Sunday, October 29, 2006

Take A Minute...

Take a minute in your busy lives to give a small prayer of thanks for the men and women of our armed forces. And while you're at it, think about this young man and the Eagle Lake, Texas, family who still grieves for him.

His name is Clint Gertson (he is with God, he still has his name). He served as a sniper in a Stryker Brigade. He was killed in Mosul, Iraq, on 19 FEB 05.

Cookie over to the Cook Shack knows the family; they are outstanding Americans, you know the type - average hardworking citizens - and would appreciate your acknowledgement of their son/brother's sacrifice. The Gertson's have another son, Matt, who also served in Iraq as a medic.

So humor me, take a walk over to the Cook Shack where there is a brief tribute to the memory of Clint Gertson and drop a line for these folks. Let them know that their loss was our gain, and that we share their grief. And let me know how you like the Taco Soup recipe.

Carmen

The wife and I went to see the opera "Carmen"(by Georges Bizet), on Friday night. It was excellent and it played to a packed house. There are only two performances, Friday night and Sunday afternoon.

Last Wednesday was Bizet's birthday (October 25, 1838) and the local radio classical music station played a special selection of his music to honor him. I looked up Bizet and was surprised to learn that he died at the age of 36. He was a genius, a child prodigy. He died in 1875, several months after his greatest work, "Carmen", played to disappointing reviews, believing that it was a failure.

I really love the music to this opera; my favorites are the following (YouTube videos so give them a chance to load up):

L'amour est un oiseau (Habanero) - where Carmen first tempts Don Jose,
Près des remparts de Séville - where she persuades Don Jose to free her from jail,
Les tringles des sistres tintaient (The Gypsy Song) - where the gypsy girls dance in the tavern,
Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre (The Toreador Song) - sung by Escamillo, and
La fleur que tu m'avais jetée (The Flower Song) - where Don Jose pledges his love for Carmen.

Update: Most of the links were not working so I removed them from the post.

These are the lyrics to the Gypsy Song:

The rods of the sistrums
With a metallic brightness
And to this strange music
The gypsy girls get up.
Tambourines keep the beat
And the frenzied guitars
Grinding under persistant hands,
The same song, the same refrain,
Tra la la la.
Tra la la la.
Tra la la la.

Rings of copper and silver,
gleamed on brownish skin,
of orange and of red stripes,
the fabrics (of their garments) fluttered in the wind.
The dance to the song was wed ,
At first indecisive and timid,
more lively then and more rapid,
it climbed, climbed, climbed, climbed!
Tra la la la , etc.!

The gypsy men, with all their might
caused their instruments to rage,
And this dazzling uproar,
bewitched the gypsy women!
Beneath the rhythm of the song, ardent, crazy,
They let themselves, intoxicated,
Be carried away by the whirlwind!
Tra, la la la, etc.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Copper Jacketed Navel Lint and Other Concerns

I was over reading LawDog's blog regarding a female officer who wanted to take a day off because she didn't know how to change a tire and her dad and boyfriend couldn't do it for her. Another officer drove out to her house and told her how to do it.

I cannot get used to the way that some cops want to be coddled. Thirty some odd years ago it wasn't that way. But times have changed. I remember talking to a cop who was only on the job for two years when she'd had enough of police work. It was too hard and stressful. She ended up teaching in the academy.

Just before I retired, we had a female officer working on the third platoon (1500 - 2300) who told the shift sergeant that she couldn't work the road that day. She wanted to stay inside and man the front desk, handling walk-in complaints. When asked why she couldn't work her assigned beat, she stated that she couldn't wear her gun belt.

When asked why her gun belt was giving her problems, she stated that she just had her navel pierced and the stud post was making her sore. Therefore, she didn't want to wear her gun belt.

But I must admit, the navel piercing was a lovely accoutrement to her barbed wire tattoos.

I myself would have made her burn a furlough day but the Sergeant let her work inside that night.

Several months after that, my secretary came into my office with a frightened look on her face. Seems she had found a handgun in the lady's room. I entered the facility and, sure enough, there was an officer's duty pistol laying on the sink. I'll give you one guess as to whom that gun was issued to...

You got it, seems she didn't like wearing a gun whether her belly button was sore or not. Rather than a navel stud, she should have had a surgical steel eyelet embedded in her hip so the gun could be chained to her.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Rip 'Em Out

Between 1907 and 1983, approximately 65,000 peopel were forcibly sterilized in 33 States across the nation. Some criminals were sterilized but most sterilizations were forced upon mental patients and Native Americans. Starting in 1942 provisions of compulsory sterilization laws were declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court. The last forced sterilization occurred in 1981 in Oregon.

