Wednesday, October 28, 2015

KILLING OUR KIDS WITH FOOTBALLS AND GUNS

One of the hallmarks of good parenting is protecting your children and keeping them out of harms way. Americans miserable fail on this count.

They throw their kids out on football fileds knowing full well that this "violent contact" game is dangerous. Kids are dying. 


That’s seven deaths for high-school football players this year. But there’s no national outcry, no demand for investigations or regulations or anything other than a candlelight vigil for the victim, a discreet exhale from any parents in the community who aren’t burying a son, and a quiet hope that the next football player who dies on the field won’t be the football player who lives in their house.



If your kids are lucky enough not to be killing each other on football fields there's always another option playing out all over this land of ours; guns.

This year, 381 people died this way, according to the data. These shootings occurred at night clubs and children’s birthday parties, when long-time friends watched college football on TV and when churchgoers gathered for a weekly Bible study. These incidents have happened in 45 states and the District of Columbia, and happened at a rate of more than one shooting per day.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

CHINESE LABEL GOLF AS ONE OF THE 7 DEADLY SINS

The Chinese believe that this silly game played by people which are assumed to have at least average intelligence not only wastes a tremendous amount of  real estate and water but is also a breeding ground for corruption.


Members of China’s Communist Party banned from golf and excessive eating, while “improper” sexual relations also targeted under new rules . Golf and gluttony have been banned for China’s 88 million Communist Party members, as Beijing steps up a high-profile war on corruption. 


President Xi Jinping has launched a wide-ranging crackdown on graft which has seen scores of officials being investigated and jailed since he took power in 2012. 

 

It remains popular among ordinary Chinese who are angered by high-living officials in a country which has sharp divisions of wealth. 

“The new discipline regulation explicitly lists extravagant eating and drinking and playing golf as violations, which were not included previously,” Xinhua state news agency said.

“Improper sexual relationship with others” would also lead to being sacked from a party position, said the People’s Daily newspaper, which is the official mouthpiece of the party. 


 
Extravagant drinking and sex outside marriage also prohibited as ruling party announces moral ethical code for members.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

ROAD RAGE AND GUNS; A DEADLY COMBINATION

Road rage is a common phenomenon in a violence prone society like the US. Add guns to the mix and tragic disasters are a forgone conclusion. 




Police in New Mexico are trying to identify the person responsible for a road rage shooting that claimed the life of a 4-year-old girl Tuesday.

"This is a complete disrespect of human life," Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden told KRQE News.

Speaking directly to the shooter, Eden said, "The best thing for you to do is to turn yourself in."

Authorities said the child was shot while she was riding in a vehicle with her father in the westbound lane of Interstate 40 on Tuesday afternoon.

"From what we understand, the cars were both moving," Officer Simon Drobik told KOAT News. "One car pulled up next to the other car and started firing rounds into that vehicle."

The father pulled his vehicle to the side of the road and shortly thereafter authorities arrived on the scene.

Friday, October 16, 2015

TRUMP DUMPS 9/11 ON GWB! OMG! WTF! BSC!

No one other than a billionaire who's not pandering to donors would dare to speak the truth about taboo topics like who's to blame for 9/11.

Donald Trump slammed former President George W. Bush for the 9/11 attacks happening "during his reign" in an interview aired Friday, prompting a strong rebuke from a certain GOP presidential rival.

Asked by Bloomberg's Stephanie Ruhle if he could reassure the American people in times of crisis, as when Bush stood before the nation in the aftermath of the deadliest terror attack in its history or when President Barack Obama mourned the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, Trump was adamant.

“I think I have a bigger heart than all of them," Trump responded. "I think I’m much more competent then all of them. I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time.”

Ruhle interjected: “Hold on, you can’t blame George Bush for that."

“He was president, OK? Don’t blame him or don’t blame him, but he was president," Trump continued. "The World Trade Center came down during his reign.

WHEN MONEY TALKS JUSTICE WALKS

It's a simple process; kill people, claim you were too spoiled to control your behavior, pay off the surviving victims and have the trial in Texas.

The Texas teen who used "affluenza" as his defense in a fatal drunk driving charge often lived alone in a 4,000-square-foot house with a pool and wet bar and did drugs including Valium, Hydrocodone, marijuana, cocaine, Xanex and ecstasy, according to newly released deposition tapes.

The deposition tapes, which were obtained by ABC News, reveal the reckless and privileged upbringing of Ethan Couch, who at age 16 plowed into a group of people helping a stranded motorist, killing four of them.

During the deposition, Couch was asked if there was alcohol most of the time at the Burleson house where he often lived alone. "Yes, most of the time," he responded.

When asked if there were drugs there, he responded, "Yes" and proceeded to rattle off a list of drugs he had ingested.

"I've taken Valium, Hydrocodone, marijuana, cocaine, Xanax and I think I tried ecstasy once," he testified.

Couch testified that on the night of the June 15, 2013 crash, he didn't remember pulling out of the driveway.

