His Day Didn’t Turn Out As He Planned

He apparently lived down the block. Robber Shot, Killed by Homeowner.

So how would you respond to an uninvited guest at 3 o’clock in the morning?

Four people told police they were inside the home around 3:00 Monday morning when a man kicked in the bottom of a locked door and climbed through.

No details on why he did this, but since he lived down the block, I think we can assume that he was known to them in some way, even if it was just to wave at each other as they drove by.

But in the final analysis, it doesn’t matter why he did what he did; self-defense is a human-right. Good Guys 1, Bad Guys 0.

Forty-six seconds – Or Why We Need More Security In Schools

Even and especially if that security includes armed teachers. A Cop Who Responded to a Deadly School Shooting Explains Why He Now Trains Teachers to Carry Guns.

December 13, 2013. About 12:33 in the afternoon. A school shooter with a pump-action shotgun and Molotov Cocktails.

After entering the school, the attacker came upon 17-year-old Claire Esther Davis. He shot her in the head before chasing a teacher to the school library where he set off the Molotov cocktails and eventually shot himself. The attack was over in less than 2 minutes. It was only 46 seconds between the time when the school resource officer called for help and when the shooter took his own life.

Cops responded but didn’t have a chance to get there in 2 minutes, let alone the 46 seconds they had between the time the alarm was sounded and the event was over.

“Cops are not the first responders,” said Cunningham. “It is the people there, the civilians. Whether it’s an active shooter or something happens at Walmart at three o’clock in the morning. You are the first responder, you have the right to protect your life, and cops are the second responders, fire rescue third. When I show up with my SWAT guys in our green pajamas, that’s an hour, hour and a half for us to get all our stuff, all our people and go. That’s way too long and that’s what happened at Columbine. Columbine, everybody set up, waited for SWAT while killing was happening.”

The Left will say “you can’t arm all teachers” and some teachers will say that they won’t carry guns. OK. It isn’t about arming all teachers. It is about ALLOWING teachers who want to be armed to carry concealed. And there are plenty. You won’t see any of them on CNN, and not just because it violates the narrative. Obscurity is a part of Security. It just can’t be the only part.

The Politically-motivated War Against Police

If you read this blog, you know that I am not a mindless supporter of the cops. But the war on policing in places like Baltimore and Chicago (and others) isn’t right. And it is political. Lawsuit: IPRA investigator told to lie to make police shooting look unjustified.

A former longtime police misconduct investigator claims in a new lawsuit he lost his job last year after he refused to give false testimony to make a shooting by an officer seem like it was not justified.

Because politically the Left has to continue to demonize all cops, and all police shootings MUST be unjustified because the political is more important than the truth. And it is political.

Also mentioned throughout the lawsuit, but not named as a defendant, is Lori Lightfoot, the former Police Board president now challenging Mayor Rahm Emanuel for his job. The complaint alleges that Lightfoot, in December 2015, told then-IPRA head Scott Ando she “wanted to fire that motherf—er Lett.”

Cops who break the law should be punished. But cops who do not break the law, should not be railroaded to further the political career of a politician.

Canadian TV versus American TV: A side-by-side comparison

So I’ve been watching the 2017 redux of S.W.A.T. I’m not sure it is an improvement over the 1970s version, but then I haven’t seen that since the 1970s. (My dad loved it, and we had 1 TV.) I have also seen the entire Canadian program Flashpoint. Ostensibly these shows are both about the same thing. The Strategic Response Unit of Flashpoint is a bit more complicated than S.W.A.T. even though they do have snipers, and cool gadgets. (Though they don’t have a tank.) They are both the groups that cops call when the regular cops get in trouble, or who are sent in to deal with hostage rescue, fortified locations, etc.

As is typical the American production has a much higher budget. So they can blow up more cars, and buildings. The Canadian production, with its lower budget has to rely on better story-telling and complex character development. Guess which program I find the more compelling, in the long run. I’m not sure if Los Angeles versus Toronto makes a difference, except that SRU has to deal with snow and cold occasionally, and it is nice to see something besides LA (or LA passing itself off as some other city) on television. (Maybe that’s why Blue Bloods is so successful.)

