Month: August 2014
Rants! and Raves! 8-16-14
It’s Saturday, so you know what that means….
Rants! 😦
and
Raves! 🙂
News/Politics 8-16-14
What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread Weekend.
Our Daily Thread 8-15-14
Good Morning!
It’s Friday!!!
On this day in 1848 the dental chair was patented by M. Waldo Hanchett.
In 1944 the Allied forces of World War II landed in southern France.
In 1949, in San Francisco, a stunt leap off the Golden Gate Bridge was performed for the first time.
In 1970 Mrs. Pat Palinkas became the first woman to play in a pro football game when she held the ball for the Orlando, FL, Panthers.
And in 1997 the U.S. Justice Department decided not to prosecute FBI officials in connection with the deadly 1992 Ruby Ridge siege in Idaho.
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Quote of the Day
“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
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Today is Jacques Ibert’s birthday.
And it’s Jamie Slocum’s too.
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Anyone have a QoD?
Prayer Requests 8-15-14
Anyone have a request or praise they’d like to share?
And it’s Friday, so don’t forget to pray for Mumsee, Mike, and everyone at the Nest.
Psalm 46
¹God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.
6 The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth.
9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.
10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
News/Politics 8-15-14
What’s interesting in the news today?
UPDATE!
Well this changes the entire perspective of this case. With a Hat Tip to Kbells.
From TalkingPointsMemo “Michael Brown, the African-American teen who was shot by Ferguson, Mo., police Saturday, was the primary suspect for an alleged robbery at the time of the shooting, according to reporters on the ground piecing through a police report released Friday.
Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson said officer Darren Wilson, a six-year veteran, was the officer who shot Brown. He gave a timeline of the shooting, which included a response to a 911 call from a convenience store shortly before the shooting around 12 p.m. Saturday.
The police also released an incident report about the robbery, which said that Brown was the “primary suspect,” according to reporters at the scene who had access to the physical copies. Brown had stolen cigars from the convenience store, the report stated, and had pushed an employee who asked him to pay for them.”
Photos from the store’s cameras confirm it was Brown roughing up the owner.
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1. It’s too bad the President’s supposed foreign policy theory of “Don’t do stupid stuff” doesn’t apply to his domestic policies too.
From TheHill “The executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police criticized President Obama Thursday for his remarks about law enforcement in Ferguson, Mo.
“I would contend that discussing police tactics from Martha’s Vineyard is not helpful to ultimately calming the situation,” director Jim Pasco said in an interview with The Hill.
“I think what he has to do as president and as a constitutional lawyer is remember that there is a process in the United States and the process is being followed, for good or for ill, by the police and by the county and by the city and by the prosecutors’ office,” Pasco added.”
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2. Meanwhile the Missouri Highway Patrol have taken control in Ferguson.
From MSNNews “The Missouri Highway Patrol seized control of a St. Louis suburb Thursday, stripping local police of their law-enforcement authority after four days of clashes between officers in riot gear and furious crowds protesting the death of an unarmed black teen shot by an officer.
The intervention, ordered by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, came as spoke publicly for the first time about Saturday’s fatal shooting of Michael and the subsequent violence that shocked the nation and threatened to tear apart Ferguson, a town that is nearly 70 percent black patrolled by a nearly all-white police force.”
“After a particularly violent Wednesday night, Nixon said local police would no longer be in charge of the area, although they would still be present. He said Highway Patrol Capt. Ron , who is black, would be in command.
The change was meant to ensure “that we allow peaceful and appropriate protests, that we use force only when necessary, that we step back a little bit and let some of the energy be felt in this region appropriately,” Nixon said.”
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3. Rand Paul, as did some of you, has made a good point. Enough already, the police shouldn’t be mini-militaries.
From Time “The outrage in Ferguson is understandable—though there is never an excuse for rioting or looting. There is a legitimate role for the police to keep the peace, but there should be a difference between a police response and a military response.
The images and scenes we continue to see in Ferguson resemble war more than traditional police action.
Glenn Reynolds, in Popular Mechanics, recognized the increasing militarization of the police five years ago. In 2009 he wrote:
Soldiers and police are supposed to be different. … Police look inward. They’re supposed to protect their fellow citizens from criminals, and to maintain order with a minimum of force.
It’s the difference between Audie Murphy and Andy Griffith. But nowadays, police are looking, and acting, more like soldiers than cops, with bad consequences. And those who suffer the consequences are usually innocent civilians.”
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4. Maliki is stepping down in Iraq. I doubt it helps, but it’s the right thing to do.
From CNN “Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gave up the fight Thursday to keep his post, clearing the way for a new leader that many hope can hold Iraq together as the country battles brutal extremist fighters.
