What China Needs: Stronger Knife Control Laws

June 27th, 2013

36 killed after knife gang attacks China police station.

But don’t worry: If a knife gang attacks your average Chinese citizens in their home or apartment, they don’t need a gun, they can just call the pol—

Oh, right.

Also, when armed gangs attack a police station, it’s not a “riot,” it’s something closer to an insurrection. Or Assault on Precinct 13, Chinese-style.

If confirmed, it would be one of the bloodiest incidents in Xinjiang since nearly 200 people were killed in the regional capital, Urumqi, in 2009.

The region, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been the scene of numerous violent incidents in recent years amid tensions between the large population of Muslim Uighurs and the ruling Han ethnic group.

You know, if 200 people were killed in an American city at one time, we’d never hear the end of. The mere fact that such things keep happening suggests that China has a much weaker grip on its hinterlands than the media usually suggests.

(Schtick hat tip: Dwight.)

Supreme Court Voting Rights Act Decision Texas Fallout

June 26th, 2013

We’re already seeing some fallout from the Supreme Court’s Shelby County vs. Holder decision (the complete text of which is now online).

According to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Voter ID law will take effect immediately.

“With today’s decision, the State’s voter ID law will take effect immediately. Redistricting maps passed by the Legislature may also take effect without approval from the federal government.”

What remains unclear is whether the State of Texas can declare the 2011 redistricting maps valid without further court challenge. There’s currently a bill before Gov. Perry to confirm the 2012 interim maps as the official maps. However, that passed the Texas House and Senate before the Supreme Court ruling. Perry may well decide to veto the measure in order to go with the 2011 maps, which would be more favorable to Republicans.

Supreme Court Limits Preclearance Provision of Voting Rights Act

June 25th, 2013

The Supreme Court today limited use of the “preclearence” requirements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Hopefully I’ll have more details when the actual text of the decision is up later today.

I also wonder if Texas might re-institute the 2011 redistricting map, which was struck down by the San Antonio district court largely on the ground the Supreme Court just invalidated.

SCOTUSblog has more.

Today’s the Day to Contact Your Senator Opposing Amnesty

June 24th, 2013

Contact your senators here to tell them you oppose both the Gang of Eight and Corker-Hoeven illegal alien amnesty bills.

Something like this:

Dear Sen. Cornyn,

Not only do I oppose both the Gang of 8 and substitute Corker-Hoeven illegal alien amnesty bills, but I support a filibuster of any “amnesty first” illegal alien legislation, will withhold all financial report support from the national Republican Party committees if it passes, and will support primary challenges to any Republican who votes in favor of it.

LinkSwarm for June 21, 2013

June 21st, 2013

And now the traditional Friday LinkSwarm on Friday!

  • “Detroit is expecting its creditors to take less than 10 cents on the dollar for having been foolish enough to lend money to the collection of misfits, miscreants, and criminals who govern that poor city….The problem is that the same political leadership that brought Detroit to this sorry pass remains in power…Detroit cannot be trusted with its own money, it cannot be trusted with its creditors’ money, and it certainly cannot be trusted with federal taxpayers’ money.”
  • “The federal government has been spying and lying. The only comfort is that, apparently, it’s been largely incompetent at both.”
  • Daily Kos founder joins the chorus of liberal concern trolls saying Republicans had darn well better embrace amnesty or be doomed. It’s like Microsoft telling Goggle what it’s investment strategy should be.
  • And no, Republicans are not doomed if they don’t vote for amnesty.
  • In the amnesty proposal, it takes three DUIs before they consider kicking an illegal alien out of the country.
  • Spengler: Egypt and Syria have already failed.
  • Father shoots thug attacking daughter. But the father is the one liberals want to disarm.
  • Gender studies professor and FBI most wanted sex offender Walter Lee Williams captured in Mexico. Not to be confused with awesome economics professor Walter E. WIlliams of George Mason University.
  • USS Enterprise (CVN-65), America’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, takes its final voyage.
  • Out on my ass? I guarantee it! (Also, I think The Men’s Warehouse’s problems are less “unable to connect with Gen Y” and more “nobody wants to wear a suit unless they have to and fewer and fewer men have to.” Go casual or go extinct.)
  • Ted Cruz Fights Gang of 8 Illegal Alien Amnesty Proposal

    June 20th, 2013

    Now would be a good time to call and email you Senator (and your Representative) to let them know you oppose the “Gang of 8” illegal alien amnesty proposal currently being debated in the Senate, especially since it does less than nothing to secure the border, and makes hiring illegals more attractive than hiring Americans, since employers need not pay for their ObamaCare.

