Wednesday, June 26, 2013

NC: APD officer alleges coverup

Via NC Renegade


A city police lieutenant alleged Tuesday morning that police Chief William Anderson and a high-ranking captain tried to coerce him into making “false and misleading” statements regarding a car accident involving the chief’s son.

The public allegations, however, will not result in an SBI investigation into the chief's actions, District Attorney Ron Moore said. Lt. William Wilke met with the SBI and FBI on Tuesday night, Moore said, and told investigators he did not have anything to add to statements he made to the SBI earlier this year.

"Based on the two statements given several months ago and there being nothing new to add, there is no new investigation to be had."

Wilke, a 13-year veteran of the APD, held a press conference Tuesday morning at the office of his lawyer, George Hyler, and read a two-page statement about the events of March 9 and the following days.

Wilke said the chief and Capt. Stony Gonce attempted to have him “submit to a set of facts and circumstances regarding the accident involving (the chief’s) son that were clearly false and misleading.” Wilke was the scene commander the night of the wreck.

Also, Wilke alleged City Manager Gary Jackson and Deputy City Manager Jeff Richardson declined to act when Wilke raised his concerns about “false and misleading information” the police chief gave the Citizen-Times about the incident.

Cop rape case highlights life-endangering outrage of ‘Only Ones’ mentality

Via WRSA
A West Sacramento police officer allegedly raped at least six women while on duty, the Police Thugs blog reported Monday, referencing a Huffington Post article from February. Officer Sergio Alvarez, a five year veteran of the force, was initially placed on administrative leave and then fired and arrested after an investigation into the allegations.

More @ Examiner

Marriage predates government and civil authorities.

Via Cousin Joel

 http://tnvalleytalks.hoop.la/fileSendAction/fcType/0/fcOid/283751163786679485/filePointer/283751163786679496/fodoid/283751163786679493/imageType/LARGE/inlineImage/true/Marriage_OneMan_OneWoman-OUTLINE-1.jpg


 
With the release of its two rulings on same-sex “marriage” today, the United States Supreme Court has lost its legitimacy as an arbiter of the Constitution and the rule of law. Today marks the death of the Court’s legacy, because the decision on the Federal Defense of Marriage Act defies logic and is a pure invention of a handful of Justices.
 
As much as pro-homosexual activists will crow over today’s announcements, rest assured that the battle over marriage in America is far from over!  In fact, Liberty Counsel, joined by well over 200 Christian leaders representing tens of millions of Americans believers like you, is still boldly proclaiming “No court can make marriage into what it can never be”!
 
Please see my important update on the Supreme Court’s rulings and what we’re doing in response – Mat.
 
 
Today, the Supreme Court crossed the line and delegitimized its authority by striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). 
 
The Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) also released their opinions on California’s Proposition 8 state marriage amendment (Prop 8).  
 
Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his dissent on the DOMA ruling that the Court’s errors, both in explaining its jurisdiction and its decision, “spring from the same diseased root: an exalted conception of the role of this institution in America.”
 
Obviously disgusted with the majority’s hubris and its unfounded opinion, Scalia wrote…
 
”I promise you this: The only thing that will ‘confine’ the Court’s holding is its sense of what it can get away with.”
 
In other words, the Supreme Court will retain only the authority the People give it.  Its authority lies only in the fact that the People deem its decisions legitimate, and the DOMA decision clearly is not!
 
++How the Court ruled on DOMA.
 
Justice Kennedy, writing the DOMA decision under an Equal Protection rationale, strikes down Section 3 of DOMA, which defines marriage as one man and one woman for purposes of federal law and federal benefits, specifically joint federal tax returns, Social Security survivor benefits, and federal employee health insurance and medical benefits. 
 
But not at issue in this ruling are the other parts of DOMA, including the section that says states may define their own marriage policy and are not required to accept a sister state’s same-sex marriage. 
 
“DOMA singles out a class of persons deemed by a State entitled to recognition and protection to enhance their own liberty,” wrote Kennedy. 
 
++Justice Scalia’s dissent literally scolded the majority. 
 
