liberal N proud
liberal N proud's JournalKentucky man shoots down drone hovering over his backyard
© William H. Merideth The way William Merideth sees it, its pretty clear-cut: a drone flying over his backyard was a well-defined invasion of privacy, analogous to a physical trespassing.
Not knowing who owned it, the Kentucky man took out his shotgun and fired three blasts of Number 8 birdshot to take the drone out.
"It was just right there," he told Ars. "It was hovering, I would never have shot it if it was flying. When he came down with a video camera right over my back deck, that's not going to work. I know they're neat little vehicles, but one of those uses shouldnt be flying into people's yards and videotaping."
Minutes later, a car full of four men that he didnt recognize rolled up, "looking for a fight."
"Are you the son of a b***h that shot my drone?" one said, according to Merideth.
His terse reply to the men, while wearing a 10mm Glock holstered on his hip: "If you cross that sidewalk onto my property, theres going to be another shooting."
The men backed down, retreated to their car, and waited for the police to arrive.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/kentucky-man-shoots-down-drone-hovering-over-his-backyard/ar-AAdGg2x?ocid=iehp
Which post should I comment on? - cross posting
When I open DU and see 3 - 4 and even 5 posts with the same title, I am confused. Which post should I post in? Do I reply in all of them? And if I do, does the reply need to be verbatim from the other cross thread?
Breakfast with Chuck Schumer - from Jon Stewart
Stewart highlight MSNBC's breakfast interview with Chuck Schumer hoping to get his take on the Iran Nuclear deal.
Muslims Raised Over $100,000 To Help Rebuild Black Churches In The South
Three Muslim organizations have raised over $100,000 to rebuild black churches in the South.
In the days following the shooting of nine people inside Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, a string of church fires at black worship centers in the South raised alarm on social media.
Authorities have not indicated that the fires are connected to Charleston, but the blazes made headlines in the wake of what many believe to have been the worst incident of racist terrorism in years. The Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative, the Arab-American Association of New York and Ummah Wide wanted to make sure these churches were restored as soon as possible.
The organizations joined forces to launch the Respond With Love campaign on July 2, stating on their fundraising page that "ALL houses of worship are sanctuaries, a place where all should feel safe."
The fundraiser started off with a goal of $10,000, but they hit that target within hours, Linda Sarsour, executive director of AAANY, said to HuffPost in an email. They increased the target amount a few more times, and the support kept flooding in.
The campaign closed on July 18, just after the end of the holy month of Ramadan, with a final total of $100,470.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/muslims-raise-over-100000-to-help-rebuild-black-churches-in-the-south_55ad4be7e4b0d2ded39fac57?section=good+news&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000023
Why Texans Fear Invasion
Some of you may recall that a few months ago, the federal government announced that it would be holding military training exercises in seven states in the Southwest, including Texas. They would, literally, bring in heavy artillery like aircraft along with Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets and other Special Operations forces.
This opinion piece tries to explain why Texans are freaking out over this.
to some people around here, the governments plan to train service members to work in complex environments looked like something else: a plot to take over the state. This is in preparation for the financial collapse and maybe even Obama not leaving office, the Texas-based conspiracy theorist and radio talk show host Alex Jones declared. That was followed by about one zillion Internet cranks predicting the declaration of martial law you probably got word about the shuttered Walmarts being converted to makeshift detention centers. Gov. Greg Abbotts attempt to calm the populace by ordering the state guard to keep an eye on the feds came next, an action that did nothing to confirm the pre-election rumor that he was much smarter than his predecessor, Rick Perry.
I dont disagree with the observers who say that anti-Obama sentiment provided much of the fuel for this fire. But the local (over)reaction also has its roots in Texas DNA. Put another way, it wasnt so nutty to get bent out of shape about a hostile invasion by a supposed tyrannical government around 185 years ago. Consider that much of Texas, then part of Mexico, was settled by prickly Scots-Irish types whod had their own issues back home. Some of these folks were big movers in the events leading up to the Texas Revolution.
See the list of events at link: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/17/opinion/why-texans-fear-invasion.html?emc=edit_th_20150717&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=45299538&_r=0
In the end:
Those in the mental health professions might suggest a pattern here. They would also suggest that, over time, patterns can be broken, so that they dont lead to destructive events, like the deadly 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex., or just plain silly ones, like believing a military exercise is cover for an invasion.
Many Texans have taken that advice: Were moving slowly into maturity. But you know, there are always a few who take longer to get there.
Full article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/17/opinion/why-texans-fear-invasion.html?emc=edit_th_20150717&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=45299538&_r=0
Guns Don't Deter Crime, Study Finds
"The one thing that would have at least ameliorated the horrible situation in Charleston would have been that if somebody in that prayer meeting had a conceal carry or there had been either an off-duty policeman or an on-duty policeman, somebody with the legal authority to carry a firearm and could have stopped the shooter," presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said in a Fox News interview on June 19.
A new study, however, throws cold water on the idea that a well-armed populace deters criminals or prevents murders. Instead, higher ownership of guns in a state is linked to more firearm robberies, more firearm assaults and more homicide in general. [5 Milestones in Gun Control History]
"We found no support for the hypothesis that owning more guns leads to a drop or a reduction in violent crime," said study researcher Michael Monuteaux, an epidemiologist and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. "Instead, we found the opposite."
More guns, more gun crime
Numerous studies have found that gun ownership correlates with gun homicide, and homicide by gun is the most common type of homicide in the United States. In 2013, for example, there were 16,121 total homicides in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and 11,208 of those were carried out with a firearm. (Gun suicides outpace gun homicides by far; in 2013, the CDC recorded 21,175 suicides by firearm, about half of all suicides that year. Contrary to popular belief, suicide is typically an impulsive act, psychiatrists say. Ninety percent of people who attempt suicide once will not go on to complete a suicide later, but a suicide attempt using a gun is far more lethal than other methods.)
http://news.yahoo.com/guns-dont-deter-crime-study-finds-180710261.html#
Obama is invading a Texas county
The Americans are coming! Some in a Texas county fear an Obama-led U.S. military invasion.
.
BASTROP, Texas The office of the Bastrop County Republican Party is in an old lumber mill on Main Street, with peeling brown paint and a sign out front that captures the partys feelings about the Obama administration: WISE UP AMERICA!
Inside, county Chairman Albert Ellison pulled out a yellow legal pad on which he had written page after page of reasons why many Texans distrust President Obama, including the fact that, in the minds of some, he was raised by communists and mentored by terrorists.
So it should come as no surprise, Ellison said, that as the U.S. military prepares to launch one of the largest training exercises in history later this month, many Bastrop residents might suspect a secret Obama plot to spy on them, confiscate their guns and ultimately establish martial law in one of Americas proudly free conservative states.
They are not nuts and wackos. They are concerned citizens, and they are patriots, Ellison said of his suspicious neighbors. Obama has really painted a portrait in the minds of many conservatives that he is capable of this sort of thing.
.http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-americans-are-coming-texans-fear-obama-led-us-military-invasion/2015/07/04/58047fee-2001-11e5-84d5-eb37ee8eaa61_story.html?tid=sm_fb
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