Friday Follies...

It's a brisk start this morning out in the Hoosierland, with temps slightly BELOW freezing (watch those overpasses on the roads and highways), that will give way to temps risings into the upper 40s...and that's about it.
No rain to speak of (at the moment), and it also looks to be a sunny day for the most part.
Now, go fill up that morning beverage of choice and we'll get this show started.
*** First out of the gate today is a bit of "intrigue" regarding two of the recent homicides that happened on Fort Wayne's (where else?) SOUTHEAST SIDE.
Here's the story link from the J-G:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20131108/LOCAL07/311089964
Jeff Wiehe, the person reporting this has done a masterful job of finding a lot more pieces to what seems to be an ever-growing puzzle when it comes to relating some of these homicides to events from decades ago.

As a sidebar, I received a comment from "The Shadow" and I published it yesterday...but for some reason, I cannot FIND the damn thing. It has not shown up on any of the posts from the last week or one related to the specific homicides.
This comment alluded to this very story, and mentioned the Gentry Mosely connection.
Whoever this person is, I do thank them for their comment (even if it's MIA at the moment).
When I read about Mosely and Harvey in "cahoots" as it were with bringing cocaine from Texas up to Fort Wayne, I had a hunch there was a larger picture to be painted.

Brandon Dock

Then, when I read about the latest homicide (number 41, if you're keeping track at that dead pool at work or home), one Brandon Dock, age 40 who was killed across the street from South Side High School and also connected to Harvey, a lot of this made a lot more sense. And yes, he also had a nice rap sheet, but has dropped off the "radar" since 2008.
It would appear that this is all much more than mere coincidence.
If I didn't know better, I'd surmise that "someone" was offing those involved with this drug "ring" from twenty years ago.
The "OGs" (original gangsters) seem to be dropping like flies.

Or...we could have someone like the Punisher roaming about, practicing some "natural justice" and providing a needed service to the community.
(( I WISH! ))
The thought of some caped or costumed "avenger" of sorts does have it's allure when it comes to making a city safer through whatever means are necessary.
Sometimes, it take bitter to drive bitter.
Perhaps a covert band of law-enforcement personnel have taken up the mantle...or in the worst case scenario,  it could even be a new gang of thugs wanting to "clean the slate" when it comes to former gang members or drug kingpins...in order to establish THEIR "market" for years to come.
It might not even be black people doing this either. With a burgeoning Hispanic population, what better way to get a foothold than to off those who might pose a "competitive" risk to their own "business" (we are talking street pharms here).
I will say that it will be most interesting to see how the police department follows up on this...and whether or not "The Shadow" chooses to comment further (here)...because, as the old series once stated:

...THE SHADOW KNOWS...
Moving on...
*** This story is disturbing for a couple reasons, and here's the link:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20131108/LOCAL07/311089972
I heard this call go out on the scanner yesterday morning, and the main question is WHEN did this occur?
Two people died from drowning when their pickup drove into the Maumee river after crashing through a retaining wall on the bridge over the Maumee.

Thanks to a COMMUTER, who happened to be driving on the bridge noticed the damage to the retaining wall and called police.
This was around 0730 hrs.
A crane was needed to remove the truck from the river, and the two occupants were brought to shore by rescue divers and pronounced dead on scene.
The victims were  Mark Wayne Staulters, 53 and Tamee Ann Staulters, 44. They were married but divorced in 2011. And both had convictions for DUIs in the past. It was not determined who was driving the truck, which belonged to Shawnee construction and Engineering, Mark Staulter's employer, who referred to Mark as "a good employee".
What is really disturbing is that no police had patrolled the area prior to the passerby who DID call police.
I guess we're finding out how BAD things can get when you don't have the PROPER number of officers doing ACTIVE patrols in the city.
*** Next up, our "blamer-in-chief" has APOLOGIZED for the clusterf$ck known as the "affordable care act"?

Not so fast...don't get your hopes up.
Here's a story that spells it out...if you read BETWEEN the lines:
(truth can be liberating in that way)
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20131108/NEWS03/311089952/0/SEARCH
The only thing worse than a liar, is a person who lies about lying.
When a person is TRULY sorry, they say "I am sorry FOR...(fill in the blank)..."
When THIS guy is "sorry", he says:
"I am sorry THEY (we or us) are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me."
That is NOT an apology...in ANY way, shape or form.
It's like when a criminal "apologizes" and says he's sorry...
(...THAT HE GOT CAUGHT!)
Obummer is "sorry" that YOU are not smart enough to know what he MEANS...and not what he says (which are always two distinct things).
I cannot stand to even HEAR this jerk any longer...nothing truthful comes out of that damn piehole of his, and apparently NEVER HAS.
When you read the article, you can plainly see that this man does not deserve, nor is qualified to sit in the White House.
He clearly has all the trappings of another one of those community-organizers...a Sharpton clone...nothing more.
He might have graduated from Harvard, but he is NOT the smartest guy in the room...but he IS the craftiest.
He's slicker than an oil spill in the damn Gulf.
THAT I will give him.
There ARE ways to overturn (bad) laws...and we as Americans need to find them, and implement them.
If only 20-30 million American didn't have healthcare, then THEY should be the ONLY ONES who are affected BY this "law", rather than every damn man, woman and child in this country.
And every politician should be MADE to get the SAME coverage...bar none!
NO exceptions...NO exemptions..."everyone plays by the same rules" to coin a hackneyed phrase the whiner-in-chief LOVES to use time and again.
All this socialist BS and all the SOBs pushing this agenda need to be removed from office (a good start), before we turn into a nation we won't recognize...and that won't be good for any of us.
*** Lastly today, .it makes you wonder how much dirt has been swept under all the carpets in this city, and the reasons for such things aren't the real issue.
It's more about WHO has been doing it, and then we can ponder the WHYs concerning it.

-- That bridge over the Maumee has not gotten that high a mark by inspectors, and was called "deficient".
-- The SE side slide into Dante's 10th layer of hell for several decades.
-- The increasing crime in other quadrants of the city
--  The big "push" for more "downtown" and less all the rest of town
And these are only at the local level...there's so damn much more happening at the national level, so as to make our heads spin.
When the hell are we going to get a chance to live life instead of worrying about every single facet OF our lives, like food, taxes, healthcare, crime, education, more taxes, inflation, and still more costs designed to deplete OUR resources?
Is this designed to make us all more "compliant" And for what purpose?

The renown Gordian Knot.

We have to focus on the causes of such things, and maybe not on all the things themselves, in order to take back our lives.
And when we KNOW the causes, only then can we make the right choices when it comes to dealing with any problem.
For, like many problems, they will never go away on their own...and many times, they WILL only get worse, so they need some "assistance"...that's where WE, the people come into play.
Therein lies the lesson for this week...
Do have yourselves a great weekend.

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