Friday Follies...
End of a week and we're knocking on the door of two quasi-important days...both of them occurring TOMORROW.
1) The THIRD anniversary of this blog.
I know, I know....you're going to tell me all about the whole "When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary" thing, right?
No?
I coulda SWORN someone would...LOL!
When I created this blog, it was with COMMON SENSE in mind...much like Glenn Beck does today (maybe he's secretly reading it? Nah, I can't be THAT lucky...but I wouldn't mind IF he stopped by...LOL).
And when I (often) decry the state of my neighborhood, it's with a heavy heart that I do so, because it didn't really HAVE to go the way it has over the years.
I bring you the facts.
I bring you the truth, and I bring you MY opinion, which always is based upon those facts and the truth of ANY situation.
I always say "google it up" to PROVE my points, or provide a link.
But there are (and probably always will be) those out there who, as Jack Nicholson stated in A Few Good Men:
"(You)...Can't handle the truth".
Fine by me...go elsewhere for YOUR version of it, then.
Go hassle those FBI-tracked, uber-white supremacy sites that use the *n* word every other sentence. I haven't the time nor the inclination to entertain such nonsense.
Life is way too short to pander to the infantile and blinder-endowed.
I don't cater to "race-baters", nor should ANY of you. We're above such (reverse-racist) ramblings.
People of ANY persuasion should be man or woman enough to stand up and present honest debate whenever a difference of opinion is expressed WITHOUT the need to play a race card, or to fall back on calling anyone who doesn't share their diversity in liberalism a "racist".
With that said, I have added something called COMMENT MODERATION to this aging blog.
I will now be accused of "censoring" that which *I* personally find offensive. Such will not be the case.
I will ONLY DISALLOW such comments that I deem to be unrelated TO the post presented. ANY "rant for rant sake" comments will not be published.
Call ME what you will...
"Frankly (my dear)...I don't give a damn".
If people want to "race bate", they can go start their own blog and bitch, piss and moan how "whitey" keeps the black man down (when all they really have to do is look at their own community to see the self-perpetuating problems caused by THEMSELVES).
I am not (nor ever have been) holding ANYONE back in life...especially any minority.
THEY seem to be able to do THAT a LOT better than I ever could, and I have the verifiable proof to show it works (more than they do).
...'Nuff said, there.
When it comes to defending myself, I don't shirk away from it. I have learned in life that the best way to get rid of a nuisance is to excise it.
If that smacks of the "one shot-one kill" proviso, then so be it.
I liken it to an ingrown toenail...feels damn good when you cut it out.
Now...onto more "pertinent" things...
2) Tomorrow, I will reach the "tender" (ouch) age of 57.
Yepper...another candle on the cake.
And never fear, the FIRE DEPARTMENT is already on speed dial!
I get to have cake...always a GOOD thing!!!
Already got some really nice gifts from a dear friend in Delaware.
He sent me two books about Philly's history.
One was written by our old high school gym teacher (later principal).
Those books contain a ton of pictures of a much NICER time in that city.
Hard to believe that my Dad passed away at the age of 57...
That hits home in too many ways for me.
Now, since we got THOSE items out of the way, let's see what ELSE in happening around this old Earth, shall we?
** Lockerbie bomber gets released from jail.
Well, it seems those in Scotland have a twisted sense of "values"...they turned out the man responsible for the bomb that brought down a 747 over Lockerbie back in 1988, and he was welcomed back in his homeland of Libya, being hailed a "hero".
Sorry, people, but when it comes to HEROES...I tend to think of a POLICEMAN...or a FIREFIGHTER...or a SOLDIER, SAILOR, or MARINE...or even a private citizen doing something extraordinary...NOT a terrorist.
But that's just *me*...
** Mexico is trying "something different".
Mexico decriminalizes small-scale drug possession
By Mark Stevenson (AP)
MEXICO CITY – Mexico decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin on Friday - a move that prosecutors say makes sense even in the midst of the government's grueling battle against drug traffickers.
Prosecutors said the new law sets clear limits that keep Mexico's corruption-prone police from extorting casual users and offers addicts free treatment to keep growing domestic drug use in check.
"This is not legalization, this is regulating the issue and giving citizens greater legal certainty," said Bernardo Espino del Castillo of the attorney general's office.
The new law sets out maximum "personal use" amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities no longer face criminal prosecution.
Espino del Castillo says, in practice, small users almost never did face charges anyway.
