Humpday Happenings...
Welcome to the middle of the week.
Yes, it's still rough to find any temperatures ABOVE freezing in Indiana (unless you're INdoors).
Now, I know that some of you are probably wondering what MY take on the State of the Union speech was, and I'll be getting to that soon enough.
But first we have an update to the story I posted here the other day about that officer who was shot down in Indianapolis.
(( INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana correction officials suspended a parole officer Tuesday whose failure to update a national database likely led to the erroneous release of a man now accused of shooting an Indianapolis police officer, who is not expected to survive.
Thomas Hardy was released on bond in December following an arrest on theft charges, which came after his parole officer failed to enter his most recent parole information into a national database, said agency spokesman Doug Garrison. The parole officer also didn't perform required monthly checks to determine whether Hardy had been arrested, Garrison said.
Hardy, 60, was arrested again Sunday in connection with a store robbery that happened less than an hour after a traffic stop during which police allege he shot Officer David Moore in his face, chest and leg.
Indianapolis Police Chief Paul Ciesielski said a recent MRI showed the 29-year-old Moore was too badly wounded to survive. Moore remained on life support Tuesday night, but Ciesielski said the officer's family was consulting with doctors to donate his organs.
"The damage done was considerable and David will not be able to recover from his injuries. The Moore family has begun the process of giving David back to God," Ciesielski said in an emotional statement surrounded by fellow officers and city officials.
Filing Doctors say two bullets hit Moore in the face and just missed his spinal cord.
He also was shot in the thigh and had a bullet stopped by his protective vest.
Hardy was being held without bond Tuesday after a judge gave prosecutors until Friday to file charges against him in the shooting.
Jail officials did not know whether he had an attorney.
Garrison said Hardy's parole officer was placed on unpaid administrative leave Tuesday pending an investigation.
He declined to release the parole officer's name or speculate about whether the officer would face discipline.
The Department of Correction said Hardy had a criminal history dating back at least to 1984, when he was sentenced to 13 years in prison on a burglary conviction.
He was released on parole in 1990, but has been in and out of prison since then on various charges, including seven sentences for theft, one for cocaine possession and one for misdemeanor battery.
Officials have said Hardy was considered "low risk" when he was paroled in October 2009 after serving a 1,000-day sentence for theft. He was due to report to his parole office. ))
((Editor's Update - 0932 hrs - The parents of Officer David Moore have taken him off of life-support and the officer has passed away. My thoughts and prayers go the the family, friends, "brothers & sisters" of this brave soul.
Rest in Peace, Officer Moore...we have you 10-19, signal 4.))
This story has indeed taken a tragic turn, and yet, one has to wonder about how whatever passes for justice (these days) will be meted out upon Mr. Hardy, who it would appear did NOT learn his lesson while incarcerated, but rather knew HOW to "play the system" to his advantage in order to secure a parole.
If the judicial system NOW defines "low-risk" as someone who has a rap sheet as long as one's arm, is prone to chronic criminal activity, and still manages to secure a firearm in order to shoot a LEO in the face for a routine traffic stop, then WE, as a nation need to petition this very system in order to procure the type of JUSTICE that will allow ALL of us to sleep a bit easier at night.
I'm sure the family of Officer Moore would want NO LESS at this point.
Would the city of Indianapolis have been better served if the situation was reversed and Mr Hardy was the one that had been shot?
The answer should be a resounding YES!
As it stands, that city is one officer less in it's ranks, and all because of a judicial system that is flawed beyond reason, inept beyond belief, and broken seven ways to Sunday. That could change, but it takes a little something called COURAGE.
In this person's opinion, we honestly need to do a "reset"...a re-evaluation of the ENTIRE judicial process, top to bottom, and start by closing all the legal loopholes these repeat offenders manage to wiggle through.
This nation needs to get it's head out of it's ass when it comes to honest-to-God PUBLIC SAFETY, and if we have to bring back the electric chair or some other means from the past to rid ourselves ONCE AND FOR ALL of the human vermin infesting our society, preying on the innocent, and valuing life so little as to deprive that life from a person sworn to uphold the law and protect the citizenry...then so be it!
If I seem just a little bellicose in this regard, well that's too bad, because I have always believed that all too often, our "system" bends to the wills of those who want ALL these rehabilitative constructs and molly-coddling bastions of ill-placed "facilities" to better "understand" those who commit heinous crimes against our society. I'd much rather have "hard-time" PRISONS...with as few "amenities" as possible, and with LABOR passing the prisoners' time, instead of cable TV and working out in the courtyards.
And if that sounds like a GULAG...fine. That's what prisons SHOULD be.
What Ben Franklin said about POVERTY can ALSO apply to CRIMINAL ACTIVITY.
If you make prison time as uncomfortable as hell to those incarcerated within the walls OF such prisons or penitentiaries, they will be less likely to WANT to return to them.
THAT is a good first step in protecting the innocent.
