R. Lee Ermey, the former Marine Corps drill instructor who starred in the award winning film Full Metal Jacket and became an accomplished movie actor, blasted the president’s ‘socialism’ at a Toys 4 Tots charity event in Chicago on December 10. While I do not personally believe that Obama is trying to ‘impose socialism on us,’ it is good to see that Ermey is part of a small but growing group of Hollywood celebrities that is fed up with the Obama administration’s policies.
After saluting the Marine Corps for it’s 235-year history of defending the United States, Ermey had this to say:
“We’re having a big problem this year. The economy really sucks. Now I hate to point fingers at anybody, but the present administration probably had a lot to do with that. And the way I see it, they’re not going to quit doing it until they bring this country to its knees. So I think we should all rise up and we should stop this administration from what they’re doing because they’re destroying this country. They’re driving us into bankruptcy so that they can impose socialism on us and that’s exactly what they’re doing. And I’m sick and damn tired of it, and I know you are too. But I know that the Marine Corps will be here forever; this administration won’t. Semper Fi.”
Friday, December 31, 2010
FROGS TORCH CARS, WE FIRE GUNS INTO THE AIR
To each his own. In France they celebrate New Year’s Eve by torching cars. In the U.S. we celebrate by firing our pistols and rifles into the air. Apparently no one has been hurt by the torchings. Unfortunately for us, our morons don’t seem to know the laws of physics – what goes up must come down – so that a number of people have been injured or even killed by falling bullets fired from far away.
FRANCE BRACES FOR ANNUAL NEW YEAR’S CAR TORCHINGS
The Straits Times
December 31, 2010
PARIS - FRANCE will deploy extra police and keep vandalism statistics under wraps on New Year's Eve to fight what authorities say has become an annual 'sweepstakes' of disaffected youths competing to see who can burn the most cars.
Youths in depressed suburbs of French cities have been torching hundreds of vehicles on New Year's Eve and Bastille Day since the early 1990s. Police say the annual rite has turned competitive, with youths tracking the news in the first days of the new year to see which neighbourhood did the most damage.
'I have decided to put an end to the competition, the sweepstakes, and will longer publish the number of burnt vehicles,' Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said this week, adding that publishing statistics encouraged vandalism.
Opposition politicians described the move as an attempt by President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government to cover up the violence.
'The government tends to eliminate unfavourable indicators. The interior minister has been publishing trumped-up statistics for years, and now Hortefeux is going even further,' Socialist deputy Delphine Batho, a security specialist, told Reuters.
Last year, the Interior Ministry said 1,137 cars had been torched, a 30 per cent rise on 2008. French media reported at the time that several thousand cars had been burnt. -- REUTERS
FRANCE BRACES FOR ANNUAL NEW YEAR’S CAR TORCHINGS
The Straits Times
December 31, 2010
PARIS - FRANCE will deploy extra police and keep vandalism statistics under wraps on New Year's Eve to fight what authorities say has become an annual 'sweepstakes' of disaffected youths competing to see who can burn the most cars.
Youths in depressed suburbs of French cities have been torching hundreds of vehicles on New Year's Eve and Bastille Day since the early 1990s. Police say the annual rite has turned competitive, with youths tracking the news in the first days of the new year to see which neighbourhood did the most damage.
'I have decided to put an end to the competition, the sweepstakes, and will longer publish the number of burnt vehicles,' Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said this week, adding that publishing statistics encouraged vandalism.
Opposition politicians described the move as an attempt by President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government to cover up the violence.
'The government tends to eliminate unfavourable indicators. The interior minister has been publishing trumped-up statistics for years, and now Hortefeux is going even further,' Socialist deputy Delphine Batho, a security specialist, told Reuters.
Last year, the Interior Ministry said 1,137 cars had been torched, a 30 per cent rise on 2008. French media reported at the time that several thousand cars had been burnt. -- REUTERS
COPS KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY
This has been a deadly year for police officers. According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, as of Tuesday, 160 cops - 154 men and six women - have been killed in the line of duty this year, a 37 percent increase from the 117 officers killed in 2009.
While each loss is regarded by the law enforcement community as a death in the family, it might help to put the police officer deaths in their proper perspective. There are over 500,000 local, state and federal law enforcement officers in the U.S. While these deaths represent a terrible tragedy for the families and friends of the fallen officers, fortunately they represent just a tiny fraction of the total law enforcement community.
Back in my day, the police academies taught that family disturbances were the most dangerous incidents cops would be faced with and that most officers were injured or killed answering family disturbance calls. And just this past Tuesday evening, Arlington, Texas police officer Jillian Smith, 24, was shot to death as she was trying to protect an 11-year-old girl in a beef between her mother and the mother’s boyfriend. (I’m sure that Smith’s tragic death came too late to be counted for the NLEOMF report.)
I vividly remember when my partner and I answered a call in which we found a drunk had beaten his wife so badly that her face looked like she had lost every round of a boxing title bout. When we struggled with the asshole while trying to arrest him, his wife picked up a broom and proceeded to beat the supreme shit out of both of us.
While a lot of police officers received injuries, ranging from minor bruises to serious wounds, and some were killed answering family fights, the truth always was that, while those calls were indeed dangerous, cops were more likely to get killed in traffic accidents. And more cops died in shootouts with armed robbers than from responding to domestic disturbances.
Traffic accidents have led the number of police deaths most years. A good part of the problem is that cops believe the flashing lights and siren give them the right of way when, in fact, they only seek the right of way. Another problem is that a lot cops ‘get off’ by running hot with flashing lights and sirens, thereby risking loosing control of their vehicle while making turns or negotiating curves.
Here is a breakdown of this year’s police fatalities:
__By state, the most officers were killed in Texas (18), followed by California (11), Illinois (10), Florida (9) and Georgia (7).
__The two law enforcement agencies with the most deaths were the California Highway Patrol and the Chicago Police Department, each with five.
__Eleven of the officers killed nationwide served with federal law enforcement agencies.
__Six female officers were killed, compared to only one in 2009.
__On average, the officers who died were 41-years-old, had served for 12 years and left behind two children.
__Traffic accidents remained the NO. 1 cause of death for the 13th consecutive year, with 73.
__59 officers were shot and killed, a 20 percent increase over the 49 killed by gunfire in 2009.
__No seat belt was worn in 42 percent of the fatal police car wrecks.
Here’s wishing that 2011 will be a better year!
While each loss is regarded by the law enforcement community as a death in the family, it might help to put the police officer deaths in their proper perspective. There are over 500,000 local, state and federal law enforcement officers in the U.S. While these deaths represent a terrible tragedy for the families and friends of the fallen officers, fortunately they represent just a tiny fraction of the total law enforcement community.
Back in my day, the police academies taught that family disturbances were the most dangerous incidents cops would be faced with and that most officers were injured or killed answering family disturbance calls. And just this past Tuesday evening, Arlington, Texas police officer Jillian Smith, 24, was shot to death as she was trying to protect an 11-year-old girl in a beef between her mother and the mother’s boyfriend. (I’m sure that Smith’s tragic death came too late to be counted for the NLEOMF report.)
I vividly remember when my partner and I answered a call in which we found a drunk had beaten his wife so badly that her face looked like she had lost every round of a boxing title bout. When we struggled with the asshole while trying to arrest him, his wife picked up a broom and proceeded to beat the supreme shit out of both of us.
While a lot of police officers received injuries, ranging from minor bruises to serious wounds, and some were killed answering family fights, the truth always was that, while those calls were indeed dangerous, cops were more likely to get killed in traffic accidents. And more cops died in shootouts with armed robbers than from responding to domestic disturbances.
Traffic accidents have led the number of police deaths most years. A good part of the problem is that cops believe the flashing lights and siren give them the right of way when, in fact, they only seek the right of way. Another problem is that a lot cops ‘get off’ by running hot with flashing lights and sirens, thereby risking loosing control of their vehicle while making turns or negotiating curves.
Here is a breakdown of this year’s police fatalities:
__By state, the most officers were killed in Texas (18), followed by California (11), Illinois (10), Florida (9) and Georgia (7).
__The two law enforcement agencies with the most deaths were the California Highway Patrol and the Chicago Police Department, each with five.
__Eleven of the officers killed nationwide served with federal law enforcement agencies.
__Six female officers were killed, compared to only one in 2009.
__On average, the officers who died were 41-years-old, had served for 12 years and left behind two children.
__Traffic accidents remained the NO. 1 cause of death for the 13th consecutive year, with 73.
__59 officers were shot and killed, a 20 percent increase over the 49 killed by gunfire in 2009.
__No seat belt was worn in 42 percent of the fatal police car wrecks.
Here’s wishing that 2011 will be a better year!
PRIVATE CORRECTIONAL FACILITES PUTTING PUBLIC SAFETY AT RISK
Money talks, public safety walks. Doing anything on the cheap rarely ever works well.
GEO: PRIVATE PRISON COMPANY SOMEHOW KEEPS GETTING CONTRCTS IN TEXAS
By Craig Malisow
Houston Press Hair Balls
December 29, 2010
When Arthur William Brown left his Houston halfway house December 15, he did the usual: he signed the check-out form that residents of the facility have to sign whenever they leave the premises for the day. Only on that day, Brown, paroled after serving 31 years for aggravated sexual assault of two women and a 16-year-old child, had his bags packed. He signed his name and walked out, and even though he had a GPS locked on his ankle, it didn't look like he intended to return.
Five days later authorities alerted the media, providing Brown's photo and a warning that he was considered armed and extremely dangerous.It was now up to law enforcement to find and arrest him, because the second Brown left the property, he was no longer the problem of the company that ran the halfway home, GEO Group. All the staff there had to do, per their contract with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, was alert authorities within an hour.
Brown was the fourth parolee to just walk away from the Reid facility in two years.
Fortunately, he was arrested Christmas Eve. But in October, when Anthony Ferrell left the property, police say he shot and killed a man before he was found again. The victim was 24-year-old Sam Irick, who tried to protect a woman Ferrell was robbing at gunpoint.
Irick's death, and the escape of a violent rapist two months later, is of no financial or contractual consequence to the publicly traded GEO, which recently bought out Houston-based Cornell Companies. Legally, GEO did absolutely nothing wrong. An average of one escape every six months appears to be acceptable to TDCJ, as well as GEO's shareholders.
And while GEO has lost contracts with TDCJ, it picks up new ones as well. On the surface, private prisons appear to offer a cheaper per-diem cost per offender, but critics say there are many hidden costs, both financial and personal. This week's story looks at some of those costs.
GEO: PRIVATE PRISON COMPANY SOMEHOW KEEPS GETTING CONTRCTS IN TEXAS
By Craig Malisow
Houston Press Hair Balls
December 29, 2010
When Arthur William Brown left his Houston halfway house December 15, he did the usual: he signed the check-out form that residents of the facility have to sign whenever they leave the premises for the day. Only on that day, Brown, paroled after serving 31 years for aggravated sexual assault of two women and a 16-year-old child, had his bags packed. He signed his name and walked out, and even though he had a GPS locked on his ankle, it didn't look like he intended to return.
Five days later authorities alerted the media, providing Brown's photo and a warning that he was considered armed and extremely dangerous.It was now up to law enforcement to find and arrest him, because the second Brown left the property, he was no longer the problem of the company that ran the halfway home, GEO Group. All the staff there had to do, per their contract with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, was alert authorities within an hour.
Brown was the fourth parolee to just walk away from the Reid facility in two years.
Fortunately, he was arrested Christmas Eve. But in October, when Anthony Ferrell left the property, police say he shot and killed a man before he was found again. The victim was 24-year-old Sam Irick, who tried to protect a woman Ferrell was robbing at gunpoint.
Irick's death, and the escape of a violent rapist two months later, is of no financial or contractual consequence to the publicly traded GEO, which recently bought out Houston-based Cornell Companies. Legally, GEO did absolutely nothing wrong. An average of one escape every six months appears to be acceptable to TDCJ, as well as GEO's shareholders.
And while GEO has lost contracts with TDCJ, it picks up new ones as well. On the surface, private prisons appear to offer a cheaper per-diem cost per offender, but critics say there are many hidden costs, both financial and personal. This week's story looks at some of those costs.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
IN CASE MEXICO LEGALIZES DRUGS
Nothing surprising here. Just wait until the cartels start investing in legitimate businesses. After all, the Mafia has invested in and owns legitimate businesses. And I’ve been informed by a law enforcement official, that many of the businesses on historic Cannery Row, the Monterey, California tourist attraction, are now owned by the notorious Hells Angles outlaw biker gang.
MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS DIVERSIFY
Borderland Beat
December 28, 2010
Mexico’s drug cartels have diversified their operations in recent years, branching out into piracy, prostitution, theft of oil and minerals, the sale of adulterated liquor and other illegal activities.
A police and army crackdown by President Felipe Calderon’s administration and competition from rivals have forced the gangs to diversify their businesses, a police spokesman told Efe, adding that the cartels do not hesitate to use violence and coercion to achieve their objectives.
In one recent operation against the nation’s cartels, the arrest of the reputed money manager of the crime syndicate La Familia Michoacana, it was discovered that that organization sold 1.1 million tons of illegally extracted iron ore in China for $42 million.
The theft of minerals in the western state of Michoacan has increased in recent years as that area has come under the control of La Familia, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said.
A source with the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean told Efe that some groups have even sought to take control of mines in Michoacan.
“There have been attempts, above all, to launder money,” the source said. “They’re buying up small- and medium-sized mines to do all types of tricks to justify the income from their operations.”
In addition, threats from cartels “that are trying to (enter) production and operation areas” are increasingly frequent, a spokesman for the First Majestic Silver company told Efe, adding that there has been an increase in robberies of mine workers.
The oil industry has also been affected by the encroachment of organized crime, which has stolen $300 million worth of natural gas liquids from state energy monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos’ facilities over the past four years, according to official figures.
Since 2007, the police has guarded Pemex’s installations to prevent employees from aiding and abetting the theft of fuel by drug traffickers.
Five members of the Los Zetas cartel involved in this crime were arrested in July, while a month earlier five Pemex workers and two employees of a Pemex contractor were kidnapped and are still missing.
Mexican cartels also have become involved in prostitution and sex-trafficking, according to journalist and author Lydia Cacho.
“There’s a link between the mafias dedicated to prostitution and sex-trafficking and most of the drug cartels, with the exception of some like La Familia, since they say their ‘moral’ codes prohibit them from operating in brothels,” Cacho told Efe in an interview coinciding with the release of her new book.
She said many of the cartels run establishments in northern Mexico and in Mexico City that really are brothels in disguise.
Other illicit activities carried out by these groups are less well known, such as piracy, a crime in which Mexico ranks fourth worldwide behind only Russia, China and Italy.
Los Zetas have taken over the piracy business in at least four states – Chiapas, Tabasco, Veracruz and Puebla -, where they offer street merchants protection from police operations and financial incentives for selling pirated versions of films with the “Producciones Zeta” label, the daily Reforma reported Monday.
Sellers of this illegal merchandise, which one stallholder acknowledged was surprisingly cheaper than that provided by other distributors of pirated DVDs and higher in quality, must make a periodic extortion payment that in Mexico is known as “rent.”
Mexican companies lost some $3.07 billion in 2009 as a result of piracy and merchandise theft, according to a report from Grupo Multisistemas de Seguridad Industrial, an electronic security services firm.
That report revealed that 65 percent of the CDs and cassettes sold in the country are pirated copies sold by illegal producers, who make an estimated $220 million in annual revenue from those sales.
Cartels also charge immigrant smugglers tolls and kidnap migrants, either to extort ransom payments from their family members or to threaten these people into working for them.
These organizations also have entered the illegal liquor business. In the northern city of Monterrey, Mexican marines found around 100 boxes of adulterated whiskey and tequila in several houses.
Days later, the municipal alcohol director, Rogelio Angel Gonzalez, was arrested at city hall for allegedly helping Los Zetas distribute the alcohol at bars and nightclubs in Mexico’s industrial capital. --EFE
MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS DIVERSIFY
Borderland Beat
December 28, 2010
Mexico’s drug cartels have diversified their operations in recent years, branching out into piracy, prostitution, theft of oil and minerals, the sale of adulterated liquor and other illegal activities.
A police and army crackdown by President Felipe Calderon’s administration and competition from rivals have forced the gangs to diversify their businesses, a police spokesman told Efe, adding that the cartels do not hesitate to use violence and coercion to achieve their objectives.
In one recent operation against the nation’s cartels, the arrest of the reputed money manager of the crime syndicate La Familia Michoacana, it was discovered that that organization sold 1.1 million tons of illegally extracted iron ore in China for $42 million.
The theft of minerals in the western state of Michoacan has increased in recent years as that area has come under the control of La Familia, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said.
A source with the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean told Efe that some groups have even sought to take control of mines in Michoacan.
“There have been attempts, above all, to launder money,” the source said. “They’re buying up small- and medium-sized mines to do all types of tricks to justify the income from their operations.”
In addition, threats from cartels “that are trying to (enter) production and operation areas” are increasingly frequent, a spokesman for the First Majestic Silver company told Efe, adding that there has been an increase in robberies of mine workers.
The oil industry has also been affected by the encroachment of organized crime, which has stolen $300 million worth of natural gas liquids from state energy monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos’ facilities over the past four years, according to official figures.
Since 2007, the police has guarded Pemex’s installations to prevent employees from aiding and abetting the theft of fuel by drug traffickers.
Five members of the Los Zetas cartel involved in this crime were arrested in July, while a month earlier five Pemex workers and two employees of a Pemex contractor were kidnapped and are still missing.
Mexican cartels also have become involved in prostitution and sex-trafficking, according to journalist and author Lydia Cacho.
“There’s a link between the mafias dedicated to prostitution and sex-trafficking and most of the drug cartels, with the exception of some like La Familia, since they say their ‘moral’ codes prohibit them from operating in brothels,” Cacho told Efe in an interview coinciding with the release of her new book.
She said many of the cartels run establishments in northern Mexico and in Mexico City that really are brothels in disguise.
Other illicit activities carried out by these groups are less well known, such as piracy, a crime in which Mexico ranks fourth worldwide behind only Russia, China and Italy.
Los Zetas have taken over the piracy business in at least four states – Chiapas, Tabasco, Veracruz and Puebla -, where they offer street merchants protection from police operations and financial incentives for selling pirated versions of films with the “Producciones Zeta” label, the daily Reforma reported Monday.
Sellers of this illegal merchandise, which one stallholder acknowledged was surprisingly cheaper than that provided by other distributors of pirated DVDs and higher in quality, must make a periodic extortion payment that in Mexico is known as “rent.”
Mexican companies lost some $3.07 billion in 2009 as a result of piracy and merchandise theft, according to a report from Grupo Multisistemas de Seguridad Industrial, an electronic security services firm.
