Weekend Roundup...

Made it to another end to another week, and the weather will sort of cooperate.
Going to be another "brisk" day with highs only getting into the upper 50s.
(maybe hit 60 if we're lucky)
Got some clouds rolling through with scattered showers by tomorrow.
So, sit back, get comfortable, enjoy the day, pour yourself a refreshing beverage and let's take a look at what's been shaking...everyplace else, hmm?
*** The USPS is giving us an early "gift" in the form of higher prices for STAMPS.

Going up to 46 cents next year.
Where will this end?
Well, considering you have ALL those government pensions to pay for with fewer people paying INTO them, this "pyramid scheme" seems destined to eventually fail, because the pyramid is UPSIDE DOWN, and we all know what that looks like.
Maybe privatizing the postal service would have worked better for us all, and would have produced some healthy competition with other companies "wanting in" on it...that would have benefited the consumers as well as the companies.
Just a thought (after the fact).
*** This next story is a study in tolerance (or intolerance, depending on your POV), and the fact that "boys will be boys", as it were, plus a touch of the old adage: "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Here's the link:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20121012/LOCAL03/310129966
A female detective assigned to a FWPD unit dominated by males filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court.

Now, I'm not going to defend the actions of the male members of this unit, except to say that ANY groups of males tend to gravitate towards off-color humor and displays of machismo, however misdirected it might seem to others...they're MEN for God's sake, where farting is more a contest, and sexual pictures and blue humor part of "the show".
I will say that having the officer's supervisor (sergeant) pressuring her to see his porno collection isn't becoming a superior (IF the allegations are true).
And a DEPUTY CHIEF should know better than to behave in any way other than professional...keep the "jokes" in the locker room, people.
Maybe others share such an "appreciation" for YOUR particular type of humor.
The sex toy should have been "lost" immediately, if this female officer was ever to be shown the same level of respect accorded to the male officers...it doesn't come down to male or female...it DOES come down to the THIN BLUE LINE, which makes no bones about ethnicity, nationality, religion OR gender.

This is all just MY thoughts on it, and I wasn't there and don't know the specifics, but I think I've been around long enough to know basic HUMAN NATURE, and that SOME "big cats" never change their stripes. I'm just speaking from past experiences in similar venues.
Maybe officer Bridget Glaser has a valid suit here with allegations that should have been addressed a while back...or maybe she's just looking for an "easy out" (and some quick cash)...time will tell and hopefully the truth will come out.

If what she says is true, there will be consequences.
It's hard enough just being a police officer these days, without internal strife adding to the mix.
It's even harder for a female officer, especially if you don't wish to become "one of the guys" and only want to do your job.
Moving on...
*** The new season on AMC's show The Walking Dead begins this Sunday night, with some critical episodes being aired from the earlier seasons filling you in and getting you up to speed, and I'm really jazzed about it.

Been a helluva good show so far, and I can't see being let down in any way this season.
They created some people in this tale (from the graphic novel series) that you really give a damn about.
It's going to be interesting to see what happens when Rick's group (who left the farm last season) finds that PRISON and they make that their new base of operations...because it's already inhabited, and not by the zombie brigade.
It's another group of survivors.
With their own "leader".
Should be some good story-telling in store...and a lot of head-shots, too.
*** Got ourselves a new license plate coming to Hoosierland in 2016 - the bicentennial of the state of Indiana...

At least you can read the damn thing at distance, as opposed to some of the earlier plates (In God We Trust)...that proved hard for police to figure out the alphas on the tags, so the state changed the font and size to make it easier to ID the tag if needed.
What bugs me about ANY license plate, is that very few states still use the EMBOSSED plate. They are all pretty much a flat piece of thinner metal with a damn full-coverage DECAL on it. Guess the prison population bitched about MAKING the tags, and the ACLU stepped in, claiming it was "cruel and unusual punishment"?
Suppose a car becomes the victim of a fire...some perp torches the vehicle and the tag gets fried...you can't ID anything or anyone from the plate, can you? With an EMBOSSED tag, you can burn off the color, let it rust, and you can still figure out the plate number.
Another case of what used to work now does not, thanks to change for change sake.
*** Here's some news on the MS-13 gang that has infiltrated the U.S, as well as locally here in Ft. Wayne:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20121012/NEWS03/310129968/0/SEARCH

