This is pretty scary — too close to home, and not at all difficult to imagine it happening here

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On Monday, at approximately 11:32am, Stamford Police patrol units were dispatched to Dunn Ave (parallel to High Ridge Rd hear Rte 15) on a report of a disturbance.

A female caller was heard yelling that her husband was being attacked. While units were en route, dispatch also received a home alarm activation from the same address, and the original call appeared to have been dropped.

Upon arrival, officers made contact with the victims, who reported that two male suspects forced their way into the residence. The male victim stated that one of the suspects, described as a black male wearing an Amazon-style delivery vest, knocked on the door and claimed to have a package that required a signature. When the victim accepted the package and attempted to close the door, the suspect prevented the door from closing and forced his way inside while armed with a silver-colored firearm.

Stamford Police said the victim yelled to his wife to call 911, stating they were being robbed, and instructed her to lock herself in the bedroom. A second male, also described as a black male wearing an Amazon-style vest and armed with a black firearm, then entered the residence. During the incident, the male victim reported being struck multiple times in the face and head with the handgun being held by one of the suspects.

During the assault, the second suspect ran upstairs toward the victim’s wife. The victim’s wife stated that when she looked downstairs and observed her husband being assaulted, the second suspect ran toward her, grabbed her by the neck, threw her onto the bed, and placed a pillow over her head. The victim’s wife stated that she was able to call 911 before the second suspect reached her location.

The male victim also reported that he was able to activate the home’s panic alarm. Once the audible alarm sounded, both suspects fled the residence on foot toward Cedar Heights Road.

….

Dispatch further advised that a witness reported a suspicious male entering a nearby store, asking for water, and yelling at another individual while on the phone, appearing to ask where someone was. The witness observed the male enter a white vehicle and leave the area and was able to provide a description of the vehicle along with the registration plate.

Responding officers located the vehicle on Cedar Heights Road. An attempted motor vehicle stop was initiated; however, the vehicle fled southbound on High Ridge Road. The suspect vehicle then turned onto Bradley Place, where it was stopped due to a traffic detour. Patrol officers ordered the occupants out of the vehicle, and both individuals were taken into custody without incident.

A subsequent search of the vehicle resulted in the recovery of two handguns. The suspects were identified as Hayes Edmonds, 24, and Sam Oduor, 25, both of Georgia. Both suspects were positively identified by the victims.

….

The victims were transported to Stamford Hospital, where they were treated for minor injuries.

Edmonds and Oduor were charged with Home Invasion, assault, firearms offenses, motor vehicle violations, and Interfering with a 911 call. A bond of $2 million was set for each suspect by the State’s Attorney.

It’s one thing to avoid NYC subways, and eschew making drug purchases from some of our neighboring towns’ rougher neighborhoods, but a delivery man at the doorstep of one’s own home? That’s not good, if this was a random attack and not some drug deal dispute, and there’s no indication that it was the latter.

Murphy and Tong will be turning their attention to masked ANTIFA terrorists any day now, but first they have to deal with "literal Hitlers"

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Sen. Chris Murphy slams ICE, says allowing masked officers will enable 'depravity' and 'vigilantism'

AND

CT Attorney General and Wannabe Governor William Tong has joined 19 of his Democrat colleagues to demand that ICE agents be prohibited from wearing masks that conceal their identity and require them to display their identification and agency-identifying insignias.

AND:

Massachusetts bill would force ICE agents to unmask

The bill is only the latest of a series of legislative proposals brought by Democrats seeking to unmask ICE agents. 

U.S. Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., introduced the "Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement" or VISIBLE Act this week. They argue the bill would "strengthen oversight, transparency, and accountability for the Trump Administration’s indiscriminate and alarming immigration enforcement tactics that have terrorized communities across California and the nation." 

And silence when this happens — because they intend it to

And end to trickle down economics; the House gives Biden's Bureaucrats a golden shower (Updated: the news isn't as encouraging as it seems)

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11 House Dems buck party to side with Republicans in reversal of Biden-era shower regulation

The House of Representatives voted 226-197 along bipartisan lines Tuesday to reverse Biden-era regulations on shower heads, a move Republican lawmakers framed as a quick and easy way to return choice to homeowners.

The bill looks to codify an executive order President Donald Trump issued in April of last year, directing the Department of Energy to repeal the way the Biden administration interpreted water pressure in showers.

Under current law, shower heads can only produce a set amount of pressure.

That Biden-era regulation interpreted that to mean that the combined flow of showers with multiple nozzles had to stay below that bar. In other words, the more shower heads, the less pressure the individual nozzles could have.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where it must receive the support of at least seven Democrats before making its way to President Trump’s desk.

All of Trump’s executive orders must be codified if they are to survive the next Democrat president, and this is only one of the least significant ones, and still subject to Democrat Senators’ approval at that, but it’s a start.

Stephen Green has bad news: repealing the Biden flow regulations still leaves the Obama ones, which were just about as bad:

Conditioning You for Socialism (Starting With Your Toilet)

On occasion, it is my duty and privilege to dig deep into established facts, figures, and other inconveniences so that you might gain a greater understanding of just how forehead-slapping stupid everything is.

This is one of those occasions, and it starts where so many things end: with your toilet. 

Everything went wrong — as so many things did — during the administration of President George H.W. Bush, who put his signature on the Energy Policy Act of 1992, passed by the Democrat-dominated Congress. It was one of those feel-good laws that didn't feel so good once its provisions kicked in, particularly those low-flow toilets that didn't, you know, flush.

