Victim of Swatting? SWAT team raids wrong house

Imagine you're sitting at home, comfortable on the couch, watching the Food Network, when all of a sudden a heavily armed SWAT team breaks down your door and storms into your living room.

That's what happened to 18-year-old Stephanie Milan, who was watching TV in her family's Evansville, Ind., home last Thursday (June 22), when a team of police officers broke down her storm door — the front door was already open — and tossed a flash-bang stun grenade into the room. Turns out, however, that the SWAT team had the address wrong. (source)

Scum of the Week: Shawn Sullivan, child molestor on two continents protected by Brits

The sorry-assed individual shown here, Shawn Sullivan, 43, is being protected by the British who won’t send him back to the states where he committed sexual crimes against children because they think our law might be too tough on him!

No really. They’d rather let him stay there and molest little girls in London. He was convicted of sexually assaulting two 12-year-old girls in Ireland, as he ran from justice. The guy is a serial scumbag.

Perhaps it’s just as well that he stay in England. They can pay the expenses for convicting him of his sex crimes, then letting him out after a short sentence, and repeating the whole process again.

Who knows how long he’ll drain their system, incurring expenses for British tax payers for years to come? Blimey! Someone’s got to be balmy to let this predator prey on any society!

In the news today: 

“Minnesota prosecutors' efforts to have a convicted sexual predator brought to trial in the United States were thwarted on Thursday when Britain's High Court dropped extradition proceedings, saying the U.S. hadn't guaranteed the suspect would be kept out a program some deem draconian.

Sullivan, is accused of molesting two girls and raping a third in the 1990s in Minnesota. Sullivan fled the United States and eventually ended up in London, where authorities caught up to him two years ago.

Sullivan escaped to Ireland as prosecutors prepared to file charges in the U.S., and while staying there was convicted of sexually assaulting two 12-year-old girls. Sullivan, a dual U.S.-Irish citizen, moved to London using an Irish passport that spelled his last name in Gaelic as "O'Suilleabhain."  (source)

Counter Culture: A Look Back at the ‘Weather Underground’ and Protesting War

There were a lot of radical groups in the 70s but the Weather Underground was among the most extreme.

      Good Day Humboldt County!

With my first child on the way in 1975, I turned away from the counter culture that I lived in, and started going “straight.”

Went back to college, got a degree and a career, and fully sold out to the establishment. For a while. Played the career game. Now my children are grown up and I’m retired and have slipped back to my hippie ways actively questioning our government and the corrupt politicians we thoughtlessly vote into office every term! I would like to point out that I wasn’t anywhere near as extreme as the people associated with the “Weather Underground.” I just wanted people to know that Vietnam veterans were being poisoned by Agent Orange back in the early 70s when the military and chemical companies denied it was hazardous to human health.   

“What is it like being an underground revolutionary, with fantasies of grandeur, dreaming of a better tomorrow? In 1975, the Weather Underground, a militant faction of the Students for a Democratic Society attempting to overthrow U.S. imperialism, were fugitives in hiding. Filmmakers Emile de Antonio, Haskell Wexler and Mary Lampson spoke to members of group (who were concealed from the camera by sheets and mirrors to interesting effect). Much of footage - in the above video - which revealed too much was burned, and the film and negatives were subsequently subpoenaed by the FBI for use in their mission to capture the Weathermen.” (source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Furious man pulls gun on neighbor for farting in front of his apartment

If only this guy's fart had been silent but deadly, he probably wouldn't have found himself in a dangerous situation.

A New Jersey man allegedly pulled a gun on his neighbor after hearing the man pass gas in front of his apartment door. Police in Teaneck say Daniel Collins had been having ongoing noise issues with his neighbor, and when the man let one rip, it was the wind that broke the camel's back.

Though Collins denies the charge, police eventually recovered a gun from his car and charged him with aggravated assault. As for the neighbor, well, I’m hoping he changed his shorts. (source)

AS IT STANDS: An attempt to explain a column that doesn’t really have a category

               Good Day Humboldt County!

I was talking newspapers with a guy, while waiting in a long line the other day, when I mentioned that I wrote a column for The Times-Standard. He asked what kind of column did I write?

After hesitating a moment I said, “An opinion column.” But my answer seems incomplete in retrospect, because I didn’t always opine about things. Sometimes I tell stories about people and animals. I’ve also been known to examine physical and mental conditions, along with humorous and satirical takes on life.

As It Stands is a combination of a poor man’s YOU INSERT YOUR FAVORITE SYNDICATED NEWSPAPER COLUMNIST HERE, and now retired, Gary Larson’s, Far Side comic strip. I like to write about odd and weird things whenever possible.

I do enjoy getting up on my bully pulpit to protest corruption wherever I see it. I only take stands on subjects that I strongly believe in. Probably the best thing about my column is I write about anything I want to! With a wide variety of subjects explored, I’m bound to pick up some regular readers, whose comments, by the way, keep me writing.

Longtime readers know that I’m a retired newspaper editor & publisher, and a Vietnam veteran with PTSD that doesn’t get out of the house too often. If it wasn’t for the World Wide Web, I would have lost contact with the outside world a long time ago. This blog, and my column, give me two more reasons to get up in the morning.

As It Stands, there’s so many new things to write about every day, it really helps chase boredom away!

