I’m not so nostalgic about 9-11, I’m still pissed

So now that the 10th anniversary of 9-11has passed us by and the recitation of the names and rerunning of the old news footage has been packed away for another year, I think its time to take a look at what I call the downfall of my beloved America.

My wife and I were talking about the attacks Sunday, as many Americans did, and in doing so, I had time to revisit my thoughts after the attacks and quite simply we as a country missed the boat on ensuring this never happens again.

From the very second that the first plane hit the Twin Towers, international terrorism won. Now, I know you don’t want to hear that, but it is nonetheless true. After the initial shock wore off, our government, led by President Bush knuckled under to fear and doubt and began a systematic stripping away of our personal freedoms and rights on a level that would make the Founders puke in their wigs. President Obama, for all his criticisms of Bush, took the baton and has kept them in place.

To be sure, I’m not the kind of guy who should be President, hell; I probably should stay out of politics altogether because I’m sort of a nationalist at heart. Not an isolationist; trying to make it without allies, isn’t practical and never has been. No, I’m a nationalist with the protection of the homeland and her citizens from all enemies foreign and domestic at my core. I swore and oath to do that, and it didn’t come with an expiration date.

When America was attacked by the Japanese in 1941, we did not sit back and debate what we should do or look for ways to settle old scores and we damn sure didn’t worry about what the world would think of our actions. What we did was put our military machine in gear and turned the generals loose to get pay back. When President Truman was handed the devastating power of the atomic bomb, he didn’t buckle under it. Yes, the Executive branch and the War Department discussed the ramifications of the use of the bomb, but they saw that the hell released by the bombs would ensure that the enemy who attacked us would never do so again. And that nobody else would consider it wise to try, and they didn’t for a long time. But they forgot and we let them.

Somehow, along the way to 9-11 America’s political machine lost its stones and began to play fair, instead of paying to win. Not playing to win is anti-American. But then it has been a long time since the function of government was about being American.

Korea, Vietnam, even the Gulf War were all winnable but the politicians wouldn’t let us. What, you think the Gulf was a win? Sorry, if it had been a win then Hussein wouldn’t have been around in 2001 for Bush 43 to have an excuse to attack. No, if Bush 41 would have ignored the weak spirits in the UN and the bleeding hearts in Congress and let Stormin’ Norman roll us into Baghdad most the problem would have been solved.

Following the attacks on America we should have brought the full force of our military might down upon the countries that harbored and financed the terrorists. I am talking Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Afghanistan. I am not talking about ground forces, I mean the full payload, everything short of nukes unless we ran out of bombs before we ran out of real estate. Yes, I know innocents would have died, but innocents did die here too.

The world has learned over the last couple of centuries that our government, regardless of which party is in charge, will only go so far before they cry uncle. War is a messy and awful thing; it should be, so we don’t do it unless we have to. We had the ability to crush not only their ability to hurt anyone again, but also their will to want to.

Our country is dissolving; our government is completely broken, our economy is a global laughing stock and we are no longer safe from our elected leaders or our enemies. If we do not do something about it, this empire will fall.

As President Jefferson once said, “a little revolution now and then is a good thing.”

One final point

While the 9-11 memorial at Ground Zero is very moving and while it is good to remember the victims, the real 9-11 Memorial should have been built in Shanksville, PA where the first battle of the war was fought by regular American’s who were not going to allow the enemy win. Those heroes are often overshadowed by the praise lauded on the Police and Fire Fighters who lost their lives that day. But let’s be honest, those men and women went to work everyday knowing that they could lose their lives. The passengers on Flight 93 were just living their lives when they were faced with the reality of that day. They did not hesitate, when they saw it was up to them, they acted. The site of their valiant deaths would be much more fitting as a memorial than the site of the victims of that day.

FULL DISCLOSURE NOTE – I voted for President Bush in 2000 and 2004, any decisions he made I have a share of the responsibility for; along with everyone else who voted for him. Being that I voted for him and by default hired him to do a job, I can complain about what my employee did. Not hypocrisy, I own my portion of the responsibility.

Political Soup

In better days, Todd Poole and Virginia Foxx speak with yours truly prior to Foxx's debate with Democrat Billy Kennedy in Oct. 2008.



What a wacky first half of August for all those things political that are happening in relation to Ashe County, NC and/or our elected officials. Almost feels like we are heading into campaign season a bit early, but that’s what feeds the political junkie’s monkey so let’s look at a few things you and I.

