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School Lockdown Over a Loaded Cell Phone

April 9, 2009 By Trey Garrison Leave a Comment

Via an alert … TGvian? (Will Tim send me a cease and desist? Let’s say “reader” and play it safe):

Look, you want schools to err on the side of caution, so I’m not saying the lockdown was wrong once they got the report. But people are going a little gun hysterical when a kid carrying a cell phone prompts a school lockdown because a visitor (one who clearly has crappy eyesight) at the school feared the student had a gun.

And handcuffing the kid was way over the top.

A DMN commenter had an interesting observation: If someone yells fire in a crowded theater when it was only an usher’s flashlight and it caused the kind of anxiety and fear among theatergoers that a lockdown does for these kids, would there be any liability for his recklessness? Should there be for the kind of person who can’t tell a cellphone from a handgun?

Filed Under Guns, The DFW, The Market

Tuesday Roundup: BATFE Burns Another Dealer, Seig Health!, Urban Core Meltdown & More

April 7, 2009 By Trey Garrison 2 Comments

The Texas Observer has a definitely-worth-your-time investigation into the BATFE’s railroading of a Plano gun shop owner. Now, for those who don’t know, the BATFE is the bottom run of federal law enforcement, where the worst of the dregs wash up. This is an agency that goes after gun dealers for “not keeping proper records of gun sales” because — and I do not exaggerate — sometimes buyers will write the abbreviation for a state rather than the full state name on forms. It appears as though now the BATFE has helped put a man in jail for an arson he didn’t commit. Good stuff. (Hat tip: Unfair Park.)

First they come for smokers, now they’re coming for transfats. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

And Mr. Obama’s wise decisions touch down like a tornado in Fort Worth.

I don’t know what it will take for Dallas to reverse this trend — I have my doubts a park along the Trinity (with or without tollroad) and a half a billion empty convention center hotel will help — but it doesn’t auger well for Big D in the long run.

And now: The 5 Most Popular Safety Laws That Don’t Work

Filed Under City Owned Boondoggle, Creepy Guys in the Park, Culture, DISD, Guns, Liberty, Media, Politics, The DFW

Tuesday Roundup: Hotels, Eyewitness IDs, Bipartisan ‘Truths,’ Your Rights, and Other Things You Can’t Rely On

March 31, 2009 By Trey Garrison 12 Comments

A month ago I placed the likelihood the bond market won’t reach the city of Dallas’ goal of 5.5 percent — which is what they need to make the city-owned convention center hotel happen — at 70 percent. Looks like I may have called it. Also — tax issues aside — thoughts on whether campaigning in churches on a Sunday is just plain tacky?

lineup-bigIf police chiefs and prosecutors are interested in justice, why is it they want to block attempts to change the use of a procedure that has been proven so horribly unreliable? (From the story: Faulty eyewitness IDs have been the leading cause of wrongful convictions. Eighteen of 19 exonerations in Dallas County involved a bad eyewitness identification, an investigation by The Dallas Morning News found last year.)

I missed this Friday, but kudos to the DMN for running this: a deconstruction of some of the myths about health care that are disguised as truth, such as American health care underperforms the broken socialized medicine system of the UK, that prescriptions drive up health care costs, and so on. Couple these facts with the reality that the vast majority of the costly medical care problems in America are entirely driven by lifestyle — crappy, death row style diets (see below), booze, smoking, and lack of exercise — and you can see there’s not really a crisis at all.

Once and for all please someone explain to me: Why are constitutional rights and the rights guaranteed by Texas law suspended when you set foot on a college campus?

Three rules to live by: 1) Never, ever give consent to search your car or your home. 2) Never invite the police into your home without a warrant. 3) And as Robert Guest underscores, never, ever speak to the police without a lawyer. Guest explains in his own inimitable way, but the short answer why is: it can never help, and almost always hurts.

Just for — I don’t know, morbid curiosity? — here’s a list of the last meal requests for prisoners on Texas’ death row going back to 1982. It’s oddly compelling. What is it about French fries, by the way? Seems the most common request. So it makes me wonder — what would your last meal be?

