The part of the law not blocked by a federal judge has been in force for over a week now, though no one I know has seen any signs of it in action. Still, there have been reports of arrests and a lot of angry calls to both the federal courthouse and Gov. Jan Brewer’s office. Most people in the country have heard about that kind of thing on the news. What they don’t seem to know much about is how regular Arizonans feel about the law.

If you think angry white guys who sleep with M16’s and whose six-packs are in their pickups as opposed to on their torsos are the ones angriest at illegal immigration in Arizona, then you haven’t talked to the legal immigrants here. Did everything the hard way, they say. Earned the right to be called an American.

Many of them resent those who crossed the border illegally, but they also sympathize. You can’t be human and not feel for someone who only wants to make a little money to send back home.

He’s right in that most of the pundits out there haven’t asked many, if any, regular Arizonans how they feel about the Arizona law requiring law enforcement officers to do what is all ready codified in Federal law. The only Arizona friends I have (I can’t count Alan and JoAnn as friends, even though we met a few times in the ’80s…I wonder if they remember me), are on the same side as I am on this issue.

By and large, though, from the people I have heard from who have come to this country legally, going through all of the hoops to gain entry (that includes health screenings for things like tuberculosis, a disease that has had a resurgence with the influx of illegal aliens who bypass such health screenings), are supportive of the Arizona law, as are many Americans, especially those who live along the border.

Yes, I can sympathize with people who want to come here to lead a better life, especially as America is still the number one beacon of Liberty in the world. Who wouldn’t want to escape poverty and build a better future for their children? Isn’t that part of the American Dream?

The reason Arizona took the initiative with their SB 1070 is because of the Federal Government’s FAILURE to enforce our immigration laws. The Feds, under Obama, have even failed to complete the border security fence as required by LAW. Many cities have put their citizens at risk by becoming sanctuary cities for criminal aliens, further making a law like Arizona’s SB1070 a necessity.

If the Feds had been doing their job for the last 20+ years and enforced our laws, if voters ousted politicians that turned their communities into sanctuaries for drug runners, gangs, fraudsters, and other criminal aliens, if the border security fence had been completed as the law requires, ARIZONA WOULD NOT BE A WAR ZONE WITH THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS. And that is the biggest reason we need the enforcement.

Most reasonable people support immigration under our current laws. They don’t need to be fixed; they don’t need to be changed. They do need to be enforced. And let only those people who are willing to comply with our laws, and pass the various screenings (especially criminal background checks) come into our country and enjoy the fruits of Liberty.

The story is, in many ways, a political novel. On one side we have the weapon shops are an organization that provides high quality defensive weapons to the people so that they can resist a tyrannical government. On the other side is the Princess Innelda Isher, who rules the Empire and wishes to be rid of the weapon shops.

The events of the story revolve around the current attack by Isher against the weapon shops using a time-energy weapon that accidently brings a man from 1951 7,000 years into the future, and he is then used as a means to counter Isher’s attack on the shops.

The story focuses mainly on Cayle Clark, a young ne’er do-good citizen of Isher, as the empire is referred to, who has one last falling out with his father and leaves the small town for the big city. He has many trials along the path to joining Imperial service, and the fact that the weapon shops are interested in his succeeding in joining the army is something that is concealed from him.

Cayle’s father, Fara, learns more about the weapon shops as a result of Cayle’s failures along the path. Fara is swindled out of his business and life savings; dejected and depressed, he turns to the weapon shops to buy a weapon with which to kill himself, and learns more of the inner workings of the shops than he suspected. The weapon shops, as it turns out, also runs an alternative court system where good people can go when the Imperial courts fail to met out justice.

The Weapon Shops of Isher is a fine example of Libertarian Science Fiction, which is why it is a recipient of the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award in 2005. An excellent novel well worth looking for on the used book shelves. Maybe it will be back in print soon, along with its sequel, The Weapon Makers.

The first one is “It’s Time to Party” by Brion Butterbaugh:

This is followed by a couple of great videos by Lisa Mei Norton with “A Revolution’s Brewing” and “Our Guns”:

Hope you enjoy these.

