Winter is a rough time for animals. Not all will make it through. Buffalo in Yellowstone are no exception. These buffalo are in danger not only of cold and starvation but also of heat. The buffalo sometimes get too close to the geo-thermal activity which can also kill.
141 Thoughts to “Open Thread…………………………………Sunday, January 12”
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I just watched The Butler. It was released early on FIOS. You can buy it on Tuesday retail.
What a great movie. I didn’t care for some of the president actors although I think Reagan was captured the best, acting wise and physically. I didn’t like Fonda as Nancy, not because of her or her personality or politics. I just didn’t think she captured the mannerisms of Mrs. Reagan.
Eisenhower could have been anyone. Maybe I was too young to remember or relate to any of Eisenhower’s mannerism. Maybe he was unremarkable in that respect.
I would love to have a discussion of the film people have seen it.
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201401-title-vi.pdf
We are doomed.
The relevant part:
“Schools also violate Federal law when they evenhandedly implement facially neutral policies and practices that, although not adopted with the intent to discriminate, nonetheless have an unjustified effect of discriminating against students on the basis of race.
Examples of policies that can raise disparate impact concerns include policies that impose mandatory suspension, expulsion, or citation (e.g., ticketing or other fines or summonses) upon any student who commits a specified offense — such as being tardy to class, being in possession of a cellular phone, being found insubordinate, acting out, or not wearing the proper school uniform.”
So..if in a school, more people of one race commit problems and are punished equally as anyone else…..its STILL a crime.
Nah…this isn’t going to cause ANY problems…….
Where is Rick?
Girls always just makes me uncomfortable because of the horrible social skills. It’s like an accident…you rubber-neck because you just can’t look away.
Are young people really is awkward and socially unconscious these days?
Sheriff wants to works for PWC CXO! Guess he doesn’t realize he’d have to pass the background check.
Pretty tight background check, eh?
Bond denied for ex-cop who allegedly shot texting dad at movies
By Steve Almasy and Ashley Fantz, CNN
updated 10:17 AM EST, Tue January 14, 2014
(CNN) — It started Monday afternoon with a Florida father sending text messages during the previews of an afternoon movie.
It ended with the 43-year-old father shot dead amid the theater seats, and a 71-year-old retired police officer charged with second-degree murder.
The former cop, Curtis Reeves, was denied bond during his first court appearance Tuesday afternoon. Circuit Court Judge Lynn Tepper also ruled that there is “more than sufficient probable cause” for the second-degree murder charge to remain after hearing Reeves’ private defense attorney argue against that.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/14/justice/florida-movie-theater-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
What was that about a good guy with a gun? Nice job, gun rights advocates. Hope you’re satisfied.
That retired cop needs to be in jail for the rest of his life.
No good guy with a gun in that theater.
Another school shooting in Roswell, NM today. 2 young teenagers in critical condition.
Federal law specifically allows off-duty and retired law enforcement officers to carry weapons, including concealed weapons, without going through all the procedures required of private citizens for acquiring permits. Logical. Police officers can make a lot of sworn enemies. Law Enforcement Officers’ Safety Act.
Hope you research before scolding next time.
I will scold anytime someone shoots and kills innocent people.
Maybe off-duty and retired LEOs sdhouldn’t automatically get this privilege.
@Moon-howler
Not really. For the majority of agencies just no murderers, arsonists or felons.
Of course after today’s meeting, all employees should be fired, all BOS members resign. We only need one BOS member who can double as CXO and they and their fellow commentors (5) can do everything.
I left the house about the time that diatribe was going down. You know…sneaking and hiding the forecasts for revenues. It was the accusatory tone that just frosted me.
Chris Martino is one of the most respected of all county employees. Too bad his motives were questioned also.
I am going to stop watching because I just get too disgusted with the way our county employees are treated.
@Wolverine
The retired cop shot the texter. Cops retire for lots of reasons – sometimes to avoid dismissal. Maybe it shouldn’t be so blanket…lot of federal laws have holes in them.
I think Wolverine was just commenting on why off-duty and retired cops might carry–since during their careers they may put a lot of bad guys in prison.