That report revealed that 65 percent of the CDs and cassettes sold in the country are pirated copies sold by illegal producers, who make an estimated $220 million in annual revenue from those sales.
Cartels also charge immigrant smugglers tolls and kidnap migrants, either to extort ransom payments from their family members or to threaten these people into working for them.
These organizations also have entered the illegal liquor business. In the northern city of Monterrey, Mexican marines found around 100 boxes of adulterated whiskey and tequila in several houses.
Days later, the municipal alcohol director, Rogelio Angel Gonzalez, was arrested at city hall for allegedly helping Los Zetas distribute the alcohol at bars and nightclubs in Mexico’s industrial capital. --EFE
BAD TIMING
In this age of Community Oriented Policing, had the officer not heard the dispatcher’s broadcast, he would have been expected to help that young man push the TV set to wherever. Talk about bad timing – or good timing if you’re a cop - as luck would have it, a witness called the cops and the broadcast went out at the same time the thief and the arresting officer were converging at the police station.
MAN IN WASH. PUSHES STOLEN TV PAST POLICE STATION
A cop heard dispatchers relay the call as he was pulling into the police station parking lot
Associated Press
December 28, 2010
SEATTLE — Prosecutors in Washington state say a man was arrested when he was caught wheeling a 50-inch television in a shopping cart right past a police station.
Seattlepi.com reports that a bystander called 911 to report that she saw a man grab the TV out of the back of a delivery truck, load it in the cart and start pushing it away.
An Auburn police officer heard dispatchers relay the call as he was pulling into the police station parking lot — and then he saw the man, dressed entirely in camouflage, walking by with the cart.
Charging documents say that when the officer asked 22-year-old Johnathon D. Barnes what he was doing, he said he bought the TV from and friend — and then he ran.
The officer caught up with Barnes and arrested him.
MAN IN WASH. PUSHES STOLEN TV PAST POLICE STATION
A cop heard dispatchers relay the call as he was pulling into the police station parking lot
Associated Press
December 28, 2010
SEATTLE — Prosecutors in Washington state say a man was arrested when he was caught wheeling a 50-inch television in a shopping cart right past a police station.
Seattlepi.com reports that a bystander called 911 to report that she saw a man grab the TV out of the back of a delivery truck, load it in the cart and start pushing it away.
An Auburn police officer heard dispatchers relay the call as he was pulling into the police station parking lot — and then he saw the man, dressed entirely in camouflage, walking by with the cart.
Charging documents say that when the officer asked 22-year-old Johnathon D. Barnes what he was doing, he said he bought the TV from and friend — and then he ran.
The officer caught up with Barnes and arrested him.
FOR HIS AGE, A DAMN GOOD SET OF TEETH
If only my teeth were that good, and I’ll be ‘only’ 84 in March if I don’t croak before then.
MAN, 92, CHEWS THROUGH TAPE TO FREE SELF AFTER ROBBERY
The Straits Times
December 29, 2010
SHORELINE (Washington) - SHERIFF'S deputies in Washington state say a 92-year-old man chewed through masking tape for two hours to free himself after two men bound him to a chair and robbed his house.
King County sheriff's Sergeant John Urquhart says two men knocked on Lester Matteson's door in Shoreline on Monday and asked to use his phone, claiming their car broken down. But once they entered, the men grabbed the victim's arms and taped him to a chair.
Sergeant Urquhart says the men spent more than an hour in the home looking for valuables, eventually darting off with more than $400 in cash and the victim's 2000 Ford pickup truck.
It took Mr Matteson two hours to chew through the masking tape. Other than bruises,he was not injured. Mr Matteson tells KOMO-TV he wasn't frightened, but at his age, 'you don't wrestle two young men'.
And he says he's learned his lesson. 'Watch out who you let in.' -- AP
MAN, 92, CHEWS THROUGH TAPE TO FREE SELF AFTER ROBBERY
The Straits Times
December 29, 2010
SHORELINE (Washington) - SHERIFF'S deputies in Washington state say a 92-year-old man chewed through masking tape for two hours to free himself after two men bound him to a chair and robbed his house.
King County sheriff's Sergeant John Urquhart says two men knocked on Lester Matteson's door in Shoreline on Monday and asked to use his phone, claiming their car broken down. But once they entered, the men grabbed the victim's arms and taped him to a chair.
Sergeant Urquhart says the men spent more than an hour in the home looking for valuables, eventually darting off with more than $400 in cash and the victim's 2000 Ford pickup truck.
It took Mr Matteson two hours to chew through the masking tape. Other than bruises,he was not injured. Mr Matteson tells KOMO-TV he wasn't frightened, but at his age, 'you don't wrestle two young men'.
And he says he's learned his lesson. 'Watch out who you let in.' -- AP
SINGAPORE SEX SCANDAL - SHADES OF THE U.S.
The United States is not the only country where girls are having sex in their early teens and where teachers are having sex with their students. The only difference appears to be that throughout Southeast Asia, adults having sex with young teens is quite common and not considered a serious offense. That would explain the Times’ reader reaction to this scandal.
THE GIRLS ARE NOT SO INNOCENT: READERS REACT
By Lee Jia Xin
The Straits Times
December 29, 2010
THE two girls who were aged 12 and 15 when they were involved in the case where a National Institute of Education (NIE) trainee had sex with them a few years ago, are not as innocent as they seem.
This is the overall view of straitstimes.com readers when they reacted to the media reports on Wednesday.
Aaron Kok Chun Cheong, 23, a second-year trainee at NIE, was sentenced to 15 months' jail on Tuesday.
He committed the offences in 2007 and 2008 while serving national service.
Many argued that the girls were complicit in the act, especially the then-12-year-old girl who had multiple sexual partners.
'The (then) 12-year-old girl is not innocent because she had a few partners and even became pregnant (with one of them, and not Kok himself),' said Gladys Dee.
Echoing her sentiments was HS Ng who felt that the girls were not gullible but fully aware of their actions, and added that sex among teenagers is so 'rampant' these days.
But others are concerned about how teachers seem to be in the news lately as evidenced from the ex-MOE scholar Jonathan Wong, who was arrested in the United Kingdom for possessing child pornography.
Another reader Jacq Oh worried that 'paedophiles are infiltrating the teaching population as a means to reach out to their prey'.
Reader Siti Nor'aini Abdul Samat joined in the call for NIE to be more stringent in their candidate selections.
A Ministry of Education spokesman said it would initiate disciplinary proceedings against Kok, with a view to terminating him from service.
She said the ministry adopted a stringent recruitment process to ensure that suitable applicants with a passion to teach are selected, apart from academic qualifications.
THE GIRLS ARE NOT SO INNOCENT: READERS REACT
By Lee Jia Xin
The Straits Times
December 29, 2010
THE two girls who were aged 12 and 15 when they were involved in the case where a National Institute of Education (NIE) trainee had sex with them a few years ago, are not as innocent as they seem.
This is the overall view of straitstimes.com readers when they reacted to the media reports on Wednesday.
Aaron Kok Chun Cheong, 23, a second-year trainee at NIE, was sentenced to 15 months' jail on Tuesday.
He committed the offences in 2007 and 2008 while serving national service.
Many argued that the girls were complicit in the act, especially the then-12-year-old girl who had multiple sexual partners.
'The (then) 12-year-old girl is not innocent because she had a few partners and even became pregnant (with one of them, and not Kok himself),' said Gladys Dee.
Echoing her sentiments was HS Ng who felt that the girls were not gullible but fully aware of their actions, and added that sex among teenagers is so 'rampant' these days.
But others are concerned about how teachers seem to be in the news lately as evidenced from the ex-MOE scholar Jonathan Wong, who was arrested in the United Kingdom for possessing child pornography.
Another reader Jacq Oh worried that 'paedophiles are infiltrating the teaching population as a means to reach out to their prey'.
Reader Siti Nor'aini Abdul Samat joined in the call for NIE to be more stringent in their candidate selections.
A Ministry of Education spokesman said it would initiate disciplinary proceedings against Kok, with a view to terminating him from service.
She said the ministry adopted a stringent recruitment process to ensure that suitable applicants with a passion to teach are selected, apart from academic qualifications.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
NO BIG DEAL IN DECLINING HOMICIDE RATES
All the major news outlets are reporting that the rate of homicides and violent crimes in our cities have been falling for the past several years. Sorry, but that’s really no big deal!
Since homicides make up only a tiny fraction of crimes committed, a reduction in the number of just a few homicides will show up as a significant decrease in the homicide rate. Also, history has shown that homicide rates are cyclical and are hardly, if at all, impacted by police activities.
This is how the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL), a police union that I admire, summarized a Los Angels Times op-ed: ‘This week's news that Los Angeles is likely to finish the year with the fewest homicides in nearly half a century should be both a source of satisfaction and a challenge to city and county policymakers. The City Council and the Board of Supervisors need to find the money to keep an adequate number of law enforcement officers on the streets for an adequate number of hours, or the gains of recent years won't be maintained.’
I hope the current financial crisis in Los Angeles will not lead to a reduction in the number of police officers, but if it does, those reductions are not likely to cause a notable increase in the number of homicides. And I hate to disappoint LAPPL, but LAPD officers probably had, at best, a negligible effect on those declining, but cyclical homicide rates.
No matter the number of cops on the street and despite the emphasis on Community Oriented Policing, our cities are bound to experience, for a duration of several years, another rise in the homicide rate, followed by another decline, etc., etc.
When I was a California law enforcement officer, my police agency was able to reduce the homicide rate, as well as the domestic violence rate, and we did it by having our patrol officers make frequent bar checks. Whenever we saw a drunk being served, we arrested the drunk, the person who served him and the bartender. As a result, the bartender often had to close the bar down for the night. Tough shit!
We were certain that the frequent bar checks resulted in fewer drunks leaving bars to drive drunk, to kick the shit out of their wives, and to kill someone in a drunken fit of rage. The time spent by our patrol officers in making those bar checks paid off in less violence and in less time investigating DWI accidents, domestic violence cases and homicides. I cannot think of anything else we did that impacted our homicide rate.
The bar owners hated us for making those bar checks, but over a period of time our patrol officers observed fewer and fewer drunks whenever they checked out those bars.
Unfortunately, most police departments do not want their officers ‘wasting’ time by making frequent bar checks. They’ll only send their patrol officers to a bar in response to a disturbance call. Their bar activities are usually limited to investigations by small vice units looking into reports of prostitution, gambling and drug violations. Too bad they don’t have the foresight to see that frequent patrol bar checks can have an impact on violent crime.
Since homicides make up only a tiny fraction of crimes committed, a reduction in the number of just a few homicides will show up as a significant decrease in the homicide rate. Also, history has shown that homicide rates are cyclical and are hardly, if at all, impacted by police activities.
This is how the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL), a police union that I admire, summarized a Los Angels Times op-ed: ‘This week's news that Los Angeles is likely to finish the year with the fewest homicides in nearly half a century should be both a source of satisfaction and a challenge to city and county policymakers. The City Council and the Board of Supervisors need to find the money to keep an adequate number of law enforcement officers on the streets for an adequate number of hours, or the gains of recent years won't be maintained.’
I hope the current financial crisis in Los Angeles will not lead to a reduction in the number of police officers, but if it does, those reductions are not likely to cause a notable increase in the number of homicides. And I hate to disappoint LAPPL, but LAPD officers probably had, at best, a negligible effect on those declining, but cyclical homicide rates.
No matter the number of cops on the street and despite the emphasis on Community Oriented Policing, our cities are bound to experience, for a duration of several years, another rise in the homicide rate, followed by another decline, etc., etc.
When I was a California law enforcement officer, my police agency was able to reduce the homicide rate, as well as the domestic violence rate, and we did it by having our patrol officers make frequent bar checks. Whenever we saw a drunk being served, we arrested the drunk, the person who served him and the bartender. As a result, the bartender often had to close the bar down for the night. Tough shit!
We were certain that the frequent bar checks resulted in fewer drunks leaving bars to drive drunk, to kick the shit out of their wives, and to kill someone in a drunken fit of rage. The time spent by our patrol officers in making those bar checks paid off in less violence and in less time investigating DWI accidents, domestic violence cases and homicides. I cannot think of anything else we did that impacted our homicide rate.
The bar owners hated us for making those bar checks, but over a period of time our patrol officers observed fewer and fewer drunks whenever they checked out those bars.
Unfortunately, most police departments do not want their officers ‘wasting’ time by making frequent bar checks. They’ll only send their patrol officers to a bar in response to a disturbance call. Their bar activities are usually limited to investigations by small vice units looking into reports of prostitution, gambling and drug violations. Too bad they don’t have the foresight to see that frequent patrol bar checks can have an impact on violent crime.
TOTALLY OUT OF LINE, SHAMEFUL AND UNACCEPTABLE!
Last night I found a comment submitted by ‘Tim’ for posting on OBAMA DISRESPECTS SOLDIERS AND THEIR FAMILIES AT AWARD CEREMONY (3). I thought his Post Script was totally out of line, shameful and unacceptable! At first I was going to reject his comment, but then I changed my mind and decided to post it together with my reply.
Here is what Tim had to say:
OBAMA FULFILLING THE BIBLE
Pres. Lincoln stated: "I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man." But several Bible verses are embarrassing to Pres. Obama:
Proverbs 19:10 (NIV): "It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury - how much worse for a slave to rule over princes!"
Also Proverbs 30:22 (NIV) which says that the earth cannot bear up under "a servant who becomes king."
And Ecclesiastes 5:2-3 (KJV) advises: "let thy words be few...a fool's voice is known by multitude of words."
Although Obama is not descended from slaves, he may feel that he's destined to become a black-slavery avenger.
Or maybe an enslaver of all free citizens!
For some stunning info on Pres. Obama and his fellow subversives, Google "Michelle Obama's Allah-day," "Obama Supports Public Depravity," "David Letterman's Hate Etc.," "Un-Americans Fight Franklin Graham" and also "Sandra Bernhard, Larry David, Kathy Griffin, Bill Maher, Sarah Silverman."
PS - Since Christians are commanded to ask God to send severe judgment on persons who commit and support the worst forms of evil (see I Cor. 5 and note "taken away"), Christians everywhere should constantly pray that the Lord will soon "take away" or at least overthrow all US leaders, including Obama, who continue to sear their conscience and arrogantly trample the God-given rights of the majority including the rights of the unborn. Do we need a second American Revolution?
(Above web bit seen by me. Tim)
And here was my reply:
Tim, I was with you until the last paragraph. You should be ashamed of yourself! A good Christian would never ‘pray that the Lord will soon "take away" or at least overthrow all US leaders, including Obama.’
I pray that Obama will be voted out of office in 2012, but I wish OUR president and his family the very best of health.
Here is what Tim had to say:
OBAMA FULFILLING THE BIBLE
Pres. Lincoln stated: "I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man." But several Bible verses are embarrassing to Pres. Obama:
Proverbs 19:10 (NIV): "It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury - how much worse for a slave to rule over princes!"
Also Proverbs 30:22 (NIV) which says that the earth cannot bear up under "a servant who becomes king."
And Ecclesiastes 5:2-3 (KJV) advises: "let thy words be few...a fool's voice is known by multitude of words."
Although Obama is not descended from slaves, he may feel that he's destined to become a black-slavery avenger.
Or maybe an enslaver of all free citizens!
For some stunning info on Pres. Obama and his fellow subversives, Google "Michelle Obama's Allah-day," "Obama Supports Public Depravity," "David Letterman's Hate Etc.," "Un-Americans Fight Franklin Graham" and also "Sandra Bernhard, Larry David, Kathy Griffin, Bill Maher, Sarah Silverman."
PS - Since Christians are commanded to ask God to send severe judgment on persons who commit and support the worst forms of evil (see I Cor. 5 and note "taken away"), Christians everywhere should constantly pray that the Lord will soon "take away" or at least overthrow all US leaders, including Obama, who continue to sear their conscience and arrogantly trample the God-given rights of the majority including the rights of the unborn. Do we need a second American Revolution?
(Above web bit seen by me. Tim)
And here was my reply:
Tim, I was with you until the last paragraph. You should be ashamed of yourself! A good Christian would never ‘pray that the Lord will soon "take away" or at least overthrow all US leaders, including Obama.’
I pray that Obama will be voted out of office in 2012, but I wish OUR president and his family the very best of health.
MR. OBAMA AND MRS. CLINTON, PLEASE TAKE NOTE!
Just one more reason why it is futile for Israel to make peace with the Palestinians.
Mr. President and Madam Secretary, your roadmap to peace is merely a temporary pathway leading to the eventual destruction of the Jewish State. It is far better for Israel to remain in a perpetual state of conflict than to make suicidal concessions to a people – among them those Palestinian ‘moderates’, President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad - who have vowed time after time that there will be only ‘one state from the river to the sea.’ Just in case you don’t get it, that means a Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea that is JUDENREIN.
SKULL-BASHING CHILD KILLER A CELEBRITY IN ARAB WORLD
Israel Today
December 28, 2010
Samir Kuntar has been a rising star in the Arab Middle East since his release from an Israeli prison in 2008 as part of a prisoner exchange between the Jewish state and Lebanon’s Hizballah terrorist militia. On Monday, Kuntar was the honored guest of Syrian leader Bashar Assad at the presidential palace in Damascus.
During their time together, Kuntar gave Assad an advanced copy of his book “My Story” detailing his decades in Israeli prisons. The two discussed the ongoing Arab conflict with Israel and stressed that “the resistance mode of thinking (read: terrorism) as a basis for regaining Arab rights.”
That is quite fitting, considering the reason Kuntar spent so many years in jail and his current claim to fame amongst fellow Arab Muslims.
Kuntar is a celebrity because in 1979 he led a team of Palestinian terrorists in an amphibious infiltration of the Israeli coastal town of Nahariya. After landing on the beach, the terrorists executed an off-duty police officer and then entered a nearby home. That’s what the horror truly began.
Inside the house, Kuntar and his team found Danny Haran and his four-year-old daughter, Einat. Kuntar took the two down to the beach and executed Danny in front of his mortified little girl. Kuntar then personally bashed in the skull of little Einat with the butt of his rifle.
For this act and his subsequent years in an Israeli prison, Kuntar is celebrated across the Muslim world and welcomed as an honored guest by heads of state.
These are the kinds of people Israel is expected to make peace with.
Many Israeli still feel it was a grave mistake to set Kuntar free, as his celebrity treatment is likely to encourage many more Arab Muslims to follow in his footsteps.
Kuntar was released in 2008 as part of a swap that saw Israel send the arch-terrorist and the bodies of 199 Lebanese fighter to Beirut in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli reservists who had been abducted by Hizballah two years earlier.
