What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love And Understanding

The Defiant is a band that started during the COVID insanity. The first I heard of them was after Pete Parada had been fired from the Offspring in 2021 due to his following medical advice not to be vaccinated against COVID-19. That's right; his doctors told him NOT to get the vaccine. That wasn't good enough for the music industry. Others had similar problems due to their issues with the mandates.

The band consists of Dicky Barrett (vocalist from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones), Pete Parada (drummer from the Offspring), Greg Camp (guitarist from Smash Mouth), Johnny Rioux (bassist from Street Dogs), and Joey La Rocca (guitarist from the Briggs).

This song is "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love And Understanding" by The Defiant. It was released as a single on March 17th. It is a cover of a song originally recorded by Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Self-Defense Is Legal in Pennsylvania

And the DAs seem to hate that. 2 found not guilty in killing of man outside Allentown supermarket

Oh, and family of dead people don't like self-defense either.

Following a five-day trial, Adalberto Morales Ortiz, 48, of Bethlehem and his nephew, Axel Gadiel Fontanez-Morales, 24, of Whitehall Township, both were acquitted March 13 of homicide in the May 14, 2023, killing of Jose Tirado-Ramirez. Attorneys for the men contended that they acted in self-defense during the shooting that happened outside the C-Town Market on Tilghman Street.

“The jury looked at this case and saw that Adalberto and his nephew were the people who were the true victims in this case,” Morales-Ortiz’s attorney, Stephen Patrizio, said Thursday. “Justice was done by this jury.”

As for the family, click thru for those reactions. Click thru for all of the details; there are quite a few around this case.

The whole thing, whole thing, from the arrest, to the 2 men spending more than a year in jail awaiting trial, to the trial seems to have been the result of rushed police actions, or that it what one of the defense attorneys had to say, and it sounds like it might be the case.

I looked, but I can't find any info on how long the jury deliberated.

Self-defense is a human right, but these guys got a close-up look at "The Process is the Punishment" in the criminal justice system.

No Respect for Former FBI Chief Robert Mueller

The Democrats will hate this. Scandal-Plagued Former FBI Chief Robert Mueller Dies in Disgrace at Age 81 : The Other McCain

De mortuis nil nisi bonum is always wise policy, which Democrats never follow whenever one of their enemies die. Democrats hate without apology, but become indignant if Republicans return the favor.

This headline is modeled on the headline that Variety used to announce the passing of Chuck Norris. Which they have not taken down. (See below) Norris was a lifelong Democrat, until that party was pushed so far to the Left that he believed he had been left behind, and finally called himself a Republican. Which is apparently an unforgivable sin to the Left and the media, but I repeat myself.

Readers might notice that the headline of this obituary is perhaps not a model of journalistic objectivity, but that’s the whole point. You see, I spent a decade at the Washington Times, which gave me a chance to study how our liberal competitor, the Washington Post, always slanted everything, including obituaries. Liberal journalists find ways to sneak in tendentious words and phrases like controversial and scandal-plagued when writing about their chosen enemies, and I think this is as good an occasion as any to repay the favor in the case of Bob Mueller.

Click thru for more on Mueller and on Journalism™.

Here is that headline on Chuck Norris, as posted to X.

Chuck Norris Was a Great Action Star -- but Politics May Overshadow His Legacy https://t.co/UK6kyjDREg

— Variety (@Variety) March 20, 2026

RIP Nicholas Brendon

Gone too soon. 12 April 1971 – 20 March 2026 Nicholas Brendon, Who Brought Xander Harris To Life On Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Dies At 54 - That Eric Alper

Nicholas Brendon, the actor who spent seven seasons as the heart and humor of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, died Friday, March 20, in his sleep. He was 54.

He had longstanding health problems, including a heart defect, that lead to at least one heart attack.

Relatives of Dead People Don't Like Self-Defense

While I am not a lawyer, it is my understanding that every homicide in Texas is presented to a grand jury. San Antonio mother seeks justice after grand jury declines charges in son’s killing

Now I don't know what happened, but the whole "refer every homicide to a grand jury" was (it is my understanding) designed to take the bias, friendship, etc. out of the equation for whether or not a case would move forward. I get that this is a personal tragedy, but a no-bill from a grand jury is usually an indication that there is not enough evidence. Or at least that is how the process is supposed to work.

A San Antonio mother is demanding answers after learning the man charged in her son’s killing will not be prosecuted, following a grand jury finding that there was not enough evidence to move forward.

Edward Trejo, 28, was shot to death last December along Cincinnati Avenue on the city’s West Side.

Yes this is a tragedy, and while I can't imagine the grief of a mother whose son has died, her feelings are no substitutions for the law, not even in 2026.

Asked to explain the decision, the district attorney’s office declined an on-camera interview and instead emailed a statement saying it is following the grand jury’s decision. “This grand jury did not find probable cause to believe an offense occurred,” the statement said.

Click thru for the details.

Oh, and self-defense is still legal in Texas, and it is still your human right.

Even More on the AI Assault on Gaming

From Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony we get the latest AI pushback. Daily Tech News 18 March 2026: Download Some Stuff Edition. The memes have been brutal. (See the image.)

NVIDIA released a "demo" of their latest "Let's shove AI into gaming, even if no one wants that" scheme.

Overwhelmingly Negative: Everybody hates DLSS 5. (Ars Technica)

Ars Technica rounds up the response to Nvidia's showcase of its DLSS 5 $10,000 AI slop filter and concludes that... It's bad.

(Not kidding about the cost: The demo required two RTX 5090s and they currently cost between $4000 and $6000 each, depending on the model. Yes, they launch at $2000. That was then; this is now.)

I can't afford a 5090. In fact the PC I'm using right now doesn't have an NVIDIA GPU because when I needed a new GPU they were already either unavailable or unreasonably expensive. If things change in the future I can revisit the situation, but really the AMD GPU I'm using is doing fine with the workload I have right now.

And yes, I know, the 5090s can be had for about $3800 add in tax and see where you are, and the higher quality ones are more like $4500 and up. The highest priced one on Newegg is over $8000 as I type this, but that seems extreme.

