The Weekly News Catch-up Post I can't believe how there are so many people in the world seemingly intent on giving me things to tick me off. Consequently they've reached my overload point and I've just shut them out after making a mental note to never, ever, give them anything...

So, here's my comments for the week...

- Hillary Clinton can give up trying to buy my vote, or my kid's votes with $5,000 times the number of their children. She can give up trying to encourage illegal immigration and anchor babies. All she is doing is ticking the hell out of those of us she'll tax to pay for this mess.

- Myanmar (Burma by another name) continues to murder monks and pro-democracy marchers. They apparently aren't very much Budhists though because they don't care who they kill. They even managed to kill a Japanese journalist! Now that was stupid. The world is upset now! I noticed in today's surfing that there are Chinese protesting China's lack of action in supporting the pro-democracy factions in Myanmar. Now, there is a leap of faith...

- Rudy, Rudy, Rudy... Don't ever have your wife call you in the middle of a speech again. It is RUDE, it is INSULTING to your audience, and it demonstrates your ARROGANCE. It does not become you sir. Not that I'd vote for your obfuscating, gun-banning, snotty... Oh, never mind.

- Former President Clinton didn't think we (as in thoughtful, patriotic Americans) should have been upset over MoveOn.org's slanderous, illegally paid for ad in the New York Times. Oh, no, it is a red herring the right is using to distract from real problems. Well, my view is that the real problems in the country come from the hate-America socialists. Ain't no feigned outrage here.



- There's a pervert who videotaped his rape of a 5-year old girl. Apparently, he's still on the run. This sack of Satan's crap has nowhere to run except home to Satan. Perhaps he'll do us all a favor and take that route, soon. However bad this is, Satan must really have it in for 5-year old girls. I can't believe that I had to wade through so many such cases before finding this recent one.

- No hugging in school? Oh, come on for goodness sake! If the kids are blocking the halls can't the teachers just say something like "move out of the way"?

- Nancy Pelosi is either the stupidist Congress"person" ever or she's as disengenous as they come. To believe that the border fence won't help control, without violence, illegal immigration is delusional. I think she knows but does not care if she destroys this country as long as she can be in charge for the rest of her life. And don't even get me started about the "Dream" act.

- Elizabeth Taylor, dear lady, please contact your guardian or get one (and not this man). Sorry Ms. Taylor, but I read this and all I could see was some reiver going after a nice old lady's money.

- It pays to only swim in cold water. I bet that isn't pleasant...


- Do we really want to support a religion or government that allows this sort of behavior? I guess she's lucky he didn't have her stoned to death.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by Hobie 1:41 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Now here's a conundrum... Granted we have a right to confront our accuser but what if the accused has murdered or had his/her accuser murdered? Should testamony be ignored because the accuser/victim is no longer able to come to court? Does this encourage criminals to kill their victims? Does this make all of us, potential victims, more likely to think that we need to kill our attackers lest we be killed so that we can't testify and they can't be tried/convicted? What do you think? Read this article,
High court: Tape of Jetseta can't be used in abuse trial By ABBY SIMONS REGISTER STAFF WRITER September 29, 2007. Now, what do you think?

My opinion? Let's just say that I think anyone who tries to rob or do anything else to me is going to kill me. I'll act on that basis.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by Hobie 10:41 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Dem/S Steal from US Vets and Give Benefits Democrats give away veterans' benefitsby Rep. Mike Turner

Perhaps more egregious is how the Democrats offset the cost of the new benefits. Because of House PAYGO rules, any new entitlement spending (such as the Filipino Veterans Equity Act) must be funded by either a corresponding cut in existing spending or matching revenue gains.

In this case, the Democrats on the Veterans Committee voted to save nearly $1 billion by eliminating a $2,200 special monthly payment to veterans who are less than 100 percent disabled, but 60 percent or greater disabled.

Just how would you feel if you thought you had a contract with your government that you'd be taken care of and suddenly lost $2200 a month in income?

Labels: Military, Politics

  ¶ posted by Hobie 12:53 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Culture of Corruption - Chicago PD Old Ironsights isn't posting but he put me on to this story about Chicago's finest.

I'm not saying but just noticing something. All my life I heard stories about good-old-boy-southern-cops who bent the law and were cruel and crooked. Lately I hear it is all over the country but mostly in 'blue' areas. Just wondering...

