I knew this sort of thing happened but this is the first time I have heard it used as a defense in a sexual assault case:

TORONTO - In an unusual case Tuesday in a Toronto courtroom, a 33-year-old man was acquitted of sexual assault after a judge ruled he was asleep during the attack, the Toronto Sun reported Wednesday.

"This is indeed a rare case," said Justice Russell Otter, as the woman who Jan Luedecke had sex with shook, sobbed and then left the courtroom.

"His conduct was not voluntary."

...

Luedecke, a landscaper, met the woman at a party on July 6, 2003. Both had been drinking.

The woman had fallen asleep on a couch. She woke up to find him having sex with her. She pushed him off, then contacted the police.

Luedecke said he fell asleep on the same couch and woke up when he was thrown to the floor.

He only suspected he had had sex after using the bathroom and discovering he was wearing a condom, court heard. He confessed to police.

During his trial, sleep expert Dr. Colin Shapiro testified Luedecke had parasomnia - a disorder with symptoms such as sleep-walking. Shapiro testified Luedecke suffered from sexsomnia, which is sexual behavior during sleep.

It was brought on by alcohol, sleep deprivation and genetics, Shapiro said.

Luedecke previously had sex while asleep with four girlfriends, court heard.

News of the successful defence of sexsomnia may spread to others accused of sexual assault, said University of Toronto law professor Hamish Stewart.

"We may hear more forms of this defence from accused persons," he said, adding he has never previously heard of such a case.

Luedecke has cut down on his drinking and is taking medication to stop a repeat of the incident, court heard.

It sounds to me like the correct decision was reached but the woman says she has the means and the intent to appeal the decision.  I would like to suggest she stop falling asleep in drunk stupors at parties and get on with her life.

It's a little bit subtle but once you think about it and look at the numbers it's hard to come up with any other conclusion.  Howard Nemerov didn't spell it out quite like my posting title but that is what jumped out of his posting at me.  If you are for the restriction of self defense tools that compensate for the physical advantage men, on the average, have over women then the unintended consequence is that you increase the violence against women.  I found these numbers particularily disturbing: 

Rape Rate Trends 1995–2003 (per 100,000 pop.)
	1995	2003	% Change
Australia	72.5	91.7	+26.5
United Kingdom	43.3	69.2	+59.8
United States	37.1	32.1	-13.5

In the time period under consideration above Australia and the UK both implemented extremely repressive firearm laws.  The U.S. made it easier for people to carry the tools necessary to defend yourself from violent attacks.

His final word is a little over the top, but it's a thought that certainly comes to mind:

Is “Burka-ed and pregnant” next on the gun-ban agenda?

One of the peace activists recently kidnapped by the Islamic extremists was written about in tomorrows Washingon Post.  It's so sad to read the words he wrote before going to Iraq and what his friends here are saying now:

As Tom Fox headed toward the end of his first week in captivity in Iraq, friends said the 54-year-old musician and peace activist was well aware of the dangers he faced in the war-ravaged country.

He was so realistic, in fact, that he devised a written plan he distributed to friends and co-workers that they should follow if he were taken hostage. Don't pay ransom for his return, he wrote in an October 2004 e-mail, and reject the use of violence in trying to win his freedom. Don't "vilify" the abductors, he said, but instead "try to understand the motives of their actions."

...

"We are very worried about our four friends," Christian Peacemaker Teams said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. "We fear that whoever is holding them has made a mistake. [They] are four men who came to Iraq to work for peace and explain their opposition to the occupation. They are not spies."

...

At the service in McLean, where Fox's e-mail from 2004 was read aloud, his friends reminisced about his ideals. One woman said that just before Fox left for Iraq, he told her, "Too many are willing to die for war and too few are willing to die for peace."

"Try to understand the motives of their actions"?  The motives are, "You are not Muslim or you are not the right flavor of Muslim.  You must convert or die."  "Explaining your opposition to the occupation" isn't going to yield the desired results.

