Let’s rekindle our Spirit

Let’s rekindle our Spirit.

After the horrendous events of September 11^th, 2001 and the people of the UnitedStates wondered how such an attack could actually happen and who could’ve planned such a cowardly blow to innocent civilians, we observed a wondrous thing.  We watched as first responders arrived through the deadly debris and dust to dig through the rubble by hand and anything they could use to uncover the dead and rescue the living.  We also watched as civilians, construction workers, and people in business suits, helping others. 

We swelled with pride as the American flag was erected in the remains of the Twin Towers by firefighters.  We watched as other cities, counties and states rallied to help New York.  We learned of the bravery of passengers on flight #93, who paid the ultimate price for their country.

Directly after the attack, I noticed, here and across the country, a certain type of camaraderie with the American people. 

They took the time to say “thank you”, give their thanks and blessing to our military, police and firefighters, hold the door open for the next person, smile, and shook your hand for no particular reason.

It was a calming, reassuring feeling as you passed the stranger on the street.

As time passed, the camaraderie seemed to be a fleeting memory as we resorted back to our grumblings, fights and blames.  No longer did you hear “thank you” nor have the door held open for you.  Dirty looks abounded. 

Have they won the battle?  Are we ready to take ourselves on?

How could we help?  We should be collaborating with our community leaders to make our cities safer, not battling in the midst of them. 

We should be showing our support for our first responders.  Police, Search and Rescue, firefighters, EMTs.  How about support for our fellow human being, who could be the first to respond to your call for help.  Who were the first responders on flight #93?  Citizens and passengers.  Regular people.  How about the heavy equipment operators in New York in 2001? The people in business suits?

To this day, there are still first responders and others still suffering from being at Ground Zero in 2001.  Many have died from injuries and related illnesses from the catastrophe years after the fact.  Many still suffer from bureaucracy that stalls their proper treatment they deserve from work related injuries and illnesses.  Some have been refused completely and are unable to work because of the ailments.

Wouldn’t it be easier if we maintained the same patriotism and same behavior?

Wouldn’t it be easier to notice someone who seemed mad at the world if we did?

Let’s rekindle that spirit and support each other. Never forget.

 You never know who is going to be your “First Responder”…



What would you do to be on TV?

Hot sauce vs. soap?
An Alaska woman was sentenced to three years of probation for “child abuse” for forcing her 7 year old son to drink hot sauce and to take a cold shower as a punishment for not telling the truth.

Really?

What happened to all the parents that forced their kids to wash out their mouths with soap for lying and using profanities?

Have you seen the ingredients in soap lately? Same ingredients as engine degreaser and asphalt cleaner. That’s outright poisoning.
I don’t see anyone raising hell about that.
Oh, but they didn’t video themselves doing it…that’s right.
If she videoed herself administering corporal punishment, such as a spanking, would she still be in trouble?

Next question. What was she trying to prove by videoing her administration of punishment?

The judge believed she did it to be on TV.
Balloon child.

In order to get the media attention he desired, a father fabricated a UFO shaped balloon and launched it, claiming that his 6 year old son was inside as the helium balloon flew uncontrolled for 50 miles around the countryside. The military participated in the event with 2 helicopters for 3 hours at a cost of $4,600.00 and $700.00 an hour each. The local airport was shut down briefly for the event. Local emergency crews also responded. The child was found hiding in a box in the family’s home. All for dad’s desire for attention so he could get his own tv show.

Teenage moms.
MTV chronicles the adventures of four teenage mothers and their babies. Other shows mimicked the series and actually documented acts of domestic violence, spewing of obscenities and borderline child neglect and abuse.

Now teenage females talk of getting pregnant so they might be on TV and they can showcase their parental skills at their best (not to mention a potential payday).

Parade your kids on stage.

Kid’s beauty pageants have been around for a while. The problem now is between cosmetics and children’s clothing manufacturers and the parent’s “ingenuity”, the pageants have turned into a little more than a pageant. More like a “Victoria’s Secret” show.

Parents are padding their kid’s chest and buttocks area. Plastering make-up all over their face. All for the sake of “beauty”. All while the pedophiles salivate as they watch, and plot.

Reality shows.

Why would you allow a television production company to come in and invade your privacy, document your private life, your problems? If you had/have problems with your life and now your life is a stage, can you blame the production company? Commit suicide and the whole cast and your family blame the tv show, but they still sensationalize the show, still collecting a paycheck.

Is it really worth it? It supposedly cost one reality show cast member his life. A family lost their child after parading her on stage. Another is facing jail time for domestic abuse.
Can they garnish that paycheck for counseling or bail?

