law

Chris Knight's avatar

Breaking news on, I think every TV station in the land right now.

George Zimmerman: found Not Guilty

Justice was served.  And I’m going to tell you why…

George Zimmerman has been found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin because the prosecution in this case either had NO real evidence whatsoever, or they were the most incompetent team of prosecutors in the history of anything.  Too many times it seemed as if the prosecutors were scoring points for the defense!

Either way, justice was done in this matter.  The burden is on the prosecution to prove guilt, not on the defendant to prove innocence.  And the prosecution came nowhere close to meeting that burden....

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Chris Knight's avatar

‘Fess up: how many of us laughed about the Third Amendment when we learned about it (or were supposed to have learned about it) in ninth grade?

Quartering Act, French and Indian War, George III, Revolutionary War, Colonial America
The Quartering Act, 1763.

(Chris raises his hand)

The Third Amendment – part of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution – reads thusly: “No soldier shall in time of peace be quartered in any house
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a
manner to be prescribed by law.”

But an incident two years ago which is just now coming to light in court demonstrates how much we should appreciate our rights, whether or not we actively employ them  Anthony Mitchell and his parents,
Michael and Linda Mitchell, were asked by the police department of Henderson, Nevada for the use of their homes in a “domestic violence” investigation.  All three members of the Mitchell family declined, ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

And by that I mean, Kermit Gosnell has chosen life in prison.

He could have chosen death.  Gosnell dropped his appeals in exchange for life, not death.

I’m not the first to note the irony that given a choice, Gosnell chose life.

If only his victims had been given the same choice…

Kermit Gosnell, abortion, abortionist
Kermit Gosnell: He chose life for himself, death for babies.

Kermit Gosnell, abortion “doctor”, found guilty yesterday of murdering three babies (he had been charged with killing four) during botched abortions at his “clinic”. Gosnell was quoted as remarking that Baby A was “big enough to walk around with me or walk me to the bus stop.”

You may not have heard much about Kermit Gosnell. In fact, you might not have heard anything at all about him. The mainstream media was curiously quiet about his case. I don’t know whether it was because the details about went ...

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Liberator, Defense Distributed, 3D printing, gun, firearms, Second Amendment, First Amendment
The Liberator: Coming soon to
a desktop near you!

Defense Distributed has made a lot of headlines lately about the Liberator: a firearm which is completely fabricated by “3D printing”, apart from the firing pin.  I think the success of this gun already is that it’s got politicians like Charles Schumer and Steve Israel all steamed-up about it.  Schumer wants 3D printed guns to be outlawed completely.

The thing is, politicos like Schumer can’t figure out how to pull that off.  3D printing will soon be a household implement and if it can be drawn up on a computer, anyone will be able to produce a fully-functioning model right on their desktop.  The computer doesn’t care if it’s a replacement part for a kitchen appliance or an action figure or a real working handgun.  The barn door has been thrown wide open and there’s no getting that horse back ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Like many others, I have been watching the news out of Cleveland this week: the three young women who escaped after more than a decade of captivity, rape, torture and other abuse.  There is a lot to be said about this story, but most of that has been discussed at considerable length already.

However, tonight I happened to catch something that has led me to articulate some thoughts aloud…

Apparently, at least one of the women became pregnant because of the Castro brothers (Ariel, the eldest, is still being held but his brothers are free for now).  It’s being reported that at least one child was born but the others were killed as a result of induced miscarriages.

Ariel Castro, the “leader” of the three brothers charged with the kidnappings and torture, now faces the possibility of the death penalty if tried and convicted.  That is, if it is determined ...

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A short while ago the members of the United States Senate voted 70 to 24 to pass the “Marketplace Fairness Act”: AKA “Internet sales taxes”.

The Senate has approved collecting taxes on goods sold on the Internet.  We’ll examine that in just a sec.

(“Marketplace Fairness Act”?  God, I hate how these people try to govern by emotion instead of intelligence…)

Anyone who voted for this bill should be removed from office at the earliest possible legal opportunity.  For one thing, it is insanity for government to be levying more taxes upon us at a time when you and I and most other Americans are being obligated to tighten our belts.  How much more do our supposed “representatives” believe we can take?

But what is most on my mind tonight is how this bill is a flagrant violation of the Constitution of the United States.

According to Article One, ...

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Earlier this morning I first read about this and ever since I’ve been trying to find a measure of absurd purpose or mad brilliance in this legislation… but if it’s there I can’t find it.

Two members of this state’s House of Representatives have filed House Bill 494, which if passed would allow for an official religion to be imposed upon North Carolina.

It’s not a late April Fools joke.  Representatives Harry Warren and Carl Ford (each of Rowan County) want an official state religion which would circumvent judicial rulings on prayer at government functions within North Carolina.  Presumably this would be in response to courts which have struck down prayers at county commissioner meetings, school board hearings and the like.  Eleven other representatives so far have backed the proposal.

“The Constitution of the United States does not grant the federal government and does not grant the federal

...
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Chris Knight's avatar

At this point I’ve lost count. It’s at least the fourth or fifth time that my shenanigans have landed me on popular humor site Cracked.com.

Cracked.com, Christopher Knight, Rockingham County, Board of Education, Star Wars, school board, commercial, campaign, Viacom, DMCA, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, copyright infringement, hypocrisy, hypocrites

This latest appearance comes courtesy of an article titled “5 Famous Online Copyright Crusaders Who Are Total Hypocrites”.  With a title like that I just had to scan and tear it down and analyze it to see what I was doing that was so hypocritical… but I honestly can’t find anything about my own part in that very strange episode from the fall of 2007.  In fact, the entire article is about corporations – as Viacom did in that incident – who cry and crow about copyright laws protecting their assets and then steal and violate the assets of everyone else without giving a damn!!

Anyhoo, my situation, “Viacom Lays Claim to a County Board of Education Campaign Video”, made #2 on ...

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Look, I know about the guy’s role in the Saturday Night Massacre. There were a number of beliefs that he held to which I do now and always will vehemently disagree with, particularly with his stance on jury nullification. He also was way off about the Second Amendment, holding to the notion that it was intended for participating in government-sanctioned militias.

But I’ve also long believed that in spite of those and many more qualms about the man, Robert Bork truly – as best he understood – adhered to the highest principles in respect to law and the Constitution.

And claims from petty politicians (like Ted Kennedy) aside, it must be agreed by all: Bork was a brilliant jurist in every sense.

Judge Robert H. Bork passed away this morning at the age of 85.

Thoughts and prayers going out to his family.

And I have to wonder today – ...

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The United States Supreme Court is hearing the case today brought before it by Abigail Fisher, who is asserting that because of race-preferential policies at the University of Texas at Austin, she was denied enrollment at because she is white.

I want to put a question out there, because I think it’s more than valid:

If a member of a racial minority can easily become the President of the United States, then what use is there for academic admission or job-hiring practices that are based on racial preference?

Come to think of it, what use is there for the NAACP? I mean, seems like it’s pretty hard to advance much further than the White House. For anybody regardless of ethnicity, for that matter…...

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