Thursday - October 09, 2008

Tiny mouse turned the tables on a deadly snake and turned from hunted to hunter.

WELL GIVE THREE CHEERS AND THREE CHEERS MORE ..............

DANGER MOUSE

http://tinyurl.com/46pd7e

Pictured: The moment a tiny mouse turned the tables on a deadly snake and turned from hunted to hunterBy Eddie Wrenn
Last updated at 1:38 PM on 09th October 2008

A plucky little mouse turned the tables on a venomous snake after it was served up as lunch and bit the reptile to death.
The rodent was thrown into the snake’s cage but proceeded to fight for its life.

It went on the offensive and, after an epic half-hour scrap, got the upper hand with the serpent.

Face-off: The snake and mouse stare each other down as battle commences.
Open wide: The mouse served up as lunch makes a counter-attack on the viper, leading to a 30 minute fight to the death.

The snake had been found in a home in Nantoun, Taiwan, and firefighters took it back to the station before deciding to serve it a light lunch. But they weren’t expecting the prey to become the killer.
A spokesman for the station said: ‘It attacked the snake continuously, biting and scratching it. Perhaps the snake used up all its venom.’

   Saturday - September 13, 2008

New toys!

My weekend off coincided with a local gun show. I have . . . had . . .  a few hundred dollars on hand. I was also rudely awakened about 2:00 this morning by several shots being fired somewhere nearby. Near enough that I awoke from a dream thinking someone was pounding on my front door. Worried? Hell yeah!

Plus I’m registered for a concealed-carry course next month and have absolutely nothing to wear . . . er . . . conceal.

What did I get?

   Monday - July 28, 2008

MOONBAT ALERT, HIGH PRIORTY.  FROM CALIFORNIA THIS TIME.  WHERE ELSE?

Good Morning BMEWS posters and lurkers and those passing thru.

This story was originally found in London’s Telegraph .  Of course, the Telegraph being the Telegraph, I had to go to the source (USA) for this story. Which is why the link takes you to the Herald.

The thing is, I can see Brits reading this and saying, hold on a minute.  And we’re crazy?  Well no. But you might have an awful lot of Californians living here who call themselves Brits. Get confusing. 

While this story is a few days old, it only just appeared here this morning. I think the whole idea is typically California STUPID. But ya know, Ca. isn’t the only place.  These folks are surely delusional. 

FAST DRAWS ATTENTION TO VIOLENCE

Salinas residents battle gang troubles in their own way

By CLAUDIA MELÉNDEZ SALINAS
Herald Salinas Bureau
Article Last Updated: 07/25/2008 09:35:16 AM PDT

They’ve preached to their congregations against gang violence. They’ve knocked on doors and described to school groups the grief of losing their children to the streets. They’ve lobbied politicians for more money for law enforcement and after-school programs.

And this week they’re fasting for peace. The weeklong, citywide fast started Sunday.

Heeding a call from Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue, hundreds — perhaps thousands — of Salinas residents are abstaining from food and praying in an effort to cure the city of one of its greatest ills. Many are community activists who have been long involved in the city’s fight against crime.

People are participating in different ways. Josie Camarena is giving up junk food and other snacks that she craves, but that are not healthful to eat. The Rev. Gary Dean Gallegos of Victory Mission is giving up food from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

In the latest effort to contain gang violence in Salinas, the faithful are facing the skepticism of people who don’t believe abstaining from earthly needs will prevent gang members from killing each other on the city’s streets.

But, for the most part, those committed to their weeklong fast remain unmoved.

“I had a lot of negative calls yesterday,” said Deborah Aguilar, a peace activist and advisory member of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention Program. “Some people just want to mock and laugh and see if I’ll defend our leaders, and I

don’t need to do that. That’s the purpose of our fast: to promote peace, to pray. There’s too much negativity already.”

Armed with Bibles, “Fasting for Peace” buttons and an unflinching faith in their intentions, the activists believe theirs is a worthy cause and are encouraging each other in meetings.

Some say they have the power to touch the hearts of hardened criminals, people who would stop at nothing to eliminate a gang rival. Others are praying to keep their children out of harm’s way. Most are gathering strength to continue on their daily struggles without giving up.

“I’ve lived here all my life, and I’ve seen how (the violence) is affecting me personally,” Camarena said. “Even though we’re not involved in gangs, it affects us. If my children are playing in the front of the house, I don’t feel safe.”

