Written by: Beck

New York police recently shot a woman in what's being termed a "stabbing incident." Long story short: crazy lady stabs her neighbor 8 times with a big honking cooking knife, cops come to the scene, tell her to drop the knife, she came at them, and the cop shot her twice.

Sounds relatively normal right?

Oh, I left out one detail. The woman was 65 years old.

Officers shot and killed a 65-year-old woman after they said she stabbed her neighbor at least eight times in an apparent dispute over the woman's cat, and then refused their orders to drop her knife.

[...] The officers found Padula, 59, bleeding profusely and pleading for help just inside the door of her apartment. As one of the officers went to her aid, Lindboe [the crazy old lady] flung open the door of the apartment across the hall and brandished the knife over her head with both hands, police said.

The officer tried to retreat and civilian witnesses heard him shout, "Police! Drop the knife! Drop the knife!"

But Lindboe continued to move toward the officer, knife still raised, prompting him to fire two shots, police said. One shot hit her in the chest.

Tell me something. Am I being unreasonable in assuming that a New York police officer should be able to disarm a 65 year old lady without shooting her a couple times?

Now, I can understand that standard police procedure when being attacked by a knife wielding maniac is to just drop the person. Attempts at disarming and/or wounding can simply lead to severe injury to the officer. But if a cop can't see clear to bending the rules a bit when it comes to a sixty-five year old lady, then that cop hasn't sufficient mental faculty to be making the sort of life-or-death decisions which come with the territory of wearing a gun on your hip as an agent of the state.

Did I mention that it was a 65 year old lady?

The officer involved should be ashamed, and his actions are a disgrace to the New York police.

Written by: Anonymous

The headline for this article: "Man Shot by Cheney Leaving Hospital"

OK, at first I believed them when they said this was all just an unfortunate hunting accident. But now the V.P. shoots some poor guy leaving the hospital. This is getting out of hand.

Written by: Anonymous

Right now the United States has about 150,000 troops in harm's way trying to accomplish the incredibly difficult task of bringing democracy to unprepared Islamic populations. Despite the odds against success, the Bush administration believes the stakes are high enough and the options few enough that it's worth the gamble. Still, no one will deny now that this is by far the most difficult component of our defense strategy.

That's why I am just flabbergasted by our inability to do some of the simpler things at home that would also significantly improve our security. I am particularly astonished by the sale of our ports to the UAE, an Islamic country where a large proportion of the population sympathises with terrorism. Somehow the U.S. can muster the will to attempt dramatic transformations abroad at huge national expense, but we can't even make simple decisions at home like prohibiting our ports from being sold to countries filled with terrorists and terrorist sympathisers.

I know what the first counter argument is - we need the UAE's cooperation in tracking down terrorists in their own country and don't want to alienate them. But how effective can the UAE really be in eliminating the terrorist elements within their own country? Does anyone really think that the UAE will eliminate all the terrorists and sympathisers embedded in its population, and does anyone really think that none of these individuals are working for the huge firm that will be running America's ports? What is the worse outcome, to have less cooperation from the UAE in tracking down terrorists within the UAE, or to hand over America's ports to a country where over 80% of the people oppose our policies on terrorism.

I know some people would now point out that it is not just Middle Eastern countries where there are terrorists embedded in the population. After all a British company is currently running the ports and July 7th proved that there are more than enough terrorists within Britain. OK, fine then, how about this - let's have an American company run our ports. But that would be too easy, wouldn't it?

Written by: Anonymous

The French Foreign Minister has come out with an unequivocable statement that France believes Iran is pursuing nuclear technology for military means. Britain is backing this statement, and Germany seems to support it as well.

This is good news right? It means Europe is finally starting to get serious about the threat from Iran, right? Isn't it the silver lining on the big grey cloud of Iran's nuclear program?

Well, I don't think so. Consider this: Here we are with the question of Iran's intent pretty much settled. No one's denying (other than Iran) that this is a program bent on aquiring nuclear weapons. And the reaction is.. (drumroll)

America: 'We're very concerned but we'll continue to give diplomacy a chance'
Europe: 'Let's not talk about military options, we're going to solve this problem diplomatically'
Russia and China: 'We're very concerned about all this - that is, we're very concerned that America might approach this problem militarily, which is an idea we're very opposed to'

So, personally, I think this is a big black lining on the grey cloud. Even when Europe acknowledges the incredible threat that is developing in Iran, they still can't muster anything more than tut-tuts and incantations of their faith in the miracle of diplomacy.