When asked what the next thing he remembered was, Couch answered, "Waking up handcuffed to the hospital bed."

In the deposition, Couch's parents Tonya and Fred Couch acknowledged leaving their son home alone at their Burleson house and permitting their son to drive at the age of 13. Both parents denied any knowledge of their sons drinking problems.

"Ethan seemed pretty responsible," Fred Couch testified.

When asked if she could remember the last time she disciplined her son, Tonya answered, "I don't remember."

Couch, whose blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit that fateful night, pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault.

At his sentencing, a psychologist called by the defense testified that Couch was a product of "affluenza," who didn't understand the consequences of his actions because his wealthy parents never set limits for the teen.

In a court ruling that stunned victims' family members and prosecutors who asked for a maximum of 20 years behind bars, Couch was given no jail time and ordered to go to a residential treatment facility. He was sentenced to just 10 years of probation.

After the criminal proceedings ended, six families filed lawsuits against Couch, his parents, and their company, Cleburne Sheet Metal. The Couch's settled the lawsuits out of court.

However, before the family of Lucas McConnell settled, they got videotaped depositions from Couch, his parents and psychologist Dick Miller, who testified about the "affluenza" defense.


Video: Hear From Teen Who Used 'Affluenza' as a Drunken-Driving Defense

Monday, October 12, 2015

PALMER THE COWARDLY LION KILLER WILL GO DOWN IN INFAMY

He may not be charged with a crime but his name will go down in infamy.  As will the names of those who persist on killing (murdering) or maiming living creatures for pleasure. Tropy Hunting is NOT a sport but a barbaric ritual practiced by disturbed individuals who have no respect for life.


The controversy surrounding the killing was spurred by both the target of the hunt—Cecil was a black-maned lion well known by tourists and safari goers who visited the country’s Hwange National Park—and the hunting style Palmer used to kill Cecil.









Hunting guides hired by Palmer reportedly tied a dead animal to the hood of a car and lured Cecil outside the park’s protected boundaries. The seasoned hunter shot the lion with a bow, wounding the animal before tracking it down and killing it hours later. Professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst — whom Palmer hired — and a game park owner who allowed the hunt to take place on his land are being charged with breaching hunting rules that led to Cecil’s death.

Friday, October 9, 2015

DO WE NEED ANOTHER HERO?

This song would play well at this next eulogy;

Out of the ruins, out from the wreckage
Can't make the same mistake this time
We are the children, the last generation
We are the ones they left behind

And I wonder when we are ever gonna change it
Living under the fear till nothing else remains

We don't need another hero
We don't need to know the way home


All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

Looking for something we can rely on
There's got to be something better out there
Love and compassion, their day is coming
All else are castles built in the air

And I wonder when we are ever gonna change it
Living under the fear till nothing else remains


All the children say, "We don't need another hero



 
Steven Jones, 18, reportedly pulled out a handgun and started shooting in a parking lot fight between students. As one victim died in a friend's arms, he fired again.One student was killed and three others were wounded during a shooting near the Delta Chi fraternity at Northern Arizona University early Friday morning. Early reports indicate that the incident was a fight between students on the Flagstaff campus. Police Chief G.T. Fowler said there was a confrontation between frat members.

Saturday, October 3, 2015

AMERICA'S WINLESS WAR(S)

The latest disaster involving the US war machine in a foreign country is one more of a string of examples of why becoming involved in a countries internal conflicts; be they political or religious, is foolhardy  and doomed to fail. The previous generation learned that lesson in Vietnam but unfortunately t didn't carry over to this generation.

Blowing up hospitals with Afghans in them doesn't win heart and minds regardless of what side the Afghans are on.Doctors Without Borders says U.S. airstrike hit hospital in Afghanistan; at least 19 dead

For the last 16 years the US has been bogged down in nothing more than "civil wars" both in Iraq and Afghanistan. These internal conflicts between opposing factions of the countries population  have been going on for centuries and for reasons not much different than the Civil War between the North and South in the US. 

Outside intervention is hopeless and futile unless these countries are occupied or colonized; and then the future is still bleak given the history.

Plain and simple, these are "win-less" wars.  

Friday, October 2, 2015

LIVING IN A SHOOTING GALLERY


No matter how you define a mass shooting, one thing is clear: data suggests this brand of violence has grown worse in the United States.

In 2015 alone, there have been 294 shootings that killed or injured 1,464 people, according to Mass Shooting Tracker data, which counts at least four people wounded by gunfire as a mass shooting.

Fire Wayne LaPierre

Thursday, October 1, 2015

PRYING GUNS FROM COLDS DEAD HANDS IS ROUTINE

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. 
Albert Einstein.

There's no question that this definition describes what is obviously becoming a "routine" series of mass shootings/killings in which someone with a gun is involved.

It is also obvious that Americans have been completely duped by the "gun industry" into believing that more guns are the solution to this madness.