And who has ever said they were willing to die for war?  I've heard or read about people willing to die for country, freedom, honor, family, way of life, and a lot of other things but I've never heard it said they were willing to die for war. 

These people are living in an alternate reality.  It's sad their introduction to reality will likely be in the form of a box full of sand covered body parts.  Don't expect it will convert many of them.  They are prime canditates for When Prophecy Fails mention.

The online entry has been a big hit.  Some women have purchased gift entries for their husbands and numerous other entries have resulted in a big rush.  I have a total of 19 slots filled now.  In 2003 that many positions weren't taken until February 7th.  In 2002 it wasn't until February 28th.  Get your entries in soon unless you just want to be just be a spectator.

Unless you sent a snail mail in the last week everyone should have received their confirmation email by now.  If not let me know.  I was really slow in getting some of the confirmations out and there's a remote possibility I lost one or two.

State drama competition is in the state of Southern Idaho and that's where Xenia is going to be for a couple days.  It snowed last night (see her pictures of it here) and that made the roads very slick.  Barb and I are somewhat worried about all the road travel but it's really important to her and it's not very often that kids on a school trip are injured--the drivers know they have an extra responsibility and have commericial drivers licenses.

I talked to her a little bit ago.  "Good luck!", I said.  Then I remember that was wrong and followed up with, "And break a leg!"

I have often used the analogy in personal conversation, teaching self-defense classes, and sometimes alluded to it on this blog (here, here, here, and here).  But Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, U.S. Army (Ret.) spells it out better on this page than anyone else I have seen.

Thanks to someone at work for pointing this page out to me.

The terrorists have identified Iraq as central to their global aspirations. For that reason, terrorists and extremists from all parts of the Middle East and North Africa have found their way to Iraq and made common cause with indigenous religious extremists and former members of Saddam's regime. This group cannot be won over and must be defeated -- killed or captured -- through sustained counterterrorism operations.

National Strategy for Victory in Iraq
From the Whitehouse

I ran across these stats in a UK newspaper:

• Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 200 foreigners since the invasion in 2003
• Of these, 52 are known to have been killed by their captors — 41 in 2004 and 11 in 2005
• Of those killed, three were American and two were British
• Margaret Hassan, an aid worker, was kidnapped on her way to work in October 2004 and is believed to have been shot. Kenneth Bigley was beheaded after being kidnapped in September, 2004
• Approximately 55 foreign nationals are currently being held hostage in Iraq

With stats like that it's amazing to me there are leftist "peace activists" that complain about U.S. soldiers putting a "holy book" on top of a toilet.  I'm with Clayton on this--the left is completely "losing it". 

You would think the "religion of peace" and peace activists would get along well.  But currently the extremists for the "religion of peace" are holding some Western peace activists with a sword hanging over their heads:

AN ELDERLY British man and three other Western peace activists kidnapped in Baghdad appeared last night in a video released by an unknown insurgent group that labelled them “spies of occupying forces”.

...

Friends of Mr Kember dismissed the spy claim as outrageous. “He would never ever dream of doing anything like spying,” Bruce Kent, the veteran peace campaigner, told the BBC. “The last thing he would do would be working for the British Government.”

...

Mr Kember’s family released a statement yesterday saying that he had gone to Iraq “for a short time to join a peace group that’s talking and listening to people of all persuasions, believing that dialogue not confrontation should help to bring about conciliation. He feels very strongly that the occupation in Iraq is a mistake.”

These naive fools need to read a little bit of what Osama bin Laden has to say about things.  He is very clear on things--convert, submit, or die.  Think about it.

I would have never have guessed.  Perhaps it's only true in Australia:

Some rural sex workers, male and female, are aged over 70, a new study has found.

The study by the University of New England, believed to be the first of its kind in the world, interviewed 20 NSW rural sex workers.

It found the numbers of female and male sex workers in the state's country areas had risen in the past 10 years.

While there had always been brothels in country areas, escort services had only taken off since the early 1990s, project leader Dr John Scott said.

And male escorts had only begun to appear in rural centres in the past five years, he said.

