In local news

Posted on December 16, 2009 by Phil Kadath

The stakes are being raised

The Kent man who took the city of Seattle and its mayor to court over the city’s gun ban has upped the ante.

Robert C. Warden filed a motion for a preliminary injunction ordering the defendants to stop enforcing the ban until a final decision is made in his civil suit.

Last month Warden filed a complaint against the Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and the city itself in U.S. District Court, alleging the city’s gun ban defies his constitutional right to bear arms.

The complaint cited an executive order Nickels issued in June, directing all departments to review then-present rules “to determine the extent to which departments could prohibit firearms on city property.”

Nickels term is just about done. I’m hoping that this will be the final straw and his successor will just X-out Nickels Ex-O.

…..

Also, the guilty are found to be as such

A jury on Tuesday declared Naveed Haq guilty of murder in his second trial for the 2006 shooting spree at a Seattle Jewish center.

Haq was found guilty of all eight counts against him. The 34-year-old Pasco man will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Haq showed no reaction as the verdict was read, but victims in the courtroom hugged and clasped hands.

“I just need to get my breath,” victim Cheryl Stumbo said.

Haq’s first trial ended last year with jurors deadlocked on whether he was legally insane during the shooting spree on July 28, 2006, that left one woman dead and five others injured.

The eight counts against him included one count of aggravated first-degree murder; five counts of attempted first-degree murder; one count of unlawful imprisonment; and one count of malicious harassment, the state’s hate-crime law.

Life in prison is too good for him. But you knew that.

Posted in Evil walks the earth, Have Gun, Will Travel | 1 Comment

Environmental Protection Weaponry

Posted on December 16, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Via Doug Ross we find that the Environmental Protection Agency is making a purchase of Glocks.

For what reason, your guess is as good as mine. I just hope I’m not on their list of folks who get to see if they’re using “Lead Free” ammo.

I guess that since the IRS got their Customer Service Shotguns the EPA has gotten a little case of budgeted equipment envy, or something.

It does however make this Bonsteel cartoon slightly more nefarious

756.jpeg

EPA link found via Cold Fury

Posted in Color me confused | Leave a comment

Reading Material: Old & New

Posted on December 16, 2009 by Phil Kadath

I had completely forgotten about this book until I saw an Insty link to it yesterday.

What to do when the Russians Come: A Surivor’s Guide

I haven’t read that since I was “assigned” to read it by my father in junior high. There is lots of good stuff in there, most of which I have probably forgotten. So don’t go buying all the copies before I can afford to get one of my own.

Insty also linked to this tome by the late, great Neal Knox

The Gun Rights War

I still thank my father for “assigning” me Knox’s Shotgun News columns throughout my childhood.

Posted in Kewel! | 1 Comment

China, South?

Posted on December 16, 2009 by Phil Kadath

It’s not about the internet. It’s about control.

Australia intends to introduce filters which will ban access to websites containing criminal content.

The banned sites will be selected by an independent classification body guided by complaints from the public, said Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

A seven month trial in conjunction with ISPs found the technology behind the filter to be 100% effective.

Effective against what, they haven’t said.

Because they can’t yet say.

“Through a combination of additional resources for education and awareness, mandatory internet filtering of RC (refused classification)-rated content, and optional ISP-level filtering, we have a package that balances safety for families and the benefits of the digital revolution,” he said.

The filter laws will be introduced in parliament in August 2010 and will take a year to implement.

So they don’t know what they’ll be filtering, but if you read to the end of the article you’ll see that they’re already claiming it is “For the Children”.

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger. | 1 Comment

They can’t all be Cabinet level employees

Posted on December 16, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Can they?

At a time when the White House is projecting the largest deficit in the nation’s history, Uncle Sam is trying to recover billions of dollars in unpaid taxes from its own employees.

Federal workers owe more than $3 billion in income taxes they failed to pay in 2008. According to Internal Revenue Service documents, 276,300 federal employees and retirees owe $3,042,200,000.