The characters in the American production feel 2-dimensional to me. Or even one dimensional. This is even though there are some good actors (Shermar Moore from Criminal Minds and Kenny Johnson from Saving Grace – both excellent shows) on the program. And this is in spite of the fact that Flashpoint has some questionable casting. (Amy Jo Johnson is not believable as a Strategic Response Unit door-kicker, even though that isn’t all they do.) I find Enrico Colantoni (in the role of the sergeant leading the group on Flashpoint) is a wonderful actor. He isn’t trying to be an action hero; he is thinking and negotiating and leading.

I suppose it is too much to ask that an American TV production in 2017 would lay off the social justice, but they can’t seem to help themselves. It is laid down with a trowel. Or maybe it is poured in place and then leveled with a trowel. Everything from the white-guy who is pissed at being passed over for promotion by women to the lone female in S.W.A.T. (who is bisexual – Yeah! Team Queer!) fighting to get more women through S.W.A.T. academy. (And the episode where she has to “prove herself” to the old white guy who has doubts.) It is surprising to me that one of the cops is portrayed as being Catholic, given how Hollywood hates any and all white, male Christians. One cliche after another lined up like dominoes, and knocked down in a completely predictable order. And I think at least some of the story-line was stolen directly from NCIS – Los Angeles, but maybe I am remembering it incorrectly.

I forget where Flashpoint is streaming, because I dumped both Amazon Prime and Netflix. (They both are annoying in their own way.) But I’m pretty sure it is out there somewhere if you want to take a look. As with all shows, not every episode is good, but I enjoyed it. If all you want to see is a bunch of car crashes, and things exploding, and dialogue between people you really don’t care about, then check out S.W.A.T. (It was on CBS, and will be again – if you have a DVR. Though I’m sure it is streaming somewhere by now as well, or will be soon.)

The men are in crazy-good shape and and the women are hot, so there’s that.

Victim of Ritual

Can’t get enough Tarja. Symphonic Metal seems to be (mostly) a European musical style, but I like it.

This is “Victim of Ritual” by Tarja. Her maiden name was Turunen, but she dropped the last name when she got married and started her solo career. (That was also when the guys in Nightwish “invited” her to leave the band.) The song is from her 2013 album Colours in the Dark. Her voice is beautiful.

Other people are also doing music on Monday.

Monday Metal: Killers with the Cross by Powerwolf

Monday Music “Danger Zone” By Kenny Rogers

When The System Can’t Protect You, You Must Protect Yourself

Where to begin? She knew the guy. He was a neighbor causing her trouble. She went to the cops, they arrested him, but he was out on bail, and he was back to causing her trouble. Helena Police: apartment shooting appears to be self-defense.

He had threatened her with violence. That was why he was arrested. But when they released him on bail he went home – to the same apartment complex she lived in. So in the end, she was forced to protect herself.

After taking witness statements, police said it appeared that Boykin was behaving erratically, accosted a female neighbor at her apartment, and she shot Boykin in self-defense.

So this is another instance of someone you know being enough of a problem that lethal self-defense “appears” to be justified.

This is also another instance that shows, even when cops are doing everything they can, they can’t keep you safe. And it isn’t the fault of the cops – they didn’t set his bail conditions; they just arrested him and turned him over to the courts.

At least this woman had a firearm and was able to defend herself. If she had been disarmed by the state (it is ALWAYS for your own protection) she could be dead today.

Self-defense is a human-right. Good Guys 1, Bad Guys 0.

How Should an Elderly Homeowner Defend Himself Against a 22-yr-old Intruder?

If not with a gun, how should the old and the infirm defend themselves? Bakersfield homeowner shoots, injures suspected burglar.

There are more details available than when I first saw this story.

Officers said [Joshua Zorilla, 22,] was shot by an elderly resident on San Pablo Avenue during the burglary attempt. The homeowner was questioned and released, pending further investigation.

Zorilla received non-life-threatening wounds. He will be moved to lockup as soon as the doctors release him from the hospital.

Without the means to defend themselves, the old and the infirm would be at the mercy of the young and violent, the small would be at the mercy of the large, and anyone could be overwhelmed by a several opponents.

Self-defense is a human-right. Good Guys 1, Bad Guys 0.

Anak Krakatau

More volcanoes in the Pacific. And the photo at this link is outstanding. ‘Child’ of Krakatau spews ash and lava.

