Think you’ll be safe calling 911 when you’re attacked in your home? Brittany Zimmerman did, but police didn’t show up for nearly an hour. By that time she was dead.
Although the dispatcher claimed later to have heard nothing, the 911 tape captured screams, gasps and what sounds like a struggle, according to the court documents.
Your safety is your responsibility. This poor girl did what she had been taught to do and paid for it with her life. It is truly saddening to see the number of good people who die every day because they believe someone else—like the police—will protect them.
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After the recent shoe-throwing incident, a few hundred Iraqis (including the brother of the journalist) demonstrated against Bush, America, and the Iraqi government for arresting the perp. These folks need to buy a clue. Just a few years ago that guy would never have had the courage to even look cross-eyed at a government leader or one of his guests. Under a real tyrant (e.g., the one we deposed and Iraq executed) he’d have been beaten, tortured, and probably fed his own feet for dinner. The prerequisite for this kind of childish display is freedom—something this particular Iraqi didn’t enjoy until the oh-so-evil Bush handed it to him. That irony is, I’m sure, lost on his ilk.
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A South Korean immigrant whose family was killed in the recent Marine Corps F-18 crash in San Diego has set an example of true Christian grace to which we should all aspire. Despite losing his wife, two daughters, and mother-in-law in this tragedy, his response was truly inspiring:
“I pray for him not to suffer for this action,” Yoon said at a news conference, according to The Los Angeles Times. “I know he’s one of our treasures for our country.”
Thank you Dong Yun Yoon—at a time when our nation is narrowly focused on the economy—for this reminder of what’s truly important. I can only pray that God will help me extend to my fellow man the grace and forgiveness with which He showers me daily, and which you so clearly exhibit.
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A small town in Massachusetts is considering the idea of teaching children to fight back against armed attackers in the classroom.
Georgetown Police Chief James E. Mulligan told FOXNews.com the proposed technique was intended to be a “last ditch” thing to be used in cases where a gunman has been able to thwart police and get inside a classroom alone with students.
At least they’re moving outside the victim mentality which hampers real security in our schools. We should certainly teach our kids to defend themselves. This, however, is the wrong tack. A child with a book or backpack has a very low likelihood of thwarting a determined attacker who has a gun. The correct response is to allow concealed carry permit holders—staff and parents—to carry their own weapons on school campuses. As it stands, the only people in our schools who have guns are the bad guys, who ignore gun-free zone laws. Allowing responsible, licensed citizens to be armed on campus will only increase the safety of our children.
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A breath of fresh air and sanity from across the pond. It’s sad that it took the massacre in Mumbai to bring about a piece like this in a major British paper. Maybe they’ll come around to reason after all. Some day.
Personally, I’m glad I have the Second Amendment on my side. I exercise it every day and wish more of my fellow Americans did as well.
A company in Seattle is selling a LEGO-like terrorist figurine as part of a line of military toys.
The controversial miniature figure, created by Seattle-based Will Chapman as part of his BrickArms military fighters line, is a bearded militant with a face-covering hood, a tiny toy assault rifle, a little grenade launcher and plastic bombs that can be attached to an explosives belt.
I wish they’d had these when I was a kid, because our good guys and bad guys were indistinguishable unless we painted them. Where can you get yours? Go to the BrickArms site. These are GREAT! While you’re at it, head over to Fireworks.com and add some bang to the action. (Disclaimer: firecrackers should only be used under responsible adult supervision. You could put an eye out or something.)
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It’s not really news that the state of California is flat broke. It’s also not surprising—that’s what happens when you spend more money than you take in. California has some of the most generous social programs in the nation, programs it is increasingly finding it can’t afford. Now reduced-cost and free school lunches are on the block.
“Without quick action by the governor and the Legislature, districts will be forced to make a series of unacceptable choices to dip further into their own bare-bones budgets, serve less nutritious foods and not comply with California’s nationally renowned nutrition standards, or reduce cafeteria staffing,” Supt. Jack O’Connell said in a statement.
I know this will come as a shock to many truly compassionate people, but it’s not the government’s job to feed people, even children. That responsibility falls on parents. According to the Census Bureau (Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005, Current Population Report, P60-231, August 2006, hat tip to The Heritage Foundation) almost two-thirds of America’s poor have cable or satellite TV, a third have cell phones in addition to traditional land lines, and so on. The list of monthly expenditures on what are, in fact luxuries, by the “poor” is quite long. Good grief! My wife and I have never been poor, but we couldn’t justify the cost of a cell phone in our budget until just a couple years ago. But we fed our kids, and so should all parents.
The entitlement mentality is bankrupting California and is pushing the rest of the nation down the same path. It was a renowned Democratic president that once exhorted the American people to ask what we can do for the nation rather than the other way around. It’s a shame we value his popular image more than his words.
After studying famous cases of genocide, some geniuses have come to a startling conclusion: humans all have a dark side. Stunner! A cursory examination of human history yields the same obvious conclusion, but apparently this is news to some folks. (It wouldn’t surprise me if there were government funds somewhere behind this brilliant work.) Some of the statements would be comical if only they weren’t so widely believed. For example,
“You don’t have to be mentally ill or even innately evil or criminal. You can be ordinary, no better or worse than you or me, and commit killing or genocide,” said Harvard psychiatrist Robert Lifton, who has studied Nazi doctors.
This “expert” lumps killing and genocide together, not recognizing the fact that there are numerous situations in which killing is perfectly, morally justifiable. The two simply cannot be equated. But worse than this is the bald statement that those committing genocide are not “innately evil or criminal.” They are both. Genocide is universally recognized by all normative moral systems as both evil and criminal. Further, the Judaeo-Christian moral system upon which all of Western civilization, and our nation in particular, is based teaches us that we are all inherently evil. (This, too, comes as no big surprise to anyone who has children. The little beasts must be taught every bit of morality they ever learn—it isn’t built in.) Unfortunately we far too often fail to acknowledge this fact and, worse, fail to pass it on to each succeeding generation so it comes as a surprise when it is rediscovered.
In an interesting development, a group of India’s wealthy have filed a lawsuit against the government for failing to protect them from the terrorists in Mumbai.
It charged that the government had lagged in its constitutional duty to protect its citizens’ right to life, and it pressed the state to modernize and upgrade its security forces.
According to some reports (like this one), there were armed police forces in the area who simply cowered during the attack and refused to challenge the terrorists. So it does seem some, ahem, improvements are certainly in order. But the real problem is that the citizens of India have abrogated all responsibility for their protectiion to the government. Government police forces cannot, however, be omnipresent and so can’t prevent or protect from all such attacks. Individuals must be capable of defending themselves and must have the mindset to do so instilled within. A disarmed populace is nothing but a herd of sheep with no defense against the wolves that will inevitably attack.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has adopted a resolution to purportedly combat defamation of religion. The problem is, if you read the entire text, the only religion mentioned is Islam. Apparently we aren’t supposed to be able to discuss Islam in any but the most glowing terms despite the irrefutable fact that the majority of terrorism is carried out by Muslims specifically in the name of Islam. Fortunately for us here in America, we have something called the First Amendment.
The U.N. has become an increasingly useless organization. Rather than sending it significantly more of our tax dollars, as Obama would like to do, we should withdraw our membership and kick them out of our country.