Life Imitates Art

NBC Universal has settled a $105 million lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed a televised sex sting by "Dateline NBC: To Catch A Predator" drove her brother to kill himself.

I've expressed concerns before, but it looks like South Park totally nailed it.

[Via SayUncle/View from the Porch]

The Wicked Official: A Fable

The following is a work of fiction involving fictional characters. Any similarities with real persons, living or dead, and actual events is purely coincidental.

Once upon a time, in a faraway empire, there lived a wicked official who worked in the Bastion of Assault, Terror, Fraud and Usurpation.

Now this man was known throughout the Bastion for his ill temper and abusive ways.

One day, one of his maidservants, the comely wife of one of his guards, entered his ministerial chamber in the course of her duties.

"Aha!" cried the wicked official, who coveted her. "Come here, wench, so that I may feel the ripeness of your fruits!"

With that, the wicked official grabbed lustily at her breasts.

Horrified, the maidservant ran from the chamber to her husband, and told him what had transpired.

Furious--for even though he knew he was part of a band that plagued the land, he still had his pride as a man--the guard rushed to confront the wicked official, and finding him, dashed him to the ground.

Now the wicked official was, as is often the case with abusive and arrogant men, a coward. Rather than fight man-to-man, he drew his service wea...uh...sword, and pointed it at his insubordinate guard, who knew if he did not surrender he would surely be struck down.

When word of this reached the Emperor's minister, who perused a personnel file thick with performance deficiencies, the wicked official was ordered to temporarily turn in his gun, go to anger management classes and take a walk every afternoon during business hours, where he spent his time throwing rocks at traffic signs.

Until one day, he retired with full pension and benefits, but despite this, remained angry and bitter until the end of his days.

The End

Personally, I prefer fairy tales with happier endings...

I've Been Meaning to Bring this Up...

...and keep getting derailed by projects and this thing called life...

I just want to remind everyone that if you're looking for a summation of blogs dealing with RKBA, you owe it to yourself to bookmark The Liberty Sphere and consult it frequently.

And it's not just an aggregator--D. Martyn Lloyd-Morgan does his share of original and insightful commentary, too.

I've been thinking of doing a regular feature, kind of a WaronGuns' Blog of the Week. So many of you out there are doing such good things that deserve to be recognized, but more often than not I get preoccupied with my own agenda and don't steer people to your sites as often as I should.

Consider Liberty Sphere the first one. Thanks for the work you do.

Bob Barr Poster Contest: It's On

[Poster design by ryanmguard]

We talked about this here.

Since that time, there has been no response from either the Bob Barr campaign or the Libertarian Party. Indeed, the LP continues to beg support from gun owners via solicitations that ignore emails we have sent to them. They even issue media statements saying the other candidates are "get[ting] free passes on [the] gun issue."

Well they don't get a free pass either. Don't tell me you've got a "pro gun" candidate when he has endorsed and introduced edicts as offensive to Liberty as any.

If the "Party of Principle" thinks their best course is to continue ignoring this rather than addressing it squarely, that's their choice. But some of us aren't going to stay silent while they do.

Western Rifle Shooters Association introduced their poster last week. Now we have this one.

Let's have a contest.

Design a Barr/Lautenberg poster of your own. If you have a blog, post it and send me a link so I can send traffic your way. If you don't, just send me your graphic as a .jpg file.

I'll post them as I get them, and will pick a time--maybe two weeks from now--to present them together. I still have to figure out how to select a "winner" and what prize I can come up with, but what the heck--let's have some fun.

And feel free to let the LP and Barr campaign know about this.

UPDATE: Good one!

Some Gun Rules We Can All Agree On

Excuse me...

I don't agree.

If I don't obey, are you going to kill me?

[Via Michael G]

Mercenaries

For Erik Prince and Niccolo Machiavelli have very different ideas on the subject of mercenaries. Not that Erik Prince would even embrace that term. His employees are called "private contractors" not mercenaries. This is true in the same sense that prostitutes are now called "sex workers" to avoid the stigma.

Mike Vanderboegh examines our friends at Blackwater.

After you've read it, I have a couple questions I'd be interested in gleaning opinions on.

Per Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, Congress has the specific enumerated power to issue letters of marque and reprisal. We know that privateers played a part in protecting American interests in the past. And no less a Constitutionalist than Ron Paul has proposed resurrecting the practice.