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn’t violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway - and no reasonable expectation that the government isn’t tracking your movements.

That’s the opener, and, contrary to the extremely Left-wing 9th Circuit, we DO have an expectation of privacy in our own driveway and we DO have a reasonable expectation that the government isn’t tracking our movements.

The Foruth Amendment is quite clear on this:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The first clause is the telling part, we have the right to be secure in our “persons, houses, papers, and effects”. Our driveways, even if it is not behind a security gate and fence like they are for wealthy people, or part of our house, and, if you want to be a stickler, is a part of our effects. Our vehicles, being our personal property, are also a part of our effects; effects, as it is used in the Fourth Amendment includes all property that an individual may own. Yes, Virginia, even your Remington 12-gauge and box of shells are a part of your effects. This view is validated by various dictionaries, including the Webster’s 1828 dictionary stating the following: “8. In the plural, effects are goods; movables; personal estate. The people escaped from the town with their effects.”

What we have here is a very Liberal court that has just invalidated a very important part of our Constitution, specifically the Fourth Amendment, by stating we do not have a right to be secure in our personal property; that the government can trespass, without warrant, and place tracking devices on our privately owned vehicles, also without warrant. Unless, of course, you are wealthy enough to have your own security fence and gate, preventing such an intrusion (which is what the court decision goes on to say).

From the NY Times:

Mr. Millin was a 21-year-old private in Britain’s First Special Service Brigade when his unit landed on the strip of coast the Allies code-named Sword Beach, near the French city of Caen at the eastern end of the invasion front chosen by the Allies for the landings on June 6, 1944.
…
The young piper was approached shortly before the landings by the brigade’s commanding officer, Brig. Simon Fraser, who as the 15th Lord Lovat was the hereditary chief of the Clan Fraser and one of Scotland’s most celebrated aristocrats. Against orders from World War I that forbade playing bagpipes on the battlefield because of the high risk of attracting enemy fire, Lord Lovat, then 32, asked Private Millin to play on the beachhead to raise morale.

When Private Millin demurred, citing the regulations, he recalled later, Lord Lovat replied: “Ah, but that’s the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish and that doesn’t apply.”

It took a lot of cojones to make yourself a target for German fire. Millin later learned that the German gunners didn’t shoot at him because they thought he was crazy. No, not crazy; just Scottish. And, of course, I really like what Lovat had to say about Brittish regulations. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.

The article mentions a plan by a French pipeband to raise money for a statue of Millin. You can get the information from their site. It is in French, but I am sure they won’t say no to contributions from the USA. I’ll be sending them a donation in the next week.

As for Bill Millin, God’s speed, my friend, and rest well. My condolences to your family and friends. I have no doubt that you will be missed; you will also be remembered for your courage during one of the most important battles in history.

Also see:

Daily Mail

and

Telegraph

Now I find even more reasons to like him as he turns a whopping 90 (Happy Birthday Ray!). Today, in the LA Times, Bradbury told them:

“I think our country is in need of a revolution,” Bradbury said. “There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people and for the people.”

Aside from a little revolution, unless he means for it to occur at the ballot box by voting, I am in full agreement with Bradbury. We have too much government. Way too much. I’ve said that for years, and it has only gotten worse.

And I had no idea, until now, that Bradbury once described President Clinton as something that “rhymes with knithead”. I can only wonder how he describes the Anointed One who now occupies the Oval Office. Perhaps something that sounds a lot like “ducking knithead”. One could hope.

Bradbury went on to say that we have too much technology, something else I can agree with. “We have too many cellphones. We’ve got too many Internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now.” There is something to be said about having a simpler life with less technology invading our every day, monitoring our every movement.

Bradbury is the ultimate dreamer; he is the source of many dreams of rockets and time travel. Maybe it’s time to curl up with a copy of Fahrenheit 451.

Yesterday, Steven Slater, now a former steward for JetBlue, made a grab for his 15+ minutes of fame when, after an altercation with a passenger, got on the plane’s intercom system, cursed everyone out, deployed the slide (since this was not an emergency, it would be a criminal offense), stole two beers (another criminal offense), slid down the slide and dashed through the airport, whining about having a bad day to anyone who would listen, went home, where police allegedly found him busily “doing himself”. Heck of a way to get 15 minutes of fame. I bet his parents are very proud of him. NOT!

