Faith Of Their Fathers

Happy Father's Day. Hopefully even the secular media is starting to grasp just how important the role of fathers is in childrearing.

The following is an except from the June 3, 2007, Syracuse Post Standard. It is a message to every father who wants his children to grow up respecting the precepts of God.

Church attendance among men had already fallen to 43 percent in 1992, according to the Barna Group, which specializes in researching trends among Evangelicals. Then that number crashed to 28 percent in 1996...

The American numbers are sobering [...] but they are nowhere near as stunning as another set of statistics in an essay titled "The Demographic Characteristics of the Linguistic and Religious Groups in Switzerland," published in 2000 in a volume covering trends in several European nations. The numbers that trouble traditionalists come from a 1994 survey in which the Swiss government tried to determine how religious practices are carried down from one generation to another.

Apparently, if a father and mother were both faithful churchgoers, 33 percent of their children followed their example with another 41 percent attending on an irregular basis and a quarter shunning church altogether.

But what if the father had little or no faith? If the father was semiactive and the mother was a faithful worshipper, only 3 percent of their children became active church members and 59 percent were irregular in their worship attendance -- with the rest lost to the church altogether.

If the father never went to church while the mother was faithful, only 2 percent of the children became regular churchgoers and 37 percent were semiactive. Thus, more than 60 percent were lost.

The bottom line from the Swiss study is this:

IF THE FATHER DID NOT GO TO CHURCH, ONLY ONE CHILD IN 50 GREW UP TO BE AN ADULT WHO REGULARLY ATTENDED CHURCH.

THE STRENGTH OF THE MOTHER'S FAITH WAS IRRELEVANT.

More recent surveys in America (Rev. Rick Kingham, National Coalition of Men's Ministries) found that if a father made a decision to become a Christian, the rest of the family followed 93 percent of the time. If the mother made a similar decision, only 17 percent of the family followed her example.

"It seems that when a man takes that kind of spiritual stand, it usually affects everyone else in the whole constellation around him, including his family and even other men that he knows."

Men, are you regular church goers? Those beautiful young eyes of your children are watching you constantly and YOU provide the examples that guide them the rest of their lives.

Good Riddance

Mike Nifong has been disbarred.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A disciplinary committee said Saturday disgraced prosecutor Mike Nifong will be disbarred for his disastrous prosecution of three Duke University lacrosse players falsely accused of rape—a punishment the veteran prosecutor admitted was appropriate."

This matter has been a fiasco. There's no doubt about it," said committee chairman F. Lane Williamson.

This was no fiasco, it was an outrage. Nifong discredited the entire North Carolina criminal justice system by his actions. Nifong will literally be dragged from pillar to post by the legal community in retribution. And he'll deserve every second of it.

Don't Mess With the Young'uns

This is crazy. A tourist video captured a water buffalo calf getting snagged and mauled by a pride of lions, then a crocodile wants a piece of the calf and fights the lions for it, then the water buffalos come charging to the rescue. Watch this.

glumbert.com

Let's Kill That Server

I hate smart-mouthed servers who think they can handle any kind of traffic. It appears the Marines have one that thinks it is immortal.

I beg to differ!

From Blackfive:

What I want to be hearing is grunts of pain from RCT-6's PAO, as he hefts box after box of printed-out emails supporting our Marines. Since I'm not hearing any complaining yet, I think we need to do it harder.

You read how our Marines need, more than anything else, to hear that you love them. By God, you ought to. And according to my email, Col. Simcock "admonished" them into getting a separate email account set up for us, just hours after we started mailing. Let's fill it.

And that my friends is an order. This is the target:

RCT-6lettersfromh@gcemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil

I want that smartass server begging to have some one pull it's plug.

And everyone in the Armed Forces should please keep this in perspective, that the nutroots are incapable of retaining a clue, even if they use Superglue and a C-clamp.

She's Back

Last night we picked up our daughter at the airport. I can't believe how good it is to have her back home. All her sisters were there and we had balloons and flowers for her. The grandkids joined the party too.

She has a lot of pictures and stories about Egypt. I'll try to put some up on the blog.

I still can't believe how good it is to have her back home...

The Dims and Immigration

I wandered over to a link LC Scoot put up at democrats.org about something Fred Thompson said.

Mexican leaders apparently have an economic policy based on exporting their own citizens, while complaining about US immigration policies that are far less exclusionary than their own. The French jail perfectly nice people for politically incorrect comments, but scold us for holding terrorists at Guantanamo.

Russia, though, takes the cake. Here is a government apparently run by ex-KGB agents who have no problem blackmailing whole countries by turning the crank on their oil pipelines. They're not doing anything shady, they say. They can’t help it if their opponents are so notoriously accident-prone. Criticize these guys and you might accidentally drink a cup of tea laced with a few million dollars worth of deadly, and extremely rare, radioactive poison. Oppose the Russian leadership, and you could trip and fall off a tall building or stumble into the path of a bullet."

Now I have nothing to say about Fred's quote because I basically agree with everything in it. Of course the dems raised quite a stink, throwing names, feces and everything else except a reasoned response.

But in the give and take in the comments section I ran across Supersexyspacemonkey's response. Read this:

Afte 8 years of president Bush, I would not vote for Fred Thompson, or any Republican, to save my life. However, my political disposition is no excuse to sit by while this article attacks his comments. I say this as a Democrat, as an opponent of strict immigration policies, and as a Mexican-American dual citizen who lived in Mexico a quarter of his life:

He Is Absolutely Right.

Mexico indeed has a policy of exporting and exploiting its citizens, and treating them as both an economic and a political commodity, whilst benefitting economically from it, and tightening its own borders.

They export their citizens to avoid feeding them, avoid hiring them, and to keep the flow of US-earned dollars coming into Mexico as a sort of artificial welfare for the
country.

Immigration is, for Mexican politicians, what the "Global War on Terror" is for Republicans: an issue of convenience, and an opportunity to blame someone else for their own problems, their own crimes, and their own mistakes. Both sides of the American immigration debate are distorted, exaggerated, and wrong: the xenophobes who think illegals are taking over, and the racists who think that no white man would do an immigrant's job. Both arguments are products of simple-monded intellectual charlatanry.

Fact: there is a labor shortage and immigrants are necessary for the economy. Fact: even if domestic labor doesn't meet the demand, we are still screwing over many poor, white Americans who would gladly pick strawberries, clean toilets, cut grass, and mop floors, if it paid them minimum wage.

The difference is we have a meaningful social security system that allows one to avoid slave labor as a means of subsistance. The Mexican social security system is a sham, and people would rather migrate and shovel manure for 3 dollars a day than watch their children starve to death. Most unemployed Americans are NOT exploiting the system or trying to get a free ride. Most of them would rather work, and would gladly take the illegal's job if they could compete.

Large corporations hire illegal aliens, and illegally pay them next-to-nothing. Under those conditions, even the relatively small demographic that is the unemployed American labor force, will always be disadvantaged by far more desperate illegals who are willing to be exploited and treated like dogs rather than die in Mexico.

So long as we keep talking about how we have to "crack down" on illegals and arrest starving people for the crime of being hungry, so long as we ignore the more pertinent issue of cracking down on corporations that hire illegals, we are making scape-goats out of victims, and letting the pimps go free.

So long as the Mexican government does everything in its power to maintain and promote a society of uneducated workers, so long as ultra-corrupt officials keep ransacking the Mexican treasuring and stealing tax-payer money, forcing Mexico to remain a third-world country despite having a first-world GDP ranking, so long as Mexico continues to demand everything from the US in terms of immigration policy without offering anything in return, and uses the issue as the basis of virrulent antiamerican propaganda, instilling hate and anti-yankee bigotry/paranoia in Mexican citizens, so long as they keep growing fatter off of their countrymen's blood and off of the American teat, these hypocritical and Machiavellian politicians will never be able to wash their hands clean of their crimes against the Mexican people, especially the Mexican illegals living in the US. Thank you

Now I don't agree with every word that supersexyspacemonkey says, but there is a large element of truth in his statement and an underlying passion for truth. I can respect his opinion and I'll give it some air time here.