NVIDIA will pinky swear that they will have it back down to one 5090 before release. Great. It still doesn't look good.

Mutahar at SomeOrdinaryGamers probably has one of the better reviews. He isn't completely negative, though he is negative overall. Nvidia, This Looks Terrible... As the meme above implies, the effect has been compared to Snapchat beauty filters.

The Democratic Party Sees No Problem With Defrauding the American Taxpayer

This says so much about the Democratic Party. Almost 200 House Dems vote against deporting people who commit welfare fraud | Fox News

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation Wednesday to crack down on illegal immigrants participating in welfare fraud despite fierce objections from most Democrats.

Lawmakers voted 231-186 to approve the Deporting Fraudsters Act, with 186 Democrats opposing the measure.

Click thru for the details.

If you are curious how your representative voted, that information is available on Congress.gov, where the roll call is recorded. If you don't know who your representative is (you don't?), you can look that up at House.gov by entering your zip code in the "Find Your Representative" box at the upper right-hand side of the page.

The House.Gov pages for each representative makes it easy to send your representative an email, to express your views on current issues, upcoming legislation, etc. Senate.gov is similar, if easier, since there are many fewer senators to search.

Saturday Roundup of Link Roundups - 21 March

The Right Way is first with Top of the News

In The Mailbox: 03.17.26 - The Other McCain
Trouble in Paradise: Dem Candidates Reportedly Refuse to Support Hakeem Jeffries - Fox News

Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 03.18.26

Glenn Reynolds: Don’t Drone Me Bro
Hollywood In Toto: Trump Effect? Oscar Ratings Crater in Second Term

EBL - Cesar Chavez

Instapundit: Cesar Chavez cancelled
When they realize Cesar Chavez was against illegal immigration, the Democrat party chooses.

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 20 March 2026: Dove Grey Afternoon Edition

The Verge is having another normal day. (The Verge)
By which I mean they are barking at the moon.

Don Surber - Friends in need, not NATO

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said, “I do not understand how they claim to defend Islamic causes while attacking Islamic countries. They are not attacking just one nation—Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Oman, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Türkiye, ...

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 03.19.26

Racket News: Kash Patel Embraces Big Brother
Shark Tank: DeSantis Rebukes Sheriff Judd On Illegal Immigration Enforcement

Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog - LinkSwarm For March 20, 2026

Iran hit the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery in Kuwait.
Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) reveals the real leader of his party: Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Vlad Tepes - Charting where the slide to totalitarian communism is, and isn’t: Links post 1 for March 19, 2026

2. Sweden: Arab charged after attempting to bite and gouge out eyes of male doctor for working with his wife
The doctor also suffered bite wounds that later became infected.

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 3/20/2026

UK: COVID Inquiry Finds Lockdowns May Have Cost Thousands of Lives
The authoritarian COVID lockdowns and stay-at-home orders sold as life-saving measures have been unmasked once again as a deadly failure of big government overreach.

Wombat-socho again - In The Mailbox: 03.20.26

Transterrestrial Musings: Project Hail Mary, also, The Imperial Order Is Over
Victory Girls: Secret Service Suspends Butler Agent Again, Just Fire Her Already

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Quicky DIY edition

Ace of Spades HQ - Without Oil, Cuba Is Burning
The Trump Dividend - Don Surber
Japan Signs Major $56 Billion Energy Deal with U.S

Flopping Aces - The Week in Radical Leftism, 03/20/2026 – Back to The Economist!

America’s war aims may be diverging from Israel’s
Wait a minute – two war allies’ objectives are not in 100% alignment? Where can we get more of this hard hitting journalism?

The Glibertarians - Thursday Morning Links

The plot thickens. This will be interesting.
He seems stable. I can’t believe the union let him get fired though. That would have never happened if he was in NYC.

Maggie's Farm - Wednesday morning links

The Great Effeminization of the Academy
How Bad Is It Living In New York?
“These People are Crazy:” Climate Science and the Cult of Self-Loathing

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 3/18/26

Creeping Sharia targets children - with help from leftists.
Canada: School Bans Kids From Eating To Not Offend Muslims During Ramadan

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Facts Justify President Trump's Actions on Iran

• "Worse Than Nord Stream": Iran's Attack On Qatar's LNG Sends Shockwaves Across Global Energy Markets - ZH
• Kathy Hochul Begs Rich People to Come Back to New York - David Strom

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 03/19/2026

A very long Open Source Research piece on the disappearances of a possibly UAP-associated General, the researchers under him who died and disappeared, and then the spate of strange deaths of various researchers whose work could connect to the field.

I leave you with Wednesday Memes … from MaddMedic, Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #3499 from 90 Miles from Tyranny, Midweek Memes from Granite Grok, and Friday evening's gifs from Wirecutter.

We All Need to Spend More Time at the Range

From FOX13 Memphis: Homeowner fires shots at suspects during home invasion in Raleigh

In this instance, Raleigh is a neighborhood in north-central Memphis.

The Memphis Police Department said a masked man rushed into an apartment unit at the Country View Apartments on Stephanie Lane.

"I ran to go grab my protection, and then I started firing shots," the homeowner said. "Especially when I turned and saw them coming in, so I fired shots because I needed them to get out."

It appears, that while they ran like rabbits, no one was injured by the gunfire.

The homeowner’s fiancé and their child were also inside the home at the time of the shooting.

Everyone, including a neighbor, "feels unsafe."

While they may have believed they were safe before this, they were not. You are not protected from crime by the magic dirt under your feet.

Self-defense is a human right, and it appears to by your legal right in Tennessee.

NY Governor Hochul Realizes That She Needs Taxpayers

From The Daily Signal we get the following: Hochul Begs Wealthy Floridians to Return to New York. She Can Pound Sand.

New York’s desperate governor is turning to a well-known practice in New York City: aggressive begging.

While speaking at Politico’s “New York Agenda: Albany Summit” last week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, admitted that the state’s tax base has eroded and that it faces a deepening fiscal crisis.

She then put out a call for wealthy, former New Yorkers to come back to the state so they can be robbed again by beneficent government overlords.