What set this clown off (I am obviously on the side of Law and Justice, which, based on the comments on the news sites running this story makes me out of step with Main Stream America. But then I also cling to my god and my Guns, so what the hey!) so much that he would commit a number of criminal acts? From NBC New York:

The argument began when one of the 100 passengers on the flight, got up early to get her luggage from an overhead compartment, according to sources. Slater told the passenger to sit back down — but, as he approached, the woman continued to pull her belongings down and struck him in the head with her bag, authorities said.

Okay, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t get annoyed with passengers who insist on getting up before the parking breaks are on and pulling their bags out. I don’t like it. It can also be dangerous leading to someone getting a bag banged on their head.

Slater asked for an apology but the woman cursed him out, saying in effect “go f–k yourself” and calling him a “mo-fo,” according to law enforcement sources who are still sorting out the specifics. Then Slater got on the flight’s announcement system and allegedly cursed out everyone on the plane — especially the person who mouthed off to him, according to law enforcement sources.

At this point, the passenger is not only in the wrong, but is being abusive and unruly. But what Slater did in reaction is also wrong, and as I was taught, two wrongs do not make a right (unless you are a Left-wing Democrat in Congress or sitting in the Oval Office).

Slater, instead of going off the handle which will lead to his incarceration, should have talked to the flight’s captain, who is the rightful person to determine what to do next about an abusive and unruly passenger. Instead, Slater blew away his career and will soon be spending a few years in the pen with a cellmate named “Bubba” who might just find Slater to be a top notch piece of you-know-what. There is a reason why they call it the pokey, and Slater will get firsthand knowledge as to why.

Slater is reputed to have said as a parting line from the plane, “to the passenger who called me a (expletive expletive, expletive) you. I’ve been in this business 28 years. And that’s it, I’m done”. Slater must not have been very good at math as that would mean he had been in a flight attendant since the age of 10, which isn’t possible.

My only question now is how long will it be before I receive an invite to one (or more) of those Facebook groups supporting this guy?

Numbers do not lie.

The highest the budget deficit got under Bush was in 2008, his last year in office and last budget, at $455 billion. A lot of money. Second worst year (before adjusting for inflation) was 2004 at $413 billion, but it becomes the largest when adjusting for inflation at $462 billion.

Obama has topped all of that with gusto. His first budget ran a deficit of $1.4 trillion, that is to say $1,400 billion; that’s 12.3% of the GDP, the highest since World War 2. His 2010 budget is slated to be in the same range, but could go higher as the Left adds in more bailouts. Apparently Obama and his supporters believe that working Americans all have their own personal goose that lays golden eggs, or, like the Golgafrinchans, money grows on trees, literally. (For those not familiar with the Golgafrinchans, they are an alien people who crash-landed on prehistoric Earth and adopted the “leaf” as their legal form of currency, making it so that money really did grow on trees. From the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.)

During the Bush years, the left railed about the level of the National Debt, and how it doubled under Bush, from roughly $5.7 trillion to $10.6 trillion (rounding up, that is only a $5 trillion increase over 8 years, not a doubling. but it is still a LOT of change). But now, under Obama, the national debt as risen at a breakneck speed and in a mere 20 months (roughly) it has gone from the aforementioned level of $10.6 trillion to a whopping $13.3 trillion. That’s an increase of $2.7 trillion in under two years. It took Bush over five years to grow the debt by that much. At this rate we can expect the national debt to be over $17 TRILLION on January 20th, 2013 when Obama (God willing) leaves office; or, if Obama is re-elected and serves a second term (please, god, NO!), well over $24 TRILLION. This means that if we have to suffer under Obamanomics for eight years, the national debt will more than double yet again.

For those who have known me for any length of time (going back to my California days and the ‘92 election) you know that I have been ticked off about the level of the national debt for an awful long time, even before Clinton was elected.

