This is what cognitive dissonance ...

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... looks like:

A gay stylist in Santa Fe refused to cut New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez’s hair due to her stance on same-sex marriage. KOB-TV’s Stuart Dyson reports..

Darden apparently feels that it would go against his own personal moral code — his individual conscience — to cut the governor’s hair. He does not see this decision as an act of “intolerance.” In his mind, he believes that to cut her hair would be to co-operate with evil — a kind of sin, if not against God, then against his own reason and beliefs. He may fear that serving to the governor could be misconstrued as an affirmation of her views.

And no one in the press is arguing differently on the governor’s behalf. 

 It was never about civil rights; it was all about having everyone else respect them.

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In light of the Dunn verdict in FL ...

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... how many instances of LEO's being mistaken about weapons are excused?

Christopher Roupe was fatally shot in the chest Friday, Feb. 14 when Euharlee officers showed up at the door of his mobile home to serve a probation violation warrant for the boy’s father, WSB-TV reports. A female officer reportedly told the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that Roupe pointed a gun at her after he opened the door.

But the family’s attorney, Cole Law, said the boy was holding a Nintendo Wii video game controller, and was about to watch a movie.

 It's sad that police are now conditioned to believe that anything they can't immediately identify as safe is assumed to be a weapon, with predictable results.

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I know I piss people off ...

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... when I post that somebody needs to get beaten:

Colorado mother Jamelyn Steenhoek said she was sickened by the Denver District Attorney's Office refusal to file criminal charges against a Transportation Security Administration agent she says groped her in ways “as extensive as an exam” from a physician.

I post some of these things on facebook, and I know that a lot of my friends think 'Wow, Packetman's sure gone off the deep end'. I have, but it's only because there's no justice to be found, apparently, outside of violent action.

And I can assure you that if I thought that a TSA agent was getting out of line searching my daughter, you'd better fucking believe that there would be no number of officers that could keep me off of the offender. And I know a lot of folks who feel the same way.

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I can't really say ...

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... I'm opposed:

Missouri state Representative Rick Brattin, said Friday the controversy over lethal injections forces families of murder victims to wait too long for justice so he introduced his bill Thursday to add “firing squad” as an execution option.

I can't think of a single murder victim that went in a compassionate way. Why should their murderer get that consideration?

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This case will be ...

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... and interesting one to watch:

The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to review a Texas case and determine whether when a homeowner exercises his Second Amendment rights he gives up his Fourth Amendment rights.

In short, does the Second trump the Fourth?
The question is being presented by the Rutherford Institute on behalf of John Quinn of Texas.
Quinn’s home was the subject of a no-knock, SWAT-team style forceful entry and raid based “solely on the suspicion that there were legally owned firearms in the household,” the legal brief explains.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/supremes-asked-if-2nd-amendment-trumps-4th/#CK7u6w6TLpmZg4g3.99

The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to review a Texas case and determine whether when a homeowner exercises his Second Amendment rights he gives up his Fourth Amendment rights.

In short, does the Second trump the Fourth?

The question is being presented by the Rutherford Institute on behalf of John Quinn of Texas.

I don't see this one going very far, though it should go to SCOTUS and the conviction overturned.

How can a person be blamed for responding with deadly force when armed, organized invaders enter his home? John Quinn is lucky to be alive.

Unfortunately, and it pains me to say, this won't stop until some cops and judges start ending up dead.

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The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to review a Texas case and determine whether when a homeowner exercises his Second Amendment rights he gives up his Fourth Amendment rights.

In short, does the Second trump the Fourth?
The question is being presented by the Rutherford Institute on behalf of John Quinn of Texas.
Quinn’s home was the subject of a no-knock, SWAT-team style forceful entry and raid based “solely on the suspicion that there were legally owned firearms in the household,” the legal brief explains.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/supremes-asked-if-2nd-amendment-trumps-4th/#CK7u6w6TLpmZg4g3.99

The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to review a Texas case and determine whether when a homeowner exercises his Second Amendment rights he gives up his Fourth Amendment rights.

In short, does the Second trump the Fourth?
The question is being presented by the Rutherford Institute on behalf of John Quinn of Texas.
Quinn’s home was the subject of a no-knock, SWAT-team style forceful entry and raid based “solely on the suspicion that there were legally owned firearms in the household,” the legal brief explains.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/supremes-asked-if-2nd-amendment-trumps-4th/#dRSQ1uokDteXHrTH.99

Until the government can be trusted* ...

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... I can no longer support the death penalty:

But of course we don't measure justice by how many people the state executes. We measure it by how well states and counties administer fair trials and due process. And the problem here is that there seems to be a strong correlation between counties that frequently send people to death row, and counties with high rates of wrongful conviction, forensics scandals and prosecutorial misconduct, as found by appeals courts.

