First, a tip o' the hat to Dr. J. E. Pournelle, who put the idea out there. See it HERE.

I'll begin with a definition from the Constitution of the United States of America:

"Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court."

Now, presuming that Maj. Hasan is indeed guilty of murdering and wounding his comrades-in-arms, is it treason?

The argument that Dr. Pournelle raises is pertinent. "I would presume that arming oneself and shooting 43 US soldiers is (1) levying war against the United States, and (2) an overt act, and that Major Hassan should be charged with treason."

Dr. Pournelle also argues that previous speech and writings by Maj. Hasan lend credence to the charge of Treason.

There is, in my view, another reason for viewing Maj. Hasan's killing spree as treason: He turned on his comrades and killed as many as he could. This is the most heinous act a soldier can do - killing your own.

So, let us enumerate the charges against Major Nidal Malik Hasan.

1. 14 counts of murder.
2. 29 counts of attempted murder.
3. 1 count of Treason, as defined above.

Numbers one and three above are punishable, according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, "shall suffer death or such other punishment as a court-martial or military commission may direct."

IF Maj. Hasan is found guilty, of any of the three above, then he should be put to death.

It's not likely, though. The political correctness currently prevalent will label him as "disturbed" and he'll be committed to a "mental health facility", there to live a lot longer than his disarmed victims.

You Don't Mess With The Old Farts...

... like this guy. From FoxNews:

= = = = = =

LAKE WORTH, Fla. — Authorities say a 91-year-old man in South Florida jumped out out of bed naked and held an intruder breaking into his house at gunpoint until deputies arrived.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said Robert E. Thompson was awoken Saturday morning after a burglar climbed his backyard fence and was met by his charging dog, Rettt, a Rottweiler and Doberman Pinscher mix. Thompson heard the commotion, grabbed his .38-caliber revolver and phoned police without ever getting dressed.

Deputies say Thompson fired a warning shot at 26-year-old Jose Pasqual after the intruder started to come toward him. Pasqual was booked in the Palm Beach County Jail and did not immediately have an attorney.

= = = = = =

I can just hear the dialog:

OF: "Hold it right there!"

JP: "Esay, Mon! Call off you MF dog!"

OF: "Esay your behind! Get your moldy butt down on the ground, or I'll let Rett chew on you after I shoot your buttocks!"

JP: "OK, Mon, OK! I be down on the groun'!"

OF: "Good! I'm old, and cranky, and tired, and I am the one with the gun and a dog with a bad attitude."

JP: "Mon, dat dog, he look MEAN!"

OF: "Yah. But he mind ME, not you. And he's hungry, so don't you wiggle, don't you move... or I'll shoot YOU and let HIM have a little snack..."

= = = = =

Heh...

Pirates of Africa

First, three cheers for the SEALs who blew the Somalian pirates away.

Now, thirty yards with rifles for trained and skilled marksmen sounds dead easy, right? Not if your shooting platform is moving around (and trust me on this, a tin-can moves if you breath on it), and the lifeboat is moving around even more than the tin-can, AND you have three targets, all of whom are also moving around on the lifeboat.

As I said, three cheers, and those three guys get to drink on my tab any time they like.

Now the Somalian pirates are threating "revenge". OK, dudes, go ahead and do it. And watch what happens when we really decide to clean house. YOUR house.

'Way back in the 1800's we had a little pirate problem in the Caribbean and along the southern coasts of the US. The US Navy was turned loose, and started by hanging every pirate they could catch.

Pretty soon, no more pirates.

Is it time to start hanging the Pirates of Africa? Or the Pirates of Asia?

I beleive that it is time to start putting trained and armed security details on all American-flagged ships sailing in those Asian and African waters known to have pirates. A few shot-up pirate boats, with dead bodies, would provide a marvelous object lesson, and stop piracy dead in it's tracks.

Pirates are like any other criminal - if the target fights back, it's not nearly such an attractive target.

Cold-case Crime in D.C. - Chandra Levy

You may remember murder victim Chandra Levy as being the paramour of Congressman Gary Condit. Levy was killed in Washington, D.C. back in 2001.

Now, the D.C. police are going to make an arrest in the case.

The suspect? Criminal and illegal alien Ingmar Guandique.

Currently doing time for assaulting 2 female joggers in Rock Creek Park, Guandique has reportedly been tied to Chandra Levy by DNA evidence.

Story HERE.

Master Criminals of South Georgia - Update

I have a grim update to this post:

Amy Kern was released from custody, and has now gone from being a bit of a joke to being an accused murderer.

PORT SAINT LUCIE, FL -- Its an unusual description for an accused killer: "All American girl. Sweet." Colin McCarthy says that is just one side of his ex-girlfriend, Amy Kern's personality. As accustomed as he was to seeing her smiling, happy face, he was not surprised to learn she admitted to fatally shooting her aunt's boyfriend and bludgeoning her grandmother to death with a tire iron.

OK, yeah, I poked more than a bit of fun at her and her unidentified "fiance" in my post. By definition, "Master Criminals" swinging axes and such are not wrapped too tight, and dammit, I did see some humor in that particular story.

I see no humor whatsoever in THIS part of the rest of the story.

That brings up a question: Am I going to stop highlighting "Master Criminals"?

No, I am not. I just hope that none of the future "Master Criminals" are as ill as Amy Kern.

