Meth Coppin' Cop

The use/abuse of methamphetamine has hit catastrophic proportions. It is the biggest drug problem in a large part of the United States, mainly in rural areas.

When the people that the citizens employ to uphold the laws of the land, break those laws, we get upset. When they get popped for coppin' meth we should get vocal, very vocal.

Meth is one of the worst drugs when it comes to ruining peoples lives. They will do anything to get more.

Officer Michael J. Stephenson of the Madill Police Department in Madill, Oklahoma was a trusted servant of the people. He was allowed to carry a loaded firearm. He was caught buying meth while stoned.

Who knows where this would of led if he hadn't been caught. Stoned cop responding to a call, driving at high speed in a 3,000lb+ weapon we call a cruiser? Flipped out cop shooting people with his service weapon? Someone getting away with a serious crime because they 'had the dope' on an unsavory officer of the law? Police officer playing 'enforcer' for his dealer? We don't know.

What we do know, is that he got caught coppin' his drug of choice. He was video-taped by undercover officers. He has been suspended 'with' pay pending trial.

I think that when law enforcement blatantly steps outside the law, as in this case, the suspension should be without pay. Why should the taxpayers of Madill, Oklahoma pay for his next fix?

Sure, give him a fair trial. Don't pay him until he goes before the judge though.

The Problem With Winning

When I was a kid, many moons ago, we were told that "winning isn't everything, it's how you play the game".

I played many games of baseball, basketball, football, soccer, and tennis. I ran my heart out on the track and threw the javelin as far as I could. I loved the high jump and triple jump.

I lived, at times, to play anything that someone wanted to play. I was on a winning team....once. I just loved to play. I had fun. I learned to lose gracefully, yet hate it just the same. Losing that is. I always loved to play, and played my heart out to win.

I'm not sure what t-ball coach Mark R. Downs Jr. of Dunbar, Pennsylvania learned growing up. It surely wasn't how to be a good sport, or any other type of sport for that matter.

To pay someone to take one of his 8 year old players out of the game by injuring him, because the player is mentally disabled, is about as screwed up as a coach can be. To do it for any reason, to me is as low as you can go. Hell, just to keep a player out of the game by saying no is against the rules and a crock of shit.

I can't imagine the fear that this, so called, coach must of instilled in his young players.

How the hell are they supposed to develop into responsible adults if they have to live in fear of being physically injured because the coach doesn't want them to play?

Winning isn't everything. It can be the most joyous experience in the world. It can also be empty and the most hollow feeling known. Something like the soul of Mark R. Downs Jr.

This person doesn't just need to be barred from coaching and given a mediocre fine. He needs to spend some time in the big house. Maybe then he'll think more about the 'game' that sport is, and not so much on a hollow victory.

High Security Disney World

Disney World is requiring their 'customers' to give a fingerprint scan prior to entrance of the theme park.

I can understand getting scanned for entrance to a high security work area. At such places as nuclear power plants, munitions factories, the Pentagon it makes sense.

To get scanned prior to entry at a vacation theme park is at the very least absurd. It is also a violation of my rights as an American.

As long as I do nothing wrong, it is no ones business whether I went to Disney World or not. All they need to know is how much money they make at the end of the day. Not that I'm the one who spent it.

Christians Continue to Discriminate

I've been hearing the Christians whine an awful lot lately, about people putting them down because of their beliefs.

It has always been my belief that discrimination is wrong. I don't put someone down because of their religion. People are allowed to believe what they want.

If I was running an adoption agency, I would look for people that are well rounded and had the financial capability and mental fortitude to raise a child. I WOULD NOT say that people couldn't adopt because they are Catholic.

Yes, you read it right. Bethany Christian Services in Mississippi is refusing to allow adoptions through their agency because of a persons religion.

It would seem to me, that you shouldn't go around crying about being discriminated against if you yourself are discriminating against others.

With actions like this, is it any wonder that people of other religions, such as Buddhists or Muslims, fear what the so called christians leaders of this country will do in the way of surveillance of their places of worship or members.

It's a pretty sad state of affairs when, in the 'land of the free', you can't adopt a child because you're Catholic.

Totally Trashed

Avery Roland and Michael Talbot thought they would escape from the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange by hiding in a dumpster. They were successful in getting out of the prison. Their 'escape' led to an APB being posted throughout the Bluegrass Commonwealth.