Mr. President and Madam Secretary, your roadmap to peace is merely a temporary pathway leading to the eventual destruction of the Jewish State. It is far better for Israel to remain in a perpetual state of conflict than to make suicidal concessions to a people – among them those Palestinian ‘moderates’, President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad - who have vowed time after time that there will be only ‘one state from the river to the sea.’ Just in case you don’t get it, that means a Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea that is JUDENREIN.
SKULL-BASHING CHILD KILLER A CELEBRITY IN ARAB WORLD
Israel Today
December 28, 2010
Samir Kuntar has been a rising star in the Arab Middle East since his release from an Israeli prison in 2008 as part of a prisoner exchange between the Jewish state and Lebanon’s Hizballah terrorist militia. On Monday, Kuntar was the honored guest of Syrian leader Bashar Assad at the presidential palace in Damascus.
During their time together, Kuntar gave Assad an advanced copy of his book “My Story” detailing his decades in Israeli prisons. The two discussed the ongoing Arab conflict with Israel and stressed that “the resistance mode of thinking (read: terrorism) as a basis for regaining Arab rights.”
That is quite fitting, considering the reason Kuntar spent so many years in jail and his current claim to fame amongst fellow Arab Muslims.
Kuntar is a celebrity because in 1979 he led a team of Palestinian terrorists in an amphibious infiltration of the Israeli coastal town of Nahariya. After landing on the beach, the terrorists executed an off-duty police officer and then entered a nearby home. That’s what the horror truly began.
Inside the house, Kuntar and his team found Danny Haran and his four-year-old daughter, Einat. Kuntar took the two down to the beach and executed Danny in front of his mortified little girl. Kuntar then personally bashed in the skull of little Einat with the butt of his rifle.
For this act and his subsequent years in an Israeli prison, Kuntar is celebrated across the Muslim world and welcomed as an honored guest by heads of state.
These are the kinds of people Israel is expected to make peace with.
Many Israeli still feel it was a grave mistake to set Kuntar free, as his celebrity treatment is likely to encourage many more Arab Muslims to follow in his footsteps.
Kuntar was released in 2008 as part of a swap that saw Israel send the arch-terrorist and the bodies of 199 Lebanese fighter to Beirut in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli reservists who had been abducted by Hizballah two years earlier.
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS DETERMINED TO CUT MILITARY SPENDING
The peaceniks and other left-wingers and the anti-spending right-wingers are strange bedfellows when it comes to cutting military spending. With the rise of China’s economic and military power, we will soon become a second-rate power if those who are determined to shrink our military have their way.
AMERICA’S DANGEROUS RUSH TO SHRINK ITS MILITARY POWER
Just as in the 1930s, the economy is the supposedly humanitarian excuse for reducing the military – although the endless miseries of the world will not be alleviated if, due to an imbalance of power, great and little wars rage across it
By Mark Helprin
The Wall Street Journal
December 27, 2010
From the president on down through his secretary of defense, the service secretaries, and a cast of generals whose decorations would choke an alpine meadow with color, we are told that further reductions in American military power are warranted and unavoidable. This view is supported by the left, the right that unwisely fears accounting more than war, by most of the press, the academy, and perhaps a majority of Americans, and it is demonstrably and dangerously wrong.
Based upon nothing and ignoring the cautionary example of World War II, we are told that we will never face two major enemies at once. Despite the orders of battle of our potential adversaries and the fact that our response to insurgency has been primarily conventional, we are told that the era of conventional warfare is over. And we are told that we can rest easy because military spending is an accurate index of military power, and we spend as much as the next however many nations combined.
But this takes no account of the nature of our commitments, the fading contributions of our allies, geography, this nation's size and that of its economy, conscription or its absence, purchasing power parity, exchange rate distortions, the military trajectories of our rivals individually or in combination, and the masking effects of off-budget outlays and unreported expenditures. Though military spending comparisons are of lesser utility than assessing actual capabilities, they are useful nonetheless for determining a country's progress relative to itself.
Doing so reveals that from 1940 to 2000, average annual American defense expenditure was 8.5% of GDP; in war and mobilization years 13.3%; under Democratic administration 9.4%; under Republican 7.3%; and, most significantly, in the years of peace 5.7%. Today we spend just 4.6% of GDP—minus purely operational war costs, 3.8%. That is, 66% of the traditional peacetime outlays. We have been, and we are, steadily disarming even as we are at war.
As in the 1930s, the economy is the supposedly humanitarian excuse for reducing the military, although the endless miseries of the world will not be alleviated if due to an imbalance of power great and little wars rage across it. When Rahm Emanuel fled the White House on his way to torment Chicago, he thanked the president for being "the toughest leader any country could ask for in the toughest times any president has ever faced." One cringes to think how this pronouncement would strike Madison as the capital burned, Lincoln in the years of civil war, Wilson during World War I and the influenza epidemic, and FDR through the Depression and World War II.
Otherwise, how accurate was Mr. Emanuel? In 1929, GDP was $103 billion, in 1933 $55 billion, a decline of 46%. In 2007, GDP was $14.061 trillion; in 2010, it was $14.579 trillion, an increase. Adjusted for inflation it was a decline, but of only one-quarter of 1%. Nominal unemployment in 1929 was 3.2%; in 1933, with no safety nets, 25.2%. Nominal unemployment today is 9.8%.
At West Point this summer, the president said, commandingly, "At no time in human history has a nation of diminished economic vitality maintained its military and political primacy." Except of course the United States, the very country of which he is president, which despite the most severe diminution of economic vitality in its history (12 years, the economy cut in half) became the arsenal of democracy, sustained Britain and Russia, swept the seas clear of opposition, freed most of Europe, and conquered Japan—in the greatest war ever known.
The president's point was that despite whatever dangers we may face, the military must wait for the economy. But this is not so. Rather than dragging the economy down, putting the country on a war footing in 1940 revived it. Rearmament was a super-potent organizing principle and engine of production. Between 1931 and 1940 average GDP was $77.5 billion, and average unemployment 19%. By 1944, GDP had increased 271%, to $210 billion, unemployment had dropped to 1.2%, and real personal income had more than doubled. All this despite the fact that by 1945 the country was spending just under 40% of GDP, and 86% of the federal budget, on defense, at a time when a much greater proportion of income was devoted to necessities. And subsequently the war debt was retired with relative ease even as we enabled the rebuilding of Europe and defended it for half a century.
What does this tell us about defense spending? It tells us not only that it is not a poison, it can be an elixir. It tells us that it should proceed, therefore, not according to an ahistorical false premise, but in line with what is actually required to defend the United States. It tells us that, entirely independent of economic considerations, although not a dime should be appropriated to the military if it is not necessary, not a dime should be withheld if it is. The proof of this, so often and so tragically forgotten, is that the costs of providing an undauntable defense, whatever they may be, pale before blood and defeat. As for gauging necessity, we will have to deal with the rise of China, the growing power of Russia, and the nuclearization of fanatic regimes.
The strange, suicidal conviction now fashionable among the elite is that the customary vast reserves of power with which America maneuvers in the international system and, in extremis, wields in its defense, have become irrelevant to security and detrimental to the economy. All across the country, children are growing up who, in the fire next time, may pay for this prejudice with their lives. For a nation that has lost the unapologetic drive to defend itself cannot escape the consequences no matter how deft its self-deceptions or the extent to which, in contradiction of history and fact, error is ratified by common belief.
What argument, what savings, what economy can possibly offset the costs and heartbreak of a war undeterred or a war lost?
AMERICA’S DANGEROUS RUSH TO SHRINK ITS MILITARY POWER
Just as in the 1930s, the economy is the supposedly humanitarian excuse for reducing the military – although the endless miseries of the world will not be alleviated if, due to an imbalance of power, great and little wars rage across it
By Mark Helprin
The Wall Street Journal
December 27, 2010
From the president on down through his secretary of defense, the service secretaries, and a cast of generals whose decorations would choke an alpine meadow with color, we are told that further reductions in American military power are warranted and unavoidable. This view is supported by the left, the right that unwisely fears accounting more than war, by most of the press, the academy, and perhaps a majority of Americans, and it is demonstrably and dangerously wrong.
Based upon nothing and ignoring the cautionary example of World War II, we are told that we will never face two major enemies at once. Despite the orders of battle of our potential adversaries and the fact that our response to insurgency has been primarily conventional, we are told that the era of conventional warfare is over. And we are told that we can rest easy because military spending is an accurate index of military power, and we spend as much as the next however many nations combined.
But this takes no account of the nature of our commitments, the fading contributions of our allies, geography, this nation's size and that of its economy, conscription or its absence, purchasing power parity, exchange rate distortions, the military trajectories of our rivals individually or in combination, and the masking effects of off-budget outlays and unreported expenditures. Though military spending comparisons are of lesser utility than assessing actual capabilities, they are useful nonetheless for determining a country's progress relative to itself.
Doing so reveals that from 1940 to 2000, average annual American defense expenditure was 8.5% of GDP; in war and mobilization years 13.3%; under Democratic administration 9.4%; under Republican 7.3%; and, most significantly, in the years of peace 5.7%. Today we spend just 4.6% of GDP—minus purely operational war costs, 3.8%. That is, 66% of the traditional peacetime outlays. We have been, and we are, steadily disarming even as we are at war.
As in the 1930s, the economy is the supposedly humanitarian excuse for reducing the military, although the endless miseries of the world will not be alleviated if due to an imbalance of power great and little wars rage across it. When Rahm Emanuel fled the White House on his way to torment Chicago, he thanked the president for being "the toughest leader any country could ask for in the toughest times any president has ever faced." One cringes to think how this pronouncement would strike Madison as the capital burned, Lincoln in the years of civil war, Wilson during World War I and the influenza epidemic, and FDR through the Depression and World War II.
Otherwise, how accurate was Mr. Emanuel? In 1929, GDP was $103 billion, in 1933 $55 billion, a decline of 46%. In 2007, GDP was $14.061 trillion; in 2010, it was $14.579 trillion, an increase. Adjusted for inflation it was a decline, but of only one-quarter of 1%. Nominal unemployment in 1929 was 3.2%; in 1933, with no safety nets, 25.2%. Nominal unemployment today is 9.8%.
At West Point this summer, the president said, commandingly, "At no time in human history has a nation of diminished economic vitality maintained its military and political primacy." Except of course the United States, the very country of which he is president, which despite the most severe diminution of economic vitality in its history (12 years, the economy cut in half) became the arsenal of democracy, sustained Britain and Russia, swept the seas clear of opposition, freed most of Europe, and conquered Japan—in the greatest war ever known.
The president's point was that despite whatever dangers we may face, the military must wait for the economy. But this is not so. Rather than dragging the economy down, putting the country on a war footing in 1940 revived it. Rearmament was a super-potent organizing principle and engine of production. Between 1931 and 1940 average GDP was $77.5 billion, and average unemployment 19%. By 1944, GDP had increased 271%, to $210 billion, unemployment had dropped to 1.2%, and real personal income had more than doubled. All this despite the fact that by 1945 the country was spending just under 40% of GDP, and 86% of the federal budget, on defense, at a time when a much greater proportion of income was devoted to necessities. And subsequently the war debt was retired with relative ease even as we enabled the rebuilding of Europe and defended it for half a century.
What does this tell us about defense spending? It tells us not only that it is not a poison, it can be an elixir. It tells us that it should proceed, therefore, not according to an ahistorical false premise, but in line with what is actually required to defend the United States. It tells us that, entirely independent of economic considerations, although not a dime should be appropriated to the military if it is not necessary, not a dime should be withheld if it is. The proof of this, so often and so tragically forgotten, is that the costs of providing an undauntable defense, whatever they may be, pale before blood and defeat. As for gauging necessity, we will have to deal with the rise of China, the growing power of Russia, and the nuclearization of fanatic regimes.
The strange, suicidal conviction now fashionable among the elite is that the customary vast reserves of power with which America maneuvers in the international system and, in extremis, wields in its defense, have become irrelevant to security and detrimental to the economy. All across the country, children are growing up who, in the fire next time, may pay for this prejudice with their lives. For a nation that has lost the unapologetic drive to defend itself cannot escape the consequences no matter how deft its self-deceptions or the extent to which, in contradiction of history and fact, error is ratified by common belief.
What argument, what savings, what economy can possibly offset the costs and heartbreak of a war undeterred or a war lost?
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
SOCIAL NETWORKS, THE HAPPY HUNTING GROUNDS OF SEXUAL PREDATORS
The dangers of social networking to kids is illustrated in the following sexual assault case:
Late on the night of December 20, a 12-year-old boy in the Houston suburb of West University Place asked his father if he could go and meet a friend to watch the lunar eclipse from a parking lot of an oil-change business near Houston’s medical center. When daddy said no, the kid went to his room, then sneaked out of the house.
An hour after saying no to his request, the father went to check on his son and found that he had stuffed a bunch of pillows under his bedspread to make it look like he was asleep in his bed. Dad then called the WUP police. Shortly after their arrival, the kid was found nearby walking home.
According to the Houston Press, the boy told police the friend’s name was Rudy. He said they had met on Facebook a couple of days before the eclipse and had since exchanged text messages. The boy is quoted in the police report, that on the night of the eclipse, Rudy had picked him up in a red Mustang and taken him to the oil-change business parking lot, where they “made out” in the car. The boy noticed it was getting late and asked to be taken home, and when he saw the police cars in front of his house, he told Rudy to drop him off down the street.
Using the boy’s cellphone, the police looked up Rudy’s Facebook page which pictured a red Mustang like the boy described. They were able to read the license plate from which they identified Rudy as Rudy Erik Candia, 36, a registered sex offender convicted in 2000 of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy. As a result, Candia was arrested on the felony charge of Online Solicitation of a Minor.
The police also found the texted pictures of Candia’s dick and asshole on the boy’s cellphone. Apparently that pair of celestial bodies got in the way of viewing the lunar eclipse.
Late on the night of December 20, a 12-year-old boy in the Houston suburb of West University Place asked his father if he could go and meet a friend to watch the lunar eclipse from a parking lot of an oil-change business near Houston’s medical center. When daddy said no, the kid went to his room, then sneaked out of the house.
An hour after saying no to his request, the father went to check on his son and found that he had stuffed a bunch of pillows under his bedspread to make it look like he was asleep in his bed. Dad then called the WUP police. Shortly after their arrival, the kid was found nearby walking home.
According to the Houston Press, the boy told police the friend’s name was Rudy. He said they had met on Facebook a couple of days before the eclipse and had since exchanged text messages. The boy is quoted in the police report, that on the night of the eclipse, Rudy had picked him up in a red Mustang and taken him to the oil-change business parking lot, where they “made out” in the car. The boy noticed it was getting late and asked to be taken home, and when he saw the police cars in front of his house, he told Rudy to drop him off down the street.
Using the boy’s cellphone, the police looked up Rudy’s Facebook page which pictured a red Mustang like the boy described. They were able to read the license plate from which they identified Rudy as Rudy Erik Candia, 36, a registered sex offender convicted in 2000 of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy. As a result, Candia was arrested on the felony charge of Online Solicitation of a Minor.
The police also found the texted pictures of Candia’s dick and asshole on the boy’s cellphone. Apparently that pair of celestial bodies got in the way of viewing the lunar eclipse.
MORE ANTI-GUN CRAP FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
The liberal editors of the New York Times and the Mayors Against Illegal Guns could care less about the gun violence in Mexico. The below New York Times editorial and the efforts of Bloomberg and his fellow mayors are really designed to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of American gun owners. If the Times and the anti-gun mayors, like Bloomberg of NY, Daley of Chicago, and Menino of Boston had their way, only our police and military would be allowed to possess any hand guns and military-style rifles.
The figure thrown around by Mexican and American government officials that 80-90 percent of cartel guns come from the U.S. is a bunch of crap. Mexican officials, the ATF and FBI connive to make it appear that 80-90 percent of the cartel guns come from the U.S.
From my previous blogs, here is what FactCheck revealed about the alleged distribution of those drug cartel guns:
__That 90 percent figure has been repeated many times, but FactCheck.org says it's bogus: "The figure represents only the percentage of crime guns that have been submitted by Mexican officials and traced by U.S. officials. ... U.S. and Mexican officials both say that Mexico recovers more guns than it submits for tracing ... " And FactCheck says Mexico only submits those guns it already has reason to believe came from the United States.
From those same blogs, here is what Joan Schaan’s study showed about the alleged distribution:
__Joan Neuhaus Schaan, a fellow for Homeland Security and Terrorism programs in the prestigious James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, has exposed the Obama administration for throwing out phony statistics on the drug cartel guns. Her research revealed that of the weapons acquired by Mexican drug cartels, only 20-25 percent come from the United States. The remaining 75-80 percent are believed to come from Asia, Europe, South America and the Soviet bloc states. Schaan believes that to the extent U.S. military weapons have been found, they have most likely been sold to or provided by the U.S. government to another government and subsequently diverted.
Whenever the Mexicans seize a cache of weapons they cull out the ones that can be traced back to the U.S. and with the connivance of the ATF and FBI declare that 80-90 percent of the guns originated in the U.S. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mexican drug cartels receive most of their weapons from south of the Mexican border, not the northern border, and from foreign (not U.S.) arms dealers.
From the December 27 issue of Borderland Beat:
AT LAST, A BORDER CRACKDOWN
The New York Times
EDITORIAL
After nearly two years of foot-dragging while the death toll in the Mexican drug wars rose beyond 30,000, the Obama administration is finally stepping up the fight against the easy movement of illegal guns across the United States’ border with Mexico and into the hands of violent drug cartels.
This has long been an open scandal. An analysis of government gun-trace data by the coalition Mayors Against Illegal Guns found that many thousands of guns recovered from Mexican crime scenes and traced between 2006 and 2009 were originally sold by American gun dealers. According to a recent investigation by The Washington Post, eight of the top 10 dealers in Mexican crime guns have shops near the border.
To stem this deadly flow, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is seeking emergency authority to require gun dealers near the border to report multiple purchases of the high-firepower rifles favored by cartel gunmen.
The White House Office of Management and Budget, which must sign off on the A.T.F. plan, should promptly do so. The new reporting requirement, while not a solution, is an important step. It will make it easier to identify and prosecute gun traffickers and, potentially, deter multiple sales using straw purchasers.
All gun dealers already have to report multiple handgun sales to federal authorities. The new rule would extend that requirement to AK-47’s and other battlefield assault rifles. The cartels have shown an increasing preference for high-capacity rifles like these.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston, urged the Obama administration to create such an initiative more than a year ago. Until now, the White House has ducked the issue, presumably to help the prospects of those Democrats with top ratings from the National Rifle Association. But this has not helped to stop the traffic.
The N.R.A. is predictably opposed to the initiative. The administration must hold its ground and, beginning in January, press the next Congress to remove statutory limitations hampering the A.T.F.’s ability to shut down irresponsible dealers near the border and elsewhere.
