by Mr. Quarter.
Here are a few quotes - all by the same famous historical figure. They seem to describe in general outline and effect of the policies of the Obama administration.
"Destroy the family, you destroy the country."
"Medicine is the keystone in the arch of socialism."
"The surest way to destroy a nation is to debauch its currency."
"The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation."
"Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted."
"It would be the greatest mistake, certainly, to think that concessions mean peace. Nothing of the kind. Concessions are nothing but a new form of war."
"Only an armed people can be the real bulwark of popular liberty."
The speaker to which these quotes are attributed? Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Health Care Reform
By Mr. Quarter
Early in the history of this blog during the 2008 presidential elections, I posted a lengthy dissertation on my vision of "universal health care" . Interested readers can refer back to those thoughts in the archives herein. Given the debate that is currently raging, I thought it appropriate to weigh in again, repeating and revising my earlier thoughts.
First a disclosure. Even though I am very conservative in my politics, I believe that there are certain target reforms that are necessary and beneficial to our current health care system. I do believe that some form of affordable health insurance should be available to all US citizens, although I vehemently disagree with the notion of mandatory compliance for all persons or businesses. I believe that excessive health care costs arise from some specific factors:
Early in the history of this blog during the 2008 presidential elections, I posted a lengthy dissertation on my vision of "universal health care" . Interested readers can refer back to those thoughts in the archives herein. Given the debate that is currently raging, I thought it appropriate to weigh in again, repeating and revising my earlier thoughts.
First a disclosure. Even though I am very conservative in my politics, I believe that there are certain target reforms that are necessary and beneficial to our current health care system. I do believe that some form of affordable health insurance should be available to all US citizens, although I vehemently disagree with the notion of mandatory compliance for all persons or businesses. I believe that excessive health care costs arise from some specific factors:
- Many of the uninsured (particularly low income individuals and families) rely on hospital emergency rooms as their primary medical provider. Unpaid or noncollectable charges are distributed to the hospital overhead costs and ultimately paid by those who have insurance.
- Medicare, medicaid, and private insurance disallow significant portions of the charges for service that are submitted by medical providers (think the charge is $120.00 and the reimbursement is $17.50). So there is a built in incentive to increase the volume and magnitude of charges submitted for reimbursement.
- The probability of tort litigation with consequent damage awards far in excess of the actual damages compels the practice of defensive medicine and drives up the cost of services in direct proportion to the cost of liability insurance coverage.
I believe that the necessary reforms to reduce the cost of health care and encourage health care insurance for all US citizens should include the following:
- Private insurance should be made portable from job to job. Just as salary requirements are a consideration, so then would be the cost of the employee's health insurance as a hiring decision if the employer is providing this as part of the employment package.
- Eliminate, by regulation, the existing conditions exception to health coverage. If existing conditions are known, then they can be priced into the cost of coverage as part of the carrier's total risk pool . However, this could lead to hiring or employment discrimination. Perhaps there could be set up a national risk pool for existing conditions coverage that would function like an umbrella policy. That could be contributed to by all insurers and Medicare.
- Eliminate by regulation all barriers to purchasing insurance or insurance coverage across state lines. Open the market place and let competition set pricing.
- Tort reform. A no brainer - and it has been done in other industries (you can't sue the airlines for wrongful death if you crash). Three key reforms here. First, the plaintiff will be liable for all legal costs if the court rules in favor of the defendant. Second, awards actual damages are based on actual lost income potential (i.e, a person who would never earn $5M in their lifetime cannot be awarded $5M) with an absolute cap on actual damages. Third, punitive damages are prohibited.
What about those who have no insurance or cannot afford it? Here I favor a quasi-public option. But again market based. The federal government should establish a minimum coverage specification. In my opinion that would include wellness care (i.e., annual physical, vaccinations, etc.) and catastrophic event coverage (i.e., appendectomy, knee replacement, heart transplant). This specification should be put out to competitive bid with all US based health insurers. The bid specification could stipulate a particular age/sex/ethnic range and risk pool size as a basis for the premium. Low bidder is awarded a 5 or 10 year contract to administer the program providing the coverage to all who apply. Annual audit of the low bidder, at the bidder's expense, would be required. A menu of additional coverages, for additional premium cost, could be offered as well.
This program would be open to anyone, including businesses who want to offer health care to their employees. Federal subsidies on a financial need basis would be available to low income individual US Citizens and their families. The subsidies will be offered on a sliding scale from 100% to the most needy to 0% above a threshold income of say $25k /yr for individuals or $40K for families.
Market competition in the private sector, market competition in offering coverage through the public sector, availability for all, subsidies for those that truly need assistance, reforms to control costs. These ideas are viable and implementable. They do not require mandates for coverage, force a one size fits all on the populace, and provide absolute freedom of choice.
One of my biggest issues with the Obamacare boondoggle as currently articulated is how they propose to pay for the costs. I have heard the number $500 billion in savings from "efficiencies and elimination of waste in medicare". Well, if we know how to do that now, what is the hold up? Get it done!
Post Script - After posting this, I thought about another aspect of the health care debate that has been tossed out there and is actually one of some significance. Employer paid health care insurance is a substantial benefit (income) that is not taxed. While I take offense at the characterization of this as a loophole (like not taxing the air that we breathe is a loophole) there are some legitimate arguments around this issue. I have a lawyer friend, a partner if a major Philadelphia law firm (yes, I know, a "Philadelphia Lawyer"). The business is a LLP (Limited Liability Partnership). Partners get no salary or benefits. They receive a portion of the firm's profits on a periodic basis. So when he purchases health insurance for himself and his family, he is paying full boat for the coverage (no employer contribution), and pays income tax on the money he uses to pay the premium. Not fair. I am not advocating taxing employer paid health insurance. But I do believe that the laws should be changed to allow for a personal tax deduction or tax credit for the cost of purchasing health insurance.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
The Deuce Ponders 4
A current events quiz.