The irony in the situation (I always try to look for the irony) is that it was not that long ago, that Kathy Hochul was telling New Yorkers, who dared to disagree with her, to get the F- outta town. Now she's upset that they took her at her word. See the embedded post from X below.

She makes the point that remote work is to blame. In my lifetime, if you wanted to work in certain industries, you would need to commute to an office in a city center. In many ways, cities like New York are a 19th century (or older) solution to a communications problem. If you need to speak with someone, at a rate faster than mail correspondence, you needed to spend at least some part of the week in close proximity to that person. As communications technology improved, that requirement to be in the same location has disappeared.

🚨BREAKING: New York Governor Kathy Hochul is facing BACKLASH after telling Republicans to “jump on a bus and head down to Florida” not long ago. Now, she’s urging wealthy New Yorkers to come back to New York. pic.twitter.com/GzsoUtxHlq

— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) March 19, 2026

So, does Kathy Hochul want Republicans to leave New York, or does she want them to come back and pay taxes? She should really make up her mind.

As for the people who left, I doubt many will be heading back to the nightmare state that is New York.

Some Kind of Feeling

Orianthi is an amazing musician. She doesn't get as much attention as I think she deserves.

This is "Some Kind of Feeling" by Orianthi. It is the title song to her 2025 album.

Reality TV Star Crashes, Burns, Takes Show with Her

Shouldn't it be called "unreal TV?" There Is a Reason Why Taboos Exist : The Other McCain

You are an intelligent, responsible adult, which is why you’ve never heard of Taylor Frankie Paul. Until Thursday, I hadn’t heard of her either because — as an intelligent, responsible adult — I pay zero attention to “reality TV.” But before getting to her recent failed attempt to break out from that entertainment ghetto, let’s start at the beginning: By 2022, when she was 28, Taylor Frankie Paul had accumulated a massive following on TikTok.

Sounds perfect for "reality TV." Or maybe not.

Cultural taboos ignored? Check. Narcissistic tendencies rampant on social media? Check (or so it seems to me).

So, not only is she a 31-year-old single mom, but she’s also a dangerously violent lunatic. That was enough for ABC to cancel the whole season.

ABC (owned by Disney) canceled the entire season a few days before it was supposed to air.

Click thru for commentary (there is a lot), details (there are many), and some humor.

If only someone had warned them that Crazy People Are Dangerous.

The real idiots of the piece are the ABC/Disney executives who saw no trouble with this troubling behavior, and said, "Sure, we can base an entire season of a show around this insanity."

Another California Bridge to Nowhere

This one almost makes sense. It certainly makes more sense than the High Speed Train to Nowhere™.  From The Other McCain: Gavin Newsom’s ‘Cougar Crossing’ Is the Perfect Symbol of Californication. (That's a maximum "almost.")

Behind schedule and over budget and probably doomed to failure — this is a succinct summary of what is officially known as the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, but is now being sarcastically called the “California Cougar Crossing,” a monumental waste of California taxpayers’ money.

This is a wildlife bridge over the Ventura Freeway. The freeway isolated a group of mountain lions, and the isolated population is not doing well. Also several mountain lions have been killed attempting to leave the isolated pocket by crossing the freeway. It is 10 lanes of California driving, so, no surprise there.

Note that it is “nearing completion” and “almost ready,” which are euphemisms for overdue and running behind. The project was supposed to have been completed in 2024 and, having failed to meet their original deadline, the people in charge of it are now promising to finish by the end of this year, but if past performance is any predictor of future results, it won’t be done before 2028.

This thing has cost $114 million, which is cheap on the scale of California infrastructure projects. $77 million of that are taxpayer funds, the rest donations.

I read somewhere that people are worried because it will give the mountain lions access to suburban neighborhoods. What could possibly go wrong?

Wouldn't it have been much cheaper to capture and relocate the mountain lions in question?

Click thru for the typical California touches, like the “Indigenous team members,” the shamanistic rituals, and the ethnobotany, whatever that is.

And for some context/contrast, here is some info on a similar wildlife bridges.

Here is one that was constructed in Colorado for about 10 percent of what California is spending.

Colorado built this wildlife overpass last year for $15 million. It’ll pay for itself within five years from the avoided collisions.

California spending $114 million on a failed wildlife overpass is absurd. https://t.co/AmOr9LDpFW pic.twitter.com/K8vh9LTpoZ

— Benji Backer (@BenjiBacker) March 18, 2026

One in Washington State was even less.

The one in Washington was only $6.2M pic.twitter.com/Qs5hL4Zhee

— Andrew 🟦🟩 (@aknox92) March 18, 2026

RIP Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris passed away on Thursday. 10 March 1940 to 19 March 2026

I saw the news earlier in the day, and was going to look for some clip or something that summed his career up, but Pierry Chan, at Nerdrotic Daily did his usual great job of finding images that sum up his career, with a bit from FNT.

This is the Nerdrotic Daily video THE WORLD JUST LOST A BADASS – Chuck Norris Dies at 86 | Rest in Peace, Legend (1940–2026). It is a 4 minute excerpt from the start of Friday Night Tights.

Friday Links - 20 March

Alice Jones Webb at Take It Outside is up first with Two Years of Writing Without Guardrails

After copious tears and an unhealthy amount of Fleetwood Mac, I realized I was in love with the idea of working full-time at a legacy outdoor publication. The everyday reality felt a lot more like being chained to a desk, which isn’t really my style.

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 17 March 2026: Not Even We Know What DLSS Stands For Edition

Encyclopedia Britannica has sued OpenAI for "stealing our shit". (Engadget)
They may not have used precisely those words.

The Gun Writer - Iran proves the value of our Second Amendment

It is estimated that Iranian police, military and paramilitary forces have murdered more than 36,000 unarmed citizens in the past few months. No one will know the actual number until after the current regime falls.

Meep at STUMP - Geeking Out: Accidental Causes of Death in the U.S. -- By Age Group and Sex, by Major Category

Except during the pandemic, “accidents” have been the #3 cause of death behind heart disease and cancer for quite some time. But the problem is that I know there have been a variety of things in that “accidents” category.