I am not concerned so much with decent hard working people who bust their asses eking out an existence in our country. I would much rather go after the criminals and others who exploit the generous, good nature of Americans. We must control our borders and still afford an opportunity for our poor neighbors to the South to better themselves. But the chaos and madness of the present system (due to the neglect of our elected politicians) must be fixed first.

Fatwa Free For All

My daughter sent me a NY Times article on what is happening in IslamaLand with respect to the religious edicts that are flying out out of every imam's ass like farts out of a bean burrito junkie.

There is no Pope or controlling religious authority in Islam. It's like a hillbilly holy roller convention only they're dancing with knives and AK47's.

CAIRO, June 11 — First came the breast-feeding fatwa. It declared that the Islamic restriction on unmarried men and women being together could be lifted at work if the woman breast-fed her male colleagues five times, to establish family ties. Then came the urine fatwa. It said that drinking the urine of the Prophet Muhammad was deemed a blessing.

For the past few weeks, the breast-feeding and urine fatwas have proved a source of national embarrassment in Egypt, not least because they were issued by representatives of the highest religious authorities in the land.

Urine and breast milk, sounds like Uncle Mo got into the corn likker again and needed a chaser.

“We were very angered when we heard about the Danish cartoons concerning our prophet; however, these two fatwas are harming our Islamic religion and our prophet more than the cartoons,” Galal Amin, a professor of economics at the American University in Cairo, wrote in Al Masry Al Yom, a daily newspaper here.

If any religion can be harmed by a cartoon, then it is not a religion. It is a cult that cannot withstand the scrutiny of Tom and Jerry or Mighty Mouse. Think about it. Christianity was assailed by the most powerful government on the face of the planet, the Roman Empire. And Christianity won. Islam trembled at the sight of Mohammed wearing a bomb hat. What would they do with a picture of the Prophet in a tutu?

For many Muslims, fatwas, or religious edicts, are the bridge between the principles of their faith and modern life. They are supposed to be issued by religious scholars who look to the Koran and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad for guidance. While the more sensational pronouncements grab attention, the bulk of the fatwas involve the routine of daily life. In Egypt alone, thousands are issued every month.

The controversy in Cairo has been more than just embarrassing. It comes at a time when religious and political leaders say that there is a crisis in Islam because too many fatwas are being issued, and that many of them rely on ideology more than learning. The complaint has been the subject of recent conferences as government-appointed arbiters of Islamic standards say the fatwa free-for-all has led to the promotion of extremism and intolerance.

The thing is that no one probably has any idea just how many fatwas are issued and by whom and for what. The only ones we hear about are the breast milk swilling, piss drinking, neck chopping variety that make the news. The rest of this crap is under the radar just waiting to erupt in another round of Muslim insanity.

The conflict in Egypt served as a difficult reminder of a central challenge facing Islamic communities as they debate the true nature of the faith and how to accommodate modernity. The fatwa is the front line in the theological battle between often opposing worldviews. It is where interpretation meets daily life.

“It is a very critical issue for us,” said Abdullah Megawer, the former head of the Fatwa Committee at Al Azhar University, the centuries-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning in Egypt. “You are explaining God’s message in ways that really affect people’s lives.”

Imam For A Day may be a better way to arbitrate this mess. Christian doctrine has been pretty well established for two thousand years. Jewish doctrine even longer. That's why it is hard for an independant Baptist minister to start a holy war by declaring that Jesus wants all Christendom to wear tie dyed doo rags. Everyone would know this preacher's cheese slid off his cracker. Not so in Islam.

Technically, the fatwa is nonbinding and recipients are free to look elsewhere for a better ruling. In a faith with no central doctrinal authority, there has been an explosion of places offering fatwas, from Web sites that respond to written queries, to satellite television shows that take phone calls, to radical and terrorist organizations that set up their own fatwa committees.

“There is chaos now,” Mr. Megawer said. “The problem created is confusion in thought, confusion about what is right and what is wrong, religiously.”

And yet CAIR is espousing Muslim guidelines on how American society is supposed to accomodate this religion; a religion that can change course in midstride.

Governments have tried to guide and control the process, but as they struggled with their own legitimacy, they have often undermined the perceived legitimacy of those they appoint as religious leaders. In Egypt, there are two official institutions responsible for religious interpretation: the House of Fatwa, or Dar Al-Ifta, which formally falls under the Ministry of Justice, and Al Azhar University. All court sentences of death must be approved by Dar Al-Ifta, for example.

“These people in fact are defined as agencies of the government,” said Muhammad Serag, a professor of Islamic Studies at the American University in Cairo. “They are not trusted anymore.”

And what do these fatwa factories do? They regulate every activity in your life that you can dream of. Read some of them:

... a young woman entered and sat in the chair opposite him. She held her son, about 4, on her knee as she explained that her husband had married another woman (four wives are allowed in Islam) and that the new wife was only 18. “He said he would spend five nights with her and one with me,” the woman complained. “Can I ask for a divorce?” Under Islam, the sheik advised, all wives must be treated equally. So if she could not work the matter out “peacefully, then yes, she could ask for a divorce.”

A couple approached. The man’s clothes were tattered, and his wife looked distressed. Their 9-year-old son’s clothing was clean, his hair gelled, his smile bright. The man explained that they had adopted the child when he was 9 months old, and that they had just heard that under Islam their son had to be put out of the house, because the mother had not given birth to him or breast-fed him.He would reach puberty as an outsider, and could not, technically, be around the woman he knew as his mother. The imam at their local mosque said it was haram — forbidden under Islam — to live with the boy.

A man wanted to know if he could keep money he had found.

Another wanted to know if he needed to testify at a trial if called.

A third wanted to know if it was O.K. to buy a car on an installment plan.

A mother did not like her son’s wife and wanted to know if she could do anything about the marriage.

This is Islamic, or Sharia, Law. This the type of law that Muslims want to start in Canada. What is scary is that these people seem incapable of making a decision for themselves. They need to run to an authority to tell them what to do even for trival matters. And suppose different fatwas are issued for the exact same circumstances? But that's the way the way it is. as fatwas are non-binding, just shop around! If you don't like the flavor of today's fatwa, maybe tomorrow's or next month's will do the trick.

What a way to run a religion much less a country.

In Egypt, and other Muslim countries, where laws must abide by the Koran, fatwas by government-appointed officials can have the weight of law.

Oh wait, they do run the country. Think about it, some nutjob who thinks that breast milk should determine family status may decide on your criminal or civil court case.

HOME!

My daughter is finally coming home after almost a year in Cairo, Egypt. Her mama and I are beside ourselves waiting for her. She was going to take another linguistics course this summer and come home at the end of July, but decided that enough is enough. She is homesick and she's bailing out of MohammedWorld and hightailing it back to the States. Her plane arrives tomorrow.

I think the tipping point came when her sister visited her last week in Tel Aviv. Her sister has been to the Middle East TWICE this year to visit her ; once in Cairo this past January and again last week when they vacationed in Israel for ten days. And they talked about her coming home sooner than she had planned.

Israel was such a relief after the stench, pollution and rude arabs of Cairo; both girls enjoyed themselves enormously touring the Holy Land via the inexpensive hostels. The people were friendly, although just a few did not like Americans, but hey, deal with it. And Israel is a garden compared to the lands around it.

Last Friday after dropping her sister off at Tel Aviv, she returned to Cairo by way of an eleven hour bus ride. She decided on the way back that she was going to change her return ticket asap so she could leave the dust of the Pharoahs behind her. And she did. Tomorrow she'll be home with us.

It's like a giant weight off my chest.

She wants, in the following order, her mom's pasta and sauce, meatballs, pork sausage, pork chops, pork tenderloin and babyback ribs.

We're gonna have the Mother of all BBQ's in her honor.

We're gonna call it Death By Pork.

Mass Murder, Inc.

This week a monument will be dedicated in Washington, DC. The memorial is dedicated to the victims of international communism, AKA Mass Murder, Inc.

Lee Edwards, the chairman of The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOCMF), has attracted bipartisan support for the memorial, including Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who are offering remarks at the dedication. It comes on the 20th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s Berlin speech during which he famously said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

International communism is responsible for the deaths of anywhere from 60 to 100 million people. One such estimate is R.J. Rummel's book, Death by Government, where the following estimates are given:

Soviet Union (1979 -1990) 61,900,000
Communist China (1949 -2007) 38,700,000 (includes communist guerrillas from 1923-48 and the communist government established in 1949)

Just between the PRC and the USSR there are 100,600,000 deaths. There should be a new word minted just for slaughter on a scale such as this: hypergenocide.

