And defense of family, too. Though the details of what happened are absent. Police: Teen who shot, killed mother’s boyfriend may have acted in self-defense
Police said the 19-year-old who shot his mother’s boyfriend was initially a suspect in what was being investigated as a homicide.
Now, police are calling him a person of interest and Sergeant Ian Yost said the case is being investigated as self-defense.
And I suppose that the prosecutor will make the final determination on charges.
A cop nearly learns a real-world lesson from the Tueller Drill. Del Norte Sheriff Release Video of Fatal Police Shooting.
If you don't know what the Tueller drill is, see the link below the embedded video.
Cops responded to a domestic incident. The subject may have been high, or he may have been suffering a mental breakdown. He was going on about how we are living in the matrix. The most important point is that he was armed with a large kitchen knife.
Police who responded to the 911 call on Parkway Drive and Sherwood Lane at about 2:45 p.m. on Aug. 25 reporting a disabled vehicle in the roadway reported arriving to find Anderson, 38, holding a knife and “walking in the traffic lanes.”
The knife was on the ground, but it was very close to the guy. If you watch the bodycam video below, the cops keep taking their eyes off of him. Until he grabs it and runs at one of them. I think that the cop was very lucky that in the end he seemed more determined to stab his wife/girlfriend/whatever she was than stab a cop, because I don't think they could have stopped him if he hadn't veered off.
The article above is from the cop-hating, law-and-order-hating media, so the picture they include makes him look like an angel, and the quotes are about what a great guy he was, right up until he picked up a big-ass kitchen knife and ran at someone like he meant to end them.
Donut Operator (Who describes himself as "a former police officer and SWAT team member and avid PC gamer") has a breakdown of the videos - bodycam video from two officers at the scene - and some thoughts.
This is the video for Knife Wielding Man Nearly Takes Out Officer - Police Shooting Breakdown
As for the Tueller Drill, see this article. The Tueller Drill: Why the 21-foot Rule is Important for Self Defense.
Tueller basically asked how close is too close when it comes to a knife. A man is standing with a knife between 20 and 25 feet away. In that situation, could you draw and fire before the attacker can cut you? Tueller determined that at 21 feet, an attacker could reach the shooter before he could fire; it takes, on average 1.5 seconds for a knife-wielding attacker to cover 21 feet.
Which is why I am sure that if he stayed focused on the first cop he ran toward, he could have done serious damage before he was stopped.
Frente! was an Australian Alternative Rock/Folk band from the early 1990s. They had some success with their 1992 debut album, and put out one more album in 1996, and then disappeared. They have apparently reunited for a few appearances, but they could only manage an EP from 2005, which I have not heard. I quite liked the 1992 album.
This is "Labour of Love" by Frente! from the 1992 album Marvin the Album, though this is the 2014 Remastered edition.
HeyJackass! has the details on a Mostly Peaceful Weekend in Chicago.
Just as this year’s 500th homicide arrived at an accelerated pace, the 600th arrived at the morgue at a mid-nineties velocity.
Final Peaceful Tally: 10 killed, 54 wounded
2020 weekend tally: 10 killed, 37 wounded
2019 weekend tally: 6 killed, 24 wounded
I'm sure that the Powers That Be will still try to insist that Crime Is Down™.
I'm guessing folks in North Pole, Alaska are pretty well armed. Intruder shot by North Pole homeowner; man recovers in hospital, troopers say.
How would you deal with an intruder at 3 o'clock in the morning?
OK, I'm geographically challenged enough that I had to look it up. North Pole is about 250 miles nor'-nor'-east of Anchorage, or 371 miles by car. It looks to be fairly remote, though I'm sure there are folks in Alaska who would dispute that.
Alaska State Troopers in Fairbanks were notified about the alleged home intrusion at 3:25 a.m. that day, according to an online dispatch.
Upon arriving at the home, troopers learned the intruder had been shot and was still alive. The homeowner did not report any injuries.
The guy who got shot was taken to a hospital and then airlifted to Anchorage. He is expected to survive. Charges are pending, while the doctors get him back on his feet.
Self-defense is a human-right. Good Guys 1, Bad Guys 0.
Apparently actually punishing people who break the laws they already have would be unfair. Man is charged with having his second illegal gun since June — while on bail for murder both times
Remember Vincent Davidson? We told you about him in June after prosecutors accused him of having a gun in his car while he was on bond for first-degree murder. Incredibly, Davidson got out of jail again, and prosecutors on Sunday charged him with having another gun in his car this weekend.
