The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Martin, who was black, was on his way to a convenience store in a mostly white gated community when George Zimmerman, who is white, shot and killed him after a disputed altercation. Martin, who was carrying only candy and a soft drink, was discovered by police lying face down in the grass. Zimmerman was briefly taken into custody, but has not been arrested.
That’s as far as I need to read to know they aren’t interested in reporting facts, only the myths generated in the wake of this.
Looks like Verizon had a regional outage with their FiOS Internet service, so if you couldn’t get to the blog early this morning that’s why.
Apparently the iodine found in a water purification system could be used to make meth, and you know what that means.
Apparently the Florida special prosecutor says it will not be needed. I don’t know if this means anything, but I would think that if prosecutors didn’t plan to prosecute, they’d want the political cover of having a jurors be the ones to decide that. So if I had to bet, I think we may see charges, in which case this goes to trial.
This could potentially bring Florida’s SYG/CD law into the case, since my understanding is that Zimmerman’s lawyer can motion for immunity, which is decided by a judge using the standard of preponderance of evidence.
Generally speaking, civil unrest is good for opponents of the right to keep and bear arms. The National Firearms Act came largely as a result of a perception of increasing lawlessness, and the Gun Control Act of 1968 most definitely came about after some serious civil unrest.
But Uncle notes that permits are up, and we’re looking at ammo shortages amid new fears of civil unrest. This raises a question. Has the dynamic changed? Is the public response to threats of civil unrest going to result in more gun owners and fewer people calling for strict gun control? Has the civil unrest pendulum swung in the other direction from what it was in the late 1960s? If that is the case, I’d really like to understand the driving factor that created this change in attitudes.
Bunch of youths out looking for unlocked cars to break into. Youth approach property of homeowner. Homeowner goes outside with a .25 ACP pistol and fires three “warning” shots, one of which struck one of the youths killing him. Homeowner is facing manslaughter charges.
It’s worth noting Illinois law has no duty to retreat requirement, but that’s not at issue in this case. The homeowner’s attorney is concerned about the Martin case being in people’s minds. But I hadn’t heard about this case until someone sent it to me. Where’s the media? Why isn’t this kid’s death such a national tragedy?
Either way, his attorney should be worried, because this looks like manslaughter based on the facts that are already known.
The media has been in full force lately trying to foil our agenda here in Pennsylvania. This article in the Scranton Times Tribune speaks against preemption enforcement. The surprising thing is they don’t mention the Martin shooting at all. However, The Daily Pennsylvanian, the newspaper of the University of Pennsylvania manages to get things mostly right, with only a few aspects of the legal issues surrounding SYG misstated, which is a better track record than most of the media is doing in this case. They do, however, continue to propagate the myth that Zimmerman was not arrested.
An environmental group is suing a gun club over lead shot pollution in the Delaware River. They are also suing because they do pigeon shoots there, and dead pigeons end up polluting the river as well, alleges the suit. I’ve looked at that club’s layout, and I’m doubtful that much shot is ending up in the river. Pigeons I can’t speak to.
The Express-Times of Easton, PA things our SYG law needs to be reviewed. Not surprising, given they know nothing about the law and continue peddling ignorance to the public about self-defense laws. Meanwhile the Times Leader of Wilkes-Barre runs an abysmal editorial that is very hateful of gun owners.
I’ll reiterate my call again to starve the beast!
It appears the watchdog groups are getting bold with highlighting just how easy it is to get a ballot without any form of identification. The title of the post refers to a line of comedy gold in the video about how not even the Attorney General is safe from voter fraud that could be committed in his name.
Many thanks for those who offered advice on water heaters. We did decide to go with a tankless gas unit because of the need to recover space to be able to reach our electrical panel. We called around to see what plumbers would charge for installation. The experience reminded me of a scene from one of my favorite movies:
I got a bid out of the gate at from Home Depot’s installers was 2500. Second bid was 4200 from a local plumber. Third bid was 1000, which is about what I expected the job to run. This is just labor for installation, and some parts. I had explained that we’ll buy the hardware. I would expect if I were to undertake doing this myself, the whole job would take me a weekend. I’d also have to buy a 250 dollar 6″ masonry coring bit to core the hole for the vent, and then rent a coring drill, if I didn’t want to feel like I was trying to escape from Alcatraz by chipping through the masonry with the tools I have.
I figure 10 hours would be a generous estimate for the number of hours it would take a pro. Given that, the 2500 bid was 250/hr and the 4200 bid was 420/hr. I don’t think the Endodontist who did my root canal was pulling down 420/hr. I could hire a decent lawyer for that kind of money! I’m wondering if the 4200/hr bidder ever gets people to accept those kinds of bids, but I guess people do or they wouldn’t be in business. Needless so say, we’re going with the 1000 dollar bid. For 4200 bucks I’ll chip through my masonry walls with an ice pick myself!
One thing I had to do yesterday was install an outlet in the area the water heater is going to be mounted to power the micro-controller on the unit. The most expensive bidder wanted a separate circuit, and I have no spare stabs in the box. That seems silly to me. I can understand a furnace, sump pump, or stove — something the integrity of the house depends on or is a heavy draw — but is it really a disaster if you lose hot water from a breaker trip? The low bidder just wanted an outlet, so that’s now done. Hopefully I can be done with taking showers out of a bucket of stove heated water by Tuesday.
TBCKADOOT blogs about pant loads of PSH. It’s kind of like someone green lighted everyone in the media to say “It’s OK to hate on gun owners again.” One of my big fears headed into 2012 was that gun owners would be mostly asleep, and not really concerned about threats to their gun rights, since there weren’t any obvious and apparent threats, only subtle ones. Additionally, the media really did get better about the issue for a while.
Well, that’s not the case anymore. This has been a stern reminder for people on our side that they hate you. They hate everything about you just for the fact that you have a hobby and a philosophy that they find objectionable. That’s why I’m a big fan of pulling the plug and canceling your subscriptions to the local partisan rags. Starve the beast. I’ve even researched whether I could report the Bucks County Courier Times for littering on my property when they deposit one of their uninvited promotional copies on my lawn (still not sure the answer there). There are plenty of other publications and news sources out there that do a good job of reporting and analyzing the news.
Next is to show up at the polls and vote for pro-gun politicians in 2012. Our opponents are re-energized, and believe they can now beat us. I think they are counting their chickens before they hatch. They just don’t understand what a force our people can be when they get scared.