Dancing R.I. Cop draws heat

MoonHowler


msn.com:

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. — More than two dozen protesters attended a scheduled appearance of a retired Providence police officer known as the “Dancing Cop,” but the ex-officer himself did not show.

Tony Lepore has been drawing heat after he protested outside a Providence coffee shop because an employee wrote “#blacklivesmatter” on an officer’s cup. Lepore asked that the employee be fired.

In response, Providence officials let him go from his decades-long gig directing holiday traffic with exaggerated dance moves.

Lepore says he has since been hired to direct traffic in neighboring East Providence. He says he did not attend a Christmas celebration there on Sunday after the mayor told him about the planned protests.

The above might be the dumbest story I have ever read, on all levels.

Why would someone write #blacklivesmatter on a coffee cup of a patron?   Can you imagine that happening at Starbucks?  I can’t.  I am not sure I would demand that someone lose their job but I might report the incident to the owner or manager.

Why would the city get involved?  Why would the guy be fired?  These folks all have too much time on their hands to be doing all this political stuff while at work.

Does anyone want to make a prediction about how long BLM will be relevant?  The more they bully, the less credibility they will have, would be MY prediction.

 

 

Fiery Rhetoric: The 800 pound gorilla in the room

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

Several Republican presidential candidates on Sunday condemned the attack on a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs but stopped short of agreeing with liberal critics who say that fiery antiabortion rhetoric contributed to the shooting.

“It’s obviously a tragedy. Nothing justifies this,” former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Any protesters should always be peaceful. Whether it’s Black Lives Matter or pro-life protesters.”

Calls to defund Planned Parenthood through congressional action have escalated in recent months amid a protracted national debate about the ethics of collecting fetal tissue for research.

 

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Killer breaches Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs–3 dead

MoonHowler

A suspect is taken into custody outside a Planned Parenthood center in Colorado Springs, Colorado November 27, 2015. Police arrested a gunman who stormed the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Colorado Springs on Friday and opened fire with a rifle in a burst of violence that left at least 11 people injured, including five officers, authorities said. REUTERS/Isaiah J. Downing FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

New York Times:

COLORADO SPRINGS — A gun battle erupted inside a Planned Parenthood center here on Friday when a man armed with an assault-style rifle opened fire at the clinic and began shooting at officers as they rushed to the scene. The authorities reported that three people were killed, a police officer and two civilians, and nine were wounded before the suspect finally surrendered more than five hours after the first shots were fired.

“The perpetrator is in custody,” Mayor John Suthers said at an evening news conference. “There is a huge crime scene that has to be processed,” he said, “and we have to determine how many victims there are.”

Before the authorities announced the deaths, the police were going room to room to clear the Planned Parenthood clinic on Friday night and the conditions of those wounded were not immediately known. Lieutenant Buckley said the gunman had brought several suspicious items to the clinic, and investigators were trying to determine whether they were explosives. Later in the evening the Colorado attorney general referred to a “tragic loss of life” and the police union said that one officer had died.

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A Question of Values: Happy Thanksgiving

MoonHowler

wacks on the nose

A question of values….what a loaded statement.  To a dog, it might be a few whacks on the nose. for some offense–eating the turkey, getting in the garbage, sleeping on the sofa (well, in MY house, that wouldn’t matter!).  To human beings, a question of values might take on a totally different meaning.

No one is going to whack us on the nose for doing what we want to do, or are they?

Sometimes doing something for the right reason, regardless of whacks on the nose, just seems right.  It grounds us and satisfies our moral compass ground rules.

Sometimes “giving thanks” sounds trite.  What have you done this year that seems like the right thing, regardless of how many times you got your nose whacked with the proverbial newspaper?

What has validated your own moral compass?

