I believe that a rape victim has the right to request that a parolee who raped her be required to live at least 35 miles away from her home. But that’s not what we have in this case. I agree with the ruling of the two judges. Not allowing this parolee to live with his ailing mother would have punished the woman for her son's fatal PCP induced wreck.
35-MILE PAROLE BUFFER DOESN’T APPLY TO VICTIM’S NEXT OF KIN
By: Bob Egelko
San Francisco Chronicle
January 6, 2011
When a prisoner is paroled after serving time for a violent crime, California law allows the crime victim or a witness to ask the state for a buffer zone requiring the parolee to live at least 35 miles away. Prison officials invoked that law in 2010 to bar Terrance David from moving in with his ailing mother in Burbank, 26 miles away from the sister of a woman who was killed when David, while driving under the influence of PCP, slammed into her car in 1986.
But a state appeals court has now overturned the restriction and allowed David to stay in his mother’s home and take care of her after spending 21 years in prison for two counts of second-degree murder. In a 2-1 ruling Friday, the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles said the law’s definition of “victims” doesn’t include next of kin, and its application in a case like this one would make no sense.
The parole board has independent authority to impose conditions on newly released inmates to protect the public and might have reasonably prohibited David from living in or near the same community as the victim’s sister, said Justice Richard Mosk in the majority opinion. But he said Burbank was an entirely separate community many miles away from Lynwood, where the sister lives, and the chances of any contact between them are remote.
The residence restriction “has no relationship to (David’s) crime and will not deter future criminality,” Mosk said. “It does not bear on the safety of the victim’s family. And, because of the distance involved, it does not reasonably affect their well-being.”
In dissent, Sanjay Kumar, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge temporarily assigned to the appeals court, accused the majority of rewriting the law and contributing to the mental anguish of the victim’s sister.
David had two previous convictions for driving while intoxicated when he ran a stop sign at 80 mph in November 1986 and broadsided a car driven by Lavell Hunter, killing Hunter and his fiancee, Gladys Coral. Convicted of murder in 1989, he was denied parole six times before the Board of Parole Hearings approved him for release in July 2010.
At the parole hearing, the court said, David expressed remorse and apologized to the victims’ families, and Coral’s sister, Elizabeth, said she and her family had forgiven him. But she later asked prison officials to prohibit him from residing wihtin 35 miles of her, to protect her — as a parole agent described it — from “living in fear and under the stress of knowing that (he) lives in her community.” The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation granted the request, as it generally does in such cases, but court orders allowed David to move in with his mother while he appealed the decision.
In Friday’s ruling, Mosk said the law authorizing the 35-mile buffer zone, passed more than 20 years ago, refers to a request by a “victim or witness” whose safety or well-being is at risk. Unlike other victims’-rights laws, he said, it does not mention a victim’s next of kin.
Even if his victim’s sister was covered by the law, Mosk said, there is no evidence that David posed any threat to her safety or well-being. Those criteria would be meaningless, he said, if they included “the understandable anguish of a victim’s family member,” which is present in virtually every case.
Kumar, in dissent, said the Corrections Department found that the buffer was needed to protect the well-being of Elizabeth Coral, who testified that she is still in pain from her sister’s death.
David’s lawyer, Richard Pfeiffer, said the ruling would affect many other cases, because prison officials “routinely” order such restrictions without evidence that a parolee poses a threat to a victim’s family. He said David, a young man who used drugs and drove recklessly before his conviction, behaved well in prison and is now attending law school and getting top grades.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
HOW WOULD YOU GRADE THE ANSWERS TO THIS EXAM?
The primary stated goal of public school educators is to get students to think. Here is how a student answered the following quiz. What kind of grade should he get?
Q1. In which battle did Napoleon die?
A. His last battle
Q2. Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?
A. At the bottom of the page
Q3. River Ravi flows in which state?
A. Liquid
Q4. What is the main reason for divorce?
A. Marriage
Q5. What is the main reason for failure?
A. Exams
Q6. What can you never eat for breakfast?
A. Lunch & dinner
Q7. What looks like half an apple?
A. The other half
Q8. If you throw a red stone into the blue sea what it will become?
A. It will simply become wet
Q9. How can a man go eight days without sleeping ?
A. No problem, he sleeps at night.
Q10. How can you lift an elephant with one hand?
A. You will never find an elephant that has only one hand..
Q11. If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in other hand, what would you have ?
A. Very large hands
Q12. If it took eight men ten hours to build a wall, how long would it take four men to build it?
A. No time at all, the wall is already built.
Q13. How can u drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
A. Any way you want, concrete floors are very hard to crack.
Q1. In which battle did Napoleon die?
A. His last battle
Q2. Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?
A. At the bottom of the page
Q3. River Ravi flows in which state?
A. Liquid
Q4. What is the main reason for divorce?
A. Marriage
Q5. What is the main reason for failure?
A. Exams
Q6. What can you never eat for breakfast?
A. Lunch & dinner
Q7. What looks like half an apple?
A. The other half
Q8. If you throw a red stone into the blue sea what it will become?
A. It will simply become wet
Q9. How can a man go eight days without sleeping ?
A. No problem, he sleeps at night.
Q10. How can you lift an elephant with one hand?
A. You will never find an elephant that has only one hand..
Q11. If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in other hand, what would you have ?
A. Very large hands
Q12. If it took eight men ten hours to build a wall, how long would it take four men to build it?
A. No time at all, the wall is already built.
Q13. How can u drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
A. Any way you want, concrete floors are very hard to crack.
SEEING EYE DOGS
Two women were out for a Saturday stroll. One had a Doberman and the other, a Chihuahua . As they walked down the street, the one with the Doberman said to her friend, "Let's go over to that bar for a drink."
The woman with the Chihuahua said, "We can't go in there. We've got dogs with us."
The one with the Doberman said, "Just watch, and do as I do."
They walked over to the bar and the one with the Doberman put on a pair of dark glasses and started to walk in.
The bouncer at the door said, "Sorry, lady, no pets allowed."
The woman with the Doberman said, "You don't understand. This is my seeing-eye dog."
The bouncer said, "A Doberman?"
The woman said, "Yes, they're using them now. They're very good."
The bouncer said, "OK, come on in."
The woman with the Chihuahua thought that convincing him that a Chihuahua was a seeing-eye dog may be a bit more difficult, but thought, "What the hell." So she put on her dark glasses and started to walk in.
Once again the bouncer said, "Sorry, lady, no pets allowed."
The woman said, "You don't understand. This is my seeing-eye dog"
The bouncer said, "A Chihuahua?"
The woman with the Chihuahua said, "A Chihuahua? They gave me a fucking Chihuahua?!"
The woman with the Chihuahua said, "We can't go in there. We've got dogs with us."
The one with the Doberman said, "Just watch, and do as I do."
They walked over to the bar and the one with the Doberman put on a pair of dark glasses and started to walk in.
The bouncer at the door said, "Sorry, lady, no pets allowed."
The woman with the Doberman said, "You don't understand. This is my seeing-eye dog."
The bouncer said, "A Doberman?"
The woman said, "Yes, they're using them now. They're very good."
The bouncer said, "OK, come on in."
The woman with the Chihuahua thought that convincing him that a Chihuahua was a seeing-eye dog may be a bit more difficult, but thought, "What the hell." So she put on her dark glasses and started to walk in.
Once again the bouncer said, "Sorry, lady, no pets allowed."
The woman said, "You don't understand. This is my seeing-eye dog"
The bouncer said, "A Chihuahua?"
The woman with the Chihuahua said, "A Chihuahua? They gave me a fucking Chihuahua?!"
Monday, January 09, 2012
MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD LIKELY TO BITE OFF THE HAND THAT KEEPS REACHING OUT TO IT
Obama’s foreign policy of ‘sweet talking’ to our adversaries has produced few if any positive results. His efforts in reaching out to the Muslim world will inevitably lead the Muslim Brotherhood to bite of his hand.
WHY IS OBAMA LYING TO COVER FOR THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD?
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
January 8, 2012
The Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday reaffirmed a statement by one of it's leaders last week that it intends to negatively alter or cancel Egypt's peace treaty with Israel after the group assumes power in Cairo.
The Muslim Brotherhood's affirmation came in response to a claim by US State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland last Thursday that the Obama Administration had received secret assurances that the Brotherhood would uphold the Camp David Accords following its electoral victory.
Nuland's assertion was itself a response to an interview published in the Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat last week in which Muslim Brotherhood deputy leader Dr. Rashad Bayoumi insisted that his group will never recognize Israel or its right to exist.
"This is not an option, whatever the circumstances, we do not recognize Israel at all," said Bayoumi, adding, "The Brotherhood respects international conventions, but we will take legal action against the peace treaty with the Zionist entity."
In her press briefing, Nuland dismissed Bayoumi's remarks and his commanding position by stating that he is "just one member of the Muslim Brotherhood." Nuland said that Washington had "other assurances from the party" that it would not follow the policies communicated by Bayoumi.
Essam Arian, deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing the Freedom and Justice Party, shot back by insisting that neither Nuland nor anyone else in the Obama Administration had received any such guarantees.
"No one in Egypt can promise anything on behalf of the entire nation," Arian told the London-based Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.
Another Brotherhood official, Subhi Saleh, added that while "the Muslim Brotherhood will honor all agreements...no agreements are sacred and any signed agreement can be reconsidered."
That revelation again raised concerns that once in power, the Muslim Brotherhood will hold a national referendum on maintaining the peace treaty with Israel, a move that Bayoumi previously championed.
In light of the results of Egypt's parliamentary election - the Muslim Brotherhood won 40 percent of the vote, while second place went to the even more radical al-Nour Party - and the fact that the Brotherhood's official party position is to reject Israel, such a referendum would certainly be the end of the Camp David Accords.
No one is more pleased by that realization than Gaza-based Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who told British newspaper The Independent on Saturday that with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, "Israel is in a security situation they have never been in before."
Hamas was born out of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and Haniyeh sees the group as a natural ally in Hamas' quest to eventually eradicate the Jewish state.
WHY IS OBAMA LYING TO COVER FOR THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD?
By Ryan Jones
Israel Today
January 8, 2012
The Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday reaffirmed a statement by one of it's leaders last week that it intends to negatively alter or cancel Egypt's peace treaty with Israel after the group assumes power in Cairo.
The Muslim Brotherhood's affirmation came in response to a claim by US State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland last Thursday that the Obama Administration had received secret assurances that the Brotherhood would uphold the Camp David Accords following its electoral victory.
Nuland's assertion was itself a response to an interview published in the Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat last week in which Muslim Brotherhood deputy leader Dr. Rashad Bayoumi insisted that his group will never recognize Israel or its right to exist.
"This is not an option, whatever the circumstances, we do not recognize Israel at all," said Bayoumi, adding, "The Brotherhood respects international conventions, but we will take legal action against the peace treaty with the Zionist entity."
In her press briefing, Nuland dismissed Bayoumi's remarks and his commanding position by stating that he is "just one member of the Muslim Brotherhood." Nuland said that Washington had "other assurances from the party" that it would not follow the policies communicated by Bayoumi.
Essam Arian, deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing the Freedom and Justice Party, shot back by insisting that neither Nuland nor anyone else in the Obama Administration had received any such guarantees.
"No one in Egypt can promise anything on behalf of the entire nation," Arian told the London-based Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.
Another Brotherhood official, Subhi Saleh, added that while "the Muslim Brotherhood will honor all agreements...no agreements are sacred and any signed agreement can be reconsidered."
That revelation again raised concerns that once in power, the Muslim Brotherhood will hold a national referendum on maintaining the peace treaty with Israel, a move that Bayoumi previously championed.
In light of the results of Egypt's parliamentary election - the Muslim Brotherhood won 40 percent of the vote, while second place went to the even more radical al-Nour Party - and the fact that the Brotherhood's official party position is to reject Israel, such a referendum would certainly be the end of the Camp David Accords.
No one is more pleased by that realization than Gaza-based Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who told British newspaper The Independent on Saturday that with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, "Israel is in a security situation they have never been in before."
Hamas was born out of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and Haniyeh sees the group as a natural ally in Hamas' quest to eventually eradicate the Jewish state.
MEXICAN DRUG CARTEL DOING BRISK BUSINESS IN NORTH TEXAS
After leaders of the La Familia in North Texas were arrested, replacement leaders were assigned to take their place. And that pretty much sums up what happens every time some Mexican drug boss gets busted.
From Borderland Beat:
METH BUST INVOLVING MEMBERS OF LA FAMILIA
Feds Announce (Another) Local Meth Bust Involving Members of La Familia Drug Cartel
By Robert Wilonsky
Dallas Observer
January 7, 2012
In October of 2009, James Capra, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Dallas Division, invited media to a press conference so he could show off the massive haul from a long-in-the-works bust involving the Mexican drug cartel known as La Familia: 220 pounds of methamphetamine, 4.5 kilos of cocaine, $660,000 in cash and dozens of machine guns.
The feds and other law-enforcement officials said they'd nabbed some 1,100 people around the country during an operation known as Project Coronado; 84 of them were taken into custody in and around Dallas, a major distribution hub for drugs brought in from Mexico -- Michoacan, specifically, La Familia's home base. Six months later, Ricardo Hernandez-Cruz, a.k.a "Rica," a 37-year-old who handled the merch, pleaded guilty to meth trafficking.
Since then La Familia, which, per Time, attempts to mask its infamous, well-documented brutality behind quasi-religious camouflage, has overhauled its operations, at least from the looks of the latest heads-up from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
A Dallas federal grand jury this week indicted 16 more members of La Familia, all of whom were arrested December 14 in Tyler and Dallas. Some were nabbed in rural Tyler, at the so-called "ranch" of Sergio Renteria Echeverria, otherwise known as "Trippa," the 30-year-old who Capra and U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldaña say is the "cell-head" who "concealed large amounts of drugs" on the premises. They also say he maintains another residence in Richardson, on Midway Drive, which the feds will seize if he's convicted.
This time around, authorities say they got about $700,000 in cash, 20 pounds of meth, one kilo of cocaine and 70 firearms. They also discovered a meth conversion lab in Duncanville. It's not just shipping the drugs to Dallas-Fort Worth; La Familia is now manufacturing them locally.
According to the government, this investigation into La Familia's doings on U.S. soil has been going on since '06; that '09 bust was part of that. But it's like cutting off the head of a hyrda:
While the LFM cartel itself is based in Michoacan, the investigation identified several LFM distribution cells throughout North Texas. Intelligence obtained from the investigation revealed that after leaders of the LFM were arrested, replacement leaders, or "cell-head leaders" were assigned to continue the distribution of narcotics in the Dallas area and to other parts of the U.S.
Since the LFM Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation began, agents with DEA Dallas have arrested more than 100 defendants on federal charges and seized approximately $7.6 million in cash and assets, approximately 900 kilograms of methamphetamine, more than 85 kilograms of cocaine, approximately one kilogram of heroin and numerous firearms.
From Borderland Beat:
METH BUST INVOLVING MEMBERS OF LA FAMILIA
Feds Announce (Another) Local Meth Bust Involving Members of La Familia Drug Cartel
By Robert Wilonsky
Dallas Observer
January 7, 2012
In October of 2009, James Capra, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Dallas Division, invited media to a press conference so he could show off the massive haul from a long-in-the-works bust involving the Mexican drug cartel known as La Familia: 220 pounds of methamphetamine, 4.5 kilos of cocaine, $660,000 in cash and dozens of machine guns.
The feds and other law-enforcement officials said they'd nabbed some 1,100 people around the country during an operation known as Project Coronado; 84 of them were taken into custody in and around Dallas, a major distribution hub for drugs brought in from Mexico -- Michoacan, specifically, La Familia's home base. Six months later, Ricardo Hernandez-Cruz, a.k.a "Rica," a 37-year-old who handled the merch, pleaded guilty to meth trafficking.
Since then La Familia, which, per Time, attempts to mask its infamous, well-documented brutality behind quasi-religious camouflage, has overhauled its operations, at least from the looks of the latest heads-up from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
A Dallas federal grand jury this week indicted 16 more members of La Familia, all of whom were arrested December 14 in Tyler and Dallas. Some were nabbed in rural Tyler, at the so-called "ranch" of Sergio Renteria Echeverria, otherwise known as "Trippa," the 30-year-old who Capra and U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldaña say is the "cell-head" who "concealed large amounts of drugs" on the premises. They also say he maintains another residence in Richardson, on Midway Drive, which the feds will seize if he's convicted.
This time around, authorities say they got about $700,000 in cash, 20 pounds of meth, one kilo of cocaine and 70 firearms. They also discovered a meth conversion lab in Duncanville. It's not just shipping the drugs to Dallas-Fort Worth; La Familia is now manufacturing them locally.
According to the government, this investigation into La Familia's doings on U.S. soil has been going on since '06; that '09 bust was part of that. But it's like cutting off the head of a hyrda:
While the LFM cartel itself is based in Michoacan, the investigation identified several LFM distribution cells throughout North Texas. Intelligence obtained from the investigation revealed that after leaders of the LFM were arrested, replacement leaders, or "cell-head leaders" were assigned to continue the distribution of narcotics in the Dallas area and to other parts of the U.S.
Since the LFM Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation began, agents with DEA Dallas have arrested more than 100 defendants on federal charges and seized approximately $7.6 million in cash and assets, approximately 900 kilograms of methamphetamine, more than 85 kilograms of cocaine, approximately one kilogram of heroin and numerous firearms.
FEUD BETWEEN FLORIDA HIGHWAY PATROL AND MIAMI POLICE CONTINUES
In ‘Reckless Driver Was An Off-Duty Cop” (11-1-11) I wrote: This jerk needs to be drummed out of the police service. There is absolutely no excuse for putting other drivers at risk by this kind of driving, whether on duty or not. No emergency really requires a cop to exceed a speed of from 90 to 100 mph, not even to assist another officer.
Fausto Lopez, an off-duty Miami cop, was driving a police car 120 mph because he was late for his off-duty extra job working security at a school when he was arrested by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper.
That set off a nasty fight between the FHP and the Miami police. Someone even dumped several gallons of human shit on an FHP cruiser parked in front of a trooper’s home. The trooper happened to be former Miami City Commissioner Joe Sanchez.
