Manchester Alert

The exalting, prancing fool pictured above has just stepped outside a British courtroom in Manchester where he was given a slap on the wrist for nearly nearly beating a man to death. His accomplice in the assault, classified as Grievous Bodily Harm or GBH by the British criminal justice system, received a similar sentence.

From the UK Telegraph:

Gang members walk free from court after leaving man for dead

Daniel Chrapkowski and Thomas Lane celebrated outside Manchester Crown Court after they were given non-custodial sentences for their part in a vicious assault which left an innocent man for dead.

The pair, both 24, were in a drunken gang that attacked Joseph O'Reilly after he challenged them about kicking over wheelie bins in the street.

The victim, also 24, had been walking home with his girlfriend when he spotted the thugs scattering rubbish all over the road.

When he asked them: "what on earth are you doing," the gang turned on him. During the attack one of the gang boasted: "I've just been let out for GBH" before Mr O'Reilly was knocked to the ground and repeatedly kicked in the head.

He was knocked unconscious, suffered a fractured jaw and bleeding to the brain and spent a month in hospital where he had a metal plate fitted into his face. He is now wary of going out in public.

At Manchester Crown Court, tattooed Chrapkowski of Nangreave Road, Offerton, Stockport was given a 12 months suspended prison term, a two month electronic tag and ordered to complete 160 hours unpaid work after he admitted causing grievous bodily harm

Grievous Bodily Harm is very similar to aggravated assault here in the US. Because of the severity of the victim's injuries, in NY he most likely would have been charged with at least Assault 2nd, a Class C Violent Felony with a sentence of from one to five and one-half years.

This is the other cowardly, drunken, vicious predator, Thomas Lane, upon his release from Manchester Crown Court.

All three thugs later claimed they attacked Mr O'Reilly in self defence.

In mitigation for jobless Chrapkowski, defence counsel Miss Katie Jones said: "He is extremely remorseful and wishes to apologise to the court. It is extremely out of character in a misguided attempt to protect his friend. "

For sign writer Lane, Paul Hodgkinson said: "He accepts he had been out drinking and engaging in tomfoolery - kicking around bins and that they were confronted.

"He became embroiled in an argument with a member of the public which he shouldn't have done but that mischief doesn't cross the custody threshold."

Whatever you do, don't ask anyone anything about dustbins in Manchester. They might kill you and just walk away free.

Why New York's Gun Laws Are Insane

They were written by a madman.

From The NY Post:

Recent months have seen a former Marine from Indiana, a Tea Party activist from California and a nurse from Tennessee all arrested and charged in New York City for possession of firearms they had legal permits to carry back home. All were “nabbed” when they naively sought to check the weapon with security.

These innocents fell afoul of the nation’s toughest gun laws. But few New Yorkers know how those laws came to be.

The father of New York gun control was Democratic city pol “Big Tim “Sullivan — a state senator and Tammany Hall crook, a criminal overseer of the gangs of New York.

Big Tim used the gangs to intimidate voters so they behaved as expected at the polls. And if opposition candidates got roughed, well, that's all right too. Problem was, the gangs were shooting up the City, so Big Tim got the State to pass restrictive weapons laws.

The Tammany Tiger needed to rein in the gangs without completely crippling them. Enter Big Tim with the perfect solution: Ostensibly disarm the gangs — and ordinary citizens, too — while still keeping them on the streets.

In fact, he gave the game away during the debate on the bill, which flew through Albany: “I want to make it so the young thugs in my district will get three years for carrying dangerous weapons instead of getting a sentence in the electric chair a year from now.”

Sullivan knew the gangs would flout the law, but appearances were more important than results. Young toughs took to sewing the pockets of their coats shut, so that cops couldn’t plant firearms on them, and many gangsters stashed their weapons inside their girlfriends’ “bird cages” — wire-mesh fashion contraptions around which women would wind their hair.

Ordinary citizens, on the other hand, were disarmed, which solved another problem: Gangsters had been bitterly complaining to Tammany that their victims sometimes shot back at them.

Federal studies estimate that armed citizens use firearms over a million times a year to protect themselves. Most of these instances involve the display of a weapon rather then the actual discharge of a projectile. Of course in NY State these numbers are lower.

