More Guns, Fewer Criminals

The cherished liberal elitists idea that people exercising their Second Amendment rights to self defense leads to a significant number of innocents being murdered is just absurd.

We've all heard "more guns, less crime" but now there is a new twist. More guns, fewer criminals. USA Today has an article about criminals and their victims, who are the victims?

Criminals target each other, trend shows
By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — A spike in murders in many cities is claiming a startling number of victims with criminal records, police say, suggesting that drug and gang wars are behind the escalating violence.

Police increasingly explore criminal pasts of homicide victims as well as suspects as they search for sources of the violence, which has risen the past two years after a decade of decline, according to the FBI's annual measures of U.S. crime.

Understanding victims' pasts is critical to driving crime back down, police and crime analysts say. "If you are trying to look at prevention, you need to look at the lives of the people involved," says Mallory O'Brien, director of the Homicide Review Commission in Milwaukee.

In Baltimore, about 91% of murder victims this year had criminal records, up from 74% a decade ago, police reported.

In many cases, says Frederick Bealefeld III, Baltimore's interim police commissioner, victims' rap sheets provide critical links to potential suspects in botched drug deals or violent territorial disputes.

MORE FROM BALTIMORE: Cities study victims' criminal past

Philadelphia police Capt. Ben Naish says the Baltimore numbers are "shocking." Philadelphia also has seen the number of victims with criminal pasts inch up — to 75% this year from 71% in 2005.

In Milwaukee, local leaders created the homicide commission after a spike in violence led to a 39% increase in murders in 2005. The group compiled statistics on victims' criminal histories for the first time and found that 77% of homicide victims in the past two years had an average of nearly 12 arrests.

While it was common in the past for murder victims to have criminal records, the current levels are surprising even to analysts who study homicides.

The conclusion, murder victims have criminal arrest records. Who knew, and maybe that is the problem, the public goes on thinking, look at all these murders we have to do something. and who would want you to think that?

Second Amendment

The missing answer ... the final report from Governor Tim Kaine’s Virginia Tech Review Panel has a missing ingredient. I do not see the words “self-defense” or “right to bear arms” anywhere in the report. Remarkable, the way liberals think. Apparently, an unarmed defenseless University population is a place of safety, not a place where killers can stalk the defenseless with impunity. Instead the report contains a lot of hand wringing about what authorities might have done differently, better, faster and so on.

I have a suggestion for them -- They should have allowed concealed carry on campus. I daresay Mr. Cho would have been dead after his first few killings, and long before the authorities showed up. Instead the university banned all weapons from the premises. Everyone felt safer that way — until a madman showed up. The Founders and Writers of the U.S. Constitution were far wiser than the postmodern elitists who run academia.

So what is going to stop the madman next time?

Here Comes Fred

BREAKING: Fred Thompson will announce his candidacy today at 4:30pm EDT

More at Redstate:

UPDATE: The official kickoff shindig is on September 6.

The Shame Of The Left

Millions died after the left forced the surrender of Vietnam, no way to hide that, no matter what John Kerry says.

The NIE Is In

The most important sentences is here ...

We assess that changing the mission of Coalition forces from a primarily counterinsurgency and stabilization role to a primary combat support role for Iraqi forces and counterterrorist operations to prevent AQI from establishing a safehaven would erode security gains achieved thus far. The impact of a change in mission on Iraq’s political and security environment and throughout the region probably would vary in intensity and suddenness of onset in relation to the rate and scale of a Coalition redeployment. Developments within the Iraqi communities themselves will be decisive in determining political and security trajectories.

Recent security improvements in Iraq, including success against AQI, have depended significantly on the close synchronization of conventional counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations. A change of mission that interrupts that synchronization would place security improvements at risk.

If we surrender now all gains are erased. We can still win, will win and should win. A copy of the declassified version available for download in PDF format.

Read more at Bill Rogio's site here.

How Could

Anyone want to vote for this steaming pile of ...

Hurricane Season

Hurricane season, June 1 to December 1, draw your own conclusions.

Rudy, Who You Gonna Believe?