Anyway, I fail to understand why anyone would gloat and blame gun-rights activists, as if they pulled the trigger. I don’t see the connection in this case, and I find Starry’s grave-dancing really repugnant.
Why the heck does someone bring a gun to a movie theatre? What kind of world do these people live in that they think they need to carry a gun everywhere? How very sad for these people who live that way.
@Wendy The funny part is the sheriff already kind of works for the county considering he is the one who puts all you-know-who’s resolutions together. Like the one put forth today. Only the Sheriff could be that verbose.
I get the retired cop thing. Although I would question how much self control he had as an officer. So it made me wonder about “retirement”. I’d look into that.
Much has been made about the fact that armed citizens put more good guys in places and how that is supposed to be an argument to support carrying weapons in public. It’s fair to use it in reverse.
Yes, why was he ‘retired.’ Not all cops are good cops. It sounds like some turkey farming might have been done. Someone could have taken pity so his pension wasn’t stripped away. I am willing to bet that as a cop he had had some self control issues.
I can feel another “Stand Your Ground” defense coming on.
Perhaps if he had been carrying his weapon in plain view, in its required day-glo pink exterior holster (this according to my mandatory open carry campaign), the texter wouldn’t have given him lip and would be alive today.
@Watching
Aurora ring a bell?
@Scout
Nope…no stand your ground….since it was not self defense.
+1 on checking why he was retired.
Sad case. Reeves retired in 1993 from the Tampico, Florida, Police Department as a captain. Numerous commendations from his superiors. Established the first Tampico PD Tactical Response Team. Reportedly later became chief of security for Busch Gardens in Florida. About it so far. Apparently good record as a tough cop. Looks to me like the guy really snapped in the middle of an argument where the younger victim threw something (bag of popcorn?) in the retired cop’s face. Police said they considered stand your ground but decided against it. Second degree murder.
The victim has supposedly already reported being annoyed to the management. It was during the previews. Texting in a movie theater. Hardly the worst crime. How full was the theater?
Sounds like someone went postal. On the other hand, there might have been earlier signs of trouble. If there were instances of no control in his personnel file, those would not have been released. Personnel stuff is top security.
I think Scout may be right. It appears that the shooter’s lawyers already tried a bit of stand your ground at the arraignment, but the judge didn’t buy it. Looks to me like they will probably try again during any trial. Various Florida defense attorneys have opined that a stand your ground defense could be aided by the strong Florida law which makes any physical attack on a senior citizen a serious felony. So, does a popcorn bag to the face in a darkened theater constitute a felonious attack on the older guy? His lawyer is saying that the older guy didn’t know what had hit him in the face and thought he was being assaulted.
That might work if he had been sitting here minding his own business. But he wasn’t. He was annoying others. (I wasn’t there, of course…so I should have said, “according to reports.”)
Shooting at a middle school in Roswell, New Mexico.
12 year old with a shotgun!!!
As a much commended cop and with tactical team experience then his threat assessment abilities should have been a hell of a lot better than that. The idea is to assess and diffuse situations before blasting your way out of them. Bet ya the public information regarding this retiree may not be the real thing. It’s not adding up. Or he’s 20 years retired with current health issues that should disqualify him from carrying his gun.
He should have changed seats. Stand your ground in a movie theater? What gives him the right to think he can use his gun in a dark (and maybe crowded) theater because someone has made him angry.
Totally excellent points, Lyssa.
Well….
(CNN) — A few weeks before a texting dispute turned deadly inside a Florida theater, the suspect Curtis Reeves had another run-in with a moviegoer, prosecutors said.
During Reeves’ first court appearance on Tuesday, prosecutors said they have heard from another theater patron who said the 71-year-old former Tampa cop saw her texting and “glared at her the entire time throughout the movie” during a screening about three weeks ago.
When the woman got up to use the restroom, Reeves followed her and “made her very uncomfortable,” prosecutors said.
@Cargosquid
So he brought a gun to a theatre because of Aurora. That worked out really well for him, didn’t it? We should all bring guns to theatres now, that should be a prerequisite.
CS: Witnesses said blows were exchanged and that something like a popcorn bag got thrown. It sounds to me like Stand Your Ground is on its way.
