Southern Poverty Law Center….do tell…..
The guy in the green shirt on the bottom left is an attorney that works for @splcenter. https://t.co/IC8l5rxraZ
— JenniferW (@JenWoodruff79) March 6, 2023
Antifa Thugs Firebomb Atlanta Public Training Facility Construction Site.
A few weeks after a shootout with police left an Antifa protester dead and a Georgia State Trooper injured, the “Defend the Atlanta Forest” movement of far-left goons has firebombed the construction site of a future public training facility for the city of Atlanta.
The domestic terrorist action came about as part of a “Week of Action” that the far-left group announced last month.
The “action” began as a series of protest marches in Atlanta on Saturday but culminated in the violent act of terrorism that took place on Sunday night.
You can see the throngs of “protesters” coming to do damage to the construction site in the second image here.
“Forest defenders have taken over the police surveillance outpost on the power line clearing near Intrenchment Creek,” reports the Unicorn Riot Twitter account. “Police retreated after crowd arrived at barbed wire fence and shot fireworks into the area.”
“People are smashing and destroying the outpost’s remains, sirens can be heard in the distance,” the tweet thread continues. “A security light post is on fire.”
These people are brazenly flaunting their handiwork. They don’t even care who knows anymore.
“There was a massive police presence along Key Road in southeast Atlanta early Sunday evening as FOX 5 was told protestors were actively clashing with officers,” reports Fox 5. “Officials said at least one construction vehicle was set on fire.”
The good news is that police have locked down the site and put out the flames, and SWAT crews are in place.
Because it’s Sunday night, we haven’t seen statements yet from the city of Atlanta, Mayor Andre Dickens, or Gov. Brian Kemp.
This is a developing story, and we’ll have more information as circumstances warrant.
Home break-in under investigation in Roanoke County
ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. (WFXR) — The Roanoke County Police Department says a person was shot during a break-in at an apartment complex on Sunday morning.
Around 2:41 a.m. on March 5, officers responded to the North Point Apartments for a call of a break-in. At the scene, investigators learned the homeowner used their gun and the alleged intruder was shot.
NEW DETAILS: Christiansburg Police search for missing man
The yet-to-be-identified person was taken to the Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
No arrests have been made at this time.
Investigators say the homeowner is fully cooperating and the incident remains under investigation.
No-permit concealed carry advances in Nebraska Legislature
After years of trying to pass a bill to allow people to carry concealed guns in Nebraska without a permit, conservative lawmakers are on the cusp of doing so, thanks in part to the defection of two Democratic Omaha senators — the only Black lawmakers in the body — who cited racial disparity in enforcing gun laws in their districts.
After three days of debate, lawmakers voted 36-12 Friday to advance the bill. It must survive two more rounds of debate to pass.
While the bill would not usurp the federal requirement for a background check to buy a gun, it would allow people to carry guns hidden in their clothing or vehicle without having to pay for a government permit or take a now-required gun safety course. It also would override stricter gun laws in the state’s cities, including in the state’s largest city of Omaha, which requires a conceal carry license for anyone carrying a gun in a car — even if the gun is in open view.
It’s that Omaha law that spurred Omaha Sens. Justin Wayne and Terrell McKinney to break party ranks and support the bill.
“How many young African American and Latino kinds are affected by Omaha’s gun laws?” asked Wayne on the Senate floor. Young Black people in Omaha are often charged with gun possession violations when a gun that’s not theirs is found in a car they’re riding in, Wayne said.
The practice, known in law enforcement circles as “bumping up,” disproportionally affects people of color, he said.
“When they’re talking about bumping up kids in Omaha, they’re not talking about kids in Bennington,” Wayne said, referring to the overwhelmingly white bedroom community north of Omaha. “They’re not talking about kids in western Nebraska.”
McKinney said the creation of early gun control laws in the U.S. “was out of fear of Black people.”
“I’m not going to sit here and not try to fight for my community,” he said. “The police don’t care about Black people.”
Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon — the bill’s conservative sponsor who has tried since 2017 to pass it — backed McKinney’s comments, citing colonial American laws that criminalized arming Native Americans. Brewer is an Oglala Lakota Tribe member and Nebraska’s only Native American lawmaker.
Currently, 25 other states have so-called constitutional carry laws that allow people to carry concealed guns without a permit. Last month, the Republican-controlled South Carolina House voted to pass that state’s own constitutional carry bill.
The Nebraska bill is opposed by the cities of Omaha and Lincoln, where the majority of gun violence occurs, and their police chiefs, who have said the measure will make their cities less safe.