He is accused (not convicted) of murder committed on October 1st, 2017. At first he was held without bail, but released on $300,000 bond after posting $30,000 in 2020. (I blame COVID-19.) Then after the June incident he was ordered held without bail, but was released shortly after that.
But somehow — exactly how is not clear in court records — Davidson was allowed out of jail again last month.
And on Saturday he was arrested again, for an open container of alcohol in his car, and what was reported as a fully automatic machine pistol in the trunk of the car.
Judge Susana Ortiz on Sunday ordered him held without bail for violating the terms of bond in the murder case and held without bail for violating the terms of bond in the June gun case. She set bail in the new gun case at $200,000 and ordered Davidson to go onto electronic monitoring if he becomes eligible for release. Again.
Any bets on whether or not they let him out again? Keeping violent criminals in jail would be unfair.
And 2017? Justice delayed is Justice denied. Hold the trial.
I'll wait while you look that up. Trump’s Military Record Makes Milley’s Reported Intervention Even More Alarming
But look, here's the answer.
Despite his bellicose rhetoric and bluster, Trump had probably been more reluctant to use military force than any president in memory. One of the few (somewhat) consistent political positions held by the former president has been a distaste for military engagement. As others have pointed out, Trump was the first president since Jimmy Carter not to have gotten the nation into a new military conflict. One might chalk that up to the luck of history and circumstance — if it weren’t for more concrete examples.
But this is the guy Milley was worried about so much, that he decided that the military should not be strictly under civilian control. Really?
Joe Biden has already been more reckless with military force. After ISIS murdered 13 American servicemembers in a suicide bombing during our botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden launched what turned out to be performative drone strikes that reportedly killed two Islamic State fighters but also ten civilians in Kabul — eight of them children — to prove his toughness and distract from the political fallout over his incompetence.
It is the end of the Republic.
Sabaton is a Swedish, Power-Metal band from Falun. Don't worry, they sing in English. They are apparently gearing up for a tour in 2022, and have released a couple of new videos. Most were from old albums. This one, looks to be new. I expect that means that an album will be forthcoming, but I can't find any reference to it yet.
The lyrics are in the video, but I usually have no trouble understanding Joakim "Jocke" Brodén; he is singing fairly clearly given that this IS metal. It you want the lyrics, they can be found at this link.
This song Is Kingdom Come by Sabaton. It was released as a single on July 16th. As far as I can tell, it is not part of an album, though my knowledge of Sabaton is not encyclopedic.
It would seem that Tulsa is a bad place to be a bad guy. Three of Tulsa's recent homicides occurred within a span of 38 hours, and each is considered justifiable
“There’s a lot of people who claim self-defense,” [Lt. Brandon] Watkins said. “That’s usually the first refuge that people go to when they come in, but we look at the evidence.
“On these three cases, the evidence was compelling.”
The cases are the 35th, 36th and 37th homicides in Tulsa this year, according to Tulsa World records.
Those 3 homicides were the result of two people being shot, and one person being stabbed.
Click thru for the details of the encounters, and what police did to verify that they were justified.
Self-defense claims are nothing new to the homicide detectives at the Tulsa Police Department, but to have three in a row that appear to be legitimate is, at the least, “strange.”
Self-defense is a human-right, and in Tulsa, Oklahoma, it also seems to be your legal right.
It is all about the science. Really. Trust the government. They wouldn't lie to you, would they? ‘Science’ Fact-Checks Biden Agenda: FDA Nixes Pfizer COVID-19 Booster Vax
The basic news is that the FDA put an end to Biden's talk of COVID vaccine booster shots. But then it was all about the money anyway.
About two-thirds of American adults (myself included) are fully vaccinated, and most of the unvaccinated people are just against it, period. So that means the end of Big Pharma’s government-funded vaccine profit bonanza is approaching quite soon. That’s the real reason (not “the science”) why the Biden administration is now trying to make vaccination mandatory, and also why they were trying to get booster shots approved. Big money is involved.
Pfizer spends millions on lobbying, and contributes millions to campaigns. So is it about science, or money?
And the Biden administration - it isn't Biden himself, I don't believe he is planning much of anything - wants you to forget about Afghanistan, and the southern border, and inflation, ...
