A Muzzleloader? It Was the Weapon He Had Available

Still, I prefer modern weapons. Vt. homeowner shot man allegedly trying to break in, police say

Vermont state police say Gordon Richard, Sr., 75, told investigators that three armed men tried to break into his home through a locked interior door from a separate section of the residence where his son lives. Richard told police he shot one of the men with a muzzleloader, shut the door and called 911.

In this case Georgia is a town in Vermont. It is about 15 miles south of the Canadian border.

Police found the guy who got shot nearby. He was listed as critical.

Police are still investigating, including trying to find the homeowner's son.

So how should a 75-year-old defend himself from three intruders, if not with a firearm?

Kaiser Permanente to Employees in Oakland, CA - It Is Not Safe to Go Out to Lunch

So why are they still in Oakland, if it isn't safe? Kaiser tells workers to avoid going out for lunch in downtown Oakland due to crime risk

Why are they still in Oakland? Because they own the buildings they're in.

Kaiser Permanente owns multiple buidlings in Oakland and employs thousands of workers. A company memo to downtown workers recommended they bring their own food or have it delivered. Robberies of Kaiser workers apparently led to the alert.

The city bureaucrats are doing what bureaucrats do, saying that all is well.

The office of Mayor Sheng Thao released a statement that read in part "Oakland is making progress in addressing community safety in our business districts where many of Kaiser's facilities are located. There are more police officers and safety ambassadors on the street than anytime in the past two years. At the end of last year, Oakland experienced significant reductions in property crime in business districts across the city."

Translation: Crime was off the hook 2 years ago, but it is slightly better now. We are not saying that it is safe, just that things are better. Please don't abandon our crime-ridden city for suburbia.

Click thru for details, including some neighborhoods that were not on the list, and what Kaiser is suggesting employees do instead of going out for lunch.

Relatives of Dead People Don't Like Self-defense - International Edition

Some things are universal. Police Commissioner Rejects Family’s Narrative: Trevor Brown’s Death Ruled as Self-Defense

The Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, is rejecting the narrative of Trevor Brown’s family, who claim his death was not due to self-defense. Last December, Brown was fatally shot during a shoot-out behind a popular Belize City nightspot on Newtown Barracks. Surveillance footage of the incident captured the ordeal as Brown was caught pulling an illegal firearm after almost hitting several men with his car.

Belize is a country in Central America, on the Caribbean Sea. It shares a border with Mexico and Guatemala.

The beliefs of the family notwithstanding, Chester Williams is sticking with what the evidence shows.

Saturday Roundup of Link Roundups - 3 February

Wombat-socho starts things off with In The Mailbox: 01.31.24

Don Surber: Trump’s next cabinet
First Street Journal: I guess that Marc Rowan will keep his checkbook closed

The Right Way - Top of the News

Caroline Glick, Niall Ferguson, Shylock- The New Neo
BLACK SWAN - ACCORDING TO HOYT - Born Free

Animal Magnetism - Animal’s Hump Day News

Blocking traffic is not protected by the First Amendment. This is known as belaboring the obvious.
Gosh, I wonder why?

EBL - Illegal Immigrant Thugs Viciously Beat NYPD Officers, Receive Get Out Of Jail Card

Legal Insurrection: Illegal aliens beat NYPD cops, then get a pass from Dem Soros prosecutor
When did NYC decide to adopt the Batman parody of "Gotham"?

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 1 February 2024: Bling Bang Bang Edition

Proposals to revive FTX as a working business have sunk because nobody was stupid enough to put any money into it. (The Guardian)
Proof that people can learn not to put their finger back in the fire if you first burn it off up to the elbow.

Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 02.01.2024

STUMP: Society of Actuaries – U.S. Mortality Dashboard
This Ain’t Hell: SECDEF – “Sorry.”, also, Biden Repeats Claim of Son Beau Being Lost in Iraq

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 2/1/2024

“One of the Most Brilliant Explanations of the Modern World”: Russell Brand Sits With Tucker Carlson for Explosive Interview
Russell Brand flew too close to the sun, it would seem.

Small Dead Animals - Wednesday On Turtle Island

Dementia Joe’s America: Its offensive to identify as straight. Biden and his buddy Xi.
Woke Europe: Must not upset the terrorists.
The infamous climate hockey stick goes on trial.

Cafe Hayek - Some Links

Also warning of the dangers lurking in an expanded child tax credit is my intrepid Mercatus Center colleague, Veronique de Rugy.
Madeline Grant: “One by one, the lockdown myths are crumbling.”