The IRS tracks the voluntary compliance rate of federal employees and retirees each year, and each year feds come up short. The one bright spot in this year’s report is that after several years of a steady increase, the amount owed by feds is down from the previous year.

Federal employees and retirees owed $3,586,784,725 in unpaid income taxes in 2007.

The documents show delinquent employees from nearly every federal agency with more than 25 employees. Based on percentages, the Department of The Treasury, which includes the IRS, has the best compliance rate. Fewer than 1 percent of Treasury employees didn’t pay their taxes in 2008.

The IRS is the only federal agency where employees can be fired for not paying their taxes. The non-compliance rate for IRS employees in 2008 was 0.76 percent — down from 0.89 percent in 2007.

The agency with the most tax scofflaws is the U.S. Postal Service, with 28,913 employees who owe $297,933,756. But that is still a dramatic improvement from 2007 when more than 54,000 employees owed more than $407 million.

“We urge our employees to comply with all tax laws and are encouraged that many who have been delinquent have agreed to payment plan with the IRS,” USPS spokesperson Mark Saunders tells WTOP in a statement.

I’m sure the agencies themselves “urge” the employees to pay their taxes.

But I’m curious about the federal employees unions? Something tells me that they would fight for the union member against any and all attempts to get the money.

Since the newspapers are all about “providing a public service” by publishing the names and addresses of CCW holders, how about they grab a fistfull of these public records and publish them?

If “all is fair” and all.

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger. | 1 Comment

Goblin sticker

Posted on December 16, 2009 by Phil Kadath

When you have no firearm, use your next best option

Kelso, Wash., police say a man used his compound bow to interrupt an apparent break-in at a nearby vacant home, wounding a fleeing man in the buttocks.

Police say the Kelso man grabbed his hunting bow late Sunday night and chased a suspected prowler for more than three blocks. When the fleeing man refused to stop, the bowhunter shot him with a broadhead arrow.

A 32-year-old Longview man later sought treatment at St. John Medical Center for an arrow wound to the left buttock. Doctors removed the arrow tip and the man was listed in satisfactory condition Monday.

Kelso Police Capt. Vern Thompson says there were no immediate arrests and the investigation continues. He says charges against both men are possible.

I have to believe that if it had been a firearm, the charges would have been more than “possible”.

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel | 1 Comment

Health Updates

Posted on December 15, 2009 by Phil Kadath

After a few harrowing moments this weekend and yesterday morning, the Desktop PC that is the RNS Tacoma Blogstation is back online.

It turns out that after I did the System Restore, an anti-virus program which will not be named (though it begins with an “N” and rhymes with “Horton” and came with the PC) freaked out and shut off my Network Control card to any and all traffic, and refused to relent until the unnamed software was completely removed.

I now have new anti-virus software that shares its name with a two-seater, V-10 Dodge sports car, works magnificently and is half the price per year of the previous software.

All seems well and the back-up laptop will go back to its place of respectful residence with many thanks after it gets swept and updated with Firefox and other 2009/2010 era software.

…..

In other health news, I went to Frau Doktor a little while back for the annual physical. She called recently with the results of the various tests.

Coincidentally, she called just as I was about to sit down and eat a lovely combo quite similar to this one.

As she told me my cholesterol was very good, I was tempted to tell her that her arteries would probably harden at just the sight of what I was about to eat.

Genetics can be wonderful.

Posted in Kewel! | 1 Comment

All your everythings belong to us!

Posted on December 15, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Imagine, if you will, the powers of the Federal Marshals, the FBI, the ATF and the Treasury agents, along with their friends in the federal prosecutor’s office being given to a Shift Lead of your local transit agency, your mail carrier’s Assistant Manager, as well as a Case Manager at your local welfare office.

You don’t have to imagine it.

Just go to the UK.

Draconian police powers designed to deprive crime barons of luxury lifestyles are being extended to councils, quangos and agencies to use against the public, The Times has learnt.

The right to search homes, seize cash, freeze bank accounts and confiscate property will be given to town hall officials and civilian investigators employed by organisations as diverse as Royal Mail, the Rural Payments Agency and Transport for London.