Meanwhile, savor the irony of an edict written by a corrupt politician to save his bad guys from the electric chair’s now being used against law-abiding citizens from other states.

And the rest of the story? Big Tim was already suffering from tertiary syphilis when he wrote his law. He went mad soon thereafter and was sent to a sanitarium in 1912. He eventually escaped. His severed body was found on railroad tracks in The Bronx in August 1913.

The dedicated lifelong “public servant” left behind an estate valued at more than $2 million.

Apparently State Senator Tim Sullivan and Al Capone had something else in common besides tertiary syphilis, they were both thieves.

Save The Rain Forest ...And Kerry Kennedy's Checking Account

Scratch a Kennedy and you get - a Kennedy.

Activist Kerry Kennedy apparently has more than just a humanitarian interest in the outcome of the trial over the environmental damages caused to Ecuadorian rain forests.

It was revealed today that Ms Kennedy, who is the ex-wife of Governor Andrew Cuomo and former president John F. Kennedy's niece, has a financial stake in the contentious legal battle.

Ms Kennedy has spoken out against oil company Chevron and the damages that their predecessors caused to the tropical wildlife in Ecuador, using her famous name and position as a human rights activist to drum up support for the Ecuadorians involved in the 16-year-long legal battle.

Local courts recently ordered Chevron to pay $18billion in damages-which the company is now appealing- and if the decision is upheld, $40 million of that money could go straight to Ms Kennedy.

Yes, those bribe-proof pillars of integrity - the Ecuadorian government - just hit the jackpot. And of course Kennedy was whored out hired for her mad legal skills. In 2009 she penned the following immortal words.

'The jungle is a tangle of oil slicks, festering sludge, and rusted pipeline...'

Words well worth the cost, they gave me a Chris Matthews shudder/tingle that knocked my socks off and left my shoes on. I'll never look at festering sludge the same way without thinking of Kerry Kennedy.

Just a few months after penning the article, she was paid $50,000 by the lead attorney in the case against Chevron, Steven Donziger.

'Kerry Kennedy, daughter of RFK and human rights lawyer, is coming to Ecuador... This could give us a real boost... Will cost money, but not much,' an internal email to the legal team read in October 2009 just before The Huffington Post article.

Throw in a bottle of scotch and her Uncle Ted will return from the grave to point an accusing, boozy finger and maybe grope a waitress.

The budget of the legal team also says that she was due to receive $10,000 per month in 2010 and $40,000 to cover additional expenses.

She is also allotted a 0.25 per cent stake in the financial outcome of the court case. That means that if the recent demand that the company pay $18 billion is upheld, Ms Kennedy will be walking away with $40 million.

In addition to using her Kennedy name, the legal team was clear that they hoped that her close ties to New York politics would help their fight against Chevron.

Not only was Ms Kennedy's father a former New York senator {Robert Kennedy~sig94}, but she and current governor Cuomo were married for 13 years and have three daughters together.

Though their divorce was notoriously acrimonious- it was rumored that Mr Cuomo walked in on Ms Kennedy mid-tryst with a married family friend- she surely could have some influence in getting state government officials to call her back.

Yep, she's a Kennedy.

The Broncos Defense Never Showed Up

We are not a Denver Broncos family fan club, never have been. As a matter of fact we always enjoyed seeing the Broncos get pasted. But we do like this Tebow kid, we like him a lot. So it was with great anticipation that we tuned into the Broncos/Patriots game expecting to witness a shoulder pad-clad gladiatorial spectacle. The 49er's/Saints game was certainly exciting and we were hoping for the same.

Needless to say we were disappointed. But even more disappointing is the reaction concerning this young QB. The criticism is astounding and baseless. He is and will be the QB for the Broncos. He certainly does have the qualities of a good NFL QB and he will only get better. I haven't seen anyone scramble and rifle a pass like he does since Joe Montana.

He is a quarterback, not a cornerback. In no way was he responsible for the Patriots scoring 45 points. All the credit for that goes to the Patriots QB who did a magnificent job of picking the Broncos defense to pieces, setting the pieces on fire and then stomping them out. And of course the Patriot offensive line and offensive coordinator gets a whole lot of credit also. But the QB is the person who embodies the offensive effort and he is the one who receives the blame/glory. For better or worse that's the way it goes. I expected a better game, a better effort - not a blow out.

