Court Upholds Ban on Handgun Sales to People Under 21

The United States may ban federally licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to people under age 21, an appeals court ruled on Thursday, in a defeat for the National Rifle Association.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Houston rejected the NRA’s argument that 18- to 20-year-olds had a right to buy the guns under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment.
A unanimous three-judge panel said Congress, in a law dating from 1968, adopted the sales ban to help curb violent crime. It also said that the nation’s founders and 19th-century courts and commentators believed that disarming specific groups did not trample on the right to bear arms.
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Ron Paul Endorses 5 Candidates in Maine

Former Republican Presidential Candidate Ron Paul is endorsing five candidates running for the Maine State legislature, including three incumbents and two challengers.
In his endorsement letter to Rep. Aaron Libby, the Texas Congressman writes, “Because you have demonstrated that you are willing to fight for individual liberties and stand up for the Constitution, I have decided to endorse your campaign.”
The three incumbent legislators—Aaron Libby (House – Waterboro, Lyman), Beth O’Connor (House – Berwick), and Heather Sirocki (House – Scarborough)—all endorsed Ron Paul during Maine’s 2012 Presidential Caucuses.
The two challengers—John Logan Jones (House – Falmouth) and Mike Wallace (Senate – South Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough)—both served as National Delegates for Ron Paul to the 2012 Republican National Convention.
“After a stunning victory at the Maine Republican Convention, Ron Paul’s endorsement carries significant weight with Maine’s conservative grassroots,” says Eric Brakey, the former Maine State Director for the Ron Paul 2012 Campaign. He currently serves as the Chairman for Defense of Liberty PAC, which has also endorsed the candidates.
“As the November elections approach for these candidates, I expect an outpouring of support from the grassroots across Maine,” added Brakey.

Of Flag Pins and Dead Babies

Forget about the Obama’s drones killing a generation in Pakistan or the prospect of war in Syria and Iran that will undoubtedly draw in the United States…
Voters are more concerned with – okay, are you ready? – what’s on Mitt’s flag pin and the kind of car he drives.
In fact, it seems a lot of Americans like the idea of killing Pakistani grade school kids.
“A recent Pew research poll shows that 62% of Americans support drone attacks in Pakistan, even though data continues to prove they are highly volatile and a major contributor to rising anti-American sentiment in Pakistan,” writes Daniel Medina.
Voters get what they vote for, of course. Millions of Americans believe there is a difference between Romney and Obama when all the evidence overwhelmingly shows that both will continue invading and killing the innocent.
Short of a true anti-war candidate like Ron Paul making it into the White House, the war and mass murder will continue until the nation is completely bankrupt and can’t afford its serial murder program or the rest of the world either invades to end the insanity or blockades the country into submission.

Did Big Pharma Kill Tony Scott?

On August 19, British film director Tony Scott, brother of Ridley Scott who was known for box office hits like Top Gun and Days of Thunder, leapt to his death from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles. Aside from blunt force trauma and drowning, the LA Coroner’s Office autopsy report has listed that Scott had antidepressants and sleeping pills in his system when he died.
Therapeutic levels of the drugs Mirtazapine and Lunesta were found in Scott’s bloodstream. Mirtazapine, known by the brand name Remeron, can cause serious side effects such as agitation, hallucinations, overactive reflexes, trouble concentrating, “feeling unsteady” and confusion. Warnings include not taking this medication if someone is taking Tryptophan, an essential amino acid that people need, and something people take for insomnia.
Along with Remeron, Scott had been taking Lunesta, a medication that is also prescribed for insomnia. Its side effects include depression and anxiety — the very symptoms Remeron is prescribed to treat. Like Remeron, Lunesta can also cause confusion, hallucinations, memory problems/amnesia, mental changes, severe mood swings, and unusual or disturbing thoughts.
The adverse reaction list for Lunesta also shows the drug can induce suicidal thoughts.
A study published in the British Medical Journal earlier this year showed that seniors who take Lunesta may develop dementia if they begin taking the drug after the age of 65. Scott was 68 years old at the time of his death.
Did prescription medications play a role in Scott’s death? He is not the first member of the Hollywood elite in recent years with these kinds of prescription medications found in his system at the time of death.
Earlier this year, the coroner overseeing Whitney Houston‘s autopsy declared it was a mix of anti-anxiety medications and alcohol, not drowning in a bathtub, that killed her. The NYC Medical Examiner’s Office found that an accidental overdose of prescriptions, including a combination of anti-anxiety medications and sleeping pills, killed Heath Ledger. Multiple prescription drug intoxication was partly blamed for Brittany Murphy‘s untimely death, and it was reported she may have taken over 100 pills of prescription painkiller Vicodin in the 11 days prior to when she passed away.
On average, prescription drugs kill 300% more Americans than illegal drugs. The Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA) admits that, conservatively, the adverse reactions of FDA-approved prescription drugs kill 290 people every single day — causing over 106,000 deaths in the U.S. per year, more than most cancers (except for lung), diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, kidney disease, liver disease, traffic accidents or violence. The AMA study these figures are based on is over 12 years old now, so the true number killed is likely much higher.