The figure thrown around by Mexican and American government officials that 80-90 percent of cartel guns come from the U.S. is a bunch of crap. Mexican officials, the ATF and FBI connive to make it appear that 80-90 percent of the cartel guns come from the U.S.
From my previous blogs, here is what FactCheck revealed about the alleged distribution of those drug cartel guns:
__That 90 percent figure has been repeated many times, but FactCheck.org says it's bogus: "The figure represents only the percentage of crime guns that have been submitted by Mexican officials and traced by U.S. officials. ... U.S. and Mexican officials both say that Mexico recovers more guns than it submits for tracing ... " And FactCheck says Mexico only submits those guns it already has reason to believe came from the United States.
From those same blogs, here is what Joan Schaan’s study showed about the alleged distribution:
__Joan Neuhaus Schaan, a fellow for Homeland Security and Terrorism programs in the prestigious James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, has exposed the Obama administration for throwing out phony statistics on the drug cartel guns. Her research revealed that of the weapons acquired by Mexican drug cartels, only 20-25 percent come from the United States. The remaining 75-80 percent are believed to come from Asia, Europe, South America and the Soviet bloc states. Schaan believes that to the extent U.S. military weapons have been found, they have most likely been sold to or provided by the U.S. government to another government and subsequently diverted.
Whenever the Mexicans seize a cache of weapons they cull out the ones that can be traced back to the U.S. and with the connivance of the ATF and FBI declare that 80-90 percent of the guns originated in the U.S. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mexican drug cartels receive most of their weapons from south of the Mexican border, not the northern border, and from foreign (not U.S.) arms dealers.
From the December 27 issue of Borderland Beat:
AT LAST, A BORDER CRACKDOWN
The New York Times
EDITORIAL
After nearly two years of foot-dragging while the death toll in the Mexican drug wars rose beyond 30,000, the Obama administration is finally stepping up the fight against the easy movement of illegal guns across the United States’ border with Mexico and into the hands of violent drug cartels.
This has long been an open scandal. An analysis of government gun-trace data by the coalition Mayors Against Illegal Guns found that many thousands of guns recovered from Mexican crime scenes and traced between 2006 and 2009 were originally sold by American gun dealers. According to a recent investigation by The Washington Post, eight of the top 10 dealers in Mexican crime guns have shops near the border.
To stem this deadly flow, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is seeking emergency authority to require gun dealers near the border to report multiple purchases of the high-firepower rifles favored by cartel gunmen.
The White House Office of Management and Budget, which must sign off on the A.T.F. plan, should promptly do so. The new reporting requirement, while not a solution, is an important step. It will make it easier to identify and prosecute gun traffickers and, potentially, deter multiple sales using straw purchasers.
All gun dealers already have to report multiple handgun sales to federal authorities. The new rule would extend that requirement to AK-47’s and other battlefield assault rifles. The cartels have shown an increasing preference for high-capacity rifles like these.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston, urged the Obama administration to create such an initiative more than a year ago. Until now, the White House has ducked the issue, presumably to help the prospects of those Democrats with top ratings from the National Rifle Association. But this has not helped to stop the traffic.
The N.R.A. is predictably opposed to the initiative. The administration must hold its ground and, beginning in January, press the next Congress to remove statutory limitations hampering the A.T.F.’s ability to shut down irresponsible dealers near the border and elsewhere.
AIRPORT SECURITY DICTATED BY THE LA-LA LAND OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
To you TSA screeners: Better think twice! That tampon string dangling from a young Muslim woman’s vagina might just be a fuse.
PC AIRPORT SAFETY IS AN OXYMORON
By Arnold Ahlert
Jewish World Review
December 27, 2010
I'm going to try to explain this one more time, because I think it is critically important. Freedom doesn't die all at once. It gets chipped away, piece by piece, until what we once had becomes unrecognizable. On December 22nd in Austin, Texas, 56-year-old Claire Hirschkind suffered the kind of indignity that is only possible in a society that is morally confused and, as a result, Constitutionally uninformed. When she refused to have her breasts groped by a TSA agent at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, she was arrested. As infuriating as that is, it pales by comparison to the statements of two other travelers. "I understand her side of it, and their side as well, but it is for our protection so I have no problems with it," said one. "It's unfortunate that that happened and she didn't get to fly home, but it makes me feel a little safer," said another.
Memo to the clueless duo: what's going on at airports around the nation is not, repeat not, for the protection of the flying public. This odious system is set up to protect one thing and one thing only: political correctness. In this particular incarnation of PC, it is the willful and calculated determination to ignore the reality that virtually all terrorist acts are committed by radical Muslim males between the ages of 17 and 45.
If that were the extent of it, it would be problematic enough. But it is precisely the same PC which countenances that radicalization in American mosques, madrassas, prisons and on college campuses, even as those who point out such realities are labeled "Islamophobic." It is the same PC which erodes the common sense and common decency of a public becoming "accustomed" to getting scanned and groped by government strangers in order to "feel a little safer."
Feel a little safer? Here's a reality check for the feelers: "A person briefed on the latest tests tells ABC News the (TSA) failure rate approaches 70 percent at some major airports. Two weeks ago, TSA's new director said every test gun, bomb part or knife got past screeners at some airports." Got that? Seven-out-of-ten components which could be used to blow up a jetliner--or allow it to be hijacked and turned into a 9/11-like missile--got past the technology and the bureaucratic gropers.
So much for feelings--one would think.
And there, in a nutshell, is the enduring attractiveness of political correctness. One need not think at all. Ever. One needs only to have feelings in order to move un-Constitutional mountains. And not even a particularly large palette of feelings. In fact, all that is necessary is to punch one's admission ticket into the la-la land of political correctness, is one feeling expressed in two words:
I'm offended.
Thus, the truly successful airport security system used by the Israelis, the one which focuses on potential bombers instead of bombs, will never be embraced by America, because it will "offend" someone. Better to thoroughly offend women like Claire Hirschkind who wears a pacemaker-like device and says she is a former rape victim. Better to toss her to the ground, handcuff her, and drag her twenty-five yards across the airport terminal floor because she had the temerity to think her Constitutional rights were being violated, when she drew the line at having her breasts groped. Better to humiliate people in actuality in order to protect the theory of offended-ness that forms the foundation of political correctness.
Once again, for the terminally offended, along with those who think feeling is a viable substitute for thinking: the ultimate destination of the cancer known as political correctness is totalitarianism. It is the dissolution of rights and freedom sold under the banner of protecting people from being offended. It is the suppression of everything deemed hurtful or hateful by those in positions of power in the media, academia and government who prefer a populace cowed into an offense-free acquiescence of "proper" feelings. It is the Orwellian attempt to pack human nature into a sausage casing of conformity and docility, and if such runs counter to reality, reality be damned.
Claire Hirschkind is an American patriot, whether she knows it or not. She is the embodiment of the nearly-extinct American ethos of "don't tread on me," which so many Americans have willfully surrendered for their "protection," even as that protection is revealed for the seven-out-of-ten fraud it truly is. She is the antithesis of those who have been gulled into believing that airports are now "Constitution-free" zones--lest someone be offended.
"Our officers are trained to treat all passengers with dignity and respect. Security is not optional," said a TSA statement released Wednesday night. Tell me, my fellow Americans, the "dignified' and "respectful" ways one submits to having their private body parts groped. Explain how security isn't "optional" when "every test gun, bomb part or knife got past screeners at some airports." Tell me why you prefer that Claire Hirschkind and other Americans be humiliated to prevent admitting that Islamic terrorists are the over-riding problem. Explain to me the utter schizophrenia of a government which simultaneously embraces totalitarianism at our airports and a free-for-all on our southern border.
Ms. Hirschkind, I hope you get a chance to read this column. I suspect right now you could use the support of Americans who empathize with your determination not to go quietly into the night. There are more of us than you might imagine. People unwilling to submit to thuggery sold as protection. People who refuse to substitute emotions and whining for reason and logic. People who are genuinely offended by those who use being offended like a club in order to beat our democratic republic into submission.
You are not alone.
PC AIRPORT SAFETY IS AN OXYMORON
By Arnold Ahlert
Jewish World Review
December 27, 2010
I'm going to try to explain this one more time, because I think it is critically important. Freedom doesn't die all at once. It gets chipped away, piece by piece, until what we once had becomes unrecognizable. On December 22nd in Austin, Texas, 56-year-old Claire Hirschkind suffered the kind of indignity that is only possible in a society that is morally confused and, as a result, Constitutionally uninformed. When she refused to have her breasts groped by a TSA agent at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, she was arrested. As infuriating as that is, it pales by comparison to the statements of two other travelers. "I understand her side of it, and their side as well, but it is for our protection so I have no problems with it," said one. "It's unfortunate that that happened and she didn't get to fly home, but it makes me feel a little safer," said another.
Memo to the clueless duo: what's going on at airports around the nation is not, repeat not, for the protection of the flying public. This odious system is set up to protect one thing and one thing only: political correctness. In this particular incarnation of PC, it is the willful and calculated determination to ignore the reality that virtually all terrorist acts are committed by radical Muslim males between the ages of 17 and 45.
If that were the extent of it, it would be problematic enough. But it is precisely the same PC which countenances that radicalization in American mosques, madrassas, prisons and on college campuses, even as those who point out such realities are labeled "Islamophobic." It is the same PC which erodes the common sense and common decency of a public becoming "accustomed" to getting scanned and groped by government strangers in order to "feel a little safer."
Feel a little safer? Here's a reality check for the feelers: "A person briefed on the latest tests tells ABC News the (TSA) failure rate approaches 70 percent at some major airports. Two weeks ago, TSA's new director said every test gun, bomb part or knife got past screeners at some airports." Got that? Seven-out-of-ten components which could be used to blow up a jetliner--or allow it to be hijacked and turned into a 9/11-like missile--got past the technology and the bureaucratic gropers.
So much for feelings--one would think.
And there, in a nutshell, is the enduring attractiveness of political correctness. One need not think at all. Ever. One needs only to have feelings in order to move un-Constitutional mountains. And not even a particularly large palette of feelings. In fact, all that is necessary is to punch one's admission ticket into the la-la land of political correctness, is one feeling expressed in two words:
I'm offended.
Thus, the truly successful airport security system used by the Israelis, the one which focuses on potential bombers instead of bombs, will never be embraced by America, because it will "offend" someone. Better to thoroughly offend women like Claire Hirschkind who wears a pacemaker-like device and says she is a former rape victim. Better to toss her to the ground, handcuff her, and drag her twenty-five yards across the airport terminal floor because she had the temerity to think her Constitutional rights were being violated, when she drew the line at having her breasts groped. Better to humiliate people in actuality in order to protect the theory of offended-ness that forms the foundation of political correctness.
Once again, for the terminally offended, along with those who think feeling is a viable substitute for thinking: the ultimate destination of the cancer known as political correctness is totalitarianism. It is the dissolution of rights and freedom sold under the banner of protecting people from being offended. It is the suppression of everything deemed hurtful or hateful by those in positions of power in the media, academia and government who prefer a populace cowed into an offense-free acquiescence of "proper" feelings. It is the Orwellian attempt to pack human nature into a sausage casing of conformity and docility, and if such runs counter to reality, reality be damned.
Claire Hirschkind is an American patriot, whether she knows it or not. She is the embodiment of the nearly-extinct American ethos of "don't tread on me," which so many Americans have willfully surrendered for their "protection," even as that protection is revealed for the seven-out-of-ten fraud it truly is. She is the antithesis of those who have been gulled into believing that airports are now "Constitution-free" zones--lest someone be offended.
"Our officers are trained to treat all passengers with dignity and respect. Security is not optional," said a TSA statement released Wednesday night. Tell me, my fellow Americans, the "dignified' and "respectful" ways one submits to having their private body parts groped. Explain how security isn't "optional" when "every test gun, bomb part or knife got past screeners at some airports." Tell me why you prefer that Claire Hirschkind and other Americans be humiliated to prevent admitting that Islamic terrorists are the over-riding problem. Explain to me the utter schizophrenia of a government which simultaneously embraces totalitarianism at our airports and a free-for-all on our southern border.
Ms. Hirschkind, I hope you get a chance to read this column. I suspect right now you could use the support of Americans who empathize with your determination not to go quietly into the night. There are more of us than you might imagine. People unwilling to submit to thuggery sold as protection. People who refuse to substitute emotions and whining for reason and logic. People who are genuinely offended by those who use being offended like a club in order to beat our democratic republic into submission.
You are not alone.
LOOKING BACK AT SOME SILLINESS DURING THE PAST YEAR
The liberal media likes to make conservatives squirm with some of their crap. Trouble is, they succeed all too often.
THE SILLIEST STORIES OF 2010
By Debra J. Saunders
Jewish World Review
December 27, 2010
2010 was a year consumed with silly stories. The more trivial the controversy, the more airtime it consumed. Although not all the silly stories made conservatives look stupid, the more a squabble tarnished the right, the surer it was to generate talking-head babble. And then they fizzle, as most non-stories do.
Where to begin?
THE QURAN BURNING. After every media person in America dumped on Florida pastor Terry Jones for being a dangerous clown, and after two Quran-loving protesters died in Afghanistan, Jones didn't deliver on his threat to burn a Quran on the anniversary of 9/11. Yet a Nexis database search on "Terry Jones" and "Quran" shows the non-event generated more than 2,900 articles.
ANY STORY ABOUT SARAH PALIN. She's not Alaska's governor any more. She's not a declared candidate. She is a genius at getting on cable TV.
Palin understands the trigger words — for instance, when she told supporters in April, "don't retreat, reload" — that can turn a Facebook post into a three-day, 24-hour debate. If she tweets, it's national news. When it became apparent her daughter Bristol couldn't dance, "Dancing With the Stars" became a news story.
If the right person dishes Palin — be it Oprah, Joy Behar, Andrew Sullivan or any other lib whom you'd expect to sneer at Palin — somehow that's news, too.
Few expect Palin to run for president. But all she has to do is tease the press with the possibility that she might run in 2012, and she is rewarded with priceless book-promoting publicity. If she does run, only amateurs think she has a snowball's chance in Florida of winning the GOP nod. But it seems TV news producers — and Palin haters eager for another fix — just can't help themselves. It's like an addiction.
THE INCESTUOUS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN “THE VIEW” AND FOX NEWS’ BILL O’REILLY. "The View" ladies regularly scold O'Reilly; he airs video of what they said. Sometimes he invites a she-critic on his show; they bicker, then make nice. Both sides manage to come across as preachy, insincere and smarmy.
LARRY KING’S RETIREMENT. How can you tell?
Note to CNN execs: King's ratings were in the toilet before he announced in June he was retiring. So why did you devote hours of airtime covering the exit of a talk-show host — whom Americans stopped watching because he was boring — surrounded by the usual sycophants who made the show so irritating? Why treat his retirement as if it were (a) important and (b) tragic? CNN's indulgent send-off to King wasn't news. It was self-promotion, and wrong-headed self-promotion at that. Any ratings gain from the last night is more than offset by the news network's nosedive in the credibility department.
DELAWARE TEA PARTY CANDIDATE CHRISTINE O’DONNELL. She never had a chance to win Veep Joe Biden's former Senate seat. But national news outlets were desperate for any hook to justify their excessive post-primary coverage of the gaffe-prone "I am not a witch" Republican, so they tried to make it look as if O'Donnell had a shot. When she was "just 10 points behind" Democrat Chris Coons in the polls, National Public Radio reported a "surge" of voter support, with O'Donnell closing the gap.
GLENN BECK’S “RESTORING HONOR” RALLY AND COMEDY CENTRAL’S COUNTER-RALLY. Attendees from both sides told TV news crews that they showed up to prove they're not crackpots or extremists. Didn't work.
STORIES ABOUT TWITTER. Anything over 140 characters is too long.
TSA PAT-DOWNS. Or, as I like to call them, freedom fondles. (Just kidding.) Start with an absurd premise that TSA screeners want to get up close and personal with your average airline passenger. ? Then add the new national desire of partisans to paint themselves as victims. You just knew some camera-phone-toting wannabe-oppressed person would pick a fight and start talking up his "junk." Presto: the sound bite that made Monica Lewinsky jokes seem quaint.
Also predictably, some guy on the Internet urged the flying public to refuse body scans, which would subject them to time-consuming pat-downs, and thereby jam security lines on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. He proclaimed his stunt "National Opt Out Day." Huge story that never happened. The flying public opted for security.
THE OBAMA COMEBACK. I'm not saying it won't happen; it well may. But can't the pundits who wrote about the Dems' shellacking a month ago at least wait until the next Congress convenes before they declare President Obama this year's political winner? Can't the chattering class wait until major polls show that Obama's approval rating is above 50 percent? Are we boardwalk fortunetellers, or can we wait for something to happen, or at least appear likely to happen?
You know the answer, and it's not pretty.
THE SILLIEST STORIES OF 2010
By Debra J. Saunders
Jewish World Review
December 27, 2010
2010 was a year consumed with silly stories. The more trivial the controversy, the more airtime it consumed. Although not all the silly stories made conservatives look stupid, the more a squabble tarnished the right, the surer it was to generate talking-head babble. And then they fizzle, as most non-stories do.
Where to begin?
THE QURAN BURNING. After every media person in America dumped on Florida pastor Terry Jones for being a dangerous clown, and after two Quran-loving protesters died in Afghanistan, Jones didn't deliver on his threat to burn a Quran on the anniversary of 9/11. Yet a Nexis database search on "Terry Jones" and "Quran" shows the non-event generated more than 2,900 articles.
ANY STORY ABOUT SARAH PALIN. She's not Alaska's governor any more. She's not a declared candidate. She is a genius at getting on cable TV.
Palin understands the trigger words — for instance, when she told supporters in April, "don't retreat, reload" — that can turn a Facebook post into a three-day, 24-hour debate. If she tweets, it's national news. When it became apparent her daughter Bristol couldn't dance, "Dancing With the Stars" became a news story.
If the right person dishes Palin — be it Oprah, Joy Behar, Andrew Sullivan or any other lib whom you'd expect to sneer at Palin — somehow that's news, too.
Few expect Palin to run for president. But all she has to do is tease the press with the possibility that she might run in 2012, and she is rewarded with priceless book-promoting publicity. If she does run, only amateurs think she has a snowball's chance in Florida of winning the GOP nod. But it seems TV news producers — and Palin haters eager for another fix — just can't help themselves. It's like an addiction.
THE INCESTUOUS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN “THE VIEW” AND FOX NEWS’ BILL O’REILLY. "The View" ladies regularly scold O'Reilly; he airs video of what they said. Sometimes he invites a she-critic on his show; they bicker, then make nice. Both sides manage to come across as preachy, insincere and smarmy.
LARRY KING’S RETIREMENT. How can you tell?