Football is a team sport and as a team the Broncos disappointed me.  Tebow didn't.

Just Pissing In The Rhine

1945 - Seems to me that no one got their panties all in a wad when General Patton answered nature's call while crossing the Rhine.

US Marine snipers urinate on dead Taliban.

Too bad the liberal media doesn't give our fighting men the same amount of slack they give Obama when he pisses on the Constitution.

Please, Opt for Life.

Hat tip to The Anglican Curmudgeon

Snow Like You've Never Seen

We finally had a good old-fashioned Central NY winter storm today. Plenty of snarled traffic, accidents, bitter cold winds and, oh yeah, that white stuff.

The above is a stereographic picture of a snow crystal. To see it properly, cross your eyes, relax your vision until you see three images and then focus on the center image. You'll get better after you try it a few times. It really works.

This image was taken at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland. This completely changes my ideas of snow - frozen water crystals. I still hate the crap, but now I just hate it sorta differently.

To see more of these images, go here and try not to have your eyes freeze while they're crossed. I was really amazed at how different this stuff looks when you're not tossing it out of your driveway.

Hi! Howareya!

That is one happy seal pup.
More

And Pbbbt! She Was Gone!

In a financial environment where mortgage defaults and vehicle repossessions are becoming more and more frequent, this just had to come.

H/T to my big sis.

Why Is He Still Alive?

This news item really bugs the daylights out of me.

A man thought to be an Islamic extremist is believed to have shot the windows out of at least two businesses in Alabama City early Sunday to lure police officers to the area and engage them in a shootout.

Luis Ibarra-Hernandez, 21, from Albertville, was charged today with attempted murder, according to a news release from the Gadsden Police Department.

“After the man was taken into custody, he reported that he knew he must do something extreme to draw attention to Islam and himself, so he planned to shoot police officers,” Gadsden Police Capt. Regina May said.

So the Muslim dipstick goes on a tear, shooting out storefront windows and then engaging in a six-block running gun battle with police officers.

This, this is the part that drives me crazy.

[...]at least eight officers were shot at, before officers talked the man into dropping his weapon.

Why is this idiot still alive?? Why didn't the team of world famous psychiatrists, Drs. Smith & Wesson, conduct a .45 caliber analytic session with this whack job?

Precious Snowflakes

From the UK Telegraph comes a story that could be ripped right out of the pampered bedrooms of America's children.

China: The rise of the 'Precious Snowflakes'

First there were the Little Emperors, the often chubby and spoiled first generation of children born under China's one-child policy. Now the Precious Snowflakes have emerged - a generation so coddled some cannot even tie their own shoelaces.

"They are 'Precious Snowflakes', wrapped in cotton wool from day one," said Paul French, the founder of Access Asia, a China-based research company.

"Nothing is ever quite right for them. It is always either too hot or too cold and they are all hypochondriacs. They get immediately stressed out if they ever have to lift a finger," he said.

When I was growing up you were considered to be spoiled rotten if you bought your lunch in the cafeteria (my mom wouldn't let us spend the twenty-five cents for a school lunch ) or rode a three-speed English Racer instead of a Schwinn.

In a world of smog, toxic food and unsure medical care, middle-class Chinese parents are spending ever-larger sums of money to insulate their children from harm.

"The first generation, the Little Emperors, were quite tough: fat little thugs always stuffing themselves full of McDonald's," said Mr French. "The new generation is very concerned with things like air quality, which the Little Emperors never bothered about.

"They only drink Evian and are scared of food unless it is imported. Their parents tread quietly around them so they can do 'natural waking', where they do not use alarm clocks but are in tune with their biorhythms."

A Chinese boy throttles his mother because she won't buy him a toy.

My dad used to wake us up at 5:30 to get ready for school. God help you if he had to do it twice. You'd wake up in the backyard if you woke up at all.

One mother in Shanghai, who asked not to be named, said she and her husband were simply too busy to look after Yao Yao, their four-year-old daughter.

"Yao Yao rarely wears shoes with laces because she cannot tie them. And she will not dress herself. I have shown her many times, but she will not be bothered. If I insist, she buries herself in her duvet and refuses to get out of bed. I have never really had the heart to force her, and her grandparents, who usually look after her, cannot resist her.

