Tuesday's Tidbits...

If this morning's temps have you reaching for your jacket or coat....welcome to AUTUMN!
Yep, it's a tossup as to whether it's "bracing" or downright "brisk" outside today in Hooseirland.
Today's high will only reach the upper FORTIES...that's right.
And we're going to have scattered clouds with another chance of rain...and if the temps don't rise enough, perhaps a few SNOWFLAKES.
Oh, yeah, it's getting to be THAT time of year once again.
In the meantime, go get yourselves a hot cup of whatever you prefer and let's get busy with what's been going on.
*** First up today, a followup to the shootings with the IDs on the victims and some more back-story to what went down (and no, neither of the victims would come close to we would call an honor student OR model citizen).

Both men had run-ins with police for various things.
Here's the story link:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20131022/LOCAL07/310229980/0/FRONTPAGE
What gets me is the headline - "Spate of Killings Tied to Drugs, Gangs, Guns"...
((...rolls eyes...))
Isn't that kinda like saying:
"SPATE OF HOUSE BUILDINGS TIED TO GATORADE, CARPENTERS, HAMMERS"...?
When you stop a moment to take things in their PROPER context, the drugs and gangs do make sense, but the guns ONLY refers to the MEANS by which the drug-fueled gangs operate, otherwise it would be KNIVES...or BASEBALL BATS, or (heaven forbid)...SCISSORS.
Again, FWPD capo Rusty York tends to emphasize guns, when we all know that more gun laws will NOT stop these thugs from getting their primate paws on them one damn bit...
(wake up Rusty, and smell the cordite).

Most all the guns are not purchased LEGALLY...many are just plain STOLEN (or straw-purchased)...so let's get real here.
I still think that ANY law-abiding citizen with a clean record should be able to get a CCP for FREE...rather than fork out $125 for a lifetime permit.
Many thugs aren't even using real guns in robberies...they're using all the look-alikes, and saving the REAL guns for offing one another.
And yet we. as a society will go and BAN workers from defending THEMSELVES...what a freaking disconnect!

But then again, I've always believed in REWARDING GOOD BEHAVIOR...and punishing the bad, with the level of punishment fitting to the severity of the crime(s).
Yeah, it sounds Draconian, but that works.
It's also interesting to note that over the weekend a half dozen OTHER "signal 113s" were reported to police (shots fired) with at least one house being struck...and THAT never made the news.
But at the SPOT-CRIME website, it makes the news almost EVERY day within 3 miles of our "Fortress".
And the crime trends for our area ebb and flow like a tide...
Moving on (for the time being)...
*** In a related article, columnist Frank Gray has a marvelous take on the recent killings that might sound a tad "familiar" for you regular readers HERE.
And here's THAT link:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20131022/LOCAL0201/310229976/0/SEARCH
I cannot agree with Frank more...considering I've stated as much for YEARS (if not decades), but I tend to use the word "cavalier" rather than "casual".
Frank is correct when he says that a large number of people are DUMBFOUNDED by what's happening regarding such brazen shootings (in broad daylight and even when school is letting out).
But I am NOT one of those people...and with good reason;
I KNOW how these morons shake. I come from Philly, remember?
Frank states that shooting people isn't that big a deal to these thugs, and he's right there, also.
He goes on to ask very important questions such as HOW do people learn this attitude? Did they learn it from gangster movies? Or were they taught it by their families? Did they learn it on the streets they roam? Or did anyone bother to teach them anything at all?
Excellent questions...every single one of them, and there ARE answers when you familiarize yourself with the manner in which such people operate.

The BEST answer that would cover the majority of Frank's questions is this:
THEY...ARE...ENTITLED...(period)
These people HAVE been brought up with a clear and (many times) overwhelming SENSE of entitlement...and we can thank all the programs designed (almost exclusively by liberals) to keep the downtrodden in that state...generationally, because IF the programs DID work as they were designed, we would see a change for the BETTER...not for the worse in such areas of our cities, right?
You go and GIVE people stuff, they will never learn what it means to appreciate that stuff...and therefore will only want MORE stuff.

When you REWARD bad behavior with a government-sponsored program that GIVES them money, or food, or housing...(often ALL three and much more) they have no interest in WHY they got what they got...or HOW MUCH it costs everyone ELSE to pay for what they got...they just expect it...and want more.
When you hold these people to NO accountability whatsoever, you open the door for crime, because they come to believe that they have a "right" to get more stuff...at any cost.
And when you add in illegal drugs, that just exacerbates the problem to the Nth degree.
Now, you always hear me talk about DOUBLE-STANDARDS...and THIS is the perfect storm of such lifestyles.
When you hold the "entitled" to a different set of values, and permit a sub-culture of thuggery to abound, you can't expect anything OTHER than crime...and death to follow in it's wake, right?
-- Why do the vast majority of boomcars belong to the minority groups? Same goes for dark-tinted windows and rims. When did it become okay to blast crap music to house-shaking levels and NOT be held accountable for such deplorable actions?
These are all public safety issues.
-- Why do so many people in the ghettohood litter like it's a commonplace activity, scattering their refuse as they meander about?
-- Why are such people permitted to violate rental agreements and allow more individuals to "live" in these houses than was originally written ON said agreement?
-- Why are infants being taken care of (and often abused) by the "boyfriend of the month", rather than a proper parent?
-- Why do such people walk down the middle of the damn street when a city-supplied SIDEWALK is a mere foot away?
All of this (and so much more) occurs because there's BIG MONEY (for the recipients) when they practice such behaviors (in the name of diversity).

Negation of current laws ALSO allows these people to act in ways that decent people find appalling...constantly getting that "free pass" because of their "culture"...and we ALL know that's one of the biggest loads of BS to come down the pike in some time.
There is a solution, and it's not always a pretty one. It takes hard work, persistence, and a willingness to make tough calls to MAKE such people understand they have as much of an obligation to their families, their communities, and their city as the regular people that never cause any stir.
Holding ALL people to the laws established and no wiggle room in the courts would also go far.
When these people are taught that LIFE is precious (and fleeting), and to be a responsible person is more desirable than being a waste of protoplasm, sucking money from taxpayers so they can sit around, make babies and do nothing else, they might get the message.
When men who father children are held accountable for the seeds they plant, and own up to the responsibility for BEING a parent...things will change.
When they discover that buying and selling poison on our streets will only net them prison time or a free trip to the morgue, they could learn something.

But, for all of that to happen, there MUST be an effort by those that can affect these people to act, and in a definitive manner. If that means using "bitter to drive bitter", then so be it.
Otherwise, we're all in for more of the current same...and there is simply NO need for such violence with such regularity.
*** Lastly today, life is NOT cheap...and if I learned anything from my recent hospital "visit", it's that life can be EXPENSIVE, at least if you want to remain in good health and live to a decent age.
But when we, as a society, diminish, in ANY way, shape or manner, that sanctity of life, that all-to-brief spark of existence, we harm ourselves in ways we simply cannot imagine.
We might toil at our various jobs and occupations, but when it's all said and done, our MAIN job is to move FORWARD ...to evolve as a species.

That doesn't always mean we reproduce out the wazoo to the exclusion of everything else, because some government agency hands out money hand-over-fist, but rather we should be seeking to make ourselves better.
More dumb people in the world doesn't equal evolution...it just proves that the "plumbing" works.
We can have any future we want...depending on how we have learned from the past and treat the present.
But, if we're not careful,we might wind up with a future we DON'T want, simple because not enough people chose to extricate themselves from the apathy they enjoy, and sought to be better than they were the day before.
Therein lies the lesson for today.

Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay SAFE out there, America.