What mistake did Raymond Felton make?
Was it simply owning an FN Herstal handgun, that holds "up to about 20 rounds", according to an AP news report, or that it was loaded with 18 rounds? No.
Was it the act of leaving said handgun at his own house, where his estranged wife continued residing? Mmm-mmm-maybe.
Was it the decision to live and work in a state that has gun laws that contravene and infringe upon his fundamental right to self-protection? Ding-ding-ding-ding.
The first report I read said that his wife filed for divorce on Monday, and had a friend of hers turn the pistol in to the police-gang (who also like carrying the FN Herstal Five-seveN, by the way) on Tuesday. So, I'm guessing the charges get dismissed with some judicial finger-wagging, due to Raymond's not being in actual possession of the weapon at the time.
Personally, I'm hoping Mr. Felton "sticks to his guns" so to speak, tells the Manhattan D.A. that it's none of his fucking business what kind of guns and how many bullets he owns, stores, and carries around with him on his very person and demands his firearm be immediately returned. If he does, I think this has the makings of a first-rate 2nd Amendment infringement case.
I stand behind Raymond Felton's right to keep and bear arms.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Fran Poretto and the Nice Guy Trap
Do you recall how eloquently Milton Friedman responded to a question or challenge on economics (or on anything, for that matter)? It could be the most profound wisdom, but he always wrapped and delivered it in the simplest package. Like getting an entire feast in one delicious, tender morsel? Satisfying, completely, to the worst hunger.
Such is this essay from Francis Poretto, citing this essay from James Delingpole. Witness...
Compromise is potentially constructive only when it's strictly about means: i.e., when the two sides angling toward a compromise sincerely agree on the end to be sought, and are both willing to allow that they might be wrong about what means would best serve that end. Under those conditions, everyone involved will be watching the outcome and judging the means applied by that standard alone. When the ends are opposed to one another, compromise must disserve one or the other. It cannot be any other way.
As Delingpole, at Breitbart London, says:
It's what I call the 'Dogshit Yoghurt Fallacy'.
On one side of the argument are those of us who think yoghurt works best with a little fruit or maybe just on its own. On the other are those who believe passionately that what yoghurt really needs is the addition of something more earthy, organic, recycled - like maybe a nice scoop of dogshit.
Now you can call me a dangerous extremist if you like, for refusing under any conditions to accommodate the alternative point of view. Or you could call me one of those few remaining brave souls in a cowardly, compromised world still prepared to tell it like it is: that dogshit into yoghurt simply doesn't go, no matter how many expert surveys you cite, nor how eco-friendly it shows you to be, nor how homeopathic the dosage.
Let us all abandon the nonsense of feeling guilty for refusing their dogshit yoghurt.
Such is this essay from Francis Poretto, citing this essay from James Delingpole. Witness...
Compromise is potentially constructive only when it's strictly about means: i.e., when the two sides angling toward a compromise sincerely agree on the end to be sought, and are both willing to allow that they might be wrong about what means would best serve that end. Under those conditions, everyone involved will be watching the outcome and judging the means applied by that standard alone. When the ends are opposed to one another, compromise must disserve one or the other. It cannot be any other way.
As Delingpole, at Breitbart London, says:
It's what I call the 'Dogshit Yoghurt Fallacy'.
On one side of the argument are those of us who think yoghurt works best with a little fruit or maybe just on its own. On the other are those who believe passionately that what yoghurt really needs is the addition of something more earthy, organic, recycled - like maybe a nice scoop of dogshit.
Now you can call me a dangerous extremist if you like, for refusing under any conditions to accommodate the alternative point of view. Or you could call me one of those few remaining brave souls in a cowardly, compromised world still prepared to tell it like it is: that dogshit into yoghurt simply doesn't go, no matter how many expert surveys you cite, nor how eco-friendly it shows you to be, nor how homeopathic the dosage.
Let us all abandon the nonsense of feeling guilty for refusing their dogshit yoghurt.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Any Questions?
Does there remain any question as to whose interests (its own or its citizens) guide the behavior of this regime?
"There's no question that the US is engaged in economic spying. If there's information at Siemens that they think will be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security, of the united States, they'll go after that information and they'll take it."
And if you've considered the possibility that American citizens' interests and those of the US government are far from being one in the same, ask yourself whose interests Edward Snowden sought to harm. Give him 30 minutes, and make up your own mind.
Uncensored video at Liberty's Torch.
Thank God there was one person, when faced with a decision between what was right and what was lawful, made the decision that enforces and serves Liberty.
"There's no question that the US is engaged in economic spying. If there's information at Siemens that they think will be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security, of the united States, they'll go after that information and they'll take it."
And if you've considered the possibility that American citizens' interests and those of the US government are far from being one in the same, ask yourself whose interests Edward Snowden sought to harm. Give him 30 minutes, and make up your own mind.
Uncensored video at Liberty's Torch.
Thank God there was one person, when faced with a decision between what was right and what was lawful, made the decision that enforces and serves Liberty.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Not Neill Grading's Fault
A spokesmonkey for Hickory's Neill Degrading and Destruction claims that they were nowhere near this new sinkhole: http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/sinkhole-corvette-museum-swallows-eight-rare-vettes-154608933.html
Southport Murderer Indicted for Manslaughter
I just got back from a long weekend that was too short.
I learned while I was out on the ocean that the Brunswick County DA announced a Grand Jury had indicted Bryon Vance Vassey for manslaughter, for shooting and killing 18-year old Keith Vidal on Jan 5.
Reports say the murderer has been released after having to post only $50,000 bond. That seems particularly cheap, as does the manslaughter charge rather than 1st degree murder. It also seems odd that the SBI, originally reported to be taking the investigatory lead, has not released a report.
