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

A growing reality for middle class America: One step from poverty

       Good Day

 Humboldt County!

The Great Repression is reducing the American middle class to a minority. The majority of Americans are struggling financially. Living from paycheck to paycheck. When unemployment insurance runs out, often the last safety net, people are reduced to seeking assistance anywhere they can find it.

Free Food Pantries nationwide are having difficulty meeting the increased demands from those struck low by finances. The following article talks about this growing problem and exposes how deeply it’s affecting the American way of life:

“The small communities that dot the picturesque mountain landscape outside Boulder, Colo., conjure up an image from long before the great recession. Here the manicured lawns and expensive cars are a testament to the achievements of a fiercely independent and educated middle class; a 21^st century version of suburban bliss. But often these days, the closed doors of well-kept houses hide a decidedly different reality: hushed conversation about food stamps and Medicaid, depleted bank accounts and 401K’s, kitchen shelves stocked with groceries from food pantries.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This Dateline special aired Sunday Night. Go to Dateline Webpage to view whole story.

"It's this dirty little secret,” said Joyce Welch, a stay-at-home mother of three whose husband, a mechanical engineer, lost his job six months ago. “Everybody is supposed to be able to buy the new car, supposed to buy the new house. And what we don't talk about is people who struggle, and they're struggling more and more."  The Welch family lives in Superior, a Boulder suburb that was listed by Money Magazine as one of the “Top 20 best places to live in America” in 2011. Neighboring Louisville was ranked number one.The evidence that times are rough for many suburban middle class families is not merely anecdotal.

Boulder County's Department of Housing and Human Services provided the number of Louisville and Superior residents that relied on public safety nets to make ends meet.  And while these affluent communities still boast some of the lowest poverty levels in Colorado, the statistics were nonetheless startling: since 2008 the combined number of families on Medicaid more than doubled, as did the number of people utilizing food assistance.  Lafayette, another well-to-do suburb in East Boulder County experienced similar increases.” (Read the rest here VIA Izhar Harpaz for Dateline NBC)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

AS IT STANDS: How 3 big lies have crippled America’s economy

                    By  Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
  War became a business when we entered Vietnam. We went there for the wrong reasons. Defense Secretary Robert Strange McNamara admitted years later that he followed the flawed “Domino Theory” out of loyalty, and said it was the main reason for entering the Vietnam War.

   McNamara's memoir “In Retrospect,” published in 1995, presented an account and analysis of the Vietnam War from his point of view. According to his lengthy New York Times obituary, "…he concluded well before leaving the Pentagon that the war was futile, but he did not share that insight with the public until late in life.”
   In 1995, he took a stand against his own conduct of the war, confessing in his memoir that it was “wrong, terribly wrong.” Remember, Americans were told from the very beginning that our involvement in Vietnam was about freedom and bringing democracy to that country.
  We were told our freedom at home was threatened and the war was necessary. I call that misleading message the first “Big Lie.” Fifty-eight thousand American men and women died for that lie.
    The second “Big Lie” to justify invading another country came when we unseated the Iraq government of Saddam Hussein. Once again we waved the flag of freedom to intervene when Iraq invaded Kuwait.
   We eventually set up a new government in Iraq (a country that hates us), while bleeding American taxpayers dry. The price of this second Big Lie is still being calculated.  I’ll say more about that shortly, but let’s move on to our third “Big Lie,” given for invading Afghanistan (which after a decade of war hates us).

  After 9/11, this third “Big Lie” seized our shaken nation. We were told it was necessary to conquer Afghanistan and get Osama Bin Laden and his pack of extremist Muslim terrorists to make us safe at home. We finally got him all right - a decade later in Pakistan, sheltered by our allies there.
    Meanwhile the financial impact on the American economy has been devastating. The price for these big lies is staggering, according to the Commission on Wartime Contracting.
  In a new report to Congress (6/6) this independent panel investigated U.S. wartime spending. As much as $60 billion has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade through lax oversight of contractors, poor planning and payoffs to warlords and insurgents.
  Here are some recent facts taken primarily from data analyzed by various think tanks, including The Brookings Institution's Iraq Index, and from mainstream media sources ( 1/31/12).

  1.) Spent & Approved War-Spending - About $1 trillion of US taxpayers' funds spent or approved for spending through 2011.
  2.) Lost & Unaccounted for in Iraq - $9 billion of U.S. taxpayers' money and $549.7 million in spare parts shipped in 2004 to U.S. contractors. Also, per ABC News, 190,000 guns, including 110,000 AK-47 rifles.
  3.) Lost and Reported Stolen - $6.6 billion of U.S. taxpayers' money earmarked for Iraq reconstruction, reported on June 14, 2011 by Special Inspector General for Iraq reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, who called it "the largest theft of funds in national history." (Source - CBS News)

  4.) Mismanaged & Wasted in Iraq - $10 billion, per Feb 2007 Congressional hearings.
Halliburton Overcharges Classified by the Pentagon as Unreasonable and Unsupported - $1.4 billion
  5.) Amount paid to KBR, a former Halliburton division, to supply U.S. military in Iraq with food, fuel, housing and other items - $20 billion. Portion of the $20 billion paid to KBR that Pentagon auditors deem "questionable or supportable" - $3.2 billion 
  Just think of all the monies discussed above that could have gone into the American economy instead. One author, Rob Simpson, has managed to look at the lighter side in his book "What We Could Have Done With the Money: 50 Ways to Spend the Trillion Dollars We've Spent on Iraq."
    As It Stands, my favorite part of this book is where Simpson calculates the $1 trillion we’ve spent on war could pave the entire U.S. interstate highway system with 23.5 karat gold leaf!

                                               Websites that have picked up this column:

1) ABC News Interceder - 135.7 articles per day – As It Stands ranked the 10th Most Read at 2:00 p.m. PST

2) Oil & Gas Newswire Topix  - 1:a.m. Sunday

3) SiloBreaker