Friday, October 9, 2015
COSBY CAUGHT WITH HIS PANTS DOWN
His lawyers put up a ferocious fight, but the comedian will be forced to testify Friday about an alleged assault on a 15-year-old girl at the Playboy Mansion four decades ago.
America’s favorite dad will finally be deposed.
In a fall from grace of epic proportions, a Los Angeles judge shot down a legal Hail Mary by Bill Cosby’s lawyers, who’d hoped to spare the septuagenarian funny man from being forced to answer questions about allegedly turning a teenager into a sex plaything inside the Playboy Mansion 40 years ago.
Judge Craig Karlan ruled that the civil lawsuit filed in L.A. Superior Court last December against Cosby could go forward, denying his lawyers’ claims that it was a blackmail attempt by a money-hungry shakedown artist who failed to peddle her Cosby rape claims to a tabloid a decade ago.
The lawsuit describes Cosby as a diabolical lover who lusted after and fondled a 15-year-old girl named Judith Huth and forced her to help him masturbate in a bedroom inside the vaunted estate.
WE DON'T NEED ANOTHER HERO!
This song would play well at this next eulogy;
Out of the ruins, out from the wreckage
Can't make the same mistake this time
We are the children, the last generation
We are the ones they left behind
And I wonder when we are ever gonna change it
Living under the fear till nothing else remains
We don't need another hero
We don't need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond the thunderdome
Looking for something we can rely on
There's got to be something better out there
Love and compassion, their day is coming
All else are castles built in the air
And I wonder when we are ever gonna change it
Living under the fear till nothing else remains
All the children say, "We don't need another hero
Steven Jones, 18, reportedly pulled out a handgun and started shooting in a parking lot fight between students. As one victim died in a friend's arms, he fired again.One student was killed and three others were wounded during a shooting near the Delta Chi fraternity at Northern Arizona University early Friday morning. Early reports indicate that the incident was a fight between students on the Flagstaff campus. Police Chief G.T. Fowler said there was a confrontation between frat members.
Out of the ruins, out from the wreckage
Can't make the same mistake this time
We are the children, the last generation
We are the ones they left behind
And I wonder when we are ever gonna change it
Living under the fear till nothing else remains
We don't need another hero
We don't need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond the thunderdome
Looking for something we can rely on
There's got to be something better out there
Love and compassion, their day is coming
All else are castles built in the air
And I wonder when we are ever gonna change it
Living under the fear till nothing else remains
All the children say, "We don't need another hero
Saturday, October 3, 2015
AMERICA'S WINLESS WAR(S)
The latest disaster involving the US war
machine in a foreign country is one more of a string of examples of why
becoming involved in a countries internal conflicts; be they political
or religious, is foolhardy and doomed to fail. The previous generation
learned that lesson in Vietnam but unfortunately t didn't carry over to
this generation.
Blowing up hospitals with Afghans in them doesn't win heart and minds regardless of what side the Afghans are on.Doctors Without Borders says U.S. airstrike hit hospital in Afghanistan; at least 19 dead
For
the last 16 years the US has been bogged down in nothing more than
"civil wars" both in Iraq and Afghanistan. These internal conflicts
between opposing factions of the countries population have been going
on for centuries and for reasons not much different than the Civil War
between the North and South in the US.
Outside
intervention is hopeless and futile unless these countries are occupied
or colonized; and then the future is still bleak given the history.
Plain and simple, these are "win-less" wars.
Friday, October 2, 2015
LIVING IN A SHOOTING GALLERY
No matter how you define a mass shooting, one thing is clear: data suggests this brand of violence has grown worse in the United States.
In 2015 alone, there have been 294 shootings that killed or injured 1,464 people, according to Mass Shooting Tracker data, which counts at least four people wounded by gunfire as a mass shooting.
Oregon Sheriff Posted Sandy Hook Truther Video on Facebook
I feel sorry for the folks in Douglas county who have to depend on a gun-crazed sheriff to protect them against gun crazed shooters. I'm curious how he's going to spin this one as another of those "conspiracies" created by the gun control advocates. Good luck with that one John.
Mother Jones reports that Douglas County sheriff John Hanlin, who helped supervise the response to yesterday's shooting and spoke to members of the press in Roseburg, once approvingly posted a conspiracy theory video on Facebook which asserted that public appearances by the parents of children killed at Sandy Hook were actually performances by actors.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
PRYING GUNS FROM COLD DEAD HANDS IS ROUTINE
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein.
There's no question that this definition describes what is obviously becoming a "routine" series of mass shootings/killings in which someone with a gun is involved.
It is also obvious that Americans have been completely duped by the "gun industry" into believing that more guns are the solution to this madness.
Once again president Obama has stood at a podium to once again extend condolences to those who have been slaughtered in a hail of bullets.
President Barack Obama called on the American people to make "common sense gun safety laws" a priority and urged lawmakers on every level to take action following the latest mass shooting -- this one at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg on Thursday.
