Dean's World

Force a showdown, in other words, and use any means necessary to get the bloodshed ended.

But what exactly are these young idealists campaigning for?

The varied testimonies I have heard reveal that the co-operation between Venezuela and the guerrillas in transporting cocaine by land, air and sea is both extensive and systematic. Venezuela is also supplying arms to the guerrillas, offering them the protection of their armed forces in the field, and providing them with legal immunity de facto as they go about their giant illegal business.

Jury nullification is a de facto and traditional power of juries, not normally disclosed to jurors by the system when they are instructed as to rights and duties. The power of jury nullification derives from an inherent quality of most modern common law systems—a general unwillingness to inquire into jurors' motivations during or after deliberations. A jury's ability to nullify the law is further supported by two common law precedents: the prohibition on punishing jury members for their verdict, and the prohibition on retrying defendants after an acquittal; and the constitutional prohibition on retrying criminal defendants (see related topics res judicata and double jeopardy).
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Nevertheless, there is little doubt as to the ability of a jury to nullify the law.
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Nullification in practice

Nullification has a mixed history in the United States. Jury nullification appeared in the pre-Civil War era when juries occasionally refused to convict for violations of the Fugitive Slave Act. However, during the Civil Rights era, all-white juries were known to refuse to convict white defendants for the murder of blacks.[13] During Prohibition, juries often nullified alcohol control laws,[14] possibly as often as 60% of the time.[15] This resistance is considered to have contributed to the adoption of the Twenty-first amendment repealing the Eighteenth amendment which established Prohibition.

Zack Ajmal looks at the data, and I add my own two cents.

Doctors are calling for NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives.

Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone.

AN adventure park offers a journey back to the Soviet Union with KGB interrogation methods and "beatings" with a leather belt.

The 1984 Soviet Union theme park is located outside the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in an old bunker which served as a secret TV station in case of a nuclear attack.

At the conclusion of the tour, visitors receive a special certificate to honour their two hours as "Soviet citizens" and a shot of vodka

"I think one of the best kept secrets is that the world is in the midst of an economic boom, and it is largely driven by increases in economic freedom," says economics professor James Gwartney, director of the Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education at Florida State University. "The world has become more free, and, at the same time, growth is soaring to new highs. During 1995 to 2005, the growth rate of per capita GDP in 99 countries for which data are available has increased to 2.2 percent, nearly twice the rate of recent decades. Since 2000, the annual growth rate of per capita GDP has been even more rapid, 3.2 percent."

"I reserve the right to do exactly what they've accused me of doing."

As CS Lewis said, "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

"The security has changed and it took us by surprise. We're very happy. Especially us young people," said al-Azzawi, a 22-year-old student taking a break from dancing to a traditional Iraqi band in the ballroom of the Palestine Hotel.

"I haven't seen a happy place like this in so long. I wanted to see if I could maybe meet a few girls!" he said. "I only hope the Iraqi people can enjoy more happy times like this."

Salah al-Lami, 27, the singer who performed at the Palestine ballroom and then for another New Year's Eve crowd at the Sheraton Hotel across the street, said it was the first time he had sung before a live audience in four years.

Their leader, Abul Abed, meets the Americans every day.

On the wall is a picture of him with General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq.

"At the beginning, people saw it as an occupation which had to be resisted. But then they saw that the Americans were working in the interests of the people."

...they also found bloody swords and knives... there are a number of body parts and skulls littered all around this property...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian police have closed down 24 Internet cafes and other coffee shops in as many hours, detaining 23 people, as part of a broad crackdown on immoral behavior in the Islamic state, official media said on Sunday.

The action in Tehran province was the latest move in a campaign against fashion and other practices deemed incompatible with Islamic values, including women flouting strict dress codes and barber shops offering men Western hair styles.

"Using immoral computer games, storing obscene photos ... and the presence of women wearing improper hijab were among the reasons why they have been closed down," Colonel Nader Sarkari, a provincial police commander, said.

