Is our government more dangerous than a rattlesnake?

Yes. Yes it is.

I saw a rattlesnake this weekend right up next to the swimming dock at an acquaintance's cottage, where I had been invited to come hang out.  Large as life, a Massassauga rattler on the front yard. There were kids and dogs present. I was of the opinion that perhaps the front yard was not the place for venomous serpents. I was informed that the fine for disturbing said snake was more than the cottage was worth.

Today I looked it up. Turns out the max penalty for messing with one of those dog/kid killing machines is $250,000 AND/OR five years in jail. Now, to be clear, this is not the penalty for going out into a provincial park and killing one for sale. Nuh uh. This is the penalty for -moving- one off your front lawn, or "harassing" it, or capturing and releasing it someplace else (like, OFF your front lawn) or crushing the damn thing with a rock before it kills your two year old.

Here's what's happening to a guy who apparently did just that:

Whoever killed a rattlesnake while camping on Beausoleil Island could be facing a fine of $250,000 and up to five years in jail.
National Parks staff is investigating the crime after a visitor beat a massassauga rattlesnake to death while on the island for the long weekend. On July 1, staff in the Honeymoon Bay Campground at Georgian Bay Islands National Park found the dead snake. The massassauga rattlesnake is native to the area, and is an indicator of a healthy environment. The snake is classified as a threatened species, because its numbers are dwindling.
"We did an autopsy, and found broken bones, and the internal organs were pulverized. This was more than just someone prodding it, to frighten the snake," said Hugh Bremner, manager of resource conservation with the national park.
He said the body is now being held as evidence.
"They are timid, and avoid people if possible. They would only bite if they were provoked, or threatened."
There are two different ways the culprit could be charged, either a summary conviction, or an indictment. "A summary conviction is similar to a speeding ticket, and the charge is up to a $150,000 fine, or six months in jail, or both. An indictment is more serious, and has a maximum fine of $250,000, or five years in jail, or both. Both types charges can be held with trials."
$250,000 fine possible for snake killer.

Now they've picked out a patsy.

A Midland man will be appearing in court on Sept. 16, to face a charge of poaching, after an Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake was killed over the Canada Day weekend this year.
Mark McIntyre, senior park warden with the Georgian Bay Islands National Park, and its law enforcement specialist, said a man was charged after the rare slithering reptile was found dead at the park on July 1.
"He was taken into custody on Aug. 3, and was released, and charged with poaching in a national park, under the National Parks Act," said McIntyre.
The man, whose name has not been released to the press, can face a maximum fine of $250,000 and/or five years in jail, if faced with an indictment.

Get that? "Poaching" is the charge. Ministry of Natural Resources is taking this to the limit, even though whoever killed the thing clearly crushed it with a rock or other handy field expedient. By their own autopsy, we know this. They're "sending us a message" in legal parlance.

Message I'm getting? They spent more money on a dead snake than they do on a murder up in Jane and Finch, Toronto. Plus I seem to recall that some punk who recently got himself killed at Square One Mississauga had just got out of jail after less than five years on a murder rap. So one snake is considered to be worth more to the legal system than one dead human.

This is what I saw. Nice snakey, don't bite the child who's walking by...

Now, as for the behavior of the actual snake? "They are timid, and avoid people if possible. They would only bite if they were provoked, or threatened." Not wanting to be some kind of anti-government disturber of the peace or anything, but this description does not fit what I saw. What I saw was a venomous snake, coiled up in full-on strike posture, inching forward toward humans. We backed away from it, it came forward. As well, it did not have a proper rattle. Its rattle had been lost or broken off at some point, so there was no warning. The only reason we saw it was because it was sitting out on the rocks in full view, right in the middle of the high-traffic path to the swim dock.




This is not the behavior of a shy, retiring, fearful animal. More like the cranky predator that's boss of the block kinda animal. Mayyyyybe the whole official line about the "they would only bite if they were provoked, or threatened" thing might be slightly oversold? A little? Just to keep the proletariat firmly under thumb when they belong?  Just sayin'.

Remember the three "S"s my friends. Most important of which is the last one, "shut up!"

The Phantom

Belated update: Greetings to Black Mamba and visitors from Blazing Cat Fur.

UpdateII: Also we do have one typical smarmy liberal troll in the comments:

Anonymous said...

kill the snake - its self defense, they are a dangerous predator. If the park warden objects then he should be killed too.

Yeeeeah, because killing the snake and the park warden is what is being suggested here? Or is it more the knee-jerk stupidity of your typical Torontonian who couldn't tell a Massassauga rattler from a Mississauga hooker?  The type of pencil-necked black t-shirt/black jeans doofus who cannot separate the good idea of protecting a rare species from the bad idea of making the punishment for MURDER lighter than the punishment for killing a reptile. See them all over the place in Hogtown.