Now add to the mix:

Cambodia (1975-1979) 2,000,000
Vietnam (1945-2007) 1,700,000
North Korea (1948-2007) 1,700,000
Poland (1945-1948) 1,600,000
Yugoslavia (1944-1990) 1,100,000

The total is 108,700,000 souls murdered by communist governments. These are not war deaths, for that is an entirely different accounting. These are the deaths of noncombatants , persons snuffed out because they did not agree with the government or were perceived as being disloyal. Or they were just plain inconvenient like the kulaks.

Put this in perspective; Hitler and the Nazis are vilified for murdering 20,900,000 people.

Communists murdered over five times that amount and still the liberals give them a pass. Six million jews were slaughtered in the camps and in Germany you may be imprisoned for denying that the holocaust ever existed. Yet there is little or no awareness of the slaughter perpetrated by the Soviet Union and China. There are no movies, no "Schindler's List," no Spielberg scripts to call attention to these horrific deeds. Just nutroots calling Bush a murderer and Rosie O'Donnell calling our troops terrorists.

Let the liberals and their cohorts in the MSM and educational institutions be tripled damned on Judgement Day.

Cal Thomas goes on to say:

The brutality of communism was quickly swept under history’s rug, in large part because so many on the left had embraced it as the solution to humankind’s problems. The memorial stands as a rebuke to such twisted thinking.“The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression” by Stephane Courtois, Nicolas Werth, Jean-Louis Panne, Andrzej Paczkowski, Karel Bartosek and Jean-Louis Margolin lists by country the number of people murdered under communist regimes...

[...] In short, communism, an evil ideology unlike any the world has seen, is responsible for the slaughter of more than 94 million human beings. It tops all plagues, natural disasters, crime, and other political ideologies, probably combined. While many Westerners recall Nazi-run death camps like Auschwitz and
Buchenwald, few remember Soviet death camps named Kolyma and Magadan.

True, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn mentioned them in “The Gulag Archipelago” as did Varlam Sjalamov in “Tales from Kolyma,” but as the late Swedish journalist Andres Kung wrote, “There are people who have still not heard of these communist extermination camps — even though the communists preceded the Nazis in creating such camps and killed an even larger number of people in their camps.

When Ronald Reagan called for Gorbachev to tear down the wall, he was also calling for the end of Mass Murder, Inc.; the most brutal, savage governments in the history of the world.

Mohammed al-Limpnoodle's Lament

I caught this post over to My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and had to read it twice. It appears that post bellum erectile dysfunction has plagued the Middle East since the triumph of the IDF in 1967. This cycle of defeat was responsible for initiating a cycle of soft meat and no sex, otherwise known as the Infi-nada.

Egyptian columnist Wael Abdel Fattah wrote in the independent weekly Al-Fagr newspaper that Arabs blame the defeat for “everything” — from “price hikes, dictatorship, religious extremism, sectarian strife, even sexual impotence.”

Now I can't help with the military side of this problem, but there is certainly a lot of help available for the other side. Here is just a brief offering of products and services for the vertically challenged:

Oldies But Goodies

I know these photos have been around awhile, perhaps years.

But certain things need to be said again and again and again.

And these photos say it just right.

The black patch says "Doing the work of"

There's always a need for this.

And this.

It does't matter if it's Imperial Majesty or Jean Nate bath splash ... it's her.

Somehow you just know he's a grandpa.

Go Directly To Jail - Do Not Pass Go - Throw A Fit If You Like

Looks like there is a judge in LA that has some stones.

Screaming and crying, Paris Hilton was escorted out of a courtroom and back to jail Friday after a judge ruled that she must serve out her entire 45-day sentence behind bars rather than in her Hollywood Hills home. "It's not right!" shouted the weeping Hilton, who violated her parole in a reckless driving case. "Mom!" she called out to her mother in the audience.

Hopefully Mom was listening today 'cause for sure no one was listening when this kid was brought up as a child. It's time she learned that no amount of kicking and screaming is going to get her way for her. I hope every 14 year old Paris wanna be sees this photo. And the next one.

Hilton, who was brought to court in handcuffs in a sheriff's car, came into the courtroom disheveled and weeping, hair askew, sans makeup, wearing a gray fuzzy sweatshirt over slacks. She cried throughout the hearing, her body shook constantly and she dabbed at her eyes. Several times she turned to her parents, seated behind her in the courtroom, and mouthed, "I love you."

Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer was calm but apparently irked by the morning's developments. He said he had left the courthouse Thursday night having signed an order for Hilton to appear for the hearing. When he got in his car early Friday, he said, he heard a radio report that he had approved Hilton's participation in the hearing by telephone, but he had not.

"I at no time condoned the actions of the sheriff and at no time told him I approved the actions," he said of the decision to release Hilton from jail after three days.

"At no time did I approve the defendant being released from custody to her home on Kings Road," Sauer said.

"At no time..." means jail time for Ms. Hilton.

And is it me or does that female deputy in the second photo look like she's trying hard not to crack a smile?

UPDATE:

SOme "noise" is coming out regarding how the sheriff is facing pressure from official and legal sources to reduce the prison population and that is why he let her go home. My take is this:

1) Paris Hilton was not a prisoner awaiting trial. There are pre-trial release programs aplenty but her release was not related to this.

2) Paris Hilon was specifically remanded to prison (jail actually) per court order. The order precluded any possibility of an alternative sentence. This is big. Sheriff Baca violated a court order by releasing her to home detention. That's why the judge is pissed.

I am not familar with the California penal system but in NYS jail is reserved for :

a) those who cannot make bail and are held pending a trial, or

b) those who are ordered held without bail, or

c) those who have been found guilty and sentenced as a result of a legal proceding and are being held prior to entering the state or federal penal system.

There may be some who do not understand the difference. Once you are sentenced you are then remanded to the appropriate correctional facilty. A correctional facility is not a jail. It is a prison.

If you are found guilty of a felony, off you go to into the state prison system. Not a felony? Then you are entertained at the local county prison or penitentiary.

Footnote: Penitentiary is an old English word, penitenciarie, a priest who administers penance.

Justice For Some

I haven't bothered with the Paris Hilton story because this skanky pusbucket doesn't deserve all the bandwidth devoted to her screwed up life. Much like Nicole Smith (who is now nothing but rotting meat inside a steel-slow cook coffin so the worms can't have their way with her before the maggots are done), this chick will also hit the greased skids of life hard enough and soon enough to shut her up for good.

From the SmokingGun:

Paris Hilton was booked into a Los Angeles jail in June 2007 to begin serving time for violating terms of a probation sentence imposed following a drunk driving plea. In January, weeks after pleading no contest to a reckless driving charge, the 26-year-old Hilton was cited for driving with a suspended license. After signing a document acknowledging she was not to drive, Hilton was pulled over by cops in February and charged with a probation violation. As a result, she was sentenced to 45 days in jail. Hilton posed for the below left mug shot after her September 2006 arrest. The second booking photo was taken when she surrendered to Los Angeles Sheriff's Department to begin her brief sentence.

This chick just don't get it. She looks like she's going to do the booking deputy.

And now the Los Angeles County Sheriff, Lee Baca, who is responsible for her confinement, has managed to stick his chops (he looks like a balding OB-GYN) in the middle of it and release her to home confinement in contradiction of a Superior Court Justice sentencing instructions.

Well, I've had enough. This is just another instance where celebrity status wins over justice. the sentencing judge specifically ruled out home arrest as an option. All this OB-GYN has done is reduce the respect for law another notch.

I don't care if her rash broke out in a rash or she's got the terminal squirts. Let her do the time, 'cause you know she's going to be pulling this DWI crap again. And if she kills someone the next time she has a lip lock on a sixteen ouncer of XXX ZIMA critus lime punkass puke water, I'd sue the badge off that useless Sheriff.

All the young people watching this farce, and believe me - they're watching this closely, are learning a valuable lesson. It doesn't matter what you do because you can scam the system.