1. Guys...if you absolutely had to choose, drooling banjo players with shotguns demanding an answer, who would you rather marry?
A. Jeanane Garafalo
B. Whoopi Goldberg
C. Barney Frank
D. Nancy Pelosi
Answer: C. Barney Frank. Sure, the lisp is a turn off, but maybe he likes football. In any event, he can't possibly run his yap as much as the other ladies. Plus, if you find you can't stand him, Fox News won't run reports 24/7 on his disappearance...since he's not a blond chick.
2. Ten African leaders, meeting at African Union Headquarters in Ethiopia, are asking for $67 billion dollars annually from the West to combat...
A. Tribal Warfare
B. Crocodile Predation
C. Global Warming
D. Female Virginity
Answer: C. Global Warming. Never mind all that Hutu vs. Tutsi genocide or the AIDS pandemic or the devolution of South Africa, global warming may cause the Sahara to get one degree hotter in the next fifty years and the mosquitoes in the Congo will get a little more aggressive. You know, if you're trying to pick my pocket can't you at least try harder to come up with a more believable excuse, like you're a Nigerian prince and if I'll just cash your check for $750 thousand and send it to you, you'll be able to claim your rightful kingship and I can keep $25 thousand for myself? No wonder the entire African continent is a write off...they can't even run a believable scam.
3. You're a CIA intelligence officer tasked with interrogating high value Al-Qaeda prisoners. Which of the following interrogation techniques are allowed under the Obama administration guidelines?
A. Water Boarding
B. Sleep Deprivation
C. Hate Speech ( "Tell me what I want to know or I'll kill your family!", or "That cheesy mustache makes you look like a pussy!" )
D. Let a pissed off Poodle bark at him
E. Atomic Wedgy
Answer: E. Atomic Wedgy. The Atomic Wedgy may be administered to the prisoner, but only after he's been given a prayer rug, told which direction Mecca is, given a signed first edition of the Koran, fed a seven course culturally correct meal free of pork and allowed to cut the head off of an infidel Christian or Jew ( video made available to Al Jazeera, of course ). And the Crusades stopped at three because...?
4. Cash For Clunkers was a bad idea because...
A. The federal government shouldn't be in the business of selling cars.
B. Car dealers shouldn't rely on the federal government to help them sell cars.
C. I didn't pay my taxes just so they could help your sorry ass buy a new rice burner.
D. Cash For Clunkers could morph into yet another welfare program, like Cash For Appliances.
Answer. All of the above. If you took advantage of the Cash For Clunkers program you should hang yourself right now. You just used $3500 to $4500 of my tax money to subsidize the purchase of your new ride. Have you no shame? Have you no pride? You're a parasite. When you have that head-on crash because you're so busy texting your BFF I hope your airbags fail.
5. The "Public Option" of Obama's health care plan is creating so much controversy because...
A. The Federal Government should not be involved in health care insurance programs.
B. It makes private medical records available to the government.
C. "End of Life" counseling sounds too much like "Time to give it up geezer!"
D. Any legislation that takes over a thousand pages to describe is prima facie evidence that it is an abomination that will bankrupt the country while fixing nothing.
Answer: All of the above. Obama's health care plan is not about health care...it's about controlling you. Once Obama wets his beak in health care he can then say, "You're too fat. Lose weight or we'll withhold coverage for conditions related to obesity." Or, "stop smoking or we'll deny coverage for any respiratory diseases.", or "Injuries sustained in a car crash and you weren't wearing a seat belt...claim denied.", or "Born with Down's Syndrome, your carbon footprint will be humongous...can't use you...off to the post-birth abortion chamber you go."
What did the Chinese philosopher say..."May you live in interesting times." Well folks, it's getting real interesting.
1. Guys...if you absolutely had to choose, drooling banjo players with shotguns demanding an answer, who would you rather marry?
A. Jeanane Garafalo
B. Whoopi Goldberg
C. Barney Frank
D. Nancy Pelosi
Answer: C. Barney Frank. Sure, the lisp is a turn off, but maybe he likes football. In any event, he can't possibly run his yap as much as the other ladies. Plus, if you find you can't stand him, Fox News won't run reports 24/7 on his disappearance...since he's not a blond chick.
2. Ten African leaders, meeting at African Union Headquarters in Ethiopia, are asking for $67 billion dollars annually from the West to combat...
A. Tribal Warfare
B. Crocodile Predation
C. Global Warming
D. Female Virginity
Answer: C. Global Warming. Never mind all that Hutu vs. Tutsi genocide or the AIDS pandemic or the devolution of South Africa, global warming may cause the Sahara to get one degree hotter in the next fifty years and the mosquitoes in the Congo will get a little more aggressive. You know, if you're trying to pick my pocket can't you at least try harder to come up with a more believable excuse, like you're a Nigerian prince and if I'll just cash your check for $750 thousand and send it to you, you'll be able to claim your rightful kingship and I can keep $25 thousand for myself? No wonder the entire African continent is a write off...they can't even run a believable scam.
3. You're a CIA intelligence officer tasked with interrogating high value Al-Qaeda prisoners. Which of the following interrogation techniques are allowed under the Obama administration guidelines?
A. Water Boarding
B. Sleep Deprivation
C. Hate Speech ( "Tell me what I want to know or I'll kill your family!", or "That cheesy mustache makes you look like a pussy!" )
D. Let a pissed off Poodle bark at him
E. Atomic Wedgy
Answer: E. Atomic Wedgy. The Atomic Wedgy may be administered to the prisoner, but only after he's been given a prayer rug, told which direction Mecca is, given a signed first edition of the Koran, fed a seven course culturally correct meal free of pork and allowed to cut the head off of an infidel Christian or Jew ( video made available to Al Jazeera, of course ). And the Crusades stopped at three because...?