Writing for the minority in the DOMA ruling, Justice Scalia wrote this in his scathing dissent…
 
“It is an assertion of judicial supremacy over the people’s Representatives in Congress and the Executive. It envisions a Supreme Court standing (or rather enthroned) at the apex of government, empowered to decide all constitutional questions, always and everywhere “primary” in its role. This image of the Court would have been unrecognizable to those who wrote and ratified our national charter.” 
 
Liberty Counsel concurs with Justice Scalia’s dissent, as do the more than 200 Christian leaders who have affirmed our powerful Marriage Solidarity Statement.  
 
++The Court’s ruling on Proposition 8.
 
Regarding the Prop 8 case, Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the 5-4 decision of the Court, dismissed the case on standing, meaning that the Court lacks jurisdiction to reach the merits because the Prop 8 Interveners lacked standing to litigate the case, after the California State Attorney General ceased defending it following the lower federal district court opinion. 
 
This means that the lower court decision governing the Northern District of California stands. Thus, only the decision striking down Prop 8 by the lower district court remains in effect. The remaining parts of California are unaffected. No doubt, litigation will ensue in the Southern and Middle Districts of California.
 
++The High Court is now engaged in raw judicial activism.
 
Justice O’Connor, writing in the early 1990’s case of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Penn. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 864-869 (1992), candidly acknowledged: 
 
“The root of American governmental power is revealed most clearly in the instance of the power conferred by the Constitution upon the Judiciary of the United States and specifically upon this Court. As Americans of each succeeding generation are rightly told, the Court cannot buy support for its decisions by spending money and, except to a minor degree, it cannot independently coerce obedience to its decrees. 
 
The Court's power lies, rather, in its legitimacy, a product of substance and perception that shows itself in the people's acceptance of the Judiciary as fit to determine what the Nation's law means and to declare what it demands.
 
The underlying substance of this legitimacy is of course the warrant for the Court's decisions in the Constitution and the lesser sources of legal principle on which the Court draws… 
 
The Court must take care to speak and act in ways that allow people to accept its decisions on the terms the Court claims for them, as grounded truly in principle, not as compromises with social and political pressures having, as such, no bearing on the principled choices that the Court is obliged to make. 
 
Thus, the Court's legitimacy depends on making legally principled decisions under circumstances in which their principled character is sufficiently plausible to be accepted by the Nation.” 
 
++Neither the Supreme Court, nor any other court, can redefine marriage.
 
Marriage predates government and civil authorities. No civil authority, including the Supreme Court, has the authority to redefine marriage. Marriage was not created by religion or government and is ontologically a union of one man and one woman. For any Court or civil authority to think it has the authority to redefine marriage is the height of hubris. 
 
While today’s decision on DOMA did not redefine marriage, it has provided the foundation upon which to do so. Today’s decision is the equivalent of the 1972 contraception decision involving unmarried couples and the so-called right to privacy on which the 1973 abortion decision in Roe v. Wade was constructed. 
 
Today, the Supreme Court has damaged its image, lost its legitimacy, and set in motion considerable harm to society and to the State of the Union. 
 
++We stand for Marriage Solidarity! 
 
As you probably know, over 200 religious and civic leaders have signed the Marriage Solidarity Statement, including the leaders of many nationally known ministries representing millions of members. These are deeply concerned Americans who are taking a bold stand for marriage that transcends religious doctrine and boundaries.  
 
The Marriage Solidarity Statement declares that the Christian community will stand in solidarity on this vital issue. Redefining marriage is a line we cannot and will not cross!
 
++Join us today in signing the Marriage Solidarity Statement.  
 
This is an excellent way to raise a cry for moral sanity and help drown out the crowing and obscenities of the pro-homosexual minority that is celebrating today’s misguided Court rulings. 
 
We need every friend possible to join this historic effort! If you have yet to sign, please join us today:  
 
 
Watch for my further updates on these Supreme Court rulings. Our nation has lost its moral compass.  But we will never capitulate to the disordered view that marriage can unite what God says it cannot!  
 
By all means, let us take bold action and continue to pray for our nation.  Above all, don’t give up the battle for natural, God-ordained marriage in our society!  
 