There is information about how FDA scientists quit over the political pressure coming from the White House, about how the FDA eventually stood up to the political pressure, and more.
And stupid does not belong to one political party, but runs rampant through most politicians of every party. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp keeps mentioning failed AIDS vaccine mandates. But there is no AIDS vaccine
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, keeps mentioning the failed campaign to vaccinate Americans against the AIDS virus as an example of the pitfalls of healthcare mandates.
Except the AIDS vaccine doesn't exist. And there sure wasn't a failed campaign to mandate it.
I'm sure by now one of his staff sat him down, and explained that he's making fool of himself. But maybe not. Depends on the quality of his staff, I suppose. Though unless he is living under a rock he must have seen some of the coverage he's generating.
There are other examples of stupid of course, but this is an extreme example.
There is some video at the link, but if you page down, the still photographs are quite stunning. There is also a live video feed which is fascinating as I type this, but that is subject to change of course. Lava pours out of volcano on La Palma in Spain's Canary Islands | Reuters
The Canary Islands are in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa, about even with the Morocco/West Sahara border. La Palma is in the extreme NW of the Canary Islands, about 300 kilometers (187 miles) from Morocco.
A volcano erupted on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma on Sunday, sending lava shooting into the air and streaming in rivers towards houses in two villages from the Cumbre Vieja national park in the south of the island.
This particular region last had a eruption 50 years ago in 1971. Though people had a week's warning and the government began evacuations well before the eruption. 5000 people had been evacuated as of Sunday evening local time.
La Palma had been on high alert after more than 22,000 tremors were reported in the space of a week in Cumbre Vieja, a chain of volcanoes that last had a major eruption in 1971 and is one of the most active volcanic regions in the Canaries.
The video below is from The Guardian: Lava erupts from a volcano on La Palma in Spanish Canary Islands. At only a minute and a half it is pretty good.
With a preview of the World Championship Match scheduled for November. Magnus Carlsen Wins 2021 Norway Chess
I know most of you don't follow chess, even if you know how to play. But I follow it a little.
Norway Chess is an invitational tournament consisting of 6 players facing each other in a double round-robin tournament.
The players this year were Magnus Carlsen - Norway, Ian Nepomniachtchi - Russia, Richard Rapport - Hungary, Alireza Firouzja - France, Sergey Karjakin - Russia, and Aryan Tari - Norway.
Magnus Carlsen (reigning World Champion) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (winner of the Candidates Tournament) will face each other in World Championship match in Dubai, UAE. The match was postponed from last year due to COVID-19. In the classical game they played, they fought to a draw. (That was followed by a game of Armegeddon Chess, and so not really relavent to the Championship.)
The prize for first place in Norway Chess this year was about $81,000 US.
As for the World Championship match.
The prize fund will be $2 million. The winner will earn 60 percent of the prize fund, and 40 percent will go to the runner-up. If the match ends in a tie after 14 games and a tiebreak will decide matters, the winner receives 55 percent and the runner-up 45 percent.
Before the start of the match, each player receives two hundred thousand euros as an upfront payment of his eventual prize money. If the match is played in the country of one of the players, then the foreign player receives one hundred thousand euros of the prize fund and the remaining prize money is shared as stated above.
While we're on the subject of dam failures... Michigan Dam Failures Caused by Rapid Liquefaction of Downstream Sand Embankments | 2021-09-14 | Engineering News-Record
First, let's refresh your memory.
The Edenville and Sanford Dams along the Tittabawassee River in north central Michigan failed on May 19, 2020, after two days of heavy rain, resulting in flooding and property damage.
There was an ongoing dispute between the dams owner, the federal government (in the form of the regulating body) with some interaction with the local community. Oh, and the state environmental agency was also involved, if memory serves me.
An interim report from the Association of State Dam Safety Officials reports that a clear factor in the failures of two dams built in the 1920s was static liquefaction (flow) instability of saturated, loose sands in the downstream section of their embankments. [SNIP]
Static liquefaction has rarely been observed in dam failures and is more commonly associated with earthquakes, according to the forensic team. It occurs when the mobilized shear strength in saturated, loose sand decreases rapidly to values significantly less than the applied static shear stresses, resulting in a force imbalance. The sand quickly liquefied, became mud and then accelerated the velocity of the already fast-moving water with its mass.
