Month: September 2023

Always carry a knife

Illinois carjacker kills woman by zip-tying her throat, leaves note saying it was his ‘only choice’: police

An Illinois man allegedly left an apology note in a vehicle he stole claiming he was “deeply sorry for hurting anyone” after killing a woman by zip-tying her throat.

Reese Miller, 24, was caught on Aug. 30 driving a blue Toyota Scion belonging to Ma L. Operio, 61, about three hours after she was found with a zip-tie around her neck that obstructed her breathing, the Harwood Heights Police Department said.

Operio died from her injuries four days later, FOX 32 reported.

Now I know that tye gut reaction from most of you will be, “always carry a gun, that would have prevented the car jacking in the first place.”

Possibly, but this is Illinois. Not just does Illinois make it difficult to get a carry permit, there are do many restrictions, that even in you have one, you might not be able to carry anyway.

Now extrapolate that to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, etc.

In every Leftist run shithole where carjacking is on the rise, concealed carry is difficult to impossible.

Step number one is knowing how to defeat zipties on your hands.

 

Step two is having a sharp implement that can take a ziptie off your neck.

I always carry a knife.

I always carry a handcuff key too, just in case.

Be prepared to self rescue, because the cops won’t find you for three hours.

Blinding stupidity of NYT environmentalists

This is a real article in the New York Times:

Forests Are No Longer Our Climate Friends

Canadian wildfires have this year burned a land area larger than 104 of the world’s 195 countries. But what is perhaps most striking about this year’s fires is that despite their scale, they are merely a continuation of a dangerous trend: Every year since 2001, Canada’s forests have emitted more carbon than they’ve absorbed. That is the central finding of a distressing analysis published last month by Barry Saxifrage in Canada’s National Observer.

Canada may be a disorienting cultural tipping point. If we thought trees might save us, that is looking increasingly like a foolish bet. In many parts of the world, including some of the most densely forested, trees are not perfect allies for tree-huggers anymore, and forests no longer reliable climate partners. What was once the embodiment of environmental values now seems increasingly to be fighting for the other side.

That’s not science.

That is pure and unadulterated mysticism.

The problem has been consistently bad forest management.

Trees live and trees die.

Trees grow and trees drop leaves and branches.

Fire, since time immemorial, has cleared the dead biomass from the forests to allow forests to live.

Humans started putting out the fires.  The biomass built up and now the fires rage out of control.

The fix is simple.  If humans dont want massive forest fires, humans need to do what the fires used to do and clear out the biomass.

The most effective way of doing that is logging and small controlled burns.

The good news is, that is carbon sequestration.  Carbon dioxide gets turned into wood, we turn that wood into a house.

But the Canadians, like the Californians, believe that chainsaws are tools of the devil and logging is evil.

So they make the fires worse.  And now, since they can’t comprehend the reality of forests, they say the forests are not their friends.

There will be no fix until these people are utterly ignored for being that stupid.

Gun Control is never about the criminals or Guns but Control.

Starting at 34:01, Governor Lujan Grisham makes it clear her illegal order is not about reducing violence.

 

“Reporter: Madam Governor, do you really think that criminals are going to hear this message and not carry a gun in Albuquerque on the streets for 30 days?

Grisham: No. But here’s what I do think: It is a pretty resounding message to everybody else in that community to report a crime, to tell us what’s going on, to aid law enforcement to do something different.”

I wonder what is next in this “different” approach? Maybe rounding up 10 civilians and have them flogged till the community bends to her desires? If you do not snitch on a citizen legally carrying, you become an enemy of the State? (AKA enemy of the Governor?)

So very Gestapo of her.

Fisking Media Editorial: Portland Press Herald

Just another Rant.

What is a law for?

The right answer has several parts. Most of us would agree that a law tends to be designed to protect people. It can protect rights or freedoms. It’s not controversial to say that a law forms a rule to follow and, properly implemented and enforced, has a regulating function.

Are we also happy to say that a law can be an expression of a value system? That it codifies the standards we aspire to live by? That we pass a law not only for its immediate, black-and-white application, but as a contribution to a body of norms and requirements that, well maintained, accurately reflects where we are and says something about where we’d like to be?

Recent arguments against gun control laws in Maine have been cold, calculated and based on a narrow set of circumstances presented in an even more narrow body of available evidence – two (2) fatal shootings, in Bowdoin and Westbrook, earlier this year. These arguments can only hold up if you think of a law as a linear instrument, some kind of one-off that has no bearing at all on cultural or social mores.