With 17 homicides this year in Salinas, the city is on a record-breaking pace. The number is the highest in Salinas since 2004, when there were 20. The worst annual record was 24 slayings in 1994.

The latest homicide occurred July 13, when Maria De la Torre was killed by two police officers who believed she was threatening them with a sharp object.

City officials and community activists are trying every trick in the book to tackle the problem. Police presence doubled in the streets after a rash of shootings, community meetings erupted after a particularly bloody weekend, and the reinvigorated library system distributed library cards to all elementary school students, with the idea that literacy prevents crime.

But the street violence isn’t confined by city boundaries. Ray Torres lost his 20-year-old child to a stabbing in Castroville nearly two years ago, and now he and his wife make school presentations to tell their story.

“I really believe that, with prayer and fasting, the Lord will see how sincere we are, and he’s going to give these guys out there doing violence a second thought about it,” Torres said. “Prayer is very powerful, but you don’t hear people praying until something bad happens to them.”

The idea of a fast was born during a meeting of the Monterey County Pastors Prayer Partners, a religious group that preaches on the streets on Saturday nights, when gang warfare intensifies.

During Thursday’s meeting, the clergy called the fast successful and decided to extend it for another week.

“We can’t just let it die,” The Rev. Frank Gomez of the United Methodist Church told the group. “We can’t just say, ‘We did it,’ and that’s it. There has to be some tangible, and it has to be the bringing of the community together.”

Donohue, who visited the group, agreed to end the first week of fasting at 4 p.m. Sunday in front of the First United Methodist Church on Lincoln Avenue. He told the group he received calls from other communities interested in duplicating the fast. He will pitch the idea of a statewide fast to the California Cities Gang Prevention Network at the group’s meeting in August.

For all the naysayers, there are hundreds of others taking up the cause and fasting to strengthen their peace movement, participants said.

The publicity has shone a light on a problem that usually only gets attention when a shooting takes place.

“Clearly, the idea of fasting struck a chord,” Donohue said.

http://tinyurl.com/6ry4gk

   Saturday - July 05, 2008

US Pentagon doubts Israeli intelligence over Iran’s nuclear programme

Looks like things might get very interesting before long.

Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 6:38PM BST 05/07/2008

Pentagon chiefs fear that Israeli plans for an attack on Iran’s nuclear programme will fail to destroy the facilities because neither the CIA nor Mossad knows where every base is located

American commanders worry that Israel will feel compelled to act within the next 12 months with no guarantee that they can do more than slow Iran’s development of a weapon capable of destroying the Jewish state.

Gaps in the intelligence on the precise location and vulnerabilities of Iran’s facilities emerged during recent talks between Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Israeli generals, according to an official familiar with the discussions who has briefed Iran experts in Washington and London.

The assessment emerged as Iran in effect thumbed its nose at proposals by the West to freeze its uranium enrichment programme in exchange for easing economic sanctions. In its reply, sent to the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, Iran said it was prepared to negotiate but only from a position of equality – and made no reference to the specific proposals.

At the same time Gen Mohammed al-Jafari, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, warned that any attack on Iran would be “regarded as the beginning of war”.

A former head of Mossad, the agency whose main responsibility is overseas intelligence, told The Sunday Telegraph last week that Israel would have to act within a year to prevent Iran securing nuclear weapons.

Those familiar with the Israeli-American military talks believe that Israel is still determined to act before Iran has enough highly enriched uranium to build a bomb, and before Tehran has acquired the Russian SA-20 air defence system to protect its nuclear facilities. “The Israelis have a real sense of urgency,” the official said. “They are stepping up their preparations. But the Israelis and the Americans are worried about the other’s lack of intelligence.

“The Americans had spies in Iran until they were rounded up in 2003 and now they do not have much by way of humint [human intelligence] on the ground. The Israelis have better information. But the Americans went away from the meetings unconvinced that the Israelis have enough intelligence on where to strike, and with little confidence that they will be able to destroy the nuclear programme.”

The shortage of good intelligence could explain reports that President George W Bush has quietly sanctioned a dramatic increase in covert operations by American special forces inside Iran. These intelligence gaps lay behind Admiral Mullen’s decision to speak out on Wednesday against military action, saying it would be “extremely stressful” to “open a third front” in the war on terror. But the admiral is at odds with hawks in the Bush administration, led by Vice-President Dick Cheney.