Instead of condemning Lopez’s reckless behavior, the Miami police union chose to excoriate the FHP trooper.
FHP CLEARS TROOPER IN TRAFFIC STOP OF MIAMI COP
An internal review cleared FHP Trooper Jane Watts, who stopped a speeding Miami officer
PoliceOne
January 7, 2012
MIAMI, Fla. — Trooper Jane Watts did not violate policy when she pulled over and handcuffed a Miami officer in October, an internal review by the Florida Highway Patrol concluded.
A report released Wednesday stated Watts used discretion during the traffic stop of Officer Fausto Lopez, in which she stopped Lopez for driving at speeds of up to 120 mph, drawing her gun in the process and launching lengthy media scrutiny and a back-and-forth feud between the departments.
Watts, though cleared, did disobey an order from supervisor Sgt. Reynaldo Sanchez and did not "back off" when instructed, according to the Sun Sentinel. According to Watts, she thought Sanchez was asking her to slow down, so she did, and turned off her emergency lights — but Lopez accelerated, she said, so she stopped him.
After pulling over Lopez, a trooper and a corporal stopped to help Watts, the report said, but when they arrived on the scene and saw Lopez, they believed a supervisor was needed.
The two assisting officers called Sanchez, who spoke to Watts on the phone and told her to remove the handcuffs, they said in the report.
When Sanchez later arrived at the scene, he told Watts to write an incident report, not knowing until he viewed dash cam of the stop that Watts had drawn her gun — a detail she left out when she spoke to him.
The report made no recommendations and said Watts acted within the realm of "judgment and discretion afforded to her as a Florida state trooper."
"She believed he was intentionally not stopping for her," the report said. "The driver was driving recklessly. She thought that possibly the police vehicle could have been stolen."
Not everyone is satisfied with the report's lack of disciplinary action. After vice president of Miami's police union Sgt. Javier Ortiz read the report, he said there remain "continued hard feelings over the trooper's treatment of Lopez."
"It is clear that Trooper Watts lacks two of the most important values in police work: integrity and responsibility," Ortiz wrote in a lengthy email obtained by the Palm Beach Post.
Asked if she would have done anything differently, Watts said no.
Fausto Lopez, an off-duty Miami cop, was driving a police car 120 mph because he was late for his off-duty extra job working security at a school when he was arrested by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper.
That set off a nasty fight between the FHP and the Miami police. Someone even dumped several gallons of human shit on an FHP cruiser parked in front of a trooper’s home. The trooper happened to be former Miami City Commissioner Joe Sanchez.
Instead of condemning Lopez’s reckless behavior, the Miami police union chose to excoriate the FHP trooper.
FHP CLEARS TROOPER IN TRAFFIC STOP OF MIAMI COP
An internal review cleared FHP Trooper Jane Watts, who stopped a speeding Miami officer
PoliceOne
January 7, 2012
MIAMI, Fla. — Trooper Jane Watts did not violate policy when she pulled over and handcuffed a Miami officer in October, an internal review by the Florida Highway Patrol concluded.
A report released Wednesday stated Watts used discretion during the traffic stop of Officer Fausto Lopez, in which she stopped Lopez for driving at speeds of up to 120 mph, drawing her gun in the process and launching lengthy media scrutiny and a back-and-forth feud between the departments.
Watts, though cleared, did disobey an order from supervisor Sgt. Reynaldo Sanchez and did not "back off" when instructed, according to the Sun Sentinel. According to Watts, she thought Sanchez was asking her to slow down, so she did, and turned off her emergency lights — but Lopez accelerated, she said, so she stopped him.
After pulling over Lopez, a trooper and a corporal stopped to help Watts, the report said, but when they arrived on the scene and saw Lopez, they believed a supervisor was needed.
The two assisting officers called Sanchez, who spoke to Watts on the phone and told her to remove the handcuffs, they said in the report.
When Sanchez later arrived at the scene, he told Watts to write an incident report, not knowing until he viewed dash cam of the stop that Watts had drawn her gun — a detail she left out when she spoke to him.
The report made no recommendations and said Watts acted within the realm of "judgment and discretion afforded to her as a Florida state trooper."
"She believed he was intentionally not stopping for her," the report said. "The driver was driving recklessly. She thought that possibly the police vehicle could have been stolen."
Not everyone is satisfied with the report's lack of disciplinary action. After vice president of Miami's police union Sgt. Javier Ortiz read the report, he said there remain "continued hard feelings over the trooper's treatment of Lopez."
"It is clear that Trooper Watts lacks two of the most important values in police work: integrity and responsibility," Ortiz wrote in a lengthy email obtained by the Palm Beach Post.
Asked if she would have done anything differently, Watts said no.
WIFE WANTED
Sam Davis, a lonesome farmer from Marfa, Texas put a “Wife Wanted” ad on craigslist.
The next day Sam received more than a 100 responses before his computer crashed.
They all said the same thing: “You can have mine.”
One response also said: “You know what I did before I married? Anything I wanted to.”
Another responder added: “I’ve had bad luck in both of my marriages. My first wife left me and the second one is still with me.”
The next day Sam received more than a 100 responses before his computer crashed.
They all said the same thing: “You can have mine.”
One response also said: “You know what I did before I married? Anything I wanted to.”
Another responder added: “I’ve had bad luck in both of my marriages. My first wife left me and the second one is still with me.”
Sunday, January 08, 2012
A PRIVATE HELL
Trey Rusk is a retired state police lieutenant now working with an auto theft task force. Here are his comments on the shooting of 15-year-old Jaime Gonzales by two Brownsville, Texas cops:
I guess a lot of people have forgotten the Columbine School shooting. The officers in Brownsville who responded to the 15 year old with a gun acted correctly.
The carnage would have been terrible had the 15 year old started shooting other students with what was perceived as being a Glock handgun.
These officers will never get over this shooting. We should thank them for doing their job because their lives will be changed forever. I hope the police department is getting them much needed counseling.
Brownsville is not that big a place. The cops involved in the shooting will be forever known as ‘the cops that shot that kid in school.’ The whispers and looks are bound to impact them and their families.
Historically, police officers have been plagued with alcoholism, divorce, depression and suicide. So, try to put yourself in their place. The public scrutiny is just beginning, but the private hell will go on forever.
I guess a lot of people have forgotten the Columbine School shooting. The officers in Brownsville who responded to the 15 year old with a gun acted correctly.
The carnage would have been terrible had the 15 year old started shooting other students with what was perceived as being a Glock handgun.
These officers will never get over this shooting. We should thank them for doing their job because their lives will be changed forever. I hope the police department is getting them much needed counseling.
Brownsville is not that big a place. The cops involved in the shooting will be forever known as ‘the cops that shot that kid in school.’ The whispers and looks are bound to impact them and their families.
Historically, police officers have been plagued with alcoholism, divorce, depression and suicide. So, try to put yourself in their place. The public scrutiny is just beginning, but the private hell will go on forever.
HACKERS ARE TERRORISTS, NOT PRANKSTERS
The recent cyber-attack on STRATFOR Global Intelligence in which the hacker group calling itself ‘Anonymous’ obtained credit card information on thousands of STRATFOR subscribers and the confidential correspondence between STRATFOR’s clients, including government agencies, points to the havoc hackers can create.
Israel has got it right. We should take a page from their book and treat hackers as terrorists, not as thieves or pranksters!
ISRAEL VOWS TO HIT BACK AFTER CREDIT CARDS HACKED
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon says cyber-attacks are a ‘breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation, and must be treated as such’
Reuters
January 7, 2012
Israel said on Saturday the online publication of thousands of its citizens' credit card details by a hacker claiming to be Saudi was comparable to terrorism, and vowed to hit back.
The data theft, which appeared to focus on commercial web sites, was one of the worst Israel has said it has faced. While the financial damage was reportedly minimal, the breaches have heightened concerns about the potential use of stolen information by the Jewish state's foes.
Such cyber-attacks are "a breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation, and must be treated as such", Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said during a speech at a community center.
"Israel has active capabilities for striking at those who are trying to harm it, and no agency or hacker will be immune from retaliatory action," he said, without elaborating.
The hacker, identifying himself as Saudi-based OxOmar, said on Thursday he had leaked private information about more than 400,000 Israelis. Credit card company officials said around 25,000 numbers, some of them expired, had been posted as of Friday.
After Israeli media ran what they said were interviews conducted with OxOmar over email, the Haaretz newspaper said a blogger had tracked the hacker down and determined he was a 19-year-old citizen of the United Arab Emirates studying and working in Mexico.
An aide to Ayalon, Lital Shochat, said Israel was aware of the report but had not yet requested help from Mexican authorities.
Israel has got it right. We should take a page from their book and treat hackers as terrorists, not as thieves or pranksters!
ISRAEL VOWS TO HIT BACK AFTER CREDIT CARDS HACKED
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon says cyber-attacks are a ‘breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation, and must be treated as such’
Reuters
January 7, 2012
Israel said on Saturday the online publication of thousands of its citizens' credit card details by a hacker claiming to be Saudi was comparable to terrorism, and vowed to hit back.
The data theft, which appeared to focus on commercial web sites, was one of the worst Israel has said it has faced. While the financial damage was reportedly minimal, the breaches have heightened concerns about the potential use of stolen information by the Jewish state's foes.
Such cyber-attacks are "a breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation, and must be treated as such", Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said during a speech at a community center.
"Israel has active capabilities for striking at those who are trying to harm it, and no agency or hacker will be immune from retaliatory action," he said, without elaborating.
The hacker, identifying himself as Saudi-based OxOmar, said on Thursday he had leaked private information about more than 400,000 Israelis. Credit card company officials said around 25,000 numbers, some of them expired, had been posted as of Friday.
After Israeli media ran what they said were interviews conducted with OxOmar over email, the Haaretz newspaper said a blogger had tracked the hacker down and determined he was a 19-year-old citizen of the United Arab Emirates studying and working in Mexico.
An aide to Ayalon, Lital Shochat, said Israel was aware of the report but had not yet requested help from Mexican authorities.
BURGLAR'S LIFE SPARED BY VICTIM'S SOUND SLEEP
Had Iron Mike not been a sound sleeper, society would have had one less thief roaming in its midst.
THE WORLD’S BRAVEST (OR DUMBEST) BURGLAR: TIP-TOEING INTRUDER BREAKS INTO MIKE TYSON’S HOTEL ROOM… AS EX-HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMP WAS SLEEPING
Life imitates art: Tyson had tiger stolen in ‘The Hangover’
By Lee Moran
Mail Online
January 5, 2012
A tip-toeing intruder has been dubbed the world's bravest (or most stupid) burglar - after he broke into Mike Tyson's hotel room as the ex-boxer was sleeping.
The raider fled the suite at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas after Iron Mike, infamous for biting off an opponent's ear in a bout, woke to the sound of rustling.
It was a lucky escape for the thief, who could have been on the end of Tyson's powerful right hook had the heavyweight been fully alert.
Nothing was taken in the break-in and security at the resort, where top suites cost up to $1,500 per night, has now been stepped up.
Knock-out Hollywood actor Tyson, who floored a burglar as he played himself in The Hangover film after his tiger was stolen, was staying at the hotel with his family on New Year's Eve after attending a Stevie Wonder concert.
The TMZ website reported: 'We're told Tyson was sleeping like a baby when all of a sudden, he awoke to rustling sounds and saw a flashlight.
'But by the time Iron Mike realized what was happening, the intruder had already run out of the room.'
A hotel spokesman added: 'We have received a report of an incident that is currently under investigation. As always, guest safety is of the utmost importance.'
The run-in with the sleepy pugilistic pigeon-fancier, who raises the racing variety of the bird in his spare time, should be considered a lucky escape.
Tyson first began boxing at a centre for juvenile delinquents in upstate New York at the age of 12.
Eight years later he became the youngest heavyweight champion when he knocked out Trevor Berbick in 1986.
But in 1990, he was defeated by James 'Buster' Douglas in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.
THE WORLD’S BRAVEST (OR DUMBEST) BURGLAR: TIP-TOEING INTRUDER BREAKS INTO MIKE TYSON’S HOTEL ROOM… AS EX-HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMP WAS SLEEPING
Life imitates art: Tyson had tiger stolen in ‘The Hangover’
By Lee Moran
Mail Online
January 5, 2012
A tip-toeing intruder has been dubbed the world's bravest (or most stupid) burglar - after he broke into Mike Tyson's hotel room as the ex-boxer was sleeping.
The raider fled the suite at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas after Iron Mike, infamous for biting off an opponent's ear in a bout, woke to the sound of rustling.
It was a lucky escape for the thief, who could have been on the end of Tyson's powerful right hook had the heavyweight been fully alert.
Nothing was taken in the break-in and security at the resort, where top suites cost up to $1,500 per night, has now been stepped up.
Knock-out Hollywood actor Tyson, who floored a burglar as he played himself in The Hangover film after his tiger was stolen, was staying at the hotel with his family on New Year's Eve after attending a Stevie Wonder concert.
The TMZ website reported: 'We're told Tyson was sleeping like a baby when all of a sudden, he awoke to rustling sounds and saw a flashlight.
'But by the time Iron Mike realized what was happening, the intruder had already run out of the room.'
A hotel spokesman added: 'We have received a report of an incident that is currently under investigation. As always, guest safety is of the utmost importance.'
The run-in with the sleepy pugilistic pigeon-fancier, who raises the racing variety of the bird in his spare time, should be considered a lucky escape.
Tyson first began boxing at a centre for juvenile delinquents in upstate New York at the age of 12.
Eight years later he became the youngest heavyweight champion when he knocked out Trevor Berbick in 1986.
But in 1990, he was defeated by James 'Buster' Douglas in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.
LIFE'S STAGES OF SUCCESS
At age 3, success means: Not shitting in your pants.
At age 12, success means: Having friends.
At age 18, success means: Having a driver’s license.
At age 20, success means: Having sex.
At age 35, success means: Having money.
At age 50, success means: Having money.
At age 60, success means: Having sex.
At age 70, success means: Having a driver’s license.
At age 75, success means: Having Friends
At age 80, success means: Not shitting in your pants.
At age 12, success means: Having friends.
At age 18, success means: Having a driver’s license.
At age 20, success means: Having sex.
At age 35, success means: Having money.
At age 50, success means: Having money.
At age 60, success means: Having sex.
At age 70, success means: Having a driver’s license.
At age 75, success means: Having Friends
At age 80, success means: Not shitting in your pants.
WHEN THE BOSS IS AWAY
When my boss phoned me today, he said, "Is everything okay at the office?"
I said, "Yes, it's all under control. It's been a very busy day, I haven't stopped for a minute."
"Can you do me a favor?" he asked.
I said, "Of course, anything, what is it?"
He said, "Hurry up and take your shot, I'm right behind you on the 7th hole."
I said, "Yes, it's all under control. It's been a very busy day, I haven't stopped for a minute."
"Can you do me a favor?" he asked.
I said, "Of course, anything, what is it?"
He said, "Hurry up and take your shot, I'm right behind you on the 7th hole."
Saturday, January 07, 2012
FLIP FLOPPING ON THE DEATH PENALTY
Dorina Lisson, my Aussie human rights activist friend, sent me the following e-mail with a link to a four-page article describing flaws in the trial and conviction of Jermaine Wright who has been roosting on Delaware’s death row for 20 Years:
Death sentence overturned
Delaware man Jermaine Wright, who has spent 20 years on death row could be freed
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20120104/NEWS01/201040340/Death-sentence-overturned
Superior Court Judge John A. Parkins Jr. overturned the conviction and death sentence of Jermaine Wright. Parkins said he had "no confidence" in the evidence against Wright, despite a videotaped confession.
Laurie L. Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said; "It should make everyone stop and gasp that a man could come so close to being put to death when there were so many problems with his conviction. Bells and sirens should go off for the criminal justice system, that such stunning turnarounds are happening more and more in cases like this one, cases that are 10, 15 or 20 years old. This is probably why we are seeing that juries are less and less willing to give the death penalty. We are seeing how easy it is to get it wrong."
Here is how I responded to Dorina:
You've done it. You've succeeded in getting me to switch to your side. I am now unalterably opposed to the death penalty. How could I do otherwise with so many innocent victims of a corrupt criminal justice system sitting on death row or serving life terms in prison. I'm sick to my stomach for my past stance. It's all I can do to keep from puking.
But wait a minute, I must be out of my mind. I just got through reading all four pages of the linked article and while the investigation obviously had flaws, there is nothing in the story that proves this scumbag is innocent. On the other hand, there is his confession. The fact that he changed the details several times does not mean the confession is invalid.
As for being under the influence of heroin during his interrogation, that should not invalidate the confession either. When I was a cop I dealt with many heroin addicts and when I was a California parole agent, I had a special case load of only heroin addicts. I have dealt with many addicts under the influence and believe me when I tell you that they can be completely rational at the time. The fact that Wright ate slips of paper and curled up in a fetal position during the interrogation is not indicative of someone under the influence of heroin, but it is indicative of someone putting on an act.
So I hate to disappoint you, but I'm switching back to my old self as a committed advocate for the death penalty.
And Dorina came back at me with this:
I never suggested the Delaware man was innocent !!! There is a big difference between innocence and wrongful conviction.
Hey, you said it ... "The investigation obviously had some flaws". Holly Sheet, no, really ???
I do not fight for abolition of the death penalty by only using the 'innocence' theory. But then, that's an excellent point.
Please, don't get me and the group ACADP [Australian Coalition Against Death Penalty, the organization Dorina leads] confused with all other anti-death penalty activists. Don't put us all in the same basket !!! Please understand that I am an 'individual' anti-death penalty activist - not easily brainwashed by anybody. Allow me to make myself very clear on this issue. My passionate reasons for being opposed to the death penalty (regardless of crime) are ...
The death penalty is a barbaric, brutal, cruel, degrading, inhuman, uncivilized and repugnant state-sanctioned act of pure vengeance. It is a 'Government Program' - a vile legalized 'hate crime' that has no place in a modern-day criminal justice system. It makes me sick to my stomach - it makes me puke !!!
