Self-Defense No Longer an Excuse

From the National Post:

Ian Thomson moved to a rural homestead in Southwestern Ontario to lead a quiet life investing in a little fixer-upper. Then his neighbour’s chickens began showing up on his property. He warned his neighbour, then killed one of the birds.

The incident began six years of trouble for Mr. Thomson that culminated early one Sunday morning last August when the 53-year-old former mobile-crane operator woke up to the sound of three masked men firebombing his Port Colborne, Ont., home.

“I was horrified,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know what was happening. I had no idea what was going on.”

So Mr. Thomson, a former firearms instructor, grabbed one of his Smith & Wesson revolvers from his safe, loaded it and headed outside dressed in only his underwear.

“He exited his house and fired his revolver two, maybe three times, we’re not sure. Then these firebombing culprits, they ran off,” said his lawyer, Edward Burlew.

His surveillance cameras caught the attackers lobbing at least six Molotov cocktails at his house and bombing his doghouse, singeing one of his Siberian Huskies. But when Mr. Thomson handed the video footage to Niagara Regional Police, he found himself charged with careless use of a firearm.

The local Crown attorney’s office later laid a charge of pointing a firearm, along with two counts of careless storage of a firearm. The Crown has recommended Mr. Thomson go to jail, his lawyer said.

[...]

“I hear some people, some being police officers, some being Crown attorneys, some being ordinary people, say we don’t want vigilantism, to which I can only give an emphatic pardon me?” Mr. Burlew said. “When you’re under attack, it’s not a vigilante act. Vigilantism talks about vengeance and retribution. This is about saving your life and saving your property.

“I’m sure that will be recognized at trial, but why would a citizen, where it’s so obvious that what he was doing was protecting himself during a continued attack, be put to the expense of a trial? It’s demeaning.”

The worst part about this case is that Canada actually does allow for the use of “reasonable” force to defend ones self if being attacked. Should you bring a shotgun out to shoot an unarmed person? Perhaps, perhaps not, but the fact remains that Thompson did nothing wrong — both morally and legally.

This isn’t the first time that gun owners have been targeted by authorities, and I fear it won’t be the last either. Unfortunately, property rights are not something entrenched in the Canadian “constitution,” nor are they valued by the average Canadian simply because of a lack of knowledge. Ultimately, if so much as an obnoxious salesman comes onto your property you should have the right to kick them off; firebombers don’t even seem like a gray area. If someone throws a Molotov cocktail at your house, the police seem to think a strongly worded letter is the best response.

BREAKING: Conrad Black Granted Bail

Back when President George W. Bush was in office I sent a letter requesting he pardon Black. Apparently it got lost in the mail. Either way, I was quite pleased to see that media magnate Conrad Black (formerly known as Lord Black of Crossharbour) has been released from Florida’s Coleman Federal Correctional Complex on bail pending his appeal hearings. Now, Black was given a 10-year prison sentence for doing some questionable accounting with his companies. Was it wrong? Yeah. Was it worth 10 years in jail? I would say not. Especially when pedophile movie directors are exempt from punishment because they popped out a good movie 20 years ago (see: Roman Polanski.)

Whether or not Black will win his appeal is unknown at this time. But he gets to enjoy Florida in the summertime regardless!

Muslim actress nearly killed for dating a non-Muslim

By her father and brother.

I’ll confess to being a Harry Potter fan. I read the books as they came out. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon to see me waiting outside a bookstore before opening once or twice (then again, I also do that for Ann Coulter’s books.) Either way, I was familiar with Padma Patil, the character from the Potter books and movies played by 22-year old actress Afshan Azad.

Now, Azad has had to escape to London, England from an attempted murder by her 54-year old father Abdul (of course) and her 28-year old brother Ashraf.

The reason? Well, I’m sure it has nothing to do with her father and brother being Muslim and disapproving of her relationship with a Hindu man. Oh yeah, it does.

Azad has been fortunate enough to become a part of the most successful franchise in recent memory, launching a career in acting while still pursuing a university degree so that she can enter into journalism, and for doing nothing wrong she has to escape an honor killing? I thank God that she wasn’t one of the countless victims who haven’t been so lucky.

Amusingly, despite her brother’s interest in her being dead, he still wanted her was looking out for her:

We are going to get trouble from the community now. It is bad news for our safety, her safety. My younger brother is going to get harassed at college. All our family is going to be harassed by the community because of this. Her career could be ruined. When she goes to a premiere or something, they are going to ask her about this not about the film.

Jerk.

