This time the victim is a Human Events reporter.
What is it with liberals incensed people are taking their picture on public property? Do they think people are stealing their soul? Or just their chances of retaining power?
Today’s Liberal Assaulting Someone for Taking Their Picture Comes to You From the One Nation Rally
October 6th, 2010The Decline and Fall of the U.S. Air Force?
October 5th, 2010The main purpose of government is to protect its citizens from criminals within the nation (via the police and courts) and from enemies without (via the armed forces). Obama’s trillion dollar deficits not only threaten prosperity, they actually threaten national defense. Between extended missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and budgetary neglect at home, how are are armed forces holding up? According to this piece, the Air Force isn’t doing so well:
The average age of the refueler and bomber fleet, which forms the foundation of U.S. air power-projection capability, now exceeds fifty years. Most of the Air Force’s fighters were built in the 1970s. Virtually all Air Force aircraft are decades past their planned retirement dates. Technology designed to overcome Vietnam War-era surface-to-air missiles and fighters is becoming obsolete in the face of emerging air-defense capabilities. Air Force bases built half a century ago are poorly placed to meet emerging deterrence missions. Today, a large portion of the Air Force exists only on paper, its aircraft too old to fly in combat but requiring enormous sums to maintain. If current procurement practices continue, the readiness and effectiveness of U.S. airpower will steadily worsen over time, with serious consequences for U.S. national security.
This piece is well worth reading. However, I have to dissent from some of the conclusions. Frankly, the era of the manned strategic bomber has passed. There are few battlefield missions that can’t be carried out better by a combination of strike fighter aircraft, unmanned drones, and cruise missiles. The renowned “loiter” capability didn’t give us any advantage when we were hunting Saddam’s scuds during the first Gulf War.
Also, to say that “emerging land- and air-based defenses are likely to render [older fighters] incapable of participating in conventional conflict” overstates the case. In a near-term conflict with Russia now, or one with CHina ten years down the road, that might be the case. There’s simply no other nation on earth that, even with our depleted air force, we shouldn’t have achieved decisively air superiority over within 24 hours, because that’s maximum Russia’s export anti-aircraft batteries can be expected to last under a concerted American air assault. (Further down the road things may well be different.)
But the central point, that some of the biggest sticks in our air arsenal are getting dangerously old, is still undoubtedly true. Serious investment is going to be needed to rectify the problem, and sooner rather than later.
(Hat tip: Todd H.)
Fascinating Michael Totten Piece on the Druze of the Golan Heights
October 4th, 2010Michael Totten’s pieces are always worth reading, and this piece on the Druze of the Golan Heights is no exception.
I especially liked this bit on the religious beliefs of the Druze:
They’re monotheists who emerged from Islam a thousand years ago, but their religion changed so drastically it became something else. They don’t proselytize or wage wars of conversion or conquest. No one is even allowed to convert. That door closed in the year 1043. You’re either born a Druze, or you aren’t a Druze. And if you die a Druze, they say you’ll be reincarnated as one. Their religious texts are kept secret, not only from non-Druze, but from most Druze, as well. The “uninitiated” majority aren’t required to observe any rituals. They aren’t even allowed to know much about the religion.
Why is it that this one reader-funded world traveler always seems to bring back more interesting and detailed stories than all the Middle East bureaus of The New York Times combined?
As always with Totten’s work, read the whole thing and hit the tip jar if you feel so inclined.
I Was Wondering Why the Phrases “Spitzer” and “Call Girls” Were Leading My Blog Search Stats…
October 4th, 2010Well, now I know: Eliot Spitzer is joining CNN. Maybe CNN offered him a really sweet deal on his expense account…
Of course, this won’t even count as CNN’s most egregious breach of ethics, since that would still be Eason Jordan’s decision to cover up Saddam Hussein’s atrocities in order to maintain access.
CNN: The Least Trusted Name in News.
The Stuxnet Worm: Set Pants to Brown Alert
October 3rd, 2010The Weekly Standard has an interesting piece on The Stuxnet worm. It seems designed to attack Iran’s nuclear program, was in the wild for more than six months before being detected, featured stolen digital signature keys (which may have involved actual physical espionage) and used an off-the charts four zero-day exploits, which is pretty much unheard of.
We really, really better hope that we or the Israelis wrote this thing, because if not, there’s a team of scary-good black hat hackers out there (from the description of how large and sophisticated it is, and all the different things it does, makes me think it took at least ten really good hackers more than a year to create) that can physically destroy major infrastructure targets through code almost at will. You really, really don’t want a team of “non-state actors” to have those capabilities…
I suspect we’re getting a glimpse of what the opening rounds of the next major war will look like…
Voluntarily Cut Emissions or WE WILL KILL YOU!!!
October 1st, 2010The Eco-Left indulges their misanthropic fantasies of homicide against those that disagree with them, with comically horrifying results.
Keep in mind that the kind of people who heartily approve of such things are in the Obama Administration (and staff positions in the Pelosi/Reid congress) right now…
LinkSwarm for September 29, 2010
September 29th, 2010A few links you may find of interest:
- “Barack Obama is destroying the Democratic party. It may not recover for a long time. In this, he most closely resembles a synthesis of the failed candidacy of George McGovern and the catastrophic presidency of Herbert Hoover.”