The death penalty is discriminative. It is seriously flawed. It is riddled with legal errors (wrongful convictions). It is corrupt. It is bias - some offenders are ‘chosen/selected’ to be executed and others are not. It is applied arbitrarily, capriciously and at random. It is a system that has been proven time and time again to be rotten to the core, literally, no matter where you look. It is a seriously broken system that cannot be fixed. It has been declared by the UN to be a 'cruel and unusual' punishment (botched executions). It is a direct violation of the most fundamental human right - the right to life. It creates more victims (the innocent family members and loved ones of the executed offender). It brutalizes a society. It degrades a society. It is a lethal lottery - politics, quality of legal counsel, police misconduct, prosecution misconduct, eyewitness errors, false and coerced confessions, use of snitches as informants, ominous jury members, who you are, your ethnicity, your financial status, your intellect, the jurisdiction where the crime was committed, the political climate at the time of the crime and death sentence and the political rivalry are more often the determining facts - more than the actual facts surrounding the crime itself.
Human Rights is universal. Human Rights belong to everyone - all people on this one planet. Human Rights is all of our business. As members of the human race, every human being has a born right to protect the life of another human being, regardless of location on this planet. Every human being is equal with equal human rights, regardless of nationality. Governments do not give nor grant us human life and they should have no right to take away a human life. The death penalty cannot be separated from human rights. Universal human rights is everybody's business !!!
The death penalty is the most pre-meditated, meticulously prepared, carefully planned, cold-blooded ‘legal ritual’ of killing a human being by government-chosen stealth executioner/s who then go home to their families and sleep peacefully at night. Governments cannot be trusted to control their own power over society, their own bureaucrats and their abuse of taxpayers' money - much less choose the executioner/s and which offenders they want executed. What kind of a decent civilized individual would want a job as a state-sanctioned executioner ??? It takes a 'certain' individual to kill another human being in a stealth, sadistic, chilling, blood-thirsty, carefully-prepared, cold-blooded, pre-meditated, primitive 'ritual' of state-sanctioned killing. A killer is a killer, is a killer. The job of executioner/s should be looked at with the ultimate of contempt !!!
In the words of United States former executioner Jerry Givens ...“The job of executioner turned me into an animal, it transformed my life to become I hate to say - an animal.” Givens spent 17 years as a professional legal killer from 1982 to 1999 and presided over 62 executions. He now opposes what he calls ... “the ultimate revenge”
My final word:
What Dorina says about human rights is absolutely true. But while I can pick apart what she says about the application of the death penalty, I’ll let it go at that.
Death sentence overturned
Delaware man Jermaine Wright, who has spent 20 years on death row could be freed
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20120104/NEWS01/201040340/Death-sentence-overturned
Superior Court Judge John A. Parkins Jr. overturned the conviction and death sentence of Jermaine Wright. Parkins said he had "no confidence" in the evidence against Wright, despite a videotaped confession.
Laurie L. Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said; "It should make everyone stop and gasp that a man could come so close to being put to death when there were so many problems with his conviction. Bells and sirens should go off for the criminal justice system, that such stunning turnarounds are happening more and more in cases like this one, cases that are 10, 15 or 20 years old. This is probably why we are seeing that juries are less and less willing to give the death penalty. We are seeing how easy it is to get it wrong."
Here is how I responded to Dorina:
You've done it. You've succeeded in getting me to switch to your side. I am now unalterably opposed to the death penalty. How could I do otherwise with so many innocent victims of a corrupt criminal justice system sitting on death row or serving life terms in prison. I'm sick to my stomach for my past stance. It's all I can do to keep from puking.
But wait a minute, I must be out of my mind. I just got through reading all four pages of the linked article and while the investigation obviously had flaws, there is nothing in the story that proves this scumbag is innocent. On the other hand, there is his confession. The fact that he changed the details several times does not mean the confession is invalid.
As for being under the influence of heroin during his interrogation, that should not invalidate the confession either. When I was a cop I dealt with many heroin addicts and when I was a California parole agent, I had a special case load of only heroin addicts. I have dealt with many addicts under the influence and believe me when I tell you that they can be completely rational at the time. The fact that Wright ate slips of paper and curled up in a fetal position during the interrogation is not indicative of someone under the influence of heroin, but it is indicative of someone putting on an act.
So I hate to disappoint you, but I'm switching back to my old self as a committed advocate for the death penalty.
And Dorina came back at me with this:
I never suggested the Delaware man was innocent !!! There is a big difference between innocence and wrongful conviction.
Hey, you said it ... "The investigation obviously had some flaws". Holly Sheet, no, really ???
I do not fight for abolition of the death penalty by only using the 'innocence' theory. But then, that's an excellent point.
Please, don't get me and the group ACADP [Australian Coalition Against Death Penalty, the organization Dorina leads] confused with all other anti-death penalty activists. Don't put us all in the same basket !!! Please understand that I am an 'individual' anti-death penalty activist - not easily brainwashed by anybody. Allow me to make myself very clear on this issue. My passionate reasons for being opposed to the death penalty (regardless of crime) are ...
The death penalty is a barbaric, brutal, cruel, degrading, inhuman, uncivilized and repugnant state-sanctioned act of pure vengeance. It is a 'Government Program' - a vile legalized 'hate crime' that has no place in a modern-day criminal justice system. It makes me sick to my stomach - it makes me puke !!!
The death penalty is discriminative. It is seriously flawed. It is riddled with legal errors (wrongful convictions). It is corrupt. It is bias - some offenders are ‘chosen/selected’ to be executed and others are not. It is applied arbitrarily, capriciously and at random. It is a system that has been proven time and time again to be rotten to the core, literally, no matter where you look. It is a seriously broken system that cannot be fixed. It has been declared by the UN to be a 'cruel and unusual' punishment (botched executions). It is a direct violation of the most fundamental human right - the right to life. It creates more victims (the innocent family members and loved ones of the executed offender). It brutalizes a society. It degrades a society. It is a lethal lottery - politics, quality of legal counsel, police misconduct, prosecution misconduct, eyewitness errors, false and coerced confessions, use of snitches as informants, ominous jury members, who you are, your ethnicity, your financial status, your intellect, the jurisdiction where the crime was committed, the political climate at the time of the crime and death sentence and the political rivalry are more often the determining facts - more than the actual facts surrounding the crime itself.
Human Rights is universal. Human Rights belong to everyone - all people on this one planet. Human Rights is all of our business. As members of the human race, every human being has a born right to protect the life of another human being, regardless of location on this planet. Every human being is equal with equal human rights, regardless of nationality. Governments do not give nor grant us human life and they should have no right to take away a human life. The death penalty cannot be separated from human rights. Universal human rights is everybody's business !!!
The death penalty is the most pre-meditated, meticulously prepared, carefully planned, cold-blooded ‘legal ritual’ of killing a human being by government-chosen stealth executioner/s who then go home to their families and sleep peacefully at night. Governments cannot be trusted to control their own power over society, their own bureaucrats and their abuse of taxpayers' money - much less choose the executioner/s and which offenders they want executed. What kind of a decent civilized individual would want a job as a state-sanctioned executioner ??? It takes a 'certain' individual to kill another human being in a stealth, sadistic, chilling, blood-thirsty, carefully-prepared, cold-blooded, pre-meditated, primitive 'ritual' of state-sanctioned killing. A killer is a killer, is a killer. The job of executioner/s should be looked at with the ultimate of contempt !!!
In the words of United States former executioner Jerry Givens ...“The job of executioner turned me into an animal, it transformed my life to become I hate to say - an animal.” Givens spent 17 years as a professional legal killer from 1982 to 1999 and presided over 62 executions. He now opposes what he calls ... “the ultimate revenge”
My final word:
What Dorina says about human rights is absolutely true. But while I can pick apart what she says about the application of the death penalty, I’ll let it go at that.
A RIGHTEOUS SHOOTING
By now most of you know that on Wednesday two Brownsville, Texas cops shot and killed 15-yer-old Jaime Gonzales inside a middle school after he pointed a .177-caliber pellet gun at them. Before they opened fire, the officers had shouted ‘numerous’ commands at the 8th-grader to drop the gun. The pellet gun looked very much like a Glock pistol, leading the officers to fear for their lives.
Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez confirmed to The Brownsville Herald that following the shooting, telephone calls were made overnight to the police department's dispatch center threatening the lives of police officers for the killing of Gonzales.
According to the Associated Press, the boy's father, Jaime Gonzalez Sr., called the shooting unjustified and said he had no idea where his son got the pellet gun. "Why was so much excess force used on a minor?" he asked. "Three shots. Why not one that would bring him down?"
"What happened was an injustice," Noralva Gonzalez, the boy’s mother, said angrily. "I know that my son wasn't perfect, but he was a great kid."
After she returned from viewing her boy’s body and taking cell phone pictures of his wounds, the mother sobbed, “I saw the wounds, in the chest, in the heart. I'm not crazy. He was hit in the head, from behind. He was a boy, like any boy. They didn't have the right to do that.”
Already convinced that the shooting was not necessary, the South Texas Civil Rights Project released a statement calling for Brownsville police to conduct an investigation in 30 days, hire an expert on the use of deadly force, institute “de-escalation policy and training” and involve parents from the Brownsville Independent School District in the investigation and new policies and training.
I am sure that in the days to come, many armchair detectives will sprout forth to criticize the 8th-grader’s shooting. The police do not have the luxury of sitting back and dissecting a situation bit by bit before making a life or death decision. In every police shooting there are the second and third guessers accusing the cops of using excessive force. But in most cases, and certainly in this one, whenever the police kill someone, it is a righteous shooting.
Whenever cops shoot at someone while they are in imminent fear of their lives, it is a natural reaction to fire a volley of rounds at that person, rather than only one or two shots. If someone looks like they’re about to shoot me, I’m going to keep popping caps at them until they’re down and out and until I’m dead certain the threat to my life is over and done with!
And the age of the person posing that threat is not relevant to a ‘shoot, don’t shoot’ decision. The perceived threat determines that decision. To the two Brownsville cops, 15-year-old Jaime Gonzales posed an imminent threat to their lives. This was a righteous shooting, no doubt about it!
Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez confirmed to The Brownsville Herald that following the shooting, telephone calls were made overnight to the police department's dispatch center threatening the lives of police officers for the killing of Gonzales.
According to the Associated Press, the boy's father, Jaime Gonzalez Sr., called the shooting unjustified and said he had no idea where his son got the pellet gun. "Why was so much excess force used on a minor?" he asked. "Three shots. Why not one that would bring him down?"
"What happened was an injustice," Noralva Gonzalez, the boy’s mother, said angrily. "I know that my son wasn't perfect, but he was a great kid."
After she returned from viewing her boy’s body and taking cell phone pictures of his wounds, the mother sobbed, “I saw the wounds, in the chest, in the heart. I'm not crazy. He was hit in the head, from behind. He was a boy, like any boy. They didn't have the right to do that.”
Already convinced that the shooting was not necessary, the South Texas Civil Rights Project released a statement calling for Brownsville police to conduct an investigation in 30 days, hire an expert on the use of deadly force, institute “de-escalation policy and training” and involve parents from the Brownsville Independent School District in the investigation and new policies and training.
I am sure that in the days to come, many armchair detectives will sprout forth to criticize the 8th-grader’s shooting. The police do not have the luxury of sitting back and dissecting a situation bit by bit before making a life or death decision. In every police shooting there are the second and third guessers accusing the cops of using excessive force. But in most cases, and certainly in this one, whenever the police kill someone, it is a righteous shooting.
Whenever cops shoot at someone while they are in imminent fear of their lives, it is a natural reaction to fire a volley of rounds at that person, rather than only one or two shots. If someone looks like they’re about to shoot me, I’m going to keep popping caps at them until they’re down and out and until I’m dead certain the threat to my life is over and done with!
And the age of the person posing that threat is not relevant to a ‘shoot, don’t shoot’ decision. The perceived threat determines that decision. To the two Brownsville cops, 15-year-old Jaime Gonzales posed an imminent threat to their lives. This was a righteous shooting, no doubt about it!
A TRUE HORSE LOVER
I wonder which mares he favored - white, black or brown?
CIRILO CASTILLO, JR: ACCUSED OF MULTIPLE COUNTS OF HORSE SEX
Hide yo' sheep, hide yo' mares, he (allegedly) rapin' everthang 'round there
By John Nova Lomax
Houston Press Hair Balls
January 6, 2012
If the comment sections of Rio Grande Valley newspapers are any indication, Hidalgo County is regarded as something of a rustic backwater by its more urbane neighbors. Stories like this one sure can give a stereotype like that some legs.
Yesterday afternoon, 41-year-old Cirilo Castillo Jr. was arraigned on two counts of trespassing and two counts of animal cruelty after a local rancher captured him on video having sex with one of her mares.
The woman had gone to authorities on December 30. The surveillance tape she brought cops allegedly shows Castillo entering her barn without permission, tying the mare to a fence and then lashing its legs together, presumably to prevent him getting a swift kick in the nuts. (We can but hope that was a lesson he had to learn by painful experience.) And then Castillo is reportedly seen dropping his pants and having sex with the mare.
Cops recognized Castillo, who has a long record of weed and harder drug offenses. They picked him up on Tuesday, and he confessed to that stump-breaking episode, as well as at least one more, at a ranch a mile or so down the road.
According to the McAllen Monitor, another rancher had told police back in November that he had caught a man named Castillo having his wicked way with his mares on no fewer than four occasions. That man later picked Cirilo Castillo out of a line-up.
A commenter at Valleycentral.com recalled a similar area case from a few years back:
__I remember when I was working at Chanell 4 a few years back, there was a man who was arrested for the same crime in Hidalgo Co. The owners of the horse would notice some cinder blocks would stack up during the night and remnants of carrots and apples were found by the horse. So they set up a security camera in the stall and voila! Perv was caught!
No word on whether Castillo was as willing to wine and dine the mares on the receiving end of his vile horsing around, nor if he left any tell-tale stepping-stones behind.
CIRILO CASTILLO, JR: ACCUSED OF MULTIPLE COUNTS OF HORSE SEX
Hide yo' sheep, hide yo' mares, he (allegedly) rapin' everthang 'round there
By John Nova Lomax
Houston Press Hair Balls
January 6, 2012
If the comment sections of Rio Grande Valley newspapers are any indication, Hidalgo County is regarded as something of a rustic backwater by its more urbane neighbors. Stories like this one sure can give a stereotype like that some legs.
Yesterday afternoon, 41-year-old Cirilo Castillo Jr. was arraigned on two counts of trespassing and two counts of animal cruelty after a local rancher captured him on video having sex with one of her mares.
The woman had gone to authorities on December 30. The surveillance tape she brought cops allegedly shows Castillo entering her barn without permission, tying the mare to a fence and then lashing its legs together, presumably to prevent him getting a swift kick in the nuts. (We can but hope that was a lesson he had to learn by painful experience.) And then Castillo is reportedly seen dropping his pants and having sex with the mare.
Cops recognized Castillo, who has a long record of weed and harder drug offenses. They picked him up on Tuesday, and he confessed to that stump-breaking episode, as well as at least one more, at a ranch a mile or so down the road.
According to the McAllen Monitor, another rancher had told police back in November that he had caught a man named Castillo having his wicked way with his mares on no fewer than four occasions. That man later picked Cirilo Castillo out of a line-up.
A commenter at Valleycentral.com recalled a similar area case from a few years back:
__I remember when I was working at Chanell 4 a few years back, there was a man who was arrested for the same crime in Hidalgo Co. The owners of the horse would notice some cinder blocks would stack up during the night and remnants of carrots and apples were found by the horse. So they set up a security camera in the stall and voila! Perv was caught!
No word on whether Castillo was as willing to wine and dine the mares on the receiving end of his vile horsing around, nor if he left any tell-tale stepping-stones behind.
WHY SOME MEN WEAR EARRINGS
Did you ever wonder why earrings became so popular with men? Well, here is one reason:
A man is at work one day when he notices that his co-worker is wearing an earring.
The man knows his co-worker to be a normally conservative fellow, and is curious about his sudden change in "fashion sense"
The man walks up to him and says, "I didn't know you were into earrings."
"Don't make such a big deal, it's only an earring," he replies sheepishly.
His friend falls silent for a few minutes, but then his curiosity prods him to ask, "So, how long have you been wearing one?"
"Ever since my wife found it in my truck."
A man is at work one day when he notices that his co-worker is wearing an earring.
The man knows his co-worker to be a normally conservative fellow, and is curious about his sudden change in "fashion sense"
The man walks up to him and says, "I didn't know you were into earrings."
"Don't make such a big deal, it's only an earring," he replies sheepishly.
His friend falls silent for a few minutes, but then his curiosity prods him to ask, "So, how long have you been wearing one?"
"Ever since my wife found it in my truck."
Friday, January 06, 2012
PISTOL, SHOTGUN PACKING YOUNG MOMMA BLOWS AWAY INTRUDER
This incident will give all those anti-gunners a good case of apoplexy. There isn’t a more shining example on behalf of a well-armed citizenry than 18-year-old Sarah McKinley. Three cheers, no make that five, for this pistol, shotgun packing young momma!
And Bob Walsh tells all those anti-gunners that when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
OKLAHOMA WOMAN SHOOTS, KILLS INTRUDER: 911 OPERATOR SAID DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO
By Kevin Dolak and Ryan Owens
abc News
January 4, 2011
A young Oklahoma mother shot and killed an intruder to protect her 3-month-old baby on New Year's Eve, less than a week after the baby's father died of cancer.
Sarah McKinley says that a week earlier a man named Justin Martin dropped by on the day of her husband's funeral, claiming that he was a neighbor who wanted to say hello. The 18-year-old Oklahoma City area woman did not let him into her home that day.
On New Year's Eve Martin returned with another man, Dustin Stewart, and this time was armed with a 12-inch hunting knife. The two soon began trying to break into McKinley's home.
As one of the men was going from door to door outside her home trying to gain entry, McKinley called 911 and grabbed her 12-gauge shotgun.
McKinley told ABC News Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO that she quickly got her 12 gauge, went into her bedroom and got a pistol, put the bottle in the baby's mouth and called 911.
"I've got two guns in my hand -- is it okay to shoot him if he comes in this door?" the young mother asked the 911 dispatcher. "I'm here by myself with my infant baby, can I please get a dispatcher out here immediately?"
