Monday Musings - 24 December...

It's Christmas eve, and if there's ONE thing I've learned in 55 years on this planet, it's that not even stupidity will take a holiday, even if you buy it a ticket, drive it to the terminal and put in on a darn plane (must be that full moon cycle)!

Fort Wayne police were involved in an "action shooting" yesterday afternoon, when a suspect attempted to flee from them as an off duty officer tried to pull him over for running a stop sign. After a brief car chase, the suspect crashed his vehicle and bailed at Warsaw & Oxford Sts. That's when police shot the suspect...dead (It's nice to know that I'm not the only one that can hit what he aims at...and I don't even wear a shield). Even Chief Rusty was on scene for this one.

The fact that there was no (alleged) weapon around definitely has a bearing on this investigation. A news conference today is forthcoming, and I'm thinking that the NAACP will be sitting in, for I will bet the price of all the gifts under our Christmas tree that the suspect was black (and probably unarmed). Wouldn't things have been a lot different if this suspect just stopped at the damn sign? Maybe he'd be alive if he had not given officers REASON to arrest him, or if he just gave up (if he had an outstanding warrant) and "manned-up" to his responsibilities.

We'll never know, or will we?

Still, last evening when this story went down (hours after we actually heard the sirens in the distance), I said to my wife that I'm saying the reason behind the press conference is that the FWPD is expecting some racial fallout from this police action shooting. Otherwise, the police wouldn't really have a reason for ANY "official" public statement (read press conference), except for the obligatory PIO doing an on-camera interview.

They're just covering their ass(ets), and I can't blame them one bit. This will be considered the city's 26th homicide (one more than MY prediction of 25 - made quite a few months ago ), even though it was a police officer that shot a person (homicide, as defined, is ANY shooting that results in the violent death of another person...like all the useless people living in MY area I'd love to cap while wishing them a happy holiday...but I digress).

**Editor's Update from the "It's nice to be WRONG once in a while" file:

(from the News-Sentinel - 1051 hrs)

**A man who crashed his car after fleeing from police died Sunday from a gunshot wound as officers tried to arrest him.
Fort Wayne Police Department spokesman Roy Sutphin said after the crash, officers exited their vehicle. Patrolman James Arnold fired multiple shots at the man because he believed he and the other officers were in danger because of the way the man was using his vehicle as a weapon.
Police say he put his vehicle in reverse, nearly hitting an officer and colliding with several police cars. Police did not locate any weapons on the man or in his vehicle.
The man who was killed has not yet been identified. At a news conference this morning, police said he was a Hispanic in his late 20s or early 30s. (The NAACP is breathing easier now)
Arnold has been with FWPD just short of two months and is a probationary officer who is completing his field training. He has no disciplinary record with the FWPD.
Sutphin said normal procedure is being followed with Arnold, who has been placed on administrative leave.
Sutphin said there are multiple videos of the incident, but they will not be released because they are being used as evidence. There were also two civilian witnesses to the incident.
Sutphin said a Fort Wayne police officer observed a vehicle driving recklessly about 1 p.m. Sunday, and attempted to pull the driver over at East Creighton and Clinton streets. The driver fled, however, and crashed near the intersection of Warsaw and Oxford streets after a four-minute chase.
Sutphin said officers gave emergency aid to the man, but he died at the scene.
The shooting is being investigated by the Fort Wayne Police Department, Allen County Coroner, the Allen County Prosecutor's Office and the Indiana State Police.

But the news isn't "ALL that bad" this Christmas Eve.

Some is good...the rest...eh, maybe not so much.

Shades of James Bond!

The small island of Palau will be a test area for he first-ever "beaming" of SOLAR ENERGY to earth (anyone recall the movies Diamonds Are Forever...or The Man With The Golden Gun...or Die Another Day?) The concept is easy enough: collect solar energy in an orbiting "rectifier", and then transmit it back to earth where it will power anything and everything. Well, let's just hope some space debris doesn't knock this puppy off kilter a few degrees and fries San Francisco (all those poor liberal tree-huggers...up in smoke). And let's make sure the "OFF" switch is NICE AND BIG, shall we (just on the off chance we NEED it)?

Another Case of "I'm Right Again".

I have stated often enough for you readers about how I feel that all this ethanol flap is misguided, and that seeing it as our energy "Messiah" is misplaced at best.

With the rising need for corn, farmers are growing more (all together now)....CORN, and while our energy future is relying more on crops that are based on our changing weather patterns, it's going to become a yearly crap-shoot as to whether or not we can provide sufficient amounts of corn for ethanol, feeding the livestock, and feeding ourselves (I can see $10+ boxes of Corn Flakes somewhere along this journey). But another wrinkle has appeared in this fabric of farming. And that's the fertilizers being used. The nitrogen running off of fields in the heartland finds it way to the Mississippi and then makes it way to the Gulf of Mexico, where it has created a "dead zone" where oxygen depletion has all but depleted the fish, crab an shrimp populations there. This 7,900 square mile area was discovered in 1985, and apparently noting much has been done to lessen the problem in all that time.

But we still need ALL that corn, don't we? Seems we managed to paint ourselves into a very nice corner of a rapidly expanding room. And if this "corn boom" continues (and we know it will), the Gulf is looking at an ecological regime change.

Minivans ARE worth driving.

The body shops will tell you as much, because it makes their year PROFITABLE! In recent tests conducted for LOW-SPEED crashes (3-6 MPH - about as LOW SPEED as you can get), the owner of a minivan can expect to pay between $483 to more than $3,500! Those days of banging out the old sheet metal or hanging some new sheet metal on a vehicle are LONG gone (and we call this progress?), so get used to it.

Best in show (in four crash tests) were the Honda Odyssey ($5258 total) and the Dodge Caravan ($5495 total), while the worst were the Chevy Uplander ($5799 total) and the Kia Sedona ($6525 total - no wonder those Kias are going for $79 down and $79 a month). Yeah...we call this progress.

Lastly, I want to send a special THANK YOU and a very MERRY CHRISTMAS to ALL our troops overseas in country. You men and women do so much for us every day, and we take so much of it for granted in our holiday shopping and preparations for OUR Christmas.

Each and every one of you deserves our sincere thanks and best wishes for a mission accomplished and a safe return to your families. It doesn't matter if you're patrolling a street in Iraq, swabbing a deck in the Sea of Japan, servicing an F-15 at Thule AFB, or greasing an axle in Kentucky. ALL OF YOU are the reason we can enjoy what you provide for us...freedom and liberties.

And this extends to the local levels with our police and fire departments. Placing your lives on the line daily so we can go about our routine is a noble career choice, and we thank all of you for your dedication and perseverance. From the doctors saving lives to the teachers molding lives...all of you deserve a happy holiday.

So in the spirit of the season, I wish ALL of them (and all of you) a very Merry Christmas.