There is more at the link above. The complete interium report can be found at the following link: INVESTIGATION OF FAILURES OF EDENVILLE AND SANFORD DAMS. It is a 42 page PDF, so you may not want to download it to your phone. It does contain a number of photos of the dam at various points leading up to the failure, and as the failure unfolded.
It hasn't been a catastrophic failure. But a failure nonetheless. Lake Gonzales’ dam spill gate failure brings uncertainty for residents, wildlife and environment
Officials with the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority(GBRA), which manages regional waterways, say a large tree became lodged in the spill gate on Aug. 3. The weight of the tree and the resulting water pressure may have led to the spill gate’s failure.
The lake is 12 miles west of Gonzales, or about an hour’s drive east of downtown San Antonio.
And there is a statistic that is worth taking note of.
A sobering line from the magazine’s investigation: “Of the approximately 300 dam failures in Texas since 1910, half have occurred in the last nine years.”
Every dam in the world needs maintenance. And eventually they will probably all need replacement, or at least very serious work. Nothing lasts forever.
And concealed carry likely saved a law-abiding citizen's life. Police investigating self-defense claim after deadly shooting on Nashville pedestrian bridge
Police report that shortly before 1 a.m., two men shot each other on a pedestrian bridge on Shelby Street. The shooting killed 36-year-old Benjamin Baker and wounded 20-year-old Marcellus Groves.
Surveillance video shows Baker, who is donning a ski mask, approach Groves from behind, police said in a news release. Baker appeared to pull out a handgun prior to confronting Groves.
The guy in the ski mask was shot in the chest, and died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. They other guy was shot in the leg and is expected to recover.
While the investigation continues, self-defense remains a human-right.
Professor David Yamane leads a Sociology of Guns seminar at Wake Forest University. One of the first parts of the class is a field trip to a local gun store and range, where students are given the opportunity to shoot .22 long rifle, and 9mm pistols, and AR-15 rifle. They have the opportunity; no one is forced.
After that experience, the students each write a report on the trip, and if they give their prermission, Professor Yamane publishes those reports on his blog Gun Curious. Those reports are starting to appear.
First up, someone who shoots competitively. I’m Surprised This Trip and Class is Allowed (Fall 2021 Student Range Visit Reflection #1)
My circumstances are different from other students in several ways, notably in experience and physical considerations. I have a relatively extensive background in the gun community with a focus on competition and training that extends beyond the level of the average American gun owner.
Next we have Mixed Emotions and Complicated Views (Fall 2021 Student Range Visit Reflection #2)
As a young woman who grew up in a blue county of a red state, I understand that there are nuances to this debate that often get pushed aside for the sake of argument. Going to the Mocksville Veterans Gun Range complicated my view and understanding of my belief and opinions on this topic.
I'm sure there will be more on the trip, and I won't be able to highlight them all. You should however be reading Professor Yamane's blog regularly anyway.
A living legend is walking amongst ordinary Chicagoans. A shadowy commoner, they take decisive action while others merely complain. They don’t seek recognition or fame — probably because they’d be arrested.
Will Chicago ever know their name? The name of the person who has stolen the city’s cash-printing red light cameras at Cicero and Lawrence three times? And, if the Sauganash Sasquatch is ever arrested, would a jury in this town convict them?
According to 2018 informaion the local CBS station reported, those cameras generate about $850 per day in revenue for the city.
Just repeat the talking points about how police are out of control. ‘Family Demands Answers’
A series of articles from various "news organizations" from diverse geographic areas that all have a headline that includes "Family demands answers," or a variation on that theme.
Am I asserting that, in each of these cases, the police were entirely justified, and that all these complaints are illegitimate? No, of course not. One must examine each case in detail to determine whether or not police procedures were proper and lawful. My point is not about police procedures, but rather about the lazy cookie-cutter approach to journalism that yields such a predictable series of headlines. And, in case you’d care to click those headline links, you will discover that in every case, the person shot by police is black. We know, as a matter of statistical fact, that cops actually shoot more white suspects than black suspects, but when did you ever see a news story about a white family “demanding answers” in such a case? I can only think of one off the top of my head — a crazy woman in Tennessee who charged cops with a pickax — but I’m sure there must be others.
Click thru for details on a case, some history of the anti-government and anti-police movements that might surprise you and more.
