Saturday Roundup of Link Roundups - 30 April

Wombat-socho at The Other McCain - In The Mailbox: 04.27.22

Michelle Malkin: Orrin Hatch’s Beltway Barnacle Legacy
Nebraska Energy Observer: The War On Western Culture
Outkick: Former NFL Player Suing Joy Reid For Defamation

EBL - Elon Musk: Fire Twitter's Trust and Safety Council

Reason: Twitter's Ministry of Truth (aka Twitter Safety)
Instapundit: Who is targetting who at Twitter?

The Right Way - Top of the News

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark - 90 Miles From Tyranny
The Final Goblet Turned and a Toast to the Raiders - Diogenes Middle Finger News Service

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 04.29.22 (Afternoon Edition)

Chicago Boyz: Nuclear Power – Has The Time Finally Come?
Da Tech Guy: Lefties – Let Me Introduce You To Twitter’s “Block” & “Mute” Functions, also, Five Fast Thoughts Under The Fedora

Battleswarm Blog - Ukraine Update for April 27, 2022

An awful lot of Russian infrastructure seems to be blowing up all of a sudden.
Don’t start none, won’t be none…
More structure hits inside Russia:

Flopping Aces - The Week in Radical Leftism, 4/29/2022

How Obama and Biden Destroyed the Greatest Military the World Has Ever Seen
As much as stories like this will make your blood boil, remind yourself of who our military will be targeting in America’s next war.

A View from the Beach - Half Way to Recession, Biden Stumbles, and more

NYPo, Stagflation is staring Biden in the face — but he refuses to change course. Zach Evans at NR, Biden ‘Not Concerned about Recession,’ Touts ‘Enormous Growth’ after Economy Shrinks in First Quarter. Ace, Biden Seeks Sweeping New Powers To Confiscate Wealth to Fight The Enemy

Don Surber - Highlights of the News

FINALLY, Based Politics reported, "Study Finds Burglaries Dropped in Area Known to Have More Gun Permits."
Now you know why Democrats oppose private gun ownership.

Wombat-socho again - In The Mailbox: 04.29.22 (Evening Edition)

Victory Girls: Biden’s “Mary Poppins Of Misinformation”
Volokh Conspiracy: Higher Education Makes People More Libertarian

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 4/28/2022

Minneapolis Crime Rates Continue to Rise as More Retirements Loom
Up to 70 more police officers could retire in the near future, sources told Alpha News, as the city continues to grapple with an increase in crime.

Cafe Hayek - Some Covid Links

After reading this new piece by Matt Welch on America’s school closures, I continue to hope that one silver lining around the dark cloud of covid hysteria will turn out to be a mortal – or, at least, a seriously debilitating – blow to government schooling.

Maggie's Farm - Wednesday morning links

Senate Dem: We need "algorithmic justice" now that Musk owns Twitter
The Internet Impossibility Theorem: achieving a decentralized society is a task for culture, not for engineering.

Pixy Misa at Ace of Spades HQ - Daily Tech News 28 April 2022

All the chemical bases in DNA and RNA have now been found within meteorites. (ScienceNews)
Which is a hint that if we find life elsewhere in the galaxy it will be edible.

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report - 4/28/22

"Answering the critics who call our founding document 'trash.'”
Defending the Constitution

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 04/28/2022

Elizabeth Warren says we need Big Tech ‘rules’ to ‘break’ Elon Musk’s stranglehold. Look anon, he is the enemy of our enemy – we should follow him.
Elon Musk mocks Donald Trump’s Truth Social. There it is. They fear Truth Social.

I leave you with Thursday gifdump from Wirecutter, Wednesday Memes … from MaddMedic, Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #382 from 90 Miles From Tyranny, and Must We Say More Than Libturd Thursday ~ 2 from Woodsterman.

The Gun Haters Will Call this a “Teen Tragically Shot”

They are not concerned with details, like the fact that he was committing a crime when he was shot. Homeowner shoots suspected burglar on east side

A resident came home to his apartment to find two miscreants burglarizing the place. He shot one of them.

The intruder who was shot was 14 years old, police said, and was taken to Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health with non-life-threatening injuries.

What were you doing at 14? I'm guessing breaking and entering wasn't on the list.

Self-defense is a human-right.

They Do NOT Care About Your Safety

This is actually a story from before COVID. Before they emptied the jails, and locked us in our homes. But it was featured on Active Self Protection recently, so here we are.

Paneez Kosarian was attacked by a "homeless person" (he is a crazy person, whether he's homeless or not is beside the point.) Victim Outraged After Man Who Attacked Her Outside San Francisco Home Released. From August of 2019:

The victim of an early Sunday morning assault outside the lobby of her building in San Francisco was shocked and angry to learn Wednesday morning her attacker had been released from custody.

The suspect, identified by police as 25-year-old Austin James Vincent, was taken into custody near the Embarcadero around 2 a.m. Sunday after assaulting San Francisco resident Paneez Kosarian outside the lobby of her condo building known as the Watermark.

If they valued your safety, they wouldn't let this guy back out on the street. But they did. The woman who was assaulted said that she felt like a prisoner in her own home. They gave a crazy person a 100 foot restraining order. I'm sure that worked out.

Here is a quote from another article on the incident: VIDEO: Woman Attacked By Assailant Outside Lobby Of San Francisco Building.

“Don’t twist it as this is a homeless issue and we’re going to build more shelters. Give them more treatment. These people are mentally ill. These people are struggling with drug addiction,” said Kosarian. “You can’t put these people into a residential area and say, ‘Don’t feel unsafe. You’re safe.’ You can’t do that. The city needs to properly address this. The city needs to come up with a plan and show us, prove to us that we are safe.”

This is the Active Self Protection video for SF Woman Forced To Fight A Bum To Enter Her Apartment Building. It is quite disturbing really. And things haven't gotten better in the last couple of years.

911 was called about the guy, but it wasn't a priority, until after he assaulted someone. Then it was a priority. It happened in San Francisco, so your ability to defend yourself is limited. Is pepper spray even legal, or is it bad for the environment? Firearms are all but impossible to carry in San Francisco.

Western Civilization was nice while it lasted.

Hurt

Some time back I tripped over some of the covers of songs recorded by Johnny Cash that were originally by Rock & Roll artists. I'm not sure I like all of them, but today's song strikes an emotional chord.

Everyone I know goes away
In the end

I usually say that the videos distract from the music. Not this time. I really like the images in this video.

This is the cover of "Hurt" by Johnny Cash. It was of course originally by Nine Inch Nails. This version was found on his 2002 album American IV: The Man Comes Around.

