Saturday, March 2, 2013

Injunction May Be Issued on New York Gun Law, Thousands Rally in State’s Capital

Via m3gaw0lf

 Injunction to Be Issued on New York Gun Law, Thousands Rally at Capital

The lawsuit against New York’s most recent gun law is making national headlines, and prompting doubts in the state’s Supreme Court.

According to WKTC, a Supreme Court Justice ordered the state to justify the constitutionality of the NY SAFE Act yesterday, which was passed under the guidance of Governor Andrew Cuomo last month. The state has until Friday, April 29 to respond to the order or an injunction will be placed on the SAFE Act. It could prove to be a monumental victory for the gun owners’ associations behind the lawsuit.

The New York Rifle and Pistol Association spearheaded the claim–along with online forum AR15.com and others–soon after the act was passed. On Wednesday a second lawsuit was filed against the SAFE Act on behalf of a Chautaugua County business, reports WKBW. Both claims are represented by attorney James Tresmond.

Thousands of gun rights supporters gathered in downtown Albany on Thursday to call for the law’s repeal. According to the Associated Press, masses of protesters gathered around the capitol building and surrounding areas, with 5,000 sign-wielding activists in one park alone.

“We believe Gov. Cuomo jumped on the bandwagon to become president of the United States,” said retired police officer Tom Moriarty, who came with members of his hunting and fishing club.

Mediterranean Slave Cargoes and Markets

 http://sites.davidson.edu/humanities2011-13/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Charlemagne_Empire_Map.gif

The Christian Church of the time was well-aware of the evils of the Mohammedan slave trade, but throughout the Middle Ages the slave trade was a recognized institution, and it did denounce certain forms of the slave traffic, prohibited Jews from dealing in Christian slaves and condemned the sale of Christians to Moslems.  Charlemagne wrote Pope Hadrian that Rome merchants were reportedly selling slaves to the “unspeakable Saracens,” to which Hadrian replied: “Never have we fallen into such wickedness, nor has any such deed been done with our permission.”

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

Mediterranean Slave Cargoes and Markets:

“The Moslem was not at first adapted to the life of the sea, but when he had learned the art of navigation, piracy became a most profitable method of supplying the slave market.  Piracy was more profitable because of the rich returns to be derived from payment of ransoms and the Mediterranean sea remained unsafe for Christian travel long after the forces of civilization had put an end to the slave trade on the European continent. 

In the Ninth Century the Saracens were quick to take advantage of the helpless condition of Italy.  Grave fears were felt for the city of Rome.  At this time Pope John VIII wrote to Charles the Bald, “If all the trees of the forest became tongues, they could not describe the ravages of the impious pagans; the devoted people of God are destroyed by continuous slaughter; he who escapes fore and sword is taken into slavery.  Cities, castles, and villages are wasted and without a single soul; bishops wander and get their bread as beggars, and flee to Rome as the only place of refuge.” 

It is interesting to note, that the Moslems were not the only people engaged in the Mohammedan slave trade, but its profits went alike to Christian, Jew and Moslem. The Jews are said to have amassed great wealth as a result of the trade. This was especially true of the Spanish Jews in the time of the Moorish occupation. The Moors were far more tolerant of Jews than the Spanish Christians had been, and the rich Spanish Jews are said to have vied with the richest Moors in extravagance and ostentation. Much of their wealth came from this form of trade.

Great profits were made in Slav captives. The name Slav was at first synonymous with slave and was applied to others than the present Slavs. 

The large profits early attracted the merchants of Italy [and the]….traffic flourished in the Eighth Century.  One of the letters of Charlemagne inquires into the rumor that had reached him, that at Rome Christians were being sold to the Infidel. Moslem pirates sold slaves to the Christians and the Christians sold slaves to the Moslem.  

Public slave auctions were held in Venice, Verona, Genoa, and Pisa.  Tartars, Russians, Bosnians, Slavs, Greeks, and Teutons, came into these markets.  Here slaves of Africa and Asia were imported into Europe and other slaves went on to the Barbary and Egyptian markets. 

