Sunday, July 27, 2008

More thoughts on the blog entry directly below


After thinking about this for a time, I've come to the conclusion that just firing this fool is not enough punishment. He should be brought to trial for abusing his authority/position, and get jail time if found guilty. Making a cautionary tale out of his actions might get that certain small percentage of cops who are nothing more than criminals with badges to think twice before indulging in nefarious activities.

Too harsh? Not really. Just as a cop's word carries more weight in court than the average citizen, so too should his actions. He'd better be a shining paradigm of virtue at following the same laws he enforces, in both spirit and letter, or else his actions contrary to the law should carry a greater force against him. Even the hint of impropriety by a cop should be grounds for intense internal and public scrutiny.

Now, for you cop apologists out there who think I'm advocating hamstringing a cop's ability to fight crime, or just ragging on cops in general, nothing could be further from the truth. Even though I have problems with some of the chores the police are tasked with doing by politicians, I do recognize their worth as an organization. But examples of poor behavior such as this need to be dealt with not only swiftly, but severely.

Take care.
DAL357

Friday, July 18, 2008

Serve me coffee (for free) and I'll protect


As always, one should read a news story with a jaundiced eye; I found this one to be entertaining, especially the outcome. Ah, those wacky civil servants.

*****

Daytona Beach cop fired for demanding free coffee
Fri Jul 18, 5:53 AM ET

An internal affairs report says a Daytona Beach police officer demanded free coffee and tea from a Starbucks and threatened employees with slower emergency response times if they refused.

Lt. Major Garvin, a 15-year veteran, was fired July 8. According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Chief Mike Chitwood says Garvin recently failed a polygraph test that he insisted on taking.

The coffeehouse's employees claim that since June 2007, Garvin had visited the store as many as six times a night while on duty. Besides demanding free drinks, workers complained that Garvin also cut in front of paying customers.

A telephone listing for Garvin could not be found.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press.

*****

One presumes he supplied his own donuts.

Take care.
DAL357

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Just a smidgen of justice


Savor it, for it is rare.

*****

Release denied for dying Manson follower

By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press WriterTue
Jul 15, 10:58 PM ET

A follower of Charles Manson who stabbed pregnant actress Sharon Tate to death nearly 40 years ago but is dying of brain cancer in a California prison was denied compassionate release Tuesday.

The California Board of Parole released its unanimous decision on the release of Susan Atkins hours after a 90-minute hearing, during which it heard impassioned pleas from both sides.

"Obviously, it was too hot of a potato for them to handle," said one of Atkins' attorney, Eric P. Lampel. "Of course we're disappointed. There's no basis for denying this." [Certainly not. Sure, she participated, directly and indirectly, with the murder of numerous people, including an unborn baby boy less than a month away from birth, but that was long ago. Let bygones be bygones. Sheesh. What part of life sentence don’t you understand, mouthpiece?]

Lampel filed a motion July 10 with Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Wesley asking for his client's release no matter what the parole board recommended. No hearing has been set, [nor should there be] Lampel said after the hearing.

"We're going to be able to make the case in court. We'll take it to the next step," he said after being informed of the board's decision by The Associated Press. [I wonder how much booze this guy must guzzle so that he can live with himself.]

Atkins' doctors and officials at the women's prison in Corona made the request in March because of her deteriorating health. She also has had her left leg amputated and is paralyzed on her right side, her husband [This begs many questions, chiefly: What the hell kind of loser marries a convicted murderer (as if that’s not enough) with no hope of parole? And why the hell should convicts be allowed to marry at all?], James Whitehouse, told the California Board of Parole Hearings.

Whitehouse, also acting as one of Atkins' attorneys, had argued that his wife was so debilitated that she could not even sit up in bed. He told the parole board there was no longer a reason to keep her incarcerated.

"She literally can't snap her fingers," he said. "She can put sentences together three or four times a day, but that's the extent of it." [Yeah, well her victims can’t even do that.]

He said doctors have given her three months to live. Atkins, in a hospital near the Southern California prison where she was housed for nearly 40 years, did not attend Tuesday's hearing.

The request for compassionate leave generated opposition from relatives of the victims, the state corrections department, Los Angeles County prosecutors and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"Those kinds of crimes are just so unbelievable that I am not for compassionate release in that case," Schwarzenegger [finally showing some sense] said Tuesday before the parole board issued its decision.