Once again president Obama has stood at a podium to once again extend condolences to those who have been slaughtered in a hail of bullets.


President Barack Obama called on the American people to make "common sense gun safety laws" a priority and urged lawmakers on every level to take action following the latest mass shooting -- this one at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg on Thursday.

Obama's speech was roughly 13 minutes long.   Here's the full transcript:

There's been another mass shooting in America. This time in a community college in Oregon.

That means there are more American families, moms, dads, children, whose lives have been changed forever. That means there's another community stunned with grief, and communities across the country forced to relieve their own anguish and parents across the country who are scared because they know it might have been their families, or their children.

I've been to Roseburg, Oregon. There are really good people there.

I want to thank all the first responders whose bravery likely saved some lives today.

Federal law enforcement has been on the scene in a supporting role, and we've offered to stay and help as much as Roseburg needs for as long as they need.

In the coming days we'll learn about the victims. Young men and women who were studying and learning and working hard with their eyes set on the future, their dreams on what they could make of their lives. And America will wrap everyone who is grieving with our prayers and our love.

But as I said just a few months ago, and I said a few months before that, and I said each time we see one of these mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough. It's not enough.

It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel, and it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America. Next week, or a couple of months from now.

We don't yet know why this individual did what he did. And it's fair to say that anybody who does this has a sickness in their minds. Regardless of what they think their motivations may be. But we are not the only country on earth that has people with mental illnesses who want to do harm to other people.

We are the only advanced country on earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.

You know earlier this year, I answered a question in an interview by saying, "The United States of America is the only advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common sense gun safety laws even in the face of repeated mass killings." And later that day, there was a mass shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana.

That day.

Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it. We've become numb to this. We talked about this after Columbine, and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston.

It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun.

And what's become routine, of course, is the response of those who oppose any kind of common sense gun legislation.

Right now, I can imagine the press release is being cranked out. "We need more guns," they'll argue. "Fewer gun safety laws."

Does anybody really believe that?
 There are scores of responsible gun owners in this country, they know that's not true.

We know because of the polling that says the majority of Americans understand we should be changing these laws, including the majority of responsible, law abiding gun owners.

There is a gun for roughly every man woman and child in America. So how can you with a straight face make the argument that more guns will make us safer?

We know that states with the most gun laws tend to have the fewest gun deaths.

So the notion that gun laws don't work, or just will make it harder for law-abiding citizens and criminals will still get their guns, is not borne out by the evidence.

We know that other countries, in response to one mass shooting, have been able to craft laws that almost eliminate mass shootings. Friends of ours, allies of ours. Great Britain. Australia. Countries like ours.

So we know there are ways to prevent it. And of course what's also routine is that somebody somewhere will comment and say, "Obama politicized this issue." Well, this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together. To the body politic.

I would ask news organizations, because I won't put these facts forward — have news organizations tally up the number of Americans who've been killed through terrorist attacks in the last decade, and the number of Americans who've been killed by gun violence, and post those side by side on your news reports.

This won't be information coming from me, it will be coming from you.

We spent over a $1 trillion and passed countless laws and devote entire agencies to preventing terrorist attacks on our soil, and rightfully so. And yet, we have a Congress that explicitly blocks us from even collecting data on how we could potentially reduce gun deaths. How can that be?

This is a political choice that we make, to allow this to happen every few months in America. We, collectively, are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction.

When Americans are killed in mine disasters, we worked to make mines safer. When Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes we make communities safer. When roads are unsafe, we fix them, to reduce auto fatalities. We have seat belt laws because we know it saves lives

So the notion that gun violence is somehow difference, that our freedom and our constitution prohibits any modest regulation of how we use a deadly weapon, when there are law abiding gun owners all across the country who could hunt and protect their families and everything do everything that they do under such regulations, doesn't make sense.

So tonight as those of us who are lucky enough to hug our kids a little closer are thinking about the families who aren't so fortunate, I'd ask the American people to think about how they can get our government to change these laws, and to save lives, and to let young people grow up. And that will require a change of politics on this issue.

And it will require that the American people, individually, whether you are a Democrat, or a Republican, and an Independent, when you decide to vote for somebody, are making a determination as to whether this cause of continuing death for innocent people should be a relevant factor in your decision.

If you think this is a problem then you should expect your elected officials to reflect your views. And I would particularly ask America's gun owners who are using those guns -- properly, safely, to hunt, for sport, for protecting their families — to think about whether your views are being properly represented by the organization that suggests its speaking for you.

And each time this happens I'm going to bring this up. Each time this happens I'm going to say we can actually do something about it, but we're going to have to change our laws. And this is not something I can do by myself. I've got to have a Congress, and I've got to have state legislatures, and governors, who are willing to work with me on this.

I hope and pray that I don't have to come out, again, during my tenure as president to offer my condolences to families in these circumstances. But based on my experience as president, I can't guarantee that, and that is terrible to say.


And it can change.