MaddMedic at Freedom Is Just Another Word… - Woke Hollywood Celebrities Leave Oscars Theater Buried In Tra sh Minutes After Demanding America ‘Do Better’ For The Planet.

And you expected???????

George Shay at Chicago Contrarian - Chicago’s Mayor Blames America First

In a recent social media post, Johnson explained that the real cause of the massive wave of migrants arriving in cities like Chicago is decades of what he calls “temerarious violence abroad.” According to the mayor, the United States has destabilized countries around the world, forcing their citizens to flee and seek refuge in humane cities like ours.

William Teach at Pirate's Cove - Good News: Cuba Becomes Net Zero!

Hey, Trump’s just trying to get Cuba off their dependence on Evil fossil fuels. Warmists should be congratulating Trump

Echo Chamberlain - The Bride - The Third-Worst Bomb of the Twenty-First Century

The abiding feeling, after suffering through The Bride, is one of relief, that the actual Mary Shelley will never be reanimated to experience watching The Bride, and exclaiming, with perhaps her first use of profanity, what the fuck is this?

The Silicon Graybeard - So then, the space company said, "let's grab a small asteroid..."

... and bring it back to a "safe" spot near Earth.

Clayton Cramer - Stories That Make My Day

This is a big win for my friend Don Kilmer who pursued this absurd case for a number of years.

In a larger sense than just guns: the idea that advertising sells people stuff they do not already want is absurd. If advertising can create demand, explain the failures of the 1950s Edsel, the IBM PCJr,, and New Coke.

Self-Defense Is Catching on in Chicago

The reporters are also coming to understand the difference between victim and criminal. Chicago shooting: 27-year-old robbery victim shoots, kills armed 16-year-old suspect in West Pullman, Chicago police say - ABC7 Chicago

Chicago police are investigating after a man shot and killed a teenager who was trying to rob him Wednesday on the city's South Side.

The shooting happened around 3:36 p.m. in the 11700 block of South Normal Avenue in West Pullman, Chicago police said.

West Pullman is one of the 77 neighborhoods in Chicago. It is located on the far south side of the city,  about 15 miles south of the Loop.

Police did bring the 27-year-old man in for questioning, but as of Wednesday evening no charges have been filed.

Slowly, very slowly, legal self-defense seems to be coming to Chicago. Given the state of the Criminal Justice System (so called) in Chicago and Cook County, it is not really a surprise.

Self-defense is a human right. It might be your legal right in Chicago, depends on the new State's Attorney. (Hat tip to USA Carry)

Do We Need More AI in Our Life?

Do we want more AI? Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony brings us a story of AI and gaming. Daily News Stuff 17 March 2026: Not Even We Know What DLSS Stands For Edition

Gamers, already upset with Microslop over AI in Windows, are now upset with NVIDIA, which I didn't think was possible.

Nvidia held its keynote address at its annual GPU Technology Conference, where it showed off a preview of its new DLSS 5 software, two months after DLSS 4.5 was released at CES. (Tom's Hardware)

DLSS 5 goes all-in on AI, changing game graphics into the AI developer's idea of game graphics. It's... Not great.

It uses face detection to overlay what it things faces should look like on your game's graphics, adding twenty years to the age of characters while leaving their clothes untouched and sometimes leaving random items looking like they've just been dragged backwards through an industrial recycling facility.

And it achieves all this in real time using the power of your own graphics card... Assuming you have dual RTX 5090s, which you don't.

The memes have been brutal - because it takes decisions away from the game developers and gives it to the AI, and so it makes decisions on what the AI (and the developer) thinks is best.

A Publisher Not Part of the Manhattan Insanity

Something that is needed. Publisher Stuff - by Ian - The Bugscuffle Gazette

Given the current state of arts in America, we need all of the alternatives we can get. Will everything be great? Of course not. But what was the last great book you read, and when was it first written and published?

We’ve been talking with an author who’s been burned — a lot — by publishers in the past; and is — quite understandably — a tiny bit skittish, so we thought we’d do a quick post for those authors who suddenly seem to be finding us.

Hello! This is Raconteur Press, and Ian and Rita are the co-CEOs.

Before we go any further, this is the important part: Ian and Rita don’t have a clue how to be publishers. Ian did some Army time, and retired from law enforcement after 26 years; and Rita taught English at a liberal arts college for a brief while before realizing it was less stressful to counsel pilots.

The current breed of Woke that has an iron grip on publishing in Manhattan has decided that they will simply not publish anything by straight white men. (Racist? Yes, but they can't see that.) I don't know if they have expanded that ban to straight white women, or straight men in general, but I would not be surprised.

We are a small press, and we don’t have a lot of reach — yet.

We believe in treating our authors fairly, with open books and transparent accounting.

Our guiding light is: “It Must Be Entertaining, All Else Is Negotiable”, and we stick by that. We publish rollicking, entertaining stories in the vein of the old pulps; and just about the only thing we don’t want is erotica, romance, grimdark, or anything where the good guys lose, and the world sucks.

This is what Raconteur Press has to say about themselves on their website.

"Have Fun, Get PAID!!" Raconteur Press is an independent publisher of SF/Fantasy Anthologies in the tradition of the great pulp magazines of the 1930s-50s.

Self-Defense in Canada

You can defend yourself in Canada, just not effectively. Vaughan Home Invasion Ends in Shooting, Raises Self-Defense Questions

Early Tuesday at a home near Carrville Woods Circle and Crimson Forest Drive in Vaughan, a homeowner defended their residence against three intruders using a legally owned firearm. The York Regional Police reported that the suspects, one of whom was armed, forced their way into the house. During the confrontation, the homeowner shot one intruder, who later showed up at a Toronto hospital with a gunshot wound and is now in police custody.

In Texas this would be no big deal. In Oklahoma, cops would say something like, "Well done!" This, however, took place in Canada where even if you are faced with an armed intruder, defending yourself with a firearm "raises questions."

For residents in Ontario, this incident highlights important legal aspects of self-defense in home invasions. While the homeowner was not charged, it underscores the need for proper understanding of self-defense laws and the conditions under which force can be legally used. Knowing the legal boundaries can protect homeowners from potential legal repercussions when defending their property.

