone knew about them.

Thoughts and Prayers

Two Philadelphia Police officers were shot today.Â Fortunatly, the scumbag that did it is now taking a dirt nap, and won’t be shooting anyone else.Â One officer is in critical condition.

UPDATE: The officer in question, Patrick McDonald, has died.Â More from Wyatt.