This past Saturday night, I was babysitting for friends. I saw this story on the news about an 10 year old boy who brought a pocket knife to school. The administrators and parents are acting as if he brought a weapon of mass destruction to school!

Parents were interviewed saying things like, “this makes me think my child is not safe at school” and, “How did he ever get his hands on a pocket knife?” Over a pocket knife!

When I was 10, I received a Girl Scout pocket knife for Christmas. It was my proudest possession and I carried it everywhere. Back then, people thought of it as a handy tool. Kids were taught to whittle.

I race sailboats. The kids at the AYC are taught to use knives. If you are out in a blow and a line fouls, you have to use a knife to cut it—so you don’t broach or swamp.

The world is nuts. Personally, I think that public schools share a big part of the blame for that.

An Austin lawyer said he witnessed police use excessive force on a woman downtown, and he has the pictures to prove it.

The incident took place at Seventh and Sabine streets on Thursday afternoon, after a fight broke out a couple blocks away.

Officers tried to arrest one of the men involved in the brawl, but he ran from the scene, and what happened next outraged more than one witness.

Across the street from the police station, criminal defense lawyer Skip Davis said he witnessed what should have been a routine arrest get out of control.

“What I saw expanded from a simple stop to what looked like an eight-cop [assault] of two citizens,” Davis said.

One of those citizens was Alyson Matuke, who said the injuries came from her arrest by Austin police officers Thursday.

“That’s one of them right there, a couple on my back right here,” Matuke said, pointing out her wounds.

Matuke said she was standing by as officers arrested her boyfriend after he ran from them.

“They tell me, ‘You need to leave the scene,’ right, so I’m like, all right, fine, I’m gonna leave, and I go to step across the street, out in the street, maybe a step or two out into the street,” Matuke said.

And then she stepped back onto the sidewalk and made an obscene gesture toward the officers.

“I flipped ‘em the bird, that was it,” Matuke said.

Officers told Matuke she was under arrest for being a pedestrian in the roadway.

“While they had me in handcuffs, my mouth started to get dry, and there’s an officer behind me,” she said. “I turn around to spit, and they said that I tried to spit on him. That’s when they said, ‘That’s a felony. You’re going down for a felony.’ That’s when they tackled me to the ground.”

Davis pulled out his camera and snapped photos that show Matuke on the ground, surrounded by officers.

“It was entirely unnecessary,” Davis said. “They set upon this young lady in a way that embarrassed me.”

Davis said he called 9-1-1 to ask for a supervisor to come to the scene.

“A lieutenant told me that will not be happening,” Davis said. “There will be nobody coming to take your statement. Even though I was on the phone with 9-1-1, and they assured me they were sending someone.”

Matuke was booked into jail on the pedestrian in the roadway charge, a Class C misdemeanor, but she said she doesn’t believe she did anything wrong.

“Hey, I still would’ve shot ‘em the bird, though,” Matuke said.

An Austin Police Department representative said Friday there was no report available for the incident, but the agency is investigating Davis’ allegations.

APD said a formal complaint has not been filed, but Davis said he plans to file that complaint with the police monitor and internal affairs.

I wrote about the death of Carol Anne Gotbaum from the perspective of what the events leading to her tragic death must have looked like. Now, the Washington Post has published a column by a writer who was also deplorably treated by U.S. Airways as a result of their practice of overbooking flights which she discusses:

There’s every reason to believe that Gotbaum would be alive today if she had been allowed to board her flight to Tucson and take her rightful seat. While her tragedy has been a Page One story in many newspapers, few reports have focused on the fact that the airlines involved, US Airways and its subcontractor, Mesa Airlines, are notorious for overbooked flights. According to the New York Times, US Air had revenue last year of $11.56 billion. Of that, $1 billion was the result of diligent overbooking.

The stressful, often incendiary situations created by overbooking infuriate perfectly healthy, well-adjusted passengers. It’s not hard for me to imagine that an emotionally fragile, vulnerable person like Gotbaum could have felt absolutely desperate.

Gotbaum wasn’t late for boarding. She didn’t forfeit her place by ignoring the airline’s procedures. Her only mistake was showing up at the US Airways gate and believing that her paid-in-full, reserved-seat airline ticket meant that she would actually have a seat on the plane.

We made the same mistake.

The writer goes on to discuss her ordeal and rude, brusque treatment by ticket agents. A fish rots from the head and it is unsurprising that staff would behave in this manner given the predicament overbooking puts them in with regard to irate passengers who have reserved and paid for their tickets:

Other staffers told us that many US Air/Mesa personnel were dispirited and overworked, which often led them to vent their frustration on passengers, in a sort of “kick the dog” syndrome, especially in Phoenix. One flight attendant said she had once seen five people arrive a few minutes late at the Phoenix counter and be denied the right to board even though the flight attendants and pilot were willing to allow them on. In this rare case, the plane was not overbooked, and the passengers’ seats were available. Still, the counter staff wouldn’t let them board.

Meanwhile, as Instupundit notes, our ruling class, finds ways to exempt itself from such inconvienences.

Here is the show I wrote about here with Ilana Mercer and Paul Craig Roberts.

From the Austin Ron Paul Meetup Group’s participation in the National March for Ron Paul.

Unfortunately, the tyranny euphemized as political correctness dictates that border security is the only angle allowed in the immigration debate. It’s now mandatory to pair an objection to the invasion of the American Southwest with an embrace of all forms of legal immigration. The puppies on the Republican ticket are generally in compliance. They’ve embraced border security as their bailiwick, but not the burdens associated with the rapid transformation of America.

