Religion of Peace

Shortly after 9/11, I first read about a poll of Muslim countries (at that time, primarily Arabic countries). This poll was designed to find out what sort of support there was for Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and their terrorist activities amongst the ordinary citizens of Muslim nations. Since then, dozens of such polls have been conducted, in a broader range of Muslim countries, with some of them seeking to further clarify the initial findings by sampling not only whether a citizen was Muslim or not, but also what branch of Islam the citizen believed in (Shia, Sunni, Wahabi, etc.).

The results of these polls have been remarkably consistent.

Support for Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and terrorist activity directed at America is always between 80% and 95% of those sampled in the poll.

Some of these polls went further: they sought to understand why this support existed. Their results are also remarkably consistent.

The overwhelming majority of supporters of terrorism directed at America cite one reason for their support. It can be summarized — fairly, I believe — like this:

The Quran (Koran) says that infidels must be coerced to either convert or die, and that it is the duty of all faithful Muslims to coerce them. America is the leader of the infidel nations. America must be coerced. The best weapon the Muslims have to fulfill their religious duty (at least, until Iran gets nuclear weapons) is terrorism. There is no stricture in Islam against killing infidels (in fact, quite the opposite), so engaging in terrorism is completely consistent with their religious beliefs.

These poll results are consistent with another piece of evidence, one not often spoken of in our lamestream media: Al Qaeda and its ilk are quite well funded. They are spending many millions of dollars annually on training, weapons, ammunition, logistics, and so on. Where does this money come from? Well, actually, that’s well known (if little discussed): an interesting fraction comes from terrorist-supporting governments (Iran, Libya, etc.) — but the majority comes from individual donations. The money is solicited from Muslims much as a Christian minister or priest, or a Jewish rabbi, might solicit money from their flock for charity. The Muslim imams — both directly and by endorsement — overtly raise money to help the terrorists kill infidels. Overwhelmingly the target of their rhetoric is American and Jewish (e.g., Israeli) infidels.

So here’s the ponder…

Does anything short of eliminating Islam remove the threat to America?

The contention of the lamestream media, propaganda outlets like CAIR, and most other defenders of Islam — including the imams of many mosques in the U.S. — is that Islamic terrorists are a tiny minority of Muslims, and that most Muslims condemn their actions. These polls show that contention to be false.

If we could somehow wave a magic wand and round up every single Al Qaeda member this instant, what do you suppose would happen next?

If I believe these poll results (and I know of no reason why I shouldn’t), then surely another Al Qaeda would arise very quickly. It would have no trouble either recruiting or obtaining financing. So long as their remained a Muslim base with the beliefs indicated by those polls, this would be true.

So…

Logically, it seems to me, there are only two ways to eliminate the threat to America.

One way would be to change the beliefs of Muslims. How on earth could we do that? Even attempting to induce such a change would be confirmation of our infidel status, and further “proof” of the need to convert or kill us.

The other would be to eliminate Muslims (or better, only the Muslims who believed they had a duty to kill infidels).

Would anyone care to point out the error in my logic?

Word of the Day

Karmageddon, n: It’s like, when everybody is, like, sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s, like, a serious bummer.

Word of the Day

Glibido, n.: All talk and no action.

Word of the Day

Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Bit of History

In the Soviet Union, between 1924 and 1937, there was once a group of people dedicated to the promotion and preservation of the Latvian language and culture. They called themselves the “Prometheus Society", and they financed themselves by manufacturing and selling various items (including slide rules), and by putting on concerts, shows, and art exhibitions.

I recently acquired one of their slide rules, and with the help of my friends Vera and Konstantin Stankevich, I found out quite a bit about this society. Their end was tragic: in one of Stalin’s infamous purges, every member of the society was either killed outright or set to gulags (most likely for a slow death there).

This is one of the most interesting stories I’ve heard associated with slide rules, and thus a particularly good example of the unexpected benefits of my hobby.

Read more about the society here, or see the slide rule here…

Word of the Day

Arachnoleptic fit, n: The frantic dance you perform just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.