Note to CNN execs: King's ratings were in the toilet before he announced in June he was retiring. So why did you devote hours of airtime covering the exit of a talk-show host — whom Americans stopped watching because he was boring — surrounded by the usual sycophants who made the show so irritating? Why treat his retirement as if it were (a) important and (b) tragic? CNN's indulgent send-off to King wasn't news. It was self-promotion, and wrong-headed self-promotion at that. Any ratings gain from the last night is more than offset by the news network's nosedive in the credibility department.
DELAWARE TEA PARTY CANDIDATE CHRISTINE O’DONNELL. She never had a chance to win Veep Joe Biden's former Senate seat. But national news outlets were desperate for any hook to justify their excessive post-primary coverage of the gaffe-prone "I am not a witch" Republican, so they tried to make it look as if O'Donnell had a shot. When she was "just 10 points behind" Democrat Chris Coons in the polls, National Public Radio reported a "surge" of voter support, with O'Donnell closing the gap.
GLENN BECK’S “RESTORING HONOR” RALLY AND COMEDY CENTRAL’S COUNTER-RALLY. Attendees from both sides told TV news crews that they showed up to prove they're not crackpots or extremists. Didn't work.
STORIES ABOUT TWITTER. Anything over 140 characters is too long.
TSA PAT-DOWNS. Or, as I like to call them, freedom fondles. (Just kidding.) Start with an absurd premise that TSA screeners want to get up close and personal with your average airline passenger. ? Then add the new national desire of partisans to paint themselves as victims. You just knew some camera-phone-toting wannabe-oppressed person would pick a fight and start talking up his "junk." Presto: the sound bite that made Monica Lewinsky jokes seem quaint.
Also predictably, some guy on the Internet urged the flying public to refuse body scans, which would subject them to time-consuming pat-downs, and thereby jam security lines on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. He proclaimed his stunt "National Opt Out Day." Huge story that never happened. The flying public opted for security.
THE OBAMA COMEBACK. I'm not saying it won't happen; it well may. But can't the pundits who wrote about the Dems' shellacking a month ago at least wait until the next Congress convenes before they declare President Obama this year's political winner? Can't the chattering class wait until major polls show that Obama's approval rating is above 50 percent? Are we boardwalk fortunetellers, or can we wait for something to happen, or at least appear likely to happen?
You know the answer, and it's not pretty.
Monday, December 27, 2010
NATION OF WUSSIES
When, due to blizzard conditions, the NFL postponed Sunday night’s game between the Vikings and the Eagles at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell let loose with a cold blast of his own:
"I think it is a joke. It goes against everything that football is all about. My biggest beef is that this is part of what's happened in this country. I think we've become wussies. We've become a nation of wussies. The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything. If this was in China do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down."
"I think it is a joke. It goes against everything that football is all about. My biggest beef is that this is part of what's happened in this country. I think we've become wussies. We've become a nation of wussies. The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything. If this was in China do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down."
SHOCKING AND OUTRAGEOUS
The Veterans Administration estimates there are more than 9,000 veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that are currently homeless. Surprisingly, the majority of homeless veterans are women. Regardless of whether they are men or women, that is simply shocking and outrageous! The homelessness of those who served their country in combat should not be tolerated.
Here are the reasons veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq find themselves homeless:
__Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
__Inability to adjust to the unstructured life of a civilian.
__Unemployment.
__Failed marriages.
__Abuse of alcohol and drugs.
Fortunately there is a bright spot to this dark picture.
Veterans returning from the Vietnam War were ostracized , the result of a vilifying far-left campaign against the war and the soldiers who fought in it. You may not remember it, but those radicals - most of them upper-middle class college students and their professors - labeled our soldiers ‘baby killers.’ To our shame, many of those veterans became permanently homeless because no one, including the government, was interested in helping a bunch of ‘baby killers.’
Today our returning soldiers are not vilified. There is help available to our homeless veterans. The problem seems to be that most of our homeless veterans are unaware of this help or do not know where to get it. Our government and local authorities should make every effort to seek out each and everyone of those 9,000-plus veterans to inform them where they can get the help they need. Anything less is downright unacceptable and outrageous!
Here are the reasons veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq find themselves homeless:
__Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
__Inability to adjust to the unstructured life of a civilian.
__Unemployment.
__Failed marriages.
__Abuse of alcohol and drugs.
Fortunately there is a bright spot to this dark picture.
Veterans returning from the Vietnam War were ostracized , the result of a vilifying far-left campaign against the war and the soldiers who fought in it. You may not remember it, but those radicals - most of them upper-middle class college students and their professors - labeled our soldiers ‘baby killers.’ To our shame, many of those veterans became permanently homeless because no one, including the government, was interested in helping a bunch of ‘baby killers.’
Today our returning soldiers are not vilified. There is help available to our homeless veterans. The problem seems to be that most of our homeless veterans are unaware of this help or do not know where to get it. Our government and local authorities should make every effort to seek out each and everyone of those 9,000-plus veterans to inform them where they can get the help they need. Anything less is downright unacceptable and outrageous!
THOSE LIBERAL ISRAEL-HATING JEWS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
In the United States, Israel’s most dangerous enemies are not Muslims, Neo-Nazis or Christian Survivalists - they are America’s liberal Israel-hating Jews with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman heading up the list. And billionaire George Soros, who bankrolls just about every liberal cause and every anti-Israel group, is right up there with Friedman in his hatred of Israel. [‘Pulitzer Prize Winner: Ignorant Of The Facts Or Deliberately Misleading?’ (12-15-10) and ‘Jew-Hating Jew Gives $100M To Israel-Hating Group’ (9-14-10)]
ISRAELI DIPLOMAT AMBUSHED BY NY TIMES STAFF
Israel Today
December 26, 2010
The New York Times, flagship of the liberal American media, has never been a friend of the Jewish state. But the newspaper’s aversion to Israel turned to open hostility this month when its top editors ambushed and tore into an unsuspecting senior official from the Israeli Consulate in New York City.
The Israeli official was invited by the Times editors, among them rabid columnist Thomas Friedman, to meet with them at their office. Being a veteran at dealing with the American media, the official assumed the invitation was for a friendly discussion and perhaps an interview regarding the peace process and other matters of importance to Israel.
The Israeli had no idea he was being invited for what he described as a lynch.
As the meeting started, the Times editors - most of them Jews, and one of them a former Israeli - began to attack the Israeli diplomat, and refused to give him even a moment to respond.
They blamed Israel for everything, the diplomat told ISRAEL TODAY.
The Times editors insisted the breakdown of the peace process was Israel’s fault, that the lack of peace was Israel’s fault, and were adamant that Israel had given nothing to the Palestinians. They accused Israel of being an extremist and racist state, and blasted the diplomat for Israel’s “ill-treatment” of President Barack Obama.
In short, the Times staff informed the Israeli in no uncertain terms that they were sick of his country.
The diplomat told us he was shocked by the attack. He tried to respond, but the Times editors were not interested in hearing his arguments.
“I asked them,” said the diplomat, “We haven’t given the Palestinians anything? How can you say that? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke with his party platform and implemented a 10-month Jewish building freeze, and what did we get in return? More Palestinian refusal to negotiate.”
According to the Israeli, the Times editors responded: “Yes, yes. Of course you are going to start telling us about how Israel’s security needs are not being met. You just don’t get it that we are sick of hearing about that.”
There is little doubt that this ambush was led by Friedman, whose hostility toward Israel in his recent columns has surprised even his liberal friends in the Jewish state.
In recent articles, Friedman has accused Israel of being a spoiled child, crazy and extremist. He insisted that the US stop being Israel’s “enabler,” and pointed out that the rest of the world is fully on the side of the Palestinians, so why not America?
Wrote Friedman in one of his columns: “Israel, when America - which has given you billions over the past 50 years and defended you in the international arena - asks you to stop building settlements for three months in order to jump start peace talks, there is only one correct answer, and that is ‘yes, whatever you say.’”
ISRAELI DIPLOMAT AMBUSHED BY NY TIMES STAFF
Israel Today
December 26, 2010
The New York Times, flagship of the liberal American media, has never been a friend of the Jewish state. But the newspaper’s aversion to Israel turned to open hostility this month when its top editors ambushed and tore into an unsuspecting senior official from the Israeli Consulate in New York City.
The Israeli official was invited by the Times editors, among them rabid columnist Thomas Friedman, to meet with them at their office. Being a veteran at dealing with the American media, the official assumed the invitation was for a friendly discussion and perhaps an interview regarding the peace process and other matters of importance to Israel.
The Israeli had no idea he was being invited for what he described as a lynch.
As the meeting started, the Times editors - most of them Jews, and one of them a former Israeli - began to attack the Israeli diplomat, and refused to give him even a moment to respond.
They blamed Israel for everything, the diplomat told ISRAEL TODAY.
The Times editors insisted the breakdown of the peace process was Israel’s fault, that the lack of peace was Israel’s fault, and were adamant that Israel had given nothing to the Palestinians. They accused Israel of being an extremist and racist state, and blasted the diplomat for Israel’s “ill-treatment” of President Barack Obama.
In short, the Times staff informed the Israeli in no uncertain terms that they were sick of his country.
The diplomat told us he was shocked by the attack. He tried to respond, but the Times editors were not interested in hearing his arguments.
“I asked them,” said the diplomat, “We haven’t given the Palestinians anything? How can you say that? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke with his party platform and implemented a 10-month Jewish building freeze, and what did we get in return? More Palestinian refusal to negotiate.”
According to the Israeli, the Times editors responded: “Yes, yes. Of course you are going to start telling us about how Israel’s security needs are not being met. You just don’t get it that we are sick of hearing about that.”
There is little doubt that this ambush was led by Friedman, whose hostility toward Israel in his recent columns has surprised even his liberal friends in the Jewish state.
In recent articles, Friedman has accused Israel of being a spoiled child, crazy and extremist. He insisted that the US stop being Israel’s “enabler,” and pointed out that the rest of the world is fully on the side of the Palestinians, so why not America?
Wrote Friedman in one of his columns: “Israel, when America - which has given you billions over the past 50 years and defended you in the international arena - asks you to stop building settlements for three months in order to jump start peace talks, there is only one correct answer, and that is ‘yes, whatever you say.’”
WHY THE CONFEDERACY WILL NEVER RISE AGAIN
By the time Vicksburg was surrounded by the hated Yankees, the South had all but lost the Civil War. And contrary to the hopes of some diehard southern knuckleheads, that’s why the Confederacy will never rise again.
CIA CODEBREAKER REVEALS 147-YEAR-OLD CIVIL WAR MESSAGE ABOUT THE CONFEDERATE ARMY’S DESPERATION
Mail Online
December 26, 2010
A glass vial from the Civil War has been opened, revealing a coded message to the desperate Confederate commander in Vicksburg on the day the Mississippi city fell to Union forces 147 years ago.
And a former CIA codebreaker has cracked it's meaning.
The dispatch offered no hope to doomed Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton: Reinforcements are not on the way.
The encrypted, 6-line message was dated July 4, 1863, the date of Pemberton's surrender to Union forces led by Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Siege of Vicksburg in what historians say was a turning point midway into the Civil War.
The message is from a Confederate commander on the west side of the Mississippi River across from Pemberton.
'He's saying, 'I can't help you. I have no troops, I have no supplies, I have no way to get over there,' ' Museum of the Confederacy collections manager Catherine M. Wright said of the author of the dispiriting message.
'It was just another punctuation mark to just how desperate and dire everything was.'
The bottle, less than 2 inches in length, had sat undisturbed at the museum since 1896. It was a gift from Capt. William A. Smith, of King George County, who served during the Vicksburg siege.
It was Wright who decided to investigate the contents of the strange little bottle containing a tightly wrapped note, a .38-caliber bullet and a white thread.
'Just sort of a curiosity thing,' said Wright. 'This notion of, do we have any idea what his message says?'
The answer was no.
Wright asked a local art conservator, Scott Nolley, to examine the clear vial before she attempted to open it. He looked at the bottle under an electron microscope and discovered that salt had bonded the cork tightly to the bottle's mouth.
He put the bottle on a hotplate to expand the glass, used a scalpel to loosen the cork, then gently plucked it out with tweezers.
The sewing thread was looped around the 6 1/2-by-2 1/2-inch paper, which was folded to fit into the bottle. The rolled message was removed and taken to a paper conservator, who successfully unfurled the message.
But the coded message, which appears to be a random collection of letters, did not reveal itself immediately.
Eager to learn the meaning of the code, Wright took the message home for the weekend to decipher. She had no success.
A retired CIA code breaker, David Gaddy, was contacted, and he cracked the code in several weeks.
A Navy cryptologist independently confirmed Gaddy's interpretation. Cmdr. John B. Hunter, an information warfare officer, said he deciphered the code over two weeks while on deployment aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. A computer could have unscrambled the words in a fraction of the time.
'To me, it was not that difficult,' he said. 'I had fun with this and it took me longer than I should have.'
The code is called the 'Vigenere cipher,' a centuries-old encryption in which letters of the alphabet are shifted a set number of places so an 'a' would become a 'd' — essentially, creating words with different letter combinations.
The code was widely used by Southern forces during the Civil War, according to Civil War Times Illustrated.
The source of the message was likely Maj. Gen. John G. Walker, of the Texas Division, who had under his command William Smith, the donor of the bottle.
The full text of the message to Pemberton reads:
'Gen'l Pemberton: You can expect no help from this side of the river. Let Gen'l Johnston know, if possible, when you can attack the same point on the enemy's lines. Inform me also and I will endeavor to make a diversion. I have sent some caps (explosive devices). I subjoin a despatch from General Johnston.'
The last line, Wright said, seems to suggest a separate delivery to Pemberton would be the code to break the message.
'The date of this message clearly indicates that this person has no idea that the city is about to be surrendered,' she said.
The Johnston mention in the dispatch is Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, whose 32,000 troops were encamped south of Vicksburg and prevented from assisting Pemberton by Grant's 35,000 Union troops. Pemberton had held out hope that Johnston would eventually come to his aid.
The message was dispatched during an especially terrible time in Vicksburg. Grant was unsuccessful in defeating Pemberton's troops on two occasions, so the Union commander instead decided to encircle the city and block the flow of supplies or support.
Many in the city resorted to eating cats, dogs and leather. Soup was made from wallpaper paste.
After a six-week siege, Pemberton relented. Vicksburg, so scarred by the experience, refused to celebrate July 4 for the next 80 years.
So what about the bullet in the bottom of the bottle?
Wright suspects the messenger was instructed to toss the bottle into the river if Union troops intercepted his passage. The weight of the bullet would have carried the corked bottle to the bottom, she said.
For Pemberton, the bottle is symbolic of his lost cause: the bad news never made it to him.
The Confederate messenger probably arrived to the river's edge and saw a U.S. flag flying over the city.
'He figured out what was going on and said, 'Well, this is pointless,' and turned back,' Wright said.
CIA CODEBREAKER REVEALS 147-YEAR-OLD CIVIL WAR MESSAGE ABOUT THE CONFEDERATE ARMY’S DESPERATION
Mail Online
December 26, 2010
A glass vial from the Civil War has been opened, revealing a coded message to the desperate Confederate commander in Vicksburg on the day the Mississippi city fell to Union forces 147 years ago.
And a former CIA codebreaker has cracked it's meaning.
The dispatch offered no hope to doomed Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton: Reinforcements are not on the way.
The encrypted, 6-line message was dated July 4, 1863, the date of Pemberton's surrender to Union forces led by Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Siege of Vicksburg in what historians say was a turning point midway into the Civil War.
The message is from a Confederate commander on the west side of the Mississippi River across from Pemberton.
'He's saying, 'I can't help you. I have no troops, I have no supplies, I have no way to get over there,' ' Museum of the Confederacy collections manager Catherine M. Wright said of the author of the dispiriting message.
'It was just another punctuation mark to just how desperate and dire everything was.'
The bottle, less than 2 inches in length, had sat undisturbed at the museum since 1896. It was a gift from Capt. William A. Smith, of King George County, who served during the Vicksburg siege.
It was Wright who decided to investigate the contents of the strange little bottle containing a tightly wrapped note, a .38-caliber bullet and a white thread.
'Just sort of a curiosity thing,' said Wright. 'This notion of, do we have any idea what his message says?'
The answer was no.
Wright asked a local art conservator, Scott Nolley, to examine the clear vial before she attempted to open it. He looked at the bottle under an electron microscope and discovered that salt had bonded the cork tightly to the bottle's mouth.
He put the bottle on a hotplate to expand the glass, used a scalpel to loosen the cork, then gently plucked it out with tweezers.
The sewing thread was looped around the 6 1/2-by-2 1/2-inch paper, which was folded to fit into the bottle. The rolled message was removed and taken to a paper conservator, who successfully unfurled the message.
But the coded message, which appears to be a random collection of letters, did not reveal itself immediately.
Eager to learn the meaning of the code, Wright took the message home for the weekend to decipher. She had no success.
A retired CIA code breaker, David Gaddy, was contacted, and he cracked the code in several weeks.
A Navy cryptologist independently confirmed Gaddy's interpretation. Cmdr. John B. Hunter, an information warfare officer, said he deciphered the code over two weeks while on deployment aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. A computer could have unscrambled the words in a fraction of the time.
'To me, it was not that difficult,' he said. 'I had fun with this and it took me longer than I should have.'
The code is called the 'Vigenere cipher,' a centuries-old encryption in which letters of the alphabet are shifted a set number of places so an 'a' would become a 'd' — essentially, creating words with different letter combinations.
The code was widely used by Southern forces during the Civil War, according to Civil War Times Illustrated.
The source of the message was likely Maj. Gen. John G. Walker, of the Texas Division, who had under his command William Smith, the donor of the bottle.
The full text of the message to Pemberton reads:
'Gen'l Pemberton: You can expect no help from this side of the river. Let Gen'l Johnston know, if possible, when you can attack the same point on the enemy's lines. Inform me also and I will endeavor to make a diversion. I have sent some caps (explosive devices). I subjoin a despatch from General Johnston.'
The last line, Wright said, seems to suggest a separate delivery to Pemberton would be the code to break the message.
'The date of this message clearly indicates that this person has no idea that the city is about to be surrendered,' she said.
The Johnston mention in the dispatch is Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, whose 32,000 troops were encamped south of Vicksburg and prevented from assisting Pemberton by Grant's 35,000 Union troops. Pemberton had held out hope that Johnston would eventually come to his aid.
The message was dispatched during an especially terrible time in Vicksburg. Grant was unsuccessful in defeating Pemberton's troops on two occasions, so the Union commander instead decided to encircle the city and block the flow of supplies or support.
Many in the city resorted to eating cats, dogs and leather. Soup was made from wallpaper paste.
