Making Our Streets Safer

An excerpt from PopulistAmerica.com

7 ways to make your neighborhood safer


September 3, 2006
by Harry Browne

America's crime rate has risen almost continually for the past 35 years. Very little of the great plans to reverse the trend -- whether mandatory sentences or more cops on the beat -- has helped to relieve the worst crime wave in the nation's history. And recent drops in crime rates still leave us far less safe than we were 35 years ago.

Is the situation hopeless?

No. America could be much safer -- quickly and dramatically safer.

Cutting crime

Here are seven ways to bring peace and security to your neighborhood:

1. End the war on drugs -- to release from prison the marijuana smokers and other non-violent drug offenders serving 15-year and 50-year sentences. They fill up the prisons -- allowing the murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals to go free on early release or plea-bargains, free to terrorize your neighborhood.

2. End the war on drugs -- to free up law-enforcement resources to fight violent crime instead of chasing people who may harm themselves but are no threat to us.

3. End the war on drugs -- to end gang warfare. The drug war has taken the drug business away from pharmaceutical companies and turned it over to gangs operating in a huge black market -- providing untold riches for anyone who will flout the law. This money finances criminal gangs who would be powerless without drug money. Legal drug, tobacco or alcohol companies don't conduct gang warfare and drive-by shootings but criminal gangs will do anything to secure a rich monopoly territory.

4. End the war on drugs -- to reduce police corruption. With so much black-market money and confiscated drugs floating around, it's too easy for weak policemen to become rich by breaking the law themselves.

5. End the war on drugs -- to make our schools safer. Brewers and distillers don't recruit children to run drugs or hook other kids on liquor -- nor do they give them guns to take to school. Neither would legal drug companies. Before the war on drugs, the worst schools in Los Angeles were safer than L.A.'s best schools are today.

6. End the war on drugs -- to end muggings and burglaries by addicts. If Prohibition were ended, illegal drugs selling today for $100 might cost as little as $2, because legal competition -- with no need to circumvent the law -- would drive drug prices down. So addicts would no longer need to steal to support their habits.

7. End the war on drugs -- to bring back respect for decent behavior. Because nothing can win the Drug War, it is constantly escalated -- destroying more of your liberties with asset forfeiture laws, drug-testing, snooping in your bank account, monitoring your e-mail, racial profiling, and other invasions of the liberty of all Americans. This has caused too many people to disrespect the law itself -- feeling that any kind of law-breaking, victimless or violent, is justified.

Journalism Is Hard!

Thank you AP for this beautiful item.

"From 1990 to 2005, 31 of the 39 cases of human rabies were linked to rabies, making them the leading rabies threat to humans, according to the Atlanta-based federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

What worries me is that so many cases of rabies have been linked to rabies. But what is also equally worrisome is that ONLY 31 of 39 cases of rabies has been linked to rabies. What is causing the other, umm, 273 cases?

Laughing Babies

This is an incredibly cute video. Mom is holding her 4 babies and dad is making them laugh. Not the highest quality but still great.
babies laughing

Last Resort

This is my last resort

Cut my life into pieces
I've reached my last resort
Suffocation, no breathing
Don't give a fuck if I cut my arm bleeding
Do you even care if I die bleeding
Would it be wrong
Would it be right
If I took my life tonight
Chances are that I might
Mutilation outta sight
And I'm contemplating suicide

~~Papa Roach

I cant even do that. My heart has been torn out a million different ways. Lord knows I want this pain to end. It just wont end. And there isnt a damned thing I can do to end it. I start to think I am getting better, or that I just dont really care anymore and then my heart gets ripped out again.

Freedom To Fascism

You simply MUST watch this video. Once you have watched it email the link to everyone you know. It is time to stand up for our freedoms while we still have a few left and this is but the first step... letting people know what is going on

Miscellany

I am not sure what to make of this story... Apparently a little girl told her mother she was being molested by a neighbor. The mother told the father and the father killed the man. Turns out that the child had not been molested, or at least the police are adamant that she wasn't. On the one hand I want to stand up and applaud the father for protecting his family. On the other hand the child apparently made up the incident and so an innocent man is now dead.

As Triton wrote today and the Mogambo has been writing there has been some serious manipulation of the metals markets lately. And we have all noticed the price of gasoline going down tremendously. If you havent noticed that this sort of thing happens around election time, start taking notes. OPEC has declared that it is going to cut production starting on November 1st. This will again get the cost of gasoline up but conveniently the price wont go up much till after the election.

