Three armed suspects break into home, stopped by armed homeowner, Seventh home invader killed in Detroit this year

Fox 2 News Headlines

From WJBK in Detroit (Posted: Apr 17, 2014 7:23 AM EDT):

Detroit police say a break-in suspect who was shot by homeowner has died after crashing a getaway vehicle into a nearby home.
Sgt. Michael Woody says two people tried to break into the home . . . early Thursday through a window and a third was sitting in the vehicle.
Woody says the homeowner shot at the suspects, who returned fire. He says the person in the vehicle was hit and the two other suspects fled on foot.
FOX 2's Roop Raj reports a woman in the home that was crashed into was injured. Police didn't immediately say whether the gunfire or crash killed the suspect. . . .
Raj confirms this is the seventh home invader shot in 2014 and the fourth in the last six weeks. . . .

One measure of how cold this past winter was: Historical Ice Coverage for the week of April 16th 1981 to 2014

Click on figures to enlarge.  Data available here.  Of course, having this much ice means for a cool spring and summer.

Media Matters resisting effort by staff to form union

To say that Media Matters vocally supports unions and union causes would be a bit of an understatement.  

Media Matters for America is apparently resisting an effort by Service Employees International Union Local 500 to unionize its staff. 

Last week, the union filed a representation petition with the National Labor Relations Board, indicating that the nonprofit media watchdog organization rejected an effort by the union to organize MMFA's staff through a Card Check election. . . . .

For some reason I suspect that if a conservative organization rejected such an effort at unionization, it would be something that they would put up more than a few scathing posts on. 

New York pizza delivery man uses permitted concealed handgun to stop "a gang of robbers"

There might not be many permitted concealed handguns in New York state, but fortunately this pizza delivery man was able to protect himself.

A gang of robbers attacked a pizza deliveryman just before 10:30 p.m. Monday as he brought food to a house in the 400 block of Cornwall Avenue, near Erie County Medical Center. 

In the front hallway of the house, one of the robbers, who wore a mask and had a brown hoodie pulled over his face, hit the deliveryman on the head with a hammer, according to police. 

The masked man also displayed what appeared to be a gun, police said. 

But then, the deliveryman told investigators, he pulled out his own handgun and fired a shot, striking the masked man. The rest of the gang scattered. . . .

Note that even the Buffalo News notes: "They messed with the wrong pizza guy." 

"Worst murder - mass murder - in Calgary's history" committed with a knife

Of course, mass stabbings aren't just limited to China and the US.  Here is a case were five people were killed in Canada, none wounded.   From CBS News:

A University of Calgary student was charged in the fatal stabbing of five people at a house party Tuesday that the police chief called the worst mass slaying in the western Canadian city's history. 

Matthew Douglas de Grood, the son of a 33-year veteran of the Calgary police force, picked up a large knife shortly after arriving at the party and stabbed the victims one by one, said police Chief Rick Hanson.  

De Grood, 22, was charged with five counts of murder late Tuesday. 

"This is the worst murder - mass murder - in Calgary's history," Hanson said at a news conference Tuesday. "We have never seen five people killed by an individual at one scene. The scene was horrific." . . .

Want to donate to Moms Demand Action? Make the check out to Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns

Click on screen shot to make it bigger.

Michael Bloomberg spending $50 million in 2014 pushing for gun control, 2.5 times more than the NRA spends annually

Bloomberg is really spending much more than $50 million this year because it doesn't include the millions that he is spending to fund gun control research.  Gun control groups already massively outspent gun owner groups by 7.4 to 1 in 2013.  Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action are going to have more money than they know what to do with.  From the New York Times:

Michael R. Bloomberg, making his first major political investment since leaving office, plans to spend $50 million this year building a nationwide grass-roots network to motivate voters who feel strongly about curbing gun violence, an organization he hopes can eventually outmuscle the National Rifle Association. 

Mr. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, said gun control advocates need to learn from the N.R.A. and punish those politicians who fail to support their agenda — even Democrats whose positions otherwise align with his own. 

“They say, ‘We don’t care. We’re going to go after you,’ ” he said of the N.R.A. “ ‘If you don’t vote with us we’re going to go after your kids and your grandkids and your great-grandkids. And we’re never going to stop.’ ” . . . 

The $50 million could be significant: In recent years, the N.R.A. has spent only $20 million annually on political activities. The political groups affiliated with the billionaire Koch brothers, who are seeking to help Republicans take over the Senate, have spent about $30 million in the last six months. 

