Saturday, February 25, 2012

Captain Beefheart Festival 2011-2012 - 16th Night of the Living Van Vliet

Here's the explanation of the origin and the dates.

Thanks to Microdot for the title of the Festival.

Zen Comix has joined the festivities.

From Bongo Fury



I was sittin' in a breakfast room in Allentown, Pennsylvania, six
o'clock in the morning, got up to early, it was a terrible
mistake... sittin' there face-to-face with a 75 cent glass of orange
juice about as big as my finger and a bowl of horribly foreshortened
cornflakes, and I said to myself: "This is the life!"...

She's 200 years old,
so mean, she couldn't grow no lips
Boy, she'd be in trouble if she tried to grow a mustache

She's two hundred years old
Squattin' down & pockin' up
In front of the juke box
just like she had True Religion.. BOY!

She's two hundred years old
Hoy!, hoy!, in 200 years,
half of this, none of that,
one.. fifty.. oh squattin',
Yeah-ah, ain't she got
Oohhh, she got religion now, boy.

Oohhhh, ?? ?? ??
Oohhhh, she's just mean,
she just, she just can't grow no lips.
Squat.. down, so mean she can't grow no lips.
200 years old, so mean she can't grow no lips

Comments

There has been some off-line discussion about comments amongst the bloggers who contribute to this blog. This is my opinion on the matter:

I pretty much make it clear that I am for the most part comment adverse, since I rarely see any comments worth actually reading.

And while you lot believe that free speech means that we need to publish your viewpoint, whether we want to or not--I need to point out that is incorrect.

Freedom of speech and expression is supposed to allow for more ideas to enter the intellectual marketplace, not have people shout them down with inane comments.

We are under no obligation to publish your comments--no matter how witty you may believe them to be.

Furthermore, we don't need to read them.

MikeB and I disagree about comment quality etcetera and JadeGold points out you would complain whether we publish your comments or not.

The main problem is that you believe you are winning if we don't respond for some reason--never mind that your comment may be repetitive and already answered.

Of course, I know that some of you are attention starved and have to make comments here to get a response--you need that response since it affirms your existence, no matter how pathetic your comments and opinions may be.

Maybe the lack of attention will cause you to wither away. That is my hope.

Testing Body Armor

via Geekologie suggested by Southern Beale

Counterproductive politics

There is an interesting interview on today's Newshour about the rise of the religious right in the US. One of the interviewees points out that the number of evangelical Christians in the US is declining due to its involvement in religion.

I've found that gunloon comments tend to reinforce my belief that the US needs gun control due to the fact that these people are not responsible and have no idea of what right the Second Amendment was intended on protecting. Add in that the institution of militia is pretty much an anachronism. In fact, the militia was irrelevant at the time of the Revolution (see Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations).

Anyway, we have already seen that the Heller-McDonald decisions have nor resulted in much in roads being made in the field of gun rights. And as the word of Revolution go "if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't going to make with anyone anyhow".

Perhaps saying that a variant of "Political Power comes from the barrel of a gun" will backfire on them as badly as failing to heed that religion and politics should not be intertwined.

Tex Grebner's Famous Negligent Discharge

via Gracie over on Packing Pretty, where she actually said old "Tex is a courageous and humble man who wants only for the viewer to learn from his mistakes, so they don’t have to learn through their own."

Actually, what Tex is is a brazen self-promoter.  He said, "Things just tend to happen.  I just hope that they never happen to me again and I hope that they never happen to you." 



My response:

Gracie, Thanks for posting this one. We discussed it on my blog last summer.


I don’t see Tex in the kindly light you do, humble and only concerned with helping others. I see him as a low-intelligence and dangerous character. He’s too dumb to realize the full impact of what he did. His motives for putting it on Youtube are suspect, in my opinion. Self-promotion comes to mind.

He said, and I suppose you’re condoning it, that negligent discharges happen. He said he hopes they never happen to him again. 

Don’t you find that shirking his responsibility a little bit, as if lightning strikes or meteors fall, there’s nothing we can do about it and let’s HOPE they never happen again.

Negligent discharges ONLY happen to the negligent. And negligent people sometimes get other people killed or injured. Immediate loss of gun rights should follow such negligence.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Tea Party Republican Arrested with Gun



The San Bernardino County district attorney's office has filed criminal charges against a California lawmaker who attempted to take a loaded gun onto an airplane.

Tim Donnelly, a self-described tea party Republican from San Bernardino, was charged with carrying a loaded firearm in public without a concealed weapons permit and possessing a gun in an airport. Both offenses are misdemeanors, punishable by up to 18 months in jail and $2,000 in fines.
"Misdemeanors?" Does that mean this irresponsible scofflaw will continue to own and use guns?

Please, say it ain't so.

The Incredible Stupidity of Rep. John Sullivan


Boston.com reports on the kind of rhetoric the good folks down in Oklahoma respond to. He apologized afterwards.

U.S. Rep. John Sullivan made the comments Wednesday during a town hall meeting in Bixby. When asked about federal spending, the Tulsa Republican expressed his frustration with the Senate for its failure to approve a budget.

“I’d love to get them to vote for it,’’ Sullivan said at the event. “Boy, I’d love that, you know. But other than me going over there with a gun and pointing it to their head and maybe killing a couple of `em, I don’t think they’re going to listen unless they get beat.’’
What do you think? Is that a minor issue, no harm done? Or is that a potential incitement to do murder?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

GOP Debate Crowds Boo Contraception and Cheer Capital Punishment

via OTUS News put together a wonderful presentation of the most unforgettable moments of the Republican Debates.

Here's one of my favorites. The feigned outrage of Santorum is met with cheers while the common sense of Paul is met with mainly negative reactions from the crowd.

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

Friday, February 24, 2012

The Republican View of Women's Rights


The 10 Commandments of Guitar Playing

Microdot posted this for the Festival.  I loved number 6.

6. Never point your guitar at anyone 
Your instrument has more clout than lightning. Just hit a big chord then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field.

Captain Beefheart Festival 2011-2012 - 15th Night of the Living Van Vliet

Here's the explanation of the origin and the dates.

Thanks to Microdot for the title of the Festival.

Zen Comix has joined the festivities.




Zig zag wanderer, zig zag wanderer (rep.)
You can huff, you can puff
You'll never blow my house down
You can zig, you can zag
Whoa I'm gonna stay, gonna stay around (rep.)

You can jump, you can holler
Never lose what I found
Heaven's free 'cept for a dollar
You can zig, you can zag
Whoa I'm gonna stay, gonna stay around (rep.)

The zig zag wanderer had a zigzag child
Zig zag traveller for the mercy mile
Found his wheels and nature scene
Quenched his thirst, (in a?) way it never been
Zig zag wanderer (rep.)