Please...

The year was 1980, and the FBI was running a high-level sting operation to catch government officials taking bribes. It was called “Abscam", and it was doing great work until the lamestream media exposed it. Here’s an extract from a videotape of one of Abscam’s most famous moments:

On tape, Murtha told the undercover FBI agent: “When I make a f***in' deal I want to make sure that I know exactly what I’m doing and … what I’m sayin' is, a few investments in my district …"

It is a profound and shocking fact that Murtha even showed up at this meeting, knowing he was going to be negotiating bribe money with Arabs.

Murtha added that he wanted the investment in his district to look like it was done “legitimately … when I say legitimately, I’m talking about so these bastards up here can’t say to me … 'Jesus Christ, ah, this happened,' then he (someone else), in order to get immunity so he doesn’t go to jail, he starts talking and fingering people and then the son of a bitch all falls apart."

For those of you just joining us, no, this isn’t a scene from “The Sopranos.” It’s an actual conversation between a U.S. congressman and an FBI agent posing as an Arab sheik offering a bribe.

"Murtha” is Congressman John Murtha, D-PA. Yes, that Murtha — the one that the Democrats have proudly chosen as the leader of their anti-war efforts.

Sometimes you just have to wonder whether you’re in the real world, or in someone’s demented, loony-bin dream world. Because in the real world, surely something this obviously wrong wouldn’t happen, would it?

Please, someone wake me up and get me back to the real world!

H/T to Ann Coulter…

Fortress Report

As I write this, my contractor continues his never-ending stream of lies, broken promises, and just plain immoral behavior. It’s really quite sad.

And quite annoying, since it’s my money he’s got, and my fortress he’s not building!

Several of my concerned readers have asked me privately to name this contractor, as they would like to avoid making the same mistake I did. Privately, I have responded to them — and if you’re about to make a decision on a concrete contractor, feel free to contact me!

However, I’m not quite ready to disclose his name publicly — although I’m very, very close. I’ve gotten some advice from an attorney on this matter, and there’s one more step I’m going to take before I’m ready to go public with the contractor’s name. In a few days, if I don’t have a positive response (meaning visible progress on the fortress), then I will name him here.

Quote of the Day

From Mark Steyn’s most recent column in The Australian:

According to my dictionary, the word “ally” comes from the Old French. Very Old French, I’d say. For the New French, the word has a largely postmodern definition of “duplicitous charmer who undermines you at every opportunity”.

Read the whole thing.

Word of the Day

Beelzebug, n: Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

Word of the Day

Caterpallor, n: The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.

Word of the Day

Ignoranus, n: A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.

Wow!

As you can see on the gauge at right, we had almost 3 inches (7 cm) of lovely, gentle rain fall on us yesterday. For once, the rainfall occurred almost exactly when the NOAA forecast said it would: midnight-to-midnight on the 19th. No forecast I saw got the amount right, though — predictions varied from 1.25 inches to 2 inches.

Our wildfire danger is now essentially zero, and it will most likely stay that way for at least a month. Hopefully more…

If our deserts to the east got some of this rain (I don’t know yet whether they did or not), then we’re quite likely to have good desert wildflowers this year.

And of course, in a few weeks I’ll be engaged in the annual battle weeds and grasses battle!

Rain!

We’ve got a very nice rain storm going right now; it’s been raining — often quite hard — since just after midnight last night. On the radar snapshot at right you can see that at 7:15 this morning we had a big old storm cell right on top of our heads. The current radar image shows more such cells on the way. The forecast says rain all day today and into tonight.

And we’ve got over an inch already!

I suspect the Lawson Creek will be running tomorrow, for real…

The rain has been intense enough, on occasion, to cause my satellite Internet connection to fail — it’s been a while since we’ve seen anything like that…

Slide Rules

If you found this blog because you were looking for Tom Dilatush, the slide rule collector, you’ve found some scribblings by the right guy — but you’re in the wrong place.