Nebraska already allows gun owners to carry firearms in public view, as long as they don’t have a criminal record that bars them from possessing one and aren’t in a place — including churches, courthouses and private businesses — where guns are prohibited. To legally conceal the gun, Nebraskans are required to submit to a Nebraska State Patrol background check, get fingerprinted and take a gun safety course at their own expense.
Most bills need 33 votes to pass in Nebraska’s unique one-house Legislature. There are currently 17 Democratic lawmakers in the officially nonpartisan body — enough to successfully filibuster most bills if they all vote together.
But two other Democrats joined Wayne and McKinney in voting for the permitless conceal carry bill, including Omaha Sen. Mike McDonnell, a former Omaha firefighter union president who switched to support the measure after the Omaha police union pulled its objection to the bill. Democratic Sen. Lynne Walz, of Fremont, abstained from voting.
A spokesperson for Republican Gov. Jim Pillen’s office said Friday that the governor supports the bill and would sign it into law if it passes.
March 6
12 BC – The Roman Emperor Augustus is named Pontifex Maximus – Greatest Priest – the chief high priest of the pagan College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome, adding that title to Emperor.
845 – The 42 Martyrs of Amorium, taken prisoner years earlier during the sack of that byzantine city, are killed after refusing to convert to Islam.
961 – The byzantine army under the command of Nikephoros Phokas conquers the moslem fortress Rabḍ al-Handaq at Heraklion, completing the retaking of the island of Crete.
1521 – During his circumnavigation, Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Guam.
1820 – The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe.
1836 – After a 13 day siege by an army of 3,000 Mexican troops under Generalissimo Santa Anna, the 187 Texas volunteers, including frontiersman Davy Crockett and Colonel Jim Bowie, defending the Alamo are killed and the fort captured.
1857 – In the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court rules 7–2 in that the Constitution does not confer citizenship on black people.
1899 – Bayer registers “Aspirin” as a trademark.
1933 – During the Great Depression, 2 days after his inauguration, President Roosevelt declares a “bank holiday”, closing all U.S. banks and freezing all financial transactions until Congress can pass a Emergency Banking Relief Act on March 9 that reopens banks on March 13.
1946 – Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
1951 – The trial of Soviet spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
1953 – At the death of Joseph Stalin the previous day, Georgy Malenkov succeeds him as Premier of the Soviet Union and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1970 – Members of the terrorist Weather Underground succeed in detonating several bombs they were making at a safe house in Greenwich Village, killing 3 of them.
1975 – For the first time the Zapruder film of the assassination of John F. Kennedy is shown in motion to a national TV audience by Robert J. Groden and Dick Gregory.
2018 – Forbes financial service names Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest person, for the first time, at $112 billion net worth.
Kostas Moros
Few baseless claims are more frustrating than the idea that anyone who cares about the right to keep and bear arms “doesn’t care about people being murdered” and that we somehow support mass shooters.
No, we hate those vile lowlifes so much that we want them to be promptly shot in the head when their rampage begins, and not ten minutes later when the police arrive and the harm is already done.
There have been many examples of armed good Samaritans either preventing mass shootings entirely, or cutting short ones that would have hurt or killed many more people. Unfortunately, too many states preemptively disarm good samaritans by either making CCW permits hard to get, or by allowing “gun free zones” to proliferate, where killers know they are unlikely to meet armed resistance.
Also too often, the media does not cover prevented mass shootings with anywhere near the same attention as they do completed atrocities. That’s a shame, given we know that a big chunk of mass shooters are obsessed with becoming infamous. They need to be made aware that their vision of twisted glory can commonly end with Dicken-style humiliation.
Stop fearing them. Instead, it’s long past time we make these dirtbags afraid.
Gun Registration is for Confiscation
Quote of the Day
If we had gun registration, if we were able to track purchases, they have a technology that every bullet could be stamped like a fingerprint, if we had an ATF that wasn’t defunded, we would be able to enforce gun laws more effectively and we would be able to solve gun crimes more effectively.
Jon Stewart
March 3, 2023
Jon Stewart Brutally Confronts Republican Lawmaker Over Gun Deaths
“If”.
The object of the first two “if” statements is false and will continue to be false for a long time in the future, if not for a century or more. And I can see a plausible future where the ATF is, at least, not just underfunded, from Stewarts view, but stripped of the letter ‘A’ in its name.
And how many crimes have been solved using gun registration in Hawaii or Canada?* The numbers I have heard have been zero and one. So, what color is the sky in Stewarts universe?
Or, a better question, what is the nature of his evil intent? The only reason for gun registration is confiscation.
However the best question is, will he continue to waste oxygen on this and related topics after judges strike down any law that hint at registration. We already have a gun serial number law struck down. How does Stewart think registration is possible with no serial numbers?
