Live by the rules you impose on others, Governor.

So in Virginia, Governor Terry McAuliffe, recently issued an order barring the open carry of firearms in virtually every state building and office in Virginia. In response, a Virginia State Senator has offered up a bill intended to defund the Governor's armed security detail and strip him of his armed State Police bodyguards.

Va. lawmaker wants to defund Gov. McAuliffe's armed guards over gun dispute

“It’s easy for someone who is surrounded by armed state policemen to tell someone else they can’t carry a weapon to protect themselves,” Republican state Sen. Charles W. Carrico Sr. told FoxNews.com.

I like it, even though it probably won't pass. If our elected "public servants" knew that laws imposed on us by them will apply to them too, it would make them consider the consequences of their actions at least a bit more than many do now.

Sadly, Virginia is going to have a rough ride with this guy, a long-time Bill Clinton ally with a history of scandals and corruption that is much longer than his actual public service resume. (He's never held elected office before...he was just a Democrat Party money bundler.) But in this instance, I have to blame a segment of Virginia voters here, specifically the 146,084 fools who, after months of opportunity to study the race and pick the best candidate capable of winning, still decided in 2013 to vote for Robert Sarvis, a Libertarian candidate who, as is turned out, was funded significantly by McAuliffe/Obama cronies who hoped that he'd be a spoiler against conservative Republican Ken Cuccinelli, the former Attorney General who was known for being strongly pro-gun. In the end, McAwful took the race by a slim 56,000 vote margin and the gun rights of VA citizens took a kick in the nuts. Lesson to be learned here: Voting is important, and not voting stupid is really important. But that lesson was apparently lost, because that Sarvis came right back in 2014 and jumped into the VA US Senate race, where he had the same effect: He pulled 53,000 votes away from the actual conservative pro-gun candidate Ed Gillespie and it threw the race to anti-gun Democrat Mark Warner by 16,000 votes statewide. So that was TWO opportunities to elect a pro-gunner to major office and send known bad guys packing, and both were blown by a handful of people who obviously confuse voting with some silly reality TV game because they keep voting for the guy who has no chance of winning and who appears to be only able to afford to run when supported financially by the Democrats.

I weep for Virginia's gun owners. I really do. But I never forget that they keep doing it to themselves.

Another has-been actress seeks attention by trying to whitewash our history

Ah, that poor Julianne Moore. Now that getting old and no one wants to see her stripping on screen any more, she's reduced to stupid publicity stunts like this to try to stay relevant.

Julianne Moore seeks name change for JEB Stuart High School

Cow needs to mind her own business. JEB Stuart was renowned for what he was able to do, not for taking his top off in a few movies. I suppose that she'd prefer the school to be named after some prominent gay activist or perhaps even an illegal alien, but the citizens of VIRGINIA--not Hollywood--chose to name it after Stuart and the decision should be theirs, not hers or her handful of Twitter followers. This PC crap where liberals keep trying to un-write American history needs to stop and stop now.

Shame on me, but this is funny to me.

Apparently down in Chesterfield, Virginia, police tried to arrest Mike November on suspicion of drunk driving. November, who has a lengthy criminal history that includes prior DUI arrests and assaults on police officers, fled from the police. A short chase ensued and November crashed and rolled his car, trapping himself inside. Police officers and firefighters worked to extricate him from the wreck, and it should have ended when they got him out, however November apparently decided to try the police on again and started fighting. This time, however, the fight ended when an officer used a taser to subdue him. Unfortunately for Mike, he seems to have gotten himself soaked with gasoline from the wreck, and when the taser hit him, he went up in flames.

Virginia man catches fire after police use Taser on DUI suspect after crash

I'm sorry. I'm still laughing here. At least one of his family members is already telling the media that "he may have had a bad reputation but he didn't deserve to have this happen to him", but I need to disagree. It didn't "happen" to him--he caused it all himself--every bit of it, He made the choices, including the choices to drive drunk, to run from the police, and to fight the firefighters and cops who were trying to help him despite what he'd already done. Let's face it--some people just aren't cut out to walk the earth with the rest of us, and Mike November may well have punched his own ticket with this dumb stunt. I sympathize with him as far as his injuries, but if he dies, he'll have no one to blame but himself.

Virginia Dem Voters Elect Incarcerated Pedophile To State House

Virginia's Joe Morressey, a disbarred former attorney and Democrat legislator who was recently forced to resign his seat as part of a plea bargain after being charged with molesting a 17-year old intern in his office, just stuck his finger in the court's eye and ran for the same seat, this time as an independent...and Virginia's half-witted electorate just re-elected him despite the fact that he's currently spending every night in the Henrico County Jail as part of his sentence.

Joe Morrissey: A human train wreck that Virginia voters support — and deserve


Can't make this stuff up, folks!

Oh--and he's an avowed anti-gunner too, but then most child molesters tend to fear guns in the hands of the citizenry...probably something to do with not wanting to be shot by a parent of one of their victims when caught in the act.

Seriously, folks...this is what happens when the reality-TV voters all show up at the polls and the responsible voters don't.

Libertarian Voters throw Virginia to the Democrats

The rumors have been out there for weeks but the story broke today confirming them, sadly too late to reach most of the voters. The gist of it: Robert Sarvis, the Libertarian in the race for Virginia Governor, was funded primarily by a big Democrat bundler from Austin, Texas as a spoiler intended to strip votes away from Ken Cuccinelli.

Revealed: Obama Campaign Bundler Helping Fund Libertarian in Tight Va. Gubernatorial Race

And as of this writing, over 120,000 Virginia voters still cast their ballots for the guy. Had that 120,000 voted with the grown-ups, Ken Cuccinelli would have been declared the winner already, repudiating the Dem agenda of higher taxes, gun control, amnesty for illegals and expansion of Obamacare that Dem candidate Terry McAuliffe endorsed.

