Titled:   Lebanese Financial District Bombed

MSNBC covers the Israeli bombing of the Lebanese financial district of Sidon and fails to notice the sheets of uncut US $100 bills laying all around. 1:07 minutes into the video the camera lingers on the sheets laying on the floor.

Maybe the Fed Reserve has decided to outsource its note printing operations overseas to save money?

I think not.

A knife-wielding grocery store employee attacked eight co-workers Friday, seriously injuring five before a witness pulled a gun and stopped him, police said.

The 21-year-old suspect, whose name was withheld pending charges, was arrested and then taken to a hospital after complaining of chest pains, Memphis Police Sgt. Vince Higgins said.

The attack apparently stemmed from a work dispute, police said. Five victims, one in critical condition, were admitted to the Regional Medical Center, the main trauma hospital for the Memphis area. Three others were less badly hurt and treated at another hospital.

The attacker, chasing one victim into the store's parking lot, was subdued by Chris Cope, manager of a financial services office in the same small shopping center, Higgins said. Cope said he grabbed a 9mm semiautomatic pistol from his pickup truck when he saw the attacker chasing the victim "like something in a serial killer movie."

"When he turned around and saw my pistol, he threw the knife away, put his hands up and got on the ground," Cope told The Associated Press. "He saw my gun and that was pretty much it." Police arrived within minutes and took the attacker into custody. "

He just kept saying, 'I'm insane. I wish I was never born' and that kind of stuff," Cope said. The attack started in an employee area of the Schnucks supermarket on the outskirts of Memphis and no customers were involved, Higgins said. Police said two large kitchen knives used in the attack were found at the scene.

Witness Frank Rector said the attacker held a knife high in a stabbing position as he chased a victim into the parking lot. The victim, Rector said, "was circling, trying to get away from him." The ages of the victims were not immediately released.

Higgins and a company spokeswoman said all the victims were employees of the store. The spokeswoman said officials from the St. Louis-based company were on their way to the scene. Higgins said police were pulling into the parking lot as Cope was confronting the attacker. "We commend him," Higgins said. "But we don't encourage people to take that kind of risk. He could have been hurt."

Yup - the police would rather have the perp running about stabbing people before they shoot him when they eventually arrive, than a responsible citizen quickly put a peaceful stop to the problem on the spot and show how armed citizens can do good.

At least they haven't arrested the guy with the gun... but then this is TN not CA.

Titled:   Feeding homeless outlawed

The Las Vegas City Council passed an ordinance Wednesday that bans providing food or meals to the indigent for free or a nominal fee in parks.
...
The city's new ordinance, which officials could begin enforcing as early as Friday, defines an indigent as a "person whom a reasonable ordinary person would believe to be entitled to apply for or receive assistance" from the government under state law.

Mayor Oscar Goodman, who has been a vocal advocate of cracking down on the homeless in city parks, dismissed questions about how marshals, who patrol city parks, will identify the homeless in order to enforce the ordinance, the violation of which would be a misdemeanor.

"Certain truths are self-evident," Goodman said. "You know who's homeless."

On this matter, Matthew, a frequently-quoted source, says:

And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.' Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'

Las Vegas - City of Sin, where feeding the homeless is now illegal...

Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed legislation Thursday that supporters say is aimed at strengthening and clarifying self-defense rights in Michigan. People now will be allowed to use deadly force, with no duty to retreat, if they reasonably think they face imminent death, great bodily harm or sexual assault.

They can use deadly force on their property or anywhere they have a legal right to be. The legislation also protects people from civil lawsuits if they have used force in self-defense.

"Law-abiding citizens will have the right to defend themselves against brutal violence without having to worry about being treated like a criminal," state Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, said in a statement.

The law also creates a "rebuttable presumption" -- a legal advantage that assumes, unless there's strong proof to the contrary, that people honestly and reasonably believe they face death, rape or great bodily harm when someone breaks into their home.

The presumption won't apply in domestic violence situations, disputes involving the police and if people using the force are breaking the law.

WLNS:

Mich. Governor Granholm has signed legislation that supporters say will strengthen and clarify self-defense rights in Michigan.

People now will be allowed to use deadly force -- with no duty to retreat -- if they reasonably think they face imminent death, great bodily harm or sexual assault.The law also protects people from civil lawsuits if they have used force in self-defense.

