Tag Archives: Crime

Inequality

A twofer!

Another in a long line on why I hate unions.

See, where I work, if you do well you get bigger raises, bigger bonuses and if you do well over the long haul, you get promoted.  On the other hand, if you don’t exceed you may not get fired, but you won’t reap the rewards of the high achievers.  Then again, if you continue to produce so marginally that the firm finds itself better off without your services, you will, in fact, eventually be promoted; to customer.  In other words, the company will no longer employ you.

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Rookie of the Year

Gawd.  Obama continues to make the Rookie of the Year race close.  This gem is in response to critics of his Administration’s decision to try the 9/11 masterminds in NYC.

“(What) I think we have to break is this fearful notion that somehow our justice system can’t handle these guys,” Obama said in an interview with NBC News.

Asked if he understood why some people were offended by trying the men in U.S. courts, he replied: “I don’t think it will be offensive at all when he’s convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him.”

So, the President, trying to showcase the US Judicial system, declares that the defendants are guilty and, AND, he has passed judgment too!

Not that I don’t agree.  Of course I think they are guilty and should die for their crimes.  But I am not the President of the United States.

I just wish that Obama would remember that he IS a little more often.

An Interesting Test

If you break into my house and threaten my wife and kids; expect to be shot.  And hopefully killed.  Self defense is one of the most dominant of American traits.  And really, it makes sense that it be so.  After all, I have the freedomw to call mine what is mine.  To sell it, keep it or give it away.  It’s the cornerstone of what makes us great.

I’m also a father.  And when going into the delivery room for each of my children, I pulled the doc aside, looked her dead in the eye, and said “If at any time there is to be a choice, a choice between my wife or the baby, be very clear that it is my expectation you will not flinch when I tell you to save my wife.”  I get the whole choice thing when it comes to weighing the tender balance of two lives.

So I get that there are certain cases where a person would make a choice to take the life of another.  I do.  If my wife’s life would have been put in danger due to the pregnancy, I would without a doubt, terminate that pregnancy.  Without a doubt.  But equally so, there would be no doubt that what I was doing was weighing one human life against another.  It wouldn’t cross my mind that what I was doing was removing a wart or mole.  It would sadden me greatly that I was ending the life of my child.

And because of that, I understand the argument being made in Raleigh.

Family members of murder victims spoke to a Chapel Hill crowd Saturday in support of proposed legislation that would recognize unborn children as victims in homicide cases.

“You can’t tell me it is not a human being,” Blaine said of Nielsen’s unborn child.

She’s right.  The man that took her daughter’s life not only robbed a mother of her daughter, but a grandmother of her grandchild. In that one act, that man took two human lives.  It’s time this law is passed.  And then extrapolated.  Extrapolated into anti-abortion laws in cases where it makes sense; health of mother/child and victim of crime.

But the left won’t allow it:

When similar bills have been introduced, various women’s rights and pro-choice groups have spoken against it.

And that’s gross.

Heh

An article from the Washington Examiner makes you wonder what the whole point is:  HatTip SayAnything.

Area drivers looking to outwit police speed traps and traffic cameras are using an iPhone application and other global positioning system devices that pinpoint the location of the cameras.

That has irked D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier, who promised her officers would pick up their game to   counteract the devices, which can also help drivers dodge sobriety checkpoints.

“I think that’s the whole point of this program,” she told The Examiner. “It’s designed to circumvent law enforcement — law enforcement that is designed specifically to save lives.”

As a geek, this is COOL.  But aside from that, what is the whole point of the cameras in specific and “law enforcement” in general?  It’s to make people follow the rules; in this case, the speed limit.

Lanier said the technology is a “cowardly tactic” and “people who overly rely on those and break the law anyway are going to get caught” in one way or another.

The greater D.C. area has 290 red-light and speed cameras — comprising nearly 10 percent of all traffic cameras in the U.S., according to estimates by a camera-tracking database called the POI Factory.

Lanier said the cameras have decreased traffic deaths. Red-light and speed cameras have been a hot topic in Montgomery County since Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley signed a bill in May allowing local governments to place speed cameras in school and highway construction zones.

Not for nothing, but what I think is cowardly is hiding cameras, taking pictures of speeding cars and then mailing out a ticket.  THAT’S cowardly.  But other than that I am stunned by Ms. Lanier’s comments.  It’s as if she is more interested in capturing people who break laws than in motivating them to not break laws.  I mean, all she has to do is ask herself how those cameras decreased traffic deaths?  Is it because cameras allow drivers to view video on poor driving and make better decisions?  Is it because drivers are able to see video of traffic accidents and get scared [think drivers ed]?  Or is it, because when people know that a camera is there they SLOW DOWN!