In a televised address, al-Maliki withdrew his candidacy for a third term and endorsed the Prime Minister-designate, bringing to an end a political battle that just days ago saw him vow to hold onto power as he ordered tanks into the streets.
“I announce to you today that I am withdrawing my candidacy in deference to my brother, Haider al-Abadi, in the highest interest of the country,” he said.”
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5. Kirsten Powers is hitting the President for ignoring the plight of Christians in Iraq.
From USAToday “It’s starting to seem as if the Obama White House operates on a time delay. In the case of Iraq’s religious minorities, the results have been deadly.
On June 10, the barbaric extremists called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) captured the city of Mosul. By mid-July, they issued an edict to the Christians who remained to “convert, leave or be killed.” The White House said nothing.
Beginning on July 22, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., took to the House floor six times to plead for attention from the Obama administration as a genocide threatened Iraq. Not a word from the president.
On July 24, a resolution sponsored by Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., “condemning the severe persecution (of) Christians and other ethnic and religious minority communities … in Iraq” was introduced on the floor of the House. It called for the administration to “develop and implement an immediate, coordinated and sustained humanitarian intervention.” Crickets.
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6. Many of you may have already read Matt Walsh’s take on the Robin Williams suicide. He’s taken a lot of flack for his comments. If you haven’t read it, here it is.
From TheMattWalshBlog “The death of Robin Williams is significant not because he was famous, but because he was human, and not just because he left this world, but particularly because he apparently chose to leave it. Suicide.”
“It’s a tragic choice, truly, but it is a choice, and we have to remember that. Your suicide doesn’t happen to you; it doesn’t attack you like cancer or descend upon you like a tornado. It is a decision made by an individual. A bad decision. Always a bad decision.
And that’s why I felt compelled to say something here. There are important truths we can take from the suicide of a rich and powerful man, yet I’m worried that we are too afraid to tackle the subject, or too blind to tackle it with any depth, so we only perpetuate the problem. But worse than the glossing over of suicide is the fact that we seem to approach it with an attitude that nearly resembles admiration.”
Over at The Federalist Bill McMorris agrees, and thinks this might be an opportunity to revive the stigma.
From TheFederalist “Robin Williams is dead. It is a tragedy. The greater tragedy is that he committed suicide. The greatest tragedy is that we can’t talk about it, not honestly. When Christian blogger Matt Walsh attempted to do so, the purveyors of moral preening, both Right and Left, came out of the woodwork to exercise their lungs and position themselves as righteous. Their case amounted to this: how dare he suggest that eliminating the stigma of suicide isn’t the best suicide prevention technique.
I read and re-read his post, trying to find the passage that invited all this scorn. Here’s the most offensive passage to the virgin eyes of the twenty-first century:
It’s a tragic choice, truly, but it is a choice, and we have to remember that. Your suicide doesn’t happen to you; it doesn’t attack you like cancer or descend upon you like a tornado. It is a decision made by an individual. A bad decision. Always a bad decision.”
“The outrage over Walsh’s column points to the changing status of suicide in our new world. Self-annihilation, once regarded by the Christian West as the greatest sin, is now treated through the prism of Eastern religions: the ultimate symbol of martyrdom.”
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Our Daily Thread 8-14-14
Good Morning!
On this day in 1248 the rebuilding of the Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany, began after being destroyed by fire.
In 1805 a peace treaty between the U.S. and Tunis was signed on board the USS Constitution.
In 1880 the Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany was completed after 632 years of rebuilding.
In 1896 gold was discovered in Canada’s Yukon Territory.
And in 1945 it was announced by U.S. President Truman that Japan had surrendered unconditionally. The surrender ended World War II.
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Quote of the Day
“I always root for the defense.”
Wellington Mara
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Today is Ben Cissell’s birthday. From AmartianHD
And since it’s David Crosby’s birthday, a little hippie music.
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Anyone have a QoD?
Prayer Requests 8-14-14
It’s Thursday, so don’t forget to pray for Jo and the folks in PNG.
Anyone else have a request or praise to share?
Psalm 45
¹My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
2 Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
3 Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty.
4 And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.
5 Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee.
6 Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.
7 Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
8 All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.
9 Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
10 Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;
11 So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.
12 And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.
13 The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.
14 She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee.
15 With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace.
16 Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth.
17 I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever.
News/Politics 8-14-14
What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Here comes more overreach.
From NationalReview “Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) called for Americans to pressure their senators about voting against President Obama’s expected executive orders on immigration, which he described as a “chilling” plot with activists to undermine national laws.