The 911 dispatcher confirmed with McKinley that the doors to her home were locked as she asked again if it was okay to shoot the intruder if he were to come through her door.
"I can't tell you that you can do that but you do what you have to do to protect your baby," the dispatcher told her. McKinley was on the phone with 911 for a total of 21 minutes.
When Martin kicked in the door and came after her with the knife, the teen mom shot and killed the 24-year-old. Police are calling the shooting justified.
"You're allowed to shoot an unauthorized person that is in your home. The law provides you the remedy, and sanctions the use of deadly force," Det. Dan Huff of the Blanchard police said.
Stewart soon turned himself in to police.
McKinley said that she was at home alone with her newborn that night because her husband just died of cancer on Christmas Day.
"I wouldn't have done it, but it was my son," McKinley told ABC News Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO. "It's not an easy decision to make, but it was either going to be him or my son. And it wasn't going to be my son. There's nothing more dangerous than a mother with a child."
And Bob Walsh tells all those anti-gunners that when seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
OKLAHOMA WOMAN SHOOTS, KILLS INTRUDER: 911 OPERATOR SAID DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO
By Kevin Dolak and Ryan Owens
abc News
January 4, 2011
A young Oklahoma mother shot and killed an intruder to protect her 3-month-old baby on New Year's Eve, less than a week after the baby's father died of cancer.
Sarah McKinley says that a week earlier a man named Justin Martin dropped by on the day of her husband's funeral, claiming that he was a neighbor who wanted to say hello. The 18-year-old Oklahoma City area woman did not let him into her home that day.
On New Year's Eve Martin returned with another man, Dustin Stewart, and this time was armed with a 12-inch hunting knife. The two soon began trying to break into McKinley's home.
As one of the men was going from door to door outside her home trying to gain entry, McKinley called 911 and grabbed her 12-gauge shotgun.
McKinley told ABC News Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO that she quickly got her 12 gauge, went into her bedroom and got a pistol, put the bottle in the baby's mouth and called 911.
"I've got two guns in my hand -- is it okay to shoot him if he comes in this door?" the young mother asked the 911 dispatcher. "I'm here by myself with my infant baby, can I please get a dispatcher out here immediately?"
The 911 dispatcher confirmed with McKinley that the doors to her home were locked as she asked again if it was okay to shoot the intruder if he were to come through her door.
"I can't tell you that you can do that but you do what you have to do to protect your baby," the dispatcher told her. McKinley was on the phone with 911 for a total of 21 minutes.
When Martin kicked in the door and came after her with the knife, the teen mom shot and killed the 24-year-old. Police are calling the shooting justified.
"You're allowed to shoot an unauthorized person that is in your home. The law provides you the remedy, and sanctions the use of deadly force," Det. Dan Huff of the Blanchard police said.
Stewart soon turned himself in to police.
McKinley said that she was at home alone with her newborn that night because her husband just died of cancer on Christmas Day.
"I wouldn't have done it, but it was my son," McKinley told ABC News Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO. "It's not an easy decision to make, but it was either going to be him or my son. And it wasn't going to be my son. There's nothing more dangerous than a mother with a child."
WHAT DIRECTION WILL MEXICO’S FIGHT AGAINST THE CARTEL INSURGENCY TAKE?
From Borderland Beat:
2012 WILL BE A DECISIVE YEAR IN MEXICO’S DEADLY DRUG WAR AS THE COUNTRY ELECTS A NEW PRESIDENT AND FIGURES OUT HOW TO COMBAT THE CARTELS
By Larry Kaplow
The Daily Beast
January 4, 2012
The Executionmeter began counting the deaths almost as soon as 2012 began.
New Year’s Day in Mexico saw six bodies discovered in five different places, apparent victims of drug-related organized crime. All of the bodies were male. Most of the victims had been shot to death apparently in cartel violence. It was actually a peaceful day by Mexico’s blood-drenched standards. But it registered on the Executionmeter—a graphic on the website of Mexico’s Reforma newspaper that acts as a grim reminder of this country’s bloody internal war.
This year, 2012, will be a pivotal year for determining the direction of Mexico’s and, by proxy, America’s drug war. While there is bipartisan agreement in the United States that the war is needed to interdict drugs and shore up Mexico’s stability, the war is sure to come under further debate in Mexico, where the price is paid on the ground in killings and decapitations.
That price continues to be high, according to the Executionmeter, or Ejecutometro, as it runs in Spanish and counts the deaths since President Felipe Calderon launched the war in December 2006. Reforma reported Monday that there were 12,359 killings related to organized crime or the battle against it in 2011, up 6.7 percent from the year before. The daily said the number of beheadings rose to 595 from 389 and noted an increase in brazen displays of corpses hanging from bridges. Another major daily published a study by an organized crime expert saying drug gangs exercised some type of control—enough to operate openly—over local institutions in 71 percent of the country’s municipalities.
And responding to doubts about the war, Joaquin Villalobos, a former Salvadoran guerrilla commander who advises Calderon on strategy, published a 10,000-word defense of staying the course in the Mexican intellectual journal Nexos. “The violence is inevitable,” wrote Villalobos, warning that a pause, downsizing or negotiation could create a “status quo that gives criminals an advantage over citizens.”
True, Mexico is a large country of about 113 million people and most Mexicans see little cartel violence. You could read the figures as leveling off, since killings rose a staggering 76 percent (to 4,996 murders) from 2009 to 2010. Reforma counts a total of about 38,000 killings over the five years while others put the figure several thousand higher. In an interview, respected security analyst Eduardo Guerrero said violence levels could decline very slowly this year. But as some notorious areas have improved, violence has spread to new ones like Acapulco and Cuernavaca, close to Mexico City. The killing surges as cartels fight each other, branch into new turf and enterprises—from drugs to extortion to kidnapping—and as security forces pursue them. It creates an unpredictable whack-a-mole dynamic.
Heavy majorities still support the military deployment and other anti-crime operations. About a third want to negotiate with the cartels or legalize drugs.
In July the country will elect a new president who will surely size up the war’s progress and popularity before taking office in December. An October poll showed that only 18 percent of Mexicans believe the government is winning. But heavy majorities still support the military deployment and other anti-crime operations. About a third want to negotiate with the cartels or legalize drugs.
Last year saw the birth of an antiwar movement, headed by poet Javier Sicilia after his son was killed with six friends. His rallies aim to show that innocents are getting killed, not just warring narcos. A series of high-profile massacres drove that point home, such as in August when 52 people, mostly middle-aged women, were killed in a Monterrey casino torched by extortionists. A mother and two teen-aged daughters from Ft. Worth, Texas, dual U.S.-Mexican citizens, were killed in December during an attack on their bus as they visited the coastal state of Veracruz. Human Rights Watch documented 170 cases of torture and 63 killings or disappearances by security forces. Some leftists see the war as a U.S.-backed pretense to militarize Mexico and stifle activism.
Of the alternatives, experts warn that the criminals are too divided and unruly to make pacts with them, which would, in any case, just perpetuate their corrupt hold on police and politicians. But there are strategic changes being floated, from concentrating law enforcement on the most violent actors rather than emphasizing the capture of kingpins, to addressing the bad schools and poverty that produce gang soldiers. Everyone agrees local institutions are too weak. Calderon has focused increasingly on rooting out corrupt police and often disbands or arrests entire local police departments in areas where soldiers are deployed—a tactic that seems to help but requires months for vetting of new cops.
American officials warn that if Mexico becomes a narco-state, the border will open to even more smuggling or, possibly, terrorist infiltration. About half of $1.4 billion in promised U.S. nonlethal aid, like helicopters, has been delivered. Calderon adviser Villalobos writes that the war has splintered the cartels into smaller factions that can be more easily eliminated. He blames the cartels’ criminal ambitions, while others blame the splintering, for most of the violence. He boasts that more than 150,000 criminals have been detained, which could either be a sign of the war’s progress or of its futility. Calderon advisers say the war could continue several more years and, reading the public mood, most politicians vow to press on in some form after he leaves office. But what regular Mexicans hope for most of all is to see a drop on the Executionmeter.
2012 WILL BE A DECISIVE YEAR IN MEXICO’S DEADLY DRUG WAR AS THE COUNTRY ELECTS A NEW PRESIDENT AND FIGURES OUT HOW TO COMBAT THE CARTELS
By Larry Kaplow
The Daily Beast
January 4, 2012
The Executionmeter began counting the deaths almost as soon as 2012 began.
New Year’s Day in Mexico saw six bodies discovered in five different places, apparent victims of drug-related organized crime. All of the bodies were male. Most of the victims had been shot to death apparently in cartel violence. It was actually a peaceful day by Mexico’s blood-drenched standards. But it registered on the Executionmeter—a graphic on the website of Mexico’s Reforma newspaper that acts as a grim reminder of this country’s bloody internal war.
This year, 2012, will be a pivotal year for determining the direction of Mexico’s and, by proxy, America’s drug war. While there is bipartisan agreement in the United States that the war is needed to interdict drugs and shore up Mexico’s stability, the war is sure to come under further debate in Mexico, where the price is paid on the ground in killings and decapitations.
That price continues to be high, according to the Executionmeter, or Ejecutometro, as it runs in Spanish and counts the deaths since President Felipe Calderon launched the war in December 2006. Reforma reported Monday that there were 12,359 killings related to organized crime or the battle against it in 2011, up 6.7 percent from the year before. The daily said the number of beheadings rose to 595 from 389 and noted an increase in brazen displays of corpses hanging from bridges. Another major daily published a study by an organized crime expert saying drug gangs exercised some type of control—enough to operate openly—over local institutions in 71 percent of the country’s municipalities.
And responding to doubts about the war, Joaquin Villalobos, a former Salvadoran guerrilla commander who advises Calderon on strategy, published a 10,000-word defense of staying the course in the Mexican intellectual journal Nexos. “The violence is inevitable,” wrote Villalobos, warning that a pause, downsizing or negotiation could create a “status quo that gives criminals an advantage over citizens.”
True, Mexico is a large country of about 113 million people and most Mexicans see little cartel violence. You could read the figures as leveling off, since killings rose a staggering 76 percent (to 4,996 murders) from 2009 to 2010. Reforma counts a total of about 38,000 killings over the five years while others put the figure several thousand higher. In an interview, respected security analyst Eduardo Guerrero said violence levels could decline very slowly this year. But as some notorious areas have improved, violence has spread to new ones like Acapulco and Cuernavaca, close to Mexico City. The killing surges as cartels fight each other, branch into new turf and enterprises—from drugs to extortion to kidnapping—and as security forces pursue them. It creates an unpredictable whack-a-mole dynamic.
Heavy majorities still support the military deployment and other anti-crime operations. About a third want to negotiate with the cartels or legalize drugs.
In July the country will elect a new president who will surely size up the war’s progress and popularity before taking office in December. An October poll showed that only 18 percent of Mexicans believe the government is winning. But heavy majorities still support the military deployment and other anti-crime operations. About a third want to negotiate with the cartels or legalize drugs.
Last year saw the birth of an antiwar movement, headed by poet Javier Sicilia after his son was killed with six friends. His rallies aim to show that innocents are getting killed, not just warring narcos. A series of high-profile massacres drove that point home, such as in August when 52 people, mostly middle-aged women, were killed in a Monterrey casino torched by extortionists. A mother and two teen-aged daughters from Ft. Worth, Texas, dual U.S.-Mexican citizens, were killed in December during an attack on their bus as they visited the coastal state of Veracruz. Human Rights Watch documented 170 cases of torture and 63 killings or disappearances by security forces. Some leftists see the war as a U.S.-backed pretense to militarize Mexico and stifle activism.
Of the alternatives, experts warn that the criminals are too divided and unruly to make pacts with them, which would, in any case, just perpetuate their corrupt hold on police and politicians. But there are strategic changes being floated, from concentrating law enforcement on the most violent actors rather than emphasizing the capture of kingpins, to addressing the bad schools and poverty that produce gang soldiers. Everyone agrees local institutions are too weak. Calderon has focused increasingly on rooting out corrupt police and often disbands or arrests entire local police departments in areas where soldiers are deployed—a tactic that seems to help but requires months for vetting of new cops.
American officials warn that if Mexico becomes a narco-state, the border will open to even more smuggling or, possibly, terrorist infiltration. About half of $1.4 billion in promised U.S. nonlethal aid, like helicopters, has been delivered. Calderon adviser Villalobos writes that the war has splintered the cartels into smaller factions that can be more easily eliminated. He blames the cartels’ criminal ambitions, while others blame the splintering, for most of the violence. He boasts that more than 150,000 criminals have been detained, which could either be a sign of the war’s progress or of its futility. Calderon advisers say the war could continue several more years and, reading the public mood, most politicians vow to press on in some form after he leaves office. But what regular Mexicans hope for most of all is to see a drop on the Executionmeter.
JIMMY HOFFA MAY BE HOLDING UP THE GENERAL MOTORS BUILDING
Something tells me no one is going to tear it down to see if he is supporting the structure.
SNITCH SAYS JIMMY HOFFA IS BURIED UNDER GM HQ BUILDING
By Jerry Reynolds
The Car Pro Weekly
January 5, 2012
The disappearance of Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa remains one of America's most enduring mysteries, but now, nearly four decades after Hoffa vanished, his driver has claimed he knows where he is buried - and how he got there.
Marvin Elkind said Hoffa was killed by a mob enforcer and buried in the foundations of the towering General Motors' HQ in Detroit, Michigan.
Jimmy Hoffa, leader of the Teamsters labor union throughout the 1960s, went missing in 1975. His driver has claimed he was killed by a mobster.
Informant Marvin Elkind claims a mob boss insinuated Hoffa was buried at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan - now General Motors' HQ known as the Ren Cen by those in the auto industry.
'It was his own people who did it,' Mr Elkind said in excerpts of a new book published in the New York Post, adding Mafia member Tony Jack insinuated he was responsible.
The startling claim comes 36 years after Hoffa, who led the labor union for 13 years, vanished while on his way to meet two mobsters he knew well, Anthony Provenzano and Tony Jack - real name Anthony Giacalone.
The GM Renaissance Center was under construction when he disappeared.
Mr Elkind explains how, during a Teamsters conference in 1985, he was among a group of men walking from the city's Omni International when the Center came into view.
Tony Jack nodded toward the tower's base and said, 'Say good morning to Jimmy Hoffa, boys', Mr Elkind alleges in The Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob by Adrian Humphreys.
He also describes the rush to build the Renaissance Center following the disappearance of Hoffa - and claims the body was buried in wet cement.
'There was a mad rush to get the concrete poured,' the New York Post quotes the book as saying.
Hoffa was declared legally dead July 30, 1982, when he would have been 69.
He was a union stalwart, serving as its General President from 1958 to 1971 and playing a key part in its growth and development. During his term as its leader, membership surged to more than 1.5 million members, becoming the largest single union in the country.
As well as a role as Jimmy Hoffa's driver, Mr Elkind had careers as a loan collector, a boxer - and a police informant. He was working as a busboy in a Toronto restaurant frequented by Jimmy Hoffa's crew when he was poached as a driver.
Mr Elkind initially said he didn't want the job, but he was told: 'Nobody's asking you.'
He began testifying against the mob when police discovered he'd worked with a con man. They gave him an ultimatum - tell or be charged.
SNITCH SAYS JIMMY HOFFA IS BURIED UNDER GM HQ BUILDING
By Jerry Reynolds
The Car Pro Weekly
January 5, 2012
The disappearance of Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa remains one of America's most enduring mysteries, but now, nearly four decades after Hoffa vanished, his driver has claimed he knows where he is buried - and how he got there.
Marvin Elkind said Hoffa was killed by a mob enforcer and buried in the foundations of the towering General Motors' HQ in Detroit, Michigan.
Jimmy Hoffa, leader of the Teamsters labor union throughout the 1960s, went missing in 1975. His driver has claimed he was killed by a mobster.
Informant Marvin Elkind claims a mob boss insinuated Hoffa was buried at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan - now General Motors' HQ known as the Ren Cen by those in the auto industry.
'It was his own people who did it,' Mr Elkind said in excerpts of a new book published in the New York Post, adding Mafia member Tony Jack insinuated he was responsible.
The startling claim comes 36 years after Hoffa, who led the labor union for 13 years, vanished while on his way to meet two mobsters he knew well, Anthony Provenzano and Tony Jack - real name Anthony Giacalone.
The GM Renaissance Center was under construction when he disappeared.
Mr Elkind explains how, during a Teamsters conference in 1985, he was among a group of men walking from the city's Omni International when the Center came into view.
Tony Jack nodded toward the tower's base and said, 'Say good morning to Jimmy Hoffa, boys', Mr Elkind alleges in The Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob by Adrian Humphreys.
He also describes the rush to build the Renaissance Center following the disappearance of Hoffa - and claims the body was buried in wet cement.
'There was a mad rush to get the concrete poured,' the New York Post quotes the book as saying.
Hoffa was declared legally dead July 30, 1982, when he would have been 69.
He was a union stalwart, serving as its General President from 1958 to 1971 and playing a key part in its growth and development. During his term as its leader, membership surged to more than 1.5 million members, becoming the largest single union in the country.
As well as a role as Jimmy Hoffa's driver, Mr Elkind had careers as a loan collector, a boxer - and a police informant. He was working as a busboy in a Toronto restaurant frequented by Jimmy Hoffa's crew when he was poached as a driver.
Mr Elkind initially said he didn't want the job, but he was told: 'Nobody's asking you.'
He began testifying against the mob when police discovered he'd worked with a con man. They gave him an ultimatum - tell or be charged.
THE FEDERAL DEBT CEILING
Here's another way to look at the Debt Ceiling:
Let’s say you come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood.
Your home has sewage all the way up to your ceilings.
What do you think you should do? Raise the ceilings or pump out the shit?
Let’s say you come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood.
Your home has sewage all the way up to your ceilings.
What do you think you should do? Raise the ceilings or pump out the shit?
Thursday, January 05, 2012
WEEDING OUT POLICE APPLICANTS WHO ARE UNABLE TO WRITE INTELLIGIBLE REPORTS
Ask any cop what he dislikes most about his job and he’ll likely tell you it’s writing those damn police reports. And yet, those reports are crucial to good police work and to the successful prosecution of criminals.
