The Hard Truth From Orlando

You know what bothered me about that article on the four social workers facing criminal charges over the death of a child whose safety they were responsible for monitoring? That the two supervisors were written up as being big in their churches. It's been my very bad experience that the very religious, church-types turn a blind eye to behaviors that tell you something bad is happening because they believe that God made families, families need to be together, blah-blah-blah. It's the same kind of blind idiocy that lets them allow and even defend child molesters and killers in their own organizations, but insists that every pregnancy be carried to term while you punish the mother for getting pregnant.

The other thing that bothers me, is this social worker organization a contracted private organization or is it really a state organization, manned by state employees? The difference is, we have so many church or faith-based private organizations vying for government dollars -- promoted by former President G.W. Bush as being "more economical" than government-run agencies. So minimal standards are set and the money is paid with little government oversight. These private companies have their own agenda and it's not necessarily about protecting the children or families; it's about getting as many cases as they can so they can pull in the money and submit the paperwork that meets the minimum criteria.

We've had some truly hideous cases come through our court here. The eight-year-old who was removed from his insanely abusive mother and siblings, placed (per state-legislated criteria that you have to look for placement within a dysfunctional family rather than finding someone sane first) with another relative, who then promptly stuck the kid back with the mother he'd been removed from because the relative couldn't be bothered to find a babysitter while she worked. The 13-year-old abusive sibling strangled the eight-year-old over an old cupcake the kid ate because he was hungry. The 13-year-old killed his younger half-brother because the cupcake was his mom's "treat" to herself and she'd beat the 13-year-old if it was gone. Yep. Right here in Orlando. And the relative was NEVER charged. The 13-year-old was, but not the mom and not the relative who violated the protection order by putting the child back in harm's way.

And that's just one instance of the craziness. I'm still a strong proponent of the government handing out all available contraceptive means, providing free abortions and totally chopping out welfare payments after two years to non-working parents and repossessing any children for adoption by non-relatives if the parent can't get it together. When every child is planned, it will be a wanted and provided for child. We won't see children used as two-legged paychecks for freaks who breed and pass the kids around like a coupon for free government money. A box of condoms or a $300 to $500 abortion is a damned sight more economical to society and our government than 18 years of counseling, welfare, food stamps, subsidized housing, legal assistance, foster care, Medicaid or independent living expenses if the kids age out of foster care.

If our government leaders were serious about reducing crime, poverty, government spending, child abuse, they'd hand over the medical provisions and acknowledge that being a parent is either totally the individual's choice and therefore an individual's responsibility and will automatically result in criminal charges against parents who expose their offspring to abuse, or they'd say being a parent is not a choice and the government is picking up the tab for all the unwanted, unprovided for children the current paternalistic legislation promotes. Instead, we have these half-measures. On the one hand, access to contraceptives and abortion are being made inaccessible to the neediest people among us. But on the other hand, the government is handing out money hand-over-fist for children with little hope of ever being productive, contributing, taxpaying citizens.

I say, pick one. Either end the mindless production of children for a social work and prison industry, or admit and accept it's okay that the taxpayer foots the bill for religious-based irrational policies and pays for it with the blood of unplanned, unwelcome children.

   Florida Cracker

The Hard Truth From Orlando

Republican. When exactly did that become synonymous with dumbass? I know it's been a while.

And I'd point out that the "Mexico City" policy that cut funding for abortion and contraception in Latin countries came from President Reagan, the ignorant bastard. And guess why we have then had a nearly 30-year glut of illegal immigrants flooding from South American countries that cannot support all these unplanned for, unprovided for children? I love how these men who sell themselves like prostitutes to lobbyists and religious organizations are so incredibly generous when it's not them that has to foot the bill or spend their lives taking care of children who have no hope of normalcy or availability of basic medical care.

Said it before, any woman who is forced to bear a child she did not want and could not support should be allowed to put her state representative's name on the birth certificate and sue their representative for child support. We'd see how fast these jerkweeds support contraception and abortion when it comes out of THEIR hides. I mean, the taxpayers aren't going to be out any money. We pay for the unwanted children anyway. I just think we should make it come out of the representative's taxpayer-based salary instead of him collecting a paycheck from us while we still have to pony up a lifetime of separate fees for the two-legged legacies of his moral stance.


   Florida Cracker

The story: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/02/11/republicans_in_congress_urge_women_with_zika_to_accept_microcephaly_not.html

The Hard Truth From Orlando

THE LOUISIANA COREY FRAME-UP

It's sad. It's bad. But it's Louisiana (or Texas -- and sometimes Florida) -- or Ferguson, Missouri. The corruption and politically driven need for convictions to further careers in law enforcement and the criminal justice system are pretty obvious. It's embarrassing for those of us who work the system when this kind of obscenity is uncovered, and more of an embarrassment when there doesn't seem to be a quick and resolute correction of the malefaction.

But it's not merely a one-sided, race-driven institution that condemned Corey. It's that gaping Grand Canyon of the cultural divide. Where were Corey's parents in all this? Where was the adult supervision on the night of the pizza robbery? If the boy is that disabled, the crime occurred at night, where were his parents and the parental supervision for he and his underage brother and why were they hanging out with adult men who were probably well-known in the neighborhood for criminal activities? Why didn't the parents or the Defense take the non-compliance of the prosecutor and discovery violations to the media, if not to the Louisiana Bar Association? Because it's easier to blame the "white" system than to make it work for you.

I see this kind of potentially disastrous scenario every single day in Orlando. It happens in West Cocoa, Titusville -- anywhere you have the black population, and a fairly significant portion of our Hispanic population. It's the cultural norm to float around at all hours, unsupervised. It's the NORM to have a criminal record, and therefore you don't restrict your children from running with other people with criminal records or hanging in neighborhoods with a bad reputation. You condone criminal records because "it's the white people's fault" and most of your neighbors and family members have a record, so what's the big deal?

