Enforce our Bill of Rights
Dearest Dad,
I am coming home to get married soon, so get your check book out. I’m in love with a boy who is far away from me.
As you know, I am in Australia… and he lives in Scotland. We met on a dating website, became friends on Facebook, had long chats on Whats app. He proposed to me on Skype, and now we’ve had two months of a relationship through Viber. Continue reading “Dear Dad”
monk from Riverside and an Australian man looking to buy a 6-year-old boy were among 238 people arrested during a two-month operation targeting child predators in Southern California, officials said Monday.
Conducted by the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes against Children task force, “Operation Broken Heart III” targeted offenders wanted for the sexual exploitation of children, child prostitution, sex tourism and possessing and distributing child pornography, said Deputy Chief Matt Blake of the Los Angeles Police Department. Continue reading “238 arrested in sweep of suspected child sex predators”
The Last American Vagabond – by Matt Agorist
One of the most rational bills ever proposed, barring the feds from giving money and weapons to child murdering terrorists, has almost zero support.
For the last several decades, the US government has openly funded, supported, and armed various terrorist networks throughout the world to forward an agenda of destabilization and proxy war. It is not a secret, nor a conspiracy theory, America arms bad guys.
Given the insidious history of the American empire and its creation and fostering of terrorist regimes across the globe, it should come as no surprise that the overwhelming majority of politicians would refuse to sign on to a law that requires them to ‘Stop Arming Terrorists.’ And, that is exactly what’s happened. Continue reading “US Gov’t Proves Loyalty to ISIS as Bill to ‘Stop Arming Terrorists’ Gets Only 13 Supporters”
The Daily Sheeple – by Will Porter
I swear to drunk I’m not God, occifer!
An officer from the San Antonio Police Department faces a Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) charge and has been placed on paid administrative leave after he rear-ended a Kirby City police squad car early on the morning of Friday, June 16.
The off-duty officer, Armando Alvarado Jr., 40, denied that he crashed his truck and insisted he was merely pulling over to assist the Kirby officer, who was in the middle of writing a traffic ticket when Alvarado hit his car. The 37-year-old Kirby officer sustained minor injuries to the back and neck, and the victim of the traffic stop stayed with him at the scene until help arrived. Continue reading “Off-Duty San Antonio Cop Crashes into Squad Car, Faces DWI Charge”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — There is a “rather long list” of sanctuary cities across the United States that choose to release incarcerated members of the notoriously violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang back into U.S. communities rather than allow immigration agents to prosecute and deport them, testified a federal officer under oath before lawmakers.
“We are not asking the state of local institutions to do anything besides give us access and transfer that individual to our custody at the completion of their criminal process so we [can]…remove them from the country or prosecute them,” declared Matthew Albence, the executive associate director for Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, during a Senate panel hearing. Continue reading “Sanctuary Cities Protecting MS-13 Gang Members from Deportation, Says ICE”
The Supreme Court ruled [Monday] that the government cannot deny full trademark protection to allegedly racially offensive trademarks. The opinions are here.
The case involved an Asian-American band called “The Slants.” It sought federal registration of that mark. The Patent and Trademark Office denied the application under a Lanham Act provision prohibiting trademarks that may “disparage. . .or bring. . .into contemp[t] or disrepute” any “persons, living or dead.”
The Court ruled in favor of The Slants. The vote was unanimous, though the Court split 4-4 on some of the finer points.
Eugene Volokh summarizes the core points on which all eight Justices agreed (Justice Gorsuch did not participate):
1. By denying registration to trademarks that allegedly disparage certain kinds of groups, the federal trademark law discriminates based on viewpoint.
2. While the government may discriminate based on viewpoint when it comes to speech that is treated as the government’s own speech, trademarks are private speech (albeit protected by the government against certain forms of infringement) and not government speech.
3. Even if these trademarks are viewed as “commercial speech” (basically, commercial advertising), which is subject to somewhat more restrictions than other speech — and the court stresses that they might not be — such speech still can’t be restricted because of its alleged offensiveness.
Both of the main opinions are solid when it comes to protecting “hate speech.” Justice Alito wrote:
[The idea that the government may restrict] speech expressing ideas that offend. . .strikes at the heart of the First Amendment. Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful; but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express “the thought that we hate.”
Justice Kennedy wrote:
A law that can be directed against speech found offensive to some portion of the public can be turned against minority and dissenting views to the detriment of all. The First Amendment does not entrust that power to the government’s benevolence. Instead, our reliance must be on the substantial safeguards of free and open discussion in a democratic society.
All eight participating Justices signed one or the other of these opinions.
As Volokh points out, in this case, the government didn’t bar The Slants from using the mark; it just denied certain protections that trademarks get against unauthorized use by third parties. But even in this limited context, the court held that viewpoint discrimination — including against allegedly racially offensive viewpoints — is unconstitutional.
Clearly, says Volokh, the same principle will apply to exclusion of speakers from universities, denial of tax exemptions to nonprofits, and much more.