Labels: CultureOfCorruption

  ¶ posted by Hobie 11:13 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Cops Don't Like Tickets Either... (courtesy of Tam) Tam from the View from the Porch blogged this and I'm picking it up. Seems some cops think they are above the law and post on a PUBLIC FORUM about it. Amazingly, they think their families are exempt and give them a little card to ID them as cop family members.

I'm against that. Everybody gets treated the same, not just the hoi polloi. I don't think it is digressing much to say that I don't like this idea cops (at least some) have that everyone else is a civilian. Cops are civilians, too. If they aren't then we live under martial law. That, friends, is the opposite of the intent of this country.

Anyway, one of those instances happened right here in Augusta County, Virginia. We are proud of our Deputies and Troopers. They are consistently well mannered, helpful and honest. Apparently one can't say the same for New Jersey and New York. Another reason I'm glad my family has left there.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by Hobie 3:25 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Family Discoveries Going through some old family photos I discovered that Dad was assigned to Company M, 16th Infantry, Furth, Germany (West Germany) in 1951. I also discovered he had quite a number of girl friends...

I now know that we lived at 22 Hill Street, Richwood, WV... 216 First Street, Elkins, WV...

Labels: Family

  ¶ posted by Hobie 9:50 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Men of Honor - CPL Robert P. Warns II

Labels: MenOfHonor

  ¶ posted by Hobie 5:05 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Instead of Self-loathing We Need to Buck Up I reported earlier on MoveOn.org's New York Times ad which called General Petraeus a traitor. Well, yesterday, the US Senate Votes to Condemn MoveOn for Ad Attacking General Petraeus. The courageous Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden made sure they were not on the Senate floor for the vote which went 72-25. As shown in the link, these are the Nays and Not Voting (Absent)...

Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Levin (D-MI)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

Not Voting - 3
Biden (D-DE)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)

I've put the presidential candidates in BOLD because I think it was because of MoveOn.orgs money or supposed influence that they voted in this way. Well, I guess it is the best way to look at it because otherwise they'd have to actually believe that General Petraeus is a liar (Sen. Clinton did say that, didn't she?) and a traitor.

Anyway, I'm surprised that they don't get it that this is self-defeating, perhaps they aren't really smart enough to be in the positions to which they've been elected, much less President of the United States.

It would be better if more Americans realized that sometimes life is tough and we need to swallow our natural disgust with violence and do what we need to do to get the nation through this long time attack. Perhaps a bit of Robert W. Service (courtesy of my friend Jim Taylor) will best illustrate my point of view:

THE QUITTER
by Robert W. Service

When you're lost in the Wild, and you're scared as a child,
And Death looks you bang in the eye,
And you're sore as a boil, it’s according to Hoyle
To cock your revolver and . . . die.
But the Code of a Man says: "Fight all you can,"
And self-dissolution is barred.
In hunger and woe, oh, it’s easy to blow . . .
It’s the hell-served-for-breakfast that’s hard.

"You're sick of the game!" Well, now that’s a shame.
You're young and you're brave and you're bright.
"You've had a raw deal!" I know — but don't squeal,
Buck up, do your damnedest, and fight.
It’s the plugging away that will win you the day,
So don't be a piker, old pard!
Just draw on your grit, it’s so easy to quit.
It’s the keeping-your chin-up that’s hard.

It’s easy to cry that you're beaten — and die;
It’s easy to crawfish and crawl;
But to fight and to fight when hope’s out of sight —
Why that’s the best game of them all!
And though you come out of each gruelling bout,
All broken and battered and scarred,
Just have one more try — it’s dead easy to die,
It’s the keeping-on-living that’s hard.

I hope, no, pray that Americans will buck up, do their damnedest, and fight.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by Hobie 7:41 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Talk Like a Pirate Day Well, Talk Like a Pirate Day is what it is. Ar!

I must be addicted to these tests. So, you take it, too.


Then, if you're too bloody ignorant to talk like a Pirate (not cuss like a sailor), then you can use the translator.

Whatever you do, have fun with it.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by Hobie 1:59 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Patriotic Music I saw this on Journal of the Common Man and thought I'd save/post here for posterity (and ease of location for e-mailing friends).

