RichardR

I wouldn't neccessarily call it "paranoid" for law-abiding homeowners to decide to refuse to submit to a warrantless intrusion by the authorities. In fact the 4th Amendment was written into our Bill of Rights in order to protect us from exactly this sort of thing, or do you think that our founding fathers were a bunch of paranoids too?

Well granted all of those surveillance cameras helped ID the bombers & for that we are all extremely greatful but I'm afraid I just can't share the same sort of enthusiasm for blanket surveillance of everyone, everywhere, all of the time.

Well now that you mention it ... when examined independantly (removed from the role all of the video survallience cameras played in the capture of the bombers), it did seem shockingly Orwellian'ish.

Ok that makes more sense, the news reports had me scratching my head trying to figure out WTF the investigators were doing blowing up all of the evidence without even searching for boobytraps first.

It's happened before in the past, I am sure it'll happen again in the future. I certainly hope that that sort of thing isn't happening in this current ongoing crisis, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised to hear of exactly that happening either. Hard to know for certain these days, I guess we'll find out once folks who's homes were searched are able to get their stories out, but calling the possibility "paranoid crap" is ignoring all of the past instances in which stuff like that has happened.

In all seriousness though yes I am also sort of surprised that the news folks aren't making more of an issue of the 1 million or so Boston residents that are essentially under "house arrest" until told otherwise. Seems odd considering this is the first time that I can ever recall an entire city being "locked down" in order to catch one crazy ...

"Nothing to see here citizen, move along ..."

What makes you think that they wouldn't "secure" your legalfirearms so that the dangerous fugitive they are searching for doesn't get ahold of them?

If they didn't have a signed warrant in their hand, with my name & address on it, specifying exactly what they were searching for as required by the Constitution of the United States of America, I'd probably tell them to "go suck off a goat". But I like being roughed up & handcuffed so don't take that as legal advice.

Agreed. But you also have to take into account which side is the "aggressor" & which side is simply being "defensive" in fighting back. For example ... Democrats are the ones IMHO being aggressive, forcing the American people to "change" whether they want to or not, be it stricter restrictions on our 2nd Ameendment freedoms, forcing socialized medicine on everyone, mandating the use of expensive green energy, redefining marriage to include non-traditional marriages, etc, etc. The tactics that the left uses are not very nice either, they in concert with each other, constantly toss labels on anyone & everyone who disagrees with them, in order to demonize, thus nullifying the now demonized opposition's argument, nasty names that have become every day words, words like racist, homophobe, teabagger, gun-nut, etc. So I personally find it extremely difficult to place equal blame on the traditional American minded folks simply attempting to defend themselves & their traditional way of life from this sort of relentless progressive/aggressive political/ideological onslaught.

Nope, "hot pursuit &/or public emergency, imminent danger" exemptions allow search w/out warrants. What troubles me is that they are doing a "controled explosion" in these guys apartment prior to searching it for evidence or any potential boobytrap type dangers. I can understand them doing a controlled explosion if they found boobytraps or something during their search of the apartment, but just to do a controlled explosion "just in case" potentially destroying any/all evidence in the process just gives a whole lot of credibility to the conspiracy theories.

Hey Brad welcome to TGO forums!

The investigation was still ongoing when they "rushed" this guy out of the country, normal deportation procedures take awhile, and there is usually a hearing or two involved (not to mention a bombing investigation). So I wouldn't close the door on this just yet, still lots of unanswered questions.

Well even you have to admit that'd been the smart bet, considering foreign-born Islamist jihadi's are the ones usually responsible for the vast majority of these sorts of terrorist attacks. It is no secret that there were a lot of leftists in this country who really, really wanted both the Boston bombing & the Ricin attacks to be done by "conservative caucasions, preferably with ties to the Tea or Republican Parties" because it'd have been helpful to them in furthering their leftist ideological/political agenda. This sort of hateful ideological vitriol aimed at mere political opponents (ie wishing/hoping/speculating that the opposing political side of the aisle would commit atrocities, so they can point fingers in order to sway public opinion/votes) is about as unAmerican as unAmerican gets.

Boston.com is now reporting one marathon bombing suspect is in custody, still searching for 2nd.

Heavy-duty rope dog toys are about the only dog toys that stays intact more than a few minutes in my house, thankfully my dog loves playing with them. I try to avoid getting the rope toys that have plastic or rubber doohickies on them, mostly because I hate picking up all of the little pieces of them after they are shredded off of the ropes ...