You can dance, you can prance
Freeze those timbers, drop some beams
Hide my shield, throw away my lance
Zig zag child, mercy mile
Zig zag dream, zig zag dream
Zig zag

Big Guns and Helicopters



via Oliver Willis

Yes, you can buy a gun powerful enough to take out a helicopter. Without a background check. This is insane.

Got Enough Ammo, Sonny?

The Gun Loon Mentality

From the AAAARGH, It's the Mr. Hell Show:

It comes at the end.


Unfortunately, it cut the bit where they make a comment that it was wonderful anyone can buy an automatic weapon in the USA and how many guns there are in that country.

Naw, guns don't kill people....

People with guns kill people.

And so do Psychotic Seals:


Yes, it's a brilliant idea to make guns easily accessible for psychos, but look at all the mass shootings in the US--and they aren't cartoons.

I don't think this show ever made it to the US.

PA Teacher Shoots at Kids for Trespassing



The incident occurred in Northampton Township in Bucks County, Pa., in August 2011, according to published reports. Mr. Kelly saw the boys walking through his yard and ordered them off the property. He was convicted of shooting the gun at the boys as they walked away.

The incident occurred on Aug. 21, and Mr. Kelly was suspended by the school district on Aug. 26.

Mr. Kelly, whose termination by school district officials took effect Feb. 3, was convicted last month of simple assault, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and possession of an instrument of crime by a Bucks County jury, according to published reports.

Mr. Kelly is free on $50,000 bail, pending sentencing, reports said. He is facing a maximum one- or two-year prison term or probation.
That sounds like the one-strike-you're-out rule, I guess depending on what the final sentence is.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Gun Rack in Chevy Volt




Despite what Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich claims, it is possible to put a gun rack in the 2012 Chevy Volt electric car.

At a campaign event in Georgia over the weekend, the former House Speaker told supporters that he would bring back cheaper gas because “you can’t put a gun rack on a Volt.”

Thursday, February 23, 2012

"No More Weapons" Pleads Calderon



President Felipe Calderon on Thursday unveiled a "No More Weapons!" billboard made with crushed firearms and placed near the U.S. border. He urged the United States to stop the flow of weapons into Mexico.

The billboard, which is in English and weighs 3 tons, was placed near an international bridge in Ciudad Juarez and can be seen from the United States.


Perhaps states like California, New York and Massachusetts should consider erecting similar billboards in the southern and western states that feed gun trafficking here at home.
Isn't it incredibly arrogant of the gun-rights folks to continue pretending all these people are wrong, that people like Henigan and even Calderon, president of Mexico have an agenda and are lying.

Henigan sums it up like this:

The solution to gun trafficking to Mexico is also the solution to gun trafficking within the U.S.: stronger federal gun laws. At the very least, high-firepower assault weapons and assault clips should be banned, background checks should be required for all gun sales, uniform limits should be placed on bulk sales of handguns, and greater authority should be given to federal law enforcement to shut down the dealers who aid and abet the traffickers.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

And Another Wally-World Shooting

This one wasn't in the bathroom, it was employees.

I'm waiting for the usual commenters to tell us how we don't have too many shootings in the U.S.

I have more, for when they do.  Ready yet to admit that we have too many guns, and too many shootings, dear readers?

Another attempted murder - suicide, apparently, with some dangerous shots fired at law enforcement as well.

But that's all ok; our gun nuts loves them their gunz, and NOTHING else matters.

From MSNBC.com:

Virginia sheriff: Wal-Mart worker shoots boss, kills self

DINWIDDIE, Va. -- An employee at a Wal-Mart distribution center shot his manager in her leg, then fatally shot himself Wednesday afternoon, the Dinwiddie County Sheriff's Office told NBC station WWBT of Richmond.
The shooter was a 32-year-old Petersburg man who had worked in the shipping department for nine years, WBBT said. He was working on the day shift and had just returned from his lunch break when he opened fire, the Sheriff's Office told WWBT. After shooting his manager, he fired two shots at deputies responding to the scene before turning the gun on himself, officials told WWBT.
Authorities said the 40-year-old manager, also from Petersburg, has worked at the facility for 18 years. Authorities are withholding her and the gunman's names until their families are notified, WBBT said.

Another Shooting, this one in Connecticut

No, we don't have too many shootings!  There aren't too  many guns!  Just ask the gun nuts, and don't look at television, listent to the radio, or view news on the internet, or pay attention to any other media. 

I'm betting this will be another murder suicide, given the odds.  I'll update you as news provides more details.  In any case, clearly, places like hospitals are WONDERFUL places to carry firearms, right?  We wouldn't want to stop our gun nuts from taking their fetish objects with them everywhere would we?

from MSNBC.com:

Two shot at Connecticut hospital

Updated at 8:15 p.m. ET: Two people were shot Wednesday at a long-term-care hospital in New Britain, Conn., and a suspect was in custody, police said.
The extent of the injuries wasn't known, Mayor Timothy O'Brien told The Hartford Courant. O'Brien said he had been told that the suspect is a worker at the Hospital for Special Care, a long-term acute-care hospital specializing in pulmonary and brain injuries and other complex conditions. 

It wasn't immediately known whether the victims were also hospital employees.
The hospital was evacuated, including all employees not critical to patient care, and the hospital was on lockdown, a spokesperson told NBC station WVIT of Hartford.

More Shootings; More AVOIDABLE Shootings

Fewer guns, and more gun regulation, there wouldn't be stories like this.  And yet the gun nuts tell us over and over and over again how we have perfectly ACCEPTABLE levels of shootings occurring.  We shouldn't get upset over so few incidents, now should we?  What's one gut shot 8 year old girl, more or less compared to holding their fetish objects?

EXCEPT THERE ARE NOT A FEW, there are many - too damned many.

From MSNBC.com:

8-year-old girl critically wounded in shooting at Washington school
Updated at 8:12 p.m. ET: An 8-year-old girl was critically wounded Wednesday in a shooting incident at an elementary school in Bremerton, Wash., authorities said. The school district said it appeared the shooting was an accident.
Armin Jahr Elementary School in Bremerton, about 15 miles west of Seattle, was just letting out for the day when the victim, a girl in the third grade, was shot about 1:29 p.m. local time (4:29 p.m. ET), Bremerton police said. Police said it was too early to speculate about the circumstances, but a spokeswoman for the school district told NBC station KING of Seattle that the shooting appeared to have been an accident.
The girl, identified as Amina Bowman, was in critical condition at Harborview trauma center in Seattle with a gunshot wound, the hospital said. Hospital officials said Amina was out of surgery and in intensive care but that they couldn't comment on earlier reports that she had been wounded in the stomach.
Although Amina is a minor, her identity was released after her grandmother named her in local media interviews. The woman, Cindy Kocer, told KING that the family expects Amina to be OK but is asking the public for its prayers.
Bremerton police Lt. Peter Fisher said the gun used in the shooting had been recovered and that a second student, believed to have been the shooter, was being held for questioning. The school district said that student is 9 years old and also in the third grade.
Kerri Johnson, the mother of a fourth-grader at the school, which is named for a former district superintendent, told KING that her son heard the shot.
“He’s really scared, but he’s fine,” Johnson said.
NBC News' Todd Miyazawa and Olivia Santini contributed to this report by M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com.

