california

Chris Knight's avatar

If only there were some real Eagle Scouts among Los Angeles’s leadership.

There is a lot that I could say about the wildfires in Southern California right now.   I suppose first and foremost is that the situation might the the worst example yet of ignoring reality for the sake of “feelings”.  The requisite water resources, personnel, and methods of delivery for all intents and purposes did not exist.  It had been eliminated in favor of progressive programs and policies.  Like f’rinstance a tiny fish that apparently is not endangered at all.
That alone qualifies the L.A. fires as being a man-bred horror straight out of an Ayn Rand novel.
The thing of it is, fire is not really all that complex a concept.  We learned much about fire in fourth and fifth grade at school, including what is required for fire to start and what to do if God
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Chris Knight's avatar

In a saner age and a better reality, most of us would have never even imagined a headline like that. Today, we know better…

(Perhaps this is part of the reason why the Department of Education was buying up shotguns a year ago?)

Herein lies the tale of one Kenneth Wright of Stockton, California… who yesterday morning was rudely awakened at around 6 a.m. local time by at least a dozen armed officers in SWAT gear. Wright was held in handcuffs in a police car for six hours and his three children (ages 3, 7 and 11) put in another police car.

Why?

Because his estranged wife – who no longer lives at Kenneth’s address – was in default of her student loans.

No joke folks: this man’s house was raided by gun-totin’ thugs on orders from the United States Department of Education…

Mash down here for more about ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Two things that trouble me about California’s Proposition 8 – the “gay marriage” ban – being struck down yesterday by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker…

The first is that a single member of the federal judiciary is empowered to render null and void the vote of more than 7 million voters in a matter pertaining to their own state of residence.

The other thing is that even as this is being cheered in some quarters as a “victory” for certain individuals, in truth it is a dire setback for all individuals. I speak of the now decades-long erosion of jury nullification: the tradition that common people empaneled on a jury can acquit defendants and even overturn legislation in spite of legal and prosecutorial weight, if sincere conscience should so dictate. And even though jury nullification is generally a matter strictly relegated to affairs at trial, its principle...

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A few days ago two “dark-suited IRS agents” – described by Aaron Zeff as “deadly serious, very aggressive, very condescending” – arrived at Harv’s Metro Car Wash in Sacramento, California: a business establishment owned by Mr. Zeff.

So what was the Internal Revenue Service doing at Harv’s Metro Car Wash, you may ask?

Here’s the story from the Sacramento Bee…

The letter that was hand-delivered to Zeff’s on-site manager showed the amount of money owed to the feds was … 4 cents.

Inexplicably, penalties and taxes accruing on the debt – stemming from the 2006 tax year – were listed as $202.31, leaving Harv’s with an obligation of $202.35.

Zeff, who also owns local parking lots and is the president of the Midtown Business Association, finds the situation a bit comical.

“It’s hilarious,” he says, “that two people hopped in a car and came down here for just 4

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Chris Knight's avatar

Call it what you may, a law of either history or human nature. Anything can be used as a weapon… and that a thing intended as a weapon will be used as a weapon.

Concordantly, there is no reason to produce a weapon unless there is a determined possibility of using that weapon.

The San Diego Sheriff’s Department is now in possession of a Long Range Acoustical Device or LRAD: a “sonic weapon” straight out of science-fiction (particularly Atlas Shrugged). This is something that has been used in Iraq against insurgents and also recently against pirates off the coast of Somalia. Quite effectively, it should be noted.

Well, now San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore has been placing his new toy at town hall meetings where citizens have been coming in droves to protest “health care reform” and bigger government.

A spokesman for the San Diego Sheriff’s Department claims ...

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“PIG” (left), written in blood on the door of Sharon Tate’s home on August 9, 1969, and “Healter Skelter” (right) also written in blood on the refrigerator door of the LaBianca residence the following day

Forty years ago today, in the early morning hours of August 9th, 1969, what is still considered to be the most infamous and bizarre act of multiple murder in American history began.

Just after midnight Charles “Tex” Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Linda Kasabian climbed over the fence of 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles and stealthily made their way to the house of movie director Roman Polanski.

Polanski himself was not at home. But his wife was: the stunningly beautiful and nearly nine months pregnant actress Sharon Tate. So were her friend and well-known hairstylist Jay Sebring, Sebring’s girlfriend Abigail Folger (heiress to the coffee fortune) and Polanski’s friend Wojciech Frykowski. Also present ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

I wonder how much of an issue this could become over the next few years. From the Fox News website…

Couple Ordered to Stop Holding Bible Study at Home Without Permit

Pastor David Jones and his wife Mary have been told that they cannot invite friends to their San Diego, Calif. home for a Bible study — unless they are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to San Diego County.

“On Good Friday we had an employee from San Diego County come to our house, and inform us that the Bible study that we were having was a religious assembly, and in violation of the code in the county.” David Jones told FOX News.

“We told them this is not really a religious assembly — this is just a Bible study with friends. We have a meal, we pray, that was all,” Jones said.

A few days

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The Discovery Channel’s popular show Mythbusters gave a fright to the residents of a small California town when a detonation being performed for an upcoming show wound up making a bigger bang than expected. They set off 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate. A mile away, people in Esparto were literally thrown from their couches and the bang even shattered windows of houses (which the Mythbusters staff had replaced the same day).

The purpose of the explosion was to see if socks could literally be “blown off” of a mannequin. Can’t wait to see that ‘un 🙂...

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