Action Police, a hardline police union in France has stated “We are in a civil war, orchestrated by radical Islamists.” The same news article states that an average of 112 cars have burned daily over the past year. Nicolas Sarkozy, the Interior Minister who is running for president in the may election is taking a hardline approach he "has once again taken the offensive, staging raids on the no-go areas and promising no mercy for the thugs who reign there." Of course the softies there say that it is simply that these muslims dont have jobs. Cuz everyone knows that if you dont have jobs you go burning cars.

Among other things the Devil Weed, Pot, helps with memory, especially in older subjects.

Life is found 2 miles below ground. I posted previously on other organisms living far below ground in the hostile environment found there. These are all refered to as "extremophiles." These particular ones, found in Africa, survive "on sulfate minerals and hydrogen split from water by uranium's radioactivity."

And finally a story by environmentalists about what would happen to the earth if man disappeared tomorrow. It is an interesting read on how long they think it would take for our traces to fade. Some of it I believe to be erroneous but it is entertaining nonetheless.

P.S. My boy managed to change my fonts by randomly pounding on the keyboard. Lovely

Sick

Sorry about the discussion on holidays. I really lost interest when I came down with the flu. I am feeling somewhat but still not very good and I cant hardly talk. Basically I cant talk. If I was still working at the call center, well, I couldnt be. I am starting a good job with a local cement company. Good pay and will be lots of hours. I spent the day freezing in the upstairs break room which is really nothing more than an unheated garage on the third floor watching videos. I got thru 46 of the 75. 75! sheesh. But that beat being out in the freezing cold weather today. I bought a jumpsuit today so I can survive out there.

And being this sick makes one lonely! I cant call anyone cuz I cant talk. I dont want anyone to be around me cuz I dont want them to get sick. I havent been playing much with my boy cuz I dont want him to get sick and I have been feeling so awful. And I worry what he thinks of that. And as I start to think I must be getting better my fever comes back tonite. UGH!

**Edit**
Okay, I finally went to the Dr. cuz I just keep not getting well and arguably worse. Daignosis: Bronchitis and tonsilitis. So I am finally on an antibiotic and hopefully will be getting better soon. As for the new job I am going to be off till monday so I can get better and not get others sick.

SNOW!!!

In case y'all didnt know, its snowing here. It isnt really on the roads right now but so far there is at least 3 inches on the grass right now.

Quite possibly the best snow picture I have ever seen is one my little brother took some time back. He didnt know it would turn out so cool tho. Just point and click out the front door and it flashed and caught the snow flakes and the car in the driveway. The effect made the car look like it was in space. Pontiac Grand Am. Boldly going where no car has gone before!

Forgive Me Lord

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation

Lord, I have sinned against you and against my family. I have fallen away from You and I have not covered my family as You would have me do. Break me in your presence Lord. Remake me in the image of Your Holy Son. Do not leave me here, do not turn your face from me. Lead me out of this place of desolation, teach me to walk after You and follow Your commands. Teach me obedience Lord! And teach me how to listen to You that I would follow Your word first and not try to find my own way.

PaxilBack

Justin Timberlake may be bringing Sexy Back (or is that Sexyback?) but Gray Kid is bringing PaxilBack

Pagan Holidays

Astro had a post asking if Christians should celebrate Halloween. Quite a few responses and I thought I would put my thoughts over here.

Just what is a holiday? Simply put it comes from two words, holy and day. From its roots then, the term was for religious holy days. Quite obviously the term is broadly applied to include entirely secular days such as the 4th of July and Labor Day, and this might cause some confusion about days like Halloween where many apparently assume it is a secular holiday with some slight religious overtones. I am not going to deal with those holidays that are entirely secular in nature. National holidays like those mentioned above are not religious and therefore irrelevant to the conversation. It is the pagan holidays that I want to address. Three in particular are Halloween, Christmas, and Easter.

Halloween:
From the Druidic celebration Samhain (pronounced sah-ween) we get Halloween. Samhain is the day when the veil between the living and the dead is at its weakest and the dead are able to cross over. Families would put out food for their loved ones and the 'good' spirits, this is where the giving of treats comes from. To ward off the evil spirits the Druids set bonfires and would don scary masks and costumes. Various gourds were hollowed out and candles were placed inside to light the way to the covens (gathering of witches)

Christmas:
A pagan nature celebration of the rebirth of the world. Of life coming to the dark world. Evergreen plants play a prominent role as they are alive all year long and hold the promise of the life to come. Evergreens are often cut down and brought inside and decorated as part of the festivities. Other plants that are important are holly ivy and mistletoe. Mistletoe was thought to increase fertility which is why it is hung upside down so that its powers would flow into the couples who kissed beneath it. There is also the burning of the Yule Log (I dont really know the signifigance of that, yet!)