Mike Konshak (the proprietor of the indispensable International Slide Rule Museum) offered to host my slide rule collection on his web site. That was such an attractive offer that I could hardly resist, and my collection is now slowly making it’s way onto the web at this new location. As I write this, I’m approaching 100 slide rules scanned, photographed, and documented.

So go take a look!

Oh My

Doomed, I tell you, we're all DOOMED!

Watch this.

Then (if you're American) weep for your country.

Gun Control

Here’s England’s experience, in a pithy summary from the London Telegraph:

We have, post-Dunblane, what are said to be the toughest gun control laws in the world. They have actually proved strikingly ineffectual.

Gun crime has doubled since they were introduced. Young hoodlums are able to acquire handguns - either replica weapons that have been converted, or imports from eastern Europe - with ease. With no dedicated frontier police, our borders remain hopelessly porous. The only people currently incommoded by the firearms laws are legitimate holders of shotgun licenses, who are subjected to the most onerous police checks.

This pretty much matches the NRA’s predictive slogan:

When guns are outlawed, only outlaws have guns.

The left in the U.S. never ceases its attempts — sometimes successful — to whittle away at the rights of Americans to own firearms. With the Democratic majorities now in Congress, we can expect more of the same at the national level — hopefully to be vetoed by President Bush. In 2008, should Hillary or Obama be elected (an outcome you can bet that Osama and his ilk are fervently praying for), and should the Democratic majorities in Congress be maintained, we can expect some very restrictive gun control legislation to be passed. Both candidates have, in the past, expressed support for either eliminating the right of U.S. citizens to own firearms, or for restricting that right severely, as in the U.K. today. In fact, Hillary has cited the U.K. as a model for gun control. Should such legislation be passed, the NRA and other such groups will immediately mount a Constitutional challenge, and one hopes they’d win that. But after Kelo, I’m no longer so confident that our Supreme Court will actually uphold the plain meaning of the Constitution. Event its “conservative” members are alarmingly prone to inventing new meanings and new passages…

Global Warming

On Reuters yesterday:

KATHMANDU - Snow fell on Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, for the first time in 63 years on Wednesday, stirring excitement and curiosity among residents and their children.

"I have never seen it snow in Kathmandu in all my life,” said 45-year-old housewife Manju Shrestha, playing in the snow with her young children.

Also in the news yesterday: temperatures in Antarctica are not increasing, as the climate models have predicted. Let me translate: the “evidence” for the notion of future global warming caused by human activity consists almost entirely of the predictions of computerized “models” of the Earth’s climate. For the most part, the changes predicted by these models are small and slow, and therefore very difficult to verify over the course of even several years. However, there are several changes the models predict that are larger and faster. One of those happens to be in an area where there is lots of scientific activity, and good climate records over the past few years: Antarctica. The models predicted easily measurable temperature increases over the past 10 years.

Those increases didn’t happen.

The models are demonstrably wrong.

But I don’t suppose the Al Gorians will temper their rhetoric in the slightest. After all, they’re not the type to let a little thing like some pesky data upset their gravy train certainty…

Quote of the Day

From Iraqi Konfused Kid:

I’m gonna tell you something that all the Iraqis who pretend they’re full of pride and shit don’t tell you, every Iraqi who knows what’s good for him wants the US military plan to happen - it’s a known fact today that while US soldiers do occasionally rape 15-year-olds and add naked photos of our hairy butts to their family albums, they are still infinitely more trustworthy than any Iraqi soldier from anywhere. When an American soldier knocks on your door for a search, you go 'oh thank god' but when Iraqis do the same, you are instantly on your toes.

Read the whole thing, please.

There’s a wide variety of commentary coming from Iraq these days, on blogs — military blogs, diplomatic blogs, propaganda blogs, and Iraqi citizen blogs. What’s most striking to me about all of these sources of information is this: while they all have different perspectives and different kinds of information … I haven’t found a single one that even comes close matching the awful picture painted by the lamestream media. If you read these sources, as I do regularly, you’ll discover a different Iraq. A much more plausible Iraq than the one you see on CNN, and also a much more complex Iraq. There’s good news and there’s bad news, and plenty of both. And contrary to what you’d believe if your only source was the talking network heads, there’s plenty of those most precious human commodities: hope and inspiration…

Wake Up!