A former CIA officer with three decades of Iranian experience said: “Their belief… is that the US would get the blame from Iran whether or not we play a major role in any attack, so we might as well do the job properly.”

Former defence and intelligence officers who advise the Pentagon have disclosed that the US military is looking into possible outcomes for military attacks featuring varying levels of American involvement.

The ex-CIA officer told The Sunday Telegraph that the planned attacks ranged from a full-blown assault on 2,000 targets inside Iran to logistics and intelligence support for Israel, if the Jewish state decided to go it alone.

The United States is preparing ways to cope with retaliation from Iran, likely to include attempts to cut off oil supplies, block the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf and launch attacks on American naval ships there and on US bases in Bahrain. The US Navy has recently changed its rules of engagement for warships in the Gulf to make them better able to combat “swarming” attacks by large numbers of small boats, used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Iran could also attack Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility, or even oil production and processing facilities elsewhere in the Gulf, according to a report published last
week by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an influential think tank with close links to both the US and Israeli governments.
http://tinyurl.com/6pqhcc

   Sunday - May 25, 2008

USCCA Video of the Week

USCCA newsletter

   Thursday - April 24, 2008

MAKE THREATS TO KILL, OFFER ARRIVING POLICE A CUP OF TEA. NOW THAT’S ENGLISH.

I know there’s far more serious stuff out there, but there was just no way to resist posting this.

Yeah I know it can be serious but I guess my sense of humor is a bit twisted because I think this is funny.

Oh BTW .... at the moment we are having one hell of a HAIL storm. Sheets of it.  So, about global warming.

Oh yeah .. this post on another subject.

This is from The Hampshire Chronicle, which is a weekly paper. 

Man cleared of threats to bank manager

A PARISH councillor threatened to blow his bank manager’s head off with a shotgun, a court heard.

Gerry Tull, 60, sent a fax to Lloyds TSB’s Winchester branch containing the warning after “being brought to the brink by bureaucratic incompetence”, Andover magistrates were told.

It led to armed police swooping on his home in Main Road, Owslebury, last November, and arresting him on suspicion of making threats to kill.

But yesterday (April 16) Mr Tull, a farmer, was cleared of lesser charges of sending an offensive letter or article and sending an offensive or menacing message after prosecutors asked for him to be acquitted.

The member of Owslebury Parish Council was bound over in the sum of £500 to keep the peace for two years and ordered not to issue threats to Lloyds TSB staff.

Mr Tull said after the hearing that the threat stemmed from a dispute, lasting nearly two years, between him and the bank.
He switched the account of his farming business to Lloyds TSB from HSBC in early 2006, but claimed he experienced a catalogue of errors after the move.

For several months there was an impasse with his overdraft, he said, which forced him to use cash for all business dealings.

He added that Lloyds TSB mistakenly sent him somebody else’s account details, and when he told staff, they did not act.

To prove a point, Mr Tull used the details to create a bogus internet bank account, which he then cancelled.

He added that he exposed banking flaws a decade ago by applying for a credit card with another firm in the name of Rocky, his now-deceased Jack Russell.

It proved successful, and Mr Tull kept the dog’s card - which has a £4,000 limit - as a souvenir.

Last August, he reached a deal with managers to leave Lloyds TSB, having repaid his overdraft.

However, he needed a final statement for his accounts, but despite lengthy phone calls, he said it did not arrive for nearly three months, and when it did it was wrong.

Having lost patience, he faxed Lloyds TSB in Winchester saying he would blow the manager’s head off with a shotgun.

“This would have been a bit difficult, as I don’t have a gun,”
he added.

However, the bank took it seriously, called police, and ten armed officers in four vehicles swooped on his home the next morning.

Mr Tull added: “I was making breakfast and then I heard a bang, bang’ at the door. They were saying come out with your hands up’, and I was saying come in and have a cup of tea’.”

Police marched him away in handcuffs and questioned him for several hours. He was released on bail and later charged.

Magistrates also ruled that Mr Tull could reclaim all legal costs, estimated to be about £4,000, incurred after an initial hearing in early April.

