Missing in all the hoopla in the Martin/Zimmerman case about phone calls and tapes and recordings and "she said" and the "witness saw," is this: 

Do we really want to live in a country where 

• the law permits a citizen minding his own business in a public space to be chased down by a person with gun and intimidate into explaining himself?  
• a gun carrying bully can claim "self defense" when they kill a citizen after the citizen has whipped the bully's ass in a fight the bully picked? 
• where such events aren't even referred to a grand jury because a claim that you were "standing your ground" is a defense against presecution instead of a positive defense at a trial?
• where the dead person is unrepresented in the official hearings by the state and only the gun weilder's testimony is heard? 

No one should have to back down when assaulted.  But neither should one be allowed to intimidate another or bully another in a public space, pick a fight, and then be able to claim they were standing their ground when they get their asses handed to them in a fight.  

What the Stand Your Ground law effectively does is make a victim of EVERY citizen who chooses not to carry a weapon in public.  They must submit to whomever has the gun, thug or do-gooder, without question, without resistance.  

Stand Your Ground makes victims of us all.   

Really?  Donor hearts are so plentiful we can afford to put them in the chests of the elderly?  Dick Cheney is 71 years old, but according to the national registry, there are 2,255 people under 65 years of age, most young adults, who are on the waiting list for a donor heart.  

I realize all the variables about genetic and blood matching, size of the cavity, and location, but it always seems fishy to me when a high profile citizen jumps to the top of the list, just like when we wasted a liver on the severely alcoholic, aged and cancer-ridden Mickey Mantle a few years ago. 

Create your own report and check my numbers:

http://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/latestData/advancedData.asp

Everyone knows you can set iPhoto to pull photos off of your iPhone or camera automatcially when you connect, but not iMovie.  However, if iMovie is OPEN when you connect, it will import videos and save you having to do it manually.  Since I struggle with iMovie imports all the time, I thought I'd pass this on. 

Is it finally time to leave Afghanistan? - Salon.com http://ow.ly/9DGKV Terrible thing, these murders...but this war has been seriously off the rails since it was nearly won back in about 2003, when the Bush administration lost focus & abandoned Afghanistan for Iraq.

Many of the troops have been deploying 5, 6 or more times. When only 1% of the population bears the responsibility of prolonged wars this is the kind of break with discipline (and probably reality)  thats bound to happen.

The all volunteer force is a peacetime force. The all volunteer force is an emergency force. It's not made to be deployed again and again and again.

If politicians want to fight wars of this duration, America must activate the draft. Make all citizen hazard the burden of endless war, endless stress, endless disruption. Make every family put their sons & daughters lives on the line for questionable political reasons.

Kansas Nixes Cairn Terrier As State Dog: 5 Facts About the 'Toto' Breed

Citigroup's CEO Gets a 14,900,000 Percent Raise

Glad the Bushys bailed ShittyGroup out.