Saturday, August 23, 2014

Remember Jose Guerena? Murdered by Idiots In Ninja Suits And Badges?

Said Idiots spending the next quite a while trying every excuse possible for their screwups?
...Vanessa Guerena’s $20 million wrongful death lawsuit against the four police agencies was recently settled for $3.4 million. Even with that extraordinary settlement, the police of Pima County, Marana, Oro Valley, and Sahuarita have been loath to admit fault.
Of course they have; taking lessons from the EffingBI, they NEVER want to just say "We screwed up, let's make this right and learn from it", oh no.

I understand the widow being willing to take a settlement, but I have to say: I would have LOVED it if they'd taken this to a jury, and put every one of the incompetents involved under oath and in a witness seat.  God knows what all would've come out.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Late it is, but some things cannot be put out till later;

thus the study continues






























They forget one of the safety measures:

a sidearm with a caliber beginning with '4' when in lion territory.
“I don’t know why, I just started singing opera really loud,” Koestonsky later told KUSA. “It kind of put its ears down and just kept looking at me, and it sort of backed away. Then, it came around the bushes an came towards me again and crouched about 10 feet away.”

Although the singing did not repel the animal, it may have deterred the mountain lion from directly attacking the hiker. Koestonsky said that the large cat alternated from grooming itself, pacing, and following her. At one point, the mountain lion was a mere eight feet away from the hiker.


"US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told reporters

that ISIS “is beyond anything we have seen … They marry ideology and a sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess. They are tremendously well funded.”

Hagel’s realization that it’s beyond Obama’s ken is understandable. You really can’t see much from the 18th hole."

Remember the Fish & Wildlife slug who stole the bagpipes?

There was enough noise stirred up by that idiocy that they were returned.  However:
The two pipers are now heading to a competition in Scotland. So they'll be flying back via Boston, which is one of those 28 valid ports of entry. They've called Fish & Wildlife to arrange for the mandatory "inspection" of the bagpipes upon landing at Logan Airport.
Unfortunately, the official Fish & Wildlife bagpipes inspector is taking a day off that day - she's visiting her Auntie Mabel, having a seaweed wrap at the spa, whatever. So she won't be available to inspect the pipes. So she's told them they'll have to drive back to New Hampshire and then drive back to Logan the following day for the Fish & Wildlife bagpipes inspection. So she's taking a day off on Wednesday, and the bagpipers will have to take a day off on Thursday - just to comply with the diktats of the Department of Paperwork.
Because that's just the way it is in the Land of the Free.
Here's the letter one of them received from the Chief Thug and Thief Wildlife Inspector Rosemarie Levandowski:

Good afternoon,
After reviewing the certificate, I do not see a exception for crossing at the non-designated port of Champlain, NY. The certificate will either have to be amended to include Champlain or you can apply for a stand alone Designated Port Exception Permit (application attached). Given the time frame on this, It will not be possible to cross through Champlain. Also, there is fee of $238.00 involved with each crossing- entering the U.S. and leaving the U.S.
Feel free to call me with questions.
Rosemarie Levandowski
Wildlife Inspector
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
237 W. Service Road
Champlain, NY 12919
"Pay us off, or we'll steal your property again.  And you have to do it properly, or else."


On to another group of thugs, some of those wonderful union people:
The Teamsters picketers were already mad. By the time Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi’s car pulled up to the Steel & Rye restaurant in the picturesque New England town of Milton just outside Boston, one of them ran up to her car and screamed, “We’re gonna bash that pretty face in, you fucking whore!”

Angry that the show had not signed a Teamsters contract and that the production hired local PA’s to drive cast and crew vehicles, the dozen or so picketers from Boston’s Teamsters Local 25 kept at it for hours, raining down racist, sexist and homophobic threats and slurs as staffers came to and left the set that summer day. Jenn Levy, Bravo’s SVP Production, wasn’t spared. Arriving at the restaurant in her black SUV, she soon found herself running a gauntlet of vitriol. “She got of her car in front of the location and quickly ran through the picket line,” a source said. “They were yelling, ‘You bitch! You slut! We’re gonna get you!’ It went on like that all day.”

