New Republic: Officer Wilson Is Guilty Till Proven Innocent

By William Teach August 21, 2014 – 7:47 pm

This is Liberal World, per to Yishai Schwartz

Convicting Darren Wilson Will Be Basically Impossible

——

We may never know what actually happened during the violent encounter between teenager Michael Brown and policeman Darren Wilson. But legal judgments rarely happen with perfect knowledge and absolute certainty. In their place, we rely on presumptions and standards that guide our thinking and discipline our judgments. In general, we presume innocence. But when we know that a killing has occurred and can definitively identify who committed the act, traditional common law demanded that our presumptions shift. We are supposed to presume guilt, and it is the shooter who must prove that his actions were justified. Unless the shooter is a policeman. And unless the victim is a black male. And unless the shooting happens in a state with self-defense laws like Missouri.

As American Spectator’s Aaron Goldstein notes, this could have easily have the same affect regarding self defense in Massachusetts as Missouri.

Anyhow, Liberals immediately did presume guilt of Officer Wilson. They jumped to the conclusion, and as the days wear on, that kneejerk reaction is backfiring, as liberal kneejerks so often do. There are certain elements, groups, and people of which liberals will always think the worse. Why? Politics, pure and simple. Everything is viewed in the hardcore liberal/Progressive bubble. Imagine had Michael Brown been wearing a shirt with a Gadsden flag on it. Think there would be the same hullabaloo from liberals? Would they have immediately deemed the Black man at fault?

Justice is not blind with the Left.

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Climate Change Brings Darkness And Doom Or Something

By William Teach August 21, 2014 – 4:51 pm

Funny thing is, the darkness and doom came from cooling, but, of course, this is meant to highlight the Coming Doom from a slight increase in global temperatures from Someone Else driving a fossil fueled vehicle

Lord Byron’s ‘Darkness’: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale of Climate Change

In 1815, Indonesia’s Mount Tambora experienced a super-eruption, triggering global climate shifts that produced famine, riots, disease outbreak, and mass death.

The great Romantic poet Lord Byron, holed up in Geneva at the time, responded with a post-apocalyptic poem called “Darkness,” which portrayed a vision of an “icy Earth” full of desolation, burning cities, and global warfare. Nearly two centuries on, it remains a poignant portrait of a future marred by climate disaster.

Mount Tambora’s volcanic ash, ejected into the upper atmosphere, eventually fell back to Earth, bringing stasis once again to the planet. But in Byron’s post-apocalyptic landscape, climate change and its effects are permanent. It’s a bleak, bleak world; a Romantic-era precursor to the monochromatic desolation of Cormac McCarthy’sThe Road.

Of course, the entire poem is about doom from an icy world post-Tambora. Somehow, this means, in the fevered mind of a Warmist, doom from warming

Perhaps Byron might have privately felt that technological advancement and byproducts of manufacture and consumption could create unintended ecological effects, though the modern concept of ecology itself was still being refined. Nothing we have in existing letters or anecdotes suggests he commented on it. Regardless, “Darkness” exists as a future vision of how humanity might devolve in the face of climate change.

The author, DJ Pangburn, doesn’t seem to see the insanity of using natural cooling from a massive volcanic event, which brought on the poem, to whine about warming, which, in his fevered Warmist mind, is caused by Mankind.

  And what did Byron see after all humans and other creatures vanish from the Earth?

…The world was void,
The populous and the powerful was a lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless—
A lump of death—a chaos of hard clay.
The rivers, lakes and ocean all stood still,
And nothing stirr’d within their silent depths;
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,
And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropp’d
They slept on the abyss without a surge—
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
The moon, their mistress, had expir’d before;
The winds were wither’d in the stagnant air,
And the clouds perish’d; Darkness had no need
Of aid from them—She was the Universe.

Now that is darkness. Think upon it the next time you read about fluctuations in global climate. The Byronic post-apocalyptic Earth is extreme, but so are we as a species, and in the way we interact with the planet. In “Darkness,” Byron just held up the mirror.

Seriously, these people live in a very strange world. The darkness came from natural cooling. Somehow, again, we’re to see similar doom from a slight increase in global temperatures over 160+ years.

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If All You See…

By William Teach August 21, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…is coffee that will skyrocket so that only super rich people can afford it because of climate change, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Nice Deb, with a post on President Vineyard’s Big Day.