In looking for extra info for this post, it struck me as amazing that his recording career started in the 1950s, and lasted until just prior to his death. He died in 2003. Actually at least one album was released posthumously.

Friday Links - 29 April

The Daley Gator - Now too much food, and too many animals are killing Mother Earth

The cult of global warming may be the first explicitly antihuman ideology ever to take root among a ruling class. In the name of the climate, its adherents want us shivering in the dark — without food:

Moonbattery - Google Docs to Automatically Alert Users to Thoughtcrime

To address this problem, Google will automatically present warnings when people stray from political correctness by using disfavored terms like “policeman” and “landlord”:

Don Surber - Only 3% of its subscribers actually watched CNN+. That's about 4,000 people on the day the end was announced.

Zucker took CNN from third place to third place, while squandering all its credibility on the Russian Collusion hoax which was an effort to cover Obama's ass for spying on Trump while at the same time starting a Fake Investigation by Mueller and his goons.

Again from Moonbattery - Liberal Twitter Meltdown Tells You All You Need to Know

No one seriously expects Musk to transform Twitter from a left-wing to a right-wing platform. The hope on the right and the fear on the left is that he will make good on his promise to make it a neutral platform that honors the fundamental American principle of free speech. That this sets liberals’ hair on fire tells you all you need to know about them.

Ace at Ace of Spades HQ - 10% For "The Big Guy:" Joe Biden Has $5.2 Million in Unexplained Income, Financial Records Reveal: (And Twitter Will Not Be Suppressing This Story, Womp-Womp)

After noting that Pop-Pop is being handled by the Easter Bunny, she notes that the media routinely diagnosed Trump's supposed mental defects -- but now scolds conservatives for noting the obvious galloping dementia Joe Biden is exhibiting.

Whats Up With That - New Study: Wind, Solar Energy Now Killing 48% Of Priority Bird Species With ‘Population-Level Effects’

Of California’s 23 vulnerable bird species studied (barn owls, golden eagles, road runners, yellow-billed cuckoos…), scientists have found 11 are now experiencing at least a 20% decline in their population growth rates because wind turbines and solar panels are killing them and/or destroying their limited-range habitat.

Althouse - "What exactly does [Elon Musk] believe can’t be said on [Twitter] right now?"

"It is easy to assume" a lot of things! It's also easy to splatter opinion columns with the idea that Musk is a racist, sexist pig and that to declare that you've made "a moral and ethical case" for censorship... and — paradoxically — that you're fighting misinformation.

It's interesting how much free speech the opponents of free of speech already have.

Explain America - Actor Rob Reiner Leads Leftist Meltdown Online Following Elon Musk Twitter Purchase

Actor and producer Rob Reiner of “All In The Family” fame led a meltdown of liberal voices online following reports on Monday that billionaire Tesla/SpaceX/Starlink founder and CEO Elon Musk convinced Twitter’s board of directors to accept his buyout offer.

Chicago Boyz - Nuclear Power: Has the Time Finally Come?

New-generation nuclear plants which can be largely built in factories, substantially reducing the on-site construction time and effort required and potentially reducing the capital costs per kilowatt, are being developed. The greater standardization, as compared with one-off construction, will hopefully also reduce licensing problems and delays. Very importantly, most of the reactors are designed to avoid meltdown situations even if left unattended and without backup power.

Chant du Départ - Guest Post - Ukraine: Is Russia Desperate?

Ewok report, part ? I stopped counting ...¹

I'll try to keep it short, but the events seem to be accelerating again... Besides some hard , but inconclusive fighting in the East of Ukraine, and Russia targeting rail infrastructure with barrage of ballistic and cruise missiles ...

When Seconds Count, Police Are an Hour Away

An HOUR response time? Texas woman called police an hour before officers found her body | Fox News

Dixon was deaf and used a translator service to call 911 roughly an hour before she was found dead. Dixon warned police that her ex-boyfriend had thrown a rock through her window and was breaking into her house. Dixen went on to claim that the ex had brandished a knife and threaded to kill her before leaving.

Oh it's nothing. We don't have to rush.

The POS ex-boyfriend has been charge with murder. It would have been better if he had been charge with assault because the cops got off their doughnut asses and responded to a 911 call.

Calling 911 is a fine thing to do. But if you believe that the cops are going to come riding to your rescue, you might want to reconsider that plan, and at least come up with a Plan B.

This all happened in February.

The nature of the attack and the lagged speed of police response has been a major point of contention in this case.

While I expect there to be a lawsuit, it will go nowhere. The cops have no duty to protect you, not even if you call 911, and not even if you have a restraining order.

Like I said, "Plan B."

So Many Ways This Could Have Gone Wrong

Lots of lessons in this story. Woman stranded six days in California forest survives on yogurt

On Thursday, April 14, she and Justin Lonich, 48, who live in Little Valley, had been driving there on forest roads north of Highway 44 when their vehicle became stuck in the snow. They spent the night in the car, and the next morning, it wouldn’t start.

Both began walking south toward the highway; Gullett fell behind when the soles of her boots started coming off. When Lonich realized they were separated, he said, he turned back but could not find her.

In heavy snowfall, he spent the next two nights in makeshift shelters as he made his way south. On Sunday, April 17, he reached Highway 44 and got a ride into Susanville, where he reported Gullett missing.

First Lesson: Driving on Forest roads in California when it is snowing is a bad idea.

Second Lesson: Your cellphone is not as useful as you think it is. Not once you get away from the cities, and towns

Third Lesson: Don't get separated.

Fourth Lesson: Emergency Supplies in the back of your vehicle are a good idea.

There are more, about buying quality equipment, seeing that stuff is maintained, and the like.

When I read these stories in the winter, it is usually about someone who froze-to-death/died of exposure a few miles from help. If it is in the summer, it is usually how they died from heat exhaustion a few miles from help.

I wanted to make the thing about cellphones lesson number 1. If you are going into the great outdoors, away from big cities. You should consider something more appropriate. There are choices that work better than cellphones in emergencies like this.

This Is Called Putting the Cart Before the Horse

They didn't think long term. Are we shocked? Brand new tiny house village sits empty in Rainier Beach | WPEC

A new tiny house village sits empty after the 'Low Income Housing Institute’ says they were denied funding.

So they built a facility before they knew how they were going to run the facility. I think that sums up how much your average Leftist knows about finance and economics.

“We were stunned that the decision was made to not open a resource that should get 40 to 60 people every year. We could open our doors tomorrow,” said Jon Grant, Chief Strategy Officer for LIHI.

So they built a bunch of tiny houses (and these are really tiny - click thru for an image), and now they are shocked - Shocked I tell you! - to discover that the funds for operation did not magically appear.