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 2/1/24

Allen West: "Biden foolishly takes on Texas."
The Tyranny of Federalizing Troops to Undermine America’s National Sovereignty

Maggie's Farm - Thursday morning links

Justice Sotomayor says her job is too hard
Tucker interviews Russel Brand
NY Times: Migrants Keep Coming Because They Know They Can Stay

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Obama’s Radicalized IC: Iranian Terror Group Who Killed U.S. Military Not Iranian Terror Group

• The US Power Grid: Something’s Got To Give - Blackmon
• Crash tests indicate nation's guardrail system can't handle heavy electric vehicles - The Canadian Press

I leave you with Wednesday's gifs from Wirecutter, Wednesday Memes … from MaddMedic, Woke [C] Education [Indoctrination] ..........from Rico from Theo Spark, and Wednesday weirdness from Bluebird of Bitterness.

This Prosecutor Tried to Say Rap Music = Guilty of Murder

The jury wasn't having any of it. St. Louis rapper found not guilty of murder after claiming self-defense in 2022 road-rage shootout

I usually say that prosecutors hate self-defense, because they do, but this prosecutor also - apparently - hates rappers and rap music.

Henderson told the jury that he and his friends were riding their minibikes on Aug. 26, 2022, when a Jeep going in the opposite direction made a U-turn. After the Jeep pulled alongside them and engaged them, Henderson said he saw a gun and heard gunshots. Henderson responded by drawing his own weapon, striking and killing the 42-year-old driver, Joseph Raymond Shaw.

Police found a revolver with "8 spent shell casings" in the vehicle. The only revolver I know of that holds that many rounds is a .22 long rifle revolver, but the article does not say what kind or caliber it was. The driver of the vehicle was found to be high on meth at the time he was shot and killed.

Prosecutors tried to discount the portrayal of Henderson as an innocent kid, referencing his rap lyrics that describe guns and violence and suggesting his recklessness led to a deadly game of chicken.

I don't like most rap, because as is noted in the article, most of the lyrics are not good. But as Ice-T said in an interview once, "It's all entertainment."

As for the jury, they deliberated for a whole 2 hours before returning with "not guilty."

Prosecutors hate self-defense. In this case I think the prosecutor thought he could get enough jurors to hate the defendant just based on his music. I don't think the question of Justice, ever came up. The System™ likes to win, and I believe that this prosecutor thought he could win.

Breakdown of Civilization - Australian Edition

Random violence against the disabled. Two on one, as if the odds weren't bad enough. Docklands, Victoria: Distressing moment teen thugs punch and kick a woman with Down Syndrome at a busy train station | Daily Mail Online

Horrifying video has emerged of two teenage girls viciously attacking a disabled woman at a busy train station.

The teenagers are seen punching and kicking the woman with Down Syndrome at Melbourne's Southern Cross Station in footage posted to social media.

The video was uploaded to social media, apparently, on Saturday. There was another video uploaded on Friday of a "teenage boy being brutally beaten" in a Brisbane suburb.

You can click thru.

Hat tip to Libs of TikTok: TWO TEENS VIOLENTLY ATTACK MENTALLY DISABLED WHITE WOMAN

Two black teenage girls were caught on video assaulting a white woman with Down Syndrome.

Funny, but I don't think the Daily Mail mentions race, even though they post still images from the video of the assault.

You can see that video at the Libs Of TikTok tweet at this link. The Daily Mail doesn't include the video because it offend the tender sensibilities.

Turn the Lights Back On

Social Media is OK, if you can keep from getting mired in the political quagmire. And I love knowing about new music. I found today's song on the Social Media Platform Formerly Known As Twitter.

This is (according to the Wiki) the first single since 2007, published by Billy Joel. I can't find any info about if an album is coming out in the near future. The lyric video is linked, but I never have trouble understanding Billy Joel.

This song is "Turn the Lights Back On" by Billy Joel. It was released as a single on Thursday, February 1st.

Insanity Reigns In Portland

From The Other McCain we get Big Trouble in Cracker Paradise

It seems that there are some problems in the Liberal Utopia that is (or was) Portland.

Welcome to Cracker Paradise. Just try to ignore the dead junkies.

If you have been living under a rock, you may not know that places like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, and San Francisco, California have decriminalized drugs. Drug users aren't criminals. They have a disease. The problem is that the disease is killing nearly a 1000 people a year in Portland, and the powers-that-be don't have any ideas on what to do. Law and order are not progressive ideals!

See how this works? The leftist politics of Portland encourages and empowers the white trash segment of the population, so drug-addled misfits take over vacant homes and terrorize the neighbors.

What? Did I say “drug-addled misfits”?