You may agree with the abolition of compulsory sterilization until you read this story about an Aussie mom who stopped performing CPR on her six month old son so she could have a cigarette break.
A methadone-addicted mother stopped for a cigarette while attempting to resuscitate her baby as instructions were relayed on the phone from a triple 0 operator, a Supreme Court jury was told yesterday.
Triple o must be similar to our 911 emergency communications system here in the States.

The child was born with a host of problems brought about by his mother's substance abuse:
Opiate-dependent at birth - his mother was a registered methadone user before and during her pregnancy - the baby spent his first six weeks in the neo-natal intensive care unit of Nepean Hospital, [...] Medical evidence would show that the baby died of methadone poisoning exacerbated by benzodiazepines ...
The last category of drugs are sedatives in the same family such as Valium and Halcion.

At least sterilization would stop crack whores and the like from having more kids. I have never believed that they should retain custody of these poor little children. So many boys grow up to be troubled adults, criminals and substance abusers themselves. As for some of the girls, their mothers' boyfriends rape and sodomize them even as young as one year old. Or they turn up dead at an early age like this one.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Back To The Future

Like the movie, the more you consider the attitudes of people indoctrinated under the precepts of Islam, the more you can see where these individuals are trying to return. This Australian news item further illustrates the 7th century mindset of Islam.
The nation's most senior Muslim cleric has blamed immodestly dressed women who don't wear Islamic headdress for being preyed on by men and likened them to abandoned "meat" that attracts voracious animals.
There is room for debate here, is the key ingredient the abandoned meat or the voracious animal? Chicken or the egg? But no matter, Australia's most senior cleric, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali , hits bottom and keeps right on digging.
[...]brutal attacks on four women for which a group of young Lebanese men received long jail sentences, Sheik Hilali said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and immodest dress ... "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years".
I wish we had some judges like that in the USA. There are far too few judges who are willing to lower the boom on men who brutalize women in this fashion. The Sheik's comments were made in response to a series of brutal gang rapes in Sydney where at least six woman (actually teenagers) were attacked by a group of Lebanese immigrants. The rapist ring leader, Bilal Skaf, was originally sentenced to 55 years in prison. This was reduced after an appeal.
In the religious address on adultery to about 500 worshippers in Sydney last month, Sheik Hilali said: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat?
Cats? What about dogs and flies? If you are looking for an appropriate metaphor for rapists, I believe "cats" falls somewhat below the horizon. My problem is that this nutcase who represents the worshippers of Allah throughout Australia, refers to women as inanimate pieces of flesh, possessing no will, no soul. Simply receptacles for whomever comes strolling by. Mohammed had at least sixteen wives. Perhaps this attitude is infectious.
"It is said in the state of zina (adultery), the responsibility falls 90 per cent of the time on the woman. Why? Because she possesses the weapon of enticement (igraa)."
Leave it to a fruitcake muslim cleric to rate an saucy look and lack of a headdress as more effective than a gun, a knife or closed fist in committing a crime. In all fairness the cleric, once the storm of criticism had reached a peak, backtracked like crazy, saying that in all circumstances a man must control himself. But the damage was done. One muslim woman said she was
"disgusted and offended" by sheik Hilali's comments. "I find it very offensive that a man who considers himself as a mufti, a leader of Australia's Muslims, can give comment that lacks intelligence and common sense."
This was said by Ms. Iktimal Hage-Ali , a Muslim advisor who has forsaken the wearing of the traditional headscarf (hijab). Ms. Hage-Ali also stated that:
[...] the Islamic headdress was not a "tool" worn to prevent rape and sexual harassment. "It's a symbol that readily identifies you as being Muslim, but just because you don't wear the headscarf doesn't mean that you're considered fresh meat for sale,"
That about sums it up. The Sheik's initial remarks were perhaps the most revealing about his attitudes towards women. Judging by the status of women in many muslim nations, it appears that this attitude is pretty dominant among muslim men.

Monday, October 23, 2006

A Look Into The Future

This is truly remarkable. It is a General Motors modular concept vehicle that runs on water. Watch the video (it's not the red Mazda although it is a beautiful car) and see for yourself.

This video should be shown on every tv station in America. Then watch the price of oil drop down to $20 a barrel.