Losing our spines to save our necks?

This term is connected to an article written by Sam Harris (huffingtonpost) that relays information about a short film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders that would not be played by the media because of the possible repercussions from the religious group that it supposedly offends.

In response to threats from the Islamic community, the media has refused to air the video to prevent the predicted riotous behavior from the Muslim extremists.  While some media outlets chose to air the video, they later retracted the video due to threats from the Islamic community to their staff members.

Threats and acts of riots, murder and other acts of violence have the “all powerful” media, and governments, cowering, trying to keep the extremists at bay and satiated they have “made their point”.

The Muslims that it supposedly offends have threatened to kill the filmmaker, so he is in hiding.

It appears that the message of the Islam religion represents peace, but if you say it isn’t, we will kill you and it will be your fault.

Locally, I recently addressed a women’s group and was sharing some “war stories” about my experience as a police officer.

During the question and answer session, a question was asked as to why police officers allow people to act and talk to them in such a disrespectful manner.

I tried to explain to them that some police departments, including LVMPD, have established policies that won’t allow officers to defend themselves from verbal and character attacks.  They are to just stand there and act “professionally”.

So, if you raise your eyebrow, smile, frown, look intimidating, have a “tone”, wish someone a great day, have an exposed tattoo, etc., and the citizen has an issue with you, congratulations, you’ll have Internal Affairs calling you and investigating you for a violation of “Interaction with the public”.

To add insult to injury, the investigating IAB “detective” is usually someone who has seen very little street time and hasn’t had much citizen interaction of their own.  And, the inexperienced detective usually has pressure from his supervisor to “convict” the subject officer since a complaint was filed.  I’m sure you’d be hard-pressed to find a statue of “Lady Justice” in any office in IAB. 

So, officers knowing this do their best not to upset any of their contacts with the public, especially with the well-connected citizens (because the upper administration gets involved) and endure the assaults.

Some departments across the country have adopted a policy that doesn’t allow officers to wish citizens “Have a nice day”, because some citizens have deemed it sarcastic.

Years ago, the public outcry was that a certain breed of police dogs was too “intimidating”.  So, departments changed breeds to appease the public.

Again locally, you have noticed a group of well-dressed, African-American men standing in the road at major intersections.  No safety equipment, very little respect to traffic laws, impeding traffic while soliciting drivers and berating occupants of vehicles if they don’t contribute to their “cause”.

When police receive complaints about these incidents and officers observe the violations, many times the officers are called on their personal cell phones and told to disregard the violations or to void the ticket they are writing.  Many times, the violator will tell the officer “Go ahead and write the ticket, it’ll get dismissed”.

Any other group has to get a solicitors permit, wear safety equipment and probably get a quick lesson on how to work the intersection.

Because of this group’s religious affiliation and connections to the department, they get “carte blanche” to work any intersection at any time, free of any restrictions.

But yet, the police officers working the streets are encouraged to address the homeless that frequent major intersections to solicit funds of their own.

Officers working the predominantly Hispanic and African-American sections of town have been warned, by the administration, of “profiling” their stops, due to embassies and related groups stepping forward and claiming discrimination. 

When the area is 80% Hispanic or African-American, what is the percentage of contacts made by police in that area? 

And when the police stop someone of other ethnicity in that area, it also becomes a “profiling” issue. It’s a no-win situation.

The department’s stand on these issues is very shaky, at best, and they will avoid any conflict with the embassies or special interest groups, if possible.  It is easier for them to chastise the officers working the streets.

Remember the recent video aired on HLN showing an entire football team, including the coaches, assaulting the referee?  Not once was it mentioned that the team consisted entirely of African-American males and the referee was white.  Had the roles been reversed, I’m sure every type of African-American reverend and civil rights activist would have come crawling out from whatever office, church or rock to protest the racial bias displayed by the team. (story)

Anyone know where we can have a governmental spine transplant?  Maybe some testicles?

Metro "Speak and Spell" radio, "can you hear me now"!

Speak and Spell radio system for the police?

The local newspaper had an article on the wonderful “new” radio system that LVMPD is using for patrol functions (lvrj story here) and the corresponding comments from the officers that use them and the administration that doesn’t.

The patrol officers have named the system “Speak and Spell”, relating to a popular child’s educational toy due to the same sound quality (which was supposed to improve as the system came online...... wrong!).

Of course, the administration has “toned” down the problems with the system using words such as “bugs, dead zones and other issues”.

Realistically, the descriptors should be crap, crap and more expensive crap.

The system has been in use, in bits and pieces at first, for over a year and the department realized that the new system wasn’t compatible with the old equipment when the “on” button was pushed.