Also via Instapundit comes this thorny shocker.

We may have a "cure" for homosexuality in the not too distant future. This of course totally flies in the face of religious people who fulminatingly insist that homosexuality is 'against nature' (bulls***, it's found all over nature in countless species) but it also flies in the face of gay rights activists who insist that homosexuality is an "immutable trait" like race (which I've been telling my friends in the gay community for almost 20 years is a really foolish position to take).

So, when--and it's no longer an "if"--we have a drug that can turn gay people straight, is it going to become okay to discriminate against gays? Or mandate that they get "treatment?"

(FWIW, I've been a staunch advocate for gay rights since well before it was popular. Trying to read anything into my motives for posting these questions is a total waste of your time and I'd encourage against trying. Just address the data and the actual questions I pose, please.)

The rulers of Dubai are erecting grand monuments for the 21st century, with 19th century labor. Unlike the knee-jerk xenophobia against Dubai expressed by Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, this is a valid critique of the Emirates founded on genuine human rights - and their transgressions are ones we, as consumers, aid and abet.

Walk down most roads in the Middle East, the former Soviet Union, or Latin America, and you will see many things: houses used for shelter; parcels of land being tilled, sowed, and harvested; merchandise being bought and sold. Assets in developing and former communist countries primarily serve these immediate physical purposes. In the West, however, the same assets also lead a parallel life as capital outside the physical world. They can be used to put in motion more production by securing the interests of other parties as "collateral" for a mortgage, for example, or by assuring the supply of other forms of credit and public utilities.
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The lack of legal property thus explains why citizens in developing and former communist nations cannot make profitable contracts with strangers and cannot get credit, insurance, or utilities services: they have no property to lose. Because they have no legal property, they are taken seriously as contracting parties only by their immediate family and neighbors. People with nothing to lose are trapped in the grubby basement of the precapitalist world.

Who has a good recipe for latkes?

"He who says he supports Chavez but votes 'no' is a traitor, a true traitor," the president told an arena packed with red-clad supporters. "He's against me, against the revolution and against the people."

The proposed revisions would do away with presidential term limits, extend terms from six to seven years, let Chavez appoint regional vice presidents and eliminate Central Bank authority, among other changes.

Critics warn he would also have the power to shut down Venezuelan newspapers, television and radio stations by declaring a state of emergency, and the government could detain citizens without charges during such a period.

Chavez insists he will only stay on as long as Venezuelans continue to vote for him.

Marijuana Cuts Lung Cancer Tumor Growth In Half, Study Shows

ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2007) — The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.

There's a good discussion going on at A Woman for Men's Rights on what feminists believe they're about (across several posts, BTW.)

I've stayed out of it, mostly because I've been working & playing catch-up in other areas, and there just hasn't been time. I do want to point out, though, that in the past few months I've been doing some research on feminism in spare moments, and have discovered that inexplicably, the deeper I dig, the less I find.

I've got some time off coming up, so I'll explain that last in greater detail down the road.

Our entire outlook upon drugs is no different than that of the Taliban towards women. They want women clothed from head to foot, cap-a-pie, as it were, to prevent the men from lusting after the women. That completely removes the sense of personal responsibility from the equation. It says that men are by nature weal, and unable to control themselves when in the presence of a woman. That's bullsh!t and anyone with more than 2 brain cells understands that.

However, we treat drugs in the same manner. We tell adults that they may NOT have them because they cannot be trusted to act responsibly.

The class was at Brown Bay with V.I. National Park Education Specialist Laurel Brannick during V.I. Coastweeks in September when a man wearing flip flops, a bathing suit and a baseball hat suddenly appeared on the beach.
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“In broken English, he asked us where he was and if this was St. John,” said Brannick. “When we told him it was, he almost started to cry. He was saying, ‘I’m free!’ and giving us the thumbs up.”
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Lopez was able to relay his story to a Spanish-speaking student in the class. The Cuban immigrant traveled to St. Maarten, then Tortola via a boat. He then blew up an inflatable kayak he brought with him from Cuba and paddled toward St. John.

