Oklahoma Is a Bad Place for Bad Guys

The bad guys haven't gotten that memo. Homeowner shoots intruder who tried breaking into Midwest City house

Midwest City, Oklahoma is a suburb of Oklahoma City.

Police told KOCO 5 that the suspect tried breaking into a home in the 2100 block of Flannery Drive, near Reno Avenue and Midwest Boulevard. The homeowner then shot the suspect, and they ran from the scene.

Cops found the injured guy, and took him to get his wounds treated. No word on charges was released. See below for more info.

Self-defense is a human-right, and as far as I can tell supported by the laws of Oklahoma.

UPDATE: It seems like this is a case of domestic violence. MWCPD: Man shot by estranged wife’s boyfriend

He was irate that she left him. He called her 170 times between 12:30 PM Tuesday and 11:45 AM Wednesday. No one knows how he found the home of the new boyfriend.

He broke into the home, shouted at the homeowner, and "advanced on him." The homeowner retreated to a bedroom and retrieved a firearm.

When Delarosa opened the door, the homeowner shot him in the chest.

The guy who got shot is still in the hospital, but he is also under arrest for burglary and stalking. The phrase, "It's over!" really needs to be understood by more people.

As for the neighbor...

“My neighborhood quiet, my neighbors are quiet, nothing like this every happens around here, so it was a shock really,” said Breeden.

You are not protected by you zip code. And when an irate person, bent on violence is in your home, the police cannot protect you, because they are not there.

Target Gives Up on Blue Cities in the Face of Organized Retail Theft

Is anyone, aside from a few Democrats shocked by the fact that businesses can't operate in an environment where there are no laws to protect them? Target closes 9 stores in response to retail theft, adds locked cases at some stores

"We cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance," the company said in a statement.

Let's be honest. Big business doesn't give a crap about the "safety of teams and guests." If they did care, they would not object to employees going armed. They object to conditions that lead to "unsustainable business performance."

And I'm not shocked at the list of places; places where Progressives have decided that enforcing the law is not fair.

The stores set to close include one in Harlem, N.Y; two in Seattle, Wash.; three near San Francisco and Oakland, Calif.; and three in Portland, Ore.

I suppose that when those cities are completely abandoned by all businesses, large and small, the Progressives will say that it is proof of the horrors of free markets, or the racist nature of America. They will never admit that the fault lies in their policies of excusing lawlessness. (Hat tip to Willam Teach of Pirate's Cove.)

It is at this point I usually reference Thomas Hobbes, and his classic work Leviathan. Thomas Hobbes describes the situation in which the uncivilized elements of society are not held in check by fear of police power as being a State of War. (That is in The Leviathan.) Why do you think that Justice holds a sword? And while I usually settle for a short quote, it seems appropriate to quote the entire passage that applies:

If The Races Were Reversed...

There would be an outcry over the lack of Justice, but that isn't the case. Ethan Liming: Deshawn Stafford and Tyler Stafford

Jurors on Monday handed up their verdicts in the involuntary manslaughter trial of two brothers for a fight that ended in the death of 17-year-old Ethan Liming.

Deshawn and Tyler Stafford were acquitted of involuntary manslaughter charges. Deshawn was found guilty of felony aggravated assault as well as a misdemeanor count of assault. Tyler was also found guilty on a misdemeanor count of assault.

Yeah. That doesn't sound like justice. (Hat tip to Moonbattery.)

First Amendment Win in the Ninth Circuit

And a religious-based win. Fellowship of Christian Athletes scores big Ninth Circuit win for religious liberty and freedom of association | The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

In April 2019, controversy erupted at the San Jose Unified School District’s Pioneer High School in California over a Fellowship of Christian Athletes requirement that student leaders comply with the group’s Statement of Faith and its Sexual Purity Statement. The former requires student leaders of the group to hew to the tenets of traditional Christian theology and the belief that “marriage is exclusively the union of one man and one woman,” while the latter affirms that “the appropriate place for sexual expression is in the context of a marriage relationship.”

They applied for recognition again in 2020, and they were rejected.

As with most cases of constitutional law, this one is not simple, and amenable to a few excerpts. You should click thru and read the whole thing. (Hat tip.)

Wednesday Link Roundup - 27 September

Pirate's Cove starts us off with Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

7. Chicks On The Right covers Biden saying he’ll veto a bill that raises military pay
8. Climate Depot notes the global war on farming

EBL - Well someone has to be the Democrat Party scapegoat...

Instapundit: Some chutzpah announcing his reelection
Legal Insurrection: Menendez won't resign

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 23 September 2023: Too Many Words Edition

The tragedy of Google Search. (The Atlantic)
Leaving aside the moment the irony of The Atlantic commenting on a once-prominent institution turned to shit.

The DaleyGator - Daily Top 5

Is the Left Happy That They Got Their Wish?
Woke continues because its privileged creators believe “What I create for others, certainly will not apply to me.”

Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 09.26.23

Adam Piggott: The Communist Plot behind The Voice
American Conservative: Yes, Social Media Censorship Is a First Amendment Issue

Small Dead Animals - Sunday On Turtle Island

Dementia Joe’s America: Biden can’t tell Black and Hispanic people apart. The DIE cult. Joe Biden is a liar. Old Joe helped incite the India crisis with Canada. Your morning meme.
Everybody Is Going To Die News: A new pandemic is coming?

Political Hat - News of the Week (September 24th, 2023)

Germany: Leipzig school obliges children to attend climate rally
Last Friday, participation in the “Global Climate Strike” of the radical organisation “Fridays for Future” was compulsory for tenth graders at a Leipzig grammar school.

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 23 September 2023: Too Many Words Edition

Remember when NFTs sold for millions of dollars? 95% of the digital collectibles are now probably worthless. (Markets Insider) (archive site)
Remove "95% of", "now", and "probably".

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Hunter Sues Rudy

At Da Caller, IRS Whistleblower Was Removed From Hunter Biden Case After Rift With Top Prosecutor, IRS Officials Testify. The way I read this is Shapley wanted to move ahead with Hunter's prosecution, and Weiss wanted to bury it, and Weiss stopped taking Shapley's calls.