They were, however, located the next day, ten miles down the road at the Valley View landfill. Dead.

It seems that the prison makes the garbage truck compact it's trash several times prior to leaving the prison.

Ahh, but for not knowing one small detail. It seems that justice may of been served.

Toxic from Birth

A recent study has shown that babies are born with toxic chemicals in their bloodstream.

When lead was found to cause health problems it was removed from paints and gasoline. It, of course, took years of fighting to get that to happen.

The same was done with asbestos, after it was shown to have serious health effects. The same fight is going on right now over oxidizers for fuel.

What do you do when the children are born with toxic chemicals in their system though? It's too late to do anything. They are already screwed.

If being around these chemicals as an adult causes cancer, etc. What affect will it have on the development of the children? I'm scared to know the answer to that question.

The chemicals in the blood of the children included pesticides, fire retardants, PFOA (used in Teflon), and mercury. There is an average of 287 different toxic chemicals in the blood of these newborns. Any of these chemicals alone is bad enough. The way that these toxic cocktails will react in these children cannot be calculated.

I can't believe that our way of life is sufficiently important for us to give birth to kids that are walking toxic waste dumps.

Harry Potter and the HIV

This is nothing more than a quick thought while listening, for the thousandth time, to the hooplah preceeding the release of the latest Harry Potter book.

I'm using HIV in the title but any disease or cause could be used. If the media would get behind a cause or the treatment of a disease. If the people that saw that media blitz would turn out in the same numbers, and spend the same amount of money per individual. Any number of treatments or causes could be funded.

Hunger could be eliminated in some countries. Diseases could be eradicated in another. Children could be clothed or even schooled. WOW, what a concept that would be, schooling the children.

No, instead the world will spend millions on a fairy tale book, that brings smiles to the faces of publishers/printers everywhere.

No sense in actually doing some good in the real world. Might as well just chop down some unneeded trees and throw some money into some rich persons pocket so that we can live in fantasyland.

Captitalism, gotta love it.

Bollocks

I've often stated that male sex offenders should be castrated. I really hadn't seriously thought about it. It was more a statement of intensity than a proposal for punishment.

This guy though has the courts approval to have his nuts whacked off to decrease his time in prison. WOW.

Thinking about it, now that it's a possibility, I have to wonder if it would really have the desired effect. Is he less likely to commit a sexually related crime without his knackers?

Most sex crimes, I am told, are not about sex but power. Is there the possibility that, without his jewels, he would be more likely to commit a crime of power and control?

I am sure that his offering his balls to the court has helped the young ladies, who were victims of his assaults, in their recovery. They can feel confident that something was done in their case.

I'm also fairly confident that this guy is sorry for his actions. I'm just not convinced that it will have the desired effect.

Marathon Runner

A pet tortoise in Illinois was found after three weeks, twenty miles from where he went missing. That's roughly a mile a day. Which is more than most people in this country walk without calling it exercise.

They should probably change his name from Michelangelo to HotRod.

I Came Here To Get Better

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has released it's first report on hospital acquired infections. These are infections that people get after being admitted for something else. The results are staggering.

Pennsylvania hospitals reported almost 12,000 cases of HAIs during 2004. These infections are particularly hard to treat because they are often resistant to antibiotics.

Some of the reasons that they are resistant to treatment are; overuse of antibiotics in the general populace, overuse in the meat industry for the treatment of animals and to promote weight gain as a feed additive, overuse in raising crops to prevent disease. These all lead to more resistant bacteria, that cause disease in humans at hospitals.

The fact that hospitals are a source of infection is not news. That there are so many infections is. In the almost 12,000 cases in Pennsylvania, almost 1,800 people died. That is a rate of approximately 6.5%. This is totally unacceptable. People go to a hospital to get better, not to die.

These infections led to 205,000 extra days in the hospital, and cost the patients and their insurance companies over 2 billion dollars more in charges.

Hospitals need to do more to prevent disease while people are being treated. The resistance problem isn't all on them though.

The meat and crop industries need to do their part. They are reluctant to do so because antibiotic use by them increases their profits.

Family doctors need to not subscribe medications that are ineffective for the disease being treated. Such as antibiotics for ear infections. Tell the mother no, instead of giving the child a scrip that is really to shut her up.