What would that look like? Would a Blackwater or other private actor necessarily and always be a bad thing? How would such a system work and what kind of oversights would be needed? How would that differ from what we do now? What do we do now?

Do Blackwater ops fall under military procurement regs? Are there RFPs and bids? Do they have defense contract audit oversight? Do they ever employ government equipment, and if so, do they follow federal acquisition and government property regs, etc.? Or is this a hybrid, or even a creature all its own?

If you have thoughts, please share them.

We're the Only Ones Managing Emergencies Enough

A FEMA inspector, angered at a pedestrian who got in his way, allegedly took out a golf club, chased the pedestrian down and bashed him across the arm, breaking the club in the process...

According to the Cedar Rapids Police Department, Koley stopped the car, got out and insisted that "he didn't have to slow down, he was with FEMA."

That's almost as good as "Do you know who I am?"

Yeah, we do. You're a punk "Only One" with a totally unearned sense of importance. You're lucky someone didn't wrestle away that golf club and take a few divots out of your sorry back nine with it.

[Via Avg Joe]

The Heller Misdirection

Like the inhabitants of other formerly free societies, Americans are content to define "freedom" in terms of those liberties we are permitted to exercise. Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller is perfectly in harmony with this self-defeating concept of "freedom."

While everybody's popping champagne corks, William Norman Grigg issues a warning that we ignore at our peril. We need such critical examinations, especially since there will be no shortage of "practical" voices, ostensibly from "our side," dismissing such examiners.

I especially am moved by his observation that "the intellectual and psychological disarmament of our population is nearly complete."

[Via Ron W]

Heller High Water

My best friend is a Public Defender in Phoenix. Hard-corps Jew, entire family wiped out in the Holocaust except his dad (who was 17 at the time). Political Science professor as well - he and I went to college together, and he is a big 2nd Amendment supporter (for obvious reasons). We talked about Heller yesterday and here is what he has written, after reading it all - his lawyerly opinions are quite insightful, and should give us hope (and some fear) as well.

This really is a good analysis, and deserves wider distribution. Pay special attention to his concerns about registration.

On a side note, I finished and sent in my Heller column to the magazine yesterday, and thought I'd come up with an original title: "The Heller High Watermark." I see from Google that while that exact title hasn't been used, enough have jumped on the pun. I don't see much point in changing it now--I bumped an earlier submission to get this one in under the wire--and it looks like all the "good" puns (are there such things?) have already been exploited anyway.

[Via HZ]

We're the Only Ones Carrying Out the Intent of the Framers Enough

Undercover police officers who arrested four men on drug charges are under investigation after surveillance video proved the men they arrested committed no crime.

More of Steven Abootman...uh...Patrick Lynch's lift-a-finger-against-us-and-die "Only Ones," I see.

So happy over their ability to do whatever the hell they want to whoever the hell they want any damn time they want they're dancing with joy.

Tell me these are rare exception. Is this the behavior of any but those who know they can get away with it because they have over and over again, and who know corruption is so institutionalized into the system the exception is getting caught?

In the 6 months it took to clear the Colon brothers names, they lost their business and their savings.

Yeah, Jose and Maximo.

As ususal, the "Authorized Journalist" government watchdogs have dropped the ball again (or never bothered to pick it up).

What were the names of those lying, life-destroying thugs again...?

[Via Jeff R]

So Take a Tip from a Mayor Who Does...

Prosecutors are investigating whether Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon received thousands of dollars in gifts - including fur coats - from a prominent developer whose projects benefited from tax breaks and zoning changes she supported as City Council president, a document obtained by The Sun shows.

Not Mayor Against Guns Sheila...?

Are there no heroes left anywhere...?

We're the Only Ones Crowd-Dispersing Enough

French officials were probing Monday an incident that left 17 people injured, including a child in critical condition, when soldiers used live rounds in a weekend visitors day display.

Fifteen civilians, including five children, and two soldiers were injured on Sunday when members of a marines parachute regiment demonstrated a hostage liberation exercise to visitors at their barracks outside the southwestern city of Carcassonne, regional officials said.

Ah...Les Seuls...

Sarkozy's heroes showing everyone how liberated they'll make them...

This Day in History: June 30

Journals of the Continental Congress Articles of War, June 30, 1775