4. Cash For Clunkers was a bad idea because...
A. The federal government shouldn't be in the business of selling cars.
B. Car dealers shouldn't rely on the federal government to help them sell cars.
C. I didn't pay my taxes just so they could help your sorry ass buy a new rice burner.
D. Cash For Clunkers could morph into yet another welfare program, like Cash For Appliances.
Answer. All of the above. If you took advantage of the Cash For Clunkers program you should hang yourself right now. You just used $3500 to $4500 of my tax money to subsidize the purchase of your new ride. Have you no shame? Have you no pride? You're a parasite. When you have that head-on crash because you're so busy texting your BFF I hope your airbags fail.
5. The "Public Option" of Obama's health care plan is creating so much controversy because...
A. The Federal Government should not be involved in health care insurance programs.
B. It makes private medical records available to the government.
C. "End of Life" counseling sounds too much like "Time to give it up geezer!"
D. Any legislation that takes over a thousand pages to describe is prima facie evidence that it is an abomination that will bankrupt the country while fixing nothing.
Answer: All of the above. Obama's health care plan is not about health care...it's about controlling you. Once Obama wets his beak in health care he can then say, "You're too fat. Lose weight or we'll withhold coverage for conditions related to obesity." Or, "stop smoking or we'll deny coverage for any respiratory diseases.", or "Injuries sustained in a car crash and you weren't wearing a seat belt...claim denied.", or "Born with Down's Syndrome, your carbon footprint will be humongous...can't use you...off to the post-birth abortion chamber you go."
What did the Chinese philosopher say..."May you live in interesting times." Well folks, it's getting real interesting.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
The Deuce and John Hughes
Film director and writer John Hughes died last week. I knew I liked some of his movies, but I didn't realize how many until he passed away. My bad John. John's best movies featured humor above all, but were layered with themes of the importance of family and friends, of courage, of honesty and the power of the individual.
Animal House (writer): Are you kidding me? A genre creating, young man drink/sex/prank/puke fest. Lesson; Fight the Power. Favorite quote; "Food fight!" An American classic. Bluto lives!
Uncle Buck (director): Just one of several collaborations with the genius John Candy. Loser uncle comes to the rescue of brother's family in time of need. Meets resistance from cynical niece, wins her over with caring, tough love and forgiveness. Hilarious and heartbreaking. Lesson; trust family. Favorite quote; "Ever heard of a ritual killing? Hee-hee-hee."
Home Alone (writer): Now a Christmas classic. A young boy is mistakenly left home alone when his family takes a Christmas vacation in Paris. Boy thwarts would be burglars, learns self sufficiency and realizes importance of family, even if they're flawed. Lesson; man up...and allow for imperfections in those you love. Favorite quote; "Keep the change, ya filthy animal."
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (director): Two men try to make it home during a blizzard at Thanksgiving time. John Candy and Steve Martin team up for this hilarious and heartfelt romp through middle America. Bumbling loser Candy and repressed businessman Martin accidentally share a nightmare trip in an epic struggle to get home by the holiday. Lesson; patience, forgiveness and fellowship. Favorite quote; "Those aren't pillows!"
The Breakfast Club (director): Easily the most serious of Hughes' films. Five high school students meet for the first time while serving detention on a Saturday. The jock, the thug, the nerd, the princess and the freak compare notes on what it's like growing up. They hate each other but they band together to fight the 'fascism' of the teacher monitoring their detention. In the end, the barriers of class and stereotype come crashing down as the five unite in teenage angst. Lesson; we're not as different as we seem. Favorite quote; "Eat my shorts!"
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (director): The best of them all. High school senior Ferris takes yet another day off from school, his ninth of the semester, by faking an illness. Left alone at home by his parents he sets out to free his best friend Cameron from his neuroses and inability to stand up to his father by talking Cameron into a a day on the town (Chicago) with Ferris' girlfriend Sloan and transportation provided by Cameron's father's classic Ferrari. Hilarity ensues and lessons are taught by the irrepressible Ferris. Lesson; "...believe in yourself." Favorite quote: "Life moves pretty fast; and ya don't stop and look around once in a while, ya gonna miss it."
Other movies directed or written by Hughes include Weird Science, National Lampoon's Vacation, Pretty In Pink, Sixteen Candles and Only the Lonely.
Hughes' movies made stars of Matthew Broderick, Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy.
Film critics describe Hughes' movies as the soundtrack of teenagers lives in the '80's. Perhaps so. I was well past high school when these movies were released, and I love them all. They're not serious films and none of them have ever won an Oscar, but they all share the most important thing a movie must have in my opinion...you feel good at the end.
Uncle Buck saves his niece, wins the love and respect of his brother and sister-in-law, finally gets a nine to five job and seals the deal on his girl friend...
Kevin fights off the burglars, reunites his fearsome neighbor to his son and his family, and reestablishes the love and respect of his family...
Neal suffers all the indignities Del can accidentally dish out and still invites Del to share Thanksgiving with him and his family...
Five disparate kids come together to fight a common foe and learn to respect one another...
Ferris wails on Twist and Shout, saves Cameron's mental health and wins over his jealous sister...
You feel good at the end. Is there a better critique?
Animal House (writer): Are you kidding me? A genre creating, young man drink/sex/prank/puke fest. Lesson; Fight the Power. Favorite quote; "Food fight!" An American classic. Bluto lives!
Uncle Buck (director): Just one of several collaborations with the genius John Candy. Loser uncle comes to the rescue of brother's family in time of need. Meets resistance from cynical niece, wins her over with caring, tough love and forgiveness. Hilarious and heartbreaking. Lesson; trust family. Favorite quote; "Ever heard of a ritual killing? Hee-hee-hee."
Home Alone (writer): Now a Christmas classic. A young boy is mistakenly left home alone when his family takes a Christmas vacation in Paris. Boy thwarts would be burglars, learns self sufficiency and realizes importance of family, even if they're flawed. Lesson; man up...and allow for imperfections in those you love. Favorite quote; "Keep the change, ya filthy animal."
