And not, as we’re sure you’ve noticed, for the better.

So, Ted and I* are now posting at Simon-Jester.org, where we don’t just hold the line, we shove it right the hell back.  

It’s Side Choosing Time, people.

*I have been at LibertyGirl.org for months now, venting. NSFW/Language

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Been busy around the Casa de la Ligne, but I’m not going to apologize for lack of posting. It’s summer and I’m enjoying it. But I would like to call your attention to this little gem of a story.  It seems that we, as a country, have been the unwitting hosts of at least three wetbacked* Mexican soldiers.  Gateway Pundit has more details and mugshots.

Pay attention.  These three men arrested for a Monday murder in Phoenix, Arizona (which is part of the United States last time I checked) seem to be active duty Mexican soldiers.  Soldiers of a foreign army. On U.S. soil. Committing murder.  By firing at least FIFTY, maybe up to ONE HUNDRED rounds at and/or inside this residential home.  One person was killed. Three people were caught. As many as three more people got away from police.

Now, I might be able to condone the random (or purposeful) killing of a drug dealer.  You might be able to convince me that fifty to a hundred rounds were required to kill said drug dealer. You could even, on a good day if I had plenty of margaritas in me, convince me that these three weren’t in the Mexican Army anymore.  But you could not ever convince me that these three assassins were in this country legally, or had any problems getting across the US/Mexican border.

I’m just saying, maybe we have other things to be worrying about other than a bad law in the District finally getting un-done.

the term ‘wetbacked’ is intended to indicate an illegal alien and is not a racial slur; it derives from the act of crossing the Rio Grande and still having a moist dorsal surface when the border patrol catches up with the trespasser.  Common usage indicates that this person is usually Hispanic in origin, but it applies to any person crossing any border illegally.

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Friend of TLIH, Michele Catalano, has another article up at PJ, on adults providing minors with alcohol and the inevitable legal/judicial ramifications.  In the comments is the inevitable, “if someone is old enough to serve why are they not old enough to drink?”  I am soooo tired of that argument, so I took it up with Ted in IM:

HazelStone: can you tell me how military service and legally buying a drink are at all equivalent?
HazelStone: i am Tired of that stupid comparison
tedbronson: haha
tedbronson: I think it comes down the thougt that if a man can die but not drink, then we are sending children to fight our wars
HazelStone: not if they bloody well choose service for themselves
HazelStone: we ain’t DRAFTING them
tedbronson: all volunteer makes a diff, yes
tedbronson: however
tedbronson: in san diego and san antonio, kids can drink on post to keep them from going across to mexico
tedbronson: double standard
HazelStone: sigh
HazelStone: it’s weird
HazelStone: i recall my only ambition for a weekend when I was a teenager, was to get buzzed and get felt up by a cute guy
tedbronson: yup  (pretty sure he’s not agreeing to the “cute guy” part  -Ed.)
HazelStone: and now, it seems so very stupid
tedbronson: the question is, if you can trust a kid to drive a sixty ton tank
tedbronson: why cant you trust him to be responsible with a beer
HazelStone: different
HazelStone: not equivalent
HazelStone: driving a 60 ton tank doesn’t alter your perception, reflexes, motor skills
tedbronson: no
tedbronson: either he’s is a responsible adult or he isn’t
HazelStone: no, because even one beer adds alcohol to your system, alters the above
HazelStone: driving a tank just adds adrenaline
HazelStone:
tedbronson: I could make the argument that tank driver have limited vison etc
HazelStone: haha, but you know it isn’t equivalent
tedbronson: but an ‘adult’ isnt going to be driving a tank tanked either

I know you lot have an opinion on this.  Let’s hear it.

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Pictures upon our return.

UPDATE: Traffic from Titusville to Cocoa Beach is unpossible after a launch. But…totally worth it. (click for larger)

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The group is one of several in Hawaii that reject statehood and seek to return to the constitutional monarchy that effectively ended in 1893 when a group of politicians, businessmen and sugar planters — aided by the U.S. minister to Hawaii — overthrew the kingdom’s government.

The monarchist groups say that the kingdom was overthrown and annexed into the United States illegally.

Said politicians and businessmen probably wanted an environment that was conducive to, y’know, actual politics and business instead of cutting into profit margins fending off pirates left and right.

What think your fate would be in today’s world, my friends, should you succeed in secession (which you won’t)?  That’s right, you’d be the most popular girl at the party.  You’d have your choice of large-boned Slavic types or wiry Oriental swains.

And when the inevitable GHB goes into your Mai-Tai, what would you do then?  Throw pineapples?  Re-target Kilauea and blow?  No, you’d go quietly.  And you wouldn’t even file a police report in the morning.

So good luck with that whole return-to-the-monarchy thing.  You’ll need it.

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For your entertainment, the inimitable Eddie Izzard, and the origin of the “do you have a flag?” tag we sometimes fling about here…

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A Russian capsule carrying South Korea’s first astronaut touched down 260 miles off target in northern Kazakhstan on Saturday after hurtling through the atmosphere in a bone-jarring descent from the international space station.

It was the second time in a row — and the third since 2003 — that the Soyuz landing went awry.

…

Later, Perminov referred to a naval superstition that having women aboard a ship was bad luck when asked about the presence of two women on the Soyuz.

“You know in Russia, there are certain bad omens about this sort of thing, but thank God that everything worked out successfully,” he said. “Of course in the future, we will work somehow to ensure that the number of women will not surpass” the number of men.

Of course.

Challenged by a reporter, Perminov responded: “This isn’t discrimination. I’m just saying that when a majority (of the crew) is female, sometimes certain kinds of unsanctioned behavior or something else occurs, that’s what I’m talking about.” He did not elaborate.

What, like doing each others’ hair and nails?  Or complaining to each other about certain “handsy” individuals back at Mission Control?  Or breathing sighs of relief that they’re pulling ten gees for 3 1/2 hours instead smiling and pretending to be interested in the inane blatherings of one Anatoly “Washout” Perminov.

One does wonder.

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A millionaire businessman singlehandly fought off three armed burglars after they put a knife to his teenage daughter’s throat, he told a court.

Bernard Dwyer, 51, who runs a construction business, said he believed they would all be killed and decided he “would rather die like a man than a dog” defending his family.

Despite being temporarily knocked unconscious and then stabbed three times in the head, he said he became “invigorated” by the sight of the attackers threatening his 13-year-old daughter Aisling.

Good on you, sirrah. I tire of these reports of parents leaving burning houses without their children, etc. etc. ad nauseum. It is your job as parent to defend your young, else what good is your genetic contribution?

Now back to the guy with the cannon…

A farmer built an entire mock castle behind a screen of hay bales and lived there concealed for four years to evade planning regulations, officials said on Friday — but it may be torn down anyway.

Robert Fidler hopes to take advantage of a provision of planning law that allows buildings without planning permission to be declared legal if no objections have been made after four years

He’s very probably going to lose this fight, especially considering where he lives, but I hope he gives them ten solid rounds, just for the sheer petulance involved:

“It does not count because the property was hidden behind hay bales,” said a spokeswoman. “No one knew it was there.”

That argument should be full of FAIL, but will no doubt be ratified by a special committee of stick-up-the-arse officials dedicated to keeping communities as bland and Stepford-like as possible.  Heaven forfend a land-owner should build as they like on their very own land.  It’d be anarchy, I tell you.

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