Stocks, Tar, and Feathers

Seriously.

Family of Justina Pelletier devastated after Mass. judge's ruling

The Massachusetts Department of Children and Families took emergency custody of Justina on Valentine’s Day 2013 after doctors at Tufts Medical Center, which had been treating her for a rare condition, and doctors as Boston Children’s Hospital, clashed over the cause of her medical problems, which included difficulty eating and walking.

 ...

Justina was taken by ambulance to Boston Children's Hospital because she was in a wheelchair at the time and a heavy snow storm was blanketing the region. Because she arrived by ambulance, she was taken directly into the hospital's emergency room, where a "resident refused to send her to Dr. Flores" and, "declared this was his case," according to Moran. He said the unnamed resident then called upon a psychologist who diagnosed Justina with somatoform disorder -- a mental condition in which a patient experiences symptoms that are real but have no physical or biological explanation. Justina was diagnosed with the disorder "within 25 minutes," Moran claims. 

‘Irresponsible’ and ‘Wrong’: Lawyer Hits Back at Judge’s Leaked Ruling That Includes Accusations Against Justina Pelletier’s Parents

There never seems to be any recourse with these bureaucrats in the legal system. They hide behind their walls of obfuscation and protectionism. Their agencies indemnify and fight their legal battles for them.

Perhaps, it's time that these people face their time in public humiliation at the hads of all those who've been wronged.

This is Why I Don't Trust The Idea of a Constitutional Convention

Because they can muster enough motivated folks to pass sh!t like this while the rest of us unwittingly sit on our fat, lazy, and complacent @$$es.:

A New Second Amendment?

 The 'National Constitution Center' has put up a proposal for a 'new' Second Amendment. It reads:

CURRENT VOTE: Better defining the constitutional right to bear arms.

PROPOSED AMENDMENT: “Because a well-regulated National Guard and Reserve, and well-regulated Federal, state, and local public safety departments, are necessary to the security of our free states and our free nation, the rights of citizens, while serving in their capacity in the aforesaid organizations, to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

He Always Finds A Way To Watch Over You

Taken at my bus stop, this morning, on my way to work. Somehow, I don't think it was meant to identify bears getting into garbage.

Saving The World From Giggles

"They went way over the top for a little tiny baby deer[.]"

"It was like a SWAT team," shelter employee Ray Schulze said.

Two weeks ago, Schulze was working in the barn at the Society of St. Francis on the Kenosha-Illinois border when a swarm of squad cars arrived and officers unloaded with a search warrant.

"(There were) nine DNR agents and four deputy sheriffs, and they were all armed to the teeth," Schulze said.

The focus of their search was a baby fawn brought there by an Illinois family worried she had been abandoned by her mother.

Image of the Day: Remember, It Only Matters if Republicans Are Doing It

Original hat tip to the Vodka Pundit, who posts an image of a Guy Fawkes wielding this image with a statement of Posted Without Comment:

Image courtesy of the Huffington Post.

"Verified" Drivers Licenses or My Government's Permission to Live My Life?

Okay, the implications of this are scary beyond belief to me. And, please bear with me. I went longer than I'd initially intended.

The "this" I refer to is Roger Kimball's recent visit to his local DMV to renew his license:

The elaborate communication I received in the mail from the DMV worried me a little. No longer was renewing your license simply, you know, renewing your license: handing in the one about to expire and getting a new one. That’s so yesterday. Now, because of “new federal guidelines,” you had a choice.  You could opt for a “regular renewal,” which was like renewals of yore, except that your license wouldn’t count as a form of identification for such things as domestic flights.  Or you could opt for a “verified renewal,” in which case it would serve as a form of identification. “I’ll take one ‘verified,’ straight-up, please.”

After a lot of the bureaucratic paper nightmare at the local office, Roger decided to opt for the "regular renewal", only to find this out:

A few minutes later I was called over and handed my new license, a snazzy-looking piece of plastic emblazoned with the legend NOT FOR FEDERAL IDENTIFICATION. Thanks for that.

It's worth a read on the whole thing.

Much of his account is focused on those micro-fiefdoms, those petty tyrannies that so many supposed "public servants" seem to portray. I'll not deny that there are too many out there who've forgotten that their livelihood is at our sufferance. I have to agree with one of the commentators, whom I recognize from my long-adopted state, when he mentions that, "In the union states nobody wants to get on a union hit list so supervisors don't supervise the employees." I've seen too much of that from various roles I've performed as HR Sith Lord (one could say that, as a result, my views on collective bargaining have greatly deteriorated since my college days).

There are too many (even one is too many on my book—especially, ahem, when occupying high executive positions); however, there are also a lot of good, hardworking and caring folks who do remember that they are there to assist the general public and take it seriously.I wholeheartedly agree with that same commentator as he concludes with, "Ours is unionized, even the supervisors, but they behave and give courteous if not always competent service."