On my mom's side, my grandfather died in 1956 (cancer) and my grandmother lived with us until she died in the mid-seventies. Nana helped raise us kids as both my parents worked. She was bought up in a NYC convent after her mother was killed when she was about eight years old back in 1909 or so.

Nana was not what you would call a happy camper. Not a surly camper either ... as long as she had her unfiltered Camels. I learned how to swear from her.

We lived so that nothing, absolutely nothing, was wasted. We were not poor by any means, but we lived within our means by any means possible. I remember getting a used erector set for Xmas. It was from the thirties and the kit must have weighed forty pounds. I made stuff with that set that you could have lived in.

"Her dinner time is cartoon time, so she watches television while her grandparents sit and spoon-feed her. When we try to bring her to the table, she just makes a big fuss.

My Nana would have beat the everlovin' snot out of her. We used to get her knuckles rammed into our spines when we slouched at the dinner table. Heads were thumped on a regular basis for minor infractions. That's the way the nuns brought up Nana and she was a real good learner. She brought up my mom the same way and Mom was no slouch either. Her right hook wasn't as sharp but she used a belt to great effect. Dad? Never laid a hand on me. Never had to.

Nana cooked for all of us as mom got home too late to make dinner. We had cow tongue at least once a month. I managed to break that addiction when I went to college. I still hate sauerbrauten and pork but you'd better believe that I ate every bit of it when it was served at home.

"She likes new clothes, so we have to buy her a new wardrobe every three months. Once my cousin's daughter came and played with her doll so she threw it out of the 17th floor window, saying it was dirty."

Some of the clothes I wore as a young man were from Nana's old clients; they gave them to her  when their husbands died. As a rookie cop that's what I wore to traffic and criminal court, blazers from dead guys.

And I thought things were tough in China. Silly me.

Why I Carry - Part II

The man pictured above is Micheal Henderson and he is dead at age 19.
"Why is he dead?" you may ask. The answer is simple. Hendersen, his brother Seneca and two of their friends were in the process of breaking into a North Carolina home where a 14 year old boy had armed himself with a loaded shotgun.

"I Got One More In The Chamber. I'm Going To Shoot Again"

After the shooting, Michael Hendersen and his accomplices fled the scene. Hendersen collapsed a short distance from the house where his body was discovered by police. Two more men, Seneca Hendersen and Andrew Terry, were captured and a third, Jatwaun Davis, is being sought. This happened a few weeks ago on December 29, 2011, two days before another defensive shooting incident where an 18 year old single mother, Sarah McKinley, shot and killed an intruder in Oklahoma.

McKinley's ordeal in Oklahoma got a lot of attention, but there was little or no mention of the North Carolina incident in the main stream media. So it perhaps is no surprise that I finally read this from a news source outside the USA - the UK Telegraph.

Investigators released a 911 call with the teen calmly describing how he shot the intruder.

In the call, the teen, says: 'I just shot the man. He came around the corner. I shot him. He broke the whole glass out (of the back door).'

He continues: 'I don't know how many it was (who broke in). Just one came around the corner. I got one more in the chamber. I'm going to shoot again,' the boy said.

'Do not, while I’m on the phone, do not fire that firearm, OK?' the dispatcher says?.

It is at this point in the conversation that I hang up because the dispatcher is an idiot.

'What if another one comes in the house, ma'am?' he asked.

'Let me know, OK, if you see anybody. I will let you know (when a deputy gets to the house),' the dispatcher responded.

Excuse me Mr. Dispatcher?!? You're sitting on your ass in a comfortable chair sucking on a fresh cup of coffee in a secure building ten or twenty miles away and you're going to tell me when to shoot? I got a few words for you Mr. Dispatcher and I can't print them here.

It cannot be any clearer, when you have but a few seconds to make a life threatening decision, the police are only minutes away. And you have a clueless SOB on the line telling you when the police will be there. The best part of this? Neither the police nor the dispatcher can be held accountable if they screw up and you end up dead.

National crime statistics compiled by the FBI confirm that the police do not prevent most violent crime. In 2010, there were 14,748 murders, 367,832 robberies, and 84,767 rapes committed in the US. Not one of these crimes were prevented by the police or the courts. And for the most part it's not their fault. We have always had these crimes. But the responsibility for protection rests ultimately upon the citizen.

