Good bye to Papa Joe

Houston, TX - Joe Paterno, the 46 year veteran coach from Penn State, left this world last Sunday. It was a shock to those outside the family. People knew the coach was ill, but his demise was not expected this soon.

Papa Joe was assaulted in the media by righteous bastards with high sounding words about "moral duties." People felt Paterno owed more to the alleged juvenile victims of a sexual assault. Those very same people did not give so much as a nod to the fact that Paterno followed policy to the letter. Apparently the rules don't matter to them.

The cowardly trustees of Penn State University, hiding behind secret meetings and looking for scapegoats to throw under the bus fired the beloved coach. Just in case further proof was needed that none of these people have any measurable back bone what so ever, they fired him with a phone call. Not one of these trustees are worthy of the title.

Joe was sick at the end of his career. Fighting a lethal disease like cancer requires a strong will to live. You cannot help but wonder how much of Paterno's will was sapped by the unwarranted personal attacks on him. Having the remainder of what was to be his last season snatched away from him in the name of lining up sacrificial lambs almost certainly did not help that will.

Rest well Papa, you more then earned it.

-30-

Losing a game is heartbreaking. Losing your sense of excellence or worth is a tragedy.
- Joe Paterno

The TSA crossed a line

Over the years in these pages I defended the TSA and their security measures taken in the wake of September 11th. I felt most of standards and procedures were reasonable based on the moronic twisted rules (No profiling for one) the TSA is forced to work under.

That was until I saw this video:

Ok, pulling off a T-shirt is not exactly a strip search. But it does not take away from what we are witnessing. Watch the pat down after the shirt comes off very carefully.

No one, and I do indeed mean NO ONE, would strip and touch my child in that manner on probable cause based solely on possession of an airline boarding pass. It doesn't matter that it was conducted there in public with two other TSA personnel looking on or out of the public eye. I assure you that would not have happened to my child.

Yes that is a battle I would lose. We are talking arrest, jail, bail, charges, fines and permanent records. But there are some lines even my government shall not cross. That video clearly shows agents of the TSA stepping way over that line. There are some things I simply will not sell out for. My children rate really high on that list.

There is no proof anywhere, no one has said anything to this effect, but it is my belief the "enhanced" pat downs are punishment for refusing to go through the new body scanners. My theory is TSA management believes if they make refusing the full body scan unpleasant enough, the vast majority of us will happily go through the full body scanner.

Enough is enough. It is time we as a country decide to grow up and start dealing with our security problems in a mature rational manner. Rational means politically correct words like "profiling" become irrelevant to security practices. That means a complete and total revamping of security systems and procedures (popularly known as Security Theater by some reading this) surrounding airports.

The United States should have followed the Israeli model from day one. The Israelis are under far greater threat then we are. (Were?) Most people don't even realize they are being screened when going through the Israeli process.

Check out this article on how Israel handles their airport security.

"The first thing you do is to look at who is coming into your airport," said Sela.

The first layer of actual security that greets travellers at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport is a roadside check. All drivers are stopped and asked two questions: How are you? Where are you coming from?

"Two benign questions. The questions aren't important. The way people act when they answer them is," Sela said.

Officers are looking for nervousness or other signs of "distress" — behavioural profiling. Sela rejects the argument that profiling is discriminatory.

"The word 'profiling' is a political invention by people who don't want to do security," he said. "To us, it doesn't matter if he's black, white, young or old. It's just his behaviour. So what kind of privacy am I really stepping on when I'm doing this?"
The Toronto Star: The 'Israelification' of airports: High security, little bother

I highly recommend reading the entire article. It is very clear and very eye opening.

As much as it pains me to admit this, the fact is our government beginning to cross some real lines here. We are not talking artificial tempests created in virtual teapots like Boing-Boing or the Daily Show here. This is not an urban myth like suggestions the government is tapping every cell phone call in the United States. This is hard evidence of a system gone nuts.

I find it impossible to believe that partially stripping and then groping that young man in front of the entire airport screening area audience is a reasonable security measure.

-30-

"Goodbye commercial flying, hello No Fly List."
- Me after proofing this post.

Forest fires and EPA stupidity

The environmental nut-jobs have taken their brand of stupidity to new and previously unimagined heights. Check this out:

Lost in the images of aircraft dropping giant red plumes of retardant on a Colorado wildfire this week is the fact that the practice may not be legal under federal environmental laws.

A federal judge in July declared that the government's current plan for dropping retardant on fires is illegal, and he gave the U.S. Forest Service until the end of next year to find a more environmentally friendly alternative.

The aerial assaults have become a permanent fixture of television and media coverage of wildfires in recent years as planes and helicopters drop big loads of red chemicals over blazes. But environmentalists say the efforts are essentially public relations stunts that can send millions of gallons of hazardous chemicals into waterways while doing little to contain fires.
The Associated Press: Fire retardant drops come under scrutiny in West

So… Would the environmentalists prefer the fire? What about all the wildlife death that goes along with it? I don't think fires discriminate between endangered and non-endangered species.

