Friday Follies...
Been a helluva week...kinda glad to see it wind down.
Today, I WILL be mowing the lawn(s)...(pause for thunderous applause)...
I know it's been a while coming, and the off-and-on rain all week saw to that nicely.
But, we do have a "break in the action" so to speak, and I'm going out loaded for bear.
So, if I'm a bit late posting this AM, understand that my preference (these days) is to get out EARLY (around 0730)...way before the natives become restless.
And never fear, I will have a pistol strapped to the belt.
As long as I'm ON my property, no CCW permit required, folks!
(the difficulty arises when you need to get the BODIES on your property to "justify" whatever goes down....some of 'em can be damn heavy to drag about this early in the morning...lol)
*** In the meantime...we start today with a bit of a sad note.
Yesterday afternoon, after Wifey came home, she told me about a dead animal on the back yard lawn.
Turned out to be a baby bunny rabbit...poor little guy...all of about the size of a large hamster.
He wasn't "damaged" from predatory attack, so I don't know what went down.
He was given a proper burial in a nearby flowerbed (behind one of the solar lights).
Now something like THAT affects me...in that sad kinda way.
I feel more these days for God's little creatures than I do for those who should know better, and yet still do evil to others.
Guess I'm just getting old(er).
But at least that little guy got some proper care to ease him into the afterlife.
--And as an update (0850), there is an "up" side...the little guy has a SIBLING!
Saw him scurry about when I was mowing...about the same size, hiding near our wild lavender...
Now that brightens my day.
I've always had this St. Francis complex from little on up.
*** Moving on...
Here's an update to our latest homicide (number 8) in the Summit City:
(( Published: May 20, 2011 3:00 a.m.
City’s 8th homicide victim ID’d - Archie Ingersoll The Journal Gazette
Officials have identified a 46-year-old man who was found shot to death Wednesday night in an alley on Fort Wayne’s south side.
Kimmer Underwood, also known as Robert Lee Underwood, of Fort Wayne, is the city and county’s eighth homicide victim this year, according to the Allen County Coroner’s Office.
At 10:56 p.m. Wednesday, police were sent to the 1300 block of Scott Avenue, near Broadway and Creighton Avenue.
When officers arrived, they found Underwood in a nearby alley. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:08 p.m.
According to the city’s police log, a neighbor reported to dispatchers that he heard a gunshot, saw a body in the alley and spotted a man in a white pullover jacket walking in the area before heading east.
Fort Wayne police spokeswoman Raquel Foster could not confirm the neighbor’s description of the possible shooter.
"At this time, we do not have any suspect information," she said.
Several neighbors told The Journal Gazette they heard what sounded like gunfire or fireworks not long before police showed up but that they did not see the shooting or the shooter.
"I just heard a pop-pop," said Lynn Rice, who lives a couple of houses from the alley.
She looked out her front window into the rainy night and did not see anything suspicious.
"So I just went about my business," she said.
Foster said investigators have not determined a motive for Underwood’s death.
An autopsy was performed Thursday afternoon, and Underwood’s identity was confirmed using fingerprints, the coroner’s office said. ))
Now, let's take a look at this dead man who was described in another story as "a nice guy that loved to talk to people", shall we?
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02D04-0003-CM-002003 Underwood, Robert L 03/10/2000
Allen Superior Court 6 CM - Criminal Misdemeanor
Decided CRIMINAL TRESPASS
02D04-0101-MC-000027 Underwood, Robert L 01/05/2001
Allen Superior Court 4 MC - Miscellaneous Criminal
Decided P.C MAIN COMMON NUISANCE
02D04-0104-MC-000533 Underwood, Robert L 04/12/2001
Allen Superior Court 5 MC - Miscellaneous Criminal
Decided P.C. DEALING IN COCAINE/METH
02D04-0104-CF-000156 Underwood, Robert 04/18/2001
Allen Superior Court 5 CF - Criminal Felony
Decided DEALING IN COCAINE OR NARCOTIC DRUG
02D04-0603-CM-001712 Underwood, Robert L 03/09/2006
Allen Superior Court 5 CM - Criminal Misdemeanor
Decided FALSE INFORMING (B)
PUBLIC INTOXICATION
02D04-0709-MC-001918 Underwood, Robert L 09/12/2007
Allen Superior Court 4 MC - Miscellaneous Criminal
Decided P.C. BATTERY
P.C. VIOLENT FELON/FIREARM
02D04-0712-CM-008310 Underwood, Robert L 12/28/2007
Allen Superior Court 5 CM - Criminal Misdemeanor
Decided BATTERY (A)
02D04-0808-CM-005739 Underwood, Robert L 08/27/2008
Allen Superior Court 5 CM - Criminal Misdemeanor
Decided CRIMINAL TRESPASS
02D04-0908-CM-004906 Underwood, Robert L 08/14/2009
Allen Superior Court 6 CM - Criminal Misdemeanor
Decided PUBLIC INTOXICATION
=============================
Wow...seemed like SUCH a nice guy, too...didn't he?
He was "clean" for the last 2 years...maybe the past caught back up with him...who can say?
I suppose what troubles me even MORE than another homicide, is the fact that the neighbors "didn't think much of it" when she heard the gunshots.
C'mon, gimme a damn break here.
What NORMAL person wouldn't react in SOME manner if they heard gunfire, and THAT CLOSE to one's house?
And how can going back to what you were doing before the gunshots be considered "normal behavior"?
We, as a nation are becoming WAY too desensitized about things such as this.
"It could have been kids shooting in the air", said the neighbor.
Kids? SHOOTING?
How the f$ck is THAT typical behavior in a neighborhood that doesn't warrant you being bothered by it?