God bless you,
 
Mat Staver, Chairman
Liberty Counsel Action
 
P.S. Based on today’s rulings, the United States Supreme Court has lost its legitimacy as an arbiter of the Constitution and the rule of law.
 
I am calling for unified prayer this week that God will bless our nation and that He will call forth a mighty movement among the American People to affirm and defend the God-ordained institution of marriage! 
 
Together, we are going on record as declaring that the institution of marriage is solely for the union of one man and one woman.  Please, for the sake of our nation, our communities, and your own family, join us!  
 
 
PPS. For those of you on Facebook, we now have a Marriage Solidarity page for you to “Like” and share with your social network. 
 
 

Free homeschooling tools for HSLDA members

 
 
HSLDA families receive a full year membership FREE

Get the tools you need in order to simplify your homeschooling. At SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you'll find inspiring lessons and helpful resources to fill your teacher's toolbox. Gain full access to daily, weekly, and monthly assignments and fun activities for your students, from your littlest learners to your teens.

Take a look at all the educational materials that will become available to you and your children when you become a SchoolhouseTeachers.com member:
  • Lessons for academic subjects such as math, history, writing, science, and more!
  • Enrichment and elective courses that include Filmmaking, Beginning Guitar, French, Unit Studies, Lapbooking, Economics, Worldview, Logic, Mock Trial, and Career Exploration, with new subjects being added frequently.
  • Unique activities that can supplement your regular curriculum—or create your own curriculum by mixing and matching the daily spelling, history, and writing lessons, as well as book activities.
  • The Schoolhouse Library is stocked with copybooks, reading lists, homeschool encouragement, crafts, and reference materials.
Plus, homeschool resources that will inspire you and support your goals for your school:
  • Access the newest issue of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine each month.
  • Access all digital back issues of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine—19 issues to choose from, dating back to 2007.
  • Review, download, and enjoy monthly menu plans.
  • Discover a free TOS E-Book every month. Plus, add these Schoolhouse resources to your school library with free downloads during the first year of your membership: Thematic Units, Curiosity Files, WannaBes, and WeE-Books.
  • View recorded Schoolhouse Expo webinars, or listen to MP3 recordings from past and future Schoolhouse Expos.
  • Download all five of the TOS 2012–13 Schoolhouse Planners: The Schoolhouse Planner, Schoolhouse Special Learners Planner, Schoolhouse Primary Planner, Schoolhouse Intermediate Planner, and Schoolhouse High School Planner ($125 value).
More @ HSLDA

C.S.S. Rappahannock

 

Confederate Agent, Commander Matthew F. Maury sent Lieutenant William F. Carter off to seek out suitable ships to purchase and convert for Confederate use. Carter came up with a former British vessel, HMS Victor, now retired as a gunboat by the British and used as a dispatch ship. Although a handsomely modeled vessel of her day, Lt. Carter made note numerous defects before sanctioning her purchase at a much reduced price. The vessel was however designed to carry six, 24 pounders, all mounted forward of her twin funnels. She also had 350 horse power engine powered by six boilers and was judged to be fast under steam. The three, square rigged masts only carried single top sails as essentially the ‘Victor’ was designed as a steamship and not as a sailing vessel. Through the British agents, Gordon Coleman and Company, acting for Thomas Bold a successful offer was made to buy the ‘Victor’ from the Admiralty, stating the ship was to be used as a ‘China’ trader by her new owners.

Moored in Sheerness under the name ‘Scylla’ subsequent reports began reaching the British Government of suspicious activity on shore and aboard, coupled with rumours she was being fitted out as a blockade runner in contravention of the Neutrality Act then in force. As these reports intensified the Government decided to detain the vessel in port. Through an informant, the ‘Scylla’s’ Captain got wind of the order and on November 23rd 1863, sailed her for the English Channel and France

Amnesty: Senate phones nearly shut down -- switch to local offices this eve & Thurs. morn




Can't get through the Senate switchboard or individual Senate offices in Washington?

Call their offices back in the home states. Many of our members are saying they are getting through fine right now.

