"In a press release, officers say Harless pointed a gun at officers, and that's when an officer opened fire. Harless died as a result."
Police shoot someone pointing a gun at them. Tragic, but not a particularly surprising outcome. But:
""But now everything is breaking out, whether the search warrant was for 489, which is right here on this corner, two doors down from Doug. They are looking for the guy that lives there in that house for a stolen weed eater."
A stolen weed eater in much of America would barely produce a police report for the insurer. This is absurd.
Thatb problem about which I bittwerly complained has gone away. I cleared catche and cookies for that site, and all works again.
A while back, I mentioned that I was looking for a way to span some of my directories across multiple drives; the 2 TB SSD I installed a year or two ago is filling up fast and the 1 TB SSD that cam with this blindingly fast laptop is no longer getting any use.
I have procrastinated because I was up to my ears in legal history work.
This morning I could not sleep, so I started playing with mklink.
mklink /d D:\Users\clayt\linksrc C:\Users\clayt\linktarget
Then I created a C:\Users\clayt\linktarget directory. I copied directories into linksrc. They actually copied into linktarget on drive C.
They are logically on drive D, so I can continue to use my drive D references and my automatic backup will imagine they are on drive D.
This was his first real contact with the people of these latter days. He realised that all that had gone before, saving his glimpses of the public theatres and markets, had had its element of seclusion, had been a movement within the comparatively narrow political quarter, that all his previous experiences had revolved immediately about the question of his own position. But here was the city at the busiest hours of night, the people to a large extent returned to their own immediate interests, the resumption of the real informal life, the common habits of the new time. They emerged at first into a street whose opposite ways were crowded with the blue canvas liveries. This swarm Graham saw was a portion of a procession — it was odd to see a procession parading the city seated. They carried banners of coarse black stuff with red letters. “No disarmament,” said the banners, for the most part in crudely daubed letters and with variant spelling, and “Why should we disarm?” “No disarming.” “No disarming.” Banner after banner went by, a stream of banners flowing past, and at last at the end, the song of the revolt and a noisy band of strange instruments. “They all ought to be at work,” said Asano. “They have had no food these two days, or they have stolen it.”
Wells, H. G.; Verne, Jules; Poe, Edgar Allan; Abbott, Edwin A.; London, Jack; Shelley, Mary; Stevenson, Robert Louis; MacDonald, George; Twain, Mark. SCI-FI Boxed Set: 150+.: Space Adventures, Lost Worlds, Dystopian Novels & Post-Apocalyptic Tales: The War of the Worlds, Anthem, Space ... America, A Traveler in Time, The Guardians… (pp. 4132-4133). OBG Classics. Kindle Edition.
The English notion that the government could disarm those not considered law-abiding traveled to the American colonies. Although some of the earliest firearm laws in colonial America forbid Native Americans and Black people from owning guns,[29]
[29] See Clayton E. Cramer, Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie 31, 43 (2006). Today, we emphatically reject these bigoted and unconstitutional laws, as well as their premise that one's race or religion correlates with disrespect for the law. I cite them here only to demonstrate the tradition of categorical, status-based disarmaments. See Blocher & Ruben, supra note 1, at 165 (urging courts examining historical disarmament laws that would violate the Constitution today to "ask[] why earlier generations disarmed certain groups of people, rather than asking only whom they disarmed").
"According to the sources, the missile was fired at Flight 8432 during drone air activity above Grozny, and the shrapnel hit the passengers and cabin crew as it exploded next to the aircraft mid-flight.
"Government sources have told Euronews that the damaged aircraft was not allowed to land at any Russian airports despite the pilots’ requests for an emergency landing, and it was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea towards Aktau in Kazakhstan.
"According to data, the plane’s GPS navigation systems were jammed throughout the flight path above the sea."
The Russians are going to blame Ukraine because Russia was fighting off Ukrainian drones at the time. You may recall Russian separatists in Ukraine shot down another commercial airliner some years back over Ukraine.
There are so many apologists for the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the isolationist libertarian movement. I am sure this will be one more reason to defend Putin.
"According to sources, the victim was asleep but alive when she was set ablaze at the Coney Island station, allegedly by Guatemalan migrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, and had a walker and some bags with her at the time — but cops struggled to pull fingerprints because of her scorched skin....
"“The defendant stated in sum and substance that he ‘drinks a lot of liquor’ and did not remember what happened,” Rosenberg said." [Emphasis added]
Migrant. Illegal alien according to this 12/23/24 New York Post report.
“That’s the novelty of Yarvin and that’s his real accomplishment.”..."