Rodney king died today

BREAKING NEWS: Rodney King has died. His representative confirmed he was found dead at home by his fiance. The cause of death is unknown at this time.

King was known for being beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers during a 1991 DUI traffic stop that eventually led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

George Zimmerman returns to Florida for jail after judge revokes bond

George Zimmerman as he was lead into a Seminole County courtroom for his bond hearing in April. Photograph: Roberto Gonzalez/Getty Images

George Zimmerman has returned to Florida to turn himself in to police after having his bond revoked, a lawyer for the self-appointed neighbourhood watchman has said.
Zimmerman, who is charged with the second-degree murder of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, has until 2.30pm ET Sunday to surrender to authorities, having been found to have lied to a court about his finances.
His attorney Mark O'Mara announced on his website early Sunday that his client – who had been residing at an undisclosed location out of fear of reprisals – was now back in Florida ahead of the deadline imposed by Judge Kenneth Lester Jr on Friday.
Lester revoked Zimmerman's $150,000 bail after ruling that the defendant lied about money raised on a private website.
The state attorney prosecuting Zimmerman, 28, for the second-degree murder of Martin during a confrontation in Sanford on 26 February insisted he had $135,000 in his defence fund, yet claimed at a bond hearing in April that he was penniless.
"Does your client get to sit there like a potted plant and lead the court down the primrose path?" an angry Lester asked Zimmerman's lawyer, Mark O'Mara, at Friday's hearing.
"He can't sit back and obtain the benefit of a lower bond based upon those material falsehoods."
Conversations from prison between Zimmerman and his wife Shellie also revealed the existence of a second US passport that he owned but did not surrender, leading prosecutors to state he was a flight risk.
Zimmerman will get the chance to tell his side of the story this week after Lester said he would schedule another hearing, possibly as early as Monday.
But while O'Mara, is likely to plead for his client to be bailed once again, Lester has the option to order him to remain behind bars until his trial, which may not take place until next year.
Potentially more damaging is the hit to the defendant's credibility caused by being seen lying to a judge. Zimmerman admits shooting and killing Martin, 17, as he walked through the Retreat at Twin Lakes gated community but has insisted that he acted in self-defence against an aggressor who broke his nose. Under Florida's controversial stand-your-ground law, the use of deadly force is justified in life-threatening situations.
Lawyers for Martin's family, however, question how his account of the incident can be believed if he was willing to deceive a court over his financial circumstances.
"Whatever dishonesty that comes forth by George Zimmerman that they can prove, you can best believe it will become the issue of this case," said Benjamin Crump, who represents Martin's parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin.
Legal analysts agree it will be an issue at trial. "Basically, Zimmerman is going to be asking the jury to believe his version of the facts," former prosecutor Randy McLean, now an Orlando-based attorney, told the Associated Press.

In Defense of George Zimmerman

At the start of May, right after Elizabeth Warren’s first, toothache-inducing explanations for why Harvard had called her a “minority” hire, I started seeing a two-panel photo-editorial pop up on Facebook. On the left: An image of George Zimmerman’s first mug shot, the one taken in 2005 after an accidental altercation with an undercover cop. On the right: A photo of a smiling, blonde-and-blue-eyed Warren. The Zimmerman photo had been labeled “CRACKER.” The Warren photo: “MINORITY.” The caption: Welcome to Left-Wing Bizarro World.

The illustration originated at IOwntheWorld.com, a pugnacious conservative news-and-jokes site. The site went live on Jan. 20, 2009, just as Barack Obama was putting his hand on the Bible. Its better images were printed in full color and pasted to Tea Party rally signs. When the president said “if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” IOwntheWorld was ready with an image of Obama donning a hoodie. There’s a theme here: The media and the race hustlers told us that George Zimmerman was a white, racist, murderer. You lied to us.

Six weeks passed between the shooting of Trayvon Martin and the arrest of his shooter. If the Martin case was a campaign, you’d say that his family’s attorneys “won” those weeks. Martin, dead at 17, was introduced to the world as an all-American kid, shot because he wore a hoodie. Zimmerman? The first image people saw of him was a mug shot of a “white Hispanic” guy. The first they heard from him was a heavy-breathing 911 call, one of many he made when he saw interlopers lurking at the Retreat at Twin Lakes.