CNN Vetted some of my flood video!

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-670560

Morning Joe Re-Tweeted Me!

Probably not that big a deal, but made me feel good. I commented about the President's comments to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and how many service men I talk to believe in the mission. Someone at @Morning_Joe liked my comment enough to re-tweet it.
Excuse me while I deflate my pathetic ego.

President addresses Boy Scouts at National Jamboree

Via video.  He couldn't break away from fund raising and other commitments to show up in person.



But that is OK.  Ronald Reagan didn't attend the Jamborees while he was President (he sent his wife).  And Bill Clinton and GW only attended one of the Jamborees of the two that took place during their terms.  Bush Sr. attended during his first term - good thing, yes?  Maybe Obama is counting on a second term?

Some people - mostly those with Scouting backgrounds or sons and daughters at the Jamboree - are upset that the President of the United States could not find time to attend in person.  After all, he is the Honorary President of the National Organization.  It is also Scouting in the USA's 100th Anniversary.  Google "President Disses Boy Scouts" and you'll get a sense of the thoughts of our country.  More people seem upset about people being upset than anything else.  How dare the Boy Scouts 'expect' the President to show up?  Frugal Cafe' Blog Zone has a good sampling of what people are saying.

Boy Scout Jamboree’s 100th Anniversary vs. ‘The View’: Boy Scouts Lose, Obama to Appear with Daytime TV Harpies

 Jane Chastain lays her thoughts out very plainly in her posting on WorldNetDaily -

Obama disses the Boy Scouts

Truth be told (I'd tell nothing else), the Presidency and the Boy Scouts are not that tight.  You might think, given the number of Astronauts, prominent business men and entrepreneurs, and other popular figures (like

Who is the Bully?

You may recall that this past January there was a troublesome suicide in which a 15-year-old ninth grader hanged herself because, as the media portrayed it at the time, she had been the subject of terrible bullying and abuse at the hands of a half-dozen of her peers - The Hadley Six.  The young girl, Phoebe Prince, had recently moved from Ireland to South Hadley Massachusetts.  Immediately after her suicide, several students were the focus of accusations claiming their bullying had directly led to Phoebe taking her life.  A(n over) zealous District Attorney, Elizabeth Scheibel, decided to charge six students with various charges relating to the tragic incident.

http://www.slate.com/id/2260952/entry/2260953/

I clearly remember discussing this with my co-workers at school.  The consensus was that this was a witch hunt. The DA was trying to win points with the community by sacrificing teenagers who may have bullied Phoebe.  The first indication to me that the whole story was not being told was that rarely enforced statutory rape laws were being used to charge the two young men involved.  In Massachusetts any sex under 16 is statutory rape.  A 17 year old and an 18 year old have been charged for allegedly having sex with the 15 year old Phoebe.  The law here was not the focus.  If it were, there would be a lot more students in trouble.  Instead, the DA is citing an infrequently used statute for leverage in her campaign.  The DA's attempt to prosecute the students for criminal homicide in Phoebe's death is also rarely used because it is rarely successful.

In her three part article "What Really Happened to Phoebe Prince?", Emily Bazelon masterfully accomplishes what rarely happens in journalism today.  She has spent the time and put forth the effort to dig into the facts of this under reported travesty.  Emily Bazelon presents a much truer explanation of what led up to Phoebe Prince's untimely death and examines how the over use of the legal system can freeze a community and prevent any effectual recovery from a tragedy like Phoebe's.  It is a longer piece then most people surfing the internet would take the time to read, but it is worth the extra time.  There are also a few links to other media or information that break up the reading.

Of interest beyond the article is the comments section.  Posts a-plenty and with extra hot sauce - flaming!  People have strong opinions about this article and the case it covers.  I must say though, I doubt more than half the people commenting actually read the whole article and did a little extra research on their own.

My favorite quote from the article is from Alan Dershowitz with regards to trying to charge the defendants with a civil rights violation with bodily injury - "That's a real stretch.  People want to think that there's always legal accountability where there should be moral accountability.  But in the criminal context, you should always err against overextending the law."

http://www.slate.com/id/2260952/entry/2260953/

Fooled Again

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

This kind of deceit seems to be the standard in journalism today. Sometimes deliberate, sometimes through ignorance, "facts" are misrepresented. Even in this article/post by Bob Cesca, information is distorted. In the second paragraph "The videos turned out to be misleading at best, and the fake pimp character went on to plead guilty to charges of entering federal property under false pretense." seems to imply the charges are a result of the ACORN videos. They are not. The charges involved a separate stunt played out by James O'Keefe and others and were not related to the Pimp and Prostitute videos investigating ACORN.

See how easy it is to mis-represent the facts. Certainly, I agree that both sides of the media are failing at being journalists. Where's Walter Cronkite when you need him? (please, no flames about Cronkite - tis a joke)

"Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society." - Attributed to John Adams.

the Y - after a day to think about the re-branding

After having some time to consider everything that was presented over the past several days to the media/public, I have decided that changing the YMCA logo and "identity" or "brand" is a minor part of a larger plan.  The shame is, the new logo is where the attention is going.  Of more importance is the study conducted by YMCA of the USA.  In the remarks given at the press conference and in the press release, the real change in the Y (more accurately a refocusing of what the Y has always been good at) is the focus of mission.