The process of selecting police applicants is costly and time consuming. In most police agencies it begins with a written test, a physical exam and a physical agility test. If the applicant passes those tests, he will have to pass a polygraph examination. Then he will have a psychological evaluation. After that comes an extensive background check. So far the process may have taken several months to complete. If finally accepted, the recruit will attend a training academy that can last anywhere from 6-9 months. (Some agencies shorten the training period for graduates of a college criminal justice program.) If he passes the academy, the recruit will have to pass a 6-12 months probationary period under the supervision of a field training officer (FTO).
During the probationary field training phase it is not uncommon for a police agency to discover that it has recruited an applicant who cannot write acceptable police reports. Because of all the expense and time expended, the recruit who cannot write intelligibly is usually retained rather than dismissed.
Those reports should clearly tell readers, whether they are other officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys or probation officers, what the patrol officer or detective saw, did and discovered during an investigation. If the report is well written, the reader should be able to place himself in the shoes of the report writer as if he (the reader) were conducting the investigation himself. Poorly written reports, when scrutinized by outsiders, are an embarrassment to the agency and worse yet, they can result in failed prosecutions.
It has been my experience, both as an officer and as a criminal justice educator, that many high school graduates and even some college students are unable to write intelligibly. Unfortunately, many applicants with unacceptable writing skills have been allowed to enter the police service. A good part of the problem is that while there are plenty of whites who cannot write intelligibly, police agencies fear being accused of discriminating against minorities.
Police agencies can do something about those poor writing skills. The Riverside County (California) Sheriff's Department, had a unique way of weeding out applicants who were unable to express themselves well enough to write acceptable police reports.
After submitting an application and before being administered any tests - written, physical, psychological, polygraph - applicants were required to come into the recruitment office to write two one-page essays. In one essay the applicant had to write why they wanted to become a police officer and in the other essay the applicant had to describe the duties of a police officer.
The two essays would then be evaluated by a committee of officers to see if the applicant expressed himself well enough to write acceptable police reports. (Punctuation and spelling were not considered in the evaluation.) If the essays indicated that the applicant would not be able to write intelligible police reports, he/she was informed that his/her application had been rejected. He/she would be encouraged to take remedial writing courses at a local community college and upon completion of the courses, resubmit an application.
A significant number of applicants were rejected in this way. That allowed RCSD to save the time consuming and expensive tests and background checks of applicants who would be unable to write those all-important police reports intelligibly. And while the Al Sharpton types will scream that the writing tests discriminate against minorities, those essays are entirely race and gender neutral.
Retired Riverside County Sheriff Cois Byrd says, “It's a very simple, but honest test.” And he corrected me by adding, “'Terribull Spellink' does count, but minor errors are not a cut factor.”
In my experience and my research I have yet to come across a program that beats Riverside's for weeding out unqualified applicants without depending on the usual testing and background checks, as well as beyond. I hope the sheriff who succeeded Cois Byrd was smart enough not to scrap this unique application process.
The process of selecting police applicants is costly and time consuming. In most police agencies it begins with a written test, a physical exam and a physical agility test. If the applicant passes those tests, he will have to pass a polygraph examination. Then he will have a psychological evaluation. After that comes an extensive background check. So far the process may have taken several months to complete. If finally accepted, the recruit will attend a training academy that can last anywhere from 6-9 months. (Some agencies shorten the training period for graduates of a college criminal justice program.) If he passes the academy, the recruit will have to pass a 6-12 months probationary period under the supervision of a field training officer (FTO).
During the probationary field training phase it is not uncommon for a police agency to discover that it has recruited an applicant who cannot write acceptable police reports. Because of all the expense and time expended, the recruit who cannot write intelligibly is usually retained rather than dismissed.
Those reports should clearly tell readers, whether they are other officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys or probation officers, what the patrol officer or detective saw, did and discovered during an investigation. If the report is well written, the reader should be able to place himself in the shoes of the report writer as if he (the reader) were conducting the investigation himself. Poorly written reports, when scrutinized by outsiders, are an embarrassment to the agency and worse yet, they can result in failed prosecutions.
It has been my experience, both as an officer and as a criminal justice educator, that many high school graduates and even some college students are unable to write intelligibly. Unfortunately, many applicants with unacceptable writing skills have been allowed to enter the police service. A good part of the problem is that while there are plenty of whites who cannot write intelligibly, police agencies fear being accused of discriminating against minorities.
Police agencies can do something about those poor writing skills. The Riverside County (California) Sheriff's Department, had a unique way of weeding out applicants who were unable to express themselves well enough to write acceptable police reports.
After submitting an application and before being administered any tests - written, physical, psychological, polygraph - applicants were required to come into the recruitment office to write two one-page essays. In one essay the applicant had to write why they wanted to become a police officer and in the other essay the applicant had to describe the duties of a police officer.
The two essays would then be evaluated by a committee of officers to see if the applicant expressed himself well enough to write acceptable police reports. (Punctuation and spelling were not considered in the evaluation.) If the essays indicated that the applicant would not be able to write intelligible police reports, he/she was informed that his/her application had been rejected. He/she would be encouraged to take remedial writing courses at a local community college and upon completion of the courses, resubmit an application.
A significant number of applicants were rejected in this way. That allowed RCSD to save the time consuming and expensive tests and background checks of applicants who would be unable to write those all-important police reports intelligibly. And while the Al Sharpton types will scream that the writing tests discriminate against minorities, those essays are entirely race and gender neutral.
Retired Riverside County Sheriff Cois Byrd says, “It's a very simple, but honest test.” And he corrected me by adding, “'Terribull Spellink' does count, but minor errors are not a cut factor.”
In my experience and my research I have yet to come across a program that beats Riverside's for weeding out unqualified applicants without depending on the usual testing and background checks, as well as beyond. I hope the sheriff who succeeded Cois Byrd was smart enough not to scrap this unique application process.
A COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF A NUCLEAR POWER WHO HAS NEVER LED ANYTHING
By Ima Schmuck
The Schalotte
January 4, 2012
EDITORIAL
As editor of The Schalotte, I am really concerned about North Korea's appointment of the "dear leader", Kim Jung Ill's youngest son to be the new leader of North Korea-- a nuclear power!
After all, Kim Jung Un (pronounced Kim's young-un?) had NO military experience whatsoever before daddy made him a four-star general in the military. This is a snot-nose twerp who has never accomplished anything in his life that would even come close to military leadership: he hasn't even so much led a cub scout troop, coached a sports team, or commanded a military platoon.... So, setting that aside, next they make him their "beloved leader" of the country. Terrific!
Oh, crap! I'm sorry. I just remembered that we did the same thing here in the United States. In North Korea, the Commander-in-Chief is chosen by his predecessor. Here the people elect him. We took a community organizer who has never worn a uniform and made him Commander-in-Chief; a guy who has never led anything more than an ACORN demonstration and made him the leader of this country.
I'm sorry I brought Kim Jung Un up, never mind.
The Schalotte
January 4, 2012
EDITORIAL
As editor of The Schalotte, I am really concerned about North Korea's appointment of the "dear leader", Kim Jung Ill's youngest son to be the new leader of North Korea-- a nuclear power!
After all, Kim Jung Un (pronounced Kim's young-un?) had NO military experience whatsoever before daddy made him a four-star general in the military. This is a snot-nose twerp who has never accomplished anything in his life that would even come close to military leadership: he hasn't even so much led a cub scout troop, coached a sports team, or commanded a military platoon.... So, setting that aside, next they make him their "beloved leader" of the country. Terrific!
Oh, crap! I'm sorry. I just remembered that we did the same thing here in the United States. In North Korea, the Commander-in-Chief is chosen by his predecessor. Here the people elect him. We took a community organizer who has never worn a uniform and made him Commander-in-Chief; a guy who has never led anything more than an ACORN demonstration and made him the leader of this country.
I'm sorry I brought Kim Jung Un up, never mind.
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
TRAGIC DEATH OF PARK RANGER NO REASON TO REPEAL THE LAW ALLOWING PEOPLE TO TAKE LOADED WEAPONS INTO OUR NATIONAL PARKS
The tragic Mount Rainier National Park shooting death of Ranger Margaret Anderson at the hands of Benjamin Colton Barnes is being blamed on the law Congress passed in 2010 that allows people to take loaded weapons into national parks so long as the carrier is in compliance with state concealed weapons carry laws. The gun control crowd is calling for repeal of the law, citing Ranger Anderson’s death as the need for Congress to revisit the law.
My heart goes out to Ranger Anderson’s loved ones and her fellow park rangers. Her husband is also a MRNP ranger. But Anderson’s death has absolutely nothing to do with the law permitting people to take loaded weapons into our national parks. Calling for the repeal of the law on account of her death is sort of a cheap shot by the anti-gunners.
The only bright spot in this dark and dreary picture is the fact that Barnes froze to death in the icy waters of a MRNP creek. Now Anderson’s family will be spared the agony of sitting through a lengthy trial listening to his lawyers and their expert witnesses bullshit a jury about how Barnes got all fucked up in the Iraqi war and by a troubled childhood.
According to his family members, Barnes suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder following his deployment to Iraq in 2007-2008. Whether that’s true or not, a law prohibiting loaded firearms in our national parks would not have prevented Barnes from taking his arsenal into MRNP.
No law will ever prevent lawbreakers or the mentally deranged from carrying loaded firearms anywhere. Repeal of the law allowing people to take loaded weapons into our national parks will only hurt law abiding citizens, like those of Texas and other states, who have obtained concealed weapons carry permits. It is the pinnacle of idiocy to punish law abiding citizens for the acts of criminals and the mentally deranged.
My heart goes out to Ranger Anderson’s loved ones and her fellow park rangers. Her husband is also a MRNP ranger. But Anderson’s death has absolutely nothing to do with the law permitting people to take loaded weapons into our national parks. Calling for the repeal of the law on account of her death is sort of a cheap shot by the anti-gunners.
The only bright spot in this dark and dreary picture is the fact that Barnes froze to death in the icy waters of a MRNP creek. Now Anderson’s family will be spared the agony of sitting through a lengthy trial listening to his lawyers and their expert witnesses bullshit a jury about how Barnes got all fucked up in the Iraqi war and by a troubled childhood.
According to his family members, Barnes suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder following his deployment to Iraq in 2007-2008. Whether that’s true or not, a law prohibiting loaded firearms in our national parks would not have prevented Barnes from taking his arsenal into MRNP.
No law will ever prevent lawbreakers or the mentally deranged from carrying loaded firearms anywhere. Repeal of the law allowing people to take loaded weapons into our national parks will only hurt law abiding citizens, like those of Texas and other states, who have obtained concealed weapons carry permits. It is the pinnacle of idiocy to punish law abiding citizens for the acts of criminals and the mentally deranged.
DOGGONE THAT DOGGONE DOG
It seems to me that since the dog was outside the house when he sniffed the marijuana coming from inside the house, the cops were not intruding on the sanctity of the home.
SUPREME COURT MAY PONDER K-9 SNIFF
The nation’s high court has previously said a home deserves special protection from law enforcement searches
By Curt Anderson
Associated Press
January 3, 2012
MIAMI — The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether a Florida police K-9's sniff outside the front door of a marijuana grow house violates the Constitution.
Florida's attorney general wants the justices to reverse a state Supreme Court ruling that the dog's sniff violates the sanctity of the home.
The nation's high court has previously said a home deserves special protection from law enforcement searches. Lawyers for Florida say a dog's nose is different because it detects only illegal activity that's not entitled to privacy.
The justices could decide later this month whether to take the case.
Law enforcement officials say a finding against the use of K-9s outside the home could jeopardize an essential police tool. But the state Supreme Court said police cannot cross that constitutional line.
SUPREME COURT MAY PONDER K-9 SNIFF
The nation’s high court has previously said a home deserves special protection from law enforcement searches
By Curt Anderson
Associated Press
January 3, 2012
MIAMI — The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether a Florida police K-9's sniff outside the front door of a marijuana grow house violates the Constitution.
Florida's attorney general wants the justices to reverse a state Supreme Court ruling that the dog's sniff violates the sanctity of the home.
The nation's high court has previously said a home deserves special protection from law enforcement searches. Lawyers for Florida say a dog's nose is different because it detects only illegal activity that's not entitled to privacy.
The justices could decide later this month whether to take the case.
Law enforcement officials say a finding against the use of K-9s outside the home could jeopardize an essential police tool. But the state Supreme Court said police cannot cross that constitutional line.
MEXICO LOSING THE WAR AGAINST ORGANIZED CRIME
Mexico is being torn apart with 12,000 deaths resulting from the drug war just in 2011. Compare that to the deaths of 4,800 U.S. soldiers and marines during the nearly nine years we were fighting in Iraq.
From Borderland Beat:
MEXICO’S DRUG-WAR DEAD: 12,000 IN 2011
An estimated 50,000 dead since 2006
by Sarah Childress
Global PostQue Pasa?
January 3, 2012
According to La Reforma, a major, respected daily, there were 12,359 deaths last year, which they say is a 6.3 percent increase from 2010. La Jornada, on the other hand, counted only, 11,890 deaths, which it said was a slight decrease from the year before.
Do those numbers really matter? Not really. What's most important is the public perception — that the drug war has only gotten worse since President Felipe Calderon put the cartels in his crosshairs in 2006.
You could even argue that it has failed. After five years, the fight has cost too much in blood and treasure — an estimated 50,000 dead over the entire period. That doesn't count the missing. Worse, Mexicans have very little to show for their sacrifice.
Instead of breaking the backs of the cartels, the drug gangs have spread further into Central America, hitting Costa Rica, Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala.
In Mexico, the drug war has sapped people's basic sense of security in cartel-controlled areas. Business owners pay bribes to keep the cartels at bay. Mexican security forces are accused of abusing civilians under the pretext of the drug-war battle. The cartels are no longer content to run their businesses in secret, and instead have become emboldened to do as they please.
They behead, disembowel, and string up their rivals. Or innocent civilians who by chance step into the crossfire. They have murdered people en masse. And they have done almost all of this with impunity.
What kind of country is it when this kind of violence can go unpunished so often it becomes banal?
The government response has been muted. Calderon's biggest PR push this year was to encourage tourism to Mexican resorts, which have been hit hard by the violence.
The government hasn't even released its own figures on the body count, despite promising to track deaths on its own.
49 KIDNAPPINGS PER DAY OCCURRED IN MEXICO IN 2011
Associated Press
January 3, 2012
An average of 49 kidnappings per day occurred in Mexico in 2011, marking a significant increase from the prior year, the Council for Law and Human Rights, or CLDH, said.
A total of 17,889 kidnappings occurred in Mexico last year, up 32 percent from the 13,505 abductions registered in 2010, the non-governmental organization said.
“It is important to note that official complaints to the authorities have remained at a rate of one for every 10 cases,” said CLDH president Fernando Ruiz in an e-mail.
The figures do not included “express kidnappings,” in which a victim is held for only a few hours, the CLDH said.
Hundreds of express kidnappings occur in Mexico City daily, with taxi drivers usually assisting the criminals, the NGO said.
Kidnapping gangs are increasingly using technology to target victims, and some criminals have negotiated the payment of ransom with victims’ relatives outside the country, the CLDH said.
“That is, some gangs of kidnappers have influence at the international level, making it impossible to obtain a partial identification of their members and capture them,” the NGO said.
The number of kidnapping cases in which police and soldiers were involved rose from 70 percent in the first half of 2011 to 80 percent in the second half of the year, the CLDH said.
“Their level of participation ranges from leaking information about a victim’s profile to providing protection during the actual kidnapping and directly carrying out the kidnapping,” Ruiz said.
About one-third of the kidnappers arrested by the Federal Police, according to official figures, have links to drug cartels.
The CLDH, which was founded in 1991, provides assistance to kidnapping and extortion victims, and works to root out corruption in the ranks of the police.
From Borderland Beat:
MEXICO’S DRUG-WAR DEAD: 12,000 IN 2011
An estimated 50,000 dead since 2006
by Sarah Childress
Global PostQue Pasa?
January 3, 2012
According to La Reforma, a major, respected daily, there were 12,359 deaths last year, which they say is a 6.3 percent increase from 2010. La Jornada, on the other hand, counted only, 11,890 deaths, which it said was a slight decrease from the year before.
Do those numbers really matter? Not really. What's most important is the public perception — that the drug war has only gotten worse since President Felipe Calderon put the cartels in his crosshairs in 2006.
You could even argue that it has failed. After five years, the fight has cost too much in blood and treasure — an estimated 50,000 dead over the entire period. That doesn't count the missing. Worse, Mexicans have very little to show for their sacrifice.
Instead of breaking the backs of the cartels, the drug gangs have spread further into Central America, hitting Costa Rica, Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala.
In Mexico, the drug war has sapped people's basic sense of security in cartel-controlled areas. Business owners pay bribes to keep the cartels at bay. Mexican security forces are accused of abusing civilians under the pretext of the drug-war battle. The cartels are no longer content to run their businesses in secret, and instead have become emboldened to do as they please.
They behead, disembowel, and string up their rivals. Or innocent civilians who by chance step into the crossfire. They have murdered people en masse. And they have done almost all of this with impunity.
What kind of country is it when this kind of violence can go unpunished so often it becomes banal?
The government response has been muted. Calderon's biggest PR push this year was to encourage tourism to Mexican resorts, which have been hit hard by the violence.
The government hasn't even released its own figures on the body count, despite promising to track deaths on its own.
49 KIDNAPPINGS PER DAY OCCURRED IN MEXICO IN 2011
Associated Press
January 3, 2012
An average of 49 kidnappings per day occurred in Mexico in 2011, marking a significant increase from the prior year, the Council for Law and Human Rights, or CLDH, said.
A total of 17,889 kidnappings occurred in Mexico last year, up 32 percent from the 13,505 abductions registered in 2010, the non-governmental organization said.
“It is important to note that official complaints to the authorities have remained at a rate of one for every 10 cases,” said CLDH president Fernando Ruiz in an e-mail.
The figures do not included “express kidnappings,” in which a victim is held for only a few hours, the CLDH said.
