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Last week, Robby wrote here about how "students are so coddled by the feelings-protection regime at university campuses that they now believe disheartening national news developments—such as the grand jury decisions in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases—entitle them to final exam extensions." Columbia Law School delayed final exams for students who felt unable to take them in the wake these developments. Students at Harvard and Georgetown began demanding their universities follow suit.One might think that Oberlin College, known for it's ultra-crunchy reputation, would be all about this. At least one professor at Oberlin, however, is having none of...

When students at Columbia and other law schools around the country demanded that exams be postponed because they were traumatized by the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases, we and many others responded with ridicule. In today’s National Law Journal, a third-year law student at Harvard named William Desmond says that we got it all wrong: the request for extra time for exams was a sign of the students’ strength. For entertainment value, you should read the whole thing, but here are some excerpts: [O]pponents of exam extensions have declared that to grant these requests would be a disservice to...

No discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of open and concealed carry used to be complete without the obligatory theory that open carry was more dangerous.  It was asserted that a criminal will target the open carrier because they are armed.   Here is an example from freerepublic: Why would anyone want the bad guy to shoot him first? Fortunately, the gun culture is becoming educated in the matter.   People now realize that open carry promotes tactical deterrence.  There have been two known instances where open carriers have been targeted, but they are very rare.  The other side of...

Alexis Templeton and Brittany Ferrell first met while demonstrating in Ferguson, Missouri, following the death of unarmed Michael Brown and a grand jury’s subsequent decision to not indict the police officer who shot him. Both Templeton and Ferrell are prominently involved in Millenial Activists United, a youth-led organization that focuses on “educating and empowering” communities.They were also both active in the months of protesting following the death of Michael Brown in August. Alexis was born and raised in Ferguson, while Brittany grew up in St. Louis. Both attended high school in Ferguson....

Woman Who Was Arrested and Called “Teagbagger” by Deputy Awarded $1.12 Million For Illegal Arrest A federal jury has awarded Nancy Genovese an amount of $1.12 million for her inappropriate prosecution by Suffolk County law enforcement. It was an innocent enough day for Nancy Genovese of Long Island. After visiting a shooting range, the mother of three stopped to take a photo of a decorative helicopter in front of a National Guard base in the Hamptons for use on a website showing support for the troops. She was on public property the entire time. She was charged with trespassing and...

It is hard for me to put into words how pathetically silly I find the requests of college and post-grad students to postpone exams because of the “trauma” they experienced due to Grand Jury decisions in the national news. It is even harder to express how pathetic and silly it is that college and law school officials are bending to the requests of these “traumatized” students. Look, if a family member dies during exam week or you’re literally unable to move from your bed because of the influenza (and even that excuse is a little overdone, so it should be...

There were mant accidents and stupid events, like a guy who had adrenaline rush and forgot that he needed to switch safety so he tried and tried to shoot, but nothing. At the end he beat the other man with rifle like he was holding a baseball bat and not a rifle, luckily the other guy was confused more than him so this worked. People made lots of mistakes in that time. Knowledge about weapons and knowledge about fighting was very low, so that was another reason why folks loved that rifle. Easy to handle and easy to kill. Real...

This is a conversation I heard. She: "Do we have a card with Jesus on it?" He: "No, we only have Christmas cards". This exchange may go some way to explain the tragicomic results of recent research. A survey of 2,000 UK families carried out in early December showed that a third of children aged 10-13 do not know that Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus. It’s shocking but hardly surprising, as Christ has been progressively removed from Christmas. But the problem does not concern just kids. According to the same survey, half the population considers Jesus’s birth irrelevant...

Is this the start of the next major financial crisis? The nightmarish collapse of the price of oil is creating panic in financial markets all over the planet. On June 16th, U.S. oil was trading at a price of $107.52. Since then, it has fallen by almost 50 dollars in less than 6 months. This has only happened one other time in our history. In the summer of 2008, the price of oil utterly collapsed and we all remember what happened after that. Well, the same patterns that we witnessed back in 2008 are happening again. As the price of...

Time magazine’s editors’ selection of the Ebola fighters as the recipients of the publication’s annual “person of the year” designation greatly riled some of the leaders of the Ferguson, Missouri riots. “It’s just another case demonstrating that Black lives don’t matter,” complained arsonist Monte Burns. “An innocent Black man was shot down on our streets. Now a white magazine is trying to sweep that under the rug by pushing a story about some germs.” “The Ebola fighters haven’t done anything to help right the social injustices that plague America,” insisted Ferguson looter Robbie Moore. “We’re taking direct action to redistribute...

