The decision to charge Auckland gun shop worker Greg Carvell has come as a complete shock to his family.

The 33-year-old has been charged with possession of a firearm without lawful, proper, or sufficient purpose, following the shooting of man who entered the Penrose shop in possession of a machete.

The man received stomach injuries, and was later charged with assault with intent to rob.

Carvell will appear in the Auckland District Court on December 6, and his father Ray says this is news to the family.

He says his son has not formally been charged and they have had to hear the appearance date through the media.

Ray Carvell says this is extremely upsetting as his son was acting in self defence.

So a machete-wielding guy tries to rob a gun shop, presumably to obtain a gun with which to further other criminal acts, is stopped by the store owner using tools available to hand, without even killing him, and then he is arrested for not having a lawful, proper, or sufficient purpose?

What kind of backward, third-world country is this from?

New Zealand - a society based on British laws, part of the Commonwealth and relatively civilized.

It seems as if they still lack a spine...

Still looking for another conservative libertarian or two who want to contribute to a Pro Liberty Blog on a semi-regular basis. If you are interested please leave a comment. 

Titled:   Faking Terror to Graduate

Correspondent Haggai Huberman reports on a new phenomenon among the Arabs of Judea and Samaria: Youths carry knives or small bombs across checkpoints in order to get themselves arrested so that they can study for high school matriculation exams at the State of Israel's expense.

Sitting in jail for a number of weeks or months is a small price to pay, and the returns are significant: A high school diploma, and a high social standing as a "freed terrorist."

Huberman notes that earlier this week, IDF soldiers reported that they had thwarted an attack in the northern Shomron when they arrested two 19-year-old boys carrying two pipebombs of one kilogram (2.2 lbs.) each. However, the IDF later concluded that the boys were merely trying to get arrested for the purpose of matriculation exams, and that the pipebombs were not designed to cause significant damage.

When the reward is noticed and is viewed as attainable and worth the price, the behaviour follows.

Titled:   IAEA commissioner falls into water tank at Czech nuclear plant

A US commissioner from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) emerged unharmed after falling into a water tank at the Dukovany nuclear power plant on Friday.

The daily Mlada fronta Dnes reported Friday that commissioners training at the facility were moving around the plant in a group. One of them, however, left the group and fell into the tank. The water in the tank was not radioactive.

And these are the guys we are supposed to listen to on Iran, North Korea and other hot-spots...

Titled:    Racist Rev Row

A driver in Scotland is fines ~$250 and spends a couple of days in jail for the ultimate dhimmi crime:

A DRIVER spent two nights in jail after being accused of "revving his car in a racist manner".

Mechanic Ronnie Hutton, 49, yesterday described his court ordeal which finally ended when prosecutors dropped the allegation of racism.

But he was still convicted of a breach of the peace for revving the engine of his £25,000 Lotus.

It's coming this way...

Titled:   Animal activists free 15,000 farmed fish to their deaths

POLICE have warned fish farmers to increase their security after 15,000 halibut were released from their cages in an attack believed to have been carried out by animal rights activists.

Thousands of dead fish are being washed up along the west coast of Scotland after the raid at Kames Marine Fish Farm, near Oban. The perpetrators are thought to have attacked last week. Detectives believe that the attack could be linked to a spate of other farm attacks throughout the country. The letters ALF (Animal Liberation Front) were spray-painted near by.

The loss is estimated to have cost the fish farm at least £500,000 as boats, cranes and offices were also vandalised. The halibut died from starvation or getting caught in seaweed. They were also being eaten by herring gulls and otters.

The fish farmer, who did not wish to be identified, said: “They claim they liberated them into the sea but sadly, as we all know, farmed animals, whether they are fish or any animals, don’t survive unless they are looked after.

The fish farmer added: “We farm them in a sustainable way. The welfare of the fish is at the forefront of our minds. Isn’t it better to have farmed fish than to be pillaging the seas where stocks are declining dramatically?”

Fish farms in Scotland, Kent and the South West have been attacked in the past year.

Titled:   End of an Affair

The Washington Post has published a report that their coverage of the Plame affair was incorrect.

Samizdata reports that the overlooked result of this is the admitted fact that Saddam was actually shopping for Uranium for an illicit weapons program.

Thus, it turns out that the White House stands vindicated on one of its key arguments for going to war against Saddam: that this thug and his regime were actively pursuing a WMD program. So...where are all the headlines about this? Except for this editorial admission by the Post (which implies that the newspaper had been taken in, rather than played a key roll in disseminating the lies), where are the media mea culpas, retractions, and apologies for many months of false, anti-Bush "conspiracy" stories? Don't hold your breath.

