The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

HELLO, FROM YOUR BRAIN-DEAD MASTERS.

The Thought For Today

"If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance." - George Bernard Shaw

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

"A person briefed on the latest tests tells ABC News the failure rate approaches 70 percent at some major airports. Two weeks ago, TSA's new director said every test gun, bomb part or knife got past screeners at some airports." Via Gizmodo.

US-CERT Cyber Security Alert SA10-348A -- Microsoft Updates for Multiple Vulnerabilities

Ho, ho, ho - it's Microslug again...

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

"US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, however, said officials had handled the matter "by the book"." Tough shit bitch, welcome to the club. Don't bother to look for justice here.

The Thought For Today

"Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others...for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received." - Albert Einstein

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

"HANG, HANG, HANG THE BASTARD!" "For what?" "FOR MAKING US LOOK BAD!" "But that's not against the law." "WE'LL MAKE UP A NEW LAW AFTER WE HANG HIM!" Land of Liberty and Justice for all?

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

America was once based on freedom. This no longer seems true. Amazon and Paypal have shown otherwise. Does the term 'Craven Cowards' sound right? It does to me.

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

You find yourself asking, how much LOWER will the TSA go? The sad answer is: We WILL find out.

The Thought For Today

"The majority never has right on its side. Never, I say! That is one of the social lies that a free, thinking man is bound to rebel against. Who makes up the majority in any given country? Is it the wise men or the fools? I think we must agree that the fools are in a terrible overwhelming majority, all the wide world over. But, damn it, it can surely never be right that the stupid should rule over the clever!" - Henrik Ibsen (And a big hello to the TSA!)

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

And hello "I don't need to go through the sensors and you do". During an appearance on CBS, the TSA's Pistole expressed "great concern over anybody who feels like they have not been treated properly or had something embarrassing" happen. HA!

The Hard Truth From Orlando

RANT

I don't know about everybody else in the world, but I'm already sick of the beat-to-death news of the upcoming nuptials of Prince William and what's-her-name. I don't care where he proposed to her. I don't want to see the pictures of the bed they slept in, the cabin they stayed at in Kenya, the ring on her finger or the cafeteria table where they met. I don't want to see the photos of the bikini she was wearing at the fashion show when Prince William "noticed" her as more than an acquaintance. I don't want to know if the Queen Mother thinks she's a good match for her grandson or if what's-her-name was extremely nervous meeting the royal family the first time.

I don't care.

Mind, I understand that as people, this young couple is newsworthy by virtue of the history they represent. I understand that there's always a fascination with "royalty" among people who are curious about those who live in the rarified atmosphere of inherited privilege, luxury and power. But what I really understand is the media is going to spend an inordinate amount of money and airtime to absolutely hammer the hell out of everyone at every level of communication with every bit of minutiae and speculation about the trivialities of this couple's romance and marital escapades.

It's going to be the mind-numbing, never-ending subject on every network, every entertainment show, every talk show. You'd think nothing else is happening in the whole world, when we've got countries teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, natural disasters claiming thousands of lives, pending global depletion of fossil fuel with the resulting catastrophic consequences for civilization as we know it, global warming, civil unrest in our own nation, and daily scientific advances which were sheer fantasy not five years ago to talk about. There's a lot of news -- good news -- that we could be watching instead.

But we're going to peruse the inconsequential silliness of a very public couple's private life for hours and hours and hours every day; a kind of ultimate reality show for a generation that can't get real.

I think I'll disconnect my cable and just watch movies from NetFlix for the next two years and tune back in when it's all over but the flashbacks.


Florida Cracker

The Thought For Today

“When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” - Sinclair Lewis

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

"Airport body scans just latest TSA window dressing."

"An act of terrorism is committed, and TSA issues a new directive aimed at preventing the very crime that already occurred. It's like the U.S. wagging a finger and saying, "Now, don't try that again." And the terrorists try something else." I feel so much safer now, don't you? Don't forget, the 24th is National Opt-Out Day. Just say no to being microwaved or X-rayed. Your body may thank you - though not for the TSA fondling you'll get.

Idiots In Charge

"William Bordley, an associate general counsel with the Marshals Service, acknowledged in the letter that "approximately 35,314 images...have been stored on the Brijot Gen2 machine" used in the Orlando, Fla. federal courthouse. In addition, Bordley wrote, a Millivision machine was tested in the Washington, D.C. federal courthouse but it was sent back to the manufacturer, which now apparently posses the image database." I have absolutely no problem with the TSA's outright lies to us about our privacy being preserved, do you?

Idiots In Charge: TSA Full-Body Scanners: Protecting Passengers Or Padding Pockets?

From Gizmodo: "Sorry pro-naked scanner people, but I'm with the pilots, the flight attendants, disgruntled passengers and Ben Franklin on this one. We need to put things into perspective.
If we're going to spend hundreds of millions on something, I'd rather it be something effective that's truly benefitting my fellow passenger, not some lobbyist and their current client."

And TSA's excuse: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/11/15/california.airport.security/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo
I've heard better excuses from a 3-year old child.

Idiots In Charge

Napolitano met with the U.S.Travel Association and 20 travel companies "to underscore the Department's continued commitment to partnering with the nation's travel and tourism industry and fuck with people just because we can."

Idiots In Charge

"Blogger Bob said...
Anon, I'm posting about this because it is relevant. One of the top questions on this blog is about AIT safety.Also, there is no fondling, squeezing, groping, or any sort of sexual assault taking place at airports. You have a professional workforce carrying out procedures they were trained to perform to keep aviation security safe.Please keep pat-down discussions in the Enhanced Pat-down post and let's keep on topic with AIT safety here."
Thanks,Blogger BobTSA Blog Team"
BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT! Well, you get the idea.

And, just for laughs:
http://blog.tsa.gov/2010/08/enhanced-pat-downs.html
The comments are a Must Read!

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

Someone remind me - why did we outlaw napalm? It's so good on pests.

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

All the jury members and all members of the RIAA, should be given a free trip to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. And greatly encouraged to swim home. All of you have fun now! Idiots.

P.S. And because we're such nice people, let's give a free trip to everyone in the MPAA too!

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

Those Stupid Assholes (TSA) strike again: "Federal authorities have arrested 34 suspected illegal immigrants who've been attending a flight school in Stow, Mass., The Boston Globe reported. Strict security controls put into place after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks ban illegal immigrants from taking flight lessons and require background checks on all foreigners training to fly in the United States.
Thiago DeJesus, the owner of the TJ Aviation Flight Academy at Minute Man Air Field near Boston, was among those arrested in the sting. A Brazilian immigrant and licensed pilot, DeJesus was charged in July with being in the U.S. illegally, but continued to give flying lessons until this week. Although DeJesus denies being in the states illegally, he is scheduled for a deportation hearing in February.
All of the arrested students were Brazilian nationals who were taking classes to learn to fly small single-engine planes, WCVB-TV reported. Officials at the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration could not explain why the students had received federal clearance to take classes and obtain pilot's licenses.
No link to terrorism has been found in connection with the flight school, and the arrested immigrants are free pending deportation hearings in federal immigration court."

Now, if they had only made them take off their shoes, this would have never happened.

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

Those Stupid Assholes (TSA) are at it again. And, of course, nothing will happen to the guy responsible - or his co-workers who didn't report him.

The Thought For Today

"A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water." - Eleanor Roosevelt

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum

Let's see - explosives were discovered last week in cargo parcels so they damn near strip search passengers to hide the fact that they fucked up. TSA: Those Stupid Assholes.

The Thought For Today

"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names." - John F. Kennedy

The Hard Truth From Orlando

And the bullying horror stories go on --

Two sets of parents are suing Mentor High School in Ohio for
the bullycide deaths of their children. Four children from that
high school have committed suicide, and while there are
questions regarding the allegations of bullying in the one
child's death, there's not much doubt that the other three
were very harassed, tormented and threatened to the
point that they committed suicide rather than continue trying
to live in the community -- a community once voted as one of
the "top 100 places to live." The reporter quoted one student
as admitting that the school practiced an exclusive culture of
athletes and cheerleaders. If you're not one of those, you're
free meat for the bullies -- I'm paraphrasing, but you get the
point.

I remember the Columbine shootings and the victims. There
wasn't a lot said in the earliest days after the shootings about
Klebold and Harris, the perpetrators of this mass murder.
What did come out fairly quickly was that both felt bullied --
and whatever their psychopathic proclivities might have
been, there was evidence that they had been pretty
consistently targeted for bullying by the jock-culture
of Columbine.

But none of those caught my attention like the Columbine
funerals. There were something like five or seven of the
murdered students' funerals in the same church. Candidly,
that told me what I needed to know. This is a closed
community. This is a cliquish community. This is not going
to be a community of tolerance, acceptance or assimilation.
All these kids went to the same church, knew the same
people, attended the same functions, belonged to the same
social organizations. They'd be pals inside and out of school.
Everyone who didn't fit their standard would not be someone
they'd feel obligated to include -- or protect.

There was a forensic psychiatric group that evaluated
Columbine and said it was the worst case of the "insider"
culture they'd ever come across and that it undoubtedly
contributed to the anti-social ideations and actions of Harris
and Klebold. In short, it created marginalized children who
morphed into monsters.

