08/4/10

What’s in your wallet?

By: T F Stern
T F Stern’s Rantings

Most of you have seen a series of credit card commercials with Vikings smashing things all over town followed by the line, “What’s in your wallet?” I like the one where the Viking pushes coins into his desktop computer slot to make a deposit; still makes me laugh.

Just south of Houston there’s the town of Sugarland where apparently a fellow’s pretending to be a policeman. He’s been going around asking folks to open their wallets under the pretense of conducting an investigation, even showing them a gold badge. While they’re distracted he steals a credit card or two and later goes on a shopping spree. What’s in your wallet?

When I was on night shift a fellow officer arrested a fellow and, while putting him in the holding tank, realized the suspect’s wallet was nowhere to be found. He went back to his patrol car, nothing. During the arrest, handcuffing and search, the wallet had been placed on the trunk deck of the patrol car and never made it into the property envelope.

He asked me to drive back out to the scene of the arrest and again, nothing. He explained the loss of property to the station Sergeant, knowing full well that the final responsibility rested with him. The wallet and whatever was claimed to be inside would come out of the officer’s pay.

About that time. the suspect interrupted, “That’s alright, sir; weren’t no money in it; just some old pieces of paper is all’s was in it.”

My friend pulled out a twenty dollar bill and showed it to the suspect, “Will this cover the cost of a new wallet?”

“That’s way too much; just a cheap K-Mart wallet, five of six dollars will do.”

In an unrelated story which happened many years earlier, the Department received a number of complaints from folks who’d been arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct. Money was stolen from their wallets, or so went the complaints; but it’s not uncommon for liars to lie and most of the complaints turned out to be unfounded.

There was an unusual spike of this particular complaint centered on the northeast side of town, enough that red flags began waving on statistical data alone. Internal Affairs used arrest dates and times matched with manpower rosters to figure out which officer or officers might be suspect; all indicators pointed to one officer.

The trap was set; a marked fifty dollar bill placed in the wallet of a wino followed by a dispatched call to that particular officer. The suspected officer/thief arrested the wino, placed him in jail and went back to his patrol area. Internal Affairs observed the entire incident, called the officer in question back to the station where they established that the officer had indeed stolen the marked fifty dollar bill.

The story made headlines in the Chronicle for a couple of days and the officer was fired. I don’t remember what criminal charges were filed or what transpired down the line; but a bad apple was removed from the barrel. It’s a sad day when a police officer violates the public trust.

Not too many weeks later I was attending an eight hour in-service First Aid course offered and conducted by the Red Cross at the police academy. A couple of officers from areas across the city were there, all as happy to be cooped up in a classroom as I was.

The instructor was sincere in his attempts to remind each officer of life saving techniques we’d all been exposed to while cadets at the academy; observe, clear the air way and if needed administer mouth to mouth until the ambulance arrived. After the presentation, officers were picked at random and asked questions; looking for verification the information had been taken in. He pointed to me while putting a scenario together in his mind, offering a situation which would challenge my recollection of first aid procedures.

“Officer Stern, you’re patrolling your area and come across a man down in a ditch. What’s the first thing you’re going to do?”

“That all depends, Sir.” A slight grin surfaced as I baited the hook.

“Officer Stern, I don’t understand; depends on what?” He couldn’t see how a medical emergency would be affected by what area of town it occurred.

“It depends on what part of town you’re patrolling, Sir. For instance, if you’re on the northeast side of town the first thing you’d do is go through the man’s wallet.”

The room full of officers let out a knee slapping roll of laughter; my sarcastic remark having brightened up an otherwise elongated day. I should point out not everyone thought it was funny; the two officers attending from the N/E substation, they were not smiling. The black eye given the Department was because of one of their crew; he’d worked alongside them and may even have considered himself their friend. So, what’s in your wallet?

This article has been cross-posted to The Moral Liberal, a publication whose banner reads, “Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government, & The American Constitution.”

08/4/10

Dan Rather Predicts That GOP Takes Back House

By: Bill Hurst
Weeding Out “Minnick Myths”

Here is a guy that thinks that conservatives are fair game for any defamation, lies or falsehoods that can be thrown their way. You may recall Rather was fired from CBS for lying about President George W. Bush’s military record. Rat Rather is the father of the liberal press. He still has influence on reporters and anchors of the liberal “mainstream” press. Teaching them how to slant the news with a liberal bias and getting away with it (almost all the time). One can only speculate what happened on the – we will promote socialism – Chris Matthews show. Could it be that Rather had a senior moment or did an iota of truth slip into his misguided soul while his mouth was moving?