UPDATE: Apparently she has now issued a statement saying she doesn’t want them to go to jail. My guess? Coercion from relatives…that seems to be a pattern with these people. Fortunately, the prosecution is still proceeding.

I wish more states did this

In an event that is likely to get the anti-capital punishment activists whining in a frenzy of sorts (no change, in other words,) Utah just took care of its 50th death penalty victim, Ronnie Lee Gardner. However, Ronnie’s case is different from most others. He chose to be executed by firing squad over lethal injection. Unfortunately, the state has since done away with that method of punishment. However, because he was sentenced in the 1980′s, his preference was grandfathered in. With 5 police officers happily volunteering to assist (hey, I would too!)

Leftist groups have already gotten up in arms about the firing squad execution, proclaiming how utterly horrific it is. Unfortunately, they neglect to mention how horrific the murders that this man committed were. Even more amusingly, they forget that he chose to be executed by firing squad.

Of course, the Associated Press decided to seek comment from the most trustworthy of sources on this case: the European Union, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Unitarian Church (the only denomination slightly lower on the food chain than the United Church.)

Oh, and in case you missed it, this execution was officially announced on Twitter. Awesome, I know.

Okay we seriously need judicial reform

Did you know that possession of marijuana has a longer jail-sentence attached than threatening to kill someone? Did you know that possession of marijuana has a longer jail-sentence attached than threatening to kill the President of the United States?

Not joking.

John Turnpaugh of New Orleans recently plead guilty to two charges: one was possession of marijuana, the other is for threatening and offering a plan to kill both Michelle and Barack Obama. The sentence for marijuana? 5 years. The sentence for threatening the President? 3 years. Actually, it’s only 18 months for that really, and another 18 months for Michelle Obama. It’s good to know that the court system at least recognizes the value of Chairman O.

While I’ll be the first to condemn Obama’s policies, generally speaking I think killing those you disagree with is not something that’s conducive with Western values (unless San Francisco is considered “West.”) Either way, Louisiana seriously needs to ramp up their court system. Come on Bobby, give us something to work with!

Understanding Illegitimacy

Andrew and I spoke about this on the last edition of Strictly Right Radio, but the entire article is worth the read. It explains how the left has a vested interest in destroying the institution of marriage in order to continue the rapid growth of the welfare state.

From the Heritage Foundation:

The press has rushed to report a minuscule drop in “teen births” based on data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). As usual, the mainstream media are focusing on a trivial, politically correct story while ignoring the real story buried in the data.

Here’s the real story: According to CDC, a record 40.6 percent of children born in 2008 were born outside marriage — a total of 1.72 million children. The overwhelming majority of the unwed mothers were young adults with low education levels, precisely the kind of individuals who have the greatest difficulty going it alone in our society.

Only about 7.5 percent of these out-of-wedlock births, 130,000, were to girls under 18. Of course, these births can be disastrous for the girls involved. But as a social problem, teen pregnancies and births are of quite limited importance. By contrast, 1.72 million out-of-wedlock births amount to an overwhelming catastrophe for taxpayers and society.

The steady growth of childbearing by single women and the general collapse of marriage, especially among the poor, lie at the heart of the mushrooming welfare state.

Continue

Good news for Muslims!

It’s official, Muslims are exempt from the death penalty on account of political correctness.

In October, 20-year old Noor Almaleki of Arizona was subject to an “honor-killing” by her father for becoming “too Westernized.” In other words, she lived with her boyfriend. (He also killed the boyfriend’s mother.) Now, I know what you’re thinking…it’s just a coincidence that a Muslim man killed his daughter, right? Okay you probably weren’t thinking that. In case there was any doubt, however, he said quite clearly in court that “it was an intentional act and the reason was that his daughter had brought shame on him and his family.” Sheesh, what ever happened to the days of sending your kids to their room; not, running them over with a Jeep.

Fast forward four months to now and we see that because the county attorney happens to be a Christian, apparently it can’t look like “a Christian is seeking to execute a Muslim for racial, political, or cultural beliefs.” There isn’t a delicate way to put this, except for I don’t care about your religion. If you commit two counts of first degree murder, not to mention a handful of other smaller charges, do the time whether you’re a Muslim, an atheist or a Buddhist (not a very good Buddhist most likely.) Oh wait, this doesn’t apply to religions because Muslims are the only scumbags who believe it’s ‘proper’ to execute your family for bordering on being an ‘infidel.’ This is the kind of ‘law and order’ that you want to bring to the West? Stay home and do your honor killings there.