Click thru for the details, and the kind of snark I wish I could dish out.

Cops Behaving Badly - Australian Edition

Take a 13-year-old autistic boy with an in IQ of 71, and a fixation on ISIS, add one covert operative to feed him info and stoke the fires of his fixation, and wait. Then arrest him. How Australian undercover police ‘fed’ an autistic 13-year-old’s fixation with Islamic State

It is as bad as it sounds.

The boy, given the pseudonym Thomas Carrick, was later charged with terror offences after an undercover officer “fed his fixation” and “doomed” the rehabilitation efforts Thomas and his parents had engaged in, a Victorian children’s court magistrate found.

The parents went to the authorities to get help. The help did include some "therapeutic" activities, but also included that covert operative to undermine those activities. Why? Because they can, and they have to create problems so they can solve problems, and "shut up and don't question our authority," that's why.

It is a long article, but the bottom line is that the police went into it with the intent to arrest the 13-year-old kid. Well, they waited to arrest him until he was 14, because that made their lives easier, and his more difficult. The problem of the cognitive impairment was probably the only thing that tripped them up.

“The rehabilitation of TC was doomed once the [operator] connected online…befriended TC and fed his fixation, providing him with a new terminology, new boundaries and an outlet for him to express, what was in part, his fantasy world.” [The judge in the case said that.]

Why did they do this? Because the Joint Counter Terrorism Team, which ran most of this, doesn't get funding if they can't show they are stopping terrorists. And it is easy to stop terrorists that you've created, even if it wastes everyone's time and money. It isn't their money after all, and if the don't prove they are doing anything, they might get disbanded. And they don't want that; they have a cool-sounding job. Didn't you watch 24, staring Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer?

Friday Links - 2 February

Professor David Yamane at Gun Culture 2.0 starts us off with The Paradox of Guns

In my “Light Over Heat” video this week (see also below), I express appreciation for and also highlight questions I have about an essay by Brown University anthropologist Ieva Jusionyte* that was published recently in the Boston Globe. The essay was titled, “Living with a gun” and the URL says “Why I bought a gun.”

Tam at View from the Porch - Can I get an "amen"?

To be knee-deep in the Very Online kulturkampf these days is to drink from a firehose of negativity and panic and anger, because that's what gets the clicks and the donations and the virality.

Meep at Stump - The Sentinel Effect, Centenarians, and Pension Fraud

I cover how some people live to a grand old age — by lying about it! And why do they do that? For the money, of course!

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 31 January 2024: Faily News Stuff Edition

Good news: ChatGPT is not leaking private chat content between users.

Bad news: Your account got hacked. (Ars Technica)

ChatGPT has no option for two-factor authentication.

But if you're sharing confidential information with a chat bot you're an idiot in the first place.

The Other McCain - CNN: The Stupidity Caucus

The late George Carlin used to say, you know how stupid the average guy is? Well, half the people are dumber than that. This crossed my mind because CNN — I watch CNN so you don’t have to — was hyping up this Quinnipiac University poll claiming that (a) Biden is leading Trump 50% to 44%, and (b) Nikki Haley would beat Biden, 47% to 42%.

The Post Millennial - NEW: 150 House Dems vote AGAINST bill to deport illegal immigrants caught driving under the influence

In a vote on the House floor on Wednesday, 150 Democrats voted against passing a bill that would deport illegal immigrants caught driving under the influence.

274 House members voted to pass the bill, including 215 Republicans and 59 Democrats.

The Ultimate Answer to Kings - I hate SHOT Show.

It’s been more than half a week since it closed and my video feed is still filled with “The Ten Greatest Shotguns of 2024!!!” or “The Greatest Plastic Striker-Fired 9mm (that’s just like all the other plastic striker-fired 9mms) Ever!!!” or “All the overpriced red dots you can’t afford to show up at the range without!!!”

Again from The Other McCain - ‘Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories’

For example, I think Texas would be entirely justified in seceding from the Union. I don’t believe in Keynesian economics or “climate change.” Heck, I don’t believe in Darwinian evolution. Or the designated hitter, for that matter. Despite my “fringe” beliefs, however, I have never been accused of advocating (checks notes) decapitating your father

HeyJackass! rounds out the post with January Wrap-up, covering crime in Chicago.

A string of frigid, sub-zero days helped keep a lid on the nonsense for part of the month while solving the age-old issues of Middle East peace and climate change handled the rest via transference.

Texans Are Still Armed

Home Invaders are still getting shot. Homeowner shoots at home invaders in north Houston, police say | CW39 Houston

Police say robbers got a rude awakening during an attempted home invasion in north Houston Sunday night.