Oh, and by the way, Happy Thanksgiving.  gobble gobble

 

Separating the sheep from the goats: some Thanksgiving thoughts

MoonHowler

pilgrim road sign

Notice who is on the run–Pilgrims.  A gentle reminder that unless we are Native American, all of us were once immigrants when  our ancestors  came to this  country.

Please remember that there are people in the world who do not have adequate  food, clothing or shelter.  People in war-torn countries have it the worst.  They are often victims of their government’s greed or  ideology.

Some people want immigrants and refugees to go back to where they came from.  Sometimes that just isn’t possible.  Homes and infrastructure are just gone.

 

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HOV 2+ lanes…why bother?

MoonHowler

hov2

I am not a commuter.  I rarely go down I-66 in rush hour.  In fact, I pretty much move heaven and earth to NOT go down I-66 during rush hour.   Today was an exception.   I got caught in the thick of it between 3:30 and 4:00 PM.  There was no escape.

So here I am, riding along in my rather elderly SUV, looking at all the cars in the HOV2+ lane and all of a sudden, it dawned on me–90% of the cars were occupied by just one person.  I looked at my clock, I looked at my cell phone, just to make sure that I had the right time.

They simply didn’t give a crap.  90% of the cars in an HOV2+ lane should not be single occupant cars!  Where is the state of Virginia?  Where are the cameras?  Where are the drones?  Why are people not being fined within an inch of their lives for this violation?

Traveling in an HOV lane is a moving violation on your record if you are caught.  These people didn’t seem to have a care in the world.  There were also a bunch of commercial trucks just tooling along.

Shame on the State of Virginia for allowing this flagrant violation.  Shame on them for not enforcing their own laws.  No wonder I-66 is such a mess.  I am shocked, stunned and disappointed.   A pox on the house of the HOV violator!

 

What happened to the GOP becoming more inclusive?

MoonHowler

gop inclusion
Politico.com:

Poor Reince Priebus. After Mitt Romney’s loss to Barack Obama in 2012, Priebus, the head of the Republican National Committee, touted his shiny new 100-page report on reinventing the GOP at the National Press Club in March 2013. It was called the “Growth and Opportunity Project.” Priebus’ message was earnest and direct: The GOP needed to practice inclusion, not exclusion, if it was to have any chance of winning the presidency. “We need to campaign among Hispanic, black, Asian, and gay Americans and demonstrate we care about them, too,” the report said. “We must recruit more candidates who come from minority communities. But it is not just tone that counts. Policy always matters.”

That was then. In the meantime, the GOP’s leading presidential contenders have serially and successfully thumbed their collective noses at the party establishment. Already Donald Trump and Ben Carson have upended the race with stands like castigating illegal immigrants. But amid widespread fear of terrorism triggered by the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris, the GOP is now mired in its ugliest intra-party debate yet—about whether Muslims living in the United States constitute a potential Fifth Column.

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Freedom: what if…

MoonHowler

american nazi

What if WWII had not been won by the allies?   Amazon prime tickles our imagination in a great series called “The Man in the High Castle.”  Season one is on Amazon prime now and I am addicted to the show.  I can’t come up for air.  I am watching the Tech game and watching and listening to “The Man in the High Castle.”  I am on episode 7.

What really comes to mind is freedom and how fragile freedom really is.  I can’t possibly not think about the sacrifices my parents’ generation made to guarantee our freedom.

This series really gives a good picture of how it all could have been.  What if America were divided into 2 nations?  What if Japan and Germany ruled?  How would our lives be different today, especially under the WWII regimes?

Addendum:  I am finished the series.  What a scary show.  Please note, the flag is from the series, not from me.

The point of the post, which obviously is not being picked up, is that our freedom is very fragile and often taken for granted by Americans–those of us who have it.  Were it not for the sacrifices of many, especially from the Greatest Generation, we would not have our freedom.  “The Man in the High Castle” is just one story of what our lives might be like were it not for those from the Greatest Generation.