Vlad Tepes - Tucker Carlson speech extract like a laser in the darkness, NDP leader shows his real beliefs, and dialectical destruction of sexual dimorphism in schools: Links 1 for September 26th, 2023

3. Here is a very interesting Twitter thread showing how the left abuses movies like Sound of Freedom

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 9/25/2023

‘Zombie Apocalypse’: San Francisco on Track to Crush Overdose Death Record as Addicts Die in Streets
San Francisco is poised to surpass a record-breaking year for overdose deaths.

Don Surber - Highlights of the week

ITEM 2: TMZ reported, “Cindy Crawford says when she went on Oprah’s talk show back in the day, she didn’t think it would turn into what looked like a Miss America-type competition.

Cafe Hayek - Some Links

As part of the Cato Institute’s marvelous “Defending Globalization” project, Phil Magness reviews the history of American tariffs from the founding era until the mid-20th century.

Maggie's Farm - Monday morning links

Is Censorship a Partisan Issue?
Why do public intellectuals condescend to their readers?

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Now They’re Just Poking Their Fingers in Our Eyes

• Democrats Shred Senate Dress Code Into Rags Deroy Murdock
• Biden’s Corrupt DOJ Gets No Credit For Indicting Easy Target Bob Menendez Federalist

J.J. Sefton at The Morning Report — 9/26/23

"Pro-impeachment wing headed for the ‘boring’ and ‘complicated’ traps."
How Republicans Will Botch the Biden Impeachment

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 09/26/2023

American Express just cut MyPillow’s credit line by 90% after working with them for 15 years.
CatTurd on Twitter was Swatted:

I leave you with The Week in Pictures: Take a Flyer Edition from Power Line, Mondays..... gifdump from Wirecutter, Monday Memes … from MaddMedic, and Sunday Funnies For 09-24-23 from Stately McDaniel Manor.

At 40% of Baltimore City High Schools, Zero Students Proficient in Math

Thank the teachers' union. At 13 Baltimore City high schools, zero students tested proficient on 2023 state math exam | WBFF

They didn't count the students from the high school located in the Baltimore City Detention Center. That leaves a total of 32 high schools, and 13 that I think you can say are failing to teach math.

The latest round of state test results is raising alarm in Baltimore City Schools. Project Baltimore found that 40% of Baltimore City high schools, where the state exam was given, did not have any students score proficient in math. Not one student.

And I'm sure someone will say say something like, "This means we need to spend more money on schools."

Last school year, Baltimore City Schools received $1.6 billion from taxpayers, the most ever. The district also received $799 million in Covid relief funding from the federal government. And still, not a single student tested at 13 City high schools scored proficient on the state math test.

“So, it's not a funding issue. We're getting plenty of funding,” said [Jason Rodriguez, deputy director of People Empowered by the Struggle, a Baltimore-based nonprofit].

And these numbers are not public. They were provided by a source inside the school system. The school system doesn't want parents to know how bad the schools really are.

When the state officially releases them later this month, the results will likely be heavily redacted, making it more difficult for parents to see how many schools are performing.

Your tax dollars at work. (Hat tip to A View from the Porch: Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore.)

The Kelly Criterion

Akira the Don has an unusual approach to music. I haven't heard a lot of stuff by him, but it is always interesting. I'm not sure it is always good.

Don't risk everything
Stay outta jail
Don't risk everything
'Cause you could just lose everything

This is "The Kelly Criterion" by Akira The Don & Naval Ravikant

Tuesday Links - 26 September

Pirate's Cove is up first with Surprise? Massive Amount Of Democrats Are Against Free Speech

This is not really new, unlike what the article says: Democrats have been building to this for decades, but, especially in the 20th Century

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 25 September 2023: Chellenge Pellow Edition

In which Donald Knuth plays Twenty Questions with ChatGPT and runs into the usual authoritative-but-entirely-wrong answers. (Stanford)

The DaleyGator - YES, they ARE coming for your hamburgers………….

Not a surprise really at all is there? We all could see this coming

Freethink - Reflecting sunlight to cool the planet will cause other global changes

Some researchers are exploring proposals to engineer similar effects, for example by launching reflective aerosols into the stratosphere — via planes, balloons, and even blimps — in order to block the sun’s heat and counteract global warming.

Pipeline Online - Jim Warren: Guess what happens when eco-zealots are put in charge of making climate policy?

Magical thinking—Emissions reduction benchmarks and deadlines often involve impossibly high expectations that simply cannot be met by mere mortals. Crusading policy makers often fail to anticipate the many technical, economic and social barriers that can frustrate overly optimistic green transition targets

The Other McCain - ‘Who Fought for Ukrainian Independence Against the Russians’ in WWII?

Because they think of the proxy war against Putin as an expression of their moral superiority, liberals are utterly blind to any problems with their friends in Ukraine. So you have the liberals in the Canadian parliament applauding a literal Nazi, and if you object to this . . . Well, you’re a right-wing extremist and probably racist, too.

He Was Executed Because His Car Was Too Loud

I'm going to miss civilization. 58 years for man who murdered driver because the victim’s van was too noisy; ‘This s*** is funny as hell’

Sitting in his Irving Park home last year, 20-year-old Gaven Leon became annoyed by the noise of a van stopped for a nearby red light. So, prosecutors say, Leon fired a shot from his apartment window at the van’s driver, killing him.

You can click thru for the details, and how taking a human life didn't effect him in the least. Well, not until the cops showed up, tied him to the murder and another shooting incident.

Judge Atcherson found Leon guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm into an occupied vehicle in July, according to court records. On Thursday, she handed him 25 years for the murder plus a 25-year sentencing enhancement for using a firearm during the commission of the crime. Those years must be served 100%, according to her hearing notes. She added eight consecutive years for the other charges. That will be served at 50%.

So he will do 54 years in prison, before he is elligible for parole. He will be 74 when that happens.

Chicago Teachers Are Also Up to No Good

The prior post talked about NYC teachers. They are not alone. Long-time Chicago teacher gets 10 years for sexually assaulting two girls - CWB Chicago

Eugene Westmoreland, 62, pleaded guilty to criminal sexual abuse of a victim under 13, predatory criminal sexual assault, and aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim under 18 by a person in a position of trust, according to court clerk computer records.

Judge Steven Watkins sentenced him to 7 years and 3 years for the latter charges, respectively. Those will be served consecutively.