Labels: Video

  ¶ posted by Hobie 12:25 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Mexico's President Wants US to Surrender its Sovereignty? In Dobbs: Mexican president's blatant hypocrisy by Lou Dobbs on CNN, we discover that the President of Mexico wants the USofA to surrender sovereignty, i.e. surrender to Mexico's invasion. According to Dobbs,

Mexican President Felipe Calderon Sunday demanded the United States surrender its sovereignty, abandon the rule of law and accede to Mexico's inherent supremacy.

In his state of the union address to the Mexican nation, Calderon established his imperialistic imperatives: "I have said that Mexico does not stop at its border, that wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico. And, for this reason, the government action on behalf of our countrymen is guided by principles, for the defense and protection of their rights."

I'm thinking that this is pretty much a declaration of war. So, where's the POTUS response? I'm waiting...

Labels: Politics

  ¶ posted by Hobie 10:22 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Student Tasered at Kerry Event A University of Florida student is Tasered and arrested after causing a disturbance at a town hall forum, which featured Senator John Kerry, at the UF Auditorium on Sept. 17, 2007. Well, he was being obnoxious...



Another angle





I know, next time one of these MoveOn types disrupts a forum, let's taser them and see how it shows up on the news, immediately. The truth is that I've heard nothing about this. Nothing, until this posting.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by Hobie 9:16 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Red Skelton - Pledge of Allegiance Somebody put this classic up on LiveLeak. I've got a recording that I often play at work. It was a different world. Red Skelton's "Pledge of Allegiance" was first introduced on the Red Skelton Show on January 14, 1969. It has since been twice read into the congressional record of The United States and has received numerous awards.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by Hobie 9:07 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  VAJoe I had no idea that this site existed. VAJoe doesn't exactly have my endorsement but I found the candidate calculator interesting.

The site also has a lot of other features. Now, I've very little experience with the site so I can't just come right out and endorse it but I think it is worth a look.

Labels: Military

  ¶ posted by Hobie 7:55 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Invasion Alert! - Defense Appropriation Bill I received the following from Grassfire.org:

Amnesty Senators have snuck an amnesty bill back onto the
Senate floor and a crucial vote will take place this week.
Sen. Dick Durbin is attaching the so-called "Dream Act"
to the Defense Appropriations Bill.

We're calling the Dream Act the "Nightmare Amnesty Act."
Here's why:

--The Dream Act gives amnesty to any illegal alien
claiming to have arrived in the U.S. prior to age 16.

--Any illegal alien can apply, no matter the current age. So
if a 35 year old illegal can make a claim to have been in
the U.S. prior to age 16, he can apply.

--Those who get amnesty through the Dream Act can then
sponsor family members. It creates million of "anchor
teens" who create a direct amnesty path for their family.

--Illegal aliens who apply cannot be deported.

--Plus, the bill allows illegals to get in-state tuition rates,
meaning your tax dollars will pay for illegals to go to
college!

The Dream Act is truly a nightmare.

Go here to access my briefing:

http://www.grassfire.org/22042/offer.asp?rid=13571596

Labels: Politics

  ¶ posted by Hobie 7:42 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Republic of Korea Navy I suppose this is blatant advertising/propaganda for the ROK Navy. I've a bit of a soft spot for the ROKs. I served there for 4 years 9 months and some days. My first wife and mother of my children is Korean. Every Korean I worked with or knew there was unceasingly polite and kind to me (and I'm not so sure that such behavior was always deserved). So, 나의 한국 친구를 위해



감사합니다

Labels: International

  ¶ posted by Hobie 9:09 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  A Perfect Day Glenn Beck has been talking about what he's referring to as "The Perfect Day". You need to read this. The India reference is to the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 and it wasn't quite "The Perfect Day".

However the idea of multiple attacks on relatively defenseless schools not only has precedents but would antagonize a large portion of the American public. Towards whom that antagonism would be directed is a question not addressed.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by Hobie 12:21 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Alex the Parrot I was reading Michael Bane's post on Alex the Parrot, an African Grey parrot, and I was struck by something I think bothers the rest of us.

I'm a hunter. I've been a hunter all my life. I've hunted flies for my grandmother armed with her well used fly swatter. I've hunted fish. I've hunted groundhogs and squirrels and deer and mourning dove and crows and turkey and grouse and pheasant and shot a few other animals I'd rather not have shot but felt I needed to shoot. I've been a pet "owner", too. My family had a German Shepherd and a Golden Retreiver when I was growing up, my first wife and I had a cat, and my latest wife and I have a Miniature Schnauzer (who is here with me at work).