- Are Democrats losing because the policies of Obama, Pelosi and Reid are unpopular? Nah. It’s because white people are crazy. (I think we’ve now had more racial friction in two years of Obama’s “post-racial” presidency than eight years of George W. Bush.)
- Mark Steyn on our internalization of Islam’s view of us.
- Who is to blame for our spiraling deficits? Bush? Obama? Neither. Steve Moore in the Wall Street Journal says it’s Pelosi and Reid.
- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran, get’s a rapturous reception from the usual far-left gang of race-hustling poverty pimps.
Shooting on UT Campus
September 28th, 2010There’s been a shooting on UT campus in Austin. Details are sketchy, but:
- The shooter is dead of apparently self-inflicted gunshot wounds in the Perry-Castaneda Library (UT’s main library, and a pretty big one).
- The campus is closed and on lock-down.
- Police are “looking for a second shooter” due to conflicting descriptions of the gunmen. If past shooting sprees are any indication, there won’t be one.
- UT’s own information system says no other injuries reported.
- UT was, of course, the site of Charles Joseph Whitman’s sniper killing spree, the largest until the Virginia Tech shooting.
- I am unable to find any evidence that UT has declared itself a “gun free zone.” UT’s policy states that it prohibits “Displaying a weapon or an object which appears to be a weapon in a threatening manner; carrying a firearm of any kind onto University owned or controlled property (except those permitted by state law or University policy); or using a weapon to harm someone.” “Except those permitted by state law” would suggest that a CHL permit holder could lawfully carry on campus itself, although I am unclear which buildings on campus may have signage stating that such carrying is prohibited. Edited to add: Not necessarily; see comments.
This would be a good time to revisit Karl Rehn’s advice on what to do if faced with an “active shooter.”
Updated to add: Ironically, John Lott, the author of More Guns, Less Crime, was scheduled to speak on UT campus at 6 PM today. Probably just one of those strange coincidences the universe throws up from time to time…
Edited to add 2: Here’s a live update blog. I’d take everything you read there with a grain of salt, especially reports of a tank on campus and the shooter having an “AK-47.” Possible, but remember this handy chart:
Edited to add 3: KXAN is reporting that it was an AK-47, the shooter as a 6’2″, 200 pound guy wearing a suit and tie, and that witnesses report he didn’t seem to be shooting at people so much as firing into the ground.
Edited to add 4: Here’s the live Austin police radio feed. Prepare to be bored stiff…
Edited to add 5: UT has given the all-clear, but the campus is still closed for the day. As predicted, police don’t think there’s a second gunman.
Edited to add 6: Shooter has now been identified as 19-year old math major Colton Tooley.
Follow-Up: Eugene Volokh and Glenn Reynolds on Issues Surrounding the Portland Assault Video
September 26th, 2010Several commentators on yesterday’s post and video about a man being assaulted by liberal thugs for the crime of videotaping Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Kitzhaber at an event open to the public at Emmanuel Temple Church in Portland, Oregon, opined that no crime had been committed, since the videographer was on private property, and thus should have complied with a request demand to stop filming.
I’m not a lawyer, so I am not clear on the issue, namely: Does a political event open to the public, but set in a private space, count, for the sake of the law, as occurring in a public space or a private space? I can see how both might apply, depending on the circumstances and on individual state law.
To clarify the issue, I asked two of the leading legal lights of the blogosphere, Eugene Volokh of the Volokh Conspiracy and Instapundit Glenn Reynolds for their opinion on the issue.
Volokh’s response:
Neither the press nor other speakers have a right to stay in a church when the owners or the agents tell them to leave. The same is true for other private property, except in a few states as to large shopping malls. Moreover, the owner of property has the right to use reasonable, nondeadly force to eject trespassers. But if the event is billed as open to the public, then trespassers wouldn’t be trespassers until they’re told to leave and refuse. I haven’t seen the video, so I can’t speak to the facts in this case.
Reynolds’ response:
I agree with Eugene. As a practical matter, if I were the filmer in question I would probably sue for assault, etc. on general principles. Fear of lawsuits causes people to do all sorts of things; it might as well make them more reluctant to hassle photographers. But that’s just me following the “punch back twice has hard” philosophy propounded by a great man.
Thanks for both gentlemen for clarifying some of the legal issues involved.
A few points:
- It is unclear from the video whether the people
askingordering the videographer to stop taping are representatives of the church or not. Indeed, the only name badge visible is not “Emmanuel Temple Church” but “African-American Alliance.” - A lot of people have stated that videotaping is not free speech. true, but irrelevant, since the First Amendment right in question here is not freedom of speech, but freedom of the press.
- If they had wanted to eject the videographer, they could have attempted to do that. They did not. Instead they punched him.
- Why was John Kitzhaber (or his lackeys) so adamant that no one was allowed to film him at a public event that they were willing to assault people to prevent it? Given all the previous incidents, you have to wonder if someone has sent out a memo from the Democratic National Committee telling candidates to prevent themselves from being filmed at all costs.
- If so, a fat lot of good that will due them in an age of small, cheap, ubiquitous cameras.