Hundreds of express kidnappings occur in Mexico City daily, with taxi drivers usually assisting the criminals, the NGO said.
Kidnapping gangs are increasingly using technology to target victims, and some criminals have negotiated the payment of ransom with victims’ relatives outside the country, the CLDH said.
“That is, some gangs of kidnappers have influence at the international level, making it impossible to obtain a partial identification of their members and capture them,” the NGO said.
The number of kidnapping cases in which police and soldiers were involved rose from 70 percent in the first half of 2011 to 80 percent in the second half of the year, the CLDH said.
“Their level of participation ranges from leaking information about a victim’s profile to providing protection during the actual kidnapping and directly carrying out the kidnapping,” Ruiz said.
About one-third of the kidnappers arrested by the Federal Police, according to official figures, have links to drug cartels.
The CLDH, which was founded in 1991, provides assistance to kidnapping and extortion victims, and works to root out corruption in the ranks of the police.
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
FOUR TOO MANY ZEROS
Chuck Shepherd says, “Once again, a genius tried to pass a piece of U.S. currency in an amount not even close to being legal tender, a $1 million bill, apparently expecting change of $999,524.22.”
And leave it up to Bob Walsh to refer to Walmart customers as Walmartians.
COPS: MAN TRIED TO USE $1 MILLION BILL AT WALMART
Associated Press
December 31, 2011
LEXINGTON, N.C. (AP) - Do you have change for a million-dollar bill?
Police say a North Carolina man insisted his million-dollar note was real when he was buying $476 worth of items at a Walmart.
Investigators told the Winston-Salem Journal that 53-year-old Michael Fuller tried to buy a vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven and other items. Store employees called police after his insistence that the bill was legit, and Fuller was arrested.
The largest bill in circulation is $100. The government stopped making bills of up to $10,000 in 1969.
Fuller was charged with attempting to obtain property by false pretense and uttering a forged instrument. He is in jail on a $17,500 bond, and it isn't clear if he has an attorney. He is scheduled to be in court today.
And leave it up to Bob Walsh to refer to Walmart customers as Walmartians.
COPS: MAN TRIED TO USE $1 MILLION BILL AT WALMART
Associated Press
December 31, 2011
LEXINGTON, N.C. (AP) - Do you have change for a million-dollar bill?
Police say a North Carolina man insisted his million-dollar note was real when he was buying $476 worth of items at a Walmart.
Investigators told the Winston-Salem Journal that 53-year-old Michael Fuller tried to buy a vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven and other items. Store employees called police after his insistence that the bill was legit, and Fuller was arrested.
The largest bill in circulation is $100. The government stopped making bills of up to $10,000 in 1969.
Fuller was charged with attempting to obtain property by false pretense and uttering a forged instrument. He is in jail on a $17,500 bond, and it isn't clear if he has an attorney. He is scheduled to be in court today.
HOMELAND SECURITY FUNDS AT WORK
Makes perfect sense to me. In addition to using the shaved ice for medical emergencies, the snow cones could be thrown at some terrorist. And it only cost the taxpayers $11,700.
CONE (HEADED) LOGIC FOR HOMELAND SECURITY
By Chuck Shepherd
Chuck Shepherd’s News of the Weird
December 28, 2011
A regional development commission in Michigan, purchasing equipment for 13 counties in May using homeland security grants, bought 13 machines that make snow cones, at a total cost of $11,700 (after rejecting one county's request for a popcorn machine).
Pressed to justify the purchases, officials pointed out that the machines make shaved ice, which might be useful for medical situations stemming from natural disasters and heat emergencies (but that they also make snow cones to draw crowds at homeland security demonstrations). [The Daily News (Montcalm County, Mich.), 12-3-2011]
CONE (HEADED) LOGIC FOR HOMELAND SECURITY
By Chuck Shepherd
Chuck Shepherd’s News of the Weird
December 28, 2011
A regional development commission in Michigan, purchasing equipment for 13 counties in May using homeland security grants, bought 13 machines that make snow cones, at a total cost of $11,700 (after rejecting one county's request for a popcorn machine).
Pressed to justify the purchases, officials pointed out that the machines make shaved ice, which might be useful for medical situations stemming from natural disasters and heat emergencies (but that they also make snow cones to draw crowds at homeland security demonstrations). [The Daily News (Montcalm County, Mich.), 12-3-2011]
CUSTOMERS PREFER A DISINTERESTED COLLEGE-AGE KID TO TAKE THEIR ORDERS RATHER THAN SOMEONE FRIENDLY
Customers want a ‘don’t give a shit’ atmosphere instead of a warm fuzzy caring kind.
NEIGHBORHOOD KIND OF HOPING PANERA BREAD SHOW UP AND PLOWS OVER CHARMING LOCAL BAKERY
Locals would prefer Panera Bread's familiar, corporate-designed logo to "a stupid, cozy storefront built by someone's own two hands."
The Onion
January 2, 2012
WORCESTER, MA—Residents of Worcester's Grafton Hill neighborhood acknowledged Monday they would not necessarily mind a Panera Bread franchise coming in and wiping out Callahan's, a charming, family-run bakery that has been a fixture of their community since 1964.
According to locals, the national restaurant chain would be just the thing to run the mom-and-pop establishment out of business, replacing Callahan's genuinely warm, welcoming atmosphere with the kind of impersonal, hassle-free cafŽ experience they have long desired.
"Callahan's really is lovely and all, but every time I'm in there I get roped into a 10-minute conversation about what's going on in the neighborhood, or the history of some recipe that's been in their family for generations," said patron Catherine New, 33, who told reporters the friendly older couple who owns the shop is always there, apparently working from open to close every single day. "It would be such a relief to walk in somewhere and have some disinterested college-age kid take my order without even making eye contact."
"They're nice at Callahan's, but they don't seem to get that this is only a business transaction," New continued. "I just want a cup of coffee. We're not friends."
A recent survey found that more than half of all Grafton Hill residents admitted they routinely drive to a Panera location in a neighboring town instead of simply walking down the block to Callahan's, 72 percent claimed they would prefer being alerted of their order's completion by a vibrating pager than by that one kind-faced woman who calls everyone "sweetheart," and four out of five said they "didn't give a shit" whether the ingredients in their panini were locally sourced.
Additionally, respondents unanimously agreed that, deep down, they didn't really care whether their food was prepared in a microwave or a 100-year-old brick oven so long as they could get their meal quickly, eat it in peace, and get on with their day.
"I don't want them remembering what I had yesterday—I don't want them to remember me at all," 46-year-old Colin Cady said. "Just give me the goddamn half-sandwich-and-cup-of-soup special and don't refer to it as 'the usual.' No good-natured joking around, no asking how my kids are doing, no offering me a complimentary jar of homemade fruit preserves—none of that shit."
Many customers derided the artisanal bakery's half dozen small wooden tables hand-built by the owner's father, stating they'd give anything to sit in a real fucking booth for a change, preferably as far away from other patrons as possible. Most also agreed the shop's mismatched glasses and mugs were "just plain awful," stating they would much prefer generic cardboard beverage cups with regular plastic lids so they could just grab their drink and get the fuck out of there.
"I don't want to think about how someone at Callahan's woke up at 3 a.m. to make all the pastries from scratch," said April Frye, 53, claiming the owners' heartbreakingly sincere utterances of "thank you" and "please come again" never fail to make her feel guilty. "I'd like to be able to buy a cappuccino and not have to worry about whether I'm being grateful enough for all the hard work they obvi¬ously put into it. You have no idea how many unwanted loaves of bread I've bought simply because I felt compelled to support a local business."
Added Frye, "God, I hope a Panera comes in and absolutely buries that quaint little place."
While most residents echoed Frye's sentiments, not everyone in the neighborhood agreed the existing establishment could be so easily unseated by a corporate rival.
"We've been a part of the community for decades, so we're not too worried about competition," said owner Alfred Callahan, Jr., 66, explaining he was proud to have built personal relationships with his patrons over the years. "We may not be too fancy, but everything we make here is traditionally prepared, and we like to think of our customers as part of the Callahan family."
"We truly care about everyone who walks through that door," Callahan added. "That's what sets us apart."
NEIGHBORHOOD KIND OF HOPING PANERA BREAD SHOW UP AND PLOWS OVER CHARMING LOCAL BAKERY
Locals would prefer Panera Bread's familiar, corporate-designed logo to "a stupid, cozy storefront built by someone's own two hands."
The Onion
January 2, 2012
WORCESTER, MA—Residents of Worcester's Grafton Hill neighborhood acknowledged Monday they would not necessarily mind a Panera Bread franchise coming in and wiping out Callahan's, a charming, family-run bakery that has been a fixture of their community since 1964.
According to locals, the national restaurant chain would be just the thing to run the mom-and-pop establishment out of business, replacing Callahan's genuinely warm, welcoming atmosphere with the kind of impersonal, hassle-free cafŽ experience they have long desired.
"Callahan's really is lovely and all, but every time I'm in there I get roped into a 10-minute conversation about what's going on in the neighborhood, or the history of some recipe that's been in their family for generations," said patron Catherine New, 33, who told reporters the friendly older couple who owns the shop is always there, apparently working from open to close every single day. "It would be such a relief to walk in somewhere and have some disinterested college-age kid take my order without even making eye contact."
"They're nice at Callahan's, but they don't seem to get that this is only a business transaction," New continued. "I just want a cup of coffee. We're not friends."
A recent survey found that more than half of all Grafton Hill residents admitted they routinely drive to a Panera location in a neighboring town instead of simply walking down the block to Callahan's, 72 percent claimed they would prefer being alerted of their order's completion by a vibrating pager than by that one kind-faced woman who calls everyone "sweetheart," and four out of five said they "didn't give a shit" whether the ingredients in their panini were locally sourced.
Additionally, respondents unanimously agreed that, deep down, they didn't really care whether their food was prepared in a microwave or a 100-year-old brick oven so long as they could get their meal quickly, eat it in peace, and get on with their day.
"I don't want them remembering what I had yesterday—I don't want them to remember me at all," 46-year-old Colin Cady said. "Just give me the goddamn half-sandwich-and-cup-of-soup special and don't refer to it as 'the usual.' No good-natured joking around, no asking how my kids are doing, no offering me a complimentary jar of homemade fruit preserves—none of that shit."
Many customers derided the artisanal bakery's half dozen small wooden tables hand-built by the owner's father, stating they'd give anything to sit in a real fucking booth for a change, preferably as far away from other patrons as possible. Most also agreed the shop's mismatched glasses and mugs were "just plain awful," stating they would much prefer generic cardboard beverage cups with regular plastic lids so they could just grab their drink and get the fuck out of there.
"I don't want to think about how someone at Callahan's woke up at 3 a.m. to make all the pastries from scratch," said April Frye, 53, claiming the owners' heartbreakingly sincere utterances of "thank you" and "please come again" never fail to make her feel guilty. "I'd like to be able to buy a cappuccino and not have to worry about whether I'm being grateful enough for all the hard work they obvi¬ously put into it. You have no idea how many unwanted loaves of bread I've bought simply because I felt compelled to support a local business."
Added Frye, "God, I hope a Panera comes in and absolutely buries that quaint little place."
While most residents echoed Frye's sentiments, not everyone in the neighborhood agreed the existing establishment could be so easily unseated by a corporate rival.
"We've been a part of the community for decades, so we're not too worried about competition," said owner Alfred Callahan, Jr., 66, explaining he was proud to have built personal relationships with his patrons over the years. "We may not be too fancy, but everything we make here is traditionally prepared, and we like to think of our customers as part of the Callahan family."
"We truly care about everyone who walks through that door," Callahan added. "That's what sets us apart."
Monday, January 02, 2012
IF NOT THE EXECUTION CHAMBER, HOW ABOUT THE SPECIAL OLYMPICS?
In Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that executing the mentally retarded violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments.
In 1998, Elroy Chester, now 42, raped two teen age girls in Port Arthur, Texas and murdered their uncle, Willie Ryman III, a firefighter. After deliberating for only eleven-and-a-half minutes, a jury sentenced him to death for the murder of Ryman.
His lawyers appealed, contending that Chester was mentally impaired and prohibited from being executed under U.S. Supreme Court rulings. On Friday, two judges on a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Chester was not mentally impaired and upheld his death sentence. The other judge agreed with Chester’s lawyers. The appellate process is certain to end up in the Supreme Court.
During his trial, Chester admitted killing Ryman after raping the firefighter's two nieces. According to the Houston Chronicle, he also told police he had killed four other people, including his brother-in-law. Chester was also suspected in five other shootings and three other rapes. On the witness stand, Chester said that if he had known one of his rape victims was only 10, he would have raped her mother instead. He also said: "If I hadn't shot my brother-in-law, I'd still be out there shooting white folks."
Let’s see now. This worthless vermin raped two teenage girls and murdered their uncle. Chester admitted killing four other people and is suspected in five other shootings and three other rapes. And he obviously hates 'white folks' too. Let’s suppose he really is mentally impaired. To that I say, so what! That’s right, so what! Mentally impaired or not, Chester does not deserve the right to exist among the living, even within the confines of a prison.
If Chester is mentally impaired, imprisoning him for life would seem to be much more cruel than executing him by putting him to sleep like a beloved pet dog. If he can’t be executed, instead of imprisoning this poor mentally impaired soul, why don’t they just release him to a group home for the mentally challenged, and then Chester can compete in the Special Olympics.
In 1998, Elroy Chester, now 42, raped two teen age girls in Port Arthur, Texas and murdered their uncle, Willie Ryman III, a firefighter. After deliberating for only eleven-and-a-half minutes, a jury sentenced him to death for the murder of Ryman.
His lawyers appealed, contending that Chester was mentally impaired and prohibited from being executed under U.S. Supreme Court rulings. On Friday, two judges on a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Chester was not mentally impaired and upheld his death sentence. The other judge agreed with Chester’s lawyers. The appellate process is certain to end up in the Supreme Court.
During his trial, Chester admitted killing Ryman after raping the firefighter's two nieces. According to the Houston Chronicle, he also told police he had killed four other people, including his brother-in-law. Chester was also suspected in five other shootings and three other rapes. On the witness stand, Chester said that if he had known one of his rape victims was only 10, he would have raped her mother instead. He also said: "If I hadn't shot my brother-in-law, I'd still be out there shooting white folks."
Let’s see now. This worthless vermin raped two teenage girls and murdered their uncle. Chester admitted killing four other people and is suspected in five other shootings and three other rapes. And he obviously hates 'white folks' too. Let’s suppose he really is mentally impaired. To that I say, so what! That’s right, so what! Mentally impaired or not, Chester does not deserve the right to exist among the living, even within the confines of a prison.
If Chester is mentally impaired, imprisoning him for life would seem to be much more cruel than executing him by putting him to sleep like a beloved pet dog. If he can’t be executed, instead of imprisoning this poor mentally impaired soul, why don’t they just release him to a group home for the mentally challenged, and then Chester can compete in the Special Olympics.
THE TROUBLE WITH OUR ADVERSARY JUSTICE SYSTEM
The trouble with our adversary justice system is that it lends itself to a ‘win at all costs’ mentality by attorneys on both sides. In criminal cases, that can lead to the unethical conduct of both prosecutors and defense attorneys. That is why I have to agree with the following op-ed written by Robert Fickaman, a Houston criminal defense lawyer.
STOP THE PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT
By Robert Fickman
Houston Chronicle
December 31, 2011
This year we have read story after story of egregious prosecutorial misconduct in Texas. Prosecutors have repeatedly robbed innocent men of their liberty. Texas must act to stop those in power from abusing that power.
In Burleson County, Anthony Graves' capital murder conviction was thrown out after he spent 18 years in prison. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Graves' prosecutor obtained the conviction in part by eliciting false statements from two witnesses and by withholding statements that might have helped Graves.
The current Burleson County District Attorney investigated and concluded Graves was an "innocent man." A special prosecutor concurred that there was no evidence linking Graves to the crime.
In Williamson County, Michael Morton's conviction for murdering his wife was recently overturned. Morton spent 25 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. DNA evidence cleared him and identified the likely actual perpetrator.
Morton's prosecutor appears to have withheld critical evidence from the defense. The defense was never told that Morton's child said, Morton was away when a "monster" committed the murder. Nor was the defense ever told that neighbors saw a stranger casing the house or that his wife's credit card was used in San Antonio days after her death.
Graves and Morton are now proven to be innocent men. These two men are our fellow Texans. They spent 43 years in Texas prisons for crimes they did not commit. As Texans, we must be outraged.
Our family members and our fellow Texans have paid in blood so that we may all be free. As Texans, we have fought too hard to now silently let anyone rob us or our neighbor of our God-given liberty.
It is past time for us to draw another line in the sand. Too many innocent men and women have had their liberty stolen by some puffed-up bureaucrat with a law degree. It's time to fight back and demand accountability.
What has become of the men who prosecuted Graves and Morton? What is their punishment for apparently fabricating and withholding evidence?
Have they been sent to jail, disbarred or hounded from our midst? No. Nothing has happened to them.
There is no punishment for them. Their lives go on unfettered. There is no accounting for their apparent raw inhumanity. None.
This needs to change. When a prosecutor willfully withholds exculpatory evidence in a murder case, he must be held to answer. When a prosecutor willfully fabricates evidence in a murder case, he must be held to account. Prosecutors who willfully falsify evidence to rob innocent men of their liberty must be held to answer under the law.
The next time the state Legislature meets we must demand accountability. The Legislature must enact stiff laws to punish those prosecutors who willfully break the law to rob men of their liberty. Nothing less is acceptable.
We dishonor the memory of those who paid the ultimate price for our liberty if we demand anything less to preserve that liberty.
STOP THE PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT
By Robert Fickman
Houston Chronicle
December 31, 2011
This year we have read story after story of egregious prosecutorial misconduct in Texas. Prosecutors have repeatedly robbed innocent men of their liberty. Texas must act to stop those in power from abusing that power.
In Burleson County, Anthony Graves' capital murder conviction was thrown out after he spent 18 years in prison. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Graves' prosecutor obtained the conviction in part by eliciting false statements from two witnesses and by withholding statements that might have helped Graves.
The current Burleson County District Attorney investigated and concluded Graves was an "innocent man." A special prosecutor concurred that there was no evidence linking Graves to the crime.