    Now would also be a great time to contact anyone you know at the national Republican Party and inform them that you will not donate a dime to any national GOP committee if illegal alien amnesty passes.

    Here’s Ted Cruz speaking against the amnesty proposal on the Senate floor:

    And on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show:

    Adventures in Criminal Dumbassery

    June 19th, 2013

    Suppose you want the police to arrest you, but you aren’t quite ambitious enough to issue a death threat to the President. What to do? Well, How about:

  • Issuing a death threat to a sitting United States Senator (and his father, just for good measure)?
  • Leaving a message with the threat on the Senator’s office voicemail?
  • Asking for $3 million to “prevent the sun from blowing up?”
  • Doing all of this from your own home phone number?
  • All of the above?
  • Well, Nick K. Gates appears to be just that special kind of criminal dumbass since he left threatening messages against Ted Cruz at two of his offices under the name “Abolfanzi Akbori.”

    The article makes Gates seem quite the prize:

    In a June 10 interview at his Houston apartment, Gates told investigators he has spent 12 days in the Harris County Mental Health Center.

    Gates has a prior felony conviction for attempted retaliation, where he threatened the life of a Houston police officer and his child after the officer arrested him for driving while intoxicated, according to the arrest warrant. He also was convicted on the DWI charge.

    More information on this Super-genius:

    Upon further investigation, FBI agents in Austin learned that agents in Houston were investigating Gates for “threatening the life of a Houston based FBI agent.”

    Authorities also learned that Federal Protective Services Houston had an open case on Gates for “sending inappropriate emails and making inappropriate phone calls” to the U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services case worker who handled his immigration case.

    What a want to know is: With just a single felony conviction, wouldn’t our crazy, threatening felon be eligible for the Gang of 8 amnesty proposal?

    (Hat tip: Jammie Wearing Fools via Ace of Spades.)

    LinkSwarm for June 18, 2013

    June 18th, 2013

    Too much going on, so here’s a LinkSwarm to start your day:

  • Why the IRS scandal is worse than the others.
  • Snowden: Obama made all NSA abuses worse. Well, making things worse is Obama’s magic touch…
  • The NSA confirms it can listen to domestic phone calls without a court order. Or so Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said a few days ago, but now he’s trying to walk his statement back.
  • Even Al Gore is shocked at the NSA’s sweeping domestic surveillance. Hey Al: That’s just what happens when you have no controlling legal authority.
  • Don’t tell the liberals, but conservatives actually won the Arizona voting rights case.
  • Erdogan cracks down in Turkey. (Hat tip: Claire Berlinski’s Twitter feed.)
  • Q: What do Democrats call illegal aliens who have beaten women and children? A: Evidently future Democratic voters, since they refuse to amend the Gang of 8 illegal alien amnesty bill to exclude them.
  • A rundown on Texas gun laws signed into law from the most recent session. (Previously.)
  • Democratic Rep. John Larson (D–Con) whines that it’s so very, very unfair that ObamaCare applies to congress. Hold on, Rep. Larson. When I can get some time on a scanning-tunneling microscope, I’ll see if I can find an appropriately sized violin.
  • Maureen Dowd slams Obama some more: “When the man who polled where to take his summer vacation and whether to tell the truth about his affair with Monica Lewinsky tells you you’re a captive of polls, you’d better listen up.” Bonus: Description of the NSA program as “No Call Left Behind.”
  • A new crime control initiative in Houston: arm the law-abiding. More on the Armed Citizen Project here.
  • Second Amendment activists gather twice the necessary number for signatures to force a recall election for Colorado Senate President John Morse.
  • Animal Rights activists get Obama Administration to end testing on chimps. So much for liberals being part of the “science-based community.”
  • SooperMexican makes brutal fun of the SNAP Challenge. (If you’ve never heard of the SNAP challenge, it’s another variant on the “Any time conservatives cut a dime of government funding, 10 million children starve!” argument.)
  • Scientists invent a robotic cat. Evidently it has the “massive indifference to your presence” and “not coming when you call it” parts of a cat’s personality down pat…
  • A Quick LinkSwarm on Syria