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (director): Two men try to make it home during a blizzard at Thanksgiving time. John Candy and Steve Martin team up for this hilarious and heartfelt romp through middle America. Bumbling loser Candy and repressed businessman Martin accidentally share a nightmare trip in an epic struggle to get home by the holiday. Lesson; patience, forgiveness and fellowship. Favorite quote; "Those aren't pillows!"
The Breakfast Club (director): Easily the most serious of Hughes' films. Five high school students meet for the first time while serving detention on a Saturday. The jock, the thug, the nerd, the princess and the freak compare notes on what it's like growing up. They hate each other but they band together to fight the 'fascism' of the teacher monitoring their detention. In the end, the barriers of class and stereotype come crashing down as the five unite in teenage angst. Lesson; we're not as different as we seem. Favorite quote; "Eat my shorts!"
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (director): The best of them all. High school senior Ferris takes yet another day off from school, his ninth of the semester, by faking an illness. Left alone at home by his parents he sets out to free his best friend Cameron from his neuroses and inability to stand up to his father by talking Cameron into a a day on the town (Chicago) with Ferris' girlfriend Sloan and transportation provided by Cameron's father's classic Ferrari. Hilarity ensues and lessons are taught by the irrepressible Ferris. Lesson; "...believe in yourself." Favorite quote: "Life moves pretty fast; and ya don't stop and look around once in a while, ya gonna miss it."
Other movies directed or written by Hughes include Weird Science, National Lampoon's Vacation, Pretty In Pink, Sixteen Candles and Only the Lonely.
Hughes' movies made stars of Matthew Broderick, Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy.
Film critics describe Hughes' movies as the soundtrack of teenagers lives in the '80's. Perhaps so. I was well past high school when these movies were released, and I love them all. They're not serious films and none of them have ever won an Oscar, but they all share the most important thing a movie must have in my opinion...you feel good at the end.
Uncle Buck saves his niece, wins the love and respect of his brother and sister-in-law, finally gets a nine to five job and seals the deal on his girl friend...
Kevin fights off the burglars, reunites his fearsome neighbor to his son and his family, and reestablishes the love and respect of his family...
Neal suffers all the indignities Del can accidentally dish out and still invites Del to share Thanksgiving with him and his family...
Five disparate kids come together to fight a common foe and learn to respect one another...
Ferris wails on Twist and Shout, saves Cameron's mental health and wins over his jealous sister...
You feel good at the end. Is there a better critique?
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Deuce Really Was The Man
In my previous post I described how Harvard Professor Louis Gates and President Barack Obama think, because I'm white, that I'm The Man. For two years I really was The Man, volunteering as a reserve police officer in my home town. I wore the uniform, I wore the badge, and I wore the gun. I had full authority to make arrests. The only difference between me and regular police officers was that I was unpaid. I want to tell you all something...when you're wearing the badge, the sense of responsibility is incredibly heavy.
In my previous post I said, "I love it when assholes get arrested." That's still true. But I said that as a civilian, with no duty or responsibility to enforce the law. When I was a cop, I never had a situation occur where I was in a hurry to arrest anyone, no matter how big an asshole they were being. If anything, I felt a necessity to be more lenient than a good cop would be. By lenient, I mean not arresting them. But I didn't mean I didn't want to get physical with them... which is one of the reasons I ultimately resigned after two years of service.
When I was a cop, my best friend at the time, a regular paid cop, asked me why I didn't apply to join the force as a regular officer. I told him, " You guys have to take too much shit. I don't think I could take all that shit and keep my cool...I'd do something stupid." What I meant was that I might not arrest someone for being an asshole, but I would want to fuck them up a little. In my mind, arresting someone was a big deal...cuffing a loudmouth drunk to get their attention and facilitate their obedience was not. An arrest meant the perp was cuffed and stuffed and taken to jail for booking. It meant the perp had to make bail if he could, had to hire a lawyer if he wanted to fight the charge, had to miss work for days or weeks and potentially lose his job. If I could put a knot on his head and make him shut up enough to listen to reason and possibly avoid arrest, that seemed to me to be the better of two bad choices in most of the situations I found myself in. I still think I had a big city cop mentality in a small town. Those two don't go together very well.
My buddy replied that as a cop, you take as much shit as you're willing to take. Some officers take a lot of shit before they drop the hammer and arrest someone for 'disorderly conduct', or 'interfering with official acts' or 'public intoxication'. What he said was true. My friend took a fair amount of shit from the public...more than I wanted to. Another officer on our small force took no shit what so ever and would arrest someone for one of the above named offenses at the drop of the first "fuck you!", or when someone was too slow in obeying his orders ( cops are authorized by law to give you orders which you must obey or be subject to arrest...most adults don't respond well to being given orders ).
Police officers have a huge amount of discretion in how they do their jobs. The Gates event is a perfect example. The cop could have held Gates at gunpoint and cuffed him before he started asking questions. When cops aren't sure what the situation is and the person they're dealing with is being uncooperative and belligerent, they often will cuff that person "for every one's safety" until they figure out what is going on. Their not kidding when they say it's for every one's protection. An uncooperative man in cuffs is generally no threat to the cop or bystanders ( like wives or children who may be present ), but the same man uncuffed could be a significant threat...could be high on God knows what...could be mentally unbalanced...could be a convicted felon on parole who's facing a third strike should he be convicted of another felony. The cop just doesn't know. Ultimately the cop goes with his instincts and his training. Better to cuff an innocent man while you're figuring things out than not cuff him and end up shooting him when he rushes at you with fists raised in anger. Gates got off easy.
Not too many years ago I was pulled over by a deputy sheriff. I was seven mph over the limit. I had my two kids in the car, teenagers at the time. When I got my car stopped I told my kids to keep their hands in plain view and to sit still. I kept both my hands on the steering wheel until the deputy asked for my drivers license and registration. While the deputy was in his cruiser running my info ( checking for wants or warrants and probably checking for prior traffic violations ) my kids asked me why I told them to sit still with their hands in plain view. I told them, "because he has a gun, and I don't want him to feel threatened."