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People Who Work Less Hours Get Paid Less, So, Obviously, This Is Sexist

By William Teach August 21, 2014 – 8:54 am

Obviously

How a Part-Time Pay Penalty Hits Working Mothers

Women get paid less than men in almost all jobs, but when women in low-wage jobs need to take time off work to care for children, they are at an even greater disadvantage.

If all employees got paid the same hourly amount (assuming they’re equally productive on the job), it would go a long way toward closing the gender pay gap, according to Claudia Goldin, a Harvard economist who has analyzed income data across occupations, including a new set of unpublished data on hourly workers that she prepared for the White House Summit on Working Families in June.

Instead, she has found, people in professions like law and finance get paid disproportionately more when they work extra-long hours. At the other end of the spectrum, people in low-wage jobs do not benefit much from working more, but get paid disproportionately less per hour when they work fewer than 40 hours a week. The penalty is similar for men and women — but ends up hurting women more, because they are far more likely to take breaks during their careers or need shorter or predictable hours to handle child care.

Well, that is simply shocking! Who would think that working longer hours would mean more pay? Who would think that people who work less than 40 hours a week get paid a whole lot less? This just boggles the mind

While the challenges are different at high-income and low-income jobs, the bottom line is the same: Employees, particularly parents, need some measure of predictability and control over the hours they work; the workplace could be much more equal if they weren’t penalized for not working a straight 40-hour workweek.

Who wants to bet that those who work at the NY Times get paid more for working longer hours, and less for less than 40 hours a week? But, if you don’t agree that people who work less should get paid the same as those who work more you are a sexist, hate women, and are probably part of the evil patriarchy.

It’s like Liberals do not understand how the Adult Working World works. Because they don’t.

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Eric Holder Stokes Flames Of Racial Animosity In Ferguson

By William Teach August 21, 2014 – 8:29 am

Of course he does. He decided to go, as America’s Top Cop, and make things very personal

(USA Today) Attorney General Eric Holder flew to Ferguson, Mo., on Wednesday as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer leading an investigation into a police shooting.

He also arrived as an African-American who said he understands the racial tensions that have fueled days of protests that have been marred by violence and mass arrests since the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.

“I am the Attorney General of the United States, but I am also a black man,” Holder told Ferguson residents at a community meeting. “I can remember being stopped on the New Jersey turnpike on two occasions and accused of speeding. Pulled over. … ‘Let me search your car’ … Go through the trunk of my car, look under the seats and all this kind of stuff. I remember how humiliating that was and how angry I was and the impact it had on me.”

Well, obviously, this screams of racism. Right? American Thinker discusses this in terms of the NY Times article, which includes the same mention, and wonders if this could have anything to do with Holder participating in a 5 day occupation of the “abandoned Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) headquarters with a group of black students later described by the university’s Black Students’ Organization as “armed,” The Daily Caller has learned.”

Or, it could just be coincidence, and have nothing to do with race or anything else. In fact, I had the same thing happen to me on I-195 by the Holmdel police, on the accusation that the officer couldn’t read the year sticker on my plate. He reached in an took a legal knife from the door pocket. Started searching the vehicle. For what? No clue. When he went to search the trunk without permission I told him to call a supervisor. Wasted two hours of time when I was trying to get back to college in NC. I know several other people who have had the same thing happen to them. The Holmdel PD was overstepping their bounds.

Or, it could be that Holder was *gasp* speeding and gave the officers reason to search the car.

“The eyes of the nation and the world are watching Ferguson right now,” Holder told a group of community leaders assembled at a local community college. “The world is watching because the issues raised by the shooting of Michael Brown predate this incident. This is something that has a history to it, and the history simmers beneath the surface in more communities than just Ferguson.” (snip)

The Justice Department is conducting a parallel investigation into possible civil rights violations related to the shooting. In an extraordinary move, he also ordered a federal autopsy — the third forensic examination of the body, which was hit at least six times by gunfire.

How is it possible for Officer Wilson to obtain a fair shake in, at a minimum, the civil rights violations investigation when the US Attorney General is stoking the flames of racial animosity?