They built the thing through donations and partnerships, though they never define what they mean by partnerships. Apparently they can't raise enough of an endowment to run it. Or they didn't try because they were sure the funds would magically appear to cover staff and utilities. Let's not forget stuff like maintenance, replacing damaged stuff, etc. Because the tiny houses are going to last forever, right?

In the words of Bugs Bunny, "What a maroon."

Your Life Means Nothing to Violent Criminals

You get in their way, over a few dollars, and they will shoot you. ‘Do not approach him:’ DeLand police issue warning after clerk shot in fight over bag of chips

According to DeLand police, the clerk, whose name and age have not been released, was shot in the leg by a 17-year-old. The clerk was taken to Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford for medical treatment, police said.

Police identified the suspected shooter as Tyrique L. Matthews, who may be known as “Trique.”

According to police, Matthews should be considered armed and dangerous.

Your life means less than 10 bucks. Yes, you can die from being shot in the leg.

Western Civilization was nice while it lasted.

Killadelphia Living Up to the Name

From The Other McCain - Killadelphia Update

Say hello to Rahajahi Taylor Batchelor, 19, who pleaded guilty earlier this month to gun trafficking charges in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Batchelor was only 17 when he was arrested in September 2020 and, despite his youth, prosecutors said he was one of the “masterminds” of a major illegal firearms trafficking operation

Click thru for the details on Batchelor, and the gun running, and the statistics on the carnage in Philadelphia this year. Per capita, they are in the lead for quest to become the Murder Capital of America.

Hey, did I mention... that Joe Biden got 81% of the vote in Philadelphia?

Like I said, click thru.

Once Again the Federal .gov is on Top of Things

More vulnerabilities that are YEARS old, still in place in the federal .gov. CISA adds 7 vulnerabilities to list of bugs exploited in attacks

Still, it is better than prior lists, which listed bugs dating back as far as 2013.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added seven vulnerabilities to its list of actively exploited security issues, including those from Microsoft, Linux, and Jenkins.

The 'Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog' is a list of vulnerabilities known to be actively exploited in cyberattacks and required to be patched by Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies.

The current list of updates includes bugs that "only" go back to 2019. Note that those bugs were like fixed in 2019 as well. Maybe 2020. What year is it again?

CISA, or The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which was apparently named by the Department of Redundancy Depart, is trying to get the federal .gov up to a reasonable level of support with respect to known and fixed software bugs. They don't seem to be having a lot of luck. While I won't say that this is the worst logo in all of government, I will ask, "Is this the best you can do?"

Here's a plan (whether you work in government or private industry): Update Your Damn Systems.

This line from Men in Black keeps running through my mind. "You're everything we've come to expect from years of government training."

Rick Beato — Old Man Yells At Cloud

Hey, that title is right out of Rick's video.

This is Rick Beato's video for Why Gen Z Doesn't Care About Music.

Wednesday Link Roundup - 27 April

Pirate's Cove starts things rolling with Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

5. DC Clothesline notes food processing plants burning down around the nation
6. Geller Reports has the latest bit of authoritarianism from Fauci

Bacon Time!!!! - Sunday Linkage

Watts Up With That Washed Away – A Short Film About Sea Level Fall
Freedom Is Just Another Word… DEAD GIVEAWAYS YOU’RE CARRYING!!!

Wombat-socho at The Other McCain - In The Mailbox: 04.25.22

BattleSwarm: Why Are Russia’s Arms Sucking So Badly? also, Accounts Elon Musk Should Restore
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American

EBL - The Elon Musk Song

My expectations about this are low, but I enjoy the left freaking out.
Instapundit: Can Elon Musk go buy Facebook too?
TOM: So … Is #FreeStacy Trending Yet?

Political Hat - News of the Week (April 24th, 2022)

Math education prof: 2+2 = 4 ‘trope’ ‘reeks of white supremacy patriarchy’
They asserted that the statement “2 plus 2 equals 4” is rooted in Western definitions of mathematics.

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 04.26.22

Victory Girls: Taylor Lorenz Whines About Her Own Consequences
Volokh Conspiracy: Why Does Google Hate Mothers? also, What Is Church Autonomy?

Vlad Tepes - UK data busts the narrative again, DeSantis is a treat and the list of WEF ‘young leaders’ associates: Links 1, April 25, 2022

5. Monday morning treat: Ron DeSantis comes closer to the reestablishment of reality over communist imposed, pseudo-reality than anyone else in authority so far.

Battleswarm Blog - Disney Fallout Roundup

Kurt Schlichter: “Call Groomers ‘Groomers’ Because of Their Grooming and Because It Annoys David French.”
How much did it cost Disney to go woke? Try nearly $50 billion.

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report - 4/26/22

"Remote learning has created a population of college students in dire need of remedial education."
Dazed and Confused

Don Surber - Highlights of the News

ITEM 5: Washington Free Beacon reported, "Uber's decision to waive delivery fees from black-owned restaurants during the George Floyd riots could cost the company $91 million.

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 04/25/2022

Participants in Moderna’s mRNA booster shot clinical trials keep dying.
Minnesotans share horror stories of COVID-19 vaccine injuries.

I leave you with Sunday gifdump from Wirecutter, Sunday Funnies For 04-24-22 from Stately McDaniel Manor, Tuesday Morning Brings Us Libturds, and Tuesday Memes … from MaddMedic.

Be Serious — This Didn't "Divide the Internet."

It was already divided. Florida Sheriff's Advice to Shoot Home Invaders Divides Internet.

This is a story from a few days back, when the Sheriff of Santa Rosa County, Florida, Bob Johnson, said that you should shoot people breaking into your home.

"If someone's breaking into your house, you're more than welcome to shoot them in Santa Rosa County. We prefer that you do, actually," Sheriff Johnson said.

The gun-hating-Left had kittens.

As one of the commenters noted, "We should just have a cop in every home" in case of break in.

Another comment brought up a question I always have under these conditions: What percentage of the people who are outraged at the idea that you should defend yourself, were the same people who were calling for the elimination, or defunding, of police two years ago?

And as I have noted elsewhere, that effort to vilify and defund the police has had negative impacts on 911 response times. And those response time were never zero.

Here is my original post on the Sheriff, and his thoughts on self-defense.

Seattle City Council Is Shocked About Police Shortages

Can you believe it? Seattle is having trouble keeping and recruiting officers. Police staffing issues come to a head in Seattle City Council hearing

SPD has now revised its expected numbers with 98 projected hires by the end of the year and 113 separations. If these numbers pan out, it would produce $4.1 million to $4.5 million in salary savings for 2022, until overtime is factored in.