Inked Out
As I tried to drive through West Jefferson the other day I thought about my friends living in WJ and those in the occupied territories of the ETJ.
Sadly seeing all the empty storefronts I couldn’t help but be amazed at how the, always forward thinking West Jefferson Board of Aldermen, have put the official NOT WELCOME HERE stamp on tattoo shops as part of their regressive plan for the town’s slow death.
This stems out of last year’s vote to stop one local man from opening a tattoo ship, too close to the other evil town business, the ABC store. Maybe the tattoo artists should have considered offering a monthly payoff, I mean, payment to the board as the ABC does?
Seriously though, this board is dragging this town backwards in time in some attempt to make us a cute little mountain town / drive through petting zoo for tourists. They think somehow if we look more charming and Norman Rockwell like that it will bring tourists out 221 to . . . what? Visit a gallery, buy a little cheese? Great but what about the rest of us and those from neighboring towns that just come to town to, shop or get ice cream or just to walk around? For us, it is home, not a theme park.
Along with banning certain “unsavory” businesses, we have seen the removal of our downtown stop lights, to be replaced with stop signs. Sounds to me like those looking into future planning either have the wrong idea of what moving forward technologically means, or they have a little dyslexia problem. Signs to lights not the other way; what’s the next step? Will Chief Rose be forced to put his officers out to work the intersections with whistles and white gloves?
At this rate the town will soon have a dress code written sometime in the late 50’s.
Want to make the town more inviting? Here’s a thought; how about putting businesses into the dead looking open storefronts downtown? Hanging quilts is cute for a minute, but empty is empty and nobody is being fooled.
Want to make the drive into town look better and less desperate? I hate to say it, but mass yard sales do not convey an image of prosperity. Damn, at least build a Flea Market so it looks organized.
Communities that begin to pick and choose the types of legal businesses they allow admittance, are heading down the road to an economic crash. You may think you can turn back time and things will be like they were, but you can’t. We are a mountain community with good people living here and that is enough. Our elected officials need to plan for us, not for those who might visit.

Okay, we can do it this way
Well, the Dan McMillan - Ashe BOC saga is not going away in the discussions around Hardees, Smithy’s and the WJ Coffee Shop along with all the other place people gather to complain about government; and I’m sure not letting it drop.
It was nice to see Jesse Campbell pick up the ball and beat the bushes a little with his latest piece in the AMT, but there is so much more going on here than even Campbell got out of the reluctant interviewees.
Folks, we have elected officials hiding behind incorrect interpretations on Freedom of Information Act requirements and are still not giving their tax paying – voting, constituents anything more than window dressing.
What happened to bring about the request of McMillan’s resignation? The different visions line is a smokescreen used when nobody is supposed to talk. That’s fine with private business. I left the AMT because I and the company had different visions of . . . blah, blah, blah. See what I mean?
Here’s the difference; I was an employee of a private business, McMillan was an appointed government official working, supposedly, for elected officials. There are no secrets and no information too privileged (aside from medical and family data) to be off limits to the public.

Chapter 4, page 67-68 of the NC Media Law Handbook states, "in Chapter 132 of the NC Gen. Statutes that the public and the media have a right of access to most documents made or received by state and local governments."
A public record is defined in the NCMLH as, "documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, films, sound recordings, magnetic or other tapes electronic data-processing records, artifacts or other excluded because of physical form."
As far as what information is public record, the NCMLH defines public, "the records of an agency of NC government or its subdivisions, which means the records of every public office, public officer (state or local, elected or appointed), institution, board, commission, bureau, council, department, authority or other unit of government of the State or of any county, unit, special district or other political subdivision of government. That means all levels of government from the General Assembly to local boards and commissions.”

McMillan said he had no contract. Other than that being just plain stupid on behalf of the county commission at the time, it wasn’t too smart of McMillan since he had no protections. The truth of what happened from the decision to hire the man by the board seated then to the decision to get rid of him by the current board.
Some partisan Democrats are trying to beat the drum of Republicans getting rid of a Democrat, but the Republicans have had the majority and the chair since 2008, so that argument won’t hold water. If it were a partisan issue, he would have been gone long ago. No, something happened and the board doesn’t want us to know what it was, but they want us to pay for it anyway. Am I alone in thinking that $45,000 plus a retirement package is something that shouldn’t be awarded to an employee you are in actuality firing?
Here’s a thought; is there an attorney out there that would consider taking a class action suit to force the board to open the books? If enough citizens get together and file the suit it might get their attention and make them understand that we really are fed up with the business as usual in our local politics.