Here's the link to your two Senators (just click on the "contact information" link for each Senator).

www.numbersusa.com/content/my/congress/quickview

And here's where you can get the home and Washington numbers for every Senator you might wish to contact (especially after reading some of the info below).

https://www.numbersusa.com/content/congress/phone-numbers-and-mailing-addresses-memb.html

We're getting widescale reports from many of you who are phoning and phoning and not getting through in D.C. There are also signs that some Senators may have turned their D.C. phones off to keep from hearing from the people!

Overall, this is great news of a grassroots uprising that is sending great signals to the U.S. House to stay away from the S. 744 amnesty.

A number of you are pressing me to send out this one more alert today for a final hour or two of phoning -- especially for those of you in Central, Rocky and Pacific time zones where the local offices will be open awhile longer.

If the staff in the local offices says you should call D.C., tell them that the D.C. offices aren't answering their phones and you want these local staff to convey your message before the vote tomorrow on final cloture on the S. 744 amnesty bill.

3 new no votes on immigration

 https://www.numbersusa.com/images/redchart.gif

Chambliss, Chiesa, Enzi & Wicker joined our side in procedural cloture vote this afternoon.

Those of you in Georgia, New Jersey, Wyoming and Mississippi, call and give heartfelt thanks to these four who on an interim cloture vote this afternoon joined the Senators who had also voted on the anti-amnesty side on Monday. (The key cloture vote happens tomorrow).
That brings to 33 the Senators who have been willing to vote to just end the whole process on S. 744 before getting to a final vote. That is up from only 15 who would take that stand nine days ago.
More @ Numbers USA

Second IRS employee pleads the 5th at Oversight hearing

Via avordvet

 https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/CqAt5itCwUA/hqdefault.jpg

He needs a little advice on choice of ties.:)

What’s going on at the IRS?  Don’t expect answers from some of the people who work there.  A manager suspected of steering hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to a friend became the second major figure to take the Fifth at a House Oversight Committee hearing into a widening range of malfeasance at the IRS:
A second IRS employee summoned to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee invoked the Fifth Amendment on Wednesday and refused to answer questions — a flashback to Lois Lerner, who did the same during a hearing on the agency’s scandal last month.
Gregory Roseman, who worked as a deputy director of acquisitions at the IRS, exercised his constitutional rights when Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) started interrogating him about panel findings that he helped a friend procure potentially $500 million worth of IRS contracts.
“On the advice of the counsel, I respectfully decline to answer any questions and invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege to remain silent,” Roseman said when Issa asked to whom he reported at the IRS.
Issa continued: “Mr. Roseman, when did you first become aware of a company called Strong Castle Inc.?”
Roseman, who has been removed from his position pending the outcome of an inspector general investigation, repeated his first statement.

More @ Hot Air

DOJ Defunds At-Risk Youth Programs over "God" Reference

Via WiscoDave

 Julian Whittington Campaign - Bossier City, Louisiana

A Louisiana lawman is livid over the federal government’s decision to cut off funds for two programs to help troubled young people -- all, he says, because he refused to sign a pledge to bar prayer or any mention of God at their meetings.

Julian Whittington, the sheriff of Bossier Parish, Louisiana, told Fox News that the Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights de-funded $30,000 for their Young Marines chapter as well as a youth diversion program. Federal officials objected to a voluntary student-led prayer in the department’s youth diversion program and an oath recited by the Young Marines that mentions God, according to Whittington, who blasted what he considers the government’s “aggression and infringement of our religious freedoms.”

“We were informed that these are unacceptable inherently religious activities and the Department of Justice would not be able to fund the programs if it continued,” Whittington told Fox News. “They wanted a letter from me stating that I would no longer have voluntary prayer and I would also have to remove 'God' from the Young Marine’s oath.”

The DOJ and the Office of Civil Rights are aware of the controversy but did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Fox News obtained an email written by an attorney for the DOJ’s Office of Civil Rights raised questions about references to God and church along with the phrase “love of God.” The attorney also raised questions about one of the five elements of the Young Marines Creed – “Keep myself clean in mind by attending the church of my faith.”

The attorney advised that DOJ rules prohibit “funding on inherently religious activities, such as prayer, religious instruction and proselytization.