 

 

 

 

The Call of the Wild: Photos of animals illuminated by the sun

 

The time of sunset is defined in astronomy as the moment when the trailing edge of the Sun’s disk disappears below the horizon in the west. There are few things in nature as photogenic as the sky at sunset, especially animals. The rich bright gold, pink and orange colors make unusually beautiful pictures of animals illuminated by the sun. (Go here to see more beautiful examples)

Aldous Huxley: a man not afraid of taking long journeys

 Good Day Humboldt County!

 I thought it would be interesting to take a brief look at a man who enjoyed getting high, and who was a visionary second to none.

If you’ve ever read any of his writings you’ll know he’s deep. He was a humanist, pacifist, and satirist, and he was latterly interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism. Now it’s time to meet: 

Aldous Leonard Huxley who was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays. He is also well known for advocating and taking psychedelics.

Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel writing, film stories and scripts. Huxley spent the later part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death.

By the end of his life Huxley was widely recognized to be one of the pre-eminent intellectuals of his time and respected as an important researcher into visual communication and sight-related theories as well.

Huxley once said:

“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution.”

Sound familiar? Kinda scary isn’t it? It certainly gives you food for thought…

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Question of the Day: Would you get naked for $276 worth of free groceries?

 For some people there is no limit to what they’ll do to get something free. I can’t imagine a promotion like this would fly in the U.S.

I think if I was one of the clothed shoppers there I’d be concerned about major cooties from bare butts (and worse) touching items – any items – including shopping carts!

“It turns out people will do almost anything for free food. Shoppers in Germany let it all hang loose — literally — for some gratis groceries.

According to ABC News, more than 200 shoppers showed up to the grand opening of a supermarket in Süderlügum, Germany, where the storeowner had offered a rather strange promotion to attract new customers. The store had advertised that the first 100 customers would get up to 220 euro or $276 worth of free food. The catch? Everyone had to show up au naturel.

Customers waited outside and were ushered into the supermarket in groups of twenty. They then stripped down and proceeded to shop normally for their free groceries. Videos were taken and photos were snapped, but the nude German customers didn't seem to mind — they were focused on the food. (source)

The Price of Revenge: Teens throw milkshake, woman throws $2,000 back at them!

A woman lost $2,000 in Palo Alto after she threw her purse at a passing car filled with teenagers who allegedly threw a milkshake in her face.

The woman was walking across University Avenue near Rudy's Pub Sunday when a white Range Rover full of teenagers drove by and allegedly threw a milkshake in her face.

Authorities said the woman tried to get revenge by throwing her alligator skin purse at the passing vehicle.

A window was open on the Range Rover and the purse landed in the car. The purse had several of the woman's personal items and $2,000 in cash.

Police are looking for the stylish purse and the teenagers, who are facing charges ranging from battery to possession of stolen property or misappropriation of property.

The story was first reported by Palo Alto Online.

Supreme Corporate Court Declines to Revisit Its Citizens United Decision

      Good Day Humboldt County!

  The reason I think democracy has taken a detour recently is simple; the shameful Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court.

 The damage done is still be calculated as the Corporate Court overturns another state’s ability to fight off corruption.

  In the Montana decision we can see the future – and it’s ugly:   

“In a brief unsigned decision, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to have another look at its blockbuster 2010 campaign finance decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

In the 5-to-4 ruling on Monday, the court summarily reversed a decision of the Montana Supreme Court that had upheld a state law limiting independent political spending by corporations. That decision, the United States Supreme Court said, was flatly at odds with Citizens United, which said the First Amendment allows corporations and unions to spend as much as they like to support or oppose political candidates.

The four members of the court’s liberal wing dissented in an opinion by Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who said that Citizens United itself had been a mistake. “Even if I were to accept Citizens United,” Justice Breyer continued, “this court’s legal conclusion should not bar the Montana Supreme Court’s finding, made on the record before it, that independent expenditures by corporations did in fact lead to corruption or the appearance of corruption in Montana. Given the history and political landscape in Montana, that court concluded that the state had a compelling interest in limiting independent expenditures by corporations.”

Critics of the Supreme Court’s campaign finance rulings attacked Monday’s decision, saying Citizens United had led to unprecedented levels of outside money pouring into the presidential campaign and races for the House and Senate — the vast majority of it raised not from corporations but from wealthy individuals and spent by “super PACs” and other independent groups.

Citizens United was wrong when it was decided, and as two Supreme Court Justices have observed since, independent expenditures by corporations are threatening the health of our democracy.” (news source)

Image found on Imgur.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

More Signs of the Times: Broke Army Veteran Sells his Medal on eBay

When I read the following story I flashed back to a time when veterans threw their medals away in protest against the Vietnam War.

The fact that a veteran today could sell one medal for five grand is truly surprising to me.

I think most Americans are ashamed of how hard our returning veterans lives are after they become civilians. It seems to me the bidders were more interested in helping Shepard than in collecting medals.

“I did it out of desperation and frustration,” Shephard, 43, from Woodbury, N.J, told Fox 29. “It was a last resort.”

Shepard’s old Sgt. gave him flack about disgracing his medal. He didn’t disgrace anything. He utilized what survival skills the Army taught him, and got enough money together to start a business and feed his family.

It’s a shame he had to resort to it, that all the other possibilities for help were exhausted, but it was the right thing to do. I don’t give a damn what anyone else says about Shepard’s actions. If I had a chance to talk to him I’d say, “Good job bro. You got your priorities straight!”

“An out-of-work veteran has found an enterprising means of supporting his family and starting a new business: selling his Army medal. It went for $5,200 on eBay today, skyrocketing from $2,000 a few hours earlier, My Fox Washington reports.”  via the Street