Clouds

Seen from space, the difference between cumulus and cirrus clouds is striking. On the left are the bright white cumulus towers of thunderstorms. On the right, thin cirrus clouds are partially transparent. (Space Shuttle Photographs STS084-706-69 and STS032-88-69 courtesy NASA JSC

Although carbon dioxide gets most of the bad publicity these days as the critical greenhouse gas, the warming effect of carbon dioxide is minuscule compared to that of water vapor. Water vapor is present in such abundance throughout the atmosphere that it acts like a blanket of insulation around our world, trapping heat and forcing surface temperatures higher than they would be otherwise. At most wavelengths within the thermal infrared energy spectrum (basically heat) that get trapped within Earth’s atmosphere you barely even notice the effects of carbon dioxide because water vapor totally dominates the signal.

Global Warming, The Blackout

The current thrust of global warming hysteria began trying to explain one simple set of facts-- surface temperature monitoring stations have shown about one degree rise over the past century. Not sure why the global cooling theory was advanced in 1975, but I digress. To accept the theory that surface temperature is rising, one must accept the fact that the data shows that surface temperature is rising. But what if the facts don't support the global warming theory? Where does the data come from, and how accurate is it?

That's where the blackout comes in.

Since about the beginning of 2007 a growing chorus has begun to question the data that proves the surface temperature rise. This peaked when a Canadian named Steve MyIntyre felt there was a problem with the data, there was a big unexplained jump in temperature at about 2000. It just smelled wrong.

The problem was, a lot of the current hysteria is predicated on the notion that we are in the hottest period ever. To maintain the hysteria it is necessary to demonstrate that something is happening, now, right now, and we need to do something about it -- Right now, can't wait, the world has a fever and we must get on the fix immediately. The fix of course, that would be higher taxes on energy, higher taxes on everything for the most part. The notion that humans exhaling is dooming the planet, that needs to be dealt with -- how no one has yet proposed.

But what if the "right now happening" is in fact an error, a mistake, either real or fudged?

There are enough suspicions around the behavior of the group(s) at NASA that is charged with producing the temperature graphs to foster that suspicion. For instance, why won't they release the software that surveys the 1221 USHCN stations and produces the graphs? It's not like it is some sort a secret that if exposed would doom the world, unless it's not right in the head and produces some strange results. But wouldn't software engineers be able to quickly tell us if it was on the up and up? Why yes, they would.

And then there is this behavior

Enter Anthony Watts, a meteorologists who decided to survey the temperature sites and see what was there. He enlisted a group of volunteers to photograph and document the various sites nationwide, all 1221 NCDC temperature monitoring sites. But a strange sequence of events began to occur. First it became obvious after a few surveys began to report back, the sites didn't meet the NCDC guidelines. Not only did sites fail to meet the NCDC's requirements, but encroaching civilization had put many of the sites in ridiculously unsuitable locations. Some of the better examples are on the front pages here, the site that is collecting up the survey data and photos.

Some of the observed anomalies are sites situated next to air conditioning exhausts, over hot asphalt, attached to chimneys, above outdoor grills, and best of all sites located at sewage treatment plants.

Then another strange event happened, a Seattle radio station interviewed the head of the NCDC, Dr. Thomas Peterson, and informed him of the volunteer effort and inquired about the problems. A few days later, the NCDC removed all website access to station site locations, citing "privacy concerns." Without this data, which had been public for years, the validation effort was blocked. No more stations could be located. The public outcry has got the data restored and the site verification continues.

Where does this lead us

If you are reading this and scratching your head in wonderment, you should be. A public government entity who has nothing but public weather data should be more than open with the public and more than willing to share it's secrets. We are talking temperature measurements, where they come from, how they are processed and how the graphs are produced, not some mysterious government program. Doesn't everyone have a calibrated thermometer?

On Thursday, August 9 2007, another strange event occurred. NASA quietly changed the data, revised the stats, which changed everything. Here is my post on that event. NASA changed the data, the very foundation upon which the current global warming hysteria was based. No press release, no press conference, no nothing, just a mention on the web page thanking Steve MyIntyre for finding the error. The drive by media followed up this game changing event by NOT RUNNING A SINGLE NEWS STORY ABOUT THE CHANGE. That's what you call unreliable news. Not one single story. The only mention on google news was a sole story by the blog American Thinker here and a follow up story here. News blackout, total, complete, nary a peep. If you were not a blog reader, you would not know the global warming world shifted.