Although he has positioned himself (unwisely) as a moderate on immigration, judging from an interview he gave vdare.com, Paul takes one of the toughest positions yet – he is the only candidate who’s vowed to eliminate all the incentives that keep unviable immigrants coming.

Both benefits and birthright citizenship will be abolished under a Paul administration. Free medical care, education, welfare largesse and the perennial promise of amnesty – Paul will do away with these federally mandated magnates. Immigrants who cost more than they contribute will be unlikely to come to the U.S. in the absence of what are substantial taxpayer subsidies.

No candidate has dared to talk about deportation. Paul has. “[I]f they’re signing up for a benefit, they should be sent back home, instead of given the benefit,” he told vdare.com. Nab trespassers when they come to claim undeserved entitlements.

Read the whole thing here.

Tomorrow, Thursday, October 11 at 3 PM ET, I will, again, be hosting “I Object! Justice Examined”. The Presidential campaign is in full swing. It is time for conservative Christians and champions of constitutional government to fully evaluate the options. The media has anointed some in the Republican lineup as "frontrunners" Do these frontrunners really represent the values that have made America great?

We will be discussing one of these "frontrunners" in more depth, Rudy Giuliani. Paul Craig Roberts will join us to discuss Giuliani’s record as a prosecutor. Does Giuliani truly respect the rule of law and the rights of citizens? Tune in to find out.

Ilana Mercer will join us with some short commentary.

Tune in by clicking here and then click on my icon at 3PM ET.

To save a Mexican rapist-murderer from the death penalty, despite earlier claims that he would resist an International Court of Justice decision.

Participated in this panel.

Virginia Beach, VA (LifeNews.com)—Regent University, the Christian college in Virginia, has launched a new institute that will study how abortion and euthanasia are targeting the disabled community. The new organization will examine how the practices have created a multitude of human rights abuses ranging from sex-selection abortions to discrimination.

Billing itself as a “multicultural response to medical and cultural trends impacting people with disabilities, the Institute for the Study of Disability and Bioethics will examine these sensitive topics.

The group celebrated its opening this afternoon with a gala event featuring Terri Schiavo’s brother Bobby Schindler; Jerri Ward, a Texas pro-life attorney helping disabled people there; former US Attorney General John Ashcroft; and Jay Sekulow, the lead attorney for the American Center for Law and Justice.

She walked off the airplane with purpose, her determination undeterred. She was salvaging her life. She would succeed.

For the last year, her life had been crumbling. Before today, she stood alone, looking across what seemed to be a vast, untraversable chasm between her and the most important people in her life, her beloved children and handsome husband whom she loved with sad and desperate longing. Even when she held them close, she was exquisitely aware that she was betraying them and that they knew it.

She had bonded herself to a master, more demanding and draining than any human. It was an obsession, a compulsion which built an invisible but impenetrable wall between her and her beloveds. It sapped her strength, destroyed her health and clouded her mind.

The night before the trip, she rose up and began to take down that wall. Her mind cleared for an instant and she saw that she must take her fate into her own hands—all alone—if she were to cross the chasm back to her family.

“Yes, I will go to Cottonwood. I will do this for us, for you, my husband and for our beautiful family. I will go.”

Two-thirds of the trip was achieved. She was in Phoenix, ready to catch that final flight which would carry her to the beginnings of redemption.

She searched for the friends who would cheer her on and encourage her during the delicate pause in her pilgrimage to her destination. No sign. Never mind. She had momentum. She called her husband to assure him…and herself.

“I want to do this for us,” she told him, “I want to do this for our kids. I’m committed to this. I’m so happy.”

She had about a two hour layover before the connecting flight to Tulsa. After all, she could check in at the gate fifteen minutes before the flight according to the US Airways website. (If you are not checked in and waiting in the boarding area at least 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time, your reservation may be canceled and you will not be eligible for denied boarding compensation.)

“There’s a restaurant”, she said to herself, “And a bar….”

She paid her bill and picked up her box of food, checking her watch. She had plenty of time to make the gate before the 15 minute deadline.

She reached the gate and approached the desk at 24 minutes before her flight.

“What? You’ve given away my seat?”

Belying the information on the U.S. Airways website, the officious agent told her that she could go standby on the next flight.

“How can they do this?” she thought, “I was here 24 minutes before the flight. How can they represent that I have my seat until then, yet take it away? This is falling apart….”

Shakily, she called her husband to let him know. She began to wait. Would she make it aboard the 2:58 flight?

“I must make this work! My family and my life are at stake.”

She began to talk to passengers who were already checked on to the flight.

“Would you let me pay for your round trip ticket in return for your boarding pass?”

One gentleman said yes.

Triumphant, she returned to the desk where the officious agent presided.

“I can’t do that. It’s a security risk.”

Stunned, she stared at the stoic face of the agent. How could she be considered a security risk? She was an American! A productive citizen and loving wife and mother in distress. What was the agent seeing in her? Was this woman seeing a fellow woman who was suffering, or just a problem”

“You are a machine!” she screamed, “I am not a terrorist!”

The chasm between her and her family began to widen. Her husband and children began to disappear. An unbearable weight of loneliness began to press down.

She frantically called her husband.

“They are not letting me on! It’s all falling apart,” she cried.

She handed the cell phone to the agent.

It was no use. It was over. She stumbled out of her shoes, threw down her phone and possessions, and began to run down the concourse screaming and crying with despair. In agony, she bent over and then rose, words bursting from her pain.

“I am not a terrorist!”

She sees the burly men approach. Panic builds on panic. They close in. She can’t discern the words they speak in their neutral military tone. All she knows is that uncaring strangers are going to touch her.