Don't Correct The Police

It seems that correcting the police can earn you a ticket and a day in court.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) - A college student has been given a lesson from a judge after his day in court - don't correct the police.

Clay Palmer, a student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, honked his car horn when he saw police stop their patrol car, turn on blue flashers to go through a red light and then turn the flashers off. He got a ticket for violating the city noise ordinance.

The charge was reduced to a warning Wednesday when he went before a judge who told him he acted wrongly.

"The horn blowing is not the real problem here, it's that you were trying to correct the police and they didn't need correcting," Judge Russell Bean said.

Palmer left traffic court saying he still believed officers were abusing their authority.

"I see this cop with his blue lights come screeching up beside me and I didn't know what was going on," Palmer said. "Before they got to the next light, I could see they turned their blue lights off."

Palmer said officer Matthew Puglise forced him onto the hood of his car and issued him a ticket for honking the horn when there was no reason.

Puglise said he was helping another officer track down a speeder when Palmer saw him pass through the red light.

Bean said Puglise was right and Palmer was wrong.

"I expect officers to follow the rules like everyone else," Bean said.

Nate Is Right

It's true. It pains me to say it as I have always been politically involved... From his post "Post Number 911: Time Well Wasted"

(BloggerBlaster)Its come to my attention that more than a few of you are still spending far to much time in some vain and pointless attempt to fix this country. This is more than a little disappointing. I sincerely thought we'd covered this already.

Listen carefully dammit... I don't want to have to type this up again.

The country will not be fixed. It's not going to happen. We've decended into a level of stupidity and self-destructive idiocy that has rarely been breached in the history of man. Well... at least outside of Africa.

Trackback

His solution?

Spring approaches. Better that we should feast up mostly raw meat, drink arcane concoctions from the dusky hills of Kentucky and Tennessee, Ride the trails unridden, and of course...

Rut!

Whatzit #1

Sorry for the delay, too much to do with Little Bear. Here is the full pic. The pic was the back of a Schick razor. I 've used them for years and just recently noticed the back looks like a skull. So there ya have it.

Worth: Cop vs. Citizen

Yesterday a cop was shot and killed in Colorado Springs. The officer, Jarred Jensen, was on duty and actually performing a duty that the citizenry expects from their police, apprehending someone who in the past month stabbed his own sister several times. The criminal, Jereme Lamberth AKA Jereme Scheinhardt, was apprehended later that day.

The failure of the system is for a later post, this one concerns the value that is placed on a cop's life vs the value that is placed upon a citizen's life. Just why is it that a cop's life is so sacred? Why is it that when a cop is shot the entire police force comes out and locks down businesses and schools and streets, but when a citizen is shot the response is to send a few cars and plot the crime scene? It isnt just this one incident. There are many examples, and I am sure that you can think of some yourselves.

Often people will say that it is because cops have one of the most dangerous jobs. That one falls to stats which show that the police are never even near the top 10 (with the exception of 2001 due to 9-11.)
Others will state that it is because cops are there to protect us. This is also not the case as I have posted on before, and the last police officer killed in Colorado Springs was back in 1982 so this is a very safe place to be a cop so it isnt like we hear of their deaths on a regular basis. In fact a citizen is 430 times more likely to be murdered than a cop in this city. (Latest stats carried back 24 years since that last cop was killed. OT, the pictures the city has chosen for these pages are rather entertaining)

So the question is this? What makes the life of a cop more valuable than that of a citizen?

George Made Another Funny

Good ol' George, always making us laugh. What did he joke about this time? He made a jest about actually vetoing a bill.

Haha, what a joker!!

Bush is threatening to veto any bill looking to block the sale of ports to Bush's good buddies, the Arabs. Now of course, Bush hasn't vetoed a single bill in his two terms so the likelyhood of him vetoing this are miniscule. It is interesting to note that he says he is willing to exercise his power to push through something that many people feel would compromise our security.

Further evidence that this still undeclared "war" has nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with a FedGov power grab.

Yahoo Banning Allah

Seems that Yahoo is involved in some self-censorship. They are banning usernames such as Allah, Osama, Binladen, and Raghead along with some sensible ones like yahoo, admin and security. Allowed are such names as god, jesus, jehovah, buddah, koran, nazi, priest, jihad, terrorist, and some fun ones like jewskilledjesus and pedophilepriest.

While Yahoo remains mum on the subject users with names such as Callahan are unable to get emails based upon their own name.

What Color Should Your Eyes Be?

Your Eyes Should Be Hazel

Your eyes reflect: Intellect and sensuality What's hidden behind your eyes: Subtle manipulation

What Color Should Your Eyes Be?

Well they ARE hazel so maybe there is something to this test...

Whazit Numero Uno

The first installment of what may become a regular feature...

So what is it?

Marijuana: Washington State's 8th Largest Cash Crop

Pot seizures have grown every year for the last 7 years. In 2005 some 135,323 plants were taken and presumably destroyed. Given an estimated street value of $270 million this places it above sweet cherries ($242M.) In the article they state they are lucky to get half which means an estimated street value of $540M.

