Off topic but interesting, at least to me

There are at least three Apple stores in Kunming, China that appear to be complete fakes.

That certainly is taking goods piracy to an entirely new level.

Why I carry a handgun for protection, Vol. 57

So that if we happen to be strolling around Denver, Colorado with a date and are accosted by the gang of feral youth there which is currently amusing themselves by bashing couples in the head with baseball bats and robbing them of their possessions, we will be able to successfully defend ourselves against their brutal assault.

"The attackers are 'not nice people,' [Denver Police spokesman Sonny] Jackson said."

That's one heck of an understatement.

Those thugs are still on the loose, Denver residents, and the cops can't be everywhere.  Protect yourselves accordingly.

A curious silence

Former New York Times reporter Janny Scott has written a biography of Barack Obama's mother in which Scott definitively proves that Dear Leader lied right through his teeth in the 2008 presidential campaign when he claimed that Ann Dunham had been denied health insurance reimbursement during her ultimately fatal battle with cancer.  Rather, Dunham had been fully covered and all treatment expenses were paid save for her deductibles and other uncovered costs.  The only apparent disagreement between Dunham and any insurance entity, according to Scott, was with a different company which refused to pay disability coverage for her living expenses because it considered her condition to be pre-existing. 

Those updated facts make for quite a bit different of a tale than what was presented by candidate and President Obama as the poster story of a horribly broken health-care system, which is probably why he didn't bother to mention them whilst ramming his Ponzi scheme through Congress.

Strangely enough, Ms. Scott has been declining to talk further with reporters about her work despite repeated requests for interviews.  Now, when was the last time anyone remembers a book author refusing free publicity, especially as the usual end result is more books being sold?  One naturally wonders if perhaps some of Scott's former colleagues at the Times convinced her to go back on the monolithic pro-Obama reservation before more damage could be done to their false idol.

Another crime foiled without a shot by a lawfully-owned firearm

77-year-old Congressman Leonard Boswell, D-IA, and his family successfully fought off an armed intruder who confronted them at their rural Iowa farmhouse last Saturday night.

The attacker had apparently rang the doorbell and when Boswell's daughter answered pointed a gun at her and demanded money.  The congressman then intervened, grabbing the gun and wrestling the thug to the ground.  Meanwhile, Boswell's 22-year-old grandson alertly grabbed a loaded shotgun from another room and chased the suspect into a nearby field, where he managed to escape.  He is currently being sought by police.

Another example of a successful defensive gun usage by law-abiding citizens that won't make the official stats because (thankfully) no shots were fired.  Tell us again how these events never happen, Brady Campaign and Violence Policy Center, especially to an older person who probably would have eventually lost the physical battle with his presumably much younger assailant.

We imagine Congressman Boswell is one Democrat who will flatly refuse to support the recently proposed gun-control bill, introduced by some comrades in his own party as a knee-jerk reaction to the federal "Project Gunwalker" scandal, that seeks to criminalize and punish acts which are already quite illegal.  A new law, of course, that if passed wouldn't apply to the stunningly incompetent management of the BATFE, which seems to be directly responsible for allowing a significant percentage of recent cross-border gun smuggling to take place without interdiction for crass political reasons.

Remember, Decatur County residents, the alleged suspect in Saturday's incident remains at large and most likely even more desperate, and may soon target another local residence in that remote area at some point.  Please prepare accordingly.

We have ways of making you talk

The Department of Justice is arguing that forcing a criminal suspect to give up the password to an encrypted hard drive does not constitute a violation of a person's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

"Prosecutors stressed that they don't actually require the passphrase itself, meaning [Ramona] Fricosu would be permitted to type it in and unlock the files without anyone looking over her shoulder."

Oh, come on.
 

Declan McCullagh of CNET makes a good point in his article - if investigators instead had found some sort of journal or diary written in code, would they then be justified in making the suspect provide a translation against his or her will?  Of course not, and if such a key was involuntarily obtained one would also never be sure that what the person provided was indeed accurate.  A mentally-held password should not be handled any differently.  For that matter, what if the defendant really did forget the phrase?  Should someone get jail time for sincerely having a poor memory?