Hey, stupid reporter. He was defending his life from an armed intruder. Property doesn't enter into it.

Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, is a suburb of Toronto. It is about 10 or 11 miles north of Lake Ontario, directly north of downtown Toronto.

Self-defense is a human right, but Canada refuses, for the most part, to recognize it as a legal right. I think this homeowner is extremely lucky to not be in jail.

Afroman v Adams County, Ohio, Sheriff's Department - 1st Amendment Victory

The suit between Afroman and various Sheriff's Deputies of Adams County, Ohio, is over.

In addition to the 3 songs that made use of security video taken when the Adams County Sheriff's department raided his house back in 2022, he made other videos. The deputies were claiming that he had defamed them.

The original warrant, obtained on the say so of a "confidential informant," said that the sheriff's department would find narcotics, and kidnap victims held in a dungeon. They found none of that. Just the home of a successful entertainer who used his money to move away from the Hellscape that is Los Angeles, and buy some property in the country, to raise his family. This pissed off someone in Adams County. We don't know that it was someone in the sheriff's department, but the sheriff, and whatever judge signed the warrant, were sure quick to believe the worst about this guy.

This is Legal Mindset's video Afroman's Wild Case Against Ohio Cops (Fast Facts)

I have been thinking about the 3 original videos (link below) after all of this got started. The reason that the Adams County Sheriff's Department was so bent out of shape is ridicule. Ridicule is a fabulous weapon, and they were not expecting to look like idiots in front of the whole world. Of course, the more they draw this out, the more people see those videos. Apparently cops in Adams County have never heard of The Streisand Effect.

Here is a link to the post I created back in 2023 when this exploded after the videos were released. If you click thru you will find the video "Will You Help Me Repair My Door," and links to the videos "Lemon Pound Cake," and "Why Are You Disconnecting My Video Camera?"

The deputy featured in the video "Lemon Pound Cake" had to sit in court and watch the video be played. It is hilarious.

NEW: Afroman's music video "Lemon Pound Cake" played in court as "Officer Poundcake" was forced to sit and watch.

Adams County Sheriff's deputies are suing Afroman after he released a music video following a botched raid on his home.

At one point during the trial, the video was… pic.twitter.com/NMh2QT3lMN

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 18, 2026

And the good news for the First Amendment...

Verdict is in: Afroman FULL victory, with no claims going to any of the Adams County Sheriff plaintiffs, total courtroom W for @ogafroman

Solid news for First Amendment protections of free speech, parody, artistic creation and fans of Lemon Pound Cake. pic.twitter.com/6FP4hUzazB

— Legal Mindset (@TheLegalMindset) March 18, 2026

W Pound cake W AfroMan pic.twitter.com/WHanggHqeF

— issa//Shame (@IssaxShame) March 18, 2026

The State of Movies and Why They Suck

From The New Jerusalem: Why Movies Suck - by Andrew Klavan

Well, the Oscars have come and gone, and I really can’t say how much I enjoyed not watching them. Not watching the Oscars has become one of the high points of my entertainment year. Conversely, one of my entertainment low points is listening to conservatives whine about what some lefty said when he accepted the statuette for his lousy leftist movie. I mean, really. It’s like going to a Communist cell meeting and complaining that everyone there is some kind of Communist.

I share that joy of not watching the Oscars. They have been meaningless for a very long time.

Klavan then goes to describe how Americans used to go to movies regularly, but now don't, because movies are mostly not interesting to people.

He has video (see below) about Oscar winners from 1980 through 2010, and how things became a bit strange as time went on.

Dances with Wolves, which, like Pocahontas and Avatar, partakes of the Rousseauian fallacy that there is something innocent and benevolent about the lives of primitives. Schindler’s List, which presents itself as the authoritative movie about the Holocaust, and yet centers on acts of decency that were so rare an exception as to be nearly non-existent. The English Patient, a dishonorable and subtly antisemitic picture, in which the primary act of love involves giving traitorous aid to the Nazis because who wins the war doesn’t matter so much as getting the girl. (The opposite theme of Casablanca, a far, far better film.) And American Beauty, a picture that pretends to be about a straight man but isn’t, and hasn’t got a single honest frame in it from start to finish.

This is the video Andrew Klavan Ranks Best Picture Oscar Winners: Part 2

Part one can be found at Klavan Reviews Best Picture Oscar Winners Over the Decades. That video covers 1940 to 1980.

Wednesday Link Roundup - 18 March

William Teach at Pirate's Cove is up first with Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

12. Liberty’s Torch: What We Walked Away From
13. Moonbattery: Democrats Strive to Cripple Antiterror Defenses at Worst Possible Time

Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 03.16.26

Shot In The Dark: Liberators
The Political Hat: Happy Pi Day, The Ides of March, and Leviathan’s App Store

EBL - MAGA Ides of March ☀️🦏🗡️

Mark Steyn: The Faint-hearted Hyper Power
Instapundit: Save Act Massive Support

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 16 March 2026: Lunchables Edition

Electric vehicle sales are booming in countries where a hundred miles is a long distance and nobody has children. (Electrek)
Less so in places with a future.

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 3/16/2026

Democrat Mayor Arrested for Horrific Crimes Against Children
Former Gettysburg Mayor Chad-Alan Carr, a Democrat, has been arrested on multiple charges related to child abuse and exploitation

Political Hat - News of the Week (March 15th, 2026)

VP Doing the Most To Sell Trump’s Iran War? Pence, Not Vance
The vice president is suddenly everywhere as he makes the case for war with Iran.

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Trump Strikes Kharg Island, Cuba Talks Turkey to Trump

No, seriously, The Atlantic is talking about the war “dragging on” after less than two weeks." Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius, "The Democrat/Media Complex is actively rooting for America's military to fail in Iran.

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 03.17.26

Transterrestrial Musings: “Because It’s Wrong”
Victory Girls: Trump Talks Cuba and Now We’re All Waiting for the Havana Tower Rendering

Vlad Tepes - Ultra-vires judges in US, Canada, CBC and active measures: Links 1 for March 17, 2026

2. Perhaps an expert on US law can explain how a federal judge can somehow stop changes in vaccine policies by the top health agency in the USA? Can judges just override any and all federal laws and regulation? How does this possibly happen?