Meanwhile, Holder, again, the nation’s top cop, said nothing, at least that was reported, about citizens of Ferguson having their businesses looted and destroyed, about how Officer Wilson was apparently attacked and injured by Brown, about the people who were intimidated and assaulted by Brown when he robbed the convenience store. What the citizens of Ferguson heard was that everything is racist against them, and they have a right to loot and riot. Justice is not blind to Eric Holder during his time as AG.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Hysteric Air Officials Now Looking To Classify E-Cigs As Hazerdous Materials

By William Teach August 20, 2014 – 3:29 pm

Why?

(Yahoo Travel) There is new controversy over the use of electronic cigarettes on airplanes — but this time instead of it being about the health effects of the “vaping” on fellow passengers, it’s about fire safety. After an e-cigarette burned a hole in a passenger’s checked luggage at Logan International Airport in Boston, airport officials are calling for federal officials to classify the devices as hazardous materials, according to The New York Times.

On Saturday, August 9, passengers were evacuated from a JetBlue flight to Buffalo, New York, when baggage handlers smelled smoke. The smoldering bag was removed from the plane and put out with a fire extinguisher. But if the flight had actually taken off, things could have been very different, pointed out Ed Freni, director of aviation with the Massachusetts Port Authority.

The culprit seems to have been an e-cigarette. “The more you see these type of items sold out there, the more our industry has to take a closer look at them, as we’ve done with other hazardous materials,” Freni told The New York Times.

But, wait, there’s a rub

And though the Massachusetts Port Authority blames the e-cigarette for the incident, the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services said the cause had not yet been determined.

Huh. How about that.

Anyhow, let’s stipulate that it was an e-cig that caused this. This was one incident. This could also happen with any device that uses a rechargeable or regular battery. Laptops, phones, cameras, tablets. Flashlights. Electric razors. Adult toys. Everyone needs to relax, take a deep breath, and not over-react.

Remember, though, we still aren’t allowed to profile the people who are the most danger to commercial aviation.

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If All You See…

By William Teach August 20, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…is super wonderful coffee under threat from climate catastrophe, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is American Power, with a post on anti-Semitism at a Code Pink rally.

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NY Times: Climate Change Causes A “Climate Penalty”

By William Teach August 20, 2014 – 11:11 am

Strange that this happens in far left cities

Cities’ Air Problems Only Get Worse With Climate Change

The threats from climate change are many: extreme weather, shrinking snowpack, altered ecosystems and rising and more acidic seas, to name a few. Another lesser-known issue may hit especially close to home for city dwellers. In the world’s already smoggy metropolises, pollution is likely to grow worse, a phenomenon scientists have taken to calling the climate penalty.

Ozone is a key culprit. This lung-damaging compound, often formed from chemical reactions involving sunlight and automobile exhaust and other pollution, plagues major cities around the globe. As the climate heats up, it is projected that more ozone will form in polluted areas on sweltering days.

“You have a hot summer, you’re going to get a lot of ozone,” said Daniel Jacob, a professor of atmospheric chemistry and environmental engineering at Harvard.

Wait, it gets hot in the summer? When did that happen?

Anyhow, there is a simple solution for these polluted liberal bastions: give up your fossil fueled vehicles, replace your airports with solar and wind farms, stop using AC and refrigerators, turn parking lots into farms, and end manufacturing in your cities. And so much more.

But with the threat of a climate penalty looming, of course, added impetus is on the world’s nations to reduce their emissions of air pollutants from factories and motor vehicles.

See? I told you so.

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August 19 Is Now Earth Overshoot Day Or Something

By William Teach August 20, 2014 – 9:18 am

Have you heard about the new awareness day hardcore Warmists are pushing? It’s oh so cute. And nutty. Can’t forget nutty (via Climate Depot)

August 19 is Earth Overshoot Day 2014, marking the date when humanity has exhausted nature’s budget for the year. For the rest of the year, we will maintain our ecological deficit by drawing down local resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We will be operating in overshoot.

Just as a bank statement tracks income against expenditures, Global Footprint Network measures humanity’s demand for and supply of natural resources and ecological services. And the data is sobering. Global Footprint Network estimates that approximately every eight months, we demand more renewable resources and C02 sequestration than what the planet can provide for an entire year.

Earth Overshoot Day is the annual marker of when we begin living beyond our means in a given year. While only a rough estimate of time and resource trends, Earth Overshoot Day is as close as science can be to measuring the gap between our demand for ecological resources and services, and how much the planet can provide.