So, the first excuse was “the new radio system is having difficulty with the old technology”, so millions more was spent to make the systems compatible. Yes, you heard that right, MILLIONS. Thankfully Metro is doing its best to save you, the taxpayer, money, huh?

So in order to test the new system, Metro tried using the new system in one part of town but not the other.  When an officer, who was using the old system, crossed over that boundary into the “testing” area, they were unable to communicate with the officers in that area.

When officers complained that the radios simply didn’t work properly, the complaints were boomeranged back into their faces.  They were told that the officers were not using the radios properly.  And who best to make that judgment, right? The officers that constantly use the system as part of their job description, or an administrator who is afraid of looking like an idiot for buying the wrong equipment? They were actually told that if the radios were not transmitting, that the officer was standing in a “dead zone” and they should move.

So, if an officer was engaged in a gun fight, fist fight or attempting to dodge a vehicle that is trying to run them over, they have to call “time out” and find an area that works?

Another tip that was thrown out was that officers needed to report the “dead area” because it could be that the area casino security may be using a radio system that may have a radio frequency very close to Metro’s and they may have “tweaked” the frequency to interfere with Metro’s radio.

Sounds like someone didn’t do their homework.

The Metro helicopter, a VERY essential piece of police equipment, didn’t have a working radio for months, simply because there was not one made yet for the helicopter (Homework?).

I actually heard radio traffic between the helicopter, which was hovering over several burglary suspects and was trying to relay the info to ground units that were ON scene and guess what? They couldn’t communicate because the helicopter had the old radio and the ground units had the new radios.  I could hear the frustration in the pilot’s voice because the suspects were so close to the patrol officers and their vehicles and he was unable to tell them.  Fortunately, the suspects were unarmed and subsequently caught.  Later radio traffic from the ground units to the helicopter stated that they were completely unable to comprehend any of his radio transmissions.

Oh, the reason I could hear the air unit’s transmissions was because my police motorcycle still had the old radio in it due to lack of HOMEWORK on someone’s part.  They hadn’t made one yet that would fit on the motorcycle.

Fellow officers have told me that they were involved in fights, shots fired, trying to call out high priority situations, etc. and unable to transmit on the radio. 

Officers were also threatened with discipline if they complained about the problems with the radios, so I was pleased to see the RJ’s article, however lacking in some details.

Now that LVMPD has spent tens of millions of dollars on this inefficient radio system (proven by other agencies experience with the same company/system. Read the RJ article), you would think that they would put someone in charge that had knowledge of this type of technology.  Nope.  Captain Barker was placed in charge from the detention center.  Yes, the jail.  His only experience is the “walkie-talkie” system in the jail, not a multi-million dollar, county wide, multi-jurisdictional capable system.

Good thing LVMPD isn’t graded for their homework…

More on lovely Nevada Spiders and Myths

Vinegaroon or Spider?

Okay, I need to settle this argument, once and for all.

While sitting in the backyard, I noticed a spastic critter skittering across the wall and pointed it out to my guests.  The first comment was “It’s a vinegaroon”.

I replied that it was a “sun spider”. 

“No, it’s a vinegaroon”.

“No, it’s a sun spider”.

Etcetera…

The reason I knew it was a sun spider was a few years earlier, we had found a strange, scary looking creature and sent it to the Smithsonian.  They graciously sent a full-fledged report back on the specimen.  The scientific name is “solpugid” and they are voracious predators.  They are beneficial to home owners as they prey on cockroaches, bedbugs, and other pests. .  They are related to spiders and have been called camel spiders and wind scorpions.  They are not poisonous, but according to the Smithsonian, have the strongest jaws in the world, proportional to their size.  They are fascinating to watch as they hunt, catch and devour their prey.  They have poor eyesight and rely on the hairs on their front “legs” that they hold out to sense vibrations of potential prey.

Some of you may have seen the internet photo that circulated from overseas depicting what appears to be a gigantic mutated version of the sun spider.  It was an optical illusion.  The sun spider was actually two spiders hooked together and they were normal sizes, approximately five inches across, each.

They are called “camel spiders” due to the MYTH that they live inside camel’s stomachs and each their way out.  Other myths are that they can run 25-30 mph and scream as they do so or that they have anesthetic venom that allows them to gnaw at their victim without the victim knowing and that they get to the size of a Frisbee.  Those “camel spiders” are the same as we have here, but we have no camels (that I’ve seen).

Vinegaroons on the other hand are usually called whip scorpions, partially due to the tail (usually where a real scorpions sting/tail would be) being a hair-like projection.  They are not poisonous, but spray a type of acid that smells like, you guessed it, vinegar.  They prey on insects and are harmless to humans.  I have yet to see a vinegaroon around the LV area.