* Gun Violence Research, GVPedia, claims it is MYTH: Firearm registries never helped solve a crime. But it is very telling they dance around the question without ever answering it affirmatively:
MSU professor illustrates problem with gun control advocates
The state of Michigan was likely to adopt gun control either this year or next regardless of any other factor. The shooting at Michigan State University, however, simply provided a handy pretext for anti-gun voices to rally around.
A prime example is one professor who issued his own call for gun control recently.
Marco Díaz-Muñoz, an assistant professor at Michigan State University whose classroom was attacked by a gunman, encouraged Michigan lawmakers Thursday to do the “right thing” and the “humane thing” by enacting new gun control measures.
Díaz-Muñoz, 64, was teaching a class in Berkey Hall about Cuban cultural identity on Feb. 13 when the gunman opened fire, killing two students. For the entirety of the evening, the mass shooting on the university campus in East Lansing left three students dead and wounded five others.
It was the darkest event of Díaz-Muñoz’s life, he told members of the Michigan Senate’s Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety Committee.
“Before the tragic events at MSU, I was already a supporter of sensible gun control laws,” Díaz-Muñoz said. “However, my experience that night has strongly solidified my belief that gun control laws are an absolute necessity to stop the senseless killings that occur on a daily basis in this country.”
First, I have to ask, how many people think a college professor at a major university teaching “cultural identity” didn’t support gun control before the shooting happened? Show of hands.
Yeah, kind of what I thought.
Of course, he kind of admits that when he says it “solidified” his belief, but anyway, that’s not what I want to talk about anyway.
See, Díaz-Muñoz’s comments are predicated on something that gun control advocates have seemingly been basing all their rhetoric on for years.
It’s like they actually think we agree that gun control works.
There’s nothing in Díaz-Muñoz’s comments that suggests that he’s trying to convince anyone that regulation is the right course of action. Instead, it looks as if, in his mind, the matter is already settled.
Look, “everybody knows” is a terrible way to argue in favor of something. It’s a pretty good Leonard Cohen song, but a terrible way to argue.
Now, Díaz-Muñoz is just one example, but he’s far from the first.
Anti-gunners love to stomp and scream that we need to pass gun control, and that failing to do so will result in “senseless killings” and such, but there’s no real argument there. There’s nothing to convince those of us who disagree to change our minds.
Unless, of course, they actually think we believe gun control works and are refusing to embrace it because of other reasons.
And even if I thought gun control worked, I’d likely still oppose it because our rights cannot be set aside so easily.
Yet I don’t think it works. Quite the contrary, actually, I’ve seen ample evidence to believe it doesn’t. But the arguments never seem to address this. For many of them, it’s a foregone conclusion, a universal truth, that gun control stops mass shootings.
Never you mind about the two in California just days apart. Don’t talk about how it failed to stop either them or the Buffalo killer, as just a couple of examples. No, those are irrelevant and you shouldn’t fret about those cases.
Instead, you should just…what? Take their word? Take the word of seriously flawed and biased studies?
Well, we don’t. We’re unconvinced, and when Díaz-Muñoz simply demand that we capitulate and give up our rights for their peace of mind, well, we’re even less convinced.
But this is what the gun control side’s arguments typically are. They’re people stomping and screaming like spoiled children because we won’t do what they tell us to, and about the only reason I can find for them to do such is because they think their position is so self-evident that they don’t need to defend it.
They’re quite wrong.
Man shoots, seriously wounds intruder on Northwest Side
CHICAGO (CBS) – A man shot and seriously wounded another man who broke into his home on the city’s Northwest Side early Sunday morning.
The shooting happened in the 3600 block of North Newcastle Avenue in Dunning around 1:20 a.m.
Chicago police say officers responded to the residence and found the suspect, 27, shot in the arm.
The victim told officers that he was awakened by his dog’s barking, heard a loud noise in the basement, and proceeded with his firearm to check.
The victim found the unknown suspect in the house who proceeded to walk toward him. The victim then discharged his weapon – striking the intruder, police said.
The suspect was taken to Lutheran General Hospital in serious condition and is in custody.
No further injuries were reported. Area Five Detectives are investigating.
March 5
1496 – King Henry VII of England issues letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorizing them to explore “part[s] of the world placed, which before this time were unknown to all Christians.” which lead to his voyages to North America.
1616 – Nicolaus Copernicus’ book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium – On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres – explaining his theory that the Sun is at the center of the universe, (a better, but still not perfect idea than that the Earth was at the center) is added to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum – Index of Forbidden Books – by the Roman Catholic Curia, 73 years after it was first published
1770 – 5 Americans, including Crispus Attucks, are killed by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, the “Boston Massacre”.