Easter:
This is from the celebration of the goddess of fertility, Ishtar. As she was the goddess of fertility the symbols used are things like eggs and rabbits. Eggs because they contain life and rabbits because they are so prolific. It seems to me that there was either not much to this celebration or that not much has survived.

All three holidays are pagan in origin. All three still contain many pagan symbols and rituals. The Church has attempted to co-opt these holidays to varying degrees of success. But can the Church cleanse or sanctify these holy days? Can a celebration to a foreign god be consecrated so as to give it to the Most Holy? We find in the Scriptures no precedent nor justification for doing so. Rather we find a G-d that is jealous, that allows for no worship of other gods. He demands complete and total obedience from His followers. So from the standpoint of the Scriptures I feel it is quite obvious that we Christians are not to dabble with foreign gods nor the celebration of or worship of foreign gods.

Christians and Jews were given numerous Feasts/Holy Days to observe and take part in. All of which point not only to G-d the Father but to the Savior of the world, the Messiah Himself. We should be chasing after His holiness but instead we chase after the things of this world, instead of being set apart for Him we don the cover of this world and "do as the Romans do."

Every year we debate over what to do, and how much to compromise with evil. And every year we come up with the answer that it is okay and it is just a little bit and it really isnt dabbling with demonic spirits. We come to the conclusion that we will somehow be a light to the world while doing no different than the world. What a sad commentary on the state of the Church.

The Prodigal

Rev. W. O. Taylor, 91, was the oldest man attending the Southern Baptist Convention a few years ago. At the annual free breakfast for retirees, Brother Taylor rose and recited his own alliterative version of the parable of the prodigal son, which he entitled "The Final Fixing of the Foolish Fugitive":

"Feeling footloose, fancy-free, and frisky, this feather-brained fellow finagled his fond father into forking over his fortune. Forthwith, he fled for foreign fields and frittered his farthings feasting fabulously with fair-weather friends. Finally, facing famine, and fleeced by his fellows in folly, he found himself a feed flinger in a filthy farmlot. He fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from the fodder fragments.

"'Fooey! My father's flunkies fare far fancier,' the frazzled fugitive fumed feverishly, frankly facing fact.

"Frustrated from failure and filled with forebodings, he fled for his family.

"Falling at his father's feet, he floundered forlornly. 'Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited further family favors. . .'

"But the faithful father, forestalling further flinching, frantically flagged his flunkies to fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a feast.

"But the fugitive's fault-finding frater, faithfully farming his father's fields for free, frowned at this fickle forgiveness of former falderal. His fury flashed, but fussing was futile.

"His foresighted father figured, 'Such filial fidelity is fine, but what forbids fervent festivities? The fugitive is found! Unfurl the flags! With fanfare flaring, let fun, frolic, and frivolity flow freely, former failures forgotten and folly forsaken. Forgiveness forms a firm foundation for future fortitude.'"

Vaseline

A market researcher called at a house and his knock was answered
by a young woman with three small children running around her.
He asked her if she minded replying to his questions and she
agreed.

He asked her if she knew his company, Cheeseborough-Ponds. When
she said no, he mentioned that among their many products was
Vaseline and she certainly knew of that product.

When asked if she used it, the answer was "Yes."

Asked how she used it, she said, "To help our sex life."

The interviewer was amazed. He said, "I always ask that question
because everyone uses our product and they always say they use
it for the child's bicycle chain, or the gate hinge; but I know
that most use it that way. Since you've been so frank, could you
tell me exactly how you use it?"

"Yes, we put it on the doorknob to keep the kids out."

Stealing Clipboard Info

This is from an email sent out by Bob Osgooby. Not entirely sure where I got on the email list but it is perhaps the first newsletter that I have been signed up on that I actually read and enjoy when I do

Have you ever copied information to your clipboard, then later
went online? If the info you copied was of a sensitive nature,
then you’ve really got to pay attention to this.

Did you know that a website can easily snatch the info on your
clipboard with about one line of Javascript? It's true. Not all
browsers are susceptible to this, but Internet Explorer is. Copy
any line of this article and click on the link below:

http://www.worldstart.com/clipboardtest/clipboard-test

Just imagine if that info had been a password, credit card
number, or bank account info! Want to know how to disable this
"feature"? Read on.

1. Open Internet Explorer and click on the Tools menu, Internet
Options.

2. Click the Security tab, then press the "Custom Level" button.

3. Under the "Scripting" section, hunt for an entry called
"Allow paste operations via script". Set to disable (or at least
prompt). I have mine set to prompt so I know who is trying to
steal my information.