Be proud, Sarvis voters. You didn't bother to research your candidate so you got rooked by a Dem operative and gave the state to McAuliffe. And because you were so easily gulled and so eager to throw your vote away on an unelectable kid just because he had an "L" after his name, Virginia now has a crooked Dem Governor who his pledged to ban guns and give the state over to the illegals and the unions. You Sarvis voters could have supported a real candidate with a real record supporting conservative causes and fighting for our freedoms, but you had to be edgy and non-conformist (just like all of the other non-conformists) and piss your votes away in this crucial race between good and evil. And because you did nothing, evil won.

And it was so close...so damned close.

Thanks a lot, supporters of the so-called "Libertarian". Now go stand over there with the illegal aliens, the union screechers, the welfare-getters and the gun-haters. Those are your people now and they owe you all a big debt of gratitude; they couldn't have taken Virginia without you.

Yes Virginia, you have a choice to make

Tomorrow is election day in Virginia, and this one is for all the marbles as far as the Governor's race goes.

On one side, there is Ken Cuccinelli. Ken is the state'e Attorney General presently and he's served Virginians well as a steward of their gun rights and as a guardian against the infestation of illegal aliens that is plaguing Virginia and many other states currently. He's been a consistent advocate for lower taxes, smaller government and individual property rights, and he's always been a supporter of the police and veterans. He's been a model conservative in most every way and Virginia and America would be well served by his political ascension in this swing state.

Across from Cuccinelli is the career politician and perpetual scandal known as Terry McAuliffe, a man who first came to prominence as the one who sold overnights in the White House Lincoln Bedroom to Democrat donors in exchange for campaign contributions back during the Clinton Administration. He's been involved in numerous scandals and ethical faux pas over the years and he's gotten rich mainly through back-room deals involving shady companies like Global Crossings and Greentech. I'll leave you to research those because his minions have pretty well sanitized the Wikipedia articles on those scandals. He's a big-government advocate who loves Obamacare (although he refrained from talking about it at his campaign event last night) and he's an unabashed foe of guns and gun owners, bragging about his NRA F rating. (Cuccinelli has an A.) McAuliffe has pledged to end Virginia's status as a "right-to-work" state and open it up to unions who are currently some of his biggest financial backers. He's also all about giving illegals pretty much everything they want as he, like most Democrats, sees them not as criminals or trespassers but as future Democrat voters. A McAuliffe victory would be bad for Virginia and bad for America.

Further complicating matters is a Libertarian wrench in the works named Robert Sarvis. Sarvis is really more liberal than libertarian (even crazy old Ron Paul endorsed Cuccinelli over Sarvis this year) and he's little more than a kid, being still in his 30s. Still, he's reported sucking about 9% of the votes in this close, close race, undeniably harming Cuccinelli more than McAuliffe. Robert Sarvis can't win, but he can take enough votes from Cuccinelli to give the victory to McAuliffe and the forces of evil that have hitched their wagons to his star.

Folks, if you live in Virginia or know someone that does, it's imperative that you get out there for Cuccinelli
and help him carry the day. He needs every vote, and if he doesn't get them, we'll all see Virginia slide from the red column into the blue one, and America can't afford that, much less the people in Virginia. So get out there and vote, and reach out to others who can vote in Virginia, and please--if you know someone who is planning to piss away a vote on that Sarvis kid to "send a message" or for whatever other reason that some people use to justify throwing away a valid vote on an unelectable and unqualified candidate, smack some sense into them and get them to do the right thing for Virginia tomorrow.

This race is important, people. This one's a watershed, and if we don't win it tomorrow, we'll pay for our loss for decades to come.

Clear Prop! Destination: New Market, VA

After being grounded for a couple of weeks by bad weather, I finally caught a break yesterday afternoon and zipped out to the airport for a flight.

Dashboard Dinosaur says "Let's do this!"

But first we had to wait for this Citabria to get out of the way.

I didn't mind, though. I want one. Citabrias, like bow ties, are cool. Note the C-5 in the background.

Houston, we have clouds.

Fortunately the clouds were not storm clouds (yet) so they were not a factor as I flew along below them. They only became a factor when I had to cross a couple of mountain ridges and the clouds were close enough to the mountain tops to be a VFR no-no. So what to do?

Hey, there to the east is Highway 81. 81 goes to New Market. 81 runs through the Shenandoah Valley--no mountains there. So I dropped into the valley over 81 and commenced IFR flying: "I Follow Road". See the North Fork of the Shenandoah River meandering?

Look--a rainbow. Rainbows--like Citabrias and bow ties--are cool.

And here's Woodstock, VA.

Farther on down, I found New Market, VA's little airport. They hid it well between a grove of trees and a chicken farm, but I found it.

Landing at New Market, I found the place to be deserted. So I shoved my plane off into a corner and began to the place out.

Looking around, I found this neat sign that pretty much sums up rural airport operations:

Eventually a fellow rode up on a lawn mower. It was Tommy, the airport worker, who was mowing the lawn down by the hangars. He was a nice guy and when I asked about food within walking distance, he obligingly drove me into town to get a burger. Thanks, Tommy!

Tommy tells me that they do skydiving here. I may just have to come back and do that.

After a while, I took off again and headed east, taking care not to overfly the chicken coops. I did overfly this pond full of cows, though:

It's like a cowcuzzi.

Next, I followed Route 21 through the mountain pass over to Luray.

Made a quick full stop and turn around at Luray just to do it, then took off again, heading back for home.
Here's a dam on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River.

The river again, with mist over the water as it meanders.

Eventually I made it back home at dusk and made my last landing of the night.

And it was a nice, smooth "no dinosaur" landing, meaning that I settled in softly enough not to topple the dashboard dinosaur.

Hey, you've got your standard of excellence, I've got mine, ok?