If you break into homes in Texas, I think you can expect to find an armed homeowner.

We’re told by the police that as the homeowner was pulling into his driveway, suspects rolled up on him and forced their way into the home.

Little did they know a family member was inside, saw what was happening and shot at the suspects, hitting one in leg and arm.

Officers found him and he was taken to a local hospital.

Self-defense is a human-right, and this didn't happen in New Jersey or New York City.

“Everything they told us was a lie” - How Rooftop Solar Works, or Doesn't

I can't even pretend to be shocked. The Rooftop Solar Industry Could Be On the Verge of Collapse | TIME

Break things and move fast. It sounds good, but the things being broken are people.

Mary Ann Jones, 83, didn’t realize this had happened to her until she received a call last year from GoodLeap, a financial technology company, saying she owed $52,564.28 for a solar panel loan that expires when she’s 106, and costs more than she originally paid for her house.

Of course that isn't how she, and a lot of other people, were sold rooftop solar.

Jesus Hernandez, 53, says a salesman from Southern Solar called him in 2019 with the pitch that installing solar panels could cut his monthly electric bill to as low as $50 a month; Hernandez was paying around $500 a month at the time. Hernandez, a housekeeping supervisor, couldn’t afford the up-front costs, but the salesman said GoodLeap would give him a loan. When the salesman later came to his house in Dallas to close the deal, he also promised that were Hernandez to get panels, the government would write him a solar-subsidy check for $16,000. Hernandez was sold; he agreed to take out a 20-year loan to install about $62,000 worth of solar panels.

After interests and fees, that $62,000 turned out to be more like $90,000. Today, Hernandez pays about $400 a month on the loan. Worse, his electric bill is still in the $500 range, because the panels do not produce the promised electricity.

Mr. Hernandez uttered the statement quoted in the title to this post. He recommends recording the sales pitch, if a solar salesperson comes knocking, so you can prove what they said later, because they told him nothing but BS.

Hat tip to Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony. Daily News Stuff 29 January 2024: Jeepers Edition.

The rooftop solar industry is facing collapse. (Time)

Not because solar panels themselves don't work, but because the industry employs sales tactics that would make a used car remora blush.

DEI - The 21st Century Version of Liberté, égalité, fraternité

That of course is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). My fear is that it is leading to the same place.

For those of you who didn't pay attention if history class, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" was the motto of The French Revolution, right through the period of time when it turned into The Reign of Terror, complete with guillotines. And while they started by murdering the aristocracy, they ended by murdering everyone.

That isn't how it started of course, it started with a motto that sounded great. It didn't end Great.

For now, lets consider how DEI is murdering entertainment.

This is the Nerdrotic video Why Hollywood is FAILING - The Devil's in The DEI.

Gary mentions a couple of things in the video, specifically from Film Threat. Here are some links:

• The D-Files Part 1: Disney and the Downfall of John Lasseter
• The D-Files Part 2: The Great Mouse Reset
• A Veteran Screenwriter’s Plot Twist on Hollywood’s DEI Cultural Shift

The D-Files series is probably not done. Disney is only one of the companies destroying every bit of intellectual property that we inherited, from the 20th Century. From Tolkien being destroyed by Amazon, to Star Trek being destroyed by Paramount, and DC Comics being eviscerated by Warner Bros, nothing is safe.

A Musical Interlude from The DaleyGator

The DaleyGator bring us Guitar Greatness

Campbell and Clapton, nuff said

Click thru for "Nothing But The Whole Wide World" by Glen Campbell and Eric Clapton. This is from the upcoming album Glen Campbell Duets – Ghost On The Canvas Sessions.

The album is a "re-imagining" of his 2011 album Ghost on the Canvas. But in this case duets were recorded by some of the most popular musicians of our time. You can find the details at this Rolling Stone article "Glen Campbell Sings With Eric Church, Dolly Parton, Elton John on New Duets Album." This is the only song I've heard from the album, which is due out in April, but if this is an indication, it should be good.

Netflix Throws Halle Berry Film in the Trash

Note: This story is from last week. It got stuck in my drafts folder. I thought about "shelving it," but decided it was worth knowing about. Studios are paying for artists and getting activists. If they want to stop setting piles of cash on fire, they need to stop hiring activists. That won't happen anytime soon, but we may be at the beginning of the end of the Woke sh*t coming out of Hollywood. They are starting to recognize that it isn't working. When Disney set more than a billion dollars on fire last year, the message started to get thru.