The measure, being pushed through by Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, comes into force next week and will deploy some of the most powerful tools available to detectives against fare dodgers, families in arrears with council tax and other minor offenders.

The radical extension of the Proceeds of Crime Act, through a Statutory Instrument which is not debated by parliament, has been condemned by the chairman of the Police Federation. Paul McKeever said that he was shocked to learn that the decision to hand over “intrusive powers” to people who were not police was made without consultation or debate.

Can you say “Police State”?

I knew you could.

Jump a turnstyle on the Tube? They can seize your car.

Miss paying your television license fee? Say good bye to your house.

Think I’m overstating this? They’ve set confiscation goals and incentives.

The expansion of seizure powers is part of a Home Office plan to “embed” financial seizure across the criminal justice system. Ministers set a target to recover £250 million in criminal assets by 2010, rising to £1 billion per year soon after.

An “explanatory memorandum” says that a swath of financial investigators attached to the newly empowered bodies will be accredited, trained and monitored by another quango, the National Policing Improvement Agency. The memo adds that asset seizure will result in financial rewards: “Investigation bodies will receive a share of money recovered as additional funding to incentivise further work in recovering the proceeds of crime.”

…..
Councils and other bodies had access to asset recovery powers before but only with with the authorisation and involvement of the police. Now they will be able to act independently of any police force or law enforcement agency.

“Guilty until proven innocent” anyone?

Oh yes, I do believe so.

Found via Nick M @ CCinZ, whom I also stole the title of this post from. He has plenty more snark where that came from.

Posted in Evil walks the earth | 3 Comments

Despite what they say

Posted on December 15, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Leftists love poverty.

Case in point: Ecuador, where the eco-socialists have convinced President Correa that a National Forest is more important than helping lift the citizenry out of abject poverty, which is how two-thirds of the people there live.

Keep the oil in the soil

As delegates discuss various ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, our next guest has a simple message: keep untapped oil in the ground. Ivonne Yanez is an environmental activist from Ecuador, one of the larger oil producing countries in Latin America. Ecuador is believed to be sitting on an oil reserve of hundreds of millions of barrels. But the oil is located in the Yasuni National Park, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. Ecuador has launched a unique campaign to have the international community compensate the country in exchange for keeping the oil in the ground.

One of these eco-weenies must have been offered compensation to not release flatulence while attending college and thinks they can expand the idea onto the world market.

Sadly for that idea, people like oil much more than farts.

UPDATE: I’m sorry, I need to make a couple of corrections:

#1. Obama loves him some warm scented air. He’ll probably fall for this.

#2. Leftists do love poverty, so long as it is someone else living somewhere far away from them.

Posted in Rampant Eco Socialism, The Global Warming Death Cult | Leave a comment

Words Kill

Posted on December 15, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Yesterday, I almost posted an argument comparing the 1st Amendment to the 2nd Amendment, about how each can be dangerous to the lives of humans.

I didn’t because I’ve made said argument multiple times over the six point five Earth years of RNS existence.

Turns out, my argument has been made for me in convenient cut-and-paste form

A Rwandan journalist who encouraged Hutus to slaughter Tutsis during the 1994 genocide has been jailed for life.

During her trial Valerie Bemeriki admitted to inciting violence.

In one broadcast attributed to her she told her listeners: “Do not kill those cockroaches with a bullet – cut them to pieces with a machete.”

She was one of the most prominent voices of Radio Mille Collines – a station which became notorious for its encouragement of the slaughter.

The station was launched in 1993, backed by relatives of Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana – whose death in a plane crash helped to trigger the genocide.

Two senior executives of Radio Milles Collines have previously been sentenced to long jail terms by the UN’s Rwanda tribunal, based in Arusha, Tanzania.

About 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in 100 days in Rwanda.

A local court convicted Bemeriki of planning genocide, inciting Hutus, and complicity in several murders.

I am completely surprised that they didn’t kill these people. They most certainly deserve it.

The UN must be involved somewhere.

Posted in Evil walks the earth | Leave a comment