We're not sticking up for the suspects in this particular case, but rather the next law-abiding person who is ordered to turn over their computer for a search (including demanding login details) despite a complete lack of evidence to justify such a fishing expedition, a practice that happens on a daily basis at customs checkpoints both here and abroad.  Here's how to protect your data and private information from such snoops.

Off topic but interesting, at least to me

The major supermarket chain Albertson's is removing the self-checkout lanes from all of its stores that currently use them.

Good.  We've never used those lanes at any store on principle.  If retailers want the peasants to do part of their job for them they can at least give those who choose to use such lanes slightly lower prices than those who prefer to wait for a human cashier.  There's no advantage otherwise, and anyone in that industry who argues that self-checkout lanes are somehow "faster" has never watched a clueless customer helplessly scan the same item over and over, fruitlessly (pun intended) search for the right produce code, try to locate where to insert the money or otherwise hold up progress for the people waiting behind them, who inevitably end up doing even worse.

Why I carry a handgun for protection, Vol. 56

Because, despite disingenuous propaganda to the contrary, unprovoked bear attacks can and really do occur everywhere from Yellowstone National Park (fatality) to Pinetop, Arizona (massive head trauma and probable loss of movement in both arms).

That's odd.  Wasn't it just a few short years ago that the Brady Campaign filed suit (and lost) to prevent the government from jettisoning their unconstitutional rule banning law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms when visiting national parks, loudly claiming that there was just no earthly reason for "allowing" people to exercise their inherent right to self-defense in such places?  Sadly, the Yellowstone incident has proven the Bradyites to once again be completely wrong.  Innocent people should indeed be able to defend themselves from predators (whether two- or four-legged) wherever they may happen to be, particularly when hiking in a popular yet remote tourist attraction.

The Arizona case is especially illustrative of our position because the 61-year-old woman involved apparently sustained many of her injuries while trying to fight off the 300-pound black bear with her bare hands.

Would an appropriate-caliber handgun have allowed the victims to successfully fight off their ursine attackers?  We'll of course never know for sure, but one thing is for certain - an immediately available and properly used firearm would undoubtedly have given these victims a much better chance at a happier outcome.

He's not going quietly

Acting ATF director Ken Melson is reported to have met on Monday, July 4 with congressional investigators and told them that the Justice Department is actively obstructing the probe into Project Gunwalker, the absolute disaster of a botched "sting" operation that has directly resulted in the deaths of two American law-enforcement officers as well as those of countless innocent Mexican citizens. 

Gee, no wonder Eric "Neutral, leaning towards favorable" Holder and the other top brass at Justice appear to have wanted Melson gone in the worst way.  Too bad for them the acting director has chosen not to be the fall guy for the ones who apparently really thought up and implemented this scheme and has decided to go down swinging. 

Oh, and get this - Melson is also said to have stated that the prime target of the scheme, a previously deported drug dealer, is an FBI informant.  Talk about a classic case of one hand at a massive government agency not knowing what the other is up to, mostly because of turf wars and other maddening intra-departmental squabbling.  As former senator Tom Daschle once famously stated, though, "You can't professionalize until you Federalize".  Right.

It's about time that someone has finally gone on record as stating that the obvious attempted coverup of this mess is coming from the highest levels of Justice, presumably because the authorization for and administration of the failed operation came from the very same offices.  It otherwise wouldn't make a lick of sense for those in charge to try to obstruct the investigation, since if it really were just some rogue subordinates who were responsible for Gunwalker the easiest and safest course of action would be full disclosure and punishment for those involved, leaving Holder, Lanny Breuer and others at the top of Justice smelling like a rose.  The fact that those higher-ups are making such a risky move does more than anything else to leave the blame arrow pointed directly at them.

Mr. Melson's official interview with the inspector general is today.  It will be interesting to see what other interesting nuggets of information are going to be shortly coming out.

