Monday Musings...
Welcome to SPRING!
And with it comes cherry blossoms, and (unfortunately) Obamacare...and just wait until it's time to "pay the piper" on THAT one, friends.
Tom DeLay (surprise) said it best last night :
"This was not the Phoenix rising from the flames, but rather our nation's Constitution being consumed BY those flames".
To ME, that was an historical quote.
Now, before we enter into the realm of the Vernal Equinox, I want to share a story found in our local paper that I thought exemplified much of what I spoke about last week when it came to Protecting and Serving.
(( Published: March 20, 2010 3:00 a.m.
County, city spar over seized guns.
Sheriff says parts can be sold; chief favors total destruction.
Holly Abrams -The Journal Gazette
Fort Wayne officials are still undecided on what to do with thousands of guns a year after an audit said they should be turned over to the sheriff.
The police chief and sheriff disagree on how the guns should be destroyed.
The city’s population is a determining factor in what should be done with the guns, according to an internal city audit released last year. State law requires guns and other assets confiscated by city police be given to the sheriff’s department when a city has a population of more than 250,000.
In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau counted the city’s population at 205,727. In 2009, it estimated the number of residents at 251,591, which included the 2006 Aboite Township annexation.
Sheriff Ken Fries said he contacted city police about turning over the guns around the time the population was believed to have increased. The audit said city police had illegally kept the guns when they should have been given to the sheriff’s department.
"The statute is very clear," Fries said. "We may need to wait until the (2010) census numbers come in."
Meanwhile, an estimated 2,000 guns have piled up in the Fort Wayne police property room, Police Chief Rusty York said.
Those guns have been seized since mid-2006, when estimates indicated the city’s population surpassed 250,000.
City Attorney Carol Taylor said Wednesday she is reviewing state law to determine what should be done with the guns. The audit, which covered from November 2007 to November 2008, was released in March 2009. Fries said his department’s attorney, John Feighner, is trying to work out a resolution with Taylor.
York and Fries, meanwhile, are still butting heads on how the guns should be destroyed. Fries maintains the city’s seized guns should be destroyed per court order but that working parts of the weapons could be sold for profit. Fries said his department confiscates about 40 to 50 guns a year. The monetary gain from selling the parts is minimal – "in the thousands," he said. He did not have an exact figure.
"Even if you have guns that are in horrible conditions there are still internal parts that can be sold," he said, adding that the money is used for training and for buying equipment.
York’s interpretation of "destroy" is different from the sheriff’s.
"After a case is complete, if a firearm is involved, the court will order that the firearm will be destroyed," York said, adding he believes no profit should be yielded from the guns.
"I don’t want any parts of those weapons, or those weapons, going back into circulation". York said that after the audit, a hold was put on the destruction of any of the guns pending a decision on the matter.
An average of 550 guns are seized by city police each year. The total number of guns in the police department’s property room is estimated at 5,000, including about 3,000 that were going to be destroyed but had not been when the audit was released, York said.
Those guns, he said, are also being held, pending a legal decision on the matter. In the past, guns were destroyed by melting them at Steel Dynamics Inc.
"Storage is not an issue at this point," York said.
Taylor said she was not sure when she will make a decision on the law’s interpretation. ))
I have to give Sheriff Ken Fries an "attaboy" for coming up with a "novel" way of getting much needed revenue.
Chief York, on the other hand, represents the "walking on eggshells" attitude he has foisted upon the department.
These weapons will be DISMANTLED, Rus...and any working parts can be sold to gunsmiths or gun shops as replacement parts of other firearms, WHERE APPLICABLE.
And I'm OK with that. Why aren't YOU?
All these street thugs probably have never even field-stripped whatever gun they got illegally, or even cleaned them (too much like REAL work), and given some of the educational levels of such people,. they'd be hard pressed to figure simple sh*t like that out, would they not?
Besides, any parts that can be resold will, in all likelihood never wind up in the hands of street thugs. They'd MUCH rather break into a house and steal a fully-functional gun, or use the black market (or even a pawn shop) to obtain an illegal piece.
You're trying to put another cart before the horse there, Rusty...give it a break.
Be careful, Chief...your ENVY is showing!
Don't be put out that our SHERIFF can come with creative ideas to supplement already depleted funding for HIS department, and all you can do is write up officers for not filling out a time card within an hour of ending their TOD to put a few bucks in YOUR pocket.
And to take a "cheap shot" at Sheriff Fries at last week's "State of the 6th District meeting" (where I happen to live, and where much of the crime is committed) by saying he (Fries) "was allowing guns back on our streets", is pure nonsense.
Looks like you might be starting to believe your own "BS", Rus...
Those confiscated "weapons" will NOT be back on ANY street...that's a given, so ease up and do some REAL police work, like shutting down drug houses, breaking up gambling houses and quieting all these damn boom cars.
BTW, if you want to know WHERE all these things can be found...ask Glynn Hines (6th district councilman)...and if HE can't (or won't) tell 'ya...I sure as hell CAN.
'Nuff said there, people.
