SCOTUS Shift Toward Law and Order
In a decision today, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 in favor of law and order over a whining (and guilty) perpetrator. Thanks to President Bush for his appointments of Justices Roberts and Alito, both of whom voted in favor of the ruling. The dark side of the court, now in the minority thanks to the departure of Justice O’Connor, all voted against this important step in ultimately letting justice prevail.
Of course, The Associated Press is whining about it (emphasis added):
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that police armed with a warrant can barge into homes and seize evidence even if they don’t knock, a huge government victory that was decided by President Bush’s new justices.
The 5-4 ruling signals the court’s conservative shift following the departure of moderate Sandra Day O’Connor.
The case tested previous court rulings that police armed with warrants generally must knock and announce themselves or they run afoul of the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches.
Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said Detroit police acknowledge violating that rule when they called out their presence at a man’s door then went inside three seconds to five seconds later.
“Whether that preliminary misstep had occurred or not, the police would have executed the warrant they had obtained, and would have discovered the gun and drugs inside the house,” Scalia wrote.
But suppressing evidence is too high of a penalty, Scalia said, for errors by police in failing to properly announce themselves.
We should all be thankful that the court is finally ruling against criminal behavior when technicalities are involved. In Justice Scalia’s (and the rest of the majority’s) opinion, capriciously forgiving criminal behavior because of minor errors is, in itself, an injustice.
Stars and Stripes Theme
Flag Day is a good time to change over to our patriotic Stars and Stripes theme for the blog. The new theme will also be appropriate for the Fourth of July and the summer season, so it will probably be here until Labor Day or so. Enjoy the new look.
Incidentally, the flag image in the background was taken aboard the SS Lane Victory, a WWII Merchant Marine Vessel, still in operation out of San Pedro, Los Angeles Harbor.
Space Rock Lunar Impact Video
Not having an atmosphere to ward off small meteoroids, the Moon’s surface is under constant bombardment by space rocks. NASA scientists are now collecting data about impactors on the Moon with an eye on problems they may cause future Lunar explorers.
NASA – A Meteoroid Hits the Moon
June 13, 2006: There’s a new crater on the Moon. It’s about 14 meters wide, 3 meters deep and precisely one month, eleven days old.
NASA astronomers watched it form: “On May 2, 2006, a meteoroid hit the Moon’s Sea of Clouds (Mare Nubium) with 17 billion joules of kinetic energy—that’s about the same as 4 tons of TNT,” says Bill Cooke, the head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, AL. “The impact created a bright fireball which we video-recorded using a 10-inch telescope.”
Right: A meteoroid hits the Moon.
[Click here or on the image to see the video]Lunar impacts have been seen before–“stuff hits the Moon all the time,” notes Cooke–but this is the best-ever recording of an explosion in progress.
Image courtesy NASA.
Hat tip to Dr. Tony Phillips of SpaceWeather.com
This is Great News
For gun owners and for America.
From Michelle Malkin: GUN BANNERS LOSE IN SAN FRANCISCO
Not that such a thing would happen in our town, but the rejection of this insane San Francisco ordinance gives Damsel and I comfort knowing that our enthusiasm for home defense and sport shooting is still available for a few sane folks in the Moonbat City by the Bay.
Previous opinions about the Bay City:
- Have Gun Will Travel Reads the Card of a Man
- Tony Bennett to Retrieve Heart from San Francisco
- Bumper Stickers We’d Like to See
More about Guns and Shooting:
Angelides’ Deception of the Day
In the campaign already underway for the California Governorship, both sides are cranking up the rhetoric. Phil Angelides recently criticized Governor Schwarzenegger’s performance with regard to education in the state. The Governor’s camp produced this in response:
Fresno schools Superintendent Dr. Peter Mehas issued the following statement:
“As an educator of 44 years, I am disappointed that Phil Angelides continues to bring his negativity and pessimism to one of the most important issues to Californians — education funding.
“Like a typical politician, he is distorting the facts by using data from 2003 to talk about our schools. Angelides ignores that Governor Schwarzenegger has put unprecedented amounts of funding towards educating our students. Two years in a row he raised per-pupil funding, bringing it to over $11,000, which is more than $1,400 higher than just two years ago. Governor Schwarzenegger is fully funding our schools, while Phil Angelides offers no real plan — just his promises for higher taxes.”
Dr. Peter G. Mehas is the Superintendent of the Fresno County Office of Education.
Image: Phil Angelides using deceptive data
(note: image was not a part of the Schwarzenegger release.)
ALGOR and the Enviroloons
We’ll all be roasted! The Earth is going to overheat and we’re DOOOOOOMED! Quick — someone call ALGOR and the Enviroloons!
Al Reuters on Al Gore:
Al Gore hopes to train a thousand messengers he hopes will spread out across the country and present a slide show about global warming that captures the essence of his Hollywood documentary and book.
The former vice president, a
DemocratMoonbat (ed.), said on Monday that by the end of the summer he would start a bipartisan education campaign to train 1,000 people to give a version of his slide show on global warming featured in the film “An Inconvenient Truth” and book of the same name.
If you’re not particularly panicked by this, then you may already have seen our archive of articles on the environment.