I don't doubt for a red-hot instant that blacks are stopped more often, arrested more often, charged more often, imprisoned more often. But isn't it equally true that so much of the crime is occurring or originating in predominantly black neighborhoods? Yes. I know that's how it is. But what has the black community done about changing this? They don't make their kids be HOME when it's dark. Hell, the parents aren't home after dark. They don't curtail who they hang with, family or not -- bad guys are bad guys. They don't enforce school and good behavior in school and studying (which you can't do anyway if you're not home until late and hanging around in the 'hood).

This morning at 5:10 a.m., walking the dog around the park, a younger black man on a bicycle came across the parkway, saw me, veered off and cut through the park on an expensive racing bicycle without headlights or tail-lights (which WILL get you stopped by the police in Orlando as it's a traffic infraction). He was wearing all dark clothes, had an expensive black backpack and, weirdly, black saddlebags on the bike. I turned the corner of the park and it wasn't three minutes when there was a loud metallic clang down Robinson and a business's alarm system went off. Three guesses which direction and where he'd have been time-wise when that alarm went off? Yep.

The burglaries in my neighborhood are almost nightly. The shootings in Orlando/Orange County are pretty much nightly, too. And the demographics? Nearly all black, with Hispanics running a not-too-close second. And yet, if that young man this morning had been stopped for a bike without lights while pedaling rapidly away from the alarm, he'd have argued "profiling." If he'd been white, he wouldn't have had any excuse. That's the real double-standard.

Change the culture and you'll change the frequency of Corey-type horror stories.

   Florida Cracker


((The original story: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2015/12/louisiana_police_and_the_likely_killers_may_have_framed_corey_williams_for.html))

The Hard Truth From Orlando

I'm over this Tamir Rice silliness. Yes, he was 12 years old. Yes, it wasn't a "real" gun -- just a pellet gun or air gun or whatever. I don't know what the laws concerning supervision of children with pellet guns or BB guns or whatever "toy" guns are in Cleveland. Florida is pretty lenient, but you still have to be 16 years old or be supervised by a responsible adult when you're out with a pellet or BB gun. And the endless litany of any parent with a child, toy gun or not, should be, DON'T point it at anyone, DON'T point it at anyone. I guess Tamir Rice's parents were out on a smoke break when that part of their parenting class was going on.

And I'm pretty sure that at 12 years old, he should have known better than to have a realistic-looking usually nonlethal "toy" firearm in a public park, waving it around, pointing it at people and acting like a thug. Someone called him in. Someone who didn't know he was 12 years old and it wasn't a "real" gun called 911 about a guy in a public park pointing a gun at people. The police came, and because this unsupervised little dumb-butt came flailing toward them instead of dropping the gun and freezing in place, he got killed -- because the police are NOT omniscient. They are not bulletproof. And they can't tell how old someone is in a glance, nor can they tell from a distance if the firearm is a toy or not. And when someone comes towards you, waving what appears to be a firearm around, you don't wait to be shot to find out if it's a lethal weapon or not.

Tamir Rice's death is a tragedy. But if the parents want to know who to blame for their son's behavior that day when he was killed, they can just look in the mirror. But it isn't really about the loss of their unsupervised, untrained 12 year old son. It's about the payday the parents hope to glean from his death. Maybe if the police and city counter-sued these parents, and so many others just like them, for their failure to supervise when their kids get arrested or killed, we'd see a whole lot more parenting going on and a whole lot fewer irrational lawsuits and dead children.

     Florida Cracker

The Hard Truth From Orlando

It's like gun control legislation. All the NRA and like-minded idjits are terrified Big Brother is going to come into their houses and take their guns away. Not so. But it's about time we start getting on top of what constitutes LEGAL acquisition and RESPONSIBLE gun ownership. Like it should be illegal to leave a firearm in your personal vehicle unless the vehicle has an attached, secured lockbox designed for storage of a firearm. If you don't have a concealed firearm permit that lets you carry it on your person or you are in an area where all firearms are prohibited, then leave the darned thing at home in a lock box, not in your car. An estimated 232,400 firearms are stolen each year -- 172,000 stolen during burglaries and another 60,300 stolen during other property crimes. The stats don't differentiate between car burglaries and residential/business burglaries. But I can tell you, Orlando's gun thefts are primarily from car burglaries because the gun owners don't have the license to carry but they keep one in their cars "for protection." 80 percent of these firearms are not recovered up to six months after being stolen. But when they do turn up, they've been used in a crime by the same bad guys who use them like trading cards in the community to commit other illegal acts.

If I buy a gun, it's with a "carry permit" and I'll wear the thing all the time when it isn't physically locked in a hidden compartment in my vehicle or my residence. It'll be as much a part of me as my glasses because I see no other reason to have a firearm for "protection" unless it's with me and I have the legal authority to carry it.

Mental health is not added to the data bases for background checks and to prevent purchase of ammunition or firearms. If you've been Baker Acted (and many of our mentally-ill shooters HAVE been at one time or another), it means you've been involuntarily committed for treatment because you present a threat to yourself or others. That's the bottom line; you have been identified at some time as having presented a threat to yourself or others. A Baker Act is a LEGAL proceeding, a kind of arrest/incarceration, and therefore it SHOULD be included in all background checks. But varying states have varying requirements and most of the time, it doesn't reflect at all in local police records or on the NCIC. If you've been Baker Acted, you shouldn't be allowed to have or acquire a firearm without additional medical certification that you are no longer a threat to yourself or others. Will it be 100%? Nothing is. But it will stop a lot of these mass-shooters from easy acquisition.

Internet sales of firearms and ammunition to individuals who are not licensed gun dealers should be prohibited. You have a license, you have to have certain qualifications to keep that license -- as well as the insurance to cover you if you screw up and sell to the wrong person.

These are realistic things that gun lobbyists are ignoring. These are realistic options that gun manufacturers don't want anyone to look at because it affects their bottom line. And it doesn't impact the sacrosanct 2nd Amendment in any material form whatever. But as long as money drives the gun train, we're not going to see any improvements -- any more than we will in the pharmaceutical monopoly.

