Dec 152009
 

Some news items are just plain useless unless they come with a good clear photo. This is one such:

EAU CLAIRE (WQOW) – Police take a woman into custody after they claim she was found holding a sword in a threatening manner.

They say it happened on West Johnson Street in River Falls Sunday morning. Officers say the woman was nude, holding the sword and was screaming. She was taken into custody and then moved to a medical facility.

Now, how am I supposed to know how to respond to that without a good photo or video?

 Posted by at 11:46 pm
Dec 152009
 

In the US, we have the “Castle Doctrine” (at least in most states) which means that if someone breaks into your home and poses a threat, you can use deadly force to defend yourself, without first having to resort to running away and cowering in the furthest corner. Britain, on the other hand, does not seem to have that. When even millionaires can’t buy themselves some justice, you know the legal system is well and truly screwed. Witness the case of Munir Hussain:

Mr Hussain’s nightmare began on September 3 last year when he, his wife, 18-year-old daughter and two sons aged 18 and 15 returned from their mosque during Ramadan to find three intruders in their home in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

They were tied up and told to get on the floor if they did not want to be killed. One of Mr Hussain’s sons managed to escape and alerted Mr Hussain’s younger brother Tokeer, 35, who lived a few doors away.

Mr Hussain made a break for freedom by throwing a coffee table at his attackers. He and Tokeer chased the gang and brought Salem to the ground in a front garden.

Reading Crown Court heard how Mr Hussain and his brother then beat Salem while he lay on the ground, using a cricket bat, a pole and a hockey stick – leaving him with a fractured skull and brain damage following the ‘sustained’ attack.

Alright, so far I imagine that most readers of the Unwanted Blog would have a reaction that is essentially “good job Mr. Hussain.” Violent criminals assaulted his family and presented them with terror and the immediate threat of death; when the opportunity came to turn the tables, Munir and his brother did so and laid a beatdown on a man who posed a clear and present danger to him, his wife and his *children.* Now, the proper response of society at large would be a handshake from the chief of police, a pat on the back from the mayor, and a loud “thank you” from a grateful public. But what actually happened?

Judge John Reddihough said some members of the public would think that 56-year-old Salem ‘deserved what happened to him’ and that Mr Hussain ‘should not have been prosecuted’.

But had he spared Mr Hussain jail, the judge said, the ‘rule of law’ would collapse.

He said: ‘If persons were permitted to take the law into their own hands and inflict their own instant and violent punishment on an apprehended offender rather than letting the criminal justice system take its course, then the rule of law and our system of criminal justice, which are hallmarks of a civilised society, would collapse.’

Munir Hussain has been sentenced to 30 months in prison, and his brother to 39. Waled Salem, the man who broke into Hussains home, threatened the family, then got his ass handed to him, has been given a “non custodial sentence.”

The article includes this helpful sidebar:

If you use force which is ‘not excessive’ against burglars then the law is on your side.
Last year’s Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill contained clauses to protect people from prosecution if they act instinctively and out of fear for their safety.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw said:

‘Law-abiding citizens should not be put off tackling criminals by fear of excessive investigation.
‘For a passer-by witnessing a street crime or a householder faced with a burglar, we are reassuring them that if they use force which is not excessive or disproportionate, the law really is behind them.’

The problem is that the British Nanny State does not seem to understand what “excessive” is in this context. Using a flamethrower or a heavy machinegun or an RPG against someone who has tried to kill your family is excessive, because the weapons themselves very likely will cause collateral damage to your neighbors and their property. But in this case, the weapons used were a pole, a hockey stick and a cricket bat. These will *not* cause collateral damage to innocent bystanders; they are in fact extremely short-ranged weapons. And since the threat posed was “death,” then no amount of force, so long as it is reasonably precise and focussed solely on the criminal, can be excessive. It’s not like you can kill the man twice.