UPDATE:

Hours after Paris Hilton was sent home under house arrest Thursday, the judge who put her in jail ordered her into court to determine whether she should be put back behind bars. Hilton must report to court at 9 a.m. Friday, Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini told The Associated Press.

The judge' issuing this order isthe same one who sentenced Hilton to a jail term.

Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer issued his order after the city attorney filed a petition late Thursday afternoon questioning if Sheriff Lee Baca should be held in contempt of court for releasing Hilton Thursday morning.

This may prove to be very interesting, although I doubt a contempt citation will happen. Wait for the next County election cycle to see the real blowback on this.

The celebrity inmate was sent home from the L.A. County jail's Lynwood lockup shortly after 2 a.m. for an unspecified medical condition in a stunning reduction to her original 45-day sentence.

She was ordered to finish her 45-day sentence under house arrest, meaning she could not leave her four-bedroom, three-bath 2,700-square-foot Hollywood Hills home until next month.

That's gotta be rough. There's probably enough booze in that house to keep her and a dozen of her friends blind for a month.

Even Al Sharpton is on his way to L.A. to protest celebrity injustice in front of Hilton's house.

The Old Bulls

As we get older, we get meaner ... cops that is. We may be grampas that love to bounce our grandkids kids on arthritic knees but we can still put the fear of God into people when we have to.

Say hello to 65 year old retired Boston police superintendant Robert Hayden. The Boston Globe reports:

Shortly before landing, Bob Hayden and a flight attendant had agreed on a signal: When she waved the plastic handcuffs, he would discreetly leave his seat and restrain an unruly passenger who had frightened some of the 150 people on board a Minneapolis-to-Boston flight Saturday night with erratic behavior.

Hayden, a 65-year-old former police commander, had enlisted a gray-haired gentleman sitting next to him to assist. The man turned out to be a former US Marine.

I hate to correct this reporter, but there just ain't so such animal as a former Marine (except for John Murtha) or a former cop. Retired yes, former no.

"I had looked around the plane for help, and all the younger guys had averted their eyes. When I asked the guy next to me if he was up to it, all he said was, 'Retired captain. USMC.' I said, 'You'll do,' " Hayden recalled. "So, basically, a couple of grandfathers took care of the situation."

The incident on Northwest Airlines Flight 720 ended peacefully, but not before Hayden, a former Boston police deputy superintendent and former Lawrence police chief, and the retired Marine had handcuffed one man and stood guard over another until the plane touched down safely at Logan International Airport around 7:50 p.m.

It's not so much what you got, but the desire to use it that shows. Sometimes just a hard look is enough. Other times you have to teach a short course in Police Etiquette 101 to get someone's attention.

Hayden said the unruly man's behavior upset some passengers. One told Hayden he man had said, "Your lives are going to change today forever," as he shouted and refused to take his seat before takeoff and at various times during the nearly three-hour flight. He said that at one point the man lay on his back and was screaming, moaning, and thrashing on the floor.

Maybe this idiot had a flashback from watching "Snakes On A Plane" or something. Or maybe he had a premonition... a retired cop ramming a size twelve up your ass can also change your life forever.

When the captain announced preparations for landing, the man jumped up shouting, the flight attendant held up the handcuffs, and Hayden and the Marine came bounding down the aisle. Hayden said he and the retired Marine, whose name he never got, received an ovation from fellow passengers, and "some free air
miles."

Hayden's wife of 42 years, Katie, who was also on the flight, was less impressed. Even as her husband struggled with the agitated passenger, she barely looked up from "The Richest Man in Babylon," the book she was reading.

And God bless our long suffering wives.

"The woman sitting in front of us was very upset and asked me how I could just sit there reading," Katie Hayden said. "Bob's been shot at. He's been stabbed. He's taken knives away. He knows how to handle those situations. I figured he would go up there and step on somebody's neck, and that would be the end of it. I knew how that situation would end. I didn't know how the book would end."

How about a big thank you and a round of applause for Bob and the unknown USMC Captain for a job well done!

Forty-two years married to a cop also desires a medal ... God bless you too Mrs. Hayden!

One More Time

Last night I watched a report on Headline Line News regarding the basement democrats trying to keep their presidential aspirations alive (they are in the basement as far as the front runners are concerned). The station played part of a Chris Dodd ad where he states that we are involved in an Iraqi civil war ... and I nearly threw my shoe through the TV set.

Senator Dodd, obviously you haven't been paying attention for the last twenty-seven years.

It is not a civil war in Iraq. Iraq is the current theater for the latest installment in the war that was declared against the USA on November 4, 1979. The participants and sponsors arraigned against us are terror organizations and their host nation, predominantly Iran.

The following events represent only the major engagements.

1979
Nov. 4, Tehran, Iran: Iranian radical students seized the U.S. embassy, taking 66 hostages. 14 were later released. The remaining 52 were freed after 444 days on the day of President Reagan's inauguration.

1982–1991
Lebanon: Thirty US and other Western hostages kidnapped in Lebanon by Hezbollah. Some were killed, some died in captivity, and some were eventually released. Terry Anderson was held for 2,454 days.

1983
April 18, Beirut, Lebanon: U.S. embassy destroyed in suicide car-bomb attack; 63 dead, including 17 Americans. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
Oct. 23, Beirut, Lebanon: Shiite suicide bombers exploded truck near U.S. military barracks at Beirut airport, killing 241 marines.

Dec. 12, Kuwait City, Kuwait: Shiite truck bombers attacked the U.S. embassy and other targets, killing 5 and injuring 80.

1984
Sept. 20, east Beirut, Lebanon: truck bomb exploded outside the U.S. embassy annex, killing 24, including 2 U.S. military.
Dec. 3, Beirut, Lebanon: Kuwait Airways Flight 221, from Kuwait to Pakistan, hijacked and diverted to Tehran. 2 Americans killed.

1985
April 12, Madrid, Spain: Bombing at restaurant frequented by U.S. soldiers, killed 18 Spaniards and injured 82.
June 14, Beirut, Lebanon: TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome hijacked to Beirut by Hezbollah terrorists and held for 17 days. A U.S. Navy diver executed.
Oct. 7, Mediterranean Sea: gunmen attack Italian cruise ship, Achille Lauro. One U.S. tourist killed. Hijacking linked to Libya.
Dec. 18, Rome, Italy, and Vienna, Austria: airports in Rome and Vienna were bombed, killing 20 people, 5 of whom were Americans. Bombing linked to Libya.

1986
April 2, Athens, Greece:A bomb exploded aboard TWA flight 840 en route from Rome to Athens, killing 4 Americans and injuring 9.
April 5, West Berlin, Germany: Libyans bombed a disco frequented by U.S. servicemen, killing 2 and injuring hundreds.

1988
Dec. 21, Lockerbie, Scotland: N.Y.-bound Pan-Am Boeing 747 exploded in flight from a terrorist bomb and crashed into Scottish village, killing all 259 aboard and 11 on the ground. Passengers included 35 Syracuse University students and many U.S. military personnel. Libya formally admitted responsibility 15 years later (Aug. 2003) and offered $2.7 billion compensation to victims' families.

1993
Feb. 26, New York City: bomb exploded in basement garage of World Trade Center, killing 6 and injuring at least 1,040 others. In 1995, militant Islamist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and 9 others were convicted of conspiracy charges, and in 1998, Ramzi Yousef, believed to have been the mastermind, was convicted of the bombing. Al-Qaeda involvement is suspected.

1995
Nov. 13, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: car bomb exploded at U.S. military headquarters, killing 5 U.S. military servicemen.

1996
June 25, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia: truck bomb exploded outside Khobar Towers military complex, killing 19 American servicemen and injuring hundreds of others. 13 Saudis and a Lebanese, all alleged members of Islamic militant group Hezbollah, were indicted on charges relating to the attack in June 2001.

1998
Aug. 7, Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: truck bombs exploded almost simultaneously near 2 U.S. embassies, killing 224 (213 in Kenya and 11 in Tanzania) and injuring about 4,500. 4 men connected with al-Qaeda 2 of whom had received training at al-Qaeda camps inside Afghanistan, were convicted of the killings in May 2001 and later sentenced to life in prison. A federal grand jury had indicted 22 men in connection with the attacks, including Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, who remained at large.