Atkins, Manson and two other cult members, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten, were tried for the 1969 cult killings of Tate; Leno and Rosemary La Bianca; and four others. Tate, the wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski, was 8 1/2 months pregnant. [The boy, had his life not been stolen, would be turning 39 in a few weeks. Instead his remains share the same coffin as his murdered mother's.]

Sharon Tate's sister, Debra Tate, the last surviving member of her immediate family, sent a letter to the board opposing Atkins' release.

"She is a cold-blooded woman who to this day has not displayed any remorse," wrote Tate, who lives in the Los Angeles area.

The defendants maintained their innocence throughout the trial. Once convicted, the women confessed to the killings during the penalty phase.

On the stand, Atkins recounted her role in stabbing Tate, who pleaded for the life of her unborn baby. Atkins claimed she was on LSD [taken voluntarily] at the time but did not apologize for the crime until a parole hearing years later.

Her brother, Steve Atkins, told the parole board Tuesday that he and his sister had been abused as children. [If true, that's very sad, but you didn't make a habit of murdering pregnant women did you, Stever? Your c-word of a sister chose her path; let her follow it to its end.]

"After Susan got in with Manson, she was lost to me," he said. "Please let us be with Susan in private in her last days, to pray with her and give our last good-byes." [No.]

The defendants were sentenced to death, but their terms were commuted to life sentences when the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily ruled the death penalty unconstitutional. Manson and the two other women remain in state prison. [The next best place for them to an unmarked grave.]

Atkins has spent 37 years in the California Institution for Women, where she has been held longer than any other female inmate in state history. [A record due to be broken shortly after she kicks by Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten.] She was transferred to the hospital in March.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said that's where she ought to remain. In a letter to the parole board, Cooley said the nature of Atkins' crimes alone should rule out any release. [Only an over-educated idiot, Eric P. Lampel, for instance, would not agree.]

He noted that after Atkins stabbed Tate, she tasted her blood [!] and used it to write the word "Pig" on the victim's door.

Los Angeles County prosecutor Patrick Sequeira said the board made the right decision because of the crime Atkins committed. He said he informed Debra Tate and two other relatives of the victims.

"They are both relieved and pleased with the decision," Sequeira said. "It obviously doesn't take away the pain for them."

He said it's unclear whether a Los Angeles County judge can consider the compassionate release request from Atkins' attorneys without a recommendation from the parole board.

Compassionate releases are rare in California, with just 10 of 60 requests granted last year, Corrections Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said.

Atkins' medical treatment and paying for prison guards to watch over her has cost state taxpayers more than $1.4 million since March, according to the corrections department.

Atkins, 60, has been denied parole 12 times. [You'd think she'd have gotten a clue after the first couple of denials. Of course, she doesn't really think she has a chance, this is just her way of being a PITA to the California penal system and, by extension, the people of California and good folks everywhere. Anyone who commits murder, is convicted, goes to prison, and then who asks for parole, especially multiple times, is not worthy of parole. I don't believe she is one bit remorseful. A truly remorseful person would understand and accept their punishment and not ask to be excused from it. May she stay incarcerated until immediately after her last breath.]

*****

By the way, if I recall correctly, I heard she got religion somewhere along the way in the pokey. Good for her. Perhaps God in Heaven will forgive her. Here on earth, in that respect, we are somewhat imperfect.

Take care.
DAL357

Monday, July 14, 2008

Do you smell that?


I found this blog post too good not to share. Give it a look-see and draw your own conclusions. Not that I'm an expert in any way, shape, or form on most of what he speaks to, but I am aware enough of basic economics and life in general to detect a rotten smell.

Take care.
DAL357

Anheuser-Busch being sold to InBev for $52B


Wow! Do you think InBev might be able to make this swill palatable? "King of Beers" my eye. More like the "King of Advertising Propping Up a Substandard Product."

Take care.
DAL357

A different kind of performance


What seems to be the one word you most often hear associated with cars? If you guessed style, luxury, comfort, or even affordability, you guessed wrong. No, it’s performance.* This is the overriding consideration, or so we’ve been told, of a car’s worthiness. Performance today still means how fast can you accelerate from a dead stop to 60 mph, or how much cargo (usually a boat or gargantuan travel trailer) you can haul. With the new paradigm of ever-higher fuel costs, though, performance will shortly take on a new meaning: How far can you get on a gallon of gasoline/diesel?