I was going to say "gives the film the Batgirl treatment," but am not sure if people know what that means. Netflix Shelves Halle Berry’s ‘The Mothership’

"Shelves" is Hollywood speak for "It will never see the light of day." Probably they made this decision for a good reason.

Berry and the Mothership team already completed much of the filming on the project, but it was in need of extensive reshoots to get it over the finish line.

"Extensive reshoots required" means that it was a mess, and if they were to have any hope of releasing it, without destroying everyone's career, they basically need to start over.

When did filmmakers become so incompetent? Studios used to give films a certain amount of film footage. When it was gone, you were done. You could try to edit stuff together differently, but you didn't get more film. Now they don't even bother to write a decent script before they start shooting? This is what passes for progress in the digital era.

People You Know Can Be a Threat

The Left loves to drone about how if you own a gun, you are more likely to shoot someone you know, than a perfect stranger. There is a very good reason for that. Indiana man fatally shoots attacker who battered him and woman in 'fit of rage' - Washington Examiner

Mitchell had a history of legal trouble, including domestic violence, and Henry had been letting him stay in the residence he was renting.

So he was doing a "good deed" by letting this guy stay with him. It didn't work out in the end.

He went into a violent rage. Battered Blake Henry, and at least one woman in the residence, and shattered a glass case. In the end Mr. Henry was forced to defend himself, and others in the home.

When Mitchell turned violent, Henry took action and shot him, and he immediately called the police and commanded at least one person to “apply pressure” in an apparent attempt to save his attacker’s life, according to the report.

“After a thorough assessment of the events that occurred, it has been determined that Henry acted in self-defense, and in the interest of justice, no criminal charges will result from the investigation conducted in this matter,” according to the Washington County Prosecutor’s Office.

Click thru for some quotes, and more details.

You are more likely to shoot someone you know, because for one, that is a large group of people outside your family, and includes the creepy guy from the coffee shop, the ex who is morphing into a violent stalker, and more. The real reason you are more likely to shoot someone you know is because they are statistically more like to be a problem than the perfect stranger. That doesn't seem to make much impression on the Left. Don't clutter the issue with facts.

CU Boulder Students Don't Like Self-defense

But then they have been indoctrinated by Leftists for more than a decade. CU Boulder students call for ban on campus concealed carry

The University of Colorado allows people to conceal and carry guns on campus, making it an outlier among higher education institutions nationwide.

Some students are demanding that be changed.

Given recent SCOTUS decisions, and the fact that The University of Colorado is a public institution, restrictions may not be legal, but that doesn't worry the students. Their feelings are hurt.

One kid said he didn't understand why concealed carry was needed. Apparently CU Bolder is a crime-free zone. No one has ever been robbed, or assaulted, or ... Don't the mad, Leftist feminists keep telling us that college campuses are full of sexual assault? Or is that old news?

Leftists - The Law Doesn't Apply to Us

At least in Brooklyn they keep breaking the law governing "open meetings." Brooklyn parent board bans attendees from public meeting

A controversial Brooklyn parent board blocked parents and press “not in alignment” with its extreme leftist agenda from attending its monthly public meeting this week — a brazen violation of state law.

At least a dozen people were blocked from joining Wednesday’s Zoom meeting, including a Post reporter who was apparently forbidden simply for identifying as a journalist for New York’s favorite newspaper.

Their statement basically says if you don't agree with everything we say you must agree with, you are not allowed in our space. This doesn't fly with the open meeting laws in New York.

The Open Meetings Law requires that parent meetings be open to the general public and held in person, but the CEC’s meetings are still conducted entirely over Zoom.

Probably because it is easier to control Zoom meetings than it is control people in the real world.

If Anyone Tells You "You Can't Lose Money in Real Estate..."

Don't listen to another thing they say. They are so full of it, it should be dribbling out their ears. Chicago's Luxury Housing Market is Tanking: A Tale of High-Rise Hopes, Ground-Level Realities | Chicago Contrarian

A 25 percent loss in 5 years, on high end real estate in Chicago. Gee, I can't imagine why people in Chicago, who can afford it, are heading for the exits. Let's see... High taxes, even higher real estate taxes, and surging crime.

Another Streeterville unit, 100 East Huron Street, Apartment 3401, recently sold for $520,000, down from $860,000 when it last previously transacted in 2008. This decrease amounted to a staggering 40 percent decline in value over 16 years.

Streeterville, was, and probably still is, one of the most exclusive neighborhoods on the Third Coast. You could spend more money if you went to the norther burbs, and stayed close to the water, but in the city... Just off The Magnificent Mile. Just north of The Loop. Close to the entertainment district of River North. Close to the lake.

There is more, including some beautiful photos. RTWT.