Taser Incidents

I wanted to comment on the taser incidents that seem to be headlining the news lately.

Let me start with the video I saw in some university library where a kid entered without his ID at the protest of one of the workers present. The worker followed procedure and called the cops, the cops told the kid to leave. When he refused he broke the law and was subdued with a taser. Perfectly justified and I think they should have used their capiscum spray as well.

The second video I saw shows a drunk woman not complying with a cop, so he zaps her. As she falls out of the frame he is yelling and appears to hit her again with the juice. Proceeding through the video she is completely violent once in the patrol car, so I assume when she went down the first time she was still being aggressive which, to me, justifies the second hit while she was down. While in the car she is trying to kick out the car windows, so she is removed and tasered again before being rendered unconscious. Once again, I think the officer was justified. He shouldn't have to put his hands on you if he doesn't want to and she should have stayed on the ground instead of trying to get up. Once in the car if she had behaved she wouldn't have gotten it again.


The last one is the University of Florida jackass at the John Kerry forum. He clearly did not comply with police when asked to calm down, sit down and shut up. I am a little jaded as I think anyone at a John Kerry forum should be tasered including John Kerry. Beyond that though this kid could have avoided everything that happened to him and he is accountable for what the officers did. I also think the phrase "Don't tase me bro'" was racist and that's why he got it so many times.

If police must cease the use of these devices I recommend they be allowed to start shooting people in the leg when they need to subdue someone.

Men's public bathrooms

The last five times I have been in a public men's restroom I have seen some shocking behavior. I am turning to my blog to plead with men everywhere to please observe some decency in these disgusting places. First, whoever keeps unloading his bowels everywhere I go and not flushing please start. What is the purpose of leaving that for all to see? I am assuming this is the same guys that pees all over the toilet and walls too. Second, I have noticed some men walking up to the urinals and dropping their pants (and underwear) to their feet to pee standing up. Boys, this is why we have zippers so please stop showing everyone your disgusting butt while you stand and pee. Please spread the word, and see the following vidoe for more etiquette.

Islam praying for a Democratic victory?

I heard a brief story on a radio show yesterday where some jewish guy was interviewing a bunch of terrorists. His book is called Schmoozing With Terrorists and I can't vouch for the validity of anything he said. I do think that terrorists would benefit from a Democrat more than a Republican but I found the context of what the guy was saying pretty funny. They had some excerpts of live interviews where he asked some of the terrorist dudes what they would do with Britney Spears and Madonna if they could actually rise up and take over. First they called them both prostitutes and said if they didn't convert they would kill them. While I don't advocate killing I do feel the need to point out to the terrorists that prostitutes charge money for sex, sluts give it away for free.

In a somewhat related, to Islam only, story I heard a dude sent his own video to Bin Laden telling him to convert to Christianity. It's about time someone thought of that. The guy's name is Bill Keller and he seems pretty widely disliked but hey, say what you want right? Here is someone else's blog entry summing it up, I particularly like the Osama/Usama reference made with regard to Obama:

An American televangelist has sent his own “convert or go to hell” video message to Osama bin Laden (by the way, have you noted how some of the big media is calling him “Usama” now… Rush pointed out the obvious earlier this week, they’re trying to get a little distance for Obama). In answer to bin Laden’s convert or else video, Bill Keller sends the following video response

..”Look at you, look at your life,” Keller says. “You live like a hunted goat in caves, totally dependent on a small group of people for your survival. At any moment, one of those you trust could betray you like Judas betrayed Jesus and your life would be over. The false prophet you follow, Mohammad, was poisoned to death by one of his wives.”

And a little straight talk about Islam

..”You followed the same path as the false prophet you have put your faith in – Mohammad – who, like you, was once a businessman, but who history has recorded was nothing more than a murdering pedophile who led men’s souls to eternal damnation with the false religion he created,” Keller says. “Islam is a 1,400-year-old lie that was born out of the voice of Satan – literally. Mohammad was correct when he stated it was Satan who initially spoke to him. He dreamed up his own god, Allah, a poor imitation of the God of the Bible, and inspired his own holy book, the Quran, a cheap imitation of the inspired, inerrant Word of God found in the Bible.”

Keller calls bin Laden a “coward” and a “tool of Satan.”

“There are no virgins waiting for you in Paradise when you die, only Satan and the everlasting punishment of hell,” said Keller.

Alright, there’s the lost condition, now, we need a proclamation of the Good News

..”The good news I have come to deliver to you is that you, yes, even you Osama, can escape God’s wrath. He loves you so much, that He sent Jesus to die for your sins, all of them, every last one! Yes Osama, even you can be saved and enter into the Glory of Heaven. Not some fictitious place called “paradise” with women waiting to have sex with you, but the home of God where you can find eternal peace and rest when your life on this earth is over.”

Regardless of what you think about Bill Keller, or his television program, you have to give him an A for effort. And, not surprisingly, the bullys at CAIR had already managed to get him tossed off the air at one station, a dhimmi affialiate of CBS.

..”I’m saying nothing now that I haven’t been saying for five years,” said Keller. “Ultimately, it was pressure by CAIR that intimidated these people into taking me off the air. It was not mutually agreeable. They told me they were taking me off the air, period.”

CAIR said it had asked earlier this month that CBS remove Keller’s nightly talk show. CAIR-Tampa Executive Director Ahmed Bedier had told CBS chief Tom Kane as well as WTOG that he objected to the programming.