Which, brings me back onto track that many of these folks are as frustrated with all of this as we are. They are being asked by higher level and completely out-of-control regulatory bodies to lay more and more obstacles into the paths of us regular citizens, for whom those comprising these same-said bodies are supposed to work. All in the name of keeping us "secure." These front-line, boots-on-the-ground folks are being asked to frustrate us more and more and they are the ones who are left to face the wrath of our own frustrations. Sorta seems like a somewhat self-fulfilling prophecy that we burn them out and turn them to the petty tyrants through treating them as such?

But, I have totally digressed from my original intent, which is the fact that we are surely devolving further into a overly authoritarian, if not outright totalitarian police-type of state in which something as fundamental as our drivers licenses are no longer suitable as identification to travel from Point A to Point B within the borders of our own country. I have to agree with another commentator who states:

You, Roger, are rightly bothered by the Byzantine hoops you need jump through to obtain your “verified” license, -which is really an internal passport (such as was required in Soviet Russia) now required to travel within our own country. However you seem to accept that you are required to HAVE said internal passport.

Our own government trusts us even less.

I find that repugnant.

I find that reprehensible.

I find that truly frightening.

Remember what I was preaching back in the post-Newtown days: silence is assent.

Never thought I'd want to put this bumper-sticker on the old Ranger but, "If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention."

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

-Benjamin Franklin

Hero, Traitor, Whistleblower, or Felon? It Doesn't Really Matter in the Bigger Picture

I started this post a while back and let it simmer at the back burner... I've always been a reasonably law and order kind've guy who realizes we're a big country with porous borders and the world's dynamics have been dramatically changing since World War II.

Not all that long ago, I would've quickly called Edward Snowden an absolute traitor (I still can't wait to find out that Bradley Manning will rot in a deep, dark hole somewhere):

In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: “I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions,” but “I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant.”

Nowadays—especially, in light of everything else that's been recently coming to light—I'm not so sure.

Or, so I was thinking (for a bit) until more information about brave [snark] Mr. Snowden began to come to light. Professor Jacobson & Company, over at Legal Insurrection, have done a great job of compiling thoughts and information on him.

I sure as hell don't see him as any hero. Whistleblower? No. Traitor? No. Felon? Maybe. Putz? Definitely.

Add to that an unfortunately useful tool whose drama may all too well draw attention away from what really and truly matters.And, that is the scope of potential surveillance our government has placed upon us under the guise of "protecting" us.

As demonstrated by the implications of the recently-revealed IRS Scandals, it's the "potential" that should have us all worried as once a potential is realized to a bureaucracy, it becomes a given that it will be abused at one point or another. Add to that the scope of how this surveillance can intrude and disrupt every aspect of our lives and we have really placed that proverbial bridge across the Rubicon and it will only become a matter of time before it is crossed. The questions truly become:

When?
How far?
And how destructively?

It doesn't matter that it may have started under Dubya's administration. It was started and—most importantly—it is now being perpetuated by a current administration that has shown no true regard for the laws of this republic.

This Reminds Me of the Bunk Teenagers Would Say to Get In Each Other's Pants

The president called the records kept on millions of phone customers “modest encroachments on privacy.”

Honestly, Sweetie, it's only a modest encroachment on your zipper. I won't let it go to far. Honest, Babe.

Huh... Maybe we should consider a few other quotes?

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

-Benjamin Franklin

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-front for the urge to rule it."
-H.L. Mencken

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most
oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent
moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity
may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will
torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.”
–C.S. Lewis

Doesn't Matter If Dubya Started It...

Obama's perpetuating it. So, where's the truly bloody hands?

They Stood Still and Did Nothing

We should all be sickened by what happened this week in Woolwich, England—not just by the crime directly perpetrated, but also by that indirectly through the inaction of the onlookers. Have we become a flock of sheep idly bleating in some form of, "Thank Gaia [can't thank God any longer unless it's Allah] that's not me!" whilst the wolves devour one of our own?

I offer this compare and contrast...

First, review this from Richard Fernandez in his PJ Media post, The Manhood of the West:

The women came forward. Children in nearby schools were locked down by their teachers.

This incident illustrates, if nothing else, the endpoint of the social engineering of the West. It has been remarkably effective.

From a certain point of view, the British crowd behaved perfectly and this is the way “they” all want us to behave. The populace sheltered in place, didn’t do anything rash, talked to the perpetrators as people. They waited for the police to come and the hospital helicopter to take the corpse away. Some will doubtless get counseling to overcome their shattering experience.

And then they will congratulate themselves on how tough British society is; resilience and all that. The more caring will leave some flowers by a railing and hold a few candle vigils for healing and peace, until these wither and blow away and the news cycle washes up a new object of attention.