The valuation is extremely flawed of course. If that pot made it to market the market would get flooded and it would drop the price but we'll let them pretend they are doing a good work. AP Article here.

Flying Car

Terrafugia is looking to create a car/plane hybrid. They expect it to be on the market by 2010, possibly earlier. Fantastic concept! Being able to leave the road and make it to a distant city in about half the time required by car would be great, not to mention just being able to drive away from the airport.

Fantastic mileage: 30 miles a gallon in the air, 40 on the highway. But this right here is the obvious downfall. You might not know how light a small 2 seater aircraft is but mileage like that should give you a clue. I do not have specifications on this new design but it IS smaller than the ubiquitous Cessna 172 which is a 4-seater so it is likely heavier than the hybrid will be.

The Cessna 172S weighs 1,663lbs when empty. The low end Chevy Aveo weighs 2,343+ empty with the Chevy Suburban weighing as much as 6,074 empty. Now in the case of a car that weight is centered almost entirely around the passengers and therefore all that weight helps to protect them in a crash with another vehicle. Planes are very different. A not insignifigant amount of weight is in flight surfaces which spread out away from the passengers and conveys no benefit in an accident. Some of this is mitigated by the flight surfaces being tucked right next to the hybrid while in car mode but there will still be the signifigant issue of being much lighter than the other vehicles on the road.

There is no question in my mind that this hybrid will fly and be safe in the air (pilot dependent of course) but it will be extremely dangerous to its passengers while on the road. That being said I like it, and as long as the dangers are known than I say bravo to anyone who decides to leave traffic behind.

Haggard for Congress

Just a guess here, but I am betting that tomorrow (2-19-06) Ted Haggard will announce he is running for the Colorado 5th Congressional District. In this very Republican district he stands a very good chance. I have some major differences of opinion politically with him but I do like Ted. He's been good to me. Certainly there are a great many men of lesser character that will be vying for this office, and if character is what you are voting for this is your man.

Dead Battery Recipe

Dead Car Battery Recipe
Prep Time 10+ days

Take:
one car
one O.E.M battery (aftermarket might not work with this recipe)
one and one half weeks of very cold weather

Combine and leave idle for 10+ days

Viola!
Dead Car Battery

Distributed Computing

What is it? Distributed Computing is a way of sharing a workload across multiple computers. DC allows for very large amounts of data to be sent over the internet to individual computers so they might take small chunks of that data and process it. Of course there are Super Computers which are incredibly fast and powerful but they are also very expensive and very difficult to get time on, but a home computer sits idle more often than it does anything else. The solution is to take the idle time on your PC and put it to use. In fact, there are so many clock cycles that are sitting unused at this very moment that in the time it takes you to read this post likely 20 years worth of computing could have been done. This is why more and more groups are starting to turn to Distributed Computing.

World Community Grid is analyzing potential drug combinations for AIDS and a Human Proteome Folding Project (the next step after mapping the DNA.) Seems they only have work for the AIDs project at the moment.

Distributed.net is working to show that our current level of (computer) security is insufficient at best and needs to be strengthened. Distributed also does an OGR (Optimal Golomb Ruler) which is useful for coding, communications and other tech such as X-ray crystallography and radio astronomy.

SETI@Home is attempting to analyze the incredible backlog of radio information in the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.

Currently I am running the DC client for the WCG but I may dump that in favor of the Distributed.net client as that is simply more my interest and I have done that one in the past. I am sure there are other projects out there if one cares to look. If you know of one I overlooked post it in the comments. Oh yeah, if you join the WCG then choose team "User Friendly" and if you dont know what that is then follow the link on the left. UF is a great comic.

**Update**
Waterboy has skills! You know, like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills. Waterboy brings DistributedComputing.info to our attention which is the motherlode when it comes to finding a DC project to be a part of.
You ever getting a blog Waterboy?

Easing The Burden Of Faith

It seems that everyone does it. Everyone skims thru the Scriptures of their choice and weeds out the things they either wont believe or dont want to affect their lives. This isnt a Muslim thing or a Christian thing. It is universal to all faiths. White or Black, Jew or Gentile, Protestant or Catholic. Throw any other group in there and you will find it.

The question is why? Why do we place so much importance upon some Scriptures (John 3:16) yet totally ignore so many others? Certainly there is room for simply not being aware of what the Scriptures say, but what of us that do know what it says? What of the pastors/priests/rabbis whose job it is to know the Scriptures inside and out? Why pick and choose?

In particular (because it is relevant to me) why do Christians ignore so much of the Scripture? Is there some passage that I am missing that says it is okay? Does Grace truly cover willful ingorance of what pleases G-d? How does one decide how to weight certain Scriptures above others? I have been struggling with this for some years and have yet to find an answer to my question.

I'm not looking to castigate any particular denomination or group of people. As I stated before there are very very few who stick to the whole of their Scriptures (Ultra-Orthodox (and perhaps Orthodox)Jews being the only ones that come to mind.

Still nothing but questions and doubts in my mind (Not Doubting G-d, simply the way we interpret and act out Scripture here, and how to justify those actions...)