The hazard is his influence on Michael Anton who is going to State:
"Anton wrote that “the United States peaked around 1965”, and that Americans are ruled by “a network of unelected bureaucrats … corporate-tech-finance senior management, ‘experts’ who set the boundaries of acceptable opinion, and media figures who police those boundaries”."
So far, Anton seems to be reality-based. Why is he so dangerous? Because Yarvin has influenced him. Murray Rothbard has influenced me, but I do not agree with much of what Rothbard believed.
So B is dangerous because he knows A, and A thinks dangerously.
"Tovar, author of “You Have the Right to Remain Fat” and a “DEI” professional, announced the position on her Instagram account on Monday."
You should never make assumptions or hold in contempt someone who is overweight or even obese. Many of us grow up with bad eating habits and I have battled (and still battling) weight issues. (I am finally just over the normal weight range into overweight.) But trying to pretend that this is not a legitimate health concern is just dishonest. Most people can work their way down from obese to overweight or even from morbidly obese to obese. This attempt to normalize obesity is largely drawn off the well-established correlation of lesbanism and obesity.
It says nothing positive for San Francisco city government and especially the Public Health department to be going along with this.
Top officials gathered in Washington suggested an openness to backing the vice president again next time."
Oh yeah, running against J.D. Vance who lacks Trump's negatives. These guys are clueless. And already I need a new tag for 2028 election.
If I wanted a stepper motor turning one revolution per day (yes, per day) what electronics do I need to tell it to do that? As an example this motor.
The Cadillac came with Michelin Primacy Tour A/S ZP tires. As the ZP hints, these are run-flat tires, so a nail puncture lets you continue to drive (at a reduced speed) until you get to a tire store. What surprised me is how inexpensive these are on TireRack: $291.45 per tire. These are all-weather tires. I may not need snow tires now that I live below 3000 feet elevation. I am pleased to see that run-flat snow/ice tires are available for it. The Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3 Run Flats are $414.13 a tire, so I will need some serious snow to buy them. The good news is that they are also V-speed rated. I doubt the Cadillac will ever seen 149 mph, so that's just margin of safety.
Over the years, I have talked to many people insistent that pacifism--refusing to use force in self-defense--is enough to solve the problem of violence. 12/17/24 Al Jazeera:
Damascus, Syria – In the furthest room of the Mujtahid Hospital basement in Damascus, a frail young man with jet-black hair crouches on the floor. He holds his face in his trembling hands as people walk in and out.
People come in to look at him, hoping he might be their lost relative. When they manage to convince the man to look up, his face stares not at them, but through them, his eyes calm but distant.
A young doctor, who asked to remain anonymous, at the reception desk says: “They don’t recognise anyone.
“He only remembers his name, and sometimes it’s the wrong name. It may be the name of one of his cellmates.”
Avoid violence when you can, but there are times that refusing to use force is the greatest immorality.
The aftermath of an “exceptionally violent” attack in early Bronze Age England suggests that at least 37 people may have been “systematically dismembered” and eaten, new research has revealed.
The attack, which took place around 4,000 years ago, reveals a case of cannibalism and “the darker side of human prehistory,” according to the study published Monday in the journal Antiquity.
Over 3,000 bones were excavated from a 50-foot pit in Charterhouse Warren, around 20 miles south of the city of Bristol in southwest England.
The bones, which were chosen for analysis because of the “sheer number of cutmarks,” were first discovered by cavers in the 1970s, researchers said.
They had more violence inflicted on them then what would normally be seen "in a butchered animal bone assemblage,” Rick Schulting, the study's lead author, told NBC News in an email Monday.
Schulting, a professor of scientific and prehistoric archaeology at Britain's University of Oxford, said that the archeology at the site is “exceptional.”
“The most surprising thing is the sheer extent of the violence carried out on the bodies," he said. "They were killed with blows to the head, and then systematically dismembered, defleshed, bones smashed apart."
President-elect Donald Trump is escalating his legal campaign against media outlets by suing renowned pollster J. Ann Selzer, her polling firm, The Des Moines Register newspaper and its parent company Gannett.
Unlike many of Trump’s legal actions against the press, which often allege defamation, this case alleges violations of the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act, which prohibits deception when advertising or selling merchandise.
While the nontraditional claims are unlikely to succeed in court, Trump is using the lawsuit to wage a broadside against what he perceives as left-wing media, mainstream press coverage of elections and the role of pollsters during campaigns. Though he won the 2024 election, Trump alleges the news coverage of Selzer’s poll — published days before the election showing Vice President Kamala Harris with a surprising lead in Iowa that didn’t materialize in the vote — was intended to artificially help Democrats during the campaign.
