Lesson not learned: US can’t solve the sectarian civil war in Iraq

Good Day World!

You can’t ignore history and expect a society to advance unless past mistakes are acknowledged and addressed.

A government can’t practice collective amnesia and hope for positive changes. It doesn’t work that way. Yet our government constantly turns a blind eye away from hard-learned lessons.

President Obama and Congress are currently displaying advanced Alzheimer's when it comes to the current Iraq sectarian civil war.

That’s what it is folks, no matter what our government calls it. The “terrorists” members of Congress are galvanizing against are one of the two major denominations of Islam – Sunni. The Shiite denomination is currently in power.

The developments in Iraq have prompted leading Republicans to call for action. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., voiced security concerns, urged U.S. involvement. "I have never been more worried about another 9/11 than I am right now," Graham said.

President Obama stated that the US will not send troops back to Iraq, but cryptically noted that America will "do our part" to help the troubled nation. I’m still not clear on what that would involve.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has never seen a war he doesn’t like, called Iraq’s current crisis "the gravest threat to our national security since the end of the Cold War."

This whole dog and pony show involves political posturing and then some sort of commitment on America’s part to intervene in history.

We spent 25 billion on training an Iraqi Army and now they’re getting their asses kicked.

Meanwhile, the historic background of the Sunni–Shiite split is once again ignored.

In the year 632, a schism occurred when the Islamic prophet Muhammad died. That’s right. This fight has been going on for centuries! In typical imperialistic fashion, America took sides with the Shiites (a minority in Iraq) and tried to alter history by propping up a puppet government.

When we finally pulled out of Iraq our arrogance was on full display for the world to see. President Obama and Congress patted themselves on the backs and declared Democracy ruled where ancient rivalries once split the country.

Guess again.

Congress and Obama never won that war. It was fought for all the wrong reasons and we practically drained all of our resources feeding the war machine. The economy is just starting to recover. We’re pulling out of Afghanistan.

The last thing we need is to further bleed America’s resources by pursuing a political agenda that was wrong.

It’s still wrong. No one appointed the US the world’s judge to “save” Iraq from itself. Even a collective bad memory can’t change that.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Onionhead Belief System, Stoner Shoots Moon & Mayoral Dog Crap Caper

Good Day World!

Beware of the Onionheads!

“And the Great Onion stepped out of the Garden of Eden and said…”

“A federal agency sued a New York customer service provider on Wednesday after allegations the company forced employees to pray, thank God for their jobs and say "I love you" to managers and colleagues at work, and fired those who protested.

The Long Island-based United Health Programs of America and its parent company, Cost Containment Group, required workers to practice a spiritual belief system called Onionhead while on the job, in violation of their civil and religious rights, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in the complaint.” (Story)

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Pot Smoker Shoots at Moon, Arrested for Assault?

Shooting for the Moon takes on new meaning when a stoned dude tries to pick off the man in the Moon in a moment of lunar madness:

“A marijuana smoker was arrested in Arizona after shooting at the moon with a handgun and wrestling with officers who were called by his girlfriend to subdue him, authorities said on Wednesday.

Police went to a home in Prescott Valley, about 85 miles north of Phoenix, late last Friday where the woman told them her partner had fired several shots into the air after telling her and her teenage son he had seen Halley's Comet.

Prescott Valley police spokesman Sergeant Brandon Bonney said Cameron Read, 39, was arrested after a struggle and admitted firing multiple times and "trying to shoot the moon.” (Story)

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Hello Neighbor! Here’s a Bag of Crap for You!

You’ve probably heard of politicians who throw shit about their opponents on the wall to see if it’ll stick. Here’s a new twist for you:

“The mayor of the wealthy Southern California city of San Marino was under fire recently after police said he was caught on camera apparently leaving a bag of dog feces in his neighbor’s walkway.

Surveillance tape monitoring the exterior of the residence captured Mayor Dennis Kneier leaving what was said to be a bag of dog feces on a private walkway leading to his neighbor’s home on Saturday evening, San Marino Police said in a statement.

The owner of the home, who claimed to identify Kneier and his wife in the footage, called the police but does not intend to press any littering charges, police said. The department is still considering the incident open for investigation.” (Story)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Why there’s been no action to restrict guns despite weekly school shootings

Good Day World!

Another school shooting.

This time in Oregon.

It’s becoming so commonplace people are shell-shocked. No other civilized nation on the earth has more school shootings than America. It’s our shame.  