John King, Milton’s Deputy Police Chief, said the Teamsters were “threatening, heckling and harassing.” The first officer on the scene, he said, had to call for back-up after the Teamsters “gave the officer trouble.” Reading from the police report, he said the Teamsters were “hostile, swearing, and refusing to let people come in and out. Officers repeatedly tried to de-escalate the situation.” When more police arrived, the Teamsters went to the show’s hospitality tent and “harassed the crew there.” When the officers went there, King said, “A group of them slashed the tires on 14 different cars owned by the crew.”
If someone ACCUSED some non-socialist Democrats of doing such, we'd have Thrills Matthews & Co. crapping bricks of indignation for days; think they'll say a word about this?







Thursday, August 21, 2014

For the first time,

I actually got some decent pictures of the visitor
                                                    Why yes, I will have a taste
followed by
                                                  And what are YOU looking at?

I've seen two, but either it's a very dysfunctional relationship, or one's a poacher; every time it shows up, it maybe manages one drink before the other chases it away.

Dayum. Not an area to go swimming

Don Lemon-CNN is a lying bastard

who wants to go by Humpty Dumpty rules.
“For me, an automatic weapon is…”
That says it all, doesn’t it? For people who live in consensus reality, an automatic weapon is an automatic weapon. For Don Lemon and people who agree with Don Lemon, an automatic weapon is any weapon they want to call an automatic weapon, whether or not that weapon is, y’know, automatic.


Add that to the people claiming "The cops wouldn't be acting like an invasion force if the commoners weren't allowed to own all those guns!", and- hey, isn't that like victim-blaming?  I thought the left were all sensitive about that?


First, why the hell to they need a  month to turn over a list?  Second, I'll believe it when they do.  But it is a good step:
A federal judge Wednesday ordered the Department of Justice to turn over the Fast and Furious documents President Barack Obama has been protecting with executive privilege.
That word should actually be HIDING, but still.


And this sums up the idiots Holder and Obama very well:
The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the brutal execution of American photo journalist James Foley, Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday morning, according to Fox News.
Yeah, because they want the bastards captured so they can be read Miranda rights and put on trial.  Because THAT'S important.

'Is putting your kid in public school child abuse?' Insty has asked;

answer seems to be YES!
Alex Stone said he and his classmates were told in class to write a few sentences about themselves, and a "status" as if it was a Facebook page.

Stone said in his "status" he wrote a fictional story that involved the words "gun" and "take care of business."

"I killed my neighbor's pet dinosaur, and, then, in the next status I said I bought the gun to take care of the business," Stone said.
...
Investigators say the teacher contacted school officials after seeing the message containing the words "gun" and "take care of business," and police were then notified on Tuesday.

Summerville police officials say Stone's bookbag and locker were searched on Tuesday, and a gun was not found.
Well, isn't that a damned shock?

And let's not leave the local cops out of this:
Summerville police officials say Stone was disruptive and was told that he was being detained for disturbing schools.

Stone was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. District officials say the student has been suspended.
Really?  You have actual crime so much under control you have time for this bullshit?

Teacher, school officials and cops involved: firing, and banning from ever working in the field again.  This is so frigging idiotic it's hard to describe.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Since Yellowstone doesn't appear to be ready to trash us,

let's go to Iceland.  And no, I'm not going to try to pronounce the make of the volcano.
An intense earthquake swarm began Saturday deep beneath Bárðarbunga, Iceland’s largest volcano complex. (Here’s how to pronounce it.) As of Tuesday, the Icelandic Met Office cautions there’s no evidence yet of magma moving toward the surface or that an eruption is imminent. Still, Iceland is springing into action, which suggests the threat is real. These people know their volcanoes.