Hey doofus! How would you feel about a $250,000 fine for chasing a raccoon out of your garbage cans? Oh wait, you probably don't own a garmage can, right?  This is a better one: $250,000 fine and five years in jail for failure to show up at Church on Sunday three weeks in a row. Yeah, Now we're on to something!

Read More

Guardian UK increasingly becoming a Conservative newspaper?

The Guardian, that bastion of freakazoid Lefty progresive-osity is more and more these days starting to sound like a Conservative rag. Today's evidence:

Hollywood's refusal to stand up to Alec Baldwin is shameful

Alec Baldwin uses homophobic slurs against a gay Daily Mail journalist, and nobody says anything? Welcome to Tinseltown.

"Can you hear it? The stampede of Hollywood actors scrambling to condemn Alec Baldwin? The cacophony of icy tweets and acidic statements snarled by publicists like demented pantomime horses? That din of Tinseltown turning inwards when, in a rare fit of righteousness, of actually believing in something real and heartfelt and important, it stands up, en masse, to one of its own?
No? That'll be because there is no sound. Put a glass to your ear, press it up against the Hollywood sign and all you'll hear is the crashing Pacific – and of course, the daily wail of punctured dreams.
Baldwin, that tornado of toddler behaviour, still stands aloft, unscathed. This is after an incident of such violent, naked homophobia that it bears all the nuance of a brick lobbed through a gay bar"

Patrick Strudwick, the author, is appalled at the number of Hollywood types jumping to defend Alec Baldwin. He compares and contrasts this circling of the wagons to the ongoing Paula Deen slaughter, her eradication from public life because she said the "N" word once.

Alec Baldwin.

Alec Baldwin has the freedom to say and do literally anything he wants because he's a Leftist, he's famous, and because he supports all the correct causes with the correct amount of money. As in, lots and lots. Paula Deen by contrast is not a Leftist, has a Southern twang and probably didn't contribute a huge amount of money to Obama's re-election campaign.

But the real thing that Mr. Strudwick doesn't understand is that Alec Baldwin isn't a bad example of Hollywood lefty types, or lefties in general. The truth about the American Left is, they don't like fags. They hate 'em. They also don't like Blacks, Hispanics, union workers, women, Muslims, Jews, et cetera. Listen to a Big Lefty talk for ten minutes off camera, your ears will be assaulted by the most disgraceful blast of hate for pretty much everybody and everything you can imagine.

All completely normal and expected.

Dear Mr. Strudwick, welcome to the Post-Christian, Post-Western barbarism your paper has labored so long and hard to create. You've finally awoken to the ugly reality of your situation. Presto, you are now a Conservative. Congratulations.

The Phantom

Paula Deen is confused. She paid protection already, but look what happened!

Update: I am informed via the grapevine that Paula Deen was an Obama supporter. Making her time in the Political Correctness stocks all the more interesting.

Read More

Court of the media: Rachel Jeantel is innocent! Kill Zimmerman!

Here's five news stories on the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case.

Global Grind A: http://globalgrind.com/news/what-white-people-dont-understand-about-rachel-jeantel-trayvon-martin-blog  "What White People Don't Understand About Rachel Jeantel"

Global Grind B: http://globalgrind.com/news/what-black-people-understand-about-rachel-jeantel-christina-coleman-blog "Why Black People Understand Rachel Jeantel"

Salon.com: http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/the_smearing_of_rachel_jeantel/

Associated Press: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NEIGHBORHOOD_WATCH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-06-28-05-48-11

The Atlantic: http://news.yahoo.com/star-witness-black-rachel-jeantels-testimony-makes-trayvon-203324375.html;_ylt=A2KJ2UYScs1RS3EAlkbQtDMD  "My Star Witness Is Black: Rachel Jeantel's Testimony Makes Trayvon a Show Trial"

These news/opinion pieces all have one theme. Rachel Jeantel is getting a bulldozing at the Zimmerman trial because she's black. Trayvon Martin died because he was black. White people don't "get" Jeantel, and Zimmerman may walk because we are all racists.

I'm listening to Rammstein's "Engel" while I'm typing this. Despite being in another language and made in a foreign country, the Teutonic head banging is making a point down in my Scottish White Man guts that runs counterpoint to this line from Rachel Samara's piece:

Rachel's collision with Zimmerman's attorney Don West was uncomfortable to watch. They didn't get each other. I even thought at one point they were going to call in some type of translator. Yes, she mumbled, but the amount of times she was asked to repeat herself, speak up and slow down proved that they were indeed speaking different languages.

Sure they did. Like dogs get it about cats. We honkeys really do "get it" about Rachel Jeantel. What we get is that she's making this up as she goes along. We get that she's saying what she thinks will get George Zimmerman convicted. We get it, and it makes us contemptuous.

