Archive for 2015

GUN RIGHTS LAWS TEND TO BENEFIT POOR AND MINORITY PEOPLE: Attorney: Self-defense law negates gun charge in fatal shooting.

The man who shot and killed an armed robbery suspect at a Knoxville convenience store may avoid charges under Tennessee law — despite the fact he was a felon with a gun.

Issac Jamal Scruggs, 42, of Knoxville, was at a Breadbox convenience store early Monday on Asheville Highway when 18-year-old Tamon Stapleton held the clerk at gunpoint.

Scruggs, a friend of the clerk’s, shot and killed Stapleton. A previous felony conviction would ban Scruggs from carrying the gun he used, but Tennessee law says the fact he protected someone else means the gun charge doesn’t matter.

“It trumps any other firearms charges that might exist per statute. Now, the only thing that could come in play is it doesn’t preclude the federal government,” said Knoxville attorney Don Bosch, who is not directly connected to the case.

Scruggs is a felon, with past convictions for aggravated assault and possession of weapons more than 10 years ago. So far, no charges have been filed against him, and Knoxville Police say they consider the case closed.

This seems entirely just.

TWEET OF THE DAY: Terrorists.

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Totally different. They’re Democrats, and needed votes from those dumb flyover rubes, and any trick that can convince those low-sloping-forehead types to vote right is admirable.

YEP:

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FATHER’S DAY 2010, with my dad and my brother Brad, at Dead End Barbecue.

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NEWS YOU CAN USE: If You’re Going To Fake A Rape, Remember To Take Off Your Fitbit. “Technology can be a useful tool for the rape hoaxer, but inevitably it leads to the hoaxer’s downfall. Social media can catapult a mattress-carrying liar all the way to the State of the Union Address, but then her text-message record can show her for the fraud she is. (And if she subsequently decides to post amateur porn online, well…) A once-respected magazine can put a rape hoaxer in the headlines, but then a handful of bloggers questioning the story can bring it all crashing down.”

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO EVERYONE: The virtue of fathers.

According to the National Fatherhood Initiative, 1 of 3 kids live in a home without their biological father. In the Journal of Family Psychology, “researchers found that father-child contact was associated with better socio-emotional and academic functioning. The results indicated that children with more involved fathers experienced fewer behavioral problems and scored higher on reading achievement.” The U.S. Census Bureau found kids without dads are four times more likely to be poor. The Journal of Research on Adolescence found “youths in father-absent households still had significantly higher odds of incarceration than those in mother-father families. Youths who never had a father in the household experienced the highest odds.”

It’s clear dads are needed. The natural bond between them and their biological children is difficult to replace or replicate.

To say that dads are needed is an understatement. Dads bring a gentle strength and sense of security to a family. My dad died back in 2004, and I still miss him every day. He taught me how to look people in the eye, shake hands firmly, fix things, swing a golf club, and throw a baseball. He was a constant, quiet, ever-supportive, loving presence in my life. Happiest of Father’s Days to all the great dads out there.

MY GRANDFATHER AND GRANDMOTHER, on the Warrior River in Alabama, sometime around 1950. Happy Father’s Day!

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TEACH WOMEN NOT TO ASSAULT: Law student laughs as she walks free from court for hitting aspiring male model over the head with a bottle of champagne cutting his forehead to the SKULL. “Sarah McKenzie-Ayres was pictured laughing as she walked free from court after being handed a suspended sentence for striking the man in a Manchester nightclub last September. The 19-year-old victim, who has not been named, has been left with permanent scarring that has forced him to abandon his dreams of becoming a professional model. McKenzie-Ayres, 19, was spared jail for GBH after telling Manchester Crown Court that she believed the victim was ‘making unwelcome advances’.”