If changing our society's mindset also means that more CITIZENS begin arming themselves and start shooting the hell back when they are confronted with a life-threatening situation, I'm all for that as well.
I keep recalling that Tasty Pizza clerk here in Fort Wayne that was senselessly gunned down in the shop close to Christmas two years ago when he was told not to bring HIS pistol to work. Having that gun could have very well saved HIS life (and taken another robber off the streets permanently).
A similar scenario happened at the Belmont Beverage store near rt 27 and Tillman over a year ago, but with a much different (and better) outcome.
A store clerk shot and KILLED the would-be robber who left the store and died in the street, like the animal he was (such a "good boy",too ).
I'd be giving that clerk a damn MEDAL!
Now, I'm not encouraging vigilantism outright...BUT, there does come a time when dangerous actions call for drastic measures.
Used to be a time when a town's sheriff would DEPUTIZE a group of the town's men-folk in order to bring someone to JUSTICE (usually at the end of the hangman's noose, when they managed to catch the criminal ALIVE, that is), and that seemed to work out just fine.
How our society has bastardized the word POSSE over the decades. It's appalling.
And yet, we, as regular citizens NEED to be able to "pursue that happiness" as our Constitution states.
Can't do that when criminals are either NOT caught, or when caught, are slapped on the damn wrists and scolded like some toddler for taking a cookie before dinner. That dog ain't gonna hunt for me.
We hire police to ENFORCE the laws and ARREST those pursuing criminal activity.
But how EFFECTIVE can any police force in any city be, if whatever GOOD THEY DO is turned loose the following day, thanks to the revolving doors of our courthouses and jail cells?
This is a situation that will not "go quietly into that good night", and sadly, we will see officers continue to be the targets of those with murder on their minds.
That must end...ASAP.
We need to remove the "bullet-magnet" that our judicial system has placed behind the shields these brave men and women wear.
We have to begin punishing those that do evil...those that would seek to have ALL of us looking over our shoulders day and night.
And we have to begin NOW.
That's all I have to say about this...for the time being.
*** Now, the POTUS's SOTU address...
(let the eye-rolling commence)
First off, let me say that Obama is a damn good "campaigner".
Hell, his ability to bamboozle the masses is what got him elected in the first place!
I had HOPED he would know what to do with the office (and nation) once he got into power.
Here's one instance where I couldn't have imagined the number of ways he could have this country FUBAR (with some well-timed help from a lot of the wrong folks right there with him).
And last night, I heard more of the same drivel.
"We gotta out produce..."..yada, yada.yada....will someone PUH-LEASE change that broken record?
How the f$ck are WE going to "out-Chinese the Chinese"? Will someone tell me, because I got nothing. We DON'T have the numbers of people.
We DON'T have the economic stability and lending power.
We DON'T have the "rep", as America USED to have.

We have a train-wreck on our hands, that's for sure.
But, we have ONE thing that China doesn't....
The AMERICAN SPIRIT.
(that's our ace-in-the-hole...for now)
Next, our "fearless leader" says we have to work together.
Really?
REALLY???
Depends on what you want this country to LOOK like after you get done screwing it over, doesn't it?
And not ANY mention of "blowing the nation's WAD in order to SAVE money"...amazing!
I mean what planet does this President think he's ON, anyway?
I said to the Missus that I didn't plan to purchase a half-million dollar house, two new cars and a boat (for the hell of it) IN ORDER TO SAVE US MONEY next year...and with good reason...it's a f$cking dumbass idea that would never fly in ANY basic accounting 101 class.
Then, there are the 583 OTHER reasons (too numerous to mention, obviously).
The President also wants to "work" (read screw around) with our educational system.
All the money in the world (which is in China...where all the TEA is, too) won't do SH*T to improve the level of achievement for our students until you wean THEM and their lazy-ass parents off of the section 8/welfare teat.
More entitlements will NOT do anything but produce MORE lemmings (or is that ZOMBIES?), pliable enough to follow the "leader" off of any cliff he points to.
The best way to help the "poor" is to make them uncomfortable in their poverty.
Sounds like a damn good plan.
Lord knows they're already pretty DAMN comfortable as it is.
There were a myriad of "flaws" in the POTUS speech last night, and you can pick YOUR favorites.
I gave up counting all of them.
Our country is at a crossroads...much like a lot of us in our own lives.
Do we, as a nation, take that road less traveled, in order to preserve the Union, or do we take the easy way out.
In our OWN life, have we not trod upon that least traveled path in order to better ourselves, or have we succumbed to "what everyone else does"?
I think we ALL have to take the "right" path sooner or later, if we are to extricate ourselves from whatever bog we've stumbled into in our lives.
We might hate this part of our journey NOW, but we do come out the other side a LOT better off.
Somehow, I think the lesson learned HERE (by us) can (and must) be applied to our country.
All it takes, as the cowardly lion once noted...was some courage.
May we ALL be as courageous as we should, and as often as we need to.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.