More here; note that the title is PROBABLE eruption at Bárðarbunga. Possibilities from least to worst:
  1. A local fissure eruption. This would give limited ash and no high ash column (7km tops), unless the initial phase is explosive. In that case you might get all the way up to a 15km ash column.
  2. Main eruption at Bárdarbunga central volcano. This would normally produce a VEI-2 eruption, perhaps a VEI-3. In this case I would say anything from a 5km to 15km ash column, and an eruption that lasts anything from a few hours to a couple of weeks. If the fresh magma hits an old pocket of rhyolitic mush (old stale magma) all bets are off, then expect anything from 10km to 30km ash column and widespread ash all over the area the wind blows to.
  3. Kistufell central volcano. All bets are off on this one, we are talking about a volcano that has not erupted for the last 8 000 years. You would need a crystal ball to predict what could happen; I do not do crystal balls. I leave crystal balling to people that wears tinfoil hats.
  4. Rifting fissure eruption. Forget flying for half a year. I am here stating that this is unlikely, but I am giving this as the improbable end parameter.
As some of Icelands volcanoes have a history of causing bad- REALLY bad- effects over a large part of the world, it's something to watch.




Judge Robert Nalley of the People's Republic of Maryland; Link fixed

a real credit to the bench, isn't he?

And, of course, both the black robes and the sheriff's office don't want to talk about it.  Let alone answer questions.
Angelita Plemmer Williams, a spokeswoman for the Maryland judiciary, sent an e-mail responding to the questions. Williams cited a rule in the Maryland Code of Judicial Conduct, which she said prohibits judges “from making statements on pending or impending cases, which includes the judicial deliberative process. However, our system of justice does provide avenues for appeal to ensure access to justice for every individual.”
In response to questions about what role Maryland judges play in making decisions about security, Williams replied that the Maryland judiciary does not have security protocols.
Security in Maryland courtrooms is typically handled by  the Sheriff’s Department in the county where each courthouse is located.
...
While it is clear a Charles County Sheriff’s Department officer administered an electrical shock to King on Nalley’s order, many questions about the department’s role in the incident remain unanswered.
On July 29, the Baltimore Post-Examiner emailed a list of questions about the incident to Diane Richardson, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department. Richardson said the department was investigating the incident and would respond when it knew more about the event.
Sheriff’s officials would seek to interview witnesses to the incident as part of their investigation, Richardson said. As of Aug. 18, no Sheriff’s Department officials had contacted them, Alexander and Doris King said.
And unless a judge who actually gives a rats ass about the law orders them to, they won't.



Wondering how much military stuff your local agencies have received?

Miguel found a searchable database on the subject.  I checked Oklahoma County, and found, among all the other stuff, the following:
8     .45-caliber pistols
204 5.56-caliber rifles(probably a M16 variant, which means select-fire automatic)
23   7.62-caliber rifles
2     shotguns, and
2    MRAPs(Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected Vehicles)
7    helicopters


Doesn't have it broken down by agency, just county.  And there's no number of partridges in pear trees listed, though they may be holding onto those until closer to the holidays.

Makes you wonder what OCPD and the Sheriff's Office and so forth plan on doing with all of this, doesn't it?

First, one of the luckiest sonsabitches

on the face of the planet


Second, appropriate since son's been working on a Triumph Spitfire, Lucas electricals:
Smoke is the thing that makes electrical circuits work. We know this to be true because every time one lets the smoke out of an electrical circuit, it stops working. This can be verified repeatedly through empirical testing.


For example, if one places a copper bar across the terminals of a battery, prodigious quantities of smoke are liberated and the battery shortly ceases to function. In addition, if one observes smoke escaping from an electrical component such as a Lucas voltage regulator, it will also be observed that the component no longer functions. The logic is elementary and inescapable!

The function of the wiring harness is to conduct the smoke from one device to another. When the wiring springs a leak and lets all the smoke out of the system, nothing works afterward.

Starter motors were considered unsuitable for British motorcycles for some time largely because they consumed large quantities of smoke, requiring very unsightly large wires.

It has been reported that Lucas electrical components are possibly more prone to electrical leakage than their Bosch, Japanese or American counterparts. Experts point out that this is because Lucas is British, and all things British leak. British engines leak oil, British shock absorbers, hydraulic forks and disk brake systems leak fluid, British tires leak air and British Intelligence leaks national defense secrets.

Therefore, it follows that British electrical systems must leak smoke. Once again, the logic is clear and inescapable.


More in the comments here


About the impartiality of that grand jury that indicted Perry:
Rho Chalmers, who disclosed to the Houston Chronicle yesterday that she was a member of the grand jury that indicted Texas Gov. Rick Perry, was an active delegate to the Texas Democratic Party convention during grand jury proceedings. Chalmers’ active participation in Democratic state politics is important because she claimed yesterday to the Houston Chronicle that her decision to indict Perry, a Republican, was not based on politics.