If you think you are going to see the UN IPCC go quietly, think again. There are already rumblings that the US data is only one data set, albeit the 'gold standard one' and the rest of the monitoring stations worldwide also corroborate the UN IPCC findings. I would bet these other world stations could stand up to the scrutiny given the 'gold standard', don't you?

oops, Globull Warming Suffers Severe Fact Shifting

Now isn't this cute, the stated US temperatures have been revised, downwards, and the revision makes most of the foundation arguments used for globull warming inoperative. Michelle Malkin has the full wrap up, Rush Limbaugh on his radio show on Thursday 8/9/07 started the avalanche which pushed this over the cliff.

I wonder, did Hansen and crew think they could just revise the data and no one would notice, or did they have to make the data fit the desired record in the first place. It could be just an error, but then when you add in the reluctance to give out the source code for the temperature collection and analysis, you have to wonder. I hate riddles.

GISS U.S. Temperatures (deg C) in New Order

Year	Old	New
1934	1.23	1.25
1998	1.24	1.23
1921	1.12	1.15
2006	1.23	1.13
1931	1.08	1.08
1999	0.94	0.93
1953	0.91	0.90
1990	0.88	0.87
1938	0.85	0.86
1939	0.84	0.85

Here’s the old leaderboard.

Year	Old	New
1998	1.24	1.23
1934	1.23	1.25
2006	1.23	1.13
1921	1.12	1.15
1931	1.08	1.08
1999	0.94	0.93
1953	0.91	0.90
2001	0.90	0.76
1990	0.88	0.87
1938	0.85	0.86

source:

This effort is the result of Steve McIntyre, who now has two major contributions in the search for the truth.

1) Proving the Mann "hockey stick" used in all Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, was based on unsupportable data and methods.
2) Proving how yearly temperature anomalies for the USA are based on data that had been processed incorrectly.

Bottom Line

According to the new data published today by NASA, 1998 is no longer the hottest year ever. 1934 is. Four of the top 10 years of US CONUS high temperature deviations are now from the 1930s: 1934, 1931, 1938 and 1939, while only 3 of the top 10 are from the last 10 years (1998, 2006, 1999). Several years (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004) fell well down the leaderboard, behind even 1900.

James Hansen, who shot to fame when he accused the administration of trying to censor his views on climate change, publicly claimed the Bush administration was putting political pressure on him. Hansen also refused to provide Steve McIntyre, or anyone else, with the algorithm used to generate graph data, so Steve McIntyre and his volunteers reverse-engineered it. The result appeared to be a Y2K bug in the handling of the raw data, but as you look at the revised data, you would also see that the temperatures long before Y2K were also changed.

The effect on the US global warming propaganda machine could be huge. Then again, alot depends on what Rush Limbaugh does tomorrow, you don't really think the drive by media will cover this story in a facutal way do you?

If all this doesn't make you go hmmm, you need more caffine.

Do You Know The Difference

Who Says Democrats Don't Have A Plan?

First it was Governor Crist if Florida, got the second caol plant cancelled, sure he says he didn't, but he did.

The Florida Public Service Commission last month denied a proposal by FPL Group Inc.'s Florida Power & Light Co. subsidiary to build a US$5.7 billion, 1,960 MW coal-fired power station in Glades County. The state utility regulator cited concerns about construction and future coal prices.

After that rejection, FPL warned the state might be putting all of its eggs in one basket by over relying on natural gas fired generation.

source

2,000 megawatts, where will it come from in the future?

Now we have another story, Harry Reid wants to cancel coal fired plants in Nevada.

In the week since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would do everything he could to block three proposed coal-fired power plants in Nevada, this much can be said:

He probably can carry off his threat, especially since they would be constructed on federal land. Just look at how he has stalled a waste repository at Yucca Mountain, where so much more is at stake for the nuclear power industry, which is clamoring for a place to bury radioactive fuel rods.

Environmentalists are embracing Reid's bold pronouncement, welcoming the high-profile addition to their campaign to shift the country away from fossil fuels at a pivotal moment.

source

A rough estimate of what it would cost to build a clean coal plant is about $600 million more than a normal coal fired plant. This would be the cost to sequester about 30-40% of the CO2 gas, which makes the price of electricity about twice the cost as supplied by a conventional coal plant, or a natural gas fired plant. At that price point, it is becoming un-economic to build. Depending on a limited supply of natural gas has it's risks, the likely outcome will be the same as it is today with gasoline.

