The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions regarding police powers were mixed, thus offering a reminder to civil libertarians that they cannot depend upon the high court to protect the public from unwarranted government intrusions.
“The U.S. Supreme Court handed police one victory and one loss on Tuesday,” reported National Public Radio. “In one decision, the justices limited the power of police to detain people who are away from their homes when police conduct a search. And in a second case, the justices ruled that drug-sniffing dogs don’t have to get every sniff right in order for a search to be valid.” Continue reading →
See my earlier post re the NY SAFE Act / Cuomo Fatwa here.
…”I personally am totally opposed to the New York SAFE Act, and I’m opposed to all the people who voted for it,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman William Waldon of Johnstown, who said his colleagues were united in their hopes to fight the law.
The 1,500-word position statement was drafted and unanimously approved last month by 52 members of the New York State Sheriff’s Association, including Fulton County Sheriff Thomas Lorey, Montgomery County Sheriff Michael Amato and Hamilton County Sheriff Karl Abrams.
The sheriffs said parts of the state’s new SAFE Act, which will track more purchases of firearms and ammunition and make some existing guns, magazines and clips illegal, are too broad, while other parts limit rights of legal gun owners. The entire law, which local lawmakers said was rushed through the state Senate and Assembly, is difficult for gun owners, businesses and even police officials to understand, the position says.
Two business days after the sheriffs approved the language, Lorey presented it to the Board of Supervisors’ Public Safety Committee, which unanimously approved it, setting up Monday’s vote by the full board. The Public Safety Committee in Montgomery County also passed a similar measure, and a resolution is under way in Hamilton County.
“I’m sure the other counties are going to step on board,” said board Vice Chairman Linda Kemper of Northampton, who chairs the county Public Safety Committee. “It might be a matter of what position they take or what parts of the sheriff’s association position they endorse, but [we] endorsed all their findings.”
Kemper said there was no debate among supervisors Monday – only widespread disgust for the law and the way it was passed.
“There was a lot of discussion, and a lot of it was about the process – that it was shoved through in the middle of the night behind closed doors,” she said, adding that even the most religious supervisors and the ones who don’t own guns were passionate about fighting the law.
“The big picture is big brother is taking over your personal rights, gaining everything you have a right to,” she said.
[Fulton County Sheriff] Lorey did not return a phone message seeking comment Wednesday and could not be reached this morning, but he said Monday at the Fulton County Republican Club’s Lincoln Day dinner that this is a big issue that won’t go away. He followed that up Tuesday with a short speech at a gun rally in Albany.
“I’ve got a simple message: I’m not coming to take your guns. Not today. Not ever,” he shouted through a megaphone, adding, “Fulton County is a come-and-take-it county, not a bend-over county.”…
President Obama has said that his push to effectively delete the Second Amendment will face “significant resistance.” It is time to show him and those in Congress how much resistance there is for any sort of additional gun bans and/or registration requirements in a peaceful and lawful manner. Print copies of this and dispatch them to your Congresspeople, The White House, and staple them to telephone poles and other locations across the country.
…Racism is no longer about race. Not when Bill Clinton was the first black president and Allen West is a racist for bringing fried chicken to a Congressional Black Caucus meeting. Liberalism is the new race, and it is a category that transcends and encompasses race. Liberalism defines race, allowing white liberals to be defined as black and black conservatives to be defined as white…
… PBS Teachers is leading the shift in education from objective to “emotional” learning. This increasing reliance in classrooms on emotion-based encounters is revolutionary, affecting both what is taught and how it is taught. PBS lessons across the curriculum de-emphasize facts and ideas in favor of eliciting subjective responses and personal opinions from students, or even leading students through exercises designed to make them imagine the emotions of various individuals involved in historical events. Students are evaluated not so much on what they know as on the attitudes they hold. Continue reading →
They took prayer out of the schools. We grumbled, but did nothing. They took George Washington’s portrait out of the classrooms. We grumbled, but did nothing. They started teaching collective socialist doctrine to our children. We grumbled, but did nothing.
They started awarding trophies to every player in school team sports, winners and losers. They replaced health classes with sex education, and taught it to grade school children. They promoted failing students in the name of self esteem. We grumbled, but did nothing… Continue reading →
You have to give liberalism a certain amount of credit. It doesn’t work, destroys lives, and pits people against each other, but that’s not to say that there are no advantages to being a liberal. Sure, you may end up sleeping in a tent in Zuccotti Park, reading Noam Chomsky’s laughably ignorant books, or having to watch Rachel Maddow babble incoherent nonsense on MSNBC, but the fringe benefits cannot be beaten!
1) If you’re a politician, no matter how dumb you are or how poor your decision-making is, the press will still never question your intelligence. Continue reading →
A clear societal change took place regarding gun ownership in the early 1990s, when the percentage of Americans saying there was a gun in their home or on their property dropped from the low to mid-50s into the low to mid-40s and remained at that level for the next 15 years. Whether this reflected a true decline in gun ownership or a cultural shift in Americans’ willingness to say they had guns is unclear. However, the new data suggest that attitudes may again be changing. At 47%, reported gun ownership is the highest it has been in nearly two decades — a finding that may be related to Americans’ dampened support for gun-control laws. However, to ensure that this year’s increase reflects a meaningful rebound in reported gun ownership, it will be important to see whether the uptick continues in future polling.
You have to give liberalism a certain amount of credit. It doesn’t work, destroys lives, and pits people against each other, but that’s not to say that there are no advantages to being a liberal. Sure, you may end up sleeping in a tent in Zuccotti Park, reading Noam Chomsky’s laughably ignorant books, or having to watch Rachel Maddow babble incoherent nonsense on MSNBC, but the fringe benefits cannot be beaten!
The Grey Enigma 