2000
Oct. 12, Aden, Yemen: U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole heavily damaged when a small boat loaded with explosives blew up alongside it. 17 sailors killed. Linked to Osama bin Laden, or members of al-Qaeda terrorist network.

2001
Sept. 11, New York City, Arlington, Va., and Shanksville, Pa.: hijackers crashed 2 commercial jets into twin towers of World Trade Center; 2 more hijacked jets were crashed into the Pentagon and a field in rural Pa. Total dead and missing numbered 2,9921: 2,749 in New York
City, 184 at the Pentagon, 40 in Pa., and 19 hijackers. Islamic al-Qaeda terrorist group blamed.

2002
June 14, Karachi, Pakistan: bomb exploded outside American consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 12. Linked to al-Qaeda.

2003
May 12, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: suicide bombers killed 34, including 8 Americans, at housing compounds for Westerners. Al-Qaeda suspected.

2004
May 29–31, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: terrorists attack the offices of a Saudi oil company in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, take foreign oil workers hostage in a nearby residential compound, leaving 22 people dead including one American.
June 11–19, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: terrorists kidnap and execute Paul Johnson Jr., an American, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 2 other Americans and BBC cameraman killed by gun attacks.
Dec. 6, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: terrorists storm the U.S. consulate, killing 5 consulate employees. 4 terrorists were killed by Saudi security.

2005
Nov. 9, Amman, Jordan: Suicide bombers hit 3 American hotels, Radisson, Grand Hyatt, and Days Inn, in Amman, Jordan, killing 57. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.

2006
Sept. 13, Damascus, Syria: an attack by four gunman on the American embassy was foiled.


Senator, you shouldn't be allowed to run a newspaper route much less represent the State of Connecticut.

Beating The Brush

I never bought into the Carbon Offset Scam Scheme Plan To Save The World From Global Warming. There is plenty of information out there regarding how these scams work. It is just like driving deer.

If you ever hunted you know what I am talking about. You find the area that deer frequent and use other hunters to frighten them and drive them towards your concealed position. As the deer pass you nail them. These men are called beaters. In Africa they banged things and whacked the foliage with sticks to drive game from hiding. This is where the expression "beating the brush" comes from because it flushes out game from concealment.

Part of the Global Warming hype is all about flushing scared liberal investors' cash from their normal hiding holes of municipal bonds, mutual funds, etc. so Al Gore and his pals can take a shot at them. This is known as opportunistic feeding. As all those guilty liberal dollars go stampeding by, just grab the weakest and have a feast - then hang the pelt from your corporate website, mount the horns on your annual report.

An article by the Guardian helps explain this.

A Guardian investigation has found evidence of serious irregularities at the heart of the process the world is relying on to control global warming.

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which is supposed to offset greenhouse gases emitted in the developed world by selling carbon credits from elsewhere, has been contaminated by gross incompetence, rule-breaking and possible fraud by companies in the developing world, according to UN paperwork, an unpublished expert report and alarming feedback from projects on the ground.

How can you possibly hope to regulate a scam?

One senior figure suggested there may be faults with up to 20% of the carbon credits - known as certified emissions reductions - already sold. Since these are used by European governments and corporations to justify increases in emissions, the effect is that in some cases malpractice at the CDM has added to the net amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

The problems focus on the specialist companies that validate and verify the projects in the developing world which produce the certified emission reductions. Three of those companies have failed spot checks, which revealed a catalogue of weakness.

It's the same weakness that has plagued mankind for millennia .. greed.

Separately, one of the CDM's experts calculates that as many as one third of the projects registered in India are commercial ventures which do not produce any additional cut in greenhouse gases and were wrongly approved.

There are only 17 of these validating and verifying companies. Most of them have a clean track record and will have approved reliable emissions reductions, but three of them have been performing so poorly that the CDM's executive board ordered spot checks - and all three companies failed on multiple grounds. The findings on one company, which is believed to have validated dozens of projects and verified millions of tonnes of carbon reductions, were so bad that the board considered suspending its right to work.

Let me put this in a slightly different light. There three companies were only the ones that got caught.

The chairman of the CDM board, Danish energy consultant Hans Jürgen Stehr, insisted that in the end the problem was not bad enough to require any of the companies to be suspended. However, he said: "This has been serious. We are talking about competence and the ability of the company to do a proper job." He ruled that none of the three companies be named.

Why is it that the controlling authority seeks to protect the companies that bring the rest of the industry into a bad light? Follow the money. First find out who these companies are; then see who owns them. Then find out what else they own and their political affiliations.

Do You Know

Did you know that 47 countries have reestablished their embassies in Iraq?

Did you know that the Iraqi government currently employs 1.2 millionIraqi people?

Did you know that 3,100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 new schools are now under construction and 38 new schools have been completed in Iraq?

Did you know that Iraq 's higher educational structure consists of 20 universities, 46 institutes or colleges and 4 research centers, all currently operating?

Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2005 for the re-established Fulbright program?

Did you know that the Iraqi navy is operational? They have five 100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a naval infantry regiment.

Did you know that Iraq 's Air Force consists of three operational squadrons, which includes 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft (under Iraqi operational control) which operate day and night,and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 Bell Jet Rangers?

Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?

Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and equipped police officers?

Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3,500 new officers each 8 weeks?

Did you know there are more than 1,100 building projects going on in Iraq?

They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations,
22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.

Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first two series of polio vaccinations?

Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?

Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?

Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consists of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?

Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?

Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a televised debate recently?

OF COURSE WE DIDN'T KNOW!

WHY DIDN'T WE KNOW?

OUR MEDIA WOULDN'T TELL US!

Instead of reflecting our love for our country, we get photos of flagburning incidents at Abu Ghraib and people throwing snowballs at the presidential motorcades.

Tragically, the lack of accentuating the positive in Iraq serves two purposes:

It is intended to undermine the world's perception of the United States, thus
minimizing consequent support,

and it is intended to discourage American citizens.

Above facts are verifiable on the Department of Defense web site. http://www.defendamerica.mil/

And now you know...

H/T to Charlie the cop.

From John Wayne To Johnny Depp

What has this world come to? From an article in the Washington Post we now find ourselves being posed with the following question...Swish or swagger?

If you're wondering what it takes to be a man these days, check out Johnny Depp's wrist. As the unconstrained Capt. Jack Sparrow in the newly released "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," he wears a wisp of white lace tied just above his left hand.

Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow: a perfect role model for today's young men? A token of his feminine side? Perhaps. Or maybe it's just what Depp said it is: a trophy piece from a young woman.

I don't think of Mr. Depp as a man's man. More of a caricature of a man. It's funny to watch him prance around as a pirate, but I'm not sure I'd want my grandson mimicking him. Swish

Swish or swagger? That's the choice that men -- particularly young men -- find themselves facing today.

I don't think so.

I don't do either one. And most of the men I know are the same. We do what we have to do and try not to make a mess of it.

Only some As author Calvin Sandborn -- who juggled teaching and child-raising as he wrote "Becoming the Kind Father" -- says, society used to assign certain characteristics to men, including power, aggressiveness, professional success and autonomy. Other, shall we say, swishier traits were expected of women, such as the ability to create and nurture connections, kindness and communication.

There is nothing feminine about being able to communicate. Remember Ronald Reagan? There is also nothing feminine about being kind. It is an admirable human trait whether found in man or woman and, quite frankly, we need more of it as well as patience. There is nothing manly about road rage and wife beating.

As a matter of fact, this Memorial Day weekend I was told about a tar and feather party that occurred about 60 years ago in the north part of the county. It seems some men of the community got tired of a certain cretin who was abusing his wife rather badly; they tarred and feathered this man to teach him a lesson. The elderly woman who related the story told me that the instigator of the party was her father.

No matter how I try I can't see Johnny Depp doing something like like. John Wayne, certainly, but not Johnny. It takes a certain amount of physical and mental toughness to do something like that - a tough attitude and the conviction that what you are doing is right.

I didn't say roughness, although it may come to that. Being tough means to be strong, durable, vigorous, able to endure hardship or adversity. Being rough means to be coarse, harsh, rude or even violent. A man can be tough without being rough.

Johnny Depp is neither.

Can't Say We Didn't Warn You

According to the Washington Times, the RNC has shut down its telephone solicition operations and fired all 65 solicitors last week.

