Citizen 1, police state 0

The mere fact that a SWAT team makes a forced entry creates the dangerous situation the SWAT team exists to deal with. So what happens when the SWAT team executes a no knock warrant and busts into your home in the middle of the night? What happens if they don’t identify themselves? What happens if you shoot two of them and put them in the hospital? What if this happens in one of the most notorious anti-gun regions in the country, Chicago? This happened to Kenny.

[Kenny] was found not guilty on Friday August 26, 2011 by a jury here in Chicago. He was charged with two counts of attempt first degree murder with a firearm, two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm to a police officer, and four counts of Armed Violence.

The whole “castle doctrine vs no-knock-SWAT team-entrance-on-the-wrong-house” problem really worries me at times, but Kenny’s defense attorney lays out all the reasons in his closing statement. The jury agreed.

There is hope after all.

College Schmollege

We have moved from thinking “I want to do job X, so I need degree Y” to “I want degree Z, what kind of job can I do now?”

You don’t need a college degree. You need a plan which might include a college degree.

Pushing more and more people into college purely for the sake of getting that sheepskin does not solve a problem. It actually creates them.

• More applicants drives up the cost of tuition (supply and demand)
• More financial aid drives up the cost of tuition (setting an artificial price floor)
• More financial aid causes a shortage (because it causes more demand)
• More graduates drives down their eventual salaries (supply and demand)
• More graduates drives up the unemployment rate (excess supply)
• Going to college but not graduating makes it more expensive and difficult to get in for everyone else who could have had your spot. (scarce resource misallocated to you)

Most Americans don’t need a liberal arts degree where they float around for four years and are exposed to the philosophical intellectual vagaries of the world. They need practical skills. What we need is more focused degrees that don’t include unnecessary culture I can get on the Food Network or The Learning Channel.

If you want a broader education, you can pay for it yourself and don’t complain to me when you can’t get a job.

If you want a job. Get an education (college, internship, apprenticeship, etc) that directly supports it. Learn Swahili once you can support yourself.

PS: I’m not saying TV is the answer for getting cultured. Just that in today’s information soaked daily experience, there are additional places to learn that stuff from than the University of My Tax Dollars.

Its new law day!

Seeing as Texas only allows our legislature to get together every 2 years (it keeps them from doing too much damage at once), we usually have a lot of local press when the new batch of laws go into effect. Some of the new ones happening this week

• Texas landowners may now shoot feral hogs and coyotes on their land from helicopters. Anyone have a chopper I can borrow?
• You can now legally leave your weapon in your car at your place of business.
• Increased speed limits, its only gonna be +5 MPH but hey that’s another 5! (and lifting the night time restrictions)
• Easier access to testing of DNA for people convicted already of a crime and new requirements around preserving bio evidence long term. This will help out anyone that the Dallas DAs office hasn’t gotten to yet
• Outlawing caltrops, really? Do I need to turn in my spindle of barbed wire too?
• New sexting laws – haven't read this one thoroughly but at least it has provisions for near-age or spousal partners.
• Newly illegal designer drugs