When is it legal for me to kill someone? The answers are readily available from numerous sources.
When is it legal for me to kill a policeman? Superficially, the circumstances where I can shoot Joe Nobody are the same, and the rules apply to shooting cops too. That is not how it works in practice. In practice, it is never legal to shoot a cop, ever.
When is it legal for a policeman to kill someone? Again, the police seem to be held to the same standards that I am. Once again, the practice is different from the theory. The police can shoot anyone they like and not be punished in a meaningful way. Being sent home for three months with pay is not a punishment.
I'm a person who feels that us common citizens have the right to own guns so that we may shoot the agents of the state should all other forms of redress fail. With that in mind, the circumstances where I, a common citizen, may begin shooting should be clearly defined. This serves two purposes, it lets me know when to start shooting, and it lets them know where the lines are.
I also have another radical reform idea. The standards where the police are allowed to use lethal force should be set a lot higher than the common person. As an agent of the state, the policeman can call more resources to bear than I can. And the loss of an individual officer is nowhere near as devastating to the state as the loss of an individual to a family. Currently the system is backwards, the state can kill someone because an individual officer "felt" threatened. If a common citizen should attempt this argument and the corpse has no weapon on it, common man becomes common convict.
Remember, it is not an individual shooting when a cop shoots. It. Is. The. State.
Yes, I know what I propose will make it more dangerous to be a policeman. Tough. There are many other fields hiring. The state MUST use more restraint than the individual and MUST use due process when meting out justice.
Alternatively, make the rules in practice be the same for both a private citizen and an officer of the law. Make it easier for me to shoot and harder for him. One little caveat, if the cop shoots and is justified, he is not a cop ANYWHERE for a year. And he is not paid by any government agency for that year either. He will be just like me, for a year. That lets him defend himself if he needs to, and forces him to think very hard about pulling the trigger because the consequences are extreme.
30 January 2006
The Ring Of Truth
A U.S. Marine squad was marching north of Basra when they came upon an Iraqi terrorist, badly injured and unconscious. On the
opposite side of the road was an American Marine in similar but less serious state.
The Marine was conscious and alert and as first aid was given to both men, the squad leader asked the injured Marine what had
happened.
The Marine reported, "I was patrolling and moving north along the highway here, and coming south was that heavily armed
insurgent. We saw each other and both took cover in the ditches along the road.
I yelled to him that Saddam Hussein is a miserable, lowlife, scumbag, and he yelled back that Senator Ted Kennedy is a
good-for-nothing, fat, left wing liberal drunken murderer.
So I yelled that Osama Bin Ladin dresses and acts like a frigid, mean spirited woman!", and he retaliated by yelling, "Oh yeah? Well
so does Hillary Clinton!"
"And, there we were, standing in the middle of the road, shaking hands, when a truck hit us."
opposite side of the road was an American Marine in similar but less serious state.
The Marine was conscious and alert and as first aid was given to both men, the squad leader asked the injured Marine what had
happened.
The Marine reported, "I was patrolling and moving north along the highway here, and coming south was that heavily armed
insurgent. We saw each other and both took cover in the ditches along the road.
I yelled to him that Saddam Hussein is a miserable, lowlife, scumbag, and he yelled back that Senator Ted Kennedy is a
good-for-nothing, fat, left wing liberal drunken murderer.
So I yelled that Osama Bin Ladin dresses and acts like a frigid, mean spirited woman!", and he retaliated by yelling, "Oh yeah? Well
so does Hillary Clinton!"
"And, there we were, standing in the middle of the road, shaking hands, when a truck hit us."
23 January 2006
I Sure Get Around
visited 38 states (76%)
Buy Douwe's Machine Learning Book
create your own visited states mapor check out these Google Hacks.
20 January 2006
18 January 2006
Compare Contrast Time (A Wandering Rant)
Find someone who was obviously not born in the US.
Ask them for their green card.
I am willing to bet that unless your candidate is Hispanic, that card will be produced with a proud flourish! Or they will tell you the exact date they became a citizen.
Of course, some of the surliness is odd. A goodly chunk of the "Puerto Ricans" in the US were actually born in the US and wouldn't need a green card anyway. That means NOT born in Puerto Rico! IIRC someone born in a US territory doesn't need a green card either. Based on the level of English seen in their community, I would think that PR wasn't a US territory. For a contrast with another territory go look at American Samoa and Guam. English is the preferred language there, most of the residents are truly bilingual.
I know, shut my racist ass up.
My goal is America for Americans. You do not have to be born here to be an American. But if you live here, you should become one. If you work here you should become one. If you live and work here and wish to remain a Mexican or Canadian or Indian, stay home. And in the case of India, the jobs are coming to you, why come here?
Why do I think they should stay home? Becuase what we are getting in the Southwest is a Mexican Colony! Miami is now the most populous city in Cuba. There are more Spanish speaking Puerto Ricans in New York City than all of Puerto Rico for chrissake!
We have a family from ex-Soviet Georgia living not too far from here. They are AMERICAN. I was born here and I am just American. That's the kind of immigrant we need here. The parents might have thick accents, but they are speaking English most of the time and are intelligible. Could this be because they want to be Americans? Unlike their predecessors in that house, the PR family from New Jersey, who don't want to be American so bad they don't even register that they have never even been to Puerto Rico.