“And any religious activities must be kept separate in time or location from DOJ-funded activities,” the attorney wrote.

The sheriff was told he would not be given any money unless he wrote a letter pledging not to pray or use the word “God.”

“I flat said, ‘It’s not going to happen,’” he said. “Enough is enough. This is the United States of America -- and the idea that the mere mention of God or voluntary prayer is prohibited is ridiculous.”

More @ Townhall

New Black Panther who sparked voter intimidation probe in 2008 arrested on gun charges

Via Billy

http://www.floppingaces.net/wp-content/uploads/shabazz1104.jpg

A member of the New Black Panther Party who sparked a federal probe for voter intimidation in 2008 has been arrested on gun charges in New York.

King Samir Shabazz, a 41-year-old Philadelphia street preacher and national field marshal for the New Black Panther Party, was arrested late Thursday in Harlem after NYPD officers spotted him with wearing a bulletproof vest and a loaded, unlicensed handgun.

Shabazz was arrested without incident at about 10:30 p.m. on June 20 after officers stopped him to talk about the vest under his clothing, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told FoxNews.com.

"When they stopped to talk to him about it and patted him down for their own safety, they discovered that he was armed with a loaded, illegal five-shot revolver," Browne wrote in an email.

Shabazz, whose real name is Maruse Heath, is best known for bringing a club to a North Philadelphia polling station on Election Day in 2008, leading to a federal probe on voter intimidation.

Shabazz was jailed on $75,000 bail on charges of illegal gun possession and illegal wearing of body armor. He faces a mandatory minimum of 3 ½ years and a maximum of 15 years in jail if convicted, the Philadelphia Daily News reports.

More @ Fox

The Creepy Battle Hymn of the Republic

Lydia McGrew at the Right Reason blog reports her discomfort about the Battle Hymn of the Republic and compares it to Dixieland:
...in the abstract I'd certainly rather be on the side whose ideals are expressed by the words of "Dixieland" than on the side whose ideals are expressed by the words of "The Battle Hymn." Think about it: What "Dixieland" says is that the singer loves his home region, that one of the reasons he loves it is because old times are not forgotten there, and that he intends to live and die there. What "The Battle Hymn" says is that God is really going to pound the people on the other side and that He is going to do so by means of a bunch of troops whose very army campfires are like holy altars. Yikes!
But the goodness doesn't stop there. She goes on to draw a comparison to the Iraq war:
I'd rather not get involved in reading God's righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps of invading troops -- whether they're invading a foreign country or parts of their own. Acting as the terrible swift sword of the Lord and helping Him to trample out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored is a scary business, one we should be very reluctant to engage in.
Maybe conservatism in America isn't quite dead yet!

****************************


Blasphemy in Song

This past weekend, since it was the closest weekend to the Fourth of July holiday that we observe today, churches all across America resounded with patriotic songs. Although the wisdom of singing patriotic songs in church is itself a debatable proposition, there should be no debate in any church about uttering words of blasphemy, whether spoken or sung. Yet, the patriotic song that is perhaps the one most frequently sung in the churches of America — for the Fourth of July or otherwise — is the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." But this so-called hymn is no Christian hymn at all — it is blasphemy in song.

Most Americans are familiar with the words of this "hymn":

More @ LRC 

**************************
 
The Battle Hymn of the Republic
By Pastor Anton Bosch

Upon the release of yet ANOTHER hagiography of Lincoln as advertised in National Review, I have sent the following "letter to the Editor:"

Via SHNV

 http://images.sodahead.com/polls/002461735/5356774587_lincwant_xlarge.gif


To the Editors:

Sirs, I notice that another hagiography of Lincoln has been loosed upon an ignorant and unsuspecting public. Indeed, Lincoln is a rank favorite among a great many conservatives; they positively worship the man. This, to anyone who knows the facts of history and not the current politically correct nonsense put forth in its name, is inexplicable!

All that we have today is a direct consequence of the policies of Abraham Lincoln:

You don't like intrusive government? Then you cannot "like" Lincoln!

You don't approve of your God-given (supposedly) constitutionally protected liberties infringed? Then you cannot "approve" of Lincoln.