Another name they have been called is “cave spider”

Evil looking to say the least, but have yet to hear of any encounters with humans other than the show “Fear Factor”, where the contestant had to eat several of the crunchy critters.  You will see several photos where the owners of the creepy crawly are holding it in their hands.

Hmmm.  Vinegaroon and oil salad dressing? All natural…no croutons needed.  Got crunch?

NFL - Sunday Family Fights?!

I went to a football game and a hockey fight broke out, in the stands.

This year seems to be the year for the fans to be fighting, not the players.

Five months ago, a San Francisco Giants fan was beaten severely outside the Dodger’s Stadium after a game, leaving him severely brain damaged (espn.).

Last Sunday, during several pre-season games, fights erupted in the stands and in the parking lots.  One was captured on video by another fan at Giants Stadium.

Another fight occurred in San Francisco and viewed on the major networks. Several sustained major injuries and also gunshot wounds (abcnews).

One of the fans that was shot (multiple times) was wearing a t-shirt that was emblazoned with “F*%k the niners”.

At the Giants/Ravens game, one fan took on three of the opposing teams fans, all on video (nbcsports).

While watching the videos, it was apparent that many were cheering on the fighters, and some were attempting to remove themselves from the melee, along with their children.

So much for family entertainment.

So what’s next?

Ban sales and possession of alcohol at the stadiums?

No wearing of the team’s “colors”?

Determining which team you will be rooting for before you are sold a ticket?

Extra security?

Higher ticket prices because they had to hire extra security and can’t sell alcohol?

No team tattoos exposed?

During one of the videoed fights, I watched as one fan was trying desperately to save his beer.

I guess a food fight is completely out.  Crap.  If I had to pay $25.00 for a hotdog and a beer, I wouldn’t be flinging it around either.  So, I guess the food concessions are safe as long as they serve something other than beer.

It’s a shame that the some of the fans that have made it a tradition to bring their family to the games, year after year, sharing family time will now have to consider if it is safe to dress your children in a neutral color, whether or not to take them to a game and maybe not going at all.

Think that will affect ticket sales?

81 year old scalds her crotch and gets $2.9 mil - Good ol Stella

Not only does she make history by spilling hot coffee (after she took the top off) in her lap after picking it up from a McDonalds and successfully suing and winning $2.9 million. She also has changed the industry standards by companies putting a warning that the cup that holds the morning libation has “Hot liquid that can burn or scald”. Now we all know that a cup of coffee is hot and we shouldn’t place it in our lap. Really?
She also has the distinction of having outlandish lawsuits named after her, hence the “Stella Awards”.

After reading the following, true, lawsuits, you will definitely be scratching your head.
Here are a few winners from 2010;

A female was awarded $80,000.00 after breaking her ankle tripping over a child who was running amok in a furniture store. The store owner must have been surprised with the decision since the child was her child.
A 19 year old male claimed a $74,000.00 decision plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with his vehicle, breaking it. The male failed to notice that there was a driver in the vehicle while he attempted to steal the hubcaps off the car.

A burglar was leaving a residence he had just burglarized, but was unable to exit the house due to the garage door malfunctioning. He couldn’t re-enter the house as the door to the house locked when it closed. He was forced to sit for eight days in the garage, surviving by eating a bag of dog food and drinking soda. He sued and won $500,000.00 for mental anguish.

An Arkansas man sued his neighbor and won $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bit on the gluteus maximus by the neighbor’s Beagle. Problem was he sued for more but the jury believed that the man antagonized the dog by jumping into the neighbor’s yard and had shot the Beagle repeatedly with a pellet gun.

A Philadelphia restaurant had to pay $113,500.00 to a gal due to her slipping on a soda that was spilled on the floor, breaking her tailbone. Sorry. The soda wasn’t spilled on the floor. It had been thrown by the gal who threw it at her boyfriend, 30 seconds earlier before she slipped.

The owner of a nightclub in Delaware was sued and had to pay $12,000.00, plus medical after a female broke out her two front teeth in his club. How’d she do that? She tried to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge by climbing through a bathroom window.

I think we have all heard this story. An Oklahoma woman was awarded $1,750,000.00 plus a new Winnebago motor home. Why? She was driving her mew 32 foot motorhome at 70 mph and set the cruise control. She left the driver’s seat to go into the back to fix herself a sandwich. You know what happened. Winnebago actually changed their owner’s manuals just in case this woman’s relatives decide to buy a motorhome.

Really? REALLY?