Notes from the Resistance...
Renée Zellweger wants to buy a gun to protect herself..."I don't want to own a gun, but sometimes I do think about it."
I hate guns. In today's society there is no need for the average citizen to own or carry a gun...
Tighter gun control? I'll go so far as to say ban guns. That's the only way.
Carol Solnom
New eyewitness accounts of a deadly police shooting differ with what police initially said.
Investigators said the suspect was killed after he attacked an officer with his own Taser in southeast Houston.
“I could see everything that happened,” said Yolanda Perry.
From the front porch of the Greater Lighthouse Church, where her husband serves as minister, Perry said she watched in disbelief.
“He got out his handcuffs and he handcuffed him. And after he handcuffed him he got out his gun and he shot him,” she said.
I just got off a conference with the Court and opposing counsel. At 9:00 AM, I objected to the conduct of any court proceedings outside the public eye. Judge Hendren overruled the objection.[Via Joe & Barb McCutcheon]
Earlier this afternoon during our conference the judge, on his own motion, explained that he thought his earlier ruling was incorrect and reversed it. He set forth the legal test for excluding the public, based upon research by his personnel, and stated that he did not believe that there was a sufficient reason to exclude the public from part of the proceedings.
He said that his concern this morning was the logistics involved in keeping the jurors out of the courtroom while arguments and rulings on motions and other preliminary matters took place. I don’t question in the slightest that this was the actual reason for the initial ruling.
This afternoon, Judge Hendren said that his solution was to postpone the jury selection process until Wednesday morning. This will give us more seating for the pretrial matters, which are absolutely critical in this case. So we have a win-win situation with this ruling.
I will still go back in chambers. I have no objection to that, and I trust that the public will not be concerned about that. My objection was to keeping any official proceedings out of the public eye. Judge Hendren has agreed that the importance of allowing the public to view all recorded proceedings outweighed any logistical difficulties. I told Judge Hendren that I was very grateful for the ruling and that is the truth.
There is a new schedule. Pretrial will be at 8:30 AM Tuesday morning, the 9th. We will adjourn after those proceedings conclude. At 8:30 on Wednesday morning we will commence jury selection.
Due to the need for seats for the jury, some of the public and perhaps the press as well, may have to wait outside due to lack of space. That’s ok, an overflow crowd is a good thing, not a bad thing. We will probably discuss the logistics of this a bit more in the morning. However, as soon as seating is available it will be opened to the public. Jury selection may be over when most of the seating comes available, but the court will accommodate the public as best as he can.
I am grateful, so grateful for this ruling, and hope that the rest of the interested public is too. It takes courage to do what Judge Hendren did, and for that he deserves our highest respect.
Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American ... the unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.--Tenche CoxeI hope I see a position issued from this new group that they believe the keeping and bearing of knives is a right guaranteed by the Second Amendment, and that their strategy will include challenges to infringements on those grounds.
Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" is published in Philadelphia. The 50 page pamphlet is highly critical of King George III and attacks allegiance to Monarchy in principle while providing strong arguments for American independence. It becomes an instant best-seller in America. "We have it in our power to begin the world anew...American shall make a stand, not for herself alone, but for the world," Paine states.
American firearm owners’ rights already at issue during the 110th Congress...Any possibility that gun control and the individual Second Amendment civil right to keep and bear arms would be shelved as legislative and political issues during the 110th Congress came to a crashing end last week as Representatives were sworn in on Capitol Hill.There has been no shortage of observers soothing us with predictions that citizen disarmament will be on the back burner because "we" elected so many "pro-gun Democrats." I agree with Mr. Snyder. This group of radical subversives hasn't even started rolling up its sleeves yet, but gun owners haven't been forgotten.
A New Jersey woman has accused the Clarke County coroner of taking guns from her father's Bogart house after he pronounced the 86-year-old dead of heart failure, a charge that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation may investigate...We all got that, right? If it was anyone besides "an elected official," there'd be no doubt of an investigation. But regardless, he overstepped his bounds, because WE'RE "The only Only Ones" who should have taken the guns. Just "for safekeeping" of course.
"The mere fact that my father's body was still in the garage just under the room that Mr. Tribble was searching leaves me extremely distressed," Sharpe said. "It appears that rifling through my father's belongings took preference over having his body taken care of. This is certainly a most despicable act on the part of Mr. Tribble"...
"If it wasn't an elected official, there's no doubt we'd investigate it as a theft," Holeman said. "There was no reason for (Tribble) to go any farther than the garage, and if anything needed to be taken for safekeeping, it should have been taken by us."
They were startled from their sleep by heavily armed police officers shouting at them through a loudspeaker to leave their house one by one with hands up.
Police had a warrant to search the Atlantic Avenue house for a black, long-barrelled seven-millimetre handgun, a leather holster and 10 rounds of ammunition. A confidential police source had told investigators the gun was there, but officers later learned the source made a mistake.
Police handcuffed Cerros and put him in one police car. Horyski and her son were put in the back seat of another.
Inside the two-storey house, one officer fired his Glock service pistol into the wall of a bathroom that was under renovation. Police say the officer tripped on a carpet runner and fired accidentally. A single round was shot through seven sheets of drywall leaning against one wall and created a large hole in the bathroom wall.