Henry Hallam says, “It is a humiliating proof of the degradation of [Christendom], that the Venetians were reduced to purchase the luxuries of Asia by supplying the slave markets of the Saracens; the apology would perhaps have been, that they were purchased from their heathen neighbors, but a slave dealer was not very inquisitive as to the faith or origin of his victim.”

Pope John XXIII accused the Genoese before the face of the world, of contributing to the power of the infidel through furnishing them slaves.  By the 13th century a very lucrative trade in slaves had been built up by the merchants of Genoa. These slaves were brought from the Black Sea region to Egypt.  Beybars, the caliph of Egypt, had established an alliance with Beraka, the Khan of the…Mongols….who pastured in the valley of the Volga.  The wars and the raid of the Khan helped to fill the market of Caffa.  The Genoese used shrewd business methods to obtain…the right to bring the slave ships through the Bosporus. These ships often carried many Christian captives to Egypt.  

The experience of the captive on his journey must have been horrible, for it is estimated that only one in ten ever reached Caffa and the horror of the sea voyage, via Constantinople became so apparent, that Genoa had to enact strict sanitary laws for control of the ships.”   

(The Mohammedan Slave Trade, J.H. Johnson, Journal of Negro History, Vol. XIII, No. 2, April, 1928, Carter G. Woodson, editor, excerpt, pg. 482- 485)
 

High School Student Disarms Gunman…Gets Suspended?

Via TSP

Florida High School Student Disarms Gunman...Gets Suspended?

A Florida high school student wrestled a loaded gun away from another teen on the bus ride home this week and was slapped with a suspension in return.

The 16-year-old Cypress Lake High student in Fort Myers, Fla. told WFTX-TV there was “no doubt” he saved a life after grappling for the loaded .22 caliber revolver being aimed point-blank at another student on Tuesday.

“I think he was really going to shoot him right then and there,” said the suspended student, not identified by WFTX because of safety concerns. “Not taking no pity.”

The student said the suspect, a football player, threatened to shoot a teammate because he had been arguing with his friend.

Authorities confirmed to WFTX the weapon was indeed loaded, and the arrest report stated the suspect, identified by WVZN-TV as Quadryle Davis, was “pointing the gun directly” at the other student and “threatening to shoot him.”

That’s when, the teen told the station, he and two others tackled the suspect and wrestled the gun away. The next day, all three were suspended.

“How they going to suspend me for doing the right thing?” he asked.

More @ The Blaze

NC: County attorney claims collaboration between DOJ, immigrant group

Via Randy's Right

 County seal

In a memo to county commissioners this week, County Attorney Clyde Albright claims that a local immigrant rights group has made deals with the U.S. Department of Justice for illegal immigrants who provide testimony against Sheriff Terry Johnson in a discrimination lawsuit.

“I obtained letters that show the DOJ is collaborating with the North Carolina Immigrant Rights Project to obtain dismissal of deportation proceedings against three illegal aliens arrested by the sheriff in July of 2012 and August of 2012,” Albright’s memo stated. “These letters appeared in a legal clinic website as examples of how to get the federal government to drop deportation proceedings against illegal aliens.”

The April 26, 2012 letters obtained by Albright were from attorney Martin Rosenbluth representing North Carolina Immigrant Rights Project to U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Chief Counsel Alfie Owens.

In the letters, Rosenbluth asks the Department of Homeland Security to exercise prosecutorial discretion authority and terminate deportation proceedings for three of his clients. Rosenbluth said this week he has represented many illegal immigrants facing deportation in Alamance County and other counties across the state.

 “As you are aware, on June 17, 2011 ICE Director John Morton issued a memo to ICE Field Office Directors, Special Agents in Charge, and Chief Counsels, to provide guidance to all ICE officials on the exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” Rosenbluth’s letter states.

