Sunblock = 'Medication'?

Kids go to school and have a 'Field Day'. Outside for over 5 hours. One of them even has a paper on file w/ the school due to sun sensitivity. Teachers aren't allowed to let students even put it on themselves w/o a doctors note. All get severely burned.

I can see not putting in on the students themselves but WTF? When did Coppertone become a pharmaceutical company?

This is the kind of stupid, lawsuit happy world we've allowed to be created. 

Apologetics in the Sun-Times

The Chicago Sun-Times put out an editorial that is so firmly planted in Rahm Emanual's behind, the tapeworms are jealous.

Given that backdrop — a jurisprudence that clearly backs the right to have a handgun at home — a full-scale retreat might be in order, an admission that Chicagoans have no choice but to resign ourselves to a city of armed camps.

Not a chance, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his top lawyer said this week.

So what was it when Chicago gained the honor of highest number of murders several years running? Or it's norm of 5x the homicide rate of the rest of the state?
Oh, but it gets better.

Citing gun laws as an “essential component” of the city’s overall crime strategy, Emanuel pledged to do everything possible to preserve the city’s gun ordinance.
 We’re cheering him on. While parts of the gun ordinance may fall or need retooling, the city is on firm ground, both legally and morally, in restricting handgun use.

Of course you are, because your sycophantic idiots w/ no clue about the issue.The city's 'overall crime strategy' is failing w/ a 50% increase in homicides so far this year.  No mention of the Ezell case where even the courts recognized the only purpose of the law was to snub the Supreme Court.

The law — which limits who can own a gun; requires a permit, registry of each gun and firearms training; limits the number of guns per owner, and prohibits guns outside the home — does not discourage gun owners from exercising their Second Amendment rights. It merely regulates that right in a way that helps protect Chicagoans.

Except for the outrageous, restrictive and expensive 'regulations' that have no bearing on 'protection' at all. You  know, kind of like a poll tax.

The ban on gun stores, for example, makes it that much harder to move guns into Chicago. Research from 2007 shows that relatively high transaction costs in Chicago’s underground market compared to other cities have acted as a limit on sales.

 Yeah. OK. Sure.
But this one, this one, is the clincher:

Two other provisions under attack are meant to protect innocent bystanders. One restricts handguns to the home, outlawing them on front porches and in backyards and garages in an attempt to protect passersby. Another provision says each home can have just one gun ready and operational. All other guns need to be secured.

Do they honestly believe that?  How many cases have their been of legal firearm owners just randomly going outside and popping off rounds in the neighborhood?  'protect passerby's'.  Seriously?  This is what they call journalism?

One important 1998 study found that guns in the home were four times more likely to be used in accidents than in self-defense.

Oh lord. Kellerman.  One of the most debunked pieces of 'research' in firearm debate history.

And they wonder why their media is dying.

Flea Market Weekend

At the Cross County Mall in Mattoon, IL 

I'll be there tomorrow afternoon and all day Sat. & Sun. Come on by and say 'DOOT sent me' and get 10% off of all the book, surplus and other stuff. 

Blogging will be light.

Partisan Hacks

On CSGV's huffpo piece acting the apologist for the criminal actions of AG Holder, I commented on President Obama invoking 'Executive Privilege' and how he's protecting a political appointee.
 
Here was a response:

 wow--- of course if someone on FOX News said-- you parrot it. There are some communications you-GQ Public are not privy to. So you nor Isaa nor any other Right Winged extremist can't have access to nationally secure information.

get over yourself..

It's funny that I didn't even use a link to Fox nor were they the only people reporting it. I also wonder what makes me a 'Right Winged extremist and what element of F&F is relevant to 'national security'.

This, my readers, is a prime example of blind partisanship that is ruining our country one election at a time.  She obviously knows absolutely nothing about the issues but if it's done by what she perceives as the 'Right Wing', it's automatically bad.  The levels of hate and anger she displays are equally alarming, I bet she's a gun control advocate.

And she votes.  Don't you feel more secure in the future of our nation? 

Executive Privilege in F&F

On the day of the planned contempt hearings, Obama has declared the F&F documents to be 'Executive Privilege'.

So Obama is using his power to protect political appointees and hide the truth of F&F from the public.

We can all guess why.

As cocky as Holder was being, I KNEW he had some sort of trump card ready to play and this was it.

Update:  NRA is scoring the contempt vote. and Obama in 2007 criticizing 'executive privilege'.

Sen Grassley statement:

How can the President assert executive privilege if there was no White House involvement?  How can the President exert executive privilege over documents he's supposedly never seen?  Is something very big being hidden to go to this extreme? 

Gowder v Chicago Decision

From the NRA-ILA:

Fairfax, Va. – The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled today that it is unconstitutional for Chicago to treat people with non-violent misdemeanor convictions the same as convicted felons.  The NRA-supported case, Gowder v. Chicago, involves plaintiff Shawn Gowder, who was convicted as a first-time offender for mere possession of a firearm in violation of Illinois law in 1995. His misdemeanor record did not block him from getting a state Firearm Owner’s Identification card, so he could still legally possess a gun in Illinois

So basically he had a gun w/o a FOID at one time.  This was originally a felony but that was reduced to misdemeanor under another court case. The city argued that Gowder was more likely to go on a killing spree since he had a misdemeanor on his record:

“Handgun purchasers with at least one misdemeanor conviction had a 7.5 times higher risk for a later offense,” the city wrote, citing a study that Gowder’s lawyers said was flawed.