In Williamson County, Michael Morton's conviction for murdering his wife was recently overturned. Morton spent 25 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. DNA evidence cleared him and identified the likely actual perpetrator.
Morton's prosecutor appears to have withheld critical evidence from the defense. The defense was never told that Morton's child said, Morton was away when a "monster" committed the murder. Nor was the defense ever told that neighbors saw a stranger casing the house or that his wife's credit card was used in San Antonio days after her death.
Graves and Morton are now proven to be innocent men. These two men are our fellow Texans. They spent 43 years in Texas prisons for crimes they did not commit. As Texans, we must be outraged.
Our family members and our fellow Texans have paid in blood so that we may all be free. As Texans, we have fought too hard to now silently let anyone rob us or our neighbor of our God-given liberty.
It is past time for us to draw another line in the sand. Too many innocent men and women have had their liberty stolen by some puffed-up bureaucrat with a law degree. It's time to fight back and demand accountability.
What has become of the men who prosecuted Graves and Morton? What is their punishment for apparently fabricating and withholding evidence?
Have they been sent to jail, disbarred or hounded from our midst? No. Nothing has happened to them.
There is no punishment for them. Their lives go on unfettered. There is no accounting for their apparent raw inhumanity. None.
This needs to change. When a prosecutor willfully withholds exculpatory evidence in a murder case, he must be held to answer. When a prosecutor willfully fabricates evidence in a murder case, he must be held to account. Prosecutors who willfully falsify evidence to rob innocent men of their liberty must be held to answer under the law.
The next time the state Legislature meets we must demand accountability. The Legislature must enact stiff laws to punish those prosecutors who willfully break the law to rob men of their liberty. Nothing less is acceptable.
We dishonor the memory of those who paid the ultimate price for our liberty if we demand anything less to preserve that liberty.
GOLDSTEIN'S GOLF CLUB APPLICATION GETS REJECTED
Abe Goldstein, an elderly Scottish Jew, decides he can make better use of his leisure time by taking up golf. So he applies for membership at the local golf club. After a week he receives a message that his application has been rejected. So he goes down to the club to inquire why.
Club secretary: You are aware that this is a Scottish golf club?
Abe: Aye, but I am as Scottish as you are, MacTavish.
Secretary: This means that on formal occasions we wear the kilt.
Abe: Aye, so do I.
Secretary: You are aware that we wear nothing under the kilt?
Abe: Aye, neither do I.
Secretary: But you are a Jew?
Abe: Aye, that I be.
Secretary: So you are circumcised?
Abe: Aye, I be that too.
Secretary: I am terribly sorry, but the members just would not feel comfortable with that.
Abe: Ach, away with ya, man. I know that you have to be a Protestant to march with the Orangemen. And I know that you have to be a Catholic to join the Knights of Columbus. But this is the first time I’ve heard that you have to be a total prick to join a golf club.
Club secretary: You are aware that this is a Scottish golf club?
Abe: Aye, but I am as Scottish as you are, MacTavish.
Secretary: This means that on formal occasions we wear the kilt.
Abe: Aye, so do I.
Secretary: You are aware that we wear nothing under the kilt?
Abe: Aye, neither do I.
Secretary: But you are a Jew?
Abe: Aye, that I be.
Secretary: So you are circumcised?
Abe: Aye, I be that too.
Secretary: I am terribly sorry, but the members just would not feel comfortable with that.
Abe: Ach, away with ya, man. I know that you have to be a Protestant to march with the Orangemen. And I know that you have to be a Catholic to join the Knights of Columbus. But this is the first time I’ve heard that you have to be a total prick to join a golf club.
Sunday, January 01, 2012
CITIZEN'S ARREST MAY LEAD TO ALL-OUT WAR WITH THE TEACHERS UNION
Bob Walsh says, “Yeah, that doesn’t happen every day, but it did recently during a little set-to in the normally quite Lodi Unified School District.”
A little bump, seen by the police as a minor incident, led to a citizen’s arrest that may lead to an all-out war with the powerful teachers union.
SCHOOL BULLYING ALLEGATION TAKES BIZARRE TWIST
District to look into claim by vice principal against teacher
By Keith Reid
The Stockton Record
December 28, 2011
LODI - Lodi Unified officials will return in the New Year to investigate a bizarre situation stemming from the citizen's arrest of a middle school teacher by a school administrator.
Lodi Middle School Vice Principal Lurdes Rosales called police on Dec. 20, a day after she alleged that teacher Jon Lapachet "bumped" her during a class-time altercation, Lodi Police Lt. Fernando Martinez said.
Martinez said Lapachet, 58, was taken to the police station and later released on a misdemeanor battery citation.
Police consider the incident to be a "minor" one, Martinez said.
But the way it was reported - by school site administrators, who decided overnight to have Lapachet arrested instead of reporting the incident to the district office - could represent a breach of contract with the teachers union and could lead to a lengthy legal battle.
Union President Jeff Johnston said the citizen's arrest was taken by Rosales and Principal Patricia Lingerfelt "outside of protocol," and it was "highly unorthodox."
Johnston said the union has referred Lapachet to legal counsel. Neither the teacher nor the union is commenting until a school district investigation takes place and the issue moves through the courts. The district's investigation will not begin until after the two-week winter break, Trustee President Ron Heberle said. Classes resume Jan. 9.
"We are hoping the district attorney drops the case," Johnston said.
A message left at Lapachet's home was not returned.
The Record could not reach Lingerfelt or Rosales for comment, but both opened up about the incident last week to the Lodi News-Sentinel.
Rosales said that Lapachet blew a whistle in her ear during a physical-education class, and then bumped into her as he walked past her, forcing her to stumble. The incident was one of many acts of insubordination, Rosales said.
According to the newspaper article, Lingerfelt compared the vice principal's decision to make a citizen's arrest to the 1955 civil rights stand Rosa Parks took when she refused to sit in the back of a bus in Montgomery, Ala.
"The real story is why Mrs. Rosales exercised her right as an individual to make a citizen's arrest of an individual she believes committed an injustice to her," Lingerfelt said. "She knowingly put everything on the line, her career, professionalism, savings, character and integrity, to stand up for what she believes, to stand alone against one of the strongest labor unions in our nation, the California Teachers Association."
A little bump, seen by the police as a minor incident, led to a citizen’s arrest that may lead to an all-out war with the powerful teachers union.
SCHOOL BULLYING ALLEGATION TAKES BIZARRE TWIST
District to look into claim by vice principal against teacher
By Keith Reid
The Stockton Record
December 28, 2011
LODI - Lodi Unified officials will return in the New Year to investigate a bizarre situation stemming from the citizen's arrest of a middle school teacher by a school administrator.
Lodi Middle School Vice Principal Lurdes Rosales called police on Dec. 20, a day after she alleged that teacher Jon Lapachet "bumped" her during a class-time altercation, Lodi Police Lt. Fernando Martinez said.
Martinez said Lapachet, 58, was taken to the police station and later released on a misdemeanor battery citation.
Police consider the incident to be a "minor" one, Martinez said.
But the way it was reported - by school site administrators, who decided overnight to have Lapachet arrested instead of reporting the incident to the district office - could represent a breach of contract with the teachers union and could lead to a lengthy legal battle.
Union President Jeff Johnston said the citizen's arrest was taken by Rosales and Principal Patricia Lingerfelt "outside of protocol," and it was "highly unorthodox."
Johnston said the union has referred Lapachet to legal counsel. Neither the teacher nor the union is commenting until a school district investigation takes place and the issue moves through the courts. The district's investigation will not begin until after the two-week winter break, Trustee President Ron Heberle said. Classes resume Jan. 9.
"We are hoping the district attorney drops the case," Johnston said.
A message left at Lapachet's home was not returned.
The Record could not reach Lingerfelt or Rosales for comment, but both opened up about the incident last week to the Lodi News-Sentinel.
Rosales said that Lapachet blew a whistle in her ear during a physical-education class, and then bumped into her as he walked past her, forcing her to stumble. The incident was one of many acts of insubordination, Rosales said.
According to the newspaper article, Lingerfelt compared the vice principal's decision to make a citizen's arrest to the 1955 civil rights stand Rosa Parks took when she refused to sit in the back of a bus in Montgomery, Ala.
"The real story is why Mrs. Rosales exercised her right as an individual to make a citizen's arrest of an individual she believes committed an injustice to her," Lingerfelt said. "She knowingly put everything on the line, her career, professionalism, savings, character and integrity, to stand up for what she believes, to stand alone against one of the strongest labor unions in our nation, the California Teachers Association."
DIG THAT CHICK AT THE DEFENSE TABLE
Nice try, but that internet flirting bit didn’t work too well.
MAN KICKED OFF JURY FOR FACEBOOK FRIENDING THE ATTRACTIVE FEMALE DEFENDANT
Mail Online
December 31, 2011
A man has been kicked off a jury in a civil trial after he tried to Facebook friend one of the defendants.
Jacob Jock sent a friend request to Violetta Milerman after jury questioning and being placed in the jury pool for a personal injury lawsuit resulting from a traffic accident in Florida.
On his public Facebook page on December 12, Jock posted an update complaining about being called to jury duty, reports the The Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
He claims he made a mistake when he sent the friend request to the attractive defendant after using his smart phone to see whether he knew anyone involved in the trial - despite being warned by the judge not to use the internet to find out more on the trial.
'I accidentally friend requested her,' Jock, who has his own business JJ Custom Screen Printing, told the Herald Tribune.
'I didn't think it was a big deal. I didn't think I would get picked for the jury."
But he was selected to serve on the jury, and Milerman told her attorney about the friend request the next day.
Jock was dismissed on day two of the trial and immediately took to Facebook.
'Score ... I got dismissed!! apparently they frown upon sending a friend request to the defendant... haha,' Jock wrote, according to the Herald Tribune report.
Jock initially denied sending the friend request on the social networking site, according to attorneys in the case.
But then he said it must have been an accident.
An attorney on the case, Damian Mallard, told the Herald Tribune that Jock was 'very close to going to jail' for his actions.
Senior Circuit Judge Nancy Donnellan slammed him for violating her instructions on not to discuss the case or use the Internet to find out information.
Another juror was selected to take Jock's place.
Jurors in Texas and Britain who were caught out doing the same thing in the past have received community service and in some cases prison sentences.
MAN KICKED OFF JURY FOR FACEBOOK FRIENDING THE ATTRACTIVE FEMALE DEFENDANT
Mail Online
December 31, 2011
A man has been kicked off a jury in a civil trial after he tried to Facebook friend one of the defendants.
Jacob Jock sent a friend request to Violetta Milerman after jury questioning and being placed in the jury pool for a personal injury lawsuit resulting from a traffic accident in Florida.
On his public Facebook page on December 12, Jock posted an update complaining about being called to jury duty, reports the The Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
He claims he made a mistake when he sent the friend request to the attractive defendant after using his smart phone to see whether he knew anyone involved in the trial - despite being warned by the judge not to use the internet to find out more on the trial.
'I accidentally friend requested her,' Jock, who has his own business JJ Custom Screen Printing, told the Herald Tribune.
'I didn't think it was a big deal. I didn't think I would get picked for the jury."
But he was selected to serve on the jury, and Milerman told her attorney about the friend request the next day.
Jock was dismissed on day two of the trial and immediately took to Facebook.
'Score ... I got dismissed!! apparently they frown upon sending a friend request to the defendant... haha,' Jock wrote, according to the Herald Tribune report.
Jock initially denied sending the friend request on the social networking site, according to attorneys in the case.
But then he said it must have been an accident.
An attorney on the case, Damian Mallard, told the Herald Tribune that Jock was 'very close to going to jail' for his actions.
Senior Circuit Judge Nancy Donnellan slammed him for violating her instructions on not to discuss the case or use the Internet to find out information.
Another juror was selected to take Jock's place.
Jurors in Texas and Britain who were caught out doing the same thing in the past have received community service and in some cases prison sentences.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
MEDICAL POT PROPONENTS KEEP TRYING TO CON US
The proponents of medical pot, like the death penalty abolitionists, keep trying to con us with questionable, if not outright phony statistics in support of their cause.
Some pot proponents at the Rand Corporation severely damaged the reputation of that once highly thought of think tank with their phony claim that the closure of medical pot dispensaries led to an increase in crime.
Now we have a couple of pro-pot professors, one from Montana State University and the other from Colorado University, that have come out with a highly questionable study showing a decrease of traffic fatalities in the 13 states that have legalized medical marijuana – or should I say legalized marijuana?
There are two kinds of research. There are the unbiased scientific research studies and then there are the biased studies in which the researchers set out to prove what they themselves happen to believe.
RAND STUDY ON MEDICAL POT AMONG YEAR’S WORST, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SAYS
By Nick Schou
OC Weekly
December 29, 2011
Remember that Rand Corporation study from earlier this year that claimed crime actually increased in L.A. neighborhoods where cops closed medical marijuana dispensaries? The one that forgot to include crime statistics compiled by the Los Angeles Police Department?? The one that Rand had to retract because it was pretty much completely worthless???
Well, if you do, it will come as no surprise that the Santa Monica-based think tank's somewhat, uh, flawed, report is number five on Scientific American's list of 2011's biggest retractions.
But despair not, oh ye advocates of medical ganja, for the year's end brings great tidings of the many miracles this wondrous weed is visiting upon our land. Forget about crime, let's talk drunk driving! Oh wait, that's also a crime. But anyway, what was I saying? Ah yes, let's celebrate a brand new study that purports to show how states that have allowed the medical use of marijuana have seen a drop in both traffic fatalities and beer sales.
The report, by D. Mark Anderson, an economics professor with Montana Sate University, and the University of Colorado's Daniel Rees claims a 9 percent decrease in traffic-related deaths in the 13 states that had legalized medical marijuana as of 2009, according to an article in Montana's Missoulian newspaper. The report also shows that beer consumption in those states has decreased by five percent.
That's nice, although it doesn't necessarily mean that the dwindling beer drinkers are turning to pot rather than Maker's Mark or meth, for that matter. Moreover, the math on the traffic fatalities seems a little fuzzy, too. While the report shows a decrease in fatal accidents at nights and on weekends, when many drunk drivers typically roam the road, that's not the same as proving a direct correlation between medical marijuana and a drop in drunk driving.
In fact, as the newspaper points out, one of the report's own authors admits that the drop in traffic fatalities could be related to just about anything, including the simple possibility that fewer people are driving, which raises another compelling question for men and women of science: does smoking pot make you more likely to sit on your ass rather than leave your house?
Some pot proponents at the Rand Corporation severely damaged the reputation of that once highly thought of think tank with their phony claim that the closure of medical pot dispensaries led to an increase in crime.
Now we have a couple of pro-pot professors, one from Montana State University and the other from Colorado University, that have come out with a highly questionable study showing a decrease of traffic fatalities in the 13 states that have legalized medical marijuana – or should I say legalized marijuana?
There are two kinds of research. There are the unbiased scientific research studies and then there are the biased studies in which the researchers set out to prove what they themselves happen to believe.
RAND STUDY ON MEDICAL POT AMONG YEAR’S WORST, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SAYS
By Nick Schou
OC Weekly
December 29, 2011
Remember that Rand Corporation study from earlier this year that claimed crime actually increased in L.A. neighborhoods where cops closed medical marijuana dispensaries? The one that forgot to include crime statistics compiled by the Los Angeles Police Department?? The one that Rand had to retract because it was pretty much completely worthless???
Well, if you do, it will come as no surprise that the Santa Monica-based think tank's somewhat, uh, flawed, report is number five on Scientific American's list of 2011's biggest retractions.
But despair not, oh ye advocates of medical ganja, for the year's end brings great tidings of the many miracles this wondrous weed is visiting upon our land. Forget about crime, let's talk drunk driving! Oh wait, that's also a crime. But anyway, what was I saying? Ah yes, let's celebrate a brand new study that purports to show how states that have allowed the medical use of marijuana have seen a drop in both traffic fatalities and beer sales.
The report, by D. Mark Anderson, an economics professor with Montana Sate University, and the University of Colorado's Daniel Rees claims a 9 percent decrease in traffic-related deaths in the 13 states that had legalized medical marijuana as of 2009, according to an article in Montana's Missoulian newspaper. The report also shows that beer consumption in those states has decreased by five percent.
That's nice, although it doesn't necessarily mean that the dwindling beer drinkers are turning to pot rather than Maker's Mark or meth, for that matter. Moreover, the math on the traffic fatalities seems a little fuzzy, too. While the report shows a decrease in fatal accidents at nights and on weekends, when many drunk drivers typically roam the road, that's not the same as proving a direct correlation between medical marijuana and a drop in drunk driving.
In fact, as the newspaper points out, one of the report's own authors admits that the drop in traffic fatalities could be related to just about anything, including the simple possibility that fewer people are driving, which raises another compelling question for men and women of science: does smoking pot make you more likely to sit on your ass rather than leave your house?
PANTS-DRAGGING, HOODIE-WEARING MONSTERS
Psychiatrists and psychologists who are really good at making excuses for the behavior of miscreants and MSW (Master of Social Work) case workers are likely to puke if they read Rachel Raskin-Zrihen’s column. Good for her!
WHY THE WORLD SUCKS
By Rachel Raskin-Zrihen
politicalmavens.com
December 30, 2011
There have been 18 homicides in my town [in the San Francisco Bay area] so far this year.
That includes the assassination of a policeman in the line of duty last month, and the stabbing death of a 22-year-old kid who died today, on Christmas Eve.
Why do they keep killing each other?
Why can’t we stop behaving like barbarians?
On one hand, I don’t care who this guy was, what ethnicity or religion he belonged to, his family or financial situation ––there was no need to take his life violently and leave him to die alone in his car. I have two sons about that age, and the image of this happening to one of them has the power to send me over the edge.
On the other hand, if the kid turns out to have been a violent gangbanger with blood on his hands, then it’s really only a tragedy in that his was a life wasted, and his violent death put a damper on the holiday mood for the rest of us.
Except for his family, that is.
They probably consider it a tragedy no matter what kind of person he was. And depending on the nature of his family, they may seek to exact revenge, and we could see even more bloodshed here before the year is out.