     Florida Cracker

The Hard Truth From Orlando

Trying not to watch the political stuff. Too depressing for words. Republicans. Jeez. They can't tackle income inequality, affordable housing, sustainable energy, global warming impact, erratic and arbitrary medical costs, insurance or banking reform, immigration reform -- but they can waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to go after women's reproductive rights based on unlawfully obtained videos. They're not even targeting the alleged real issue, which is the regulation of fetal tissue use by the self-same medical industry that they refuse to reform or regulate.

I'm not fond of our current rudderless Democrats but I wouldn't touch anything Republican with a ten-foot pole. If they ever put the Equal Rights Amendment back on the ballot, I'll vote for it and maybe that will help put an end to the constant political gender-biased battles.

Candidly, I wish these legislators and wannabe fathers of our country had to sit through some of family court dependency hearings to see first-hand the quality of life they're foisting off on unwanted, unplanned for children who get shuttled from person to person because they're government subsidies on two legs, not because anyone cares for them. Hideous. A sentence of lifelong dysfunction. Adoption? The exception -- and too few and far between for success in rearing good, productive citizens. I always said if I found a baby in a dumpster, it was meant to be mine and I would make that child a priority in my life. But I think we should recognize that unwilling parents are probably not going to be good parents and it's the children that suffer for it.

I'm weird enough to believe that if any woman who had a child she didn't want could put her legislator's name on the birth certificate and the lawmaker had to pay out of his/her personal pocket for that child, suddenly contraceptives and abortion would become non-issues. It's easy to claim to stand on moral high ground when you're not the one footing the bill.

 

   Florida Cracker

The RealTruth From Orlando

Confederate Flag controversy --

The cemeteries in Germany still have the Nazi symbols on the headstones and elsewhere. The soldiers buried there died for their cause and an organization unparalleled in history for its systematic evil. I still see no reason to erase everything just to sanitize history. I don't have to agree with everything that's displayed. I don't have to agree or condone things done before my time or subscribe to the concept that because I don't protest a symbol that it means I support what that symbol stood for.

Confederate cemeteries and graves are desecrated on a regular basis, receive almost no funding or recognition -- but it's conveniently forgotten or ignored that they also contain the remains of black soldiers who fought for their homes and states, not just for or against slavery. They contain the remains of thousands of family ancestors of both colors. I see no reason we cannot honor the dead with a symbol of the cause they died to support.

It's more of this politically correct garbage that wants to pretend that the only reason we had a civil war in this country was because of slavery and that persons of color can only feel good about themselves nearly 200 years after the fact if only they get enough apologies. The Civil War was about states' rights to govern themselves -- the very same battle that's going on right now in the issues of abortions, women's rights, immigration, gay marriage and the so-called "religious freedom" to refuse service to anyone who doesn't believe like you do. But none of those issues has a flag people can point to and scream about.

It's asinine to say the Confederate flag means slavery and only Southerners are bigots. African tribes sold opposing tribal captives to slavers. Ship magnate northerners ran the slave ships from Africa and made huge profits in the slave trade. Northerners ran their profitable textile mills for cotton grown by slave-owning plantation owners. The Southerners owned the slaves. Not every Southerner owned slaves; not every Northerner was an abolitionist. Not every black man in the South was a slave. Not every slave in the South was black. No one's hands were clean.

The hypocrisy that touts that flag as a symbol of slavery is overwhelming. The imminent criminalization in displaying the flag is a slap in the face to the American experience and a patent violation of the First Amendment.

It's a shame one nut ball, gormless, disenfranchised jackass went in and killed nine productive people of whatever color just because he could. He's a terrorist. Treat him like a terrorist and stop with the constant racism rhetoric. There's as much racism on the black side of the color fence as there is on the white side. Time to quit throwing stones back and forth over it and leave each other's heritage alone.

Florida Cracker

The Hard Truth From Orlando

And another story that grits. The 15-year-old girl with autism who got kicked off the plane. Maybe the pilot & crew did over-react and maybe the steward could have nuked the damn sandwich so the kid would eat it. I would have nuked it for the little twit just to shut her up.

But having a kid who pitches a fit because her sandwich isn’t hot enough is not the problem of everyone else. Yes, the child has a disability. But guess what? The whole world doesn’t have to cater to her and that’s something the FAMILY needs to recognize. It’s become epidemic. My child has a problem, everybody has to make allowances for them, everybody has to suffer their tantrums when they don’t get their way.

No, we don’t. You have to do everything in YOUR power to make sure your kid conforms to societal norms. You have to do everything in YOUR power to make sure your kid doesn’t hamper anyone else in the performance of their duties or that YOUR kid doesn’t create an emergency or get in the way during an emergency.

That’s not society’s job. That’s the PARENT’S job.

Frankly, I hope the child is sufficiently comprehensive to BE embarrassed, but she won’t be. Her mom is going to make her a victim and not a responsible human being. Wish the little idiot luck when Mommy is not there to hold her hand and make the bad people all kiss her self-inflicted boo-boos.

 

   Florida Cracker

The Hard Truth From Orlando

INDIANA APPROVES PANDORA'S BOX LEGISLATION

I don't believe in contraception, so if I work in a store or pharmacy that sells condoms or other prophylactics for birth control, medically prescribed or not, I don't have to make the transaction for the customer or stock it on the shelves even if the manager says we provide those materials -- and he can't fire me.

I don't believe that women should be allowed to wear pants, so I don't have to serve any woman who doesn't conform to my dress code.

I don't believe that God meant for people of different races to be equal, so I can treat them according to the variation of their skin hues, from lightest to darkest, or darkest to lightest.

I believe that children born out of wedlock are going straight to Hell, so I don't have to pay for them to go to school. They're not the same as legitimate children and they should be shunned along with the mothers who gave birth to them.

I also don't have to rent to single mothers or their Hellspawn.

I believe that Jews should have to prove they don't have horns before I serve them.

I believe that homosexuality is offensive before God and I am not going to sin by treating them the same as anyone else and I don't have to provide them the same services.

I believe that mine is the only true religion, so I don't have to serve anyone who can't show their faith is the same as mine.