This posting disturbs me and I think it likely would disturb most hunters. I bet they are bothered a bit by similar stories about dolphins and chimpanzees and gorillas. I think you know why this bothers hunters but if not...

Hunters kill animals. Hunters, most of them, eat animals. Now we don't go out hunting and eating parrots, chimpanzees or gorillas (at least not in this country) so why does a "smart", thinking, communicating parrot, chimpanzee or gorilla bother me. Well, I guess we all kinda suspect that other primates might be almost as smart as we are in at least some way. That's probably why most of us are repelled by the idea of eating another primate. But a bird, even a parrot, now that's got your attention, right? Well it gets my attention.

It gets my attention because all my life I've heard the expression "bird brain" which not only implies limited intelligence but a definite lack of organizational skills and here is a bird that not only can learn vocabulary but use that vocabulary to string together sentences and apply those sentences to communicate appropriately and to initiate communication. We never guessed such things were possible 40 years ago.

It gets my attention because it changes how I view the animals I eat. Now, I know too that there are animals and birds who would eat me, given the opportunity, maybe even my own dog so I'm not grossed out by eating animals. However, I do think more about what that animal might or might not have been thinking.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by Hobie 10:31 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Sergeant James Kuehnlein From Xavier, who has really been following this, is this info on the Sergeant James Kuehnlein incident. Xavier has all the video as well.

Apparently Sergeant James Kuehnlein of a small town police department was hired despite criminal convictions and has likely been terrorizing citizens but finally got caught by a kid with his own in car video system. The PD Chief is trying to spin it such that he can save either this guy's job or maybe save his own job. Typical of officers who think they are a step above the rest of us instead of selfless guardians of right from wrong.

I think Xavier will continue to follow this so you can just click that link to get his report on the latest.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by Hobie 8:39 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Lanny Davis Lanny Davis is on Fox and Friends is saying oh yeah the Dem/S should denounce the MoveOn.org ad but why don't we get upset when Limbaugh denounces MoveOn.org as unpatriotic when they are exercising their first amendment rights with the ad.

Lanny, you disingenuous boob, it is because MoveOn.org is proving their unpatriotic stance with the ad. We aren't lynching them in the public square for the ad, but we are calling them what they are, traitors. And the Dem/S that accept their money and don't denounce such things are traitors, too.

Let me ask you Lanny Davis, how in hell is a President Hillary Clinton going to effectively use the US military when she publicly states that she thinks every single soldier is a liar?

Labels: Politics

  ¶ posted by Hobie 8:25 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  I, Robot...
Robot Maker Builds Artificial Boy Sep 13, 7:36 AM (ET) By MATT SLAGLE.

RICHARDSON, Texas (AP) - David Hanson has two little Zenos to care for these days. There's his 18-month-old son Zeno, who prattles and smiles as he bounds through his father's cramped office. Then there's the robotic Zeno. It can't speak or walk yet, but has blinking eyes that can track people and a face that captivates with a range of expressions.

At 17 inches tall and 6 pounds, the artificial Zeno is the culmination of five years of work by Hanson and a small group of engineers, designers and programmers at his company, Hanson Robotics. They believe there's an emerging business in the design and sale of lifelike robotic companions, or social robots. And they'll be showing off the robot boy to students in grades 3-12 at the Wired NextFest technology conference Thursday in Los Angeles.

and

Hanson said he was inspired by, and is aiming for, the same sort of realism found in the book "Supertoys Last All Summer Long," by Brian Aldiss. Aldiss' story of troubled robot boy David and his quest for the love of his flesh-and-blood parents was the source material for Steven Spielberg's film "Artificial Intelligence: AI."

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by Hobie 8:45 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Too Many Things on Which to Comment Good golly Miss Molly but there is a lot going on in the world that just gets me, one way or another, and I hardly have time to comment on it all.

First, prayers for all our friends on the gulf coast of Texas and Louisiana who are suffering through flooding due to Humberto.

More prayers yet for our friends in Indonesia who just had an 8.4 earthquake and a tsunami. Last I'd heard 9 people were killed by the quake and tsunami.