The national debt is no longer a serious problem that can be ignored. Nor can it be blamed as a problem that Obama inherited from Bush. It’s a long running problem that goes back much further than when W was sworn into office. It is an extremely critical problem that needs to be addressed, and raising taxes will not solve it. Only significant cuts in spending, starting with all of those pork barrel projects and going all the way through to repealing the unconstitutional takeover of our healthcare system and ending the assortment government bailouts will do the job. At that point we can cut taxes and still reduce the national debt while keeping the Federal government on a Constitutional diet. And yes, that means no more taxpayer funding of things like the National Endowment of the Arts and National Public Radio, and other unconstitutional Federal programs.

Obama likes to quip how Bush drove the proverbial car into a ditch and he had to pull it out, ignoring the fact that the Democrats (including Obama when he was not out campaigning for President or voting “present”) were in the next seat doing the navigating.

It is time to take the keys to the car away from Obama and the Democrats before they drive the proverbial “car” off a cliff rather than just into the Chappaquiddick as they are now doing.

In the meantime, why isn’t the Left yelling about these humongous deficits that Obama and the Democrats are running up? Inquiring minds want to know.

From Breitbart:

“We are all very pleased to be playing in Arizona. I have read that some of the artists won’t come here. They are (expletive)wits! Let’s face it: I still play in California, and as a gay man I have no legal rights whatsoever. So what’s the (expletive) with these people?”

Kudos to Elton for saying what most Americans think, and doing it so well.

Meanwhile, watching CNN, they talk about the “2 million” jobs that the stimulus has created or saved. How do they count this? They claim a direct job, the guy building a house for the example, indirectly creates other jobs, like the guys producing lumber or concrete, and then more indirect jobs via spending his hard earned pay. Can we say “shell game”? Maybe a little hocus-pocus misdirection is more accurate. Meanwhile, CNN ignores the fact that unemployment is still hovering near the 10% mark, over 6 million jobs lost, the fraud of over-reporting new jobs by the Census.

Now we learn that ObamaCare isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. From The Hill:

Lots of things going on in the Greatest Nation on Earth. I’ve been pondering where to start. Then I saw an article calling for musicians to boycott Arizona due to its passage of SB 1070. Yep, more Moonbats pontificating about what a bad state Arizona is without reading the bloody bill. They have launched a site in support of it that proudly states:

We are reaching out to get your ear for a minute about this critical situation in Arizona.

If you haven’t heard, the Arizona state legislature passed a bill (SB 1070) that was signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer that legalizes and sanctions racial profiling. Straight up.

It forces the cops to hunt down and target anyone they “reasonably suspect” that may be undocumented. And if the people they harass don’t have proof that they were born in the U.S., they can be detained and arrested. This must be stopped.

All those in the Sound Strike who have actually READ THE BILL, please raise your hands. Zack de la Rocha? Joe Satriani? Kanye West? Anyone? No? Not surprising.

First off, anyone who has actually read the bill understands that all it does is require state and local law enforcement to enforce current immigration laws. It does NOT allow profiling, despite what the Moonbats on the Left claim. It does not introduce any new requirements on people living in Arizona, whether citizens or not, to carry documentation…such has been the Federal law for decades. It does require law enforcement to verify immigration status of a suspect after “contact”, say, a burglary, or a moving traffic violation; but they are already required to do so under Federal law, it’s just that numerous cities elect jerkoffs who choose to direct their law enforcement to ignore Federal law when dealing with suspects. In other words, it takes away the ability of communities to label themselves as sanctuary cities, and that I agree with.

Now, in retaliation to the musicians boycotting Arizona, I could simply choose to boycott these artists. But since I haven’t bought a CD in a couple of years, I don’t go to concerts, rarely go to the movies, and only occasionally by DVDs (predominantly classic movies, films that Rage Against the machine won’t be listed on), what would be the point? As for their boycotting Arizona and not holding concerts there, who is that going to hurt? THEIR FANS! Ya know, the people who did not make the law, although they voted the legislators into office who did.

It’s kind of like who is LA, St. Paul, San Francisco, and other sanctuary cities that are boycotting Arizona and banning official travel there. Who are they hurting? Arizona businesses, that are innocent of any wrong doing or culpability. Is that fair? Is that just? Is that right? (NO!)