Lloyds TSB declined to comment.

http://tinyurl.com/4lg8q5

   Friday - April 04, 2008

Equal Opportunity Gun Ownership

Oleg Volk is an artist and activist.  His photos on self-protection are deep and striking.  So when a site called “Social Images” published a number of his posters in an attempt to demonize the “gun culture”, the grassroots have come to call a spade a spade.

Wander over and politely toss in your $.02.

Equal Opportunity Gun Ownership

Some of the first comments come from the left:

dorotha
January 7, 2008 6:35 AM

These are bizarre and terrifying, but I’m not sure how widely spread they are. I’m not sure it is right to attribute them to the “pro-gun lobby.” I’m not sure what the “pro-gun lobby” is in this case. The website these images come from seems to be the project of one individual. Are these images used by the NRA?

I just want to clarify where these come from. It seems relevant. They totally freak me out, don’t get me wrong, but I need a little more information before I make any judgements about the site they come from. Incidentally, they seem to come from this website originally. Not the t-shirt website.

Gwen
January 10, 2008 10:48 PM

The idea that the only way we think we can make a safer, better society is for everyone to carry a gun is incredibly sad. It’s also individualistic--the answer to racism, rape, and gay bashing is to carry a gun, not have any form of social organizing.

And I doubt that if women started shooting men who attempt to rape them that would be seen as “empowering” in our culture--particularly since most women are raped by people they know. We’re already suspicious of women who say they were raped by someone they were on a date with; what happens when women start shooting them? I’m doubtful this will be accepted as a positive change. Remember the reaction to Lorena Bobbitt? She didn’t exactly meet with social approval--and she didn’t kill him.

I grew up in rural Oklahoma, surrounded by guns. And I know what it’s like to have one family member using guns as a way to control another. I don’t think that my mom or us kids would have been “empowered"--or safer--if only she’d been willing to use a gun too.

Interrobang
March 12, 2008 10:14 PM

The Holocaust ones are particularly offensive. When the agents of the totalitarian state come for you, they always come in groups. What are you going to do, pull your gun and have three of them shoot you before you can shoot one of them? Either way, you’re just as dead.

A friend of mine was trans-bashed in Baltimore by a gang of six guys. A gun wouldn’t have helped him, and in fact might have gotten him shot with his own gun—you can really only point a handgun at one person at a time.

The solution to reducing crime isn’t more guns, it’s a better-functioning society.

Of course, Oleg got to answer the detractors

Oleg Volk
January 10, 2008 4:46 PM

As the author of the images, I am curious what makes them terrifying to you. The aim of my effort is to empower others.

What was their collective response?  [cue crickets]

(Drew decided this needed a couple of Volk’s pics so he stuck them in.)

   Sunday - March 30, 2008

Sign o’ the Times, episode 4

LA Buildings and Parks Designed to Defeat Drive-Bys

Civil Engineers in Los Angeles and other cities have taken a step into the future by looking hundreds of years into the past. They have added a new requirement to their designs: the ability to deflect or defeat gunfire. This in itself is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in urban areas, but it makes good sense. If you can’t cut down on the violence, then try and make things safer for the people who have to live and work there.

Seniors in Steel Plaza’s retirement complex in Pico-Union sometimes like to take their morning walks in the building’s courtyard, protected by a black wrought-iron fence and perched 30 feet above the intersection of West 3rd Street and South Union Avenue.

“We’re quite safe here,” said Victor Gamad, 73, who has lived in the building since it opened a decade ago. “We never get frightened, except for when someone sets the fire alarm off.”

Steel Plaza, which opened in 1998, was designed to be “drive-by proof.” It is one of the early examples of what has become a growing movement in urban sections of Los Angeles to blend public safety with architecture.

“If you just build boxes and windows, you’re not going to help,” said City Councilman Ed Reyes, an urban planner who has adopted the safety-by-design strategy to deal with increasingly crowded neighborhoods.
...
“Every development is geared toward the people that have to live there on a day-to-day basis,” Reyes said. “When we look at the pragmatism of our neighborhoods, we have to ask questions: Where is the bullet going to come from? What projectile elevation should we adhere to in our development? Where should we situate the trees?”
...
Reyes said his goal is to reduce the effect of density. “We can either run away from it,” he said, “or we can ask how we can create relief so that we have our places of sanctuary.”