1836 – Under American patent #138, Samuel Colt’s Patent Arms Manufacturing Company of Paterson, New Jersey, is chartered by the New Jersey legislature.
1872 – George Westinghouse patents the air brake.
1936 – The prototype Supermarine Spitfire – K5054 – is flown for the first time.
1943 – The Gloster Meteor, Britain’s first combat jet aircraft is flown for the first time.
1946 – Winston Churchill coins the phrase “Iron Curtain” in his speech at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri.
1953 – Joseph Stalin, the longest serving leader of the Soviet Union, dies at his dacha in Moscow after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage four days earlier.
1970 – The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.
1974 – Occupied since October of the previous year during the Yom Kippur War, Israeli forces withdraw from the west bank of the Suez Canal.
IN SELF-DEFENSE
ARMED CITIZENS ARE FIGHTING BACK
There are now 25 states with so-called “Constitutional carry” and Florida appears to be approaching permitless carry, which translates to more citizens soon being able to carry defensive firearms without having to jump through the hoops of a licensing process.
There is another translation: Criminals, be careful … be very careful. In fact, now might be a good time to reconsider your career choices and see if the hardware store is hiring.
I routinely report on the number of active concealed pistol licenses in my home state of Washington, and following a slight end-of-year dip reported Jan. 3, the number has been steadily climbing. Last month, a whopping 698,186 active CPLs were reported by the state Department of Licensing.
Man turns the tables on attempted robbers
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Philadelphia police say an elderly man was shot while fighting back during an attempted robbery.
It happened just after 11 p.m. at 10th and York Streets in North Philadelphia.
Police say the 71-year-old man was heading home after picking up take-out food from a Chinese restaurant when two suspects tried to rob him.
That’s when the man pulled out his own gun, and he and the suspects fired shots.
The 71-year-old was hit in the leg and is expected to be OK.
The suspects ran off.
Philadelphia police Chief Inspector Scott Small said detectives are reviewing surveillance cameras in the area to see where they might have went.
“Hopefully these cameras recorded something that can help us,” Small said.
The victim was just a few blocks from his home when he was shot, Small added.
John Lott’s Testimony before the Michigan State Senate Judiciary Committee on Proposed Gun Control Laws
March 4
306 – Adrian of Nicomedia, a Herculian Guard of the Roman Emperor Galerius Maximian, is martyred soon after converting from paganism upon hearing the testimony of those he was torturing for their faith.
1493 – Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard Niña from his first voyage to the new world.
1519 – Conquistador Hernán Cortés arrives in Mexico in search of the Aztec civilization.
1628 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a Royal charter.
1681 – William Penn is granted a Royal charter to colonize the area that will later become Pennsylvania.
1776 – During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Army fortifies Dorchester Heights with cannon, leading the British troops to abandon the Siege of Boston.
1789 – In New York City, the first Congress of the United States meets, putting the United States Constitution into effect.
1791 – Vermont is admitted to the United States as the fourteenth state.
1794 – The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification
1797 – John Adams is inaugurated as the 2nd President of the United States of America, becoming the first President to begin his term of office on March 4.
1814 – During the War of 1812, American forces under Captain Andrew Holmes, engage and defeat British troops at the Battle of Longwoods between London, Ontario and present-day Wardsville, Ontario.
1837 – The city of Chicago is incorporated.
1861 – The first national flag of the Confederate States of America (the “Stars and Bars”) is adopted.
1865 – The third and final national flag of the Confederate States of America is adopted by the Confederate Congress.
1908 – The Lakeview School near Cleveland, Ohio, catches on fire, killing 172 students, 2 teachers and 1 fire fighter.
1913 – The United States Department of Labor is formed.
1917 – Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.
1933 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in as the 32nd President, and the last President to be inaugurated on March 4.
1933 – Frances Perkins becomes Secretary of Labor, the first female member of the Cabinet.
1957 – The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.
1985 – The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for HIV infection, used since then for screening all blood donations in the U.S.
1998 – In the case of Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc, the Supreme Court rules that federal laws banning on the job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.
2002 – During Operation Anaconda, 7 U.S. Special Operations Forces soldiers are killed ande 20 wounded, while killing 200 Al Qaeda fighters during battle atop Takur Ghar mountain in Afghanistan, as American forces attempt to infiltrate the Shah i Kot Valley.
Among many awards for valor, U.S. Navy Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Britt K. Slabinski and U.S. Air Force Combat Controller Technical Sergeant John A. Chapman eventually receive the Medal of Honor, Sergeant Chapman, posthumously.
