Guns/Crime Roundup for January 30, 2014

January 30th, 2014

Time for another roundup of gun news, with a nice savory side-dish of criminal stupidity:

  • Dick Metcalf is like a guy who converted to Islam, then wonders why he can’t be a Catholic bishop anymore.
  • Could Abramski vs. United States strike down the ATF’s “straw purchase” regulations? Even so, unlike the poster, I don’t think this will mean “the gun-grabber’s drive for universal background checks is over as a constitutional matter,” since the gun grabbers will never give up on trying to disarm the law-abiding…
  • 12-year Oklahoma girl shoots home invader. She and her family are the sort of people Piers Morgan wants to disarm.
  • Sprouts decides that they don’t want law-abiding gun owners to shop there.
  • Florida lawmakers attempt to get the state to ban cooperation with Obama’s gun-grabbing agenda. Since it cites the Tenth Amendment, it’s not quite South Carolina’s 1832 Ordinance of Nullification… (Hat tip: Alphecca.)
  • Illinois wants to disarm those on medical marijuana.
  • Here’s a ProTip for another criminal supergenius: If you’re a registered sex offender, don’t film yourself firing guns.
  • Nicholas Johnson’s Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms is now out.
  • Naked and masturbating in the middle of an intersection is no way to go through life, son. (Hate tip: Ace.)

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    Posted in Crime, Guns, Supreme Court | No Comments »

    LinkSwarm for January 29, 2014

    January 29th, 2014

    Lots of news from around the world, where the global economy is handing like a Kia that’s just started losing traction on an icy hill:

  • Bundesbank: Don’t look at us, broke PIIGS, you’re going to have to screw your own people.
  • Does a big default loom in China?
  • Russian bank halts all cash withdrawals?
  • Meanwhile, reports that Chinese banks have stopped allowing withdrawals turns out to be a false alarm.
  • European earnings outlook: Zero.
  • Problem: Greek economy still sucking wind. Solution: change how GDP is calculated.
  • Japan hits record trade deficit. Remember when they were supposed to take over the world?
  • The ruble flirts with record lows.
  • Obama and the Democratic Party’s numbers are worse than they were in 2010.
  • Planned Parenthood wonders what’s the big deal with a little statutory rape among friends?
  • Florida heroin kingpin is an illegal alien on food stamps.
  • Another Democrat convicted of that vote fraud that doesn’t exist. (Hat tip: Dwight.)

  • Democrats actually polling worse than they were in 2010. And that’s from Dem pollster/booster John B. Judis.
  • Target’s part-time workers get ObamaCared.
  • We have a winner for troll of the year:

    Every time I hear someone say that feminism is about validating every choice a woman makes I have to fight back vomit.

    Do people really think that a stay at home mom is really on equal footing with a woman who works and takes care of herself? There’s no way those two things are the same. It’s hard for me to believe it’s not just verbally placating these people so they don’t get in trouble with the mommy bloggers.

    Having kids and getting married are considered life milestones. We have baby showers and wedding parties as if it’s a huge accomplishment and cause for celebration to be able to get knocked up or find someone to walk down the aisle with. These aren’t accomplishments, they are actually super easy tasks, literally anyone can do them. They are the most common thing, ever, in the history of the world. They are, by definition, average.

    Amy Glass, come down and collect your coveted Trolly! (Hat tip: Instapundit.)

  • “Woman Takes Short Half-Hour Break From Being Feminist To Enjoy TV Show”
  • In case you didn’t notice, Iran’s mullahs are still lying, violent scumbags.
  • Strangely enough, Israeli’s trust Netanyahu more than Obama. Funny how a mere 40+ years Palestinians breaking every agreement they’ve signed will sour people on the peace process…
  • Michael Totten wanders around Cuba some more, where he let’s us know that Cubans can be arrested for unauthorized shrimp.
  • California Court determines that disgraced serial journalistic liar Stephen Glass is too dishonest to be a lawyer.
  • In other news, Eugene Volokh stuns Washington Post readers with non-liberal thoughts on guns and other topics.
  • Have you ever considered the possibility that Woody Allen isn’t a child molester?
  • Drive a Fit, a Prius, a Yaris, or a Fiat 500? Hope you’ve made out a will.
  • Anthony Weiner forced to downsize to an apartment whose rent is a mere 6 times my mortgage.

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    Posted in Border Control, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, ObamaCare, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »

    Ukraine Update for January 28, 2014

    January 28th, 2014

    The good news from Ukraine: most of the totalitarian laws suppressing free speech have been repealed and prime minister Mykola Azarov has resigned.

    The bad news: brutal thug and Putin toady Viktor Yanukovych is still President, and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko is still imprisoned.