More troubling, however, is the fact that Chalmers attended, photographed, and commented on an event with Democratic state Sen. Kirk Watson while grand jury proceedings were ongoing. Watson was a witness in front of the grand jury. On June 27, 2014, Chalmers shared a photo of the Watson event on a community Facebook page she started called Developer’s Dungeon. “Senator Kirk Watson telling the story of the Wendy Davis fillibuster (sic),” she wrote in a comment accompanying the picture.


More dead people in Mexico, thanks to the BATFE

and Gunwalker.
Sinaloa was supported to that end by the ATF’s gunwalking program, which included walking grenade components, as a sideline to the main project of walking guns. The military grenades that the cartels are swapping off tend to be leftovers from 80s and 90s unrest and insurgencies in Central America, plus the Mexican military’s ongoing loyalty problems. The ATF alleges that, “90% of grenades traced in Mexico are over 20 years old.”

But grenades walked by ATF’s cats-paw Jean Baptiste Kingery were used in 2013, along with other weapons which may or may not have been ATF-walked, to murder three officers of the Jalisco State Police in the village of Tepatitlan.  According to an ATF Significant Incident Report by liaison officer Jonathan Ortiz in the Bureau’s Mexico City office, one of ten grenades was attributed positively to Kingery by the Mexican officers, based on unspecified “evidence,” with no information on the other nine available.
More bodies to pile at the feet of Holder and Newell and Jones.
 
The history of the Kingery grenades is instructive. Kingery sourced his parts in the USA, then brought them to Mexico for final assembly and delivery. He was under ATF observation (although they thought he was under their control, a very different thing), from 2004 to 2010, when he made aliyah to his Sinaloa pals. He remains in Mexico; he was arrested there but ATF and DOJ has been remarkably uninterested in extraditing him.
Well, hell, of course they're not; if he's put in a courtroom here he might tell inconvenient truths.
The grenades, like the Iron River of ATF-sourced guns, were delivered to the cartels and to Mexico with the approval of Phoenix Group VII (SA’s Voth and McAllister inter alia), and the local US Attorney and an Assistant (Dennis K. Burke and Emory Hurley). The grenade-walking was also blessed by every layer of ATF and DOJ supervision. This included the Phoenix SACs and all management levels up to then-director Kenneth Melson and AG Eric Holder. Particularly responsible, apart from Voth and McAllister, were Phoenix field division SAC Bill Newell and Current Director Byron Todd Jones participated in the planning of the gun- and grenade-walking from his position in faraway Minnesota, as a trusted intimate of Holder.
Remember the administration insisted that Jones was pure as the driven snow and would clean up ATF....

The way it should be done

and it also pisses-off all the right people.
However, unlike Starbucks, Jack in the Box, Chipotle, and Target, Kroger has decided to reject the Bloomberg-inspired requests to ban guns on their property. I guess they (for some strange reason) didn’t feel like experiencing an uptick in violent crime and robberies.

According to the Wall Street Journal (strangely I didn’t see this report on Bloomberg News), a Kroger spokesperson has said that the company will continue to allow carry – both concealed and open carry – as allowed by local laws.


"Whattaya mean 'I have to obey that law'?  I'm a COP!"


DC wants to drag it out as long as possible, same as usual.


A lady in Californicated, who'd been in Africa, got sick and is being tested for ebola.  Ballseye has a problem with the 'Don't worry your little heads about it' from the authorities.


The CSGV: Super Astroturf.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Hey, it will work THIS time, because WE will be running it!

