With an uptick in crime around the
neighborhood (and TriMet's months away from running "trains" on the light rail tracks they're ramming through), residents in Jennings Lodge, which is a little burg just southeast of Porkland, Oregon) have formed a new neighborhood association: the Glock Block. Signs posted around the 'hood note "We don't call 911". They've got firearms training and concealed-carry permits.
Ideally, the signs alone will deter most of the bad guys.
On the off chance that LEOs need to get involved, yesterday's SCOTUS ruling may be worth bearing in mind: introverts aren't necessarily compatible with the 5th Amendment.
But today, in Salinas v. Texas, the Supreme Court of the United States held that you do not assert your right to remain silent by remaining silent. If you want to remain silent, you’ll need to be prepared to talk about it.
The secret beaches of Malibu: rich Lefties like Pierce Brosnan, David Geffen, and Michael Eisner all have beachfront homes there, and they go to great lengths to keep the commoners off the beach - even though, by law, California beaches are public property. Geffen has famously sued in the past to keep the riff-raff out; others employ strategies such as planting hedges to obscure public access points, posting security guards, and posting misleading or outright fake signs in the area, claiming private property - no trespassing - when they don't own the areas in question.
Now they're all aflutter because environmental writer Jenny Price got some funds together on Kickstarter and hooked up with some tech folks to create a free iPhone app that shows commoners where and how to legally access the Malibu beach; even going so far as to display illegal or misleading sign placement by residents and sparking fears amongst the hoi polloi that they'll soon thave "their" beach overrun by common folk. Maybe they can get the Sierra Club to weigh in on the matter - after all, they hate private property too (unless it happens to be theirs). Imagine all of the environmental damage that these ignorant proles may inflict upon the unsullied Malibu beach!
He's sounding like nanny "We have to pass this bill so you can find out what's in it" Pelosi, these days. In his version, we need to register illegal aliens Right Now so that they can start paying fines and fees which will be used to fund increased border security.
He's right there with Chuckie Schumer, who in 1986 assured us all that passing amnesty would definitely not lead to a flood of illegal aliens scrambling across our borders, then stood around with his hands in his pockets, whistling tunelessly as millions of additional illegal aliens flooded across the border. That won't happen again, sez he.
Here's a bit of news for Chuckie and his pal, Marco: we've seen this movie before, and we weren't too thrilled with the ending.
A brief article in Salon, of all places, notes the ongoing legal skirmishes in Florida by a bunch of self-important jerks who consider themselves atheists. The Freedom From Religion Foundation and a related organization calling itself the Central Florida Freethought Community had a hissy-fit when a Collier County judge ruled that it was perfectly acceptable for schools to allow a table with Bibles on it, free for the taking. Naturally, the Salon writer thinks that's a stupid move. Some 1700 copies of said Bibles were taken by passing students, and although neither the Salon writer nor the two atheist organizations have any idea as to why some of them may have been taken from the tables. Some kids may have taken one to burn, or otherwise deface, for all they know - but in any event, the mere presence of the tomes was Very Bad.
So they sought permission to distribute some books and flyers of their own. Most were permitted by the schools, though some were not, due to "incendiary content". Things with titles like "An X-Rated Book" and "Why I'm Not A Muslim" were apparently excluded. As might be expected, the groups are suing because not all of the materials were permitted for distribution. That's just being obnoxious.
Of course, they're all worked up as well because there's a Bible sitting right next to a Mayor's desk in a town in Florida:
Atheists are outraged that a Bible sits right next to the mayor’s desk, inside a Pinellas Park City Council chamber, and they’re demanding its removal.
City officials, however, say that’s a no-go. The Bible’s been there for more than 30 years, and laws don’t prohibit its presence, The Blaze reported. The book was an Oct. 19, 1975, gift to council members from the Kiwanis club, and it’s been a traditional fixture ever since.
Freedom From Religion Foundation officials say they don’t care. They sent a letter to city officials, saying the Bible needs to go because it violates the principle of separation of church and state.
That's their problem, in a nutshell: there is no such "principle". In fact, the language is pretty clear: government is prohibited from establishing a religion; nothing more. And the mere presence of a Bible near the Mayor's desk is clearly not an "establishment". It's almost as though there's some sort of contest going on to see who can be the most pathetic jerks in the country.