A Busy Day - Another Murder Suicide, this one in Wisconsin, another lax gun law state

But I'm sure that the gun loons are only gripping their fetish objects even tighter, because no reason, no logic, no appeal will separate them from the fantasy into which they retreat with their gun delusions.

How many more instances of murder and suicide is that just today, compared to self defense uses of firearms? Not a good ratio apparently, but one that argues strongly for more gun regulation and fewer guns.

But heck, what are a few dead wives and some kids, so long as they have their precious guns, right? To the gun nuts, only their guns are important, not other lives.

And I've only started to scratch the surface of these gun violent events in the news........

from HTRN news:

Police: De Pere dad who killed wife, kids, self, was being kicked out


DE PERE — Denis Bay’s wife was throwing him out of the house on the day he shot and killed his wife and two children before committing suicide, De Pere police have concluded.
Long-running marital troubles were a primary source of stress leading up to the Feb. 3 murder-suicide that left the four family members dead in their east-side home, Police Chief Derek Beiderwieden said Wednesday.

Although investigators cannot pinpoint Bay’s exact motive, Beiderwieden said, his wife’s decision to throw him out of the house that day appears to be “the trigger.”

“When you piece it all together, it kind of makes sense,” the chief said.

The couple was in the middle of a divorce after almost 20 years of marriage.

De Pere police are wrapping up their investigation into the incident in which Bay, 46, shot and killed his wife, Michelle, 44, their daughter, Andrea, 14, and their son, Daniel, 10, before shooting and killing himself.

Beiderwieden said the murder weapon was a .45-caliber handgun that Michelle had bought for her husband as a gift three years earlier.

Rev. Matthew Knapp, a spokesman for the Bay family, said there would be no comment on the results of the police investigation.

De Pere police timeline

The following is a timeline of the incident released today by De Pere police. It is presented verbatim and is not edited in any way.

We have developed a timeline of the events leading up to the shooting at 1245 S Erie St on February 3, 2012.

Background: Denis and Michelle Bay had been having marital problems for quite some time according to family, friends and neighbors. Michelle had moved out of the house with the kids sometime around October 2010, but moved back in around September 2011. They owned the house at 1245 S Erie since December 1999. There were some serious money issues – Denis lost his job at Krueger Industries on March 31, 2011. He was employed as a Business Process Engineer starting October 19, 1998. He was let go due to “elimination of position as a result of consolidation of resources.”

Another Florida Murder Suicide with a Firearm, from the Weekend

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you when our gun nuts tell us that we shouldn't be too concerned about gun violence, because there just isn't that much, so we should be happy they are fondling their fetish objects.

Rather, this all seems to strongly suggest they just like to downplay, deny, lie, and just plain ignore the bad things done with all the guns in this country, things we'd all be better off NOT having happen, by NOT having all these guns around.  Yup, it looks like this was one of the many examples of gun violence that only hit little local news outlets, so it is easy for the gun nuts to turn a blind eye.  Good thing we're here to keep that from happening.

The 80 mile moped ride made for a novel twist to the classic murder suicide.  It's Florida; how hard could it have been for this man to get a firearm?  We sure wouldn't want to make that a DIFFICULT thing, now would we?  Come between gun nuts and every possible firearm fetish object they might want to own? What's a little murder suicide compared to that?  According to the gun nuts, that's perfectly acceptable - to them.

After all, how can someone get upset about guns when all this man did was shoot his business partner in front of the man's wife and children?  I mean, it's not like events like this should cause us to think badly about gun violence is it? (Of course it is!).  Gun nuts keep telling us there is only a handful of violent incidents like this, not enough to justify regulating firearms.  But the news reporting tells us otherwise, often, daily, sometimes multiple occurrences in any given day.

from the Sheepshead Bay Florida News blog:


The former storefront of Bauer Comfort (left), Gorbach (top) and Sergatiouk (bottom)

Two Sheepshead Bay Businessmen Dead In Florida Murder-Suicide


Former partners of a Sheepshead Bay-based business are dead after one of the partners killed the other on Saturday, then turned the gun on himself. Their business relationship, which soured two years ago, is believed to be the primary motive.
Aleksandr Gorbach’s wife and children watched Gorbach, 43, bleed to death Saturday evening by a shotgun blast to the chest delivered by former business partner Mikhail Sergatiouk.

According to WPTV, a local news station serving Port Saint Lucie, where Gorbach lived:
When Port St. Lucie police arrived at Gorbach’s house and spoke with his wife and children, they learned Gorbach was cleaning fish in the kitchen sink when they heard a “bang” and glass breaking.
“They next saw Aleksandr fall back to the ground with extensive trauma to his chest,” the warrant application states.
His wound appeared consistent with a shotgun blast. A screen enclosure had been cut, and Gorbach’s wife told police it had not been cut prior to the incident.
According to other reports, Sergatiouk rode a moped to Gorbach’s home from Coral Springs – a distance of about 80 miles. After shooting Gorbach, he rode the moped back, confessed to his family, then took off. His body was later found two miles away with what appeared to be a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.
Sergatiouk’s body was not found until Monday morning.
The local CBS affiliate has additional details:
Port St. Lucie Police say Mikhail Sergatiouk rode his moped all the way from Broward County to the residence of Aleksandr Gorbach on Saturday, cut a hole in a screened enclosure and hid out, waiting for the right moment with a sawed-off shotgun in hand.
Gorbach, the victim was in the kitchen cooking dinner when the family heard a loud blast. His wife and three young children saw him fall to the ground, police report.
Gorbach died from a single gunshot wound to the chest. Sergatiouk fled on his moped back to Broward County, where police say he confessed to his wife and child that he had just killed his business partner, Aleksandr Gorbach.
The suspect’s family called police and Sergatiouk was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head yesterday next to Sample Road in Coral Springs. Police say he used the same sawed-off shotgun.
After interviewing family members, investigators now believe a messy dissolution of a Sheepshead Bay-based business is at the root of the grisly murder-suicide.
Gorbach and Sergatiouk were business partners in Bauer Comfort, a luxury bedding store formerly located at 1402 Avenue Z.
The location closed in May 2010, moving to Midwood on Coney Island Avenue. According to family members, it was around that time that Gorbach and Segatiouk split ways, in a separation that appears to have left Sergatiouk feeling betrayed – and broke.
WPTV reports:
[Sergatiouk's daughter] knew her father didn’t like Gorbach due to a “bad business separation,” during which Sergatiouk lost a large amount of money.
Gorbach’s wife told Port St. Lucie police she and her husband “were in financial despair and the house was currently in foreclosure,” records state.
“Aleksandr’s main source of income is his company identified as Bauer Comfort which is based out of his listed residence,” the warrant application states.
… Sergatiouk’s wife and daughter didn’t know Sergatiouk to carry a gun, and thought “this occurred because Mikhail was still angry over the failed business venture,” the application states.
… Gorbach’s wife told police Gorbach had a “business falling out” with Sergatiouk, saying she “believes the business was not dissolved by mutual agreement,” records show.
She thought that happened about two years ago. She said her husband tried to call Sergatiouk within the past six months, but they apparently never spoke.