Anger Counsellor gets a year in prison for pulling gun

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

A respected domestic violence and anger management counselor in Fairfax County was sentenced in federal court on Friday to 12 months in prison for pointing a gun at two deputy U.S. marshals, officials said.

As part of his sentence, Jose L. Avila, 57, will have to undergo anger management of his own.

Avila is a single parent and former priest from Colombia who was highly regarded by judges in the Fairfax Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. Judges and lawyers often referred people to Avila for pretrial or probationary counseling, particularly because he is bilingual.

Avila pleaded guilty on April 13 to charges of assaulting a federal officer.

On Jan. 25, Avila honked his horn at two marshals who had just returned to their cars after completing a witness interview on Americana Drive in Annandale. Avila left the scene after one of the deputy marshals waved him around.

Avila then turned his car around and pointed a loaded gun. The marshals arrested Avila and recovered the firearm after a brief pursuit.

For those who don't recall this deliciously ironic story...

Avila allegedly encountered two deputy U.S. marshals outside an apartment complex on Americana Drive, near Little River Turnpike and the Capital Beltway, at 9 a.m. Jan. 25. In a court affidavit, Deputy Marshal Floriano Whitwell said he and another marshal, Matthew M. Dumas, had been conducting a fugitive investigation and parked their sport-utility vehicles in designated parking places on Americana Drive.

Dumas got out of his vehicle and was standing at the window of Whitwell's vehicle when a white Jeep Cherokee drove up and the driver honked his horn, Whitwell wrote. Dumas, with a marshals service "badge clearly visible hanging from his neck," motioned for the Cherokee to continue past. But then the Cherokee turned around and came back, Whitwell wrote.

The driver appeared to be motioning to Dumas, so the marshal moved closer. Then, Whitwell wrote, Dumas "noticed that Avila was aiming a gun at him. Avila was holding the gun and resting his hand on the top of the door with the driver's window completely open," the affidavit states.

"Gun, gun, gun!" Dumas reportedly yelled to his partner, and Whitwell said he looked up and saw "Avila pointing the dark colored firearm in our direction." Avila drove off, and the marshals pursued him and pulled him over.

The marshals identified themselves and tried to arrest Avila, but he was "uncooperative" and "continued to resist arrest and refused to give me his hand which was under his body," Whitwell wrote. The marshals feared that a gun was beneath Avila, and they used "U.S. Marshals Service defensive tactics to eventually apprehend Avila," Whitwell said.

Found on Avila's seat, Whitwell alleges, was a 9mm Astra A-90 pistol loaded with 14 hollow-point bullets. Once out of his vehicle, Avila reportedly apologized profusely and said he had "never done anything like this before," the affidavit said.

Of course when he got to court, he denied it all. The magistrate found probable cause to charge him though, and ordered him held as he was both a flight risk (he's Columbian) and a potential danger to the community.

State records show that Avila has been a licensed professional counselor since 1994 and a licensed marriage and family therapist since 1998.

Avila should have kept his temper in check. He should have been cool, like this:

Now that's cool.

Subverting the rights and desires of the people, Democrat-style

Now you might not guesss it from this blog, but I'm really an independent politically. I will vote for Democrats or Republicans as long as the candidate is true to my belief in small, limited government and the Constitution.

Stuff like this does not exactly endear me to the Democrat Party however:

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) ― Senate Democrats have found a way to block passage of several bills to loosen the state's gun laws.

Senate Courts of Justice Committee Chairman Henry Marsh on Monday announced the creation of a subcommittee to handle bills concerning guns and other issues. The subcommittee is stacked with four anti-gun Democrats and one Republican.

Democrats hold a 10-5 majority in the full committee, but at least three party members regularly vote with Republicans on pro-gun legislation. That means bills such as repealing Virginia's one-gun-a-month law or exempting guns made in Virginia from federal law were more likely to have passed without creation of the subcommittee.

Republicans complained, saying allowing the subcommittee to kill bills would be "contrary to our traditions."

So because the people of Virginia want new pro-gun legislation enacted and old anti-gun legislation repealed, and because they've got legislators willing to write the bills and possibly even enough supporters in both parties of the legislature to pass them, the Democrat Party leadership that now controls the Virginia legislature has found a way to just kill it all regardless of how many citizens want it or how many legislators are willing to vote for it--they created a new senate subcommittee with five member just for pro-gun legislation and they staffed it with four anti-gun Democrats and one token Republican.

That, to be frank, is total bullshit. And it's why I have such a fundamental problem with the Democrat Party. They have indicated time and time again that the desires of the majority don't matter...if the majority want something other than what they, the Dem leadership want.

Anger counselor points gun at police officers in parking dispute

Seriously, you just can't make stuff like this up.

A respected domestic violence and anger management counselor in Fairfax County was arraigned in federal court Thursday after he allegedly pulled a gun on two men who he believed were blocking his car on an Annandale street last week.

The two men were federal marshals.

Jose L. Avila, 57, was ordered held without bond pending a detention hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. He has been held in the Fairfax jail since Jan. 25, when he apparently picked the wrong place and time to complain about thoughtless parking.

Avila allegedly encountered two deputy U.S. marshals outside an apartment complex on Americana Drive, near Little River Turnpike and the Capital Beltway, at 9 a.m. Jan. 25. In a court affidavit, Deputy Marshal Floriano Whitwell said he and another marshal, Matthew M. Dumas, had been conducting a fugitive investigation and parked their sport-utility vehicles in designated parking places on Americana Drive.

Dumas got out of his vehicle and was standing at the window of Whitwell's vehicle when a white Jeep Cherokee drove up and the driver honked his horn, Whitwell wrote. Dumas, with a marshals service "badge clearly visible hanging from his neck," motioned for the Cherokee to continue past. But then the Cherokee turned around and came back, Whitwell wrote.