I want this technology implemented asap! Then sit back and watch the OPEC nations cut their throats. Let them drink that slick black stuff 'cause they'll never get another dime from me!

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Never Have, Never Will

Even though I was an adult all through the 70's, I never owned a leisure suit.

I don't know why, but I just had to say that.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

More Bad News From Across The Pond

The Brits continue their slide into dhimmitude with more pandering to Islam.
Police in Manchester have been warned by their head office not to arrest Muslims wanted on warrants at prayer times during Ramadan.

Gee, are Catholics and Protestants going to get a free pass during the Christmas holiday?
An internal email from Greater Manchester police (GMP) tells officers in the metropolitan divisions to be 'sensitive' during the Muslim holy month.

Well, the police must not give the Religion Of Peace a reason to jump out of their skulls with rage and trash the city like they are doing to Paris, right? But God forbid a kid brings too many mini-cheese biscuits in his lunch.
Ramadan began at the end of September and is due to end with the holy festival of Eid-ul-Fitr next week.

And how are the fwench muzzies reacting to the so called holy month of Ramadumb? Burning 112 cars and assaulting 15 police officers EVERY DAY. That's how the followers of the peaceful prophet conduct themselves during their holy days.
The figures are stark. An average of 112 cars a day have been torched across France so far this year and there have been 15 attacks a day on police and emergency services. Nearly 3,000 police officers have been injured in clashes this year. Officers have been badly injured in four ambushes in the Paris outskirts since September. Some police talk of open war with youths who are bent on more than vandalism.

As far as I'm concerned, if they are in groups of more than three, shoot on sight.
“The thing that has changed over the past month is that they now want to kill us,” said Bruno Beschizza, the leader of Synergie, a union to which 40 per cent of officers belong. Action Police, a hardline union, said: “We are in a civil war, orchestrated by radical Islamists."

Our politicians are closing their eyes and whistling past the grave yard. If we continue to let these violent islamofacists immigrate to our country, we'll see the same thing. It's only a matter of time. This is their means of subjugating their host country. The likes of CAIR see to that. Islam must renounce violence and the killing of non-muslims before its followers can be allowed to settle in any civilized nations.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Texas Goblin Uses Speed Pass

Deciding he didn't have the courage to take the last gurney ride, a goblin goes with Plan B.

Texas inmate kills self day of execution

A death-row inmate slit his own throat with a makeshift knife early Thursday, committing suicide about 15 hours before he was scheduled to be executed, a prison official said.

Michael Dewayne Johnson, 29, was on death row for the 1995 killing of a convenience store clerk near Waco.

Early Thursday, he slashed his own throat and arm with a makeshift blade fashioned from a small piece of metal attached to a wooden stick, said Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville.
I only have two questions.
  1. Why not just save the taxpayers more money and issue all death row inmates razor blades in the "Welcome (to death row) Wagon Care Package". Think of about 10 years of food, lodging and medical bills for this scumbag they could have saved. But, we'll take what we can get.
  2. Can we negotiate Pay-Per-View on death row TeeVee?
Prison guards had been checking on Johnson's welfare every 15 minutes, as is customary, when they found him unresponsive in a pool of blood in his cell, Lyons said. He was taken to a hospital in nearby Livingston, where he was pronounced dead, Lyons said.
That's about the right timing for a good arterial exsanguination. Pizza for the COs.

"At a 2:30 a.m. check, Mr. Johnson was talking to prison staff, and had just eaten breakfast," Lyons said. "He had made noindications that he was contemplating suicide, nor has a note or other explanation been found."
I'm sure the staff is absolutely devastated. Poor goblin was just misunderstood and unappreciated, how terrible of the good citizens of the Lonestar State ensuring recidivist miscreants are dealt true justice.

Johnson's execution had been scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday. His last-minute appeal was still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

His was at least the seventh suicide on death row in Texas.
We strongly approve of death row suicide. Maybe there is an even faster track to ultimate justice.

In a recent prison interview, Johnson had denied gunning down 27-year-old Jeff Wetterman, who helped pump gas at the family store off Interstate 35 near Waco. Johnson blamed his companion, David Vest, for the killing.

"I never even saw the dude," Johnson said. "(Vest) jumped back into the car and we took off. He hollered: 'Go! Go! Go!'"
No remorse eh? Tell it to St. Peter , but I doubt you had a full hearing there either. Enjoy the weather, hope you brought along some SPF 1,000,000 sun block.