And we'll do it HARDER!
Which leads us to this little gem (http://www.vice.com/read/is-reducing-the-male-population-by-90-percent-the-solution-to-all-our-problems) of wannabe dictatorial idiocy – the kind of thing that is only possible if you have the sort of utterly repressive regime the communists specialized in.
Quite simply this “female” is a prime example of post-Soviet Derangement Stupidity – she has no idea how ridiculous or impossible her “enlightened” notions are, much less the kind of repression that would be necessary to enforce them – but one suspects she wouldn’t hesitate to enforce them because it’s “right”. Even if this meant the oh-so-euphemistic “culling” of the male population (and this doesn’t even go close to the potential genetic issues with the dopey creature’s plan – but then, she doesn’t have a degree in anything requiring rigorous attention to fact, so this is hardly surprising).
If you don't want to go to the link and read this crap(and I wouldn't blame you), at least read this:
What do you propose as alternatives?
Children should be raised communally and by the state. The nuclear family model is a breeding ground of deceptions, mediocrities, treacheries, hypocrisy, and violence. It needs to be abolished. Bigotry, prejudice, and antiquated convictions are passed down through each generation. The conventional family unit indoctrinates our youth and drains them of their potential. My solution would be to assign children caretakers whose task would simply be to provide shelter, food, clothing, and protection for each child—all of which would be yielded by the state. Perfect girls will be conceived, developed, and engineered in state-owned breeding centers. They will be bound together in a communal venue under the instruction and control of female savants.

But realistically that’s not what’s best for the kids.
Children must be provided a proper education, a sex-separated education that will focus on developing real-world skills and capacities for concept building. They will be taught the reality of true equality, production, labour, and will be provided a better understanding of sexuality, science, culture and ethnicity. If children are made wards of the state with assigned caretakers, not only will it be easier to undo the constraints of bigotry and the other archaic beliefs that are passed down from parents to their children, but children can be used to monitor the older generations in regard to the propagation of bigoted and antediluvian values. It is about creating a unified perception.

"Child it is your duty to the Whole to snitch on your genetic relations.  They must not be allowed to get away with having unapproved thoughts and words." 

I wonder if her guardians and savants will have snappy uniforms?  Maybe bright red armbands with a catchy symbol?

Officer Sunil Dutta says 'Be a good little commoner and do what I tell you

and I won't hurt you.'
And yet he demands unresisting submission to police without argument or even legal protest. Just how do you "refuse consent to search your car or home" without running afoul of the no-nos Dutta warns may get you "shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground"?
Remember, this is a thoughtful police officer, with a PhD., who teaches criminal justice.
...
But you don't have to have an armored vehicle to be a jerk and a danger to the public. If you have the attitude that you are owed deference and instant obediance by the people around you, and that you are justified in using violence against them if they don't comply, we already have a problem. That's especially true if official institutions back you up, which they do.
If you really think that everybody else should "just do what I tell you," you're wearing the wrong uniform in the wrong country. And if you really can't function with some give and take—a few nasty names, a little argument—of the sort that people in all sorts of jobs put up with every damned day, do us all a favor: quit.
The thoughtful and polite response to this guy was made by Mark Steyn the other day:
Really? You're a constable. You may be carrying on like the military commander of an occupying army faced with a rabble of revolting natives, but in the end you're a constable. And the fact that you and your colleagues in that McDonald's are comfortable speaking to your fellow citizens like this is part of the problem.
The more blunt response is 'Kiss my ass.  You're not my boss, and I have the right to make note of that.'




They're still hiding the names of the 'police' who did this,

and I wonder why?  After all, they 'have a calling', and you'd think they'd be proud of their actions, even if they do include damn near killing a baby through flat-out incompetence.  And now, just to make it even better,
Habersham County's attorney provided the following statement, saying: "The question before the board was whether it is legally permitted to pay these expenses. After consideration of this question following advice of counsel, the board of commissioners has concluded that it would be in violation of the law for it to do so." 
Because the SWAT team blowing up babies is a slight difficulty, but paying for the damages is Just Not Done.

Whereas screwing the family over further is just fine.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Yeah, semi-auto firearms that were/are what troops used

are a RECENT THING!

Except when they're not.  Sugarmann is a lying bastard, isn't he?


And while a city in Missouri is trying to burn down, this crap is happening and never makes anything more than local news.

They need military gear why, again?  They can't commit enough murders with their standard weapons?


Since I'm on the subject of assholes with badges, I give you the Antioch Californicated PD:
Police in Northern California beat and tased a mentally ill man before siccing a dog on him, then turning on citizens who recorded the incident, confiscating cell phones and in one case, ordering a witness to delete his footage.