“Recent developments suggest the president’s planned executive amnesty could be increasingly imminent and broad in scope. House Democrat Leader Pelosi — clearly one of the White House’s closest allies — has just urged the president to issue ‘the broadest possible’ executive actions,” Sessions said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Open-borders groups have grown bolder and louder in their unlawful demands, launching a campaign for the president to ‘go big,’ and demanding that he ‘stand up’ to Congress and ‘expand DACA,’” he added, citing an Associated Press report that administration officials were meeting with immigration activists and the Chamber of Commerce.
“It is chilling to consider now that these groups, frustrated in their aims by our Constitutional system of government, are plotting with the Obama administration to collect their spoils through executive fiat,” he said.”
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2. On a related note….
From TheHill “The Obama administration is preparing the nation’s schools to accept thousands of new students who illegally crossed the southwest border and are now awaiting trials on their possible deportations.”
“It says all children in the United States “are entitled to equal access to a public elementary and secondary education, regardless of their or their parents’ actual or perceived national origin, citizenship, or immigration status.”
The prospect of tens of thousands of children mostly from Central American countries attending school as they wait for their immigration status to be decided has the potential to be explosive after this summer’s emotional public debate about the border.”
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3. Is California about to try to force two Catholic universities to pay for abortion coverage, even after giving them approval to eliminate such coverage?
From TheSFGate “California has some of the nation’s strongest protections for abortion rights. But the recent decisions by two Catholic universities, Santa Clara and Loyola Marymount, to eliminate most abortion insurance coverage for their employees were cleared in advance by state agencies.
Now Gov. Jerry Brown‘s administration is taking another look.
The state Department of Managed Health Care is conducting “an in-depth analysis of the issues surrounding coverage for abortion services under California law,” said Marta Green, the department’s chief deputy director.
What the department is reconsidering, as first reported by California Lawyer magazine, is whether the universities are violating a 1975 state law that requires managed health plans to cover all “medically necessary” procedures. Until the current controversy arose, insurers in California had treated all abortions sought by women in their health plans as medically necessary.”
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4. Things continue to simmer in Ferguson, Missouri. Actions like these by police won’t help the public”s perception that the police are out of control and regularly harass people.
From STLToday “Wesley Lowery, a reporter with the Washington Post, was arrested Wednesday evening along with Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post, Lowery relayed on Twitter.
He wrote that police came into the McDonald’s on West Florissant Road where the two were working, and tried “to kick everyone out.”
“Officers decided we weren’t leaving McDonalds quickly enough, shouldn’t have been taping them,” he tweeted.
“Officers slammed me into a fountain soda machine because I was confused about which door they were asking me to walk out of,” he wrote. He said that he was detained, booked, “given answers to no questions. Then just let out.”””
STL Today has been on this story from the start and offer a lot of details and a timeline of events. I recommend it.
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5. Finally some good news out of Iraq.
From StarsAndStripes “In a dusty camp here, Iraqi refugees have new heroes: Syrian Kurdish fighters who battled militants to carve out an escape route for tens of thousands trapped on a mountaintop.
While the U.S. and Iraqi militaries struggle to aid the starving members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority with supply drops from the air, the Syrian Kurds took it on themselves to rescue them. The move underlined how they – like Iraqi Kurds – are using the region’s conflicts to establish their own rule.
For the past few days, fighters have been rescuing Yazidis from the mountain, transporting them into Syrian territory to give them first aid, food and water, and returning some to Iraq via a pontoon bridge.“
““The (Kurdish fighters) opened a path for us. If they had not, we would still be stranded on the mountain,” said Ismail Rashu, 22, in the Newroz camp in the Syrian Kurdish town of Malikiya some 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the Iraqi border. Families had filled the battered, dusty tents here and new arrivals sat in the shade of rocks, sleeping on blue plastic sheets. Camp officials estimated that at least 2,000 families sought shelter there on Sunday evening.“
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Our Daily Thread 8-13-14
Good Morning!
And Happy Left-Handers’ Day! to all the left-handed out there.
On this day in 1792 French revolutionaries took the entire French royal family and imprisoned them.
In 1846 the American Flag was raised for the first time in Los Angeles, CA.
In 1912 the first experimental radio license was issued to St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia, PA.
In 1932 Adolf Hitler refused to take the post of vice-chancellor of Germany. He said he was going to hold out “for all or nothing.”
And in 1961 Berlin was divided by a barbed wire fence to halt the flight of refugees. Two days later work on the Berlin Wall began.
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Quote of the Day
“I’m a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.”
Alfred Hitchcock
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Today is Dan Fogelberg’s birthday.
And it’s also Joey Belville’s, of Echoing Green.
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Wandering Views 