This darn criminal immigrant Elvira Arellano has admitted that because our immigration laws weren't convenient to her, i.e. she didn't want to wait for legal immigration, she just came on in. Somehow it is our fault that this woman committed a felony of returning after being deported AND identity theft. I feel for her son, Saul, who not only has to be the son of this person but also suffer the abuse of being carted around as a representative of the pro-illegal immigration movement.

Global warming scam continues as the Chicken Littles continue to scream the sky is falling because artic ice is melting where in the 1970s we were bound for a new ice age. The planet is millions of years old and we've been keeping records for a century or less and not good records as measuring stations are in places where the micro-climate can seriously affect the statistics.

Hillary Clinton said she was going to return the Norman Hsu donations but hey she needs the money so if the donors will "swear" that the money is theirs, she let them write new checks. I'm not so sure they want to donate a year's pay to her (in some cases mentioned). But, then again, all the money may have been defrauded from others by Norman Hsu and they might want to re-look that as they will then be party to the fraud. That doesn't bother Hillary Clinton, all she cares about is power. By the way, such as she suggests is illegal.

We keep hearing from the left that the media bias is all in our minds. Then the New York Times gives MoveOn.org a $116,000 discount on their "General Betray Us" ad. Oh yeah, I believe there is no media bias... for the right. These socialists believe that the means is justified by the end.

Not one of the Dem/S presidential candidates has come out against the "General Betray Us" and in fact they have echoed the sentiment by calling the General a liar. These attacks on General Petraeus ignored the content of his report which was a mixed bag at best. Further, by calling the General a liar they are calling all his staff liars as they collated the data he used and may have written portions of the report. Not only his staff have been called liars but all the staffs who submitted reports up the chain of command. That would be everybody in Iraq from the lowliest PV2 on up. What is truly laughable is that by calling Petraeus and his soldiers liars they prove that they themselves are liars.

"Professional" sports is a joke. From players who are nothing more than criminals with a side job to coaches who actively cheat, to referees and umpires betting on the games they officiate there is nothing worth watching in professional sports. Who wants to look at such people, who can believe the results.

The Iranian president, Ahmadinejad, once again has implied that Israel should be destroyed and said that Israel is "cruel" and "cannot continue its life." I don't know when but I think it is very possible President Imanutjob is going to force us to war with Iran someday.

Soldiers who signed anti-war op-ed piece die in Iraq and that is just as bad as any other soldier or Marine being killed. I think they overstepped their bounds in signing the op-ed but they were by all accounts good soldiers and now they have been killed in service to their country. Our prayers go out for their families.

Then Kathy Griffin does a rant on Jesus and what a sad thing. This woman is a very sad case. Humor or not this exposes a side of Ms. Griffin that is disturbing on many levels. She might not like it but I'm going to pray for her anyway.

I think I'll take a break and put the sealer on the bathroom floor.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by Hobie 7:43 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Dem/S Off the Deep End Proving they are at their core traitorous and self-serving liars, the Dem/S have refused to denounce MoveOn.org's ad in the New York Times calling General Petraeus a traitor. I'd say it takes one to know one but we all know that Petraeus is the antithesus of MoveOn.org, Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton as well as (apparently) every other Dem/S.

While the juvenile thinkers at MoveOn.org might think this is a clever play on the good General's name they betray their own agenda. Knowing that the General in no way collaborated with the White House to prepare the report, they have said that he did in order to 'cherry pick' statistics and that to accept his words required a 'suspension of disbelief'. Several have said that his recommendation on withdrawals, despite being very conventional (and not yet followed in Kosovo, Bosnia, Germany or South Korea) wasn't enough.

Meanwhile the 'experienced' Hillary Clinton hasn't learned how to vette contributors despite 16 years of mis-steps. Interestingly, many of those mis-steps are with Chinese contributors and in the latest case with a convicted, fugitive, felon! Oh, she's right eager (now) to give the nearly $850,000 back to Norman Hsu and the contributors (supposedly) whose donations he bundled for her, but she isn't willing to cooperate (yet) with those Hsu supposedly defrauded of the money which was contributed to her and other Dem/S. Do you suppose that Hillary and the Dem/S (including their strangely silent DNC Chairperson) actually conspired to defraud certain people or to redirect 'investments' to political purposes? I can't believe that 'the smartest woman in the world' hasn't, in 16 years, learned to be particularly careful of accepting donations from Chinese men. Perhaps Norman Hsu is channeling Charlie Tre from his refuge...