Vest blamed the shooting on Johnson, took an eight-year prison term in a plea deal and testified against his friend. Vest is now free.

Johnson's attorney Greg White argued in his client's Supreme Court appeal that Vest had admitted to the shooting but that the confession was improperly suppressed, depriving Johnson of a fair trial.
Hey Greg, you should check with your office. That last retainer you invoiced just became a write-off on your taxes.

Johnson would have been the 22nd Texas inmate executed this year. The state now has 390 people on death row.

I don't know about our great readers, but I'll count this as #22 with extra points for style to Texas.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

TSA - Slapping The Wrong People

For some reason, Move America Forward, has chosen to support a video that attacks the competency of America's transportation safety workers. I know a bunch of retired cops that do this work and they simply do what they are told.

My family went to the airport when one of my daughter's flew overseas in August. I can assure everyone reading this blog that the TSA employees at Syracuse International Airport did not behave in the manner so indicated on MAF's video. They were very polite, professional and courteous. And they did their job. Granted, my daughter was chosen to go through a random search, but there was nothing intrusive about it. I know because I watched.

I was given a pass to go sit with her at the gate until her plane left. I had to be searched also. Yes it was a pain to be scanned and take my sneaks off. But I didn't make the rules and neither did the people manning the stations.

There's plenty of blame to spread around any public agency no matter what the mission. But the grunts doing the work are merely following orders, and a lot of the TSA grunts are former military and cops who, if nothing else, know how to follow orders. If you have a problem with their orders, then go after the managers and executives who issue them, not the grunts who have to obey them.

Give us all a break MAF, eh?

The Road To Poverty: Update

Harry and Harriet had their baby last month, a beautiful little boy. We were one of the first people that they brought their baby to see. I found that very touching.

The baby is in good health. We heard that Harriet dropped out of her senior year in high school, but are not certain. Harry still has not worked on his GED, but he has a much better job with some good benefits. At least he is not working several minimum wage jobs. He has some odd notions about the responsibilities of fatherhood. I say nothing, my daughter carps at him though.

They have not married but are entertaining the notion. It's unbelieveable, but they both come from broken homes where the mother abandoned the children while they were infants and the father raised them.

And as it turns out, I recently discovered that one of my wife's cousins is married to one of Harriet's relatives.

My wife has a ton of cousins. If her cousins were ten dollar bills, I could retire right now.

Interplanetary Worming

Now it is official! We have polluted our planet so badly that it is affecting other bodies in our solar system! Even Mars is now facing dramatic climatic change!

Images provided by the new Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter offer clarity often better "than what you would see flying over the surface of the Earth from a commercial airliner," said Richard Zurek, a NASA scientist. Although the spacecraft did not start sending images back to earth until late Septemeber, these images show layers of ice and dust that indicate that changes to the Martian climate have occurred relatively recently.
"So what this is telling us is that at the north polar cap over the last 100,000, or so years, there has been a really dynamic history of change in climate that is recorded in the layers of ice, much like the way we would determine Earth's climate change by going back and looking at a core of ice in Greenland."

Since Man does not live on Mars, the only possible reason for this dramatic climate change is the environmental perturbations caused by Man on Earth. According to the Martian Ambassador, Al Gore, the biggest threat to any planetary system is the internal combustion engine. If we can change the climate on Mars with only two decades worth of SUV's on Earth, just think what we can do to Jupiter and Neptune in 100 years! We're gonna rock the star system!

We need to get up to speed on this...

As the gravitational pull of Mars is only 38 per cent of Earth's, a gallon of gas will go a lot further on the Red Planet. Go figure, a 7,213 pound military style H1 getting 12 miles per gallon on Earth will weigh only 2,741 pounds on Mars! Heck, a Toyota Prius loaded with fuzzy baby ducks weighs 2,857 pounds on Earth and gets over 50 mpg.

With that kind of weight differential we can have huge, high sulphur content bituminous coal-burning RV's bounding over virgin Martian soil killing baby Martian snail darters (whatever) on their way to a non-returnable, no deposit glass bottle dump site. As there is no rain on Mars, even an acid rain reeking of coal burning byproducts is better than nothing.

To take advantage of the news, Ford and General Motors announced a new line of concept MUV's (Martian Utility Vehicles) while AM General is introducing the Mummer M1 at the New York Auto Show this fall.

