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Reliving the Lessons of the Past
Author: BobR    Date: 04/25/2013 12:55:33

As mentioned in yesterday's blog by Raine, the disaster at the West, TX fertilizer plant was the result of lax oversight provided by the TX government, and lax adherence to rules by the factory owners. This is all by intention, to hear Governor Rick Perry tell it. This is all part of the Republican mantra - let the free market decide. The factory in TX apparently "free-marketed" itself into a smoldering hole in the ground, taking 35 people with it.

That just seems to be part of the Libertarian "I-got-mine" concept, where everyone is free to grab whatever they can as fast as they can, and who cares who gets stepped on along the way. This is essentially how America operated 100 years ago during the "gilded" age, where children worked long hours at factories, and deaths were common. "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair describes these conditions at meat packing plants in Chicago, but that pattern was repeated everywhere across America. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 resulted in 146 deaths, and the beginning of a turnaround for worker safety.
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32 comments (Latest Comment: 04/26/2013 03:16:01 by Will in Chicago)

Deep in the Heart of Taxless
Author: Raine    Date: 04/24/2013 15:25:44

Amid the chaos of last week, Many were watching westward, towards the small town of West, Texas.
The number of people who died in a fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, last week now stands at 15, officials said Tuesday. Some earlier reports had indicated that 14 people had lost their lives. At least 200 more were injured.

In Waco, TV station KXXV says that officials believe they have found all the victims, quoting Mayor Pro Tem Steve Vanek saying "No more victims. Everything is searched," in a news conference today.

The latest death toll comes as investigators continue to study the catastrophe and the fire that preceded it. The explosion left a crater 93 feet wide and 10 feet deep, investigators said Tuesday.

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70 comments (Latest Comment: 04/24/2013 21:49:55 by Raine)

Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 04/23/2013 10:32:04

Good Morning.

Today is our 4,216th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing war, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 2,196
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,081

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 1, 445, 834, 675, 000 .00


It's been an interesting week around here, that's for sure. As a friend of mine commented, this is zero degrees of separation...everybody in this city knows somebody that ran, worked, or was there. No exceptions. My friend from Scouts, a Mr. Mark Fisette, is also a Guardsman and was there at the scene.
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49 comments (Latest Comment: 04/23/2013 22:40:59 by livingonli)

Just a Theory
Author: BobR    Date: 2013-04-22 12:00:00

Last week's series of events in Boston was the stuff of Hollywood movies. An iconic marathon on Patriot's Day... 2 bombs go off killing 3 and injuring over 100... wild speculation as to the culprits... photos released... said culprits do a Thelma and Louise, with one brother down and the other wounded and hiding... a city on lock down as hundreds of police scour neighborhoods looking for the second brother, who is finally found hiding and bleeding out in a boat in someone's backyard with a possibly self-inflicted gun shot wound.

Except, of course, that it was all real. The released photos and video were all it took for acquaintances of the two to put names to faces. Once that happened, the rest of it was only a matter of time. Left to their own devices and with few options, they tried to escape, but were unable to. With one brother dead and the other incommunicado in the hospital, the big question still remains: why?
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86 comments (Latest Comment: 04/23/2013 01:26:31 by TriSec)

Corrections
Author: velveeta jones    Date: 04/21/2013 14:27:21

Good morning! Velveeta is sipping her morning coffee bundled up by the fire. Wait, what?!! I really, truly do not know how to explain this weather; it is not only late April - we're past the date of "no brown after Hiltler's birthday - we also are blessed to reside in the South, which doesn't have cold weather! Someone get Al Gore on the phone, I want answers.

Anyway, I thought I'd do a public service today and make some corrections. During and after the horrific events in Boston the last few days many public statements came out about terrorism, immigration and even gun laws. Now that the, figurative and literal, smoke is clearing we should go back and adjust these statements. I've removed offensive words and replaced them with something more accurate.
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7 comments (Latest Comment: 04/21/2013 19:36:56 by Raine)

Compare and Contrast
Author: TriSec    Date: 04/20/2013 13:08:25

Good Morning. As our city gets back to normal today, I had a passing thought. This won't take long.