Obama's speech was roughly 13 minutes long. Here's the full transcript:
There's been another mass shooting in America. This time in a community college in Oregon.
That means there are more American families, moms, dads, children, whose lives have been changed forever. That means there's another community stunned with grief, and communities across the country forced to relieve their own anguish and parents across the country who are scared because they know it might have been their families, or their children.
I've been to Roseburg, Oregon. There are really good people there.
I want to thank all the first responders whose bravery likely saved some lives today.
Federal law enforcement has been on the scene in a supporting role, and we've offered to stay and help as much as Roseburg needs for as long as they need.
In the coming days we'll learn about the victims. Young men and women who were studying and learning and working hard with their eyes set on the future, their dreams on what they could make of their lives. And America will wrap everyone who is grieving with our prayers and our love.
But as I said just a few months ago, and I said a few months before that, and I said each time we see one of these mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough. It's not enough.
It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel, and it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America. Next week, or a couple of months from now.
We don't yet know why this individual did what he did. And it's fair to say that anybody who does this has a sickness in their minds. Regardless of what they think their motivations may be. But we are not the only country on earth that has people with mental illnesses who want to do harm to other people.
We are the only advanced country on earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.
You know earlier this year, I answered a question in an interview by saying, "The United States of America is the only advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common sense gun safety laws even in the face of repeated mass killings." And later that day, there was a mass shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana.
That day.
Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it. We've become numb to this. We talked about this after Columbine, and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston.
It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun.
And what's become routine, of course, is the response of those who oppose any kind of common sense gun legislation.
Right now, I can imagine the press release is being cranked out. "We need more guns," they'll argue. "Fewer gun safety laws."
Does anybody really believe that? There are scores of responsible gun owners in this country, they know that's not true.
We know because of the polling that says the majority of Americans understand we should be changing these laws, including the majority of responsible, law abiding gun owners.
There is a gun for roughly every man woman and child in America. So how can you with a straight face make the argument that more guns will make us safer?
We know that states with the most gun laws tend to have the fewest gun deaths.
So the notion that gun laws don't work, or just will make it harder for law-abiding citizens and criminals will still get their guns, is not borne out by the evidence.
We know that other countries, in response to one mass shooting, have been able to craft laws that almost eliminate mass shootings. Friends of ours, allies of ours. Great Britain. Australia. Countries like ours.
So we know there are ways to prevent it. And of course what's also routine is that somebody somewhere will comment and say, "Obama politicized this issue." Well, this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together. To the body politic.
I would ask news organizations, because I won't put these facts forward — have news organizations tally up the number of Americans who've been killed through terrorist attacks in the last decade, and the number of Americans who've been killed by gun violence, and post those side by side on your news reports.
This won't be information coming from me, it will be coming from you.
We spent over a $1 trillion and passed countless laws and devote entire agencies to preventing terrorist attacks on our soil, and rightfully so. And yet, we have a Congress that explicitly blocks us from even collecting data on how we could potentially reduce gun deaths. How can that be?
This is a political choice that we make, to allow this to happen every few months in America. We, collectively, are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction.
When Americans are killed in mine disasters, we worked to make mines safer. When Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes we make communities safer. When roads are unsafe, we fix them, to reduce auto fatalities. We have seat belt laws because we know it saves lives
So the notion that gun violence is somehow difference, that our freedom and our constitution prohibits any modest regulation of how we use a deadly weapon, when there are law abiding gun owners all across the country who could hunt and protect their families and everything do everything that they do under such regulations, doesn't make sense.
So tonight as those of us who are lucky enough to hug our kids a little closer are thinking about the families who aren't so fortunate, I'd ask the American people to think about how they can get our government to change these laws, and to save lives, and to let young people grow up. And that will require a change of politics on this issue.
And it will require that the American people, individually, whether you are a Democrat, or a Republican, and an Independent, when you decide to vote for somebody, are making a determination as to whether this cause of continuing death for innocent people should be a relevant factor in your decision.
If you think this is a problem then you should expect your elected officials to reflect your views. And I would particularly ask America's gun owners who are using those guns -- properly, safely, to hunt, for sport, for protecting their families — to think about whether your views are being properly represented by the organization that suggests its speaking for you.
And each time this happens I'm going to bring this up. Each time this happens I'm going to say we can actually do something about it, but we're going to have to change our laws. And this is not something I can do by myself. I've got to have a Congress, and I've got to have state legislatures, and governors, who are willing to work with me on this.
I hope and pray that I don't have to come out, again, during my tenure as president to offer my condolences to families in these circumstances. But based on my experience as president, I can't guarantee that, and that is terrible to say.
And it can change.
It is also obvious that Americans have been completely duped by the "gun industry" into believing that more guns are the solution to this madness.