“In the hate-filled program, ‘Live Prayer with Bill Keller,’ Islam and Muslims are referred to in the most vicious and bigoted of terms. For example on May 2, 2007, host Bill Keller said: ‘Islam is a 1,400-year-old lie from the pits of hell. It’s leading a billion peoples [sic] to hell … those who follow this false religion will die and be lost for all eternity.’ On the same program, he also said, ‘The false religion of Islam is about hate, lies and death,’” the letter said.

“It is our belief that anti-Islamic rhetoric like that used in ‘Live Prayer with Bill Keller’ is exactly the type of language that is likely to incite hate crimes against the American Muslim community,” the letter said.

Inciting hate crimes? I don’t know about you, but Bill Keller’s rhetoric makes no difference to how I feel about Islam. Flying airliners into buildings, hostage taking of Christian missionaries, cutting the heads off of innocent people, stoning women to death, hanging “apostates”, slavery, and the whole ‘convert to Islam or we’ll kill you’ thing is more likely to influence a feeling of hate than any televangelist. After all, when the imams preach hate against the west and the muslims boil out of their mosques with their signs and their demonstrations, you have to be honest and ask yourself why do Muslims act this way, and Christians do not. I am always struck by the difference between Islam and Christanity, and I am reminded that God said “my sheep hear my voice” and “by their fruit you shall know them”.

Are you afraid of one little girl? (Barry Manilow)

I was reading my buddy Mike's blog and felt the need to jump in on this post he has. I, used to anyway, actually like a couple of Barry's songs. I cannot stomach these insane, petty, know-it-all celebrities anymore. Here are some articles that sum up my anger:
E! News

TMZ.com

CBS

MSNBC

These all say pretty much the same thing. Barry has canceled, or some sites say was canceled by the show, because he disagrees with Elisabeth Hasselbeck's opinions and thinks they are "dangerous." So if I do the math, there would have been four raging liberals and one little conservative girl. Wow those odds are poor for Barry, and wasn't he just supposed to be promoting his album anyway? When did it become a political debate? Why do liberals hate free speech so much, especially celebrities?

Shut up Donovan McNabb

Donovan McNabb came out with some interesting quotes on HBO's "Real Sports." First off that show is hosted by the somewhat racist Bryant Gumbel, see this post. Secondly, it was two very wealthy black men on a very popular TV show whining about their blessed lives. Here is the Yahoo article please give it a quick read. I agree that what Rush Limbaugh said awhile back was stupid but not racist at all. I also disagree that black quarterbacks are viewed any differently. I never give it a second thought and have never heard undue criticism of any of the QBs, black or white, especially McNabb. I HAVE heard McNabb come out and say something like this EVERY YEAR for the past two or three as his athletic ability begins to decline. It's similar to how TV and movie stars all of a sudden announce they are gay as their popularity wanes.

Movie Review (The Guardian)

I had wanted to see this movie since I first saw the commercials almost two years ago and just never made the time. I rented it last night from one of those $1 kiosks at Kroger which I think is a fantastic invention. Anyway, I finally grabbed it last night and started it around 2130 last night.

The cast is pretty star studded and I think that several of the instructors they used were actual coasties. I wish this would have been pointed out somehow. The cast was great and everyone did their best, but the movie is just not written or directed well. Several scenes come off as disjointed as they try to reel you in with Top Gun or Officer and a Gentleman type scenes. The scenes never seem to play all the way out before the director shifts gears to the next, usually unrelated, scene. Ashton Kutcher didn't suck near as bad as I thought he would and paced Kevin Costner, brilliant as usual, very well. This movie has enormous undeveloped potential to pay tribute to the coasties, who often go unnoticed. But really, what do you expect when you are in the Department of Transportation? I think the movie falls a little short and the ending was quite stupid. The movie has two endings wrapping up two separate story lines and both came off as goofy to me. One of the "endings" also seems a bit pointless but that's just me. They also did not do a good job of portraying how difficult SAR school is. That may have been the lack of athleticism on the part of certain cast members.

Unique to coasties the movie shows women attempting to become rescue swimmers. Female coasties must meet the exact same requirements as their male counterparts for this position. As a result, there are currently only three qualified females in the field. In other services females are either not allowed to serve in certain jobs or they are not required to meet the same physical standards. I like the CG model.

I do not recommend this movie.

The Captain's Travels

I spent the last week on the road for a family visit/vacation. I have one Grandmother who is very ill in Colorado and another in Kansas that had never met my children. We drove three hours to Nashville and flew 2 hours to Denver. We fly from Nashville because plane tickets are $300 cheaper if you are willing to drive a little. My son acted like someone who had just snorted ten lines of cocaine the whole time on the flight out which further reinforced my resistance to flying with little ones. He also LOADED up a diaper mid-flight which I had the privilege of changing in the airplane's bathroom. Do those really need to be that small?

In Denver we got to spend sometime with my Aunt, Uncle, Sister, and Grandmother. We had a pretty good time but spent the night in a different location every night. Monday we drove to Fowler Kansas to visit with Aunts, Uncles and cousins. The top picture is from Castle Rock Colorado and the bottom picture is from Fowler Kansas. From Fowler we drove to Hugoton Kansas to visit another Grandmother. GrandDad died in 2002 from Alzheimer's and she had never met the kids so this was a necessary stop. We spent one night there and then back to Denver for a final night with my sister before flying back on 09/06.

This was a busy whirlwind trip, but was still fun. We did rent a Dodge Magnum which on the plus side was nice and roomy and on the minus side looked like a creepy hearse. Now I am off to WV on Monday for the week.

W00T!