The incidents were between 2003 and 2014. Do we think this is it, or are there more?

NYC Teachers Arrested

These are the people who you are expected to trust around children. 12-year-old NYC students allegedly punched, groped in separate assaults by teachers

First we have a violent teacher.

Cops first arrested educator Brian Thomas, 33, after he allegedly punched a 12-year-old boy inside PS 161 in Manhattanville just after 12:30 p.m., according to police.

The boy was taken to the hospital, but was not seriously injured.

Next, we have a sexual predator.

The second teacher was arrested for sexual misconduct after he allegedly touched a 12-year-old female student’s chest, according to sources.

Mohamed Baksh, 70, was taken into police custody at 1:40 p.m. on charges of sexual misconduct, forcible touching and endangering the welfare of a child, police said.

But that isn't the end. Here's another article: NYC school worker slams autistic student, 6, against wall — the third DOE employee arrested in two days

A staffer at a Queens elementary school allegedly slammed her 6-year-old autistic student against the wall Friday — marking the third public school employee arrested for abusing kids in just two days.

Fauzia Naznin, 49, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child following the attack at PS 213, The Carl Ullman School, in Oakland Gardens, according to cops and law enforcement sources.

And this is the most disturbing sentence in the whole article:

The Carl Ullman School has a history of students with disabilities being abused by their trusted teachers.

Why hasn't this school been closed, or all of the teachers/administrators reassigned? (Because the schools are more about protecting the teachers than the students, that's why. Or that is my opinion anyway.

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time believing that these three incidents are the ONLY incidents; they are only the three that we know about.

The union was apparently not asked for a comment.

Rest In Peace

More from Dorothy? Sure. I really like this band.

As I said earlier in the month... I found out about Dorothy, because the lead singer from the band, Dorothy Martin, performed on Nita Strauss' most recent album. I liked her voice, so I went looking for the band. The band consists of vocalist Dorothy Martin, guitarist Sam “Bam” Koltun, bassist Eliot Lorango, and Jake Hayden playing drums.

This song is "Rest In Peace" by Dorothy from the 2022 album Gifts from the Holy Ghost.

St. Louis Police Constrained by 911 Call Center Shortage

Police were kept from doing their job, because the city didn't have enough 911 call takers and dispatchers. St. Louis police were routinely told to limit activity amid dispatcher woes this summer

The police couldn't request warrant checks or run license plate numbers, because of 911 staffing problems.

You can click thru for the details, but it came down to the fact that they were not paying enough.

In an effort to fill dispatcher vacancies, city officials gave dispatcher salaries a big boost in July. As a result, by Sept. 8 they’ve received more than 100 new applications, hired 26 and welcomed back three who previously quit.

Answering 911 calls is a high stress job, and 911 call centers go out of their way to make it a miserable work environment with procedures. You are talking to people on one of the worst days of their lives: women who have just been assaulted, mothers whose children are not breathing, etc. You cannot expect to fill those positions if you don't pay enough, and yet organizations all over the country have - for years - not paid enough.

And of course, the first thing to fall by the wayside under these conditions is "broken windows" policing.

Schroeder said there’s no hard and fast rule, but when officers receive memos to limit interactions with the public, they would likely pursue only more serious observed crimes like robbery or motor vehicle theft.

So if you called 911 in St. Louis over the past year, you would have gotten a substandard response, both in terms of answering the calls, and in police response. If you lived in St. Louis during that time, you could be assured that police were not working at 100% efficiency. (And that doesn't even consider the St. Louis PD was understaffed by about 23 percent.

This kind of thing seems to be prevalent across the Blue Cities.

I'm going to miss living in a civilized society.

Major 2nd Amendment Victory

Federal judge again strikes down California law banning gun magazines of more than 10 rounds

California cannot ban gun owners from having detachable magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, a federal judge ruled Friday.

The decision from U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez won’t take effect immediately. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, has already filed a notice to appeal the ruling. The ban is likely to remain in effect while the case is still pending.

Clayton Cramer gets the hat tip with Major Victory.

And yes, this is a case on which I have worked as an expert witness. I am feeling pretty good.

Can We Call a Crook a Crook? Probably Not

From The Manhattan Contrarian: The Bidens: "Stone Cold Crooked" (9) -- When Can We Start Calling It What It Is, Namely Bribery?

The Biden family corruption scandal gets deeper with every passing day. Speaker Kevin McCarthy finally opened an impeachment investigation in the House last week, and now the first hearing in that investigation has been scheduled for September 28 before the House Oversight Committee.

So what is the potential impeachable offense? You will undoubtedly recall, in the context of the two Trump impeachments, the endless semantic contortions that took place trying to shoe-horn Trump’s conduct into the vague constitutional catchall of “high crimes and misdemeanors” that might support an impeachment. Now, with Biden, the conduct at issue goes by various euphemisms like “the family business,” “business dealings with foreign nationals,” “influence peddling,” “selling access,” or maybe just “corruption.” But are these impeachable offenses?

There is more of course.

Should You Believe Bob Iger?

Not just no. Hell No.

Bob Iger, the person who oversaw the hiring of all the Woke Activists at Disney, says he wants to "quiet the noise" about the Culture War. There are a couple of problems with the statement. One is he said exactly the same thing last November, and the other is that he didn't mean it then, any more than he means it now.

This is a bit of the Friday Night Tights video, in which this "quiet the noise" statement came up.Ahsoka SAVES Star Wars! Hollywood Demolished, Culture Healing | Friday Night Tights #268 Joel Berry. I'm only recommending that you listen to about five minutes or so. I usually watch (or listen) to Friday Night Tights, either while I'm cooking dinner, or later if something is going on Friday evening. (I'm retired, so I find the weekend annoying. Thank God It's Monday!) But I know most people don't have that kind of patience, or even interest in pop culture. I have the video queued up to the appropriate bit.

Critical Drinker also has something to say on the same subject. Disney Finally Admit They Went Too Far, But Is It Too Late? That is a 6 minute video.

I'm talking, of course, about Bob Iger. The CEO of Disney, and the man largely responsible for changing the company's public perception from a wholesome, patriotic, family-friendly, and highly respected entertainment brand that strove to honor the ideals and principles of its founder, into a sinister corporate behemoth that gobbles up studios and IPs quicker than Lizzo consumes hors d'oeuvres at a party, cannibalizes and destroys beloved franchises and legacy characters with a series of disastrous sequels and soulless remakes, and uses the hard work and talent of previous generations as a convenient platform to push The Message™.