It looks to me like some folks are using their heads for once. Yes, it would be better if the crime and the shootings went away, but until that happens, it’s better to increase safety when you can. And if you can do it in a way that doesn’t make people feel like they’re living in armored boxes, so much the better.

Parks are being built with earth berms around them so that there is no direct line of flight from nearby streets; bullets fired there would either be stopped by the dirt, or pass way over the people using the place.  I think I’d rather have my kids playing in such a place, if I had no other choice than to live in a drive-by kind of neighborhood.

One example of his office’s work is a 5-foot-high dirt hill built to shield visitors at Rio de Los Angeles State Park from drive-by shootings along San Fernando Road. The 40-acre tract, better known as Taylor Yard Park, opened last year. The hill is fortified by a fence lined with bushes and trees on each side.

Anti-truck barriers are common everywhere these days, not just outside the US Embassy in DustBallistan. Some have even tried to make them attractive and to blend in with the overall architectural design. Naturally the NY Times worries a bit about how all this will impact our psyche, and sublty tries to blame it on Bush:

After 9/11, a craving for the solidity of walls reasserted itself. And the wars on terror, and fractious peaces, enforced it. The Green Zone in Baghdad, Jerusalem’s separation barrier, the concrete bollards that line corporate headquarters on Park Avenue — all are emblems of an unintended new mentality.  Four years after the American invasion of Iraq, this state of siege is beginning to look more and more like a permanent reality, exhibited in an architectural style we might refer to as 21st-century medievalism.

I should note that New York City has very little in the way of drive-by shooting going on, especially in the posh areas like Park Avenue. But the Times did almost come up with a good name for this phenomenom, which I’ll call Modern Medievalism. No windows on the ground floor. All windows at least 3 feet off the floor. Double thick flooring. Thick walls that can stop bullets or at least really slow them down. Barriers that can stop charging vehicles. Strong fences, security cameras, living areas that face inwards like surrounded courtyards. If the world outside has turned evil, you do what you have to do to keep it out.

Casa Loma, a 110-unit residential facility for single parents about four blocks from Steel Plaza, was built in 1993 by the nonprofit group New Economics for Women, which worked closely with Reyes to design the building.

A year before construction, the nonprofit group asked local residents what they wanted in an apartment building.  The result was one of the city’s first child-care centers in a public housing building, apartments built surrounding a large courtyard where parents could watch their children and laundry services on each floor. The apartments are above ground-level, and there are security cameras at all entrances.

“It’s done so the kids don’t have to sleep in the bathtub,” Reyes said. “I have parents telling me that they’re resorting to this because they don’t want their child to get hit by a bullet.”

Note: if you or your children are sleeping in the bathtub to hide from bullets, move. If you can’t - not won’t, but REALLY can’t move - then please make sure you have a cast iron tub. Plastic and fiberglass tubs won’t even slow the bullets down. Sandbags wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

While not actually intended to be bulletproof, many stores have found that they can reduce “smash ‘n grab” crimes by replacing their windows with laminated glass. Laminated glass has a layer or two of high strength plastic in between the sheets of glass, just like a car windshield. Hit it with a rock or a baseball bat and it will break, but into many little square pieces that tend to stay attached to the plastic. It takes more time to bust through, and the smash ‘n grabbers know that time is working against them.

“Laminated glass has gained such a reputation for security that, once the word is out in the criminal community that a store has installed laminated glass, the repeat occurrence of smash and grab attempts at that particular store drops dramatically!”
...
“Criminals will never dedicate more than two, or maximum three, minutes to a smash and grab attack since they know precisely the amount of time needed for the police to arrive from the first alarm bell”.

I do not know if laminated glass is available to the homeowner, but if I ever have to shop for replacement windows you can be sure it’s something I’ll be asking about.

What about the rest of us, who don’t live in urban areas subject to drive-by gang shootings, or in places where the likelihood of terrorist truck bombs is slight? A post over at Say Uncle the other day got me thinking about home defenses, so I dragged up these old “let’s see what happens” posts over at Box O’ Truth, where I was reminded that most house walls won’t do a thing to protect you from bullets. Similar results were found, in a more scientific way, by this physics guy. About the best you can hope for is a well built, well insulated home with good solid real bricks on the facing. in front of 3/4” plywood sheathing. That should stop pistol bullets pretty well. And be glad that almost no criminals or terrorists use real high powered rifles or buffalo guns. You need about a foot of sandbags to stop them, or a mile or two of distance.