Auto manufacturers can really jack up the size of vehicles exported to Mars. Just think of driving while seated in one area code and the kids in the back seat sleeping in another.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

A Look Across The Pond

On a fairly regular basis I read a European blog called the Brussels Journal. What I read this morning falls in perfectly with the New York City Board of Health initiative to prohibit restaurants from using trans fatty acids in the preparation of food.

As all levels of government in the USA become more and more intrusive, we have but to take a glance at our European cousins to see what is in store for us as our personal freedoms continue to erode. This from the Brussels Journal:
A boy aged 10 has been banned from his school dining hall because his packed lunch broke the government's healthy eating guidelines.

Well we can't have that happen now, can we?
[...]because his lunch contained two snacks, instead of one.
Two! Two snacks! Ye Gods how are we to contain ourselves! Reminds me of the scene from "Oliver!" where the lad is threatened with punishment because he dared to ask for more.
Ryan's lunch consisted of a sandwich, fruit, fromage frais, cake, mini cheese biscuits and a bottle of water. The cake and the biscuits broke the snack limit.
Well. the limit's been broken all right, and it has nothing to do with baked goods. Why the carbohydrate deprived multitudes aren't seething and boiling right now is beyond me. Is there anyone who doesn't believe that if it were a Mooselimb child that wanted both rogig and topig snacks in his luncheon, nothing would have happened? Mini cheese biscuits? Thrown out of the dining hall for Criminal Possession of Goldfish?
They were discovered when a teacher checked his lunch box.
The UN Snacking Police are back from their star-studded tour of the Congo and are now exercising their particular skills in taking care of English schools. If threatened by mini cheese biscuits, the British Empire can now rest easy. If it comes to murder, rape and robbery, you're all on your own. But we already knew that...

Friday, October 13, 2006

Wrapping Up the Week

ITEM 1
Buffalo, just two hours west of here, set a new record for October snowfall with 22 inches of the white stuff falling within the last 24 hours. Over 100 miles of the NYS Thruway had to be closed. The City of Syracuse sent some snow removal equipment to help out. Winter's a coming.

ITEM 2
A recent article in the Post Standard reports that downstate NY counties pay the highest property taxes in the nation while Upstate NY counties pay the highest property taxes as a percentage of their homes' value.

In fact, Upstate New York counties made up nine of the nonpartisan Tax Foundation's Top 10 list of counties with high property taxes as a percentage of home values, out of 775 nationwide.


ITEM 3
Had another nosebleed at about 5 this morning but it stopped after a few minutes. Thank the Lord.

SUMMARY
Between nosebleeds, hemorrhoids, Upstate NY taxes and winters, there ain't a part of me not bleeding or freezing somewhere sometime.

No wonder NY has lost two Congressional seats due to declining population in the last census.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Mom Accused of Swinging Baby as a Weapon

tap..tap..tap...Is this thing on?.....ahh still working I see....ohh you're expecting a Post?

Sorry for the unconscionable lapse over here, not enough hours in the day, but I have applied for a special exemption to move into the 30 hour Men-In-Black day, so there is hope.

A woman used her 4-week-old baby as a weapon in a domestic dispute, swinging the infant through the air and striking her boyfriend with the child, authorities said.

The boy was in serious but stable condition Monday at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, police said.

"Never, never, never. I can never remember anything like this," District Attorney Bradley Foulk told the Erie Times-News.

Chytoria Graham, 27, of Erie, was charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and simple assault. She was held Monday in the Erie County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bail.



Doesn't sound like a high enough bond to me. That worthless excuse for a baby-factory should be on a $100,000 bond for that little trick. Obviously she isn't safe around anything remotely humanoid, let alone an infant.

The infant, whose name was not released, suffered a fractured skull and some bleeding in the brain, authorities said. His head hit Graham's boyfriend, the baby's father, police Lt. Dan Spizarny said.

Authorities removed four other children from Graham's home and placed them with the Erie County Office of Children and Youth, Foulk said.

Sorry, too angry just reading this to even be civil enough to post my thoughts.

Lets put is this way- Our society requires one to get a license to drive, but nothing is necessary to reproduce except functioning plumbing and a willing partner of the opposite sex.

A Bad Night

Back on September 23, I posted in reference to a wacky vice sting that went down in Syracuse. It even got mentioned on The Drudge Report. On that post I remembered my temporary assignment to vice back in the mid 80's and drew upon some of my experiences. This is another one of them. Remember when I told you, never, ever let the hooker in your car?

This is why.