After a six-week siege, Pemberton relented. Vicksburg, so scarred by the experience, refused to celebrate July 4 for the next 80 years.
So what about the bullet in the bottom of the bottle?
Wright suspects the messenger was instructed to toss the bottle into the river if Union troops intercepted his passage. The weight of the bullet would have carried the corked bottle to the bottom, she said.
For Pemberton, the bottle is symbolic of his lost cause: the bad news never made it to him.
The Confederate messenger probably arrived to the river's edge and saw a U.S. flag flying over the city.
'He figured out what was going on and said, 'Well, this is pointless,' and turned back,' Wright said.
IF YOU'RE GOING TO CHANGE LICENSE PLATES, MAKE SURE THE ONE ON THE FRONT IS THE SAME AS THE ONE ON THE REAR
What’s the big deal? He was just a ‘Non-Violent, Non-Dangerous’ parolee with a sawed-off shotgun.
Hmmm, mismatched plates and a sawed-off shotgun. Me thinks they were getting ready to use that car in a robbery.
ANOTHER DUMB (OR UNLUCKY) GOLD STAR PAROLEE
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
December 26, 2010
An observant cop and (maybe) some bad luck led to a parolee being busted in the teeming metropolis of Benecia on Thursday.
Sgt. John Daley of the Benecia P.D. spotted a car in the parking lot of a shopping center with mismatched license plates. After the car left the parking lot Daley stopped it. A search of the vehicle discovered a sawed-off shotgun in the trunk. This led to the driver, Janie French, 46, of Vallejo and the passenger, Gordon Hall, 46, of Richmond, being arrested. Hall is currently on parole for auto theft. (Isn’t that a non-violent, non-dangerous offense?)
Both men were booked into the Solano County Jail, where I am confident they enjoyed an excellent Christmas dinner. Since Hall will no doubt deny knowledge that the shotgun was in the trunk I fully expect he will be home by New Year. Isn’t parole reform wonderful?
Hmmm, mismatched plates and a sawed-off shotgun. Me thinks they were getting ready to use that car in a robbery.
ANOTHER DUMB (OR UNLUCKY) GOLD STAR PAROLEE
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
December 26, 2010
An observant cop and (maybe) some bad luck led to a parolee being busted in the teeming metropolis of Benecia on Thursday.
Sgt. John Daley of the Benecia P.D. spotted a car in the parking lot of a shopping center with mismatched license plates. After the car left the parking lot Daley stopped it. A search of the vehicle discovered a sawed-off shotgun in the trunk. This led to the driver, Janie French, 46, of Vallejo and the passenger, Gordon Hall, 46, of Richmond, being arrested. Hall is currently on parole for auto theft. (Isn’t that a non-violent, non-dangerous offense?)
Both men were booked into the Solano County Jail, where I am confident they enjoyed an excellent Christmas dinner. Since Hall will no doubt deny knowledge that the shotgun was in the trunk I fully expect he will be home by New Year. Isn’t parole reform wonderful?
Sunday, December 26, 2010
WWII HERO DIES, LEAVES BEHIND A GREAT LEGACY
Every so often, a really wonderful story comes down the pike, and this most definitely is one of them.
PILOT DEDICATED HIS LIFE TO HELPING PACIFIC ISLAND VILLAGERS WHO RESCUED HIM AFTER HE WAS SHOT DOWN IN WWII
Mail Online
December 24, 2010
A World War Two Army pilot who was rescued by Pacific islanders after being shot down and devoted his life to building schools for his saviours has died aged 94.
Fred Hargesheimer, a P-38 pilot with the 8th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, was shot down by a Japanese fighter while on a mission over the island of New Britain in the southwest Pacific.
He parachuted into a trackless jungle on the island, where he barely survived for 31 days before he was found by local hunters.
They took him to their coastal village and for seven months hid him from Japanese patrols, fed him and nursed him back to health.
In February 1944, with the help of Australian commandos working behind Japanese lines, he was picked up by a U.S. submarine off a New Britain beach.
After returning to the U.S., Mr Hargesheimer got married and began a sales career with a Minnesota forerunner of computer maker Sperry Rand, but said he was never able to forget the Nakanai people for saving his life.
The more he thought about it, he said, 'the more I realised what a debt I had to try to repay'.
After revisiting the village of Ea Ea in 1960, he raised $15,000 over three years and then returned with his 17-year-old son Richard in 1963 to build the villages' first school.
In the years afterwards, his determined fundraising would see a clinic, another school and a library built in the village, since renamed Nantabu, and surrounding villages.
In 1970, after his three children had grown up, Mr Hargesheimer and his late wife Dorothy moved to the island and began to teach the village themselves for four years.
On his last visit, in 2006, he was flown by helicopter over the jungle and carried in a chair by Nakanai men to view the newly discovered wreckage of his World War Two plane.
Six years earlier, on another visit, he was proclaimed 'Suaru Auru', or chief warrior of the Nakanai.
Ismael Saua, 69, a former teacher at the Nantabu school, said: 'The people were very happy. They'll always remember what Mr Fred Hargesheimer has done for our people.'
Mr Hargesheimer, in a 2008 interview, said: 'These people were responsible for saving my life. How could I ever repay it?'
He had been suffering from poor health and died at his home in Lincoln.
He is survived by sons Richard and Eric, and daughter Carol. He also has a sister and eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
PILOT DEDICATED HIS LIFE TO HELPING PACIFIC ISLAND VILLAGERS WHO RESCUED HIM AFTER HE WAS SHOT DOWN IN WWII
Mail Online
December 24, 2010
A World War Two Army pilot who was rescued by Pacific islanders after being shot down and devoted his life to building schools for his saviours has died aged 94.
Fred Hargesheimer, a P-38 pilot with the 8th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, was shot down by a Japanese fighter while on a mission over the island of New Britain in the southwest Pacific.
He parachuted into a trackless jungle on the island, where he barely survived for 31 days before he was found by local hunters.
They took him to their coastal village and for seven months hid him from Japanese patrols, fed him and nursed him back to health.
In February 1944, with the help of Australian commandos working behind Japanese lines, he was picked up by a U.S. submarine off a New Britain beach.
After returning to the U.S., Mr Hargesheimer got married and began a sales career with a Minnesota forerunner of computer maker Sperry Rand, but said he was never able to forget the Nakanai people for saving his life.
The more he thought about it, he said, 'the more I realised what a debt I had to try to repay'.
After revisiting the village of Ea Ea in 1960, he raised $15,000 over three years and then returned with his 17-year-old son Richard in 1963 to build the villages' first school.
In the years afterwards, his determined fundraising would see a clinic, another school and a library built in the village, since renamed Nantabu, and surrounding villages.
In 1970, after his three children had grown up, Mr Hargesheimer and his late wife Dorothy moved to the island and began to teach the village themselves for four years.
On his last visit, in 2006, he was flown by helicopter over the jungle and carried in a chair by Nakanai men to view the newly discovered wreckage of his World War Two plane.
Six years earlier, on another visit, he was proclaimed 'Suaru Auru', or chief warrior of the Nakanai.
Ismael Saua, 69, a former teacher at the Nantabu school, said: 'The people were very happy. They'll always remember what Mr Fred Hargesheimer has done for our people.'
Mr Hargesheimer, in a 2008 interview, said: 'These people were responsible for saving my life. How could I ever repay it?'
He had been suffering from poor health and died at his home in Lincoln.
He is survived by sons Richard and Eric, and daughter Carol. He also has a sister and eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
SCAMMED BY A GREAT MARIJUANA MYTH
There are two great marijuana myths. One holds that pot is less harmful than alcohol. The other hold that our prisons are full of people locked up for possessing ‘small’ amounts of marijuana.
The truth is that those in prison for ‘Possession of Marijuana’ were not busted for holding small amounts of pot. They got caught dealing or distributing substantial amounts of marijuana and plea bargained for a lesser charge carrying a shorter prison term.
The good Rev. Dr. Pat Robertson has been scammed by the pro-pot pricks and their damn lies! And it makes me want to puke when he says that our marijuana laws are ‘ruining young people.’ Hey Rev, it’s the young people who are ruining their lives, not the laws!
PAT ROBERTSON TELLS ‘700 CLUB’ VIEWERS CURRENT MARIJUANA LAWS SHOULD BE CHANGED
By Tony Pierce
Los Angeles Times
December 23, 2010
The Rev. Dr. Pat Robertson, a longtime central influencer in conservative Christian Republican politics, came out recently on television to say that the direction many politicians have taken regarding marijuana has turned out to be wrong.
Robertson claims that mandatory minimum sentencing for Americans caught with relatively small amounts of pot is costing the nation too much money and is not rehabilitating them.
"I'm not exactly for the use of drugs, don't get me wrong, but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot, that kinda thing, it's just -- it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people," the televangelist said on his long-running show, "The 700 Club," on the Christian Broadcasting Network. "Young people go into prisons, they go in as youths and come out as hardened criminals. That's not a good thing."
Interestingly, CBN (probably in the wake of headlines like "The 420 Club?," "Robertson: ‘Criminalizing Marijuana’ Is ‘Ruining Young People,’" and "Shock: Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson favors marijuana legalization") has felt the need to fine-tune what its founder said.
"Dr. Robertson did not call for the decriminalization of marijuana. He was advocating that our government revisit the severity of the existing laws because mandatory drug sentences do harm to many young people who go to prison and come out as hardened criminals," Chris Roslan, a CBN spokesman, said this week. "He was also pointing out that these mandatory sentences needlessly cost our government millions of dollars when there are better approaches available. Dr. Robertson's comments followed a CBN news story about a group of conservatives who have proven that faith-based rehabilitation for criminals has resulted in lower repeat offenders and saved the government millions of dollars. Dr. Robertson unequivocally stated that he is against the use of illegal drugs."
The truth is that those in prison for ‘Possession of Marijuana’ were not busted for holding small amounts of pot. They got caught dealing or distributing substantial amounts of marijuana and plea bargained for a lesser charge carrying a shorter prison term.
The good Rev. Dr. Pat Robertson has been scammed by the pro-pot pricks and their damn lies! And it makes me want to puke when he says that our marijuana laws are ‘ruining young people.’ Hey Rev, it’s the young people who are ruining their lives, not the laws!
PAT ROBERTSON TELLS ‘700 CLUB’ VIEWERS CURRENT MARIJUANA LAWS SHOULD BE CHANGED
By Tony Pierce
Los Angeles Times
December 23, 2010
The Rev. Dr. Pat Robertson, a longtime central influencer in conservative Christian Republican politics, came out recently on television to say that the direction many politicians have taken regarding marijuana has turned out to be wrong.
Robertson claims that mandatory minimum sentencing for Americans caught with relatively small amounts of pot is costing the nation too much money and is not rehabilitating them.
"I'm not exactly for the use of drugs, don't get me wrong, but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot, that kinda thing, it's just -- it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people," the televangelist said on his long-running show, "The 700 Club," on the Christian Broadcasting Network. "Young people go into prisons, they go in as youths and come out as hardened criminals. That's not a good thing."
Interestingly, CBN (probably in the wake of headlines like "The 420 Club?," "Robertson: ‘Criminalizing Marijuana’ Is ‘Ruining Young People,’" and "Shock: Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson favors marijuana legalization") has felt the need to fine-tune what its founder said.
"Dr. Robertson did not call for the decriminalization of marijuana. He was advocating that our government revisit the severity of the existing laws because mandatory drug sentences do harm to many young people who go to prison and come out as hardened criminals," Chris Roslan, a CBN spokesman, said this week. "He was also pointing out that these mandatory sentences needlessly cost our government millions of dollars when there are better approaches available. Dr. Robertson's comments followed a CBN news story about a group of conservatives who have proven that faith-based rehabilitation for criminals has resulted in lower repeat offenders and saved the government millions of dollars. Dr. Robertson unequivocally stated that he is against the use of illegal drugs."
BEING A BONEHEAD IS NOT A CRIME
It sure looks to me like what we have here is an over-ambitious prosecutor. I do not believe this bonehead cop should have been charged with anything other than the possession of illegal fireworks. Other than that, his injuries are punishment enough. When all is said and done, he could lose his job. And wait until he gets sued by the little girl’s parents.
DEPUTY CHARGED WITH FELONY IN FIREWORKS ACCIDENT
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
December 24, 2010
A Humbolt County Sheriff’s Deputy is facing felony charges from a July 4 fireworks accident that badly injured a ten-year old as well as the deputy.
Deputy Joe Marsh was off duty at a July 4th gathering. He had brought some Roman Candles to the shindig. They are illegal in California. One of the Roman Candles exploded when Marsh and the ten-year old girl were attempting to light it, badly injuring the girl and Marsh both. Each of them lost fingers in the incident.
Marsh is being charged with possession of dangerous fireworks, felony child endangerment and infliction of great bodily injury.
I realize the deputy was probably just trying to be a nice guy. Unfortunately, in this day and age, you have to worry about what your exposure is if your good deed turns to crap, especially when it involves illegal activity to begin with. This is definitely a lump of coal for Christmas, but not completely undeserved.
DEPUTY CHARGED WITH FELONY IN FIREWORKS ACCIDENT
By Bob Walsh
PACOVILLA Corrections blog
December 24, 2010
A Humbolt County Sheriff’s Deputy is facing felony charges from a July 4 fireworks accident that badly injured a ten-year old as well as the deputy.
Deputy Joe Marsh was off duty at a July 4th gathering. He had brought some Roman Candles to the shindig. They are illegal in California. One of the Roman Candles exploded when Marsh and the ten-year old girl were attempting to light it, badly injuring the girl and Marsh both. Each of them lost fingers in the incident.
Marsh is being charged with possession of dangerous fireworks, felony child endangerment and infliction of great bodily injury.
I realize the deputy was probably just trying to be a nice guy. Unfortunately, in this day and age, you have to worry about what your exposure is if your good deed turns to crap, especially when it involves illegal activity to begin with. This is definitely a lump of coal for Christmas, but not completely undeserved.
'LARRY' NAPOLITANO, 'MO' CLAPPER AND 'CURLY' OBAMA
We can rest easier now because we are all much safer with The Three Stooges in charge.
LARRY, MO, AND CURLY
By Monica Crowley
politicalmavens.com
December 21, 2010
It’s Christmastime, which is a time for joy and celebration—and for stepped up Islamic terror plots against the United States. Last Christmas Day, a Nigerian Muslim tried to detonate an explosive in his skivvies onboard an aircraft that would have rained down 300 dead bodies over Detroit. Terrorist chatter always increases this time of year. Everybody knows it.
Except, apparently, the folks in charge of counterterrorism.
It was bad enough when Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was asked this week what the DHS was doing to keep us safe this holiday season, and she replied that they were hard at work “24/7, 364 days a year.” Perhaps she was absent from school the day they taught how many days there are in a year.
But then, it got worse. Early yesterday morning, British authorities arrested 12 terror suspects in London on suspicion that they were in the final planning stages of a large-scale attack. Napolitano, White House Counterterrorism Chief John Brennan, and the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sat down with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, who asked specifically about the British arrests. Clapper—the head of national intelligence—had no idea what she was talking about it. She asked for his reaction to the arrests, and all we heard were crickets. See it here:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/national-security-leaders-discuss-ongoing-terror-janet-napolitano-dhs-homeland-politics-12453917
Crickets and tumbleweeds from one of the top people responsible for keeping us safe. This is an outrageous lapse. By the time he did the interview with Sawyer, news of the arrests had rocketed around the world a gazillion times. Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri certainly knew about them. But our DNI did not? If this had been a Republican DNI, there would be screams of “incompetence” followed by howling demands for his resignation. And rightly so.
Clapper needs to offer a better explanation than he has given so far (that he was otherwise engaged over North Korea). And the Commander in Chief had better reassure us himself over the intelligence and security measures his administration is taking, because his top people are clearly nincompoops.
This is life and death. There is no time for excuses or room for error.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jamie Smith, spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, subsequently excused Clapper’s ignorance by saying that “Director Clapper had not yet been briefed on the arrests in the United Kingdom at the time of this interview taping.” Clapper, she explained, had been “working throughout the day on important intelligence matters, including monitoring military and political developments on the Korean peninsula, providing answers to questions concerning the ratification of the START nuclear treaty and other classified issues.”
What a crock of shit! Obviously, Clapper is not the one that can turn the lights on and off.
LARRY, MO, AND CURLY
By Monica Crowley
politicalmavens.com
December 21, 2010
It’s Christmastime, which is a time for joy and celebration—and for stepped up Islamic terror plots against the United States. Last Christmas Day, a Nigerian Muslim tried to detonate an explosive in his skivvies onboard an aircraft that would have rained down 300 dead bodies over Detroit. Terrorist chatter always increases this time of year. Everybody knows it.
Except, apparently, the folks in charge of counterterrorism.
It was bad enough when Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was asked this week what the DHS was doing to keep us safe this holiday season, and she replied that they were hard at work “24/7, 364 days a year.” Perhaps she was absent from school the day they taught how many days there are in a year.
But then, it got worse. Early yesterday morning, British authorities arrested 12 terror suspects in London on suspicion that they were in the final planning stages of a large-scale attack. Napolitano, White House Counterterrorism Chief John Brennan, and the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sat down with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, who asked specifically about the British arrests. Clapper—the head of national intelligence—had no idea what she was talking about it. She asked for his reaction to the arrests, and all we heard were crickets. See it here:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/national-security-leaders-discuss-ongoing-terror-janet-napolitano-dhs-homeland-politics-12453917
Crickets and tumbleweeds from one of the top people responsible for keeping us safe. This is an outrageous lapse. By the time he did the interview with Sawyer, news of the arrests had rocketed around the world a gazillion times. Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri certainly knew about them. But our DNI did not? If this had been a Republican DNI, there would be screams of “incompetence” followed by howling demands for his resignation. And rightly so.
Clapper needs to offer a better explanation than he has given so far (that he was otherwise engaged over North Korea). And the Commander in Chief had better reassure us himself over the intelligence and security measures his administration is taking, because his top people are clearly nincompoops.
This is life and death. There is no time for excuses or room for error.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jamie Smith, spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, subsequently excused Clapper’s ignorance by saying that “Director Clapper had not yet been briefed on the arrests in the United Kingdom at the time of this interview taping.” Clapper, she explained, had been “working throughout the day on important intelligence matters, including monitoring military and political developments on the Korean peninsula, providing answers to questions concerning the ratification of the START nuclear treaty and other classified issues.”
What a crock of shit! Obviously, Clapper is not the one that can turn the lights on and off.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
ADD JORDAN TO THE HOLOCAUST DENIERS
Of course, the Jordanians would prefer to deny the Holocaust. After all, the Arabs were Hitler’s strongest backers for the extermination of all Jews. And today, most Arabs and many of the world’s Muslims would like to see another Holocaust as the ‘final solution’ to the Jewish problem.
