Happy 4th of July, America!

Keep the good fight going.

H/T: Theo Spark Last of the Few

A Palestinian man has driven a bulldozer into a bus and several cars in Jerusalem, killing three people, before being shot dead.

Dozens of people were hurt, at least seven critically, in the rampage on Jaffa Road, in the city centre.

A police officer shot the driver of the bulldozer dead after a struggle in the vehicle’s cab.

Police said the attacker, aged 30, was from east Jerusalem, with no known affiliations to militant groups.

They named him as Hussam Dwayat, and said officers had been gathering evidence at his address in the Sur Baher neighbourhood.

The man police say carried out the bulldozer attack in Jerusalem, Hussam Tarysir Dwayat

The BBC’s Tim Franks, who witnessed the attack, said that within a few minutes a stretch of Jerusalem’s city centre had been turned into a blood-soaked mess.

From his office window, our correspondent says he saw the bulldozer ram a bus again and again until it flipped onto its side.

He says he ran out into the street where the bulldozer had left in its wake cars and taxis skewed across the road, some crushed, their occupants still inside.

Israeli police say the attacker was working for a construction firm laying the foundations for a new railway system.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC that an initial inquiry indicated the attacker had been acting alone.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the incident a terrorist attack, and condemned it as “an act of senseless murderous violence”.

An aide to the Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, said the attack was an attempt to wreck peace negotiations, and urged a restrained response from Israel.

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gaza and is maintaining a fragile truce with Israel, denied responsibility.

But Hamas added that it was a “natural” response to “a continued aggression against our people in the West Bank and Jerusalem”.

Cabin struggle

The bulldozer, which was heading towards the city’s largest open-air market, upended a bus and ran over several cars.

One eyewitness told the BBC: “I saw [the bulldozer driver] crashing cars and going into the bus… He wanted to kill as many as he could.”

Another eyewitness, Yaakov Ashkenazi, an 18-year-old seminary student, told the Associated Press news agency: “I saw the bulldozer smash [a] car with its shovel. He smashed the guy sitting in the driver’s seat.”

A security guard from a nearby bank told our correspondent that he had shot the driver, bringing the bulldozer to a halt.

But then the vehicle suddenly started down the road again.

At one point, our correspondent saw two or three men inside the vehicle’s cabin, struggling with the driver and causing the cabin to shake violently.

One of the men, a police officer who arrived on the scene by motorbike, described how he dealt with the attacker.

“As he was driving I climbed the tractor stairs… I also shot him with two bullets, and made sure he was neutralised - and that was the end of the incident,” Eli Mizrahi told AP.

Attacks by Palestinian militants in Jerusalem have been a rare occurrence in recent years, with none of their trademark suicide bombings since September 2004.

The last deadly attack was in March this year when a gunman killed eight students in a seminary before he was shot dead.

I hate to think how many more people would of been killed if that heroic officer had not neutralized the threat. It also demonstrates another point, Crazy people will do Crazy things even if they don’t use guns whether it be explosives or Earth Moving Equipment as in this case.

In light of the victory for freedom this week, I think it’s very appropriate to posts one of Iced Earth’s greatest works, “Declaration Day.”

Give me Liberty or give me Death!!!

LABOR Party national president Mike Rann has downplayed the result of yesterday’s Gippsland by-election, saying no serious commentator believed the government would win the seat.

Because Rann is a stupid/scheming socialist (tautology alert) he misses the issue entirely. The fact that Labor had no chance is irrelevant. In the last election in Gippsland there was a 1.8% swing to Labor, part of the brain fart that elected PM Dudd.

This time around there’s 7.3% swing to the Nationals with 64.8% of votes counted.

That’s the real result. That’s the real issue here.

Moron.

There could be a swing back in Labor’s favour but one thing is for sure, The Nationals have kept Labor out of Gippsland!

Seems that I’m in the right place to be when it comes to Australian politics. :P

Now only if the rest of Australia would pull it’s head out it’s arse and start seeing what Labor is doing to the country.

The US Supreme Court has ruled that Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms, ending a ban on owning handguns in Washington DC in its first ruling on gun rights in 70 years.

The court’s 5-4 decision - on whether the right to keep and bear arms is fundamentally an individual or collective right - upheld the second amendment of the US constitution on the right to bear arms.

“The second amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defence within the home,” the court said in a resume of the decision.

A good win for our American Brothers, Hopefully Australia will see it’s way to doing something similar….

Hitler was for Gun control. Stalin was for gun control. As soon as the guns were taken from ordinary people the genocide started. The second amendment was not written so that people could go hunting it was meant for the citizens to defend themselves against overbearing government or tyrants. In Australia we have no means of defending our selves against a Government that has gone bad. It has not happened yet but it will happen and we will be defenseless.

H/T: To Fortress Outpost Australia for the quote.

THE heads of major fossil fuel companies who spread disinformation about global warming should be “tried for high crimes against humanity and nature,” according to a leading climate scientist.

Dr James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, sounded the alarm about global warming in testimony before a US Senate subcommittee exactly 20 years ago, Fox News reported.

Go right ahead Comrade Hansen.

Don’t let a little thing like free speech worry you.

Scratch a Environmentalist and you’ll find a Fascist.

This is beautiful - and it is surely worth making the 5 finger prayer a
part of our lives.

1. Your thumb is nearest you. So begin your prayers by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember. To pray for our loved ones is, a ’sweet duty.’
2. The next finger is the pointing finger. Pray for those who teach, instruct and heal. This includes teachers, doctors, and ministers. They need support and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction. Keep them in your prayers.
3. The next finger is the tallest finger. It reminds us of our leaders. Pray for the president, leaders in business and industry, and administrators. These people shape our nation and guide public opinion. They need God’s guidance.
4. The fourth finger is our ring finger. Surprising to many is the fact
   that this is our weakest finger, as any piano teacher will testify. It
   should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble or in pain. They need your prayers day and night. You cannot pray too much for them.
5. And lastly comes our little finger - the smallest finger of all which
   is where we should place ourselves in relation to God and others. As the
   Bible says, ‘The least shall be the greatest among you.’ Your pinkie should remind you to pray for yourself. By the time you have prayed for the other four groups, your own needs will be put into proper perspective and you will be able to pray for yourself more effectively.

Thrash at it’s blood pumping best.