You reject warfare that targets civilian non-combatants? Then you must reject Lincoln.

You condemn the current state of "race relations" in the nation? Then you must condemn Lincoln for it was his administration that pitted black against white as a strategy of war.

You bemoan the fact that the Constitution is now a worthless relic of a long-gone past? Then you must blame Lincoln for under Lincoln it was totally discarded so as to provide for the triumph of the State over the Founding Principles of the nation.

When it was claimed that Obama was the "new Lincoln," many applauded and some doubted but most of us who know Lincoln AND Obama quaked in fear. We understood that what little remained of the original nation would now be completely obliterated by the despotism begun with Lincoln and which has only gotten worse over the last one hundred and fifty years. Indeed, Obama governs much as Lincoln did, that is by ignoring not only the States and the People but the rest of the national (no longer federal) government. And though Lincoln would have rejected such a "diverse" descendant because of his race (Lincoln was no egalitarian!), he certainly would have applauded his despotic rule.

If you truly love what you say that you love - the nation founded in 1776 and defined in 1789 - then you must reject Abraham Lincoln and his legacy! If you do not, then you are no different from the liberals and progressives. You, too, want "big government," the only difference being what you want that government to do!  On the other hand:

If you believe - as did Ulysses Grant and Antonin Scalia - that force of arms de-legitimized the constitutional right of succession, then you believe - as did Lincoln and his military - that "might makes right."

And if you believe - as does John Boulton - that covering some policy or action, however morally egregious, with "The Flag" grants it moral and legal validity, then you believe - as did Lincoln and his military - that "the ends justify the means." Something is right or wrong not because you are strong enough to prevail, but because you have Truth and the Right on your side.

As of now, far too many conservatives worship a man whose understanding of government was more akin to Marx than Jefferson and whose understanding of power was more akin to Hitler than Washington. As long as this situation prevails, your claim of legitimately representing the original American Republic is a lie.


Lady Val 
New York
 

Map: Oh, the (Very Few) Places Edward Snowden Can Go


Somewhere in a Moscow airport, Edward Snowden is watching a departure board.
Each flight spirits its passengers far from Sheremetyevo Airport and the "transit zone" where Snowden is holed up, with the international media prowling about for any sign of him, but none carries the NSA leaker. Oh, the places he could go -- if only he weren't the world's most-wanted man at the moment. Instead he's stuck, in limbo, while American officials clamor for his arrest.

What's particularly striking is how few options Snowden has. Using data from OpenFlights.org, FP put its travel agent hat on -- examining the potential routes Snowden could have taken from Hong Kong to end up in a country conceivably willing to shield him from U.S. extradition. In order to satisfy the requirements of this exercise, his itinerary couldn't connect through the airport of a U.S.-friendly country -- a scenario that would all but assure Snowden's arrest. Many of the potential sanctuaries that emerge are about as unappealing as the prospect of a stiff U.S. jail sentence.

So when he left Hong Kong over the weekend, what options did Snowden have? We've sketched out some possible itineraries in the map below:

CA DMV requests federals to rule if street legal jet powered Volkswagen Beetle constitutes a threat to national security

Via Cousin Colby

 

This is my street-legal jet car on full afterburner. The car has two engines: the production gasoline engine in the front driving the front wheels and the jet engine in the back. The idea is that you drive around legally on the gasoline engine and when you want to have some fun, you spin up the jet and get on the burner (you can start the jet while driving along on the gasoline engine).

The car was built because I wanted the wildest street-legal ride possible. With this project, I was able to use some stuff I learned while getting my fancy engineering degree (I have a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University) to design a street-legal jet car without the distraction of how other people have done it in the past - because no one has. I don't know how fast the car will go and probably never will. The car was built to thrill me, not kill me. That doesn't stop me from the occasional blast on the highway though.