Working the whore detail, many nights we would procure a different vehicle for the john to use in approaching a hooker. As I was the "Designated John" I would get a different used car every night. This way the hookers wouldn't recognize ("make") any particular car. When a vice car got made, every hooker downtown would know the make, model and plate number within hours. I was not allowed to carry police ID nor a weapon. All I could carry was a walkie talkie that I would hide under the front seat, but I had to keep it turned off when near a target.

If it was a slow night, say a Tuesday, a spotter car would sometimes go out and see where the hookers were operating. His car was usually made so the girls would look and point him out to each other and keep an eye out for him. Like a herd of tuna eyeballing the circling sharks. We'd have maybe three or four cars that did this on a regular basis, especially during warm weather. They'd call in the hookers and the John would respond. But they would not usually approach them. I was one of the guys that did that.

Well, on this particular night I was given a 1970-something Pontiac Grand AM to drive. It was a two door, automatic, power nothing POS (Plain Ordinary Sedan, if you please). One of the regular vice cops, Geoff, was my backup/spotter and he directed me to a corner where a notorious wackjob hooker was approaching traffic during the red lights. His job was to find a target, give me her description and any other information he may know about her. He would keep her in surveillance as I approached, observe the transaction and come to my assistance if he saw anything bad going down.

She was fresh out of the nuthouse and had wasted no time in returning to work. He told me her name was Carmen and said she was an EDP (Emotionally Disturbed Person). She was dangerous in that she had stabbed a john previously. Geoff also specifically reminded me, that whatever I do, don't let her in the car!

I acknowledged the message and went off the air, stashed the radio under the seat and drove up the block to the hooker, slow and easy like. I eyeballed her real good and drove by. I circled around the block and came around again, real slow, waiting to see if she'd give me a sign. She sure did. She almost came out of her clothes, frantically waving me around the corner. The EDP warning still very fresh in my mind, was getting stronger.

Carmen was on the right side of the car so I had to lean waaaay over (cars were a bit wider then) to roll down the window a bit to talk to her. She was a small, black woman, about 5'2", 110 lbs, frizzy disheveled hair, wearing shorts and a long sleeved sweat shirt, which was unusual on a hot August night. Most of the girls liked to display their wares to prospective customers, but not her, she just looked nuts. She didn't try in the least bit to look attractive. And she was far too eager to get a "date." We talked and made the deal very quickly. I told her I'd met her down the block behind a building and started to put the car in gear.

What should have happened next is this. Geoff, my back up, would see me give the high sign (I'd wave goodbye to the hooker) and alert the other cars. At least two vice cars and maybe a marked unit would swoop down and take her down to the salley port in booking. One officer would stash his car and accompany the transporting officer to booking. This way, no one is alone with the whore. One vice cop would stay to do the paper work and the others would go back into the target section for more arrests. When the paper work was completed, he'd call for someone to pick him up. He'd bring out the accusatory instruments for me to sign, or I'd do it at the end of the detail, prior to arraignment.

That didn't happen. Well it did, but not for a while.

As I skootched across the bench seat to get behind the steering wheel, Carmen looked up and spotted Geoff down the street. She panicked, reached in through the window with her skinny little arm, unlocked the door and slid in next to me. She said over and over, "The cops seen me! The cops seen me!"

I was a bit apprehensive myself. I'm thinking, "I hope the cops saw her!"

So I drive slowly down the street to the corner bar and she's getting very agitated, She starts yelling, "Go faster! Go faster!" while looking out the back window. I also have an eye on the rearview mirror hoping Geoff shows up behind me in the spotter car (an old Ford Fairlane - we had the crappiest cars imaginable).

Well, now she's cooking real good right next to me and I can almost see the steam rolling off her. Geoff's warning is ringing in my ears and I don't even have a tooth pick on me. On this day I'd only been married two years and I'm wondering what my wife will say if this goes down real bad. She worries about me and didn't like the idea of me working undercover, even on a temporary basis.

Geoff is close behind me now, flashing his lights, motioning me to pull over and the hooker is flipping. It's like I got a frigging circus act with an insane clown only six inches away from me and the ringmaster has fled the premises. And I know she likes to use a knife.

I pull in behind the bar and Geoff is right there behind me. The area we stopped in is a parking lot that wraps right a round a corner bar. There is easy access from either street. Since Geoff pulled in behind me I moved my car closer to the street just east of us, a rather well-traveled north/south route.

I turn to the nut act beside me and say, very calmly, "I'm a police officer and you're under arrest."