 

 

 

Open Thread…………………………..November 1

MoonHowler

month-of-november-harvest

November has become the harvest month.  Our climate is changing and we still bring in an abundant harvest well in to November.

We have had a freeze but the frost only took out the most sensitive of the plants.  My herbs are still going strong.  The next couple of weeks should finish things off.

Good bye to Daylight Saving Time.  It ends early this year.  Let my depression begin.

 

Ben Carson: No Cujo analogies!!!

MoonHowler


Politico.com:

Ben Carson likened Syrian refugees fleeing the country’s bloody civil war and Islamic State violence to dogs on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters following a campaign stop in Mobile, Alabama, Carson stressed that the United States wants smart leaders who care about people, but noted there should always be a balance between safety and humanitarian concerns.

“For instance, you know, if there is a rabid dog running around your neighborhood, you’re probably not going to assume something good about that dog, and you’re probably gonna put your children out of the way,” Carson said. “Doesn’t mean that you hate all dogs by any stretch of the imagination.”

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Anti-refugee bill on house fast track

MoonHowler

congress icon

Politico.com:

The fallout from the Paris terrorist attacks will begin to play out on the House floor Thursday as the chamber is set to approve a bill to block any refugees from Syria or Iraq from entering the country unless they pass a strict background check and receive government certification.

The bill, which was crafted by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), is expected to pass with a big bipartisan margin. A sizable number of Democrats are likely to cross the aisle and vote for it, despite White House opposition, said lawmakers in both parties. Some rank-and-file Democrats are concerned about looking soft on national security even as French authorities continue to track down suspects from last week’s deadly attacks.

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NBC admonished for using “illegals”

MoonHowler

nbcPolitico.com:

Hispanic lawmakers hoped a meeting with top executives from MSNBC and NBC News Wednesday would smooth over hard feelings from Donald Trump’s appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” Instead, it had the opposite effect.

NBC News President Deborah Turness committed a major blunder — as far as the Hispanic lawmakers were concerned — when she described undocumented immigrants as “illegals,” a term that many in the Latino community find highly offensive.

Turness was describing NBC’s integration with their Spanish-language network Telemundo, which included coverage of Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S. and his interaction with a young girl who was afraid her parents would be deported because they’re “illegals.”

 

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The Refugee situation: Changes in Attitude…Changes in Lattitude

MoonHowler

 

1938 refugees

Washingtonpost.com:

 

The results of the poll illustrated above by the useful Twitter account @HistOpinion were published in the pages of Fortune magazine in July 1938. Fewer than 5 percent of Americans surveyed at the time believed that the United States should raise its immigration quotas or encourage political refugees fleeing fascist states in Europe — the vast majority of whom were Jewish — to voyage across the Atlantic. Two-thirds of the respondents agreed with the proposition that “we should try to keep them out.”

To be sure, the United States was emerging from the Great Depression, hardly a climate in which ordinary folks would welcome immigrants and economic competition. The events of Kristallnacht — a wave of anti-Jewish pogroms in areas controlled by the Nazis — had yet to take place. And the poll’s use of the term “political refugees” could have conjured in the minds of the American public images of communists, anarchists and other perceived ideological threats.

But look at the next chart, also tweeted by @HistOpinion. Two-thirds of Americans polled by Gallup’s American Institute of Public Opinion in January 1939 — well after the events of Kristallnacht — said they would not take in 10,000 German Jewish refugee children.

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Another government shutdown?

MoonHowler

Politico.com:

A cascade of Republicans on Monday implored the Obama administration to scrap plans to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States next year, saying they pose an unacceptable security risk in the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris.

And, in a dramatic twist, the sudden standoff is raising the possibility of a government shutdown next month.

Throughout the day a host of Republican governors around the country, wary that refugees could end up in their home states, blasted President Barack Obama’s plans. But those governors lack real sway over the process, and some are asking Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to insert a provision in the Dec. 11 spending bill that would bar more Syrian settlers.

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