Month: May 2016

When we treat them the way we do, who in their right mind would want run for office for the chance to be a public servant?  And that explains why we have the jokers in office that we do.  Turns out, elections actually do have consequences.

We not only have the worst political class in the history of the Republic, we have the worst voter class in the history of the Republic. The vast majority of the electorate autopilots their Election Day decisions based on emotions anymore,* not on any actual carefully-considered reasoning informing their vote for a particular candidate. That’s why populists like Trump, who have no ideological background to get a grip on, become front-runners. Well, sure. They’re called “populists” for a reason. And they have NEVER been good for this country.

When urged to run for president, recently, General James Mattis had the right idea, which boiled down to, “Screw ’em, I can’t fix stupid.”**  In making his decision, he was undoubtedly aware of the following quotes from the Assorted Gospels of St. P. J. O’Rourke:

“Every person in America has done or said something that would keep him or her from being president. Maybe a nation that consumes as much booze and dope as we do and has our kind of divorce statistics should pipe down about ‘character issues.'”

“… in our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents, worried five of them to death, impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails, we hold an election and assassinate their character.” (Written before the Clinton impeachment, which would make it “impeached two”.)

Ah well.  I wouldn’t have said it even as little as six months ago, but we’re not going to vote our way out of this.  The progressives — who ALWAYS shit their nest — have just about managed to destroy everything we used to stand for.  President Trump or President Hillary will see to finishing it off.

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* Explaining the Trump and Bernie phenomena, but not the Hillary phenomenon, unless maybe it does.

** For the benefit of idiot morons, he did not actually say that.  I’m simply translating what he actually said.

Normally I would not give much credence to a case of “convicted burglar sues homeowner who shot him”, but in this case I think the homeowner probably deserves some punishment.

Convicted burglar files lawsuit against homeowner who shot him during attempted break-in

This seems, on its face, to be a cut and dried, open and shut, kick it out of court with prejudice kind of case of a homeowner “standing his ground” and defending his “castle”.  But I submit that it’s not, and I see why the burglar thinks his case might actually get somewhere.

Reviewing the article, it seems as if the would-be burglar had set off the alarm in the garage he was breaking into.  By the time the homeowner came out, the burglar was off the property, running away, and posing no threat to the homeowner. I’m no lawyer, but it seems pretty clear, in that case, Indiana’s Castle Doctrine/Stand Your Ground law implies that the use of deadly force is not an option.

Yet the homeowner apparently followed the burglar out into the alley and shot him in the back — whether on purpose, or serendipitously, seems up in the air, given that the homeowner seems to have admitted he didn’t know what he was shooting at — as the burglar was running down the alley (which is not part of the homeowner’s property, or “curtilage” as defined at law).  In other words, he continued to pursue and shoot at the miscreant after both had left the property.

Now, I’m perfectly willing to admit that, as a non-lawyer, I may be wrong about how the Castle Doctrine law is interpreted and applied, but it seemed pretty simple for me to connect the dots between IC 35-41-3-2 and 35-41-3-3 to get to “deadly force was not sanctioned”. Plus, I’ve always been told that if they’re running away and off the property, you’re best advised not to shoot, Castle Doctrine or no.  (The bad jokes about “if he was going out the window when you shot him, drag him back into the house before you call the cops” not withstanding, you are probably putting yourself into legal jeopardy if you do damn fool shit like that.)

The homeowner’s clear violation of Rule 4, “Be sure of your target and what is beyond it,” also comes to mind, but of course that is a common-sense thing, not the law.

It should be interesting to see how this plays out, particularly as a test of just how far courts are going to allow the Castle Doctrine to stretch.  I really think the court is going to have to find that the homeowner violated the letter of the law, but I don’t know how they’ll deal with that.  Probably with a slap on the hands, since the cops were apparently down with what he did and no criminal charges were filed against him — so far as I can see — at the time it happened.  But who knows.

Guess we’ll find out.  In the meantime, CCW holders need to remember something very, very, VERY important.

Namely:  You’re not a cop.  Let the police, sheriff, or other local constabulary handle it if you, your property, and your family are not in any immediate danger.  They have that three-digit speed dial direct to dispatch for a reason, and it’s their job to deal with this kind of thing.  In fact, they’d probably be a lot happier if you stopped at your property line like the law suggests you ought to, rather than running out going root-toot in the dark at something you don’t even know what it is.

For instance, if this dude had remembered that simple bit of advice, he’d probably still be alive.  But that’s another story.

No more caffeine right before bedtime.

Tossed and turned all night.  Had weird dreams.  The two I recall were particularly odd.

In the first one, I was walking in Broad Ripple with Tamara.*  We stopped in a new restaurant, don’t remember the name (if it even had one).  They had sugar cream pie (the Hoosier national pie), and we both had a huge slice.  Since I don’t actually like sugar cream pie, I have absolutely no clue why that was important.  I woke up after that and then dozed off again.

In the second dream, I was sitting at a table with Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, and some other former NBA players.**  We were talking about basketball and then I said something about Shaq’s Masonic ring.  We started talking about Masonry and everyone else at the table was like, dude, WTF are you talking about?  Then I woke up again and dozed off again.

I think I prefer not remembering my dreams.  Easier that way.

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* No idea why.  And no idea why Bobbi wasn’t with us.  Or my wife, or any of the blogmeet crew.  Or why craft beer wasn’t involved somehow.

** No idea why.  Shaq is in fact a Freemason, FWIW.  But where that came from, not a friggin’ clue.

To all living communists, socialists, progressives, and their ilk:  Please go to directly to Hell.  Do not pass go, do not collect $200.  (You believe in a cashless society anyway, you don’t need it.)

To Karl Marx, Josef Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung, Chiang Kai-Shek, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, and all of their successors:  Hopefully you are enjoying your long roast in the hot place (or your long chill in the cold place, depending on your particular vision of Hell).  May your sojourn there last until the heat death of the universe.

To all Donald Trump supporters:  Fuck.  You.  Oh, wait.  He’s just a populist.  Well, populists are assholes, too.  So I can tell them to go fuck themselves on Commie Day, too.