Filed Under City Owned Boondoggle, Guns, Media, Police, Politics, The DFW

Someone Explain To Me…

March 25, 2009 By Trey Garrison 2 Comments

…why Mexico’s problems should serve as a reason to curtail the civil and Constitutional rights of American citizens, please.

Because I don’t get it.

Better solution: legalize drugs in the United States, tax and regulate them, and you take the money out of the drug cartels’ hands. Prohibition only does one thing: it protects and enriches the monopoly the drug cartels have.

Update: Per an alert commenter, here’s a great take on the subject from an American who lived in Mexico and sees through the MSM propaganda.

Filed Under Guns

More On (get it?) Chazz Redd

March 24, 2009 By Trey Garrison Leave a Comment

My secret blog love Bethany Anderson has a list of other potential city council candidates, using the Chazz Redd qualifier.

Here’s a sneak peek.

Full list here.

Filed Under Bethany Anderson, Guns, Humor

Tuesday Roundup: It’s 4:20 — Do You Know Where Your City Council Candidate Is?

March 24, 2009 By Trey Garrison 3 Comments

chazzreddBy now, everyone’s seen the pic of council candidate Chazz Redd and his dueling explanations. Given the pic on my about page, a recreation of a scene from my favorite TV show Firefly, you might think it hypocritical of me to pile on. But for one, I’m not running for office, two, I’m not half naked, and three, I’m exercising proper trigger discipline, which Redd would be doing if, indeed, he’d just come from a gun safety class.

So while the real cocaine is available on the street, an energy drink named “Cocaine” is banned. But “Coke” is okay. That makes sense.

Dallas has a black widow at work.

Protests against the daytime youth curfew in Dallas and HEB. Thoughts?

NOTE: SERVER/SOFTWARE UPGRADE TODAY. MINOR INTERRUPTIONS POSSIBLE.

UPDATE: UPGRADE DONE. THANK YOU GRANT GANNON.

If you’re in need of a great web consultant/pooh-bah, check out Grant.

Filed Under Creepy Guys in the Park, Guns, Politics, The DFW

Tuesday Roundup: Another Weird Day in North Texas

March 17, 2009 By Trey Garrison 1 Comment

Look, I’m not saying that libertarians have the wrong message, but sometimes we’re our own worst enemies. The one libertarian in the U.S. House, Congressman Ron Paul, R-TX, doesn’t do the cause any favors in his cameo in the upcoming Sasha Baron Cohen movie. Oy vey.

As Dallas City Councilmember Angela Hunt already knows, no good deed goes unpunished.

“Man Accidentally Creates Toxic Gas.” And no, it wasn’t Tim Rogers this time.

I’ve thought for years that the best move for the Dallas Independent School District would be to break it up into five or six smaller ISDs. Now the Lege is considering doing just that.

“This isn’t Russia, Danny. Is this Russia?”

I have yet to understand why the Bill of Rights is void on college campuses.

Filed Under Culture, DISD, Guns, Liberty, Life, Police, Politics, The DFW

Friday Roundup: Rushed Edition*

March 6, 2009 By Trey Garrison Leave a Comment

A couple in Parker County learn that you can’t count on 911 when you’re in trouble, but you can count on something else.

First zombies, now werewolves.

Here’s your Friday morning feel-good.

* (I have a ton of work and I’m trying to go see Watchmen this morning.)

Filed Under Creepy Guys in the Park, Guns, Life, The DFW, Zombies

Wednesday Roundup: Late Edition

March 4, 2009 By Trey Garrison 5 Comments
  • By now everyone’s read the brief in the DMN about the cars found in Lake Cliff, but it’s the comments that make it worth the read.
  • If you live in Fort Worth, now would be a good time to stock up your zombie shelter. (Does no one study their Romero these days?)
  • James Ragland surprises: Tough column on the gun buyback. Ironic, considering Dwaine Caraway used the same tortured logic — don’t show me the stats, if it happens just once — that Ragland did in complaining about beer sales at Six Flags. Still, well done, James.

Filed Under Creepy Guys in the Park, Guns, Media, Politics, The DFW, Zombies

Final Thoughts on the Gun Buy Back

March 3, 2009 By Trey Garrison 3 Comments

Amanda Warr posts hers at Best of Texas. Go. Read. Now.

Filed Under Guns, The DFW
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