Last night Debbie attempted to use our microwave oven, and discovered that it didn’t work. Oh, the lights came on, and the turntable turned, but the stuff inside stayed ice cold. Thinking that it might have gotten itself into some software failure mode, or perhaps that some electronics got overheated, I pulled the plug and told her we’d try it again in the morning. It’s amazing how often a little “rest” cures whatever ails an appliance.

So this morning I plugged it back in to try it out. Of course it won’t do anything until you set the clock, so I had to figure that out again. Thank goodness for Google’s ability to find a manual on the web — because there’s very little chance we’d ever find the manual for this 8 or 9 year old device in our house! So, with multi-page clock-setting directions in hand, I managed to get the clock set. Now we’re ready to test it, and hopefully we’ll be cooking with hard radiation!

But such was not to be…

I put my test container of water in the microwave, and pressed the two buttons that would make it heat for one minute on 'high'. For the first couple of seconds, everything acted perfectly normal. Then there was a very loud kra-a-a-ck!!! and a jet of blue flame shot out the right side of the microwave. Our microwave is sitting in a recessed cabinet, so the blue flame quickly filled the small space between the microwave and the cabinet, and then changed direction to the only escape it had: straight out the front. This flame jumped out perhaps 18 inches, right past my right hand (which was still up at the control panel) and just a few inches from my eyeballs.

I don’t think my heart rate has ever jumped quite so much, quite so quickly.

The microwave is now sitting ignominiously out by our trash cans. I will buy us a nice, shining, new, non-exploding microwave this afternoon.

And I will never, ever have an unguarded microwave moment again!

Plan Two

The Democrats' actions don’t match their rhetoric? I know, I know, big freakin' surprise! I can hear the peanut gallery already… They’re politicians, for crap’s sake! What was I expecting? Leadership? Aw, come on, be reasonable — these are politicians we’re talking about!

For all their “deeply felt", “moral” rhetoric during the last election campaign about the need to end the war in Iraq, and for all their self-congratulating talk about the “mandate” the voters handed them, the Democrats have just shown us how shallow their actual commitment to the cause really is. In four months the Democratic leadership has made the transition from in-your-face anti-war agitation to a kind of political “guerrilla war”. They don’t have the votes — or the Constitutional authority — to force an actual end to the war. So they now have the objective of preventing President Bush — the Commander-In-Chief duly elected by a majority of the American people — from prosecuting the Iraq war as he decides. From The Politico:

Top House Democrats, working in concert with anti-war groups, have decided against using congressional power to force a quick end to U.S. involvement in Iraq, and instead will pursue a slow-bleed strategy designed to gradually limit the administration’s options.

Led by Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., and supported by several well-funded anti-war groups, the coalition’s goal is to limit or sharply reduce the number of U.S. troops available for the Iraq conflict, rather than to openly cut off funding for the war itself.

The legislative strategy will be supplemented by a multimillion-dollar TV ad campaign designed to pressure vulnerable GOP incumbents into breaking with President Bush and forcing the administration to admit that the war is politically unsustainable.

As described by participants, the goal is crafted to circumvent the biggest political vulnerability of the anti-war movement — the accusation that it is willing to abandon troops in the field. That fear is why many Democrats have remained timid in challenging Bush, even as public support for the president and his Iraq policies have plunged.

Translation: the Democrats have figured out that their bring-the-troops-home-right-now position is not the position of the majority of the American people (and possibly not even the majority of the lefties — barking moonbat rhetoric notwithstanding). So they can’t take on the issue directly, as they would lose. Rather than accept this outcome — which is after all just that pesky “will of the people” thing, not the view of the “elites” — they will instead try to hobble President Bush with their version of the legendary Chinese torture: death by a thousand cuts. Financial cuts, in this case.