    Says one writer in the Moscow Times:

    The Yanukovych administration is marked by two main features. First, Yanukovych is essentially a small-time criminal, and such people have a unique profile. They are typically rather dull, always looking for an opportunity to steal and incapable of anticipating the long-term consequences of their actions.

    Second, Ukraine is actually ruled by Yanukovych’s eldest son and his friends — all filthy rich. Since coming to power, Yanukovych has fired all of his original associates and alienated his initial sponsors, such as oligarchs Rinat Akhmetov and Dmytro Firtash.

    Current map of the situation:

    Other Ukraine/Euromaidan news

  • A look inside the brutal Berkut riot police. “While other security and law enforcement agencies have undergone reform in the years since the Orange revolution, Ukraine’s police remain largely unchanged.”
  • EU actually getting pissed off over Russian meddling in Ukraine.
  • Putin responds by threatening to withdraw his offer of $15 billion in bailout funds if Yanukovych is deposed.
  • Tymoshenko’s most recent statement.
  • An open letter from Ukrainian writer Yuri Andrukhovych:

    During the less than four years of its rule, Viktor Yanukovych’s regime has brought the country and the society to the utter limit of tensions. Even worse, it has boxed itself into a no-exit situation where it must hold on to power forever – by any means necessary. Otherwise it would have to face criminal justice in its full severity. The scale of what has been stolen and usurped exceeds all imagination of what human avarice is capable.

  • More photos.

    • On a lighter note, all I could think of when viewing this pic was “Ukraine’s furry contingent has joined the fight for freedom!”

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    Posted in Communism, Crime, Foreign Policy | No Comments »

    Blogroll Addition: Zero Hedge

    January 27th, 2014

    Newly added to the blogroll: Zero Hedge, for all your DOOM-y international economic news needs.

    Also consider this your “I didn’t have time to put up an extensive blog post” post…

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    Posted in Economics | No Comments »

    Rick Perry Comes Out For Marijuana Decriminalization

    January 24th, 2014

    Rick Perry has come out for marijuana decriminalization and for states rights on legalization (though he still opposes legalization himself).

    This makes Perry objectively more pro-legalization that former frequent choom-abuser Barack Obama.

    This will be a great surprise to people who know Perry only from the liberal caricature of him in their head, or who haven’t been following the intellectual debate among conservatives, which has leaned toward the “legalize it, regulate it and tax it” position for almost a quarter century now.

    Perry has been a staunch supporter of the Tenth Amendment and States Rights. To reiterate what I’ve said before, I oppose the War on Drugs for reasons of general principles (it’s not the purpose of government to save people from themselves), the specific application of constitutional federalism (the Commerce Clause should not apply to the regulation of drugs manufactured and sold within the confines of a single state), and for reasons of budgetary philosophy (making drugs illegal has expanded the size and power of the federal government while increasing the budget deficit; legalizing, regulating and taxing drugs would reduce both the deficit and the harm to individuals and society). My position is not uncommon among conservatives, Republicans, or members of the Tea Party.

    So liberals: Stop acting shocked when conservatives come out for decriminalization and legalization. The only reason it is a shock is that you refuse to listen.

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    Posted in Regulation, Texas | No Comments »

    Ukraine Update for January 23, 2014

    January 23rd, 2014

    What’s going on in Ukraine right now? Good question. The situation is probably best described as “fluid.”

    A ceasefire has been reached. I don’t think this would happen unless President Viktor Yanukovych is worried he might lose the showdown.

    Protesters stormed three governor’s offices, one of whom resigned.

    A good summary of the situation, including the role of Yanukovych’s Berkut stormtroopers, the neutrality (so far) of the army, and the fractured nature of the opposition.

    From that I’ve also stole this video of the Berkut in action:

    More Berkut:

    Ukraine police leaving the force?

    Ukraine police torture naked protester in the cold?

    Heh:

    Ted Cruz has condemned the crackdown and called on all branches of the United States government to support the opposition.

    So what have Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry said about the latest crises in Ukraine? As far as I can tell: Nothing. Indeed, the Ukraine office of the State Department has issued only mild, per-forma tut-tutting.

    This is the most important foreign policy question in the world right now, and they’re asleep at the switch.

    Or maybe they just don’t care.

    Finally, here’s a Euromaidan livestream:

    And another:

    Other livestreams can be found here.

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    Posted in Communism, Foreign Policy | 1 Comment »

    Five Dead in Ukraine

    January 22nd, 2014

    And the hammer came down.

    Hot on the heels of Yanukovych’s rubberstamp parliament passing numerous dictatorial laws, he decided it was time to clean up these filthy peasants protesting for democracy and closer ties to Europe. (Background here.)