The driver appeared to be motioning to Dumas, so the marshal moved closer. Then, Whitwell wrote, Dumas "noticed that Avila was aiming a gun at him. Avila was holding the gun and resting his hand on the top of the door with the driver's window completely open," the affidavit states.

"Gun, gun, gun!" Dumas reportedly yelled to his partner, and Whitwell said he looked up and saw "Avila pointing the dark colored firearm in our direction." Avila drove off, and the marshals pursued him and pulled him over.

The marshals identified themselves and tried to arrest Avila, but he was "uncooperative" and "continued to resist arrest and refused to give me his hand which was under his body," Whitwell wrote. The marshals feared that a gun was beneath Avila, and they used "U.S. Marshals Service defensive tactics to eventually apprehend Avila," Whitwell said.

Found on Avila's seat, Whitwell alleges, was a 9mm Astra A-90 pistol loaded with 14 hollow-point bullets. Once out of his vehicle, Avila reportedly apologized profusely and said he had "never done anything like this before," the affidavit said. When he appeared with the marshals before a Fairfax magistrate, he claimed that he had pointed a cellphone, not a gun, at the marshals, Whitwell wrote.

The magistrate charged Avila with attempted malicious assault, brandishing a firearm, using a firearm in a felony and resisting arrest. Fairfax prosecutors dismissed those charges Wednesday after U.S. Magistrate Ivan D. Davis issued a warrant for assault on a federal officer, and Avila was transferred to federal custody Thursday.

Court records show that Avila has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, issued in 2005. Fairfax prosecutors moved Wednesday to suspend that. State records show that Avila has been a licensed professional counselor since 1994 and a licensed marriage and family therapist since 1998.

Funny story, but my gripe now is how this touchy-feely "anger counselor" manages to give the rest of us law-abiding gun owners a ton of bad press. Way to go, Jackass.

Well the elections are over.

Virginia just saw a massive rout of Democrats and is now a red state again after electing a new GOP Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney general and several new GOP Delegates. Bob McDonnell is the new Governor after positively trouncing Democrat Creigh Deeds, who basically just ran a months-long smear campaign against McDonnell which grew so tiresome that even Obama backed away from him, fearful of going down with his sinking ship.

New Jersey was even sweeter. A solid blue state just went red with the defeat of incumbent Democrat Governor Jon Corzine and his replacement by Republican Chris Christie, who picked up the support of many of the state's independent voters who had backed Obama just a year ago, and this despite Obama practically living in New Jersey these past two weeks, begging those people to vote for Corzine.

Smack. That's going to sting for a while.

The only sour note was the loss of Doug Hoffman by a narrow margin up in NY-23. He was the solid conservative who came from nowhere in the last month to unseat the GOP's hand-pick for the open seat, Dede Scozzafava, a liberal with ties to the labor unions and ACORN who was running as a Republican with the support of the state and national Republican parties. And when Hoffman pulled ahead of her in the polls due to the grass-roots support of many of us across the country, Scozzafava showed her true colors by dropping out and endorsing the Democrat, Bill Owens, basically slapping the GOP hard after they gave her over a million dollars in campaign funds. But that's gratitude for ya.

And it's noteworthy that Owens only trumped Hoffman by about five percentage points, while Scozzafava still received six percent of the vote despite not being in the race on election day. Bascially, she still siphoned off enough GOP votes to keep Hoffman out of that seat and thhat seat in GOP hands, and that's without figuring in the number of her supporters who actually did as she did and cast sour grapes votes for Owens. But I congratulate Doug Hoffman for his run and his impressive climb in the polls, and I only hope that the GOP learns a lesson--we don't want RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) representing our party. Personally I'd rather see a Democrat in a seat than a Republican who votes with the Dems on the issues. But now it just remains to make Scozzafava pay and pay big for her treachery. She needs to hit the unemployment line, never to darken the door of a GOP event again.

But we still won two of the big three races last night, and to quote Meatloaf: Two out of three ain't bad.

Why I despise so-called bounty hunters.

This story out of Bristol, VA pretty much spells it out.

Three bona-fide losers grab an innocent woman up, thinking that she's wanted and they can cash in. They assault her, rob her, molest her, and finally take her to the local jail, where it takes the jail staff just a few minutes to determine that she's not the wanted woman.

BRISTOL, Va. – A woman accused of skipping bond was handcuffed, sexually assaulted during a strip search and hauled off to jail Oct. 9. But the three who arrested her were only masquerading as drug task force agents.

On top of that, police said, the fake agents nabbed the wrong woman and passed her to a bail bondsman in the hopes of receiving a reward.

The bondsman then took the woman to the Bristol Virginia Jail, where she was immediately freed because jailers quickly discerned her true identity.

“She clearly had identification to clearly show she wasn’t the person in question,” Bristol Police Detective Sgt. Steven Crawford said Thursday.

Charges of abduction, robbery, impersonating a law enforcement officer, conspiracy and sexual battery were filed against the two men and a woman who staged the false arrest, Crawford said.

Officers arrested Donna Fitzwater, of Bristol, Tenn., and Dwayne Peters, of Greeneville, Tenn., on Thursday. They continue to search for Stacy Herndon, of Lebanon, Va.

A fourth person – Doug Roller, of Bristol, Va. – is being charged as an accessory, Crawford said, based on accusations that Roller lured the woman to Mumpower Park in Bristol, Va., so the trio could corral her.

“They ran out with badges in their hands and they’re screaming ... drug task force,” Crawford said.

The detective said the trio hoped to receive a reward from bail bondsman J.C. Mullins, of Abingdon Bail Bonds, after he had distributed a photo of a woman he’d bonded out of jail and who had skipped a court appearance.

Contacted late Thursday, Mullins said: “I’m not ready to talk about it right now.”

Mullins was the subject of several recent Bristol Herald Courier stories that detailed how his son, a former magistrate named John C. “Tiny” Mullins III, falsified bail bond documents to hide questionable dealings between the two.