It's so hard to change your mind when you attempt suicide with a firearm....

Another gun violence tragedy.  Suicide attempts are more deadly when a firearm is involved.  In this case, the emergency first responders were apparently at risk as well.

From Fox News:

'Seinfeld' Star Daniel von Bargen Survives Suicide Attempt

Updated: Wednesday, 22 Feb 2012, 4:29 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 22 Feb 2012, 4:29 PM EST
(NewsCore) - Actor Daniel von Bargen, who played George Costanza's boss Mr. Kruger on "Seinfeld," is fighting for his life after surviving a self-inflicted gunshot to the head, TMZ reported Wednesday.
"I've shot myself in the head ... and I need help," von Bargen says in a chilling 911 call after what is believed to have been a suicide attempt at his apartment in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The 61-year-old tells the 911 operator, "I was supposed to go to the hospital and I didn't want to," adding fragmented details about doctors planning to "amputate at least a few toes" due to his diabetes.
Audio of the 911 call suggests that when emergency personnel arrived at his apartment the actor could still have been armed as he is ordered to keep his hands where they are visible.
Von Bargen was admitted to a local hospital and remains in critical condition.
In addition to his role as the lackadaisical boss on the NBC comedy, von Bargen appeared on "Malcolm in the Middle" as Commandant Edwin Spangler and in the 2001 film "Super Troopers" as Chief Grady.
Read more: TMZ

Bad Shooting in Self Defense-ish Castle Doctrine Case

Sounds to me like the police had this well in hand, and if the intruder was attempting to leave, he was not justified in shooting.  What is NOT in the account that is conspicuously missing, is a reference at any point for this shootist having called the police.  Looks like he went all vigilante violent, on his own.  That is not covered or condoned by Castle Doctrine, and it is not self-defense either.

Another fox news story:

Man arrested after firing warning shot at man suspected of robbing his home

FARMINGTON, N.H. (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston) - A New Hampshire man arrested for firing a warning shot to scare away an alleged burglar who broke into his home says he's grateful for the support he's received.
Dennis Fleming says he's received support from people not only in his hometown of Farmington, but across the country, as well.
Fleming says he got home Saturday afternoon to find that his house had been broken into. He says he went to check on other neighbors when he saw the alleged burglar jump out a window of one of the homes.
Fleming, armed with a revolver, fired a shot into the ground to hold the man at bay. When police arrived, they arrested 27-year-old Joseph Hebert in connection with the break-ins.
Later that day, police returned to the neighborhood and arrested Fleming for firing his weapon, and charged him with reckless conduct.
"The police explained everything to me," Fleming said. "I just didn't want the guy to get away."
Strafford County Attorney Tom Velardi says he's reviewing the charges to see if it fits with the state's self-defense laws.
Velardi expects to make a decision by Thursday or late Wednesday.

Here's a Murder Suicide We May Have Missed from January 2012

Our gun nuts will just keep ignoring the carnage piling around them, maybe fondling their firearms a little more in the hopes their fetish objects will take away any anxiety that all that blood and death from gun violence might bring up.

Nothing says I love you like a little gun violence.  We only hurt the one's we love, unless the gun nuts miss.....
The murder victim, as distinct from the suicide victim, was from Texas; maybe the shootist was just trying to give him a classic, traditional Texas send off.
From Fox News Boston:
Police rule couple found in Haverhill died as result of murder-suicide
Updated: Thursday, 26 Jan 2012, 6:13 AM EST
Published : Wednesday, 25 Jan 2012, 5:39 PM EST
HAVERHILL (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - The death of a married couple found dead near Winnikenni Castle in Haverhill has officially been ruled a murder-suicide.
Investigators say that 38-year-old Martha McDermott, of Hampton, N.H., shot 37-year-old Kris Broderick of Houston, Texas, multiple times in the chest and torso before turning the gun on herself. McDermott died as a result of a wound to the head. A .38 caliber handgun was found between the woman’s legs.
Broderick and McDermott were found dead inside their rented Volkswagen in the parking lot of Winnikenni Castle on Jan. 11.
Police did not comment on the details surrounding the death, only saying the pair had a baby boy who was not in the vehicle at the time.

And the LATEST Murder Suicide with a Firearm IS.......

This is perfectly acceptable to our gun nuts. So long as they continue to embrace their fetish objects, without let or hindrance, any amount of gun violence is excusable in their eyes.  Anything is ok, so long as nothing comes between them and the firearm they love more than life itself - other people's lives anyway.

From the Silicon Valley Mercury News and the Sacramento Bee:

Murder-suicide at meeting of Sacramento model airplane buffs

Two men were killed Tuesday night in a murder-suicide in the parking lot of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District headquarters, Sacramento police officials report.
The Sacramento County Coroner's Office on Wednesday morning identified the dead as Robert Gully, 73, of West Sacramento and Jerome Votaw, 62, of Sacramento.
Police spokesman Andrew Pettit said the men were not SMUD employees but were among a group of people using the facilities for a meeting. Police believe that the men were part of a group of model airplane enthusiasts.
Pettit provided these details about the fatal incident:
Police received a call at 7:18 p.m. about a verbal altercation among two men and a woman in the parking lot outside SMUD's West Building.
Gully pulled out a handgun and shot Votaw at least once in the upper body.
The woman ran away toward the lobby, and the gunman shot multiple rounds at her.
She reached the lobby to take cover while the gunman continued to shoot at her, shattering glass in the lobby.
An acquaintance of the shooter came out of the building and tried to talk to him. As they were talking in the parking lot, police officers arrived and Gully shot himself.
Both Gully and Votaw were pronounced dead at the scene. The woman was not injured.
After the shooting, police talked to "a handful" of witnesses in the lobby, including a security guard.
Pettit declined to discuss the subject of the dispute pending an investigation by homicide detectives, but said they are investigating the possibility of a love triangle.