Who do you hate? It doesn't matter. Indiana wants YOU!

  Florida Cracker

The Hard Truth From Orlando

Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival

And this is my take over the big brouha over the poster image for this year's Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival depicting two impressionistic black shapes of children in white clothing with red mouths and holding strawberry baskets: Seems that some folks see the painting exclusively as racist, reminiscent of early stereotypical depictions of African-American children as "pickaninnies." These same folks say it was an insensitive selection because the festival committee is primarily composed of white members and that's why they chose this image.

Well, I guess some hyper-sensitive folks could see it that way; the same folks who insist that having a Confederate flag automatically means you're a racist, that all black people are persecuted and profiled by police for no valid reason, that all early American folk art depicting African-Americans is stereotypical and must be labeled as such and never displayed, anyone who puts on blackface and plays a minstrel is a bigot, no matter the context.

I have a solution. Never paint any figure of a person as black unless they're in foreign or primitive clothing to show they're not African-AMERICAN. We need to follow the rules set by these masters of political correctness and pretend that African-Americans have no history in this country but one of discrimination and failure. Black human forms painted by anyone who isn't black are automatically to be deemed stereotypical and should have no place in American mainstream art. We can all just accept that hip-hop and gangsta rap, pants on the ground, and street-gang graffiti are the end-all and be-all of appropriate African-American contributions to art and let it go at that.

So for the next strawberry festival, make it a white figure in a black dress -- and then see if all these same super-sensitive critics scream that you're ignoring historical contributions by African-Americans. You're not going to please them no matter what you do, so scrape them off and move on.

 

     Florida Cracker

(The poster: http://imgick.nola.com/home/nola-media/width620/img/entertainment_impact_festivals/photo/17317425-standard.jpg)

The Hard Truth From Orlando

The Michael Brown case: I did not see how the grand jury could indict the officer. Even if he went to trial, the prosecutor could not win. Just the video of Michael Brown’s violent behavior at the earlier shoplifting incident would create reasonable doubt at a trial and the officer would be acquitted.

I'm telling you now and I would tell the protestors across the country -- they have absolutely no concept of the kind of irrational, erratic, arbitrary, dangerous violence that is prevalent in some neighborhoods. Michael Brown was 18 years old, big, violent, full of himself and belligerently stupid. Any normal civil teenager of any race first would not be threatening store owners and stealing. Any normal civil teenager of any race would have been walking on the sidewalk, but if being a twit-head and walking in the street, when asked by a police officer to get to the sidewalk (however he put it), would’ve said, okay, and moved his butt to the sidewalk. Michael Brown was not raised to comply. He was not raised to recognize anything but his own strength and so he mouths off, goes after the police officer to keep the officer from getting out of his car (and probably knows he’s being sought for the earlier theft), punches the officer, tries to evade and then goes bug-nuts again when told to stop.

And the same culture of violent idiocy that spawned him then burned his part of town, including the store that Michael Brown victimized just before he was confronted by the police. It’s a culture of blind incomprehension clashing with a culture of frustration on the other side.

And I find it ironic that everyone was beating up on law enforcement and the governor about having so many folks on standby – like having them there is going to provoke violence. But then, the predicted (and some would say inevitable) violence, looting and lawlessness breaks out and now they’re upset because the police/law enforcement weren’t standing right there to stop it. They always want it both ways.

When they rioted in Liberty City, it was never rebuilt. Watts was never rebuilt. The #1 rule of criminal thinking is: does not learn from experience. Well, here it is again. SSDD.

 

 

   Florida Cracker

The Hard Truth From Orlando

     THE POLICE OFFICER FROM THE FERGUSON SHOOTING SHOULD BE ARRESTED

   Sorry. Don’t agree. We don’t have enough facts. Every time a black man shoots another black man, it’s BFD, business as usual in the black neighborhood. Even their families don’t care enough to come forward and protest if the other guy isn’t prosecuted or if he’s allowed to plead to something ridiculously lenient. If the criminal is African American, anything can be excused in an African American community because somehow “the system” failed him and his.

  But you let it be an officer involved, and it’s all the officer’s fault and the “victim” is somehow maligned. Too many African-Americans openly encourage noncompliance with any form of authority, but they expect authority to protect them on demand.

  Reports are the shooting officer was taken from the scene to the hospital with a broken orbital (eye socket) bone and other serious injuries. The orbital fracture is disputed. The fact that the officer had facial injuries doesn’t appear to be. You can infer he was struck in the face. You can infer that the “victim” of the shooting was anything but a mild-mannered passerby from his earlier convenience store theft and battery of the employee – also white, or at least not African American. Where’s the outrage over that? The only outrage was that it “disparages” the victim’s character rather than establishing a clear example of violent, anti-social behavior occurring within a narrow time-frame of the incident which resulted in his demise.

  The pattern of the bullets is interesting. It doesn’t indicate the guy was shot while standing there with his hands raised. The last shot went through the top of his head, so the shots went into his arm, shoulder and then through his head as he was falling. And they were all on his right side. That indicates he was in a fighting or striking stance, right side forward. And that, coupled with the officer’s reported injuries, tends to support a theory of violence to the officer rather than a hands-raised, compliant “victim.”

  There is a double-standard in the criminal justice system. I knew it when I was a probation officer. African-Americans got tougher sanctions because they had no family support for lesser sanctions. I see it in the juvenile system. White, Spanish and Asian kids get Teen Court and diversion programs because their parents make sure they toe the mark, attend the classes, do the community service work. African-American parents don’t. They won’t make sure their kids attend classes, court – even when costs can be defrayed by community service, they don’t make the kid comply. Instead, they let their kids take criminal probation instead of diversion which could have let their records be expunged. They don’t show up to court half the time when their child is facing criminal charges and the child’s future is on the line. They let their child’s behavior and charges and lack of compliance snowball into a commitment (juvenile prison) sentence, which just greases the skids into adult criminal prison.

