Ween(ey) Thinking

I’m not as prepped for Halloween as I’d like but that’s the way life goes.  I’ll figure it out.

If you are a gun owner you already know about Hornady Zombie Max Ammunition.  Good, good for you.   You just never know and better safe than sorry, I say.

This brings up an important safety announcement.

1. Get some Zombie Max Ammo
2. Shoot for the head, always for the head.  Unless other targets of opportunity make for hilarity and you’re in a safe location
3. Rent Bubba-hotep
4. Watch it.
5. Rent and watch:  Ahhh! Zombies!, Night of the LIving Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Resident Evil (it’s like the weird Uncle Carl of zombie movies but it has Milla Jovovich so it gets a pass), 28 Days (no, it’s not a movie about menstruation),  Pet Sematery.  Watch a few episodes of The Rosie Show on Hulu.  (Just seeing if you were awake.)

No, my unpreparedness is because I did not purchase in time the requisite five 500W halogen light bulbs with which to light up my pumpkin, so I will have to use seventeen 150W bulbs, all shoved into one pumpkin.  Yes, I am going to install a 120V fan on the back of the pumpkin to pump air out of it.  Or I will fill the pumpkin with mineral oil to help with the temperature issue.

Pumpkin #2… you’re going to have to wait to see how he gets lit up.  It will be EPIC.  I hope.

Show up around here on Nov. 1 and see if I have the pics posted yet.

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Hey, kids… want to see something even more scary than Evil Baby Clowns?    (see veeshir’s links in the comments section below, please)

Let’s see what has been uttered by German Chancellor Angela Merkel today…

“Nobody should take for granted another 50 years of peace and prosperity in Europe. They are not for granted. That’s why I say: If the euro fails, Europe fails,” Merkel said, followed by a long applause from all political groups.

“We have a historical obligation: To protect by all means Europe’s unification process begun by our forefathers after centuries of hatred and blood spill. None of us can foresee what the consequences would be if we were to fail.”

Maybe I’m just paranoid but that didn’t sound as peaceful to my ears as it could.  It sounded sinister, but swaddled in the cloths of compassion.

She was asking for the parliament’s “political” green light on a negotiation mandate for the EU summit, beginning later today in Brussels. The summit is seeking to increase the firepower of the €440 billion-strong European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) to stop the sovereign debt crisis spreading to countries like Italy and ultimately, France.

The Bundestag approved the measure by a large majority, with 503 members in favour, 89 opposing and four abstaining.

Got that?  Huge agreement – that Germany must do whatever must be done.  Whatever must be done.  For the good of all, of course.

While stressing that Germany’s contribution to the EFSF loan guarantees would continue to be capped at €211 billion, she said she could not exclude there may be “risks” for Germany linked to the EFSF increase of firepower. Her own party colleagues had demanded that she clearly excludes German state assets, such as the central bank’s gold reserves, to be put as collateral for the EFSF lending power.

“Nobody can clearly estimate if there will be such risks. What I can say is that we cannot exclude it,” she said, insisting that the current situation is pushing European leaders into “uncharted territories”.

“Not to take these risks would be irresponsible. There is no better and more sensible alternative. Europe and the world are looking at Germany,” the chancellor said.

Looking ahead to the summit, the chancellor repeated her long-standing stance that “there is no silver bullet, no simple solutions. We will still deal with these topics for years from now.”

She repeated her insistence that the EU treaty had to be changed, in the medium term, to be more strict on countries breaching the euro deficit rules.

“Where does it say that any treaty change has to take 10 years or that there should be no more changes after the Lisbon Treaty,” she asked.

More strict.  Again for the good of all, of course.

EU leaders last Sunday agreed to have an evaluation presented to them in December by council chief Herman Van Rompuy about the possibility for a “limited” treaty change.

On the three euro-countries currently propped by EU-IMF loans, Merkel said Ireland was on “the right path”, Portugal showed it could implement the promised reforms, while Greece was still “at the beginning of a long road.”

For the first time, as opposition MPs noted later on in the debate, Merkel had words of praise for the ordinary Greek citizens feeling the brunt of the austerity measures demanded by international lenders. “People in Greece have to stomach a lot of sacrifices. They deserve our respect and also a sustainable growth perspective in the eurozone.”

According to the latest report of the so-called troika, consisting of experts sent from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Greece will need even higher debt restructuring and losses for private lenders compared to what EU leaders had agreed upon on 21 July.

“But debt restructuring alone does not solve the problem. Painful structural reforms have to be made, otherwise even after debt restructuring we’re back to where we are today,” Merkel warned.

