One nice thing about DVDs
I’ve been watching Absolutely Fabulous DVDs
Every episodes was written by Jennifer Saunders. The series was produced by Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French who have a long history in British comedy.
My favorite episode is the second program on the Series Two DVD
Aggressors and bullies who have in the past been emboldened by government’s restrictions on self-defense might have to think twice before their next assault.
Thanks to Florida’s new definition of self-defense [Washington Post article], nicknamed the "Castle Doctrine" they can no longer count on the legal requirement that their potential victims retreat or not use force when attacked. Rather than expecting their victims to passively comply with their demands or run away, the criminals might find themselves dead instead. And the shooting would be self-defense.
The Florida measure says any person "has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm."
Florida law already lets residents defend themselves against attackers if they can prove they could not have escaped. The new law would allow them to use deadly force even if they could have fled and says that prosecutors must automatically presume that would-be victims feared for their lives if attacked.
The overwhelming vote margins and bipartisan support for the Florida gun bill — it passed unanimously in the state Senate and was approved 94 to 20 in the state House, with nearly a dozen Democratic co-sponsors — have alarmed some national gun-control advocates, who say a measure that made headlines in Florida slipped beneath their radar.
Sadly, those of the anti-gun (mostly liberal) political presuasion, which includes a large majority of women and gays, will see this as a terrible thing. But I ask them, "If more women carried guns and killed the men who were trying to rape them, and more gays carried guns and killed those who were about to attack them with a baseball bat, how many rapists and fag-bashers would we have left in this country?"
[Florida lobbyist Marion P.] Hammer, a 4-foot-11 dynamo with a national reputation for her persuasive powers, dismissed the papers as "liberal, anti-gunners" and "Chicken Littles." The current law unfairly forces Floridians to make split-second decisions about a criminal’s intent, she said, and NRA lobbyists like to note that was deemed impossible generations ago by legendary Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. "Detached reflection," Holmes said in one of his most oft-quoted pronouncements, "cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife."
When an individual is being attacked, it is their choice how they defend themselves, not the government’s. That "choice" may not even be a conscious one. It is their life on the line and their judgment about how to handle the assualt is the only judgment that counts.
As a person who has been attacked on more than one occasion, I fully understand that in that situation individuals do things they would not ordinarily to just to defend themselves. My attacks occurred in San Francisco and none of the assailants were ever fully prosecuted even when caught. If I had had the "Castle Doctrine" on my side, they would not have lived to attack again.
There is no right to assault, and therefore no right to be protected by the law when you are committing an assault. One who is assaulting another cannot rationally claim a right to be protected from assault. You cannot rationally claim a right that you take away from others.
Now if Congress would just extend this expanded right of self-defense to apply to government aggression we might start to look like a free country again.
Radley Balko has an article in Forbes about the nanny state.
Earlier this year, when Major League Baseball questioned Congress’ right to hold public hearings on steroid use in the big leagues, Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.) and ranking minority member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) sent back a striking response. Davis and Waxman told baseball that the committee "may at any time conduct investigations of any matter."
Any time. Any matter. And this from the congressional committee charged with curbing government excesses.
Read the whole thing. It gets better–or worse–depending on if you have a thing for nannies.
Do you like your pacifier or the real thing?
Now go force your preference on everybody else.
No gay unions BUT…
…thanks to Bush’s hand-holding with the Saudi Prince, we’ll have plenty of lubricant.
From the Dallas Morning News via The Agitator.
Chris Matthew Sciabarra is having a good time with this also, noting that Bush often seems oblivious to how his comments and actions might be interpreted. Be sure to check out the "Splash Day" link. ROFL
Then you’ll understand why it was so important to have this meeting with the Saudi Prince in Texas for the purpose of protecting the flow of affordable lubricants.
[Warning: In spite of the President’s efforts, oil-based lubricants should never be used with latex condoms. They destroy the latex and cause the condom to break. But Bush, who is not an advocate for condom usage, might not be aware of this problem.]