“Each subject is unlocatible!” or the Unreadable Manifesto of Accused Gabrielle Giffords Shooter Jared Laughner

January 8th, 2011

Here is part of the alleged manifesto of accused Gabrielle Giffords shooter Jared Laughner (which comes from people doing screen caps of his purported videos):

Hello, and welcome my classified leak of information that’s of the United States Military to the student body and you. Firstly, I want you to understand this from the start. Did you know grammar is double blind, listener? Secondly, if you want to understand the start of revelatory thoughts then listen to this video. I’ll look at you mother fuckin Anarchists who have a problem with them illegal illiterate pigs. :-D If you’re a citizen in the United States as of now, then your constitution is the United States. You’re a citizen in the United States as of now. Thus, your constitution is the United States. Laugh. I’ll let you in on their little cruel joke that’s genocidal. They’re argument is appeal to force on their jurisdiction with lack of proof of evidence. Each subject is in question for the location! The police don’t quite get paid correctly with them dirty front runners under section 10? Their country’s alliances are able to make illegal trades under section 10. Eh! I’m a Nihilist, not someone who put who put trust in god! What is section 10 you ask? If you make a purchase then it’s illegal under section 10 and amendment 1 of the United States constitution. You make a purchase. Therefore, it’s illegal under section 10 and amendment 1 of the United States constitution. We need a drum roll for those front runners in the election; those illegal teachers, pigs, and politicians of yours are under illegal authority of their constitution. Those dirty pigs think they know the damn year. Thirdly, tell them mother fuckers to count from 0 to whenever they feel a threat to stop their count. We can all hope they add new numbers and letters to their count down. Did you run out of breath around the trillions, listener? Well, B.C.E is yet to start for Ad to begin! What does this mean for a citizen in any country? Those illegal military personal are able to sign into a country that they can’t find with an impossible date! How did you trust your child with them fraud teachers and front runners, listener? Did you now know that the teachers, pigs, and front runners are treasonous! You shouldn’t jump to conclusion with your education plan. The constitution as of now, which is in use by the current power pigs, aren’t able to protect the bill of rights! Do you now have enough information to know the two wars are illegal! What is your date of time, listener? Fourthly, those applications that are with background checks break the United States constitution! What’s your riot name? I’ll catch you! Top secret: Why don’t people control the money system? Their Current Currency(1/1) / Your new infinite currency (1/~infinte) This is a selcte information of revoluntary thoughts! Section 10 – Powers prohibited of States No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it’s inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress. No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay. Each subject is unlocatible!

If that is indeed his real manifesto, then the only political faction he seems to belong to is The Republic of Loony Tunes. It seems like something more from an Ionesco play or a Monty Python skit than a political assassin.

Nothing to add except linking to this Radley Balko bit, which pretty much sums it all up.

This Week in Jihad for January 6, 2011

January 6th, 2011

I hope everyone had a Happy New Year. Here’s a roundup from the world of Jihad, where things aren’t nearly so happy:

(Hat tips: JihadWatch, Creeping Sharia, Michael Totten, etc.)

Obama Loses the David Brooks Vote

January 6th, 2011

It is well known that one of the biggest reasons for columnist David Brooks’ otherwise inexplicable swoon over Obama was his natty dressing style. “I remember distinctly an image of—we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and I’m thinking, a) he’s going to be president and b) he’ll be a very good president.”

However, Obama may have just lost the all-important Brooks vote due to this image:

Can David Brooks possibly love an Obama that can’t even button a jacket correctly? Sure, you and I may think “Eh, it happens.” But we’re not hyper-fashion-aware columnists for The New York Times.

Also, does anyone doubt that if Bush misbuttoned his jacket, it would have instantly been proclaimed a sign of mental deficiency across the lefty blogosphere?

Governor of Punjab Assasinated for Opposing Blasphemy Laws

January 4th, 2011

This is not good news. Imagine if the governor of California or Texas were assassinated in broad daylight by his own bodyguard. Well, that’s what happened to Punjab Governor Salman Taseer in Pakistan. Of course, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was also assassinated, and Indian PM Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her own bodyguards, in large measure due to policies regarding Sikhs in the Indian portion of Punjab.

As for who is responsible, who knows? It could be a freelance jihadist, it could be al Quada, it could be Taliban, or it could be some of the Islamist elements of the Pakistani ISI. (Given the circumstances, I’m assuming it wasn’t Kashmiri nationalists, though stranger things have happened.) In any case, it’s bad news for a nuclear-armed nation that always seems to be inching ever closer to become a failed state.