And there is a lot of overtime. 99.7 percent of all officers are working overtime. They have taken detectives and put them back into patrol, because they need to answer 911 calls. But that impacts the ability to close cases and get justice for victims.

Imagine that. After several years of vilifying police, cities like Seattle can't hire police.

And you know, people do call 911 in an emergency. Here is what SPD Chief Adrian Diaz had to say.

Our priority one call response time has gone up, as well as our priority two calls have actually exceeded over 30 minutes and our priority three calls are almost over an hour. So even when people do need 911 services, we’re not able to respond in an adequate amount of time.

So all that "Defund the police" and hating police has real world impacts when people ACTUALLY need police. Who could have imagined that?

Actually the state of policing in Seattle has been deteriorating for sometime. Take a look at the video "Seatlle Is Dying." Not only is it interesting in its own right, but a part of it talks about the police force, and how policies were destroying morale in the years before 2019.

Western Civilization was nice while it lasted.

The Return Of Pan

I'm not sure what brought this song to mind. It hit #10 on the US Alternative Airplay chart from Billboard, back in the day, and I remember hearing it quite a bit, which must have been on the radio, since I never owned a copy. I think it holds up.

First offering from Waterboys since '88 is a tough, well-produced track that neatly balances raucous electric guitars with the Celtic folk the band has long made a specialty [Ref. Billboard May 22, 1993, via the WiKi.]

Here's a link to the lyrics.

This song is "The Return of Pan" by The Waterboys from the 1993 album Dream Harder.

The Other McCain Brings Us a Musical Interlude

And a story. A Genuinely Weird Rock ’n’ Roll Story

Click thru for the story of Bill Bartlett of both The Lemon Pipers and Ram Jam. And the video for "Black Betty" by Ram Jam.

Both bands qualify as one hit wonders.

At one point, the NAACP tried to mount a boycott against “Black Betty,” but that effort fizzled after it was learned that this was actually a black folk song from the 1930s.

How's That Criminal Justice Reform Working Out?

One was convicted of robbery in October. He got probation. They other was "adjudicated delinquent" for armed robbery. 2 men are charged with robbing a Red Line passenger in the Loop. Both have been convicted of other robberies in the past year, prosecutors say. - CWB Chicago

Are we surprised that without consequences there is no change in behavior?

[Assistant State’s Attorney James] Konstantopoulos said McClary is on “second chance probation” for two robberies. An October report by Evanston Patch said McClary tried to rob five people in two separate incidents on the evening of October 19.

He didn't get a jail sentence for robbing 5 people in 2 separate instances. They also, at some point in the past few years, dismissed a charge of armed carjacking. Because keeping violent criminals in jail is unfair, at least according to the non-prosecuting attorney's of The State's Attorney for Cook County.

There is more, if you can stand it. Click thru.

Civilization is built on the rule of law, and we seem to have abandoned that. And by "we" I mean the criminal justice system in the large cities.

Tuesday Links - 26 April

The Other McCain starts things off with news from Ukraine. Here’s a Completely Crazy Idea

Look, I know this might seem far-fetched, but hear me out. Maybe if you’re going to have a meeting of your army commanders, you should try to choose a location that is not within range of the enemy’s artillery.

Impro Guns - Tactical 12 Gauge. Another homemade firearm.

Courtesy of Victoria Police.

Again from The Other McCain - Humans Dying in Mayor Frogface’s Town. That would be Lori Lightfoot of Chicago.

Meanwhile, human life has no value in Chicago. The homicide rate is slightly down so far this year, compared to 2021, which was the worst year for homicides in Chicago since 1996.

Bloomberg (though I don't like to include non-blog-links) - China Ordered Amazon to Delete Reviews of Xi Jinping’s Book, Reuters Reports. Do you trust Amazon?

The Amazon.cn entry for Xi’s “The Governance of China” had its ratings, comments and reviews scrubbed and disabled roughly two years ago in response to an edict from Beijing, the report said. Triggering the request were reviews rating the work at less than the maximum five stars, according to one of the unidentified people familiar with the incident.

The Feral Irishman - I Don't Give A Fuck Either Way That Musk Bought Twitter... It's The Lefty Meltdowns That Are Giving Me A Smile...

Once again from The Other McCain - Go and Do Thou Likewise

Of course, there is no “green” way to light yourself on fire. Can’t do it with windmills or solar panels, so you’ll need good old fossil fuel to get the job done and, at $4.10 for a gallon of gas nowadays, this could get expensive.

Schneier on Security - SMS Phishing Attacks are on the Rise

I know that I have been receiving a lot of phishing SMS messages over the past few months. I am not getting the “Fedex package delivered” messages the article talks about.

Babylon Bee - Chris Wallace Now Regretting Getting CNN+ Tramp Stamp. I thought Satire was forbidden.

Chris Wallace’s name started trending along with search terms "unemployed" and "learn to code" when CNN+ shut down this week, but Wallace has voiced a more troubling concern than potential joblessness: his recently-acquired CNN+ tattoo on his lower back.

This Didn't Happen in New Jersey

Why would you threaten a stranger in Florida? This guy threatened multiple people. TPD: Motorist who shot pedestrian was within Stand Your Ground law

Self-defense. Maybe the bad guys should think about it.

A pedestrian "aggressively approaching" drivers was shot in self defense after "accosting" a motorist, the Tallahassee Police Department has determined.

The investigation surrounding a motorist who shot and severely injured a pedestrian Friday afternoon concluded as "the case was found to be in accordance with Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law," according to TPD.

Maybe this should be filed under "Crazy People Are Dangerous." For the time being, I will leave that as speculation.

This is the latest in a string of shootings that have been determined to be in self-defense.

Self-defense is a human-right, and Florida is not New Jersey.

These Are the Policies They Voted For

It is really hard for me to see a majority of people who call Manhattan home ever voting for a "tough on crime" politician. NYC crime spikes in Manhattan's East and West villages

It is also really hard for me to feel sorry for anyone, because as I noted, they voted for this insanity, and will probably keep voting for it. Which is the reason for the tiny violin.

Major crimes are surging in both the East and West villages, turning Manhattan’s once iconic arts and culture hubs into cesspools of rampant property thieves.

Overall major crime is up 54 percent in the East Village, the Bowery and NoHo (Those neighborhoods make up the Ninth Precinct). I will let you click thru for the details, but one did catch my attention.

Vehicle thefts increased from 3 to 12. Which is still a small number, but I wouldn't have expected that many non-attended vehicles to be in Manhattan? I mean, how much does it cost to park a car there?

Anyway, the folks who make up those Arts and Club districts will never stop voting for Progressive politics. At least not until they have been literally mugged, and maybe not then.

