Quote of the Indeterminate Time Interval – Mike Storie

Fourth Amendment? Mike Storie, attorney for the SWAT team that kicked in former Marine Jose Guerena’s door and shot him, has this to say about your fourth amendment rights:

There is nothing wrong with policy. This policy has worked for years and it will continue to work for years. My advice would be if you hear lights and sirens going, and you hear the police pounding on your door, let them in.

Warrant? They don’t need no stinkin’ warrant. If you don’t want a bunch of mall ninjas kicking in your door and shooting at you 71 times (and only hitting you 22 times), then you’d better let them in whether they’ve got a warrant or not.

Giving someone a badge and a gun doesn’t make them infallible, and it doesn’t make their life worth more than the lives of those they are supposedly sworn “to protect and serve.” (Which, by the way, is so much hot air; the SCOTUS has ruled that the police have no duty to protect someone.)

Eroding civil liberties in the name of officer safety is unwise; aside from the blatant infringement on basic rights, it serves to highlight an us vs. them mentality in the police and public, pitting one side against the other.

Highbrow

The third game in the Star Ocean series, Till the End of Time, was the only installment released on the PlayStation 2. At the rate they’ve been releasing games (one per generation, about), Star Ocean 5 will be for the PS4/Xbox 720.

Even if the next game in the series is a few years off (though I’m not sure how they’re going to square it with the rest of the series; I think as each sequel comes out, they move further back in time; Star Ocean 4 was the (chronologically) first game in the series, for all that it was the most recently released), the rest of the games have plenty of Motoi Sakuraba music.

If he weren’t so damn prolific, I wouldn’t keep choosing tracks he’s written. Unfortunately for us all, I have little choice in the matter. There are only so many game composers, and only so many games; not even I have played them all (or even scratched the surface, for that matter).

Kotaku has published a few tidbits of information

About Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm, the Zerg campaign expansion to Starcraft II.

They’ve got hands-on-impressions, screenshots, and a video of the game in action.

If I had to guess, I’d say it’s going to release by the end of the year; they haven’t announced a concrete date, but that seems a safe bet. I doubt they’ll make it by the end of July (which would have been a year after Starcraft II’s release).

Heart of the Swarm looks pretty good, though. Maybe I’ll finally learn WTF I’m doing when I’m controlling the Zerg.

Nice to see Germany is preparing for the inevitable tidal wave

By caving in to Green demands and shutting down their nuclear power plants (H/T Legal Insurrection).

After all, the Fukushima reactor has proven that nuclear power is inherently unsafe.

You know, if it gets hit by an earthquake of historic power.

And then gets hit by a taller than normal tsunami.

Now, the Green party won in the recent German parlimentary elections, so they’re entitled to govern as they choose; I suppose saying that they’ve “caved into Green demands” is a bit of hyperbole.

This shutdown is just part and parcel of the nuclear hysteria leftover from the 60s and 70s, when the hippies were convinced it was the death knell for Gaia if we went nuclear; in the past few years, they’ve begun to reconsider, since nuclear is far cleaner than coal.

But the hysteria is back, thanks to the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

I’m not saying Fukushima is fine; the situation is obviously severe, and coupled with damage wrought by the tsunami, Japan is in dire straights. But it’s been almost three months since the SHTF, and as bad as it is, it’s not the nuclear holocaust everyone predicts will be unleashed when nuclear reactors go bad.

If you want clean electricity, nuclear is pretty much your only option; if you build the plants in stable areas, and plan for the worst situations, they should be fine.

According to the USGS (assuming I’m reading that map correctly), Germany is almost dead center in the European plate; it’s in as close to no danger from an earthquake as you can get without being in an in-flight plane.

Their plants are completely safe from the disasters that befell the Fukushima reactor; the reaction by the Greens to shut them down is based on irrational fear, and should be condemned as such.

Violent Storm

The longer Baten Kaitos sits in my game queue, the less likely it gets that I’ll ever actually play it.

Which is a shame, since it’s by tri-Crescendo and Monolith Soft, and has music by Motoi Sakuraba.

It got decent reviews, and is supposed to have an interesting card-based battle system, but it’s been languishing on the shelf, unplayed, for a few years now.

If only it weren’t on the Gamecube; it’s such a downgrade to go from HD games and movies back to LD. Before I upgraded, I didn’t know what I was missing; now, I can’t believe I ever put up with resolution that low.

This Memorial Day…

Try to take time out in between going to the lake and grilling burgers to remember those who have given their lives in the service of the United States.

Photo Source

The Ballad of Rodger Young:

Vegas photos

I know I said I’d have these up last week, but I had to get my laptop repaired, and then there was family stuff going on until Saturday.

Now that’s all done with, I’ll post a few of the photos I took in Las Vegas a couple weeks back; hit the jump (beware, they are hi-res).

Quote of the Indeterminate Time Interval – Mark Steyn

Writing at NRO, in response to the news that “less than 40% of Eurozone citizens work and over 60% are on benefits of some sort,” Mark Steyn writes:

The entire western world is approaching the point at which Wile E Coyote looks down and realizes there’s nothing under his feet.

 

 

Lucky Gunner Blogger Shoot link roundup

I’m sure more people have posted their impressions, photos, videos, and such about this weekend’s festivities, but if you’re too lazy to search for them yourself, I’ve collected a few below:

• Tam
• Sebastian (photos here and videos here)
• Kevin (photos here, videos here and here)

I’ll update periodically as I find more reports; I think it’s winding down today/tonight, so by Monday or Tuesday I should have several more links. Enjoy!

Update 1: Uncle reveals that the various targets were loaded up with tannerite!

Update 2: Sean brings us a video demonstrating the Kriss Vector, along with his impressions of the gun.

Update 3: Oleg has posted some of his commentary and photos. I’m sure more will be forthcoming.

Update 4: Comments and links to videos from Les Jones.

Update 5: A couple pics from Uncle; an “after” shot of the targets from My Gun Culture; and seven more full auto videos from Les Jones.

Update 6: A day two writeup from Sebastian.

Update 7: Photos and impressions from Old NFO.

Update 8: Lucky Gunner provide stats on how many rounds were fired, how many targets were destroyed, and a list of all the bloggers who attended.

Brave Heart

Prinny: Can I Really be the Hero? is a platformer spinoff of the Disgaea SRPG series, featuring (as you might guess from the title) the exploding penguin demon mascot characters as our protagonist.

Etna, demoness extraordinaire, wannabe ruler of the underworld, and master of prinnies has sent her minions to gather the ingredients for the fabled ultimate dessert.

What’s power worth if you can’t use it to indulge the slightest whim, after all?

While the prinnies are legion, they have only been given one scarf that prevents them from exploding on violent impact; instead of controlling any particular prinny for the game, the player controls the bescarved penguin, and when it eventually dies, the next in the line of 1000 initial prinnies dons the scarf and marches towards oblivion.