The last time we were attacked on our own soil, the response was quite different.

We started two wars.
Thousands of US Soldiers were killed
Untold trillions of dollars were wasted
We became a virtual pariah state around the world.
And the guy responsible? It took more than a decade to hunt him down.

This time?
The city of Boston and it's environs were 'locked down' for 16 hours.
Nobody was killed during the hunt. (Although two police officers were shot, one killed, during the early going of the investigation.)
The rest of the United States stood by our side and cheered.
And we got the guys in less than a week; one alive!

OF course there's more to it than simplistic observations....but cooperation and competent leadership sure makes a world of difference, doesn't it?
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8 comments (Latest Comment: 04/21/2013 00:30:26 by velveeta jones)

Mayhem near my house
Author: TriSec    Date: 04/19/2013 11:34:54

Just opening something for all the goings-on overnight, less than 4 miles from here.

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159 comments (Latest Comment: 04/20/2013 02:31:36 by Raine)

No More Hurting People
Author: BobR    Date: 04/18/2013 12:52:14

 
"Can't we all just get along?"
- Rodney King

In 1991, a man was pulled over after a high speed car chase and beaten mercilessly by the police. It would have been just another day in Los Angeles, with white racist cops venting their hatred on another black man, had it not been for the person who recorded the beating and made it public. That resulted in the cops going on trial and Rodney King - the aforementioned sap how got his face broken - becoming a public name. It was AFTER the cops' trial where none were convicted that anger, frustration, and justice denied once again resulted in riots in LA and elsewhere in the country. Any white person unlucky enough to be near a black inner city neighborhood when the verdict was announced was in trouble. It was during this mayhem that a bewildered Rodney King uttered his famous phrase.

That phrase has been reused often - generally for comic effect - since then to punctuate the naive notion that we could actually all get along. "What? - people not lash out in violence?", implies the quoter. *chortle, chortle*...

Charles Darwin theorized that we evolved from a primative ancestor. As mankind and society have moved forward through time, it seems that we have had trouble as a species leaving behind that reactive violence that seems so normal in the animal kingdom and so abhorrent in ours. It seems we still dip our toes into that primordial soup from time to time and lash out in anger, hatred, and fear.
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137 comments (Latest Comment: 04/19/2013 11:12:49 by TriSec)

What is done unto you?
Author: Raine    Date: 04/17/2013 13:41:15

Victim blaming occurs when the victim(s) of a crime, an accident, or any type of abusive maltreatment are held entirely or partially responsible for the transgressions committed against them (regardless of whether the victim actually had any responsibility for the incident). Blaming the victim has traditionally emerged especially in racist, sexist, and classist forms.
You can read more here.

I've been thinking a lot about this idea of victim blaming lately. I think about the young woman who was raped and abused in Stuebenville. I think about Trayvon Martin. I think about the beautiful young woman, Amanda Todd who committed suicide in Canada after pictures of her bullying, both physical and cyber, were circulated... I think about Audrie Pott -- she committed suicide as well, after being raped and having no justice. All of these victims, every one of them -- were subjected to public judgement. Everyone one of them had their motives questioned, and all but one are dead. Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime, an accident, or any type of abusive maltreatment are held entirely or partially responsible for the transgressions committed against them. These children, young adults -- people, humans were terrorized by their assailants and were made victims again by a court of public opinion.
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124 comments (Latest Comment: 04/17/2013 21:10:19 by Raine)

Dammit all to Hell!
Author: TriSec    Date: 04/16/2013 10:34:56

Good morning.

We interrupt our regularly-scheduled “Ask a Vet” for a rant from Your Loyal TriSec.

This is my city.

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/03/9b/2f/47/boston.jpg


Yesterday was our day.

I mean no insult to New York, or those that were lost, but until September 11, it was just that, September 11, an otherwise ordinary day with no significance to New York.

Patriot’s Day is Boston.
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99 comments (Latest Comment: 04/17/2013 02:22:22 by Raine)

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