Monthly Archives: February 2013

Colorado boy, 7, reportedly faces suspension for tossing imaginary grenade | Fox News

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A Colorado second-grader may be suspended from his elementary school after he disobeyed a key rule of no weapons, real or imaginary, when he tossed an imaginary grenade Friday during recess and went, ‘pshhh,’ to indicate that the imaginary device detonated, KDVR.com reported.

Alex Watkins,7, who attends Mary Blair Elementary in Loveland, said he was playing the game “Rescue the World.” He plays the role of a heroic soldier out to rid the world of an evil threat.

His duties led him to throw the imaginary grenade into a box he pretended contained evil forces. He said he didn’t make any threats and was playing by himself, KDVR.com reported.

via Colorado boy, 7, reportedly faces suspension for tossing imaginary grenade | Fox News.

Ted Nugent to Piers Morgan: ‘You’re the Perfect Poster Boy to Stand Up for Things That Make No Sense’ | NewsBusters

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MORGAN: 100,000 Americans get hit by gunfire a year.

NUGENT: Those include bad guys getting shot by cops, Piers.

MORGAN: 18,000 of those kill themselves with guns.

NUGENT: Japan has a higher suicide rate and they’re not allowed to get down wind of a gun. Your turn.

MORGAN: How many people got murdered by guns in Japan in the last two or three years each year?

NUGENT: We’re not talking about guns, we’re talking about the act of murder. Do you care about murders or do you only care about murders with guns?

MORGAN: I care about all deaths.

NUGENT: I don’t think you do. I think you care about guns. I think you’re obsessed with guns. 99.99 percent of the gun owners of America are wonderful people that you are hanging around with here today, perfectly safe, perfectly harmless, wonderful, loving, generous, giving, caring people. Would you leave us the hell alone? Go after the nut jobs, go after the murderers, because I don’t know any. We need to lock up the bad guys, and when people show dangerous, murderous intent, which everyone one of these mass murderers showed, all their neighbors, their family, their teachers, their fellow students, they all knew they were crazy. But Piers, we didn’t stop them because we’re worried about hurting their feelings. We have a madman problem in America where they’re running around. We have a felony recidivism problem in America. Let’s focus on that together and leave the rest of us alone.

MORGAN: A, I won’t leave you alone because this is a debate that has to be had in America.

NUGENT: And we appreciate that because you’re the perfect poster boy to stand up for the things that make no sense at all to common sense people.

via Ted Nugent to Piers Morgan: ‘You’re the Perfect Poster Boy to Stand Up for Things That Make No Sense’ | NewsBusters.

Acapulco: Tourists Tied up with Bikinis and Gang Raped by Masked Robbers – IBTimes UK

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Mexico is a mess. My stance on it is to both tighten the border and loosen immigration restrictions for those who will come legally. It’s such a headache to come to this country if you want to, and the large part of the immigrant population from Mexico are good for the USA. We make it easier for the good ones, and crack down on the bad ones, and do our best to stop subsidizing the insanity of the cartels and corrupt governments in Mexico.

A group of tourists have been raped by a masked gang who raided their holiday villa in the Mexican resort of Acapulco.

Local authorities said the armed men burst into the bungalow rented by 13 Spanish tourists, six women and seven men, and a Mexican woman, in Playa Bonfil, facing the Pacific Ocean, near the famous Punta Diamante area, local authorities said.

The attackers gagged and tied up the men with phone cables and then raped the women, who they had bound up with their own bikinis.

via Acapulco: Tourists Tied up with Bikinis and Gang Raped by Masked Robbers – IBTimes UK.

This gun rights backer, armed with his Glock and his blog, is always on alert – The Washington Post

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Sitting in his living room with Farago looking on, Kenik shows off a couple of his black rifles. Farago generally defers to Kenik’s expertise on technical firearms issues. They’re something of an odd couple: Farago is tall, mild-mannered, bespectacled, and with his gun on his hip could pass for a plainclothes detective. Kenik is short, round and intense, prone to emphatic declarations.

Both are Jewish, and both lost grandparents in the Holocaust — surely a source, Farago says, of their wariness of government. Farago says he feels betrayed and abandoned by fellow Jews who favor gun control.