Bush-league antics

The British government gave a fantastic dinner at Guildhall in London yesterday in honor of both the close relationship our two countries share as well as the dedication of a statue of President Ronald Reagan in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth.  The event was well-attended by important luminaries of all political ideologies from both nations.

One person, however, was notably absent - U.S. Ambassador to London Louis B. Susman.  He was a complete no-show at the party in what many people are considering to be a deliberate snub of the festivities.  Why would people think this?

"Ambassador Susman is, of course, a long-standing Democrat fundraiser, nicknamed the vacuum cleaner for his skill at sucking donations out of the wealthy. And his efforts to fill Obama's campaign pockets was said by many to be his main qualification to come to London."

Nice to know we have such professional, competent people representing America's interests abroad.

Apparently honoring a former Republican president's birthday is beyond Mr. Susman's capabilities, to the harsh chagrin of even some Democrats who were present at the soiree: 

"'Our ambassador should be here,' said Lynn de Rothschild, the American entrepreneur who is married to Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and was one of Hillary Clinton's key fundraisers in 2008 as well as a supporter of several Republican presidential candidates. 'This was an historic dinner to mark Reagan's centenary and to celebrate him as the man who ended the Cold War. What could not be more important?'

'Why is our ambassador not here on Independence Day? No excuse. How is it that America is not represented in this room by our ambassador? It is appalling that no representative of our government is in this room. This has the feel of petty partisanship.'"

We agree with Mr Rothschild.  This was a true embarrassment and an outrageous slap in the face to a well-meaning gesture by the British government.  After all, July 4 is the day we declared independence from them in the first place.  They didn't have to celebrate any of this with us, yet they freely chose to host the festivities.  For our ambassador to blow it off with no explanation is the height of arrogance and rudeness.

Do your job, Mr. Susman.  You are supposed to represent the entire United States of America, not just the nakedly partisan politician who named you to your current position.  A personal apology from you would be very appropriate right about now.

Dying? Suffer

Great Britain's National Health Service, the utterly bankrupt and completely mismanaged government-mandated health care scheme that Dear Leader and many liberal Democrats in Congress wish us here in America to ultimately emulate, has as many as 100,000 terminally ill people on its rolls who aren't getting the palliative care they desperately need:

"Meanwhile, 97% of hospices do not receive all the funding they need for the NHS services they provide, and some patients are victims of "rationing" towards the end of the NHS financial year."

Translation - these people simply die in agony because there's no money left to give them proper pain control, nursing care and other necessary end-of-life services.

Hmm.  "Rationing".  Seems like that word has come up before, only to have Obamacare supporters pooh-pooh away as ludicrous the inevitable result of imposing a single-payer health system.  Try doing the same thing to these suffering Brits and see if they think the concept is so far-fetched.

We just can't wait for this kind of top-notch medical care to become the U.S. standard as well.  

Why I carry a handgun for protection, Vol. 55

Because there aren't nearly enough professional, service-oriented and informative police officers around who consider it their duty to sensibly notify the people they swore to serve and protect about the very real dangers lurking in their own communities, which would then allow those residents to make informed decisions about which areas are safe for them to visit.

Case in point - veteran St. Petersburg, Florida police officer Thad "Stu" Crisco is being investigated by his department and could be suspended for telling a local resident the truth about a local hangout "making disparaging comments against the city":

"[Crisco] allegedly warned St. Petersburg father Bob Esposito about letting his 16-year-old daughter hang around the Northshore Pool at night. Esposito's daughter was one of five teens robbed by a group of armed men there about 10:30 p.m. on a recent weeknight."

Gee whiz, a well-meaning officer warning a concerned father to not permit his daughter to loiter around somewhere very dangerous.  What's wrong with that?  Sounds like Crisco (who has a sparkling record, according to the story) was merely doing his job.  Mayor Bill "Nothing Wrong Here" Foster disagrees:

"'I always want to know my officers are representing this city in a very positive light,' Foster said."

Which apparently includes purposely allowing residents to remain blissfully clueless about which parts of their community are provably dangerous.  What an incredible disservice to your constituents, Mayor.