You don't wanna be an American? Fine with me, leave. There must be some reason that people are flocking here instead of Haiti. I am going to come right out and say it. Perhaps the reason that you left your homeland is because is being run by people who aren't Americans? Think about why you left home before you try to make here just like it.
Next time you hear someone talking about how much it sucks to be here because of how hard we treat their poor minority ass, offer them a ticket to ANYWHERE ELSE. One way. Even the South at it's worst KKK worshipping mode is preferable to Africa to virtually every Black, or there would be an exodus wouldn't there?
By the way, "BLACK" is not meant to mean anything bad. I have lost track of which euphenism is PC, so I have settled on Black as a descriptive term for a person of African descent with negroid genealogy. In no way do I intend "black" as a euphemism for "CENSORED". Speaking of which, I gather that the rapidly changing descriptive has a lot to do with English being able to make any word mean something else by they way you say it. Here's a clue, if I can make "valedictorian" into "CENSORED" by inflection, then I can make any word mean something racially derogatory and there is no term that you can apply that will keep me from slurring you. By changing the euphemism every five years or so, you give power to the racists by letting them take words away from their proper meaning.
But changing the meaning of words is what the PC crowd is all about. Remember: If you cannot say what you mean, you cannot mean what you say.
Ask them for their green card.
I am willing to bet that unless your candidate is Hispanic, that card will be produced with a proud flourish! Or they will tell you the exact date they became a citizen.
Of course, some of the surliness is odd. A goodly chunk of the "Puerto Ricans" in the US were actually born in the US and wouldn't need a green card anyway. That means NOT born in Puerto Rico! IIRC someone born in a US territory doesn't need a green card either. Based on the level of English seen in their community, I would think that PR wasn't a US territory. For a contrast with another territory go look at American Samoa and Guam. English is the preferred language there, most of the residents are truly bilingual.
I know, shut my racist ass up.
My goal is America for Americans. You do not have to be born here to be an American. But if you live here, you should become one. If you work here you should become one. If you live and work here and wish to remain a Mexican or Canadian or Indian, stay home. And in the case of India, the jobs are coming to you, why come here?
Why do I think they should stay home? Becuase what we are getting in the Southwest is a Mexican Colony! Miami is now the most populous city in Cuba. There are more Spanish speaking Puerto Ricans in New York City than all of Puerto Rico for chrissake!
We have a family from ex-Soviet Georgia living not too far from here. They are AMERICAN. I was born here and I am just American. That's the kind of immigrant we need here. The parents might have thick accents, but they are speaking English most of the time and are intelligible. Could this be because they want to be Americans? Unlike their predecessors in that house, the PR family from New Jersey, who don't want to be American so bad they don't even register that they have never even been to Puerto Rico.
You don't wanna be an American? Fine with me, leave. There must be some reason that people are flocking here instead of Haiti. I am going to come right out and say it. Perhaps the reason that you left your homeland is because is being run by people who aren't Americans? Think about why you left home before you try to make here just like it.
Next time you hear someone talking about how much it sucks to be here because of how hard we treat their poor minority ass, offer them a ticket to ANYWHERE ELSE. One way. Even the South at it's worst KKK worshipping mode is preferable to Africa to virtually every Black, or there would be an exodus wouldn't there?
By the way, "BLACK" is not meant to mean anything bad. I have lost track of which euphenism is PC, so I have settled on Black as a descriptive term for a person of African descent with negroid genealogy. In no way do I intend "black" as a euphemism for "CENSORED". Speaking of which, I gather that the rapidly changing descriptive has a lot to do with English being able to make any word mean something else by they way you say it. Here's a clue, if I can make "valedictorian" into "CENSORED" by inflection, then I can make any word mean something racially derogatory and there is no term that you can apply that will keep me from slurring you. By changing the euphemism every five years or so, you give power to the racists by letting them take words away from their proper meaning.
But changing the meaning of words is what the PC crowd is all about. Remember: If you cannot say what you mean, you cannot mean what you say.
17 January 2006
Idiocy Abounds
Some of my dear readers remember Dumbass and Escapee. They are in the middle of a very messy divorce. They both have blogs. Do I need to fill in the rest?
The son of a friend was beaten near to death Sunday night. He used to be in a gang, he had actually gotten out. The problem with having once been in a gang is the other gangs might not accept your resignation. SIGH. TJ is in a coma, he might not wake up, and if he does there is a high likelyhood that he will no longer be TJ.
By the way, if you are or used to be in a gang, the police do not give a fuck about you. There will be no legal justice done here. But they may have awakened the wrong sleeping giant, TJ's dad is ex-spec forces. I can see this having a happy ending after all.
The son of a friend was beaten near to death Sunday night. He used to be in a gang, he had actually gotten out. The problem with having once been in a gang is the other gangs might not accept your resignation. SIGH. TJ is in a coma, he might not wake up, and if he does there is a high likelyhood that he will no longer be TJ.
By the way, if you are or used to be in a gang, the police do not give a fuck about you. There will be no legal justice done here. But they may have awakened the wrong sleeping giant, TJ's dad is ex-spec forces. I can see this having a happy ending after all.