The world's a dangerous place. Even if we somehow dodge this particular bullet, the continued spineless posturing of Europe, the outright opposition of Russia and China, and the growing American difficulty with juggling global security on its own, are good indications we won't escape the next bullets.

Written by: Anonymous

It turns out that if Harry Whittington dies as a result of the hunting accident, Cheney could face criminal charges. The 78-year old Whittington did suffer a minor heart attack as a result of the shooting, so it is a possibility.

Considering all this, I am quite sure that Mr. Whittington is in the thoughts and prayers of millions of Dean Democrats across the country. For Mr. Whittington's sake, let's hope those prayers aren't answered.

Written by: Anonymous

Wal-Mart has just been told by the Massachusetts state pharmacy board that it must stock so-called emergency contraceptives at its stores within the state of Massachusetts. This is because the state policy requires pharmacies to carry all "commonly prescribed" medicines. I doubt Massachusetts is the only state with this law on its books.

You know what this means - if you live in a medical marijuana state you'll soon be able to drop by your local Wally Mart for your daily dose of Dope. Ol' Mary Jane is certainly a "commonly prescribed" drug in these states, so it seems a pretty sure thing that marijuana, just like every other new item WalMart chooses to stock, will soon be much more efficiently and economically distributed throughout the country.

Personally, I am not opposed to marijuana legalization, but I don't like where all this is leading to. It seems that companies should be able to decide for themselves whether they stock products that are used for purposes like recreational drug use or the destruction of human life.

Written by: Anonymous

Brit filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, whose anti-American film "The Road to Guantanamo Bay" is picking up accolades at the Berlin Film Festival, says the point of the film is to show how bizarre it is that Guantanamo even exists.

"If someone had said five years ago that the American government was going to create a place, in Cuba of all places, because holding those people would be illegal in their country so they couldn't take them to their country... they would hold people for four years without any trial and often even without charge, people would have thought you were crazy."

Well how about this for crazy?

If someone had said five years ago that Islamic terrorists were going to crash hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing thousands of Americans in hideous fashion... and that the worldwide reaction over the next four years would be indignation and finger pointing over the fact that America doesn't afford terrorists captured in war all the rights and due processes given American citizens, people would have thought you were crazy.

And if you had said that after this attack on America a Brit film maker would actually invite captured terrorists to the Berlin Film Festival, people would have thought you were sick.

Maybe I am sick, or crazy, but I am not surprised at all.

Written by: Anonymous

Ronald McDonald infuriated a crowd of Pakistani Muslims today by laughing aloud as he read the Mohammed cartoons. He rubbed the insult in further as he used the irreverent images of the prophet to wipe bits of pork McRibs off his pasty white face. This last insult pushed the crowd into violence, but as hard as they tried to wipe the grin off Ronald's face, he continued smiling as if he didn't mind the beating. Maybe he was still thinking of the cartoons.

The day ended in even greater tragedy when Mayor McCheese fired warning shots to scatter the crowd and Grimace was hit in the cross fire, bleeding to a slow, purple death.

Written by: Anonymous

In the new Bond movie 007 apparently shoots the wrong suspect, mirroring the shooting of the unarmed Brazilian in London following the July 7 attacks. I don't know much more than that, but I am sure there is going to be a lot of existential angst over the shooting.

This is why I don't watch new Bond movies any more. Sean Connery's 007 wouldn't have shot the wrong guy, and he sure wouldn't have spent any time in the movie introspectively questioning his raison d'aitre.

The old Connery Bond movies were primarily about style, a style that created its own unique genre. Yes, there was substance, but it was shaped by the style. The new movies have lost the style, and without the style the substance is becoming nothing more than the usual hash of boring, Hollywood action-film crap.

Written by: Beck

First of all, The Dissident Frogman has returned to posting after a year-long hiatus. Second of all, he made this nifty little banner:



Find more background at Samizdata. Or read Captain Dave's post on the subject.