I have no doubt this is precisely what's occurred and
continues to occur at the Mentor High School in Ohio. Thus
far, the children who have been targets have turned their
negative feelings inward, blaming themselves, while the
bullies continue to congratulate themselves on their vicious
successes and the school continues to turn a blind eye. The
parents of the bullies aren't going to see anything their child
is doing as wrong -- your kid just can't stand up for himself
or herself; your kid is weak and a loser. The administration
is trying to keep a lid on their negative statistics -- and there
is NO external oversight group to appeal to for the parents
of the bullied children. It will be the expensive, time-
onsuming legal battle every step of the way.

But I will say it again, and again, and again. If you want to
win against the bullies, you have to go outside the school
and to the State Attorney's Office and file a sworn criminal
complaint against the bullies. You have to file it above the
law enforcement agency (sheriff or police department) that
works hand-in-glove with the school administration to keep
the victims quiet and the school looking good. You have to get
your child to NAME the children who calling names, harassing,
hitting and NAME whatever teacher or administrator
witnessed the action or that you complained to and file
specific charges against them; criminal negligence against
the administrator or teacher and criminal charges of
harassment, intimidation, assault or battery against the
bullies.

Only then does the message get through. And your child,
and the other children, will know you as a parent aren't
messing around. The bullies and school administration will
threaten, cajole, and do their best to derail your child's
nerve (and yours). Stay the course. Take the charges all
the way to court. Get the bully and the parents tagged in
the legal system and give the next victim a legal edge the
school can't ignore. If you can shake up a school so that
protecting bullies is going to cost jobs and funding for the
school, then -- and only then -- will you see a change in
the "insider" culture.

Sympathies to the parents of the children.


Florida Cracker

The Thought For Today

“Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.” - Susan B. Anthony

The Thought For Today

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." - Napoleon Bonaparte

The Thought For Today

"When books are burned in the end people will be burned too." - Heinrich Heine

The Thought For Today

"Attitudes are contagious. Are yours worth catching?" - Dennis and Wendy Mannering

The Thought For Today

"If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm." - Vince Lombardi

The Thought For Today

"It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk." - Bertolt Brecht

Moebius strip comic by Jim Woodring (video, photo, animation)

That's right folks - a comic strip done as a Moebius strip. It's not The Neverending Story, but it is funny - and unusual.

The Thought For Today

"The sky is the daily bread of the eyes." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Thought For Today

"Arrogance leads to failure." - The Buddha (Siddhartha Gotama)

The Thought For Today

"You can get more with a nice word and a gun than you can with a nice word." - Al Capone

The Hard Truth From Orlando

HEADLINE: Dad arrested in Seminole County, Florida, for
going on a bus and threatening the kids who bullied his 6th
grade disabled daughter...

As I've previously ranted at length about the criminal
behavior of students toward other students...

Mr. James Jones had the motivation and the right idea, but
he chose the wrong venue. In order to effect a change, he
needs his daughter to identify one or more of her
tormentors by name, go immediately with his daughter
to the State Attorney's Office and file a sworn complaint
against that child or children by name. He would have to
assist his daughter in the wording, being specific as to the
times, dates, places, what exactly was done (including things
that were thrown at her as evidence if she kept any of them),
what was said and by whom, and lists of any children or adults
she might know (including the bus driver) present during any
of these events. If his daughter only knew one of the assailants,
that's fine. She can name that one specifically in the sworn
complaint.

A lot of parents make the mistake of thinking that if they
report the bullying to the school, the school administrators
are going to do something about it -- after all, almost every
school now has a zero-tolerance of bullying policy. But
administrators have to report any incidences of violence,
disciplinary actions against students and the like to the
school board and this creates negative statistics against
the school, weighed against the job performance reviews
of the administration staff and in the school "fitness"
reports. Negative reports can cost funding to a particular
school. So despite the zero-tolerance policy, the
administrators are very reluctant to take any action
against the bullies. They'll move the child who's being victimized
if the parent insists, but basically, they won't do anything to stop
the behavior unless the victim's parent ups the ante to a lawsuit
against the perpetrating students, their parents, the school
and/or the administrators themselves.

A civil lawsuit is an expensive proposition. The sworn
criminal complaint is free; however, it needs to be made
at the State Attorney's Office to be effective. Parents who
make a criminal complaint to the school administration are
referred to the School Resource Officer, who is officially a
law enforcement officer but he answers to the school
administration -- and they can and often do put the kibosh
on any investigation. If the matter goes to the local sheriff's
office, it just gets referred directly back to the school resource
officer and then to the school administration.

But if the complaint originates in the State Attorney's Office,
there's an agency the school administration can't deflect
directly. They can make it more difficult to investigate,
but the State Attorney's Office has the power to issue
subpoenas for witnesses and records of administrative staff.
Mr. Jones would need to be proactive, calling periodically and
showing up in court to make sure the criminal case is not
being sidelined, but chances are excellent that the criminal
charges would be enough to "tag" the kids perpetrating the
harassment and threats of his daughter and get her and
other victimized children some relief from the bullies.

And Mr. Jones should definitely talk to a civil litigator about
suing the bullies' parents, the school administrators and/or
the bus driver. While I abhor the constant state of sue-happy
silliness in our country, a lawsuit is a real attention-getter for
effecting policy. Sadly, no one in any organization anymore
does something automatically because it's the right thing to
do -- they do it because they don't want to get sued. And rest
assured, if your child is the bully and you're one of these
useless, ineffective parents which are epidemic nowadays,
there's nothing like the threat of losing a substantial portion
of your income or having to go to court over and over because
of your kid's behavior to wake you up and get you involved.

I wish Mr. Jones and all the parents of bullied kids luck and
the intestinal fortitude to make the legal system work for
them against the inaction of school administration
everywhere. Having fought the fight twice on behalf of
children in my family, I know how draining and
frustrating the process is. But if you stay with it and
don't take "no" or "we can't" for an answer, your
children will be greatly comforted knowing that they're
not battling the bullies alone; they have someone in their
corner fighting effectively and making changes. And you
can make our schools a positive environment for productive
academic learning instead of a daily dose of hell for children
ill-prepared for this kind of unrelenting brutality.

Meantime, Mr. Jones' daughter is in the hospital on suicide
watch. Mr. Jones is facing criminal charges and the bullies
are laughing their butts off at how much trouble they've
caused -- but with this much media attention, the school
administrators aren't going to be able to duck and dodge.
They're going to have outside scrutiny of how they handle
these aggressive, nasty little freaks and they're going to have
to be prepared to answer in court for their failure to step in
at the beginning and protect the girl. And I hope the bullies
parents get a strong dose of wake-up, but I won't hold my
breath. We'll see the bullies again -- maybe not with this
victim, but we'll see them down the line in criminal court.
Bullies don't change anything but their targets.

Good luck, Mr. Jones, to you and yours. Yell for help. There's
a lot of families and teachers out there who want to get these
little creeps out of the schools and preferably, out of the
community altogether -- them and their dead-beat,
worthless parents.


Florida Cracker

The Thought For Today

"A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing: one that sounds good, and a real one." - J.P. Morgan

The Hard Truth From Orlando

“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s,
and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21).

1. It is good and appropriate to submit to the state when
asked;
2. Spiritual demands supersede earthly demands, but do
not abolish them;
3. The demands of the state are non-negotiable;
4. Spiritual authority should maintain its independence
from temporal authority, which rules by force rather
than moral law.
That’s straight from Wikipedia and the King James version of
the Biblical texts – plain information, plain understanding of the
text no matter your Christian affiliation. And that’s why I don’t
understand why these so-called ministers of faith don’t
understand why they have to comply with criminal
investigations – except that they don’t want to. The source
of their own religion spelled it out for them that they must
comply with secular laws.
Nowhere does their religious code claim that sexual abuse
of children is acceptable. Nowhere does it claim that those
who perpetrate these acts are not to be prosecuted.
Nowhere does it claim that the most helpless of the
supplicants are to be callously used and justice for them
suppressed with such disdain and vicious disregard.
Nowhere does it say that a wolf in the fold should be
tolerated; in fact, quite the contrary. The wolf is to be
eliminated for the protection of the flock.
On all counts, the Catholic Church has failed. They have
failed to police their own; they have systematically and
sadistically abused the most vulnerable of their congregants;
they have bribed and corrupted families and local officials to
cover their criminal acts; they have openly obstructed any
investigation or punishment of the criminals in their midst;
they have misused charitable donations and subverted their
own credo. Somewhere along the line, they mistook
representing the will of God for acting as if they were God.
Time to shatter the Golden Calf and toss the false prophets into
the fire. And if that’s too metaphysical, the Catholic Church
needs a good public purge of its dirty priests and hierarchy
delivered openly into the hands of the secular authority if it
ever hopes to regain any semblance of credibility and honor.
The crimes they have perpetrated under the guise of
ministering are an obscenity and if the Catholic Church
suffers a loss of substantial power, influence or position in the
world, they need only to look to their own actions for the cause.



Florida Cracker

PDF 'virus'

A lot of email traffic on this one....this should clear up a bit of the confusion...

Also, check for Windows/Microsoft updates...now. Even though Black Tuesday isn't until the 14th, there are some Criticals out there now waiting to be installed...

A Guide To Gizmodo

"Whether you're new to Gizmodo or a seasoned old-timer, there always seem to be some tips, tricks, guidelines, or rules that might be news to you. That's why we've put everything into one handy-dandy reference guide."