“The study importantly concluded that convicted misdemeanants like Plaintiff, who choose to own weapons — exactly what Plaintiff desired to do — are at an increased risk for committing future violent crimes,” the city countered.

So strip people of their rights because of what they 'might' do.  That sounds very similar to the argument made my Elliot Fineman of the NG(V)AC that equates speeding w/ mass murder. That's the anti-gun way.

Gross Abuse of Language

Uncle links to a thorough debunking of Brady Campaign President Gross' latest fundraising attempt.

One thing he missed though from the line:

"study after study has linked public gun carrying to increased rates of violent crime like robbery and murder."

Oh, look at that qualifier. 'public gun carrying' by whom? Licensed CCW holders or criminals? Which 'studies' are these and how many of them have been financed by the Joyce Foundation? Then we get to have Mr. Gross explain WHY crime has decreased for 5 years in a row and is at levels not seen since the late 60's, when 'gun control' started become predominant.

It's these types of word games that they managed to get away w/ 20 years ago before the days of the internet. That they still think it's a successful action plan shows how insignificant they've become in national politics.

Now their only hope is to make enough money to keep the lights on.

Gamer Geekiness

Took Fourthpowers Alpha and Beta to the local game store where some local kids taught them how to play the Pokemon card game.

 I figured it's a fun game that they can play w/ eachother when at home but I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. Finding experts seemed the smart thing to do.

I wasn't going to be left out though and picked up my copy of Fortress America I ordered last week. While flipping through the rules and pieces while the kids were occupied, I came across this card:

No equivalent card of the Brady Campaign or CSGV acting as collaborators but we know Bloomberg would be the next Mayor Bates.
Too damn hot to go out shooting so this should keep us entertained for awhile.

Becoming British

I'm not talking about classic British who used to rule about half the world, I'm talking modern British. This headline:

An Englishman who allegedly called his German next-door neighbour a 'Schweinhund' is being tried for racial harassment. 

 Now this is a German. A nationality that used to invade neighboring countries as a national passtime
.  Instead of responding by calling him a Limey-bastard and bombing his house w/ a Stuka, she breaks down into tears and calls the police. I think this is why:

who has lived in Britain for 20 years

Western Civilization is doomed.

Viet-Cong Sandals

Regular readers know I have a fondness for Cold War era Communist memorabilia, uniforms and firearms.

Well I got my latest acquisition in the mail today. Something totally history-geek worthy and practical. A pair of reproduction Ho Chi Minh sandals made of tires and rubber straps from a company called Vietnam-Surplus. Shipping was a bit slow, nearly a month and a half, but the company made it a point to keep me up to date when I emailed them about my concerns.

Opened up the package and there were straps and tire flapping everywhere.  It took me about an hour or so of tugging and trimming to get the straps (actually placed THROUGH the tire sole) sized to fit me comfortably.

The pile of trimmed off rubber.

and on my pasty white feet:

They're actually pretty comfortable and I don't feel ANYTHING underneath them. There is a spot on the outside that is rubbing that will take a while for my feet to toughen up to.  Heavier than most sandals but that's to be expected, they are made out of an old tire, and I'm thinking they're going to last a looong time.

Overall I'm happy. Debating ordering the full uniform.

David Hardy Paper on McDonald v Chicago

Available here.

 From the abstract:

 McDonald v. Chicago, which incorporated the Second Amendment right to arms, was the first Supreme Court ruling to address incorporation in many decades. It was an unusual ruling, in that the Court’s “conservative wing” took what had been traditionally the liberal approach, while its “liberal wing” suddenly became very conservative. Indeed, Justice Thomas staked out the most liberal position, while Justice Stevens staked out the most conservative one, and for good measure Justice Scalia found that precedent can trump originalism. It was, in short, "the world turned upside down."

This article outlines the virtues, and problems, of the three major opinions in McDonald, and suggests solutions to some of the problems uncovered. The plurality opinion by Justice Alito is certainly faithful to precedent, although it highlights some illogical aspects of substantive due process incorporation. The concurrence by Justice Thomas is faithful to legislative history and original public meaning, but would have required overruling more than a century of case law. The dissent by Justice Breyer opens by proposing a very complicated, and perhaps ultimately meaningless, legal test with no basis in precedent, and alternately sets forth a very narrow application of the existing test – an application so narrow as to call into question almost all the Court’s past rulings on the issue.

Chicago Priorities

So what is plan when the homicide rate is up about 50% w/ more violence looking likely in the future?

Why re-assign over 100 officers to security detail because the president decided to come in for a private wedding. At tax-payers expense mind you. 

Yes, that's correct. The tax payers of Chicago get to foot the bill for hundreds of hours of overtime etc. because Obama is attending a private function. That's even outside all the tax-payer financed travel and Secret Service.

Be proud subjects of Chicago. This is what (the majority of) you voted for.