Andy Stahl of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, argued his case by telling the court any farmer that puts fertilizer into a creek or river knows he can go to jail for it. It would appear this clueless idiot cannot tell the difference between farming and fire fighting. I wonder if any of these idiots considered the collateral damage from the forest fire. From what I remember the ash, heat thinned tree sap and charred debris poisons the streams and lakes far more thoroughly then over splash form a slurry drop.

What is even more shocking then Stahl's stupidity is that a federal judge actually signed off on it. Last July U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy gave the forest service to the end of 2012 to come up with something more environmentally friendly. Does that mean we have to stop slurry drops on wild fires beginning in 2013? If that is the case, California and the southwest are going to have a hellacious 2013 fire season.

So the environmentalists believe human lives and property are to be allowed to burn rather then risk collateral damage from a slurry drop. Think these clowns might want that slurry drop if they or their homes happened to be in the immediate path of a fire?

I wanted to pursue information on the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, but nothing comes up on Google other then the news stories about this case. Guess their idea of the web is something strung between two trees in a forest.

If our country goes down the crapper, one of the root causes is going to this casting aside common sense in favor of extremist ideology.

-30-

I resent the fact that people in places like Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco believe that they should be able to tell us how to live our lives, operate our businesses, and what to do with the land that we love and cherish.
- Wilford Brimley

Disgusting.

Toronto, Ontario, CA - Things were much worse then I knew when that last post was made. On this page is a video that puts a much darker face on things. Find the video labeled CTV Toronto Extended: Anarchists Target Yonge. Unfortunately the page is set up in such a way that I cannot directly link the video.

Is this the image they want on their cause what ever that may be? A bunch of thugs destroying private and public property?

Those aren't protesters. Those are criminals and thugs in serious need of a righteous ass kicking. Just watching them made me want to take up arms and defend the property they vandalized. Had any of that been my property I can assure you they would have had a war on their hands. I freely admit the odds of me winning are not all that good. But I would have cracked a few heads before I lost.

That brings us to another question. Where in the Hell were the police? Where was that nifty APC with the water canon and pepper spray options? Why were these self righteous little brats allowed to wander unchecked up Yonge street without so much as one policeman in sight?

I'm not sure which frustrates me more. The protesters or the lack of police action to stop them.

-30-

"Was that the Starbucks we stopped at this morning?"
- A reporter in the press center watching these videos.

Game on in Toronto!

Well now, lets total up the score so far.

• Scratch two police cars.
• Scratch two news vehicles.
• Add two urine soaked members of the media.
• Scratch a few windows in private vehicles.
• Scratch a dozen or so large windows.
• Add several discharged tear gas canisters.
• Add roughly a hundred gagging, choking, half blind protesters.
• Toss in a few more that were trampled my mounted patrols.
• Finish off the tally with many, many arrests.

It's game on in Toronto.

You have to wonder who is coaching this bunch of twits. If you don't want to be portrayed as worse then the unruly bunch of asshats that you are, the news crews and their accoutrement are hands off.

Have a good 15 minutes, boys and girls. Hope the police record is worth it.

-30-

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
- William Shakespeare

There is a special circle in Hell for these two

It appears that two FDNY EMTs were on break when a cashier at the restaurant they were visiting went into seizure.

Witnesses said the EMTs were on their break and told employees to call 911, then left when they were asked to help the woman.

The Fire Department on Monday suspended Jason Green, a six-year member, and Melissa Jackson, a four-year member, without pay. The department is investigating, as is the state Department of Health, which oversees the emergency medical services system. A criminal probe is also underway.
USA Today: NYC victim's mom: EMTs were 'inhuman' not to help

Eutisha Rennix was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Her child was delivered and died a little over two hours later.

The New York post identified the EMTs as dispatchers Jason Green and Melisa Jackson. The New York times reports they are currently suspended without pay pending charges. Everyone is looking to hand them their heads.

The mayor got in on it yesterday:

A furious Mayor Bloomberg yesterday blasted two EMTs who allegedly refused to help a dying, pregnant mom because they were on break at a Brooklyn coffee shop.

"It was unconscionable, [an] outrage, pick some adjectives and stick it in," the fuming mayor said at a news conference a day after The Post broke the scandal involving tragic mom Eutisha Revee Rennix, 25.

"The Fire Department, including EMS, is responsible for life-saving, and their first responsibility is to do that," the mayor said. "But even if they weren't part of the Fire Department sworn to protect all of us, just normal human beings, drop your coffee and go help somebody if they're dying. C'mon."
The New York Post: Mayor rips EMTs who refused to help dying pregnant mother

Even the union threw them under the bus in a union kind of way:

A union official said EMT members are not contractually entitled to a responsibility-free meal period; members on duty and in uniform have an obligation to act in an emergency, and leaving a patient is "an act of abandonment," he said.
The New York Post: Mayor rips EMTs who refused to help dying pregnant mother

For those of you uninitiated in the ways of unions, that is union-eeze for "These two screwed up so bad that they're on their own."

Firing them is a given. I sincerely hope for something criminal as well. But even with that option, suitable punishment eludes me. Nothing will bring that lady and her baby back.

-30-

We have a duty to one another. When we can turn and walk away from someone sick or injured we will have reached the point that we are no longer human.
- Unknown