The Thought For Today

"Most people are willing to pay more to be amused than to be educated." - R.C. Savage

The Thought For Today

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say,'I used every thing you gave me.'" - Erma Bombeck

The Hard Truth From Orlando

And so it goes...
In the news today, Amber Turner and Erin Ross -- another
young woman dates a loser, breaks it off with him, and he
comes unglued. He texts her. He harasses her. He stalks her,
waiting outside her residence and her work place. She goes
to get a restraining order and gets denied by the judge. So
stalker-ex kidnaps her as she's heading to work, takes her
to a motel, kills her and himself. And now becomes the
inevitable handwringing and blame game, as everyone sings
the woulda, shoulda, coulda refrain. And as I'm walking my
dog at lunch, I hear a guy on his cell phone outside his
apartment (notice how the cell phone generation conduct
"private" phone calls where EVERYONE has to hear them?)
in a tirade against whatever woman he's involved with -- or
thinks he is. His conversation is, You been with three different
guys since I known you, you're just a whore, I ain't putting up
with it. Well, obviously, he is putting up with it, because
instead of cutting this alleged whore out of his life and moving
on, he's hammering at her on the phone and making demands
of her under some kind of strange rationale that he'll somehow
only be satisfied if he has her back -- even though she's a
whore and worthless and can't be trusted.
20 minutes later, the dog is back in the house and I'm heading
back to work, and this idiot is STILL outside on his cell phone
berating this woman, who apparently is too stupid to hit the
END button and turn her phone OFF and/or do the magical
programming to block his phone calls. She obviously doesn't
live with him. He's not paying her any money (at least, he
didn't mention it in his phone call -- he'd have been bringing
that up, trust me) and they don't have any kids together
(because that also didn't come into the harangue and they'd
have been used for verbal leverage). So WHY, WHY, WHY
is this woman not hanging up on this guy?
Because date/domestic abuse is a sick, vicious game and it
takes two players. One player gets to be the psycho bully
and one gets to play the mentally defective victim. And
make no mistake, the victim is as mentally defective as the
bully. The victim chooses to be a victim. The bully chooses
to be a bully. And both of them choose to be completely
irrational and self-destructive, locked in an perpetual match
of violent stupidity.
We have all the laws in place for the abused women (and
statistically, it is many more times women than men) to get
help, get away from their abusers, get counseling and
assistance. But there's no legislating common sense and
self-preservation. And after decades of working to get
women sanctuary from abusive relationships, you begin to
understand the earlier history of disdain by law enforcement
for victims of domestic violence. It's hard to have sympathy
for someone so dumb they keep walking into the buzzsaw.
It's hard to be sympathetic to someone who clearly has a
choice in who they date and what they do with their life, and
choose consistently to pick a piece of destructive two-legged
crap, whether it's for a one-time date or a life-time
commitment.
It used to be said that women stayed in abusive relationships
because financially, they and their children were not in a
position to live without the abuser's income. If you look at
the statistics now, most women have their own jobs and
sufficient government aid that they don't have to be in a
relationship for financial survival. In fact, many of them are
with guys who are providing little or nothing to the
household income. So why are they still walking into the
relationship meat grinders? Because women haven't gotten
the message that they are the ones who choose the kind of
life they want to live. If they pick a sadistic twit-head for a
partner, then it's on them to get out of it. If they want a
better life, they have to be more careful and cold-blooded
about what kind of guy they allow through their door. And
you don't have to be nice about his feelings if he's the one
who's crossing the line. But you have to make sure he knows
where the line is and that he won't like what happens if he
crosses it.
There's no rule that says you have to give ANYONE your
phone number. There's no rule that says you have to let the
guy in your house on the first, second -- or fiftieth date.
Women need to ask themselves when they are first being
chatted up, where do I see this guy in five years? Where do
I see him going in ten years? If he's 20 or 30-something years
old, hasn't got a job, doesn't own a car, hasn't got his own place
with HIS name on the lease, can't pay for a movie and a meal
for his date, can't pull his pants up, can't stay sober and
doesn't know how to take NO for an answer, treats you like
you're too dumb to come in out of the rain, then chances are
really good that he's going nowhere, ever, and he's going to
make sure you go with him if you're dumb enough to stick
around.
If you have a history of crappy relationships, take a good
hard look in the mirror and see if you're walking around
with a big V for victim on your forehead. If that's what's
shining back at you, then you need to make up your mind if
this is what you want to be for the rest of your life, and
define your future choices accordingly. If you don't know
or can't tell -- contact the YHTP.org -- You have the
Power...Know How to Use It, Inc. to reduce your chances
of being a victim and joining the depressing list of relationship
casualties.
Good luck.


Florida Cracker

I WILL RUN THIS EVERY DAY FOR THE NEXT THREE WEEKS

6EAD: http://www.mclu.org/node/653

WATCH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK5bMSyJCsg


ANOTHER CASE: http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/man_arrested_for_video_taping_police/

The Thought For Today

"Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing. ” - Oscar Wilde

Make Free Calls in Gmail With Google Voice

Just in case you missed it in the news, the rumors are true...

Maybe You Really Can Blame Your Weight on Something Else

Does a virus cause us to gain weight? It's a possibility some medical researchers are exploring, according to suspense writer Tess Gerritsen. Until we have the answer, she suggests keeping our weight down this way.

The Thought For Today

"Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made." - Otto von Bismarck

The Thought For Today

"To teach is to learn twice over." - Joseph Joubert

The Hard Truth From Orlando

The story of another Christian graduate student being expelled
from the counseling program because she refuses to counsel
homosexual clients based on her "religious" beliefs was in the
news. Julea Ward, a purported counseling major, lost her
lawsuit against Eastern Michigan University which she filed
because she was expelled. Students under the ACA code are
required to counsel clients without imposing their personal
values. Ms. Ward could not refrain from imposing her world
views on her clients.

Paraphrasing, the university apparently realized that Ms.
Ward was never going to change her behavior and would
continue to refuse to counsel clients who did not meet her
"Christian" standards before she would consent to counsel
them. (And of course, if they're already good Christians,
what do they need counseling sessions with her for?)
There's another virtually identical case going on in Georgia
right now with another purportedly "Christian" grad
student, who also refuses to counsel homosexuals.
(Allegedly, the Georgia girl is also no great shakes at
written communication either, as she's been ordered into
so remedial training for that as well.)

This is the same Fundamentalist tactic that has some
pharmacists trying to refuse to give the morning-after
pill to people with valid prescriptions because they don't
believe in abortion. The rationale these "Christians" are
using is that making them comply with the ethical codes
of the professions they have chosen is an infringement on
their religious freedom guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

These hard-core, hard headed Fundamentalists don't see
their behavior as infringing on the rights of the clients, who
have a reasonable expectation of receiving services from a
certified member of a given profession. They don't see the
invidious divisiness of cherry-picking which people are
entitled to professional services. Suppose they were
indulged in their fanaticism so they don't have to counsel
anyone who doesn't meet their Christian standards. Should
we then allow only homosexuals to counsel homosexuals
heterosexuals need not apply? And only Jews can counsel
Jews, Muslims for Muslims, and only women can counsel
women, and on and on.

And then we can just isolate people in their own separate
little ghettos so they don't have to run into any of "those
people." And it depends on which ghetto you live in as to
who "those people" might be. And then eventually, we can
each only obey those laws which we think apply to our
ghetto and then find ways to punish "those people" so
they'll see our way is the only way. And maybe we can
rename ourselves something like, oh, I don't know, the
Taliban, and make sure EVERYONE knows the
consequences of not believing like we do.

Or we can be Americans and practicing Christians and say,
"There but for the grace of God go I" and reach out with
compassion and kindness to those in need and leave the
religious drumbeating to the intolerant jackasses of the world.


Florida Cracker

The Thought For Today

"Seek the wisdom of the ages, but look at the world through the eyes of a child." - Ron Wild

The Thought For Today

"Truth, of course, must of necessity be stranger than fiction; for we have made fiction to suit ourselves." - G.K. Chesterton

Ghostery

"Be a web detective.
Ghostery is your window into the invisible web – tags, web bugs, pixels and beacons that are included on web pages in order to get an idea of your online behavior.
Ghostery tracks the trackers and gives you a roll-call of the ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers, and other companies interested in your activity."

The Hard Truth From Orlando

RANT # 2 More on Immigration Reform
The biggest negative consequence of illegal immigration we
can show with hard data is financial. And the financial impact
is disparately suffered by the middle-class Americans who
pay the largest portion of this nation’s taxes. And that’s not
to say illegals don’t pay tax; they do. But they don’t kick in
as much as they take out of the system. As a group, the
illegals represent a part of the U.S. population which is
poorly educated, earning less, paid less by corporate
America to maximize profit while evading taxes on that
profit and often collecting taxpayer-funded government
subsidies for businesses. Furthermore, a big part of what
the illegal immigrants earn is not spent locally but is sent
back to other countries to support families there. That’s
products we’re not selling locally by local businesses and
sales and income taxes we’re not seeing in local communities
because the consumers aren’t citizens spending their income
in our communities.

Meantime, the American consumers continue to pay for
over-priced goods produced by corporations with underpaid,
illegal labor, while simultaneously shelling out the taxes
which support the social program expenses incurred by
“undocumented workers.” And corporate owners pocket
their inflated profits, tax-free government subsidies, and
deposit their inflated incomes in tax shelters not available
to the American middle-class.