He said no one else was injured. -

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Captain Beefheart Festival 2011-2012 - 13th Night of the Living Van Vliet


Number 13 of Rob Chalfen's "Top 14 Reasons Why Captain Beefheart Was a True American Genius"

13. at 11 had his own show sculpting animals on LA TV. Won a scholarship to study art in Europe, but his folks wouldn't let him go, as all artists were 'fags'. Folks moved to Lancaster to get him away from the decadent element. There he met Frank Zappa

Just Because......

This is hilarious.  And just think, there is no impediment to either of these two jackasses carrying guns and making just as poor decisions about firing THOSE as they do about deck, booze, and bottle rockets out of their asses.  We arm the stupid and clumsy and incompetent, and then we wonder why there are problems that result.........
From 'Only in America':
The bottom rocket
Bottle rocket
A West Virginia college student is suing his fraternity, alleging that he fell off a deck when a drunken frat brother fired a bottle rocket out of his own anus. Louis Helmburg III alleges that Travis Hughes's bottle-rocket stunt so startled him that he jumped back and fell. "Firing bottle rockets out of one's anus," the lawsuit states, "constitutes an 'ultrahazardous' activity."

Survivalist Gun Nut Terrorizes Area

The way this guy carries firearms - which presumably an integral part of HIS weirdo notions of being 'free' and capable of defending himself - is why the gun lunatics carrying firearms terrorize the rest of us.  You want us to just 'trust' that you won't use them badly, that you won't act irrationally, that you won't have an accident, or that you have them secured properly. We DON'T trust you, and we have weekly, essentially daily, evidence to support that distrust is well-founded.

We are safer and MORE FREE, free of having to worry about what stupid or crazy or clumsy dumbass thing you idiots with guns will do next, when you DON'T carry around unnecessary firearms, either open or concealed carry.

You are all just more or less inept variations on this guy, with minor variations in the delusional fantasies you substitute for reality.  This guy just gets his hands dirtier, and has better practical skills than most of you do.

Hey - maybe he's just part of an elusive social club, like those Michigan militia fanatics?

.From the Huff Po and the AP :

Cabin Burglar Troy Knapp Considered Armed And Dangerous: Utah Cops

By BRIAN SKOLOFF and PAUL FOY   02/22/12 03:37 AM ET  AP
Cabinburglar
Troy Knapp is accused of burglarizing dozens of homes in the southern Utah wilderness.
.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Troy James Knapp is a wanted man, a mountain recluse authorities say is responsible for more than two dozen cabin burglaries in the remote southern Utah wilderness. He's considered armed and dangerous, a ticking time bomb.
It took at least three years for authorities to identify him from fingerprints lifted from vacation homes near Zion National Park.
Now, they just have to catch him. Knapp remains somewhere in roughly 1,000 square miles of wilderness, a virtual ghost in the woods stocked with stolen gear, food and guns.
"This guy is probably about as true a survivalist as Davy Crockett," Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Michael Wingert told The Associated Press.
Authorities have so far revealed little about the 44-year-old Knapp or how he ended up wandering the mountains of southern Utah. They identified him Tuesday and asked the public for help in finding him.
Knapp has family members in Moscow, Idaho, but phone messages left for them Tuesday evening were not returned.
Just last week, detectives in Iron County said investigators hadn't made a definite identification but were getting close. However, court records indicate charges were filed against Knapp in neighboring Kane County about three weeks ago as the key suspect in the serial burglaries.
According to the records filed Jan. 27, Knapp's fingerprints lifted from one cabin in 2009 were matched on Jan. 20 to records from a 2000 theft arrest in California. The records indicate only that he has been convicted previously on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon and burglaries.
Wingert said Knapp "dropped off everybody's radar in 2003 and nobody has heard from him since."
"He just dropped off the face of the earth," Wingert added, speculating that Knapp was "fed up with civilization."
He now faces multiple counts of burglary and a weapons charge.
In a statement Tuesday evening, the Iron County Sheriff's Office said tips from the public and forensic evidence linked Knapp to the crimes.
"This suspect is known to be armed and could be possibly dangerous if cornered," the statement read, adding that his identification was the result of "good old-fashioned investigative work, along with tips provided by the public."
"We believe Mr. Knapp is our guy," Wingert said.
Iron County Sheriff's Detective Jody Edwards said last week that investigators were still scouring for clues. He indicated authorities were getting close to solving the case after they got the first pictures of the suspect from a motion-triggered surveillance camera outside a cabin. The photos taken sometime in December showed a sandy-haired man in camouflage on snowshoes, a rifle slung over his shoulder.
However, Edwards would say only that "we're very close to making a positive ID on him."
"We just got to catch this guy," he said.
Edwards has been working the case since 2007. He didn't return a call seeking comment Tuesday evening.
Authorities say Knapp has eluded capture for more than five years, breaking into remote cabins in winter, living in luxury off hot food, alcohol and coffee before stealing provisions and vanishing into the woods with guns and supplies.
Investigators have chased dozens of leads, to no avail.
In recent weeks, it took detectives an entire day to reach a remote cabin after getting a report that lights had been seen on inside overnight. It turned out they were solar-powered lights on the porch, and the cabin was empty – another dead-end.
Their break came in January with the fingerprint match.
While there have been no violent confrontations, detectives have called him a time bomb. Over the years, he has left some cabins tidy and clean, while others he has practically destroyed, even defecating in a pan on the floor in one home.
Lately he has been leaving the cabins in disarray and riddled with bullets after defacing religious icons, and a recent note left behind in one cabin warned, "Get off my mountain."
In the Jan. 27 court filing, authorities said Knapp had left behind even more threatening notes aimed at law enforcement.
"Hey Sheriff ... Gonna put you in the ground!" read one note.
Cabin owners are panicked. Many said they were carrying their owns guns and had grown to wonder who might be sleeping in their beds during winter.
"He could stand in the trees and pop you off and no one would know who killed you," cabin owner Bruce Stucki said last week.
When alerted of the news Tuesday, a relieved Stucki simply said, "Wow."
"That's wonderful that they know him," he said. "Now they need to get him in custody."
From the beginning, the suspect's lore grew, leading to theories that he might have been two separate men on the FBI's Most Wanted List or possibly a castaway from the nearby compounds of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the polygamous sect run by jailed leader Warren Jeffs.
Early on, investigators thought his unattended summer camps they came across during their search were left behind by "doomsday" believers preparing for some sort of apocalypse because of the remote locations and supplies like dozens of guns, radios, batteries, dehydrated food and camping gear.
They now have a name, but the man remains in the mist.
"He's scaring the daylights out of cabin owners. Now everyone's packing guns," said Jud Hendrickson, a 62-year-old mortgage adviser from nearby St. George who keeps a trailer in the area. "We feel like we're being subject to terrorism by this guy."