I was a white cop when I said that.
Gates wasn't "profiled" as a black man...he simply acted like an asshole. You may think that being an asshole isn't against the law, but the fact is that being an asshole may be against the law depending upon the situation...and the cop who's dealing with you.
As I said in the first post, if you're going to fight a cop, fight him in court, not on the street. In court you have a chance. On the street you have no chance at all. So be smart, and live to fight another day. Cops just want to do their jobs. If you're innocent of any crime, be cool, do what the cop says, and 99% of the time you'll be on your way in a few minutes, no harm done. Do what Gates did, and I can just about guarantee you a bad day...regardless of the color of your skin.
In my previous post I said, "I love it when assholes get arrested." That's still true. But I said that as a civilian, with no duty or responsibility to enforce the law. When I was a cop, I never had a situation occur where I was in a hurry to arrest anyone, no matter how big an asshole they were being. If anything, I felt a necessity to be more lenient than a good cop would be. By lenient, I mean not arresting them. But I didn't mean I didn't want to get physical with them... which is one of the reasons I ultimately resigned after two years of service.
When I was a cop, my best friend at the time, a regular paid cop, asked me why I didn't apply to join the force as a regular officer. I told him, " You guys have to take too much shit. I don't think I could take all that shit and keep my cool...I'd do something stupid." What I meant was that I might not arrest someone for being an asshole, but I would want to fuck them up a little. In my mind, arresting someone was a big deal...cuffing a loudmouth drunk to get their attention and facilitate their obedience was not. An arrest meant the perp was cuffed and stuffed and taken to jail for booking. It meant the perp had to make bail if he could, had to hire a lawyer if he wanted to fight the charge, had to miss work for days or weeks and potentially lose his job. If I could put a knot on his head and make him shut up enough to listen to reason and possibly avoid arrest, that seemed to me to be the better of two bad choices in most of the situations I found myself in. I still think I had a big city cop mentality in a small town. Those two don't go together very well.
My buddy replied that as a cop, you take as much shit as you're willing to take. Some officers take a lot of shit before they drop the hammer and arrest someone for 'disorderly conduct', or 'interfering with official acts' or 'public intoxication'. What he said was true. My friend took a fair amount of shit from the public...more than I wanted to. Another officer on our small force took no shit what so ever and would arrest someone for one of the above named offenses at the drop of the first "fuck you!", or when someone was too slow in obeying his orders ( cops are authorized by law to give you orders which you must obey or be subject to arrest...most adults don't respond well to being given orders ).
Police officers have a huge amount of discretion in how they do their jobs. The Gates event is a perfect example. The cop could have held Gates at gunpoint and cuffed him before he started asking questions. When cops aren't sure what the situation is and the person they're dealing with is being uncooperative and belligerent, they often will cuff that person "for every one's safety" until they figure out what is going on. Their not kidding when they say it's for every one's protection. An uncooperative man in cuffs is generally no threat to the cop or bystanders ( like wives or children who may be present ), but the same man uncuffed could be a significant threat...could be high on God knows what...could be mentally unbalanced...could be a convicted felon on parole who's facing a third strike should he be convicted of another felony. The cop just doesn't know. Ultimately the cop goes with his instincts and his training. Better to cuff an innocent man while you're figuring things out than not cuff him and end up shooting him when he rushes at you with fists raised in anger. Gates got off easy.
Not too many years ago I was pulled over by a deputy sheriff. I was seven mph over the limit. I had my two kids in the car, teenagers at the time. When I got my car stopped I told my kids to keep their hands in plain view and to sit still. I kept both my hands on the steering wheel until the deputy asked for my drivers license and registration. While the deputy was in his cruiser running my info ( checking for wants or warrants and probably checking for prior traffic violations ) my kids asked me why I told them to sit still with their hands in plain view. I told them, "because he has a gun, and I don't want him to feel threatened."
I was a white cop when I said that.
Gates wasn't "profiled" as a black man...he simply acted like an asshole. You may think that being an asshole isn't against the law, but the fact is that being an asshole may be against the law depending upon the situation...and the cop who's dealing with you.
As I said in the first post, if you're going to fight a cop, fight him in court, not on the street. In court you have a chance. On the street you have no chance at all. So be smart, and live to fight another day. Cops just want to do their jobs. If you're innocent of any crime, be cool, do what the cop says, and 99% of the time you'll be on your way in a few minutes, no harm done. Do what Gates did, and I can just about guarantee you a bad day...regardless of the color of your skin.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
The Deuce Is Still The Man
I am The Man. It's not a position I asked for or pursued...it was apparently handed to me when I was born. I'm a white man...please forgive my sins against the red man, the black man, the yellow man and women of whatever color. I didn't know what I was doing. Honestly. You should also cut me a little slack because I also have been victimized by slavery...just like every other person on the planet.
Consider this; please name a race, a culture, a society that didn't practice slavery at some time. Maybe the Eskimos. But besides them, EVERY race on this planet has made slaves of it's fellow man at one time or another. Babylonians enslaved the Jews and God knows who else. The "first" civilization, the Greeks, held slaves. The Romans held slaves. The Germanic tribes held slaves. The Franks held slaves. The Arabs, the Chinese, the Slavs...and even the Africans held slaves. Yep...when European and American slavers went to Africa to buy slaves, they bought them from Africans. Black people sold black people...to white people, or whoever else was in the market. Despite what you might have learned watching Roots back in the golden haze of the '70's, middle-aged white fat men didn't run through the African bush with nets ensnaring Kunta Kinte. Instead, those middle-aged white fat men simply sauntered up to the local slave bazaar and put their money down. Done deal.