The other negative of rampant immigration that’s harder
to measure, except anecdotally, is the impact of the third
world cultures which refuse to assimilate in modern
American society. We see it in the high domestic violence,
street crimes, rampant thievery and other stats; the
unwillingness to promote education or to ensure their
children participate in and complete school; the social
expectation that the girls will not finish school, but start
popping out babies in their teens, almost guaranteeing a
lifelong embrace of poverty; the culture of extortion,
corruption and bribery among government employees
and a general attitude of take what you can get and live
for the moment. You don’t build anything for the future
with that kind of value system.

There’s also the immigrant community leadership which
is increasingly demanding its own separatist courts and
governing bodies for determining matters which are
currently exclusive to the jurisdiction of U.S. and local
governments. In Europe , national governments are
already struggling with a highly vocal and disruptive
foreign immigrant community which insists that it
govern itself – yet benefit from the host countries’
economic successes – which were created by the
culture which the immigrant community disdains
and actively seeks to undermine.

We have residents of the United States , some citizens,
who don’t speak English, who have lived in this country
for upwards of 30 years and never learned English
because they live in isolated foreign-language speaking
communities within communities. They don’t regard
themselves as Americans and see no loyalty to a nation
that protects and provides for them, nor any loyalty to
their English-speaking neighbors – however, they’ll fight
you to the ground for what they have come to perceive as
their “entitlements” under the very U. S. laws they flout.
And middle-class Americans taxes pay for those so-called
“entitlements” of food stamps, health care, welfare, child
services, subsidized housing, criminal justice proceedings,
legal aid, and on and on.

In Orlando , there’s the Chamber of Commerce – and,
believe it or not, there’s the Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce; and they are separate entities, with separate
memberships and separate agendas within the same
geographical community. There’s the Orlando community
and there’s the Haitian community in Orlando or the Puerto
Rican community in Orlando or the Mexican community in
Orlando . It’s not one community. It’s not one language.
There’s no unity of purpose or focus or function. It’s a
bunch of vying interests, clawing for local middle-class
American tax dollars to promote their separate agendas
at the expense of, and with total disregard for, the whole.

This nation is in trouble. It’s time to enforce the laws –
all of the laws on all of the people, all of the businesses,
all of the time; time to break up these conclaves of
foreign influence and bring them into mainstream
American values and standards or expel them from our
country; time to put an end to the deficit social costs of
immigration and end automatic citizenship for any child
born on U.S. soil, with attendant “entitlements” just for
sucking U.S. air. It’s time to make corporate America
pony up when they employ illegals at reduced wages for
the sole reason of padding their profits and avoiding the
tax consequences for themselves and their owners, leaving
the hard-pressed middle-class to pick up the tab
consumer goods and social services costs.

If you’re a middle-class American, you better start
fighting for yourself and the hard-working ethics that
made this country the envy of the world or be prepared
to hand over everything you’ve ever worked for to a
Big Business-controlled Big Government that’s trading
your children’s legacy of American self-sufficiency and
self-government to buy the reduced-rate labor of any
Joe Snuffy the Ragman who staggers across our border
with his hand out.



Florida Cracker

The Thought For Today

"My notion of a story is an interesting situation in which a human being has to cope with a problem, does so, and thereby changed his personality, character, or evaluations in some measure because the coping has forced him to revise his thinking. How he copes with it, I can't plot in advance because that depends on his character, and I don't know what his character is until I get acquainted with him." - Robert A. Heinlein

The Hard Truth From Orlando

RANT # 1 Immigration Reform (# 2 next Wed.)

I’m tired of the term “racist” when applied to Arizona ’s
stance on immigration, or for that matter, when used to
describe anyone who opposes our current policy of
immigration non-enforcement. If, as an American citizen,
I am required (as determined by Supreme Court case law)
to show valid ID if stopped by the police conducting a
legitimate investigation, why should an illegal immigrant
not be required to present valid ID? What gives an illegal
immigrant more personal freedom than I have as a
tax-paying, hardworking citizen of the United States ?
And if you live in a community of mostly “brown” people,
how can it be “racist” to stop and address “brown” people
while conducting a valid investigation? It would be weirder
if you lived in a mostly brown community and only stopped
the white or black people. That’s not profiling to stop
brown people while conducting legal investigations in a
brown community – that’s common sense. Of course,
if we only let the brown police stop the brown people
and the white police stop the white people – but isn’t
that definition of real racism and a de-facto disregard
of “all are equal under the law?”

I think George Orwell had it right in Animal Farm when
the sheep were trained to bleat “two legs bad; four legs
good,” in an endless drowning chant every time someone
brought up a subject the minority demagogues didn’t
want discussed. Freedom of speech by the American
taxpayer majority is likewise being held hostage by the
minority because all the anti-immigration enforcement
group has to do is start shrieking “Racist” to derail any
reasonable analysis of our current immigration disaster.

The cold hard basic truth is: Big Government doesn’t want
to enforce immigration laws on the books because Big
Business profits outrageously from illegal employment.
And Big Business owns the movers and shakers of Big
Government, one dirty hand washing the other. And
most illegal immigrants don’t want to be citizens of the
U.S. ; they just want the American standard of living
without embracing the culture or credos that created it.
Too apt an analogy is locusts; they come with all of their
neediness, lack of education or forethought, breeding
indiscriminately children they cannot support; and
when the American middle-class tax base is drained,
the community their rampant influx creates will be
ultimately just as bad in the poverty and corruption as
that they profess to be escaping.

And as for the rest of the bleating herds opposing
immigration enforcement, they’ll apparently be happy
when everyone is sitting naked in a circle in the dirt,
celebrating that we’re all equal – because none of us
has anything that others can’t take away.

It’s up to us middle-class American taxpayers at the
grassroots level to oppose illegal immigration at every
level and vote out any politician who refuse to enforce
immigration law if we want to survive as a nation.


Florida Cracker

I Write Like

"Check which famous writer you write like with this statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them with those of the famous writers." And before you ask, Harry Harrison. I LIKE Harry Harrison.

The Thought For Today

"To betray a source would be to betray myself, my career and my life. I cannot do it."— Daniel Schorr

The Thought For Today

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries " - Winston Churchill

The Thought For Today

"If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance." - Bern Williams

The Thought For Today

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." - Albert Einstein

The Thought For Today

"When you meet someone better than yourself, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal. When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine your own self." - Confucius

Top 10 Clever Google Voice Tricks

Very, very handy stuff.

http://lifehacker.com/5573714/top-10-clever-google-voice-tricks?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

Rec: Santa Fe Wraps

12 oz. ground beef (or turkey)
1 can (14 1/2 oz.) Diced Tomatoes
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 can (15 1/4 oz.) Whole Kernel Corn, drained
1 pkg. (3 oz.) cream cheese, cut up
1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
6 (8 inch) flour tortillas


Brown meat in large skillet; drain. Stir in undrained
tomatoes, chili powder and cumin. Bring to boil; reduce
heat. Simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Stir in corn,
cheese and jalapeno; stir until cheese melts. Spoon
mixture onto tortillas and roll up or fold. Serve with
shredded lettuce, shredded Cheddar cheese and salsa,
if desired.





Serves 4 to 6
Refrigerate remainder
Can be reheated in microwave

Deano Sez: Pioneer One

I can't think of a better excuse to install a Torrent client....

The Thought For Today

"Forgiveness is not an occasional act: it is a permanent attitude." - Dr Martin Luther King

The Hard Truth From Orlando

Re: Seattle Police Officer Ian P. Walsh who punched the
17-year-old girl so squarely in the face when she physically
interfered with the restraint of another girl being detained
for jaywalking: GOOD SHOT! I bet that young woman has
gotten away with that nasty behavior all of her life. Maybe
she’s finally learned she’s not immune to what she’s been
used to dishing out. But probably not, with the majority of
the urban African American community doing what it
always does – supporting self-defeating, anti-social
behavior instead of chastising it. She’s bound to think
she’s some kind of victim, instead of a perpetrator of a
criminal act.

The National Urban League, formerly the National League
on Urban Conditions among Negroes (according to Wikipedia)
and allegedly a non-partisan civil rights organization that
advocates on behalf of African Americans and against racial
discrimination in the United States, has of course denounced
the punch in the face of the girl as an “over-reaction” on the
part of the officer. They’re all for educating the white
community to recognize institutional discrimination and to
hold those in authority accountable for their behavior and
policies towards the members of the non-white community.
For them, it’s always about how their portion of the community
is being treated and never about how their behavior is creating
the very reaction they decry.

I’m always kind of amazed that organizations like this don’t
work on educating the people they purport to represent how
to behave in public places and when confronted by persons in
authority. If this organization wants to claim that a Caucasian
girl wouldn’t have been arrested for jaywalking, wouldn’t have
been punched in the face, they’re probably right. Most
Caucasian girls don’t immediately get loud, vicious, and
violent and show both lousy upbringing and poor social skills
when confronted by an officer. It’s not routinely part of
“white” American culture to get violently confrontational
with law enforcement and while “non-white” American
communities have a different history with law enforcement
in this country, modern law enforcement also reacts
differently based on ongoing experiences in those
communities.