Don Surber - HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK

ITEM 4: Vox reported, “Bugs were supposed to be the future of food. Now, the insect farming industry is collapsing.”
What were they thinking? No one wants to eat Bugs. He’s a beloved cartoon rabbit.

Bacon Time!!!! - Sunday Linkange

Pirates Cove UN “Experts” Totally Want To Pass A Resolution On Tackling Hotcoldwetdry
Freedom Is Just Another Word.. .Saturday Memes…

The Glibertarians - Saturday Morning Après le Deluge Links

“Let’s tax already-taxed assets. It’s taxes all the way down.”
It’s heartwarming to see families doing activities together.
“Self-radicalized” seems to be the bullshit phrase of the day.

Small Dead Animals - Saturday On Turtle Island

The Democrat Party’s America: The Gay Scouts. Feminists and the mullahs. Douglas Murray.
Davos Carney’s Canada: Most transparent government ever. Musqueam.

Maggie's Farm - Saturday morning links

When Government Decides What You Can Read (Part 1)
Because of rent regulation, New York’s rental housing stock is older, more outdated, and less well-maintained than the housing of any other American city.

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 3/16/26

Burning the Canadian flag is however legal.
Canadian Cops Arrest Man for Burning Iranian Flag

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Donald Trump Checkmates Iran On Day 14

• All Things Considered – A Good Geopolitical Recap - CTH
• President Trump Calls on Oil Dependent Nations to Send Military Ships to Backstop Security in Hormuz - CTH

Anonymous Conservative - News Briefs – 03/16/2026

Netanyahu posts a video of himself getting coffee in a coffee shop to prove he was not killed:
Some disinfo seeded on 4Chan, like this screenshot from the video which shows that according to the date on an ordering kiosk it was shot in 2024, however ... it actually says 2026

I leave you with Sunday Memes … from MaddMedic, Sunday Funnies For 03-15-26 from Stately McDaniel Manor, Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #3489 from 90 Miles from Tyranny, Memes that made me laugh 303 from Bayou Renaissance Man, and Monday Memes … from MaddMedic.

Another Failure of the Victim-Selection Process

It is generally speaking a bad idea to break into an occupied home. New Iberia apparent self-defense shooting leaves 1 hospitalized | KADN

Police in New Iberia responded to a shooting at 11:30 in the morning. Perhaps the would-be bad guy thought no one would be at home. The homeowner shot the intruder.

[Capt. Leland Laseter with NIPD] said the victim was taken to a hospital in Lafayette for treatment.

He added at this point in the investigation, it appears the person was shot in self-defense.

New Iberia, Louisiana is about a 20 mile drive southeast of Lafayette, or about 45 miles southwest of Baton Rouge.

The guy who got shot was listed in critical condition.

Since this took place in Louisiana, and not in New York, the finding of self-defense has meaning.

Good Guys 1, Bad Guys 0.

Believe the Science? Not With This Much Fraud

From Joe Nocera by way of RUTHFULLY YOURS: Science Has a Major Fraud Problem

For decades, scientists were above reproach. Not any more. Joe Nocera investigates the murky world of fraudulent research, and the sleuths exposing dishonest science.

As these things often do, it starts with a single instance.

Theo Baker was the son of two journalists, so when he enrolled in Stanford, he joined The Stanford Daily. He began an investigation of neuroscientist Marc Tessier-Lavigne.

Tessier-Lavigne had become rich based on some research into Alzheimer’s disease.

Except that, as Baker was discovering, the supposed breakthrough was nothing of the sort. Inside Genentech, he discovered, some of the company’s top executives believed “that the research had been based on falsified data.” At least one believed the problems were serious enough that Tessier-Lavigne should retract the paper. He refused. It also turned out that Genentech had been unable to replicate Tessier-Lavigne’s results, casting further doubt on their veracity. But this fact was never disclosed to shareholders or the general public. By 2012, a year after Tessier-Lavigne left the company, Genentech quietly abandoned its research effort based on the 2009 paper.

Click thru for those details.

Science has a fraud problem. Scientific progress requires experiments that rigorously and objectively test hypotheses. Yet a surprising number of experiments conducted today are neither rigorous nor objective. Science is now rife with retracted papers, doctored images, and hyped results. Scientists have sometimes replaced the images from one experiment with images from a different one to make the results look better. They have made claims unjustified by the underlying research. And far too often, they’ve designed experiments that aren’t really experiments at all because the results are preordained.

There is more.

Hat tip to both Maggie's Farm and William Teach at Pirate's Cove.

Hanuman

How did a love of Heavy Metal lead to some great acoustic guitar? Rodrigo y Gabriela are a pair of guitar players from Mexico City who met due to a common love of Heavy Metal. But the music they play, or what little I have heard, is definitely not Metal.

Hanuman is the Hindu God of strength, wisdom, knowledge and devotion.

This song is "Hanuman" by Rodrigo y Gabriela from their 2009 album 11:11.

St. Patrick's Day Weekend in Chicago

It is always a crazy weekend. St. Patrick's Stupidity - HeyJackass!

Given what the weather usually is in March, in Chicago, these numbers are pretty bad. (Cold weather puts a dampener on the festivities most weekends.)

The river will be dyed, the parades will march and the bars will be at full vomit-inducing capacity. Additionally, the weather is somewhat agreeable to both drunken revelers and subsequent walks of shame while doing little to prevent the usual nonsense elsewhere around town.

The final tally was 3 killed, 12 shot and wounded, which is about an average St. Patrick's Day weekend in Chicago.

The image above is of the Chicago River, after it has been died green for St. Patrick's Day, from a few years back. (It is amazing what you can do with many 55 gallon drums of food coloring.

Tuesday Links - 17 March

William Teach at Pirate's Cove starts us off with NPR Seems Upset That Medicaid Data Shared With ICE Spreads Fear

Why would any illegal be afraid when NPR and other Democrats tell us that illegal aliens are not getting Medicaid?