The silence is damning deafening.

Titled:   Annan tours devastated south Lebanon

And to think some people blamed the Jews...

Hat-tip Opinion Journal

Titled:   Gun 'Microstamping' Bill Passes California Senate

The California Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would require the "microstamping" of semi-automatic handguns -- giving cartridges fired from those guns a unique imprint, which according to gun control advocates, would help police solve crimes.

Supporters say microstamping would turn spent cartridges into potential evidence in civil and criminal cases. According the California Million Mom March, "when the police retrieve the bullet casing at a crime scene, they can quickly track down the legal owner of the handgun that fired it."

Nonsense, say Second Amendment supporters, who view the bill as yet another attempt to burden gun manufacturers and further restrict gun sales in the state. They say that gun makers, faced with the added expense of microstamping semiautomatic weapons, would either stop selling their wares in California or drastically raise prices.

The bill (AB 352) would "expand the definition of unsafe handgun to include semiautomatic pistols that are not designed and equipped with a microscopic array of characters, that identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol, etched into the interior surface or internal working parts of the pistol, and which are transferred by imprinting on each cartridge case when the firearm is fired."

Watch the revolver become the "weapon of choice" among street gangs in CA.

But the California NRA Members' Councils says the microstamping would create false evidence trails.

"Micro-stamped cartridge cases fired and abandoned at government agencies facilities or private shooting ranges could be gathered and used to 'seed' crime scenes with the with 'evidence,' implicating law enforcement officers and citizens" in crimes they had nothing to do with, the group said in an analysis on its website.

The gun-rights group also said microstamped cartridges could not be recycled because they might implicate secondary users of reloaded cartridges. "Millions of pounds of metals will be turned into scrap and require expense disposal requirements imposed so it will not enter landfills."

And without the ability to sell and recycle used (microstamped) cartridge cases, the cost of firearms training will increase for government agencies, the gun rights group added.

Second Amendment supporters also note that microstamps can be easily defeated by replacing parts of the handgun that have been stamped; polishing the microstamp with abrasives or modifying the stamp; and in some cases, the stamped markings may be filled in with residue produced by normal firing of the gun.

Titled:   The Fertility Gap

Simply put, liberals have a big baby problem: They're not having enough of them, they haven't for a long time, and their pool of potential new voters is suffering as a result. According to the 2004 General Social Survey, if you picked 100 unrelated politically liberal adults at random, you would find that they had, between them, 147 children. If you picked 100 conservatives, you would find 208 kids. That's a "fertility gap" of 41%. Given that about 80% of people with an identifiable party preference grow up to vote the same way as their parents, this gap translates into lots more little Republicans than little Democrats to vote in future elections.

I'm not sure it's fertility either - I would think that Dems and Repubs are about equal in ability to get pregnant and have children - abortion and choice to remain childless seem to be a liberal trait.

Of course the Dems have an opinion on that:

As one liberal columnist in a major paper graphically put it, "Maybe the scales are tipping to the neoconservative, homogenous right in our culture simply because they tend not to give much of a damn for the ramifications of wanton breeding and environmental destruction and pious sanctimony, whereas those on the left actually seem to give a whit for the health of the planet and the dire effects of overpopulation."

Maybe the conservatives just put a greater value in the sanctity of life, the value of families and realise that bringing up intelligent, happy kids is the only hope for the future of mankind?

Reasons aside, this will have a huge effect on future voting patterns:

A state that was split 50-50 between left and right in 2004 will tilt right by 2012, 54% to 46%. By 2020, it will be certifiably right-wing, 59% to 41%. A state that is currently 55-45 in favor of liberals (like California) will be 54-46 in favor of conservatives by 2020--and all for no other reason than babies.

Kising babies may be a little easier for one party in the future...

James Taranto of Opinion Journal even has a name for this - The Roe Effect - a good read from 2004 that looks at this effect in depth.

Titled:   Brits break speed record

A BRITISH team has broken the land speed record for diesel-powered engines.

The JCB Dieselmax team averaged a speed of 328.767 mph, officials confirmed.

The team jetted out to Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to undertake their feat yesterday afternoon. 

The car, driven by Wing Commander Andy Green, was powered by a version of the same engine used in JCB diggers.

The team beat the previous record of 235mph which has stood for more than 30 years.

In 1997, Green became the fastest man in the world when he drove ThrustSSC through the sound barrier to a speed of 763.035mph.

It's good to hear someone still has some character over there...