The study also found country sex workers were more educated and much older than those in the city.

The interviewees were mostly aged between 20 and 58, but there were a few - male and female - over 70, he said.

In case you hadn't already heard Kim has a new blog up.  In his email he said, "I got sick of anonymity."

The new blog promises to show another side of Kim--a Kim more presentable to corporate America.  I understand the sentiment.  I have had my own problems with that.

Our movement took a grip on cowardly Marxism and from it extracted the meaning of socialism. It also took from the cowardly middle-class parties their nationalism. Throwing both into the cauldron of our way of life there emerged, as clear as a crystal, the synthesis- German National Socialism.

Hermann Goering (1893-1946),
German Nazi leader, air marshal.
Speech, 9 April 1933, Sports Palast, Berlin.
["Progressives" and "Liberals" should never be allowed to forget the roots they share with the Nazis.-- Joe]

Our idea of improving NICS is to abolish it. There is this continuing assumption that a gun buyer is guilty until proven innocent.

Larry Pratt
Executive director of the Gun Owners of America
Associated Press
November 27, 2005
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Nov/20051127News033.asp
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/top/3_1_EL27_A1GUNS_S1.htm

Where would you be less likely to be killed?  As a resident of Washington D.C.?  Or an american serviceman in Iraq?  Don Kates has the answer:

Drastically increasing homicide led Washington, D.C., to ban handguns in the 1970s. So useless was this that D.C. soon had (and continues to have) the nation’s highest murder rates. Today, its residents have a 25 percent higher chance of being murdered than American troops in Iraq have of dying from enemy action.

Lots of other great stuff in the article too.  This, from the same article, is basically my Just One Question posting:

In a study published last December, the National Academy of Sciences, having reviewed 43 government publications, 253 journal articles, 99 books, and its own research, could not identify even one example of gun control that reduced murder or violent crime.

Update: It's been pointed out to me the article quoted has been updated.  The information was wrong.  Apparently monthly casualty rates in Iraq were being compared to yearly rates in D.C.  Sorry about that.

Who would have thought the benefits would have shown up so soon?  Certainly not me.  I guess those San Francisco voters knew what they were doing.  Read the details here.  [end sarcasm]

Stunning photo:

And high praise:

Still on guard

Gun-control advocate keeps up the fight 16 years after Montreal massacre

TORONTO -- Wendy Cukier didn't stand by and weep for the 14 young women who were murdered by a lone gunman on Dec. 6, 1989, in Montreal.

Instead, she formulated a plan to eradicate the use of illegal firearms, and has been working tirelessly towards that goal ever since.

The Ryerson professor, and founder and president of the Coalition for Gun Control, was lauded for her initiative 14 years ago when she was one of 10 winners at the Sun Media's annual Women on the Move celebration in Toronto.

Today, Cukier is still a prof at Ryerson, as well as an associate dean of its business school, which is the largest business undergraduate school in Canada.

And she's still involved in gun-control issues.

Cukier, mother to a 17-year-old daughter, says there's still a lot of work to do in light of all the gunplay Toronto is witnessing.

"It's important to continue the fight and ensure gun legislations that have been implemented are properly enforced, and not watered down," says Cukier.

"It's clear you can strengthen the laws in your own country, but if you are next to a country with as many guns as people and no effective gun control, you remain vulnerable," she adds.

Currently, the dynamic activist is doing a lot of work at the United Nations level trying to establish international standards.

"Canada is often recognized as a model for other countries - they think we've done a good job. Amnesty International recognizes Canada's gun laws as a model for preventing violence against women with guns," says Cukier.

And even though there has been an increase in homicides by guns in Toronto this year, the death and injury rate by guns in Canada is at the lowest it's ever been.

"Gang-related murders are definitely a problem and shows there is more work to do. Yet murders of women with guns is down 75%," she adds.

"The big thing is, even though it's been 16 years since the Montreal massacre, we're still having to fight very hard to preserve the gains we've won," says the author of The Global Gun Epidemic: From Saturday Night Specials to AK-47s.