The group will zero in on 15 target states, from places like Colorado and Washington State, where gun control initiatives have advanced recently, to territory that is likely to be more hostile like Texas, Montana and Indiana. They have set a goal of signing up one million new supporters this year on top of the 1.5 million they already have. . . .

Democrats say that they are upset with Bloomberg's push on gun control, 

Previous efforts by Mr. Bloomberg to push gun control have touched off tensions with national Democratic leaders, because he has run negative ads against incumbent Democrats whom he views as insufficiently supportive of gun control. The Democratic leaders argue that Mr. Bloomberg threatens to hand control of the Senate to Republicans, which they say would doom any hope of passing gun control legislation. 

Mr. Bloomberg dismissed those fears, saying he was concerned only with the long term.“You can tell me all you want that the Republicans would be worse in the Senate than the Democrats,” he said. “Maybe they would. But that’s not what we’re talking about here.”

But the New York Times ignores that Bloomberg is also giving millions to help support these very same Democrats.

UC Berkeley police officer hailed as a hero is denied the ability to carry a concealed handgun

I am still surprised the extent to which people are willing to go to stop off-duty or retired police officers from carrying guns.  From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The UC Berkeley police officer hailed as a hero for helping to rescue kidnap victim Jaycee Dugardis now suing her former employer, saying she was wrongfully denied approval to carry a concealed weapon after she retired on medical disability. 

Allison "Ally" Jacobs' instincts helped lead to the 2009 capture of Phillip Garrido, the man who kept Dugard captive for 18 years at his home near Antioch. A year later, Jacobs suffered an on-duty injury and, in April 2013, she accepted a disability retirement. 

Under state law, retired cops are entitled to a permit to carry a concealed weapon. But Jacobs was told she was ineligible for a retired officer card with an endorsement to carry a concealed weapon because UC, in a policy shift, no longer considered her and others receiving disability income to be "retired." 

Jacobs' attorney, Michael Morguess, said UC officials were "playing semantics" with officers who "put their lives on the line at UC and got injured in the course of performing their duties." . . . 

Sunday's Shooter in Kansas City who killed three people references book by leftist The Nation and kills two people in gun-free zone

Remember when the media has tried to blame the Tea Party for the Aurora movie theater shooting and Sarah Palin for the Tuscon shooting of Congresswoman Giffords?  Now in this shooting in Kansas City we apparently have a liberal Democrat who reads anti-Semitic books put out by the leftist The Nation.  While the killer was motivated by his hatred of Jews, it turns out that none of his victims were actually Jewish.  From PJ Media:

What will our good friends at The Nation say now, when his very first sentence notes how inspired he is by the words of none other than Max Blumenthal, whose antisemitic and anti-Zionist book was released by the magazine’s own publishing house, Nation Books?  I can look back to find scores of examples of how various racist rants are attributed by the Left to conservatives, Tea Party members and especially to  Rush Limbaugh. Some years ago, one man tried to enter a left-wing group’s offices with a gun, and many leftists immediately attributed his actions to the hate spread by right-wing radio talk show hosts. 

Now, Mr. Miller himself, a proud Ku Klux Klan leader and avowed antisemite, has found inspiring words from the one Jew he likes–Max Blumenthal. Look again at his words: “Jew journalist Max Blumenthal exposes and explains this attempt by a foreign government Israel, to buy the presidential election for the neo-con, war-mongering republican establishment.” Except for the first two words,“Jew journalist,” Miller’s rant is similar to the arguments of Walt and Mearsheimer, John B. Judis and other realists and leftists, whose writings are filled with the same disdain for “neo-conservatives” who are always described as “warmongering.” When someone like Pat Buchanan makes that same argument, he never uses the word “Jews,” preferring to let his readers know by intuition just who is talking about. . . .

Note that in Kansas, temples are gun-free zones.  Given that The Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City holds religious services, it seems very likely that the area where two of the three people were murdered was a gun-free zone.

Justice Stevens' op-ed in the Washington Post unintentionally shows the 2nd Amendment wasn't aimed at protecting only government rights

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has a new book out where he suggests what was originally meant by the 2nd Amendment.  From his op-ed in the Washington Post:

As a result of the rulings in Heller and McDonald, the Second Amendment, which was adopted to protect the states from federal interference with their power to ensure that their militias were “well regulated,” has given federal judges the ultimate power to determine the validity of state regulations of both civilian and militia-related uses of arms. That anomalous result can be avoided by adding five words to the text of the Second Amendment to make it unambiguously conform to the original intent of its draftsmen. As so amended, it would read: 

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms when serving in the Militia shall not be infringed.” . . .