Critics says the law is NOT only dangerous but also unnecessary because prosecutors already don't charge people who have justifiably used deadly force to protect themselves.

Supporters say the law is needed to protect people from getting sued and partly because Michigan law previously required people to first retreat before using deadly force, putting them at a disadvantage.

Titled: Michigan Castle Doctrine

Looking at the progress of the package of bills signed I see the following on Public Act 311 of 2006:

7/26/2006	Expected in SJ 71	PRESENTED TO GOVERNOR 7/6/2006 @ 12:34 PM
7/26/2006	Expected in SJ 71	APPROVED BY GOVERNOR 7/18/2006 @ 7:21 PM
7/26/2006	Expected in SJ 71	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE 7/20/2006 @ 8:58 AM
7/26/2006	Expected in SJ 71	ASSIGNED PA 0311'06 WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT

That was for the old senate bill 1046 - Cropsey - "Crimes; other; right to self-defense and defense of others; clarify. Creates new act."

1185 has also been signed - Jelinek - "Civil procedure; civil actions; immunity from civil action for person who uses force in compliance with self-defense act; provide for."

It seems 5143 has still to be signed as is 5153 and 5548 and since these are tie-barred together there is still much to be completed.

We await more news.

The UN Small Arms Conference ended Friday in deadlock with no formal conclusions or recommendations. In the final analysis, the complexity of the issue and the concerns of hunters, sport shooters and firearms owners world-wide prevailed. No recommendations on ammunition, civilian possession or future UN meetings, or for that matter any other subjects, were adopted. The failure of this five-year program to impact the legitimate firearms industry, and the 2nd Amendment rights of U.S. citizens was total. Anti-gun NGOs and liberal governments served notice they would not give up and would present all of their issues to the UN General Assembly this fall.

Titled:   Senate votes to bar emergency gun confiscation

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to prohibit the confiscation of legally owned guns during an emergency like last year's Hurricane Katrina, marking another victory for the gun lobby.

By a vote of 84-16, the Senate embraced an amendment by Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican. He attached his measure to a domestic security spending bill for the fiscal year starting October 1 that the Senate is expected to pass soon.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed its version of the spending bill and negotiators will have to decide whether to keep the gun provision. The House is usually sympathetic to gun owners.

Citing the constitutional right to bear arms, Vitter said that during an emergency people should be allowed to hold onto "legally possessed firearms to defend your life, your property" at a time when telephone lines and cell phones probably are not operating and victims "can't reach out to law enforcement authorities."

Progress - But it is a pity that we have to put into law what is already there.

"Shall not be infringed"

Of course there is always a hopeful idiot at hand:

Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, added, "You send the National Guardsmen in ... and then snipers start shooting at them and the police make it known this is going to be a gun-free zone. We don't want any National Guardsmen killed because of this national emergency, this disaster. Is that an unreasonable thing?"

Yup - law abiding people waiting to ambush the National Guard. Happens all the time... such is the mindset of the crazy left. As if the criminals in an emergency are just going to hand them over peacefully...

Titled: Gun Sales Rise as Crime and Accident Rates Fall

New statistics show that firearm and ammunition sales are on the rise, coinciding with steady downward trends in gun crime, suicide and accident rates, in the U.S.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the shooting, hunting and outdoor industry, has released U.S. Dept. of the Treasury figures indicating that 2005 retail sales of firearms and ammunition rose 2.6 percent for a total volume of $2.1 billion.

U.S. Statistics	Source	Last Year*	Trend
Firearm & Ammunition Sales	U.S. Dept. of the Treasury	Up 2.6% to $2.1 billion	Up 27.7% since 1998
Firearms Produced for Retail Sale	Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)	2,947,008	22.8 million total since 1998
Firearms Imported for Retail Sale	U.S. Census Bureau	1,845,366	10.7 million total since 1998
Right to Carry Laws	National Rifle Association (NRA)	Passed in 2 more states	Now in 40 states; 9 added since 1998
Firearm Crimes	Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)	Down 2.4% to 339,280	Down 7% since 1998
Firearm Suicides	Centers for Disease Control (CDC)	Down 1.1% to 16,907	Down 1.8% since 1998
Accidental Firearm Fatalities	National Safety Council	Tied previous year’s all-time low of 700	Down 19.2% since 1998
Accidental Firearm Fatalities, Age 14 & Under	National Safety Council	Down to all-time low of 60	Down 50.4% since 1998

More at the NSSF site

Of course this is not news to those who pay attention to 2nd Amendment issues but it is nice to see the numbers to back it all up.