What would be the difference in a situation like this, a trivial
little jay-walking offense? A white-bread, middle class girl
would probably ask what she did wrong if stopped – and in
a normal speaking tone, sans profanities. She would show
her ID if requested. She would most likely apologize for her
transgression, even if she didn’t know she was doing wrong.
The police officer would then probably write her a citation or
let her off with a warning. Would he do it just because the girl
is white? No. He does it because she behaved in a civilized,
compliant fashion – and not like some shrieking, ignorant
harpy who’s presenting a very real, continuing physical
threat to the officer and the community by her behavior.

The officer was there enforcing the law because obviously
there had been a complaint about persons jaywalking –
which if you live in an urban area in certain neighborhoods,
the pedestrians like to stroll in groups through the streets,
playing chicken with motorized traffic. And if you confront
them about blocking traffic, they take it as an excuse to go
bug-nuts on you – like it’s your fault they’re blocking traffic,
endangering themselves and others. And that’s what these
girls did because that’s what’s expected in their community.

So the officer confronts the girls about jaywalking, and they
do what too many African Americans have been trained to
do and that is go immediately stupid, loud and violent. And
what could have been a simple warning or citation (which
would probably be dismissed in court it’s so trivial) becomes
a felony arrest for resisting with violence, battery on a law
enforcement officer, interfering with an officer in the
performance of his duty. And I’m sure if the girls had
gotten a little crazier and escalated their resistance to an
outright attack on the officer instead of a strong shove that
resulted in a retaliatory punch, one or both of them might
have been shot or Tased – and not for jaywalking, but for
endangering a law enforcement officer in the performance
of his duty.

The Urban League should get its collective heads together
and quit protecting community scofflaws because they
happen to be the same color and get serious about a
campaign to get their communities into civil, legal and
behavioral compliance with the rest of polite society.
They need to quit promoting a culture of resistance to
persons in authority simply because they ARE in positions
of authority, because until they do, the Urban League is
part of the problem, NOT a tool for the solution.


Florida Cracker

Rec: Crawfish Pie

1 medium onion, diced
1 lb coarsely chopped crawfish tails
1/4 cup minced green onion
1/4 cup minced parsley
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
2 diced celery stalks
1/2 teaspoon red pepper
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1 cup milk
1 10 inch double crust pie plate


Saute onions, garlic, bell pepper and celery in butter until
limp. Add tomato sauce, crawfish and parsley. Cook slowly for
10 minutes. Turn off heat. Add bread crumbs, salt, pepper, egg
and milk mixing well. Pour into crust and bake 35 to 40 minutes
in a preheated 350 degree oven.

Serves 6
Refrigerate remainder
Can be reheated in microwave or enjoyed cold

Limited Edition Dungeons & Dragons Spellcasting Soda

For you Gamers...

The Thought For Today

"Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off." - Colin Powell

The Thought For Today

"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion." - Edmund Burke

The Hard Truth From Orlando

The family of Mexican youngster Sergio Adrian Hernandez
Huereka, 15 years old, are mourning the loss of their son, who
apparently put himself in harm’s way when he and some
buddies decided to hang out near the border between Mexico
and the U.S. and throw stones at U.S. Border Patrol officers
apprehending persons crossing over the border illegally into
the U.S. A U.S. Border officer shot back when the
rock-throwing didn’t stop and Sergio died. That’s the
simple situation as reported. An unsupervised kid was
where he wasn’t supposed to be, doing what he shouldn’t
have been doing, and he died for it. It was an entirely
preventable tragedy.

But the political and legal fall-out and cross-agency finger
pointing from this incident of teenage stupidity might go
on for months, if not years. President Calderon publicly
deplores the increasing violence being exercised against
Mexican citizens who illegally cross into the United States,
but he and his government do little or nothing to stop his
citizens from routinely breaking U.S. law and the conditions
of treaty between his country and the U.S.

There’s not going to be a quick-fix for this in the big
picture. Border Agents are the first line of defense against
the drug lords of Central America and the tidal wave of
illegal immigrants who are flooding the U.S. social support
systems and draining tax dollars from a system to which
they were never entitled. And lest we think we’re alone in
fighting a battle against hordes of immigrants for which we
were not prepared, one needs only to look at the news out
of Europe ’s impending elections. There are two big issues:
economy and the underpinning immigrant flood into the
industrialized nations with the inherent problems of
under-employment, cultural clashes, poor education,
poverty, crime and the drain on social services. Gosh,
that sounds familiar.

But the root of the problem is decades of non-enforcement
of immigration laws by the federal government. This has
given rise to the porous Mexican/American and Canadian/
American borders, the casual disregard for local law
enforcement and the hitherto nearly nonexistent
consequences of violating those laws. But what we have
now is the backlash of local communities’ law enforcement
against federal non-response in the form of Arizona’s law
(with other states following suit) and local municipalities
paying to have their officers cross-certified to enforce
immigration laws and not have to wait on ICE or Border
Patrol when an illegal immigrant is apprehended in their
community. The so-called Tea Party movement is
galvanizing to support Arizona ’s call to immigration
enforcement and federal response is to increase security
and personnel along the borders.

Well, in the words of the old song, it’s tightening up time.
We can anticipate confrontations and violence increasing as
we tighten up border security. And resistance is inevitable
in the face of near non-existent enforcement for so many
years, where complacency and disregard were the norm for
generations. No one likes it when they have to change what
they’ve taken for granted. Things aren’t going to get better
for a long while; they will get worse.

But for those of us at Ground Zero, who live with the dirt and
grit on the ground reality, we can keep ourselves and our
families safer by practicing some very basic concepts, like
not going where bad things are happening, knowing where
your children are and what they’re doing. Sergio – well,
he’s paid the price for being more testosterone than brains,
like the rock-throwing adolescents in Palestine who become
casualties of Israeli bullets, like the rock-throwing rioters in
Thailand , the street-roaming kids in inner-city U.S. of A
– and on and on and on.

Mothers, if you cherish your sons, keep them home. Lead
and live the example for your children. Kick their butts if
you catch them putting themselves in opposition to law
enforcement, hanging out with idiots, and make it clear
you are NOT on their side when they deliberately put
themselves in confrontational situations. Be a parent now
and you’ll live to see yourself a grandparent, and let the
politics sort itself out.


Florida Cracker

The Thought For Today

"In Germany, they came first for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists but I didn't speak up because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time nobody was left to speak up." - Reverend Martin Niemoeller, Dachau, 1944

Rec: Quick And Easy Stuffed Peppers

2 large red bell peppers, halved and seeded
1 (8 oz) can stewed tomatoes, with liquid
1/3 cup quick-cooking brown rice
2 tablespoons hot water
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed and drained
1/2 (15 oz) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese



Arrange pepper halves in a 9 inch square glass baking dish.
Cover dish with plastic wrap. Poke a few holes in the plastic
wrap for vents, and heat 4 minutes in the microwave, or
until tender. In a medium bowl, mix tomatoes and their
liquid, rice, and water. Cover with plastic, and cook in the
microwave for 4 minutes, or until rice is cooked. Stir green
onions, corn, kidney beans, and red pepper flakes into the
tomato mixture. Heat in the microwave for 3 minutes, or
until heated through. Spoon hot tomato mixture evenly
into pepper halves, and cover with plastic wrap. Poke a
few holes in the plastic to vent steam, and heat in the
microwave 4 minutes. Remove plastic, sprinkle with
Mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese, and allow to
stand 1 to 2 minutes before serving.



Serves 2 to 4

Rec: Hasty Lasagna

1 can/bottle (15 1/2 oz.) spaghetti sauce with meat
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1 package lasagna noodles (6 oz.) cooked and drained
1 cup cream style cottage cheese
1 package (6 oz.) sliced Mozzarella cheese


Combine sauce and oregano in bowl. In a greased (Pam'd)
baking dish alternate layers of noodles, cottage cheese,
Mozzarella and sauce, using sauce as top layer. Microwave
12 to 15 minutes on MEDIUM-HIGH until center is heated.

Serves 4
Refrigerate remainder
Can be reheated in microwave

Rec: Basic Microwave Risotto

3 tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup uncooked Arborio rice
3/4 cup white wine (or white grape juice)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese



In a 3 quart casserole dish combine butter, garlic and
onion. Place dish in microwave and cook on HIGH for
3 minutes. Place vegetable broth in a microwave safe
dish. Heat in microwave until the broth is hot but not
boiling (approximately 2 minutes). Stir the rice and
broth into the casserole dish with the onion, butter
and garlic mixture. Cover the dish tightly and cook
on HIGH for 6 minutes. Stir wine into the rice. Cook
on HIGH for 10 minutes more. Most of the liquid should
boil off. Stir the cheese into the rice and serve.



Serves 3 to 4
Refrigerate remainder
Can be carefully reheated in microwave

The Thought For Today

"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful. " - Marie Curie

The Thought For Today

"Lead, follow, or get out of the way." - Thomas Paine

The Thought For Today

"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself." - Thomas Paine

The Thought For Today

When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon." - Thomas Paine

Wikipedia

Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be an interesting week.

