Vox Popoli

From CNN/SI:

Considering how zealously the NFL promotes and protects its product, the league can’t be too happy with Midway’s new football videogame Blitz: The League. The NFL declined to grant Midway an official license, which left the gamemaker free to take its shots at the league. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the new version of the game includes an Atlanta-based team called the Redhawks that looks suspiciously like the Falcons. The team’s quarterback? A chap named Mexico.

Heh heh heh….

An interesting email received this morning. I can’t verify any of this, but perhaps some of you can.

Here’s one reason that so many American soldiers and marines have died in Iraq…

Back in 1981, I was the head of a bulletproof car company in Monterey, California. We’d construct a box made of Lexgard inside a limo or regular car. It was pretty effective but difficult to install. Lexgard is General Electric’s transparent polycarbonate armor, very effective at stopping handgun bullets. If you put a hard surface in front of it, such as glass or sheet metal, it will stop rifle bullets. After the bullet hits the hard surface it is upset slightly on its axis and is then trapped in the dense but crystal-clear polycarbonate material.

The FMC factory was in nearby San Jose. I read a story about the troubles with the aluminum armor on their new Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The Bradley was having PR problems already but now the issue was the armor. Aluminum is a bad material for armor, since it doesn’t stop bullets very well. When they come through, they cause something called “spall,” which means that the pieces of the armor itself become deadly little weapons. And aluminum burns.

The army, though, wanted to save weight so they told FMC to make the Bradleys out of aluminum. (FMC was later sold and is today United Defense LP owned in part by George Bush’s Carlyle Group.)

So I went to FMC and proposed to line the inside of a Bradley with Lexgard, the way we did with limos. This would protect everyone from spall and fire, because Lexgard is fireproof and non-toxic. Installation would have been relatively easy in the boxy Bradley. I was politely turned down.

Puzzled, I called Dr. Charles Church, the head of research at the Pentagon. He said, “Listen don’t try to modify an existing vehicle. If you want to do something, design it from the ground up and make your armor integral with your chassis.”

So that’s what I did. I came up with something I called “The FLEA,” which stood for, “Forward Light Escort, Armored.” I used an unknown but powerful fiberglass armor for the body with hardened Lexgard windows. It was to be hydraulically operated with its wheels almost two feet away from the body, for protection against tank landmines. My design was based on my experience with landmines in Rhodesia as a member of their security forces in the terror war in the 70s.

Shortly after my design was complete (1982), the army put out a request for proposal (RFP) for a new vehicle they called the “High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle,” or “HMMWV.” The new Jeep and light truck. I duly submitted the FLEA to Tank Automotive Command (TACOM) in Michigan.

After a month or so, I called TACOM and inquired as to the progress of the selection process. The officer said, “The FLEA yes, I have it here Oh, yeah this is armored. We don’t want armor.”

I knew the specification they wanted. The bodywork had to defeat the equivalent of a pellet fired from a pellet gun. Something like 19 grains at 435 feet per second. Something silly like that. I mentioned this to the officer. “Yeah, right. We call it psychological armor'”

“‘Psychological armor?'” I let that sink in to my brain. “You mean, the guys just THINK they’re sitting behind armor?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“But, ” I said, “I’m under the weight requirement even with the armor. Why not give them the protection?”

“That’s not what we want.”

Back in ’82, when the HMMWV was being designed, the US Army must have thought it was never going to be shot at, ever again. That’s the charitable view. A more realistic view is that the US Army doesn’t give a damn if the troops get shot at or not. They’re expendable, just like the vehicles.

But criticizing the Pentagon and the administration is a failure to support the troops. Right.

JJ sees a blameless Bush:

Five members of the current Supreme Court are terrible (sometimes six, if O’Connor is included in many key decisions) and I agree with much of what you said in “Great Leap Backward.” But I see no reason why you had to bring up White House policy on democracy in the Middle East as part of that discussion. Only Congress has the power to do anything about Judges who are behaving badly.

The White House supports greater individual property rights and it had nothing to do with the bad recent Supreme Court decisions (which also include Lingle v. Chevron and San Remo Hotel v. San Francisco). The Bush administration supported property rights by nominating Janice Rogers Brown and insisting that she be confirmed for the D.C. Court of Appeals. WAM- Rent Board Stories #118 June 2005

It is safe to say that those who support individual rights in America are more likely to support those rights in the Middle East than those who are of a collectivist mindset who support “liberal” judges. So what sense does it make to have a discussion that objects to courts not protecting individual property rights while making an irrelevant collateral attack on an administration that is on the right side of that issue?

First, the administration is certainly not on the right side of the issue. Bush’s spokesman told the American people to respect the Supreme Court’s decision, he did not announce that the court had committed an outrage and he would encourage the Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against the five judicial criminals.

Second, the corrosion of freedom in America puts the lie to the administration’s oft-trumpeted notion of bringing freedom elsewhere. There is absolutely no point in wasting time, blood and money in any attempts to expand freedom in other countries while allowing it to be methodically destroyed at home.

From WND:

In a landmark ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court decided today to not allow display of the Ten Commandments at two government facilities. It was the first ruling on the issue since the court ruled 25 years ago that the Commandments could not be displayed in public schools.