But one video survived anyway, slightly longer than two minutes, where a cop from the Antioch Police Department can be heard saying he wants cameras confiscated right before the video stops.
 Can have evidence of what they did just out there in public, now can they?  And this:
Antioch police told ABC7 News in a statement, “If a person is not willing to turn it over voluntarily, an officer can sometimes seize the device containing the video. The police would have to get a search warrant to retrieve the video from the device.”
As Carlos Miller points out, this is completely wrong and has been wrong for a few years now. Guidelines from the Department of Justice passed down in 2012 state the exact opposite. Police can ask for compliance, but they need to be extremely careful in how they ask. They don't care about the law, because it's a problem for them.   Bastards.


More on the subject from Mark Steyn:
The most basic problem is that we will never know for certain what happened. Why? Because the Ferguson cruiser did not have a camera recording the incident. That's simply not credible. "Law" "enforcement" in Ferguson apparently has at its disposal tear gas, riot gear, armored vehicles and machine guns ...but not a dashcam. That's ridiculous. I remember a few years ago when my one-man police department in New Hampshire purchased a camera for its cruiser. It's about as cheap and basic a police expense as there is.
... In 2014, when a police cruiser doesn't have a camera, it's a conscious choice. And it should be regarded as such.

And, if we have to have federal subsidy programs for municipal police departments, we should scrap the one that gives them the second-hand military hardware from Tikrit and Kandahar and replace it with one that ensures every patrol car has a camera.
And this:
Really? You're a constable. You may be carrying on like the military commander of an occupying army faced with a rabble of revolting natives, but in the end you're a constable. And the fact that you and your colleagues in that McDonald's are comfortable speaking to your fellow citizens like this is part of the problem. The most important of the "nine principles of good policing" (formulated by the first two commissioners of the Metropolitan Police in 1829 and thereafter issued to every officer joining the force) is a very simple one: The police are the public and the public are the police. Not in Ferguson. Long before the teargassing begins and the bullets start flying, the way these guys talk is the first indication of how the remorseless militarization has corroded the soul of American policing.

Which brings me to this I ran across over at Sipsey.  I'd never heard it before; strikes a chord, it does



Remember 'Freeze a Yankee'?

Joe is reading the meteorological tea leaves and sees the potential for another round of heavy snowfall and crippling cold temperatures coming our way. And he also notes that our net energy production, in the wake of new EPA carbon regulations, is actually declining from the previous curve at a time when bad weather puts full load demand on the system.
...
Joe Bastardi: … It’s flowing along right now into the type of El Nino situation that is notorious for giving the United States cold, snowy winters, especially in the eastern part of the United States, relative to the averages. That would be significant because we were within one power plant last year of having the grid overload …
...
In order to comply with the new Obama era EPA regs, American Electric Power, which supplies a major portion of the electricity used on the east coast, will be closing almost one quarter of their coal fired plants between now and next June. This is because they were economically unable to come into compliance with the new regulations in the impossibly short window of opportunity offered by the EPA. This is going to reduce the total surge capacity available for some of our most densely populated areas just when we may get hit with weather related demand spikes beyond anyone’s control.
I guarantee that when it happens, you'll have people like Sen. Schumer demanding that power be diverted from flyover country to save the Important People and Places like New York, and screw the hicks.  You can guess how that'll go over.

The watermelons will blame the 'greedy utilities' and so forth, and Obama will probably tell us how this proves Globular Warmering as a threat to humanity, and we need more expensive electricity, and if you disagree why do you hate Mother Gaia and "I can't wait for Congress to act, I'm going to use my pen." 

Makes you wonder if you need a winter trigger for the Garand...

A: You were warned, dumbass

In hindsight, Mark said, Mitt Romney lined up with everything he believes in: “But what he was proposing was drowned out by the image Obama gave of him being a rich guy out of touch and tone-deaf to the needs of the country.

Turns out Obama was that guy, not Romney,” he said, jumping off the back of the truck and heading back onto the farm field with his crew.
B: Gee, think what might've happened if the Stupid Party hadn't had a candidate who tended to make people think 'Obama Lite'...