Thorton-Pickard Hythe Gun Camera MK3

Roundabout via mpopenker

Thornton-Pickard MkIII Hythe Camera 
Thornton-Pickard MkIII Hythe 
Thornton-Pickard MkIII Hythe
Thornton Pickard MkIII Hythe Camera


 Designed to emulate a Lewis machine gun, the Hythe camera was used as a training tool for aerial gunners. In wartime, 120 roll film was much cheaper (and safer) than live .303 ammo. The "gun's" controls are comparable to an actual Lewis gun, but the charging handle advances the film and cocks the shutter. The trigger fires the shutter. The simple fixed focus, aperture and shutter speed were intended to judge a gunner's aiming skills, not take a pretty picture. Although purely a camera, it uses an actu al functioning Lewis gun magazine. Presumably, this was to give the gunners practice at changing magazines, as its presence was not required to operate the camera. A Japanese copy of the camera omitted the magazine.

NC: HB 937 Gun Bill Update

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/p480x480/600744_527725297284188_2078499896_n.jpg

Unfortunately, some House members and the Governor are not comfortable with the provision the Senate added to HB 937 that would eliminate the requirement to obtain a permit to buy a handgun.  There is also some reluctance to approve the provision the Senate added to allow gun owners to lock their guns in their cars when parked on any public school or state college campus.  So it may well be that the leadership in the House will ask us to vote not to concur with the Senate version of the bill.  I have made it clear that if such a motion is made, I will vote no.  I want us to concur with the Senate version; but I don’t think it will happen.  If a motion not to concur passes, the bill will go to conference, where these provisions will very likely be removed.  Another possibility is that the Senate version of the bill could be referred to the Rules Committee to die without us even voting on whether to concur.  I don’t think that will happen; but we just have to wait and see.
 
Personally, I believe that the requirement to have a permit to purchase a handgun is an unnecessary and unconstitutional infringement of our right to keep and bear arms.  The Second Amendment to the US Constitution, and the first paragraph of Article I, Section 30 of the NC State Constitution clearly state that this right of the people shall not be infringed; and they do not allow for any exceptions in regard to this right as it pertains to law-abiding citizens.  In addition, I do not believe most criminals bother to go through that process to obtain firearms.  So the permit system only hinders and delays honest, peaceful citizens who are seeking to purchase handguns for their own defense.  It is a system we need to eliminate, as it costs our citizens more wasted time and money, in violation of their rights, than it benefits the safety of our society.
 
I will report more later.  I hope all is well with you and yours, and that the Lord will continually bless you.

  
Representative Larry G. Pittman
North Carolina General Assembly
House of Representatives
1321 Legislative Building
16 W. Jones Street
Raleigh, NC  27601-1096

Mother, two daughters honor murdered over video of them enjoying the rain

Via avordvet

 

Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. A manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy by Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2). In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law.

More @ Jihad Watch

California man faces 13 years in jail for scribbling anti-bank messages in chalk

Via avordvet


AFP Photo / Mark Ralston

Jeff Olson, the 40-year-old man who is being prosecuted for scrawling anti-megabank messages on sidewalks in water-soluble chalk last year now faces a 13-year jail sentence. A judge has barred his attorney from mentioning freedom of speech during trial.

According to the San Diego Reader, which reported on Tuesday that a judge had opted to prevent Olson’s attorney from "mentioning the First Amendment, free speech, free expression, public forum, expressive conduct, or political speech during the trial,” Olson must now stand trial for on 13 counts of vandalism.

In addition to possibly spending years in jail, Olson will also be held liable for fines of up to $13,000 over the anti-big-bank slogans that were left using washable children's chalk on a sidewalk outside of three San Diego, California branches of Bank of America, the massive conglomerate that received $45 billion in interest-free loans from the US government in 2008-2009 in a bid to keep it solvent after bad bets went south.

The Reader reports that Olson’s hearing had gone as poorly as his attorney might have expected, with Judge Howard Shore, who is presiding over the case, granting Deputy City Attorney Paige Hazard's motion to prohibit attorney Tom Tosdal from mentioning the United States' fundamental First Amendment rights.

"The State's Vandalism Statute does not mention First Amendment rights," ruled Judge Shore on Tuesday.

More @ RT

Justices blast property 'shakedown' by government


 coykoontz

In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court today called a halt to a government “shakedown” procedure in Florida that required a landowner to pay up to $150,000 to be allowed to develop several acres of ground.