The father is now under investigation by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, which licenses bail bondsmen and women.

The son, Tiny Mullins, was fired from the magistrate’s office and is under investigation by a special prosecutor.

Crawford said Fitzwater, Herndon and Peters set out to find the girl shown in the picture.

“This girl [who was abducted], to me, they don’t even look alike,” Crawford said.

The woman and her friend were pulled from their car and handcuffed in the park. Several hundred dollars were confiscated from the woman, who then was subjected to a full-body cavity search for hidden drugs.

That TV show poser Duane "The Dog" Chapman and his fat wife have really made it seem cool to be a bounty hunter--someone who is not a police officer but who goes out and nabs criminals that some idiot bondsman bailed out of jail. Thanks to that show, every third zero suffering from "wanna-be" syndrome thinks that they can go out and just start rounding up criminals. Of course these people aren't police officers, and most of them could never pass the background checks and psychological examinations needed to become one. I have encountered several of them in my earlier life, and every one of them seemed to possess the following things:
1. police equipment that they were not entitled to have, from marked body armor to badges.
2. weapons that they could not lawfully carry on their persons or in their vehicles.
3. drugs and/or a criminal history.
4. an attitude that they could get away with anything because they were "bounty hunters".

An awful lot of these tools wind up in jail when they come to the attention of the real police, as they should. The industry is unregulated, there are no licensing or training requirements for these fools, and anyone can call themselves a bounty hunter, even convicted felons like Chapman, who never seems to mention on his show that all of the fugitives he chases were bailed out of jail by his fat, loud-mouthed wife.

To say that I despise these people as a class is an understatement. I have yet to meet one who wasn't a self-impressed whack-job who posed at least some threat to the general public. These three are no exception and they serve as the latest example of why the state of Virginia (and every other state) should establish criteria for who can be a bail recovery agent (the proper term for bounty hunter), what their training must consist of, and what their powers and limitations are.

In the meantime, I hope that these three are sued right out of their trailers, and the bondsman that they were working for is stripped of his license as well. as the story indicates, he's hardly on the up-and-up his own self.

Back in the saddle

Many of you know by now that the reason that this blog went a few days without being updated was because I went down to Roanoke, VA and accompanied Roanoke Cop as he policed that city and kept the good people safe for another night.

We started out with a run to deal with a baby's daddy who was threatening the presumed mother of his child with a knife. Before we got there, he loaded up several bags of toys and clothes for the baby and ran away with them. We weren't able to find him, but we did recover the stuff that he took as he ditched it in his flight from the forces of justice (us). It was nice watching Roanoke Cop hand her back the stuff and hearing her express genuine gratitude as she told us that there would have been no Christmas for the baby without that stuff.

Of course that was Wednesday night and the guy's probably sitting up in her apartment again even as you read this...

We rolled on an armed robbery next, were a couple of knuckleheads ripped off a pizza delivery guy at gunpoint and stole two pizzas, the hot bag, and a wallet containing six dollars from the delivery guy. Other units happened to see suspects matching the description of the robbers duck into a nearby house while discarding two empty pizza boxes--pizza boxes which had the address that the delivery man had been taking the pizzas to. We helped set up a perimeter around the house as other officers made contact with the woman who lived there. She got all ghetto girl and refused to allow her house to be searched, but based on the pizza boxes and the suspects inside who matched the description of the robbers, a search warrant was requested and everyone in the house detained until the warrant could be obtained and executed. When we went home hours later, the officers on scene were still cataloging firearms and items believed stolen that they found inside. This great piece of police work by the Roanoke cops will probably close out several previously-reported burglaries and robberies and put a few serious creeps behind bars for a spell.

After this, we rolled on another armed robbery where four guys with guns had ambushed a guy outside of his residence and relieved him of $400 cash. Roanoke Cop was lead on this one and he quickly obtained all of the relevant information despite the fact that neither the victim or his friends spoke any English. He then called for K-9 to track the robbers and we ran through yards and brush as we accompanied the K-9 officer and his German Shepherd on the track for a bit, but alas, the trail ran out and the criminals were not bitten, shot or otherwise brought to justice...not yet, anyway.

We made a few traffic stops but didn't turn up anything, and we eventually ran up against the end of his shift and logged off without arresting anyone or stopping any green pick-up trucks.

We did, however, have a nice dinner courtesy of his sergeant (much cooler than most sergeants I've had, just for that) and we talked to Liz up in Alaska on the phone for a bit, and that's always a pleasure.

But it felt good to get back out there and do some real police work again, even if only as an observer, and it gave me a chance to try out different feet throughout the night to see which one worked best in different situations. (If you look at his blog, you'll see part of me with my running foot, which worked quite well for basic patrol stuff even though I'm not supposed to do anything but run with it.)

And we also kept the citizens of the city safe. Neither al Qeada terrorists, Outlaw bikers or Japanese ninjas caused any trouble in Roanoke that night. Apparently they heard that RC and I would be rolling together and decided to go do something else because we couldn't find any of them on the streets all night.

Well to be fair, they could have been riding around in a green pick-up truck...

Military votes rejected, felon votes courted in Virginia

In Fairfax, Virginia, the county Registrar is rejecting absentee ballots sent in from military members abroad, in effect, disenfranchising many of our most patriotic, self-sacrificing citizens...the ones who truly earned the right to vote.

With the back of the same hand, Fairfax County is also registering inmates in the county jail to vote and Virginia has restored the right to vote to almost six thousand convicted felons, inviting each of them to step up and have a say in what sort of government we'll have and what type of laws that we'll live under. ("Hey, you guys want drug-dealing decriminalized and more gun-control laws that will keep your victims from shooting you? Just come on out and vote for Obama!")