Yeah, these are the machete-wielding thugs that hack victims up and leave them anywhere they want.
The Treasury Department (my old stomping grounds) FORMALLY designated Mara Salvatrucha, or ms-13 a TRANSNATIONAL criminal organization...and about damn time, too.
The aim of this "designation" is to freeze them out of the U.S. financial system and seize what amounts to (well over tens of) MILLIONS of dollars in criminal profits from drug and human smuggling, as well as other crimes committed in THIS country.

The gang has about 10K members in FORTY-SIX STATES, and are allied with several (warring) Mexican cartels.
Interpol even reports evidence of activity in EUROPE now.
The "plan" is to stifle the money sent back to El Salvador (funding the gang) through otherwise "legitimate" businesses with the help of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Other international criminal groups that came under the same sanctions have been the Japanese YAKUZA, and the Mexican cartel Los Zetas.
Here in Fort Wayne, the FWPD gang unit has seen a rise in Hispanic gangs and cliques, INCLUDING ms-13, according to the department's 2011 annual report. And how much you want to bet that they're located on the...(...all together, folks...)...SOUTHEAST SIDE of the city?
The FWPD PIO states that the gang's activity has been limited to several sprayings of graffiti.
(that's what they can SEE...what goes on behind the tagging is another story, isn't it?)
"What we often see are individuals who want to associate themselves with the gang, but are not necessarily members of that gang", says officer Raquel Foster. Yeah, and the penalty for "posing" as a member of ms-13 can be DEATH, dear, in case you're not acquainted with their "history", so these wannabes might not BE the posers they are believed to be, but rather actual members or are least "apprentices" in training.
Helps to know your enemy, so you can better know yourself in that regard...Sun Tzu said that, not me.
*** I did watch the VP debate last night, and I love the way people are painting the "winners and losers"...

Now, if you consider a winner the guy with the most arrogant display of emotion, who could not help but interrupt at every chance, and smiled, smirked, and sneered like a Cheshire cat on dope every few seconds showing blatant disdain, then I'd have to say that BIDEN won...

That's not saying all that much for the CONTENT OF ONE'S CHARACTER, as the late Dr. Martin Luther King would easily point out.
Paul Ryan on the other hand was a lot more respectful, did not break in every few seconds, nor cast snide comments to his opponent's statements or answers to the moderator's queries.
(and she did do a decent job for a "lefty" BTW).

So, if one were to consider the professionalism exuded by the candidates, the ability to LISTEN to the opponent, and then make rational and non-rambling rebuttals to.what were obvious fallacies, then Paul Ryan won by a knockout!

Hell, I'd give Ryan a TKO just on being able to NOT laugh himself out of his chair at some points during Biden's answers.

There were two points where Biden outright lied, and he also tossed the security intelligence team under the bus, the subway, and that semi rolling down the road...not a good thing, but I'm sure we won't hear anything about that, EXCEPT from a "fair and balanced" news source.

The "lame-stream" drive-by media will be so far up Biden's butt with praise, that their eyes will all suddenly become BROWN...LOL.

How you can take non-facts and no record of REAL accomplishment for this administration and spin it into a "win-win" befuddles the sh*t out of me.
And how people can be so easily distracted away from the FACTS (like the lies the Dems speak with their own lips - caught on video) is beyond belief.
It's one thing to LIE...and then to lie ABOUT lying...that compounds the first offense. Ask any child growing up how THAT works (and how sore one's behind can become when your parents find out).
*** Lastly today, we're not sheep, at least we shouldn't settle for BEING sheep...not when the wolves are circling around.

We NEED to be more like SHEEPDOGS, instead..guarding those who can't help being sheep.
I'd like to believe the vast majority of us have that much within us...to BE the sheepdogs, warning off those wolves.
Perhaps with some wisdom and guidance from a "higher authority", we can make that happen.
It's worth a try, and it's worked in the past.

Do have yourselves a great weekend.

Be well, make a difference to someone today, and as always...

Stay SAFE out there, America.