"The gun lobby is fighting every step of the way and my message is for people ... to speak out. Victims of violence and police officers are trying to get the attention of our politicians, but if the public doesn't get engaged in the solution, then they become part of the problem."

No mention of what really is important--the overall death and injury rate in Canada since they implement their "model" gun control.  Further questions include "How many people were injured or killed because they didn't have the appropriate tool to defend themselves?"  And "Would the nearly two billion dollars spent on the failed gun registry have been better spent on more police officers, equipment, and prisons?"

And finally, "Has this paper ever given a pro-freedom advocate high praise similar to what they give this anti-freedom advocate?"

Just a hint for those of you that look for the cheapest ammo you can find.  Same gun, same shooter, same range, same day:

Hunting ammo.

Match ammo

The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms . . . you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.

Niccol Machiavelli
(1469-1527)
Italian political philosopher and statesman
The Prince, ch. 12 (1514)

This guy is even more obsesive and geeky than I am.  He shot about 2350 rounds to get this data.

Current airport/airplane security is a waste of time.  Everyone knows it and some even talk about it openly.  Here they just hint at it.  We need to research the problem starting with a clean slate.

The problem is that private firearms ownership in Australia has fallen victim to a narrow, authoritarian mentality which substitutes the lowest common denominator, irrational fear, for sensible debate. The fundamental freedom to protect one's life and property has been replaced by a policy which ignores the fact that no matter how well resourced a police service may be it cannot prevent violent home invasions. Ultimately, individuals must be given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own safety.

Paul Peake
Self Defence (November 1998)
From http://www.ssaa.org.au/ilanov98.html (as of December 1, 1998)

anti-gun lobbyists think that anyone, at any time, can turn into a raving lunatic and, if armed, start effectively killing people. laura is an example, having said something pretty much to this effect in this folder at one time or other. under this operating idea, firearms bans would be a pretty good idea. they also tend to think that collections of people act more rationally than individuals, and that therefore, governments which represent collections of people (rather than, say, parasitic elites) are not to be taken as concerns.

pro-gun lobbyists think that most people will not turn into raving lunatics, under pretty much any circumstances; those that do are the fairly rare exceptions that the rest of us sane folk need to be able to protect ourselves against. under this paradeigm, firearms bans make no sense whatsoever, as the lunatics and criminals won't care about them anyway. they also tend to think that collections of people are more likely to get Real Bad Ideas than individuals (the mob effect, or as put in Men in Black, "A person is smart. People are weird, panicky and stupid.") and have more power to exercise those Real Bad Ideas. Therefore, power groups (such as governments) are to be monitored carefully and not allowed to accumulate too much power.

both, fundamentally, have fear issues. the question is, whose fears ring true with you?

Dar Korra'ti
Friday, August 14, 1998 11:23 AM
Right vs Left Discussion (Microsoft public folder)

This Website will outline our aims, which are simple, and the ways you can help, which are many.

The job of this network is not to convince people that guns, especially handguns, are dangerous. Everyone knows that already. The vast majority want to see handguns prohibited completely and much tighter controls on all other weapons.

Our job is to convince the law-makers that they must listen to the majority, and not be swayed by the selfish minority.

Gun Control Network (U.K.)
From http://www.gun-control-network.org/gcnhome.htm
As of March 3, 1999
[They completely miss the point that because guns, especially handguns, are dangerous make them an extremely useful tool for self-defense.  That is unless they subscribe to the "cattle theory" of government where all people are equally valuable and the loss of any human life no matter how vile a crime they are committing when they are shot by an innocent victim is a tragedy.  So we are left to conclude either they are ignorant and/or they are immoral.--Joe]

I got a call from Xenia yesterday.  She said a big package arrived in the mail from PNNL.  I asked her to open it and tell me about the contents.  It was from Peggy Hevland who said they found some more stuff from my former office that appeared to be personal rather than work related.  It was some paperwork I had filled out related to getting my security clearance.  I didn't have Xenia go through all of it but as near as I could tell it wasn't anything important.  They appear to be just tidying things up as best they can.  Sort of like sweeping up the broken lamp and putting the furniture back in place after they broke into your house and raped you.