“Extortionate demands for property in the land-use permitting context run afoul of the Takings Clause not because they take property but because they impermissibly burden the right not to have property taken without just compensation,” the opinion said. “It is settled that the unconstitutional conditions doctrine applies even when the government threatens to withhold a gratuitous benefit.”

In the Florida case, a water district demanded a property owner pay up to $150,000 to develop land originally purchased by his father.

The case was argued by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of the Koontz family.

More @ WND

Prosecution witnesses back Zimmerman

 Trayvon32

In the opening two days of the Florida murder trial for neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman, defense attorneys have gotten more good responses from two of the state’s key witnesses than the prosecutors.

Zimmerman is on trial for murder in the second degree in the Sanford, Fla., shooting of Trayvon Martin in February 2012.

Sean Noffke, whose reasoned advice on George Zimmerman’s call to police has made him America’s most famous police dispatcher, testified that Zimmerman didn’t actually disobey an order as reports have portrayed.

Assistant State Attorney John Guy walked Noffke through the mechanics of taking and responding to a call. In the questions that followed Guy’s goal was to imply that Zimmerman exceeded the role of a neighborhood watch coordinator and that he did so with something like vengeance, given that the “f***ing punks” were always getting away.

Guy also hoped to plant the seed that after Zimmerman finished the call with the dispatcher, he set out to hunt Martin down. The suggestion was that by first agreeing to meet the police at the community mailboxes, then at his truck, and then just through phone contact, Zimmerman would have the freedom to roam.

But Guy may have tripped himself up when he asked Noffke why he didn’t order Zimmerman not to follow Martin. As Noffke said, for liability reasons, the dispatcher could not give commands, only suggestions. This essentially put a lie to the myth Zimmerman “disobeyed” the dispatcher.

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Dem. Senator Admits Using Newtown Families to Break GOP Gun Control Filibuster

 CT Senator Chris Murphy and Mayor Bloomberg Talk Gun Control

In the final push toward the Senate gun control vote on April 17 2013, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) admitted Democrats were flying Newtown families into DC to break a Republican filibuster–he also admitted that those families did not know they were going to be used for that purpose until the plane carrying them was already in the air

The families thought they were coming to DC to oppose “high capacity” magazines.  But according to The New York Times, once the families were in the air aboard Air Force One, Murphy let them know they would used “to get a vote on a vote.”

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Supreme Court Strikes Down Defense of Marriage Act, Dismisses Prop. 8 Ban

 

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday handed a significant victory to gay-rights advocates by recognizing that married gay men and women are eligible for federal benefits and paving the way for same-sex marriage in California. 

The court, however, fell short of a landmark ruling endorsing a fundamental right for gay people to marry.

The two cases, both decided on 5-4 votes, concerned the constitutionality of a key part of a federal law, the Defense of Marriage Act, that denied benefits to same-sex married couples and a California state law enacted in 2008, called Proposition 8, that banned gay marriage.

Gay marriage is an issue that stirs cultural, religious and political passions in the United States as elsewhere. Gay-marriage advocates celebrated outside the Supreme Court. An enormous cheer went up as word arrived that DOMA had been struck down.


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Amb. Chris Stevens' Benghazi Journal: "........a clear and intentional cover up" by the Obama administration

 

The complete journal of former U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, one of four Americans killed during the Sept. 11 terrorist attack last year on the American compound in Benghazi, Libya, will be published in its entirety for the first time on Wednesday.

Brandon Webb, editor-in-chief of SOFREP, the news site covering U.S. and Coalition special operations news, has decided to publish the journal, which details the ambassador's final days, for the value it may add in understanding the factors that led to the attack.

"Some will be shocked that we'd post U.S. Ambassador Stevens' journal. However, we'd like to point out that this is not a classified diary; it's a professional journal kept by an employee of the U.S. government. Any personal thoughts not related to Stevens' official duties have been redacted out of respect for the late ambassador, and his family," Webb, a former Navy SEAL and author of the best-selling book "Benghazi: The Definitive Report," told Newsmax Tuesday in an email.

CNN found the diary in the days following the attack, but didn't publish it in full at the time.

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