Media experts warned the lawsuit could have a further chilling effect not just on news reporting, but also on political polling. Selzer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN....
The case reflects Trump’s anger at the final Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll of the 2024 election season. It was conducted at the end of October by Selzer’s firm, Selzer & Co., based on telephone interviews with 808 Iowa likely voters. The poll found Harris with 47% support and Trump with 44%, a shocking result since Trump was universally expected to win the state.
And indeed, he did – by a margin of 13 points – which is key to Trump’s argument that Selzer committed “election interference.”
It would be interesting to see if Selzer can defend her prediction as being legitimately in error. If so, use of a fraud statute would be a losing effort. An error that large needs a heck of an explanation.
12/17/24 National Public Radio:
NEW YORK — The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare's CEO has been charged with murder as an act of terrorism, prosecutors said Tuesday as they worked to bring him to a New York court from from a Pennsylvania jail.
Luigi Mangione already was charged with murder in the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson, but the terror allegation is new.
Under New York law, such a charge can be brought when an alleged crime is "intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policies of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion and affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder, assassination or kidnapping."
Insurance companies are not governments. Intimidating insurance companies or their CEOs are not "a civilian population" unless there are a lot more insurance company CEOs than I think. It is already bad enough that he is becoming a hero to the left. Charging him as a terrorist will just make him more popular with the blue-haired, heavily pierced and tattooed crowd.
The rear-view mirror is actually a combination of mirror and camera. In mirror mode, it is a standard mirror. In camera mode, it projects a 110 degree rear view image. (This is not the backup camera view that appears in reverse.) It is far wider than any mirror can be. It even shows cars in your blind spots, which also cause little LEDs on your side mirrors to light up. We are taking no chances, are we?
One quirk that I am still working out: If you have sunlight on the camera, the image is inferior to a mirror although even a mirror does not do well with the Sun reflecting in your eyes. The other quirk is that the transition from focusing at infinity when looking ahead, to a near focus when switching to the camera mirror is a little odd. I suspect with time, my eye focus muscles will strengthen and speed up. I wonder if regular use might improve my nearsightedness?
"Starting in the 2009 model year, General Motors began equipping some new vehicles with Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. This feature allows OnStar to remotely slow down the stolen vehicle. The service is also expected to help reduce the risk of property damage, serious injuries or fatalities resulting from high-speed pursuits of stolen vehicles. Customers may opt out of that function.[8] The first successful use of this service occurred in October 2009 when a stolen Chevrolet Tahoe was recovered and its suspected thief was apprehended.[9]
"Also in 2009, General Motors began equipping some new vehicles with Remote Ignition Block, allowing OnStar to remotely deactivate the ignition so when the stolen vehicle is shut off, it cannot be restarted.[10]"
The immediate reporting of accidents probably reduces deaths because of faster emergency response. Car theft in some parts of America is, I am sure, a major expense.
The ability to slow down or immobilize a stolen car is likely a net savings in lives and police services for state and local governments.
I am pretty sure because of the duration of vehicle diagnostic services included, that even without OnStar there are benefits for insurers.
I am gathering those that I can find.
1.
Sculptor and feminist Harriet Hosmer’s early
years:
Her independence of manner and character, joined to the fact
of her entering the college as a student, could not fail to bring down
animadversion, and many were the tales fabricated-and circulated anent the
young New Englander, who was said to carry pistols in her belt, and to be prepared
to take the life of any one who interfered with her. It was perhaps no disadvantage,
under the circumstances, to be protected by such a character. The college stood
some way from the inhabited part of the town, and in early morning and late
evening, going to and 'fro with the other students, it is not impossible that she
owed the perfect impunity with which she set conventionality at defiance to the
character for courage and skill in the use of firearms which attended her.[1]
[1]
Harriet Hosmer, St. Cloud [Minn.] Democrat, Oct.
14, 1858, 1, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016836/1858-10-14/ed-1/seq-1/,
last accessed December 16, 2024.
A judge this week dismissed a malicious harassment charge against a pro-Palestine protester who was arrested over the summer after a confrontation with a Jewish man.
Initially, two protesters were charged in a case that raised questions about the limits of free speech amid contentious nationwide disputes over the Israel-Hamas war. The first protester had their case dismissed in August.
“This case involves the paramount political issue of our time: The dispute over whether what is happening in Gaza right now … is in fact a genocide,” the defense said in court Thursday. “The stakes for free speech could not be higher.”
The confrontation and arrests in Boise illustrate the tension over violence and war in Israel and Palestine....
The man was dining downtown on an Eighth Street patio, wearing a kippah and tzitzit, traditional Jewish clothing items. The protesters were chanting “Free Palestine,” “You’re killing babies,” “America will fall,” and “Israel will fall,” according to previous testimony.