Barb had an interesting comment when she heard about it.  I'd repeat it here but I generally don't use that kind of language.

I wonder if they have run out of options on the FOIA and Privacy Act requests they have been defying and are trying to get things in order for the counter attack they know is coming.

Also of interest is that I suspect it's someone from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that downloads all the pages off of my pnnl.info web site every so often.   It's nice to know they are still "thinking about me."  I often think of them too.  That reminds me--I need to sharpen a couple of knives I used when I gutted and skinned my deer.

1. Talk about a huge breast!
2. Tying the legs together keeps the inside moist.
3. It's Cool Whip time!
4. If I don't undo my pants, I'll burst!
5. Whew, that's one terrific spread!
6. I'm in the mood for a little dark meat.
7. Are you ready for seconds yet?
8. It's a little dry, do you still want to eat it?
9. Just wait your turn, you'll get some!
10. Don't play with your meat.
11. Just spread the legs open and stuff it in.
12. Do you think you'll be able to handle all these people at once?
13. I didn't expect everyone to come at once!
14. You still have a little bit on your chin.
15. How long will it take after you stick it in?
16. You'll know it's ready when it pops up.
17. Wow, I didn't think I could handle all of that!
18. That's the biggest one I've ever seen!
19. How long do I beat it before it's ready?

Always have a gun with you when you get an unexpected visitor at the door.  Of course the government should be on trial here as well as the perps because it was the criminal government that disarmed the victims in this case:

THE widow of the financier John Monckton yesterday relived the moments when a bogus Royal Mail delivery man she named as “Postman Pat” burst into their home with an accomplice and destroyed their lives.

Homeyra Monckton, 46, needed the assistance of a court usher to enter the witness box and briefly broke down as she told a jury at the Old Bailey how the men forced open the front door. After being stabbed twice in the back by the accomplice, who was wearing a balaclava, she said that she passed out, believing her husband would overcome the figure with whom he was struggling.

“I was thinking, ‘I am dying and he will survive’, because he looked so strong,” she said. “He was fighting, still holding the man’s wrists up. I said to my husband, ‘I have been stabbed’, and I was screaming all the time. I said it maybe a couple of times and then I fainted.”

When she regained consciousness, she heard her fatally injured husband moaning on the floor as their assailants fled. Mrs Monckton was giving evidence in the trial of Elliot White and Damien Hanson, both 24, who deny murdering Mr Monckton, a senior bonds director with Legal & General at the couple’s opulent home in Chelsea on November 29.

Both men also deny the attempted murder of Mrs Monckton and wounding with intent.

The court has been told that Mr White posed as a postman to deliver a bogus parcel to Mr Monckton after the couple had been targeted for their wealth.Mrs Monckton, a mother of two, told the court that her husband returned home early on the night of his death while she was giving her daughter, Isobel, nine, a bath. She said that the doorbell rang at about 7.30pm and, over the intercom, the caller announced that he had a parcel for Mr Monckton.

He first checked through the front-door spyhole and then, with the security chain still on, opened the door. Mrs Monckton said she could see a man holding a parcel and wearing a striped jacket, which she described as being like a Postman Pat outfit. Moments later, after her husband had taken off the chain, he opened the door and the men burst in — her husband crying “no, no, no,” as he tried to push the door shut. She joined him but the couple were unable to keep them out.

Mrs Monckton told the jury: “One came in with a balaclava. He stabbed me almost immediately, without saying anything. All I could think about was that there was a panic alarm in the bedroom on the first floor and I needed to get up there. I was stabbed again as I was going up.” She added: “I could not feel anything in my legs. I sat down and I could see my husband defending himself with another man. I could see him holding his arms high, holding the other man’s arms in front of him, away from him.”

Her assailant “calmly and coldly” demanded the two rings from her fingers, her earrings and a watch — and when he asked for money, she pointed out her handbag to him.

Mrs Monckton said the man in the balaclava had two weapons — a knife and a handgun — and through the eyeholes in his balaclava she could see that he was black. The two rings and watch were worth about £4,500, the earrings were only costume jewellery. Asked whether one of the robbers was reluctant to join in with the violence, she replied: “No, not at all. They destroyed our lives.” The case continues.

The pass over the Cascades on my way home to Idaho had a rock slide a few weeks ago and travel is restricted to just one lane in each direction.  Even when the pass is wide open significant (one or more hours) delays occur during the holiday travel season.  With only two lanes and a speed limit of 35 MPH on the temporary road around the slide zone they are asking people to not cross the Cascades over the holidays.  I'm going home anyway.  They are saying worst case delays could be up to 16 hours and 40 mile backups.  That means my normal five hour drive could become 21 hours.  Ouch. 

I might not blog much in the next few days with all that is going on.

Preparations for my trip eastward include:

• Six gallon gas can in the trunk
• Full tank of gas
• Sleeping bag
• Spare clothes and shoes
• Tarp
• Food
• Water
• Gloves
• Coat
• Rain gear
• First aid kit
• Guns
• Jumper cables
• Flash lights
• Ammunition
• Good snow tires
• Tire chains
• Computer (work and entertainment while waiting)
• Inverter (to power the computer)
• Cell phone charger
• Magazines

Details on the slide and projected delays: RockSlide.pdf (110.51 KB)

I was chatting with my landlords about Thanksgiving plans this evening and remembered a Thanksgiving story I shared with them.  A friend of mine was at Thanksgiving dinner with parents, grandparents, etc and they went around the table sharing what they were thankful for.  My friend, in addition to being rebellious, was sexually active at a rather young age.  She, at the age of 15 or 16, told the entire family she was thankful for birth control.

I'll bet that really changed the atmosphere of that particular family gathering.

Innovation as well as expanding their market share of existing products brought greater profits to Durex recently:

The launch of sex toys and new types of condoms has lifted sales growth at Durex to a record 10 per cent. And SSL, which owns the Durex brand, promised further growth yesterday as it launched a new range of sex aids for men that will be available in Tesco and Boots.

A range of vibrators and lubricants sold under the Durex Play brand accounted for half of the sales growth reported yesterday. Durex revenues were £77.1m in the six months to 30 September.

The decision by Boots to stock a new £5.99 vibrating ring for men represents a significant U-turn for the high street chain. At the start of this year it backed out of talks to launch the Durex Play range of vibrators, for fear of a conservative backlash. The range was eventually launched by Superdrug.

...

Tesco insisted yesterday the disposable rings - which last 20 minutes and have a small vibrating pad to enhance the pleasure of women during sex - were not sex toys but part of the health and family planning range.

SSL claimed that Durex's global market share had risen to 30 per cent after strong growth in the US and Eastern Europe, and thanks to the launch of innovative condoms, such as Pleasuremax, which is ribbed, and Tingle, which is coated with a lubricant that gives a tingling sensation.

SSL, which owns the Scholl footwear and footcare brands, reported interim profits of £17.3m, up from £10.5m in the half-year to 30 September 2004.

The streets are safe in Philadelphia, it's only the people who make them unsafe.

Philadelphia Mayor, Frank Rizzo
[My guess is that neither truer, nor more stupid, words have ever been spoken.  The solutions to the problem Rizzo outlines are many but only a few are acceptable.  Philadelphia has had a problem getting it right for many decades.--Joe]

Once upon a time there were two Chinese businessmen, No Cum and How Cum.  For reasons yet unknown, How Cum was unmarried.  But No Cum was married to a lovely little Chinese lady by the name of No Cum Too.  One night, while No Cum was away on business, No Cum Too invited How Cum to spend the evening with her.  That night How Cum had great pleasure as No Cum Too came and How Cum came too.  After a few months had past, No Cum found that he was to became a father and he did not know How Cum.  So, when the number one son was born, he named him How Cum You Cum.  And to this day, both No Cum Too and How Cum know how number one son How Cum You Cum came, but No Cum has never found out how number one son How Cum You Cum came.

Told by Gordon Lightfoot
October 1973 at his concert in Moscow Idaho as an introduction for his song, That's What You Get For Loving Me

About eight or ten years ago when we were driving through South Dakota we read there were more sheep than people in the state.  So unless things have changed I'm not sure what this guy's problem was:

"There was inappropriate activity between him and the mannequin," a police spokesman told the newspaper. "That's the only way I know how to put it."

From an email Ry sent me...

Well, I suppose they will catch a few crooks that were candidates for Darwin Awards anyway.  All the surveillance cameras in the UK and their automatic number recognition software came in handy the other day.  They used it to track down and arrest the people that killed a cop on Friday.  Great!  And they publicized it--bad.  One of the most critical things in intelligence gathering is protecting your sources from discovery.  Just how difficult will it be to defeat the system?  How much effort is it to stop and smear some mud on the plates?  Or put a piece of tape over some of the letters?  Or put a paper with a different number over the top of your plates?  Anyway, here is the story where they are crowing about how great and wonderful it is:

A pioneering number plate recognition system in Bradford played a vital role in the arrests of six suspects after the killing of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky.

A network of CCTV cameras linked to a database of registration numbers automatically alerts officers to a vehicle's route across the city.

Within minutes of Friday's shootings, police were using the system to track the suspected getaway car.

The first arrests were made in London early the following morning.

...

At its launch in May, Ch Supt Geoff Dodd of West Yorkshire Police, said: "I believe that this is the best investigative tool we have had since the introduction of DNA analysis.

"DNA broke new ground for the police service and this is another revolutionary tool in detecting crime."

""The importance of this system in the fight against crime cannot be underestimated."

"Denying criminals use of the roads denies access to the primary means of transport for a whole raft of criminal activity."

"It includes the transportation of drugs, stolen property and articles for use in crime, as well as transport for offenders to and from the scenes of crimes such as robberies and burglaries."

"The bottom line is that if a stolen vehicle comes into or out of Bradford city centre we will know about it."

A friend of mine once told me that the personalities of cops and crooks were very similar.  The biggest difference was their IQ.  The cops have the advantage at something like 105 to 95.  They may be smarter than the crooks on the average but crowing about their new toy neutralized the advantage.

On the flip side they can still use it to track innocent people and sell the information on the black market to stalkers, politicians wanting dirt on their opponents, and for industrial espionage.  And just think how useful it would have been to the East Germans 30 years ago.

A couple of cops are shot, one killed, when responding to a call of an armed robbery in progress.  And they are "skeptical" that arming the cops would increase their safety.  A couple of hours of simulations with AirSoft guns would answer that question quite decisively but they are so paralyzed by their own hoplophobia they can't consider the obvious:

Mr Davis accused the government of failing to tackle the source of gun crime and particularly the illegal holding of firearms.

He said gun crime had doubled to around 10-11,000 since 1996 when Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and a teacher at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland. 

Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the government was keen to learn any lessons from the Bradford shootings.

"My main priority is to ensure that guns no longer have a place on our streets and that armed gangs who terrorise innocent people are brought to justice," he said.

But he signalled his opposition to arming all police, citing evidence from other countries which suggested it encouraged criminals to carry guns.

"I remain sceptical that arming all police officers all of the time would make them safer," he said, writing in The Sun.

"Indeed, all the experience from other countries where the police carry firearms demonstrates that this only encourages the criminals to arm themselves and potentially to turn law enforcers' own weapons on to the police themselves."

Cause public proclamation to be made, that everyone strong in body at leisure time on holidays use in his recreation the bow and arrow and learn and exercise the art of shooting - forbidding all and singular on our behalf that they do not after any manner apply themselves to the throwing of stones, wood, iron, handball, foot