 In my neck of the woods, it was the case of Tonya Craft who, after even the father one of her accusers told investigators that the daughter and mother were making shit up, was charged with 23-odd charges of child molestation.

She was found Not Guilty on all counts and spent $500k on her defense. I know that's not a death penalty case but if you pay attention, there are lots of folks getting out of prison and an equal number of prosecutors that double down on their convictions.

I believe that the death penalty, fairly applied is just. What we have now is anything but.

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*That's kinda self-fulfilling, isn't it?!

I hope this doesn't get kicked out ....

.
... when it gets to court:

Sheriff's deputies must face claims related to their shooting of a man who heard possible intruders outside his home and stepped out with a gun to investigate, the 4th Circuit ruled.

 This one is interesting because the man suing did have a gun, but the judge basically ruled that the deputies fear was unreasonable.

And just so they know; if you want to speak to someone at their house, knock on the door and announce yourself ... don't peck on the window.

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It's gotten to the point ...

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... that everyone needs video:

Officer Philip Nace . . . is perhaps the first Philly lawman to get benched for what a police spokesman described simply as "idiotic behavior." . . .

"Nace is nasty," said Louis Goode, 55, who has lived on the corner of Park Avenue and Auburn Street for 30 years. "It's like he wakes up on the wrong side of the bed every morning."

And after several complaints, internal affairs took them seriously only when someone brought video of Nace' behavior.

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The IRS ...

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... gets caught again:

When the IRS starts targeting political dissent for scrutiny, they have stopped being a revenue collector and have become instead a political enforcer.  That’s dangerous for all Americans, and Congress needs to demand and enforce immediate reform in the IRS. 

I've got a better idea. If you're ever contacted by the IRS, tell them you'd be happy to meet in your attorneys office. If they show up, sit down, draw a handgun and lay it on the table.

Now lets talk.

Our society is doomed because we've taken all of the consequence out of bad actions. Jefferson warned us this would happen.

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Athis makes a certain amount ...

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... of sense:

Laws should be written in comportment with human behavior. It is normal human behavior to shoot a fleeing punk in this situation. The law should therefore bless it.

The law should not be an ass.

The law should be written to make sense to the common man, not the exceptional one. Perhaps an exceptional man places so much value on the life of the man who just beat him, threatened him with a shotgun, and stole his fortune that he would rather let a fleeing robber escape than fire a shot at him.

The story is about the French jeweler who is facing charges for shooting a fleeing man who had just robbed him and his store.

Some who know economic theory would tend to agree. The thought that possessions aren't worth someone's life is only valid if you believe that possessions just appear out of thin air. The things you have (unless you've stolen them) you've obtained by trading portions of your life for money, money that you then used to get your things. So one could make the case that by taking your things, a robber is taking a part of your life. I tend to agree.

How much of your life would you be willing to part with before you started shooting?

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It's good ...

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... that sometimes there's accountability:

Former cop Joshua Colclough admitted Friday that he shot her unarmed son dead, during a botched drug raid that ignited racially charged tensions across the city.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and accepted a four-year prison sentence . . . 

There's video, though I haven't watched it (sometimes you just don't need to see yet another innocent gunned down).

Maybe all of the pinhole cameras showed that the DA had no choice.

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Will no one rid me ...

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..,. of this intolerable man?

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell called the verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman, the Florida man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, “questionable” Sunday.

 His statements are a bit hard to pin down as to what he really means; leave it to the media to NOT ask the questions which would clarify.

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Radley Balko ...

.
... has a long ... long look at prosecutors:

NEW ORLEANS -- Some questions seem particularly prone to set John Thompson off. Here's one he gets a lot: Have the prosecutors who sent him to death row ever apologized?

Man convicted of two crimes he didn't commit (through prosecutorial misconduct), is exonerated, retried and acquitted and yet the men who put him on death row face no consequences.

I've long been a proponent of the death penalty, but as it's currently applied I cannot support it, especially when it could kill an innocent man or woman. Men and women running for office who can't admit mistakes I look at with great suspicion (Rick Perry).

And though it didn't involve the death penalty, even in small-town USA there are instances where prosecutors seem to go for broke because of the nature of the charges.

I understand that Claire Wolfe thinks we're still in the awkward stage, but damn it seems like we're going to have to start shooting ... and soon!

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This is why the NRA ...

.
... needs to stop pedaling this particular tricycle:

Since Florida has tied firearms to minimum sentencing laws, the real reason Marissa Alexander will sit in a jail cell for the next 20 years is because of gun control legislation, whether the media wants to admit it or not.

In the effort to show how 'tough' they are about those who misuse firearms in crime they've made it easy for folks to be subject to unreasonable sentences just because they used a gun.