Their political courage in office doesn’t even come close to matching their rhetorical courage while running.

What disturbs me the most, though, isn’t this specific tactic; I’ve come to expect such bullshit from this crowd. No, what disturbs me the most is that my fellow Americans keep re-electing these bozos, despite their repeated failure to live up to even their own side’s expectations! So far as I can discern, there is simply zero accountability amongst our elected representatives.

Sort of like the Post Office.

Now there’s a scary thought for you…

Simple Joys

A friend passed along this story…

One sunny day in 2008, an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he’d been sitting on a park bench.

He spoke to the Marine standing guard and said, “I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton.

The Marine replied, “Sir, Mrs. Clinton is not President and doesn’t reside here."

The old man said, “Okay,” and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, “I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton”.

The Marine again told the man, “Sir, as I said yesterday, Mrs. Clinton is not President and doesn’t reside here."

The man thanked him and again walked away…

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same Marine, saying “I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton."

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mrs. Clinton. I’ve told you already several times that Mrs. Clinton is not the President and doesn’t reside here. Don’t you understand?"

The old man answered, “Oh, I understand you fine, I just love hearing your answer!"

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said … “See you tomorrow!"

Trouble is, this story would be just as funny — and comforting — with almost any of the 25 (or 45, or whatever it’s up to now) announced candidates for President in 2008…

Quote of the Day

On Saturday, I chanced to hear a prominent politician say this:

If I were running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory not only for Mr. Obama but also for the Democrats.

Can you guess who this was?

It was that well-known American patriot, John Howard. The Prime Minister of Australia. Leave it to an Aussie to have the political courage to speak the truth, however inconvenient or politically incorrect it might be…

Fortress Fortitude

Back in November, I posted a few times about the “fortress” I am attempting to have built (just search for “fortress” at right if you’re interested in the history). Since then, I’ve been suffering from a contractor who just wouldn’t live up to his side of the bargain (e.g., building my fortress), though he was happy to take my money. Things have been slowly escalating, most recently to the point where lawyers have been consulted and threats made. Last night, I met with my contractor — and maybe, just maybe, got things back on track. As it stands right now, we’re scheduled to pour 14 cubic yards of concrete next Saturday.

If that actually happens, there will be some celebrating here on that evening!

Since those first few posts, several people have posted comments or written me privately, wondering why I felt so threatened that I felt compelled to build a fortress. So let me explain to anyone who may be wondering…

The “fortress” is not a defense against burglars, nuclear weapons, or any other act of man.

The “fortress” is a defense against fire — the kind of wild, crazy, fast-moving wildfires we get out here in the chaparral. What makes this compelling is two things: (1) The knowledge that a wildfire in our area, within my lifetime, is almost inevitable. It has already been almost thirty years since the last fire burned what is now our property — and that means thirty years of chaparral growth, and thirty years of fuel accumulation. (2) The unexpected discovery, after the last fire that burned close to us, that steel buildings are vulnerable to wildfire. As we drove around through the burned areas off Montiel Road after the fire, I was stunned to see that virtually every steel building had either completely collapsed or had partially collapsed.

That latter discovery prompted a lot of research on my part into exactly what kinds of buildings can survive a fire — as I had purchased the components of a steel building, and was planning to erect it. And as usual, it turns out there are lots of ways to skin that particular cat. However, one particular building design combined several things that I really liked: low cost, completely reliable even with no power or water, and simplicity. That design: a concrete building with a double-walled, thick steel door.

After completing my research, I engaged a contractor and a structural engineer, and we came to a firm design. It’s only called “the fortress” because the solid concrete building evokes the image of a military bunker. It starts with a 6” thick reinforced concrete slab, 20' by 20'. Centered in that slab is a 16” deep, 24” wide footing for a 16' by 16' building. The walls of the building will start with hollow cement blocks, with the inner ceiling being 8' high. Every second run of blocks will have horizontal steel reinforcement. Once the walls are built, vertical steel reinforcement will be inserted, and concrete poured to fill the walls. Then a steel reinforcement mesh will be wired into place for the roof, and a 10” thick concrete roof poured around it. Sounds like a bunker, doesn’t it? But all that strength is what’s required to make a solid concrete building meet our building codes, including for earthquake safety.