Not only is this a travesty on multiple levels, but Virginia is one of the crucial battleground states that may determine who becomes our next president.

If it comes right down to it, who would you rather have making that choice: Our honorable soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who have put their lives on the line for this country, or a bunch of crack dealers, murderers, rapists and child molesters?

Keep in mind that the military vote is always overwhelmingly Republican and the convicted felon vote is even more heavily weighted towards the Democrats, and you can see how important this issue is in one of the few undecided states in our nation.

Credit to apackof2 for the tip.

Millionaire Virginia developer lies to shut down area hunters

Well today's Washington Post had an interesting story about a guy who is apparently quite proud of himself for falsely registering for a local hunting blind just to keep real hunters from using it.

Larry Hirsch got so fed up watching ducks get shot out of the sky that he hatched a plan to get rid of the hunter who hunkered down in the duck blind behind his Fairfax County home. He's not a hunter, but Hirsch acquired the right to build the only duck blind allowed in that spot on the Potomac River.

Hirsch, 55, went out a few times and fired his shotgun, pretending to duck hunt and thereby fulfilling the requirement of his license.

The plan worked, because Hirsch's landowner rights trumped those of the hunter, who had licensed the empty spot, and he was pushed out of his duck blind at least for a year.

And before you shed any tears for Hirsch, the paper lets us know that he's hardly poverty-stricken.

A contractor, he has built four large houses on the block; the most recent is listed at $3.6 million, he said. All look out on the blind.

So a multi-millionaire is miffed because he built houses that look out on an already-existing duck blind that average people use. That's probably what really galls him. He has to see the great unwashed proletariats who committed the unpardonable sin of being there first.

Of course he shrugs it off for the story.

"These days, I spend more and more of my time in the winter in the Caribbean," he said, "so it doesn't bother me that much."

I guess that's why you went to all the trouble to claim the blind in the first place, eh Larry? That last dismissive statement tends to support the view that it's not the hunting that he hates...it's all those commoners so near his estate. Interesting fellow, that J Lawrence Hirsch.

Well five minutes' worth of internet browsing told me quite a bit more about Mr. Hirsch. He's a democrat who regularly donates thousands of dollars to that party under his own name, his wife's name, or that of his real estate development firm and it seems that he lives in a very upscale, multi-million dollar neighborhood the likes of which most of us will never be able to afford to live in. When not pretending to be a hunter just to bump real hunters from the duck blinds, he's a real estate developer under the name of Federal City Group Inc., which he runs from his mansion at 7615 Southdown Road in Alexandria. His phone number is(703) 765-5544 if you want to ring him up and ask--politely, of course--if he won't mind if you put in to use that blind this year. It's actually in a nice spot--one of the very few places where the average Joe or Jane can try to bag a duck in Fairfax these days. Google map the address and choose satellite view. on the close-in zoom you'll see the blind just to the northeast of Hirsch's mansion.

VCDL zealots making things harder for everyone in Virginia

The patrons at Champps in Reston, an upscale restaurant and bar chain, were eating ribs and drinking beer on a recent Saturday when customer Bruce Jackson stood up and made an announcement: He was armed, and so were dozens of other patrons.

The armed customers stood up in unison, showing off holstered pistols. Mr. Jackson said a word or two about the rights of gun owners to carry firearms in Virginia, then thanked everyone for his or her attention and sat down.

And the diners returned to their burgers and Budweisers.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) organized the dinner at Champps to prove a point: that the presence of armed customers in Northern Virginia restaurants would elicit little more than shrugs.

So goes this story taken from today's Washington Times.

And as a long-time gun owner and advocate of every law-abiding citizen's right to carry a concealed firearm for self-defense, I read stories like this, shake my head, and resolve once more never to give VCDL a penny when I see them begging for cash at local gun shows.

Now you'd think that as a gun guy, I'd support this sort of nonsense. But I don't. I don't support stupid publicity stunts designed around efforts to make other people uncomfortable, which this sort of thing does. I'm also very, very leery of the sort of person who feels a need or desire to walk around with their gun in plain view, knowing and hoping that everyone else will see it. First of all, I question the motives of people who do that. What I see is someone who gets off on projecting power and intimidating others, and I don't equate that sort of conduct with responsible gun ownership. Now for the record, I have the ability to carry a firearm concealed and I usually exercise that right and have a pistol on my person when I'm out and about. But unlike the VCDL yahoos, no one will ever know that I have one because I keep it concealed. And I do this because, aside from the fact that it's in very bad taste to show everyone your gun, it's also tactically unsound and a good way to get killed.

You see, when people properly conceal firearms, not only does the general public not know that a person has one, but criminals don't know, and not only does that uncertainly keep the bad guys wondering and perhaps dissuade a few of them from trying to rob a person or a business where there are multiple people present, but it puts a big target right on the back of the head of the guy who is so stupid as to let the criminals know that he's the armed guy. If I was a criminal planning to rob a bank, and I walked in and saw some joker standing in line with a holstered pistol on his hip, I'd be about as likely to start the robbery out by shooting him as I would be to just leave. You see, Joe Schmoe with a gun isn't on the same level as a uniformed police officer in the eyes of the criminal world, even if Joe S. does feel like he's as big and bad as any cop who ever wore a badge. Joe's just target #1, and since the criminal's gun is probably concealed, Joe doesn't even know. The only one who still has the element of surprise is the criminal, unless of course there is another law-abiding gun owner there who has their firearm lawfully concealed because he or she is smarter and more tactical than Joe.

