Piers Morgan’s bombast punctuated by gaffe
CNN’s anti-gun talk host Piers Morgan earned widespread ridicule when he went on CBS “This Morning” to promote his new book Shooting Straight and in the midst of a tirade about gun rights advocate Alan Gottlieb, the bombastic Brit said the right to keep and bear arms is protected by the First Amendment.
Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, had appeared the night before on Morgan’s program during which a heated exchange erupted and Morgan referred to Gottlieb as an “idiot..
Less than 24 hours later, it was Morgan who could have worn the title when he told the CBS host, “I have no problem, in a country with so many guns in circulation, with a family exercising their First Amendment (sic) right to defend their families with a handgun at home..
“Morgan shouldn’t take himself so seriously about guns because nobody else does,” Gottlieb quipped in a press release. “His new book is called ‘Shooting Straight’ and yet he has been missing the target consistently. He doesn’t even know that it’s the Second Amendment, not the First, which affirms and protects the right to keep and bear arms..
Following his appearance on Morgan’s show, Gottlieb noted “I can’t remember the last time I did a show that brought us so many new members or raised so much money in contributions as this one did.
“The most amusing part of that is the fact that the people we’ve spoken with did not actually watch Morgan’s program..he added. “They saw the debate on the Internet, and called us to join and make donations..
Gottlieb said that Morgan, who makes his living thanks to the First Amendment, should know which amendment protects firearms ownership in this country.
Boulder, CO, flirts with ‘ecocide’ law
Anti-human radical environmentalism continues to advance with no push back in sight, LifeNews.com commented earlier this fall.
Boulder, CO, appeared on the verge of passing a “nature rights” law, which gives the birds and the bees, the flowers and the trees a putative right to life equal to our own, said a Denver Westword News story.
Boulder County has a reputation for leading the state in matters of open space, animal rights, environmental protections and all-around tree-hugging. But the latest proposal may present the acid test for local officials’ “greeniness..
In September, the county planning commission was scheduled to consider a presentation from staff and ponder whether to include a statement in the comprehensive plan declaring that “Boulder County acknowledges the rights of all naturally occurring ecosystems and their native species populations to exist and flourish..
Boulder isn’t alone. The leader of the African nation of Angola wants to institute ecocide in his country’s laws. As the story notes, if he does, that poverty-stricken nation can kiss any hopes of prosperity goodbye. The Angencia Angola Press story reported that Angolan Head of State José Eduardo dos Santos ordered the setting up of a Work Team to study and draft proposals for incorporation of the international Ecocide Convention in the country’s legal system.
Ecocide is defined as the destruction or degradation of various ecosystems in a certain territory, through human action or others, putting at stake the full development of the resources by the population And the UN already has ecocide laws under investigation at this time.
FL woman pistol-wets boyfriend during spat
From the “Don’t take a water pistol to a domestic fight” file, comes the tale of a 19-year-old Florida woman who was arrested in September for misdemeanor domestic violence after allegedly launching an unprovoked water pistol attack on her boyfriend.
Giovanna Borge told cops that her beau “said something to her that she did not like,” so she “took a water pistol and squirted him with water.” During the ensuing confrontation, Borge added, her boyfriend dumped a container of water on her and struck her with a pillow. The pair also reportedly exchanged shoves.
Upon investigation, Port St. Lucie Police officers concluded that Borge was the “primary aggressor” during the incident.
As a result, she was arrested for “squirting water” on the victim to “antagonize and agitate him against his wishes..
The name of Borge’s damp boyfriend was unavailable.
NYC inmate costs top college tuition
From the “Conflict in social priorities” file comes this budgetary item.
New York City spends far more money annually per jail inmate than other large cities, and Rikers Island is a major reason why, according to the Associated Press.
While New York is indeed an expensive city, experts say that alone doesn’t explain a recent report that found the city’s annual cost per inmate was $167,731 last year—nearly as much as it costs to pay for four years of tuition at an Ivy League university.
They say a big part of it is due to New York’s most notorious lockup, Rikers Island, and the costs that go along with staffing, maintaining and securing the island facility.
The city’s Independent Budget Office annual figure of $167,731—which equates to about $460 per day for the 12,287 average daily New York City inmates last year—was based on about $2 billion in total operating expenses for the Department of Correction (DOC), which included salaries and benefits for staff, judgments and claims, as well as debt service for jail construction and repairs.
But there are particularly expensive costs associated with Rikers.
“That’s the reason we have Rikers Island,” he said. “We want these guys put away out of public view..
New York’s annual costs dwarf the annual per-inmate costs in other big cities, according to news reports. Los Angeles spent $128.94 a day, or $47,063 a year, for 17,400 inmates in fiscal year 2011-12, its sheriff’s office said. Chicago spent $145 a day, or $52,925 a year, for 13,200 inmates in 2010, the most recent figures available from the Cook County sheriff’s office.
New York’s system differs from other cities in some other costly ways—it employs 9,000 relatively well-paid, unionized correction officers, for example, and is required by law to provide certain services to inmates, including high-quality medical care within 24 hours of incarceration.
Another contributing factor to the inmate price tag is the length of stay for prisoners at Riker’s Island system. Some inmates have waited years in city jails to see trial. The DOC said in 2012 that the average length of stay for detainees was 53 days, and 38.6 days for sentenced inmates.