Why were the British so bad with names of foreign places? It carries over with the American Press. I did a news search on “Anak Krakatau” (The Son of Krakatau) and got exactly 1 result in English over the past 24 hours. I know the movie (from the 1950s) was Krakatoa: East of Java, but that wasn’t the name of the island.

The “child” of the legendary Indonesian volcano Krakatau erupted on Thursday, spewing a plume of ash high into the sky as molten lava streamed down from its summit.

There is currently a 1 kilometer “no-go” zone around the summit of the island.

The original Krakatau started erupting in May of 1883, and the final explosion was on August 27, 1883.

On August 27 a series of four huge explosions almost entirely destroyed the island. The explosions were so violent that they were heard 3,110 km (1,930 mi) away in Perth, Western Australia, and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius, 4,800 km (3,000 mi) away.[4] The pressure wave from the final explosion was recorded on barographs around the world. Several barographs recorded the wave seven times over the course of five days: four times with the wave travelling away from the volcano to its antipodal point, and three times travelling back to the volcano.[21]:63 Hence, the wave rounded the globe three and a half times. Ash was propelled to a height of 80 km (50 mi). The sound of the eruption was so loud it was reported that if anyone was within ten miles (16 km), they would have gone deaf.

The combined effects of pyroclastic flows, volcanic ashes, and tsunamis had disastrous results in the region and worldwide. The death toll recorded by the Dutch authorities was 36,417, although some sources put the estimate at more than 120,000. There are numerous documented reports of groups of human skeletons floating across the Indian Ocean on rafts of volcanic pumice and washing up on the east coast of Africa up to a year after the eruption.

The record-keeping of the day wasn’t so great in Indonesia, and that 36,000 number is almost certainly low, though it would be tough to come up with a definitive count of the dead.

Anyway, I’ve seen different bits of speculation about why that 1883 explosion was so violent, but I’m not sure it matters all these years later. And I don’t think anyone is expecting Anak Krakatau to be like the father, but then no one was expecting that kind of explosion in the first place. (Hat tip)

I’m Almost Disappointed That I’m Not #Shadowbaned

You can check your #ShadowBan status at https://shadowban.eu/.

I guess I need to step up my game some.

There was a list in 2016. Anybody who said anything nice about the Republican candidate, or disparaging about the Democratic candidate was placed on that list, and then a bunch of folks on the Left – who hate open debate (not to mention freedom of speech) – would block everyone on the List. I guess that isn’t enough for the shawdoban threshold.

For all the details on Twitter’s Shadowban see Big League Politics.

Weekend Link Roundups

Some weekend link roundups with a sampling of what’s available.

First up is Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup from Pirate’s Cove.

• The Right Scoop explains why everyone is mocking Commie Ocasio-Cortez today
• This ain’t Hell… has your Sunday feel good stories
• Vox Popoli explains that reprisal is not hypocrisy
• DaTechGuy’s Blog highlights the Washington Post being racist against Mexicans
• And last, but not least, Legal Insurrection notes Leftists literally throwing feces

Then we have The Other McCain’s In The Mailbox.

• The Geller Report: #NeverTrump Pundit Attacks Trump Campaign Staffer’s Toddler Daughters With Rape Fantasy, also, Islamic Terror Attack Thwarted At California Mall?
• Legal Insurrection: Pants On Fire – Politifact Confirms Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Doesn’t Know How The Unemployment Rate Works, also, Hungary Quits UN Migration Pact, Calls It “A Threat To The World”

And from Claire Wolfe’s Living Freedom Blog.

• The notorious Ninth Circuit court actually does something positive for gun rights
• So is Obama going to invite the poor and disadvantaged to share that new $8 million second home of his?
• And a cyclist finds an injured dog in a ditch, piggy-backs it (the image is great) — and finds a forever home for it before making it to the vet’s. (H/T PT)

Even in the People’s Republic of California, Self-defense works

It even sounds like police believe it is justified in this case. Man allegedly shoots intruder in northeast Bakersfield.

Police say it appears a homeowner in the area shot a man who was allegedly attempting to break into his home.

The Would-be Bad-guy was taken to a local hospital.

Self-defense is human-right. Good Guys 1, Bad Guys 0.

Colorado Springs, Calling 911, and Statistics.