And my last objection is perhaps the most troubling. Right now, the VCDL extremists are acting under Virginia law, which basically allows anyone who can own a gun to carry it unconcealed. Concealed weapons permits on the other hand are routinely denied to people who have criminal histories which, while they are not a complete bar to firearms ownership, indicate that the person might not have the judgment or maturity necessary to carry that gun in public. Examples of such crimes are Drunk Driving convictions, misdemeanor drug convictions, assault or theft crimes which were only prosecuted as or pled down to misdemeanors, and pretty much any other crime which only led to a misdemeanor conviction. There's a lot of room there and under the law, people who have been convicted of one or a number of misdemeanors can still own guns and carry them openly, but they don't qualify for a concealed weapons permit due to the high standards used in issuing those. Since it's common sense that most everyone who wants to carry a gun would prefer to have a concealed weapons permit, it follows that many of the people who carry guns openly are people who could not get a concealed weapons permit and a criminal history is the most obvious reason. Therefore, when I see someone carrying a gun on his hip in plain view and trying to look like he's some badass right off the stagecoach from Deadwood or Tombstone, I assume that he's a petty criminal who couldn't meet the strict requirements for a concealed weapons permit and I'm on my guard. I don't view that person as an ally or anyone that I intend to rely on if things go bad the way that I would a concealed weapons permit holder. I'm uncomfortable around them precisely because I suspect that this person couldn't get a permit to lawfully conceal that gun. And when they do the "hey look at me" crap that VCDL continues to stage (in conjunction with phone calls to the media), all that does is reinforce my opinion that it's not about safety or gun rights but a quest for attention and a desire to intimidate others.

So VCDL, my advice is for you guys to give it a rest. Stop shooting yourself in the foot and quit selling your credibility out just to benefit a small number of Walter Mitty wanna-be's and petty ne'er-do-wells.

Yay! More good news! Scumbag Brian Kennedy pleads guilty

This is nice news to come back to, even though I would have liked to have seen him tried and convicted on all counts (then executed).

Brian Kennedy, the pothead from Fairfax, VA who cared more about being a buddy to his psychotic cop-murdering kid than he did about being a parent pled guilty to two charges revolving around the weapons he gave his son and the marijuana that he smoked and gave his son. Sadly that have not charged his wife Margaret, who was equally guilty in my opinion. Both of them sucked as parents and human beings and two good police officers died because of it.

From the Washington Post:

The two charges each carry a maximum 10-year prison sentence. But both sides agreed that federal sentencing guidelines suggest a range of 37 to 46 months in prison.

The original indictment alleged that Brian Kennedy smoked marijuana with his son and his son's teenage friends and that Michael Kennedy's mother, Margaret, took the teens to a shooting range to practice firing assault rifles. Michael Kennedy referred to the AK-47-style gun his father had bought as "his gun," the indictment said, even showing friends how to use it. That gun was one of the weapons the teenager had with him when he left home the afternoon of the police station shooting.

Brian Kennedy's attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, said his client had not returned to his family's home, where he lived with his wife, daughter and son until May 8 of last year, "because of the memories of the loss of his son, who was spiraling into insanity and did this horrible thing."

Shapiro called the episode "a tragedy for everybody involved" but said Brian Kennedy "is paying a huge price for, in essence, being a smoker of marijuana and owning firearms, which he did do. He was in no way responsible for the deaths of the officers, and he grieves for them as he does the death of his son."

And you'd better believe that I disagree with their attorney's last statement. Brian Kennedy was as responsible as if he's pulled into that lot and began firing himself. Both parents were. They knew what their kid was capable of, and Margaret was there when he carjacked the owner of the stolen van that he drove to the assault, according to some police sources of mine, and she actually begged the van's owner not to call the police!




Entire Washington Post article

Virginia's new fines against worst drivers seem to be working

As of July 3rd this year, the Commonwealth of Virginia enacted a new fine schedule that really hits the worst drivers hard in the pocket. People convicted of serious offenses such as drunk driving, reckless driving, and driving on a suspended license face hundred or even thousand of dollars in new fines in an effort to raise tax money for new road work while shifting the burden onto those who pose the greatest risk to other citizens.

I love and applaud this. Contrary to the lies spread by it's critics, it doesn't affect people who commit "minor" infractions like basic speeding, running red lights, not wearing seat belts, etc. It only punishes those who commit the more serious wrongs or those who ring up a significant number of lesser offenses. (People with a lot of negative points on their license face new fees at renewal time as well.)

One such offender caught recently was Jessica Hodges, profiled in today's Washington Post. Jessica was stopped and cited for driving 57 mph in a 35 mph zone. That's Reckless Driving in VA and the new fine will sock her for an additional $1050.00 on top of the regular $100 violation fee. If I had any sympathy at all for Jessica, it disappeared when I read the story. Apparently she was having what she thought were labor pains so she jumped in the car and raced off to the hospital. She wasn't in labor of course and I suspect that it was probably a convenient lie made up on the spot when she got stopped. When I worked as a cop, I heard them all, including that one. So she went to court and rather predictably lost when she admitted that she was speeding and claimed that her being pregnant was more important than obeying the law.
Yeah, ok Jessica...tell that to the parents of the kid you mow down while speeding along. After all, the only thing that should matter in life is you, right?

She then whines that now her husband will have to work overtime to pay for her ticket. Well to be honest, he should be working overtime anyway if he's responsible for a family. The fact that he apparently does not do so now doesn't really impress me, nor does the fact that Jessica apparently had enough time on her hands to call up the Post's reporters then go sit in her car with her baby and pose for pictures.

But enough about that immature (and unattractive) woman. I want to commend Virginia for taking the lead in road safety and I support them in their efforts to enact and defend this policy which puts the financial burden where it should go--on the backs of the worst drivers alone.

Illegal Aliens mock us in Virginia

If this doesn't frost you, then you might need a check-up from the neck up.

A story in Sunday's Washington Post about illegal aliens and the new "harsh" ordinances in Prince William County designed to identify and remove illegals had this quote from an admitted scumbag illegal alien named Adrian Escobar who actually works on a State road project:

"They're talking about this in Jefferson County, in Clarke, all the way to West Virginia," Adrian Escobar said in Spanish, sipping from a Big Gulp cup outside a pupusa kiosk on Route 1. He and his brother Antonio dashed across the border from Mexico nearly 15 years ago and have been in the United States illegally since. They live in Winchester and make $17 an hour as flagmen for a Virginia Department of Transportation subcontractor.