Written by: Anonymous

Were you that upset by the death of Coretta Scott King? If you're like me, you probably didn't care that much.

It's not that I dislike her or don't respect what her husband accomplished, I just knew that as soon as she passed away her actual identity had become irrelevent, and that she had become nothing more than a symbol for the black grievance industry to rally around. And since I don't really care for the black grievance industry, I didn't really have much inclination or interest to follow King's funeral.

I initially told myself that I shouldn't look at the issue so coldly. But then today, I read this account of her funeral. A funeral should be a celebration and memorial of an individual's life. By moving the focus to President Bush, the speakers demonstrated they were more concerned with him than with King, and the crowd's approval of his speech demonstrated they were as well. The moment the speakers turned the funeral into an anti-Bush attack ad, was the moment they stripped King of her remaining humanity and transformed her into nothing more than a cold corpse used as a political tool.

So as heartless and as cold as it might make me, I am not losing a wink of sleep over King's death. But at least I do show her more respect than some of those selected to speak at her funeral.

Written by: Anonymous

When we invaded Iraq, we heard a great deal of argument from European opponents of the war that the invasion would upset the Arab street and incite Muslims to commit violence against the West. While the war certainly generated animosity in the Muslim world, I don't recall that the invasion resulted in riots and demonstrations of the magnitude created by the Muhammad cartoons. Yet many of these same Europeans now vociferously support the publishing of these cartoons.

In light of the reaction from the Muslim world, the positions of these Europeans on Iraq and the cartoons appear contradictory. But I think for many European Leftists a very consistent motive underlies their positions - a suicidal, utopian anti-Westernism.

I can see why most people would find this argument ridiculous at first. After all, it is Muhammad and not Christ these cartoons are mocking. And the issue at stake is a Western concept - freedom of speech. But ask yourself this, if these were racist cartoons depicting Muslims as apes or monkeys, would all of these same people be jumping to their defense and republishing them? Indeed, I think many of these same people would find such cartoons quite censorable.

I believe the real reason many on the Left are stridently defending the cartoons is because they see suppression of the cartoons as a challenge to radical secularism. They believe the cartoons must be defended because acknowledging a line that cannot be crossed in attacking Muslim religious beliefs means that there is also a corresponding line that cannot be crossed in attacking Christian beliefs. And the Left accurately perceives Christianity as an impediment to their utopian visions for remaking Western society.

That said, the majority of Europeans who support the publishing of the cartoons probably do so because they genuinly believe in the freedom of the press and/or because they no longer wish to tolerate the invective and madness that has developed in much of the Islamic world.

But before we get too excited that Europe is finally waking up to the danger of Islam, we should remember that many of the Europeans who seem to be rising to Western civilization's defense are Leftists that will still viciously oppose any attempt to defend it using military means. For foreign wars, just like religion, have no place in the brave new society they are building, and their most important enemies will still be those within their own civilization that stand in their way.

Written by: Beck

OK, perhaps there haven't been 4,897 CotVs, but I'm not really sure what the count is, and I like my version better. Strangely, not one submission had anything to do with the Super Bowl. Clearly, the blosophere's priorities are not in the right place. So, without further ado, let's start the Carnival!

Editor's Selections:

This section is dedicated to posts which particularly caught my eye.

First of all, I'd like to take this bit of real estate to congratulate one of my favorite blogs, Protein Wisdom, on its blogiversary. If you're not reading Protein Wisdom on a daily basis, you don't know what you're missing.

Next up, we have Thag Not Grok God from The Skwib. Of course, pretty much any Heinlein reference is virtually guaranteed to get primary placement from me. If you can't understand why that is, you just don't grok.

Next up, Testing the Cultural Divide presents a thought piece on the use of language. The instant messaging e-culture of today, while a wonderful thing from a convenience standpoint, has lead to something of a slaughtering of language. I just enjoy anything which highlights the importance of clarity and concision in writing. Bloggers everywhere take note.

Then Stephen at Fearless Philosophy for Free Minds presents something which resonates personally. In it, the author answers a series of questions originally posted on Reason asking how far should a pro-war libertarian be willing to compromise in the cause of said war? Even if you don't agree with the war, or libertarian political philosophy, or Stephen's own answers, the post should prove thought provoking.