The law slashed the legally allowed water volume for new toilets from the standard 3.5 gallons (or even more for older toilets) to just 1.6. Early models were so bad that people often resorted to flushing three or four times to get the job done, using more water than the original models that worked. 

Things got so bad that Americans started smuggling toilets in from Canada. From there, things got worse.

The 1.6-gallon designs improved over time, but then some states (cough, Colorado, cough) enacted even stricter mandates. I learned about what the Democrats had done to bathrooms in my state when we had to call in a plumber last year for what my wife and I feared might be a toilet replacement.

"You have one of the good toilets," the plumber told me. "Don't replace it until you're ready to move, and take it with you."

"But this toilet sucks," I said.

"Not as bad as anything I'm allowed to replace it with."

A plumber refused a pricey plumbing job because the government-mandated results would be so awful.

A PLUMBER REFUSED A JOB. IN A NICE NEIGHBORHOOD.

So that's where we are after three-plus decades of Big Government making your toilets better.

Then there are the low-flow showerheads that people love so much that the first thing they do when installing one is remove the flow restrictor. There's good news on that front, as my PJ Media colleague David Manney reported on Tuesday: "Eleven House Democrats crossed party lines to support Republicans in overturning the Biden-era regulation that restricted water flow in household showerheads. The resolution targeted a rule that capped gallons per minute, regardless of how many spray nozzles or settings a showerhead used."

The bad news is that repealing the Biden-era rule leaves the Obama-era rule in place, so new showerheads won't really be any better than the older ones.

We also have dishwashers that don't use enough water to get the food off. Basically, if you have an Obama-era dishwasher or newer, it's good for drying the dishes — most of the way, anyway — after you've done a decent job of handwashing them yourself. My dishwasher is pre-Obama, and it remains a cherished (and lovingly maintained) possession.

But the point of all of this meddlesome government is that we're saving water, right?

WRONG.

Residential water use, including indoor and outdoor needs like drinking, bathing, laundry, toilets, and keeping those lawns watered, accounts for just 8-12% of total freshwater use in the United States, depending on location and weather conditions. So let’s keep it simple and call it 10% on average.

Agriculture, industry, and power generation use almost all of the rest. Golf courses, I was surprised to learn, use just 0.5% of our freshwater.

While per-capita water use has declined since 1992, residential mandates' direct contribution to overall savings is tiny — maybe 2-3% at best — while other sectors did the heavy lifting. Meanwhile, appliances keep getting more expensive, shorter-lived, and more difficult to repair as we rely on more and more technology to compensate for less and less water. 

Dishwashers and washing machines never required computer chips, but now they do — and do you have any idea how much water is used in chip manufacturing? ….

You've been sold an expensive bill of goods for stuff that doesn't work as well as before, costs more than it used to, and needs replacing much more often.

All to reduce maybe — maybe! — 3% of our water use.

Years ago, my friend (and sci-fi author/Instapundit colleague) Sarah Hoyt shared her theory about that with me. "The point," she said, "isn't to save water or electricity."

"It's to make people get used to everything always getting a little bit worse instead of better. They're conditioning us for socialism."

That's a trick so dirty that I feel like I need a shower.

Give'em a slap on the wrist for snowblower theft and they're certain to continue their life of crime

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Man allegedly was stealing and pleasuring himself at Bangor supermarket

An Orland man was allegedly caught stealing items and pleasuring himself at a Bangor supermarket over the weekend.

Thomas Taylor, 74, has been charged with indecent conduct and theft by unauthorized taking, according to Sgt. Jeremy Brock, a spokesperson for the Bangor Police Department.

Taylor was allegedly spotted “concealing items” at the supermarket, which Brock didn’t identify, about 1:32 p.m. Saturday.

While the supermarket’s loss prevention team kept watch on him over the store’s security cameras, they reportedly witnessed Taylor “in an act of self-pleasure” inside the store.

??!!! “Taylor was a vendor at the store and handing out drink samples, Brock said Tuesday morning.”

If he’s offering it, I don’t want it - eech.

UPDATE: As of this writing, Mr. Taylor’s Facebook page is still up; he may have to revise his resume, number of “friends”, and, perhaps even his marital status after this awkward moment in the news.

“Gee, Honey, I had a little trouble at work this morning but don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll be kept quiet and no one will know.”

Google Results for “Thomas Taylor, Orland Maine” (partial):

7th Time's the Charm

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After starting off new in 2007 at $3.950 million, dropping as low as $2.995 in 2010 and slowly climbing back between rentals over the years, 348 Sound Beach Avenue has sold for $5,000 more than its last asking price of $4.495 million.

I expect no credit for this accomplishment, but it is gratifying to note that Houlihan’s Marta Stroll, who held on to this listing for its entire 19-year stay on the market (!) finally accepted my decorating advice and, this time, had it sold in mere weeks.

2007 - 2008: $3.950 million— failed, rented

2010-2011: $3.599 — $2.995. Failed, rented

2014 - 2015: $3.395 — failed, rented

2016 - 2017: $3.395 - $3.249 — failed, rented

2020: $3.175 - failed, rented

2025: $4.495 – failed, rented

2026: $4.5 million

Note that monthly rents received over this period ranged from $14,000 to $18,500, so as an investment, it probably worked out fine.