Human Right
The blind Chinese human-rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who escaped from house arrest on April 22 and may be under the protection of the U.S. Embassy, was initially detained for exposing the massive abuse of Chinese women under China’s one-child policy. His documentation of forced sterilizations and abortions landed him in jail for four years, followed by a year and a half of house arrest. His daring escape has now triggered renewed attacks on organizations engaged in helping Chinese women keep and feed their infants.
...two [Hamilton, N.J.] sisters, aged 94 and 93, fought off an armed 27-year-old man who tried to rob them and steal their car.... he started swinging his knife and threatening the women... instead of simply giving in, the 94-year-old driver swung her arm back to hit and block the suspect while the 93-year-old sister got out and began to scream for help.... the man took off.... He was later located and taken into custody.... As for the two sisters, they are doing fine and don't know what all the fuss is all about. They declined a request for an interview and asked for their names to remain private....
A citizen with a gun stopped a knife wielding man as he began stabbing people Thursday evening at the downtown Salt Lake City Smith's store. ... [Knife-weilder] just started stabbing people and yelling you killed my people. You killed my people." ...
There are quite a few hasty methods of illegal restraint, and zip ties are a method that’s available to any would-be kidnapper. A few of the other methods seen are duct tape, rope and phone cord, but with a little education you’ll see that all of these methods can easily be defeated. [Several articles, videos]
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday endorsed a movement announced by other congressional Democrats on Wednesday to ratify an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would allow Congress to regulate political speech when it is engaged in by corporations as opposed to individuals.
Millions of Internet users in Iran will be permanently denied access to the World Wide Web and cut off from popular social networking sites and email services, as the government has announced its plans to establish a national Intranet within five months.
Oakland's Oaksterdam University was taken over by federal officials Monday.
Officers wearing U.S. Marshals, IRS and DEA jackets swarmed the Oakland medical marijuana facility on Broadway before 8 a.m. Investigators put yellow crime tape around the entire building.
The nearby Oaksterdam Museum was also being blocked off, according to NBC Bay Area's Christie Smith, as was the Oaksterdam gift shop and the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative.
There was torture, starvation, betrayals and executions, but to Shin In Geun, Camp 14 – a prison for the political enemies of North Korea – was home. Then one day came the chance to flee…
This inspiring woman was born in Hitler’s Germany and lived under communist rule for years before becoming an American citizen.
Her video explanation of what happened in Germany under communism and the parallels to our current administration and the path we are on will give you a chill.
A New Hampshire grandfather has been arrested and is facing a possible prison sentence for firing a shot into the ground and holding a burglar at gunpoint until the cops could arrive.
[h/t Anne at Moonbattery]
In his March 3 New York Times column, entitled "When States Abuse Women," Nicholas Kristof condemns a new Texas law because it requires women who seek abortions in the state, first, to have an ultra-sound exam, be told the risks associated with abortion, receive a list of counseling agencies, and wait for at least 24 hours. Kristof denounces these requirements as "state-sanctioned abuse and humiliation." He quotes Texas abortionist Dr. Curtis Boyd, saying: "The state of Texas is waging war on women and their families."
To put this overheated and irresponsible rhetoric into perspective, it's worth a quick review of some states that actually do abuse women....
[h/t CuzBD]
A young Oklahoma mother shot and killed an intruder to protect her 3-month-old baby on New Year’s Eve, less than a week after the baby’s father died of cancer.... On New Year’s Eve... two soon began trying to break into [her] home. ... she quickly got her 12 gauge, went into her bedroom and got a pistol, put the bottle in the baby’s mouth and called 911.... [When one intruder] came after her with the knife, the teen mom shot and killed the 24-year-old. Police are calling the shooting justified. [Y'think? h/t Cuz BD]
‘He's talking to me just as calmly as I'm sitting here talking. ‘He told me: “I've been shot three times, my fingers are in the bullet holes, the police are going to take care of the kids...."'
[via Daily Caller, h/t to Vic at Ace of Spades
...check out this speech [Newt Gingrich] gave to the NRA convention back in April. If you don’t have time for the full 26-minute speech, watch from around the 5:18 mark to about the 14:30 mark
What kind of disastrous economic policy results in the death by starvation of up to 3 million people in a nation with the population of Texas?
Merely having a state medical marijuana card, BATFE insists, means that you fall afoul of Sect. 922(g) of the federal criminal code (from the 1968 federal Gun Control Act), which says that anyone “who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” is basically barred from possessing or receiving guns or ammo (with the bogus assertion that such possession implicates interstate commerce, which courts will pretty much always claim it does).
Mexican President Felipe Calderón called the Zeta cartel members who started the fire "true terrorists who have gone beyond all limits." Yet having already destroyed nearly $13 billion in cartel "assets," which in a saner world we would call "exports" and not destroy; and captured and/or killed two-thirds of Mexico's most-wanted list, it seems like there's not much else Calderon and his handlers in the U.S. can do: Keep burning them drugs, keep arresting them baddies, and pray--in the words of Obama-nominated DEA Chief Michele Leonhart--that the "caged animals" keep "attacking one another." But the BBC notes that Calderón is losing his gusto for being a drug-war lapdog.
Opening a pot shop in D.C. means signing a paper that says you're a criminal
a Bronx woman whose 10-year-old son and 8-year-old niece were taken away after a police search of her apartment (based on suspicions of drug dealing) turned up 10 grams of marijuana, which she said belonged to her boyfriend. In New York, possessing less than 25 grams of pot (about nine-tenths of an ounce) is not even a misdemeanor (provided you do not display it "in public view"); it's a citable offense similar to a traffic violation, punishable by a $100 fine. But it was enough for ACS to put Harris' son in foster care for more than a week. Meanwhile, her niece, whom she was raising as a foster child, was taken away for more than a year. ACS closed the investigation with no finding of neglect. ... the trauma of separating children from their parents is bound to cause far more damage than allowing them to be raised by people who smoke pot from time to time.
During July, 2011, a small group of people from North Carolina Tea Party groups travelled to Arizona to make a film about the illegal alien problem on our border with Mexico. Sheriff Larry Dever of Cochise County lead them on their investigation and showed them the territory.
New Mexico's pistol-packin' governor is a sure shot. Gov. Susana Martinez received perfect scores on recertification for her concealed-carry permit over the weekend in Las Cruces. She scored 100 percent with both .38- and .45-caliber handguns [video!]
Scheutte, for example, has gone after registered patients who engage in the collective growing or sharing of marijuana plants on cooperative marijuana farms. Why? Because the law, he believes, requires each patient's plants to be grown and maintained in a "separate" enclosed, locked facility that is only accessible to the registered patient or the patient's registered primary caregiver. This is just, plain hazing—and he didn't even have to toke up to do it.
The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled earlier today that a 2008 state law legalizing the use of medical marijuana does not cover the sale of the drug
Officials in Longhui County, a rural area of Hunan Province, have a history of kidnapping unauthorized babies and selling them on the black market when the parents are unable to pay exorbitant fines that may amount to five times their annual income. ... Yang Libing, the father of a nine-month-old girl who was snatched from his parents' home in 2005 while he was working in another town. ... Yang's offense was failing to register his marriage, rendering any offspring illegal.