I will give the last words to a shopkeeper and a bar owner, both trying to make a go of it in that Deep Blue City.

Leroy “Big Lee” Lloyd, who owns The Hard Swallow bar on 1st Avenue, compared the current state of the neighborhood to John Carpenter’s “Escape from New York,” a classic 1980s dystopian film where Manhattan is converted into a lawless prison island.

And...

Kyle McCoy, who manages Atelier on W. 8th St. ... said there’s no solution because bail reform laws go easy on criminals.

“It’s stupid,” he said. “Shoplifters get a little slap on the wrist.”

Gee... Who would have thought that electing a bunch of politicians - and prosecuting attorneys - who think that punishing criminals is unfair would lead to an increase in crime? No one in New York City, apparently.

"Life's hard; It's harder when you're stupid." (John Wayne never said that, but he should have.)

Not Quite Summer in Chicago

Last year was a sh*t show of the highest order; it was the deadliest year since the late 1990s. This year a lot of cold and wet weather helped pull the numbers down a bit, but it seems that summer is a bit early. Chicago sees most violent weekend this year: 32 hurt and 6 killed by gunfire - Chicago Sun-Times

Just last week, Chicago Police Supt. David Brown touted encouraging drops in homicides and shootings as the department pushes to tamp down the surging violent crime that has become a serious political liability for Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

But the only stats on Chicago crime you can trust are from HeyJackass! - Mostly Peaceful Weekend.

Aside from Friday, the warmest weekend of the year is here and therefore a Summer Shooting Season sneak peak is on the schedule.

Final Peaceful Tally: 7 killed, 41 wounded
2021 weekend tally: 5 killed, 25 wounded

It was truly a great city. Past tense.

Crazy People Are Dangerous

A mass shooting as a way to "be remembered." Civilization was nice while it lasted. ‘The Nicest Kid in Our Grade’.

First off, I absolutely love this comment.

(It’s always the “quiet kid,” you notice? All those teachers who gave me demerits and sent me to the principal’s office for talking too much in class owe me an apology. It was the quite kids who were the real danger, not me.)

The mass shooting in DC was in a "nice neighborhood." Not gang-related. Not terrorism. Not political.

Instead, Raymond Spencer was a random kook

But real problem is our inability to deal with mental illness. Though I'm not clear if he did anything before this rampage to have been committed. Even if he did something, we don't institutionalize the mentally unstable. It isn't fair. (And everyone thought that One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was a documentary, so of course we had to put an end to that.)

We are currently about 50 years into an experiment of “disinstitutionalizing” the mentally ill, and there are so many kooks running around nowadays that scarcely a week goes by without one of them doing something crazy like this. But the good news, such as it is, is that at least none of Raymond Spencer’s victims died from their wounds, and he committed suicide, thus sparing taxpayers the expense of locking him away for the rest of his life. A win-win, really.

Click thru for the details and more commentary from Robert Stacy McCain.

He Said He Didn't Want NATO on His Doorstep

UPDATE: CTV decided to deep six the previous story that I had linked. I udated the link - to a current story on NATO- but did not rewrite the entire post.

But that is exactly what Putin is getting, thanks to his invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine news: Sweden, Finland to apply to NATO | CTV News

Two newspapers - one Swedish, the other one Finnish - are reporting that the governments of Sweden and Finland have agreed to submit NATO applications at the same time and that it will happen in the middle of next month.

The Finnish newspaper Iltalehti said that the Swedish government has expressed a wish to Finland that they apply together in the week starting May 22 and Swedish government sources confirmed the information to Sweden's Expressen tabloid.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to growing support in Sweden and Finland, a Russian neighbour, for joining NATO.

Finland was once part of the Russian Empire, way back when there was such a thing, under the tsars. They avoided being part of the Soviet Union, which didn't sit well with the Soviets, so the Russians invaded in what was known as The Winter War, during 1939 to 1940. That was the war that brought us Simo Häyhä, The White Death. Like the incursion into Ukraine, the Winter War didn't go quite the way the Russians planned.

Both Sweden and Finland cooperate - a lot - with NATO already. NATO war games often take place in the 2 countries, for example.

Anyway, there is more about what is happening in and around Ukraine at the link. Everything from Germany and Russia expelling diplomats, to Environmental protests over Russian oil in Norway is covered.

Better Without You

Evanescence relased a new album in the spring of 2021, and I missed it.

In 2022 they will touring Europe (mostly) with one of my favorite Symphonic Metal bands, Within Temptation. The Worlds Collide tour was supposed to take place in 2020, but then we had COVID-19, so...

Here is a link to the lyrics for today's song. You may need them.

This song is "Better Without You" by Evanescence from their March 2021 album The Bitter Truth

How Is That Criminal Justice Reform Working Out?

Furlough for prisoners? Of course. Why not? Alleged Westminster home invader had been released from jail three months prior

He was released and was supposed to work at a dog kennel in the area. But he left and went to live with a friend in New Hampshire.

During his appeal of the DOC’s decision, King contended he did not relapse into substance misuse and did not commit any other crimes. King also said the owner of the dog kennel took his phone and tried to poison him.

That is up there with the dog ate my homework as an excuse. Still, a judge let him out.

On March 14, King kicked in a door in Shady Pines Park, shouting “ATF, come out with your hands up.”

The homeowner, Nathaniel Keefe shot King shortly thereafter.

He is now being held without bail on the new charge of burglary of an occupied dwelling with a deadly weapon.

King has a criminal record extending back to 1999, including 10 felonies and three misdemeanors and is currently serving a three-and-a-half to 10-year sentence imposed in 2018 on charges of burglary, accessory to burglary, and possession of stolen property.

He could have been locked up until September of 2027, but that wouldn't have been fair.

Any bets on what he will be sentenced to? My guess is that he will NOT be charged under federal law as a felon in possession of a firearm. Because enforcing the gun laws we already have is not fair, not if it means keeping people in jail.

Western civilization was nice while it lasted.

The Restraining Order Did Not Restrain Him

Restraining Orders are pieces of paper, not armor. Philadelphia Shooting: Woman shoots husband twice in Germantown in possible act of self-defense, police say - 6abc Philadelphia

"She does have an active protection from abuse warrant against her husband. We did verify that through our computer system. So there is a possibility this shooting may be self-defense," Philadelphia Chief Inspector Scott Small said.

He was shot in both legs, and is in a local hospital in stable condition. She is cooperating.

The investigation is just starting, but when Philadelphia cops say, "It looks like self-defense," it probably is.

And self-defense is a human-right.