Under the previous law, the possession of any amount of drugs was punishable by stiff jail sentences, but there was leeway for addicts caught with smaller amounts.
"We couldn't charge somebody who was in possession of a dose of a drug, there was no way ...because the person would claim they were an addict," he said.
Despite the provisions, police sometimes hauled in suspects and demanded bribes, threatening long jail sentences if people did not pay.
"The bad thing was that it was left up to the discretion of the detective, and it could open the door to corruption or extortion," Espino del Castillo said.
Anyone caught with drug amounts under the new personal-use limit will be encouraged to seek treatment, and for those caught a third time treatment is mandatory.
The maximum amount of marijuana for "personal use" under the new law is 5 grams - the equivalent of about four joints. The limit is a half gram for cocaine, the equivalent of about 4 "lines." For other drugs, the limits are 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams for LSD.
Mexico has emphasized the need to differentiate drug addicts and casual users from the violent traffickers whose turf battles have contributed to the deaths of more than 11,000 people since President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006.
But one expert saw potential for conflict under the new law.
Javier Oliva, a political scientist at Mexico's National Autonomous University, said the new law posed "a serious contradiction" for the Calderon administration.
"If they decriminalize drugs it could lead the army, which has been given the task of combating this, to say 'What are we doing'?" he said.
Officials said the legal changes could help the government focus more on big-time traffickers.
Espino del Castillo said since Calderon took office, there have been over 15,000 police searches related to small-scale drug dealing or possession, with 95,000 people detained - but only 12 to 15 percent of whom were ever charged with anything.
Wow...and this from a corrupt government who has successfully allowed millions of it's citizens to become illegals HERE to America over the last several decades.
Amazing.
Haven't WE tried something similar HERE...with crappy results?
We could decriminalize drugs by NOON, and we'd see no appreciable drop in crime.
In fact, many of those people would most likely RESORT to crime (in order to feed whatever habit they would have).
And where would that leave the REST of us, hmm?
(hint - hopefully better armed with a lot more ammo)
One thing has been proven:
Prohibition didn't work, so we can't go down that road again.
I'm not for legalizing any (now) illegal drug.
And here's why...
There is NO WAY you're going to convince me that a chronic pot user will NEVER get behind the wheel of a vehicle, or operate machinery, or (mis) handle a firearm without the usual consequences (acting STUPID).
Cripes, we have SOBER people with about as much personal responsibility as a slug in my garden...and that's dissing that poor slug!
Case in point:
** Dad held in toddler slaying / Associated Press
BLOOMFIELD – The father of a 16-month-old boy was arrested Thursday in connection with the child’s death from a fatal gunshot wound to the head.
Ronald Bohannon, 29, of Midland, faces preliminary charges in Sunday’s shooting that include reckless homicide, pointing a firearm and false informing. The most serious of the preliminary charges against him carries a potential prison term of two years to eight years.
Bohannon appeared in court Thursday and was being held in the Greene County Jail on $50,000 cash bond.
The Associated Press left a message seeking comment with attorney James Riester, who is representing Bohannon, but the law firm said its policy is not to discuss ongoing cases.
Travis Bohannon was shot in the head with a single bullet in the rural community of Midland, about 25 miles southeast of Terre Haute.
Ronald Bohannon originally told investigators that he was pushing the boy in a stroller near his home Sunday evening when he heard a gunshot. But he later told authorities that he was carrying a cocked and loaded handgun in his hand while pushing his son in the stroller and the gun accidentally discharged, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Bohannon told police he had a revolver in his back beltline while walking with his sons Travis and Sean, 4. Bohannon said he pulled the gun out when he heard noises near an abandoned house. He said he put his hands on the stroller handles while holding the cocked revolver in his right hand.
"At this point, the loaded revolver would have been pointed at the top of Travis Bohannon’s head," the affidavit states.
Authorities said an autopsy performed on the toddler failed to find a bullet because it had passed through his head. An autopsy showed the gun was fired 12 to 24 inches from the boy’s head, the probable cause affidavit said.
Bohannon told authorities he was responsible for the boy’s death and apologized for lying about the shooting.
Bohannon’s arrest came less than a day after investigators reported finding a handgun in a wooded, weed-filled area near where Travis was killed.
Bohannon was already in custody after being arrested Wednesday on a Vigo County warrant on unrelated charges of receiving stolen property.