Be fair when assigning guilt by association:
Just a few words here in defense of all those associated with people who find themselves in trouble with the law.
For nearly a week now the news trolling sites I use have been blowing up about Todd Poole’s (local Virginia Foxx employee) DUI bust over in Watauga County. This situation has no doubt caused embarrassment to the Foxx camp and Poole. But it is a bit unfair for people to bash Foxx for any part of this, as has been the case on some blogs and discussion boards. You can hate the woman for her politics or social views but, you can’t hang this stone around her neck.
Poole will be gone after Foxx’s staff ensures he gets the help he needs to deal with his demons, but that is the extent of their responsibility.

Really, you don't smell a rat here?

During the years that I covered Ashe County government, I listened to scores of complaints about, now former, county manager Dan McMillan generated by one particular rumor mill or the other. I myself could never pin anything to him that wasn’t circumstantial or too thin to corroborate, but that didn’t stop the mills from grinding away.

This past week when word surfaced that McMillan was stepping down as county manager, I wasn’t surprised in the least. I also wasn’t surprised that the commissioners were so silent about it. Without McMillan to tell them what to say, it may be some time before they find their own voice.

McMillan’s control over the direction of the county gave me the impression from my first council meeting until my last, that he was running the commissioners, not the other way around. Some of you reading this have heard me say so before and conversations I have had with past and present commissioners have led me to believe that McMillan was prone to overstepping his bounds. Something he complained about with other county employees.

No, I wasn’t shocked to see the McMillan era come to an abrupt end, but I have been surprised at the coverage such an important story has been given by our local news outlets.

While both newspapers covered the story and repeated the non-statement statements of Judy Poe and Pat Mitchell, and printed excerpts of McMillan’s resignation letter, there was no digging done as to the many possible whys. Instead of putting a bow on the story our local media has left it as questionable as a UFO sighting. Something happened, but we can’t really be sure what it was.

The Mountain Times online, not the Ashe Mountain Times, reported that McMillan was leaving just three months shy of retirement and would receive a severance through the end of the year that will make him eligible for retirement benefits. Yet there was no reason according to Poe for his surprise resignation and the Times just said, "okay, we’ll accept that." The Jefferson Post didn’t even bother to tell us how much McMillan would be getting from the county’s taxpayers through the end of the year and neither gave us any info on his retirement package. WKSK just sort of followed suit and went with the commissioners’ spin. But to be fair, they aren’t really a news outlet.

Other questions I have are why don’t we know why Larry Rhodes voted against the resignation? Did he not want McMillan to resign? Did he want the county to fire McMillan? Did he want the county to give McMillan a raise to stay? Why didn’t anyone ask the board, why they didn’t keep him on the job until a replacement is hired? Why get him out so quickly? We don’t know because nobody pushed for an answer to these and other questions.

Look, someone in a position like McMillan had, with great pay, benefits and a good relationship with his bosses (the commissioners) doesn’t just quit with no reason.

Trust me on this; if a person quits a job in this economy, they have reasons.

Not to mention that people in powerful positions that unexpectedly resign are usually doing so to avoid pending disciplinary action and their bosses give them a chance to save face. It happens all the time.

But we get no answers to these and other questions, because the Post and the AMT didn’t do the digging needed to get them. They had time to dig or at least put the questions out there in the arena for debate, but they did neither.

That’s a major problem with media in general today, they want the quick and easy story to fill the page and offset the advertising but they don’t want to take the time to go for the meat of a story. Local media needs to do better than that.

Dan McMillan did not quit because he was bored, he did not quit because he had nothing better to do with his time and he did not quit because everything was great. Saying that he and the county commissioners were just seeing different futures for the county is a cop-out at best, and an all out lie at worst. The county commissioners did not accept his resignation because the county is in such great shape that they can afford to operate without a manager.

This county is in political and economic turmoil and McMillan had a large hand in it getting to that point. Mainly because the commissioners wouldn’t put any reins on him. No, there are reasons for his departure and we as taxpayers in this county deserve to know them. We as voters can kick commissioners out of office if they want to keep secrets. This isn’t a case of national security. Tell us commissioners, why is he gone, and did you do it for our benefit or your own?

