Life in the White Lane

The following excerpt is part of a recent article published in our local newspaper. I have made several modifications to the original for easier reading and I have also removed identifiable names and locations.

Sheriff deputies contacted a male at his residence for multiple felony warrants. They parked near a woodshop on the property where they could hear loud music and a power tool being used. One of the deputies looked through a gap in the wall and spotted a male working on something and called to him.

The man saw the deputy, reached for his waistband, then stood up and walked to the corner of the shop. The deputy drew his Taser and told the man to hold up his hands. Instead, the man suddenly reached to the side and grabbed a firearm. (The deputy initially believed the firearm was a scoped rifle, but later discovered the gun was a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun that had been shortened.)

The deputy sprinted away, running about 200 feet away to a wood shed and ducked behind a truck. During that time, the man managed to crawl up into a narrow loft area. Multiple law enforcement agencies responded to the scene and began to negotiate with the man, eventually sending a police robot into the shop to observe the area.

Shortly before 3 p.m., police threw a flashbang and a canister of tear gas into the shop in an attempt to flush the man out. When he didn’t respond, police threw a second round of gas into the shop, which sent the man running out of the building.

Police shouted at him to stop, but when he didn’t, a police K-9 was sent after him.

Police caught up to the man and placed him in handcuffs. During a body search, they found the man was wearing a pouch containing about nine 12-gauge shotgun shells. The shotgun was loaded with four additional rounds.

The man was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct, third-degree escape, resisting arrest, menacing, being a felon in possession of a firearm and multiple arrest warrants. He was lodged at the local jail.

What do you think? Did the actions of the deputies fit the crime? Can you think of any circumstances where they might have handled things differently? Do you feel the charges were appropriate?

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Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Has The Presidency Aged Trump?

You know the answer. I know the answer. Yet many, many people want to deny the answer. And many others simply ignore the question …

However, John Mixon on Quora had this to say when someone asked if the presidency has aged Trump:

Donald Trump was never known to be a towering intellect. However in the past few years his mental acuity has seriously degraded in public and on record. It’s frankly dishonest for anyone to claim that it hasn’t occurred as there are myriad instances which clearly and unambiguously demonstrate that it has.

What’s worse is that since Trump has not been truthful about his medical state, if he’s re-elected, the deterioration is going to continue and we may find ourselves with a POTUS who is barely able to function or even Mike Pence as POTUS which might be the same thing, or very similar. His age-related decline will be become a problem (and a potential danger) for everyone, not just him.

To ensure readers he isn’t exaggerating or even lying about Trump’s mental decline, John provided links to some media sources. I found the following two to be the most relevant:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/11/kings-speech/602050/

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/01/trump-cog-decline/548759/

And here are some additional links I came across that are also worth reading:

https://news.yahoo.com/trumps-pattern-of-cognitive-decline-alarms-psychiatrists-110000099.html

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/07/donald-trump-dangerous-psychiatrist

What’s so disturbing is that no one in Congress is doing anything about the situation. Instead, the focus has been on impeachment. But then I read in this article that removing Trump from office due to concerns about his mental acuity (a measure of the sharpness of the human mind) would be much more difficult that impeaching him.

So in the long run, if worse comes to worse, it seems our best option still resides in the 2020 election.

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In closing, I just want everyone to remember the urgency of “Covfefe!”

This Is Scary!

Scottie at ScottiesToyBox just posted the following excepts from this article at Salon.com. Rather than a regular repost, I wanted to give the article as much exposure as possible because the information is so downright scary!

One way or another, this guy MUST be removed from office!

The article is entitled:

Trump must remain in power to stay out of prison:
watch what he does after Senate acquits him

Excerpts:

He’s going to put the full weight of his Department of Justice behind efforts to suppress the votes of poor people, young people, blacks, Latinos, women, the LGBTQ community — in fact anyone likely to vote Democratic. He’ll call for “investigations” of every Democratic presidential candidate who’s going up in the polls and announce he’s got “dirt” on every one of them. He’s going to unleash an army of surrogate liars to spread falsehoods about his opponent. He’s going to go from one rally a week to two to three; maybe he’ll hold a rally every other night. He’s going to turn Air Force One into an airborne criminal command post.