Agreed on all parts except I'd change the above to: "Whether or not they have the lawful authority to take action".

That's just it though, the guy was minding his own business, he had a right to be where he was, he had a right to be armed & since he wasn't suspected of committing a violation of any ordinance or statute he also had the right to be left alone. An officer's authority over others begins when an officer has a reasonable suspicion to believe a violation of an ordinance or statute has occured. If there is no reasonable suspicion, there is no authority. This particular instance appears to be one of an officer over-stepping his authority to detain & arrest someone just because the officer didn't like a citizen exerting their individual sovereignty.

Unfortunately the reality at this particular moment in our nations history is "neither your Constitutional Rights &/or the laws on the books doesn't matter" the simple matter of the fact is that if an officer sees or responds to a report of someone else who sees you w/rifle in hand you'll probably be detained, harrassed, property confiscated, maybe even arrested or charged regardless of the legality, if the officer so decides. Welcome to Amerika 2.0

IMHO thuggery is thuggery, regardless of who the thug is, or the reasons the thug is doing it.

From some of the stories that have been in the news of late, I'd say it really doesn't matter what the Constitution, Fed, State or Local statute says, if you are walking around even completely and utterly in compliance with all statutes & ordinances down a public road with a rifle in plain-sight ... there is still a good chance that you'll still be contacted, harrassed, possibly even arrested &/or charged with some sort of violation of something. Hate to say it man but I'd probably suggest keeping the rifle out of public view while walking down a road, regardless of the legality of it.

Well a rooster will mount just about anything with feathers on it, so he'll certainly try to. Most "bantam" breeds are not actually true bantams, they are standerd breeds that have been selectively bred over time to shrink them down, so those yea probably not going to be a problem since the genetics are the same as larger versions. There are a handful of "true bantams" that the question becomes more murky with & I honestly do not know if they can be successfully interbred with standerd size breeds or not. I know that this piece of advice is a bit late but I usually do not recommend keeping both standerd sized breeds & bantam breeds together, the much smaller bantams will undoubtedly be picked on & bullied by the larger birds, thankfully though you have a nice large coop & run, where they will have plenty of space to run/escape if need be. And yes 1 roo for 29 hens is just fine, in fact that's a great ratio, the more hens you have per roo the better as roo's are horrid evil little sexual predators who often can & will "@#$%" a small number of hens literally to death, I kid you not. Roo's are also extremely annoying, they never stop making noise, from sun up to sun down the little @#$%^'erds never shut-up and they are also just down-right mean, always stand your ground when dealing with an aggressive roo, never back down even if they dig their spurs in you hard enough that they draw blood. If you back down their behavior will get twice as bad/aggressive & you'll have no choice but to cull them, so don't be afraid to smack them with a broom, kick them, whatever it takes to make them back off. I personally take a more "hands on" approach which works really well but it is also a very good way to get yourself hurt if you don't know what your doing, so a thick long-sleeved jacket & gloves is mandatory until you get comfortable doing it. Basically I will grab the roo, one hand holds their feet together & I raise their feet up toward the sky, the other hand holds their head down towards the ground, while I cradle their body (hold their wings against me) sort of like a baby in the crook of my arm. I hold them like that until they relax/relent/submit then I turn them back upright and toss them a few feet away from me so I don't get spurred or pecked while letting them go. Anyway yea 90 watt bulb would be fine, doubt you'd need it though, chickens huddle together for warmth & as long as its above freezing & there is no chance of frostbite on their featherless feet/colmbs they are old enough that they'll be fine.

Cull = remove from the flock, if you don't cull one or both of them the larger buff rooster will eventually kill the smaller bantam roo. Anyway yea they should be fine, but if you are that worried run an extention cord out to the coop & run your heat-lamp on really cold nights.

The only "right" we have left is ... the "right" to remain silent.

You going to cull both the roo's? or just one? You can never have too large a coop or too large a run, the more space they have the less stress they'll have, especially if you end up with a real fiesty roo or a real aggressive hen (hence the term "pecking order"). Anyway hens either will or they won't sit still long enough in order to hatch out a clutch of eggs, its really hard to say until it actually happens, some breeds are more broody than others & some hens are more broody (on an individual level) than others, no telling for certain which is why most folks use incubators.