The Republican National Committee, hit by a grass-roots donors' rebellion over President Bush's immigration policy, has fired all 65 of its telephone solicitors, Ralph Z. Hallow will report Friday in The Washington Times.

My, my.

Faced with an estimated 40 percent fall-off in small-donor contributions and aging phone-bank equipment that the RNC said would cost too much to update, Anne Hathaway, the committee's chief of staff, summoned the solicitations staff last week and told them they were out of work, effective immediately, the fired staffers told The Times.

Tsk, tsk. Sounds like they were faced with reality as Americans have had enough of the illegal alien shell game.

"The phone-bank employees were terminated," RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt wrote by e-mail in response to questions sent by The Times. "This was not an easy decision. The first and primary motivating factor was the state of the phone bank technology, which was outdated and difficult to maintain. The RNC was advised that we would soon need an entire new system to remain viable."

Fired employees acknowledged that the committee's phone equipment was outdated, but said a sharp drop-off in donations "probably" hastened the end of the RNC's in-house phone-bank operation.

That's bull.

If the money is rolling in there is no way they'll shut down a profitable operation. They're getting skunked.

Rip Off Advisory

Americans are some of the most generous people on the planet. It is estimated that the American public gave over $240 billion in 2003 to over a million organizations. So it burns me when individuals seek to enrich themselves by masquerading as a charity to get into your wallet. Trust me, most states make it completely illegal for a police officer to ask for donations, although they may hire a coordinator to solict funds for them. Be advised, these fund raisers usually keep at least 50% of the donations for themselves as fees.

The following is an advisory from the NY State Police Superintendent Felton regarding charitable donations to his agency, but his advice extends to any organization that purports to represent law enforcement.

In response to periodic inquiries from the public, New York State Police Acting Superintendent Preston L. Felton advises state residents that neither the State Police , nor any agency authorized by it, ever solicits donations from the general public. A number of organizations with police-styled names conduct fund-raising campaigns in which they solicit monetary donations for various purposes.

Solicitors appeal for dollars to help support law enforcement initiatives, such as the purchase of safety equipment, charitable summer camp programs or anti-DWI campaigns. A recent example of the results of an investigation into the questionable practices of a telemarketer soliciting for a purported charity using the name, The Fraternal Order of New York State Troopers,resulted in the fund-raising corporation and its owner being barred from soliciting charitable contributions in New York State and required the Fraternal Order to pay its remaining donations to a legitimate charity.

The New York State Police receives its funding through the State Budget and does not solicit public donations. The only organization authorized to accept donations on behalf of the New York State Police is the not-for-profit Trooper Foundation, Inc., headquartered in Latham, NY. Although the Trooper Foundation does accept donations for the State Police Summer Program (to benefit underprivileged children) and other State Police initiatives, it does not engage in telephone solicitations to the general public.

The New York State Office of the Attorney General investigates illegal and questionable telemarketing operations in New York State. Anyone who receives a solicitation by telephone, mail, email or in person, from someone seeking money and who purports to be a representative or employee of the New York State Police, or suggests an affiliation with the New York State Police, is advised to get as many details as possible about the caller and to report this to the New York State Attorney Generals Charities Bureau or the nearest Attorney Generals Office.

As a matter of crime prevention, people should be wary of solicitors who:

Do not provide an address or phone number;
Demand immediate payment orpayment in cash;
Seem vague as to how contributions will be spent;
Refuse to provide financial information about a charitable organization;
Appear angry or impatient when asked reasonable questions about theorganization they represent or the programs for which contributions will be used.

More tips on charitable giving can be found at the NY State Attorney General's website, www.oag.state.ny.us

Too Much Or Too Little

I'm not sure what I dislike the most; too much or too little law n' order. Either way, it is a direct reflection of a society's abiltity to police itself, that is, the extent of self control exercised by its citizens. If the government is too strong, you have tyranny - a police state. If it is too weak you have anarchy - which can also be a form of tyranny - the tyranny of the mob. Either way personal freedom suffers.

In England they are blindly marching to the tune of Orwell's "1984." Constant government surveillance, thought impossible only a few decades ago, is closer to reality. Big Brother technology has advanced to the point where there is a surveillance camera for one out of every fourteen Brits.

AN increase in closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras risks turning Britain into an Orwellian society, a senior police officer said in an interview broadcast today.

The deputy chief constable of Hampshire Police, in south-east England, Ian Readhead, said he did not want to live in a country like that in author George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, with surveillance on every street corner.

This is a country that for all intents and purposes, no longer allows you to defend yourself. It no longer trusts its citizens to do the right thing. Transitioning from relatively peaceful, lawful societies, England, Wales and Scotland are now some of the most violent nations on the planet (according to a UN report). And to fight this decline the Brits throw up more cameras.

I'm really concerned about what happens to the product of these cameras and what comes next," he told BBC television, highlighting the fact that a village in his area had installed CCTV, despite crime rates being low. "If it's in our villages, are we really moving towards an Orwellian situation with cameras on every street corner? I don't think it's the kind of country I want to live in."

Nor I, Deputy Chief Constable Readhead. It is a terrible thing to watch a nation like England undergo these changes.

He also called for a review of speed cameras and limits to the retention of DNA, which is taken from anyone arrested even if they are not charged. Britain's DNA database is the largest in the world, with 3.6 million samples.

There are an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain – one for every 14 people. Every person is caught on camera about 300 times each day. A new system of "talking" CCTV was unveiled earlier this year.

Imagine, every person is captured on a surveillance camera 300 times a day. Are they any safer? It appears not.

And who are all these people who are supposed to be watching all these cameras? I doubt that there are but a single viewer for every thousand cameras.

We recently reviewed a gun shot alert system that combines audio and video surveillance. The problem is, someone has to be available to keep a pair of eyes on the video component. Otherwise it is just another way to document a life snuffed out prematurely rather than trying to prevent such a death.

We are told by residents that is is extremely difficult to obtain a firearm to defend yourself. Handguns have been all but eliminated (except for criminals). It appears that all these cameras are nothing but an electronic post mortem.

Information Commissioner Richard Thomas last year warned that Britain was becoming a "surveillance society" where CCTV cameras, credit card analysis and travel movements are used to track people's lives minute by minute.

A study by human rights watchdog Privacy International last November ranked Britain bottom of the democratic Western world and alongside Russia for its record on protecting individual privacy.

I wonder where the outrage is in England? This truly stinks. The British government has banned guns and now is seeking to control knives.

A Scottish Executive spokesman added: "While violent crime has decreased recently in Scotland, people are still the victims of violence, especially knife crime.

"That's why we will address the culture of violence by doubling the maximum penalty for carrying a knife to four years, by strengthening police powers of arrest for people suspected of carrying a knife, and by raising the age at which a person can buy a non-domestic knife from 16 to 18.

"We are also reforming Scotland's drinking laws to help reduce the connection between alcohol and violent crime."

I think I would rather get shot than sliced up by some drunken hooligan. Years ago I had a case where a drunken brawl at a bar resulted in one man receiving over three hundred stitches to close his wounds. What's next on the English list of forbidden trinkets? Cricket bats? Heavy shoes?

An Issue With Authority

The murder of a small town New Hampshire cop is a microcosm of what is happening all over America.

N.H. Town Divided Over Killing of Police
FRANCONIA, N.H. (AP) -- Liko Kenney, described by friends as a free-spirited "Hippie kid," had a history of bad blood with police Cpl. Bruce McKay. So there was the potential for trouble when a traffic stop brought them together again.

Within minutes of the Friday stop, both were dead, dividing this town's 924 residents between those who see McKay as a fallen hero and those who considered him a bully with a badge.

Corporal Bruce McKay was a no nonsense law 'n order guy. His murderer was a so called free spirited "hippie" who had an issue with authority. We'll get back to that.

Authorities say McKay, 48, stopped Kenney, 24, for speeding, and Kenney asked to deal with a different officer and drove away.

By the time McKay caught up about a mile down the road, Kenney was in a frenzy, according to his friend and passenger, Caleb Macauley.

Sorry, you don't have that option. Life isn't a MacDonald's counter even though the cop can supersize your ticket. I wonder how this kid was brought up. Further on the article gives us an inkling. And also keep this in mind, Kenney was in a frenzy, not the cop.