4. Hit OK until you're back to Explorer.

5. That's it. Now try the page above and see what happens. With
any luck, you should find that your clipboard is no longer
accessible.

BTW Firefox doesnt do this. Just how many more reasons do you need to quit using IE?

Big 3 Solution

Alright Big 3 auto manufacturers, listen up! Everyone knows you are all bleeding and it is just a matter of time till one of you goes down. Ya need to get your act together and bring in some cash and I am gonna help you do it.

Just three words. Limited Edition Models

Thats right, limited edition models. Ya see, you take one car and choose one year and you remake for us a cool muscle car from the 60s or 70s. GTOs, Fastback 'Stangs Camaros, Firebirds, Hemi Cudas. And dont sissify them. Make it look just like the originals with as much of the same feel as the originals as you can (obviously regulations wont allow it to be the exact same what with airbags and all)

Make us a certain amount of one car, one year then dont make it again for ten years or so. So deliver us the 67 Mustang and make say 2000 of them and let the public just eat them up. Remember the talk surrounding the release of the Viper? Remember how everybody wanted one and it brought in huge recognition for Dodge? Do it for yourselves. Excite the car buying populace. Even if the rarity of them precludes many of us from ever having one (just like the Viper) your bringing back the cars that we all love would make us hold you in higher esteem and perhaps we'll think more favorably of your brand when it comes time to buy our next car.

Mopar = 1970 Hemi Cuda
Chevy = 1969 Camaro
Ford = 1967 Mustang

Toyota, Nissan, VW etc, I would strongly suggest you never ever bring back your 60s and 70s era cars. We are all happily past those thank you very much.

Today in History

October 4th

Work began on Mount Rushmore

On this day in 1927, sculpting began on the face of Mount
Rushmore in the Black Hills National Forest of South Dakota. It
would take another 12 years for the impressive granite images of
four of America’s most revered and beloved presidents—George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln (beloved? HA!)and Theodore
Roosevelt--to be completed.

The monument was the brainchild of a South Dakota historian
named Doane Robinson, who was looking for a way to attract more
tourists to his state. He hired a sculptor named Gutzon Borglum
to carve the faces into the mountain. According to the National
Park Service, the first face to be chiseled was George
Washington’s; Borglum first sculpted the head as an egg shape,
his features added later. Thomas Jefferson’s image was
originally fashioned in the space to the right of Washington,
but, within two years, the face was badly cracked. Workers had
to blast the sculpture off the mountain using dynamite. Borglum
then started over with Jefferson situated on the left side of
Washington.

Washington’s face was the first to be completed in 1934.
Jefferson’s was dedicated in 1936--with then-president Franklin
Roosevelt in attendance--and Lincoln’s was completed a year
later. In 1939, Teddy Roosevelt’s face was completed. The
project, which cost $1 million, was funded primarily by the
federal government.

Borglum continued to touch up his work at Mount Rushmore until
he died suddenly in 1941. Borglum had originally hoped to also
carve a series of inscriptions into the mountain, outlining the
history of the United States.

Torn

I want to be free but at the same time I hate that I even want that.

I love her tremendously and I hate that I love her so much and I hate that I hate loving her.

I want to reconcile but I know she wont allow it.

I just end the day feeling hollow and lonely if I hadnt started feeling that way much earlier in the day. Just tell me when these hopeless days are over...

Kelty Baby Carrier

My attempt to poke fun at a blogger that shall remain nameless (as if y'all didnt already know who) was losing its funiness in my own eyes so I am editing this post...

Today Lil Bear and I went to the Flea Market with only one item in mind. A baby carrier. Lo and behold I found one. A Kelty none-the-less, which is the brand I was wanting in the first place. Originally $180, sold to me for only $25. Incredibly adjustable and able to stay standing on its own. It has a smallish pack below and behind baby's legs, triangluar shaped to fit between the legs and still give room for movement, it held everything I decided to carry today. Formula, diapers, wipes and a bottle and still had room for more. Conveniently it has IIRC 4 bottle holder loops which I didnt use today out of a need to clean the pack first. After a 3+ mile hike I only have one complaint and that is the main frame hits my shoulder blades uncomfortably after a mile or so. I tilted Lil Bear slightly and that helped but I think I am going to have to make some adjustments to the pad back there or perhaps even replace it. Keep in mind that this is a used pack so the padding is worn slightly but not bad in any way.

Also found at the flea market was one CD and four hot wheels. Three planes and one monster truck for one of the special-ed kids on my bus who loves cars.


Anyways, here is Lil Bear happily sucking on a strap (perhaps his all time favorite toy!)