I would suggest you begin to bombard the commissioners with letters and calls to get the answers. Since nobody else is going ask them, you better. After all, McMillan will be paid more by county taxpayers for sitting on his ass for the rest of the year than many of us will make working all year long. We deserve to know why our money is going to him and why the commissioners think it was a good idea to pay him more than $45,000 to do nothing.

See, that’s my problem with non-profits

I know that since I took this little column of mine online, I have not necessarily limited myself to writing about my beloved Ashe County. I guess that since I’ve been out of the flow of county life for several weeks, I took my eye off the ball a little.
I was reconnected today, not that it was a pleasant reconnection, with one of the things I haven’t thought about for a little while; that is how suspicious I am of non-profit organizations.
For the most part, I have personally seen very few non-profit organizations that really operate how they say they will. Yes, some do, and if you belong to one that does, then I’m not talking about you, so don’t write me complaining.
My problem today was with one particular NPO in the county; the Ashe County Humane Society.

The story actually began last Saturday morning as my wife and I were driving out Three Top Road about three miles from our house. As we rounded a curve, we spotted this little pup (pictured above), running with everything he had uphill in the center of the road. Well, what else could we do but stop and try to get the little guy to a safe place? The pup came right to me trying to jump into my arms when I got out of the car and so he sat in my lap all the way to Blowing Rock. I was helping my wife with a wedding she was in charge of and we didn’t have time to look for its owner. We brought him home that night and took care of him, sure that we could find his owner on Sunday.
Sunday afternoon I drove around to a few houses near where we picked him up, but it soon became evident that I wasn’t going to reunite the little guy with his family, so I brought him back home.
Over the next couple of days, my wife and I tried to find a home for him but as the week wore on, we saw that it wasn’t going to happen. So, today I decided that if I was going to keep the pup from possible euthanasia at the pound, I was going to have to get some help from people who are always preaching “save the animals.”

I took a drive out to the Ashe County Humane Society office and was very impressed at how nice it looked. There was a nicely constructed house with one of the best constructed, and longest, wooden wheelchair ramps I have ever seen and not very old looking galvanized chain link fencing around a backyard with fairly expensive looking igloo shaped dog houses; I’ve seen the prices of them at local big box stores and they aren’t cheap. I honestly thought when I pulled up, “man they have a nice set-up here, this little guy lucked out.” I also thought that they must be doing a good job because there were no animals to be seen. Sometimes I lose my head in the clouds too.
When I stepped inside, wow! I have been to a few humane society shelters in my time, but I have never seen one so pristine and sanitized as the one here in Ashe. Although the place was filled with empty kennels, there wasn’t a hint of old animal smell about the place. It was, in fact, cleaner than some downtown West Jefferson businesses I could mention, but won’t.
Man, I was happy, because I knew I had made the right choice in brining this little guy there, these are the folks who can find him a home and apparently pretty quick.
Have you ever been so wrong about something that it nearly makes your head explode? That’s how I felt about two minutes after walking in.

The very pleasant young lady who was volunteering (yes, I know they are all volunteers) looked at me as if I were holding something strange and alien when I indicated to her that I expected them (her, since she was the only one there) to take the pup and place him in one of the kennels or put him in the great little backyard and then thank me for being a lover of animals and for brining him to them instead of animal control . . .
I couldn’t have been more wrong, if I had tried.
The young lady checked the phone messages to see if anyone had reported a missing dog and when there was none, she told me, in a cheerful voice, that she would be happy to give me directions to the animal control office where I could take him.
I thought I would pass out, my head sort of got a little fuzzy. I asked her what they were there for “if not to keep animals from going to the pound?” She answered by telling me she fostered two dogs already.
Nothing I could say would convince her to take the dog so, frustrated, no, pissed off, I left telling her that I would do just what I am doing now; letting you know.

My question here is what does this organization even exist for, if not to take care of lost animals in need of a home? I don’t have to ask what the donations go to because, as I said, they have a great facility; it’s empty, but it’s really nice.
If they are there only to hold adoptions on the weekends as their webpage says, (wonder how much that costs), why have the building? There are several places more convenient and with higher foot traffic to hold weekend adoptions. The parking lot across from the old Dodge dealership in West Jefferson where the yard selling goes on is just one. I bet that the ladies at Happy Tails Pet Store would be agreeable to loaning part of their large parking lot. Friends for Life do it in Boone all the time.
I know, everybody hates Boone comparisons, but this time it fits.
Why have a building, why pay utility bills and staff it if you aren’t going to do anything six days of the week but check messages. Tell me it’s not just so you have a place to hang your adoption pictures, or for bored summer residents to kill time, please.