The “gotcha” tone of gun control opponents, newly armed with the allegedly relevant particulars of this pair of local shootings, demonstrates how utterly closed-off this lobby is to any possibility of improved public safety.

According to multiple sources, the law is a codification of the core values of the people. The Ten Commandments are a codification of the major laws of Christianity. The Constitution is a set of limits on government. It does not bind The People.

Using the law to morph behavior is not always a good choice. Most leftist approve of such laws when it morphs behavior in ways they approve, and they melt down if the law moves behavior in ways they disapprove of.

Passing a law making it a crime to “out” a trans student to anybody, including the student’s parents? “Yes!” the left screams. Passing a law making it a crime to hide gender dysphoria and mental distress from parents? “Hell no!” the same people scream.

The Press Harald can’t write without manipulation. (Who am I to talk?) Hellbent on protecting its financial interests … Interesting how everybody that disagrees with them is a paid shill, or just working for the “gun lobby”. I wish The Gun Lobby was paying us as much as the infringers claim they do.

… unwilling to make even the most modest of administrative concessions … Why should we give you even a “modest” concession? You have not shown yourself to be trustworthy.

You claim that the gun rights community shows no qualms about using desperately sad stories into political bargaining chips. Have you seen the blood sucking ghouls that show up after every horrific shooting, attempting to punish me for the actions of another? Have you seen the activists waving the Red Badge of Courage they bought on Etsy at 10 for a $1? Rags dripping with the blood of victims.

All the time, yelling that I should shut up. That my “thoughts and prayers” mean nothing unless I give up my right to armed self-defense.

We say enforce the laws already on the books. Put the criminals in prison and keep them there. Prosecute those that do evil, leave us alone.

Here’s our suggestion. Do that and take the “unnecessary” step of expanding gun control measures. Place the “unfair burden” of laughably dry, run-of-the-mill measures like universal background checks and waiting periods on purchases on those law-abiding gun owners. Even if you think they’re merely symbolic, make these safeguards a reasonable condition of gun ownership, a right that has caused America such staggering loss and bloodshed. That’s the only unfair burden at issue here.

I hear your suggestion and offer in return: Take a long walk off a short pier.

That “run-of-the-mill” measure you talk about doesn’t do anything except make it more difficult for the law-abiding. It gives the government information it should not have.

My preferred local gun store is an hour from here. I invest 2 to 6 hours in drive time to pick out a firearm. I invested multiple hours of my labor to purchase the firearm. You want me to have to make the trip at least once more.

And what does that waiting period or background check actually do? Nothing. The Remington 700 BDL in 30-06 I’m looking at doesn’t need to come home with me. I already have a M1 in 30-06. You’re delaying me from purchasing a firearm doesn’t stop me from possessing a firearm. I already have them.

It is unfair that you have printing presses and many people sending you money to write your wrong – minded opinions. Fair doesn’t mean you have to give up your printing press.

My right to armed self-defense comes from my creator. Not you. You can’t take the right away. It always exists. You will infringe to your heart’s content. That doesn’t make it right.

Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, who sponsored the single piece of gun control legislation that was not doomed in Augusta this year – which makes it a crime to transfer or sell a firearm to a prohibited person – seemed to take a holistic approach to the question of legislative reform earlier this week, telling the Press Herald that the law, while minimal enough in its import, could spur a rising tide. “Every piece of legislation that becomes law does some real good,” she said. “It helps build a framework for even more protective legislation.”

Sen. Anne Carney want’s to make it a crime to sell to a prohibited person, a designation that is being challenged at the Supreme Court. Here’s the thing, it is already illegal to knowingly sell to a prohibited person. What Anne, please her heart, wants to do is remove the word “knowingly” so that if you make a mistake, you go to jail.

Of course, the good people of the Press Herald won’t tell you that.

But the really juicy part of that statement is “very piece of legislation that becomes law does some real good. It helps build a framework for even more protective legislation. She is flat out telling us that she has no intention of stopping here.

This is what you are arguing for. The mouse eating just one crumb, until you find that you have nothing but an empty plate.

As always, you suggest that we “just try it” and see what happens. We can predict with confidence what will happen. It solves any of the issues you say it will solve. So you will come back to the well for another drink. You will continue until I stop you, or I have nothing left.