I recently posted about a shooting that occurred in Lakeland. Operating from text based news articles only, it appeared as though the thief had grabbed a hatchet and attempted to threaten the store owner in order to affect his escape. The Lakeland PD has since released the store video of the shooting. I will let you watch for yourself.
It appears as though I jumped the gun. This looks to me to be a bad shooting. The thief does not appear to be threatening the store owner, and it appears as though the store owner shot him not in self defense, but to prevent his escape. Absent any other evidence, this looks like second degree murder to me.
That is what I get for basing my opinion on press reports.
The owner of a Lakeland Army-Navy store, who also happens to be a city commissioner, was charged with second degree murder by a grand jury. The story is that a man entered the store and tried to shoplift a hatchet. The owner attempted to stop the thief and grabbed his shirt in an attempt to prevent his escape, the thief raised the hatchet, and the store owner shot him once, killing him.
It seems to me that this is a waste of taxpayer money, but the general climate in this state lately is against armed self defense. The press headlined this case with: ” A Lakeland city commissioner fatally shot a customer during a dispute over a hatchet ” That is not the case. In attempting to steal a weapon (the hatchet), what the man did was commit armed robbery. Here is the statute:
812.13 Robbery.— (1) “Robbery” means the taking of money or other property which may be the subject of larceny from the person or custody of another, with intent to either permanently or temporarily deprive the person or the owner of the money or other property, when in the course of the taking there is the use of force, violence, assault, or putting in fear. (2)(a) If in the course of committing the robbery the offender carried a firearm or other deadly weapon, then the robbery is a felony of the first degree, punishable by imprisonment for a term of years not exceeding life imprisonment or as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084. (b) If in the course of committing the robbery the offender carried a weapon, then the robbery is a felony of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
The owner can use reasonable force to prevent a robbery. A robbery is a forcible felony.
Forcible felony.—“Forcible felony” means treason; murder; manslaughter; sexual battery; carjacking; home-invasion robbery;robbery;burglary; arson; kidnapping; aggravated assault; aggravated battery; aggravated stalking; aircraft piracy; unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb; and any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual.
Since this was a forcible felony, the store owner can use deadly force.
776.012 (2) A person is justified in using or threatening to use deadly force if he or she reasonably believes that using or threatening to use such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony. A person who uses or threatens to use deadly force in accordance with this subsection does not have a duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground if the person using or threatening to use the deadly force is not engaged in a criminal activity and is in a place where he or she has a right to be.
It seems to me like the store owner can make a pretty good case for the shooting. Remember, the standard for the shooter is “reasonable doubt.” There is plenty of that here, but it is going to take a lawyer and some serious money. I hope he has carry insurance. I know I do. Don’t you?
The latest cause that has woman attaching men, claiming that men are abusers? They are calling it financial abuse and claiming it is a form of domestic violence. They define it as
where abusers limit or prevent access to financial resources, like bank accounts and job opportunities.
So if I don’t give a woman unlimited access to all of the money she wants, I am now abusing her. This is why an ex girlfriend once went to court to claim I was abusing her. The judge agreed, because he claimed that refusing to pay for her cell phone after we broke up was a form of violence. My lawyer got that overturned, but this is just another form of lawfare against men.
Since they are defining it as domestic violence, if your significant other wants a new pair of shoes and you tell her no, or if you insist that she spend within a budget, you are a domestic abuser and should never be able to own a firearm.
A company in Canada claims they can capture ‘fuel’ from the air.
This company is hoping that those watching don’t understand the First Law of Thermodynamics. Carbon dioxide is NOT energy. Taking CO2 and converting it into hydrocarbon fuel USES energy. Thanks to inefficiencies in ALL chemical reactions (First Law of Thermodynamics) it takes more energy to create the fuel than the fuel itself contains.
I thought it was a joke, it was so stupid. I thought — it’s junk science, junk commerce, nothing makes sense about it. But look how pretty it is.
Hydrocarbon fuels are large organic molecules that are held together by chemical bonds. In some cases, there are thousands of these bonds in a single molecule. The carbon atoms are attached to hydrogen, as well as to other carbon atoms, forming long chains of carbons. During the combustion process, those bonds are broken, and the carbon atoms are connected to oxygen atoms instead.