Of course the best part was after coming home and letting off some steam on my facebook page, someone actually wrote to me and said I should have lied about where I found the dog. That I should have said a neighbor moved and abandoned him. So, in order to do something morally right I needed to lie. Does anybody else see a problem with that?
The bottom line is, if you are an NPO and you ask for and receive donations to perform a service, perform the dang service. That isn’t happening at the good old ACHS.

Somebody will surely ask the question, “why don’t you just keep him, you picked him up?” or admonish me for criticizing ACHS when I won’t keep the animal. The answer is simple, I don’t advertise that I have animals for adoption (free in some local news products) and I don’t ask for money to care for and find homes for animals, but they do.
Of the two dogs that are part of my pack, one is a rescue dog and she is wonderful. I just can’t afford to keep another animal. And my landlord wouldn’t be too happy about it either. If I could, I would, because this little guy is going to make a great dog.
Just be aware Ashe County folks, if you find an animal and you consider helping it out, that you might be left holding the bag. The ACHS isn’t going to help you out.

By the way if you want him check my facebook page for my contact info and give me a call. First good home to ask gets him. Hey, everybody loves free puppies. Well, except maybe for the ACHS.

Be Quiet and Eat Your Play-Dough

When I was a kid I used to spend a lot of time chewing on window sills. At least that’s what I’m told by my parents and my older sister. Of course she used to eat potting soil, so she lets me alone about all the led based paint I ingested during my teething years.

I bring this up because of something one of my daughters brought up to me the other day after they came home from an appointment with our granddaughter’s doctor.

“Dad, the doctor said she has Pica.”

Taken aback by the revelation that this sweet kid had some terrible disease, I asked her, “what is Pica?”

She explained to me that it is when a child chews on and tries to eat things that aren’t food. You know, like putting flowers or rocks in their mouths or chewing on book corners and eating the paper. I had a son that tried to eat dog food and another granddaughter who likes to snack on lady bugs when she can catch one.

Feeling that this must be some sort of miscommunication between my daughter and the doctor I did what any 21st century person with a question does; I entered into the Googleverse where I found this statement;
“Pica is the persistent eating of substances with no nutrition, such as dirt or paint.” Now, aside from the ironic fact that this could have been written with me and my dirt eating sister in mind, the fact remains that we have turned into such a victim driven, mental disorder fueled society that the absolutely normal act of a kid picking something up and putting it into its mouth, now must have a clinical diagnosis.

Another quote from the article said, (click to it at http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/mental-health-pica) “Before making a diagnosis of pica, the doctor will rule out other disorders -- such as mental retardation, developmental disabilities, or obsessive-compulsive disorder -- as the cause of the odd eating behavior. This pattern of behavior must last at least one month for a diagnosis of pica to be made.”

Come on, really? “Medical Experts” are actually going to put it into a young parents mind that if their kid starts chewing on twigs when he’s playing in the yard that he might be retarded?

And do you know how they say you should treat it? With positive reinforcement of what is and isn’t food, and “close supervision of children known to put things in their mouths.”

In other words, do your job as a parent; because that’s where the problem is.
Parents have known for as long as there have been kids, that the little monsters stick everything in their mouths. Most of us accept that as a part of the learning process. It’s the same reason they want to stick their little fingers in a candle flame, a window fan or an electrical outlet. It’s not because they are into self-mutilation, it’s because they don’t know any better and we are supposed to teach them.

Did any of you reading this ever go to school with a paste eater? I knew a couple and I bet you knew at least one. Nobody ever diagnosed one of them with Pica, nor were the straw chewers, the spitball marksmen or the nail biters.

I tried to explain to my daughter that there was nothing wrong with her child other than the fact that she is two years old full of fire. And I believe that with all my heart because she isn’t the first two-year old I have encountered in my life and they are all completely nuts.

Today it seems that the medical profession, bolstered by the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry, is pushing parents of younger and younger children to consider any unusual behavior as some sort of treatable mental disorder.
As the article suggests, “close collaboration with a mental health team skilled in treating pica is ideal for optimal treatment of these complex cases.”