Let's see what the courts have to say.

Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1, 4 (D.C. 1981)

DC's highest court noted that because the police are only under a general duty to provide services to the public at large, a special relationship must exist between the police and the individual in question for the "duty" element of negligence to be satisfied. It held that no such special relationship existed so the case was properly dismissed by the lower court for failure to state a claim and the case never went to trial.

Ford v. Town of Grafion, 693 N.E.2d 1047

According to the court, when the police advised Catherine “to get a gun for protection,” that was a warning to her that the police were unable to assure her safety or protect her. Because she got no assurances of safety from the police, she had no legal right to rely on the police to protect her. Case dismissed.

And now for federal law...
Bowers v. Devito, 686F.2d 616 at 618 (7th Cir. 1982)

“... no constitutional right to be protected by the state against being murdered by criminals or madmen.”

I've been involved in law enforcement for almost forty years, twenty-four of them as a LEO. I spent seven of those years as an evidence technician, documenting murder, rape and mayhem that could have been prevented only by the proper use or display of sufficient force.

There are so many good men and women who wear the badge and do their best to serve and protect, but reality dictates that we are rarely there in time and it would be a lie if we promised to do so.

Your safety is in your own hands.
Best fill your hand with something other than a telephone.

Keep Your %$#@ Muddy Shoes Off Our Constitution!

As presented in the Investor Business Daily, Obama continues his trashing of the US Constitution.

Obama's Recess Appointments: An Impeachable Offense?

Constitution: President Obama's nonrecess "recess appointments" can't be excused as over-the-top electioneering. This president has crossed over from socialistic extremism into lawlessness and, perhaps, impeachability.

The U.S. Constitution established a strong presidency — so strong that even one of the most esteemed founding fathers, Patrick Henry, worried it would be kinglike. But this week saw a president exceed even those broad constitutional powers because doing so fits his election-year narrative of a "do-nothing Congress" so well.

Now we have the makings of a banana republic, where the rule of clearly written constitutional law is compromised by a ruler's subjective whim.

The Constitution is crystal clear on the recess appointment authority of the president.

"The president shall have power," Article II, section 2 states, "to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session."

The Senate has not been in recess. And Congress' authority over when it is and isn't in recess is no small matter of parliamentary procedure. Rather, it is a power the Framers explicitly bestowed in Article I, Section 5:

"Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days."

Yet Obama on Wednesday, with no recess in effect and against the publicly stated position of his own Justice Department, made four "recess appointments."

John Stewart Gives Up

I usually do not give a hoot about anything that John Stewart has to say, but this is funny.

Alec Baldwin Brings HomeThe Groceries

As far as my wife is concerned, Wegmans is the only place to buy groceries. She's been shopping at our local Wegmans for almost thirty years; she has shopped there so much that I often accuse her of having a boyfriend in the produce section.

Since I refuse to watch major network television, I missed the local TV ads where Alec Baldwin shills for Wegmans. But that cosy arrangement was kayoed when Alec exercised his "inner asshole" self on an American Airlines airplane and was ejected from the flight. Now after protests from their customers (alleged?)Wegmans backed off and has reinstated the Baldwin ads.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A New York-based supermarket chain has had a change of heart about grounding Alec Baldwin as a spokesman because of his antics aboard an American Airlines flight.

Wegmans Food Markets said Wednesday it will continue running television ads featuring Baldwin after being inundated with "hundreds and hundreds of tweets, emails, and phone calls" in support of the actor.

"We regret ending the Alec Baldwin holiday commercials one week earlier than planned in response to a couple of dozen complaints," Wegmans said in a statement. "We have decided to run the commercials again, effective immediately. Clearly, many more people support Alec."

Wegmans revealed Tuesday it had pulled the ads after drawing customer criticism about Baldwin's behavior. He was removed from a New York-bound flight at Los Angeles International Airport on Dec. 6 for refusing to turn off his cellphone.

Wegmans has an excellent supply of good foods but I suspect they just ran out of balls. It's probably because of Alec's mother, Carol Baldwin, who is very well respected in Upstate NY for her work in supporting cancer research. Mrs. Baldwin is a cancer survivor.