My Blog

Category: Society

  • Occupy Threatens & Sprays St. Louis

    Following a confrontation between Occupy protesters and local police last Thursday, vandals have hit the city with frightening pro-Occupy graffiti.

    Buildings, walls, and statues have all been defaced.  The city’s public safety director woke up to the words, “Blood on your hands,” sprayed on his front steps.

    Similarly, a hundred-year old statue now has the words “class war” scrawled across it, and a door that says “Park Police” now reads, “Only the blood of the rich will stop Occupy.”

    via TheBlaze.com.

    Photos at the link.

    This is of course not the first time the occupy folks have destroyed property or made threats.  The question I have is when will the Occupy loving media begin covering the violence and destruction?  And when will the talking heads on the left begin to denounce these actions?

  • Race and the Media

    The number one post (in terms of views) on this blog thus far has been the story about the boy from Kansas City, who happened to be white, and was walking along and set on fire by two other kids, who happen to be black.

    This story came up again in the comments on a story over at CNN about a reporter using the N* word on live TV.  Kudos to “Tom” who today at 5:08 CT posted:

    Why has CNN not reported about the Black on White hate crime in Kansas City?  Two black teenagers gasoline torching a white 13 year old and not  adrop of reporting.

    So that got me thinking and I did some Googling:

    boy kansas city gasoline fire
    11,800,000 results – News Only, 28 results

    kansas city gasoline fire hate crime
    380,000 results – News Only, 16 results

    florida neighborhood watch shoots black unarmed
    522,000 results – News Only, 3,700 results

    florida neighborhood watch shoots black unarmed hate crime
    68,800 results – News Only, 103 results

    Wow!!

    It appears the media has generally ignored the Kansas City story but the blogosphere wrote about it extensively.  It also appears that both the media and the blogosphere are careful, cautious, about labeling a story a hate crime.

    UPDATE:  Changed formatting of the search results to better fit on the page.

  • $3.6M Settlement in Alleged Police Misconduct Case

    A key City Council committee Monday signed off on a $3.6 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by a man who spent nearly 10 years in prison for an attack on a woman who later said she made a mistake when she identified him as her assailant.

    Robert Wilson had sought $9.9 million, a figure reflecting the nine years and nine months he spent behind bars on an attempted murder conviction before he was released in 2006, said Leslie Darling, an attorney for the city. Wilson, who alleged that his confession to the crime was coerced, was pardoned in 2008 by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

    “I think he deserves $10 million,” said Ald. Proco “Joe” Moreno, 1st. “In this case, I think approving the $3.6 million is a cost-saving measure and quite prudent.”

    …

    If the deals are approved, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration will have settled nine cases involving alleged police misconduct for a total of $9.4 million since September. All the alleged misconduct — ranging from improper response to medical needs to railroading innocent defendants — occurred during the 22-year tenure of former Mayor Richard Daley.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Of course the 800 pound gorilla in the room is Jon Burge.  The fallout from this corrupt cop’s actions have only begun to spill.  And lest we forget who was the Cook County State’s Attorney while Burge was running roughshod over the South Side?  Ya, none other than Da Mare himself, Richard Daley.

    Our children’s children will pay for the corruption of the Daley years.  And yet history will probably be kind to him.  It’s a very sad state of affairs.

  • Facebook in the News (and not in a good way)

    Some people will never learn that whatever you post online people will expose:

    FOX Chicago News has obtained pictures of a Chicago police officer wearing his uniform in some very provocative photos with women wearing next to nothing.

    The photos were posted on the officer’s Facebook page. FOX Chicago News has three, but we’ve learned that until a couple of days ago, there were dozens more — racy and raunchy and most taken while he’s wearing his uniform and badge.

    via Fox News Chicago.

    And then there’s this:

    According to charging documents filed Thursday, O’Neill married a woman in 2001, moved out in 2009, changed his name and remarried without divorcing her. The first wife first noticed O’Neill had moved on to another woman when Facebook suggested the friendship connection to wife No. 2 under the “People You May Know” feature.