Stevens would like to add five words and also a comma after the word "Militia."  But Stevens unintentionally shows what those who drafted the amendment would have to have written to make it clear that they wanted it only to apply to those in the militia.  There is a huge difference between "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed" and "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms when serving in the militia shall not be infringed."  Both statements are quite clear, but while Stevens would like everyone to believe that the 2nd Amendment was written as only a militia right.

Newest piece at Investor's Business Daily: "Michael Bloomberg, Gun Control And Fabricated Numbers"

Here is John Lott's newest piece at Investor's Business Daily:

No doubt, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg passionately believes in gun control. To his credit, he puts his own money — tens of millions of dollars, and possibly much more — into pushing the issue politically. 

But Bloomberg's push hasn't been just political advertising, lobbying and media appearances. He also funds studies that have gone overboard in backing up his anti-gun beliefs. 

To put it plainly, they have not only exaggerated their conclusions but have fabricated numbers. And these incorrect numbers have then been used to push for more regulations. 

The connections to Bloomberg are not always obvious, as he has funded several organizations, making it look like there is more widespread support. There are Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health and two organizations of which he is the primary financial supporter though they are not directly connected to his name: Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action. 

Over the last couple of years, studies from these organizations have received massive, uncritical news coverage, without even the slightest questioning of the numbers presented. 

Take the recent report from Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action on school shootings, which was covered in more than 2,000 news stories. . . . .

The piece is continued here. 

White House YET AGAIN warns Russia "Against Seizing More Ukrainian Territory," How many times can Obama threaten "consequences" and be taken seriously?

Well, these threats from the Obama administration seem to be working well.  From the Wall Street Journal today:

The White House said Saturday it was concerned by what it called a "concerted campaign" by pro-Russian separatists to stoke tensions in eastern Ukraine, warning Russian President Vladimir Putin against using the events there as a pretext for seizing more Ukrainian territory. 

In a phone call Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his concern with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the State Department said. Mr. Kerry made clear that if Russia doesn't take action to de-escalate and move its troops back from Ukraine's border, there would be consequences, the department said. 

"We are very concerned by the concerted campaign we see under way in eastern Ukraine today by pro-Russian separatists, apparently with support from Russia, who are inciting violence and sabotage and seeking to undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian state," White House National Security Council spokeswoman Laura Lucas Magnuson said. 

The White House said it saw similar "so-called protest activities" in Crimea before Russia's takeover of the Ukrainian territory last month. "We call on President Putin and his government to cease all efforts to destabilize Ukraine, and we caution against further military intervention," the White House spokeswoman said. . . . .

Have we heard this before?

From CNN on March 20th:

In a briefing to reporters, senior U.S. administration officials sounded further warnings against any Russian provocations in Ukraine."We believe that it is very important to signal that if Russia further escalates this situation they will be met with severe consequences," one official said. . . .

From BBC:

18 March: Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses parliament, defending Moscow's actions on Crimea, then signs a bill to absorb the peninsula into the Russian Federation. Later, Ukraine says an officer has been killed as a military base is stormed in Simferopol, Crimea, the first such death in the region since pro-Russian forces took over in late February. 

From a transcript at the White House on March 14th:

President Obama: "Obviously on our minds right now is the situation in Ukraine. Ireland has been a strong voice in the European Council for the need to send a clear message of support for Ukrainian democracy and self-determination, and a strong message to Russia that it should not violate the integrity and the sovereignty of its neighbor.  We continue to hope that there’s a diplomatic solution to be found, but the United States and Europe stand united not only in its message about Ukrainian sovereignty but also that there will be consequences if, in fact, that sovereignty continues to be violated." . . .

From BBC:

12 March: Barack Obama pledges to stand with Ukraine during a meeting with interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk at the White House.
10 March: Armed men seize a military hospital in Simferopol.
8 March: The US and France warn of "new measures" against Russia if it does not withdraw its forces from Ukraine. Warning shots are fired at international monitors trying to enter Crimea. . . .

From Politico on February 28th:

President Barack Obama on Friday issued a blunt and direct warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin: stay out of Ukraine. 

If not, he said, there will be consequences — though he didn’t say what those might be. 

“We are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine,” Obama said, speaking at the White House. “Any violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing.” . . .  

In language that’s about as tough as it gets within diplomacy, Obama warned Russia against a “profound interference” and what would be a “clear violation” of international laws. . . .

From USA Today:

Feb. 28: Armed men in Russian military uniforms take control of key airports in Crimea. Russian marines surround a Ukraine coast guard base in Sevastopol. Obama warns "there will be costs" for Russian military intervention in Ukraine.