Patients need to do their part by taking the full regimen of antibiotics prescribed. Don't stop taking them because they feel better already, and don't flush them down the john. Waste treatment plants don't nullify the antibiotics. They flow straight to the water supply. Americas rivers are full of antibiotic medicines, environmental scientists have isolated it.

Hospitals also need to compensate patients for diseases that they pick up there. Charging patients 2 billion dollars a year, in one state, is bullshit. Why are people being charged for an illness that the hospital gave them? Why is the hospital not compensating for the 205,000 days lost from work. Why aren't they paying compensatory damages for the death of a loved one?

A lot needs to be changed in the treatment of people at and by hospitals. They should not be getting sick there, and they damn sure shouldn't be getting charged when they do. Compensation should be awarded without having to go through the courts.

This report by Pennsylvania exposes some flaws in their system as well. They state that those flaws will be addressed. Very few states require reporting of this type, and Pennsylvania is the first to publicize the results.

I say, well done Pennsylvania. The public needs this information.

To the hospitals; get your act together. We may just be starting, but America is watching.

All states need to put this information out to the general public.

Insurance companies, well they need to start back-charging. I know that as a mechanic I can't charge for damage that I caused. If I'm working on a car and scrape the paint, that's on me. Any inconvenience to the customer, such as a rental vehicle, are also on me.

It's time that America held hospitals to the same, or higher, standards that it holds it's mechanic, plumber, carpenter, and window cleaner.

A Breast Mans Utopia

Titty-pinchers have attacked in Brazil. It seems that armed bandits stole a shipment of 400 breast implants. Breast implantation is one of the hot-ticket items for tourist surgery in Brazil.

The theft is believed to be for the underground trade as they cannot, supposably, be used in legitimate surgeries.

Then again, maybe someone just has a breast fetish. Either that or someone just likes pinching titties.

Now, where was that Hooters located?

Security at Bank of America??

Bank of America is toughening up it's systems against online fraud. Their new system is supposed to help prevent against phishing attacks and offer two level authentication at the banks site. This is all well and good, and much needed. The online world is only as safe as we make it. BofA could almost be commended for the effort.

The problem at BofA though has not been at its site or phishing attacks. It's been insiders stealing customers information and offering it for sale. It's been the bank and it's business associates losing unencoded back-up tapes loaded with customer information.

It's great that BofA is doing something about authentication and phishing. More importantly it needs to do more at protecting our information in-house.

The majority of hacking type attacks come from inside a company. Ask any director of an I.T. department and they'll tell you the same. BofA has shown that they are succeptable to insiders trading information for cash. They need to ensure that the procedures used to get information on customers is not automated in their systems.

The back-up tapes, they send out, should be encrypted at the source. Preferably the information should go over a dedicated wire, instead of physically shipping the information.

The more humans that are taken out of the loop, in these cases, the less a human error can take place. When less people are involved, there is less of a chance for greed to be involved.

Bank of America is not alone in screwing up. It's happening all over the country, and in fact the world. Just recently a company in India, that was doing out-sourced work for a British bank, was found to have an employee selling CDs of customer information.

Banks need to do more to protect the information that they have. Preventing against phishing attacks isn't enough.

Out-sourcing to foreign countries isn't the answer to cutting costs either. Especially when those countries have no laws against selling customer info, nor the law enforcement capacity to do something when it happens.

He Weeps

Bernard Ebbers, ex-chief executive office of WorldCom, wept in court when his twenty-five year sentence was announced.

I'm sure he didn't shed a tear when thousands of people lost millions because of his doings.

Suck it up guy. The tears you're shedding now are nothing, compared to the ones that are gonna flow when bubba gets hold of your lilly-white ass.

Maybe he should of thought about that then.

Brainy Bankteller

I'm not sure what i should say about this one. The other day it was firefighters taking a bomb back to the stationhouse. Today it's a bankteller handing over the cash at a drive-through.

I know that tellers are told to hand over the cash, whether a weapon is seen or not. Giving it out at the drive-through though is just plane stupid. The intelligence of some people is simply amazing. I just wish it was amazingly brilliant.

Wounded Warrior

No matter how you feel about the war, you need to take a look at Wounded Warrior. They exist to help the guys and gals coming back from that god forsaken place in more than one piece.