Benjamin Disraeli^‡ said, “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.” Colorado Springs police getting better at responding to emergencies — depending on how you calculate the times.

A new way of calculating response times shows that at least half of the time, Colorado Springs police are arriving at life-threatening calls within 9 minutes and 22 seconds, about 2½ minutes faster than their reported average.

And no matter how you slice it, a lot of really bad things can happen in 9 and a half minutes. That’s the median. Half the people will wait longer than that. Since the average is longer than the 9 minutes and 22 seconds quoted here, some of them could wait a good long time.

Calling 911 is a fine thing to do. It can send fire, or medical personnel, or police to the scene of your emergency. But they won’t arrive instantly – even assuming you can call them before bad things happen. You might want to produce a plan for how you are going to spend that 9 minutes.

‡ Benjamin Disraeli was the first Jewish PM of Great Britain (In office from February 1874 until April 1880.) He is somewhat quotable.

Speaking of Socialist Paradises

Yesterday we had Venezuela. Today we have Nicaragua. Nicaragua is on the path to becoming the next Venezuela.

July 19 happens to mark the 39th anniversary of the victory of the Sandinistas, the left-wing revolutionary movement that overthrew the brutal, U.S.-backed dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza. Now Ortega, a 72-year-old former Marxist guerrilla, increasingly resembles the tyrant he and his comrades once toppled. Masaya was once a Sandinista hotbed; now it’s seen as a bastion of opposition.

“After returning to power in 2007, [Ortega] sidestepped the constitution to get himself reelected in 2011. He then completed his palace coup by assuming full control of all four branches of government, state institutions, the military, and police,” explained journalist Tim Rogers, a veteran Nicaragua hand. “He banned opposition parties, rewrote the constitution, and turned Nicaragua into his personal fiefdom, which he rules from inside the walls of his stolen compound, a concrete fortress he rarely leaves.”

Where is the outrage at brutal government killing democracy? Oh, that’s right it happened on the Democrats’ watch, and they don’t mind suppressing freedom (First Amendment anyone?) as long as it is the right kind of people doing the suppressing.

Go read the whole thing. The bit from yesterday on Venezuela can be found at this link.

Meanwhile in the Socialist Paradise of Venezuela…

Everything is starting to fail. Video: Maracaibo, the story of Venezuela’s collapse.

Are we surprised that very little of this is in the mainstream press? (Florida newspapers have an opinion piece, about trying to get the Democrats to wake up. I think it is mostly wasted.)

Maracaibo is the second-largest city in Venezuela. Its residents face soaring inflation, widespread poverty and shortages. Under Hugo Chavez, Venezuela based its economy on oil exports. But the fall in oil prices led to a crippling economic crisis. Most people can no longer afford to buy food and the fishermen of Lake Maracaibo resort to smuggling to sell their meagre catch in neighbouring Colombia

Don’t expect the kids protesting in Washington, or Bernie Sanders or the new Democratic candidate in NYC to mention Venezuela anytime. And if anyone is brash enough to bring it up, they will tell you that isn’t Socialism.

He Suffered a Breakdown of the Victim-selection Process

There isn’t much detail. This article, as short as it is, has more than at least one other. Police: Intruder shot dead at Hickory Hill apartment complex.

An intruder broke into an apartment, where he encountered an armed resident, who shot the intruder. The would-be bad-guy died a short time later.

No charges were filed against the homeowner.

Because self-defense is a human-right.

Combustible Edition

Continuing our look at Lounge Music from last week… One of the groups that helped relaunch the appreciation of Lounge music in the 1990s, was Combustible Edition. (And yes, their music is slightly ridiculous, but still fun.)

Unlike other bands with a more ironic take on the lounge scene, Combustible Edison took the music seriously and strove to add to what its members saw as a canon of works, such as those by Esquivel, Henry Mancini, and Martin Denny.

They only produced a couple of albums in the 1990s. But the definitely have the “retro-space-age cultural elements” that the Wiki considers core to Lounge Music.

First up is “The Millionaire’s Holiday” from I, Swinger, their 1994 debut album.

“Spy VS Spy” from the same album is below the break.

If The Democrats Do It, Then It’s Not Illegal

Because it would be just CRAZY to assume that the Obama Administration would do something illegal. Senate probe: Obama administration funded efforts to unseat Netanyahu.