Rosenbluth said his clients were taken into ICE custody after they were arrested by the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office on charges of driving a vehicle without an operator’s license. These clients were cooperating after their arrests as witnesses for the Department of Justice into the practices of the Sheriff’s Office, according to the letters.

Their removal from the country by the federal government would negatively affect the DOJ”s investigation, according to Rosenbluth’s letter.

Albright’s memo to the commissioners indicates he believes that the three illegal immigrants’ deportations were dismissed in return for their cooperation in the DOJ investigation.

“One can only wonder what promises were made by the DOJ to obtain testimony against the sheriff from these three criminals that were arrested by the sheriff,” Albright stated.

More @  The Times News

Redstone instructor: History of black Confederate soldiers unpopular but must be told

Via SHNV


IMG_3420.JPG 
An attempt to squelch a little known part of African American history gave Edwin Kennedy a bigger microphone than he ever imagined 13 years ago.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Edwin Kennedy said there is a wealth of evidence showing African Americans fought as soldiers for the Confederate army. (Paul Huggins/phuggins@al.com)  
At the time, he had just seen a history display he helped arranged at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., removed from the Combined Arms Research Library because it was perceived as offensive, Kennedy recalled.

The display, which the command post said lacked historic balance, shared part of the story of blacks who fought for the Confederate army during the Civil War, not as body servants for their owners or impressed cooks and general laborers, but as actual soldiers shouldering muskets.

"It's not politically correct to talk about it," said Kennedy, a retired lieutenant colonel now teaching at the Army Command and General Staff College's satellite campus on Redstone Arsenal, "but you can't ignore it."

Kennedy has had numerous opportunities to talk about black confederate soldiers since 2000, and said he generally gets the most requests during Black History Month, which concludes today. But despite the amount of evidence he produces and similar statements by black historians and descendants of black soldiers, he said there is still strong opposition to accept the truth.

More @ AL

NEW VANDERBILT DIVINITY SCHOOL DEAN AND REVISING SCRIPTURE

Via Cousin Bill

 http://www.garrett.edu/gmedia/images/news/2010/emilie-townes.jpg

According to an announcement in late December of 2012, Emilie M. Townes has been appointed dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School, Nashville, Tennessee, effective July 1, 2013, pending approval by the Board of Trustees. Townes currently is associate dean of academic affairs at Yale Divinity School and the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology. She is described "as a distinguished Yale University scholar whose areas of expertise include Christian ethics and 'womanist theology.' " Her appointment at Vanderbilt is for a five year term, during which she will also hold an endowed chair as a tenured faculty member.

Womanist theology (for those who might like to know more about such) "is a religious conceptual framework which reconsiders and revises the traditions, practices, scriptures, and biblical interpretation with a special lens to empower and liberate African American women in America." Emilie Townes is the author of Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil (2006), and is the co-editor of Womanist Theological Ethics: A Reader (2011). She is the former "pastor" of United Faith Affinitas, a Black LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered) church in Chicago. A further report states that she recently wed her same sex partner in Connecticut.

Isn't all of this perfectly wonderful (I speak with my tongue buried deeply in my cheek)—a lesbian activist dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School! She is in favor of revising traditions, practices, scriptures, and biblical interpretation—all to promote her agenda. Hundreds of young (and some not so young) ministers of all religious faiths will be exposed to her infidelity! Carolyn Dever, dean of the College of Arts and Science and professor of English, who chaired the search committee for the new Divinity School dean, stated, “In every aspect of her profile, Emilie Townes epitomizes the Vanderbilt Divinity School’s dedication to renowned scholarship, ecumenical leadership and commitment to social justice.” Dever went on to say, “We warmly welcome her to a community that is passionate about the scholarship and teaching of religion, and about empowering students to change themselves, and the world, for the better.” That students and the world will be changed by her "empowerment" is beyond question, but who among those who believe the Bible to be God's inspired and authoritative word will believe that the change will be for the better?