Gov. DeSantis Says He’d Like Open Carry Added to Constitutional Carry Bill
On Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) told Gun Owners of America (GOA) that he would like to see open carry added to the constitutional carry legislation currently making its way through the Florida legislature.
GOA’s Luis Valdes asked DeSantis if he would support open carry being added to the constitutional carry legislation, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
DeSantis responded, “Yeah, absolutely.”
He added, “I don’t think they’re going to do it, but I would absolutely.”
The Times noted that DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin did not address the GOA recording but stressed that DeSantis hopes to sign constitutional carry into law.
Griffin also observed that DeSantis referenced constitutional carry in August 2022, which is when the governor noted, “It really requires the Legislature to get it to my desk.”
Breitbart News noted that constitutional carry legislation is currently on the move in Florida, Nebraska, and South Carolina. The legislation in Florida is focused on permitless concealed carry while the legislation in Nebraska and South Carolina focuses on open or concealed.
There are currently 25 constitutional carry states in the Union. Those 25 are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
These ‘drag queen’ shows performed in front of kids is starting to get the backlash they deserve.
Tennessee Bans Pornographic Performances by “Male or Female Impersonators” Where Minors Can See Them
The newly enacted statute provides:
… “Adult cabaret entertainment” … [m]eans adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors, as that term is defined in § 39-17-901, and that feature topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators, or similar entertainers; …
“Entertainer” means a person who provides: (A) Entertainment within an adult-oriented establishment, … or (B) A performance of actual or simulated specified sexual activities, including removal of articles of clothing or appearing unclothed, [both] regardless of whether a fee is charged or accepted for the performance …;
It is an offense for a person to perform adult cabaret entertainment:
(A) On public property; or
(B) In a location where the adult cabaret entertainment could be viewed by a person who is not an adult ….
To understand this, one has to read § 39-17-901, which provides:
“Harmful to minors” means that quality of any description or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence or sadomasochistic abuse when the matter or performance:
- Would be found by the average person applying contemporary community standards to appeal predominantly to the prurient, shameful or morbid interests of minors;
- Is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors; and
- Taken as whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific values for minors ….
“Prurient interest” means a shameful or morbid interest in sex;
And it’s also important to know that the Supreme Court has held that, even as to “harmful to minors” material (also known as “obscene as to minors”), “to be obscene ‘such expression must be, in some significant way, erotic.'”
This therefore means that the bill doesn’t ban drag shows generally, or even drag shows that can be seen by minors. Rather, it just bans drag shows that could be viewed by minors (or are on public property) that depict “nudity, sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence or sadomasochistic abuse” that are “in some significant way, erotic,” appeal to minors’ interest in sex, and otherwise satisfy the three-prong.
Bans on distributing “harmful to minors” material to minors have been upheld (see Ginsberg v. N.Y. (1968), which used the then-existing definition, but which has been understood to justify the more modern definition used by the Tennessee statute). Likewise, courts have generally upheld restrictions on displaying such materials where minors can see them. So the law may well be consistent with the First Amendment, but precisely because it narrowly focuses on essentially pornographic material (in the sense of requiring depiction of nudity or sex in an erotic way that appeals to minors’ interest in sex). Drag shows that lack such material remain protected by the First Amendment, and aren’t covered by the law (though of course there might be worry that some prosecutors will overfocus on the “male or female impersonator” portion of the law and won’t pay enough attention to the other requirements).
At the same time, there are three possible twists. First, the law applies to “public property” even where minors aren’t present (e.g., if someone rents space from a government entity and puts on a show while making sure that minors aren’t admitted). This might still be upheld as a reasonable, viewpoint-neutral restriction on speech on government property that isn’t a traditional public forum. But it’s a bit complicated.
Second, one could argue that specifically targeting “male or female impersonators” makes the law an impermissibly content-based classification even within the First Amendment exception for “harmful to minors” speech that’s displayed to minors. See R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul (1992) (holding that such content-based restrictions even within an unprotected category of speech are presumptively unconstitutional).
Third, to the extent that the ban on “male or female impersonator[s]” necessarily discriminates based on sex—a woman dressed as a woman isn’t a female impersonator, but a man dressed precisely the same way is one—it might violate the Equal Protection Clause, which the Supreme Court has generally held presumptively forbids sex classifications.
Note, though, that even if the statute is struck down on the second or third grounds, the same conduct (except perhaps pornographic shows in spaces rented from the government where minors are excluded) could be banned by a general prohibition on “harmful to minors” performances where minors are present, and might indeed already be banned by Tennessee law that regulates sexually themed performances (though I’m not positive about that).