Worth noting, the NC Police Benevolent Association says, "Detective Vassey employed authorized law enforcement action to stop the continuing threat of deadly harm to Officer John Thomas and others." But that statement contradicts Vassey's own recorded statement to his dispatcher claiming he fired in response to a perceived threat to his own life. This is a good example for you to remember if/when the NCPBA calls you up seeking a donation to their slush-fund. Remind them that you know they're prone to fabricating stories to exonerate murderers, and you'd rather not fund such thuggery.
Another story that doesn't quite jibe: "Southport police chief Jerry Dove said Vassey, who has been with the department for nine years, has a spotless record..." (State Port Pilot). I heard rumors from Southport locals that Vassey has had a recent history as a loose cannon, a "heavy badge" prone to throwing his LEO weight around. So, which is it, Chief Dove?
I learned while I was out on the ocean that the Brunswick County DA announced a Grand Jury had indicted Bryon Vance Vassey for manslaughter, for shooting and killing 18-year old Keith Vidal on Jan 5.
Reports say the murderer has been released after having to post only $50,000 bond. That seems particularly cheap, as does the manslaughter charge rather than 1st degree murder. It also seems odd that the SBI, originally reported to be taking the investigatory lead, has not released a report.
Worth noting, the NC Police Benevolent Association says, "Detective Vassey employed authorized law enforcement action to stop the continuing threat of deadly harm to Officer John Thomas and others." But that statement contradicts Vassey's own recorded statement to his dispatcher claiming he fired in response to a perceived threat to his own life. This is a good example for you to remember if/when the NCPBA calls you up seeking a donation to their slush-fund. Remind them that you know they're prone to fabricating stories to exonerate murderers, and you'd rather not fund such thuggery.
Another story that doesn't quite jibe: "Southport police chief Jerry Dove said Vassey, who has been with the department for nine years, has a spotless record..." (State Port Pilot). I heard rumors from Southport locals that Vassey has had a recent history as a loose cannon, a "heavy badge" prone to throwing his LEO weight around. So, which is it, Chief Dove?
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Will Stand No Nonsense
I used to pretend that I could consider myself well-read. After discovering that Lawrence Auster characterized his own reading list as "meager," I discarded that nonsense.
Ace Of Spades HQ posted a link to The Federalist's Top Ten (but really eleven) books "that people lie about reading", and named Moby as one he wished he'd read. Ben Domenech at The Federalist quotes William F. Buckley saying about not having read Moby Dick until he was 50, "To think I might have died without having read it."
Of Domenech's 11, I've so far read only Atlas & 1984.
Right now, I'm cruising through the fifty-first chapter of Moby Dick, largely because I was going through Auster's list looking for a certifiable classic that I'd not read. Do check out that exhaustive list, linked above.
Here's a recent stanza from chapter XLV that I enjoyed:
Thirdly: Some eighteen or twenty years ago Commodore J——, then commanding an American sloop-of-war of the first class, happened to be dining with a party of whaling-captains, on board a Nantucket ship in the harbour of Oahu, Sandwich Islands. Conversation turning upon whales, the commodore was pleased to be sceptical touching the amazing strength ascribed to them by the professional gentlemen present. He peremptorily denied, for example, that any whale could so smite his stout sloop-of-war as to cause her to leak so much as a thimbleful. Very good; but there is more coming. Some weeks after, the commodore set sail in this impregnable craft for Valparaiso. But he was stopped on the way by a portly sperm whale, that begged a few moments’ confidential business with him. That business consisted in fetching the commodore’s craft such a thwack, that with all his pumps going he made straight for the nearest port to heave down and repair. I am not superstitious, but I consider the commodore’s interview with that whale as providential. Was not Saul of Tarsus converted from unbelief by a similar fright? I tell you, the sperm whale will stand no nonsense.
Don't know if my top eleven would be the same as Domenech's, but I'll report back after I finish Melville's classic, on whether or not I'd include it in mine.
Ace Of Spades HQ posted a link to The Federalist's Top Ten (but really eleven) books "that people lie about reading", and named Moby as one he wished he'd read. Ben Domenech at The Federalist quotes William F. Buckley saying about not having read Moby Dick until he was 50, "To think I might have died without having read it."
Of Domenech's 11, I've so far read only Atlas & 1984.
Right now, I'm cruising through the fifty-first chapter of Moby Dick, largely because I was going through Auster's list looking for a certifiable classic that I'd not read. Do check out that exhaustive list, linked above.
Here's a recent stanza from chapter XLV that I enjoyed:
Thirdly: Some eighteen or twenty years ago Commodore J——, then commanding an American sloop-of-war of the first class, happened to be dining with a party of whaling-captains, on board a Nantucket ship in the harbour of Oahu, Sandwich Islands. Conversation turning upon whales, the commodore was pleased to be sceptical touching the amazing strength ascribed to them by the professional gentlemen present. He peremptorily denied, for example, that any whale could so smite his stout sloop-of-war as to cause her to leak so much as a thimbleful. Very good; but there is more coming. Some weeks after, the commodore set sail in this impregnable craft for Valparaiso. But he was stopped on the way by a portly sperm whale, that begged a few moments’ confidential business with him. That business consisted in fetching the commodore’s craft such a thwack, that with all his pumps going he made straight for the nearest port to heave down and repair. I am not superstitious, but I consider the commodore’s interview with that whale as providential. Was not Saul of Tarsus converted from unbelief by a similar fright? I tell you, the sperm whale will stand no nonsense.
Don't know if my top eleven would be the same as Domenech's, but I'll report back after I finish Melville's classic, on whether or not I'd include it in mine.
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