JORDANIAN SCHOOL ORDERED TO STOP TEACHING ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST
Israel Today
December 24, 2010
Iran is not the only Middle East nation guilty of either denying, distorting or dismissing the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews. Even Israel’s ostensible peace partners in the supposedly “moderate” Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan do not tolerate their children learning about the plight of Europe’s Jews that led to the rebirth of Israel as a nation state.
Jordan’s Education Ministry this week censured a local private school for using a history book that includes a chapter on the Holocaust and even cites portions of Anne Frank’s diary.
Jordanian newspapers referred to the story as a “sensational affair,” and Jordanian Education Minister Dr. Khalid Karaki immediately ordered a commission of inquiry to “examine and write a report about the implications of the incident.”
The school was ordered to stop using the history book.
Many hold up Jordan and even Egypt as examples of how Israel and its Arab neighbors can live in peace. But the truth is that while Israel has a peace agreement with the governments of both those nations, their populations and elected representatives still view Israel as an enemy.
In one of the many US diplomatic cables declassified by whistleblower website WikiLeaks recently it was revealed that American diplomats also recognize that as a whole, Jordan and Egypt are not at peace with Israel, and are likely to resume full hostilities with the Jewish state if their current governments are ever overthrown.
JORDANIAN SCHOOL ORDERED TO STOP TEACHING ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST
Israel Today
December 24, 2010
Iran is not the only Middle East nation guilty of either denying, distorting or dismissing the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews. Even Israel’s ostensible peace partners in the supposedly “moderate” Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan do not tolerate their children learning about the plight of Europe’s Jews that led to the rebirth of Israel as a nation state.
Jordan’s Education Ministry this week censured a local private school for using a history book that includes a chapter on the Holocaust and even cites portions of Anne Frank’s diary.
Jordanian newspapers referred to the story as a “sensational affair,” and Jordanian Education Minister Dr. Khalid Karaki immediately ordered a commission of inquiry to “examine and write a report about the implications of the incident.”
The school was ordered to stop using the history book.
Many hold up Jordan and even Egypt as examples of how Israel and its Arab neighbors can live in peace. But the truth is that while Israel has a peace agreement with the governments of both those nations, their populations and elected representatives still view Israel as an enemy.
In one of the many US diplomatic cables declassified by whistleblower website WikiLeaks recently it was revealed that American diplomats also recognize that as a whole, Jordan and Egypt are not at peace with Israel, and are likely to resume full hostilities with the Jewish state if their current governments are ever overthrown.
Friday, December 24, 2010
A SCORCHING INDICTMENT OF AMERICA'S SCHOOLS
They only have to get 31 out of 99 questions right to pass and 23% of high school graduates cannot even do that??? Why in the hell were these numbskulls awarded high school diplomas? America’s schools have really sunk to a new low. But fear not, some of our high school students excel in sports. And our dumbest black students can really dribble dem basketballs and shoot dem dar hoops.
NEARLY 25% FAIL ARMY ENTRANCE EXAM
By Christine Armario and Dorie Turner
Associated Press
December 21, 2010
MIAMI – Nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join the U.S. Army fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture of an education system that produces graduates who can't answer basic math, science and reading questions, according to a new study released Tuesday.
The report by The Education Trust bolsters a growing worry among military and education leaders that the pool of young people qualified for military service will grow too small.
"Too many of our high school students are not graduating ready to begin college or a career — and many are not eligible to serve in our armed forces," U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the AP. "I am deeply troubled by the national security burden created by America's underperforming education system."
The effect of the low eligibility rate might not be noticeable now — the Department of Defense says it is meeting its recruitment goals — but that could change as the economy improves, said retired Navy Rear Admiral Jamie Barnett.
"If you can't get the people that you need, there's a potential for a decline in your readiness," said Barnett, who is part of the group Mission: Readiness, a coalition of retired military leaders working to bring awareness to the high ineligibility rates.
The report by The Education Trust found that 23 percent of recent high school graduates don't get the minimum score needed on the enlistment test to join any branch of the military. Questions are often basic, such as: "If 2 plus x equals 4, what is the value of x?"
The military exam results are also worrisome because the test is given to a limited pool of people: Pentagon data shows that 75 percent of those aged 17 to 24 don't even qualify to take the test because they are physically unfit, have a criminal record or didn't graduate high school.
Educators expressed dismay that so many high school graduates are unable to pass a test of basic skills.
"It's surprising and shocking that we are still having students who are walking across the stage who really don't deserve to be and haven't earned that right," said Tim Callahan with the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, a group that represents more than 80,000 educators.
Recruits must score at least a 31 out of 99 on the first stage of the three-hour test to get into the Army. The Marines, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard recruits need higher scores.
Further tests determine what kind of job the recruit can do with questions on mechanical maintenance, accounting, word comprehension, mathematics and science.
The study shows wide disparities in scores among white and minority students, similar to racial gaps on other standardized tests. Nearly 40 percent of black students and 30 percent of Hispanics don't pass, compared with 16 percent of whites. The average score for blacks is 38 and for Hispanics is 44, compared to whites' average score of 55.
The study also found disparities across states, with Wyoming having the lowest ineligibility rate, at 13 percent, and Hawaii having the highest, at 38.3 percent.
NEARLY 25% FAIL ARMY ENTRANCE EXAM
By Christine Armario and Dorie Turner
Associated Press
December 21, 2010
MIAMI – Nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join the U.S. Army fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture of an education system that produces graduates who can't answer basic math, science and reading questions, according to a new study released Tuesday.
The report by The Education Trust bolsters a growing worry among military and education leaders that the pool of young people qualified for military service will grow too small.
"Too many of our high school students are not graduating ready to begin college or a career — and many are not eligible to serve in our armed forces," U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the AP. "I am deeply troubled by the national security burden created by America's underperforming education system."
The effect of the low eligibility rate might not be noticeable now — the Department of Defense says it is meeting its recruitment goals — but that could change as the economy improves, said retired Navy Rear Admiral Jamie Barnett.
"If you can't get the people that you need, there's a potential for a decline in your readiness," said Barnett, who is part of the group Mission: Readiness, a coalition of retired military leaders working to bring awareness to the high ineligibility rates.
The report by The Education Trust found that 23 percent of recent high school graduates don't get the minimum score needed on the enlistment test to join any branch of the military. Questions are often basic, such as: "If 2 plus x equals 4, what is the value of x?"
The military exam results are also worrisome because the test is given to a limited pool of people: Pentagon data shows that 75 percent of those aged 17 to 24 don't even qualify to take the test because they are physically unfit, have a criminal record or didn't graduate high school.
Educators expressed dismay that so many high school graduates are unable to pass a test of basic skills.
"It's surprising and shocking that we are still having students who are walking across the stage who really don't deserve to be and haven't earned that right," said Tim Callahan with the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, a group that represents more than 80,000 educators.
Recruits must score at least a 31 out of 99 on the first stage of the three-hour test to get into the Army. The Marines, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard recruits need higher scores.
Further tests determine what kind of job the recruit can do with questions on mechanical maintenance, accounting, word comprehension, mathematics and science.
The study shows wide disparities in scores among white and minority students, similar to racial gaps on other standardized tests. Nearly 40 percent of black students and 30 percent of Hispanics don't pass, compared with 16 percent of whites. The average score for blacks is 38 and for Hispanics is 44, compared to whites' average score of 55.
The study also found disparities across states, with Wyoming having the lowest ineligibility rate, at 13 percent, and Hawaii having the highest, at 38.3 percent.
TIS THE SEASON FOR MUSHY STORIES (8)
No good deed goes unpunished. Another heartwarming Christmas tale.
On December 15, 70-year-old Sandra Bathke, who was behind on her rent, asked Luke Weimert, 26, if he could give her a ride from her Jamesville, Minnesota home to neighboring Elysian so she could withdraw some money from the bank. Bathke rented an apartment from Weimert’s mother.
Luke, being the good samaritan that he is, gave her a ride to the Elysian State Bank and waited in his car while the kindly old lady made her withdrawal.
As they arrived back at her apartment, they were surrounded by a bevy of cop cars, ordered out of Weimert’s car at gunpoint and spreadeagled face down on the snowy ground, before being hauled off to the can.
It seems as though her bank withdrawal had been far from routine. A bank security camera showed Bathke walking into the bank with a cloth bag shortly before she robbed it. James Hansen, the bank’s vice president, said the bag made a metallic clunk when she placed it on the counter and told the teller, ‘Give me your cash. I have a gun and I know how to use it.’ After Bathke walked out of the bank, Hansen called the police to notify them he was following the robbers.
When searching her purse, the police found $3,700 in cash, a small hammer, some rubber gloves and a complimentary 2011 bank calendar Bathke had picked up in the lobby before she approached the teller.
Immediately upon their arrest, Bathke pleaded with the cops to release Weimert, telling them he had nothing to do with the robbery. They weren’t convinced. And it took an hour of questioning by investigators before Weimert suddenly realized his ride had robbed the bank.
Weimert is still trying to clear his good name.
Merry Christmas. Ho, Ho, Ho.
On December 15, 70-year-old Sandra Bathke, who was behind on her rent, asked Luke Weimert, 26, if he could give her a ride from her Jamesville, Minnesota home to neighboring Elysian so she could withdraw some money from the bank. Bathke rented an apartment from Weimert’s mother.
Luke, being the good samaritan that he is, gave her a ride to the Elysian State Bank and waited in his car while the kindly old lady made her withdrawal.
As they arrived back at her apartment, they were surrounded by a bevy of cop cars, ordered out of Weimert’s car at gunpoint and spreadeagled face down on the snowy ground, before being hauled off to the can.
It seems as though her bank withdrawal had been far from routine. A bank security camera showed Bathke walking into the bank with a cloth bag shortly before she robbed it. James Hansen, the bank’s vice president, said the bag made a metallic clunk when she placed it on the counter and told the teller, ‘Give me your cash. I have a gun and I know how to use it.’ After Bathke walked out of the bank, Hansen called the police to notify them he was following the robbers.
When searching her purse, the police found $3,700 in cash, a small hammer, some rubber gloves and a complimentary 2011 bank calendar Bathke had picked up in the lobby before she approached the teller.
Immediately upon their arrest, Bathke pleaded with the cops to release Weimert, telling them he had nothing to do with the robbery. They weren’t convinced. And it took an hour of questioning by investigators before Weimert suddenly realized his ride had robbed the bank.
Weimert is still trying to clear his good name.
Merry Christmas. Ho, Ho, Ho.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
A MAN IS LIKE A DECK OF PLAYING CARDS
A wise woman once said that a man is like a deck of playing cards ….. you need:
-A Heart to love him,
-A Diamond to marry him,
-A Club to smash his fucking head in, and
-A Spade to bury the sorry bastard.
-A Heart to love him,
-A Diamond to marry him,
-A Club to smash his fucking head in, and
-A Spade to bury the sorry bastard.
SHIPPED OFF TO EAST HARLEM
NYPD often punishes its cops by transferring them to undesirable precincts or in such a way as to increase their commuting time between home and the workplace.
One would think that a cop stationed in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn would be somewhat familiar with the Sabbath restrictions placed on observant Jews. He could have given the rabbi a citation by asking him to spell out his name and address without having him commit a sin by writing them down.
COP WHO TICKETED BROOKLYN RABBI ON SABBATH FOR JAYWALKING TRANSREERED
Jewish scripture prevents observant Jews from writing or forming any meaningful characters on the Sabbath
by Joe Kemp
New York Daily News
December 22, 2010
An NYPD police officer was transferred just weeks after he ticketed a Brooklyn rabbi for jaywalking and forced him to break the Sabbath, officials said.
The unidentified officer slapped Rabbi Sholom Emert, 27, with the summons after he crossed Kings Highway near E. 15th St. about 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 26, officials said.
But Emert couldn't provide any identification and asked the cop if they could go to his nearby home in Midwood to get his license. The officer instead ordered Emert to violate Jewish law by writing down his name and address.
"There was no reason to force this observant Jew to violate the Sabbath by forcing him to write," said City Councilman David Greenfield (D-Brooklyn) on the floor of the City Council last month.
Sources said the officer was transferred to the 25th Precinct stationhouse in East Harlem.
One would think that a cop stationed in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn would be somewhat familiar with the Sabbath restrictions placed on observant Jews. He could have given the rabbi a citation by asking him to spell out his name and address without having him commit a sin by writing them down.
COP WHO TICKETED BROOKLYN RABBI ON SABBATH FOR JAYWALKING TRANSREERED
Jewish scripture prevents observant Jews from writing or forming any meaningful characters on the Sabbath
by Joe Kemp
New York Daily News
December 22, 2010
An NYPD police officer was transferred just weeks after he ticketed a Brooklyn rabbi for jaywalking and forced him to break the Sabbath, officials said.
The unidentified officer slapped Rabbi Sholom Emert, 27, with the summons after he crossed Kings Highway near E. 15th St. about 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 26, officials said.
But Emert couldn't provide any identification and asked the cop if they could go to his nearby home in Midwood to get his license. The officer instead ordered Emert to violate Jewish law by writing down his name and address.
"There was no reason to force this observant Jew to violate the Sabbath by forcing him to write," said City Councilman David Greenfield (D-Brooklyn) on the floor of the City Council last month.
Sources said the officer was transferred to the 25th Precinct stationhouse in East Harlem.
BUT HE ORDERED THE DOG TO STOP
I’ve participated in raids on a number of pot plantations. Everyone of those plots were guarded by dogs, usually Dobermans. While there was a lot of barking, none of the dogs ever attacked us and, for the most part, we were able to actually pet them.
Was this shooting justified or did the officer act in haste? I’ll let you be the judge.
‘COLD BLOODED MURDER’: POLICE OFFICER INVESTIGATING DISTRUBANCE SHOOTS AND KILLS FAMILY’S PET DOG
Mail Online
December 22, 2010
A teenager has been left devastated after a police officer arriving at his home to investigate a disturbance shot and killed his pet dog.
Jonathan King, 19, claimed the policeman simply drew his gun and fired at Boomer, his seven-year-old Golden Retriever.
Mr King said today: 'Boomer was doing what he was supposed to do, barking at someone who isn't supposed to be on my land.
'I feel like my best friend is gone,' he added. 'I feel like cold-blooded murder happened on my front lawn.
'Just because he's a police officer doesn't mean he can walk into someone's yard and shoot their dog.'
The officer who has not been named, was on foot patrol in Jonesboro, Georgia, U.S., on Saturday when the incident took place.
Mr King said he did not witness the shooting, but that a neighbour told him he saw Boomer approach the policeman before instantly falling to the ground after being shot.
Speaking to ABC News, Mr King said: 'My neighbour told me it happened so quick that he was speechless.
'He said that he didn't think you could even pull your firearm out and discharge it that fast.'
A spokeswoman for the Clayton County Police Department today said the dog had jumped off its porch and 'began barking and running' towards the officer.
Captain Tina Daniel said the officer ordered the dog to stop and when it didn't, he shot and killed the animal.
The King family's property had an electric fence to keep Boomer from roaming free, but there was no sign alerting the officer that it was there, Capt Daniel said.
Mr King's mother, Lawrene King, told reporters that Boomer always barked when he saw someone but had never bitten anyone.
Her tearful son said the dog had given the his mother and five siblings a 'sense of security' since his father died of cancer eight years earlier.
He said: 'It's killing them just as much as me, they loved the dog too. The dog gave us a sense of comfort, my mom shouldn't have to deal with this.'
Was this shooting justified or did the officer act in haste? I’ll let you be the judge.
‘COLD BLOODED MURDER’: POLICE OFFICER INVESTIGATING DISTRUBANCE SHOOTS AND KILLS FAMILY’S PET DOG
Mail Online
December 22, 2010
A teenager has been left devastated after a police officer arriving at his home to investigate a disturbance shot and killed his pet dog.
Jonathan King, 19, claimed the policeman simply drew his gun and fired at Boomer, his seven-year-old Golden Retriever.
Mr King said today: 'Boomer was doing what he was supposed to do, barking at someone who isn't supposed to be on my land.
'I feel like my best friend is gone,' he added. 'I feel like cold-blooded murder happened on my front lawn.
'Just because he's a police officer doesn't mean he can walk into someone's yard and shoot their dog.'
The officer who has not been named, was on foot patrol in Jonesboro, Georgia, U.S., on Saturday when the incident took place.
Mr King said he did not witness the shooting, but that a neighbour told him he saw Boomer approach the policeman before instantly falling to the ground after being shot.
Speaking to ABC News, Mr King said: 'My neighbour told me it happened so quick that he was speechless.
'He said that he didn't think you could even pull your firearm out and discharge it that fast.'
A spokeswoman for the Clayton County Police Department today said the dog had jumped off its porch and 'began barking and running' towards the officer.
Captain Tina Daniel said the officer ordered the dog to stop and when it didn't, he shot and killed the animal.
The King family's property had an electric fence to keep Boomer from roaming free, but there was no sign alerting the officer that it was there, Capt Daniel said.
Mr King's mother, Lawrene King, told reporters that Boomer always barked when he saw someone but had never bitten anyone.
Her tearful son said the dog had given the his mother and five siblings a 'sense of security' since his father died of cancer eight years earlier.
He said: 'It's killing them just as much as me, they loved the dog too. The dog gave us a sense of comfort, my mom shouldn't have to deal with this.'
SHIPWRECKED ON A DESERTED ISLAND
A man was washed up on a beach after a shipwreck. Only a sheep and a sheepdog were washed up with him. After looking around, he realized that they were stranded on a deserted island.
After being there awhile, he got into the habit of taking his two animal companions to the beach every evening to watch the sunset. One particular evening, the sky was a fiery red with beautiful cirrus clouds, the breeze was warm and gentle - a perfect night for romance.
As they sat there, the sheep started looking better and better to the lonely man. Soon, he leaned over to the sheep and put his arm around it.
But the sheepdog, ever protective of the sheep, growled fiercely until the man took his arm from around the sheep. After that, the three of them continued to enjoy the sunsets together, but there was no more cuddling.
A few weeks passed by and, lo and behold, there was another shipwreck. The only survivor was Nancy Pelosi. That evening, the man brought Nancy to the evening beach ritual. It was another beautiful evening - red sky, cirrus clouds, a warm and gentle breeze - perfect for a night of romance. Pretty soon, the man started to get those “feelings” again. He fought the urges as long as he could but he finally gave in and leaned over to Nancy and told her he hadn't had sex for months.
Nancy batted her eyelashes and asked if there was anything she could do for him.
He said, “Take the dog for a walk.”
After being there awhile, he got into the habit of taking his two animal companions to the beach every evening to watch the sunset. One particular evening, the sky was a fiery red with beautiful cirrus clouds, the breeze was warm and gentle - a perfect night for romance.