Amala Ekpunobi Relates How She Discovered the Big Lie

Amala Ekpunobi is a formerly liberal, now conservative commentator on the internet. She has a YouTube channel/Prager U show, Amala Ekpunobi: Unapologetic.

She has a (somewhat) new video which I found via FrontPageMag: Prager U Video: How I Stopped Hating the Police. It is "new to me" as they say, though it was posted in the first week of April.

Amala Ekpunobi grew up believing that policing in America was systemically racist. An outspoken activist, she marched for Black Lives Matter and advocated to defund the police. A chance encounter with a kind police officer made Amala begin to question her assumptions. Eager to validate her long-held beliefs, she investigated the facts behind the “racist police” narrative. The deeper she dug, the more her doubt grew, ultimately leading to a confrontation with the truth that transformed her entire worldview. Don't miss this video!

This is an interesting 7 minute video on how she came to realize that she had been lied to by the Left. I enjoyed it; I think you might as well.

This is Amala Ekpunobi's video for How I Stopped Hating the Police: An Unapologetic Special.

Back in my misspent youth, I went to a lot of night clubs. A fair number of those were mixed - gay, lesbian, and straight - because that is where the best dancing was. If there was a gay-bashing, which happened all too often in the 1980s and 1990s, one of the worst things you could do was to call the police. But a suburbanite would usually do exactly that because, what else do you do? The cops were almost guaranteed to make a bad situation worse. (Yes, I have seen them arrest the guy bleeding on the sidewalk. Why? Because they could.)

That said, if you don't enforce the law, chaos is the result. (Consider this example.)

The Left Has a Habit of Shouting People Down

The Other McCain takes on the groomers of the Left. ‘The Enormity of the Crime’

You should read the entire post at that link; it isn't long, and I think it's worth your time. I will share the one part that spoke to me.

Having spent the past couple of decades closely watching how liberals operate, I have long since realized that unless you learn to shrug off accusations of “hate” and “ignorance” from the Left, you’re going to be bullied into submission — or, at the very least, intimidated into silence, which is effectively the same. While I don’t go around starting arguments with people, neither will I be forced to sit in silence while liberals lecture me as if I were a child in need of their tutelage. As folks say down home, I was born at night, but it wasn’t last night, and I am in no need of instruction on this issue.

I will only say that I parted company with "the movement" a long way back. The Left demands ideological conformity. You must agree with them on every topic from guns, to abortion, to immigration, to welfare, to social justice, to ... etc. ad nauseam. I am not in love with conformity.

The Wrecking Crew Documentary

Seems appropriate for a Sunday afternoon.

So a documentary on the Wrecking Crew was recommended in the comments of the Musical Interlude featuring Glen Campbell. It is available on YouTube for a price. I hate paying for TV, though occasionally I will. In this case it was available through my local library for streaming, and as a DVD.

If you also don't want to pay for The Wrecking Crew, and your library can't help out, there is a free series of videos on YouTube: Wrecking Crew Session Men. It covers a lot of the same territory, and includes extra stuff, like an in-depth interview with Carol Kaye (the bass player on a lot of hit records of the 1960s and 70s) and more. I haven't seen all of the videos in that list.

While the wrecking crew was based in Los Angeles, there were other session musicians in other places, and some of those groups are covered as well, such as The Memphis Horns. They are also featured in the Session Men playlist.

This is the Trailer for The Wrecking Crew documentary.

The commentor at that Glen Campbell Musical Interlude also recommended the documentary Muscle Shoals about the music scene in Muscle Shoals, Alabama that brought us the likes of Areatha Franklin, Lynyrd Skynyrd and more. That is available on YT for free with ads. I have only heard a small part of that. But it looks good.

Largest Experiment Restarts After 3-year Upgrade

After all these years, I still love particle physics. What Is the Large Hadron Collider? CERN Restarts the World's Largest Particle Accelerator - CNET

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been called the largest experiment in human history.

After more than three years of inactivity, the Large Hadron Collider located on the French-Swiss border outside Geneva restarted on Friday shortly after 12 p.m. local time. Two beams of protons circulated in opposite directions around the particle collider, according to CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

CERN is Conseil européen pour la recherche nucléaire - OR - European Organization for Nuclear Research.

At 17 miles in circumference, the LHC can overcome the electro-weak force, and smash protons into protons.

"The machines and facilities underwent major upgrades during the second long shutdown of CERN's accelerator complex," CERN's director for accelerators and technology, Mike Lamont, said in a statement. "The LHC itself has undergone an extensive consolidation program and will now operate at an even higher energy and, thanks to major improvements in the injector complex, it will deliver significantly more data to the upgraded LHC experiments."

Turning on the world's most powerful particle accelerator isn't like throwing a light switch. The magnets have to be cooled to become superconductors, and the protons need to be accelerated. Changes in geometry from the cooling can cause problems, and it takes a while to accelerate something to better than 99% the speed of light.

After about 20 minutes -- and 13.5 million trips around the LHC -- the two streams are brought together in an enormous collision at one of four detector sites along the LHC: Atlas, Alice, CMS and LHCb.

These protons are so small that most of them fly right past each other -- there are only 20 collisions each time two bunches of 100 billion protons are brought together. But there are so many in the beam, that's still 600 million collisions per second.

There is more. Click thru.

There are a lot of stories on the restart of the LHC, but most of them assume you don't even know high school physics. This article isn't much better, but it is a little better.

When the protons smash together, it creates a shower of energetic particles that shoot off in all directions. Detectors measure the energies, directions and velocities of these particles, and the resulting data is fed to a supercomputer for analysis.

Click thru for the rest. The image above is a graphical representation of the data collected form a proton-proton collision in 2016 in the Atlas detector of the Large Hadron Collider. Click to enlarge.

Why do I care about particle physics? I had some involvement with The Tevatron way back in my college days. That was during the time I was planning to major in Physics. Why I didn't is a long story. The Tevatron, which used to be at Fermi National Lab, in Batavia, Illinois, smashed protons and anti-protons together. Matter and Anti-matter. It was quite a system in its day.

This post is in place of an Infrastructure post. Something I haven't had in sometime, though I am hoping to get back to that, because there are still issues.

Even Folks at CNN Knew CNN+ Was Doomed

Except Brian Stetler, he isn't convinced it was a failure. CNN+ collapse: Insiders, critics doubted service all along as Brian Stelter ponders if it was a ‘success’

"I defy you to find any reasonable person who ever believed that viewers would pay extra money for the dregs of CNN when it was competing for their wallets with Netflix and Disney Plus," a former CNN producer told Fox News Digital. "Do you want to watch ‘The Mandalorian’ or extra Brian Stelter?"