It was like she grew a dozen arms and legs and started dancing. I turn the car off, yank the keys and bail out of the car. Geoff is out and running to her side of the car. He hears the screaming and now she's out of the car like someone shoved a cactus up her ass and set the desert on fire.

We grab her arms trying to restrain her. We don't know if she is armed. We do know that she is like an eel. She is a wee bit of a girl and we're not out to hurt her. But we still must protect ourselves. I yell to Geoff, "You got cuffs?" He looks at me, looks at his car, looks at me again and I know the answer. "NO!"

"You got the walkie on you?" I ask. "NO!" is the answer.

"SHIT!" is my reply.

She is twisting and thrashing inside this large, loose sweatshirt and it is very hard to hold her without putting a lot of pressure on her arms. She throws herself right to the pavement, pushes her legs against us and comes completely out of her sweatshirt. And there is nothing else there.

At first I was surprised at the size...

But now she's up and running into the street. The busy street. She stops in the middle of the street all flopping around like and starts screaming, "Rape!! They're raping me!!!" Geoff and I run into traffic and try to pick her up and carry her off the road. But cars are stopping and people are getting out to see just what the hell two white guys and a half naked black women are fighting about.

Just at this point a sedan stops in front of us and about a half dozen of the largest males I have ever seen pile out and start towards us. I swear it was the entire Syracuse University defensive line. They looked young enough and big enough.

I have another question for Geoff, "Do you have your badge?" I really hated his answer.

Now I'm looking for backup 'cause I know Geoff called it in as soon as she crawled inside my car. Geoff is a great cop and knows his stuff. But I don't see any red flashing lights yet.

Now Geoff and I start screaming at the top of our lungs. "Police! She's under arrest! We're police! Get back in your cars or you're next! Get out of the road!" Of course the expletives are omitted.

This slows down the linebacker blitz and we carry her out of the road and now I see the troops arriving. The downtown cars pull in as well as one of the west side cars, six-eight, is there. A patrol supervisor arrives shortly thereafter as well as the vice detail supervisor. The whore is cuffed with her hands behind her back. The show is over and people start to leave.

So I thought. There is one more act to this circus.

John gets out of the marked patrol car that will transport Carmen (the hooker of note) to booking. John has worked downtown for years. He knows all the whores and they know John. John is a big fellow, low key, good sense of humor. The whores trust him and give him information to stay on his good side. John knows this hooker also. He is laughing as he gets out of his car, shaking his head at the situation. He is laughing as he puts his light uniform jacket around Carmen to cover her nakedness. He stops laughing when Carmen brings her hands from behind her back, over her head, grabs John by the front of his shirt and drives her knee right through his nuts and into his throat. Carmen's shoulders are double jointed.

There is another Carmen goose pile. This time when the cuffs go behind her back, another set is attached to the ass of her shorts. No more surprises.

John gets up off the asphalt rather gingerly and still offers to transport Carmen to booking. After about a half hour I also drop by booking. Carmen is in a holding cell. She recognizes me and wants to talk. She acts as if nothing ever happened, like I'm her best friend. I think she is bipolar. Carmen died a few years ago.

Not Up To Par: Part II

Well, the packing got yanked out of my honker this morning. It was a delightful experience. As it passed my line of sight, I checked the disgusting bloody wad to make sure that my eyeball wasn't still attached to it. The ENT doc was very, very nice and I am sure he is extraordinarily competent. But he wasn't very reassuring.

I was surprised to learn that these types of nosebleeds (epistaxis) are fairly common. The causes aren't completely understood. Obviously since my blood does not want to stay where it belongs (inside), this is an circulatory problem, specificially the carotid artery. There are two major branches of this artery, the internal and external. My problem lies with a lesser branch of the Internal Carotid Artery, which supplies blood to the nose. For some reason a portion(s) of the arterial wall has broken down. Why? Lots of different reasons:

Infection
Trauma
Allergic and non-allergic rhinitis
Hypertension
Use of "blood thinning medications"
Alcohol abuse
Less common causes include, tumors and inherited bleeding problems.

I don't have an infection.

I haven't been in a fight in many years so trauma is out. I never had my nose broken. The resident ENT in the ER asked me that because the top of my septum (the interior wall of the nose separating the nostrils) is screwy. I think it excited him.

I am not allergic to anything other than fools.

I do not have high blood pressure, except when I'm around fools.

I had recurring nosebleeds over two years ago and my cardiac doctor reduced my aspirin dosage from 325 mg (which is the normal adult tablet) to 81 mg (baby aspirin). I haven't been on Plavix for over five years and I take no other blood thinners.