I’ll be the first to admit that the new definition of performance is not nearly as sexy as the old, but things change. Shift a few years into the future and I can see a scenario where a young Lothario is bragging to his intended conquest of how little he has under his hood and how far it gets him. She, being duly impressed, decides to give him a spin.

Crazy? Science fiction? Preposterous? Perhaps. But politicians aren’t the only ones who can flip-flop; entire methods of living can too. Only those ignorant of history can argue the point.

The attitudes amongst the masses towards what performance means in an automobile are changing, but they are doing so slowly and grudgingly. Slap a couple of more bucks on the price of a gallon of gas and watch how quickly juvenile notions of speedy, fire-breathing performance evaporate. Even true juveniles, as opposed to those who are still in adolescence at 30, 40, 50, 60, etc., will not be able to evade reality for long owning a car that may zoom from 0 to 60 in an amount of seconds equal to the fingers on one hand, or have the ability to pull double duty as a barge tug, but that gets only a pathetic 21 mpg/city (with a tailwind) and costs $100-$150 to fill. When we get to the point where the choice is either walking or taking a car that chugs along steadily, but slowly and economically, we will have reached the era when the old definition of performance is quaint and outdated.

Take care.
DAL357

*Or so it seems to me.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Lies, damn lies, and plastic surgery


Below you'll find a link to a site I view from time to time probably for the same reason most people slow down when they drive past car wrecks: morbid curiosity.

And what, pray tell, is this site? It's named Awful Plastic Surgery and it's chock-full of before-and-after photos of the (usually) rich and famous. These delusional folks actually believe so much in the fantasy image the media has built up of them they desperately try to preserve it through surgical intervention. It almost never works, at least according to the photos on this site.

Many years ago, it must have been in the early '70s, I heard a pithy little observation that said, "You're only young once. After that, you just think you are." What a pity, apparently, that these people, as well as most other people who go under the knife for cosmetic surgery, never learned this.

My message to these people: Look, I'm not unsympathetic to your perceived plight, but you really just need to get over yourselves. Aging, mentally and physically, is a part of life, and the only way to stop it is to die. Sure, you should do the best with what you have (through natural means: diet, exercise, clothing, make-up, etc.) but, with rare exception, anything that draws blood or involves injections is nothing more than paying homage to narcissism. And, again with rare exception, anything that draws blood or involves injections will leave you looking not quite right, perhaps freakishly so. One other bit of advice: eschew all forms of pop culture and its incessant trumpeting of its definition of beauty. This will work wonders for pulling you out of yourself and seeing the big picture and where you fit in it.

Take care.
DAL357

P.S. BTW, the before/after photo above is not from Awful Plastic Surgery, I just thought this was a good representation of what can be accomplished through natural means. In her case, just a little make-up turned her from plain to exceptional.

Happy 10th of July!


Why not? This makes about as much sense as wishing someone a happy 4th of July, as opposed to Independence Day.

Yup, this dead horse deserves another kick.

Take care.
DAL357

Friday, July 4, 2008

Happy INDEPENDENCE Day


To every liberty-loving American, all 3-4 million of you, happy Independence Day, as opposed to those who say "happy Fourth of July." (Just in case you didn't catch that, Independence Day is the holiday, 4th of July is just a date.) If you don't understand that the difference is much more than merely semantic, you have dishonored your country's ideals more than any nitwit flag burner, and I've no doubt you'll continue to do so this November.

By the way, this congratulatory message does not extend to government at any level in the U.S. So there.

Take care.
DAL357

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Skunked


There is no joy in Mudville today. I didn't get drawn for either an elk or a deer tag in the area I wanted this year; I doubt I'll bother with an over-the-counter license.

What does this mean for you? Not a dang thing. But for me it means I'll be able to concentrate more on my first hunting love: busting bunnies with my 12 ga.

Looking on the bright side of things (what else can I do?), I now have two preference points to use on my next elk tag application and one for the next deer tag application. That should, I hope, net me at least one tag for the 2009 season.

By the way, I have a new (to me) idea on how to hunt rabbits closer to home and use less gasoline. I need to check on the state regulations first, but if it pans out, I'll post the idea here.

Take care.
DAL357