Trust me, the victim of an aggravated assault cares not whether a gun of a big stick was used.

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Massad Ayoob ...

.
... talks about the Zimmerman persecution:

The verdict is now in, and I’m gonna smooth those teethmarks off my tongue, and in the next few entries here will discuss some elements of the Zimmerman case which have been widely and profoundly misunderstood.

Since Mas is living in FL now, you can bet your last dollar that he knows the law inside and out ... not to mention his lifetime of practical self-defense knowledge. I'll be looking forward to hearing what he has to say!

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The aftermath ...

.
... of the Zimmerman trial.

After having watched most of the trial and the pressers (including the post-verdict) I am of the impression that Mark O'Mara and Don West have earned every penny of their fee. In addition, Mr O'Mara showed exceptional grace in his victory, expressing no ill will even though he had every right to brag and toot his own horn. Don West was less constrained but still didn't unload like he could have (and was trying hard not to!).

O'Mara did have a choice comment for the reporter who wanted to ask just one more question - how the media aided and abetted Zimmermans prosecution and how they needed to examine how they were fed a narrative (by the racial grievance industry) and ran with it, uncritically.

As for the prosecution, O'Mara still has sanction motions that need to be ruled on, and he needs to appeal any that he does not win. After all, it's immaterial that Zimmerman was acquitted - the prosecution still played fast and loose with the evidence.

Second, O'Mara needs to put together his ground for an appeal even though he won. He needs to do this and submit it to the bar association with a request that Judge Nelson be investigated to determine if she is suitable to be on the bench ... any bench.

Angela Corey and Bernie de la Rionda at the very least should be investigated for possible disbarment, and John Guy and Rich Mantei should be sanctioned (and resign).

Political pressure needs to be brought to bear to have Pam Bondi resign - period. Political pressure also needs to be brought to bear on national politicians to discourage civil rights charges, but because this is politics I have no illusions that any of it will happen.

Regardless, I'm thankful that George Zimmerman is free and at least has a chance at a normal life.

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How it could have ...

.
... gotten so out of whack:

Zimmerman is the latest Bernie Goetz; another wholly unlikely cult figure who currently campaigns for vegetarian lunches in public schools and squirrel rescue. It's not that the two men had anything particularly in common. Unlike Goetz, it is very unlikely that Zimmerman jumped the gun, so to speak, but they both fill a similar niche. They represent the embattled lower half of the middle class.

The defense of George Zimmerman will likely rest today, so with closing arguments that will take most of tomorrow the jury should have it by Friday.

My sincere hope is that the jury has listened to the evidence and will quickly reach a verdict of Not Guilty before close of business on Friday.

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this is why we don't go to the media ...

.
... to get firearms advice:

Savage pointed out that Zimmerman’s gun had the safety off and a bullet chambered, leading him to believe that the “neighborhood watchman” had gone out looking for a violent confrontation.

I've always been ambivalent about Michael Savage, mnever having really listened to him ... now I'm glad I haven't.

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You should pay attention ...

.
... to this man:

 I’ll address some of the issues revolving around the first three days of trial, including the initial contribution of Witness 8, Rachel Jeantel, AKA Dee Dee, shortly, but first, a visit to a pre-trial motion that has the potential–by itself–to constitute reversible error should George Zimmerman be convicted.  I speak of the Defendant’s Third Motion to Continue of 06-8-13.

Mike has given his readers a well-reasoned look at the inner workings of how a criminal case should proceed ... this one doesn't.

Put Mike in your feed and watch Legal Insurrection for a live feed of the Zimmerman trial, as well as commentary and updates by Andrew Branca.

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If you're not watching the Zimmerman trial ...

.
... you should be, because the prosecutions case is unravelling before their very eyes:

But Guy may have tripped himself up when he asked Noffke why he didn’t order Zimmerman not to follow Martin. As Noffke said, for liability reasons, the dispatcher could not give commands, only suggestions. This essentially put a lie to the myth Zimmerman “disobeyed” the dispatcher.

At the beginning of jury selection two weeks ago, the AP had written, “Zimmerman called 911, got out of his vehicle and followed Martin behind the townhomes despite being told not to by a police dispatcher.”

As Noffke’s testimony made clear, Zimmerman called the non-emergency number, not 911, exited the truck and started following Martin before the dispatcher suggested that he not follow Martin. In addition, the dispatcher is not a police officer. (emphasis added)

The trial is being streamed by NBC (and maybe others) on Legal Insurrection, where Andrew Branca is covering the trial for LI (and he's doing a fine job!). If you can't watch the trial live, wqatch Legal Insurrection in the evenings for Mr Branca's wrap-up of the days proceedings.

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