There is more, but Stetler's "I don't know if it was a failure" stance is classic denial.

There is more in other places...

“Who knew that America wasn’t clamoring for more Rex Chapman and more woke analytics from Jemele Hill? And that there wasn’t a great demand for more Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper or Brian Stelter? That Americans weren’t saying, ‘Hey, CNN we’ve chosen not to watch your programing when it’s free, maybe what [you] need to do is charge people directly,'” Clay Travis said mockingly on “Outkick the Show.”

Schadenfreude is a dish best served with a side of popcorn.

There Are Things I Miss About Florida

Once out of the Blue Cities, Law Enforcement is "interesting." Homeowners should shoot burglars to ‘save taxpayer’s money,’ Florida sheriff says

The comments by Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson come after deputies took into custody a “frequent flyer” who is accused of breaking into several homes on Wednesday, April 20. Brandon J. Harris, who Johnson said has been arrested 17 times, faces seven charges after his most recent arrest.

That is the incident in quesition. It came up because he jumped out of a window, after a homeowner shot at him.

“I guess they think they did something wrong, which they did not,” Johnson said. “If somebody is breaking into your house, you’re more than welcome to shoot at them in Santa Rosa County. We prefer that you do actually.”

Dead home-invaders don't cost the county much money, compared to incarcerated home-invaders.

“Come see us,” the sheriff said. “We have a gun safety class we put on every other Saturday and if you take that you’ll shoot a lot better and hopefully save taxpayer’s money.”

'Merica!

Crime Matters — Black-owned Business Closes

Crime has an impact on the ability to run a business.

This is Ruined Leon's video for Black Business Leaves Community Because The Community Robbed Them.

Here is the news story: After yet another burglary, owners of Flee Club clothing store on Near West Side say they're packing up and leaving.

People keep saying, "They're insured." Not anymore.

Kelly said Flee Club's insurance company dropped them because of crime.

"We don't even want to open back up," Kelly said. "It's over with for us."

"This is no way to live," added Sledge.

Lori Lightfoot and Kim Foxx did not comment on this story.

And now, a business grown from a love of clothes and community is packing up, and strongly considering moving to a whole new city all together.

And throw Leon a buck or two. It would be a shame if he stopped creating videos, because they are golden.

Don't Run From ASP

The Arkansas State Police with not call off pursuit under most circumstance.

Insomnia leads to much random, or not-so-random, internet searching.

This is the dashcam video for Pursuit of Britney Putt ended with 111 MPH PIT maneuver.

While the incident in question happened a couple of years ago, it was only recently posted to the Real World Police YT channel.

Get Woke, Go Broke — Disney Edition

From The Other McCain... Another media company is sadly out of touch with its customer base. Disney Got Woke, Now Going Broke

The Disney “brand” was originally synonymous with wholesome family entertainment suitable for kids, but as their empire expanded, management lost sight of this brand value and began craving approval from their Hollywood peers.

Instead of honoring that brand, they have decided to go all in on the side of, in Robert Stacy's words:

the “Drag Queen Story Hour” crowd

There is more. The fight with Florida, and the loss of their special tax/governing status in and around Orlando. The fact that Disney is the worst-performing stock in Dow Jones Industrial Average over the past 12 months or so. Disney stock lost about 30 percent of its value.

The moral of the story should be that Political Activism and Corporate Governance don't mix. I don't expect either Netflix or Disney to figure that out.

Saturday Roundup of Link Roundups - 23 April

Wombat-socho starts things off with In The Mailbox: 04.21.22. It is good to see that he is back.

Vox Popoli: Rendering Themselves Irrelevant, A Fascinating Observation, and U.S. Military Expertise
Stoic Observations: Origins Of The Data Science Species

The Right Way - Top of the News

And we trust them - why?... - Adrienne's Corner
Americans Are Over the Pandemic, Despite the ("Coming") Omicron 2 Wave - American Power

Flopping Aces - The Week in Radical Leftism, 4/22/2022

4/21 – Tulsi Gabbard brings a sledgehammer to Mitt Romney and Keith Olbermann
More of this. But here’s my big question – why is it a Democrat taking the lead on this great idea?

Daley Gator - Your Mad News Update For Friday (04/22/22)

CIA Knew Early on That Sussmann Data Fabricated
Durham has now disclosed that the CIA immediately knew that both data trails were fake, finding that they were not “technically plausible,” that they didn’t “withstand technical scrutiny.”

EBL - The Destruction of CNN+ also known as The Birth of the Baked Potato 🌋🔥🥔

Breitbart: Warner to cancel CNN+ after 23 days of launch
RedState: CNN+ Headed To The Train Station
Powerline: CNN+ We Hardly Knew Ye...

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 04.22.22

Cafe Hayek: A World Without Petroleum, Robin Givhan Should Read Ronald Coase, and Milton Friedman – A Centennial Appreciation
CDR Salamander: Who Is Doing What To Help Ukraine

A View from the Beach - Some DIY Politics for You

Lefties in Panic Over Biden Support Collapse With Younger Voters – PJ Media
Political Sites Make Massive Predictions Shift Toward GOP – PJ Media
Wavy: Election forecaster shifts 11 House races -- all towards Republicans – HotAir

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 4/21/2022

DeSantis’ Office Releases Examples of Rejected CRT-Inspired Math Textbooks
Florida’s Department of Education released examples of critical race theory in mathematics textbooks

Cafe Hayek - Some Covid Links

Emails obtained by the American Institute for Economic Research showed how the National Institutes of Health’s Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci tried to discredit the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: DHS answers Congressman’s questions about illegal immigration under Biden; answers are terrifying

• Defund the Police—Democrats Lied, Black People Died Stephen Kruiser
• FL Senate Passes Bill to Remove Disney Special Status, House Vote Likely to Approve CTH

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report - 4/21/22

"How a chance encounter with a kind police officer made me begin to question my assumptions."
Prager U Video: How I Stopped Hating the Police

Pixy Misa at Ace of Spades HQ - Daily Tech News 21 April 2022

Speaking of simply gone smart home company Insteon is. (Ars technica)
Congratulations on your very expensive brick.

Maggie's Farm - Wednesday morning links

Global Rice Production Set To Plunge 10%, Threatening Half Of Humanity
Where does most fertilizer come from? Russia?
The Threat of ‘Required Introspection’

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 04/21/2022

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is one step closer to facing espionage charges in the US after a British judge formally approved his extradition.
United Nations calls for more regulations to be placed on homeschooling. They are afraid

I leave you with Wednesday gifump from Wirecutter, Every dog has its day from Bluebird of Bitterness, and Thursday Memes … from MaddMedic.

What Should She Have Done?