Another Murderer or Crazy Guy - Take Your Pick - Who Obtained a Gun WAAAAY Too Easily

Either way, this guy should never have been able to get a gun, not in a free and civilized country.  With this kind of gun violence, we are neither free, nor civilized.  We are, rather, held hostage by gun nuts and their delusional notions about their fetish objects, in a massive diconnect with the objective reality of gun violence.

Without easy gun purchases, with any kind of reasonable drug and mental health screening, fewer people who are unstable would have easy access to firearms - and they should not have that access.  Without easy gun access to nearly any able bodied adult, we would not have homicides like this one.  It is possible someone like this jerk might try to kill another person with a less lethal weapon, but their chance of succeeding would be far smaller, the risk to themselves would be much greater, the obious evidence, like being covered in blood that would lead to their immediate capture would be far more likely.  In short, with greater risk and greater difficulty in killing another human being THERE WOULD BE FEWER ICIDENTS OF PEOPLE KILLING OTHER HUMAN BEINGS.

But because the gun nuts practically WORSHIP the delusional idea that they are going to one day have the chance to blow away a bad guy in a heroic demonstration of their mastery of powerful, lethal weapons, defending not only their own lives, but the lives of others, instead of law enforcement, in some movie-like, video-game-like pseudo-wild-west-that-never-was-historic tradition, we have daily gun violence, daily killings with firearms in this country.

Get real, get adult, get objective, and get rid of the damned guns.  You're not 'Wild Bill Hickock', you're more Duckbill Hickock.  You're not going to be a hero, but you are - like the real Wild/Duckbill Hicock - far more likely to get yourself shot in the back by some other idiot with a gun.  This is not the wild west, and even the real wild west was more a myth than a desirable reality.  Get over it, deal with it, and grow the hell up.

From the Huff Post:
Defense: Ga. Suspect Says Angel Told Him To Kill
Hemy Neuman
DECATUR, Ga. -- Prosecutors urged jurors Tuesday to dismiss a murder defendant's assertions that an angel who looked like Olivia Newton-John ordered him to fatally shoot a co-worker's husband outside a preschool. They say Hemy Neuman was not delusional or insane and had planned the killing for months.
Neuman fell so hopelessly in love with Andrea Sneiderman, whom he supervised at General Electric, that he believed he was the father of her two children and that the only way to protect them was to kill Russell Sneiderman in November 2010, Neuman's attorney Doug Peters said during opening arguments.
"He thought Sophia and Ian were his children and that Rusty Sneiderman was a danger to them," said Peters, who contends his client is not guilty by reason of insanity because he couldn't tell the difference between right and wrong at the time of the killing.
Neuman believed an angel told him to pull the trigger, said Peters, who didn't give details.
Prosecutors, though, urged jurors to reject the insanity claim, arguing the 48-year-old Neuman meticulously planned the killing so he could be with Andrea Sneiderman. Prosecutors said Neuman will also claim he was visited by a demon who sounded like Barry White.
"I'll boil it down to a sentence: A man wanted someone else's wife so he killed her husband," said Don Geary, one of the prosecutors. "He got caught. We ask you to return a verdict that speaks the truth."
Her husband was shot to death shortly after dropping their 2-year-old son off at a day care center in Dunwoody, an affluent suburb north of Atlanta. A bearded man in a hoodie approached Sneiderman, fired several shots and then hopped into a silver minivan and sped away. It happened so quickly that police initially believed it could have been a professional job.
VIDEO: (Story Continues Below)


At the center of the trial is Andrea Sneiderman. Peters said the two shared a string of "intimate relations" during business trips after he hired her in early 2010, but that she rebuffed his attempts to marry her. Prosecutors say she rejects the allegations and that Neuman could be hallucinating.
She testified Tuesday that Neuman seemed stable to her and that she rejected his advances.
Police interviewed Neuman six weeks after Sneiderman's death after detectives discovered that shortly before the shooting he rented a minivan matching the description of a vehicle seen driving away from the crime scene. He faces life in prison without parole if convicted. He'd be turned over to the state mental health system if found not guilty.
Neuman who also lived in the Atlanta suburbs had a troubled childhood and was constantly in fear of his father, who was wracked with guilt for having survived the Auschwitz death camp during the Holocaust while 11 other relatives died. He eventually moved from his home in Mexico to a boarding school in Israel, partly to get away from his father's volatile behavior.
"It was a life of anger, it was a life filled with terror, of not knowing when or why their father would explode with rage," Peters said.
He later graduated from Georgia Tech and bought a pricey home in a Cobb County subdivision after landing a job as a high-ranking manager at GE, where he made $180,000 a year and supervised 5,000 engineers and a $800 million budget, prosecutors said.
Neuman hired Andrea Sneiderman in early 2010 after she decided she needed to earn more money because her husband, a 36-year-old Harvard-trained entrepreneur, was having trouble finding steady work, attorneys said. They soon hit it off, and on work trips they would share long dinners, wine and occasionally romance, Neuman's defense team contends.
Prosecutors say Neuman began planning Russell Sneiderman's killing after she rebuffed one of his advances. They say he bought a gun, took it to target practice and then on Nov. 10 camped outside Sneiderman's house to try to kill him. He bolted when Sneiderman, who couldn't recognize Neuman, startled him.
Nine days later, prosecutors say, Neuman arrived at his office earlier than usual - at 5:36 a.m. - and then sneaked out a back door to avoid security cameras and give himself an alibi. He then drove to the Dunwoody Prep day care center, shot Sneiderman four times and hopped in the minivan and tried to melt into morning rush traffic, they say.
Neuman was so callous about his actions that he returned to work a few hours later and later participated in the religious ceremonies of his victim's death, including the Jewish ritual of shoveling dirt on Sneiderman's grave at his funeral, Geary said.
Peters asked the jurors to pay careful attention to phone records between Neuman and Andrea Sneiderman, noting that the two exchanged three calls on the night before the shooting and that she called him six times in the hours after her husband was killed.
He also said his arguments that his client couldn't tell the difference between right and wrong during the killing are backed by evaluations from psychiatrists and mental health experts who diagnosed Neuman as bipolar and concluded he had a delusional disorder.
"This case is not about what happened. We know what happened," Peters said. "It's about why."