Titled: "What's Hebrew for "mess with the bull, you'll get the horns?"

Envy is a curious thing. Some people simply can't stand to see others get attention, even horribly fatal attention, while they are being snubbed.

That is the only possible explanation I can conceive for Hezbollah's deciding to emulate Hamas recently. Hamas invaded Israel, killed several soldiers, and kidnapped one. In response, Israel is incrementally destroying every shred of Hamas, ignoring offers of trading that single Israeli soldier for a thousand or so Palestinian prisoners (indicating that Hamas agrees with me -- one Israeli is worth about a thousand Palestinians) and instead hitting them harder and harder -- blowing up buildings, capturing or killing leaders, and in general raining chaos on the region that has inflicted so much carnage and death on Israel over the years.

Quite frankly, I don't see just what Hamas is gaining out of this, but somehow Hezbollah must see some sort of upside, because now they've emulated Hamas. They have done their own invasion of Israel and in a "anything dumb you can do, I can do dumber" move, have kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. And, predictably, Israel's is much the same -- no negotiations, just more and more military action.

Read the whole thing at Wizbang

Titled:   Man Dies Days After Gun Went Off In Pants

Another reason the left should fear the gun-owning classes is the accelerated forces of Darwin inherent in gun ownership. Many feel called to own, train and use firearms, but there is always a minority who really need a little more help in understanding that power can be both good and bad, depending on the wielder.

On the good side are the relatively bright, solid, law-abiding, careful gun owners, who keep their guns under control, whether holstered, locked up - at least out of the reach of children. They practise good safety - assuming all guns are loaded, pointed in a safe direction, keeping your finger off that trigger and making sure they are well-maintained and functioning.

On the other side are the less bright, who tend to treat their firearms as toys, as an accessory - the types that look down the barrel after a misfire, tend to keep guns of dubious origin and regularly remove themselves from the gene pool.

A good example is Chavis Thompson, who decided it was good form to keep a loaded pistol tucked in the front of his pants. This wouldn't usually be a problem in itself, until it is combined with a few other factors. Namely sitting down while trying to tuck in into your waistband, combined with keeping your finger on the trigger.

This fatal combination was enough not only to result in a unexpected surprise for Chavis, the remove of certain bodily parts in an explosive manner, but also the severing of a major artery which eventually killed him.

The former Hubbard High School student and the eldest of four kids “was trying to holster the gun,” with his finger on the trigger, while sitting in his grandmother’s Honda, when “the gun went off,” said his cousin Ashlie Thompson.

Tucking a loaded gun into your waistband is not holstering. And not a clever thing to do while holding the trigger either. And the gun didn't "go off" all by itself. He shot himself in the undercarriage.

The overall result of this is a net increase in the proportion of bright, careful gun owners and one less Honda-borrowing, ganster-wanabee, pants-tucking young man. If this trend continues, the NRA may well end up merging with MENSA.

If you learn one thing from this sad example, make sure it is to not point any firearm, loaded or not, at any part of your body you feel an attachment to. After all, we all want to be on the brighter side, huh?

Titled:   Nation remembers 7 July victims

As the people of the UK pause to remember the slaughter of innocents by Islamic terrorists on this morning a year ago, another group meets for a different purpose.

Yes folks, its Islam Expo! An event of family fun and forgiveness organised to coincide on the first anniversary of the tube and bus bombings. This tactful group have lined up a great program for the morning, including the sell-out session "Jihad: Holy War?" in the Great Hall at 11am.

"Islam is not just part of the East anymore," said Mr Hibatullah. "It began there, but is now very much part of Europe, part of Britain.

"Look at these pictures. Here is one of the Union Jack in the style of Islamic calligraphy. I don't think the flag is the trade mark of the British National Party anymore, is it?

"We are trying to give people a sense off Islamic history, of identity but, crucially, we are trying to provide means through which British Muslims can show how they have contributed to our society."