A man refuses to leave a woman's home? What would the gun-hating community have her do? Heavy police presence in Spring neighborhood after shooting.

According to the Harris County Precinct 4 constable, a woman shot a man in the forearm. Constable Mark Herman said the woman claimed he refused to leave her home.

And why would you not leave if the homeowner asked you nicely, while pointing a gun in your direction?

This investigation has a long way to go. I don't know if all shootings, or only homicides are referred to grand juries in Texas. I'm not 100% sure about all homicides, but that is what I was told.

Self-defense is a human-right, and this didn't take place in New Jersey.

Get Woke, Go Broke — Netflix Edition

The Other McCain has the details on the stock price. Netflix Stock Has Lost 62% This Year.

They lost $54 billion of shareholder value in one day. Ouch. Normally I would say that would cause heads to roll, but in the upside down world of Woke, I doubt that will happen anytime soon.

Their problems started a year ago with sexualizing of children in the show “Cuties.” It hasn't gotten better.

They spent $13 billion on original content last year.

In other words, it’s crazy money, and they’re apparently squandering it on a lot of crap that nobody wants to watch.

Imagine being a film director. You could pitch anything at Netflix — Gay Korean Zombie Pirates! — and they’d give you a few million to produce it. Never mind whether anybody wants to watch your show, because that’s how it is with crazy money. Just write the checks, and who cares what you’re buying? Netflix is acting like the guy who wins the lottery and ends up spending it all on strippers and slot machines.

And don't go trying to steal his idea for a Netflix show.

There is more. Click thru.

Zeit

Rammstein has announced a new album, released a single, and published some North American tour dates.

I usually have Rammstein as part of Metal for Mondays, but even though this song has some hard rock sections, overall it does not strike me as Metal. And Rammstein usually has a leg up on that score because German sounds heavy or hard or something. At least to me.

And since it is in German, here is a link the lyrics and the English translation.

This is "Zeit" by Rammstein from the upcoming album Zeit, which will be released on April 29th. "Zeit" translates as time.

Metal Sucks has the tour dates in the article. Rammstein Announce New Album Zeit, Release Epic First Single. Rammstein will be North America starting in late August with a concert in Quebec, followed by several shows in the Midwest, on the East Coast, one show in Texas, a couple of shows in California, and ending with a few dates in Mexico City. Conspicuous by way of absence are the mountain states and the Northwest. They will be touring Europe from May through early August. I was surprised to see Minneapolis on the schedule, but not a city like Denver. Still, it looks like a grueling tour for a band that is not as young as they once were.

Full disclosure: While I usually like Rammstein, I'm not sure that I like this song. I don't hate it. I do find the video distracting, but then I find most videos distract from the music.

Friday Links - 22 April

Adaptive Curmudgeon starts us off with, Better To Light A Fire Than Curse The Darkness: Part 2. You should read part 1, but I didn't catch that in time for Tuesday.

Conditions were bad. The weather has been not just miserable but almost maliciously so. The deep snowpack has partially melted (much to the relief of big game), but then a blizzard dumped a foot of wet snow on top of the half melted drifts. Then a day’s hard persistent rain turned everything into slurry. Then more snow fell on top. The ground isn’t frozen and it isn’t thawed. The forest is a basket case of mixed layers of wet dripping half-measures.

Professor David Yamane has another installment of his video series. Light Over Heat #16: Finding Common Ground on Gun Violence Prevention

The core of this video speaks to my general approach to engaging those whose focus vis-à-vis guns differs from my own: find a common ground. In this case, the common ground is in the desire to prevent gun violence.

The Other McCain - Expect More Riots This Summer

Excuse my extreme cynicism about all this, but I’m particularly sick and tired of the role played by the media in such stories. The profession of journalism is being degraded by reporters and editors who demonstrate a lack of basic common sense about law enforcement.

While I am reluctant to engage in a point-by-point analysis of the Patrick Lyoya shooting, you can click here and watch the video to understand my specific complaint about how this story is being covered.

The Feral Irishman - Tractor Hydraulic Steering Actuator... Update.. Ah, the dream of homeownership, and everything that goes with it.

The used unit arrived on Saturday and I was, for what ever reason, determined to get it done.

"HAhahahha".. laughed the ghost of the engineer who designed it for John Deere.

USSA News - Jackboots Policing: No-Knock Raids Rip a Hole in the Fourth Amendment. A disturbing list of SWAT raids gone wrong.

In 1980, there were roughly 3,000 SWAT team-style raids in the US.

Incredibly, that number has since grown to more than 80,000 SWAT team raids per year.

Again from The Other McCain - Ain’t I Done Told You?

As I explained more than two weeks ago, when Lorenz was boohooing on MSNBC about being a victim of “harassment,” her behavior pattern resembled DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender), whereby wrongdoers faced with consequences for their actions try to depict themselves as the real victims. [SNIP]

Now the world is shocked that Taylor Lorenz has once again engaged in the very behavior of which she claimed to be a victim, i.e., harassment.

Krebs on Security - Conti’s Ransomware Toll on the Healthcare Industry

Conti — one of the most ruthless and successful Russian ransomware groups — publicly declared during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that it would refrain from targeting healthcare providers. But new information confirms this pledge was always a lie, and that Conti has launched more than 200 attacks against hospitals and other healthcare facilities since first surfacing in 2018 under its earlier name, “Ryuk.”

Meep brings some sanity to the insanity. Pools are more dangerous than Covid to small children. On the hysteria that accompanied the end of mask mandates...

The Covid numbers: fewer than 100 kids age 1-4 have died from Covid so far

So here are the totals, straight from CDC WONDER, just grabbing those who had COVID as their underlying cause of death (that is, their primary cause — I do not mess about with “with Covid” crap).

The Gateway Pundit - SICK PEOPLE: WaPo and Taylor Lorenz Dox Conservative Twitter User – Publish Her Home Address and Then Lie About It

The Washington Post and star contributor Taylor Lorenz doxxed a conservative Twitter user’s home address online. Then they later deleted it and lied about it in an attempt to save face.

One more time from The Other McCain - The Weird Logic of COVID-19 Panic

The fact that the arguments for mandates are so easily exposed as illogical — the people in panic mode can’t really justify their panic — tells you that the real motivations are emotional in nature, reflecting a dictatorial mentality that seeks to impose conformity to rules on others.

Matt Margolis at PJ Media - Here's the Tweet Clinton's Lawyer Doesn't Want Admitted as Evidence in Durham Case

One thing is for sure: Sussmann’s legal team wouldn’t be trying to prevent the tweet from being shown at the trial if wasn’t damaging to their case, and I suspect I’m spot-on as to why.