After Benjamin Netanyahu staged a surprise win in Israel’s national election sixteen months ago, questions began emerging about whether the Obama administration attempted to intervene on behalf of his opponents. Almost immediately afterward, an American pollster who worked with Netanyahu’s Likud in the election accused the State Department of indirectly funding the “V15” campaign that backed his opponent. Despite denials from State that they had funded V15 through an American organization named OneVoice, a Senate investigation found that’s exactly what happened:

Oh, and it seems that the Obama State Department didn’t keep the emails, so the “investigation” was stalled. As Joel says (see the hat tip reference below)

Amazing how often that happens – and how often it works.

(Hat tip to The Ultimate Answer to Kings and Hey, remember that time the American government interfered with a foreign election?)

Color Me Shocked – A .gov With Little Financial Accountability

Because “responsibility” is a conservative value. Or something. San Francisco continues to spend big in fight against homelessness — but is it working?.

(The WTF?! is inspired by the shear amount of money – which looks to be wasted.)

Between $245 million and $271 million in recent years, with next year’s budget set at about $280 million. That is JUST for homelessness, not for the whole of the city.

The article says the math comes out to $37,300 for each of the city’s homeless residents.

City supervisor hopeful Nick Josefowitz, however, said he believes San Francisco shouldn’t “invest a single public dollar without knowing if it is doing any good.”

“Despite decades of well-intentioned bills, spending efforts, or guiding plans, the same tragic scene continues day after day and year after year,” he wrote in an April article on Medium. “Indeed, in recent years the situation has become so much worse. Yet too often City Hall is still making decisions on homelessness based on folk wisdom rather than hard evidence.”

Because we scream “Do Something!” (The Left loves government action more than the Right, but it isn’t a Leftist monopoly.) And then we are surprised that the government is doing the wrong thing, or doing stupid things, or just throwing the money away.

A similar complaint the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board made years earlier – that the city isn’t doing enough to track their efforts.

“That a city can spend $241 million a year on programs and still confront such human misery suggests those dollars are not being spent with anything close to optimal effectiveness,” the board wrote in 2016. “Eight city departments and 76 private and nonprofit organizations draw from those funds in 400 contracts, yet the degree of accountability is highly suspect.”

You would think for $37,000 per person, you would be able to do something reasonable. But then again it is the government. (Hat tip to Chicks on the Right.)

He Tried to Take the Children By Pretending to Work for the Government

But the father was armed. Fake Child Protective Services worker tried taking 3 kids — but dad was armed, Texas cops say.

The homeowner and his three kids backed into the bedroom as the supposed Child Protective Services worker screamed and charged at them just before 2 p.m. Saturday, the sheriff’s office said. The man said he was going to kill the father and take his kids, the family told authorities.

The father pulled out a gun and fired 4 shots into the ground. That was enough to convince this miscreant to stop. The father and his 3 kids then made it to a neighbor’s house and called the cops. Police arrested this idiot a short time later.

Lackey faces several felony charges, including burglary of a habitation with intent to commit felony kidnapping, impersonating a public servant, possession of a controlled substance and resisting arrest, the sheriff’s office said.

Self-defense is a human-right, as is defense of family. Good Guys 1, Bad Guys 0.

Anti-Semitic Attacks in France

The basic story is disturbing enough, but take the time to watch the video. French court sentences ‘ignorant’ anti-Semitic attackers.

The basic story is about three Palestinians in France who attacked a brother and raped his sister.

There are links to stories about attacks from 2017 or earlier in this year, and how attacks are on the rise.

The video is about how young French Jews are of the opinion that the government isn’t doing enough. Young Muslims are making it impossible for Jews to go to public school. And not seeing that things are going to get any better, given that the government won’t even admit they have a problem, the young Jews are opting to immigrate to Israel after high school. Even though that means a mandatory stint in the armed services.

Deutsche Welle is Germany’s public broadcaster. They are one of the few German media organizations who actually publish their stuff in English. I want to say that their admission that Antisemitism is on the rise, and fueled by young refugees, is significant, but Angela Merkel was forced to admit that there are no-go zones in Germany in order to get her latest coalition deal. So maybe it isn’t new. And they are talking about France.

France currently has Europe’s largest Jewish population, but if this trend continues, that probably won’t last.