The Silicon Graybeard - Firefly Aerospace makes it to seven

Almost exactly one month ago, February 15th, I posted a notice to "Keep an Eye out for this launch this week" about a scheduled launch by Firefly Aerospace, with the funny/cute mission name "Stairway to Seven."

Watts Up With That? - No, TIME, the Planet Isn’t ‘Heating Faster Than Ever’

TIME claims in a recent article, “The Planet is Heating Faster Than Ever Before,” that global warming has dramatically accelerated since 2015. This is demonstrably false.

William Teach again - HuffPost Has Ironic Meltdown After Trump Attacks Newsom

Do people not understand this is what he does? That he calls people “simply the most destructive and damaging individual in my lifetime”? That he mocks people’s weight? Calls people loser? Calls people broken? Oh, wait, those are just a few bits of Newsom’s attacks on Trump

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 15 March 2026: Wiffly Waffly Edition

Just how much responsibility do AI chatbots and the companies that create them hold for psychotic people acting psychotically? (Tech Crunch)

I'm torn between bankrupting the companies and bankrupting the lawyers bringing these suits.

Both is good.

Miguel Gonzalez - Cuba goes Carbon Neutral and Greta Thunberg loses it.

Send me the videos of you and your idiots compelling the Cuban government to get off the necks of the Cubans, promote free and fair elections and maybe we will begin to give a slight sample of shit about what you want.

Wombat-socho - FMJRA 2.0: Holding Our Own

Another 3-2 week for the Senators as we cling to second place in the Beta Division.

The Abode of McThag - The Highwaymen

Way back when the Kevin Costner movie "The Highwaymen" came out, I mentioned that I enjoyed it, but something just stuck that didn't at the time, though Beans mentioned it in the comments.

It's the first Bonnie and Clyde movie where the good guys are portrayed as the protagonists.

Be Prepared for Terror, and That Means Being Armed

Wayne Allyn Root at Root for America - It’s Time to Say It Out Loud: 1) It’s Open Season on Jews in America. 2) Jews Need to Carry a Gun At All Times. 3) President Trump Needs to Pass This EO. And 4) Yes, I’m Calling Out Tucker and Candace.

Another day. Another terror attack on Jews at a Michigan temple where innocent Jewish children were at day school.

At the same time at Old Dominion college, another terror attack by an ex-National Guardsman named Mohammed. Wanna guess what that’s about?

Read the whole thing. (Hat tip to Jews Can Shoot)

Hollywood Suffers an Outbreak of Common Sense

I know of no fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer who was clamoring for a Buffy reboot. I know of no one who wants ANYTHING rebooted or adapted at this point in time. The Lord of the Rings has been destroyed by Amazon. The Rings of Prime show is a disaster. Willow, The Wheel of Time. The Witcher. All these and more have been adapted to TV and destroyed. Disney tried to resurect the Netflix adaptations of Marvel to disasterous effect. Daredevil and Echo were awful. She Hulk was an abomination.

The people who wanted to reboot it, are the folks who have destroyed every other IP they own and are now looking for "What have we got left?" Why? Because they are incapable of doing anything original. Buffy. Xena. Even Hercules: The Legendary Journeys from the 1990s was fun. They were all original, or truly original takes on old stories. (A humerous treatment of Hecules done almost as a buddy cop show?)

I can't even imagine what Modern Hollywood would have done to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy was the slayer, but she was, as the Drinker points out, a mess a lot of the time. Sad. Frightened. Heartbroken. Tired of the slog. She wasn't the perfect girlboss that is all Hollywood can write today.

This is Critical Drinker's video Buffy Reboot Cancelled - Let Her Rest In Peace

RIP Phil Campbell of Motörhead

Phil Campbell was lead guitarist for Motörhead from 1984 until they disbanded in 2015. He passed away on Friday the 13th of March.

So, in his honor, will will listen to a song on which he played guitar, and shared in the songwriting credit.

This song is "Under the Gun" by Motörhead, from the 2006 album Kiss of Death.

I saw the announcement on X/Twitter.

Don't Bring a BB Gun to a Gunfight

He apparently thought he could intimidate people with a realistic-looking BB gun. Teen pulls a BB gun during a road rage incident and it ended in a fatal mistake with hard lessons we should learn from - NewsBreak

Even the cops treated it like a real rifle at first. It wasn't until much later they determined it was not a firearm.

What started as a late-night case of road rage in Juneau, Alaska, ended in tragedy when a 16-year-old armed with a BB gun was fatally shot. According to Nolin Ainsworth of Alaska’s News Source, the teenager was driving a 2019 Volkswagen Jetta and began following a 24-year-old man driving a 2001 GMC Jimmy. The two circled a roundabout before stopping to confront each other.

At that point the teen pointed the realistic-looking BB gun at the other driver.

Believing his life to be in immediate danger, the 24-year-old pulled out a pistol and fired, killing the teen at the scene.

How would you react if someone pointed a rifle at you?

This took place in Juneau, Alaska.

The tragedy highlights an unfortunate reality – fake guns can get you killed. As Ed Combs and Kevin Michalowski of the U.S. Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) pointed out in their analysis of the case, the reasonable-person standard in self-defense law is there for situations like this.

“If you are a responsibly armed citizen and someone pulls out what reasonably appears to be a firearm, you are compelled to take action to save your own life,” Michalowski explained.

The shooter was released, because self-defense is a human right.

On The Recent Terror Attacks

Some thoughts (not mine) on the recent attacks at Old Dominion, and against the synagogue in Michigan.

From Bearing Arms we get a review of the recent terror attacks. Attacks on Synagogue, University Are Why We Need to Carry

Americans got two terrifying reminders today of the importance of armed citizens and our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms; not only for our own individual defense, but for the defense of others and our communities.

An attacker at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia was able to kill one ROTC cadet and critically injure another before he was stabbed to death by another cadet in the classroom where the ROTC course was taking place. Just hours later, a man in a truck plowed through the front doors of a synagogue in Michigan, but was shot and killed by on-site security before he could attack anyone inside.

In both cases, the attack was stopped by someone at the scene. There was no time to call 911 and wait for a response.