The attackers knew they were actors in a drama — as keenly watched in their communities as on the BBC. And in that other audience they were asking: “How will the locals behave?” We know now. And that other audience may derive an entirely different lesson from this tableau: “See? Only their women act like men. They follow orders. They are nothing anymore — these Westerners. They are a civilization whose core has been destroyed.”

Now, let's contrast it to Leslie Loftis's thoughts on The Essence of What It Means To Live In A Gun Culture:

...Taking the time to “earnestly contemplate” self defense is the essence of the gun culture. So much so that we hardly notice it.

I didn’t until the London Riots of 2011. While friends described locking their doors and hoping for the police, Zoe Williams wrote that she had never contemplated defending her home. This shocked me. But then I thought back to the 2001 massacre in Norway, when the shooter rampaged for about an hour, taking 77 lives. They waited for the police.

Most people outside the gun culture have been conditioned to wait for the police. Unarmed, without good options for self defense, they’ve never considered it. They assume we haven’t either, hence their worry that every charged situation would collapse into a shootout at the OK Corral. But in a gun culture, we plan self defense. In a gun culture, we accept that ultimately it is our responsibility to defend ourselves.  Follow Bolyard’s series. She’s asking, learning, and practicing while guided by those who have already done so. This is commonplace.

Sometime after the Batman massacre, five men sat at my dining room table discussing not whether they would have acted, but how. Things like how to move the non-combatants into cover and how to charge a shooter. During my shock at the London Riots, I asked a friend if he would “step off his porch and defend his neighbors from violent rioters.” He gave me a look that suggested I was being a bit thick and replied, “Leslie, I don’t have to step off my porch. That’s what the long guns are for.”

Amen.

Pushing the Needle Too Far

Ace describes an Enemy of the State and begins by asking:

What was his crime?

Rape? Murder? Home invasion? Defrauding 10,000 people in a pyramid scheme?

Worse: As a romantic gesture, he released a dozen helium-filled mylar Valentine's Day balloons with his girlfriend.

No really.

This man is now a criminal charged with releasing Valentine's Day balloons in an effort to please his girlfriend.

Per the linked article, apparently, the gentleman and his girlfriend were observed by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper:

who instead noted probable cause for an environmental crime.
Brasfield was charged with polluting to harm humans, animals, plants, etc. under the Florida Air and Water Pollution Control Act.
Endangered marine turtle species and birds, such as wood storks and brown pelicans, seek refuge in John U. Lloyd State Park, about 1.5 miles east of the motel.
- See more at: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/crime/fl-helium-balloon-environmental-crime-20130222,0,3220328.story#sthash.CXf1DXfI.dpuf

...who instead noted probable cause for an environmental crime.

Brasfield was charged with polluting to harm humans, animals, plants, etc. under the Florida Air and Water Pollution Control Act.

Endangered marine turtle species and birds, such as wood storks and brown pelicans, seek refuge in John U. Lloyd State Park, about 1.5 miles east of the motel.

Ace goes on to state:

Let me say something that was very obvious, and served as the backbone of criminal law, up until 25 years ago, when the Marxists, who understand nothing of human nature (and are quite proud of that) began destroying this country:

A criminal code must track with the basic human sense of right and wrong. The law has a make-'em-up rule to prevent people from saying "I didn't know there was a law against this" (ignorance of the law is no defense, it goes), but that's a stupid ass stopgap the law requires to function at all.

Before 25-30 years ago, most people had a sense of what the law was, without having to go to law school, because they understood, intuitively, that some things were bad.

Just where does it end when "our betters" try so hard to control every aspect of our lives for our own good? Remember, Utopia is a totalitarian state.

And, with that, I'll leave you a little of a song I'd been fond of back in my more liberalized (or, should it be lobotomized?) college days. Please excuse the quality. It was the best video I could find for the moment. Still, I find it very appropos.

who instead noted probable cause for an environmental crime.
Brasfield was charged with polluting to harm humans, animals, plants, etc. under the Florida Air and Water Pollution Control Act.
Endangered marine turtle species and birds, such as wood storks and brown pelicans, seek refuge in John U. Lloyd State Park, about 1.5 miles east of the motel.
- See more at: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/crime/fl-helium-balloon-environmental-crime-20130222,0,3220328.story#sthash.CXf1DXfI.dpuf

Slicing Gun Control's Throat...

Over at The Sacred Cow Slaughterhouse, where Michael Z. Williamson brings us Gun Control, Summarized:

Pretty soon you can't get a gun for under $1000 with several hundred $ a year in legal maintenance.

Thus fucking everyone living in poverty from defending themselves, and ensuring that only rich white "liberal" cocksuckers can own them.

It is immoral, it is racist, it is statist, it is classist, it is indefensible, and we need to start calling people on it.

Check it all out and, as always:

Be Seen. Be Heard. And Stand Firm!