read more…

08/4/10

Financial News Update – 08/04/10

22 Statistics About The Coming Pension Crisis That Will Keep You Up At Night

12 Charts On The State Of The World Gold Market

Disasters as stimulus and the broken-window fallacy

Tim Geithner: Look, We Always Knew The Recovery Was Going To Be Garbage

100 Wasteful Stimulus Projects That Actually Cost America Jobs

Another Sign The World Doesn’t Need America Anymore — Indonesian Port On Track To Be Larger Than Los Angeles’

Europe Starts To Panic Over The ECB’s Next Chief: Axel Weber

Senate Scrambling To Pass $26 Billion Bailout For The States

Why You Should Beware The Downward Move In Durable Goods

The Fed Prepares Its First Step Into Quantitative Easing Part II

Why Are Markets Ignoring The Obvious U.S. Slowdown As If It’s Nothing?

Missouri bans ObamaCare

Get Ready for Gold Rush in China

Morning Bell: Let’s Get the Gulf Back to Work

The Truth About the 2001-2003 Tax Cuts

Gulf Spill Update: Listen to Resident and End the Oil Ban

Side Effects: Obamacare Causes Some Insurers to Stop Offering Coverage for Kids

Raiding and Regulating the New Enemy in the War on Drugs: Rawesome ‘Foodies’ (Hat Tip: Jean Stoner)

Bad News For JPMorgan: Head Of Commodities & Currencies Tells Desk, “Don’t Panic”

Wheat Soars; Rogers Sees ‘Much Higher’ Food Prices (Hat Tip: Brian B.)

A history lesson about your Social Security card and benefits

WOW! “SHOW ME STATE” SHOWS OBAMACARE THE DOOR… Prop C Passes By Over 70% (Hat Tip: Brian B.)

US FedGov Saves the Day

Technocrats Take Over Greece

Sharron Angle Ad: Nevada’s Property Rates Plummeted Under Harry Reid

The Era of Obama: Clorox Co. Loses Net Income to Taxes?

Mad Maxine’s minority fat-cat bankers

The revolt against Obamacare: Missouri opts out

Maxine, Barney, Fannie, Freddie & TARP Hanky-Panky

N.Y. Fed May Require Banks to Buy Back Faulty Mortgages, Assets

China Said to Test Banks for 60% Home-Price Drop

Obama Tells Labor Leaders He’ll Pursue Union-Friendly Agenda

Voters overwhelmingly rejected federal mandate to purchase health insurance

Taxpayers shell out $700,000 for Obama’s ad campaign to improve opinion of healthcare plan

San Jose becomes latest California city to vote on marijuana tax

City That Outsourced Everyone Is Snared by Pay Scandal

British gov’t moves to dramatically cut public funding for arts

GM, FORD and CHRYSLER Sales All Lag Estimates

GOTCHA: Gov’t Workers Caught Double-Dipping Benefits

SurvivalBlog:

Commodities – Wheat Soars; Rogers Sees ‘Much Higher’ Food Prices

Food prices to soar 10% in time for the New Year.

Global Wheat Shortage Feared

Is the End Game Hyperinflation or Debt Implosion?

James Altucher: 7 Reasons Not to Send Your Kid to College.

A Run on Spanish Banks?

World oil prices approach $82

Faltering US recovery trips dollar

China Seeks to Widen Gold Market

Superman Comic Saves Family Home From Foreclosure

Pending Home Sales Hit Record Low

Cash Strapped California Consider Legalizing Sports Gambling

Stimulus Slammed: Republican Senators Release Report Alleging Waste

08/4/10

Voice From a Very Dark Place – Saul Alinsky Debates Young Canadian Radicals

By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

Cross-posted from KeyWiki Blog.

More from Saul Alinsky. This documentary short captures a lively confrontation between the American community organizer and writer Saul Alinsky and members of the Company of Young Canadians. Among other topics, the parties argue and disagree about the means and costs of securing “social change.”

The company of Young Canadians was a Canadian version of the U.S. Peace Corps, which existed from 1966 to 1977.

After serious rioting in Montreal on October 11th, 1969, city officials pointed the finger at the Company of Young Canadians. In a scathing address, the administration accused the group of sheltering Quebec separatist extremists, masterminding violent demonstrations and plotting to make bombs.

The accusations leveled against the CYC were made by Lucien Saulnier, the chairman of Montreal’s Executive Committee and were supported by Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau and the chief of police.

Saulnier appealed to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to withhold the group’s multi-million dollar budget and establish a Royal Commission to investigate his claims. Though the leftist Trudeau failed to launch a federal inquiry, the allegations and others that followed lead to the eventual de-funding and termination of the agency.

Surprising that Saul Alinsky, a man who inspired both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, should be associated with such radicals, no?