These carbon dioxide molecules contain far fewer bonds than the larger molecules, so the excess energy is harvested. Basic physics.
In order to put those large molecules back together, the CO2 molecules have to be torn apart, energy has to be harvested from somewhere and added back to the process, so the hydrocarbons can be reassembled. Where this energy comes from is the part that makes this process BS. It is like mounting a wind generator on the nose of an airplane, and using the electricity generated to propel the aircraft.
Do you doubt that Maxine Waters and Justin Trudeau are reading over the brochures for these abominable contraptions, wondering how many thousands to order at taxpayer expense?
The National Park Service is considering a new regulation to require protest organizers to pay for the cost of providing law enforcement and other support services for demonstrations held in the nation’s capital.
Protesters already do so. Those fees are called taxes. The First Amendment says:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. (emphasis added)
Abridge means to reduce in scope. Charging citizens to peaceably assemble and petition the government is a violation of the First Amendment.
Unlike the political parties, I fight for all rights, no matter which party is in office.
My wife and I own a small business. We advertise on the Book of Faces. Since I have to have an account to manage the business page, I also follow several firearm pages. One of them recently had a lefty from Australia post this comment:
RIGHT BIAS
These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward conservative causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage conservative causes.
This page is in violation of the above rule, and I will be reporting it to have it removed.
Not only do they hate your Second Amendment rights, they hate your First.
HuffPo has an article up where they complain that some Antifa members were beat up by a group of Proud Boys. The Proud Boys had attended a rally where Antifa was standing outside, threatening to “kill Nazis.” Of course, Antifa defines a Nazi as anyone they disagree with.
At any rate, a group of Proud Boys were walking down the street, with at least one of them wearing a MAGA hat. They encountered three Antifa members, one of whom knocked the MAGA hat off of the head of the Proud Boy who was wearing it. Outnumbering Antifa more than 3 to one, Antifa received the ass bearing that they were clearly looking for. then were arrested for robbery and battery.
Both sides were there looking for trouble, and both found it. If you provoke a fight, you get no sympathy from me when you then get your ass handed to you in the fight you started.
What worries me is that the violence on both sides will escalate, until it isn’t just the hotheads and troublemakers.
Take a look at Jessie Ventura (former wrestler and Governor of Minnesota) and his idea for a “maximum wage.”
This is idiotic for more than one reason. Let’s take the most obvious:
What are you going to do when all of the Doctors, Lawyers, and Business owners reach this “maximum wage,” see that there is no point in working for the rest of the year, and go on vacation from October to the end of the year?
With no economic incentive to continue expanding, why would the Walton family keep all those stores open, if they aren’t going to get paid for the extra effort it requires?
Let’s say that WalMart calculates that the owners of the company hit this “maximum wage” with the profits from only 100 stores, so they close all of the “extra” stores and lay off the workers. Now what?
It isn’t just WalMart. Pick a business: Record companies, movie studios, sports teams, car companies. Name a business. The owners of those businesses are not just going to keep working for free from whatever date they hit the maximum wage. What would YOU do if your employer told you: “You have hit your maximum wage for the year, so you have to work for free for the rest of the year.” I bet you would take a bit of vacation.
Even if you require a person to work all year, they will just shorten their work week to 4 days. Or maybe only work 2 hours a day. “Sorry that you are having a heart attack, but the Doctor went home because he hit his maximum daily wage. He can probably see you next Tuesday.”
You just can’t put a cap on wages and expect that people are not going to change their behavior.
In order to operate a travel agency in the state of Florida, you must have a bond and a license. The two together cost about $500 a year. Thereafter, you are required to place the phrase “Fla. Seller of Travel Ref. No. ST12345” on every piece of advertising. If you count, you will notice that this phrase is 38 characters long. Advertising on certain social media sites restricts your character count to 100 characters, meaning that more than a third of your advertising space is taken up by government required verbiage that doesn’t enhance sales a bit..
If you operate an online travel agency that is not located in Florida, but sells and markets to Florida residents, you do not have this restriction. Florida is not quite as business friendly as you think.