So, for me there are two lessons to take from this:

1) The Founding Fathers knew what they were doign when they dragged us away from this sort of horrible governance

2) Always remember the the Rule Of SSS:

A) Shoot

B) Shovel

C) Shut up

————————

One other reason to be glad for the separation from Mother England:

Mother’s fury at Tesco Christmas card that pokes fun at ginger children

The actual story is not terribly important, but it is just another in a long, incomprehensible line of items that show that in Britain, redheads seem to be seen as lesser people or some such. While in the US, redheads – barring recent showings of a certain episode of South Park –  are not seen the same way. We see them… somewhat differently (go ahead and do a Google image search for “redhead” and try to find something that’s safe for work).
633517661118548215-hot-redhead-you-read-the-title-correctly-motivational.jpg

Any culture that responds instinctively to the word “readhead” with “ewww,” well, that just ain’t right.

 Posted by at 11:27 am
Dec 142009
 

NOTE: this is a revision of the original Archangel drawing posting. If you download the hi rez version, you can now see the dimensions of this craft. 

Fourth in the series of reconstructed drawings from Paul Suhler’s book “From RAINBOW to GUSTO.” Here we have the initial “Archangel” design produced by Kelly Johnson. This is Figure 45. Due to low image quality in the original, this particular drawing has a Source Grade of two:

“RAINBOW to GUSTO” is available from Amazon.com (for $39.95) and direct from the AIAA ($29.95 for AIAA members).

To download the high-rez version of the Archangel drawing, simply click THIS LINK. You will be prompted for a username and a password. For the Archangel drawing, use these:

Username: the first word in the body of the text on page 96

Password: the first word in the body of the text on page 97

(Remember: Case Sensitive!)

 Posted by at 6:02 pm
Dec 142009
 

From the Washington Examiner:

For example, 21 percent of Republicans report that they have been in touch with someone who is dead, while 36 percent of Democrats say they have done so. Eleven percent of Republicans say they have seen a ghost, while 21 percent of Democrats say so. And nine percent of Republicans say they have consulted a fortuneteller, while 22 percent of Democrats have. … When Pew asked respondents whether they have had a religious or mystical experience, 50 percent of Republicans said yes, as did 50 percent of Democrats.

Oy.

 Posted by at 11:21 am
Dec 142009
 

From Colorado’s 9News.com:

Sloan says seven men were escorted off of the plane. Two of them were sitting in coach. The other five were sitting in first-class, he says. All were re-booked onto another flight according to United.

Sloan says the men were attempting to change seats with other passengers. Another passenger, who doesn’t want his name used, says the men were also trying to move luggage while the plane was getting ready to push back.

Passengers tell 9NEWS all of the men looked to be “Middle Eastern,” but United will not confirm the identity of the seven men.

In summary, another case (like the Flying Imams of 2006 and the AirTran incident a month ago) where a group of Muslims make every effort to look and act suspicious, doing things calculated to terrify passengers and crew. Since, as it seems they were not armed, they did not have the intent to actually hijack the plane, why might they do this? A few possibilities come to mind:

1) They *want* to get kicked off the plane. Then, like the Flying Imams, they can go to the press and scream about harassment and bigotry, and then get themselves a lawyer and a big fat civil lawsuit payday.

2) The are probing the system for weaknesses, seeing what they can get away with… collecting intelligence for a *real* operation down the line.

3) By combining the first two, they are trying to weaken the system. They not only learn what they can get away with, but by following that up with a lawsuit jihad, they can help change the system (such as making employees fearful of getting branded as”Islamophobes” by actually doing their jobs) to make it easier to get away with more. Witness Fort Hood as an example of what you can get away with with entrenched political correctness.

4) They’re assholes, doing this to scare people for fun.

5) They’re assholes, doing this because they are arrogant and oblivious.

Such behavior should not be tolerated, of course. Imagine if this were to occur on an El Al flight… the offenders would be removed from the plane not by the police, but by paramedics. And this would be only right and proper. Whether as a form of political protest, or an effort at lawsuit lotto, or just a practical joke, making people in a confined space fear for their lives is the sort of jackassery that can be properly responded to with a beatdown.

 Posted by at 11:17 am