It has nothing to do with withstanding mortar bombardment, and everything to do with withstanding a magnitude 6.0 temblor.

And a fire.

The fires we have out here in the chaparral pass very quickly. It’s unlikely that the fuel in the immediate area will take more than 30 minutes to burn. Inside the fortress, if we or our animals need to escape to there, we won’t even get warm.

And that’s the whole point of the exercise!

Facts and Claims

Local folks will remember well that on the evening of this past December 1, a local man — Charles Crow — was shot dead on Wisecarver Truck Trail, just off Skyline Truck Trail. This happens to be just over a mile from where I live, so this particular incident struck close to home in both the figurative sense and in the literal sense. Ever since that day, we’ve been trying to figure out exactly what happened, as the meager information we received clearly didn’t tell the whole story.

Yesterday a hearing was held in El Cajon Superior Court, Judge Laura Palmer Hammes presiding, to determine if there was enough evidence to bind the suspect in the case (Jamul electrical contractor Bob Orlosky) over for trial on one charge of murder (of Charles Crow) and two charges of attempted murder (Hector Monget and David Hurley, Jr.), all local residents. The judge ruled that there was sufficient evidence, and has scheduled a hearing for Februrary 22nd to set a trial date. For those of you who do not understand how these proceedings work — this does not mean that the judge believes Orlosky is (or is probably) guilty. It simply means that she has determined that the prosecutor has a sufficient evidence to warrant allowing a jury to hear the case. This is a very low bar…
From the three articles I’ve found on the hearing (here, here, and here), I’ve gleaned these facts:

The three men in the Jeep that day were Charles Crow, David Hurley Jr., and Hector Monget.
The maximum sentence Orlosky faces, if convicted, is life in prison.
A week before the shooting, Orlosky and Grant Nunmaker caught copper thieves on Orlosky’s property and held them at gunpoint until sheriff’s deputies arrived to arrest them.
Crow and Hurley were suspected (by the sheriffs) of stealing copper in the past, but not from Orlosky’s property.
There was no copper in Hurley’s Jeep (the vehicle involved that evening), nor were there any tools that could be used to remove copper from electrical machinery.
Orlosky remains free on $2 million bail.
The defense attorney is Paul Pfingst (former San Diego District Attorney).
The prosecutor is Jeff Dusek, who used to work for Paul Pfingst.

The story alleged by the prosecution:

Hurley says that he and Crow were driving Monget to his home (in Rancho San Diego) on that night. He said that they saw a “For Sale” (real estate) sign as they drove past Wisecarver Road, and decided to check it out. He said they drove up Wisecarver Truck Trail, past a white pickup driving the other way, until they ran into a locked gate. At that point, he said, they turned around, and retraced their route toward Skyline Truck Trail. At some point he said they saw the white pickup parked by the side of the road, slowed down to see if the driver needed help, and at that point Orlosky stepped out from behind the white pickup and started shooting with his rifle held at his waist.

And some other unverifiable information:

Pfingst said that Hurley’s initial testimony to police was that he did not get a good look at the shooter’s face. Hurley said that his memory started coming back to him after the fact.
NBC News is reporting that the defense argument will be that the three men in the jeep were drunk, on drugs, and stealing.