Instead, I’ll do what I can to support Arizona and recommend people check out Buycott Arizona. Now, if some musicians and artists would show support for Arizona, I will be more likely to buy their CDs. Oh, wait, there is at least one: Ray Stevens.

Gotta love it!

First off, Obama not going to Arlington isn’t a big deal. He isn’t military, and most people serving in the military, or who have served, don’t like him. Obama is going to do something at a military cemetery in the Chicago area on Memorial Day. Friendlier territory for him. Politics, as usual.

But to send draft-dodging Joe Biden, a guy who milked the system for every drop in order to avoid military service to give an address at Arlington on Memorial Day is, in my opinion, outrageous. He could have called on any number of people who have served that are in his administration, or called upon a respected Senator, to perform the honor. Instead, this Memorial Day, Arlington will be graced with a Clintonian-style pseudo-male who disdained military service. Arlington is hallowed grounds, and sending this weasel to pay homage to those who gave their all for God and Country is a slap in the face to those who served.

From Politico:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) accused Republicans of being “anti-American” by demanding changes to a Wall Street regulation bill before it’s debated openly on the Senate floor.

Speaking to reporters just before the Democrats’ third attempt to break a GOP filibuster on the issue, Reid said that Republicans “keep stalling, keep stalling.” He charged Republicans with trying to pick apart the bill before it even comes to the floor where both sides could offer amendments and openly debate the measure.

Does this mean all of those Democratic lead filibusters during the Bush Administration were also “anti-American”? Or is this just another double-standard brought to America by the hard-Left nutjobs in the Senate?

Any rate, by claiming that the Republican filibuster of this massive government takeover of another part of the American economy as being “anti-American”, Harry Reid has been awarded the coveted Moonbat Award. Congratulations Senator Reid, you are a Moonbat. But that’s not a surprise.

Whatever happened to “civil discourse”, anyway?

From The Times Herald (soon to be archived and inaccessible without a fee):

Circuit Judge James Adair said Peter Watts was the kind of guy with whom he’d like to share a beer and conversation.

“Sir, you’ve been a puzzle for me throughout (the case),” Adair said Monday before sentencing the Toronto author.

Watts, a science-fiction writer, was sentenced to 60 days in the county jail, with the sentence suspended upon payment of all fines. Fines and fees included $68 in state minimum costs, $60 for crime victim rights, $1,000 in court costs and $500 in fines.

A little over $1,600 is chump change for someone like Watts, but I wasn’t the one making the decision on what is an appropriate sentence/fine. What I really like is this quote:

He (Mullkoff, Watts’ attorney) added Watts already was being punished before the sentencing had been delivered, because he no longer would be able to travel into the United States with the felony conviction. Mullkoff said Watts’ ailing brother lives in New York and he often attended conferences and had business dealings in the United States.

Suffered enough? Wah! This isn’t suffering, this is losing a privilege.

I am not sure about how long the travel ban to the U.S. will last, or if it can/will be lifted at some point in the future. If he has an “ailing brother” in New York, I’d have no problem with his getting to go and visit him. As for conferences and business dealings, we’re talking about Science Fiction Conventions. Now, I go to several cons a year myself. Watts not being able to attend is no loss to me, and it isn’t like there aren’t any cons in Canada or other countries.

It looks as though this story is now closed and we can move on to more important issues and fun things. Or I can go back to palying WoW.

My heartiest congratulations on advancing the People’s cause by nationalizing Amerika’s health insurance industry. What a stroke of genius; destroying the capitalistic health insurance industry, forcing all Americans to buy sub-standard health care coverage, raising taxes and government spending to new levels, and expanding government with over 100 new bureaucracies all in one fell swoop. What more could a dictator want, aside from a docile population? And all of this accomplished without executing a single opponent. But then, you will no longer have to worry about executing your opponents; all you need do is deny them access to health care.

Yes, I know, the right-wing capitalist pig imperialists will try to use the courts to rule your great victory for the People as unconstitutional and invalid. The simple solution to that is to do as the great Franklin Delano Roosevelt and add as many members to that symbol of Imperialism as needed to enforce your will.