The Obama Haters

from The Immoral Minority

About 1,000 DGUs per Year



There are two types of people pushing the DGU lies. One is the guy who sells books or training courses, like Dave Feesenden pictured above, making money on the fear and insecurity of others. And two, the fearful and insecure gun owners who are trying to justify their wrong decisions.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

PA Gun Club Shooting Death


A Reading man who was shot at a Berks County gun club died Monday, authorities said.

Three or four people had been firing rifles, pistols, and a shotgun for more than an hour when a .22-caliber pistol being handled by one man discharged, striking him in the head, Police Chief Scott W. Eaken said.

The man was taken to Reading Hospital, where he was pronounced dead Monday morning. The Berks County Coroner's Office identified the victim as Michael Nieves, 30. Authorities were "tentatively leaning toward" classifying the case an accidental shooting, but the investigation was continuing, Eaken said.

Bullet from Juarez Injures Woman in El Paso

Karma - in  a very loose definition, what goes around, comes around, what we do is reflected in what subsequently happens to us sooner or later.

Odds are, this bullet and the gun which fired it came from the United States, were made and sold in the United States and was illegally sent into Mexico at a profit to an American manufacturer with the approval and encouragement of the NRA and our gun nuts who love all guns all the time.  They love it, because it is a stupid pretext for them to carry around more gunz.

From MSNBC.com :

Rogue bullet shot across Mexico border hits El Paso woman

A woman has become the first victim of bullets flying across the border from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, into El Paso, Texas, the Associated Press reported.

Authorities say an assault rifle-type round went through the calf of a 48-year-old woman while she was shopping on a busy downtown street, Tuesday morning. The El Paso Times reported that she was pushing a child in a stroller.
Authorities on the U.S. side later determined that the bullet was fired across the border during a gunfight between carjackers and Juarez police.
Two suspects were injured by police gunfire and taken to a Mexican hospital, the El Paso Times reported.
The victim was taken to University Medical Center of El Paso and treated for a non-life threatening injury. Authorities said the woman is from Mexico and has a residency card; she lives in El Paso.
The bullet has been sent to a Texas Department of Public Safety lab for testing.
Stray bullets have crossed the border twice before in El Paso, although none have hit people, the El Paso paper reported. In June 2010, a round made its way to the ninth floor of City Hall. Months later, a rogue bullet hit a building at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Oh, look -- ANOTHER Mass Shooting, This One in Georgia,ThisTime

Here is a tragic suicide,made more horrible by first killing four other people who deserved to make their own choices about life, and happiness, and who deserved to go about their lives in relative safety from gun violence.

Gun violence is wrong, gun violence is bad, and gun violence like this doesn't happen in comparable, developed parts of the world day after day, week after week the way it does here.  Why? Fewer guns is why, but also very different attitudes about why we have and need and how we use guns.  Our guns AND our gun culture kill people, in the ultimate violation of their rights -  death and injury from assholes with guns, jerks who believe they just had to have guns rather than settling their conflicts WITHOUT guns.

It is our fundamental THINKING and belief about guns that is at the foundation of what is wrong with weapons when people subsequently act.

WE ARE NOT MORE FREE JUST BECAUSE WE HAVE MORE GUNS!  THAT IS ONE OF THE STUPIDEST IDEAS ANYWHERE AT ANY TIME IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, SOMEWHERE BEHIND THE WORLD IS FLAT, AND PEOPLE LIVING IN OR ON THE MOON UNAIDED.

From MSNBC.com :
5 dead in shooting at health spa outside Atlanta
Five people were killed in an apparent murder-suicide Tuesday night at a Norcross, Ga., health spa, northeast of Atlanta, local police said.
On arrival at the scene, officers found four people dead, Norcross police captain Brian Harr told Reuters. A fifth victim was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Harr said they believe the shooter was among the dead.
State investigators were called in to assist local police at Su Jung Health Sauna in the 6000 block of Buford Highway, local media said.
Norcross Police Chief Warren Summers said the shootings appeared to be a murder-suicide, television station WSB reported.
Norcross is about 20 miles northeast of Atlanta.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

One Shot Shopping,
Another Arizona Gun Carrying Lunatic
with an Accidental Discharge

I bet this guy could qualify for 'peopleofwalmart.com' where there are more than a few 'good ol' boys' on file.

One more time.  This is why WE think YOU are DANGEROUS, and why we object to unnecessary, 'just-becuz-I-WANNA' whining carry (either open or concealed......or whatever THIS is).

At least he was in the right place when he scared the shit out of people.  Did you happen to notice how these sorts of ooopses happen so much more often in states like Florida and Arizona?  That greater frequency? Now THAT is NOT an accident. 

Although........it would have been even more fun if he'd been shopping at Target. Maybe next time?

From the HuffPo:



Man Accidentally Fires Gun In Walmart Bathroom: Arizona Man Andrew Seals Could Face Endangerment Charge

Somebody had an accident.
An Arizona man using a Walmart bathroom over the weekend gave shoppers the shock of their lives when his gun inadvertently discharged as he sat down to use the toilet.
Andrew Seals, 24, entered the store restroom around 1 p.m. on Sunday, KPHO reports. As pulled down his trousers, Seals' Ruger .357 caliber revolver fell out of it's holster, hit the ground and inadvertently fired.
"The bullet went through the stall door, hit a wall, ricocheted into a light on the ceiling, then struck the floor about 5 feet from another man who was standing at a urinal," according to The Republic.
Officers declined to arrest Seals, but say they will ask prosecutors to charge him with reckless endangerment.
Police were already at the store addressing a shoplifting incident when an employee notified them of the gunshot.
Reports did not mention any injuries.

Captain Beefheart Festival 2011-2012 - 12th Night of the Living Van Vliet

Here's the explanation of the origin and the dates.

Thanks to Microdot for the title of the Festival.

Zen Comix has joined the festivities.

Frownland. This one may be a bit rough on first listen, but once it gets in your brain you'll never be the same.



my smile is stuck
i cannot go back to your frownland
my spirit is made up of the ocean
and the sky and the sun and the moon
and all my eye can see
i cannot go back to your land of gloom
where black jagged shadows
remind me of the coming of your doom
i want my own land
take my hand and come with me
it's not too late for you
it's not too late for me
to find my homeland
where a man can stand by another man
without an ego flying
with no man lying
and no one dying by an earthly hand
let the devils burn and the beggar learn
and the little girls that live in those old worlds
take my kind hand
my smile is stuck
i cannot go back to your frownland [2x]

Another Florida Nut with a Gun

I'd be happy if we could successfully keep guys like this gem from pursuing his armed delusions.

I can see why the gun nuts embrace their wackier brother gun nuts.  It probably makes them feel superior about their own fetish delusions.