The Hard Truth From Orlando

Illegal immigrant 22-year-old Jessica Colotl is being sought
by law enforcement of Cobb County , Georgia . Apparently,
Ms. Colotl was brought to this country illegally about age 10
by her parents from Mexico , also in the country illegally.
Ms. Colotl was attending university in Georgia , claiming
residency – which is a lie by virtue of the fact she’s not a
legal resident of the U.S. -- which let her pay less tuition
for classes. But she has no driver’s license because she’s
not legal, and she’s driving anyway and probably has for
years, but she got caught by a minor traffic infraction.
Then she lied to the police about where she lived, got sent
to immigration, who turned her loose pending a hearing, and
now she’s ducking law enforcement again to evade deportation
and the new felony charge of lying to law enforcement on a
sworn affidavit – which lie she told because she’s illegally
here in the country and knows it and has always known it.

Now, the apparent weirdness of her thinking is evident in
that she wanted to go to school to become a lawyer. How
she’s supposed to get certified by any state bar association
when she’s not a legal citizen, cannot truthfully take the
oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and
all local and federal laws when she’s not a citizen and is
continuing to break the law of the land every day and
every minute, awake or asleep, seems to have escaped
this young woman and her supporters who decry Cobb
County’s “harsh” treatment of her. Who would want to
hire any woman whose life is lying and cadging and ducking
– and yet she expects to obtain a lucrative, professional
position in the upper echelons of law enforcement which
by its very definition represents the highest standards of
integrity and legal conformity, none of which can be said
of Ms. Colotl.

She’s had 12 years and her parents have had at least 12
years to petition for legal status. Instead, she chose to lie
her way into university, lie on every application, every
form – and finally commit a felony by lying to law
enforcement when apprehended. She’s conducted herself
with oblivious disregard for violation of the rights of the
citizens of Cobb County and everywhere else she’s resided
– residents whose tax dollars help support her spurious
claim to residency. Residents who stood to face financial
ruin and personal injury and damage when she’s operating
a motor vehicle on public roads without legal license or
insurance. If she’s obtained student loans, she’s committed
fraud at the expense of taxpayers whose children were
entitled to those increasingly limited funds and whose
entry into college might well have been impacted by her
fraud.

The long and the short of it is, we don’t need Ms. Jessica
Colotl. And we certainly don’t need what she represents.
She’s not a shining example of anything but what’s wrong
with illegal immigrants in this country. They act as if
they’re entitled to all the benefits of our country and
Constitution, yet they make not the slightest effort to
come into compliance with our laws and regulations.
They claim “civil rights” when civil rights belong only to
legal residents and citizens of the United States . They
cheat and expect to be rewarded for it instead of owning
up to their crime and making reparation.

When Ms. Colotl is apprehended, I hope it’s a swift
one-way ticket back to Mexico so we can quit supporting
this cheat. And she can be mad at the people who really
put her in this precarious position and encouraged a
lifetime of lies and fraud – her parents.


Florida Cracker

The Thought For Today

"The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object." - Thomas Jefferson

The Hard Truth From Orlando

Yeardley Love and George Huguely at UVA – the latest names
in the never-ending saga of date and acquaintance violence
ending in murder, and I have to wonder, why is it all the
hard-charging, smart young women pick such losers for
boyfriends? And make no mistake, Georgie-boy was a loser
and he chose to be a loser. He chose to lose his temper, he
chose to lose control of his drinking, he chose to lose control
of his life and he chose to beat his girlfriend’s head in. That
qualifies him as a loser. But picking him and putting up with
his bad behavior for even a minute made Yeardley a loser, too.
Unfortunately, she’s paid the final price for her poor decision,
while Georgie-boy keeps sucking air and being a threat to the
community.

No, it’s true she didn’t go out and pick a guy who she thought
might beat her head in one day. But the first time Georgie-boy
took her cell phone and went through her messages without her
permission, she had all the information she needed about him.
The first time he got in her face or made a nasty, cutting
remark about her person, friends or family because she was
paying attention to someone other than him, she had all the
information she needed. The first time she opened her email
to a threat from him, she had all the information she needed.
The first time she was afraid of his anger because she had to
tell him something he wasn’t going to want to hear, she had
all the information she needed. The first time he got into a
scuffle over some triviality or threw a tantrum because things
didn’t go his way, she had all the information she needed.

Under any of those circumstances and a thousand other cues,
she knew or should have known he was never going to be a
partner, not a friend – he was a threat to her and everything
she hoped to have for herself and her future and she should
have cut him out of her life then and there. And she should
have and probably did recognize he was horribly flawed before
she became intimate with him but she continued in the
relationship like most women do, convincing herself – well,
he’s not that bad, it’s just sometimes, he didn’t mean it –
until it got so bad she couldn’t believe the excuses she was
making for him and tried to walk away while still “being
just friends.”

She probably broke their relationship off just when he
believed he had her firmly under his control because she’d
let him get away with his behavior for so long. She didn’t
file a complaint; she didn’t get a restraining order; she
didn’t relocate or even contact his or her parents about
his behavior and why she didn’t want him around any
more. Acquaintances and family might be saying they
didn’t know she was being abused, but the fact that
Georgie took her computer from her room after beating
her to death plainly indicates he knew what threats he’d
been making and that they would be used against him.

And so passes another promising young woman who made
a really crappy decision in her choice for companionship and
paid for it with her life. And society is stuck with the loss of
another productive citizen and the burden of a man-shaped
monster that never was worth the powder to blow him to hell.
And maybe it’s just Darwin ’s theories at work; we’re culling
the herd by getting rid of the females too silly to evade the
predators and preventing reproduction of the idiocy into
another generation.

I’m sorry for both families. Sorry for Georgie-boy’s
parents who didn’t seem to recognize how much of a
danger their son had become. Sorry for Yeardley’s
parents who have lost a bright and promising daughter
who didn’t realize the level of danger from such a
self-centered freak. Nobody wins. And nobody learns
a thing.


Florida Cracker

The Thought For Today

"When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred." - Thomas Jefferson

The Thought For Today

"The government is best which governs least." - Thomas Jefferson

The Hard Truth From Orlando

LOSERS AWARDED $2.25 MILLION DOLLARS FOR
BEING LOUSY PARENTS

“It was a mistake of the parents to not remember the kids
might be in the car, but that's what the professionals are
there for, to save you from those basic everyday mistakes."
(From ABC news article)

What a crock of crap. The three families whose unsupervised
children died when they got trapped in the trunk of their own
Camry on their own property and the bodies weren’t found
for days have been awarded $2.25 million dollars because the
Camden police didn’t find their kids for them.

All right, the police didn’t follow all the “search for
children” protocols. They might have found them if all
protocols had been followed – already dead probably,
but they didn’t and the bodies weren’t discovered until
days later. Of course, if the parents had opened their eyes,
quit the handwringing, and gone out to look, they’d have
found them too – and probably still alive.

What did the parents fail to do? Well – how about
everything? They failed to train their children in
appropriate places to play. They failed to have someone
keeping the children within earshot or line-of-sight while
they played. They failed to keep the children from going
places where they couldn’t readily be seen by an adult.
When they didn’t see or hear their children, they didn’t
do an immediate and complete search – particularly
knowing their own children’s habits and proclivities.
Instead, they sat back, went hysterical, and waited for the
police to figure out where their untrained, unsupervised
miscreants had wobbled off to.

Too bad about the kids. This kind of crappy, disinterested
parenting is epidemic in America and become worse since
the influx of immigrants with the “it takes a community to
raise a child” mentality. Yeah, it takes a community, but first
the kid is supposed to have a parent, whose priority is the
safety, training and well-being of the child they bred so they
can be a positive influence in the community and not a
community burden. And because these parents oftimes
aren’t legally married or have some pretty loosey-goosey
living arrangements with “cousins” and “friends” whose
last names they don’t even know, you’ve got a pretty good
idea of what kind of self-awareness and discipline the parents
have – never mind what they instill in their children.

So now we reward these piss-poor excuses of parents by
giving them money, on top of whatever social services and
welfare moneys they were receiving for not taking care of
their children, and simultaneously reinforcing the “blame
the cops because I acted like an idiot” mentality rife in
America.

But I don’t feel like the parents have really profited.
These people are born losers. You could give them the
keys to the National Treasury and they’ll blow it. But
maybe they’ll take that 2.25 million dollars and get some
parental training to go along with their grief counseling.
And maybe they’ll buy enough mirrors so they can plainly
see who to blame for the loss of their children, instead of
pointing the fingers at everyone else.

The cops, who take responsibility seriously and who failed
to find these children, will punish themselves forever. I’m
glad I wasn’t there. But you know it doesn’t take a lawsuit
to get the attention of a responsible person. It just takes an
in-your-face failure, someone else to pay for your mistake
and you’ll never forget what you failed to do. And I don’t
think that’s something those poor excuses for parents will
ever learn however much money we throw at them.



Florida Cracker

The Thought For Today

"To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girl friends." - Benjamin Franklin

The Hard Truth From Orlando

Delighted! I am delighted to see that in the vicious bully-cide
death of Phoebe Prince, the 15-year-old Irish girl who hanged
herself after relentless months of bullying, cyberstalking,
physical intimidation and harassment, NINE of her school
mates have been indicted on charges relating to her death.
And finally, the State of Massachusetts had the gumption to
do what most state prosecutors won’t and charged the 17
and 18 year old who had sex with Phoebe with statutory rape.
And I feel no sympathy for them. Some official apparently said
“their lives, too, are forever changed” – or whatever. And my
response is, well, they still have lives, don’t they? They went
out of their way to tear Phoebe’s apart. They gloated over her
suicide. Time for the wheel to come around and their ugly,
sociopathic selves to be exposed to the world the way they
exposed Phoebe’s pain for ridicule.