I don't drink (stopped in 1979). No, I wasn't an alkie, I made a promise to God. I kept my end of it and so did He, Bless His Name.

I stopped smoking when I had my heart attack in 2001.

So far there is no evidence of a tumor and as far as I know, no one in my family has had bleeding problems. My mom was an only child after her brother and sister died from congenital birth defects. My uncle weighed almost 90 pounds when he died at age 5; he was 18 pounds at birth. My aunt died at the age of nine from a "hole in the heart." Back in the 30's there were no surgical procedures to correct this.

Too much sex ain't on the list and even if it was, I'd still be okay.

Maybe I just pissed my nose off.

The bleeding does seem to be under control for now. I can feel a seepage of some kind that is annoying and I am very congested, but at least that red crap isn't pouring out of my face. If it starts up again there is an escalating scale of more aggressive treatments that the doctor will use. They are:

Nasal Humiliation:
Using this technique reduces the nostril's self esteem. The ENT will call my right nostril names, comparing it to the other nostril – the “good” left nostril. He will tell it that I always loved the left one more than him.

He will stuff a box of Tampons up the right nostril and call it “The Girlie Hole.” “So Ya Wanna Bleeeeed?!?!?! Here ya go!!!” This treatment is very similar to what I just went through.

Nose Porn:
He will shock the nostril and force the artery to shrink by showing classic pornographic and horror nasal videos such as A Fist Full Of Tissues, Any Hole Will Do, Sinuses Gone Wild I & II, Kathy Does Kleenex, Sleepy and Grumpy Snuff Sneezy, and of course, Boogers: The Movie.

All kidding aside, he said I may have to be admitted for surgery. Out I go under a general anesthetic and they bring out the Deep Bore Sinus Excavator to really take a look at my upper plumbing.

I am so not looking forward to this.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Why Isn't This In The Front Page Of The Times?

This is why some investigations are better left to non-political offices. The New York Post reports that NYS Attorney General, Elliot Spitzer, who is also the Democratic cadidate for governor, has delivered a savage wrist slapping to the upper management of a not-for-profit organization that services needy children and the elderly in the Bronx. These disgusting excremental human beings made off with over $1.2 million in funds stolen from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club; two of them were sentenced to non-prison terms and a mere pittance in restitution. Four others were let off scot free - zip, zilch, nada. And they get to keep the money!

Hundreds of thousands of dollars were taken in no show jobs, expensive cars, home improvements and, in a brazen display of arrogance, the Director of the Club, Charles Rosen, used $875,000 of the not-for-profit's money as start up funds for the left wing radio network, Air America.

Meanwhile the health records of thousands of needy children were falsified and the elderly and inform were denied services to cover the theft.

It's reads like a shopping list for greedy pigs: $45,000 to renoavate their apartments, $36,000 to buy and store a new car, $1,500 in tennis lessons, over $6,000 in bathroom fixtures alone. And these pigs were making salaries of over $240,000 and $185,000 as the Director and Deputy Director!

But where is the outrage? It is precisely where you'd expect it from the liberal MSM... no where. There is no outrage, no reporting, no nothing as the Radio Equalizer reports on the findings of the NYC Department of Investigations.

Elliot Spitzer likes to portray himself as a tough prosecutor to the public. What happened here? Perhaps the voters should be asking Mr. Spitzer the same questions.

UPDATE:
The Daily News is covering this also. And the Times has it, although back in the regional news section.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Haven't Been Up To Par Lately

The past two weeks have been rough for me.

First, an abscessed tooth that required a root canal. For three days it felt like the top of my head was coming off. I was supposed to go in this morning for the final visit and a temporary filling, but instead wound up in the hospital. All over a nose bleed.

The blood running out of my nose woke me out of a sound sleep before six this morning and by eight I was in the emergency room. Unfortunately the meds I take for my heart attack also affect my clotting ability, at least that's what they tell me. I didn't leave the ER until after five pm; it took the hospital staff almost eight hours to stop the bleeding. I can't believe that someone can actually pack that much wadding into one little nostril.

And once again my head feels like some one is driving a railroad spike into it. I'll post later when I'm feeling better.

10/06/06 Update:
Much better, thank you all! I have to wait until Monday to have the ENT guy yank all the packing out. Still sleeping on the livingroom sofa though. It's just easier on my wife as I am up most of the night anyway. With two sleep deprived people in the same house it just wouldn't be safe...