Possibly, My Favorite Quote of teh Week

Also, as a rule, I find it helpful to immediately run screaming from anything that John McCain and Chuck Schumer agree on.

So sayeth PJ Media's Stephen Kruiser as he discusses his creepy feeling as Feds Consider ID Badges For ALL Workers.

Updated: That's Why Sand People Ride Their Banthas in Single File

From Days of our Trailers:  Only Imperial Stormtroopers Are So Precise

See also Chris's great post,"Only Ones:" Accountability, ROEs, and Heroism, over at Arma Borealis.

By now it is widely reported that the police in California shot up two vehicles belonging to innocent civilians, wounding two.

As a reminder, the police were looking for a 270 lb black guy in a black nissan pickup.

Read the whole thing!

UPDATE:
Steven Greenhut describes how the Dorner Manhunt Reveals Police Contempt for Public Safety:

Last weekend, police opened fire on a 71-year-old newspaper carrier and her 47-year-old daughter who had the misfortune of driving a pick-up truck police thought might be Dorner’s. The Los Angeles police detectives who opened fire on them, putting two bullets in the older woman’s back, didn’t do much double checking. The carriers' truck was a different make and color from Dorner’s.

As the women’s attorney told the Los Angeles Times: “The problem with the situation is it looked like the police had the goal of administering street justice and in so doing, didn't take the time to notice that these two older, small Latina women don't look like a large black man.” This could be written off as a sad fluke, except that 25 minutes later different officers opened fire on a different truck—once again getting key details wrong. Can’t officers at least check the license plate, and issue a warning, before opening fire?

...

“Simply put, the police culture in our country has changed,” argued former San Jose Police Chief Joe McNamara, a Hoover Institution scholar, in a Wall Street Journal article in 2006. “An emphasis on ‘officer safety’ and paramilitary training pervades today’s policing, in contrast to the older culture, which held that cops didn’t shoot until they were about to be shot or stabbed.”

Courtesy of a great hat tip and summation by the Instpaundit, who writes:

Nope. An armed citizen who acted this way would be in jail now. Except that armed citizens seldom act this way.

Welcome to Our Police State

And Your Little Dog, Too

As Washington politicians aim to restrict the Second Amendment, they should look in the mirror. The time to control government’s guns is now. Overarmed federal officials increasingly employ military tactics as a first resort in routine law enforcement. From food-safety cases to mundane financial matters, battle-ready public employees are turning America into the United States of SWAT.

FBI agents and U.S. marshals understandably are well fortified, given their frequent run-ins with ruthless bad guys. However — as my old friend and fellow columnist Quin Hillyer notes — armed officers, if not Special Weapons and Tactics crews, populate these federal agencies: the National Park Service; the Postal Inspection Service; the Departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Labor, and Veterans Affairs; the Bureaus of Land Management and Indian Affairs; the Environmental Protection Agency; and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Even Small Business Administration and Railroad Retirement Board staffers pack heat!

Read the whole thing by Deroy Murdock, over at the National Review Online.

Is This Sh!t For Freaking Real?!

I somehow missed this a while back:

Does Paragould Arkansas have the right to impose martial law on its citizens?

The city officials of Paragould, Arkansas are about to do something terrifying, They are about to enact martial law on the city, sending police into the streets armed with AR-15 rifles and the authority to stop anyone and demand to know what they are doing. Stovall and Mayor Mike Gaskill announced last week at a town hall meeting that "the program" would begin in the new year, 2013.

As for those who might complain about being harassed, Stovall has an unqualified promise, "We have a zero-tolerance. We are prepared to throw your hind-end in jail, OK. We are not going to take a lot of flak."

...

What Stovall is "fixing to do" is to fill the city's streets with SWAT operators toting AR-15s and official permission to harass anyone.

...

Stovall says, “If you're out walking, we're going to stop you, ask why you're out walking, check for your ID. We're going to do it to everybody. They may not be doing anything but walking their dog, but they’re going to have to prove it. Criminals don't like being talked to."

Of course, the same can be said of citizens.

All, in the name of protecting us. Remember, Utopia is a police state.

I'm absolutely speechless if this is indeed true...

Quote of the Day: 01/15/2013

This comes courtesy of Sebastian over at Shall Not Be Questioned in his post, Blood in the Streets:

Chicago’s top cop says there will be, because his guys will shoot armed citizens. And now a President whose home is that corrupt sewer of a city thinks he gets to tell the rest of us what our gun laws need to look like.

I also appreciate Ish's comment in response to the post:

One does not simply keep and bear arms in Mordor on the Michigan.

Remember to respect your Democrat Overlords for they know far better than you.

Something to Consider

I've wanted to post this for a long time and it keeps coming back to me regarding just how effective all of this effort to ban and fight the icky things is.

From Matt Groff, courtesy of Serena Dai over at the Atlantic Wire:



It all seems so wrong in so many ways...