Winston Churchill apocryphally said “if you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart.  If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.”  Of course, he didn’t say it.  But if you choose to believe that anyway, you’d have a lot of support from young liberals. There’s something wrong with liberals—an immaturity of thought and a wonton ignorance of sometimes-hard truths.  The reason that quote is so popular is simple:  youth is full of exuberance and impulsiveness, but lacking in wisdom.  World peace, Kumbaya, and Star Trek are banging around in young people’s...

Grayson Matthews, above, has bad luck.  He has had to defend the family convenience store twice.  Once, back in 2011, he shot a robber who was pretending to have a shotgun.  That guy was wearing a plastic bag over his head with eye holes cut in it.  It must have been hard to see out of.   From journal-news.com: Matthews told the suspect he kept more money in his front right pocket of his pants. He showed Wright the money, switched it from his right to his left hand, and when Wright’s eyes followed, Matthews told him he kept...

Who is in charge of our nation today in mid-December, 2014? The answer seems to be nobody. We have a lawless president and Attorney General, trying everything they can to control our lives; but last month’s election showed they are only able to present obstacles to our lives. Neither the House nor the Senate is in the hands of men who can make things happen. They are good at stopping things from happening and reacting to external events, but that’s not the same as being in control. The best estimate of what is going on is that events jumping off...

In the video, we see the man, stated as the father, shoot a celebratory shot into the air.  He briefly examines the pistol, which appears to be a Browning type single action of some kind.  He may have put on the safety, but it is not clear.  He then places the pistol down, probably on a chair.   We can see the young child moving toward the pistol as it is put down.   Link to video: In the video, the young boy picks up the pistol and seems to be trying to emulate his father.  The boys hands are placed...

In a review of Michael S. Rose's book entitled, "Goodbye, Good Men," Rev. Robert J. Johansen noted that, "There is too much evidence of the abuse of authority in certain dioceses and seminaries to dismiss Rose’s claims as baseless. It is still the case, even in a seminary with a reputation for orthodoxy such as St. Charles, that seminarians would not openly admit to members of the formation committee that they attended a licit (under the Ecclesia Dei indult) Tridentine liturgy for fear of being branded a “reactionary” and hounded out. I know many priests and seminarians who were subjected...

" Even bad people love their children".  But do they? Its not so much, "are they capable of love", as, "do they know what love is"? It's parallel to "what is freedom"? The ability to do whatever you want? Or the ability to do what is right? Love is preferring the good of the other for the other's sake. It can be explained to a five-year-old, as simply as Rapunzel and Flynn Rider's mutual, self-sacrificial love.  (Rapunzel is willing to remain the false-mother's slave, to save Flynn Rider's life. Flynn is willing to die so that Rapunzel can become free. Self-sacrificial love that perfects their...

I hate Republicans. I can’t stand the thought of having to spend the next two years watching Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Ted Cruz, Darrell Issa or any of the legions of other blowhards denying climate change, thwarting immigration reform or championing fetal “personhood.” This loathing is a relatively recent phenomenon. Back
 in the 1970s, I worked for a Republican, Fred Lippitt, the senate minority leader in Rhode Island, and I loved him. He was a brand of Republican now extinct—a “moderate” who was fiscally conservative but progressive about women’s rights, racial justice and environmental preservation. Had he been closer to...

The incredibly resourceful and brilliant unpaid blogger known only as “sundance” at TheConservativeTreehouse.com is doing it again. Just as she (or he) did in the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown cases, sundance is putting the professional media journalists to shame by methodically analyzing and exposing key details of the recent, still-smoldering Jessica Chambers murder caper in rural Panola County, Mississippi, apparently well before ordinary reporters or even police investigators have even begun to rub the sleep from their eyes. This time, probing deeply into the very disturbing mystery surrounding the gruesome torture and burning death last week of the blonde,...

On Thursday, 11 December, Alan Gura replied to the D.C. government arguments that they should not be held in contempt in the case of Palmer v. D.C.   The reply is 24 pages of double spaced legal argument.  It is well organized and clearly argued.  As GTOGUNNER noted on the mdshooters.forum: In reality, win or lose this case, surely from my POV, it won't be do to a sucky Attorney. To give you the flavor of Alan Gura's reply, I have quoted a small selection of his points.  Here is a link to Gura's entire reply in a pdf file...