The Escobar brothers shrugged at all the fretting they'd been hearing from other Hispanics last week, including workers who commute to Prince William to do its grunt work. "Who else is going to pave the roads here?" Adrian asked, cracking up with laughter. "An American? Ha!"

Antonio said he wasn't fazed. "If you're afraid, they'll just intimidate you more," he said. Besides, he added, the brothers have a plan in case Prince William police and immigration officials send them home for a "free vacation" to their father's farm in Guanajuato.

"We'll be right back here in a month," Antonio said.

OK. First of all, someone from ICE needs to identify the contractor who is illegally paying Antonio and his criminal brother. The contractor needs to be fined and/or jailed and barred from any government contracts for a number of years. Next, Antonio and his brother need to be deported, but not before they spend a year in a labor camp on our southern border, working from sunup until sundown on the border fence that needs to be put up immediately.

Failing that, Antonio and his brother should learn firsthand that it's not so easy to sneak back into our country if you get deported with a couple of broken kneecaps.
It may sound mean but tough problems call for tough solutions.

And Antonio, before you mock Americans, you might want to look at what a shithole your country (Mexico) is. Americans wouldn't create such a mess or tolerate those conditions. When you can really do better and not just steal from us, then maybe you can talk trash.

Some long overdue justice finally starts coming in the case of two murdered police officers

This story in today's Washington Post made me proclaim "It's about damned time!"

Brian Kennedy of Centreville, Virginia was arrested yesterday on eight charges that revolved around drug possession, illegal weapons possession by a drug user, lying on the federal form 4473 used to purchase guns, and providing drugs and guns to his whack-job 18 year old mental patient son Michael Kennedy, who used some of those guns back in May, 2006 to attack and murder Officer Michael Garbarino and Detective Vicky Armel, two decorated Fairfax County police officers in the Sully Station department parking lot.

According to the indictment unsealed yesterday in federal court, Brian Kennedy smoked marijuana with his son and his son's teenage friends and that Michael Kennedy's mother, Margaret, took the teens to a shooting range to practice firing assault rifles.

The story goes on to say that authorities also found guns, marijuana and drug paraphernalia throughout the family's home, and the indictment quotes Brian Kennedy as telling a friend that the 7.8 grams of marijuana police found in a wooden box in the living room was "chump change."

The shooting:

On the afternoon of May 8, Michael Kennedy donned camouflage-style clothes, kneepads, a ski mask and a vest loaded with more than 300 rounds of ammunition, police said. He walked out of the Centreville townhouse where he lived with his parents, carjacked a white van and drove about a mile to the rear parking lot of the police station.

Garbarino and Armel had just walked outside. Garbarino was getting ready to leave with his family on vacation the next day; Armel was going out to investigate the carjacking that Kennedy had just committed. Kennedy fired 20 shots into Garbarino's car, hitting him five times. He died nine days later.

Officer Richard A. Lehr Jr. then picked up a pistol and exchanged gunfire with Kennedy, hitting him once in the upper body. At some point, Armel began firing at Kennedy, and the teen fired back with both of his rifles. She was struck in the chest and killed. Two officers who heard Garbarino's calls for help, Mark P. Dale and Detective Jeffrey W. Andrea, shot and killed Kennedy.

I remember this well as I worked for another agency nearby. These Fairfax officers were my peers and we'd occasionally provided mutual aid to each other. I did not personally know the two murdered officers but I will never forget their funerals, both of which were attended by thousands of our law enforcement brothers and sisters from all across the country. And it didn't take long for word to get out to those of us left behind about how deeply involved in this both of the killer's parents were. We learned how the day of the killings, Michael Kennedy had run out of the family house with guns and his parents did not call the police. We heard that when he carjacked his first victim, Momma Margaret Kennedy pulled up and unsuccessfully tried to talk the victim out of calling the police. This is the same Margaret Kennedy that took her mental patient son and his friends to gun ranges so that they could shoot AK-47 clone assault rifles. Of course later she tearfully claimed that she and her husband had been trying to get help for their killer spawn, but I have to wonder what kind of "help" she was looking for at the gun range when she took him and his buddies there,knowing that he was a head case but pandering to him and his sick desires all the same.

Less than two weeks after Margaret Kennedy took this little bastard to the gun range and signed a waiver allowing him to shoot because he was a juvenile at that time, his dad Brian went back to that range and reportedly bought the AK-47 clone rifle for his then seventeen year old son and gave it to him. This was one of the guns that the punk used to murder my fellow officers just a year later.

We all knew that things weren't right when we heard how Brian and Margaret Kennedy immediately refused to cooperate with investigating officers, and when we'd learned that they'd refused to allow officers into their home or show officers the guns four months before the murders when they arrived to investigate Michael Kennedy's using one of the guns to shoot the family dog inside the house. These parents were both up to their eyes in this and bear just as much blame for the deaths of my fellows as their dead punk son. They apparently decided long ago that they'd rather be his pal then be his parents, so rather than discipline him and work to keep him on the right track, Brian Kennedy bought drugs and assault weapons for his mentally disturbed spawn and even smoked the dope with him, while Margaret took him to shooting ranges and later did her best to obstruct the police investigations. I hope that she gets charged eventually too, and I hope that both of them spend decades behind bars and lose their home and everything else that they own. It won't bring Mike and Vicky back, but it'll move the karmic scale a bit closer to the balance point again.

I hope that all three Kennedys rot in Hell.






TRUST FUND FOR THE FAMILIES OF OFFICER GARBARINO AND DETECTIVE ARMEL