Federal agents said they started investigating the militia after a report and photographs about the group appeared in The Morning News. The report noted the group had automatic weapons. Agents subsequently sent an undercover agent to join the group.So that's enough to prompt an undercover BATFU plant/full-blown investigation?
On this day in 1790, President George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address to the assembled Congress in New York City.
A teenager harassed by police in St. Louis, Missouri caught the incident on tape. Brett Darrow, 19, had his video camera rolling last month as he drove his 1997 Maxima, minding his own business. He approached a drunk driving roadblock where he was stopped, detained and threatened with arrest when he declined to enter a conversation with a police officer about his personal travel habits...This is one gutsy, intelligent and mature young man. He gives me hope for the next generation.
Brett: Why am I being detained officer? (directed toward Officer #4)
Officer #4: You better stop runnin your mouth or the other officer will find a reason to lock you up tonight.
Boston city councilors, law enforcement officials, and community leaders are pressing City Hall to come up with $1.5 million to buy a promising acoustic gunshot- detection system.Hmmm...where have I heard about that before?
PRINCE William's girlfriend Kate Middleton will soon be under round-the-clock guard by gun-toting women police officers.
Despite not yet being a member of the Royal Family, Kate, 25 next week, will be protected by her own unit from Scotland Yard's elite Royal Protection Squad.
The women are being trained in unarmed combat and weapons after the move was requested by Prince Charles, who is worried for Kate's safety.
Normally she would not get gun guards until she was engaged to William, 24, who is expected to propose within months.
[T]he idea of hereditary legislators is as inconsistent as that of hereditary judges, or hereditary juries; and as absurd as an hereditary mathematician, or an hereditary wise man; and as ridiculous as an hereditary poet laureate.
Catherine Crowley tried to change a state gun law after her 18-year-old son killed himself with a shotgun he bought at a Wal-Mart.
Her endeavor fell short when lawmakers rejected her idea to require a waiting period for young people to buy guns in Maine. But her effort can now be seen in a new documentary.
The 55-minute film, "There Ought To Be A Law," provides a look at Crowley's experience navigating the legislative system in hopes of getting a law on the books to make it harder for young people to get their hands on guns.
We went [to see] dad this morning. He is weak but feeling better. They took him to the hospital last night. He is back in jail this morning. He is in good spirits. Mr. Stilley was there to see him also. The inmates are helping him out by giving him extra food. He has lost about 40 pounds. He says not to worry about him. He is ready to go to trial. I will be sending a letter that an inmate wrote as soon as I get it typed up. Thanks to everyone for all the help and prayers that you have giving us and dad. We been putting signs up everywhere but someone or somebody is taking them down. We are going to put up more. Also the court day is for Tuesday Jan.9th. Everything has been crazy around here this week sorry it has taking me so long to get news to everyone. Thanks. Connie Fields
Mr. Hollis Wayne Fincher,
I've spent a lot of times in hospital,jails,and multiple prisons around the United States. A career criminal if you would. I've never met a Greater and most Wonderful man in my life- my own father included. Mr. Fincher has had a profound effect in my life. He has taught me about God & Country. I feel like this man has been treated so unjust by this goverment. The very thing Mr. Fincher loves most. Never has a man in my life either on T.V.,Radio, Teacher, College Professor, Preacher or other ever had such a profround effect in my life. I will always cherish his friendship in my heart. I pray that someday we are able to meet on different grounds under much freer circumstances. I know that God has His hand on your sir. The men in BB Pod (BAD BOYS POD),are all in agreement that you are the best man in the Pod. With the Utmost respect we thank you for your presence. A real blessing from God.
Respectfully,
An inmate in Sebastian County Jail
From Philadelphia, Samuel Adams writes to his friend Colonel James Warren that the idea of a confederation, or loose political union, among the colonies "is not dead, but sleepeth.” To those who believed they would see the confederation completed long ago Adams wrote, “I do not despair of it -- since our Enemies themselves are hastening it.”
Should federal licensing be required to own fully automatic weapons?You need to register to vote, but can view results without doing so. At this writing, the correct answer is leading with over 71% of the votes.
I have a suggestion for a somewhat different type of reality show. Maybe a network such as Fox would be interested. Numerous bloggers as well as the NRA have long cataloged the fleeting newspaper accounts of firearms being used defensively to protect life and property.Thank you, Jeff Soyer--I guess great minds really do think alike, or at least yours understands my inferior one :)
How about a weekly docu-drama TV show that recreates some of these news stories where civilian possession of a firearm saves a life? Such reenactments would have all the necessary ingredients for a ratings hit: Drama, excitement, tension, a potential victim being stalked, a bad guy, and a happy ending!
I'm sure we could get someone such as David Codrea or Clayton Cramer for series producer.
Here's a mock-up TV schedule ad I created with scissors and tape. Note I was proposing Eric Estrada as host. He was a fairly regular attendee at California Rifle and Pistol Association annual banquets at the time, along with Robert Stack and Paul Sorvino, which meant that he was not afraid to identify himself with the pro-gun community, and I just thought he'd be a natural. Note this was all in the "blue sky" proposal stage and we never advanced to the point of approaching him on this, so this was done without his knowledge or consent, and without the knowledge and consent of UPN 13, whose logo I appropriated for the mock-up:
