By Nathan Barton

Good morning.   Let’s start out with some more on European Jihad:

Just a few miles from Copenhagen, where a member of the Caliphate killed two and wounded others, Northern Germany’s largest Carnival parade in the city of Braunschweig has been called off following a terror alert. Authorities have reported a threat of of an attack with an ‘Islamist background.’ Braunschweig Mayor Ulrich Markurth (SPD) and parade marshal Gerhard Baller canceled the parade at short notice shortly before 11.a.m. (1000UTC) on Sunday. The spectacle had been due to begin at 12.20 p.m. local time. Local Braunschweig police said the Karneval parade had been called off after reliable state sources became aware of a ‘concrete threat’ of an attack with an ‘Islamist background.'”

Just to prove how stupid people can be, it appears that the French Police are chasing wild hares and trying to see how the Charlie killers could have used “loopholes” in the EU’s gun laws to get their weapons. The claim is that the weapons were purchased legally in Slovakia and then modified back into working order. Never mind that Europe is awash in weapons that are smuggled in on every coast, through every port (sea and air) and that the gun control laws serve just ONE real purpose: to keep the great mass of people unarmed and terrified of what criminals and terrorists (government or non-government) might do to them.

At the same time, as Mama Liberty also pointed out, the expansion of the Caliphate into Libya has the EU worried: boatloads of people – terrorists!  Islamists! Radical Muslims!  Soldiers of the Caliph! – can “easily” take a boat across the Med to the “soft underbelly” of Europe and bring more death and destruction.  This is according to a Caliphate (ISIS) publication just translated.  Sounds to me, at least a possibility, that someone in the Caliphate commissioned someone to write this “study” and release it to create havoc among the EU and its various forces, who panic so very easily.  With tens of thousands of “radical” Muslims already living among the millions of Muslims in Europe now, why import MORE?  Far more common sense to just ensure that they have weapons and ammo (or sources thereof) ready to use, and launch attack after attack.  There is no need for anything else:  they already have good communications, they can “live off the land” (as they are already doing) and they have huge masses to hide within.  Ultimately, the Charlie Hebdo killers were stupid: they could easily have launched their attacks and then disappeared back into hiding and struck again, days later.  Yes, I realize much of this is the “Inshallah” (As God wills) mentality, but these people are very stupid in so many ways!

The arrest was back in November, in New Jersey, but the story is finally coming out: a 72 year old retired teacher has been arrested and charged with a felony for having a 250-year-old flintlock pistol (uncharged) wrapped in a cloth in his glovebox: he faces 10 years in prison. The arresting sheriff claims he has no choice: he can only ignore stupid laws for politicians or media.

I normally rail against government stupidity, but corporate stupidity is still a major problem in today’s world. Facebook blocks Native American users for having ‘fake’ names.  Facebook is having a problem with names again. This time, the social media platform is accused of forcing native peoples to use fake names that sound more “American” (oh, the irony!), and in some cases, kicking them off the network for having “fake” names.  Like Ghost Bear and Yellow Bird Steele and Fast Wolf and no doubt Benalli and the like.

Will this make any difference to LEOs?  And prosecutors?  I doubt it, but it is still nice to know. A new National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study says smoking pot does not have a significant effect on a person’s ability to drive. … Reviewing over 10,000 drivers in Virginia, some involved in crashes and some not, researchers discovered that marijuana didn’t pose a major factor in accidents. When accounting for the age and sex of the stoned drivers involved in crashes, marijuana posed no substantial factor, i.e., the high drivers who crashed were predominantly young and male, two factors common in many crashes. Colorado and Washington State, in particular, have a chance to expand this study and see what is happening there.

Mama’s Note: The problem with cannabis is much the same as for most anything else. Individuals have various responses, and there is simply no way to measure actual levels that produce serious impairment. The BAC “laws” are all nonsense and cannabis metabolites can linger in a person for days with no measurable effects. Hundreds of things can cause various levels of impaired judgment and reaction time, and most of those on the road involve electronic devices and passengers, especially small children. It’s long past time for people to be held accountable for the actual harm they cause, whatever the reason, and most of that needs to involve restitution to the victims.