“It got a couple holes in it, so he ditched it when he got close to St. John and just swam in,” said Brannick. “He told us he’s a pharmacist, but he had no future in Cuba. He said we were his guardian angels.”

Most of you have probably seen this "Falling numbers of state dentists in England has led to some people taking extreme measures, including extracting their own teeth, according to a new study released Monday."

This has lead many of us Americans to pat ourselves on the back, congratulating ourselves on our high quality of dentistry. After all, in our country of pay-for-play dentistry, we have plenty of dentists. And we never have to pull our own teeth...

Well: I got an Email this morning, from a friend here in the US: "I just saved myself about $300 last night, albeit painfully. I pulled a good chunk of my own wisdom tooth out, by hand. Yep. I'm that stupid. Or rather, I was that desperate to break off the shard that kept cutting my tongue and mouth up all night, and happened to have some prescription motrin laying around still, to dull the massive pain that came afterwards."

Does she have insurance? Of course she does. Can she afford to use it? Not even a little. Still: Good to know that we Americans have the best health care in the world!

It is as if people cannot conceive of Islams that are other than ideological.

Nevermind he's got a setup for automatic payroll deduction payment to TWO ex-wives. Here's more:

Whitlock said he went to KiBois on his own, because he wanted to report that he would no longer be getting his McAAP check once he reported for duty, but instead would be getting a check for his National Guard service.

“That’s why I went down,” he said. “I didn’t want to get behind. When my check at McAAP stopped and I got my Army check, they could deduct it.”

As proof of his lower income while he’s in the National Guard, Whitlock said he brought along a chart given to guardsmen which shows them how to figure their pay by computing their years of service with their rank.

It shows that an E-4, such as Whitlock, with 18 years of service is paid $2,062.80 a month — which is less than his McAAP pay.

Whitlock also has a letter from his commander, Capt. Cameron C. Lehanhan.

“Purpose of this memorandum is to certify SPC/E-4 Brian Keith Whitlock’s monthly gross earnings will be $2,062.80 for the period 18 Oct. 2007 through the end of our deployment sometime late in 2008,” the letter states.

However, Whitlock said a caseworker at KiBois told him he was wrong.

“They said somebody had done some legwork and said I would be making much more than at my civilian job,” he said. Whitlock said he asked the source of the information.

“They said they could not disclose it to me,” he said.

When Whitlock said he would not agree with what KiBois wanted, he said he was told he would be given a hearing date. A document signed by Administrative Law Judge Javier Ramirez set the hearing date for Oct. 29 — which is eight days after Brian Whitlock is to report for duty prior to his deployment to Iraq.

The rest of this outrageous story is here at the News-Capital, McAlester Oklahoma. Our bureaucracy in action! IMHO, they're acting like Hillary has already been elected.

Point by point, she shreds the faux argument, sets a match to the straw men. You go, girl!

It's been posted quite recently, so there hasn't been time for the word to get out among the girls, but if her comments section is working she's sure to be lambasted for presenting this reasonable riposte to the truly bizarre claims made by this guy in response to the Dr. Helen interview with Glenn Sacks awhile back.

I'm tempted to verbally blast the guy myself, but that would be in direct violation of my own policy:

Never argue with a drunk or a feminist.

It's still a post well worth the read. Now what we need is 20 or 200 more KellyMacs to do the same.

UPDATE  If you're looking to take on the girls yourself, or would just like to have an overview of some of the concepts behind the domestic violence industry, a good place to start is by reading this:

Disabusing The Definition Of Domestic Abuse: How Women Batter Men And The Role Of The Feminist State
by Linda Kelly  This Florida State Law review article is here.

Technical info on restraining orders from David Heleniak (originally published in the Rutgers Law Review) here.