At issue was the constitutionality of a granite monument on the grounds of the Texas Capitol and framed copies of commandments in two Kentucky courthouses. The decision affects every Ten Commandments display in the country and could set the future course for other governmental acknowledgments of religion.

This should finally put to rest the notion that the nation is specially blessed by God. The government, in the form of the court, is intentionally turning its back on its own moral foundations. This is, of course, ironic, given the court’s own Moses the Lawgiver display.

I don’t put much stock in this sort of display myself, but I do in the effort to ban such displays. The Supreme Court is challenging God, placing its so-called law above God’s Law. As per de Tocqueville’s formulation, America is no longer good and she will soon cease to be great.

UPDATE – and once again, it is demonstrated that you cannot expect the police to defend you and your family. In this case, the Supreme Court made the right decision, but it’s important in that it helps those who believe in the concept of “police protection” to understand that there is no such animal.

This kind of “mob” mentality leads to mob “justice” and that’s not where we really want to go, if you think about it. Besides, do courts and juries ever get it wrong? Yep, you bet.

I remember watching the case (on A&E) of this black man, Ronald Cotton, of Burlington, NC who was arrested of raping this white girl in 1984 and was tried and convicted of it in early ’85. He kept saying he didn’t do it and claimed the girl had it wrong, but she pointed him out specifically.

The significant difference, of course, is that Cotton denied committing the crime. The late and unlamented Spanish Torch admitted it without expressing any remorse for it.

When the king fails to provide justice, people will seek it on their own. Thus has it always been, thus will it always be.

From WND:

A Spanish mother has taken revenge on the man who raped her 13-year-old daughter at knifepoint by dousing him in petrol and setting him alight. He died of his injuries in hospital on Friday.

Antonio Cosme Velasco Soriano, 69, had been sent to jail for nine years in 1998, but was let out on a three-day pass and returned to his home town of Benejúzar, 30 miles south of Alicante, on the Costa Blanca.

While there, he passed his victim’s mother in the street and allegedly taunted her about the attack. He is said to have called out “How’s your daughter?”, before heading into a crowded bar. Shortly after, the woman walked into the bar, poured a bottle of petrol over Soriano and lit a match. She watched as the flames engulfed him, before walking out.

The woman fled to Alicante, where she was arrested the same evening. When she appeared in court the next day in the town of Orihuela, she was cheered and clapped by a crowd, who shouted “Bravo!” and “Well done!”

I suspect that we may see more of this in the future, as a Wave Three mentality takes hold and the courts continue to abdicate their role of attempting to provide justice in society in favor of working hand-in-hand with the politicians to expand central government power in every Western country.

As for the vengeful mother, she should be tried, found guilty and given a suspended sentence. I highly doubt that she’s crazy or that she’s any danger to society.

Perhaps it’s wrong, but I find it amusing to think how the look on the gloating rapist’s face must have changed at the moment he realized what his victim’s mother was doing.

From ESPN:

Perhaps even more amazing was the sight of two teens in pink shirts and ponytails — 15-year-old Michelle Wie and 17-year-old Morgan Pressel — grabbing a three-way share of the lead and standing 18 holes away from a chance to become the youngest major champion in golf history.

I find it amusing that sportswriters, the very people you’d expect to know the most about sports, still get excited about teenage girls competing effectively against older women. They inevitably predict decades of dominance, which never happens because women peak athletically much more quickly than men.

I ran track in high school and college, and I can’t recall a single year that there wasn’t an eighth or ninth-grader turning in excellent times in the 100 or 200 meters. But in most cases, by the time they hit their junior or senior year, they were running slower than they had been before. The same process usually holds true in tennis, figure skating and gymnastics, where the female athlete still competing at a high level at 25 is the exception rather than the rule.

Now, it’s true that things may be different in golf, since golf isn’t a sport requiring athletic ability but is a game requiring precision and skill. So, perhaps Wie will become the Jack Nicklaus of women’s golf and dominate it for the next three decades. But I doubt it.

If a Supreme Court justice’s house burns down in the woods, has any private property been harmed?

I spent the morning at a funeral today. It wasn’t the least bit depressing, though. The deceased was the grandfather of a good friend of mine, and it was interesting to see the size of his legacy, both familial and spiritual. He was survived by 13 grandchildren and around 18 great-grandchildren, and it was a pleasure to serve witness to the depth of their love, affection and respect for the man.

It was also good to feel the genuine sense of celebration of a race well run. There was a little sorrow expressed, but not much, and I like to imagine him walking up a hill in the sunshine with his arms stretched out towards a little girl, smiling as he tells her that great-grandaddy’s finally here, just like great-grandma promised. (The family lost an infant girl in a car accident a few years back.) Perhaps that’s not how it works, but that’s how I’d prefer it to be, anyhow.

Of course, the man probably never walked up a hill in his life; he always ran. I rather enjoyed him, for he was not only a man of God, but something of a character who had an absolute obsession with performing the sort of daily exercises that are disdained these days by physical trainers. But then, he not only made it to 95, he was also considerably more spry than many individuals three decades younger. In light of that, I may have to consider adding jumping jacks and deep knee bends to my exercise regimin.

It was a beautiful day.