This hearing was all about the prosecutor’s case, so we didn’t get to find out much about the defense’s side of things. From what was presented in the hearing, it sounds like the prosecutor is going to paint a picture of Orlosky as the outraged and out-of-control property owner, wronged in the past, and leaping to unwarranted conclusions in this instance. The fact that there was neither copper nor copper removal tools in the Jeep sounds damaging to Orlosky’s case to me; you’re not going to remove wire from motors or transformers with your bare hands. You might be able to make an argument that Orlosky believed they were on a scouting expedition, or something along those lines, but that would not be a reasonable justification for shooting.
One piece of Hurley’s testimony jumped out at me: that Orlosky held the rifle at his waist while shooting. Why would anyone shoot a rifle like that? If you know anything about guns, you know shooting “from the hip” is guaranteed to be wild, inaccurate fire. I don’t know why, as I wasn’t there, but that sounds to me like desperate, panicked shooting — not deliberate, calculated shooting. Of course, we don’t even know that’s really what happened; this is the just the testimony of one person.
It’s also interesting that Crow and Hurley were suspected in other copper thefts. I wonder if Orlosky knew that? Numerous commenters on previous posts have painted a glowing picture of Crow — they’ve called him a fine, upstanding young man who would never consider doing such a thing. The sheriffs obviously believed otherwise. I wonder what their suspicions were based on?
But to hear the other side, most likely we’re going to have to wait for the trial. We’ll know when that is on February 22nd.
If you’d like some history on this case, and a fair amount of commentary (much of it from local folks), check out my previous posts on the subject (in chronological order) here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

One Life = One Year

Jonny Dallo was sentenced today to one year in jail for killing Jodi Burnett through his reckless actions. From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

A 19-year-old Jamul man was sentenced Thursday to one year in jail because he killed a mother of five in a high-speed crash last June.

He also was placed on probation for three years, and will lose his license for three years.

This kind of slap-of-the-wrist sentence is exactly what I was afraid of when we got news of Jonny’s sudden guilty plea. It smelled like a plea bargain had been struck (though none was made public), and this sentence certainly seems to confirm that. In the absence of any public information, we’re left to stew with our worst suspicions — that the high-powered legal team defending Jonny somehow raised enough doubt to scare the prosecutors into bargaining for a light sentence. Or even worse, that the prosecutors had somehow been bought. One commenter (on another post relating to this case) speculates that the Dallo family paid the Burnett family to get their support for a lighter sentence for Jonny — possible, I suppose, but again there is no public information to support that.

In the end, with what has been made public, here’s what we know: a hard-working mother and wife is dead from a horrible car wreck that happened only because of Jonny Dallo’s incredibly reckless driving. Dead.

And Jonny gets one year in jail.

Do you think that justice has been served here?

I do not.

Universal Bumper Sticker

Brought to you by the folks in New York:

Run, Hillary, Run!

Democrats put this on the rear bumper.

Republicans put this on the front bumper.

Libertarians put it on both bumpers.

An Animal Moment

A few minutes ago, I walked into our kitchen to finish making the cup of tea I’d left brewing there. This is, of course, something that I’ve done hundreds of times before.

But this time was different, on two counts:

First count: Mo’i (our older male field spaniel) was sitting on the floor, happily munching away — on a plastic food bowl. We’ve had that dog food bowl for a long time, and nobody had ever molested it before. This morning, for whatever reason, Mo’i went after it. Thoroughly. It’s dead; just barely recognizable. It’s a good thing the rest of our bowls are solid steel. At least, I think it’s a good thing!

Second count: Tippy (an adult shorthair cat) was up on the kitchen counter with a look of kitty ecstasy on his face. His eyes were half-closed with happiness, and I thought I heard a little moan of pleasure. He was lapping away at my tea just as fast as he could! And no, there was no milk or sugar in it.

There was a slightly odd flavor to the tea, but that may have been my imagination…

Title

A friend’s email brought a smile this morning, as I read through these examples of the wit and wisdom of Will Rogers. Here are some of his most famous one-liners, often used in the context of his trademark razor-sharp political commentary:

Never slap a man who’s chewing tobacco.

Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.

There are 2 theories to arguing with a woman…neither works.

Never miss a good chance to shut up.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back in your pocket.

There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

If you’re riding' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it’s still there.

Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier’n puttin' it back.

After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral: When you’re full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

And here’s Will on the subject of aging:

Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know “why” I look this way. I’ve traveled a long way and some of the roads weren’t paved.

When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of algebra.