The wall in the diagram is also very quiet too, which is another good thing for urban design. 4” - 6” of cast concrete would probably do a better job, but that might be better suited to an industrial or commercial wall design.

   Monday - March 03, 2008

Why Do You Need A Gun…..at Wendy’s?

Palm Beach Post

Witness: Wendy’s shooter was tall man in business suit

Five people were shot today during lunch time at the Wendy’s on North Military Trail and Cherry Road near West Palm Beach, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

Two people are dead, including the gunman, who killed himself, according to sheriff’s spokeswoman Teri Barbera. She said a total of five people were shot and three are in critical condition.

The shooting happened at 12:18 p.m.

The Trauma Hawk helicopter has left the scene. Cherry Road is blocked off and victims are being loaded from stretchers onto ambulances. There are dozens of emergency vehicles at the scene.

Witness Jerry Pritcherd, 20, of Fort Myers, said he heard a pop and didn’t realize it was gunshots. He said he was “scared” when he heard about 20 pops and ran out. He said he was 10 feet away from the shooter, who was a tall black man wearing a business suit.

A father and son, Richard and Richard Anon of Miami, were just leaving a John Smith Subs restaurant across Military Trail when they saw customers running out of the Wendy’s. “We thought there was a fight in the parking lot. Everyone was just running out,” said the elder Anon.

They saw two people run outside and collapse in the drive-thru lane. They said police arrived withing two minutes of the shooting and ordered everyone out of the restaurant with their hands up.

Witness Ashley Milton, of Riviera Beach, was just walking into the restaurant when the suspect opened fire. She said the restaurant was starting to get busy and that people started running out.

Asked if she got a good look at the gunman, she said, “No, I was just focused on the gun. I just saw the fire coming from the gun.” She said her ears were still ringing from the gunshots more than an hour after the shooting.

Southbound Military Trail is open, while Northbound Military Trail remains closed in the area between Okeechobee and Belvedere roads.

One man walking around the scene pointed to a tear in his jeans and bottom of a work boot, where a bullet grazed him.

“I was just sitting there eating a burger and the guy started shooting.”

   Wednesday - February 06, 2008

Story starts in ‘05 and ends here in ‘08 with apology.  From the one harassed!

Story starts in ‘05 and ends here in ‘08 with apology.  From the one harassed!

Teacher fired airgun in gang row

By Nigel Bunyan

Last Updated: 1:32am GMT 04/02/2005

A teacher who fired an air pistol during an altercation with a gang of youths told police she had “had enough” of the law being on the side of criminals.Linda Walker, 47, claims she suffered weeks of abuse and vandalism at the hands of youngsters near her home in Urmston, Manchester.She finally snapped when she suspected they had vandalised her son’s car. Following an initial row, she ran back into the house and returned with a Walther air pistol and an air rifle.

She fired up to six shots into the pavement as she stood “nose to nose” with the convicted burglar she saw as her chief protagonist. She put both weapons down as armed police raced to the scene.

A jury at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, heard that Walker later told officers: “I know you do your best, but the law is on their side. That’s why I rang 999 and ran out like a mad woman possessed, because I’d had it up to here. Everybody gets to that point where they’ve had enough. I’ve got to that point.”
http://tinyurl.com/62276

Air gun teacher told she can work againLast Updated: 1:13am GMT 06/02/2008

A teacher who was jailed for confronting a group of youths with a pellet gun was told Tuesday that she could carry on teaching.
Linda Walker, 50, broke down in tears at a disciplinary hearing as she described how “ashamed” she was of her behaviour.

I’m a slow fellow. Someone will have to explain to me just why the victims should express remorse.

She said that she fired the weapon into the ground to deter the gang, which she believed had subjected her family to months of harassment.Following the incident in August 2004, Mrs Walker was jailed for six months for possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, and affray.

She spent a total of 38 days in custody but the appeal court later quashed her jail sentence, replacing it with a 12-month conditional discharge.

http://tinyurl.com/2epbg7

   Friday - January 11, 2008

Dial 911 and Wait

Found at Michael Bane’s Blog.

Powerful

Remember, when seconds count, police are only minutes away.

   Thursday - December 06, 2007

Hero at Seven

There are a lot of angles to this story.