Hmmm, what do you think the optimal treatment might be? Medication maybe?

I say; if your kid eats dirt, teach him not to do it. Tell him “no.” I understand that such harsh language is frowned upon by today’s child psychologists with concerns of emotional scarring of the child to consider, but it will be fine. I promise.

Look, if a child has a serious developmental issue, then of course they need help; nobody is going to argue that point. But if your kid wants to chew a blade of grass, let him chew the grass. Just make sure you keep an eye out for where your dog does his business.

Children, especially two-year olds chew on things, it’s not a disease. It is the same thing you see on Animal Planet or Discovery when they show a young chimpanzee testing things to learn what he can and can’t eat; it’s called curiosity and it’s the way we mammals learn. His Mama isn’t going to let him eat something that will hurt him, human Mamas, and Daddies, are capable of the same attentiveness.

All Sped Up with No Place to Go

Folks who know me know that I have very little patience with public and political officials who go around with a sense of entitlement about them. Usually, most of us are able to ignore them unless of course they do something stupid and get arrested, suspended or kicked out of office. But sometimes you just can’t ignore them because they force their sense of entitlement right down your throat.
So, I’m getting ready to pull onto Jefferson Avenue in West Jefferson today and I see an approaching SUV, so I wait for it to pass. When it does I notice two things immediately; one, the vehicle is traveling well over the posted speed limit and two, it’s a police vehicle.
As I pulled onto the road, I couldn’t help but think that if our places had been reversed, then I would be getting pulled over about then and ticketed.
We all see it every single day, everywhere you drive, from sea to shinning sea, a government vehicle, usually, a police vehicle of some sort; state, county or local is driving faster than is legal and for no apparent reason, endangering the safety of other drivers. No lights on, no siren, just cruising faster than anyone else can.
I have to wonder what the result of such driving is. Really, I have no choice but to wonder, because after searching for some time on the interweb, I found that there is no publicly available data on accidents caused by unsafe driving by law enforcement officials. I’m sure that data is someplace but it isn’t readily available.
I myself had an unnerving encounter with a police officer a couple of years ago as I drove back to Ashe County from Boone late at night.
I was driving on NC Highway 421 when I came upon a slower moving vehicle, as sometimes happens when you drive. I checked my mirrors and saw that the only vehicle behind me was a good distance back, leaving more than enough time to pass. (I’ve been driving for more than 30 years, so I trust my judgment in these areas.) Speeding up to 65 mph, I started to pass the slower vehicle, when out of nowhere the headlights that had been a half-mile or better behind me rushed up into my rearview mirror and then disappeared below view as the vehicle drew within inches of my bumper. Fortunately, the proximity of the vehicle’s headlights to the back of my Cherokee illuminated the vehicles front and I saw with agitation that it was a police vehicle.
With the cop riding my bumper close enough to read my radio dial and the vehicle I was passing just beginning to fall behind us, I pressed the accelerator to the floor and pushed the old engine as hard as I could to get out of the way. When I finally was able to safely merge right the officer pulled up along side of me and glared over at me as if I had done something wrong and stayed there for 100 yards or more. I obviously hadn’t been doing anything visibly illegal, because he proceeded up and over the next rise and was gone. I want to point out that at no time before, during or at the end of our encounter, did the officer ever turn on his blue lights or make any indication that he was on any type of official business.
Just a short distance down the road I saw two police vehicles on the side of the highway. I slowed as I approached and looked over, like you do, and noticed that two officers had two young ladies out of a vehicle speaking with them. I didn’t get a closer look at them because one of the officers (I’m assuming my new friend) pointed the beam of his flashlight directly at my windshield really screwing up my vision for a minute or two. Not the best thing to have happen at 6o mph.
Did I call and report the incident? Well, I tried to, but since I didn’t have a vehicle number or exact time and location of the incident, “there isn’t much we can do,” I was told. This was, by the way, pretty much the answer I expected. After hanging up I realized that the exercise had been about as productive as arguing with a drunk man in WalMart, without the possibility for a spot on Springer.
Of course there is another group of ‘public servants’ that take supposed entitlement to the next degree and those are volunteer firefighters. Seems like everyplace you go since 9-11 you see pick-up trucks, SUVs and just about everything else sporting a VFD plate and an ass load of red lights and light bars and usually some sort of, “Ain’t we all heroes,” type of bumper sticker. I only know one NYFD Fireman who was at ground zero. He’s retired and has far too much class to act entitled. His humility is why he is such a good man. But many of these guys (and most are male) fly down the highway with no lights on as if they were on a call, only to be seen a few miles away stopping at the BP station for a cold drink or in the McDonalds drive through lane.
Look, I don’t want to fly down the highway, I’m well past that stage in my life and I don’t mind somebody clicking off the long miles a few mph over the limit. But flying down the road just because you can get away with it is dangerous and shows a level of immaturity that concerns me in a public official.
The NC General Assembly needs to look closely at the conduct of police departments and officers on all levels and start weeding out the unprofessional ones so that officers with integrity are the only ones left. The motto is to “Protect and Serve,” not Endanger and Intimidate.
If you are a cop or a volunteer firefighter take this to heart. We like you, we need you and we want to respect you, but blatantly rubbing you ability to drive like a crazy person without consequence is irritating to the rest of us who have to follow the law. It kind of makes me wonder what other laws they are fuzzy on following. Does it make you wonder?