The Y Community Snapshot Study - which I have not seen in its entirety - is the report being held in clenched fists to prove the urgency and need for change.  Numbers abound.  66 percent of people think the current quality of life in their communities is worse than last year.  Respondents reported that they were concerned the most about chronic issues involving crime, violence, and public safety.  They also identified access to quality healthcare, poverty, negative youth behaviors, and declining values as concerns.  (They apparently don't care about or were not polled about global warming, terrorism, or American troops serving in foreign countries)

Morning Joe

During the school year I wake up to "Morning Joe"  with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist, and a whole slew of regular guest commentators.  The show runs 6 to 9 AM and has a very contemporary feel.  The bumper music is usually 70's and 80' tunes.  Guests wander in and out of the show through-out the morning, almost like they have stopped by to grab their caffeine and then coincidently get drawn into the conversation.  There is not a lot of fluff and the hosts (Joe and Mika mostly - Willie is more of the useless trivia/news/comedy guy) do not always agree with each other, let alone their guests.  Discussions can get very heated.  True, each individual may have a bias on any topic, but due to the wide range of guests and opinions, at the end of the conversation you truly do get a balanced view of the news.  Honestly, it's about the only cable news I watch anymore.  Most of the cable news I cannot stomach.

There is one thing about "Morning Joe" that I cannot stomach -- Their Starbucks blend of coffee.  I was so excited when I found it on the shelves of Wal-mart, I took the bag home and took pictures of it next to my coffee mess.

Then I ran a pot . . .

I spent 6 years in the Navy.  I drank a lot of bad coffee.  I have stomached some of the most dangerous grounds ever percolated in a Boy Scout Camp.  I consider myself a professional on bad coffee.  I admit, I don't have the range of taste buds to appreciate the subtleties of better brews.  I didn't need to with this stuff.  It can't decide if it is a French Roast, a dark roast "wake-me-up", or a base for all the fancy slurryups coffee houses like to dump into otherwise perfectly good coffee.  I like my coffee sans everything.  If the brew can't go down on its own, it is no good.  I understand now why Joe always has creamers, flavored syrups, sugar, and ice in his coffee.  It is the only way to make it palatable.  Morning Joe Coffee - failed.

Buy a bag anyway and put it on your shelf.  It does look cool and I believe part of the proceeds are marked for charity (not sure - can someone find out?)

You don't know JACK!

Had a decent Father's day today.  My son Dan, one of my foster sons, and Mia went up to my fathers for dinner.  Mia made chicken and shrimp kabobs for the grill, along with macaroni salad and deviled eggs (potentially a stinky situation with all the eggs involved).  At my request, dad made a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing - yummy!  Cathy came over for dinner.  All-in-all a very laid back and pleasant day.

But tonight, as I was finishing reading "Deadline" by Chris Crutcher ( a whole separate trauma) I was IMd by my friend Jack.  He is an Air Force Medic serving with the First Battalion, 110 Infantry Brigade at FOB Bullard.  I often catch him on Facebook in the evening, which is the morning for him.  Once, he hurriedly typed "things are starting off fast today" and "just found an IED have to wait for EOD".  He signed off shortly after that.  He has also described some of the gorier casualties he has had to deal with.  He's even mentioned a few fatalities.  Until June 11th, they had always been Afghan Nationals and, not that it should matter, I felt relief to know that these were not American Soldiers dieing in his unit.

June 11th that changed.  Army Staff Sgt. Bryan Hoover and Army Sgt. First Class Fike were killed by an IED.  Not that you can intuit much emotional context out of a text message, it is obvious that this loss has played heavy on my friend - as it should.  And it should effect us at home more as well.  There have been 35 American fatalities in June (as of the 20th) and I have not heard nearly as much about this disaster as I have heard of the oil spill in the gulf, the silly debate of defending the American Border in Arizona (silly in that there is already Federal precedence to check a suspects immigration status if it is suspect, so who cares if a State wants to in-act their own similar legislation.  Read all three answers.), or Armani Underwear airbrushing out Megan Fox's Abs (worth two seperate links btw).

If you want to see who has died in service to our country, check out --

• http://icasualties.org/OEF/Index.aspx
• http://militarytimes.com/valor/index.php
• http://www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf
• http://freedomremembered.com/index.php/category/states/pennsylvania/ (this link is just for Pennsylvanians - there are write-ups for both Hoover and Fike)

And there it is!  Not that I will dwell on these thoughts, but I will be more anxious as I wait to see Jack log on to his Facebook account.  Please, keep him, as well as all of the other great Americans who serve on our behalf, in your thoughts and prayers.  And, do not forget those who have fallen.

The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. - General Douglas MacArthur

Bull or No Bull!?

Sometimes you wish the bull would beat the bullfighter. This time the bull did win. Be warned -- this is kinda 'gory'! (only the first minute of the video has the bull winning - after that . . .)