DETROIT—A 7-year-old-girl is being hailed as an “angel from heaven” and a hero for jumping in front of an enraged gunman, who pumped six bullets into the child as she used her body as a shield to save her mother’s life.

Alexis Goggins, a first-grader at Campbell Elementary School, is in stable condition at Children’s Hospital in Detroit recovering from gunshot wounds to the eye, left temple, chin, cheek, chest and right arm.

“She is an angel from heaven,” said Aisha Ford, a family friend for 15 years who also was caught up in the evening of terror.

The girl’s mother, Selietha Parker, 30, was shot in the left side of her head and her bicep by a former boyfriend, who police said was trying to kill Parker. The gunman was disarmed by police and arrested at the scene of the shooting, a Detroit gas station. Police identified him as Calvin Tillie, 29, a four-time convicted felon whom Parker had dated for six months.

Parker, who was treated and released at Detroit Receiving Hospital, is now at her daughter’s bedside. She declined to comment Tuesday.

Read the rest to get the full story, but imagine the courage of this young lady to jump in front of an enraged man who is shooting her mother.  Imagine the horror of seeing your child do that for you?  Imagine the depth of evil in a man’s heart to continue shooting this little girl when she threw herself in the line of fire.

I hope and pray that proper justice will be served on this cretin.

   Monday - October 29, 2007

He Must Have Taken a Bad Step

From Marco, we learn that a Paul Landingham in Salem, Oregon, decided it would be a good night to rape a woman. As he was in the act, a group of good folk happened by and decided that maybe it wasn’t such a good night for rape.

SALEM, Ore.—Five Good Samaritans stopped a rape in progress in a south Salem neighborhood, according to police.

Officers said a 22-year-old woman on crutches was walking near the intersection of Liberty and Boone streets southeast just before 1 a.m. Saturday when she was attacked and assaulted by 37-year-old Paul Landingham.

According to authorities, a car with five people was driving by, saw what was happening and came to the woman’s rescue.

Three men pulled Landingham off the woman and held him until police arrived at the scene

Good for them. Although, I have a feeling they may have had a little persuading to do to keep him there until the authorities arrived. Why, you ask? Have a look at his mug shot.

Heh. Maybe he should have just waited nicely.

Dept of Righteous Shootings

Found on Xavier’s site this morning.

A Shot in the Dark

Arthur Williams is 75 years old and blind, but still managed to shoot an intruder who broke into his southeast Gainesville home early Friday. Cevaughn Curtis Jr., 28, of Gainesville allegedly forced his way into Williams’ home before being shot in the neck. Curtis was taken to Shands at the University of Florida and was listed in stable condition Friday afternoon.

Curtis came to Williams’ door about 3 a.m. and asked to be let in, according to Gainesville police. When Williams refused, Curtis allegedly pushed his way into the house. Williams then fell back into a table, shattering a glass vase. “I don’t know what he had in mind to do,” Williams said when reached at his home Friday afternoon. “I had to stop him.”

Williams said he keeps a .32-caliber revolver to protect himself. After warning the intruder, Williams shot in the man’s direction. “I can hear - I backed up and I shot him,” he said. “I knew I hit him when he fell.” Williams, who had called 911 during the incident, then reported that he had shot the man.

Gainesville Police Lt. Anthony Ferrara said the first officers to arrive at the house found Curtis on the porch. “It appeared he tried to leave the house and collapsed on the porch,” Ferrara said. “He had been shot in the left side of the neck.” Ferrara said surgeons were trying to determine whether to attempt to remove the bullet or leave it in place because it was so close to Curtis’ spine. An update on his status was unavailable late Friday.

Curtis was charged with burglary of an occupied residence and battery on a person over the age of 65, according to police. Florida Department of Corrections records show Curtis was released from state prison in January after serving time for battery. He was on probation for multiple counts of battery and for intimidating a witness.

Williams said he worries about criminal activity in the area, so he keeps his gun close at hand. “I keep my gun on me,” he said. “That’s my protection - I can’t see.”

By Nathan Crabbe and Karen Voyles---The Gainsville Sun

Good for you Arthur.  Good to know that you have the means and will to protect yourself.  What if the Brady Bunch had their way?  They would like this blind man to simply wait for his 911 call to get responded to while the intruder did who-knows-what with him.

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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