I hope they don’t get anything as simple as probation and to do
community service. I hope they do some detention time,
removal from public school and loss of scholarships and a tag
that haunts them for the next 50 years. I hope they get a big
black stain on their names – as a warning to their peers on the
consequence of viciousness towards classmates.

Bullying in schools is completely out of control in every state
in the Union . I don’t know if it’s because we no longer
“weed out” the kids with emotional problems but insist on
mainstreaming them with others, or if kids today just have
no sense of perspective. Every bullying action has the potential
for criminal charges. School administrators who fail to protect
their charges from bullies on their campuses need to face
criminal charges as well. I’m tired of bullies hiding out on the
campus because the campus is “off limits” to normal law
enforcement. If an action is illegal in the work place or on a
city street, it should be illegal on our school grounds and
school officials need to be put on notice that they’re liable.
I do know that it’s the failure of parents to instruct and
protect their daughters and further to educate their sons
which has resulted in rampant sexual activity among
underage children. And let’s face it, there’s a reason the
age of consent is 16. It’s to protect children from sex with
persons who might be a year or two older, but who are years
ahead in maturity and ability to manipulate their younger
classmates.

And what is it with these girls nowadays? Used to be if the
guy was dipping his wick, you got mad at him – not the girls
he was using like toilet paper. I think the girls and young
women of today have gotten so used to being treated like
“bitches” by their “dog” boyfriends that they feel they have
to fight like bitches. What happened to the boys and young
men nowadays that they have absolutely no sense of honor
or responsibility? Were there always so many low-lifes in
our society or have we just had a bumper crop of them lately?
It’s because parents have failed. Parents and courts
consistently fail to respond to youthful sexual predators.
And they are predators when they target younger children for
sex – for the sake of sex. It’s time the States pick up the
challenge and enforce the law when parents refuse to press
charges. And if necessary, States need to charge the parents
with negligence, or aiding and abetting if they fail to report
the sexual abuse of their children by other youngsters.
Every girl under 16 who turns up pregnant should have a
criminal complaint attached to the boy or man who got her
that way, as used to be the case (unless you were just dumb
trash from a dumb trash neighborhood). Because the people
who weren’t trash taught their children better and held them
accountable for their actions. You knocked the girl up, you
had to marry her. You’re lucky now if he even pays child
support – forget behaving as a responsible father or decent
human being; these guys don’t have a clue and no one will
hold their feet to the fire to make it happen.

We’ve traded freedom for license; equality for entitlement.
Time to adjust our thinking and make the consequences dire
enough that even a dumb kid will think twice about crossing
some lines.

Rest in Peace, Phoebe Prince. I’m sorry it had to cost another
young life to get the adults to pay attention.



Florida Cracker

The Thought For Today

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

Rec: Microwave Cornbread Eggs Benedict

2 large eggs
2 tablespoons white vinegar
4 strips bacon
1 package microwave cornbread (or premade English muffins)
4 slices American cheese
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon mustard
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
chives, chopped for garnish


Fill a 1 quart microwave bowl 1/2 full with water and add vinegar.
Carefully crack the eggs into it and poke a hole in the yolks with a
skewer or toothpick. Remember, you're poaching and not
scrambling them. Microwave on HIGH for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes until
the whites are set and the yolks are still soft. Remove from oven
and set aside. Put 2 layers of paper towels on a paper plate with
the bacon on top. Microwave on HIGH for about 3 minutes until
crisp, then set aside. If you purchased muffins, put on plates and
skip the next sentence. Mix the microwave cornbread according
to the package directions and cook 2 muffin sized portions in
microwave safe cups as directed and put on plates. Tear the
cheese into small pieces and put into microwave bowl and add
the milk, hot sauce, mustard and season with salt and pepper.
Microwave on HIGH for 1 minute, stirring half way through,
or until the cheese is melted and smooth. Put 2 slices of bacon
on each muffin and top with an egg. Add half the cheese sauce
to each and garnish with chives. Enjoy.

Serves 2
Recipe may be doubled if very hungry

Rec: Fluffy Sausage Omelet

1/4 pound bulk pork sausage
2 tablespoons chopped onion
2 tablespoons chopped sweet red pepper
1/4 cup sour cream
3 eggs, separated
3 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon butter


Crumble the sausage into a small microwave-safe dish;
add onion and red pepper. Cover and microwave on HIGH
for 2 minutes; drain. Stir in sour cream; set aside. In a
bowl, whisk the egg yolks, milk, salt, baking powder and
pepper. In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks
form. Gently fold into egg yolk mixture. Place the butter
in a Pam'd 9 in. microwave-safe pie plate. Microwave on
HIGH for 30 seconds. Pour egg mixture into plate.
Microwave, uncovered, on MEDIUM for 3 to 5 minutes
or until partially set. Lift edges, letting uncooked portion
flow underneath. Cook on MEDIUM for 2 to 3 minutes
longer or until eggs are set. Spoon sausage mixture over
one side; fold omelet over filling.


Serves 2

Rec: Omelet In A Mug

2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons shredded Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons diced fully cooked ham
1 tablespoon diced green bell pepper
salt and pepper to taste


In a Pam'd microwave-safe mug, combine all ingredients.
Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH for 1 minute; stir. Cook
1 1/2 to 2 1/2 minutes longer on MEDIUM or until eggs
are completely set.

Rec: Microwave Breakfast Frittata

1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 cup cubed fully cooked ham
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
4 egg, beaten
salt and pepper to taste



Place butter in a microwave-safe 9 in. pie plate. Cover with
waxed paper; microwave on HIGH for 30 to 40 seconds or
until melted. Add ham, onion and green pepper. Cover and
cook on HIGH for 2 minutes. Stir in eggs, salt and pepper.
Cover and cook on HIGH for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 minutes or until
a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand
for 3 minutes or until completely set. Cut into wedges.



Serves 2 to 4
Refrigerate remainder
Can be reheated in microwave

The Thought For Today

"The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse." - Benjamin Franklin

The Hard Truth From Orlando

Well, I guess it’s news -- but it’s not like it’s the first time news.
Multiple arrests have been made in the New Jersey gang-rape
of the 7-year-old girl, who followed her 15-year-old druggie,
delinquent stepsister to some kind of party where drugs were
being handed out. 15-year-old sister was prostituting herself
for drugs and then, I guess, someone made an offer for the
7-year-old – because you always find such classy people at a
party with drugs – and the 15-year-old agreed they could
molest her little stepsister, but it turned into a gang-rape of
the 7-year-old by a 20-year-old and 17-year-old and
13-year-old and any other thing in human form with a dick
or a dildo.

And I had such an incredible sense of déjà vu, because it
wasn’t that many years ago I read virtually the same set of
circumstances in a different part of the country. The
16-year-old half-sister agreed that her 6-year-old sister
would perform oral sex on some “guys” so the half-sister
could collect her share of the drugs. And the guys decided
oral sex wasn’t enough and raped the six-year-old. The
16-year-old claimed that she tried to stop them, because
she only agreed to the oral sex, not the rest, but…

There’s a reason for capital punishment. It’s not about
justice. It’s about getting rid of human-shaped monsters with
a proven track record of preying on the helpless. New Jerseyites
are screaming for incarceration. Why continue to throw money
at the problem? Instead of welfare money, we’ll throw prison
money at the perps – cheaper and safer all the way around to
get rid of the monsters, including the 15-year-old stepsister.

And ACLU and the NAACP and the whichever alphabet
soup organization wants to decry the facts, the facts are that
both of these incidences happen in subsidized housing areas
on the taxpayers’ dime, where the poorest of the poor, the
most ignorant of the illiterate and the most vicious of lowlife
criminals perpetuate, generation after worthless generation.
These horrific incidences happen because you don’t have
families, you have a loosely-related aggregate of people,
who care little or nothing for each other, co-habitating to
maximize government benefits and freebies. They live
together in squalor; the unplanned, unwanted and
unsupervised children at the mercy of all the other freaks
in the building – their only worth in the fact that they
represent two-legged government subsidies for the
welfare parents.

And why would expect that a child’s future should be any
brighter when raised by the self-serving idiots who have
chosen this life, turned their back on education, regular
employment or anything else? So when the news article
goes on to say, the family is grieving and in shock and
whatever over the vicious rape of their 7-year-old
(engineered by their delinquent older daughter), I say,
uh-huh. And where were any of the adults supposed to be
supervising a 15-year-old who’s going to parties with
20-year-olds where drugs are being sold? And don’t tell
me they didn’t know the older daughter was into drugs
and running with scum. It’s been my experience that
everyone in the housing area knows who the bad guys
are, where they live, who they hang with and what
they’re doing.

A real parent makes sure the oldest kid knows, your
younger sibling, half-sibling, child or dog I left in your
care better be well taken care of or I will take care of you
when I get back and there won’t be anything left when
I’m finished with you. But this 15-year-old and the
7-year-old don’t have real parents. They have welfare
self-victimizers who bred them but don’t raise them.
And they’ll hand-wring and wail – for themselves, but
it won’t surprise me if the 7-year-old gets blamed for the
15-year-old’s legal woes. It won’t surprise me if the
7-year-old gets put back in the 15-year-old crackhead
sister’s care again by the same handwringing “parents”
because you don’t breed this kind of worthless,
never-going-to-be-anything-but-scum behavior overnight.
You got to start them out young and be consistent in your
lousy parenting. Give it about four years and the rape victim
will be following her stepsister and all the others into the
self-perpetuating life of crime, scum and indifference. So my
solution is, quit paying for the scum. Lethal injection, bullet
to the back of the head – but get rid of the wolves in the fold.