Bearing false witness is frowned upon in our culture, you might say. Like, there's a line about it on one of Moses' tablets. "Carved in stone", as it were.

Cutting to the chase here, my opinion is the following: If Rachel Jeantel is typical of black teens in that neighborhood, no freakin' wonder George Zimmerman was doing his Neighborhood Watch with a Glock. This woman (because at 19 you're not a freakin' kid anymore!) has been lying from the outset of the investigation. Furthermore her flat affect and slack jaw are not the neurological signs of consciousness, engagement and attention one sees in normal people. As in, normal BLACK people, to put a nice sharp point on it.  IMO.

The problems people are having with her testimony are not "cultural" in nature. The problem is she's not a credible witness. SHE WASN'T THERE. She was on the phone. She's changed her story a couple of times. She's obviously and overtly hostile toward Zimmerman and the court generally. That's enough right there to get her jettisoned off any reasonable witness list.

That the prosecutors are using her anyway is an indication of how weak their case is. Really, if this woman is on the stand they've got nothing except the race card to play. It comes down to this: Zimmerman is guilty of murder because Traaaaayvon was black and Zimmerman is a "White Hispanic". That's a pretty strong inditement against the prosecution all by itself. They're assholes. They should have thrown this out.

What "professional" Black People (writers who are Black as a profession, not professional writers who are black) don't understand (or won't admit) about White People: We don't give a rat's ass what colour you are if you're lying. Stand up and tell the truth or FUCK OFF. Its a Commandment.

The Phantom

Update! Welcome SDA and American Digest readers! And Five Feet of Fury too!
Upperdate: edited for clarity at 1:26pm June 30th.

Read More

Britain: the slippery slope picking up speed.

I don't comment much about the various Muslim agitations and atrocities here because I don't think they are very important, except to the people caught in them. Sure I have "Hot Girls and Bacon", but that's just a bit of fun. Most of the hits I get on those are from the Middle East, oddly enough.

This here situation though, this is symptomatic of the true problem we in the West are having right now.  Check it:

Two prominent US bloggers have been banned from entering the UK, the Home Office has said.

Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer co-founded anti-Muslim group Stop Islamization of America.

They were due to speak at an English Defence League march in Woolwich, where Drummer Lee Rigby was killed.

A government spokesman said individuals whose presence "is not conducive to the public good" could be excluded by the home secretary.

He added: "We condemn all those whose behaviours and views run counter to our shared values and will not stand for extremism in any form."

Now, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer are not known to mince words regarding Muslim attacks on Western institutions and Western values. Little things like honor killings and the like really set them off, and they can be quite strident.

But then I'm pretty strident at times as well. Geller and Spencer haven't done anything I don't do on a daily basis here at the Soap Box. Or Kathy Shaidle, or Kate McMillan, or Ace of Spades, or any other conservative-leaning opinion blogger.

What just happened is that two members of a free country, America, got banned from Britain, a close allie and also supposed free country, because of their "views". In other words, the current regime in Britain is prepared to use their police powers to suppress comment on certain subjects, particularly when that comment is liable to be inconvenient.

In this case of course, following so closely after the murder of Lee Rigby by Islamists, the inconvenience will be rioting. By Islamists. Because the people going to hear the speechifying are English Defense League and UKIP types, who aren't much for rioting usually.

And that in a nutshell is the problem. Government employees finding free speech to be inconvenient and suppressing it, instead of simply keeping the peace by jailing rioters liken they are supposed to.

The slippery slope is getting steep. This is the part right before it goes vertical, kids. And remember, its not the fall that kills you. Its the sudden stop at the bottom.

The Phantom

Read More

Better living through bacon.

Mmmmm, bacon.

Had to post this. Its made of bacon!

South Fork Industries of Dalton Gardens, Idaho, took traditional bullets and coated them in pork-infused paint to make them "haram," or unclean, under Islamic law. The company's website labels the "Jihawg Ammo" bullets as "Peace Through Pork" and a "peaceful and natural deterrent to radical Islam." 

Bacon-flavored lead? Yes please!

http://www.jihawg.com/  American redneck ingenuity at its finest, pissing off all the right people.

The Phantom

Read More

Edward Snowden takes questions.

Some very interesting answers to some pointed questions about Snowden and the NSA here. Worth reading the whole thing.

Read More

Hopeful signs.

Obama regime astroturfing event faceplants at terminal velocity.

Last week, Obama's political action arm, Organizing For Action, held rallies throughout the country advocating for stricter gun laws. Their rallies drew small numbers as seen here and here. 

We can thank the vigilant San Bernardino Sun for putting a spotlight on perhaps the smallest of the rallies.

Protest pictured here just before the other two idiots showed up.

Organizing For Action picketed a gun show in Orange County California. With three guys. If the most they can come up with is three useful idiots to take their money, in California no less, I'd say that's a hopeful sign.

Read More