So, the Dem/S are traitors on the subject of national security and they are traitors in that they are willing to co-opt the election process. Do you think traitor is too harsh a word? Maybe you can explain HOW it is wrong. I bet you can't.

Labels: Politics

  ¶ posted by Hobie 7:50 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Shooting Back - the Charl van Wyck Story See what terror attack on church looks like - And find out what happens when a Christian shoots back
from World Net Daily...

WASHINGTON – In the same week WND celebrates its fifth anniversary as a book publisher, the company announces the release of its first major documentary – "Shooting Back," the story of an armed man who returned fire at terrorists attacking his church, driving them off and saving the lives of hundreds.

Earlier this year, WND Books published for the first time in North America Charl van Wyk's literary version of the story – a biblical case for the right and duty of armed self-defense wrapped in a unique and personal account of what it's like to come face to face with an opportunity to exercise that right and duty.

Van Wyk was just an ordinary Christian man until July 25, 1993 – the day that would become known in South Africa as the St. James Massacre. It was on this date that van Wyk shot back at the terrorists who were attacking an innocent congregation gathered in prayer, and saved many lives in the process.

You need to see this DVD, you need to share this DVD, you need to buy this DVD.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by Hobie 7:30 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  David Kucinich, Presidential Candidate and Traitor There is this interview of David Kucinich on Syrian TV at Breit Bart TV. This maroon thinks that the UN has a role there, now, after the sectarians and Al Queda killed UN representatives to drive them out of the country. He thinks that US citizens want precipitous withdrawal. He thinks that we should be loved by the world (we are, by those who want a good life and will do anything to get here). He thinks we harmed the Iraqi people. Jeez.

Labels: Politics, Video

  ¶ posted by Hobie 8:22 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  I think Tam dared me...

Labels: Humor

  ¶ posted by Hobie 8:02 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  THE ATV You Need... This is just too cool. I would think that these would be THE ticket for Alaska, Ontario, Quebec and the northeast US. I think you'd need lots of lakes and major rivers in/on/adjacent to public land to really need one of these. Swamps not so much maybe. I'd love to hear from anyone who has one.



See the whole line, yes, line of these vehicles at Gibbs Technology.

Labels: Oddities, Video

  ¶ posted by Hobie 8:16 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Most Homicide "Victims" are Criminals The vast majority of those whose death is a homicide (not necessarily a murder) are criminals, i.e. they have a criminal record.

Police note rise in homicides in which victims have records
Rap sheets offer leads to potential suspects
Kevin Johnson
USA Today
Sept. 3, 2007 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - A spike in murders in many cities is claiming a startling number of victims with criminal records, police say, suggesting that drug and gang wars are behind the escalating violence.

Police increasingly are exploring the criminal pasts of homicide victims as well as suspects as they search for sources of the violence, which has risen the past two years after a decade of decline.

and

In Baltimore, about 91 percent of murder victims this year had criminal records, up from 74 percent a decade ago, police reported. In many cases, says Frederick Bealefeld III, Baltimore's interim police commissioner, victims' rap sheets provide critical links to potential suspects in botched drug deals or violent territorial disputes.

and

In Milwaukee, the homicide commission was created after a spike in violence led to a 39 percent increase in homicides in 2005.

The commission, which compiled statistics on victims' criminal histories for the first time, found that 77 percent of murder victims in the past two years had an average of nearly 12 arrests.

And in Newark, N.J., roughly 85 percent of homicide victims killed in the first six months of this year had criminal records, according to police statistics.

I have to note that it is unclear as to whether this data is of homicides including death due to self-defense by crime victims or is limited to criminal-on-criminal murder. Our ability to differentiate from the news story is complicated by the interchangeable use of "homicide" and "murder" which are not the same thing.

I want more detail. Thanks to David T. Hardy for this info.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by Hobie 8:17 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Men of Honor - PFC Michael Ballard & PFC Jonathan Heck Soldiers OK after fire rescue attempt By Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes - Pacific edition, Sunday, September 2, 2007

These two young men, PFC Michael Ballard & PFC Jonathan Heck of Alpha Company, 702nd Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division and Bravo Company, 302nd Brigade Support Battalion respectively, entered a burning home to save the occupants not knowing that the home was empty. While there was nobody inside the building and they both suffered smoke inhalation they don't regret their decision. Clearly they worked together as well. I'm sure their platoon sergeants are damn happy to have such soldiers.