Ok, you’ve been softened up.  Here’s that final blow you’ve been unconsciously expecting:

That’s why, she said, Greece would have to be “assisted” for quite some time. “It’s not enough that the troika comes and goes every three months. It would be desirable to have a permanent supervision in Greece,” she said, adding that this issue would be brought up at the summit.

Permanent supervision.   That is one of the more arrogant things you’ll ever hear.  That is saying “Greece is so fundamentally screwed up that they will never be capable of self-policing.”  It is tantamount to making the declaration that an autistic or retarded individual will never be self-sufficient, and for the individual autism sufferer or Down’s Syndrome sufferer, this may indeed be true.  But to place that judgment on a culture speaks of a vast gulf in self-superiority.

Yes, it is true that Greece has some serious freakin’ issues and a total lack of even the basic economic common-sense God gave a gopher.  A lot of Europe isn’t far behind and politicians in the US seem convinced of their brilliance, enough so that they believe we can repeat the actions of the European socialism proponents but without the fatal mis-steps.

The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.  – Margaret Thatcher

I can say “I don’t believe that Haiti will ever get it’s shit together”, and I’ll probably be right.  I could also say of the Middle East that they’ll never be peaceful because their cultures are fundamentally screwed up, and I could very well be right.  But to say “I think we should stay in Haiti forever and override their poor judgment whenever they lapse, because we know they most certainly will” is beyond arrogant.  It is proof that the German superiority issue is still alive and well even today, nearly seven decades after WWII.

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Courts Are Like Blind Squirrels – They Get a Nut Once in a While

Those of us who believe in the Right to Bear Arms believe that the US would have a lot less horsesh*t happening to good people if more than just criminals carried weapons.

Like so…

Man Cleared for Killing Neighbor’s Burglars

‘Castle Doctrine’ Gives Texans Unprecedented Authority to Take Action Against Intruders

By CHRIS BURY and HOWARD L. ROSENBERG

June 30, 2008—

A Texas man who shot and killed two men he believed to be burglarizing his neighbor’s home won’t be going to trial. A grand jury today failed to indict Joe Horn, a 61-year-old computer technician who lives in an affluent subdivision in Pasadena, Texas.

In the Lone Star state, where the six-gun tamed the frontier, shooting bad guys is a time-honored tradition, and Horn’s case centered on a Texas state law based on the old idea that “a man’s home is his castle.” The “castle law” gives Texans unprecedented legal authority to use deadly force in their homes, vehicles and workplaces. And no longer do they have an obligation to retreat, if possible, before they shoot.

“I understand the concerns of some in the community regarding Mr. Horn’s conduct,” Harris County District Attorney Kenneth Magidson told reporters at the courthouse. “The use of deadly force is carefully limited in Texas law to certain circumstances. … In this case, however, the grand jury concluded that Mr. Horn use of deadly force did not rise to a criminal offense.”

‘I’m Gonna Shoot!’ Horn called 911 in November to report a burglary in broad daylight at the house next door.

“I’ve got a shotgun; you want me to stop him?” Horn asked the dispatcher.

(Mossberg 500AL – Image added by Lemur King – know your weapon!)

“Nope. Don’t do that,” the dispatcher replied. “Ain’t no property worth shooting somebody over, OK?”

[ “Ain’t no property worth shooting somebody over…” Who the hell made up that silly idea? Some liberal, is my guess. Someone who thinks it’s better to just lie down and take it all your life, like a good sheep. I mean, really… who decided that was a good thing to say? And what did they base it on? Certainly not the right to protect self and others against criminals. I’m not saying I’d have done what he did in that particular instance but neither am I going to batter him for it. Of course, you never know until you’re in that situation, do you? – LK ]

Horn was clearly upset by the dispatcher’s response.

“I’m not gonna let them get away with it,” he said. “I can’t take a chance getting killed over this, OK.”

Despite the dispatcher’s protects, Horn said, “I’m gonna shoot! I’m gonna shoot!”

The 911 dispatcher warned Horn to stay inside at least a dozen separate times, telling him, “An officer is coming out there. I don’t want you to go outside that house.”

Then Horn sounding angrier by the moment cited the new Texas law.

“OK, but I have a right to protect myself too, sir,” he said. “And you understand that. And the laws have been changed in this country since September the first, and you know it and I know it.”

Moments later, Horn saw two burglars leave his neighbor’s house, one of them carrying a bag filled with cash and jewelry.

“I’m gonna kill him,” Horn said. “Stay in the house,” the dispatcher said. “They’re getting away,” Horn replied. “That’s all right,” the dispatcher said. “Property’s not worth killing someone over. OK?” “—damn it,” said Horn, who then defied the dispatcher.