Once the Amerikan people are addicted to government run health care, government run banks, government produced motor vehicles, you will be one step closer to realizing the utopia guaranteed by the Revolution.

Your friend,

Joseph Stalin

I looked over the roll-call vote and saw a few surprises here and there, like Colin Petersen (MN-d, CD7), who voted against ObamaCare (I am also just learning that he is a founding member of the “Blue Dog” Coalition of Democrats, so maybe it wasn’t a surprise).

There will be legal battles, and more. The 2010 election cycle will be interesting to watch. The 1994 GOP landslide shifted 54 seats in the House of Representatives. It is clear that in many districts a Republican can campaign on “Real ObamaCare” and have a decent chance of winning (exception: San Francisco - there is no way a Republican can unseat Che Pelosi). It is also possible that some hard-Left Democrats may be met with primary challengers also touting “repeal”. How many seats will change? I am hoping for at least 60 in the House and 10 in the Senate; enough to change the dynamics of politics in Washington.

There are also the beginning rumblings of calls for impeachment of Obama, which given the current split in Congress, has little chance of succeeding. Perhaps the environment will change after the midterm elections.

Obama promised openness and bipartisanship. People proclaimed him to be a “uniter”. What we have witnessed is a total disregard for the American people, of which the vast majority is opposed this legislation, hard ball partisan politics, and the most divisive administration in the entire history of our country.

If this travesty becomes law and the courts fail to overturn it, then it can no longer be said that America is the “Land of the free.” Rather, we will be the land of the serfs, and our Constitution rendered, once and for all, irrelevant.

The Port Huron Times Herald has done an excellent job of covering the trial; since Watts is a Science Fiction writer and some in the SF Fandom community rallied (but not I) around Watts, drawing international attention to the case, this was a good thing on the part of the Times Herald.

There have been other bloggers covering the case, both supportive of Watts, and some supportive of Law Enforcement. Kudos go to the blog “Have Satellite Truck, Will Travel” for having the first posting on the verdict handed down by the jury: Guilty! Fannish Moonbats will, no doubt, cry foul, or fowl. Or whatever.

From rifters (if you want to read his profanity laced blog, power to you, but I am not linking to it):

“TANJ literally.” For those not in the know, TANJ is a term coined by Larry Niven and means “There ain’t no justice”. Ironic that this would be used on rifters as Watts has railed against Niven (and Pournelle) as being a fascist. Also, the way the poster is using TANJ comes across as though he thinks that the trial and conviction was a railroad job.

Here’s another real gem:

Someone needs to tell this guy that the U.S. has a lot of foreigners in the prison system. They are called criminals. Let’s not forget that there are Americans in various foreign prisons, like Mexico and various European countries, and they are there for a reason: they broke the law.

Watts is expected to appear in court on April 26th for sentencing. I am unable to ascertain if Watts is to remain free on bond and allowed to return to Canada prior to sentencing. If he is allowed to remain free, will he actually show up in court on next month? Will he apologize to his 15 or so fans for letting them down? We’ll just have to watch and see.

Kline was followed by Barbara Davis White who is running for Congress in MN-CD 5, running against Comrade Keith Ellison.

Ed Morrissey of Hot Air and Twila Brase of the Citizens council on Health Care both talked more about the current plans by the Democrats to take over our health care system. One of Twila’s points is that Obama believes he knows what is best for us regarding our health than the hundreds of millions of Americans.

Congressman Michelle Bachmann was the key note speaker and continued the theme set by Congressman Kline, and elaborated on Pelosi’s plan to bypass the Constitution and force the bill through the House without a vote by our elected representatives. Bachmann further pointed out that if this tactic is successful, then the bill will not be legal - invalid - and unenforceable.

Now, pictures from the rally.

On Friday, the first day of the convention, many of the crew members were there early as they stayed the night in the hotel, with the rest of us arriving about the time the convention opened, and we were all ready for a weekend of fun, frolic, and harassing Redshirts.