Travis and his brother were at their father’s home for a weekend visit. Bohannon and his wife are in the midst of a divorce, police said.
Another situation where some white trash had NO business with a handgun, and ESPECIALLY not holding it cocked and loaded in SUCH CLOSE proximity to a toddler.
This is exactly the kind or human refuse I could find in MY neighborhood...and already have.
Stupidity knows no lines of color, it seems.
I say get the BIGGEST BOOK...and THROW IT AT HIM!
** Teens beat up pizza deliveryman / The Journal Gazette
Two teenagers assaulted a pizza delivery driver Wednesday after
they apparently lured him to a southeast-side neighborhood, police said.
The driver for Pizza By Vito was delivering a large pizza and 10 chicken wings to a home in the 3000 block of Reed Street about 10 p.m. when two teens approached him, police said.
They punched him in the face several times.
The driver tried to defend himself by swinging the pizza carrying bag at them, but he eventually dropped it and fled, according to a police report.
The driver later learned that the delivery order that had brought him to Reed Street was bogus.
Now, let me be PERFECTLY CLEAR on this...
The perps were MOST LIKELY BLACK, as the neighborhood (like mine) has a LARGE MINORITY population.
In fact, I would be VERY surprised if the teens were WHITE (they could have been Hispanic).
That's one reason we RARELY order pizza to be delivered, but prefer Little Caesars P/U instead.
I don't want to place any deliveryman at risk in MY area, simply because I need something to eat.
I was never THAT damn lazy, anyway (unlike my "neighbors").
You should see the way UPS zooms out of the area whenever they drop something off at the house.
I always tell them to drive safely too (because the mooks around here sure as hell are not looking out for anyone else).
Still, It always makes me laugh whenever the minority community pisses a fit at WHY there are few businesses down here.
DUH...!
Uhhhhh...maybe it's because YOUR people have been robbing the businesses EVERYONE USED to have to the point that they up and LEFT the area...'ya think?. There was one pizza store (Tasty Pizza) that's been targeted several times in the last few years, with one fatality at the shop (the owner didn't allow the clerk to carry his .45...bet'cha he's singing a different song these days).
I know other people that "carry", and it's ONLY for personal protection (I need to get me a CCP, too).
Gee, who'da thunk THIS area would be "bad"..after all, it's SO "diverse"...
Mark Twain once said that "Familiarity breeds contempt...(and children)".
I would change that to say:
DIVERSITY breeds contempt.
People seem to like diversity only when they can watch it from a safe distance.
They still enjoy certain segregatory aspects of society.
We are integrated by design...or by choice, but we (secretly) prefer to be segregated.
One can look no farther than any ghetto in America these days.
Are there pockets of IRISH...or CATHOLICS...or even WHITES?
Not really.
The entire stigma has been laid at the feet of the minorities...many times unjustly.
Sad thing is that any ghetto pretty much looks like CRAP (or Detroit).
There's no LAW on record (that I can find) that definitively states that:
"Every ghetto or pocket/group of the general population comprised exclusively of a minority group MUST be a trash-strewn, drug-infested, AIDS-ridden hellhole".
Nope...can''t find ANY evidence of that...anywhere.
So, if the people living there have NOT cleaned the area UP, then they must (by default) PREFER to live in such squallor, otherwise they would leave. The Projects are a prime example.
Brand new buildings, designed to accomodate the low-income households, were promptly turned into bastions of gang activity, illegal drug use, and vertical icons to the place known as HADES to many residents.
I've visited them (job-related) in several cities...I know.
But we could do a whole blog post on that...and maybe I will...some day.
Suffice it to say, that we DO indeed have many unresolved issues in our inner cities (which prompted way too much "white flight", thereby destroying a lot of nice land in the process for housing tracts), that need some serious attention.
It can be as easy as having ONE PERSON speaking up for others without a voice (like I have done for the past 3 years here), or it can begin with a small band of people bonding together to reclaim their neighborhood.
It is the duty of EVERY American to preserve the manner of existence that benefits ALL citizens within this nation.
The phrase Quality-Of-Life should be on the lips of anyone who still cares.
None of us are here forever (thankfully...given the current state of affairs), but while we ARE present, we CAN make a difference, however small it might seem to be to us. What you do can reach a lot farther "down the road" than the span of your lifetime.
Remember than large mighty trees spring from those tiny seeds.
Have yourselves a great weekend, and, as always...
Stay safe out there, America.