McKay forced him off the road and pepper-sprayed him. Kenney then shot McKay four times and drove over him. Gregory Floyd, a passing motorist and ex-Marine who saw it all, grabbed McKay's gun and shot Kenney to death when he refused to put his gun down. Authorities quickly ruled the killing justified.

Even the reporter tries to make it sound as if the authorities did something inappropriate. A place like Grafton County (the county where Franconia is located; Grafton is 96% white)shouldn't have much on its plate; these are the 2000 crime stats for Grafton, they only had 31 Part I crimes in all of 2004. The DA could have moved this investigation quickly through a grand jury since there appears to have been only the two witnesses and a limited crime scene.

There are indications that Liko Kenney grew up in a atmosphere of privilege.

Liko Kenney grew up on his grandparents' rustic tennis camp in Easton, where the extended family still lives. Liko's parents own a coffee plantation in Hawaii, and he followed their seasonal migrations: the islands in winter, the White Mountains in summer.

"He was kinda just a happy, hippie kid. He'd do anything to help anyone," said Holly Hayward, 48, who said she'd known Kenney his whole life.

Except pull over for a police officer. Kenney also manifested a fierce temper when crossed.

Friends and family called Kenney a free-spirited outdoorsman who loved all-terrain vehicles and had issues with authority. Court records show he could be volatile even with his own family. In January 2003, an aunt, Larisa Kenney, sought a restraining order against her nephew, then 19. In a handwritten letter, she told the court Liko had frightened her by chainsawing trees near her cabin, sending one crashing onto her roof as she slept. When she confronted him, she said Liko exploded - shouting, grabbing her and then following her on his ATV as she ran to safety at a relative's home.

This doesn't sound like a peace loving hippie. He sounds more like nutcase with a short fuse. He was calm as long as he got his own way.

Just weeks later, Liko Kenney had a violent run-in with McKay, who had followed tire tracks into an isolated parking area. Court documents say it took three officers to subdue Kenney, who tried to escape three times, once while cuffed and shackled. One officer said Kenney grabbed McKay in the groin and that McKay reacted by punching Kenney in the face. Kenney's family and many in town say McKay broke Kenney's jaw that night, but Grafton County Attorney Rick St. Hilaire said Kenney's jaw was not broken.

So we have a young man from a very rich family who fights with police and threatens his own relatives when he doesn't get what he wants. We don't know whether or not he worked, went to school or anything else other than he liked ATV's and being outdoors. He appears to have been treated differentially by everyone he came into contact with. He does not appear to have been a disciplined individual.

We see the same kind of behavior at G8 conferences where privileged middle calls kids destroy property and threaten to turn a city upside down if they don't get their way.

We also see this in ghetto kids who go through the juvenile justice system without ever being disciplined for what they do. We have teens who have been arrested over twenty times for relatively minor offenses (always getting a ride from lenient judges) suddenly start shooting people.

I believe that the primary cause for this is piss poor parenting. It is made worse by judges who refuse to enforce the laws by imposing punishment for even minor offenses. Our City Court system is rife with this.

I do not believe in giving someone a few bites of the apple. One nibble and you get the whole apple shoved up your ass. Then you don't want another bite.

There is a whole lot more to this subject matter and I know that I am hardly skimming the surface. But it is very important to realize that an individual's perception of law is key to how that individual stays within the bounds of law. If this is not taught at an early age and reinforced by the schools and the courts, then we have the problems that light up the evening news so often. And Liko Kenney is just one example.

Mumia Update

From the Philadelphia Enquirer:

On July 3, 1982, a Philadelphia jury took just four hours to sentence Mumia
Abu-Jamal to death for murdering Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

Nearly a quarter-century later, Abu-Jamal has remained alive through a series of appeals. His bid to escape the death penalty is now at a critical stage.

The man who murdered Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner is perhaps finally hearing the approaching footsteps of his executioner. His rightful execution has been denied for twenty-five years.

The case will be argued this week in the region's federal appeals court, and if Abu-Jamal loses, Philadelphia's most controversial death-row inmate will be in imminent peril of lethal injection.

"He realizes that death is just a few doors away," said his attorney, Robert R. Bryan, a San Francisco lawyer who specializes in death-penalty appeals.

Still not close enough for my liking but then again I'm not a particularly patient man. This Mumia is a waste of oxygen and needs to have a good long talk with the worms.

On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia will hear legal argument on whether the death sentence should be upheld, or whether Abu-Jamal should get a new trial or a new sentencing hearing.

On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia will hear legal argument on whether the death sentence should be upheld, or whether Abu-Jamal should get a new trial or a new sentencing hearing.

There isn't a question of whether or not Mumia committed the murder. He did it. The reason why Mumia isn't composting right now is that an idiot federal judge, U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr.

... rejected all but one of the 29 legal points raised by the defense.

Yohn overturned the death sentence, ruling that the jury may have mistakenly believed it had to agree unanimously on any "mitigating" circumstance - a factor that might have caused the jury to opt for life.

The jury "may have" believed something or other. That was in 2001.

Virginia Says Enough

The Virginia Attorney General, Robert F. McDonnell, has sent a letter to New York City Mayor Bloomberg advising him to stop

... arming private investigators with hidden cameras and sending them into Virginia gun stores to try to make illegal buys.

This July a Virginia law goes into effect that prohibits this practice unless the local police or federal officers are part of the investigation. So Bloomberg wants to make a point by sending non-governmental contractors into another state to make illegal gun buys.

If Bloomberg is so concerned, why doesn't he use his police to do this? The NYPD are routinely involved investigating countless interstate criminal enterprises in cooperation with the feds and out of state local investigators. Why isn't he doing this now?

This is nothing but political football and an attempt to extort money by initiating civil suits against the gun dealers.

He has already been smacked down by the US Department of Justice for making these same illegal gun buys. When you start setting up people who otherwise would commit no crime, it is called entrapment. And by his illegal actions, Bloomberg endangered ongoing investigations by legitimate law enforcement officials.

several law enforcement officials said as many as eighteen active law enforcement investigations were put in jeopardy.

We call it deconfliction when cops from different agencies notify each other when they are commencing an investigation in another jurisdiction. You don't want your cops shooting at each other or wasting their time by investigating your cop who is investigating their cop. And you certainly don't want some private dick pissing all over your case without so much as a by your leave.

Bloomberg needs to get smacked again when the Virginia cops start locking up his PI's. And they'll get slapped with a felony to boot.

More Moderism Please

More to address my own disquiet on the issue of Muslim moderates then anything else, here is a story from Frontpagemag.com.

"Moderate Unicorns," huffed a reader, responding to my recent plea that Western states bolster moderate Muslims. Dismissing their existence as a myth, he notes that non-Muslims "are still waiting for moderates to stand and deliver, identifying and removing extremist thugs from their mosques and their communities."

It's a valid skepticism and a reasonable demand. Recent events in Pakistan and Turkey, however, prove that moderate Muslims are no myth.

I read about the demonstrations in Turkey and blogged about it, but I was not aware of the ones in Pakistan. There are many Muslims who do not want to live under shari'a law either.

In Pakistan, an estimated 100,000 people demonstrated on April 15 in Karachi, the country's largest city, to protest the plans of a powerful mosque in Islamabad, the Lal Masjid, to establish a parallel court system based on Islamic law, the Shari‘a. "No to extremism," roared the crowd. "We will strongly resist religious terrorism and religious extremism," exhorted Altaf Hussain, leader of the Mutahida Qaumi Movement, at the rally.

I believe that these moderates (or maybe that is the wrong word - how about just human beings who want to be left alone to raise their families as they see fit without getting hacked up) are sick and tired of the same crap from the same radical imams that inspire the same acts of murder and torture.

In Turkey, more than a million moderate Muslims in five marches protested the bid of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to take over the presidency of the republic, giving it control over the two top government offices (the other being the prime ministry, currently filled by Recep Tayyip Erdoðan).

We had a young Turkish girl visit our church a few years ago; she was a high school senior, an exchange student. Simply a lovely, lovely girl. Perhaps she or membesof her family joined in the demonstrations.