If God didn’t intend for us to kill people texting during the movie previews, why did He give us the right to carry guns into public places?
Oh boy, had to bring God into this…. 🙂
@Watching
No…. I don’t know HIS motivation.
I mentioned Aurora because you asked why someone might bring a gun to a theater.
People carry for many reasons. A theater is just another place. They carry as a normal course of action wherever they go, not to specific places.
@Scout
SYG isnt’ going to happen.
HE gave us the right to CARRY guns…..not murder with them.
Cargo said:
I guess that is just what I find paranoid. If I lived in a place where I felt that was necessary 24/7 I would move. There is just no way I am ever going to think that is normal.
What is SYG?
I think people who carry guns in the normal course of a day, where there is no probability of attack statistically speaking, (or anything to hunt), are fearful, paranoid and sad. Normally I wouldn’t care what other people do because it’s none of my business but when their abnormality starts to affect the people around them I care. But that’s just my opinion and I believe in free speech no matter how abhorrent to others.
(I just tried to post this and it failed, perhaps the universe is trying to tell me something….)
Oh my goodness. How will we survive. There is a Velveeta shortage going on and I just found out. I demand answers as to how we have gotten ourselves into a Velveeta shortage just before the Super Bowl – was Congress involved, or Obama, or Christie. We need to blame someone for this.
Why is there a velveeta shortage? How about cans of Ro-tel?
V elveetagate!!!!
The ex-cop was 20 years retired from the force, but he also reportedly retired from security at Busch Gardens in 2005, which is in the normal age ballpark for retirement. Witnesses claim that the guy did indeed pester people in that theater often about noisy cell phone and other gadget use after the lights were dimmed and the projectors started. Apparently the theater has a posted rule that the tech gadgets have to be turned off at that time, but that rule is widely ignored (no surprise there these days). Some of the theater patrons who were interviewed about the usual comportment of the ex-cop sounded like they were describing a scene from “Grumpy Old Men.” I’m thinking medical issues long after retirement from the force. Eventually we should see pertinent comments from people at Busch Gardens. Also, as I understand it, retired cops don’t just pack heat because they are allowed to do so. They have to have some sort of continuing “certification.” I suspect that will also come out in the trial. An odd note here: this guy was a firearms safety guy with the force, as well as working tactical and homicide.
Mental illness?!
This situation begs the question….do people have the right to bear arms from cradle to grave?
@Moon-howler
SYG is short for “Stand Your Ground”…a self defense law that removes any legal duty to retreat. All other self defense requirements are still mandatory.
@ Watching: you’ve hit on one of my major concerns about how easy it is to carry concealed in a number of jurisdictions. What is the analytical process by which one decides to carry deadly force into situations where there is virtually no risk of being attacked with deadly force by an assailant? This guy was a retired police officer, so the analysis for him might be a bit different. But what leads an ordinary citizen to decide that: 1) going to the hardware store might physically threaten his life to the point that deadly force may be necessary and 2) that a hidden gun will be just the ticket to deal with such a threat?
Now I can get back to worrying about the Velveeta shortage. Fortunately, as a Prepper, I’ve been stockpiling the stuff for quite some time. The worry for me is whether I risk depleting the stores of it in my bunker for profit-harvesting purposes, or simply let it sit there as a hedge against Armageddolypse.
Spent my winter holiday in Pakistan (KPK). I had an awesome time…really! Great food, nice people, and awesome hospitality. The shopping was great too! One thing I returned to the US with however was an overwhelming thankfulness for consistent electricity, gas, heat, net and running water. Load shedding really, really sucks. I also went through 3 airports: Dulles, Abu Dhabi and Islamabad. Of the three, Abu Dhabi has the tightest security checks especially on the return to the US. Islamabad was nothing more than mass chaos, confusion, and bribery central where for a mere dollar I avoided having any of my luggage checked. And the rudest people were the custom agents at Dulles when I returned. I was yelled at for handing my passport to the agent rather than laying it on the ledge. Seriously? I was the one who got off a 15 hour flight surrounded by irritable toddlers, not him.
