The Buy n Large corporation, the makers of the Wend•E WashBot (seen here) and the Wall•E waste disposal unit maintains a website for all its customers to share in its current happenings. “BNL, because the family that pays together, stays together!” BNL is, according to its website, a leading provider of robots that do things we humans “were never really meant to do,” like “lawn mowing” and “political decision making.” On its corporate news website, stories include, “Buy n Large Economic Science was awarded the prestigious Buy n Large Consumer Science Merit medal…,” and (in health news) “Men Shop as Much as women.”

Radical liberals maintain that a high crime rate still exists among Mexicans, but goes unreported.

“Official: Immigration crackdown pushes down crime” — Dailypress.com

County board Chairman Corey Stewart says the decrease is due to the resolutions cracking down on illegal immigrants in the county.

Original article.So, the New York Times wrote a story about wide-eyed idealist dumbshits changing theirs to Obama’s middle name as a kind of proof that its not a bad name. Althouse lawyer-blogger makes a few obvious points about one girl’s quote — “My name is such a vanilla, white-girl American name” — as follows:

1. How did you become estranged from your own name, to regard it —- as opposed to yourself —- as vanilla, white, female, and American, and to think of that combination in a negative way?

In the minds of the young, being a white American is the worst thing you can be. Everything else is somehow more authentic and less boring. Saying one is proud to be an American, then, is hokey and corny; saying one is proud to be white, well, is of course admitting to one’s status as a Grand Wizard.

American Thinker’s Peter Kirsanow wonders whether Richard Cohen [1] 1 Washington Post columnist is right: Is Barack Obama “likable enough”?

Original article: Obama’s Callous Indifference” According to the hagiography that passes for reporting about Obama, my attitude is rare. And, admittedly, unsophisticated. After all, I’m black so I shouldn’t just like Obama, I should love and praise him.  Sure, I’m conservative, but according to a recent AP story the Obama magic is so powerful that even black conservatives are in a swoon. But then, I’m also one of those bitter guys from flyover country.

DC gun ban unconstitutional

In their decision in the case District of Columbia v. Heller, Supreme Court justices today strike down the Washington D.C. gun ban in a 5-4 decision whose historic decision reinforce citizens’ right to own guns for lawful means. According to the brief, Justices Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito represent the majority, with dissenting opinions from Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer.

The following is an outline of the decision, with information taken from the summary.

In this outline, “The Right” is defined as an individual’s right to keep and bear arms

Held:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

1. “The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.”

   • The prefatory clause does not effect the operative clause.

     “The Second Amendment is naturally divided into two parts: its prefatory clause and its operative clause. The former does not limit the latter grammatically, but rather announces a purpose.”

   • The prefatory agrees with the Court’s decision because

     • Disarmament of people would allow for a federal, political standing army.
     • The Right is ancient and Congress took care to protect it.

   • First drafts of the Amendment confirm The Right

     • But their worth is dubious

   • Scholars of that time through late 19th century supports the interpretation of The Right

   • No court precedents conflict with The Right

     • United States v. Cruikshank
     • Presser v. Illinois
     • U.S. v. Miller — merely limits use to common types of weapons

2. The Amendment has limits.

   • It does not allow any weapon for any purpose.
     • Does not deny concealed weapon limits.
     • Should not “cast doubt” on limits on:
       • Possession by felons or mentally ill
       • Carrying into schools or government buildings
       • Commercial sale
     • Miller’s limited weapons to common, and not unusual.

3. Previous bans are null, including:

   • D.C.’s handgun ban — because it represents a total prohibition of “arms.”
   • Trigger-lock requirement or disassembly — prohibits the use for home self defense

   So regarding the case before the Court, “the District must permit Heller to register his handgun and must issue him a license to carry it in the home”

“… Undoubtedly some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our standing army is the pride of our Nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security, and where gun violence is a serious problem. That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.

“We affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

“It is so ordered.”

Here’s a tease found on FilmWad of Two-Face from The Dark Knight. I didn’t know we’d get to see Two-Face’s beginning in the upcoming movie!

That shadow mass on the right is Two-Face. You can just make out the scarring flesh of his left side.

To some, criticizing Hillary is out-of-bounds because of her woman-ness; blogger disagrees:

Original article: “Althouse: Is feminism about defending women from criticism?”; Quoted within the quote is this article.

I’ve long been frustrated, as a black woman…

In case you forgot, the author is black.

…in America, there’s seldom a cost for disrespecting black women.

Seldom… she didn’t say never. The fact is, Americans feel much freer to disrespect white men — and this is not a disadvantage for white men [1]. 1 Emphasis hers. This is part of being viewed as strong and powerful. So be strong and powerful, quit whining, and fight.

Before 1985 when the Reagan-era FCC deleted the Fairness Doctrine out of the law books, radio had to present both sides of a controversial argument or a broadcast company risked losing its license. Instead of creating balanced reporting, managers were so afraid of the doctrine that they simply avoided so-called controversial topics altogether. According to this article, senators John Kerry and Dick Durbin wish to recreated the constitutionally dubious doctrine in order to, according to the author, put a dampening on conservative talk show radio because this is the one medium in which the right has flourished. If they get their way, the Democratic senators would get their political propaganda [1] 1 This word should be taken as neutral and without negative connotation always. It is simply the propagation of a message independent of whether that message is good or bad. on air by law. It is a transparent scheme and one that would seem to act against the free market and the Bill of Rights.