“Because of all the people on the face of the Earth who should be pro-gun, the Jews should be right at the top of that list,” he says. “How many Jews have to die before they realize that ‘never again’ means being prepared — personally prepared?”

via This gun rights backer, armed with his Glock and his blog, is always on alert – The Washington Post.

Can juries tame prosecutors gone wild? – Boston Globe

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This needs to be part of any reform of the legal system in this country.

To critics, this means that the charging process essentially rigs the game against defendants from the outset. Civil libertarians regard this as a dangerous gap in our rights: While the police who investigate and arrest us are bound by strict limits on what they can do, and courts must abide by procedures designed to treat defendants fairly, there are hardly any guidelines in place to protect us during the charging phase. The result—as any “Law & Order” fan knows—is a system where the prosecutor loads up as many charges as possible to force a guilty plea, and moves on to the next case.

“What we really have is a plea bargain system with a thin froth of showy trials floating on top,” said Glenn Reynolds, a professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law who published a widely circulated paper earlier this month on the topic of prosecutorial overreach.

Changing this, say reform-minded experts like Reynolds, would not necessarily require a radical reworking of how prosecutors do their jobs. Instead, it would be enough to strengthen an institution that’s already in place, though widely marginalized: the grand jury, a panel of citizens who are supposed to watch over the shoulders of prosecutors to make sure their fellow citizens aren’t being improperly charged, bullied, or targeted arbitrarily.

Grand juries today are required by law in just 19 of the 50 states—Massachusetts among them—and even there, they’re used only to indict felons. Officially, their job is listen to the prosecutor lay out the evidence and determine whether there is probable cause to charge the suspect with a crime. But in practice, grand juries tend to serve as rubber stamps, indicting almost everyone who comes before them. (It was a federal grand jury that indicted Aaron Swartz on felony charges in July 2011.) The joke in legal circles is that any prosecutor worth his salt could convince a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.

To restore grand juries’ power to protect people from prosecutors, one important change states could make, Simmons says, is to give suspects the right to testify at their own hearings, and their attorneys the right to present exonerating evidence. Currently, there are only four states in the United States where those rights are in place; among them is New York—and, tellingly, approximately 6 to 10 percent of New York’s criminal cases are struck down by the grand jury, vastly higher than the national average. When Simmons was a prosecutor in New York earlier in his career, he said, there were several times when people he was trying to indict—a young military veteran accused of cocaine possession, a man who tried to bribe a police officer so he wouldn’t have to spend the night in jail—spoke up on their own behalf, and convinced the grand jury they didn’t deserve the proposed charges. In those ­cases, Simmons says, there was clearly probable cause to indict, but the jurors decided there was something about the situation that made the prospect of criminal punishment seem unfair

via “Can juries tame prosecutors gone wild?” – Boston Globe

Rybak wants support from firearms manufacturers against gun violence | Minnesota Public Radio News

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Well, this may be a step leading to gun control for police officers. Which I fully support; if I don’t need a weapon for defense, why do the police need them?

Rybak told members of the City Council’s Public Safety and Civil Rights Committee that he and mayors from approximately 60 cities are taking a closer look at the companies that manufacture the guns and ammunition that cities buy for police officers.

He said over the past eight years the city has spent nearly $800,000 on guns and ammunition. Rybak, who supports stricter gun control laws, wants to work with firearms manufacturers to reduce gun-related crime and violence. He wants to know if those companies also are lobbying against tighter gun laws.

“If we find out they’re not partners, and if we find out they’re working against us, then we all ought to have a conversation as taxpayers about whether our dollars should be used for people who are not working to reduce gun violence,” Rybak said.

via Rybak wants support from firearms manufacturers against gun violence | Minnesota Public Radio News.

Why I am not having kids | Opinion | The Seattle Times

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It’s too bad. Seattle is a great place to live, but I wish there were more kids around.

On our last vacation, my husband and I mulled over this question: “On your deathbed, what will you regret not doing?” We listed our answers at dinner on the last night. Neither of us mentioned children.

We have decided we have other things to give to the world. We won’t be having kids. We choose to be childless in Seattle.