To put it in diplomatic terms, this turned out to be a "sub-optimal strategy."

And in case the collapsing share value, cratering park attendance, and flat-lining box office revenue, and highly publicized and damaging political battles weren't enough to clue you in to clue you on this fact, then a recent statement by Old Bob himself during an investors presentation at Disney World that he wants to "quiet the noise" around the culture war is really the final nail in the coffin.

It's the executive equivalent of saying, "Yeah, I fucked up Bro," and it's as close as we're likely to get to a public admission that people aren't buying what they've been selling, no matter how many times they try to do it, and the only option now is to either change course rapidly, or go bankrupt.

The Wall Street Press is still burbling on about how Disney is an excellent buy right now, being as price of the stock hasn't been this low in 9 years. Wall Street refuses to see just how damaged the Disney Brands have become under Iger. Lucasfilm has systematically destroyed the intellectual property it purchased from George Lucas. No one, or very few people, care about the Star Wars franchise, and Indiana Jones and the Insufferable Feminist is the final nail in the coffin of that franchise. Pixar and even Disney animation can't seem to produce a hit.

And even park attendance if falling off. But then when they put men in dresses in the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique to help transform little girls in princesses, I can't imagine that they thought families would flock to that.

Relatives of Dead People Don't Like Self-defense

This story is from a couple of days ago, but now we are getting reactions from the family of the guy who got shot. Family of school leader killed in high-rise upset after shooter released without charges: ‘He didn’t have to kill my brother’

The family of an assistant principal who was shot and killed by his neighbor in a Loop high-rise is hoping to get justice after the shooter was released without charges.

He did get justice. He was attacked, and he defended himself. That is legal, even in the People's Republic of Chicago.

“We’re hopeful that they’ll relook into this case and charge this man,” said the brother of Abnerd Joseph, an assistant principal at Intrinsic School who was shot after a confrontation between tenants last week.

For details on the incident, you can see my post "Role Model" Shot in Justifiable Homicide from Tuesday.

As for the brother, I know that he is hurting because his brother is gone, but what exactly was the shooter supposed to do. Stand there and let your brother attack him?

A 3D Printed .22 Long Rifle Semiautomatic Pistol

From Impro Guns we get another offering. Releasing of The Beach Pigeon

A play on "Desert Eagle."

With just a 3D printer, 8 springs, a handful of M3 bolts and a piece of brake-line tubing, you too can make your very own Beach Pigeon at home.

Click thru for a photo of the gun, and a video of a test firing.

Hit Someone in the Head With a Bat = No Jail Time in NYC

Because it has nothing to do with Justice. Bat-wielding suspect caught on camera Karim Azizi whacking homeless man in the head avoids jail with sweetheart plea deal

A bat-wielding man caught-on-camera whacking a homeless person in the head during a shocking attack on a city street will avoid jail time under a sweetheart plea deal with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, The Post has learned.

Prosecutors said they offered Karim Azizi the cushy deal in part because they’d been unable to find his victim – a 47-year-old homeless man who suffered gruesome injuries to his face and head in the Nov. 29, 2022, beatdown in Sugar Hill.

Video evidence is not enough.

Saturday Roundup of Link Roundups - 23 September

Wombat-socho starts us off with In The Mailbox: 09.20.23 (Morning Edition)

The Geller Report: WAIT, WHAT? Zelensky Visits Wounded Ukrainian Soldiers in NYC Hospital
Glenn Reynolds: Fetterman Nation

The Right Way - Top of the News

We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us - Theo Spark
RAY EPPS : Is The Fix In? ️ - Evi. L Bloggerlady

EBL - Fire Ants Will Destroy Europe 🐜🙀

Watts Up With That: Fire Ants in Europe
Oh wait, I thought this was referring to a different sort of alien invader. Nevermind.

Animal Magentism - Animal’s Hump Day News

Hunter Biden indicted on firearms charges. Well, it’s a start.
The lesson? Get Woke, Go Broke.
Panic Button? More Brutal Polling for Democrats

The DaleyGator - Some much needed fun links

TCIF from Whores and Ale! Features Barbarian movie babes!
The War on Guns has thoughts on “Toxic” Masculinity

Wombat-socho again - In The Mailbox: 09.22.23 (Abbreviated Afternoon Edition)

Baldilocks: Corporations Pretend To Commit Suicide
CDR Salamander: An Inadequate Navy? A Common Affliction

Battleswarm Blog - Bad Guy Beatdown Roundup

Out in El Monte, California, a would be thief armed with bear spray and a hammer got a righteous beatdown trying to rob a family jewelry store.

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Merrick in the Mire

Dan Flynn at Am Spec asks the obvious question, Was Ray Epps a Jan. 6 Fed Conspirator? "The delay in his charging, and the lone misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct, fuels theories."

Vlad Tepes - Some surface analysis of yesterday’s protest and other items inserted into the news cycles: Links 1 for September 21st, 2023

2. Relating to yesterday’s demonstration: Third of Children Put on Puberty Blockers Saw Mental Health ‘Reliably Deteriorate’, UK Researchers Find

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 9/21/2023

Cody Weems says his wife asked two people doing drugs outside their children’s bedroom window to move away from the home when she was attacked.
A 28-year-old mother of three was fatally stabbed Monday

Small Dead Animals - Wednesday On Turtle Island

Biden’s America: The president is fine. A policy of low expectations. America’s descent into madness. The continuing cultural revolution. UN summit pushing masterplan for humanity.

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 09.22.23 (Evening Edition)

Transterrestrial Musings: Long-Haul Trucking, Blue-Collar Workers, and Weird Climate Logic
Victory Girls: Ukraine Gravy Train Will Continue Even If Gov’t Shutdown Happens

Cafe Hayek - Some Links

John Phelan explains that, when it comes to people’s abilities as workers, reality isn’t optional.
Bruce Rottman understands that economic growth can’t be conjured into existence merely by increasing demand.