Of less moment is the fact that the decision means victory for the Washington Redskins. Some left-wing activists have been campaigning against that name on the theory that it demeans Indians. They suffered a huge setback when a poll by the sympathetic Washington Post found that Indians overwhelmingly aren’t offended by the name.
Unable to prevail in the court of public opinion, the activists have been trying to prevail in the court of the administrative state by attacking the Redskins trademark. Now, they will fail in this effort too.
Hail to the Redskins!
Can you imagine eating an entire tree? Probably not. We don’t tend to think of the majority of trees being edible, and only a few parts of the trees we do think of as food are traditionally eaten. In a survival situation or a test of your bush craft skills, you’d do well to keep trees in mind. Specifically, the pine tree proves edible pretty much all the way through.
Pine seems pretty prickly and tough, generally speaking. It’s great for sustenance in a survival situation, though. This is due to the fact that it grows in most every climate zone in the country and as an evergreen, it offers year round resources. Continue reading “Do You Recognize this Tree? [All Parts are Edible]”
National Heritage Areas (NHAs) are designated by Congress as places where natural, cultural, and historic resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally important landscape. Through their resources, NHAs tell nationally important stories that celebrate our nation’s diverse heritage. NHAs are lived-in landscapes. Consequently, NHA entities collaborate with communities to determine how to make heritage relevant to local interests and needs.
NHAs are a grassroots, community-driven approach to heritage conservation and economic development. Through publicprivate partnerships, NHA entities support historic preservation, natural resource conservation, recreation, heritage tourism, and educational projects. Leveraging funds and long-term support for projects, NHA partnerships foster pride of place and an enduring stewardship ethic.
Arizona Highways – October 20, 2014
Interstate 19, which is entirely in Arizona, is an oddity among U.S. interstate highways. I-19, which runs from Tucson to Nogales, is the country’s only continuous highway that lists distances in kilometers, rather than in miles.
As the Associated Press reported earlier this month, the highway’s embrace of the metric system dates to the Carter administration. The idea was to make the interstate more accessible to tourists coming from Mexico, where kilometers are the standard unit of measuring distances. Continue reading “Interstate 19: Miles or Kilometers?”
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Archive: TWFTT 6-22-17
Mexico recorded more than 2,000 murders in May, the highest monthly homicide rate in 20 years and a bloody milestone in the country’s continuing war on drugs.
As some cases involved multiple killings, some 2,186 investigations were set up for a total of 2,452 murders – an average of three people killed every hour. The previous monthly high for murder probes was 2,131 in May 2011. Continue reading “3 killed every hour: Mexico’s murder rate reaches 20-year high”
The federal government quietly helped and rewarded companies and universities which hired roughly 330,000 cheap foreign graduates in 2016 instead of hiring American graduates, many of whom are deep in debt.
The little-known “Optional Practical Training” program has grown from 91,140 new foreign job-seekers in 2009 to 329,158 new job-seekers in 2016, according to data provided by the Department of Homeland Security. That is almost a four-fold increase in seven years — and the program is growing even larger in 2017. Continue reading “Federal ‘OPT’ Program Rewards Companies For Hiring 330,000 Foreign College Grads in 2016”
TAMPA, Fla. – The Latest on a call to move a Confederate monument in Tampa, Florida (all times local):
1:30 p.m.
Officials have decided not to move a Confederate memorial from in front of a Florida courthouse. Instead, a mural will be put behind it to display, in the words of one county leader, “the love and diversity” in the community. Continue reading “Florida county won’t move Confederate statue”
A US man who opened fired in a Washington DC pizza restaurant because of an online conspiracy theory has been sentenced to four years in prison.
Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, burst into Comet Ping Pong on 4 December 2016 armed with a rifle and pistol.
He drove from North Carolina to pursue bogus claims that the restaurant was the nexus of a child sex ring linked to Hillary Clinton’s inner circle. Continue reading “‘Pizzagate’ gunman sentenced to four years”
Oregon Live – by Eder Campuzano
It used to be against Oregon law to harvest the meat of certain critters killed by the state’s drivers. Gov. Kate Brown changed that with the stroke of a pen last week, approving a law passed without a single “no” vote in the state legislature.
The Associated Press reports that the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission has until January of 2019 to adopt rules for permits allowing the harvesting of meat from deer and elk killed on state roadways. Continue reading “You can finally, legally harvest your roadkill in Oregon”
Courthouse News – by Helen Christophi
OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — Oakland’s former police chief tried for six months to muzzle allegations that multiple officers sexually exploited an underage girl, and encouraged his department to drop its internal probe of the misconduct, according to a report released Wednesday by a court-appointed monitor.
The report, commissioned by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, placed the bulk of the blame on former Police Chief Sean Whent and the scornful attitude he fostered toward certain police victims. Continue reading “Monitors Slam Oakland Police in Officers’ Sex Scandal”
A Canadian sniper in Iraq has broken the world record for the longest confirmed kill shot in history.
A member of the elite Special Forces unit, Joint Task Force 2, who has not been named, killed an Isis insurgent from 3,450 metres (2.1 miles) away. Continue reading “Canadian sniper breaks world record for longest confirmed kill shot in history”