On the 7th, most of the UK can remember very clearly how the British Muslims have contributed to society.

Titled: Michigan Castle Doctrine Update

The Home Invasion package (a.k.a. 'Castle Doctrine') led by MCRGO Directors/Legislators Senator Alan Cropsey and Representative Tom Casperson is now enrolled and will be sent to Governor Granholm for signature this afternoon (Thursday, July 6th).

After months of behind-the-scenes inquiries and evasion, MCRGO predicted that she would, in the end, sign the bills for political reasons. Her campaign now in overdrive, the Detroit News has already helped 'spin' the inevitable by announcing to the world that (their) Governor Granholm is, '...expected to sign these Bills as they now include “changes that reflect the governor's concerns”'.

She has until July 20th to find a pen. Given her poll numbers, it won't take nearly that long.

From hosting NRA President Sandy Froman in the Capitol last November, introducing the NRA's new staffer to key legislators (January), then negotiating necessary changes to language already introduced, MCRGO attorneys and staff were proud to once again lead the charge on behalf of our membership.

Congratulations to the Legislators that stood up and stood strong--on BOTH sides of the aisle--passing these common-sense measures with overwhelming fashion. Michigan's families thank you!

Lifted from the MCRGO's web site.

Titled:   You Really Need to Stop Using Google

We Swear brings us an interesting angle on Google.

Not content to censor the Chinese population, they also seem to have a bias against right-of-center sites in their main search engine, either in News, Search or both:

As it turns out, the mega search engine Google has been taken over by the left and any key words that someone there deems “hate speech” results in that piece disappearing.
...
Google has become the single largest private corporate underwriter of MoveOn. According to sources in the Democrat National Committee, MoveOn has received more than $1 million from Google and its lobbyists in Washington...

Even the Washington Times has written about the story:

As Newsbusters reports, in March 2005, Rusty Shackleford, who runs the conservative blog the Jawa Report, received an e-mail message from Google informing him that: "Upon recent review, we've found that your site contains hate speech, and we will no longer be including it in Google News." A year later, Jim Sesi, who runs the conservative MichNews.com, received a similar e-mail from Google: "We have received numerous reports about hate content on your site, and after reviewing these reports, decided to remove your site from Google news." Two weeks ago, Frank Salvato, who runs the conservative New Media Journal, also heard from Google that his site was being removed, again because of "hate content."
    Aside from each of these three sites being largely conservative in outlook, the offending material cited by Google were articles criticizing radical Islam and Islamists. Upon review, the articles contain language no more -- in some cases far less -- inflammatory than the numerous Muslim Web sites a user can find when searching Google News. So, at least on the surface, it's reasonable to assume that it is Muslims who are complaining to Google, which then chooses to avoid further criticism by simply expelling the sites.

Michelle Malkin weighs in with an example of clear bias:

Actual headline featured in Google News' top U.S. stories section:

Gonzales confirmed: war criminal to head US Justice Department

Google is happy to allow Uruknet.info, an Iraqi resistance propaganda outlet, to appear at the top of the News section, but won't add respectable sites from the right?

Newsbusters points out the make-up of the staff at Google:

In the case of Google, there is some evidence that its employees lean strongly to the left. According to a February 2005 USA Today article on the subject: “As it claws for greater power, the Democratic Party has found a newly rich ally in one of the fastest-growing U.S. companies: Google.” The article stated that of the over $200,000 Google employees gave to federal candidates in 2004, “98% went to Democrats, the biggest share among top tech donors.” And, with a largely successful public stock offering making “scores of millionaires among [Google’s] 3,000 workers,” “Democrats now have a potentially potent source of cash as they fight to retake the White House and Congress.”

With over 49% of the searches in the US made though Google, maybe it's time to move to another engine.

Fair and balanced indeed!

Titled:   Lack of tornados unusual for season

We are half way through the year and still no reports of tornados for Central Nebraska or North Central Kansas. That is according to the National Weather Service. This is the first time since 1950 that all 30 counties served by the National Weather Service office in Hastings has not had a confirmed tornado during the first 6 months of the year.

Those 30 counties stretch from Ord down to Plainville, Kansas as far west as Gothenburg and as far east as York.

From January to July, Central Nebraska and North Central Kansas usually report up to 30 tornadoes.