Nor are the masses alone in resisting AKP's Islamists. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer warned that, for the first time since 1923, when the secular republic came into being, its pillars "are being openly questioned." He also inveighed against the imposition of a soft Islamist state, predicting that it would turn extremist. Onur Öymen, deputy chairman of the opposition Republican People's Party, cautioned that the AKP's taking the presidency would "upset all balances" and create a very dangerous situation.

I think that a lot of Muslims "get it." They see the properity in America, they have relatives of their own or relatives of their friends who come here and tell them what they find. We are not the sex-obsessed, drug addicted, godless wage slaves that they are led to believe. America is a beautiful country with a incredible variety of wonderful people. The overwhelming majority have absolutely no inclination to hack you or your family to pieces. In fact, they would be horrified.

Sure, we have our idiots and a fair collection of monsters too, but life here is still better than life over there. That's why they are waiting in lines to come HERE. Do the math.

The military – Turkey's ultimate powerbroker – issued two statements reinforcing this assessment. On April 12, the chief of staff, Gen. Mehmet Yaþar Büyükanýt, expressed his hope that "someone who is loyal to the principles of the republic—not just in words but in essence—is elected president." Two weeks later, the military's tone became more urgent, announcing that the presidential election "has been anxiously followed by the Turkish Armed Forces [which] maintains its firm determination to carry out its clearly specified duties to protect" secular principles.

Since the death of Ataturk, the Turkish army has stepped up to the plate more than once to return the country to a stable, secular course.

This resolute stand against Islamism by moderate Turkish Muslims is the more striking when contrasted with the cluelessness of Westerners who pooh-pooh the dangers of the AKP's ascent. A Wall Street Journal editorial assures Turks that their prime minister's popularity "is built on competent and stable government." Dismissing the historic crossroads that President Sezer and others perceive, it dismisses as "fear mongering" doubts about Prime Minister Erdoðan's commitment to secularism and ascribes these to petty campaign tactics "to get out the anti-AKP vote and revive a flagging opposition."

Of course I would still like to hear more from these Muslims, but perhaps it is not all their fault. As the newspaper saying goes, "If it bleeds it leads." Muslims demonstrating against radicalism may not be bloody minded enough for the MSM.

What The UN Does Best

The United Nations has received the usual kind of press that we may come to expect from this august body: drunkness and whoring.

UN staff in East Timor have been severely reprimanded and had an 11pm curfew imposed in an attempt to wipe out rampant drink driving.

One foreign employee has resigned and been sent home after allegedly drunkenly assaulting police when she was stopped while driving erratically in the capital, Dili.

[...] since March 1, there had been more than 80 traffic accidents where UNMIT vehicles were the only ones involved, and that "the frequency of accidents has been increasing significantly".

Excuse me. I acccidently omitted several of the UN's sterling qualities, it's Drunkeness, Assaulting Police Officers, Demolishing UN Property and Whoring. Now for the whoring.

UNITED Nations police and civilian staff are openly violating what the UN promised would be a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual abuse and misconduct in deeply religious East Timor.

Expatriates in Dili say a dozen brothels have recently opened in the city, with UN vehicles parked outside most nights. Teenage Timorese prostitutes gather just before dusk opposite a hotel on Dili's waterfront, where UN vehicles can be seen picking them up.

It is apparent what knid of economic development the UN is bringing to poor countries around the world. Bawdy houses and red light districts.

"It's disgusting … these people who have supposedly come here to help the Timorese are abusing these poor girls," says an Australian mechanic drinking in the hotel's second-floor bar, where he observes the scene every night.

One of the brothels is employing a dozen ethnic-Chinese prostitutes, expatriates say.

A UN employee told The Age that the world body was turning a blind eye to prostitution by its employees.

This is not a blind eye. This is a wink and a nod. But this is nothing new. UN forces have a proud tradition of drunkeness and rape (also here) to uphold while being supported by US tax dollars.

More Aussie Gun Control

The debate goes on and on over gun control. Then we get something like this.

SYDNEY is in the grip of a wave of gun crime, with a weapon fired or used to menace innocent residents six days in every seven. Police figures show there have been no fewer than 40 incidents involving guns across the metropolitan region since the beginning of last month.

About ten years ago Australia initiated a gun buy back program; by time the program ended in the summer of 1998, over 600,000 firearms were turned in and destroyed. They estimated that there were about 1.5 million firearms in Australia at the time.

The gun crime wave wasn't supposed to happen. The presence of guns in so many recent crimes is at odds with the State Government's repeated insistence that the incidence of gun crime is continuing to fall dramatically.

The armed robbers, carjackers and home invaders have not discriminated between districts of the city, striking everywhere from Double Bay to Sydney's west, from the southern to the northern suburbs.

Then in this report some Aussie social scientists boast how the gun control laws have reduced gun related deaths by one half.

They argue that the risk of dying by gunshot has halved since Australia destroyed 700,000 privately owned firearms. They say, " Not only were Australia's post-Port Arthur gun laws followed by a decade in which the crime they were designed to reduce hasn't happened again, but we also saw a life-saving bonus: the decline in overall gun deaths accelerated to twice the rate seen before the new gun laws."

The Port Arthur laws were designed to reduce the incidence of gun violence. But it looks like that hasn't worked out as planned. Not only has violent crime increased in Aussieland, but now the firearm related content is also increasing. If dangerous guns were removed from the population, then why is this happening?

I suggest that most of the guns turned in, or maybe all, were formerly owned by law abiding citizens. The punks and thugs kept theirs. And they are using them again.

Now that it is alnmost impossible to get a handgun to protect yourself, violent crime in Australia has increased.

Comparing Australia's violent crime stats from 1996 (when these dangerous guns were in the hands of law biding citizens) violent crime has increased 39%, from 145,902 to 202,484. Homicide is down 17% (59 less victims) but felony assaults are up 46%, sexual assault is up 25%, robbery is up 3% and kidnapping is up over 50%.

Since 1994, total victimization has increased by 56,582 people who were seriously beaten, raped, stabbed, robbed or kidnapped. Since 1998 when firearms were restricted, there have been an additional 32,405 victims.

Using a rather basic statistical measure of dispersion, standard deviation, against Australian crime stats yields the following. The arithmetic mean of the ten year period is 181,667 violent crimes. The standard deviation is 19,090.

A large standard deviation indicates that the data points are far from the mean and a small standard deviation indicates that they are clustered nearer the mean. Therefore the normative "bounds" of the Australian violent crime experience should be within one standard deviation of the arithmetic mean, or between 162,557 and 200,757. Anything outside of these upper and lower limits is not normal. The two years prior to the 1998 disarming are the only years lower than the new "normal" crime rate apparently established by the Aussies. The 2005 violent crimes stats have increased beyond the normative range.

This should be seriously worrying the Aussies. It would any copper. But the social scientists apparently don't care.

Our Government In Action

In one way or another I have been involved in government bureaucracies for well over three decades. I just read about the latest TSA debacle and I am again underwhelmed with how some bureaucracies handle their responsiblities.

The problem here is how the TSA views the safety and security of their employees.

In a statement released Friday night, the agency said the external -- or portable -- hard drive contained information on employees who worked for the Homeland Security agency from January 2002 until August 2005.

This sounds suspiciously like an exterior USB drive that can store hundreds of gigabytes of data - a rather cavelier means of storing your personnel information.

Who in their right minds would keep this kind of employee information on a storage device that you can unplug and simply walk away with? It makes no difference if the office area was restricted to authorized personnel only. This device is no more than a big thumb drive waiting to be scooped up and put in someone's brief case or purse.

Why wasn't this information stored in a secure environment where access is controlled not only by physical limitations but also through electronic means on a need to know basis?

I use secure systems every day and I am amazed, astounded, dismayed, incredulous that this could happen in an agency allegedly devoted to national security.

Somebody, probably more than one, in the TSA leadership needs to have their head(s) forcibly removed from their ass.

But perhaps the TSA is merely following accepted federal standards for secure data systems.

In 2000 we had the Los Alamos caper with removeable hard drives containing nuclear secrets disappearing from vaults. They were later recovered tucked behind a copy machine. Allegedly this is a common area for hard drives to gather when they are lost and afraid. Ever since then I routinely examine the areas around our office copy machines for the poor little guys.

Here is a partial list of some of the more obvious shortfalls in the way our government handles sensitive information. The first 22 items are from this year alone...