Meanwhile, all across America, the nation's gun lobbyists, their politicians and all those huddled around the national altar of the firearm vow that they will not allow any of America's meddling children to distract them from what is truly important.

You know what that is don’t you? Making sure there’s no way to restrict the use of firearms. Semi-automatic rifles and guns for all. Children be damned.

A year and a half ago, 20 elementary school children and six adults were executed by a gunman in in their Newtown, Connecticut, classrooms. In that 18-month span, there has been roughly one shooting in an American school every school week.

In the wake of the Sandy Hook murders, more gun laws have been loosened than have been tightened. This is almost entirely due to the notion that possible public "overreach" in protecting our schools from weekly shooters will infringe upon what a certain collection of people call "gun rights," meaning the rights held by guns and their chosen owners.

If you follow the news closely you’ve heard many politicians assert that one school shooting per week of school is a considerably better outcome than taking any action to prevent those shootings. No really. That’s what some nuts believe.

Here’s the thing, social-science researchers have developed a clear sense of how school-shooting plots develop, and how they can be disrupted. The wild card is how easily a teenage shooter obtains a gun.

Katherine Newman, co-author of Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings and the James B. Knapp dean of the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins, said it’s important to understand that different types of shootings follow different types of patterns.

School shooters as troubled lone wolves is a misconception according to Newman.

“Their daily experience is not one of being alone, but of being enmeshed in social friction,” Newman said. “They experience rejection all the time, but that doesn’t stop them from trying to join groups. They just fail, all the time."

The fact that shooters tend to talk about their plans provides an important opportunity to disrupt plots before they are carried out.

Beyond the question of who commits school shootings and why, Newman and her team also developed a profile of where these school shootings are most likely to take place:

“Rampage-shootings happen in two kinds of places: a small town in the middle of nowhere, or an exurb,” she said. “But not in big cities.” That’s because “sadly, school is not much of a stage in urban America.”

I would like to add that these school shooters generally have mental problems, but not all of them. The Santa Barbara college shooter was enraged that girls didn’t like him. He had no trouble buying three pistols prior to the shooting. Easy access. Too easy.

If we’re going to look at the full picture regarding school shootings then the subject of guns has to be addressed.

The firearm and munitions industries don’t want their sales to slow down. That’s why their hired gun – the NRA – has so much clout and is able to bully cowardly senators in Congress.

Until that changes expect more of the same. Schools will be under assault regularly. Parents will mourn their children who went to school and never came home.

And the NRA will continue to protect the gun cult in America.

Time for me to walk on down the road… 

Why organized religion is losing it’s allure in America

 Good Day World!

 I overheard a conversation the other day between two men who were talking about the Catholic church.

One was telling the other that he would never consider joining the Catholic church because it’s full of liars and pedophiles.

(Photo: Archbishop Robert Carlson)

The other responded by saying he’d never join any organized religion because they all have agendas he doesn’t agree with.

Organized religion in America is on the decline. The Church—any church, all churches, the omniscient "Church" representing all organized religious institutions—holds less allure for a new generation of American adults.

This is a fact, not a supposition.

A report from the Pew Research Center makes clear two things:

1) America is still an overwhelmingly religious country, and 2) America is becoming a less religious country. Key findings:

• "One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling."
• Atheists and agnostics make up almost 6% of Americans. Another 14% claim no specific religious affiliation.
• The percentage of unaffiliated Americans has grown by almost a third in the past five years.
• Two thirds of unaffiliated Americans say they believe in god. But when asked, "Are you looking for a religion that's right for you?" 88% of them say "no."

Priests – for the first time in history - are being held accountable for their illegal actions these days. To illustrate my point here’s a recent story: 

The St. Louis Archbishop embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal testified last month that he didn’t know in the 1980s whether it was illegal for priests to have sex with children, according to a court deposition released Monday.

Archbishop Robert Carlson, who was chancellor of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul at the time, was deposed as part of a lawsuit against the Twin Cities archdiocese and the Diocese of Winona, Minnesota.

In a video released by the St. Paul law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates, the Catholic archbishop is asked whether he had known it was a crime for an adult to engage in sex with a child.

“I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not,” Carlson responded. “I understand today it’s a crime.” (Story)

The take away from this article: if priests weren’t aware that molesting children was wrong until the 21st Century – then the church has a longer history of pedophiles than anyone ever dared guess.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Judges Are Convinced Computer Program is Human

  Good Day World!