ID? I Don't, Do You?

Let’s talk about identification for a minute.
As many of you know, during my hiatus, Governor Bev Perdue vetoed the GOP led House Bill 351 to require voters to produce a photo ID at the polling place.
“North Carolinians who are eligible to vote have a constitutionally guaranteed right to cast their ballots, and no one should put up obstacles to citizens exercising that right,” she said.
While I am in total agreement with that statement, as I think most reasonable people are, I don’t agree with the Democrats’ definition of obstacles or the Republicans’ rationale for wanting the law in the first place.
You see for most Dems, the obstacles they are referring to are rooted in barring Black Americans from voting by way of violence and intimidation. This was a very real problem at one time in America but today, not so much. The only issues at the polls these days come from fanatical followers of candidates who try to harass people wearing the opposition’s campaign buttons. Nobody is standing outside with ropes and axe handles.
I have voted in two states in my life; West Virginia (my birth state) and North Carolina (my chosen home). I have also voted absentee when I was in the military. Not once in all the elections I have participated in have I ever seen anyone turned away because of what they were.
Did someone around me falsify their identity to vote? Maybe, but I doubt it. I have seen people turned away because they were not on the roll where they tried to vote and in fact, I was turned away once because I went to the wrong polling place. That was my fault and I found the right place and was still able to vote.
However, that is the GOP’s main concern; that someone will vote under someone else’s identity.
Look, when you can get the registered voters to come out and vote like they should, then worry about non-registered voters faking their identity. Until then, false voting is the least of our worries as a democratic republic.
In NC in 2010 with only 66 percent of the population even registered to vote, less than 50 percent turned out to cast ballots. Nationally, only 41 percent of registered voters cast a ballot and in 2008, our last general election, only 65 percent took the time.
Apathy is the problem, not voter fraud.
What makes you pro ID folks think that if you can’t get registered voters out that you have to worry about the people who don’t even take the time to register?
As for me, my opposition to the bill is that once again a governmental body is trying to find yet another way to get my name on an official list. And we all know if you’re not on the list you don’t get in. We also know that if the government has you on yet another list, you’ll be easier to find, when they start looking for people like you.
This type of bill is nothing more than another cow patty on the slippery slope to loss of personal freedoms.
If I am a registered voter, with a voter registration card in my pocket and I show up at my polling place, the only thing the government needs to do is check my name off the list and point me toward the polling booth.

I find it confusing that otherwise reasonable Republicans and TEA Party folks I know think that somehow more governmental control is a good thing. I find it frustrating because these folks are the same folks out there screaming that we need smaller government with fewer intrusions into the lives of citizens.
If we allow our governments, national, state and local, to start requiring official identification for voting, how long will it be until we have to provide ID to travel from one state or town to another, to buy a car, to buy food? How long until cops can stop you in the street and check you ID to see if you are local or not?
Think that sounds crazy? Think of it this way; law enforcement is permitted to set up license checks on government owned roads. Why? Because the roads are owned and maintained by the government and so they have the “legal” right to ensure that the people driving on it have the proper papers and insurance coverage.
Now look into the future a little; a man is walking down the street in an upper-class neighborhood. He’s just walking on a sunny weekend day with no destination in mind just walking around enjoying the view; let’s say he’s in Charlotte or Charleston, SC. Now he might be dressed casually, but not expensively, he is stopped by a police officer who asks him for his ID and health insurance information. The man doesn’t have any and is detained.
Don’t think it can happen?
Town and city streets and sidewalks are on government owned land, the public is permitted to use them, but they are owned and maintained by the government. Just as the government is allowed to stop you on the highway they own and ask to see your papers, the same principle can be used to stop you on city sidewalks. If national health coverage becomes law someday, they could cite you if you don’t have it when they ask for your ID.
Some people say this can’t happen, I say tell that the people of 1940’s Germany or 1950’s Russia.
The government is going to use any means at their disposal to control the citizenry, because a docile, controlled and well documented population is easy to manipulate. If we allow them to continue to put us on list after list after list, and force us to carry special IDs for various reasons we are allowing them to make cattle of us.
Like voter ID? How do you feel about a national ID card? That’s the logical conclusion to all these bills to track who you are and where you go. Then there will be no place to live free and unmolested.
I don’t think I want to go along and if you have half a brain and some healthy skepticism about the motives of government and their desire for total control, you won’t go along with it either.

Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged

If you have turned on a television or radio or god forbid picked up a newspaper in the last two days, all you have seen is Casey Anthony and her acquittal on charges she killed her daughter.
Now, I don’t know if she really did it or not. The evidence in the court of public opinion, which is argued by talking heads and pundits, had the woman convicted in 2008.
Funny thing happened on the way to the death house though, a jury of her peers said, “no, you didn’t prove she did it. Sorry.” So, she gets to go on living and doing it free.
Many people, mostly parents, are furious about this verdict and think Anthony should be lynched anyway. I say, stop complaining – the system did its job. If you want to be mad at somebody be mad at the prosecutors and investigators that blew a case that was begging to be solved.
On his official blog, Grogan's Corner, Dunwoody, Ga. Police Chief Billy Grogan lists six things that are “lessons learned” about the Anthony case, but none of them are critical of how his department’s investigators handled the case. Citing obstacles to conviction like, “the jurors want to know the cause of death,” “ police and prosecutors can only present evidence that is available” and, “jury verdicts should be based of facts not emotion,” Grogan is making it sound like they shouldn’t have had to do anything at all but show up and somehow it’s someone else’s fault that the case was lost.
"In these complex cases, jurors tend to have more confidence in forensic evidence and less confidence in circumstantial evidence. A case such as this is extremely difficult, even in the best of circumstances. It is especially difficult when the circumstances of the case leave you with little real evidence,” Grogan wrote.
Little real evidence? I thought you were supposed to have real evidence to convict somebody. I thought that was the way the system was set up. Yet people want to yelp that justice wasn’t done. Justice was done by the letter of the law as written in the Bill of Rights. What wasn’t done was an effective job by police and prosecutors.
Sometimes the system works the wrong way though, especially when the victim is a child and public outrage demands an arrest, conviction of the innocent is a real possibility, which is as much a crime as acquitting the guilty.
In 2008, Kennedy Brewer was exonerated of a 1995 murder conviction of a three-year-old girl. Even though DNA testing proved Brewer's innocence in 2001, he remained incarcerated for an additional six years not being released until August 2007. The results of the DNA tests which cleared Brewer implicated a man, who later confessed to the murder.
Of course sometimes the evidence comes too late, such as with the case of Cameron Todd Willingham who was convicted in 1992 of the arson murder of his three kids. He was put to death in 2004, but unfortunately, the Texas Forensic Science Commission later established that the evidence was misinterpreted. They also determined that not one bit of the evidence used against him was valid and that the fire really was accidental as Willingham had repeatedly said.
Look, I know that most of the folks in law enforcement and the judicial system are honest upright people who really try to do the job right. But sometimes, some less dedicated or overstretched ones cut corners because of limited resources and manpower or simple apathy.
Maybe, if they could spend a little less time doing pointless things like license checkpoints and busting college kids for misdemeanor weed possession, they would have more time and money to go after the really bad guys and girls out there.
Hey, when it comes right down to it, none of us were in the courtroom or the jury room and we do not have access to the evidence, or lack thereof as it is, so we can only rely on news reporters, who, as I said early on, had Anthony convicted three years ago.
The system said she is innocent, so, she’s innocent. If the system got it wrong, is that somehow worse than if he had been convicted and was actually innocent? I think not.
Only she knows if she killed her child. If she did then I hope there is a hell for her to burn in, if she didn’t then she’s been living in hell for a while now and it’s one she can never leave.