    “Wife No. 1 went to wife No. 2’s page and saw a picture of her and her husband with a wedding cake,” Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist told The Associated Press.

    Wife No. 1 then called the defendant’s mother.

    via Fox News.

    As Homer Simpson would say… Doh!

  • Bizarre News Day

    Here’s some of the stories on the home page at Fox News this evening:

    Targeted Killing in US? Mueller Mum: FBI Director Robert Mueller, when pressed at agency budget hearing, says he has to check with Justice Department whether Eric Holder’s criteria for targeted killing of Americans can be justified within US.

    Mueller Grilled on FBI’s Release of al-Awlaki in 2002

    ICE Says Some Detainees Can Get Tax-Funded Transgender Treatments

    Wind Farms in Northwest Paid to Not Produce: US agency offers to compensate wind farms for shutting down because it was producing too much energy

    Ex-Sheriff, County Clerk Plead Guilty to Voter Fraud: West Virginia officials admit to plot to steal 2010 Dem primary by stuffing boxes with illegal absentee ballots.

    That pretty much sums it all up doesn’t it?

    The head of our national police force doesn’t even know if it’s allowed to execute U.S. citizens on U.S. soil without a trial.  Of course, this is the same law enforcement organization that once released an accused terrorist and American citizen from custody despite an outstanding warrant only so the same man could later be killed by U.S. forces in a targeted attack.

    While taxpayers money is going to fund the killing of U.S. citizens (apparently including on U.S. soil now) non-citizens get provided gender reassignment treatment at taxpayer expense.

    And while gas passes $5.00 a gallon the taxpayers are subsidizing the building of dubious wind turbines all over the country and then, when the wind turbines actually create energy, the taxpayers pay them not to.

    If anyone has doubts how we got here, we need only to consider that our elected officials, including law enforcement officials, will lie, cheat, and steal in order to keep their phoney baloney taxpayer funded jobs.

    I think it’s safe to say that we’ve reached the event horizon.

  • Limbaugh, Fluke, Maher, & the Media

    Much has been written about the recent dust-up between Limbaugh & Fluke and the former’s inappropriate comments about the latter.  Today Rush spent some time on his show perhaps grandstanding, perhaps clearing the air about the status of his advertisers.

    And judging from the reaction of my own brother, who sends me a note last night, “You really lost 28 sponsors?”  No, we have not lost 28 sponsors.  “Well, how can they say it?”  Because they lie and because they don’t understand how it works, and that’s what I want to try and explain.  In fact, folks, we have three brand-new sponsors that will be starting in the next two weeks.  Now, obviously, I’m not gonna tell you who they are today, but we’ve got three brand-new, full-fledged sponsors starting in the next two weeks.  …

    Nobody is losing money here, including us, in all this. And that is key for you to understand. They are not canceling the business on our stations. They’re just saying they don’t want their spots to appear in my show. We don’t get any revenue from ’em anyway. The whole effort is to dispirit you. It’s to make you think the left is being successful in its campaign when it isn’t. In fact, the left is so fed up, they can’t see straight. They thought they had me. They thought I would be off the air by now. They can’t understand why I still am on the air. There is also another rumor going around that I am going to be suspended for a week. It is utter BS.

    via: Rush Limbaugh.

    It’s easy to dismiss Rush’s monologue as self-serving propaganda.  Consider this however, as I write this the 3rd most popular story at CBS News is “Will Limbaugh’s Show Outlast the Firestorm?”  Over at the Chicago Tribune Clarence Page wonders, “Could This be the End of Limbaugh?” So maybe, just maybe, Rush is exactly on point; the Left is trying to keep this issue alive in an effort to drive him off the airwaves.