If there is, then the atheists are on track to win it.
INSIDE FORT MEADE, Maryland, a top-secret city bustles. Tens of thousands of people move through more than 50 buildings—the city has its own post office, fire department, and police force. But as if designed by Kafka, it sits among a forest of trees, surrounded by electrified fences and heavily armed guards, protected by antitank barriers, monitored by sensitive motion detectors, and watched by rotating cameras. To block any telltale electromagnetic signals from escaping, the inner walls of the buildings are wrapped in protective copper shielding and the one-way windows are embedded with a fine copper mesh.
It's the headquarters from which one of the most powerful men in the world, four-star General Keith Alexander, commands thousands of forces - including tens of thusands involved in cyberwarfare as well as conventional forces:
He is director of the world’s largest intelligence service, the National Security Agency; chief of the Central Security Service; and commander of the US Cyber Command. As such, he has his own secret military, presiding over the Navy’s 10th Fleet, the 24th Air Force, and the Second Army.
To say nothing of satellites and other technology at his disposal. This is the 21st century, and cyberwarfare is the next wave, just as nukes defined much of the 20th century. Stuxnet, designed to take down Iranian enrichment centrifuges, was just the tip of things; a bit of work that somehow escaped containment, which allowed other countries to isolate and study it - and begin pointing fingers at the USA. It was an error that Alexander will not allow to be repeated, and the General always gets his way. With an annual budget of nearly $5 billion at his fingertips, his reach is long - and powerful. And he's ruthless.
Oregon's House and Senate have passed slightly varying bills allowing loggers to sue environmeddlist "activists" for damages including litigation expenses; leveling the playing field. Professional activists have for many years had the upper hand, particularly when it comes to litigation, because when they sued, they could collect inflated "costs of litigation" if they won, but paid nothing if they lost.
This bill's likely to pass, and if Governor Retread signs it into law, the professional activists will, for the first time, have to pay up if they lose in court. It's 30+ years overdue.
A local cop pulled over a 64 year-old male driver for "DUII". Jessie Thornton was cuffed and curbed, and given a breathalyzer test - on which he registered 0.00. So the cop noted Jessie's bloodshot eyes, and told him that was evidence of being under the influence. His car was impounded. Other cops did some more exams, coming up negative. Eventually, Jessie was released, though he couldn't get his car back out of impound until the following Monday.
What about those bloodshot eyes? He'd been swimming in the 24-Hour Fitness pool.
In response to a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation over their refusal to honor a FOIA request for documents relating to a ruling by the FISA court that some of their snooping had in fact violated the 4th Amendment, DoJ argues that the secret ruling by the secret court on secret surveillance must remain secret because it's secret. Another example of pure genius from the Obama administration.
The pair of lesbians who stirred up a hissy-fit because a bakery in Gresham wouldn't bake them a "wedding" cake (homosexual marriage isn't recognized in Oregon, anyway) never really had a leg to stand on - because as it happens, they were trying to violate the Constitutional rights of the baker.
The Oregon Constitution is also quite clear relative to the limits of government. Specifically in ARTICLE 1, BILL OF RIGHTS:
Section 3. Freedom of religious opinion. No law shall in any case whatever control the free exercise, and enjoyment of religious opinions, or interfere with the rights of conscience.
In other words, no matter how desperately they may want to force the baker to "accept and embrace" their homosexual "marriage", the Constitution precludes them from doing so. It's no wonder that so many on the Left want to redefine federal and state Constitutions as "living documents" that can be changed as they see fit.
Tolerance™, to them, means "approve of what I do, even if it conflicts with your values and beliefs".
Maybe next time, these folks should try a Muslim bakery.
All views are welcome here, but there are a few rules that most understand intuitively. If you're stupid, you need them spelled out. So this note's for you:
1) You don't get to call people names (referred to in general parlance as an "ad-hominem attack").
2) You don't get to hijack discussion threads. This means that you confine your comments to the the post, and/or to comments related to the post.
3) You don't get to spit, drool, crap on the carpets, nor employ expletives - even if you believe that doing so showcases your vast intellectual capabilities.
4) If you happen to be stupid enough to be unable to comply with the above rules, you will receive one (1) warning - after which your subsequent comments may be removed, and your comment privileges revoked.