I can hear you..."But slavery was an Old World thing. Amerindians weren't so barbaric as to engage in the slave trade." Pa-leeze! The Incas, the Mayans and the Aztecs were all into slavery, not to mention sacrificing those slaves to the local gods. So were the North American Amerindians, though they had their own special spin on slavery. Only women and children were taken as slaves, and they were ultimately assimilated into the tribe if they were willing. Adult men of other tribes were killed outright, because they would rather die than be slaves to another man.
White European Americans held slaves...right up to the time when close to a half million white men died in the Civil War, ending slavery. Jim Crow followed...right up until the 1950's. Brown v Board of Education was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954...55 years ago. That's when the civil rights movement for Blacks began. In the scope of world history, 55 years is just a blink of the eye.
That's probably why I am still The Man...and why professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., esteemed tenured Harvard professor and friend to the first Black American president Barack Obama, believes I'm still The Man. And when The Glorious Leader proclaimed that Gates was a friend of his, and that he didn't know all the facts of Gates' arrest, but still damned the Cambridge police as "acting stupidly", Obama showed that he also thinks I'm still The Man. The president thinks I'm still The Man. I feel so empowered.
Go back far enough in history, and just about all of us all have ancestors who were slaves. We have all been victimized. Where do I go to collect my reparations? Where's my affirmative action? Oh. My victimization was too long ago to count. Okay. Fair enough. The question now is how long do I have to suffer people like Sharpton and Jackson and Reverend Wright and Louis Farrakhan and Charlie Rangell and Maxine Waters...and Barack Obama? When will I be cleansed of the sin of slavery? Never mind that I never owned a slave, or that my ancestors never owned slaves ( my Scots-Irish ancestors that lived from 1695 to 1965 in the hills of Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee were way too poor to own slaves ), or that I have ever discriminated against someone because of the color of their skin.
Unlike most Americans, I'd actually heard of professor Gates prior to his recent dust up with the Cambridge Massachusetts police. He hosted a PBS TV show some years ago that depicted the African city Timbuktu ( yes, there is such a place ) as the epicenter of black culture in Africa prior to the arrival of white Europeans. He walked through countless mud huts pointing to the books and scrolls rotting on decrepit mud shelves saying, "this is the proof of black science, medicine, history, philosophy and literature in Africa." All the manuscripts were written in Arabic. Truth be told, Timbuktu was the southern most outpost of Arab culture in Africa, not the northern most outpost of black culture in Africa. Professor Gates is a liar and a fraud. Just another example of the largess of affirmative action.
By now most of you are aware of the facts surrounding the recent arrest of Professor Gates. You know he refused to show I.D. when initially asked to by Sgt. Crowley, the investigating officer first on the scene. You know he berated Crowley, calling him a racist, rogue cop. You know he mentioned Crowley's 'mama'. You know he said, "this is what a black man gets in America." You know he attempted to call the Cambridge Chief of Police to report he was dealing with a "racist cop." All this because a neighbor called the police when she saw two men breaking into a house and the police came to investigate.
Despite all the reports in the MSM and on the 'comedy' shows of HBO and Comedy Central, Gates was not arrested for being a black man in his own home. Gates was arrested for being an asshole. He not only played the race card, he played the class card, asking Sgt. Crowley, "Do you know who I am? You don't want to mess with me!" Yes, the famous tenured Harvard professor, published author and personal friend of the president, cried racial profiling and "getting what a black man gets in America", and in the next breath bragged that he was a baaaaaaad maaaaaaan.
When you have a dispute with a cop, you don't fight your battle on the street. Cops win street battles every time. You fight your battle in the courtroom. Professor Gates fought his battle in his foyer, which he got away with. It was after the issue had been settled and the cop was leaving that Gates just couldn't let good enough be. Gates followed the cop out onto his porch and continued to yell at the cop and berate him for being a racist that the cop ran out of patience and warned Gates that he was being disorderly and needed to calm himself or face arrest. Gates apparently did more of his baaaaaad maaaaaan act, and found himself being cuffed and stuffed.
HUZZAH! I love it when assholes get arrested. Yes, the local District Attorney dropped the charges, but not until the baaaaaad maaaaaan did the perp walk and got himself booked and his mug shot broadcast all over America. Now Obama has invited both Gates and the arresting officer to the White House for beers and a "teachable moment", translated as "come to the White House white fascist cop and get schooled on the realities of black nationalism in MY America."
If Sgt. Crowley has half the brains I think he has, he won't go anywhere near the White House.
But hey...as a white man...I'm still The Man. I think I'll have that printed on a T-shirt. I'd be proud to wear it, and I bet there's a huge market for it.
Consider this; please name a race, a culture, a society that didn't practice slavery at some time. Maybe the Eskimos. But besides them, EVERY race on this planet has made slaves of it's fellow man at one time or another. Babylonians enslaved the Jews and God knows who else. The "first" civilization, the Greeks, held slaves. The Romans held slaves. The Germanic tribes held slaves. The Franks held slaves. The Arabs, the Chinese, the Slavs...and even the Africans held slaves. Yep...when European and American slavers went to Africa to buy slaves, they bought them from Africans. Black people sold black people...to white people, or whoever else was in the market. Despite what you might have learned watching Roots back in the golden haze of the '70's, middle-aged white fat men didn't run through the African bush with nets ensnaring Kunta Kinte. Instead, those middle-aged white fat men simply sauntered up to the local slave bazaar and put their money down. Done deal.
I can hear you..."But slavery was an Old World thing. Amerindians weren't so barbaric as to engage in the slave trade." Pa-leeze! The Incas, the Mayans and the Aztecs were all into slavery, not to mention sacrificing those slaves to the local gods. So were the North American Amerindians, though they had their own special spin on slavery. Only women and children were taken as slaves, and they were ultimately assimilated into the tribe if they were willing. Adult men of other tribes were killed outright, because they would rather die than be slaves to another man.
White European Americans held slaves...right up to the time when close to a half million white men died in the Civil War, ending slavery. Jim Crow followed...right up until the 1950's. Brown v Board of Education was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954...55 years ago. That's when the civil rights movement for Blacks began. In the scope of world history, 55 years is just a blink of the eye.