  African-Americans say, the system did this, the system did that, the system failed my child. Hockey puck. The parents are the first step in “the system.” And African American parents on the whole consistently refuse to step up to the plate. They want what they perceive privileged “white” folks as having, but they won’t conform behavior or their social norms in order to achieve it. Until the African American community ceases to embrace a culture of failure and violence as their “norm,” we’re going to keep having these incidents.

  ** sidenote: And every time African- Americans protest, they burn their own neighborhoods, loot their own stores, and otherwise prey on their own community. It’s as predictable as the sun rising in the east. I'd like to see that idiocy cured by African-American leaders. NO other ethnic/minority in the US does that kind of stupid stuff over and over again, generation after generation.

 

     Florida Cracker

The Hard Truth From Orlando

Missouri principal wows crowd, angers atheists with guarded 'God' references -- June 4, 2014

Increasingly, I think our Founding Fathers got it wrong in one respect. It shouldn't be freedom OF religion. It should be freedom FROM religion. Of course, they couldn't know that everything they fought for would be undermined almost as soon as it was written.

It would be different if people really respected other people's beliefs, but while the majority who espouse one belief or another say they do respect, their actions plainly show that they don't . So what we have are members of various organized belief groups who insist on ramming their personal credo into the face of everyone else while protesting that they have a right to believe as they do.

Well, yes. They have a right to believe whatever. The difference is, their right to believe appears to contain a simultaneous belief that they have a right to insist everyone else has to hear what they believe -- particularly when it's a group held socially captive for non-religious activities, school graduations, sports competitions, government assemblies -- heck, business meetings.

The original version of the Pledge of Allegiance did not contain the words "Under God." That was a calculated, political addition during the Cold War 1950's to show the world that the U.S. wasn't like the "godless" Communists. The original Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy, a socialist, and the pledge was meant to be all encompassing of what the United State stands for, an ideal of intellect and equality -- not an inherently divisive religious affirmation.

I wonder how Principal Kevin Lowery would feel if he were obliged to attend a monthly assembly of school principals to collect his pay check and then be obliged to sit and listen for an hour while Islamists, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Atheists or Satanists expounded on their private, personal religious views before he could collect his check. He'd be offended. He'd feel excluded. He'd feel trampled on.

But like most puffed-up, self-righteous Bible-thumpers, he won't see any correlation between that scenario and the one he just orchestrated at a Missouri high-school graduation. After all, his is the only REAL religion. Just ask him. He'll tell you. He has a personal line to God to which you're not privy unless you believe like he does. And then he's probably the only one who can hear that "still small voice." But rest assured, he'll "interpret" any messages for you because that voice that only he can hear told him he could.

"And just in case you’re interested, during my moment of silence, I gave thanks to God for these great students, their parents, their teachers and for this community.”

And of course, he is firmly convinced I give a tinker's damn what HE did during HIS moment of silence. I don't. I only give a damn when he and others of his ilk suck up my time with their arrogance. Puffed up jackass.

The school board needs to make him review and re-sign his oath to defend the Constitution and obey all laws. You know, that piece of paper all people who work for the taxpayers have to sign when they work in the government. I think the Principal has forgotten what it says.

 

   Florida Cracker

 

The Hard Truth From Orlando

You know, I'm somewhat torn about the murder trial going on in Minnesota of the 65-year-old who is accused of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of a pair of teenagers who broke into his home. The prosecution says the man lay in wait for the pair after they'd broken into his house (and others) several times to steal to support their drug habits. The prosecution alleges that because he lay in wait and because he made sure to kill them both with a final shot to the head, he exceeded the right of protecting one's home and elevated it to what amounts to an execution.

Do I think the pair of idiots had it coming? I think if you break into someone's house, you're begging to get hurt. Doing it more than once, especially the same house, you're increasing your odds dramatically of getting caught or worse. In this case, it proved to be worse.

Breaking into someone's house to steal, vandalize, or just for a kick is not "a mistake." It's a choice of criminality. I found it interesting that the grandfather of the male victim, Brady, referred to his grandson's criminal acts as "a mistake." It kind of shows where grandpa's mentality is -- and why his grandson wouldn't think breaking into houses with his girlfriend (or whatever she was) to support a drug habit was a big deal.

It's probably the arrogance of the homeowner that has prosecutors and other law enforcement seeking criminal penalties for deliberately killing this pair of dirtbags. There would be no question of a justifiable shooting if not for the final and very considered shot to the cranium of both burglars. And it's that arrogance, more than the final shots, that will convict him.

I like to ask myself, if I were in his shoes, having been burglarized more than once by the same knuckleheads, would I have been waiting with a gun in the basement? For sure. I'd probably have made it easy for them to get in, too. And I would've shot them like the crazy little animals they were. I would not have made that final kill shot to the head if I knew I'd already gotten in a couple of good injuries. Frankly, if I wanted them dead at that point, I'd just go hide in a corner until they stopped breathing and pretend I thought I heard a third and maybe a fourth person moving around and was afraid to call or come out.

Mind you, that would also be an act of homicide, but kind of tough to prosecute.

On the other hand, dead men tell no tales. When you have a living victim, it turns into a "he said/she said" and probable civil cases that will wreck you as surely as the initial criminal act. When you are the sole survivor, you can spin that story however you like within the forensic evidence. Your best option if you're going to use lethal force is to make sure that it's lethally done so that yours is the only voice heard. The homeowner did that; he just didn't do it smart.

Maybe it doesn’t say much about me as a human being, but my sympathy for those "kids" is zero, because whatever happens with the shooter, you won't see those teenage deadbeats committing crimes anymore -- and the community will probably never recognize what a relief it is that they're gone.

 

 

   Florida Cracker 


UPDATE:  http://news.yahoo.com/minnesota-man-convicted-premeditated-murder-205233923.html

Life with no parole. But there will be an appeal in part because:  "Judge Douglas Anderson excluded evidence about the teens' histories from the trial, including court documents that showed Brady had broken into Smith's house and garage before. Brady and Kifer were also linked to another burglary; stolen prescription drugs were found in the car they were driving." Innocents?