So, does Ms. Lanier wanna catch bad guys or have people slow down.

You know, back in college I was all ready kinda on to this.  So, we did a lot of driving back and forth between home and school.  Sometimes to my place, other times to my buddy’s.  And we had a “fuzz buster”.  You know that little device that detects police radar and beeps or screams at you.  Well, every time, EVERY SINGLE time that we heard our little gadget even chirp we promptly brought our speed right to the speed limit.  And we smiled.  We thought we were out thinking the law.  But one night it occurred to me that we were doing exactly what they wanted us to do; slow down.  THEN it occurred to me why they even ran squad cars at all?  Why not just prop up a radar and turn it on.  Drive away and plant another one?  Us silly stupid college kids would slow down for each one.

Anyway, these cameras act exactly like a radar detector, except they are announced.  Why this police chief should get upset that people are advertising where to slow down, then slow down, is beyond me.

Liberal Press: An Example

So, we have all heard about the Dr. in Kansas that was gunned down while serving as an usher at his local church.  The play in the media, the blogs and the talk shows has been understandably heavy.  In addition to the story itself, there has even been an increase in the whole abortion debate.  I would suspect, given our divide on the issue of abortion, that this could not be avoided.  However, the aspect that has really gotten me sideways is the whole guilt by association running parallel to this.

There are opinions on both sides of the abortion debate.  Additionally, each side runs heavy on emotion.  As with all charged debates that are fed with significant amounts of emotion, extremists emerge.  To hold one group of people who have an opinion on an issue responsible for the extremists is poor form in the highest degree.  The stories that are circulating that claim so and so contributed to the murder.  Or that this group and their HATE speech motivated this act, are stories of the worst kind.  I don’t any one single person that thinks cold blooded murder is the way to handle a debate, any debate.  Everyone I know thinks that this guy in custody is guilty of 1st degree murder and should be given the book.

But does that stop the stories?  The press and the whole “machine”?  No.

But the worst of this is in the coverage of the soldiers gunned down in Arkansas.  Literally the day after this Dr. was murdered, a Muslim extremist shot and killed a soldier; another was injured as well.  Not only is play of the news story far less than the Dr.’s, but the outrage is starkly missing.  I don’s see one single story screaming that it’s radical Islam, and groups that support it, being held responsible for this shooting.  I don’t see Anti-War groups being excoriated for fanning the flames of hate causing this to occur.  Nothing.  No where.

So it was that I was trying to find such a story last night.  I couldn’t.  But, near the end of my search, I just refreshed CNN.  And this is what I find:

NEW YORK (CNN) — A potential victim became a compassionate counselor during a recent robbery attempt, changing the would-be criminal’s mind — and apparently his religion.

This is the story, even compelling, of a shop keeper showing compassion to a would be burglar.  And during this moment of compassion, perhaps converted the man to Islam.  Now, don’t get me wrong, this story is the feel good news that I think we should see more often.  However, I can’t get over the double standard being displayed here.

On one hand we have Pro-Life organizations and individuals being held accountable for one man’s extreme views.  Ont he other, we have a feel good piece on Islam giving that particular group’s extremists a free pass.

Unbelievable.

Government Employees: The Important Ones

So, this week the State’s Chiefs of Police are meeting in Durham.  They are here to discuss, among other things, how to attract and retain police officers.  I imagine that this is a dilemma that is not unique to police forces.  If asked, I am sure that Fire Chiefs would also list this problem at or near the top of their priority list.  So too would nearly every government agency.  And to make matters worse, we have elected or government appointed people running the show; this alone would cause me to hit the door.

As I was considering this today, I came across this awesome thought from TJIC.  While I have  never been able to express it quite this way, I have always thought that government always seem to lose their best due to circumstances like this.  Exposing your employees to competitive forces does not hurt the staff but rather increases the strength of the organization.  And, by the way, why would we want to protect our worst staff in this case?  I would seem that the top job of any supervisor to identify and remove the bottom 10% of the force?

Another way:  When you have an organization that only protects those who are not the top performers you should not be surprised when only the “not top performers” remain.

Governor Purdue: How Shall Ye Deliver

In Saturday’s edition of the News and Observer, we saw this article. The article lists the top nine challenges our first female governor is going to face.  After blinking and taking another sip of Saturday morning coffee I confirmed that it was a top nine list.  Top nine?  Nine?  Shaking my head I plowed into those challenges.