For those of you that worry about such things, they're tax deductable.

I'm not going to say anymore. I'll let them do that. Follow the link....and GIVE.

Wussy Boy

There was a time when truckers were tough. They could kick ass on anybody that dared to take them on. Not any more. Yes, a trucker got upset because some titty dancers spanked him on his birthday. In the process, they bruised his delicate backside.

I wouldn't want to explain this at the next truckstop. I don't know, maybe his handle is 'little sissy' or something.

This and women sitting on the front of a Harley-Davidson with their ol' man behind them puts me at a loss for words.

Maybe I'll just crawl back into my neanderthalic cave and wait for the next ice-age.

Trained Professionals ??

It seems like New York City firefighters don't have the sense that god gave a piss-ant. Even the dumbest of people knows, that when you find a pipebomb you call the bomb squad. Not so with New Yorks finest though. Heck no, we'll just take it back to the station house and play with it. These people are supposed to be trained professionals. Seems like someone needs to go back to school, grade school.

The Institution of Marriage

Over the last several years, there's been a real push in the U.S. to legalize gay marriage. From the religious right, there has been just as much pushing back to 'protect' the sanctity of marriage.

Being a married heterosexual, I don't see how gays getting married would damage the relationship called marriage, that I share with my wife.

I do however wonder what the religious right thinks of this marriage between bovines. Hmmmm, will it take off in Texas?

Sweet Scoot

Several years ago I was hit by a car and left paralyzed from the waist down. Thanks to some skillful surgeons and a good rehab hospital, I learned to walk again. Yes, it is something that has to be learned. Others haven't been so lucky. They are left to live life in a wheelchair. From first-hand experience, I can honestly state that life in a wheelchair sucks.

This isn't about me though. This is about a new trike in Britain that puts the wind in someones hair. It smacks bugs against the teeth. Most of all, it allows people constrained to a chair the freedom to get down the road.

The Martin Conquest is the answer to many a bikers dream. Alan Martin came up with the idea after his son was injured and stuck in a wheelchair. Though, thank god, his son can walk again, he decided to go ahead with the trike.

This isn't some sissy sized scoot either. It's a 850cc Beemer. This babe can fly. It also isn't just the everyday adaptation that only works half-assed. It is designed from the ground up. It's not the slickest scoot in the world. The Conquest is however pretty cool looking and should more than do the job.

Thank you Alan Martin. Job well done and I for one wish you success.

peace out

Israel has brass balls

I never get enough of Israels begging for money. It seems like every other day they come up with another reason to spend the money of the citizens of the United States. It's not enough that we send them billions of dollars every year and pay for their defence. Now they're wanting 2.2 billion taxpayer dollars to fund their pullback from Gaza.

Excuse me if I seem a bit cynical. I am. The Veterans Administration is short a billion dollars to take care of OUR troops, and you want us to give you 2.2 billion. We have a hard enough time taking care of our own.

It's time for Israel to stand on it's own feet and get out from under ours. WWII was over sixty years ago. I think by now that they should of learned to take care of themselves.

It takes a major set of brass ones to beg for money when they're one of the reasons that the Middle East is in such turmoil.

peace out.

I am amazed

It amazes me at the difference in responses between bombings in different parts of the world.

Everyone in the developed world knows that London was hit with a terrorist attack. It made the papers and special news reports all over Europe and North America.

How many special news reports have interrupted my day about bomb blasts in Turkey today? None.

I don't ask why, to belittle the victims in London. I just can't come to any concensus on why terrorism in the industrialized countries is more important than elsewhere. Are the lives at stake more valuable in Europe and the U.S. than Eastern Europe and Asia?

Turkey is trying to enter the European Union. They are an important ally in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In fact, they are the only Muslim member of N.A.T.O. Yet we treat them as second class citizens of the world.

The bombings in Turkey and elsewhere, as well as the loss of life and permanant injuries, are just as important and news-worthy as those in the Europe.

The bombings are all done for political gain. To alter the minds of the populace. To spread fear and intimidation. That the British get on with their lives the next day is a wonderful show of will and determination. Yet, no more so than the determination of the Turks who do the same.

That we value one life over another because of where they life in the world is to me, well, sadly amazing.


peace.