And woe to the innocent bystander who happens to be in the way when that happens.
Really, I can’t tell you how tired I am of this antisocial, savage behavior among some of our young people. And we as a society had better get a handle on it before a higher power decides to do it for us.
There are warnings and cautionary tales all over sacred texts from nearly every religion about what happens when a culture gets out of control, and none of it is very pretty – Google Noah, or Sodom and Gomorrah, or fire and brimstone.
So, in a city of about 120,000 souls, 18 of them – that we know of – lost their lives at the hands of another human being – or a monster in human clothing – this year.
I wonder what number must be reached before some universal reaction is triggered.
So, we’re at 18 and holding at eight days and counting. Maybe some pants-dragging, hoodie-wearing, functionally illiterate, surly middle school drop-out can bring that number up. There’s still time. Why give up now?
And don’t give me that crap about they have crummy lives, so they take it out on society. There are too many examples of people whose lives sucked worse and who didn’t trash the world.
Don’t these creatures realize that if the world sucks, it’s because of people like them?
WHY THE WORLD SUCKS
By Rachel Raskin-Zrihen
politicalmavens.com
December 30, 2011
There have been 18 homicides in my town [in the San Francisco Bay area] so far this year.
That includes the assassination of a policeman in the line of duty last month, and the stabbing death of a 22-year-old kid who died today, on Christmas Eve.
Why do they keep killing each other?
Why can’t we stop behaving like barbarians?
On one hand, I don’t care who this guy was, what ethnicity or religion he belonged to, his family or financial situation ––there was no need to take his life violently and leave him to die alone in his car. I have two sons about that age, and the image of this happening to one of them has the power to send me over the edge.
On the other hand, if the kid turns out to have been a violent gangbanger with blood on his hands, then it’s really only a tragedy in that his was a life wasted, and his violent death put a damper on the holiday mood for the rest of us.
Except for his family, that is.
They probably consider it a tragedy no matter what kind of person he was. And depending on the nature of his family, they may seek to exact revenge, and we could see even more bloodshed here before the year is out.
And woe to the innocent bystander who happens to be in the way when that happens.
Really, I can’t tell you how tired I am of this antisocial, savage behavior among some of our young people. And we as a society had better get a handle on it before a higher power decides to do it for us.
There are warnings and cautionary tales all over sacred texts from nearly every religion about what happens when a culture gets out of control, and none of it is very pretty – Google Noah, or Sodom and Gomorrah, or fire and brimstone.
So, in a city of about 120,000 souls, 18 of them – that we know of – lost their lives at the hands of another human being – or a monster in human clothing – this year.
I wonder what number must be reached before some universal reaction is triggered.
So, we’re at 18 and holding at eight days and counting. Maybe some pants-dragging, hoodie-wearing, functionally illiterate, surly middle school drop-out can bring that number up. There’s still time. Why give up now?
And don’t give me that crap about they have crummy lives, so they take it out on society. There are too many examples of people whose lives sucked worse and who didn’t trash the world.
Don’t these creatures realize that if the world sucks, it’s because of people like them?
DID MEXICAN COPS KILL 'DEAR WONDERFUL DADDY'S' LITTLE GIRL?
“Dear Wonderful Daddy, I know we will make it there and back safely.” So wrote 13-year-old Cristina Hartsell to her imprisoned father about the family trip to Mexico.
It is quite possible, as the Zetas charge, that corrupt Mexican cops killed seven bus passengers in Veracruz, among them Cristina, her mother and another American.
From Borderland Beat:
ZETAS DENOUNCE MURDER OF AMERICANS IN VERACRUZ
Source: US Open Borders
December 30, 2011
The Zetas have placed a banner in Veracruz stating they are not responsible for the murders on passenger buses (which included 3 Americans).
Attacks were carried out which resulted in at least 7 deaths among buses traveling through Veracruz State. The Zeta banner states the killings were from the hands of corrupt police officers.
The Zetas have recently tried to scrap their horrible public image. Many other cartels have made it a priority to maintain respect within the people. The Zetas up to recent months have not done so. With their sole tactic of fear, instead of respect, they have not won the hearts of many. They have made it a personal issue to denounce their ties to terror, murders of innocents, and extortion.
Original message in Espanol:
“A TODO EL PUEBLO VERACRUZANO”NO SE DEJEN ENGANAR NO SOMOS SUS ENEMIGOSEL GOBIERNO HA PERMITIDO QUE MUERAN FAMILIAS VERACRUZANAS INOCENTES EN ESTA GUERREAQUE SOLO ES ENTRE ALGUNOS CARTELES. LA MUERTE DE TRES INTEGRANTES DE UNA FAMILIAEL 13 DE OCTUBRE EN MORALILLO Y EL ATENTADO A PASAJEROS DE LOSAUTOBUSES EL 22 DE DICIEMBRE NO FUERON CAUSADOS POR NOSOTROS.UN OFICIAL CORRUPTO DEL GOBIERNO FUE EL EJECUTOR DE LOS ATENTADOS;DISPARANDO SIN CONCIENCIA Y SIN IMPORTARLE LA VIDA DE INOCENTES.NO SOMOS CULPABLES DE ESAS TRAGEDIASSOMOS GENTE DEL PUEBLO Y SEGUIREMOS EN LA LUCHAATT: UNIDAD:Z
English Tranlation:
“TO ALL THE PEOPLE OF VERACRUZ” DO NOT BE DECEIVED WE ARE NOT YOUR ENEMY THE GOVERNMENT HAS ALLOWED INNOCENTs TO DIE IN THE WARS VERACRUZANA (of Veracruz) ONLY IS AMONG SOME POSTERS. THE DEATH OF THREE MEMBERS OF A FAMILY ON 13 OCTOBER IN MORALILLO AND THE ATTACK ON PASSENGERS BUSES ON 22 DECEMBER WE WERE NOT CAUSED BY ZETAS. A (police) OFFICER WAS CORRUPT GOVERNMENT OF EXECUTING THE ATTACKS; SHOOTING WITHOUT CONSCIENCE AND REGARDLESS OF THE INNOCENT LIFE.WE ARE NOT GUILTY OF THESE TRAGEDIES PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE AND WILL CONTINUE TO FIGHT ATT: UNIT: Z
It is quite possible, as the Zetas charge, that corrupt Mexican cops killed seven bus passengers in Veracruz, among them Cristina, her mother and another American.
From Borderland Beat:
ZETAS DENOUNCE MURDER OF AMERICANS IN VERACRUZ
Source: US Open Borders
December 30, 2011
The Zetas have placed a banner in Veracruz stating they are not responsible for the murders on passenger buses (which included 3 Americans).
Attacks were carried out which resulted in at least 7 deaths among buses traveling through Veracruz State. The Zeta banner states the killings were from the hands of corrupt police officers.
The Zetas have recently tried to scrap their horrible public image. Many other cartels have made it a priority to maintain respect within the people. The Zetas up to recent months have not done so. With their sole tactic of fear, instead of respect, they have not won the hearts of many. They have made it a personal issue to denounce their ties to terror, murders of innocents, and extortion.
Original message in Espanol:
“A TODO EL PUEBLO VERACRUZANO”NO SE DEJEN ENGANAR NO SOMOS SUS ENEMIGOSEL GOBIERNO HA PERMITIDO QUE MUERAN FAMILIAS VERACRUZANAS INOCENTES EN ESTA GUERREAQUE SOLO ES ENTRE ALGUNOS CARTELES. LA MUERTE DE TRES INTEGRANTES DE UNA FAMILIAEL 13 DE OCTUBRE EN MORALILLO Y EL ATENTADO A PASAJEROS DE LOSAUTOBUSES EL 22 DE DICIEMBRE NO FUERON CAUSADOS POR NOSOTROS.UN OFICIAL CORRUPTO DEL GOBIERNO FUE EL EJECUTOR DE LOS ATENTADOS;DISPARANDO SIN CONCIENCIA Y SIN IMPORTARLE LA VIDA DE INOCENTES.NO SOMOS CULPABLES DE ESAS TRAGEDIASSOMOS GENTE DEL PUEBLO Y SEGUIREMOS EN LA LUCHAATT: UNIDAD:Z
English Tranlation:
“TO ALL THE PEOPLE OF VERACRUZ” DO NOT BE DECEIVED WE ARE NOT YOUR ENEMY THE GOVERNMENT HAS ALLOWED INNOCENTs TO DIE IN THE WARS VERACRUZANA (of Veracruz) ONLY IS AMONG SOME POSTERS. THE DEATH OF THREE MEMBERS OF A FAMILY ON 13 OCTOBER IN MORALILLO AND THE ATTACK ON PASSENGERS BUSES ON 22 DECEMBER WE WERE NOT CAUSED BY ZETAS. A (police) OFFICER WAS CORRUPT GOVERNMENT OF EXECUTING THE ATTACKS; SHOOTING WITHOUT CONSCIENCE AND REGARDLESS OF THE INNOCENT LIFE.WE ARE NOT GUILTY OF THESE TRAGEDIES PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE AND WILL CONTINUE TO FIGHT ATT: UNIT: Z
THE AMAZING LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON
Thomas Jefferson was a very remarkable man who started learning very early in life and never stopped.
At 5, began studying under his cousin's tutor.
At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.
At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.
At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.
At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.
At 23, started his own law practice.
At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America and retired from his law practice.
At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.
At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence .
At 33, took three years to revise Virginia 's legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.
At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia , succeeding Patrick Henry.
At 40, served in Congress for two years.
At 41, was the American minister to France , and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.
At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.
At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.
At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions, and became the active head of Republican Party.
At 57, was elected the third president of the United States .
At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase , doubling the nation's size.
At 61, was elected to a second term as President.
At 65, retired to Monticello .
At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.
At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia , and served as its first president.
At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, along with John Adams
At 5, began studying under his cousin's tutor.
At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.
At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.
At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.
At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.
At 23, started his own law practice.
At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America and retired from his law practice.
At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.
At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence .
At 33, took three years to revise Virginia 's legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.
At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia , succeeding Patrick Henry.
At 40, served in Congress for two years.
At 41, was the American minister to France , and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.
At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.
At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.
At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions, and became the active head of Republican Party.
At 57, was elected the third president of the United States .
At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase , doubling the nation's size.
At 61, was elected to a second term as President.
At 65, retired to Monticello .
At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.
At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia , and served as its first president.
At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, along with John Adams
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S WISDOM
John F. Kennedy once held a dinner in the White House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." Here’s why:
"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe ." -- Thomas Jefferson
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world." -- Thomas Jefferson
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." -- Thomas Jefferson
"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." -- Thomas Jefferson
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -- Thomas Jefferson
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -- Thomas Jefferson
"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." -- Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson said in 1802: "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe ." -- Thomas Jefferson
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world." -- Thomas Jefferson
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." -- Thomas Jefferson
"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." -- Thomas Jefferson
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -- Thomas Jefferson
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -- Thomas Jefferson
"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." -- Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson said in 1802: "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
Friday, December 30, 2011
WHAT WOULD GEORGE PATTON SAY?
General George Patton, nicknamed 'Old Blood and Guts', was thought by many to be America's greatest war general, but was ridiculed by some who accused him of being too callous, uncaring and hardened by war. He was, nonetheless, the most decorated army officer of WWII, honored to the extent that he was unable to display all of the medals, ribbons, medallions and campaign sashes together on his dress uniform.
Imagine for a moment General George Patton addressing everyone today as outlined below...... He sure had a unique way of expressing his thoughts.
This is how General George S. Patton would sum things up.... and then catch holy hell from Ike:
ATTENTION!
To ALL those whining, pathetic panty-waist Citizens, it's time for a little refresher course on exactly why we Americans occasionally have to fight wars to keep this nation great.
See if you can tear yourself away from your "reality" TV and Starbucks for a minute, pull your head out of your ass -- and LISTEN UP!!
Abu Ghraib is not "torture" or an "atrocity."
Got that ?
The beheadings of Americans and 9/11 are atrocities!!!
WHICH PART DON'T YOU GET?
Islam Extremists are peaceful people? My Ass! Millions of these warped misled sons-of-bitches are plotting, as we speak, to destroy our country and our way of life any way they can. Some of them are here among us now!
They don't want to convert you and don't want to rule you. They believe you are a vile infestation of Allah's paradise. They don't give a shit how "progressive" you are, how peace-loving you are, or how much you sympathize with their cause.
They want your ass dead, and they think it is God's will for them to do it.
Some think if we give them a hug or listen to them, then they'll like us, and if you agree –
Then you are a pathetic dumb ass!
If they manage to get their hands on a nuke, chemical agents, or even some anthrax -- you will wish to God we had hunted them down and killed THEM while we had the chance.
How many more Americans must be beheaded? You've fallen asleep AGAIN - get your head out of your ass! You may never get another chance!
NOW GET OFF YOUR SORRY ASS and pass this on to any and every person you give a damn about - if you ever gave a damn about anything!
DISMISSED!
Imagine for a moment General George Patton addressing everyone today as outlined below...... He sure had a unique way of expressing his thoughts.
This is how General George S. Patton would sum things up.... and then catch holy hell from Ike:
ATTENTION!
To ALL those whining, pathetic panty-waist Citizens, it's time for a little refresher course on exactly why we Americans occasionally have to fight wars to keep this nation great.
See if you can tear yourself away from your "reality" TV and Starbucks for a minute, pull your head out of your ass -- and LISTEN UP!!
Abu Ghraib is not "torture" or an "atrocity."
Got that ?
The beheadings of Americans and 9/11 are atrocities!!!
WHICH PART DON'T YOU GET?
Islam Extremists are peaceful people? My Ass! Millions of these warped misled sons-of-bitches are plotting, as we speak, to destroy our country and our way of life any way they can. Some of them are here among us now!
They don't want to convert you and don't want to rule you. They believe you are a vile infestation of Allah's paradise. They don't give a shit how "progressive" you are, how peace-loving you are, or how much you sympathize with their cause.
They want your ass dead, and they think it is God's will for them to do it.
Some think if we give them a hug or listen to them, then they'll like us, and if you agree –
Then you are a pathetic dumb ass!
If they manage to get their hands on a nuke, chemical agents, or even some anthrax -- you will wish to God we had hunted them down and killed THEM while we had the chance.
How many more Americans must be beheaded? You've fallen asleep AGAIN - get your head out of your ass! You may never get another chance!
NOW GET OFF YOUR SORRY ASS and pass this on to any and every person you give a damn about - if you ever gave a damn about anything!
DISMISSED!
MISLEADING DEATH PENALTY COST CLAIMS
The anti-death penalty crowd seems to be scoring points with their misleading cost figures. They’ve conned some California legislators and the public, which may very well vote to abolish California’s ultimate penalty. The problem with the Golden State is that there are more than 700 scumbags roosting on death row and when you figure in the cost of fighting their appeals, that is costly indeed.
Dorina Lisson, still passionately engaged in the fight to abolish capital punishment, sent me the following piece of propaganda:
GRIM REAPINGS: HOW THE COST OF U.S. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ADDS UP
A number of US states are debating whether to abolish the death penalty in light of rising costs.
But how much does it cost to put a person to death?
Capital punishment in the US costs, on average, $1.9m more per case than life without parole.
California has the most expensive death penalty system of any state in the US.
With 721 people on death row but only 13 executions since 1978, the state has spent $4bn more than it would have if capital punishment were not available there.
(source: The Guardian)
Now here is why those cost figures are misleading. The biggest cost associated with the death penalty is what it costs to fight the endless appeals that are filed while a murderer sits on death row. The death row custodial costs are somewhat higher than those for the regular prison population. But as for those sentenced to life without parole, when you add up what it costs to keep them in prison for 30 or more years, it will cost more for a lifer than for an inmate awaiting execution. We’re still talking about millions of dollars to maintain those lifers.
California’s predicament is self-inflicted. The reason there are more than 700 scumbags roosting on death row is because the state’s appellate judges keep finding excuses to prevent any executions from taking place.
In the last few years, most of those executed in Texas had been on death row 8 – 10 years. Had they been sentenced to life without parole and lived for 30 – 40 years, the cost of maintaining them in the joint for life would far exceed the cost of keeping them on death row for 10 years, including the cost of fighting their appeals.
So, those figures in 'Grim Reapings' don't add up and you can bet the abolitionists behind this phony propaganda damn well know it! The costs associated with the death penalty, when figured on a yearly basis for each individual person condemned to death, are a mere drop in the bucket of an annual state budget. Citing those costs as a good reason to abolish capital punishment is nothing more than one big con job!
Dorina Lisson, still passionately engaged in the fight to abolish capital punishment, sent me the following piece of propaganda:
GRIM REAPINGS: HOW THE COST OF U.S. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ADDS UP
A number of US states are debating whether to abolish the death penalty in light of rising costs.
But how much does it cost to put a person to death?
Capital punishment in the US costs, on average, $1.9m more per case than life without parole.
California has the most expensive death penalty system of any state in the US.
With 721 people on death row but only 13 executions since 1978, the state has spent $4bn more than it would have if capital punishment were not available there.
(source: The Guardian)
Now here is why those cost figures are misleading. The biggest cost associated with the death penalty is what it costs to fight the endless appeals that are filed while a murderer sits on death row. The death row custodial costs are somewhat higher than those for the regular prison population. But as for those sentenced to life without parole, when you add up what it costs to keep them in prison for 30 or more years, it will cost more for a lifer than for an inmate awaiting execution. We’re still talking about millions of dollars to maintain those lifers.
California’s predicament is self-inflicted. The reason there are more than 700 scumbags roosting on death row is because the state’s appellate judges keep finding excuses to prevent any executions from taking place.
In the last few years, most of those executed in Texas had been on death row 8 – 10 years. Had they been sentenced to life without parole and lived for 30 – 40 years, the cost of maintaining them in the joint for life would far exceed the cost of keeping them on death row for 10 years, including the cost of fighting their appeals.
So, those figures in 'Grim Reapings' don't add up and you can bet the abolitionists behind this phony propaganda damn well know it! The costs associated with the death penalty, when figured on a yearly basis for each individual person condemned to death, are a mere drop in the bucket of an annual state budget. Citing those costs as a good reason to abolish capital punishment is nothing more than one big con job!
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