However, such heroism is not unprecedented in the ROK. Last year PV2 Russell McCanless, PV2 Reid Erickson and SSG David Newman saved a paralyzed woman and her mother from a burning building outside Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu.

Labels: MenOfHonor

  ¶ posted by Hobie 8:56 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Nifong Gets ONE Day in Jail There is something wrong here. Mike Nifong, former prosecutor for Durham, NC tried to prosecute three Duke lacrosse players for rape where no rape occurred. He lied, falsified and suppressed evidence as suited his purposes. Why? Apparently to be re-elected as the prosecutor/District Attorney.

So, after months of that, the North Carolina Attorney General zaps the whole deal and moves against Nifong. Accused of criminal contempt of court Nifong has been sentenced to one day in jail...

Nifong held in criminal contempt by judge, sentenced to day in jail

(CNN) -- Embattled former district attorney Mike Nifong was held in criminal contempt of court and sentenced to one day in jail Friday for his actions in the flawed Duke lacrosse team rape case.

Nifong must report to jail September 7, Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III said.

The judge said Nifong's withholding of DNA evidence from defense attorneys was an affront to the integrity of the judicial system.

The evidence potentially would have cleared the three lacrosse players of sexual assault charges months before North Carolina's attorney general dropped them in April.

The players initially were accused of raping an exotic dancer during a party last year.

The specific evidence Nifong was accused of withholding was that DNA profiles found on the alleged rape victim were from unidentified males, but did not match any of the 46 lacrosse team members.

It seems to me that one day in jail isn't jail time at all. I don't get that. I mean, you walk through the door and process and then you move into isolation (after all he is a former prosecutor) and you have a nap get up in the morning and get processed out of the jail. How bad can that be? Does that even up the score for 3 young men who had their lives abducted by false accusations and improper prosecution? How about for the Duke lacrosse team who lost a whole season? How much has the program suffered for this interruption? How about the citizens who now have no faith in the integrity of their court system?

Some think that it is enough that he was removed from office and that he lost his law license. I'm not so sure. I think we need to send a clear message to the "guardians of the law" in this country that we absolutely will not tolerate abuse of power. I don't see this as happening.

Labels: Culture of Corruption - Mike Nifong

  ¶ posted by Hobie 7:57 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Ellen Tauscher Representative Ellen Tauscher (Dem) of California didn't discuss it in he "diary" of her Iraq trip but she's claiming to have been "slimed" in Iraq. To whit:

The bio of Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, was no less pointed, even if she once supported the war and has taken heat from liberal Bay Area constituents who remain wary of her position. "Our forces are caught in the middle of an escalating sectarian conflict in Iraq, with no end in sight," the bio quotes.

"This is beyond parsing. This is being slimed in the Green Zone," Tauscher said of her bio.

and who put out the sheets is unclear...

It was the bio sheets that seemed to annoy the members of Congress the most. Just who assembled them is not clear. E-mails to U.S. Central Command's public affairs office in Baghdad this week went unanswered.

For one, the quotations appeared to be selected to divide the visitors into those who are with the war effort and those who are against. For another, they were not exactly accurate. Under "latest Iraq vote," Tauscher's bio noted that she had voted in favor of legislation requiring the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq within 120 days of the bill's enactment.

She did vote that way -- in May. On Aug. 2, Tauscher voted in favor of her own bill, which mandates that troops be granted a leave from combat at least as long as their last combat deployment before being shipped back to Iraq. That vote might have been a little too popular with the soldiers she was meeting, Tauscher said.

I wouldn't be surprised if some enterprising REMF with the assets to compile and reproduce the sheets did so on his/her own hook and then just placed them in strategic points convenient to the troops. Let us face it ladies and gents, soldiers today are involved and educated. Most soldiers have at least some college, all had to have passed minimum standards for intelligence and nearly all have graduated from high school. This isn't the same demographic that served even as late as Vietnam. It is harder to put one over on these folks. Add to that that they are ALL volunteers and that the vast majority recognize the need to be doing what they are doing (traditional grousing aside), it isn't exactly unexpected that they see certain people as friend and others as foe regardless of those persons' stated positions.

Of course, if you do bother to read Rep. Tauscher's Iraq travel diary, you'll see that she isn't exactly for success there...

Labels: Politics

  ¶ posted by Hobie 9:24 AM 0 Comments Links to this post