Gwynyth Walsh, famed for playing the Duras sister Be’tor on Star Trek: The Next Generation, was the media guest of honor. The Rakehell’s own Jennifer served as Be’tor’s liason for the weekend. Also from the Rakehell, Patrick, who is a journalist by trade (New Prague News), interviewed Be’tor for a piece he would like to publish. We’re all looking forward to the results.

The mighty Qob ran two costuming panels on Saturday, the first doing the Wraith Queen from Stargate, and then followed it up with a one-two punch of Costuming the Klingon (reloaded). Both costuming panels were well attended and the results were great.

Meanwhile, as the costuming panels were in progress, one of the panels I was on, “Femme Fatales in Film Noir” took place, where discussed some of the great films of the ’40s and ’50s that set the tone for movies looking at the dark side of the human condition.

A local Steampunk club ran a murder mystery game in one part of the hotel, which doubled as a display of Steampunk costumes and props.

The Masquarade was a bit light this year with only 10 entries, but those entries had some darned high quality, such as the brothers, Damon and Yancy as the Riddler and Doctor Freeze (respectively). They won Best in Show and deserved the kudos. Our own, Bin’di, the Warrior Girl, won in the Young Fan Category for being the Original Femme Fatale, Cinderella.

The party scene was excellent for a mid-sized convention, with numerous room parties on the 13th floor and a couple on the 12th floor. The Rakehell’s party theme was Casino Royale, with a Spy vs. Spy type of décor, and numerous drinks, such as “Snake Eyes” and “All In”. Best party room this year went to the MN Super Heroes United, with Second place going to The World Defense Force for their tribute to classic monster movies. Blair, of the WDF, made most of the Mad Scientist gear used in the WDF party room, including a working Jacob’s Ladder.

Sunday, tending to be low key as the con wound down, Sue’La and I attended a panel on “Teaching Astronomy To Your Kids”, which put the wonderful Bin’di to sleep (naptime!). This was an informative panel that needs multiple sessions as there is a lot of material to cover that we didn’t get to in the one hour time slot.

Patrick and Ivan ran a panel on how to make working wings for a costume, use Patrick’s “gargoyle” wings as a demo/model.

After closing ceremonies, the crew of the Rakehell descended on one of our favorite Chinese restaurants for entirely too much food and post convention decompression.

All in all, much fun was had. Most of the active crew members of the Rakehell were in attendance at MarsCon. Convention attendance was pegged at 706 this year. According to the ConCom, next year MarsCon will play host to John and Bjo Trimble.

Yep, Spicoli is at it again, ranting about how his favorite dictator is getting beat up in the media and called, well, a dictator. “Yeah, dude, he’s really, like, not a dictator, dude.”

Sean Penn, on Friday on “Real Time with Bill Maher” said (from FoxNews):

“Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it” said Penn, winner of two Best Actor Academy Awards. “And this is mainstream media, who should — truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.”

What else he is saying here. An elected leader is not a dictator. Given that, then Sean Penn must mean that Hitler, who was the elected leader of Germany, was not a dictator. Yep, all you have to do to avoid being called dictator is get elected. Kind of like Ahmadinejad, Stalin, Kruschev, Saddam Hussein, and a host of other dictators. Hey, they were also elected at some point. Just like Hitler and Hugo Chavez.

The Oscar-winning jailbird is also quoted as saying:

“Do I hope that those people die screaming of rectal cancer? Yeah.”

That means he wants people like me to drop dead, if we don’t get jailed for calling a dictator a dictator. So much for love, tolerance, and peace from the hard-card loony Left.

Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News’ senior judicial analyst, had a lot to say about Penn’s ravings. I like the last paragraph from the piece best:

“In light of his ignorance of freedom of speech, his wishing rectal cancer on his detractors, and his embracing tyrants, Mr. Penn obviously prefers thuggery to democracy,” he continued. “Were he free to do so, he’d be a tyrant. Now we’ll see if he can get me jailed for saying that!”

For his latest rantings about calling Chavez, and other dictators dictators, and wishing people who disagree with him to die of rectal cancer, Sean Penn has earned himself the coveted Moonbat Award. Please, Sean, do something intelligent, like moving to Cuba, and then tell me that their “elected” leaders are not dictators while trying to keep a straight face.