"Self defence", UK-style

Briton Tony Martin, who was convicted in a UK court of defending himself against a criminal, has been given a new self defense tool: An air raid siren.

I'm not making this up.

OK... I can tell from that look on your face that you don't believe me; but it's true... all of it. Yes, a man was convicted for what would be a perfectly lawful activity in the US. He defended himself against two teenage burglars who broke into his home. One goblin got his ticket punched, while the other was merely wounded. In the US, this is called a "good shoot". A 16-year old and a 29-year old constitute a grave threat to a 54-year old man. But not only was Tony Martin arrested, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 5 years in prison. And on top of that, the wounded burglar is suing him!

Tony Martin is finally getting out of prison, after previously being denied parole. (Friends mocked the parole board saying that Martin was being kept behind bars because he poses a threat to Britain's burglars.) He's been threatened by local thugs and a wealthy neighbor purchased the siren as some sort of self defense device. I'm sure that the man meant well. After years of being told that defending your own life or property is somehow anti-social behavior, he probably didn't see how silly the gesture really is.

Of course, the siren will merely signal to all within earshot that Mr. Martin has been killed.

The Biased Broadcasting Company

Brian Carnell dissects a highly biased, anti-gun story from the BBC.

Never bring a paintball marker to a gunfight.

I suppose that the question is: Will the State's Democrats lash themselves to the rails and go down with Gray Davis' sinking ship? Or will the rats go over the transom?

Eye in the sky.

The Northrup-Grumman Global Hawk spy plane is going into production. The Global Hawks that provided so much valuable intel in Iraq and Afghanistan were merely prototypes. These impressive spy planes can loiter for nearly a over a target at an altitude that makes them nearly impossible to target and hit with a SAM.

Some bad days lie ahead for the "evil doers".

The FreeRepublic Quote of the Day: "The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data.'" from CholeraJoe.

Today is a sad day for the United States: Bob Hope, 1903-2003.

The gun thing didn't work, so now the nation's trial attorneys are going after ice cream.

Another anti-gun lawsuit bites the dust. This is the case from the NAA(L)CP in NY. The funny thing is that the judge in the case was cherrypicked by the hoplophobes. It was supposed to be a slam dunk for them. So even their hand selected judge couldn't come up with a way to make their claims work.

BWAAAHAAAAHAAAAHAAAA!!

"Hurricane" Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles) and ten of her Democrat cohorts were caught on an open mic in Sacramento plotting to extend the State's budget crisis for political gain. Their conversation was picked up by a "squawk box" and broadcast throughout the capitol building.

Kinda reminds ya of Frank and Hotlips, don't it?!

Ayatollah bugs

(Not to be confused with a rabbit in a turban.)

I don't know why you're a Democrat either, Tammy.

Some local stupidity...

James Swan documents some of our local stupidity in Bowless in Burbank. The Burbank city council has voted to ban bow hunting in the city. "So what" you ask? Perhaps you think that there's no where to hunt in the city. There is just such an area. The Verdugo Hills stretch from the Foothill Freeway south towards the intersection of the Ventura and Golden State freeways. This is the line of hills you see to the east of Burbank Airport. There are roughly 500 deer in those hills; more than enough to support bowhunting of the herd. There are also small game animals and coyotes to hunt.

The yuppies jogging on the trails (Appearently unaware that the mountain lions who moved into the area attracted by the deer like to chase things that run. They are cats, after all.) didn't like seeing bow hunters hiking into the hills. They whined to the city council, and the city council, in its wisdom, voted to remove the herd's top predator from the ecosystem. Not smart. Without their top predator, the deer will over-graze. When they start to run out of natural food, they'll move into people's gardens. More than a few will wind up bouncing off the hoods of the yuppies' Volvos and Lexuses. (Or would that be "Lexi"?) Of course, the lions will also move into the neighborhoods looking for the deer. But once they get into town, they'll realize that there are plenty of tasty dogs and cats. They may be small , but they're easier to catch than deer. Small children are even easier for lions to catch, by the way.

But none of that mattered to the city council. Deer are cute and fluffy and hunters are Neanderthals in the council's tidy, little world. Let's hope that the DFG or the courts straightens this out before too much harm has been done.

Paul Greenberg: How diversity became Orwellian

Sandra Day O'Conner gets complimented as a "doubleplusgood doublethinker". (Also on FreeRepublic.com.)

The French are always good for a laugh.

Cathryn Crawford writes about Big Brother and his big GPS. An Oregon governmental task force is proposing to install GPS transponders in private vehicles to monitor, and then tax, road usage.

I'm starting to wonder about this "African Uranium" controversy. Are the Dems swinging at a tarbaby?

Here's the sit: Bush, in his last State of the Union address, mentions a British report. That report claims that Iraq tried to buy uranium from an African nation. At about the same time, the CIA had a letter, supposedly bogus, that mentions an attempted purchase of uranium from Niger. This letter and the British report are two different things. The Brits still stand behind their story. (The CIA's letter, BTW, has been tied to France.) In other words, there is no there there. Bush didn't lie, he didn't deceive, he did nothing wrong. The sequence of events is easily explainable.

So why isn't the Bush Administration making that easy explaination?

Enter the tarbaby. The Bushies are, if nothing else, slick politicians. Nothing happens in Dubya's White House by accident. I doubt that the clumsy handling of this controversy is purely accidental. Rove and company may be waiting for that last foot to get lodged in the tarbaby. He and Dubya have left a lot of hoof prints on people who "misunderestimated" Bush. This may be another example of them setting up his adversaries.

Bob Barr does deserve hazardous duty pay!

Instapundit noticed some interesting backpedaling from the anti-gun crowd...

But here's the most revealing quote:

Matt Nosanchuk, litigation director for the Violence Policy Center, a gun-control advocacy group, said there is no evidence that greater access to guns reduces crime.

Remember how anti-gun folks used to say that reducing gun controls would lead to "blood in the streets?" Now the best they can claim is that it probably won't reduce crime.

I guess that Sarah's minions realize that the "blood in the streets" thing needs actual blood in an actual street at least once to be effective.