The Hard Truth From Orlando

SHOT FOR TEXTING AT THE MOVIES

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/13/justice/florida-movie-theater-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Frankly, I’m surprised someone hasn’t been shot before over cell phones, texting and stupidity in the movie theatres. And of course, they’re playing “Hearts & Flowers” over the fact that the dead dumbass was texting “his little daughter.” Um. He has a three-year-old daughter who reads text messages? Wow. So she has HER own phone, too, at three years of age? Or were they babysitting by video instead of leaving her with a living human being? And of course, this ill-mannered twit doesn’t know the polite thing is to make any phone calls or texts from the lobby, not the theatre seat, or was he just so important he can’t be bothered?

One report also said that the couple were talking loudly and otherwise being pretty obnoxious – which behavior usually means that they’ll continue this behavior right into the feature presentation and screw the experience for all the other paying customers. A normal couple would’ve gotten the message when someone asked them to stop texting, talking and be quiet. But not this pair of entitled yuppie jerk-offs.

And I can almost guarantee that little blonde wife of the victim was the instigator. Oh, you better call the baby, let her know we’re all right. Oh, honey, blah-blah-blah – and then argue with the man behind them so that hubby thinks she’s threatened and has to stand up for her. Sorry. It’s almost reminiscent of the airport security guy who got his neck broken by the more harassed than belligerent husband because his puffed-up entitled wife started a fight over her ill-trained child running past security. Hubby got acquitted, but wife’s behavior was finally addressed publically.

People are saying, oh, a retired cop did this; policemen and guns, ooh, can’t trust them. And as I said before, I’m just surprised someone hasn’t been shot before. That’s the trouble with ANYONE and a gun. The impulse to put down a mouthy jackass can escalate quickly into a lethal reaction. And in this case, it did.

Remember when going to the movies was almost like going to church with popcorn? You paid, you went and were quiet in a room full of strangers, all of whom were also expected to be quiet. Maybe a whispered comment, but by and large, you shut up and watched the movie or an usher ushered your antisocial self OUT and you did not get your money back.

Then we got VCRs and home theatres and everybody acted like they were in their own living room for the show, yelping, running up and down the aisle to the lobby, the bathroom. The kids were no longer trained to shut up and sit down – or taken out of the theatre if they became disruptive. You were conscious of the people around you and polite, saying, excuse me, if you had walk past other people in their seats. And then we got cell phones and that was the nearly the end of movie going for most people. You now see every jackass in the place with his or her feet propped up on the seat ahead of him/her, yakking, calling people on the phone, commenting on every scene and actor – usually not even in a whisper – and mouthing off if someone asks them to keep it down.

That’s why I pick senior citizen morning matinees if I go to theatres for a movie anymore. That’s why I really don’t want to carry a weapon. It’s not the theatres. It’s not even the cost. It’s the ill-mannered crap heads who inflict themselves on other paying customers, oblivious of possible consequences. And the urge to drill courtesy into their pointed craniums with a steel-jacketed projectile might become overwhelming…and besides, I’d miss seeing the movie.

 

 

   Florida Cracker

The Hard Truth From Orlando

                            NAACP: The Ostrich Organization

The NAACP President Bill Gary has filed a formal complaint against Brevard Public Schools. That's just so productive.

Brevard County Schools have come under fire from the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) because of statistics that show black students make up a disproportionate number of disciplinary suspensions compared to the actual black students numbers in the school population. Golly, since when is that news to the NAACP? Black citizens also make up a disproportionate number of the prison population compared to the population at large. Black men and women make up a disproportionate number of persons under legal supervision compared to the demographics of the general community as well. Black men and women are disproportionately represented in the national poverty statistics, too. Why is that?

Are black students being singled out, or does their own behavior and lack of family cohesion and social integration automatically make them incapable of complying with academic rules and regulations -- heck, with normal codes of behavior outside of their insular black neighborhoods? Is this more of that "well, they're black, we have to make allowances for that" logic that somehow implies black kids can't help how they act because of their color?

 It's too easy to blame "the system" for all their failures, when all any student has to do is come to school, be on time, keep their mouth shut, leave the other students alone, and do the work. The schools have bent over backwards to get counseling, guidance, special needs teachers, lunch programs, tutoring, medical assistance, clothing assistance, for students with a myriad of personal problems and family situations. The schools can't make up for crappy parents who can't be bothered to make sure their kids are dressed, fed and to school on time. The schools can't make up for parents who refuse to acknowledge that their own misbehavior is reflected in their children's anti-social dysfunction and failure to apply. The schools can't allow a belligerent, dangerous, disruptive child to continually take away the opportunities and safety of other students all in the name of "tolerance."

And I don't want to hear about "we're poor, we ain't got" clothes or food. Almost every school now has breakfast programs, lunch programs, take-home food programs for children, clothes closets for the needy. But the kids have to show up on time and be ready to participate. Poverty is not an excuse for lousy, disrespectful, non-compliant behavior. The color of your skin is not an excuse to act stupid, mean or lazy. But that's the message most of these kids have received in their community and from their parents. They can't behave in school, they can't find a decent paying job because they can't finish school, they walk the walk their parents did -- with the same results. And their children, born in poverty to parents with the same poor self-discipline and set of excuses, will do the same. Education is the way out -- if the student can put his head down, shut up, and work.

If the NAACP wants to see the problem with their youths, just come to the juvenile courthouse and watch how many of black children come before a judge on CRIMINAL charges and no parent can be bothered to show up. They can come watch how many black children are entirely on their own, even in a house with adults, and no one is supervising them -- much less attending the child's basic needs, even with every scrap of tax-payer funded and not-for-profit subsidy that can be thrown their way. Come watch how many black parents stand beside their child and excuse even the most egregious, vicious actions and turn a blind eye to their child's predictable slide into the prison system, or worse still, a quick trip to the morgue. I think they'll find the demographic of crappy black parenting rather disproportionate to the general crappy parent population as well.

