Saturday, March 23, 2013

What Jimmy Carter Could Have Said...

...to the Iranian revolutionaries who siezed our embassy. Or at least something along these lines, slightly reworded to fit the instant situation. I wonder if events since would have been any different.

>>Jhesus-Maria, King of England, and you, Duke of Bedford, who call yourself regent of the Kingdom of France, you, Guillaume de la Poule, count of Suffort, Jean, sire of Talbot, and you, Thomas, sire of Scales, who call yourselves lieutenants of the Duke of Bedford, acknowledge the summons of the King of Heaven. Render to the Maid here sent by God the King of Heaven, the keys of all the good towns which you have taken and violated in France. She is here come by God’s will to reclaim the blood royal. She is very ready to make peace, if you will acknowledge her to be right, provided that France you render, and pay for having held it. And you, archers, companions of war, men-at-arms and others who are before the town of Orleans, go away into your own country, by God. And if so be not done, expect news of the Maid who will come to see you shortly, to your very great injury. King of England, if you do not so, I am chief-in-war and in whatever place I attain your people in France, I will make them quit it willy-nilly. And if they will not obey, I will have them all slain; I am here sent by God, the King of Heaven, body for body, to drive you out of all France … (Written this Tuesday of Holy Week, March 22, 1429.)<<

Joan of Arc certainly was less conciliatory than Jimmy Carter. Scarier, too. I'm glad she didn't address this to me.

Of course he didn't wind up tied to a stake during a serious if extremely local global warming event...

Still....

And then there is " the more concise approach adopted by Sviatoslav I, the 10th century Prince of Kiev: “Иду на вы.” I would loosely translate this as “I’m coming to get you.” "

Either way would have worked better.


http://www.volokh.com/2013/03/22/how-to-declare-war-anno-domini-1429-2/

and

http://www.volokh.com/2013/03/22/a-more-succinct-way-to-declare-war/

Copy and paste. I'm lazy today.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

CATO on the Montana Firearms Freedom Act

Ilya Shapiro reports on the arguments before the Ninth Circuit.

If Montana wins, this could be a hugely important decision. As, of course, would be a loss.

"If you have a warrant, you're coming in. If you don't, then you're not."

This sounds like a new twist on the practice of swatting innocent people. I'd love to know what the alleged report to the police consisted of, and if they had anything resembling probable cause to follow up on it.
New Jersey police and Dept. of Children and Families officials raided the home of a firearms instructor and demanded to see his guns after he posted a Facebook photo of his 11-year-old son holding a rifle...

...“If you have a warrant, you’re coming in,” (family attorney Evan) Nappen told the officers. “If you don’t, then you’re not. That’s what privacy is all about.”

With his attorney on speaker phone, Moore instructed the officers to leave his home.
“I was told I was being unreasonable and that I was acting suspicious because I wouldn’t open my safe,” Moore wrote on the Delaware Open Carry website. “They told me they were going to get a search warrant. I told them to go ahead.”

Nappen told Fox News the police wanted to inventory his firearms...

Nappen said what happened to the Moore family should serve as a warning to gun owners across the nation.

“To make someone go through this because he posted a picture of his son with a .22 rifle on his Facebook page is pretty outrageous,” he said. “Does that mean that anyone who posts a picture like that has to consent to a home inspection and a gun inspection? I don’t think so.”
I hope the son learned some important lessons from this. One, never let police in without a warrant unless you have called them to the scene. Two, the police can't enter without a warrant unless they have your permission. Don't give it. Three, there are people out to get you just because you are a gun owner.

More here.