This is Colion Noir's video on the attacks. Two Terrorism Attacks in One Day, & People Said I Was Fear-Mongering. The video is about six and one-half minutes.

The Renewable Energy Fantasy

What do you do when your solar power farm is destroyed in minutes by a tornado? You fire up a conventional power plant. What else can you do?

This is MGUY Australia's video Massive SOLAR plant FLATTENED by tornado

Stay tuned for some incredible aerial footage of a destroyed solar factory. But first, you have to ask why solar panels would be located in areas well known for storms and tornadoes.

The video is just over 8 minutes

16 March 1984: The Moment Gary Plauché shot Jeff Doucet

A father killed the man who molested his son. 1984: Moment Gary Plauché shot Jeff Doucet on live television | Daily Mail Online

A 1984 moment shocked the nation. Jeffrey Doucet was being escorted through Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport by police when Gary Plauché turned around and shot him on live television. Doucet had kidnapped and assaulted Plauché's son, and had been abusing him for months.

Click thru for the video.

Plauché took a plea deal, and admitted to manslaughter; he served no prison time. He had community service and probation for 5 years.

So, is this justice, or was this justice not served?

UPDATE:

It’s Gary Plauché Day 🫡

On this day in 1984 Gary took out the pedophile that molested his son Jody.

Plauché was given a seven-year suspended sentence with five years' probation and 300 more hours of community service. When he was questioned as to why he shot Doucet, Plauché… pic.twitter.com/XdiYMYEmlt

— UnsubscribePodcast (@UnsubscribeCast) March 16, 2026

When The Hollywood Media Admits There Are Problems...

If The Hollywood Reporter is reporting on the problems in the movie industry, then things must really be bad. Jamie Lee Curtis Has Some Ideas on How to Protect the Film Industry

This article is mostly about a movie Curtis produced, and had a small part in, but if you get far enough in, you find the bit on the decline of Hollywood.

Curtis’s fast rise as a power producer has given her a front-row seat to the anxieties and struggles of the industry she grew up in. “I see the lists of actors who are available for work, and when you start going down these lists, these are people who have starred in movies, had their own TV series — and they’re willing to go on tape for a small part in either your movie or your TV show,” she says. “It is a desperate time. There is very little work available.” She worries about “consolidation” — referring, no doubt, to Paramount’s impending acquisition of Warner Bros. — and recently reposted a criticism of Timothée Chalamet’s viral comments about preferring to work in movies versus ballet and opera, art forms that he said are fueled by strained efforts to “keep this thing alive.”

Now why could that be? They told half or more of their audience to go away, and then were shocked when they went away. They stopped hiring based on merit, and started hiring based on what boxes you check in the demographic Olympics, and are now insulted if you say that the stuff they produce is bad. (It is bad.) Or they call you names for not liking stuff because it was created this group of that group. They hit you over the hear with The Message™ at every juncture, and don't understand why we don't want to consume the slop.

And Curtis does go to bat for ballet, but really when was the last time you listened to an opera, let alone attended a live performance, or went to the ballet?

Now some people are trying to do something about the decline. Zachary Levi is currently trying to build a studio in Texas, outside of the Hollywood bubble. He compared it to United Artists in a panel discussion I saw. A place where art would be allowed to be the goal, not just the over-produced slop we get from Disney with Marvel and Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. and DC, and the like. Something aside from sequels, prequels, etc. (If you watch that video from Zachary L, at that link, you will see why it won't be mentioned by the Hollywood media.)

Do You Think the Team Behind Lanterns Have Ever Read a Comic?

That is the question that Verbal Riot asks, and answers.

DC has released more info about what is sure to be another failed attempt to make a comic book show made by theater kids. They are basing the show on True Detective. Why? Why not base the story on Green Lantern?

This is the Verbal Riot video The Creative Team Behind Lanterns Revealed... You Should Be Worried!

Do you guys believe that anybody in this group has ever read a F*#^ing Green Lantern comic in their life?

I could say that 2 or 3 might have, but if so, they were told to shut up about it and never mention the dreaded source material. The video is about 14 minutes.

Another Failure of the Victim-Selection Process

WJAC Western Pennsylvania brings us the story. PSP: Intruder shot & killed by homeowner during alleged break-in at Somerset Twp. home

Police say the homeowner explained that he was awakened to the sound of banging on his kitchen window, where he reportedly discovered a male intruder trying to get into the home.

The would-be intruder was warned. He ignored the warning. The homeowner shot him in the head.

According to PSP, the homeowner was detained, however, a preliminary investigation appears to corroborate the resident's claims that he acted in self-defense.

Somerset County, Pennsylvania is about 45 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

Self-defense is a human right, and it appears to be a legal right in Pennsylvania.

Designer of the Urutau Arrested in Brazil

From Impro Guns: Ze Carioca, designer of the ‘Urutau’ arrested

Ze Carioca was the main designer of the Urutau, a bullpup 9mm version of the FGC-9 designed to be easily made anywhere in the world.

Click thru for the details, and photos of the Urutau.

The police described him as a "mastermind."

It is however more likely that he has been lumped in with other suspects and may have only been making dummy props or supplying incomplete or unregulated parts.

Because the powers that be hate the fact that they are losing the war to disarm the population.

Progressives Destroying State Economies

Let's start with California, because dunking on Newsome and company never gets old. Yamaha Leaving California for Greener Pastures in Georgia

Another major company is abandoning California and moving to a red state. Yamaha Motor Corp. has been in Cypress, California, for 50 years, but is now relocating to Kennesaw, Georgia.

Obviously that move, which impacts about 250 employees, won't happen overnight.

Yamaha plans to start the exit in late 2026, with the transition stretching into 2028.

Then there is Washington State. The Democrats in charge of that state decided that they needed to enact a state income tax, which they have never had. (Or not had for a long time, anyway.)

So Starbucks is leaving that state, as is the founder of that company.

DEVELOPING: Starbucks founder Howard Schultz announces that his family is leaving Seattle for Florida the same day Democrats passed an income tax on Washington state

Starbucks corporate is moving to Nashville

The wealth exodus is underway. Democrats have killed WA's economy pic.twitter.com/4O8Dk0tPaI

— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) March 11, 2026