“What is the analytical process by which one decides to carry deadly force into situations where there is virtually no risk of being attacked with deadly force by an assailant? ”
Well, we could always flip a tired old saw around on you. There were 12 killed and 70 wounded in Aurora. If you could save just one of those lives by having an armed citizen there to fight back, why wouldn’t you? Isn’t even one life worth some measure of protection?
Unless, of course, you prefer folks to just sit around waiting to be killed by a lone gunman.
I have two words for you: Global Entry http://www.globalentry.gov/
It also lets you access the CLEAR lanes at domestic airports.
Thanks for the info Cato!
I’ll factor in Aurora, Emma, and still say that going to my neighborhood hardware store or coffee shop presents infinitessimally small odds of my being attacked by mayhem-crazed villains who I could successfully protect myself against by carrying a deadly weapon. The fact of the matter is that there are thousands of people who are not particularly well trained to use firearms carrying them around in daily chores. I blame television.
@Emma
No, I don’t believe saving one of those lives would be worth everyone in the theatre carrying a weapon. I believe society is better off with fewer guns. I also believe that people like me who are against guns no longer speak up. Mainly we don’t speak up because we are afraid of all the people with guns. I lump them in the same boat with the people who seem to hate “the government”. I think they all watch too much Fox news.
What is a real tragedy is the fact an enormous number of people are killed every single day by guns but no one seems to care because this occurs in poor neighborhoods or in domestic violence cases and people just ignore it. Like somehow that violence would be expected. It’s only when you group large numbers of people together or children are involved that people pay attention.
There are 32.000 gun deaths a year in the US. That 60% of those are suicides doesn’t matter. That still leaves over 10,000 a year due to other violence. 10,000+ a year. 30 people a day.
No, anecdotal Aurora doesn’t play into how I evaluate guns effects on society.
It bothers me that no one seems to have a plan to disarm people when they clearly shouldn’t be armed for whatever reason.
When are you too old to ‘carry?’ When are you too old to drive?
Perhaps the most ridiculous bumper sticker slogan in the world is “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” That is just such utter bullcrap.
It’s too bad that Slate is retiring this project but it did give a snapshot of gun deaths in the US for a year after the Sandy Hook murders. I doubt that this was an atypical year in our history. These deaths can be searched by gender, location, date, and age.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2012/12/gun_death_tally_every_american_gun_death_since_newtown_sandy_hook_shooting.html
@Scout Most gun owners that I am acquainted with will carry because they choose to, because it is their right to do so, and because it does involve some level of skill maintenance for many of them. You can repeat over and over again that the only reason people carry is because they’re paranoid and see threats everywhere, but that won’t make you right.
The skilled folks aren’t who scare me. It’s the wanna be cowboys and I have known a few of those in my life. They have rights too I guess. I just see them as dangerous.
@Emma
Someday, maybe even 50 years from now, all those people who carry “because they choose to, because it is their right to do so, …” will someday find themselves on the wrong side of history. Hopefully it won’t take a civil war to get there, but just like the “right” to own slaves that people believed in and fought for because it was their way of life, the “right” to carry around weapons that can kill others will no longer be accepted by civil society. Probably not in my lifetime, though, but it will come.
People carry for a lot of reasons, Emma. Arithmetically and rationally, I doubt that very many of those reasons are rational. If there were some disciplined, uniformly applied standard to make sure that those hiding firearms on their persons were skilled weapons handlers of demonstrably impeccable judgement, I probably wouldn’t care. The fact of the matter is that virtually anyone, at least in Virginia, can get a concealed carry permit. Given the fact (and it is a fact) that the risks of being assaulted with deadly force are virtually microscopic, and given the fact that virtually anyone can get a permit, I would much prefer we do away with concealed carry and let those of us who are uneasy with the congruence of virtually nil standards and low risk have the information we need to mosey on out of situations where low-skill people are packing deadly force in low risk situations.
Where is Rick?
@Scout You do realize the contradiction in what you are saying, don’t you?
If there is so little risk of being shot in the first place, why are you worried about the guy/gal carrying concealed?