The following story is about a British mathematician, Alan Turing, who helped win WW II, but wasn’t recognized for his genius because he was a homosexual.

This story is also about the “Turing Test” and how someone finally passed it.

Here’s what happened:

Judges in England were fooled into thinking the computer program they were conversing with was a human — making it the first to pass the 65-year-old Turing Test.

"Eugene Goostman" is not a 13-year-old boy, but 33 percent of the people who partook in five minute keyboard conversations with the computer program at the Royal Society in London thought it was, according to The University of Reading, which organized the test.

The Turing Test is based on “the father of modern computer science” Alan Turing’s question, “Can Machines Think?”

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British mathematician Alan Turing designed an electromechanical device known as the "bombe,” which allowed a team code-named “Ultra” to decode intercepted German messages. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill credited "Ultra" with winning the war.

Turing wasn’t lauded though. Instead, he was barred from working with the British government and charged as a criminal with “gross indecency” because he was gay.

The trailblazer killed himself with a poisoned apple at 41-years-old, tormented by the law and impossibility of exoneration.

Queen Elizabeth II granted a “mercy pardon” to Turing in 2013, but he never lived to see anything close to the seemingly-unrealistic machine he had dreamed up decades before its creation.

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If a computer is mistaken for a human by more than 30 percent of judges, it passes the test, but no computer has accomplished the feat — until now.

“The event is particularly poignant as it took place on the 60th anniversary of Turing's death, nearly six months after he was given a posthumous royal pardon,” the university’s statement said.

Turing was instrumental in cracking Germany's Enigma code during World War II and came up with the concept of a “universal machine” that could act and think like a human. (Full Story)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

7-Year old boy kicked out of school for doing the right thing

Good Day World!

 The following story is a classic case of someone doing the right thing – in this case a 7-year-old – and still getting into trouble.

There’s no doubt that schools in this day and age are edgy about anything that may result in a threat to the student body.

But where do you draw the line? What happened to common sense?

I understand that even a toy gun can be disruptive. However, the child in this case didn’t even know he had a toy gun in his backpack. When he discovered it he immediately turned it in to a teacher. His honesty got him kicked out of school.

Here’s the story:

New Kensington first grader Darin Simak realized on Wednesday that he had something in his backpack that was not allowed at Martin Elementary School.

It was a toy gun that was in the outside pocket of the bag. Darin was unaware of the toy because, as his mom, Jennifer Mathabel, told WTAE Action News 4, she packed her son’s bag which was a backup because he left his normal school bag in a friend’s car the night before, and she missed the toy gun. (Story)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Pot for Pets: Veterinarians Launch Hemp-Based Medicine for Animals

Good Day World!

More Americans than ever before are okay with the idea that marijuana does have medical applications for humans.

So, I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised that pot works for pets too.  

Two companies in the Seattle area, Canna-Pet and Canna Companion, are leading the charge into a new and uncharted field of hemp-based veterinary medicine.

Dr. Sarah Brandon and Dr. Greg Copas, husband and wife veterinarians, launched Canna Companion in March. They've been exploring medical cannabis for about eight years now.

They started with their pets and then those of family and friends, to find the right dosage.

Canna-Pet has only been selling to the public for about eight months and it's already shipping its products throughout the U.S. and 23 foreign countries.

Dan Goldfarb, president of Canna-Pet, calls it "an exploding market" that will grow exponentially in the years ahead.

The pet supplement industry is largely unregulated.

To further complicate matters, the Drug Enforcement Agency still considers industrial hemp a controlled substance even though it is not psychoactive.

But times are changing.

On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 22-8 on a plan that would block the DEA — or any federal agency — from spending funds to enforce anti-hemp laws in any state that has received permission to grow it.

The full House OK'd the measure the previous week. As a final footnote to this story – it’s the first time a pro-pot law has popped up in Congress, and to have it pass so easily speaks volumes.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Rogue Roundup: Which Man hates America the Most?

Good Day World!

Here’s a roundup of rogues who’d love to see America destroyed.

I thought I’d start off with the most recent, Noorullah Noori (photo right), a Taliban commander who President Obama freed (along with four other top Taliban talent) recently in exchange for an American soldier who deserted his post.

Upon gaining his freedom from Gitmo he promised he was going to go back to Afghanistan and “…kill Americans.” No surprise. After living in captivity for 12 years he’s harboring some bad juju and just wants to get it out of his system.

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 Next up, we have Mahmoud Abbas (photo left).