That's probably why I am still The Man...and why professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., esteemed tenured Harvard professor and friend to the first Black American president Barack Obama, believes I'm still The Man. And when The Glorious Leader proclaimed that Gates was a friend of his, and that he didn't know all the facts of Gates' arrest, but still damned the Cambridge police as "acting stupidly", Obama showed that he also thinks I'm still The Man. The president thinks I'm still The Man. I feel so empowered.
Go back far enough in history, and just about all of us all have ancestors who were slaves. We have all been victimized. Where do I go to collect my reparations? Where's my affirmative action? Oh. My victimization was too long ago to count. Okay. Fair enough. The question now is how long do I have to suffer people like Sharpton and Jackson and Reverend Wright and Louis Farrakhan and Charlie Rangell and Maxine Waters...and Barack Obama? When will I be cleansed of the sin of slavery? Never mind that I never owned a slave, or that my ancestors never owned slaves ( my Scots-Irish ancestors that lived from 1695 to 1965 in the hills of Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee were way too poor to own slaves ), or that I have ever discriminated against someone because of the color of their skin.
Unlike most Americans, I'd actually heard of professor Gates prior to his recent dust up with the Cambridge Massachusetts police. He hosted a PBS TV show some years ago that depicted the African city Timbuktu ( yes, there is such a place ) as the epicenter of black culture in Africa prior to the arrival of white Europeans. He walked through countless mud huts pointing to the books and scrolls rotting on decrepit mud shelves saying, "this is the proof of black science, medicine, history, philosophy and literature in Africa." All the manuscripts were written in Arabic. Truth be told, Timbuktu was the southern most outpost of Arab culture in Africa, not the northern most outpost of black culture in Africa. Professor Gates is a liar and a fraud. Just another example of the largess of affirmative action.
By now most of you are aware of the facts surrounding the recent arrest of Professor Gates. You know he refused to show I.D. when initially asked to by Sgt. Crowley, the investigating officer first on the scene. You know he berated Crowley, calling him a racist, rogue cop. You know he mentioned Crowley's 'mama'. You know he said, "this is what a black man gets in America." You know he attempted to call the Cambridge Chief of Police to report he was dealing with a "racist cop." All this because a neighbor called the police when she saw two men breaking into a house and the police came to investigate.
Despite all the reports in the MSM and on the 'comedy' shows of HBO and Comedy Central, Gates was not arrested for being a black man in his own home. Gates was arrested for being an asshole. He not only played the race card, he played the class card, asking Sgt. Crowley, "Do you know who I am? You don't want to mess with me!" Yes, the famous tenured Harvard professor, published author and personal friend of the president, cried racial profiling and "getting what a black man gets in America", and in the next breath bragged that he was a baaaaaaad maaaaaaan.
When you have a dispute with a cop, you don't fight your battle on the street. Cops win street battles every time. You fight your battle in the courtroom. Professor Gates fought his battle in his foyer, which he got away with. It was after the issue had been settled and the cop was leaving that Gates just couldn't let good enough be. Gates followed the cop out onto his porch and continued to yell at the cop and berate him for being a racist that the cop ran out of patience and warned Gates that he was being disorderly and needed to calm himself or face arrest. Gates apparently did more of his baaaaaad maaaaaan act, and found himself being cuffed and stuffed.
HUZZAH! I love it when assholes get arrested. Yes, the local District Attorney dropped the charges, but not until the baaaaaad maaaaaan did the perp walk and got himself booked and his mug shot broadcast all over America. Now Obama has invited both Gates and the arresting officer to the White House for beers and a "teachable moment", translated as "come to the White House white fascist cop and get schooled on the realities of black nationalism in MY America."
If Sgt. Crowley has half the brains I think he has, he won't go anywhere near the White House.
But hey...as a white man...I'm still The Man. I think I'll have that printed on a T-shirt. I'd be proud to wear it, and I bet there's a huge market for it.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Deuce and NASA
Once again, I can not bring myself to comment on the current political scene in any significant way. The Sotomayor hearing is so maddening I find myself with an overwhelming desire to clean my Glock and buy mass quantities of ammo in preparation for the coming dystopian extravaganza that is Obama's America. Why can't just one member of the judiciary committee say to this "wise Latina"..."Who the hell do you think you're bullshitting? You said the 'wise Latina' thing six times over the last ten years, but now you claim it was just a "rhetorical flourish that fell flat." Did it fall flat the first time? The second time? Is it just that now that you're in front of this committee nominated for the Supreme Court that the statement has fallen flat? And if you're such a wise Latina why did you repeat said flat flourish six times? Arrrrrrrrgh!
To take my mind, and yours, off the insanity and cowardice of the wise Latina hearing, did you know there are gay penguins? Did you know that there are ex-gay penguins? Did you know there's a big dispute over the whole penguin sexuality question? Where do you suppose this dispute is happening? Did you say San Francisco? Cha-ching! For pathetically comedic relief I give you this.
But seriously folks...in just a few days the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing will be here. July 20, 1969, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon, with Michael Collins orbiting above them. The mission was named Apollo 11, the landing craft was the Eagle and the landing zone was Tranquility Base, and I watched it live with Walter Cronkite providing the color commentary. 40 years ago! The last time men walked on the Moon was in 1973. What the hell have we been doing since then?
In 1957 the Russians put the first man-made object into orbit...Sputnik. Shortly after that, the Russians put the first man in space too. In 1957 America had squat for a space program, but in the depths of the Cold War we couldn't let the Russians have the high ground all to themselves, so in 1961 President John F. Kennedy proclaimed that America would land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth by the end of the decade. And we did.
America has owned space ever since. Countless unmanned craft have explored our solar system; Explorer, Mariner, Pioneer, Voyager, Voyager II, Galileo, Viking and Cassini. We put up the perhaps the greatest unmanned craft of all...Hubble. This space based telescope has given us all images of the universe of such profound majesty that it boggles the human mind. We did these things. Americans did these things. Who else?