The two also allegedly said, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which many view as a call for Israel’s destruction.
The man previously testified that he made eye contact with the two, stood up and as they approached, told them to leave. The group argued. The protesters left but quickly returned, according to previous testimony.
“But then they came back. And why did they come back? There was a Jew, visibly, a Jew, who was telling them that I didn’t appreciate them and they should leave,” the man previously said in court. “So why did they come back? They came back for me and my wife.”
He got up from the patio, moved toward them and told the protesters to leave, according to previous testimony. One of the protesters allegedly hit him in the nose with a phone. That protester’s charge was dismissed this week.
The prosecution argued this week that the protester’s chants were chosen to anger someone who was Jewish.
“False accusations of Jews killing babies has been a calling card of antisemitism since long before Israel even existed, and that’s common knowledge,” the prosecution said in court.
However, the defense argued this isn’t something everyone knew. Both the judge and the defense said that the protests were against Israel’s actions relating to child deaths. Palestinian authorities have counted thousands of children among the dead, according to the Associated Press.
Luigi Mangione supporters have donated tens of thousands of dollars to “defense funds” set up for him after he was arrested on suspicion of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The anonymous fund “December 4th Legal Committee” surpassed more than $100,000 in donations on the crowdfunding website GiveSendGo by Sunday morning.
The group’s name is an apparent reference to the day the 26-year-old allegedly gunned down the healthcare executive on a busy Manhattan street.
Some years back, a judge privatized juvenile corrections for profit: his profit. 12/14/24 WHYY:
A judge who helped orchestrate one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S.history — a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks — was among the 1,500 people whose sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden this week.
Biden’s decision to commute the 17-year prison sentence of Michael Conahan angered many in northeastern Pennsylvania, from the governor to the families whose children were victimized by the disgraced former judge. Conahan had already served the vast majority of his sentence, which was handed down in 2011....In what came to be known as the kids-for-cash scandal, Conahan and Judge Mark Ciavarella shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from a friend of Conahan’s who built and co-owned two for-profit lockups.
Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of children would fill the beds of the private lockups. The scandal prompted the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to throw out some 4,000 juvenile convictions involving more than 2,300 children.
Lose a swing state and the results can be ugly.
From 12/11/24 WGN:
"Crundwell pled guilty to stealing millions dollars from taxpayers in the largest municipal heist in U.S. history. Covid sent her home from prison early; but now Dixon residents have learned she won’t go back.
"Crundwell was a humble public servant by day, but lived large in almost every other part of her life. A 20-year fraud on her hometown of Dixon, Illinois total $54 million.
Now, another gut punch for the people of Dixon. Crundwell’s name is on the list of people granted clemency means her punishment is over."
Why? Professional courtesy?
This invaluable resource with 25 million searchable volumes has suddenly stopped working because of a dispute with the Writer's Guild of America over copyrighted material. But even books out of copyright are no longer searchable. The My library link shows you all books you have previously read. If they are out of copyright, you can still read them. It is a major loss for scholars.
I am gathering antebellum news accounts that show carry of firearms seems to have been common and unremarkable. Often these are incidents that end badly. "Man bites dog" news accounts.
An accidental discharge in the U.S. House of Representatives:
The gentleman from Virginia bad alluded to fact that a firearm had fallen on the floor. It was due to truth to say that, about the time he was talking somewhat excitedly in reference to the harsh and unjust remark by his colleague, a pistol in his breast-pocket accidentally fell to the floor. No man who knew him believed that he would use a pistol except in an honorable way. He regretted that this accident had occurred. He put the pistol in his pocket last night about twelve o'clock, to protect himself, if necessary, for he resided in the neighborhood of English Hill, where out rages have been committed, and wanted to feel secure in going home. Until he came to Washington, he bad never thought it necessary to be armed. He did not carry a pistol for any purpose here, but for his protection while passing through this sometimes violent city. He had seen occasions when, to protect one's self from insult, it was necessary to carry firearms.[1]
These cycles, referred to as “astronomical grand cycles,” appear linked to gravitational interactions between Earth and Mars.
Deep-sea currents, which alternate between stronger and weaker phases, significantly impact sediment accumulation on the ocean floor.
During periods of stronger currents, often called “giant whirlpools” or eddies, these powerful movements reach the abyssal depths and erode accumulated sediment there.
The findings of a new study now shed light on how these cycles align with Earth-Mars gravitational interactions."
The claim is that this affects our temperatures on a 2.4 million year cycle.
Of course, the article insists this does nothing to raise questions about the dogma of anthropogenic global warming