The introduction was fair enough.  The facts were laid out with enough detachment that I couldn’t say that anyone was rooting for or rooting against anyone else.  However, we couldn’t get out of that intro without the obligatory “this is as bad an economy we have seen since the Great Depression”.  I hate that.  I mean really REALLY hate that type of scare mongering.  I hold that this type of hype, this irresponsible posturing that has caused much of America’s fear.  And to make it worse,  we are seeing it on both sides of the aisle.  Truly a bi-partisan effort to freak us all out.

Okay, so,’nough said about the preamble, lets get to the main course.

1).  The Budget – Not surprisingly, this is first on list; and it should be.  And I wanna see how she is going to handle this.  ith a shortfall estimate of 3 billion, she is going to have a challenge.  To her credit, she seems to want to resist raising taxes.  In fact she acknowledged that a tax increase might be a bad idea:

I don’t believe that you can raise taxes in an economy with folks struggling the way they are.

Now, I would have liked to hear a little bit more about why she feels that way; right now it has the tone of a campaign promise.  But she follows this up with a nod to education and a pretty honest assessment of where we are:

My goal would be to hold the classroom and teachers and kids as harmless as possible. After that, you have to be a realist and do what you have to do to make the budget balanced.

2).  Dropout Rate – This is where Democrats always stumble.  They correctly and consistently have education near the top of their priority lists, and that is exactly where we should have it.  However, liberals are always always always wrong [and predictable] when it comes to how to actually do something here.  Their only answer is to spend more.  And then, spend more to study why spending more isn’t working.  To me the answer is pretty straight forward.  The problem for Purdue and her party; they are indebted to the very folks that they can not afford to alienate; teachers and the whole “Educational Establishment”.  Until teachers and Principals can be subjected to otherwise normal competition based advancement, we will be stuck with subpar education.

3)  Green Economy – So, really, this is whatcha got?  I mean, the economy is so freakin obvious, and then education is so freakin Democrat that really, this is the first of the rest, and this is pathetic.  Now, I will only give Green Jobs credit here in our State because The Chairman is promising to spend like a billion 150 billion dollars on Green Jobs.  So, when it comes to “free” money, the prudent thing to do is take.  Otherwise, the concept of Green makes me wanna lose my belly.  Don’t get me wrong, one day oil is gonna run out.  And, if we can stretch the oil we do have even further by investing in alternative energy or by increasing efficiency of that oil–I am ALL for it.  Just don’t pull this bullshit about Global Warming.  </rant>

4)  Mental Health System – This one befuddles me.  I have zero insight into the mental health system, much less how or why it’s broken.  My only take – the more we rely on government health care to provide health care, the less health care we will actually get.  Serious, think about it.  When was the last time “Government” provided any sort of innovation?  Never!  The only thing that can happen when we try and have government run anything is attempted cost containment, corruption, buracracy and failure.

5)  Obesity – Another health issue.  And again, the alarms are sounding.  I am not sure what the answer is to this one, but I am pretty sure that it has nothing to do with government.  For a peek into what that might loook like, check this scenario out.  [H/T Carpie Diem].   The only thing that prevents me from totally bashing this is the fact the article refers to children.  I maintain that kids are not subject to the normal rules I have for society as a whole.  In other words, if an adult wants to eat themselves into oblivion, that HAS to be their choice-and their issue.  But kids, yeah, we may be better served to develop a solution to this one.  I suspect that libs wouldn’t be too keen on my thoughts though:  Put ’em to work!

6)  Open Government – This is a throw away.  She deserves one, but come on–number 6?  Serious?

7)  Probation – I honestly think this has to go to the real number #1 slot.  In other words, it should be ahead of Global Warming Green Jobs.  Really.  This one is so UP THERE that almost nothing else is as important.  We have criminals who are out on probation not once meeting their probation officer.  We have folks committing crimes and not being followed up on.  Guys are falling through the cracks all over the place.  Really, this HAS to be higher than 7.

8)  Campaign Reform – Only thing I can say.  Endowment fund.

I can raise enough money for both the Republican and Democratic candidates in 2012.

This should be fun to watch.

9)  Transportation – Again, I think this one rates a bit higher than it’s being listed.  We’re so far behind in road works and the money to fund them.  It may be time to at least consider privatising our roads.

Let’s see how the Gov’na does in the next 4 years.