The AR-15 Is More Than a Gun. It's a Gadget

Viarandir_telemnar
 
 
A US paratrooper holding an AR-15 signals to his squad to form a defensive perimeter during a patrol near Duc Pho, 330 miles northeast of Saigon, Vietnam, June 5, 1967. Photo: AP

I was shaking as I shouldered the rifle and peered through the scope at the small steel target 100 yards downrange. It was officially the coldest day in Las Vegas history, and I was in the middle of the desert, buffeted by wind and surrounded by the professional gun press, about to fire an AR-15 for the first time.
 
I grew up with guns, and I even own a small .22-caliber target pistol that I take to the range occasionally. But I had fired a rifle maybe twice in the past five years. I was a novice, and I was frozen to the core. I flinched as I pulled the trigger the first time, sending my shot wide of the mark.

But the recoil wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared; in fact, the shot was actually pleasant. I fired again with more confidence, and the bullet rang the distant steel plate like a bell; then the next shot hit, and the next.
 
"You're doing great," said Justin Harvel, founder of Black Rain Ordnance and maker of the gun I was shooting.
 
"It's not me," I replied. "I've never shot like this in my life. It's gotta be this gun. "
 
"Yeah, it's definitely not your daddy's hunting rifle, is it?"

More @ Wired

CPAC Turns Away Pamela Geller

Via avordvet

 

For the last four years, Pamela Geller of AtlasShrugs.com and the American Freedom Defense Initiative have held events at CPAC featuring guests she invites to discuss the influence of Islamism on America. But this year, the American Conservative Union (ACU) has no room for Geller or her message. In 2009, she brought Geert Wilders, who is the head of the third largest party in the Netherlands and has spoken out against the Islamization of his country. In 2010 she held an event that her organization, The American Freedom Defense Initiative, hosted, titled "Jihad: The Political Third Rail", with speakers like Allen West, Wafa Sultan, Simon Deng, Anders Gravers, and Steve Coughlin. In 2011, she hosted an event discussing the Ground Zero Mosque with 9/11 families.

In 2012, the event was titled "Islamic Law in America." In years past, the events were standing room only thanks to their popularity, but that apparently was not enough to counter pressure brought to bear from somewhere to exclude Geller’s message. Geller and her coworkers recently won a court battle allowing them to post ads that countered the #Myjihad ad campaign that posited that jihad was a peaceful word. Yet despite the law's defense of her rights, the ACU will not stand up for her against critics. Geller explained the intention of her advertisements in a statement to Breitbart News:

More @ Breitbart

GALLUP DAILY


Americans' Reactions to Sequester Include
 
 
Feb 27-Mar 1, 2013 – Updates daily at 1 p.m. ET; reflects one-day change
47%  -4

Chicago Schools to Start Sex Education in Kindergarten


Chicago public schools have mandated that sex education will now begin in kindergarten. They will learn the basics of anatomy, reproduction, healthy relationships, and personal safety.

Michelle Fields told Neil Cavuto that she thinks this is ridiculous. “What this is all about is hiring more teachers, hiring more administrators, and wasting more of taxpayers’ dollars.”


“Kindergarteners do not need to learn about the birds and the bees from a government worker. That’s the responsibility of parents. You learn that at home,” she said.

More with video @ Fox

Goodbye California, Hello Texas: Gun Retailer Announces Move

 

When it comes to gun laws, California is vying to have the strictest in the nation. It comes as no surprise, then, that the state is not a particularly business-friendly environment for those in the gun industry.

 And so Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s wishes are beginning to come true: Shield Tactical, a California retailer and firearms training provider, has decided to ‘get the heck out of Dodge’ — and move to Texas John W. Harrington founded Shield Tactical in 2008, but with California’s hard-line stance on gun control, he decided the state was no longer a good place for his business.

Harrington, originally from Texas, said it was finally “time to go home.” “The state of California treats all businesses as necessary evils,” he told Red Alert. “They treat those of us in the gun business as just evil. They make it very clear that they don’t want us there. It’s just that simple.”

 More @ Cowboy Byte