Now, as promised, it's time for...

(sound the trumpets and let loose the pigeons):
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BOBBY G's SPRINGTIME - THEN AND NOW: PART 1
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It's often been said that SPRING is a time of renewal...of life, of a new beginning. It's also time when we find out if all the crap we read (and hopefully learned) about taking care of a garden over the winter will REALLY pay off, and it's a time when we can enjoy being outdoors once again.
I remember way back when as soon as springtime hit, Dad would break out the neatsfoot oil and the baseball gloves and start "prepping" them for our hours-long catch sessions at the local playground.
"A glove was only as good as it was FLEXIBLE", Dad used to say.
And nothing says SPRING like a boy and his father tossing a baseball around, right?
(with the possible exception of young girls with their jump ropes or riding their bicycles)
When Spring rolled around, you uncovered that bicycle, dusted it off, maybe even removed those training wheels, lubed the chains and sprockets (we used graphite in those days) and got ready to ride to anywhere you could "imagine". (which was usually around the block, but to us kids, it could have been EUROPE)
It was a time to begin thinking about those "day trips" we used to take (when Dad could finally afford a car), and it was a time to begin wondering about what all "we" were going to do over the summer.
Yes, there was lots to do, and lots to plan for, no matter what age you were.
Today...not so much.
It's not because I'm "older", or, as I like to say...well-seasoned (cripes, now I sound like a chunk of pot roast)..it's because I look around and see that people in my neighborhood have not ONE SINGLE IDEA on how to appreciate Springtime.
To them, it's like any other day in any other season, in any other year.
To them, it's just another time of year to practice more of what THEY do best, namely ANNOY other people (like me and the missus).
When I was young, looking forward to PLAYING outside was great...no snow boots, no snowsuit, no gloves...fantastic.
We'd go to the playground, swing on the swings, slide down the sliding board, play wiffleball, climb the monkey bars, or even ride that damn thing you spun around on (mini-merry-go-round?) for 5 minutes and then puked.
And there was no "soft crap" to break any falls...just the dirt on the ground, and the thickness of your pants.
You fell, it hurt, you cried, and then got over it and went back to playing...all within 5 minutes or less.
Today, in areas like mine, you'd be hard-pressed to find ANY playground that has ANYTHING your child can actually play on.
It's all been vandalized by local delinquents with nothing better to do than...trash anything and everything in sight.
Kids in my area wait for the ice cream truck, so they can purchase something and then dump the wrapper on your property. NO supervisory chastisement there, folks! Or they might be drinking a soda, and the bottle/can winds up on YOUR lawn...and so on.
We couldn't even spit out our GUM when we were little..."that's what the wrapper was for", our parents told us...so we listened.
(that also explained why we SWALLOWED a lot of it when we were young, too...LOL)
Many kinds raised today have parents who have never had a REAL childhood themselves, and therefore never GREW INTO adulthood. With such (normal) growth comes learning of responsibilities, and the whole "cause and effect" gig.
You don't do anything without already knowing (or at least wondering) what the effect of your actions might be.
Or, you did it, and found the hell out SOON enough...which caused one's backside to hurt when one got home.
Well, people around here just can't be bothered with such "difficult" things.
(again...too much like REAL work...it requires THOUGHT and MOTIVATION to do the right thing).
Still...Springtime is more than kids, however...it's about flowers that are beginning to BLOOM.
But in MY part of town, it's less about FLOWERS, and more about SILK SHORTS that start to bloom on the asses (or lower) of these wandering street urchins. Maybe that's why they LOOK like BLOOMERS...LOL!
Sorry, but in MY day, you wear silk shorts OUTSIDE, you better have a gender ID issue, because that wasn't considered "proper" clothing to wear in public (unless you were on a REAL basketball court, and even then, the shorts were COTTON and actually FIT properly).
I do remember a time when we rode our BIKES in the street, so we wouldn't bother those WALKING ON THE SIDEWALKS.
Today, in my area, kids ride bikes ON THE SIDEWALKS, while the people walk down the MIDDLE OF THE DAMN STREET.
Now, call me weird, but doesn't that seem a bit BASS-ACKWARDS to you?
People around here WILL however, SPIT on the sidewalk (they pretty much spit every third step as it is...men AND women alike...how THIRD WORLD is that, hmm?).
Oh, yeah...it's SPRINGTIME, all right.
On the brighter side, the songbirds make waking up just a little bit nicer. But as soon as the "locals" wake up...scratch that!
You see, people of MY generation still remember what was important in our lives...and what helped to mold us into the people we are today, who still CAN appreciate the wonders this old world has to offer, whether they can be found across the globe, or in our OWN backyards..
And many times, the small things that need such appreciation are the ones that we often overlook.
Well, I try not to. And I'm sure many of you do likewise.
As long as we can recall such good times, and try to bring the best of such times into the NOW (and beyond), I think we'll retain much of our humanity as it should be retained.
Times may be tough (and getting tougher), but WE are tougher still.
Enjoy the new season, make a difference today, and...
Stay safe out there, America.