CCW Passes Judicial Muster in Missouri
# Dave Polaschek has acquired a thing for drop caps. Humph. [picks]
# Bob Murphy at Strike the Root - Minerva, Chapter 1 is the first chapter of Mr. Murphy's new novel. Other chapters are available at his archive, up to chapter 5 as of this writing. I browsed the first three chapters, introducing the players. Minerva itself appears in Chapter 3, written by Professor Mason. Hehe. [notreasonblog]
# Edgar J. Steele - The Passion - Mr. Steele liked Mel Gibson's new movie. He recommends that you see it once by yourself, and then take your kids and "be there for them" through the film. Contains a few paragraphs of Mr. Steele's signature Jew bashing, but the rest of it is good. I still plan on seeing it this weekend. If my son (12) wants to go, I'll take him. I won't let my daughter (7) go, at least not until I see it first.
As a piece of entertainment, this film is not a movie, so much as it is an experience. I didn't expect anything like the way this film took hold and refused to let go until well after the closing credits. Think about your very first roller coaster ride...now, imagine it going on for two straight hours.
"Bad trips" on LSD result from the eleven-hour forced introspection that the drug creates. Most cannot stand to look that closely at themselves, certainly not for that long. That's why Leary and company were getting complete cures of psychotics after five or six guided LSD trips, of course, before the government stepped in and outlawed the drug. Well, this movie is like being on acid for two straight hours, only the subject isn't yourself, it is Jesus Christ.
William Hughes at Media Monitors Network - Mel Gibson Vs Abe Foxman: Victory for First Amendment - another review of The Passion. [whatreallyhappened]
On Wed. afternoon, Feb. 25, 2004, at the celebrated Art Deco "Senator Theatre," in Baltimore City, I attended the premier of a truly fantastic movie. To write that Mel Gibson's film, "The Passion of the Christ," is an artistic achievement of the highest order, is to understate his accomplishment. It is more than that. It is more, too, than a superbly produced, written, directed, acted and crafted movie. It is a riveting experience that will open up the viewer, if he or she is willing, to the deepest kind of emotional, mental and spiritual responses.
For me, it was like bearing witness, once again, to every sermon, lecture and course that I had ever heard or taken on the essence of Christianity. It is one thing to hear someone talk about the death of Christ, or to read about it in the Four Gospels, or to view it, as I have in the finest art galleries of the U.S., Europe and Russia, through the expert representations of that tragic event. It is another thing, too, as I have been fortunate to have done, to walk the pathways of the "Viva Dolorosa," in ancient, holy Jerusalem itself.
# Gina Holland at Associated Press via Yahoo News - High Court to Officers: Check Paperwork - the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that some b.a.t.f. agents can be sued for searching with a warrant that didn't say what was being sought. Some tiny good news for the fourth amendment. The minority opinion on this is absurd. This is not about "checking paperwork". It's about whether the home owner has the right to shoot to kill to protect his property. Without a proper search warrant, the "search" is a home invasion, and would properly result in dead b.a.t. fuckers. [smith2004]
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Agent Jeff Groh went to the ranch of Joseph and Julia Ramirez armed with a search warrant that did not list any items officers were searching for, Stevens said.
The four justices in dissent said he should have been forgiven the clerical mistake.
"We all tend toward myopia when looking for our own errors. Every lawyer and every judge can recite examples of documents that they wrote, checked, and double-checked, but that still contained glaring errors," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote, joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.
# Supreme Court of Missouri - SC85674 - ruled that Missouri's Constitution does not forbid concealed carry. It only says that concealed carry is not a right. This means that the recent legislation allowing concealed carry with a permit is OK. But the new law cannot be enforced in four counties, because it would amount to an unfunded mandate there. So those counties can decide not to issue permits, if they so desire. [highroad]