On April 12, 1981, the first Space Shuttle launched to orbit. It was Columbia. We've been launching shuttles ever since as our only manned space flight, not counting riding the International Space Station. While the shuttle program made Hubble and the ISS possible ( along with an unknown number of classified satellites ), the shuttle program was unable to carry man farther than low Earth orbit. No more manned trips to the Moon or any of the other planets or moons.
Did we do the right thing? No American, or any other human, has been farther than 350 nautical miles from Earth since 1973. Unmanned space exploration is critical to science, and to feed humanities sense of wonder. Have you seen the pictures of Jupiter and Saturn and the other gas giants taken by our unmanned probes? Simply amazing. But manned exploration has lain dormant for decades as we went about putting satellites in orbit and building the ISS. Let's face it...as cool as unmanned exploration is, nothing gets the attention of people like a manned flight, and NASA needs the fervent support of Americans, if not the whole world.
We should have been on Mars 20 years ago. If not us, who?
I, for one, would like to see our species live on. Sooner or later the human population on Earth will reach an unsustainable level. Even if we manage not to destroy ourselves with some nuclear holocaust or other as yet unforeseen extinction event, and God doesn't wipe us out with an asteroid strike, there will come a time when there is simply not enough room or resources to sustain us all. If we're to survive as a species, WE HAVE GOT TO GET OFF THIS ROCK! We have to establish colonies on other worlds, or on man-made environments in space.
Manned space flight is expensive and risky. America has spent hundreds of billions of dollars and lost 17 astronauts and three spacecraft since our manned flight program began, but Americans continue to support our space program and would-be astronauts continue to apply for work with NASA despite the risk to their lives. Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, and John Kennedy would be proud. I know I am.
NASA is currently planning on retiring the shuttle program next year after more than 100 flights. The next generation spacecraft is called the Orion, and the program is named Constellation. This is the program that is very loosely scheduled to put an American on Mars by the late 2020's or early 2030's. If 2030 is the year, I'll be 73 years old if I should be so lucky as to still be alive then.
Having been born in 1957, the year space exploration began, I would dearly love to watch the first man set foot on Mars before I die. And I would dearly love for that man to be an American. If not us, who?
For God's sake...please hurry. I'm running out of time. Maybe we all are.
To take my mind, and yours, off the insanity and cowardice of the wise Latina hearing, did you know there are gay penguins? Did you know that there are ex-gay penguins? Did you know there's a big dispute over the whole penguin sexuality question? Where do you suppose this dispute is happening? Did you say San Francisco? Cha-ching! For pathetically comedic relief I give you this.
But seriously folks...in just a few days the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing will be here. July 20, 1969, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon, with Michael Collins orbiting above them. The mission was named Apollo 11, the landing craft was the Eagle and the landing zone was Tranquility Base, and I watched it live with Walter Cronkite providing the color commentary. 40 years ago! The last time men walked on the Moon was in 1973. What the hell have we been doing since then?
In 1957 the Russians put the first man-made object into orbit...Sputnik. Shortly after that, the Russians put the first man in space too. In 1957 America had squat for a space program, but in the depths of the Cold War we couldn't let the Russians have the high ground all to themselves, so in 1961 President John F. Kennedy proclaimed that America would land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth by the end of the decade. And we did.
America has owned space ever since. Countless unmanned craft have explored our solar system; Explorer, Mariner, Pioneer, Voyager, Voyager II, Galileo, Viking and Cassini. We put up the perhaps the greatest unmanned craft of all...Hubble. This space based telescope has given us all images of the universe of such profound majesty that it boggles the human mind. We did these things. Americans did these things. Who else?
On April 12, 1981, the first Space Shuttle launched to orbit. It was Columbia. We've been launching shuttles ever since as our only manned space flight, not counting riding the International Space Station. While the shuttle program made Hubble and the ISS possible ( along with an unknown number of classified satellites ), the shuttle program was unable to carry man farther than low Earth orbit. No more manned trips to the Moon or any of the other planets or moons.
Did we do the right thing? No American, or any other human, has been farther than 350 nautical miles from Earth since 1973. Unmanned space exploration is critical to science, and to feed humanities sense of wonder. Have you seen the pictures of Jupiter and Saturn and the other gas giants taken by our unmanned probes? Simply amazing. But manned exploration has lain dormant for decades as we went about putting satellites in orbit and building the ISS. Let's face it...as cool as unmanned exploration is, nothing gets the attention of people like a manned flight, and NASA needs the fervent support of Americans, if not the whole world.
We should have been on Mars 20 years ago. If not us, who?
I, for one, would like to see our species live on. Sooner or later the human population on Earth will reach an unsustainable level. Even if we manage not to destroy ourselves with some nuclear holocaust or other as yet unforeseen extinction event, and God doesn't wipe us out with an asteroid strike, there will come a time when there is simply not enough room or resources to sustain us all. If we're to survive as a species, WE HAVE GOT TO GET OFF THIS ROCK! We have to establish colonies on other worlds, or on man-made environments in space.
Manned space flight is expensive and risky. America has spent hundreds of billions of dollars and lost 17 astronauts and three spacecraft since our manned flight program began, but Americans continue to support our space program and would-be astronauts continue to apply for work with NASA despite the risk to their lives. Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, and John Kennedy would be proud. I know I am.
NASA is currently planning on retiring the shuttle program next year after more than 100 flights. The next generation spacecraft is called the Orion, and the program is named Constellation. This is the program that is very loosely scheduled to put an American on Mars by the late 2020's or early 2030's. If 2030 is the year, I'll be 73 years old if I should be so lucky as to still be alive then.
Having been born in 1957, the year space exploration began, I would dearly love to watch the first man set foot on Mars before I die. And I would dearly love for that man to be an American. If not us, who?
For God's sake...please hurry. I'm running out of time. Maybe we all are.
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