“Well, here it goes, buddy, you hear the shotgun clicking, and I’m going,” he said.

“Don’t go outside,” the dispatcher warned.

Self-Defense? Horn says he came out his front door, down his porch and confronted the two burglars. The next sounds heard on the 911 tape are Horn ordering the two men to stop & and then shooting them both.

“Move you’re dead,” he said, and fired his shotgun three times.

“Both suspects were shot in the back,” Pasadena Police Captain A.H. “Bud” Corbett said. “Not at the same angle, but both suspects were hit in the back.”

Horn fatally shot the burglars, two illegal immigrants from Colombia named Diego Ortiz and Miguel de Jesus. Stephanie Storey, De Jesus’ fiancée, wanted to see Joe Horn prosecuted.

“This man took the law into his own hands,” she said. “He shot two individuals in the back after having been told over and over to stay inside. It was his choice to go outside and his choice to take two lives.”

Horn turned down an ABC News request for an interview but his attorney Tom Lambright insists Horn was entirely justified.

“He was afraid for his life,” Lambright said. “He was afraid for his safety, and then they charged him. I don’t think Joe had time to make a conscious decision. I think he only had time to react to what was going on. Short answer is, he was defending his life. ”

Lambright acknowledged that the 911 dispatcher urged Horn to stay inside but said, “Joe was doing what he thought was necessary. As a man, he thought it was his duty to protect his house, his neighborhood, his community.”

The Horn case has aroused plenty of passion. At a recent demonstration outside his home, police in riot gear stood by as activists demanded prosecution while counter-demonstrators defended him, including a group of bikers led by Randy Laird.

“In this grand jury decision, we look for a complete acquittal, no charge of any kind, and that’s what we believe will be right,” Laird said then. “That’s what’s going to make either the Castle Doctrine stand or fall.”

The Castle Next Door Some prosecutors are wary of “Castle Law.”

“There’s too many imponderables in this law, whereas the previous law was working just fine,” said Warren Diepraam, the Harris County Assistant District Attorney. “Frankly, life is precious.”

The critical legal question hinged on whether Horn acted in a reasonable way to defend his neighbor’s property.

“You cannot take another person’s life in defense of their property unless you’re somehow given permission by the other person to protect their property,” Diepraam said.

On that 911 call, the dispatcher asked Horn directly about the owners of the house that was being burglarized, and whether he knew them.

“I really don’t know these neighbors,” Horn said. “I know the neighbors on the other side really well & I can assure you if it had been their house, I’d already have done something.” Still, Lambright says that his client “absolutely” had his neighbors’ permission.

“There’s no question about it,” he said. “They’d tell you today that they are very happy that he was there and that he was watching out. Every neighbor in the state of Texas watches out for one another.”

“In most situations, calling 911 is the best remedy, not calling out for your 9-millimeter,” Diepraam said.

‘A No-Brainer’ Damon Barone, who killed a burglar in his own home, isn’t sure whether Joe Horn was justified, but he does believe the Castle Doctrine has already delivered a crystal clear message to criminals.

Barone said that in Texas, the occupational hazard of burglarizing someone’s home is “death.”

“If you’re lucky, you’ll get arrested and sent to jail,” he said.

In December 2007, Barone confronted a burglar breaking into his Houston home in the middle of the night. His wife, baby daughter and 6-year-old son were asleep when Barone heard a commotion and grabbed his Glock handgun.

“I heard a crashing through my window & [in] my bedroom, and I got my gun,” Barone said.

“When I came around the corner, I saw the silhouette in my window, I pointed my weapon, I fired three times,” he said.

Asked if he was shooting to kill, Barone said, “Yes.”

The burglar Barone shot dead had a lengthy criminal record, and Barone had a permit for his gun. Even before the new law, he certainly could have been justified in using deadly force. But the “Castle Law” gives Barone added protection from criminal prosecution and even civil lawsuits.

Barone is “positive” that he did the right thing.

“And if I had to do it over again, I would,” he added. “I mean, that’s the safety of my family over us being hurt. It’s a no-brainer for me.”

So in Texas, the old tradition of shooting bad guys carries on. The big question now is whether a man’s castle also includes & his neighbor’s home.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5278638

Good for him. There are now potentially hundreds fewer people who will be victimized by these criminals over what would have been their career. If crooks were a lot more concerned about dying for what they hope to steal, they wouldn’t do it.

Many thanks to The Dude for passing this on.

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Speaking of nuts… I’m kind of glad that there are some authorities out there who are vigilant.  Wonder what the hell this creature was thinking…?

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