Once again president Obama has stood at a podium to once again extend condolences to those who have been slaughtered in a hail of bullets.
President Barack Obama called on the American people to make "common sense gun safety laws" a priority and urged lawmakers on every level to take action following the latest mass shooting -- this one at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg on Thursday.
Obama's speech was roughly 13 minutes long. Here's the full transcript:
There's been another mass shooting in America. This time in a community college in Oregon.
That means there are more American families, moms, dads, children, whose lives have been changed forever. That means there's another community stunned with grief, and communities across the country forced to relieve their own anguish and parents across the country who are scared because they know it might have been their families, or their children.
I've been to Roseburg, Oregon. There are really good people there.
I want to thank all the first responders whose bravery likely saved some lives today.
Federal law enforcement has been on the scene in a supporting role, and we've offered to stay and help as much as Roseburg needs for as long as they need.
In the coming days we'll learn about the victims. Young men and women who were studying and learning and working hard with their eyes set on the future, their dreams on what they could make of their lives. And America will wrap everyone who is grieving with our prayers and our love.
But as I said just a few months ago, and I said a few months before that, and I said each time we see one of these mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough. It's not enough.
It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel, and it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America. Next week, or a couple of months from now.
We don't yet know why this individual did what he did. And it's fair to say that anybody who does this has a sickness in their minds. Regardless of what they think their motivations may be. But we are not the only country on earth that has people with mental illnesses who want to do harm to other people.
We are the only advanced country on earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.
You know earlier this year, I answered a question in an interview by saying, "The United States of America is the only advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common sense gun safety laws even in the face of repeated mass killings." And later that day, there was a mass shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana.
That day.
Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it. We've become numb to this. We talked about this after Columbine, and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston.
It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun.
And what's become routine, of course, is the response of those who oppose any kind of common sense gun legislation.
Right now, I can imagine the press release is being cranked out. "We need more guns," they'll argue. "Fewer gun safety laws."
Does anybody really believe that? There are scores of responsible gun owners in this country, they know that's not true.
We know because of the polling that says the majority of Americans understand we should be changing these laws, including the majority of responsible, law abiding gun owners.
There is a gun for roughly every man woman and child in America. So how can you with a straight face make the argument that more guns will make us safer?
We know that states with the most gun laws tend to have the fewest gun deaths.
So the notion that gun laws don't work, or just will make it harder for law-abiding citizens and criminals will still get their guns, is not borne out by the evidence.
We know that other countries, in response to one mass shooting, have been able to craft laws that almost eliminate mass shootings. Friends of ours, allies of ours. Great Britain. Australia. Countries like ours.
So we know there are ways to prevent it. And of course what's also routine is that somebody somewhere will comment and say, "Obama politicized this issue." Well, this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together. To the body politic.
I would ask news organizations, because I won't put these facts forward — have news organizations tally up the number of Americans who've been killed through terrorist attacks in the last decade, and the number of Americans who've been killed by gun violence, and post those side by side on your news reports.
This won't be information coming from me, it will be coming from you.
We spent over a $1 trillion and passed countless laws and devote entire agencies to preventing terrorist attacks on our soil, and rightfully so. And yet, we have a Congress that explicitly blocks us from even collecting data on how we could potentially reduce gun deaths. How can that be?
This is a political choice that we make, to allow this to happen every few months in America. We, collectively, are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction.
When Americans are killed in mine disasters, we worked to make mines safer. When Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes we make communities safer. When roads are unsafe, we fix them, to reduce auto fatalities. We have seat belt laws because we know it saves lives
So the notion that gun violence is somehow difference, that our freedom and our constitution prohibits any modest regulation of how we use a deadly weapon, when there are law abiding gun owners all across the country who could hunt and protect their families and everything do everything that they do under such regulations, doesn't make sense.
So tonight as those of us who are lucky enough to hug our kids a little closer are thinking about the families who aren't so fortunate, I'd ask the American people to think about how they can get our government to change these laws, and to save lives, and to let young people grow up. And that will require a change of politics on this issue.
And it will require that the American people, individually, whether you are a Democrat, or a Republican, and an Independent, when you decide to vote for somebody, are making a determination as to whether this cause of continuing death for innocent people should be a relevant factor in your decision.
If you think this is a problem then you should expect your elected officials to reflect your views. And I would particularly ask America's gun owners who are using those guns -- properly, safely, to hunt, for sport, for protecting their families — to think about whether your views are being properly represented by the organization that suggests its speaking for you.
And each time this happens I'm going to bring this up. Each time this happens I'm going to say we can actually do something about it, but we're going to have to change our laws. And this is not something I can do by myself. I've got to have a Congress, and I've got to have state legislatures, and governors, who are willing to work with me on this.
I hope and pray that I don't have to come out, again, during my tenure as president to offer my condolences to families in these circumstances. But based on my experience as president, I can't guarantee that, and that is terrible to say.
And it can change.
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