There used to be rampant, in-your-face institutional discrimination. Every agency is hyper-vigilant of it and fighting to correct discrepancies. Now I think it's just a case of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Maybe the black communities embrace failure because it's so much easier than trying to integrate into regular non-black society. It's been observed before and it will again, if the black community insists on being counted separately, then they will be counted last. Maybe the NAACP needs to fund its own program for students who can't toe the mark in public schools. Let's see how critical they are of "the system" when these kids are their problem instead of the schools system's. Maybe they'll begin to recognize that it's the black community's culture of embracing failure and blaming others that's the real issue.

 

 

     Florida Cracker

The Hard Truth From Orlando

CUT THEM LOOSE

A 15-year-old Puerto Rican girl, Enidris Siurano Rodriguez, attending school at Damascus High in Montgomery County, Maryland, is protesting the US policies regarding Puerto Rico by refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance -- or to recite the pledge, obviously. She was been admonished by a teacher, told she was essentially unpatriotic, so she contacted the ACLU, was apologized to by the principal of the school, and now there's a firestorm of support by various Latin artists and others supporting her protest.

Her refusal to stand for the Pledge, while irritating to many Americans, is supported by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The bigger question, and I don't think she's entirely wrong, is -- WHAT IS the real status of Puerto Rico to the United States of America? Puerto Ricans were granted citizenship in 1917, which establishes mostly equal protection under the laws of the United States, but Puerto Rico is still a territory and not a state, so the citizens do not have the right to vote, so they're not really, completely citizens. Ms. Rodriguez, therefore, has the right, under the Constitution, to refuse to stand for the pledge of allegiance.

However, her inelegant reasoning, per the article, makes little sense. She doesn't feel that a government so far away from the island should be able to dictate its internal policies. I haven't checked a map, but I'm pretty sure Hawaii is farther away from the mainland of the United States than Puerto Rico. Hawaii seems to be thriving under US auspices as a state and most of its residents don't seem to currently be unhappy with statehood. Alaska, too, is divided from the main body of the US by another country -- so distance is not the real issue.

It's the half-measures. They're citizens without the right to vote. They're the remnants of an antiquated and unequal colonial political system, culture, language and people whose primary identity has been overlaid by others, but who have not been vigorously assimilated. Puerto Rico as a 51st state would have to become English-speaking, as English is the official language of the United States. Puerto Ricans would not be able to have their own passports; they'd have to have U.S. passports. They would be required to fulfill ALL of the duties of citizens of the United States and they would also be entitled to all of the benefits accorded US citizens for which they are not currently eligible.

On the other hand, cutting Puerto Rico loose as an independent nation might be a better option. That would shut the door on a lot of the illegal activity flooding through our nation under half-citizen benefits by treating Puerto Ricans as citizens of their own country. They can keep their own language, culture and autonomy without the imposition of a familiar but still alien government. We full citizens can shut the door on the flood of back-door immigration and illegal criminal trade that is part and parcel of the current policies regarding our half-citizens. It would simply make us safer as a nation to restrict the open access Puerto Rico currently enjoys.

This will create something of a dilemma for the current generations of Puerto Ricans. They'll have to choose citizenship -- or those currently holding citizenship can hold dual citizenship, while those born after Puerto Rico becomes a nation will be treated as Puerto Rican citizens, with no prior claim to US citizenship.

And either solution will put an end to the peculiar tax-code for Puerto Ricans and the collection of federal funds by and federal payments to persons who are not entitled to vote for the very government that levies those taxes. It seems to me our founding fathers went to war over the very issue of taxation without representation...

It's time to resolve this. Bring 'em in, or cut 'em loose and let Ms. Rodriguez make her choice of where her allegiances lie. There are enough people around the world who want to be U.S. citizens that we don't need to hold someone as reluctant as she obviously is hostage to a political system long past its expiration date.

 

 

     Florida Cracker

The Hard Truth From Orlando

GUN LEGISLATION

I’m former military. I have worked with law enforcement all my career. I support the 2^nd Amendment. I support “Stand Your Ground” legislation and responsible gun ownership. I don’t believe that every American should own a gun any more than I believe that every American has to own a house, drive a car or go to church.

I am vehemently anti-assault type weapons for private ownership and/or access to the multi-round, extended magazines. These weapons and ammo accessories have nothing to do with home protection, hunting or any other legitimate civilian purpose. It’s time we acknowledge that allowing these types of weapons to be sold, exchanged, or bartered by any Joe Snuffy the Ragman has little to do with personal ownership rights or safety and everything to do with profiteering by gun manufacturers at the expense of the American public, under a spurious claim of protection by our Constitution.

This Sandy Hook nightmare is just the latest example of the damage done by these weapons being readily accessible to mentally damaged individuals with no oversight, no regulation – and the only real consequences for those unfortunate enough to be on the front sights of the barrel end.

The knucklehead politician from Texas proposed that the Sandy Hook massacre wouldn’t have happened, or would’ve been mitigated, if the principal of the school had had her own assault weapon with which to defend herself and her school. What century does this twit live in? He’s apparently an idiot with no real sense of community or civic responsibility.

I’ve lived in countries were firearms were few and far between. The sense of community was astonishing because everyone felt they could stop and help without being worried about someone else misconstruing their intent and shooting them. Americans don’t come out to help someone being victimized because they don’t know if the other guy is armed. Americans don’t step up because they risk more than a punch in the eye. Americans live in isolated little “forts” and prepare for an apocalyptic future that is self-generated because of the promotion of violence by a paranoid gun-culture, sponsored by the weapons manufacturers’ burgeoning profits camouflaged by the façade of the NRA’s massive propaganda and lobbying machine that purports to protect the right to bear arms.

I propose that the NRA address its public perception of being pro-violence, anti-community and deal with the very real challenge of limiting weapons access by unsuitable, irresponsible and dangerous individuals -- citizens or not. This organization has demonstrated its lobbying power to systematically defeat every gun control measure for decades. Now, maybe it can lobby for better protection for American citizens who want to live free without having to send their kids to school in Kevlar vests or establishing bunkers for every mall, theatre and public building.