    Twitter and Facebook have reportedly been blocked in Kiev:

    The government is tracking protesters using their cell phones.

    Radio Free Europe coverage.

    Search Twitter for #Euromaiden.

    Video:

    They even cracked down on that notorious violent, subversive organization, The Red Cross:

    Some photos from Twitter:

    Honestly, the protestors should consider that it’s time to stop burning tires, and start burning secret police headquarters….

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    Posted in Communism, Foreign Policy | No Comments »

    Wendy Davis Continues to Double Down on Stupid

    January 22nd, 2014

    A smart politician, when caught telling a lie, apologizes, corrects the record and moves on.

    Since the era of Bill Clinton, this is not the way Democrats do things. What Democrats do now is act outraged that critics and political opponents would dare point out their lies.

    Rather than admit that she lied about key features of her biography, Wendy Davis is attacking the journalists that exposed her lies. But particularly baffling is her instance on embedding an obvious lie about her history smack dab in the middle of a paragraph that exposes the lie in her revised biography.

    Wendy left home at 17, married when she was 18 and had her first daughter Amber when she was 19. She and her husband lived in a trailer, and Wendy continued to live there with Amber after they were separated. As a single mother at age 19, she often struggled to make ends meet. Wendy filed for divorce when she was 20 and she and Amber lived for a short time with her mother. The divorce became final when she was 21.

    So:

    1. She married when she was 18.
    2. She filed for divorce when she was 20.
    3. Ergo, the assertion that “As a single mother at age 19, she often struggled to make ends meet” is obviously false, since she was not a single mother at age 19.

    It’s like Lindsay Lohan stating “I was addicted to cocaine for several years. But fortunately, I was never addicted to cocaine.”

    Again, facts are stubborn things. The smart thing to do would be for Davis to come clean completely and not try to peddle obvious lies as truth.

    But her campaign gives precious little evidence that Davis is that smart…

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections | 1 Comment »

    In Which I TweetFisk Wendy Davis’ Non-Denial Denials

    January 22nd, 2014

    Didn’t plan on doing two Wendy Davis pieces in a row, but her latest stream of non-denial denial tweets offered up so many slow, lazy pitches straight over the plate I felt the urge to partake of batting practice:

    Now a few more bonus tweets from other people:

    (Hat tip: Legal Insurrection.)

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Texas | No Comments »

    Your Obligatory “Wendy Davis is a Damn Liar” Post

    January 21st, 2014

    Everyone and their dog has already chimed in on Wendy Davis’ serial prevarications by now, but hey, it is my state.

    WendyDavisSadDog

    In the Dallas Morning News, political reporter Wayne Slater brought up examples of Davis’ campaign biography that don’t match up with the facts:

    It is her biography — a divorced teenage mother living in a trailer who earned her way to Harvard and political achievement — that her team is using to attract voters and boost fundraising.

    The basic elements of the narrative are true, but the full story of Davis’ life is more complicated, as often happens when public figures aim to define themselves. In the shorthand version that has developed, some facts have been blurred.

    Davis was 21, not 19, when she was divorced. She lived only a few months in the family mobile home while separated from her husband before moving into an apartment with her daughter.

    A single mother working two jobs, she met Jeff Davis, a lawyer 13 years older than her, married him and had a second daughter. He paid for her last two years at Texas Christian University and her time at Harvard Law School, and kept their two daughters while she was in Boston. When they divorced in 2005, he was granted parental custody, and the girls stayed with him. Wendy Davis was directed to pay child support.

    In an extensive interview last week, Davis acknowledged some chronological errors and incomplete details in what she and her aides have said about her life.

    “My language should be tighter,” she said. “I’m learning about using broader, looser language. I need to be more focused on the detail.”

    Just try that “my language should be tighter” line if you ever get audited by the IRS.

    Wendy Davis’ campaign biography leans heavily on her time as a single teenage mom. She was indeed all of those things, just not at the same time.

    Other tidbits: When she ran for the Ft. Worth city council in 1996, she did it as a Republican and voted in GOP primaries.

    Also, there’s that little bit about Davis leaving her husband the day after he paid off her Harvard loan. As one Twitter wag put it:

    There are a few other tiny wrinkles to Davis’ life story. The fact her ex sought a restraining order to keep her from using illegal drugs while visiting her children is one. Another is the fact that she lied about some of the details of her life story under oath.

    A few more Twitter observations on the latest Wendy Davis revelations:

    It also doesn’t say much about her intelligence that she thought she could get away with these lies in the Internet era…

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Texas | 1 Comment »

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