As they sat there, the sheep started looking better and better to the lonely man. Soon, he leaned over to the sheep and put his arm around it.
But the sheepdog, ever protective of the sheep, growled fiercely until the man took his arm from around the sheep. After that, the three of them continued to enjoy the sunsets together, but there was no more cuddling.
A few weeks passed by and, lo and behold, there was another shipwreck. The only survivor was Nancy Pelosi. That evening, the man brought Nancy to the evening beach ritual. It was another beautiful evening - red sky, cirrus clouds, a warm and gentle breeze - perfect for a night of romance. Pretty soon, the man started to get those “feelings” again. He fought the urges as long as he could but he finally gave in and leaned over to Nancy and told her he hadn't had sex for months.
Nancy batted her eyelashes and asked if there was anything she could do for him.
He said, “Take the dog for a walk.”
SENIOR TEXTING
With all the teens and young adults coming up with their brand of shorthand for texting, here is the shorthand we seniors have come up with:
ATD-----At The Doctor's
BFF------Best Friend Farted
BTW-----Bring The Wheelchair
BYOT----Bring Your Own Teeth
CBM-----Covered By Medicare
CUATSC--See You At The Senior Center
DWI-----Driving While Incontinent
FWB-----Friend With Beta Blockers
FWIW----Forgot Where I Was
FYI------Found Your Insulin
GGPBL---Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low!
GHA-----Got Heartburn Again
HGBM----Had Good Bowel Movement
IMHO-----Is My Hearing-Aid On?
LMDO-----Laughing My Dentures Out
LOL-----Living On Lipitor
LWO-----Lawrence Welk's On
OMMR-----On My Massage Recliner
OMSG-----Oh My! Sorry, Gas.
ROFL... CGU-----Rolling On The Floor Laughing... And Can't Get Up
SGGP-----Sorry, Gotta Go Poop
TTYL-----Talk To You Louder
WAITT-----Who Am I Talking To?
WTFA-----Wet The Furniture Again
WTP-----Where's The Prunes?
WWNO-----Walker Wheels Need Oil
ATD-----At The Doctor's
BFF------Best Friend Farted
BTW-----Bring The Wheelchair
BYOT----Bring Your Own Teeth
CBM-----Covered By Medicare
CUATSC--See You At The Senior Center
DWI-----Driving While Incontinent
FWB-----Friend With Beta Blockers
FWIW----Forgot Where I Was
FYI------Found Your Insulin
GGPBL---Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low!
GHA-----Got Heartburn Again
HGBM----Had Good Bowel Movement
IMHO-----Is My Hearing-Aid On?
LMDO-----Laughing My Dentures Out
LOL-----Living On Lipitor
LWO-----Lawrence Welk's On
OMMR-----On My Massage Recliner
OMSG-----Oh My! Sorry, Gas.
ROFL... CGU-----Rolling On The Floor Laughing... And Can't Get Up
SGGP-----Sorry, Gotta Go Poop
TTYL-----Talk To You Louder
WAITT-----Who Am I Talking To?
WTFA-----Wet The Furniture Again
WTP-----Where's The Prunes?
WWNO-----Walker Wheels Need Oil
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
HOW TO TELL WHAT UNIT A COP WORKS IN
NARCOTICS
-Immediately grow facial hair, tell everybody you were ordered to.
-Start watching every episode of Monster Garage.
-Buy a biker wallet with a big chain.
-Make every case involve overtime $$$.
-Buy bunches of boats, RV's, and motorcycles with that overtime.
-Learn to play golf drunk.
SWAT TEAM
-Wear team T-shirts, Oakley sunglasses and boots everyday.
-Try to fit the word breach in to every conversation.
-Have a mirror handy to check hair, if you have hair.
-Never say hello to anyone who is not an operator, just practice your SWAT head nod.
-Subscribe to 'Soldier of Fortune' and 'Muscle and Fitness'.
-Learn to play golf wearing a gun.
COMMUNITY SERVICE UNIT
-Hate SWAT
-Work to make everybody love you.
-Paint your office in pastel colors.
-Think Feng Shui.
-Subscribe to 'Psychology Today'.
-Learn to play miniature golf.
MOTORCYCLE OFFICER
-Write tickets to EVERYBODY.
-Spend every weekend cleaning your bike and polishing boots.
-Annoy everyone on the radio calling out your stops.
-Talk about nothing but how many tickets you wrote in one day.
-Ride by a building with big windows to see your reflection.
-Golf is lame, motor rodeos are cool.
K-9 UNIT
-Become sadistic
-Show pictures of your latest dog bite
-Brag about your largest drug find
-Smell like a dog
-Workout 3 times a day
-Show off your bruises
ADMINISTRATIVE UNIT
-Three-hour lunches everyday, tell everybody it's a "meeting".
-Upgrade department cell phone every month.
-Tell everybody you are published in a national law enforcement magazine.
-Update your revenge list on a weekly basis.
-Golf Rules! Play lots of golf.
PATROL
-Has nerves of steel.
-In a terminal state of nausea from department politics.
-Inability to keep mouth shut.
-Has defining tastes in alcohol.
-Is respected by peers.
-Beats the crap out of his caddy on any bogeyed shot
FTO (FIELD TRAINING OFFICER)
-Automatically grasps the door handle until knuckles turn white when car is put in gear
-Considers a multiple-victim homicide in progress a “good training opportunity” and asks to take primary
-Considers less than three hours of OT to be a quiet day
DETECTIVE
-Come in at 0800
-"Breakfast" from 0815 to 1030
-Work from 1030 to Noon
-Noon to 1400 Work out and Lunch
-1400-1700 Sit in CID and talk about how many girlfriends you have and how the wife doesn't know. Plan your next RV, fishing, motorcycle trip.
PATROL SERGEANT
-Remembers very well "how we used to do do it."
-Always willing to tell his officers the above.
-Tries to fit the word "liability" into every sentence.
-Talks about "what he's hearing from upstairs."
TRAINEE
-Unable to grow facial hair.
-Watches every episode of Cops.
-Worships the ground the SWAT guys walk on.
-Arrives for work three hours early.
-Thinks the sergeant is thrilled to see him.
-Won't drink on the golf course because it violates the open container ordinance.
FEDS
-Shave head, and grow goatee (unless you want to be a management weenie, then make sure you are clean shaven, with short almost military style haircut).
-Wear 5.11 pants, and polo with agency logo (unless you want to be a management weenie, then make sure you always have a shirt and pants to which a jacket and tie can be quickly added for when the boss might be around).
-Arrive at work at 8AM, spend one hour answering useless emails, and 30 minutes checking your retirement investments. Then go with another agent to Starbucks "to discuss your a new case."
-After participating in your first warrant service (as outside cover) make plans to join the agency SRT, SWAT, etc., to "properly utilize your superior tactical skills."
-After doing your first buy bust, immediately begin asking the boss about "long term undercover" jobs.
-Refuse to play golf with the local cops.
NEW CORRECTIONAL OFFICER
-Show up for work 15 minutes early
-Buy only the best ink pens (Pilot G-2)
-Wear T-Shirts of your "dream department" under your uniform
-Wear a full duty belt of gear even though you have to remove everything when you arrive at the facility
-Become friends with every local police officer
COURT BAILIFF
-Say you don’t want to work patrol anyway, but monitor dispatch channel while in courtroom
-Have jail and courthouse cafeteria menus memorized
-Have seriously thought of entering law school after sitting through three jury trials
-Consider the Public Defenders’ Christmas party the high point of the year
DEFENSIVE TACTICS INSTRUCTOR
-Starts stretching before making arrest
-Can spend hours debating the advantages of ASP vs. straight stick
-Has spent more than $50 on a wood baton
-Giggles when a suspect starts to resist
(Submitted by a Houston police sergeant.)
-Immediately grow facial hair, tell everybody you were ordered to.
-Start watching every episode of Monster Garage.
-Buy a biker wallet with a big chain.
-Make every case involve overtime $$$.
-Buy bunches of boats, RV's, and motorcycles with that overtime.
-Learn to play golf drunk.
SWAT TEAM
-Wear team T-shirts, Oakley sunglasses and boots everyday.
-Try to fit the word breach in to every conversation.
-Have a mirror handy to check hair, if you have hair.
-Never say hello to anyone who is not an operator, just practice your SWAT head nod.
-Subscribe to 'Soldier of Fortune' and 'Muscle and Fitness'.
-Learn to play golf wearing a gun.
COMMUNITY SERVICE UNIT
-Hate SWAT
-Work to make everybody love you.
-Paint your office in pastel colors.
-Think Feng Shui.
-Subscribe to 'Psychology Today'.
-Learn to play miniature golf.
MOTORCYCLE OFFICER
-Write tickets to EVERYBODY.
-Spend every weekend cleaning your bike and polishing boots.
-Annoy everyone on the radio calling out your stops.
-Talk about nothing but how many tickets you wrote in one day.
-Ride by a building with big windows to see your reflection.
-Golf is lame, motor rodeos are cool.
K-9 UNIT
-Become sadistic
-Show pictures of your latest dog bite
-Brag about your largest drug find
-Smell like a dog
-Workout 3 times a day
-Show off your bruises
ADMINISTRATIVE UNIT
-Three-hour lunches everyday, tell everybody it's a "meeting".
-Upgrade department cell phone every month.
-Tell everybody you are published in a national law enforcement magazine.
-Update your revenge list on a weekly basis.
-Golf Rules! Play lots of golf.
PATROL
-Has nerves of steel.
-In a terminal state of nausea from department politics.
-Inability to keep mouth shut.
-Has defining tastes in alcohol.
-Is respected by peers.
-Beats the crap out of his caddy on any bogeyed shot
FTO (FIELD TRAINING OFFICER)
-Automatically grasps the door handle until knuckles turn white when car is put in gear
-Considers a multiple-victim homicide in progress a “good training opportunity” and asks to take primary
-Considers less than three hours of OT to be a quiet day
DETECTIVE
-Come in at 0800
-"Breakfast" from 0815 to 1030
-Work from 1030 to Noon
-Noon to 1400 Work out and Lunch
-1400-1700 Sit in CID and talk about how many girlfriends you have and how the wife doesn't know. Plan your next RV, fishing, motorcycle trip.
PATROL SERGEANT
-Remembers very well "how we used to do do it."
-Always willing to tell his officers the above.
-Tries to fit the word "liability" into every sentence.
-Talks about "what he's hearing from upstairs."
TRAINEE
-Unable to grow facial hair.
-Watches every episode of Cops.
-Worships the ground the SWAT guys walk on.
-Arrives for work three hours early.
-Thinks the sergeant is thrilled to see him.
-Won't drink on the golf course because it violates the open container ordinance.
FEDS
-Shave head, and grow goatee (unless you want to be a management weenie, then make sure you are clean shaven, with short almost military style haircut).
-Wear 5.11 pants, and polo with agency logo (unless you want to be a management weenie, then make sure you always have a shirt and pants to which a jacket and tie can be quickly added for when the boss might be around).
-Arrive at work at 8AM, spend one hour answering useless emails, and 30 minutes checking your retirement investments. Then go with another agent to Starbucks "to discuss your a new case."
-After participating in your first warrant service (as outside cover) make plans to join the agency SRT, SWAT, etc., to "properly utilize your superior tactical skills."
-After doing your first buy bust, immediately begin asking the boss about "long term undercover" jobs.
-Refuse to play golf with the local cops.
NEW CORRECTIONAL OFFICER
-Show up for work 15 minutes early
-Buy only the best ink pens (Pilot G-2)
-Wear T-Shirts of your "dream department" under your uniform
-Wear a full duty belt of gear even though you have to remove everything when you arrive at the facility
-Become friends with every local police officer
COURT BAILIFF
-Say you don’t want to work patrol anyway, but monitor dispatch channel while in courtroom
-Have jail and courthouse cafeteria menus memorized
-Have seriously thought of entering law school after sitting through three jury trials
-Consider the Public Defenders’ Christmas party the high point of the year
DEFENSIVE TACTICS INSTRUCTOR
-Starts stretching before making arrest
-Can spend hours debating the advantages of ASP vs. straight stick
-Has spent more than $50 on a wood baton
-Giggles when a suspect starts to resist
(Submitted by a Houston police sergeant.)
WHY IT IS FUTILE FOR ISRAEL TO NEGOTIATE WITH THE PALESTINIANS
From columnist Caroline B. Glick:
Last Friday, Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Authority's chief peace negotiator with Israel published an op-ed in Britain's Guardian newspaper in which he declared eternal war on the Jewish state. This he did by asserting that any peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians that does not permit the immigration of some 7 million foreign Arabs to Israel will be "completely untenable."
So as far as the supposedly moderate chief Palestinian negotiator is concerned, a peace deal in which Israel cedes Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem to the Palestinians as the Israeli Left desires will not be sufficient for the Palestinians. Unless Israel also agrees to commit national suicide by accepting 7 million foreign Arabs as citizens, the Palestinians will continue to wage their war. So with or without a Palestinian state, as long as Israel exists, the Palestinians will continue to seek its destruction.
Last Friday, Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Authority's chief peace negotiator with Israel published an op-ed in Britain's Guardian newspaper in which he declared eternal war on the Jewish state. This he did by asserting that any peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians that does not permit the immigration of some 7 million foreign Arabs to Israel will be "completely untenable."
So as far as the supposedly moderate chief Palestinian negotiator is concerned, a peace deal in which Israel cedes Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem to the Palestinians as the Israeli Left desires will not be sufficient for the Palestinians. Unless Israel also agrees to commit national suicide by accepting 7 million foreign Arabs as citizens, the Palestinians will continue to wage their war. So with or without a Palestinian state, as long as Israel exists, the Palestinians will continue to seek its destruction.
CENTURION SOUNDS OFF ON SOME OF MY POSTS
Your comments on the Dream Act...particularly with regard to it's effect on colleges, reminds me of something I experienced years ago.
In the spring of 1978 I was taking a graduate course in Police Organizational Management at Sacramento State College. Course requirements included three oral book reports and an in depth, 45-50 minute oral presentation of a documented law enforcement management case study and how an issue was resolved (or not resolved), with a written synopsis and a bibliography to be handed in after the presentation, followed with a Q & A.
My presentation went a bit over time...and was a little disorganized, as I was terrified of speaking in front of a group. My bibliography cited 8 or 10 different sources. I received a "B" letter grade, which, though disappointing, was probably appropriate..
A black state police officer in attendance...when it came time for his presentation...spent about 5 minutes reading from a one page hand written book report...and received...a "B" letter grade.
I spoke with the professor, Dr. James Poland later that week, politely asking him WTF? Professor Poland informed me that he could not fail a black student...especially one all ready employed by a state agency.
Now...in all honesty...I don't hold this against the officer/student at all. He was doing his best to succeed. But he didn't have much on the ball. Even so, I am sure that...armed with his masters degree and some time on the beat...he went on to become a supervisor and maybe even an administrator in that or another agency.
Throughout my career I worked for supervisors (and some administrators) who could barely string two coherent sentences together, but were oh so full of themselves based on their "accomplishments." One was the Warden of a correctional facility, one was a captain, and one was a lieutenant who, after reading his written assessment of an incident that occurred on my unit...thankfully agreed to use my synopsis of the incident and sign his name to it.
There is no telling how much real damage has been done to our institutions and to our society by giving unqualified people a free pass to management positions based on perceived need...past injustices...or "to right a terrible wrong."
Once standards are lowered and unqualified members of a "protected class" are promoted...those standards remain low [for everyone]. This allows unqualified members of the non-protected class to promote also. This is destructive to the system and it is my firm belief that this is one cause of the demise of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
It started with blacks...went to women...then to gays. Soon Hispanics were included as well. Once a target group was identified...the rush to hire and promote was on.
So Howie....I have absolutely no trouble believing you when you opine that the Dream Act would create yet another protected class in our colleges....illegal immigrants.
Funny thing. That nutbag [Michelle Huff aka ‘michilines’] you guys were capping on is an ESL teacher at the University of Houston? Tell me Howard....why in the HELL do we need to be teaching English As A Second Language at an institution of higher learning? Is it just me? I mean.....couldn't ESL be taught much more cheaply and more effectively at community outreach centers....in grade schools and high schools to PREPARE people to attend college?
ESL at the College level?
OK. Done with my rant......
EDITOR’S NOTE: Well done, Centurion.
In the spring of 1978 I was taking a graduate course in Police Organizational Management at Sacramento State College. Course requirements included three oral book reports and an in depth, 45-50 minute oral presentation of a documented law enforcement management case study and how an issue was resolved (or not resolved), with a written synopsis and a bibliography to be handed in after the presentation, followed with a Q & A.
My presentation went a bit over time...and was a little disorganized, as I was terrified of speaking in front of a group. My bibliography cited 8 or 10 different sources. I received a "B" letter grade, which, though disappointing, was probably appropriate..
A black state police officer in attendance...when it came time for his presentation...spent about 5 minutes reading from a one page hand written book report...and received...a "B" letter grade.
I spoke with the professor, Dr. James Poland later that week, politely asking him WTF? Professor Poland informed me that he could not fail a black student...especially one all ready employed by a state agency.
Now...in all honesty...I don't hold this against the officer/student at all. He was doing his best to succeed. But he didn't have much on the ball. Even so, I am sure that...armed with his masters degree and some time on the beat...he went on to become a supervisor and maybe even an administrator in that or another agency.
Throughout my career I worked for supervisors (and some administrators) who could barely string two coherent sentences together, but were oh so full of themselves based on their "accomplishments." One was the Warden of a correctional facility, one was a captain, and one was a lieutenant who, after reading his written assessment of an incident that occurred on my unit...thankfully agreed to use my synopsis of the incident and sign his name to it.
There is no telling how much real damage has been done to our institutions and to our society by giving unqualified people a free pass to management positions based on perceived need...past injustices...or "to right a terrible wrong."
Once standards are lowered and unqualified members of a "protected class" are promoted...those standards remain low [for everyone]. This allows unqualified members of the non-protected class to promote also. This is destructive to the system and it is my firm belief that this is one cause of the demise of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
It started with blacks...went to women...then to gays. Soon Hispanics were included as well. Once a target group was identified...the rush to hire and promote was on.
So Howie....I have absolutely no trouble believing you when you opine that the Dream Act would create yet another protected class in our colleges....illegal immigrants.
Funny thing. That nutbag [Michelle Huff aka ‘michilines’] you guys were capping on is an ESL teacher at the University of Houston? Tell me Howard....why in the HELL do we need to be teaching English As A Second Language at an institution of higher learning? Is it just me? I mean.....couldn't ESL be taught much more cheaply and more effectively at community outreach centers....in grade schools and high schools to PREPARE people to attend college?
ESL at the College level?
OK. Done with my rant......
EDITOR’S NOTE: Well done, Centurion.
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