Original article: “The Fairness Doctrine at Work—American Thinker” The success of Rush and other conservative talk radio hosts, and the failure of liberals to achieve similar success, is the underlying motivation behind Democrats’ efforts to re-impose the Fairness Doctrine. …

To put this into perspective, this is as if the CEO to Dr. Pepper Note: Me like Dr. Pepper. passed into law mandating all supermarkets create equal shelf space for his product as they create for Coca-Cola, the vastly more successful cola brand. Liberal radio hasn’t been met with a fond reception and has failed on its own merits, so this legally dubious tyranny represents the only way to get it on the air, ratings or no ratings. If the senators push this through, it would be horrifically ironic to call this the Fairness Doctrine.

Original article: “Lies We Tell Kids” I realize I’m going to get endless grief for classifying religion as a type of lie. Usually people skirt that issue with some equivocation implying that lies believed for a sufficiently long time by sufficiently large numbers of people are immune to the usual standards for truth.

Original article: “Muslim parents to blame for children turning to extremism—Telegraph” Dr. Farhan Nizami CBE, a key adviser on Islam to the Prince of Wales, accused British Muslims of failing to make sure their children learn to speak English or supporting them in their education. ⌘ He said this leaves them alienated from mainstream society and exposed to being groomed by radical Islamic groups.

Original article: “John Vidal: The terrifying truth about Komodo dragons—The Guardian” The first dragon had grabbed it by its testicles and was starting to chew its way into the body from below. The second dragon was slowly forcing the buffalo’s head open and was going down its throat. The third was, as they say, going in the back door.

Original article: “Robocop Remake Teases—The Moving Picture” News of a Robocop remake started back in March when it was announced that MGM had interest in bringing back the sci-fi franchise, and it now looks like they’re doing just that. The first teaser poster has just appeared at the Licensing International Expo, confirming the movie, and setting a 2010 release date.

The First Amendment really does distinguish the U.S., not just from Canada but from the rest of the Western world.

A Canadian magazine is pulled in front of a tribunal—which exists outside of the Canadian judicial system—to account for an article one particular minority didn’t care to read. This NY Times article broadens its focus on whether the United States should repeal its near-absolute freedom of speech protections in the way citizens of some European countries now lack. If so, any criticism of the practices of people who claim an identity subset that of the American citizenry as a whole will be punished, and hard debate of controversial topics will be murdered.

Original article: “Out of Step With Allies, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend—NYTimes.com” “Canadians do not have a cast-iron stomach for offensive speech,” Mr. Gratl [11 lawyer for the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association] said in a telephone interview. “We don’t subscribe to a marketplace of ideas. Americans as a whole are more tough-minded and more prepared for verbal combat.”

Original article: “dailywireless.org » Oklahoma City Builds 555 mi WiFi Cloud” Oklahoma City is launching what it claims to be the world’s largest city-owned municipal Wi-Fi mesh network. The city-wide network will be used only for public safety and municipal applications. It is not open to the public.

Spielburg may have unwittingly created a new phrase to replace “jump the shark.” It comes when our movie’s hero, in Indiana Jones: Movie of the Ridiculous Premise, is saved from an fiery atomic explosion at ground zero by simply stepping into a Frigidaire. An entire test city is destroyed, including all the other houses with all the other fridges, yet 90-year-old Indie escapes without a whiplash. (Don’t get me started on psychic alien corpses and Tarzan-swinging Shias.)

So, TV has “jump the shark”; cinema now gets “nuke the fridge”!

Original article: “Third-party iPhone applications to arrive Monday — CNET News.com” The era of officially sanctioned iPhone applications should kick off on Monday. ¶ That’s the same day Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to take the stage at the Moscone Center to unveil the next-generation iPhone at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers’ Conference.

“They can’t find work,” said Elvira Carvajal, a volunteer at the Florida Farmworkers Association in Florida City. “Then there is fear in the community because of immigration raids. … What are they going to do? A lot of people are opting to leave. Immigration raids work, putting the fear in illegals who stay within United States borders. Also, the poor economy has its benefits:

Original article: “More immigrants choose to leave U.S., go home — Miami Herald” Tired of making little money, feeling lonely and fearing arrest, more Latin American immigrants are voluntarily returning home.

“… I never felt good here,” says Spanish-only speaking illegal immigrant.

A 2007 U.S. Department of Homeland Security report found that the number of permanent legal residents entering the country last year from South and Central America dropped by a quarter. That followed a big increase from 2005 to 2006.

Original article: “Softbank says to sell Apple’s iPhone in Japan (Reuters via Yahoo! Singapore News)” Japan’s third-biggest mobile phone operator, has agreed with Apple Inc to sell iPhones in Japan by the end of this year, Softbank said in a statement on Wednesday.

Original source: Sustainable is Good, “Apple iTunes Ingeo Gift Card Apple uses a plant-based plastic for a new iTunes gift card available in stores such as Best Buy, a sustainable packaging trade website is reporting.

Labels: Apple