Petulant Assholes

Still thinking about that elderly Brit who shot a local bureaucrat who’d come to have the old guy’s “illegal” cottage torn down, when I saw this cheery little snippet from Toronto:

A man spent his own money on building some stairs so elderly people could climb up this steep path. However, he fell foul of officials who tore them down.

Note the price difference:

I’d say more, but I first have to wait for the Red Curtain Of Blood (RCOB) to subside in my eyes.  In the meantime, some kind soul should put a pot of tar on to boil and gather the feathers… I’ll oil the rope

Tole Ya Part 2

I’ve often noted that when otherwise law-abiding people are driven to kill government agents, it’s mostly because said government is either taking or destroying that person’s property.  Here’s one such example:

Albert Dryden gunned down Harry Collinson in front of journalists when his illegally-built bungalow was due to be demolished in Butsfield, County Durham in 1991.
Harry Collinson was enforcing the demolition of Dryden’s illegally-built bungalow when Dryden drew a First World War gun and shot him dead in front of local media on June 20, 1991.
As well as shooting 46-year-old Mr Collinson, he also wounded police officer Stephen Campbell in the buttock and reporter Tony Belmont in the arm.

Okay, you maniacs can quit laughing now… although you have to admit that shooting a cop in the Butsfield [sic] and blasting a reporter may well have caused a quick grin or even a chuckle in some quarters.  You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Note that the dramatis personae of the shootees was the bureaucrat enforcing the dumb rule, the cop providing the weight of the law to its enforcement, and the media lizard who came to film (and broadcast) the confrontation because media gonna media.

Note too that all this took place in oh-so disarmed Britishland, which should offer a lesson to all gummint types, namely:  don’t fuck with an old fart who has nothing to lose.

The only glum part of the report is that Our Hero apparently repented in later life.  Not sure I would.

Prevention

The next time some whining liberal tells you that capital punishment doesn’t prevent murder, feel free to quote this article (once you have done kicking them in the balls, that is):

In March, two men were convicted in Newcastle Crown Court of the murder of a 29-year-old mother of two, Quyen Ngoc Nguyen. In a pre-meditated crime of unimaginable depravity, Stephen Unwin and William McFall robbed, raped and bludgeoned this 5ft-tall nail bar manager.
They dumped her — possibly still alive — in her own car, which they then set alight. They posed for ghoulish selfies at the scene.
Both men were already convicted killers, released as a result of parole board hearings.
McFall, now 51, had been freed after serving 13 years for battering to death with a hammer an 86-year-old woman whose home he had burgled.
Unwin, ten years younger, had been released after serving 14 years of a ‘life sentence’ for stabbing to death a 73-year-old retired pharmacist in the course of a burglary — on Christmas Day, 1998. Unwin had sought to cover up his tracks by setting fire to his victim’s bungalow.
There is no parole board on earth which can know if someone is truly remorseful (pictured: Nick Hardwick, former Parole Board chair) +6
There is no parole board on earth which can know if someone is truly remorseful (pictured: Nick Hardwick, former Parole Board chair)
He was released in 2012, because the parole board had believed his claim to feel ‘deep remorse’.

Yeah, he was remorseful, all right.  It bears no reminding that had these two bastards (and the others in the article) been executed, their subsequent victims would still be alive.  Prevention at its finest.

Frankly, I think that the parole boards who freed these animals should also face the needle / chair / gallows.  This was a basic precept of Hammurabic Law, and I for one regret its passing, in this respect at least.

Remember too that our Liberal Class want us to be more like Europe or Britain, and the modern-day “democratic socialists” have included the abolition of the prison system in their election manifesto.

Communistatis delenda est.

Rich Bastards Not Wanted Here

I’m not quite sure what to think of this situation:

New Zealand is set to ban foreigners buying homes after a spate of millionaires creating luxury doomsday bunkers has apparently pushed property prices up for local buyers.
It comes after purchases by PayPal founder Peter Thiel and disgraced former NBC host Matt Lauer, who lost his job after allegations of sexual misconduct.
The country’s centre-left government, led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, has blamed the wealthy expats for their major housing crisis with homelessness rates being among the highest in the developed world.
Yet David Parker, Minister for Trade and Economic Development, said the bill, for which he is responsible, isn’t only about house prices.
‘In this world of concentrating wealth, we don’t want this coterie of ultra-wealthy people overseas being able to outbid successful New Zealanders for what is our birthright, not theirs,’ he said.

From a free market perspective, it’s not right;  but on the other hand, seeing how Californians have done pretty much the same thing Over Here when fleeing their home state for other, less burdensome ones, I can sort of see the Kiwis’ point.  It’s also happened in Britishland, where wealthy Londoners have bought themselves country pieds-à-terre and have driven up real estate prices beyond the reach of the locals.

Here in north Texas, we’re facing a similar situation with regard to both Californians and Yankees moving into the area — real estate prices are constantly increasing — but there’s so much land around here for expansion that we haven’t yet reached that stage of feeling “trapped”, so to speak, by soaring prices.  That’s not the case in tiny Britain and New Zealand, of course and as I said, I can sympathize with the KiwiGov for wanting to at least arrest the phenomenon somewhat.

That said, New Zealand is prone to having some humdinger earthquakes from time to time, so the rich farts’ “doomsday bunkers” may ironically not be quite the secure bolt-holes their owners believe them to be.

At Last, Some Sanity

…even if it’s coming from the French, surely one of the loopiest nations on Earth.

Smartphones and tablets have been banned from all French schools ahead of the academic year, after a new law was voted through Parliament yesterday.  The phone ban will apply to all pupils in France up to the age of 15, as of the start of the new term in September.

I’ve always thought that giving kids smartphones was a recipe for disaster — similar to letting them go play all day and night in a mall, unsupervised.  And I don’t want to hear whines of “What about their securityyyy?” either.  If that’s so important to Mumsy (or actually, Madamesy), she can buy little Francine or Jacques a flip (dumb) phone.  Calls and texts only (and only a few of those, too).

Perhaps — and I know this is a radical thought — the schools can actually keep a closer eye on the little dears for a change.

And if the kids go all whiney at the indignity and the oppressive injustice of it all, we can call it a cheap life lesson.

About Damn Time

If you look at examples in history when ordinary Americans suddenly flipped out and killed government agents, you will find that most of these incidents occurred when the government took someone’s land without regard for the owner’s welfare, or “for the public good” without proper compensation.  When you consider that one of the few government functions that everyone can actually agree on is that government primarily exists to protect private property from the predations of others, it’s small wonder that people freak out and go to the guns when it’s government that turns into the predator.

Then we had the disgusting Kelo v. City of New London ruling by the Supremes, which basically said that Gummint could take your property and give it to a commercial developer, because his future development would result in tax income for the local authority.  (I’m still furious about this piece of unmitigated statist sophistry.)

Finally — and far too late — Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) has done the right thing, and his bill will go to the Senate where it will likely pass by a massive majority (if it doesn’t, it will be time to warm up a few barrels of tar and empty a few down pillows) and be sent to the Oval Office for the finishing touch.  (I bet Trump will sign it into law with gritted teeth;  but sign it he’ll have to.)

Read the entire article, and feel free to break out into applause at the end of it.  As I suggested earlier, it’s just a shame this gross injustice wasn’t rectified thirty seconds after the Kelo ruling, but I’ll take what I can get.