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 9/22/23

Christian Toto: "Guillermo del Toro, Mark Ruffalo, Chelsea Handler attack straw men, ignore real threat."
Celebs Rally Against ‘Book Bans,’ Ignore Real Censorship

Maggie's Farm - Thursday morning links

Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all, study suggests
The Case for Mediocrity

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: DHS Names Liars and Russia Collusion Hoaxers as “Experts” to ID Disinformation

• Ibram Kendi's Center for Anti-racism lays off majority of staff John Sexton
• Ardern at UN: we are at war, so censorship is necessary David Strom

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 09/21/2023

DeSantis sounds kind of like a bot in this piece where tasked with charming Tucker Carlson and his wife, he spends an evening rattling off his policy proposals and at one point kicks one of the Carlson’s dogs under the table.

I leave you with Wednesday's gifs from Wirecutter, Wednesday Memes … from MaddMedic, Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #1348 from 90 Miles from Tyranny, and Have pun will travel from Bluebird of Bitterness.

Will the Last Person to Leave CNN Please Turn Out the Lights

I can't believe that they are making money with this audience, though I haven't found any details. CNN records lowest weekend ratings in demo in recorded history

I looked at some of the Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. financials online, but what I have access to doesn't break out CNN. Warner Bros. as a whole is losing money, but that is hardly surprising given the string of box office failures and the rest of the news.

The network’s Sunday primetime lineup, which featured “The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper” and “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy,” drew 43,000 in the demo.

The ratings are the network’s worst since 1991 — the earliest TV data is readily available.

Data prior to 1991 is largely not digitized.

They have a new CEO coming in, Mark Thompson. He was formerly the CEO of the New York Times Company. I doubt he will be able to fix CNN in the time he will be given. How long will it be, before anyone outside of the rabid anti-Trump camp trusts anything the CNN has to say? (Hat tip to The Other McCain.)

Don't Complain About Your Bar Tab on Twitter

Excuse me, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. LOL: ‘Readers Added Context’ to Tweet by David Brooks and It’s Brutally Awesome.

Brooks complained about a "meal" costing $78 at the Newark Airport.

Internet sleuths quickly figured out what restaurant Brooks was in: 1911 Smokehouse Barbecue, where the burger costs $17, meaning that Brooks drank somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 worth of cocktails. Is this — a New York Times columnist running up a bar tab of $50 drinking call-brand scotch at an airport restaurant — really “why Americans think the economy is terrible”? Probably not.

Own goal.

A Failure of the Victim-selection Process

And Floridians are heavily armed. West Melbourne attempted burglary ends in 1 dead

Early Sunday morning, according to police, a West Melbourne homeowner shot at intruders breaking into their home, killing one of them.

West Melbourne, Florida is on, or near anyway, the Space Coast. It is about 20 miles south of Port Canaveral, (30 miles by car) and just south of Satellite Beach. It is about 2 miles from the Intercoastal Waterway, and about 5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.

Even the Florida media has to quote a neighbor that doesn't like guns. They do admit that other neighbors (plural) say that this incident "shows the importance of gun ownership."

But the media hate guns, even in places like Florida, and even in cases of self-defense.

Self-defense is a human-right, and West Melbourne, Florida is definitely not the island of Manhattan.

Project Veritas and Karma

After they ousted their founder, they've had a few problems. NEW: Project Veritas Suspends All Operations Amid Devastating Layoffs and Fundraising Struggles

Project Veritas, the conservative organization founded by James O’Keefe, suspended all operations on Wednesday after another round of layoffs, Mediaite has learned.

According to a letter titled “Reduction in Force” that was sent to Project Veritas staffers by HR director Jennifer Kiyak on Wednesday, the organization is putting all operations on pause amidst severe financial woes.

They laid off 6 people. That may not sound like a lot, but they only had 17 employees to start, leaving them with 11. Of course the people left are the ones earning a lot of money and not doing any of the day-to-day work of reporting.

Drive

WXRT (Chicago's Finest Rock) was revisiting 2000 with their Saturday Morning Flashback show last week. Some of the songs were actually good.

This song is "Drive" by Incubus from their 1999 album Make Yourself. It was released as a single in 2000, and got a fair amount of radio time, reaching #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. A link to the lyrics is below.

Here's a link to the lyrics.

Sometimes I feel the fear of uncertainty stinging clear
And I, I can't help but ask myself
How much I let the fear take the wheel and steer

It's driven me before
And it seems to have a vague, haunting mass appeal
But lately I'm
Beginning to find that I should be the one behind the wheel

Friday Links - 22 September

The Other McCain is first with The Delusions of Michael Tomasky

How can anyone be so out of touch with reality as to believe that Joe Biden is a victim of Republican bias in the media?

The DaleyGator is up next with a request. Go Fund Me fundraiser for my mom

Mom has decided to forgo further dialysis treatments, so that is my focus right now. Given my car is now kaput, the Bank account is thin, and final expenses are going to be coming up.

Chicago Contrarian - Is a Campaign of Germ Warfare Being Carried Out against Chicago Police?

Even as a new variant of COVID has been identified and new mask mandates are being considered by federal authorities, no consideration is being given for any risk to police officers in the districts transformed into migrant camps. No argument is being posited that this one issue alone, the risk of disease transmission in the middle of a pandemic, is enough to discuss returning the migrants home, let alone allowing the migrants to camp out in police districts.

Meep at STUMP - Does Anybody Want to be the Calpers CIO?

Anybody competent and ethical, I mean?

Second City Cop - Chicago Self Immolation. Chicago prepares to tax itself into oblivion.

As for a [securities contract] transaction tax, one of the big companies (we can't remember which) ran a test the other month whereby all trading was routed through a duplicate trading floor set up out of Illinois. These aren't the old days of traders crowding the pits, yelling out orders, filling contracts like Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy in Trading Places. Most of that stuff is already done by computers, trading hundreds-of-thousands of shares on tenths-of-percentage shifts in the market.

Tam at View from the Porch - Looks like Florida Man is at it again.

So we've got one guy dead, a kid without a dad, and a septuagenarian who's gonna spend the rest of his miserable life jammed up in the gears of the legal system because he mistook a revolver for a magic problem-solving wand.

Tam at View from the Porch again - Negative Outcomes

The incident in the previous post where the dude capped his tree-trimming neighbor for no adequately explainable reason reminds me of the (in)famous Duel at the Dumpster in Texas a few years back.