Sunday, August 17, 2014

'Higher' Education on display:

At the meeting, the chair of one of those departments said, "I find that I don't really need to spend much time with the liberal students, because they already have it right. I spend most of my time arguing with the conservative students. That's how I spend my time in class."
This woman was teaching conservative students how to think about arguments and evidence; how to make your arguments in a persuasive way. She was educating them.
Her liberal students? They were given that one-question test. They were just certified as already "knowing what they need to know."

If you consider 'educating' to mean "I have to make these slugs believe and speak the right things", yeah, she's educating them.

How much per year are these people paying for this crap?


On the subject of leftist morons, if he wasn't originally Andrew Sullivan has become a sorry Jew-hating moron.  A fine example:
In fact, you can say that one of the major sources of jihadist Islam and anti-Western terrorism has been not just the founding of Israel, but its expansion and its constant presence in the lives of so many Arabs in the Middle East.
The only way it has a 'constant presence' is that the Jews refuse to lay down and die.  Which apparently makes them guilty of tormenting the arabs.  Or something equally idiotic.

Of course, 'equally idiotic' fits right in with Sullivan the past years.


About the 'troops instead of cops' mess that a lot of the left and media is finally paying attention to,
But the far bigger (and related) problem was the one nearly everybody else in the media finally noticed after two decades of trying to ignore it: the extreme militarization of even small-town police departments and the attitude that the general public is the enemy.

Small Missouri police forces -- who reportedly "couldn't afford" cameras on their uniforms and couldn't get around to installing dashcams on their patrol cars so we could see what actually happened on that fatal Saturday night -- confronted peaceful protestors from atop military vehicles, outfitted in gear familiar from Iraq and Afghanistan. They threatened harmless people with the type of weapons that would give Dianne Feinstein knots in her knickers if you or I owned them. They acted not like officers trying to protect and serve their community, but like an occupying army facing its enemy.

Well, cops in many places have behaved like this. Some big cities have long been notorious for it. But that all this was happening in a minor suburb made people sit up and take notice. Williamson called them, "ridiculously militarized suburban police dressed up like characters from Starship Troopers and pointing rifles at people from atop armored vehicles, i.e. the worst sort of mall ninjas."
Bet the guy sitting on the armored vehicle with his ten-pounds-of-crap-larded-on rifle will be seriously butthurt when he hears he's been called a mall ninja.  Of the worst sort, yet.


How many current celebrities can you imagine doing this?







Add this to the other evidence indicating the land-bridge theory

doesn't cut it.
A 22,000-year-old mastodon skull and tool dredged from the seafloor in the Chesapeake Bay hints of early settlers in North America.

From what I've read over the last few years, especially due to finds in Central & South America, the land bridge theory has been in trouble for a while, both on the 'how & where' and the timing.  Add in the political fallout of showing early American arrivals from places other than the generally-accepted, and it'll be a while before this can be settled.


Professional Journalism




They need to start handing out copies of this

to every LE official in the country.  Some places in particular.
Regardless of your stance on the militarization of American police in general and the recent events in Missouri in particular, here’s a simple truth: a police department that loses the trust of the community it serves can no longer fulfill its primary function. 

I am not anti-police—I recognize policing duties as one of the few legitimate and important functions of a state. But the War on Drugs, onerous and liberty-destroying as it is, has merged with the War on Terror, and as a result we have big-city police departments who are perpetually in conflict mode.  It’s not that I mind the cops having AR-15s. What I mind is that “compliance by overwhelming force” has become the first and only tool in the toolbox in many cases. If you dress your cops like soldiers, equip them like soldiers, have them train like soldiers, and adopt the lingo of soldiers, it’s really no surprise when they sooner or later start feeling and acting like soldiers.

And, to push that point, this needs to be at the bottom:
Yes, it's from a tv show; the point is valid.  Very.

Add this from Lawdog to it, too.





How truly joyous...

At least, unlike Raj Whitehall, I could throw the paperwork down and dance on it.

Went out this morning to check tires, and discovered one really low.  Which led to finding the nail.  Right over by the edge of the tread, where it can't be patched.  Which means replacing the tire.

Add that to having to change out plug wires and the coil pack a week or so ago, and that's a fair bit of change I did not plan on spending this month.