    Perhaps the greatest evidence to the contrary — that Rush may actually be in some real trouble here — is that none other than Bill Maher is coming to his defense.  Maher tweeted:

    Hate to defend #RushLimbaugh but he apologized, liberals looking bad not accepting. Also hate intimidation by sponsor pullout

    Maher’s tweet is covered at CBS News, the same outlet curious about the continued viability of Rush’s show.  Maher is naturally concerned that his mouth could get the rest of him in trouble.  After having called Sarah Palin several vile things, Maher might consider himself lucky that he’s not already been regulated to Mel Gibson type of treatment.  Self preservation might be driving Maher to come to Limbaugh’s defense.

    What also is interesting is the way that the Left and the Right treat each other.

    Limbaugh’s comments have ignited a firestorm of fury online, sparking “Stop Rush” websites, a “Boycott Rush” Twitter hashtag, an anti-Rush twitter handle and a petition signed by more than 400,000 people calling on advertisers to abandon the show.

    via: ABC News.

    When Bill Maher was calling Sarah Palin a C^#! did 400,000 people call for HBO to drop his show?

    It appears that all freedom of speech may not be equal.

  • Obama Offers Legal Backing for Targeted Killings

    The Obama administration on Monday plans to outline how U.S. laws empower the government to kill Americans overseas who engage in terrorism against their home country, a source familiar with the matter said, months after a drone strike killed a U.S.-born cleric who plotted attacks from Yemen.  …

    U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder plans to address the issue and the underpinning legal principles for using lethal force during remarks at Northwestern University School of Law on Monday afternoon in Chicago, the source said Sunday on condition of anonymity.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    What?!  This is just crazy.  The only way to handle this is the stop this insanity and issue a new policy that simply states, “The United States government does not — will not — knowingly kill any American citizen without a conviction of a capital crime at a trial by jury.”

    Look at this another way, would the U.S. allow a foreign government to kill a foreign citizen on U.S. soil?  Of course not.  The notion is absurd.

    There are so many legal problems with this that books will be written on the topic.

  • Teenagers Pour Gasoline on Boy Walking Home From School

    Is this really what we’ve come to?

    A 13-year-old boy who police say was doused with gasoline and lit on fire last week while walking home from school is recovering from first-degree burns to his face and head.  The boy was just two blocks from his home in Kansas City Tuesday when two teenagers began to follow him and then attacked him, his mother, Melissa Coon, said.

    Police have described the suspects as black 16-year-olds, while the victim is white.

    via NY Daily News.

    My initial thought was pretty simple.  Something along the lines of, ‘how horrible.’

    My second thought was a little more complex, like: ‘I guess this used to happen the other way around in the 50’s and 60’s but that still don’t make it right.  I thought we’re trying to move past all that.’

    My third thought was a little more controversial:  Can you imagine if two 16 year-old white boys poured gas on a 13 year-old black boy and lit him on fire?  What would the reaction be?  Would there be a march?  A riot?  A protest?  Would there be demands for an investigation into whether his parents were Nazis or otherwise racists?  Would Jesse Jackson show up and lecture everyone on how to behave?

    I don’t know; don’t have the answers.  But whatever we’re doing isn’t working.

  • The 99% Spring

    It’s coming:

    From April 9-15 we will gather across America, 100,000 strong, in homes, places of worship, campuses and the streets to join together in the work of reclaiming our country.  We will organize trainings to:

    Tell the story of our economy: how we got here, who’s responsible, what a different future could look like, and what we can do about it

    Learn the history of non-violent direct action, and

    Get into action on our own campaigns to win change.

    This spring we rise! We will reshape our country with our own hands and feet, bodies and hearts. We will take non-violent action in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi to forge a new destiny one block, one neighborhood, one city, one state at a time.

    via The 99% Spring.

    Let’s see… April 9th through the 15th… if only there was something these folks could be training for.  Maybe something going on say, a month later.  Maybe if there was a big gathering of heads of state and other world leaders and if maybe it was going to take place in May somewhere.

    Oh, May in Chicago is going to be one wild ride.  Hang on to your hats ’cause in the Windy City it’s surely going to blow.

  • American And Canadian Homeowners

    We’re alike and yet we’re different.  What I would like to see is this information from 2003 and 2007.

    The Difference Between American And Canadian Homeowners.