And when did having kids shooting guns in residential areas become so "in vogue" that we summarily dismiss as "oh well, they're just kids being kids"?
Bet'cha if the FWPD had more PATROLS in that area, it would have made some difference.
(yeah, I'm going way out on a limb here with that one)
Gee, and I here I thought the money kids made working at McD's went for college or something else a lot more practical, and not into the purchasing of firearms for "public use" on a city street...
(who knew?)
Well, that is exactly the kind of neighborhoods we have down here...relatively ignored by the city...left to their own "devices".
And that's probably WHY this end of town gets most all the homicides...and all the negative press.
(hell, many down here have been working at it to get that kind of notoriety)
This part of Fort Wayne DESERVES IT...plain and simple.
Change the way policing is done (problem-oriented instead of community-oriented) and roust all the riff-raff the hell out, and it WILL go back to being a much better place to live and raise a family...that's a given.
But until THAT occurs, we WILL have more of the "same old" down here...make no mistake about it.
*** Next up today...a few thoughts concerning the nation of ISRAEL.
What is being done to the Jewish nation in the Middle East is treasonous (imho).
We have tossed a valued ally under the proverbial bus...kicked them to the damn curb, and all but spit in their face.
And I'm pretty damn sick of that stance from our administration in D.C.
That does not reflect the MAJORITY of AMERICANS and THEIR beliefs...how dare this administration say such things.
I can also relate to Israel's predicament a little too well.
Because these days, I feel JUST like they must be feeling.
There THEY are, surrounded by their enemies, no one close enough to call to for help - totally on their own on a small chunk of land.
Here WE are, surrounded by OUR enemies, no one close ENOUGH to call to for help (that arrives quickly enough) - totally on OUR own on a small chunk of land...amazing how one thing can be so much like another, isn't it?
Now, I've never had anything against the Jewish people, or Israel, or anyone of the Hebrew faith.
And I never thought Israel and our house would have SO much in common.
ALL of those souls I've met in my travels have been great people.
And everything they had they WORKED for in some way.
Now, if we were to follow the OLD TESTAMENT as it was written, we are ALL descendants of the 12 Tribes of Israel (even the Muslims...horrors!), so that kinda makes us all just a bit more "related", don'cha think?
That includes every person who ever walked this earth, and those yet to do so...
But there was ONE tribe of that 12 who became God's "chosen" people, and that pretty much sums up the Jewish people.
(and thank God for them - they make such GREAT DELI SANDWICHES...OY!)
I have never been to a Jewish house where I was not welcome (for a gentile, that is)...like I said, those I met were fantastic folks.
Yet, I cannot fathom this whole "reaching out" crap to the MUSLIMS, and "suggesting" the Jews give back the land they've lived on (and fought and died for) since 1967.
That is just plain WRONG.
The Jews aren't asking for the damn WORLD, for God's sake...they just want to to live in THEIR land and be left pretty much the hell alone.
Gee, now THAT does sound a LOT like me...and I'm just a Methodist with a 1200 sq. ft. house on the SE side of Ft. Wayne...LOL!
And yes, there are people out there who are not Muslim, who hate the Jews...why I have no idea.
They claim the holocaust never occurred.
Got news for you, I knew people from Auschwitz, who DID manage to survive (and carried the tattooed numbering from the Nazis with them until the day they died). They told me about how the Jews were sought after to be eliminated.
I've also seen archival footage from the death camps as well as the "roundups" in Germany (and her conquered lands).
There is NO way on God's green earth that anyone can "make up" that type of horror.
And it would behoove us all to remind ourselves that over SIX MILLION died in the process..for no reason other than their heritage.
I think America has lost a LOT of her "innocence" in that regard.
We're either desensitized to things that would once cause us great concern, or we're just plain blinded by whatever "idol" we've conjured up at the moment.
All those neat electronic devices are much akin to that Old testament Golden Bull, and we even manage to "pray" to them.
We have allowed our complacency to take the place of our civility.
We have allowed our apathy to trump our integrity.
And we have allowed our ignorance to replace our responsibility.
This should not happen in America...
Hell, it shouldn't happen anywhere, but especially not here.
We have an all-to-brief history in this country, but we DO have roots back to whatever land our forefathers came from.
We need to learn the lessons from those times, as well as those lessons from our OWN history in this nation.
And we also need to see why it's important that we embrace Israel as our trusted and valued ally against tyranny.
They've been fighting the good fight for over a thousand years...just the faces of the enemy have changed.
We've been through some scraps ourselves, and done pretty damn well.
But we all have to fight our fights not only on our home fronts, but also in other lands.
We also stand against tyranny and the loss of freedom and liberty.
And we try to set that right wherever we find ourselves.
That's what Israel has done for thousands of years...and what WE have done for over 200+ years.
And it's what we need to KEEP doing, because true evil never rests.
*** Lastly, tomorrow is Armed Forces Day, so here's a DoD link for the *411*:
http://www.defense.gov/afd/
And the WIKI:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_Day
This is an aside from the upcoming Memorial Day, as tomorrow serves to recognize, venerate and honor our MILITARY forces.
So get that flag out and fly it proudly, and if you see a soldier or vet, take a moment to thank them for their service to this nation.
You'll be glad you did, trust me.
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*** BTW, I hear the world's supposed to end tomorrow (around 1800 hours)...just so 'ya know.
I'm not really planning to pack my gear just YET (I travel light enough as it is), and besides, the new Green Lantern Movie isn't out yet and I want to see that.
Lots of stuff still to get done (for me, anyway).
--So, end of the world not witrhstanding...
Have yourselves a fantastic weekend.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and as always...
Stay safe out there, America.