He’s going to wave unindicted co-conspirator Rudy Giuliani like a red flag and tweet out every red-meat lie he blabs on Fox. Then he’s going to pardon his indicted co-conspirators like Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos and Roger Stone and line them up at rallies alongside the murdering war criminals he’s already set free.

Donald Trump is the O.J. of American politics. He murdered American democracy, and his search for the “real killer” produced a villain: Joe Biden.

(…)

Republicans have taken an openly sick delight in electing Trump. They are proud of him. He’s the perfect avatar of their party. All he cares about — and all his entire party cares about — is power. Impeaching Trump won’t remove him from office, and we’d better get serious about removing him at the ballot box. Republicans — Mitch McConnell, especially — have already shown us what they’ll do with the power they will seize with four more years of Trump. They’ll cram that nightmare down our throats.

They’ve already cut taxes for the wealthy and driven the budget into a hole. They’ve packed the federal courts with the simpering incompetent children of the Republican conservative “revolution” and jammed two yes-men punks onto the Supreme Court in a pure exercise of rank political power. If Trump is re-elected, they’ll strip-mine Social Security, murder Medicare and shred the social safety net, and they won’t stop there. Even as the dead bodies from one mass killing after another pile up in the schools, churches, streets and shopping malls, they’ll remove the few controls states have been able to put on gun ownership. They will turn voting into more of an exercise in futility than it already is. They’ll commit every crime they can to nullify the demographic changes that are on the horizon before new voters will have a chance to save us.

Remember … these are simply excerpts. Please read the entire article to get the FULL picture of the crisis that’s facing those of us who truly care about this country … and its people.

Whose Religious Liberty?

Leading sentence in our local newspaper …

Under pressure from a conservative advocacy group, the Hallmark Channel has pulled ads for a wedding-planning website that featured two brides kissing at the altar.

The conservative group that insisted the ad be pulled was the “One Million Moms,” part of the American Family Association, a fundamentalist Protestant organization that opposes LGBT rights and expression, pornography, and abortion. The Association  defines itself as a “Christian organization promoting the biblical ethic of decency in American society.”

Regrettably, the CEO of Hallmark’s parent company buckled under the pressure from this group and stated the ad was “aired in error” and that the “Hallmark Channel will continue to be a safe and family-friendly network.”

I can’t help but ask … whose family are they being “friendly” to?

Interestingly, at the end of the article, it mentioned that Hallmark had actually been considering more same-sex themed content.

In fact, in mid-November in an interview with “The Hollywood Reporter,” the CEO was quoted as saying the company was “open to really any type of movie of any type of relationship.”

Hmmmm. Can’t imagine what changed his thinking.

I could say more … much more … on this topic, but instead I will simply refer readers to the quote I used in this post:

Religious liberty is the freedom to believe in anything you like, or to believe in nothing at all. But it certainly does not carry with it the right to force others to live by those beliefs.

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UPDATE:  RollingStone.com reported that the Hallmark Channel has apologized, saying (after facing a wave of criticism) “this was the wrong decision.” They have since reinstated the four previously-pulled commercials that featured two brides kissing.

YES! True religious liberty reigns!

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Image by PIRO4D from Pixabay

“Merry Christmas” and the Spirit of Giving

I wrote this in 2013 … long before many of you started reading my blog. In fact, of the four “Likes” I got, only one is still a regular visitor. (Do you know who you are?)

In any case, I think the message is just as important today as it was 6 years ago so I decided to repost it. See if you agree.

Nan's Notebook

Recently a Facebook friend wrote that he wasn’t going to stop saying “Merry Christmas,” no matter who it might offend. Comments to his posting were equally supportive, some going so far as to say it’s a bunch of “bullshit.”

It continues to amaze me that at this (supposedly) time of peace on earth and good will towards all, people continue to exhibit such animosity, hostility, and rancor towards those who don’t believe as they do.

I personally do not honor December 25th in any religious way. For one thing, although popularized as the date Jesus was born, evidence from all fronts indicates this is in error. But beyond that, I simply am no longer a “believer.”

It’s a long-standing tradition to give gifts at this time of year. In fact, kids have learned to expect toys and other goodies – to the point that people are urged to donate to…

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