Horrors Of Hyperinflation

I know no one really cares overly much about my Econ posts but take a moment to read this short article from the BBCNews. The article is basically just quotes from your average person living in a country where the inflation rate is expected to hit 1000% in two months. Already it 50,000 Zimbabwean dollars to but a loaf of bread (the largest bill is only Z$1,000 so special cheques must be used)

"Because my income hasn't risen as much as the prices in the shops, we have had to adjust quite a bit. The things that we buy - the groceries at home, the things we get for our two children - we have to buy immediately, as soon as we get the money. We know that if we wait a bit, the prices are going to go up again. If we wait another week, we will not be able to afford anything. "

Birth Announcement

Beloved gave birth yesterday morning to a beautiful baby boy! 7lbs 2oz of pure cuteness and joy! Both Mom and Son are going great. (Her short labor time is the envy of women everywhere) More later...

Conspiracy Wednesday

Filling in for Triton, who seems to have disappeared...

One I am sure you have all heard of, but perhaps havent gotten to see their case, I present to you the 9-11 cover up. The official story is that the attacks of 9-11 were masterminded and performed by terrorists, but the real story is quite different. The real story is that the Government performed these attacks themselves to get us to accept violations of our freedoms.

At Letsroll911.org is video of a missle hitting the towers before the second plane hit. Elsewhere is information about the controlled demolition of the Twin Towers, and a video confirming the demolition. Not to be left out is the Top 15 reasons to believe.

Have fun 'all

Jamie's New Business Venture

Looks like Jamie has struck up a new venture. 4 blokes, beer and a BBQ. This has Jamie stamped all over it.

Canberra (Reuters) While multi-million dollar bids have turned out to be fake, the current value of the company of these entrepreneurial young men stands at a healthy A$61,101 ($45,940).

The blokes, who have received 105 bids and more than 200 emails since the 10-day auction started on January 25, are offering themselves for the weekend of February 18-19 and are even promising a possible international guest.

"It's easier than chatting to randoms in a pub and you know we'll be your friend from the moment you arrive til the moment you leave. That's our promise to you!" they said.

Blog of the Beloved

My Beloved has a new blog. Or should I say this one is like the Pheonix, having arose from the ashes of a dead blog. Now if she can just keep it up this time...

Right To Petition For Redress Of Grievance

"I thought the feds usually ignored lawful petitions. I thought "Right to Petition" just meant one could hold a protest or something, but that there was no obligation on the part of the feds to 'provide satisfaction', so to speak.

Am I wrong? If you know anything different about the specifics of Right to Petition, please correct me." Triton

Yes, the Feds ignore the Citizens and yes the Feds want people to believe that a petition is nothing more than a protest. However that isn't why it was placed into the Constitution. It was a way of keeping the government from ignoring petitions. When our Founding Fathers were creating the Constitution, and subsequently the Bill of Rights, they were no doubt thinking upon immediate history as well as the Rights they had as Englishmen. So lets look at three of the more obvious documents.

Over the course of years many petitions from the Colonists to the King of England had been ignored. The reasons varied with taxation, trade, and trial by jury as well as other issues of law. Indeed, the King's ignoring the petitions was the reason we had separated from England. The Colonists Petitioned expecting Redress and, in their words, recieved injury. The following is from the Declaration of Independence.

"In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

They petitioned as they had been assured that Right by the British Bill of Rights, passed in 1689. This was passed because it was found that Parliment would ignore or even punish those who petitioned the government

"That it is the right of the subjects to petition the King, and all committments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal."

The origins of this Right goes back to the Magna Carta of 1215. As everyone should already know the Magna Carta is the basis for many of the Rights we have. Also Common Law dates back to this time which is where our Law and Rights were defined until the advent of "statutory" law which was created by merging Maritime and Equity. But I digress... The Magna Carta gave a rather specific and some would say drastic measure for enforcing the Right to Petition: seizure of "federal" property.

If we, our chief justice, our officials, or any of our servants offend in any respect against any man, or transgress any of the articles of the peace or of this security, and the offence is made known to four of the said twenty-five barons, they shall come to us - or in our absence from the kingdom to the chief justice - to declare it and claim immediate redress. If we, or in our absence abroad the chiefjustice, make no redress within forty days, reckoning from the day on which the offence was declared to us or to him, the four barons shall refer the matter to the rest of the twenty-five barons, who may distrain upon and assail us in every way possible, with the support of the whole community of the land, by seizing our castles, lands, possessions, or anything else saving only our own person and those of the queen and our children, until they have secured such redress as they have determined upon. Having secured the redress, they may then resume their normal obedience to us.
Any man who so desires may take an oath to obey the commands of the twenty-five barons for the achievement of these ends, and to join with them in assailing us to the utmost of his power. We give public and free permission to take this oath to any man who so desires, and at no time will we prohibit any man from taking it. Indeed, we will compel any of our subjects who are unwilling to take it to swear it at our command.

The Right to Petition is much more than simply the Right to make noise. The Founding Fathers intended for there to be teeth in this Right for it was they who wrote "If money is wanted by Rulers, who have in any manner oppressed the people, they may retain it, until their grievances are redressed; and thus peaceably procure relief, without trusting to despised petitions, or disturbing the public tranquillity."