My thanks (I think?) to commenter "Anonymous", who brought the rest of this sad and tragic story to my attention.

Twits and Lawyer-Twits

Oh, for Christ's Sweet Sake!

Read THIS, then tell me why public humiliation for this twit isn't a Good Thing.

She should be required to stand on a street corner at rush hour with a sign enumerating her crime, AND specifying that she and her lawyer daddy had the gall to sue!

Convicted last year of intoxication manslaughter for the death of her boyfriend, the 21-year-old daughter of a state district judge is suing the truck driver she ran into during a drunken driving crash. Elizabeth Shelton, the daughter of juvenile judge Pat Shelton, is accusing truck driver Lance Bennett of negligence in the Oct. 23, 2007, wreck that killed her boyfriend Matthew McNiece. Shelton had a blood alcohol concentration more than three times the legal limit, two tests showed. She was sentenced to eight years' probation and had to serve four months in jail. Shelton, her family and the family of the boyfriend who was killed are suing for $20,000 for the destruction of the Lexus SUV she was driving and an undetermined amount for mental anguish, pain and suffering. Bennett was driving the box truck that Shelton rear-ended on the Southwest Freeway near Kirby around 2 a.m.

Elizabeth Shelton is a twit. A drunk driver twit, and therefore very dangerous to herself and all those within fifty miles of her miserable location. Pat Shelton, her lawyer daddy, is a daffy-down-dilly, i.e., a Lawyer-Twit (caps intended), and therefore to be regarded with the utmost scorn.

Self Defense

First, follow the link HERE.

Second, by all means, do the Happy Dance.

Third, send a contribution to Mr. Taylor so that he NEVER runs out of fresh ammo.

Folks, "right between the eyes" is synonomous with "gun control".

I went out in the front yard and did the Happy Dance.

Twice.

American Terrorists

Did you know that America has it's very own home-grown terrorists?

This bunch is not Islamo-fascists. It's called the "Animal Liberation Front", or ALF.

Here's a sampling of their terrorist activities:

Vandalized a business in Pennsylvania (see story HERE). As a so-called "terrorist action" this one was almost a laugher, as Linda's Fashions and Fur Salon hasn't actually sold fur in twenty years.

Nobody has been charged in the attack on Linda's Fashions and Fur Salon in Geistown, a tiny suburb of Johnstown, a former steel town about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh best known for catastrophic floods in 1889, 1936 and 1977. The Animal Liberation Front took credit for the attack on June 14, saying the business was visited about 4:30 a.m. "under cover of night by masked activists," according to the North American Animal Liberation Press Office Web site, which is linked to the ALF's site. The group claimed a cinderblock was thrown through a front door and the letters "ALF" were spray-painted on the building. Geistown police Cpl. Terry McGrath confirmed those details and said he's heard the activists were taking credit for the attack. "I think these people assume they sold furs, which they didn't, as far as I know, for the last 20 years," McGrath said. The business now sells only dresses and other fashion accessories, McGrath said. Store owner Linda Mowry did not return a call to her home. Mark Mowry, who identified himself as a relative, said that she hasn't sold furs in years and simply didn't bother changing the name of the store when she stopped. Dr. Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon who serves as spokesman for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office in Woodland Hills, Calif., blamed the business for advertising itself as a fur salon, but said he had no firsthand knowledge about what was sold there. "I think they just put themselves in the line of fire" by calling the business a fur salon, Vlasak said. "It would be unlikely that they would call themselves a fur salon if they didn't have anything to do with fur." Vlasak said the activists who targeted the building might have made an "error", but said it was "unlikely someone would risk jail time without doing a little research" about what the business sold. Vlasak explained that the North American Animal Liberation group acts as the media liaison for underground groups like the ALF. Vlasak said the press office has relied solely on an anonymous communique from the ALF about the attack on the store. "I don't know anything firsthand about what goes on at Linda's Fashions and Fur Salon," Vlasak said.

Note that Dr. Vlasak blamed the terroristic activity on the victim. Also note that ALF didn't even bother with the most cursory of recon.

HERE you can find a little more about Dr. Vlasak, and also a bit more about the activities of ALF.

Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that a bomb was discovered outside the Westside home of Dr. Arthur Rosenbaum, the chief of pediatric ophthalmology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute. The car bomb failed to explode, despite apparent attempts to detonate it. In 2003, two bombs exploded at biotech firm Chiron's Emeryville office. Agents believed the second bomb was timed to go off when first responders arrived. - - - - - - So far, animal-rights activists have not killed anyone in the United States, but that does not mean Americans should not fear these extremists. In October 2005, Dr. Jerry Vlasak, a Southern California trauma surgeon who is a leader of the North American Animal Liberation Front, testified before the U.S. Senate and defended killing researchers in order to stop research using animals. "I don't think you'd have to kill -- assassinate -- too many," Vlasak opined. "I think for 5 lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million or 10 million nonhuman lives." The threats of violence and intimidation work. Last year, UCLA researcher Dario Ringach sent an e-mail to Vlasak in which he proclaimed, "You win" -- he would stop research with animals. Vlasak sent out a triumphant press release.

You can draw your own conclusions about Dr. Vlasak. I call him "terrorist". Fortunately, his friends in the ALF don't appear to be terribly competent terrorists, at least not yet.