Professor David Yamane at Gun Culture 2.0 - What’s the Answer?

When I talk about guns to the media or in other settings, I often spend a lot of time identifying the conflicts and challenges we face due to our diversity and differences. In response, I am often asked some version of, “So, what’s the answer?”

My standard response is, “If I knew the answer, I would implement it and ride off into the sunset with my Nobel Peace Prize.”

Don't Listen to the Voices

Whether they are in your head, or coming out of the dashboard, or your favorite mapping app, either. Don't trust them. Google sued for negligence after man drove off collapsed bridge while following map directions - ABC News

People need to understand the limits of technology.

This isn't a new problem. Here is a story from 2011, about people dying in Death Valley due to GPS directions. The GPS: A Fatally Misleading Travel Companion

Here's a similar story from California, in 2021. Man spends seven days stranded after his GPS directed him to an unplowed mountain pass

“The GPS doesn’t know if there’s six feet of snow on a road or if the road is clear and passable,” Sierra County Sheriff Mike Fisher told CNN.

People live in cities, and they don't think about parts of the country that are older. There are 2 signs within about 10 miles or so of where I sit that basically say, "I don't care what your GPS says, this is not a road." There were 3 signs, but one of the places where people were convinced they could drive did some landscaping to make it impossible, even for determined off-road travelers. One of the 2 signs is in front of a place where a bridge collapsed decades ago.

What Google and the other GPS companies did was to take every map they could find of an area and dump it into their systems. They didn't look to see that those maps hadn't been updated in 50 years, and since this is flyover country, the people who work at Google couldn't be bothered try and fix it. As in the case detailed here.

Philip Paxson, a medical device salesman and father of two, drowned Sept. 30, 2022, after his Jeep Gladiator plunged into Snow Creek in Hickory, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court. Paxson was driving home from his daughter’s ninth birthday party through an unfamiliar neighborhood when Google Maps allegedly directed him to cross a bridge that had collapsed nine years prior and was never repaired.

Even though people submitted edits to Google, to have the bridge removed, that too was in flyover country, and so Google employees couldn't be bothered to update the system. The system that is probably going to guide some brand of self-driving cars.

Don't place faith in systems that much. They are only as good as the people supporting them.

How Old Do You Need to Be to Defend Yourself?

The Anti-gun Lobby will either ignore this, or claim it is a problem, because a teenager used a firearm to defend his mother.

The bad guy tried to force his way into a home in Arizona. Things didn't work out too well for him. Another failure of the victim-selection process...

Here is a news story on the incident. Arizona teen bravely shoots home intruder during Phoenix break-in: Police

Phoenix police say that a teenage boy shot a suspect who was attempting to break into his home on Friday night. [Sept 8th, 2023.]

There is more to the story, and you can find the details in the following video.

This is Colion Noir's video 13-Year-Old Shoots Home Intruder After Taking Gun From Hesitant Mother In Phoenix AZ.

Louisville, Kentucky - the Mos Eisley of America

From The Other McCain: Police Officer Survives Shootout

If you should ever happen to be in Louisville, Kentucky, allow me to offer this advice: Avoid the intersection of S. 40th Street and W. Kentucky Street. As a matter of fact, you might want to avoid being anywhere near that neighborhood. But frankly, you’d do best to stay far, far away from Louisville, a “wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

While pursuing a car through a neighborhood, Officer Brandon Haley stops, and people from a house open fire. Why draw attention to themselves? If they were smart, they wouldn't be criminals.

The last Republican mayor of Louisville left office in 1969.

Won't stop the Democrats from trying to avoid blame. Click thru for details, analysis, and snark.

How Bad Writing Has Destroyed Movies

Politics are downstream of culture, and for too long conservatives have abandoned the culture to the Progressive Left. Witness the result.

For decades I have hated most stories, movies and TV shows touch on time travel. Lately you can add multiverse stories to that. In both cases I see them as devices used by bad writers to try to cover up, or recover from, their bad writing. But I never put it into the stark terms that The Critical Drinker does.

This is The Critical Drinker's video Why Modern Movies Suck - Nobody Can Stay Dead!

There are a few exceptions to the time travel issue, and that list of exceptions does include Doctor Who. The stories I like don't use time travel as an out to fix a writing problem. They are based solidly on time travel. Time travel in shows like Doctor Who isn't a one-off device, it is central to the story. And if it is done right, with rules being established, and followed. And while like Doctor Who did that for a long time, Woke BBC did manage to screw it up in the past few years. Of course there are stories, like Star Trek: Enterprise, which included a story arc based on time-travel, that I actually despise.

How Should a 60-year-old Woman Respond to a Home Invasion?

I'm looking for a response from the gun-hating part of the Left. While calling for police assistance, is a smart thing to do, police will not be there instantly. 2 face multiple felony charges after break-in, shooting at Negaunee home

Both were arrested Saturday morning, after the Negaunee Police Department (NPD) responded to a call for shots fired inside a residence. The NPD said responding officers discovered that Joshua attempted to break into the home through a window and was discovered by the homeowner, a 60-year-old woman.

According to police, Joshua then shot once at the homeowner, who shot once back at him. No one was injured. The homeowner then locked herself in the bedroom and called 911. When officers arrived, they located Joshua in the basement of the house and arrested him.

Negaunee, Michigan is in the Upper Peninsula, about 130 miles north of Green Bay, Wisconsin. This is a location where police will respond immediately. Depending on how rural it is, it may still take them some time to arrive, depending on the length of the drive. I doubt, however, that this is place, like too many of our major cities, where there will be no one available to respond.

Click thru for details on charges and bonds.

Self-defense is a human-right. Good Guys 2, Bad Guys 0.

The Country Formerly Known As Great Britain

Since they seem to be embracing the principles of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, they should just go ahead and rename themselves "Airstrip One." From the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Today The UK Parliament Undermined The Privacy, Security, And Freedom Of All Internet Users

The U.K. Parliament has passed the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which says it will make the U.K. “the safest place” in the world to be online. In reality, the OSB will lead to a much more censored, locked-down internet for British users. The bill could empower the government to undermine not just the privacy and security of U.K. residents, but internet users worldwide.