It’s long past time for American taxpayers to demand reasonable, rational gun-control legislation and tell the NRA to back off or be prepared foot the bill for the victims of their ill-conceived and self-serving anti-gun control policies. We need to recognize that the 2^nd Amendment has morphed from a civil right to bear arms into any modern mental defective’s license to kill. Grow up, America!

 

 

   Florida Cracker

The Hard Truth From Orlando

ROMNEY, WITHOUT HIS MAKE-UP

Well, Romney makes his contempt for the 99%-ers more and more obvious as reflected in his not-for-the-unwashed-public remarks to his super-PAC wealthy donors. Polls show that 47% of American voters support Obama at the moment, therefore, according to Romney, 47% of American voters are freeloading ne'er-do-wells looking for a hand-out. Romney says he wishes he had Latino blood because apparently he thinks he could play a race card and win because that 47% are so bigoted and ignorant they would only vote for Obama because of his minority heritage.

Romney sneers at Americans he says don't contribute their fair share of taxes, but he and his buddies stash their piles of cash in off-shore banks, impervious to the scrutiny to which most Americans have to submit. He says the 47% are looking for hand-outs and freebies while he and his corporate buddies collect government subsidies on one hand to generate business, while inflating and gutting companies started and maintained by others into bankruptcy with the other hand, putting thousands of middle-class citizens out of work and driving them into the welfare safety net he derides.

He says government is bloated and he wants to cut 10% of government workers, but he's not cutting the specially appointed and elected fat cat expatriates of an insider corporate world who can do him and his buddies favors by looking the other way on Wall Street banking and accounting shell-games. No, Romney wants to cut the 10% of worker bees at the bottom who work for significantly lesser wages than their corporate counterparts on the legally contracted promise of a pension after 30 or more working years; a pension system he and his Republican buddies are doing their best to dismantle before public servants can collect for that lifetime of service.

Romney wants to continue to de-regulate and give himself more tax breaks, which means he and corporate raider culture buddies can continue the same financial games they've been running for nearly three decades, generating the Savings and Loans collapse of the 80's, the Baptist Foundation bankruptcy, the Enron scandal and thence to the global toxic mortgages mess compounded by the derivatives "bucket shop" scams perpetrated by Romney's corporate ilk.

He's all for taking apart Social Security and Medicare without addressing the rampant insanity of the insurance businesses which are the source of the cost inflation for the services both of those funds provide. Those insurance businesses and the handful of men who run them are the same ones who gambled their middle-class stockholders' investments on the toxic mortgages and derivatives games and then put their hand out to the disdained 99%-ers to bail them out for their greed and arrogance, then granted themselves extravagant personal bonuses for their incompetence.

I agree the welfare system needs an overhaul. I think unemployment assistance needs an overhaul. I think food stamps and other social services need an overhaul. I think the cost of a college degree is completely out of proportion to the quantity and quality of what's being paid for nowadays. I agree that fraud in our "entitlement" government programs is rampant and needs to be curtailed -- and harshly.

But I also think Romney is a self-serving, arrogant, sexist jackass and I'd vote for Joe Snuffy the drunken ragman before I'd vote for that delusional robber baron.

 

 

   Florida Cracker

The Hard Truth From Orlando

And the battle for resources explodes...

CNN reported that with a reported official population of about 10 million, Greece has an estimated millionillegal immigrants living in that country. Some 100,000 illegal immigrants are estimated to come into Greece every year. So it seems ludicrous that Greece, with its current fiscal disaster, should be censured by outsiders and some liberal political Greek parties for a massive round-up and detention, pending deportation, of some 1,600 illegal immigrants which it can ill-afford to house, clothe, employ and feed -- when it is hard-pressed to care for its own citizens in the current economic climate and the country itself is teetering on collapse.

The CNN article states:

The uncontrolled influx, which coincided with a recent spike in crime, contributed to the sharp rise of an extreme-right political party which uses aggressive rhetoric against immigrants. Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias said Monday the rounding-up of illegal immigrants would continue, arguing that their unchecked entry has brought Greece "to the brink of collapse." "The country is being lost," he told private Skai TV. "What is happening now is ( Greece 's) greatest invasion ever. Since the Dorian invasion some 3,000 years ago, the country has never received such a flow of immigration."

Ancient tradition linked the invasion of Greek-speaking Dorian tribes with the end of the heroic Mycenaean age, although historians believe that the Mycenaean palatial civilization was brought down by financial and social unrest.

Golly that sounds like a familiar scenario doesn't it?

Why are the immigrants, largely African and Asian, flooding into Greece (and then to other European countries)? That's an easy one. Tunisia , Egypt , Syria , Afghanistan , Pakistan , Somalia , Saudi Arabia ...with the rampant political unrest, war, climate/agricultural disasters, sectarian violence, why not run to the democratic countries where they might claim asylum? Why not rely on those countries' social services until the illegals can get their feet under them and become assets instead of liabilities? Greece , however, is fighting for its own survival, economically and politically. The human tide overrunning its shores is no longer something that can be ignored. The affluence that allowed Greece to close its eyes to the invaders before no longer exists. It's now a battle for resources, with the Greeks trying to hold off the overwhelming tide and still retain such intangible luxuries as due process under the law. But when you consider that one-in-ten walking around in Greece might be there illegally, a literary critic might consider that the Greeks failed to learn that the Trojan Horse ploy can be used by anyone and the enemy is already within the gates.

We here in the U.S. need to quit watching and start making some realistic self-evaluations. The threat facing Greece COULD happen here in the U.S. -- and has been in motion for years. Our leaders need to quit examining their political platforms and start looking to see the thin economic and financial ice under all our feet or it WILL happen here. It's time to get serious about protecting our borders, rebuilding our infrastructure and promoting self-reliance among our citizens. We need to act like we're at war, grow community gardens to get through lean times, regional resources so we're not reliant on transportation and other communities. We have to turtle down and regroup so that we can survive to rebuild.

And for our nation's sake, until we have a little more solid economic ground under us, SOMEBODY shut the door!

   Florida Cracker