And for the lousy parents of the lousy delinquents living on
the welfare dime, time to terminate the payments. Taxpayers
pay so you can take care of your children while you’re moving
ahead with employment opportunities, school opportunities,
whatever it takes to get out of the welfare roles. If you’re not
making sufficient progress, time to repossess the kids and put
them in agencies that will make them got to school, conform
and perform, and be something other than fodder for freaks
or a new generation of drug-dealers and users. Without the kids,
you only have yourself to take care of and you should therefore
make tremendous personal progress.

Sorry for the 7-year-old. Sorry for the 6-year-old. Sorry that
your families and neighbors are such sorry excuses for human
beings. Look at them and vow to be something else and live
somewhere else far away if you survive this experience. And
don’t tell anyone from the “hood” where you’ve gone. You’ll
be surprised how much better your life will be when you’ve
scraped off your sorry family and acquaintances and struck
out on your own.

Yeah. It’s not New Jersey . It’s the welfare state that breeds
such crimes and such poor excuses for people…



Florida Cracker

The Thought For Today

"Mirrors should think longer before they reflect." - Jean Cocteau

The Thought For Today

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." - Leonardo da Vinci

The Thought For Today

"Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been, and there you long to return." - Leonardo da Vinci

The Thought For Today

Believe nothing, No matter where you read it, Or who has said it, Not even if I have said it, Unless it agrees with your own reason, And your own common sense. - Buddha

The Thought For Today

"You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand." - Leonardo da Vinci

Hulu - Search

Hulu - Search


All the episodes of Cosmos for free!

The Thought For Today

"Real loss is only possible when you love something more than you love yourself." - Robin Williams

The Thought For Today

"She is not perfect. You are not perfect. The question is whether or not you are perfect for each other." - Robin Williams

The Hard Truth From Orlando

Article in the news about the North Carolina English teacher

Rex Roland who labels his students’ homework with LOSER
when they make a mistake caught my attention. Apparently,
that’s not all he reportedly does. He allegedly threw a
student’s property into the hallway and is otherwise verbally
abusive. More important, it’s not the first time his conduct
has been brought to the school’s attention. The victim he’s
selected – and apparently is bearing the brunt of his disdain
– is a pretty little blonde, blue-eyed 11 year old girl. How
interesting. I wonder if he always selects pretty little girls
to torment. I wonder if his torment ends with degrading
remarks or if he’s grooming her for additional, more
physical abuse?

You know what I expect the school administrators to do?
Nothing. After all, it’s only one kid that’s complaining –
there’re however many other kids in his class that he’s not
abusing, so that kid must be wrong, or just too sensitive, or
just too dumb to keep up. Of course, the mother of this little
girl has hopefully been contacted by an attorney or two, and
the school and Mr. Roland are about to find out just how
expensively not funny and unacceptable his “loser” labels
and meanness really are.

Education was a priority in our household. I liked school.
I liked learning, but I have to say to this day, almost 40
years later, I remember my abusive teachers, not
lousy teachers, there were a few – but the truly abusive
ones. I was a good student. I was consistently at the top
of my grade, dean’s list, annual awards in languages, good
attendance, NEVER a disciplinary report. And you know,
I have always believed myself to be dismal in math and I
can tell you why; lousy, abusive teachers – which is ironic
as I was responsible for payroll preparation for hundreds
of government employees for years and years. And it’s
probably due to my lack of confidence that I triple-checked
and then re-checked every calculation – and had very few
errors in all those years of multiple payrolls. I went to college.
I took the minimum, dumbest math class I could and still got
my degrees – made deans list most of the time, too. There
were careers I was interested in, but the prerequisites
involved math – so I skipped them. I often wonder what
else I might be doing with my life if not for “loser” teachers
who got their kicks out of mangling kids instead of teaching.

My fourth grade math teacher, Ms. Clements, once pulled
me up in front of the class to tell me how difficult and sulky
I was when I repeatedly asked for help because I didn’t
understand the “New Math.” To my knowledge, I never
did anything to warrant her displeasure. Thereafter, she
made a point of ridiculing me in class. Her constant picking
at me didn’t stop until my mother started calling her every
day to get a progress report – in person – from Ms.
Clements. When my mother started making her explain
my progress and report on my classroom behavior every
single day, Ms. Clements left me alone. I got passing grades
and I never understood a thing that was being taught in her
class. And frankly, I never caught up and I never felt the
slightest confidence in my ability to learn math after that.

Then there was my 6th grade pre-algebra teacher, Mr. Riley.
He had a disparaging nickname for almost every one in the
classroom. He liked to walk by the desks and slap the long
wooden pointer against your chair to make you jump. He
enjoyed sending you to the blackboard to do the algebra
problems in front of everyone, especially if you were one of
the ones he recognized wasn’t getting it – then he’d get a good
five minutes worth of enjoyment by telling you how stupid
you were when you didn’t get it right. To my memory, he
never explained how to do a problem himself once. He left
up to you and the textbook to decipher. You know what I
learned about in his class? Nothing, except how much I hated
math and him. I don’t know how I passed his class, but I
hope to be around when his obituary is in the paper so I can
go spit on his coffin. He was a sorry excuse for a human
being and a teacher.

My brother and cousin, and later a nephew, all fell afoul of
another teacher named Mr. Griggs, the one who told my
mother that my brother was retarded and had no business
in school. This is the same brother who became project
manager of overseas armored vehicles assembly and
maintenance programs for a DOD-contracted American
corporation. What I find unbelievable is that the
administration kept this poor excuse of an instructor,
even after receiving reports of him having parties and
serving alcohol to his students at his residence.

I hope this child gets out of Mr. Roland’s class and gets
a decent representative of the teaching profession before
her confidence is destroyed. And I hope Mr. Roland gets
some serious psychotherapy. That guy’s a wrong one.


Florida Cracker

The Thought For Today

"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it." - George Bernard Shaw

The Hard Truth From Orlando

Pretty little Shannon Marie, age 17, of Marion County, Florida,
is charged with aggravated cyberstalking, a felony, for targeting
a 15-year-old girl who USED to date the guy that Shannon is
going with now. Shannon was apparently so insecure in her
relationship with this new guy that she posted the 15-year-old’s
phone number and photo on an Internet porn site with
suggestive messages to call the 15-year-old, she does great
phone sex, etc.

Wow. Shannon sounds like a winner, huh? Sounds like
another Amy Fisher, the kind you want to bank your future
on. She dates a guy, probably a senior like her, who dates
the sophomore girls – girls who are miles behind his female
peers in maturity if not actual physical age, which doesn’t say
much good about what kind of guy he is. Well, now he’s
going with that 15-year-old girl, he’s going with Shannon .
But Shannon isn’t content with that; she’s got to destroy any
previous rivals. Sounds to me like boyfriend is one of those
who keeps dipping his wick where it’s not supposed to be.

But isn’t this such a typical deadly scenario anymore that
we’re seeing played out across the nation? Used to be if the
guy switched partners, the new girl was the one preening
and the old one was the one crying – or supposed to be crying
Very few recognized it was usually a step in the right direction
when they got Mr. Liability out of their lives. Nowadays, it’s
like a pack behavior. He switches partners and the new
partner has to prove she’s queen bitch of the pack and tear
out the throat of any rivals because she knows her mate
can’t control himself and never will, so she takes it out on
any possible competition. We’re seeing it in the news more
and more frequently where the girls are beating the hell out
of each other over some guy who can’t keep it in his pants –
instead of beating the hell out of the guy who can’t keep it in
his pants and dumping him as the loser he is.

The second part of this little nightmare was little Miss
Insecurity’s choice of weapons, one that’s all too common
with the cell phone/Internet generation. She chose to put
her rival in the crosshairs of every pervert and freak who
has access to cyberspace by putting the girl’s face and
phone number on that porn site. When confronted by law
enforcement, Shannon Marie point-blank says she’s not
going to stop the harassment, either. Take that as a red
flag. There’s no remorse, no comprehension, no sense of
perspective with this one.

Please let someone be paying attention. This callous and
calculated viciousness because Ms. Shannon Marie feels
romantically threatened goes way beyond cyber-bullying
and harassment. Shannon Marie is pathologically jealous
and possibly psychopathic. She needs a psych eval, and
students at her school need to be carefully interviewed –
this will not be the first time she’s done something like this.
She’s a bully and a danger to the community. She needs to
be tagged by law enforcement and labeled by the community
so everyone knows what they’re dealing with – a malicious
psycho. And her parents – guarantee you they’re gutless
wimps or she’d never be playing these kinds of games with
other’s lives.

I hope the 15-year-old’s parents sue Shannon ’s family and
take everything they own. It might make a dent in Shannon ’s
complacent sense that nothing can happen to her - loss of
possessions might scare her where the police and the loss
of future jobs and income due to her criminal behavior
haven’t. We’ll see this little monster again in the system.
She won’t stop; she’s hardwired to destroy and there are
no brakes.


Florida Cracker