You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

I don’t know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change from being young.

One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.

Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.

Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it’s called golf.

If you don’t learn to laugh at trouble, you won’t have anything to laugh at when you are old.

Thanks, Will. The world still needs someone like you…

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

From a story in the San Diego Union-Buffoon, which, per their normal practice, doesn’t involve any actual investigation — just 'reporting' in the most literal sense:

Walter Rosales and Karen Toggery, who have lifelong blood ties to the village but are not officially enrolled, argued that the Jamul tribe has been hijacked by officers and members wrongly recognized by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. The two contend they are the tribe’s rightful leaders, one of several claims they have pursued in a series of unsuccessful suits dating back to the mid-1990s.

Southern California Intertribal Court Judge Anthony Brandenburg, sitting as a circuit judge in the first hearing of the Jamul Indian Village Tribal Court, rejected the plaintiffs' argument that the court lacked jurisdiction to serve as a legal forum for the eviction proceedings.

This is both the bad news and the ugly news. It’s bad (from my perspective, and that of many of my fellow Jamulians) because it means that the casino we don’t want to see built has one less obstacle to overcome. It’s ugly because this intra-tribal fight has turned into a full-blown, very public battle pitting two members of this tiny tribe against the other 30 or so members who support building the casino. It’s difficult for an outsider to imagine what this must feel like, on either side. But it can’t be pleasant for anyone…

Rosales and Toggery contend that land grading and casino construction would desecrate the tiny Jamul reservation, where funerary objects of their family members have been burned and buried near their homes as part of Kumeyaay Indian rituals.

The two cite such objections in an injunction lawsuit against the California Native American Heritage Commission that was filed last month in county Superior Court. They succeeded yesterday in getting a Superior Court order halting crews from dismantling the reservation’s meeting hall until a hearing on their injunction motion takes place March 19.

There’s the good news: one obstacle to the casino has at least gained the standing to be heard before the court, and the building work is, at the very least, delayed until the hearing date in March.

For You, Arkin

Many people have ably commented on the awful slurs written yesterday by William Arkin, the mindlessly liberal columnist at the Washington Post (whose words I will not repeat here). He’s been verbally whupped to the point that he’s now issued a (slimy, qualified) apology that falls far short of what’s needed. Personally, I think the Post should fire him, pronto, but of course that isn’t going to happen. The single best response to Arkin I’ve seen yet comes from a warrior poet, Russ Vaughn. Here’s the beginning:

WaPo Weasels II

Contributed by Russ Vaughn

...

Want to slam our soldiers, Arkin?

Well here is one to slam.

I got used to Lefty slamming

When I came back from Vietnam.

So you want to put a muzzle

On our brave fighting men?

Well try muzzling me you jerk,

Just tell me where and when.

...

Your profession needs a lesson

In basic free speech rights,

For those you worms all hide behind,

For those who fight your fights.

Like all your soft and smarmy kind,

You really have no clue,

Who American warriors truly are,

What our warriors truly do.

Now go read the rest. That’s an order!

And while you’re there, don’t miss WaPo Weasels I…

The Debate Is Over

Yesterday, Senator Barbara Boxer — one of California’s dysfunctional U.S. Senators — said this:

"The scientific debate is over. We will have legislation this year."

This is but the latest in what looks like an orchestrated campaign by the left to shut down all debate and discussion on global warming. In recent weeks, we’ve seen efforts to ban global-warming skeptics from radio and TV, to refuse funding to skeptics, and even to criminalize public speech by skeptics (by claiming that any skeptical talk is criminally misleading and damaging to the public).

This is un-American.

This is madness.

This is anti-science.

This is getting dangerously close to Fahrenheit 451 (how long until we’re told to burn our copies of The Skeptical Environmentalist?), and Orwellian thought control (shutting down legitimate debate is just one step from telling you you’re not allowed to have skeptical thoughts).

This is (as others have observed) very much like a kind of secular religion — our leftie “betters” want us to take global warming on faith.

Does anyone have any good ideas on how to combat this?