I don’t have any particular insight into Pakistani, so I direct you to the odd piece by the ever-interesting Christopher Hitchens, which are long on insight and short on hope. Sometimes, as in the Middle East, there are simply no good options.

A Centennial Worth Celebrating

January 1st, 2011

This year is the hundredth anniversary of John Moses Browning’s Colt M1911 automatic pistol, the basis of pretty much every automatic handgun. The design is so successful that, to the untrained eye, a .45 automatic manufactured today will look very much the original 1911. Here, for example is my own Kimber .45, purchased in the mid-1990s:

Compare this to the original M1911, and the even closer (and only slightly revised) M1911A from 1926:

The M1911 deign has really stood the test of time. You’d be hard-pressed to find a device of similar complexity still in common use today that hasn’t undergone radical modification. Hats off to the far-sighted shade of John Moses Browning.

This Week in Jihad for December 30, 2010

December 30th, 2010

One last batch of Jihad news to tide you over until the New Year:

Poll: What is the Most Annoying, Insipid, and Self-Righteous Left-Wing Political Song of All Time?

December 29th, 2010

This post by Ann Althouse (and the ensuing comments) got me thinking about just what is the worst liberal song of all time? Being a man of action, I went ahead and created a poll:

What is the most annoying, insipid, and self-righteous left-wing political song of all time?
Bruce Cockburn: “If I Had a Rocket Launcher”
Bob Dylan: “Masters of War”
John Lennon: “Imagine”
Midnight Oil: “Beds are Burning”
Peter, Paul and Mary: “If I Had a Hammer” (originally Pete Seeger)
Pink Floyd: “The Fletcher Memorial Home”
Helen Reddy: “I Am Woman”
Sting: “Russians”
XTC: “Here Comes President Kill Again”
Neil Young: “Southern Man”
  
pollcode.com free polls

A few notes on my criteria:

  • It had to be a popular song people would actually recognize (which meant everything by Rage Against the Machine was right out)
  • It had to suck (so things like the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” and many Dead Kennedys songs were exempt because they kicked ass)
  • Only one song per artist (I mean, I really could have used just about everything off Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut otherwise)
  • It had to have a certain self-righteous pretentiousness about it, so anything that was actually funny was exempt.

So go ahead and vote for your favorite musical slice of Suckitude.

Massachusetts Criminal Justice System Unclear on the Concept of a “Life Sentence”

December 29th, 2010

The Massachusetts Criminal Justice System seems to be especially unclear on the idea that, if a career felon is in jail on “three concurrent life sentences,” you don’t let him out on parole. Their lack of clarity on that issue cost 35-year police veteran John “Jack” Maguire his life.

(Hat tip: Say Uncle.)

More on China’s Housing Bubble

December 28th, 2010

Last week I mentioned that China’s Housing bubble is already worse than America and Japan’s respective bubbles.

Today the Wall Street Journal provides even more confirmation:

It’s impossible to say definitively that a market has strayed into bubble territory until after the collapse. But prices rising out of the reach of average buyers is one indicator. Housing prices in the U.S. peaked at 6.4 times average annual earnings this decade. In Beijing, the figure is 22 times.

The figures get even worse when you consider that the “shadow market” (i.e., banks making “off book” loans) means the bubble is even worse than it seems:

Local governments and banks have set up off-balance sheet vehicles to conceal loans and keep the spending boom going. Fitch Ratings estimates that not only did banks exceed the central bank’s 7.5 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) cap on lending for this year, they made an additional three trillion yuan of these shadow loans.

Something that can’t go on forever won’t. That’s especially true of a housing boom in a country aging as rapidly as China (which Mark Steyn famously said “will get old before it gets rich”); and don’t forget that a rapidly aging populace was also a factor in Japan’s own “lost decade.”

The big question is whether China’s housing bubble or Europe’s Sovereign Debt Crisis pops first. The aftershocks of both will certainly be felt in our own economy…

New York vs. Texas

December 26th, 2010

Guess which one is the better place to live?

When the Internet economy allows an increasing number of people to live anywhere, low costs win. Texans spend 8.4% of income on state and local taxes compared with 11.7% for New Yorkers. Dollars that would rent a fifth-floor walk-up in New York City instead can buy a small ranch and maybe even acreage in Texas’ suburbs, where prairie begs to be paved for another Applebee’s.
Texas creates jobs like a fiend, in part because businesses large and small have no worry of obstacles such as plaintiff-friendly courts, consumer-friendly regulators or oversight-friendly lawmakers. Pro-business isn’t just a mantra; they put it in the water.

Oil and gas still play a huge role here, but are increasingly overshadowed by technology, medical and defense jobs. Texas has more Fortune 500 company headquarters than New York.