    June 17th, 2013

    So Obama is (maybe) going to be shipping arms to Syrian rebels. I think this is a remarkably bad idea for a number of reasons, none of them that Bashar Assad isn’t a murderous thug who oppresses his own people, supports terrorism, and attacks and destabilizes neighbors like Lebanon and Israel. All that is true, and Assad certainly deserves a bullet in his head for his sins.

    But there’s zero compelling evidence that toppling him is in the United State’s best interests, that America has any vital interests at sake in the Syrian civil war, or that al Qaeda-related Islamslist thugs won’t come out on top, impose Sharia law, and export Sunni-branded terrorism every bit as vicious and deadly as Assad’s Shia-backed variety. Indeed, the history of Libya and Egypt suggests that they are likely to be considerably worse. And predicting that Sunni Islamists are likely to come out on top of a post-Assad power struggle is like predicting that guys are going to wake up with no memory of last night in a Hangover sequel: we’ve seen this movie before.

    Anyway, here are a few links for the current situation in Syria.

  • Who makes up the opposition to Assad in Syria? “An array of rebel militias heavily infiltrated by radical Islamists and al Qaida loyalists with no central command.” In other words: exactly who those of us paying attention have said they are.
  • Victor Davis Hanson makes the case that intervention in Syria is a bad idea. I’m glad I’m not the only one.
  • Michael Totten can’t make heads or tails of Obama’s plans for Syria…including whether we’re actually arming the rebels or not.
  • Speaking of Totten, he links to this piece that argues. “The Islamic Republic[of Iran]’s headlong intervention in Syria is akin to Nazi Germany’s surge of military forces into the Battle of Stalingrad in the fall of 1942 – an operationally competent, strategic blunder of epic proportions.” Not buying it, especially the part that says “Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ultimate defeat is a foregone conclusion.” His argument of Irnaian-backed losses being unsustainable also sounds remarkably like the “flypaper strategy” some said would kill off the supply of radical Islamists by drawing them to the insurgency and killing them in Iraq, and we all know how well that theory turned out…
  • Texas vs. California Update for 6/17/13

    June 17th, 2013

    Time for another Texas vs. California roundup!

  • California’s mullet budget: conservative in the front, but with a long greasy, tangled mane of liberal spending and debt in the back.
  • “Public pension costs are increasing simply because liabilities are growing faster than assets….To meet the rate at which pension liabilities were growing in 1999, Calpers needed the Dow to reach 30,000 by now.”
  • “California still has a mammoth long-term pension gap. If it used the same pension accounting standards as private companies must, its total debts would be a terrifying $1 trillion.”
  • What does the future look like in California? Well, take a look at Detroit, another one-party liberal Democrat fiefdom, where decades of chronic overspending and mismanagement are leading to a bankruptcy filing which will screw bond-holders and pensioners alike.
  • Speaking of bankrupt cities that can’t pay their bills, Stockton is paying out $5.1 million in settlements for retirees who are losing their health benefits due to the bankruptcy.
  • Some inside baseball news on maneuverings in the Stockton and San Bernardino bankruptcies.
  • Due the huge looming deficits, California’s public employee unions have had to accept wage cuts. Ha, just kidding! They’re getting raises.
  • California’s highest court rules that privacy rights don’t apply to you if public employee unions want your money.
  • Despite high electric rates, California is shuttering one of its nuclear power plants.
  • Thanks to California’s implementation of ObamaCare, Aetna is exiting the individual insurance market there.
  • Rick Perry travels to Connecticut to woo gun manufacturers to relocate to Texas.
  • Why NBA All-Star Dwight Howard might join the Houston Rockets: Texas’ lack of a state income tax.