So what is going on?

It looks like carbon taxes are not that popular, so the greenies and globull warming alarmists need a new way to limit the human race, a stealth way if you will, and that way is market driven. A silent approach, hoping no one notices until it's too late.

The new globull warming plan for these alarmists is to starve the market for electricity, drive up the price and force cutbacks, since no one can afford to pay. Simple economics. Everything else these globull warming zealots have tried has failed, carbon taxes are a non-starter, they are now in stealth mode which if not exposed now, will likely succeed. By the time the public catches on, it will be too late to do anything about it. Power plant construction, like refinery construction, oil well drilling, takes years and costs billions.

Notice the fix for high gas prices the Democrats promised, $16 billion in new taxes on the oil companies -- Some fix, not a new well or refinery in sight. Sounds like the 1970s of Jimmuh Carter, windfall profits, gas rationing, long lines, slowed economy, all those good liberal things. No one can quite tell me why wrecking the US economy makes liberals feel so good about themselves, but it does. Why else are we not drilling in ANWR and elsewhwere?

This is the Democrats carefully calculated plan, starve the market of supply, drive up prices, high prices force conservation, not an accident. Who says Democrats don't understand supply side economics.

Thick Ice

Thick Arctic ice may be the reason for a precipitous drop in this spring's two-month gray whale count at Point Piedras Blancas.

Only 115 gray whale calves were counted this year by scientists at Point Piedras Blancas, down dramatically from the 285 counted last year. It's the fourth-lowest count in the 14-year history of the cetacean census.

source:

My guess is this will not likely make the drive by media news channel's front page, even though the whales are suffering, it just simply doesn't fit the globull warming template. So over you go whales, no longer the pet tissue that the greens love to talk about. They have a new main squeeze, taxes.

Latest From Michael Yon

Amid all this talk of timetables for the War in Iraq, blurred as they are by a strange lemming-like compulsion to declare the “surge” strategy a failure almost before it actually began, one deadline looms larger with each passing day: It’s time for a reckoning with the truth.

...

Anyone who says Al Qaeda is not one of the primary problems in Iraq is simply ignorant of the facts.

I, like everyone else, will have to wait for September's report from Gen. Petraeus before making more definitive judgments. But I know for certain that three things are different in Iraq now from any other time I've seen it.

1. Iraqis are uniting across sectarian lines to drive Al Qaeda in all its disguises out of Iraq, and they are empowered by the success they are having, each one creating a ripple effect of active citizenship.

2. The Iraqi Army is much more capable now than it was in 2005. It is not ready to go it alone, but if we keep working, that day will come.

3. Gen. Petraeus is running the show. Petraeus may well prove to be to counterinsurgency warfare what Patton was to tank battles with Rommel, or what Churchill was to the Nazis.

Read the rest here and get in touch with the truth.

Don’t forget to visit Yon’s tip jar here, That’s how he finances his citizen journalism.

Army Deploys Armed Robots in Iraq

Special Weapons Observation Remote reconnaissance Direct action Systems, or "SWORDS" robots

HamNation: Better Living Through Bathroom Etiquette

Global Warming Hoax

Until the world embraces nuclear power, the motives of the global warming alarmists remains clear.


Scores of fires were burning all around Lake Malawi on July 28, 2007. Each red dot on the image represents an active fire detected by the MODIS on the Aqua satellite. The fires are scattered across several countries, including (clockwise) Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Zambia. (The black lines denote country borders.) Further south, there are fires pouring out heavy smoke in South Africa. You can read more about these fires on Earth Observatory.

African savanna fires are mostly caused by humans for agricultural activities such as clearing pasture or cropland or driving game. Although the fires are not necessarily immediately hazardous, the frequency and wide extent of the burning can have strong influence on weather, climate, human health, and natural resources.

Source:

Every Democrat Presidential Candidate Wants NAtional Health Care

That's right--every single one.

It's a proven way to grab power.

Rights and responsibilities, inseparable. Give up your responsibilities, you have no rights. And gun rights are the central tenant to that test.

From the Mark Levin show, Ronald Reagan on Socialized Medicine.

Why Ronald Reagan was so great.