Continuing the illogical conversations here on both sides – maybe there could be an agreement regarding background checks. Wouldn’t most people agree to a thorough check to try anything keep guns from people that shouldn’t have them?
Four Year Old Shoots Four Year Old Cousin Dead
Detroit MI
There were three children — all cousins — at the home at the time of the incident, said Detroit Deputy Chief Rodney Johnson. The third child was 5, he said.
Detroit Police Public Information Officer Adam Madera said the children found a “long gun” under a bed, pulled it out and began to play with it.
“At this time, although it’s early in the investigation, this appears to be a tragic accident,” Madera said.
There was an adult present in the house, but that person was a family friend and unrelated to the children, Johnson said.
“It’s too early to say if charges will be filed in this case,” Johnson said.
This is the latest incident involving children who accidentally shoot someone or die of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
In October, a babysitter in Vidor, Texas, was charged after her 5-year-old charge fatally shot himself with her gun, police said.
Two weeks earlier, a 2-year-old girl fatally shot herself in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and the toddler’s father faced involuntary manslaughter charges, police said.
In New Orleans, a 5-year-old girl died June 23 after she came into contact with a .38-caliber revolver and accidentally shot herself in the head while her mother was at a store, police said.
Last August, a 3-year-old boy in Dundee, Michigan, found a .40-caliber handgun belonging to a family friend on a closet floor in his home. He died after accidentally shooting himself in the head, police said.
A study of Colorado trauma center data found a surprising number of children were being injured, many of them seriously, by guns.
According to the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 703 children under the age of 15 died in accidental firearms deaths between 2001 and 2010, the latest year for which data are available.
During the same period, 7,766 children under the age of 14 suffered accidental firearm injuries.
@ Emma: I take it that your position is that the safer the environment, the more reasonable it is to carry deadly weapons around.
My concern has been that there are no meaningful standards governing issuance of a concealed carry permit, that carrying around deadly weapons reflects a hugely distorted analysis of risk of murderous attack in our daily lives, and that I should have the ability to distance myself from a bunch of people who are 1) armed to the teeth 2) may or may not possess the necessary skills and judgement to use those arms wisely, and 3) can’t figure out that the weapons are not needed. My mandatory open carry proposal lets people who just have to have weapons on their persons continue to do so. It just gives me and others who share my concerns the ability to remove ourselves from their presence. Because I feel that a number of people who carry weapons know they are are doing so for sketchy reasons they probably would feel a bit silly if they had to display their insecurities in public. That might cull out a lot of those who carry guns as a kind of adult blankey.
I feel like I’m debating Amelia Bedelia.
Anyway, let’s put all deranged shooters on notice that hereafter they must carry openly, so that Scout can decide whether they are a threat, and have the opportunity to leave before they start shooting.
Emma, I think my problem is that we have to wait until ‘something happens’ to be able to assess whether someone should be able to carry or own a gun.
I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t think EVERYONE should be able to own or carry a gun.
@Lyssa No argument there. And no mercy for people who carelessly leave their guns lying around, either.
@Emma. I’m just for a little more teeth in the background checking process and can’t figure out the resistance.
They should be charged with murder. If Lanza’s mother lived she should have been tried for murder due to her negligence. Maybe we don’t change the guns laws, change the criminal laws. That shouldn’t be an issue for gun owners.
I am still concerned that we ‘can’t do anything until something happens.’
Why was that old codger allowed to keep his gun to kill in a theater?
@Emma. I’m just for a little more teeth in the background checking process and can’t figure out the resistance.
They should be charged with murder. If Lanza’s mother lived she should have been tried for murder due to her negligence. Maybe we don’t change the guns laws, change the criminal laws. That shouldn’t be an issue for gun owners.
Emma’s not paying attention. I don’t have to decide weather a gunman is a threat. All I have to decide is that I don’t want to be around a particular person or group of people with guns. As I’ve said several times (without penetrating to your thought process, Emma), I’m probably less worried about their guns as I am the inside of their heads.
That’s where we differ. I can’t waste a lot of energy worrying about what’s running around in other people’s heads. In a lot of cases, it’s not much more than circus music.
As a general proposition, I agree with you. When people are carrying deadly weapons, I pay a bit more attention.