But isn't it just typical that it would be in gun nut paradise, Florida?

From the Huff Post Weird News:

Mark Loescher, Assault Suspect, Tells Police He's Half-Orangutan And Elvis's Brother


If the police officers who arrested Mark Loescher for assault didn't think he was slightly bananas at first, it's possible they changed their minds when he allegedly told them he was half orangutan.
Florida police also say Loescher told them he was also Elvis Presley's brother, a friend of President Bush, and director of the CIA.
Deputies confronted Loescher in Naples, Fla., last week after after a woman said he had threatened her with a gun, Newser.com reported.
When the deputies got to the bank shortly before 5 p.m., they found Loescher still sitting in the driver’s seat while another woman, not the one who called the police, sat in the front passenger seat, according to the Naples Daily News.
The paper also reports that Loescher allegedly told police that he needed to call the "Fusion Center" about his monkey blood.

Those who attempt to arrest Mark Loescher have their work cut out for them. When he was arrested for assault, he not only told officers that he was Elvis Presley's brother, a friend of President Bush, and director of the CIA, but he was also half-orangutan. Loescher explained that he is actually half-orangutan and and needed to get to the "Fusion Center" as soon as possible to check on his monkey blood, the Miami New Times reported.
He also claimed he was Elvis Presley's brother, and a friend of President Bush's, with whom he shares an attorney, and the director of the CIA.
Deputies reported finding a gun and bullets in Loescher’s vehicle, but no identification that showed a connection to the CIA (or, presumedly, an address to the "Fusion Center" where his monkey blood is waiting for him).
After Loescher's passenger was released, officers too him to the Naples Jail Center for booking where he was booked on charges of aggravated assault with a weapon.
 

They Must Be a Bit Like the Militia "Social Club".....
OR...
We Can Call Them What They ARE, Domestic Terrorists

Anyone want to take bets that these two miserable excuses for human beings are big pro-gun guys as well?
Can't you just see them with one of those "I don't call 911" bumper stickers?  How very characteristic of certain consrvative Arizona elements.
 
Image: Dennis Mahon
J. Pat Carter  /  AP, file
Prosecutors argued during the trial that Dennis Mahon, seen here in 1997, and his brother belonged to a group called the White Aryan Resistance, an organization that encourages members to act as "lone wolves."

'Trailer park Mata Hari' case: White surpremacist twins' bomb trial wrapping up

61-year-old brothers are accused of sending package bomb to Arizona city's diversity director

By
updated 2/21/2012 8:35:49 AM ET 2012-02-21T13:35:49
Attorneys are expected to give their final arguments Tuesday in the trial of two white supremacist brothers accused of bombing a city official in Arizona because he is black.
After attorneys give their closing statements, the jury will deliberate about whether to convict identical twin brothers Dennis and Daniel Mahon of Illinois.
The 61-year-old brothers are accused of sending a package bomb to Don Logan almost eight years ago to the day, on Feb. 26, 2004. Logan, 54, is black and was the diversity director for the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale at the time.
Logan was hospitalized for three days after the bombing and needed four surgeries on his hand and arm. The bombing also injured a secretary.
Recordings The trial, which began Jan. 10, has been filled with drama as a female government informant dubbed by defense attorneys as a "trailer park Mata Hari" — a reference to the Dutch exotic dancer convicted of working as a spy for Germany during World War I — took the stand for several days, and Logan himself described the bombing in detail for the jury.
Jurors also have heard recordings of the Mahons using racial epithets for black and Hispanic people and saying violence is the only answer for white men.
The brothers have pleaded not guilty to one count each of conspiracy to damage buildings and property by means of explosive, malicious damage of building by means of explosive, and distribution of information related to explosives.
Image: Courtroom sketch of Rebecca Williams
Maggie Keane  /  AP, file
Investigators chose government informer Rebecca Williams, who is a civilian, for her good looks and had her dress in revealing clothes and send the brothers racy photos to get them to open up to her.
Since the Mahons were arrested in June 2009 at their home in Davis Junction, Illinois, their attorneys have unsuccessfully tried to get some or all of the charges against them dropped for various reasons, including allegations that the informant and federal investigators engaged in "outrageous conduct" that amounted to entrapment and coercion.
Defense attorneys also have argued that a more likely suspect in the bombing would be someone who worked in the city of Scottsdale and knew about its intraoffice mail, since the package was found in the city library and routed to Logan — not sent in the mail.
theGrio: Principal with white supremacist ties fired
The Mahons were living in the Phoenix area at the time of the bombing but left days afterward.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that the brothers belonged to a group called the White Aryan Resistance, an organization that encourages members to act as "lone wolves" and commit violence against non-whites and the government to get their message across.
They played for jurors hundreds of hours of video and audio surveillance of the brothers interacting with the government informant, identified in court records as Rebecca Williams.
Racy photos Investigators chose the woman, who is a civilian, for her good looks and had her dress in revealing clothes and send the brothers racy photos to get them to open up to her.
Williams gave hours of testimony in the case, telling jurors that the brothers fell so hard for her, Dennis Mahon said he wanted to marry her and father her children.
Dennis Mahon's attorney told jurors that her client exaggerated to Williams to impress her and get her into bed, while Daniel Mahon's attorney painted her client as a hard-working man who had no time or desire to plot a bombing.
Prosecutors told jurors that although Williams flirted with the brothers, she never had sex with either of them.

Arming the Mexican Drug Cartels

This documentary was first aired in October 2011.

I encourage people who follow the discussion of gun issues here to view it; if you don't have access to Current TV through your cable service, consider getting it.  The documentary may also be available online or through sources like a library in your area.  This particular documentary addresses the overwhelming contribution of guns from the U.S. into Mexico, the NRA, the gun show loophole, and the Obama administration requirement on multiple gun sales reporting that - contrary to what some of our commenters were expecting, from the assurances of the NRA - was found to be perfectly legal recently, as I posted here.

For those of you weak on geography (as sadly too many Americans are, another failure of our education system) Juarez is across the border from El Paso, Texas.  The two cities are considered one of the largest bi-national metropolitan areas.

Watch. Learn. Think.  Think about following the money through the NRA, back to the gun manufacturers. We need to act.

From Vanguard / Current TV:



Synopsis:
In "Arming the Mexican Cartels," Christof Putzel and the Renaud Brothers report from Juarez, Mexico, commonly known as the Murder Capital of the World. American guns are flooding across the border into Mexico, arming deadly cartel drug wars which continue to spiral out of control. Embedded with Mexican Police, Army Special Forces and Juarez CSI teams, Christof takes viewers on a journey where few dare to go, following a trail of blood, drugs and guns that inevitably leads back to the United States.