A Backdoor That Undermines Encryption

A clause of the bill allows Ofcom, the British telecom regulator, to serve a notice requiring tech companies to scan their users–all of them–for child abuse content.This would affect even messages and files that are end-to-end encrypted to protect user privacy. As enacted, the OSB allows the government to force companies to build technology that can scan regardless of encryption–in other words, build a backdoor.

This means, at least, that a bunch of products will not be available to folks in the UK. (I can't imagine Signal will agree to this.) And the companies that do want to do business will undermine the security of everyone. Which I expect Google and Meta to do.

Welcome to the Panaoptican.

Sage Steele on Leaving ESPN

Not being much interested in sportsball, I never really paid attention to Sage Steele, before the ESPN controversy resulted in a lawsuit. Sage Steele opens up following ESPN exit: ‘This is so much bigger than me’

I've mentioned before that I really like Clifton Duncan. Not only did he stand up to the Woke scolds at the begining of the Coof insanity, he is absolutely fantastic at the long-form interview. This video is 48 minutes long.

Sage Steele announced her departure from ESPN in August after 16 years following the settlement of her lawsuit against the company.

Steele walked away from her "dream job" to exercise her "First Amendment rights more freely" nearly two years after an appearance on former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler’s podcast caused a major stir.

She had the nerve to speak badly about vaccine mandates at Disney/ESPN. She also had some things to say about President Obama. That is Not Allowed. You must parrot the narrative.

This is Clifton Duncan's interview with Sage Steele - Politics and the Fall of ESPN. || THE CLIFTON DUNCAN PODCAST 53: SAGE STEELE.

Wednesday Link Roundup - 20 September

Pirate's Cove starts up off with Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

Victory Girls Blog has Sunday morning cafe cocktails linkage.
Vlad Tepes has links.

EBL - September was not a good month for Libya and Morocco...

Death toll rising above 11,000 in Libya and 2,900 in Morocco
My prayers and condolances to those impacted. RIP.

Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 09.18.23

Don Surber: The Elite 0.2%
First Street Journal: Democrats really, really hate our constitutional rights! (Part 2)

Political Hat - News of the Week (September 17th, 2023)

Recipe for “inclusivity:” remove all books written before 2008 from school libraries
Removing all books written before 2008 to ensure that the shelves are filled with appropriately “inclusive” works.

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 17 September 2023: Hidash, Lodash, Everywhere You Go Dash Edition

Is Instacart's IPO price justified? (Tech Crunch)
Betteridge's Law. [If there is a question in the title to an article the answer is "No."]

Vlad Tepes - Layers and layers and layers of lies: Links 1 for September 18th, 2023

2. Because no one can humiliate and diminish women like feminists can, for the second time a man has been crowned “Homecoming Queen” at an American high school.

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 9/19/2023

‘Devastating’ Video Emerges of Joe and Hunter Biden Discussing ‘Business’ With Potential Client
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have just published a video from 2005 that shows Joe and Hunter Biden discussing “business”

Small Dead Animals - Monday On Turtle Island

Biden’s America: The media can’t save lyin Joe Biden. Hunter’s gun charge is a big problem. I was a Levi executive. Promoting globalism through illegal immigration. The hysterical left goes to war with Trump. Your morning meme.

Don Surber - Highlights of the news

ITEM 3: Bonchie reported, “Democrats Froth and Seethe After John Kennedy Reads Gender Queer During Senate Hearing.”
Now why would they be upset about him reading a children’s storybook to them?

Cafe Hayek - Some Links

My dear friend and GMU Econ colleague Bryan Caplan debates Yaron Brook on the necessity of the state.
Chris Lingle writes about ‘hidden cities’ airline tickets.

Bacon Time!!!! - Sunday Linkage

The Air Vent - Yeah – Exactly True.
Watts Up With That? - A Stunningly Good Hurricane Forecast

Maggie's Farm - Monday morning links

'Unique' New Drug Is More Effective Than Ozempic For Weight Loss
Detransitioner Sues Doctors Who Cut Off Her Breasts At 16

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Dems admit Hunter biz partner handled Joe Biden's accounts

• Paving a $32 Trillion Road to Ruin Thaddeus: G. McCotter
• LA Mayor: Our Cities are a Mess Because of a Republican Conspiracy: Daniel Greenfield

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 9/19/23

"A handy barometer for federal, monetized aggression against the American people can be readily seen in the documents of the U.S. Census."
The Fed's Bait and Switch: Race and the U.S. Census

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 09/19/2023

Newly obtained evidence shows key signatures are missing on Wayne County’s 2020 general election certification.
Poll: 50% of independent voters support impeaching Joe Biden.

I leave you with Sunday Funnies from Flopping Aces, Sunday Memes … from MaddMedic, Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #1342 from 90 Miles from Tyranny, and Saturday Memes from The DaleyGator.

Reality Is True Even If You Disagree With It - Oakland, CA Edition

Crime is a problem for all people in the Blue Cities, including blacks. Oakland NAACP blasts local leaders, calls for state of emergency due to crime.

Bishop Bob Jackson of the Acts Full Gospel Church and the Oakland chapter of the NAACP - definitely not a subset of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy - issued a statement about crime as a crisis in Oakland, CA.

"Failed leadership, including the movement to defund the police, our District Attorney’s unwillingness to charge and prosecute people who murder and commit life-threatening serious crimes, and the proliferation of anti-police rhetoric have created a heyday for Oakland criminals," the letter states.

Here is the problem with the whole Defund the Police insanity. Again from the statement:

"African Americans are disproportionately hit the hardest by crime in East Oakland and other parts of the city," the letter states. "But residents from all parts of the city report that they do not feel safe."

And this isn't just a small group in Oakland trying to get some headlines.

Hat tip to Clayton Cramer: When Did NAACP Turn Right-Wing?

Defunding police has always injured blacks most because they are primary victims of crime

Remember that much of "systemic racism" screeching is people gaming the system as paid experts appealing to guilt-ridden whites.

The CIA, COVID-19, Coverups and a Whistleblower

Because nothing says "science," like offering people money to support a certain position. CIA tried to pay off analysts to bury findings that COVID lab leak was likely: whistleblower

I'm shocked - Shocked I tell you! - that the CIA would be up to no good.

The Central Intelligence Agency offered to pay off analysts in order to bury their findings that COVID-19 most likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, new whistleblower testimony to Congress alleges.