They have press releases in multiple languages. The English one is here. It’s kinda hard to celebrate the day when they announce it on that day, wouldn’t you say?

Throughout most of history, humanity has used nature’s resources to build cities and roads, to provide food and create products, and to absorb our carbon dioxide at a rate that was well within Earth’s budget. But in the mid-1970s, we crossed a critical threshold: Human consumption began outstripping what the planet could reproduce.

According to Global Footprint Network’s calculations, our demand for renewable ecological resources and the services they provide is now equivalent to that of more than 1.5 Earths. The data shows us on track to require the resources of two planets well before mid-century.

Oh, lord, Malthusian idiocy rears its ugly head.

As Global Footprint Network methodology changes, projections will continue to shift. But every scientific model used to account for human demand and nature’s supply shows a consistent trend: We are well over budget, and that debt is compounding. It is an ecological debt, and the interest we are paying on that mounting debt—food shortages, soil erosion, and the build-up of CO₂ in our atmosphere—comes with devastating human and monetary costs.

Calculate your own personal Ecological Footprint and learn what you can do to reduce it with our Footprint Calculator.

Interestingly, the calculator requires registration in order to proceed. A bit of data mining, eh?

Anyway, there you go, Warmists, you’re killing the planet. Time for you to cut back and Do Your Part to Save Gaia. No more fossil fueled vehicles, no more washing machines, no more ice makers, turn your AC up to 80, grow your own food. No more meat. Come on, do it for our overheating planet.

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Eric Holder Has A Message For The People Of Ferguson

By William Teach August 20, 2014 – 8:43 am

While Attorney General Eric Holder’s message in the St. Louis Dispatch is relatively good, there is something missing

Since the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown, the nation and the world have witnessed the unrest that has gripped Ferguson, Mo. At the core of these demonstrations is a demand for answers about the circumstances of this young man’s death and a broader concern about the state of our criminal justice system.

At a time when so much may seem uncertain, the people of Ferguson can have confidence that the Justice Department intends to learn — in a fair and thorough manner — exactly what happened.

Today, I will be in Ferguson to be briefed on the federal civil rights investigation that I have closely monitored since I launched it more than one week ago. I will meet personally with community leaders, FBI investigators and federal prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to receive detailed briefings on the status of this case.

What about meeting with the police? How about finding out their side of the story? Shouldn’t the police be included in all this?

The full resources of the Department of Justice have been committed to the investigation into Michael Brown’s death. This inquiry will take time to complete, but we have already taken significant steps. Approximately 40 FBI agents and some of the Civil Rights Division’s most experienced prosecutors have been deployed to lead this process, with the assistance of the United States Attorney in St. Louis. Hundreds of people have already been interviewed in connection with this matter. On Monday, at my direction, a team of federal medical examiners conducted an independent autopsy.

One has to wonder at the propriety, and seeming violation of state sovereignty, of the Department of Justice swooping in on what is, essentially, a local issue. Were they invited? Or did they simply decide to make it their business? Don’t misunderstand this as a only criticism of Holder, as this is not the first time the DOJ has jumped in over issues that should be handled at the State level or lower.

The Justice Department will defend the right of protesters to peacefully demonstrate and for the media to cover a story that must be told. But violence cannot be condoned. I urge the citizens of Ferguson who have been peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights to join with law enforcement in condemning the actions of looters, vandals and others seeking to inflame tensions and sow discord.

Interesting. Where is AG Holder in defending the rights of Tea Party groups which were illegally targeted by the Internal Revenue Service? Does he have any investigations into criminal conduct of IRS officials? How about those who are being stonewalled as the IRS has destroyed multiple hard drives?

Anyhow, Holder does do a good job in calling for peace, and for the community and police to work together. Kudos for that.

Meanwhile, Gov Jay Nixon (D) has gone off the reservation

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon made his boldest statement in the shooting death of an unarmed black man on Tuesday, saying a “vigorous prosecution must now be pursued.”

In the statement, Nixon said,”The democratically elected St. Louis County prosecutor and the Attorney General of the United States, each have a job to do. Their obligation to achieve justice in the shooting death of Michael Brown must be carried out thoroughly, promptly, and correctly; and I call upon them to meet those expectations.”

This could potentially taint any investigation, grand jury proceeding, and, if it comes to it, criminal court trial.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Eric Holder Has A Message For The People Of Ferguson »

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