Blogging at its best is on display at The Scientific Activist, in which an animal rights protest at Oxford is reported on live, followed by volumes of analysis. A thoroughly enjoyable post, along with yet another reminder of how the scientific community is perpetually threatened by ludites of one kind or another.

The Radical Libertarian offers a post about the chains of slavery imposed by religious doctrine. A post certain to offend a great number of people, I wanted to give this one prominent billing.

Humor:

I put the humor category near the top because frankly, there isn't enough of it out there these days. That, and because it's my blog, so I do what I want with it. That, and it gives me an excuse to give a random picture from The Family Guy some prime blog real estate. So there!

First up, Madeleine Kane tried to sneak this through the political category, but I was far too alert to allow that to happen! Song parodies always get better billing than politics. My blog, my rules.

Miriam's Ideas bemoans that she doesn't have a dog. Well, not really, but read the whole thing and you'll get my point.

point2point's offering this week: limericks! Who doesn't love limericks?

Play One on TV would like to remind you that not all man are natural repairmen.

The Nose on Your Face offers up a report on the latest episode of 24. It's important that we keep close scrutiny on our nation's public officials.

Science & Technology:

This section is a fairly broad catch-all including health topics and all things even vaguely sci-tech related.

Multiple Mentality reminds you that not all old websites die. Some merely hide out for a few years waiting to be Googled.

Man versus mold: BigPictureSmallOffice has the latest update in the ancient battle. It involves dogs.

Maybe this belongs in the business-econ section, but I need something to fill out science-technology, so The Browster Blog's comments on a recent statement by Yahoo!'s CFO regarding Google gets posted here. You go read now.

Business, Economics, and Personal Finance:

Hopefully you can figure out what this category is about on your own & without further prompting.

Kirby on Finance offers his first ever submission to a CotV with his post on keeping a good credit score. Welcome to the club Kirby.

fivecentnickel has a rather interesting post on a bank refusing to finance projects which use eminent domain to obtain property. The bank, BB&T North Carolina, should be commended for their principled stand.

The title of Searchlight Crusade's submission tells you everything you need to know regarding what the post is about: "Payment, Interest Rate and Up Front Costs: Choosing a loan intelligently." Makes my job easy. And it's an excellent post, so check it out.

blueprint for financial prosperity, a finalist in the "longest blog name contest," offers a post about ChoicePoint being fined for its involvement with identity theft. A most interesting post.

Wealth Junkie reports on real estate salesmen getting creative with lures to suck in new home buyers. Free toasters always do it for me.

The Pacesetter Mortgage Company Inc. blog asks a question which is on a lot of people's minds: should home buyers hold off buying in 2006? The answer is actually quite thought provoking.

Culture:

This is another broad catch-all category for a broad range of subjects. It was either that, or have a "Miscellaneous" section. Oh wait, I do have a miscellaneous section...

Ruminating Dude ruminates on the trials and tribulations of a first-time teacher.

raising4boys.com offers a story of her 5 year old showing up at home with a girl's phone number. Naturally, the mother is proud that she is clearly raising a playah.

Adam's Blog has an intriguing post on the "blogging killer."

miriam's ideas offers a post detecting an author's age in his literature.

Philosophy and Theology:

Surprisingly, I had several posts on this subject (though one person pulled a naughty by making two submissions), so I decided to break it out into its own category.

Blog d'Elisson offers a post on obligation and responsibility. It involves a horse. Just click the link already.

Reb Chaim HaQoton's post "Abominable Relations" is all about just that: abominable relations. Brief summary: don't be gay. Unless you're a lesbian, but not Jewish. Then it's cool. No really, read the last sentence of the post. I can't make this stuff up. The Reb also has a post on worshipping idols.

Goosing the Antithesis positively argues that you can prove a negative. Some of these blurbs just write themselves.

On Blogging:

Not too many entries in this category, but the picture I found was just too good to pass up on using.

First up, The Missing Link offers his blog's first post up for submission: his declaration to the world that he's blogging now, and why. Definitely give his new blog a look.

Blog Business World has a post on organizing your blogging around a blogging calendar--a must for the blogging businessman.