A senior-level CIA officer told House committee leaders that his agency tried to pay off six analysts who found SARS-CoV-2 likely originated in a Wuhan lab if they changed their position and said the virus jumped from animals to humans, according to a letter sent Tuesday to CIA Director William Burns.

OK, so I'm not shocked.

NO one will be called to account. Not Fauci. No one in the CIA. No budgets will be cut. Nothing will change.

And absolutely no three-letter-agency is trustworthy.

I'm glad I'm 60 and not 20. (Hat tip to Awaken with JP)

You Wish

George Herbert Evelyn is better known as his stage name, Nightmares on Wax. I used to say that with a few exceptions I didn't really care for Trip Hop. As more of it is invading some of my Pandora playlists, that may be changing. I think the thing I object to the most at this point is the name of the genre, which I believe was cooked up by the suits running the music business. It has nothing in common with Hip Hop, but the suits wanted to market it. Or something. I could be wrong about that.

In any event, this shouldn't be too distressing while we wait for the caffeine to take hold.

This is "You Wish" by Nightmares on Wax from his 2006 album In a Space Outta Sound.

"I will make this speech or die!"

A History Lesson from Professor David Yamane. Travels with Sandy: In Search of America’s Gun Cultures at Theodore Roosevelt National Park

This is a much belated post from my summer’s Travels with Sandy in Search of America’s Gun Cultures.

This has been a fascinating series, but then I love history.

The quote that forms the title to this post is from Teddy Roosevelt.

Roosevelt knew something of gun violence as well. Of course, he became president in 1901 after the assassination of William McKinley. But the museum also displayed a shirt Roosevelt was wearing when he was shot by an assailant with a Colt revolver before giving a speech at the Milwaukee Auditorium in October 1912. “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose,” Roosevelt told the assembled crowd. He finished the speech and did not die.

Photos. More details. Click thru.

Tuesday Links - 19 September

Zero Hedge is up first with an important bit of news Here's The Climate Dissent You're Not Hearing About Because It's Muffled By Society's Top Institutions

In response last month, more than 1,600 scientists, among them two Nobel physics laureates, Clauser and Ivar Giaever of Norway, signed a declaration stating that there is no climate emergency, and that climate advocacy has devolved into mass hysteria. The skeptics say the radical transformation of entire societies is marching forth without a full debate, based on dubious scientific claims amplified by knee-jerk journalism.

Broken Truth - Meet Shots Heard’s Dorit Reiss, the UC Hastings Prof. of Law Dismantling Your Rights

Dorit lurks in the Shots Heard private facebook group, which is administered and moderated by employees of Public Good Projects, a ‘nonprofit’ that received $883,000 from pharma lobbyist group ‘BIO’ in 2021. The facebook group is linked to many government and political organizations, but behind prying eyes members conspired to deny civil rights to anyone who violated their political and pro-pharma agendas

SiGraybeard - Firefly Aerospace Launches Victus Nox Mission

Victus Nox (Latin for "conquer the night") is a US Space Force initiative to have a short response time between notification of a need and the rocket blasting off. Space Force announced today that the first Victus Nox mission was launched successfully September 14th at 7:28 PM local time from Vandenberg SFB, Complex 2 West.

From Professor David Yamane's seminar Sociology of Guns - Guns are “Exhilarating and Frightening” (Fall 2023 Student Range Visit Reflection #1)

This is the first of several student gun range field trip reflection essays from my fall 2023 Sociology of Guns seminar. ... I am grateful to these students for their willingness to have their thoughts shared publicly.

Tam at View from the Porch - Screwing Up By The Numbers

This Tactical Tangents podcast is an excellent breakdown of the colossal multilevel failure that surrounded the killing of Breonna Taylor (for which nobody has yet been held adequately accountable, in my opinion.)

Flopping Aces - “Close the freaking border!”

New York democrats held a townhall meeting in the New York city today and New Yorkers got a hard lesson in reality- their representatives don’t give a flying f*** about them.

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 18 September 2023: ChatGPT Or Not ChatGPT Edition

ChatGPT is not coming for your programming job - unless you are a very bad programmer. (Wired)

Programming is hard. Or rather, programming well is hard.

The Other McCain - Quashawn, Rashan, and ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ in Polk County

Because he didn’t like going to school, Quashawn probably never read the Lemony Snicket books, A Series of Unfortunate Events. But there is an interesting and somewhat ironic narrative to how he reached that final chapter, bleeding out in a Winter Haven driveway.1111

"Role Model" Shot in Justifiable Homicide

Also families of dead people don't like self-defense. No charges filed in fatal high rise shooting: police

It seems that self-defense is becoming even more of a thing in Chicago.

When you strip out the stuff along the lines of "he was a great brother, and we loved him," you are left with what he was doing the night he was shot, and the fact that he worked in a school as assistant principal.

[Abnerd] Joseph was the assistant principal of culture at Intrinsic School, 79 W. Monroe St., according to the police report. The school website said he joined Intrinsic’s downtown campus in the summer of 2022.

What is assistant principal of culture doing on a daily basis?

That isn't what I'm interested in, though it does say something about bureaucratic bloat, lets concentrate on the night in question.

The shooting happened about 7:30 p.m. Thursday on the 48th floor of the building at 60 E. Monroe St. as Abnerd Joseph was “wildly” knocking on residents’ doors, attempting to enter apartments and “yelling incoherently,” according to a police report.

It will be weeks before any toxicology is available, but that screams intoxication to me. But it really doesn't matter why he was screaming.

When the doorman and four tenants went to check, he allegedly struck the doorman several times. A tenant then tried to calm him down and was also hit and fell down, the report said.

Another tenant warned Joseph that he was armed and told him to stop hitting people. The police report said Joseph “turned and charged” at the tenant, who opened fire, hitting him several times.

The guy who did the shooting was briefly taken into custody, and then released, because even in Chicago, self-defense is becoming a real thing. (HeyJackass! has the current stats for self-defense in the windy city as 2 killed, 12 shot and wounded, and 2 dogs shot; I don't remember if the dogs survived. I also don't know if the stats have been updated to include this incident yet.)

The bulk of the article really is, "He was a great brother," and "He was a role model to the students."

Self-defense is a human-right, and even in Chicago, it may be your legal right.