We are not alone here. According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates, children make up 15.3 percent of Seattle’s population. We are the second-most childless U.S. city behind San Francisco, which stands at 13.4 percent.

Observers say our childlessness shapes public attitudes toward education and quality-of-life issues, such as parks and playgrounds. I’ll be voting yes for Seattle’s $1.2 billion school levy measures on the Feb. 12 special-election ballot anyway.

I’m lucky. I live in a time and place where I have the freedom not to have kids. But that doesn’t mean society has fully accepted me.

Feminism empowered women to talk about motherhood as a pursuit that deserves as much attention as men’s work. In the past 20 years, women have bravely spoken about struggles to conceive, which helped educate a generation about fertility. But society rarely hears from women who decide not to have kids.

“Do you have children?” My friend’s standard answer is, “No, and it’s not for medical reasons.” I’m cribbing it.

Will I regret it?

via Why I am not having kids | Opinion | The Seattle Times.

Man keeps intruder at bay with shotgun until police arrive — Port Angeles Port Townsend Sequim Forks Jefferson County Clallam County Olympic Peninsula Daily news

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A Port Angeles man police said tried to break into the same house at least twice in two days was in the Clallam County jail Tuesday after one of the people living in the home kept the man at bay with a shotgun until police arrived.

Richard Allen Smith, 37, was booked into the Clallam County jail early Tuesday morning for investigation of two counts of residential burglary, said Port Angeles Deputy Police Chief Brian Smith, who is no relation.

“I just did whatever anybody would do to protect their family,” said Clint Lowery, who lives in the home in the 1300 block of South N Street in west Port Angeles with his fiancee, their 2-year-old daughter, brother and sister-in-law.

Lowery said he had noticed the man, later identified as Richard Allen Smith, walking across his lawn at about a little before 2 a.m. Tuesday and met him at the front door with his shotgun.

The man went to his knees without a fight, Lowery said.

Lowery said his 2-year-old daughter was sleeping in her room fewer than 10 feet away from the front door at the time.

via Man keeps intruder at bay with shotgun until police arrive — Port Angeles Port Townsend Sequim Forks Jefferson County Clallam County Olympic Peninsula Daily news.

Chuck Hagel’s confirmation-day conversion – POLITICO.com Print View

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Ted Cruz talks about why he doesn’t trust Hagel as SecDef:

On Iran, Hagel voted against economic sanctions in 2001, 2007, and 2008. Today, he says he supports sanctions.

In 2007, Hagel voted against designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard — which was then actively providing explosively formed projectiles to kill U.S. servicemen in Iraq — as a terrorist group. Today, he agrees that they are terrorists.

In 2006, he said, “a military strike against Iran, a military option, is not a viable, feasible, responsible option.” Likewise, in 2010, Hagel told the Atlantic Council that he was “not so sure it is necessary to continue to say all options are on the table” regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Today, he says all options (including military force) should be on the table.

On Hamas, in 2005, he declined to join a bi-partisan group of 70 senators (including Senators Clinton and Kerry) who signed a letter to President Bush urging that the Palestinians demand that Hamas reject terrorism before participating in the democratic process. Today, he says Hamas must renounce terrorism.

On Hezbollah, in 2006, he declined to join a bi-partisan group of 88 senators (including Senators Biden, Clinton, Kerry, and Obama) urging the European Union to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Today, he says Hezbollah is, in fact, a terrorist organization.

And on Israel, no senator in recent times has demonstrated as much consistent antagonism as has Hagel. In 1998, he said that the U.S. had “tilted too far towards Israel in the Middle East peace process.”

In 2000, he declined to join a bi-partisan group of 96 senators (including Senators Biden and Kerry) urging President Clinton to express “American solidarity with Israel at this crucial moment, to condemn the Palestinian campaign of violence.”

In 2006, on the floor of the Senate, he accused Israel of carrying out a “sickening slaughter” in Lebanon (and charged Lebanon with doing the same).

Also in 2006 he said “the Jewish Lobby intimidates a lot of people up here,” and he boasted about his ability to resist their views.

Today, he says he will strongly support Israel.

via Chuck Hagel’s confirmation-day conversion – POLITICO.com Print View.