I'll allow Philobiblon's summary of his post speak for itself. "How blogging can pull back the veil of time. A moment of curiosity and, two years later, an answer to the question of why a man was sentenced to death in 1692."

Politics:

I saved this category for second-to-last because quite frankly, the vast majority of readers coming here most likely already get quite a bit of politics in their daily diet. This is the longest section, so you're mostly just going to get the canned summaries that came with the post submissions. Hopefully you can handle that.

The Politics of CP (this is actually a very interesting post): "I've been independently investigating Jamaat ul-Fuqra for the last few months. I'm calling for the State Dept. to (re-)designate Jamaat ul-Fuqra as a terrorist organization. Domestic agencies and the military both view them as such, why not the State Dept?"

Resistance is futile: "Alito confirmed--world to end!"

Radioactive Liberty: "Democrats love to whine, yap, and howl about "tax cuts for the wealthy." I really don't care who the tax cuts are for, I'm in favor of them. Personally, I would like more tax cuts for everyone."

Libertarian Leanings: "With votes already tallied time showing the threat of the nuclear option was off the table, Democratic presidential hopefuls were assured of a risk free vote for filibuster."

The Liberal Wrong Wing: "A historical perspective of the Presidency of Ronald Reagan."

The Unrepentant Individual: "The Future of Liberty."

TMH's Bacon Bits: "Even though the hapless filibuster has failed, I think the piece reveals a lot about Democrats through one of their up-and-comers."

ahistoricality: "A comparison of liberal and conservative "Under Reported Stories" lists."

The People's Republic of Seabrook: "How many executions of innocent men and women is an acceptable "margin of error"?" (My answer: 42).

Dodgeblogium: "Dimmit Andrew, why didn't you include a summary with your submission? Do you have any idea how long these carnivals take to put together as it is?"

Oxford University Press Blog: "May 14, 1961 - A Greyhound bus carrying Freedom Riders is attacked and firebombed outside of Anniston, Alabama. An account of that day from Ray Arsenault's new book, Freedom Riders."

Below the Beltway: "A libertarian Republican takes a look at the proposed amendment to Virginia's constitution to ban gay marriage."

Beyond Borders Blog: "No summary to see here folks."

Miscellaneous:

Nothing at all against the posts in this section, they just couldn't be easily categorized, so they wound up here. Many of them constitute the best contributions to the Carnival, so those of you who made it this far can consider it your reward for tenacity. Oh, and the picture? It's a beer pouring robot. Naturally.

Mensa Barbie has an interesting post on "America's best loved artist," Norman Rockwell.

Generic Confusion (great blog name by the way) has a fine suggestion about the next generation of office Super Bowl pools. Hint: we're moving past that whole lame "squares" thing now.

The Library Girl offers reviews of two books: Metro Girl, and The Bone Woman. You'll have to follow the link to find out if they were any good.

Grill Maestro offers, surprise, a recipe! It involves olive oil, vegetables, and BBQ.

me-ander offers a post about her new refrigerator and her family's reaction to said refrigerator. A truly gripping account of refrigerator receipt.

Free Money Finance offers an amusing anecdote involving a seven year old and a new digital camera.

monacojerry has the very last entry in this week's carnival. As such, and as a token expression of the relief I feel at being done assembling this beast, I've decided to include monacojerry's original summary of this post in its entirety. Not coincidentally, monacojerry offered the LONGEST summary of any of the 47 submissions to this carnival.

In 379 C.E., during the late period of the Roman Empire, long after the forms of the Roman Republic had been drained of content, Ausonius, of Bordeaux wrote a letter of thanks to the emperor Gratian, who himself was not from the City of Rome but was from Pannonia. The letter was occasioned by Ausonius' appointment to the position of consul, the most important elected position in the long dead Roman Republic. Ausonius is listing all of the tribulations he has been spared by emperor Gratian's appointment of Ausonius as Consul. All of the "tribulations" he lists are those that a candidate in the Late Republic would suffer. I analyze this letter and show how even late in the Empire the Emperor was identified with Republican institutions, mainly for ideological reasons. The mob of the City was feared. The Emperor as sovereign was looked at as both the embodiment and the controller of the mob.

Take it away Porky!