 Hahmoud Abbas loathes Americans.

He’s the President of the State of Palestine. He’s also the President of the Palestinian National Authority (although that’s disputed by Aziz Duwaik)

Abbas’ hatred is not surprising when you consider he’s coming from a population where four of five Palestinians hate the American leadership. One explanation for the country’s hostility toward the United States is Palestine’s conflict with Israel.

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The operational head of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri (photo right), has vowed to destroy America numerous times.

After Osama bin Laden’s death he warned America that it’s not just individual terrorists or groups who are against us.

Zawahri boasted it’s an international community of Muslims that seek to destroy America and its allies. This is one highly motivated person who is willing to give his all to see the destruction of our country.

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Time for me to walk on down the road…

Friday Follies: store manager freaks out, mariachi band prank, spirited ghosts, and a lucky lady

Good Day World!

After casting out in cyberspace, I’ve reeled in a few stories for your amusement today.

Let’s start with the manager of a Family Dollar store in Saginaw, Michigan. Gavyn Edlinger had a major meltdown and sprayed an alleged shoplifter with Febreze.

What made him spray the woman? Believe it or not, it was the only thing she returned when confronted by Mr. Edlinger who – out of frustration - freaked out. He was fired for his fit.(story)

Here’s an interesting – and more upbeat story:

Something seemed a little bit different about Principal John Becchio as he made his rounds at Santa Barbara High School this week.

Was it the trumpeter? The violinist? Or the guitar and guitarron players? Probably all four.

The mariachi group that greeted Becchio in his office and followed him around for an hour was a prank played by this year's senior class.

The Santa Barbara Unified School District posted photos and video of the prank on its website this week.

This story is about ghosts and hurt feelings:

Whether or not you buy into paranormal investigations, there's no denying things have been getting spirited on social media regarding cast departures on Syfy's Ghost Hunters.

And since news broke that Amy Bruni and Adam Berry were departing the nearly 10-year-old series, the ghosts of investigators past, present and yet-to-come have weighed in - and there seems to be evidence of drama and hurt feelings. Find out what happened here.

This last story is about someone who is lucky…real lucky!

An Alabama woman was unhurt after being run over by a train on Wednesday.

According to Auburn police, 22-year-old Lynsey Horne (photo) fell asleep on the railroad tracks and was not injured when a train passed over her.

She was charged with disorderly conduct for causing a disruption because the train had to be stopped and an ambulance needed to be called. She was also charged with public intoxication. (Story)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

About Slender Man: a modern boogeyman blamed for a vicious attack

 Good Day World!

About a month ago, I put together a learning board about urban legends. Little did I know that one of those legends would cross the line from being a internet meme to a real-life boogeyman.

On May 31, 2014, two 12-year-old girls in Waukesha, Wisconsin allegedly held down and stabbed a 12-year-old classmate 19 times; when questioned later by authorities, they reportedly claimed that they wished to commit a murder as a first step to becoming "proxies" (acolytes) of the Slender Man, having read about it online.

Thanks to the intervention of a passing cyclist, the friend survived the attack. The attackers were charged as adults and are each facing up to 65 years in prison.

Have you ever heard of the Slender Man prior to this vicious attack? Most adults haven’t.

He might be a mystery to adults, but to many kids, Slender Man is as recognizable as Dracula. He is often found lurking, an eerie Where’s Waldo?, in the back of blurry photos online. He has long, spider-like limbs, no face, and stories say he can hypnotize children into walking into his embrace.

The Slender Man is a fictional character that originated as an Internet meme created by Something Awful forums user Eric Knudsen (a.k.a "Victor Surge") in 2009. It is depicted as resembling a thin, unnaturally tall man with a blank and usually featureless face, wearing a black suit.

The Slender Man is commonly said to stalk, abduct, or traumatize people, particularly children. The Slender Man is not tied to any particular story, but appears in many disparate works of fiction, mostly composed online.

The Slender Man soon went viral, spawning numerous works of fanart, cosplay and online fiction known as "creepypasta": scary stories told in short snatches of easily copyable text that spread from site to site. Divorced from its original creator, the Slender Man became the subject of myriad stories by multiple authors within an overarching mythos.

Just five months later, callers into George Noory's Coast to Coast AM, a radio call-in show devoted to the paranormal and conspiracy theories, began receiving callers asking about the Slender Man.

He might be a mystery to adults, but to many kids, Slender Man is as recognizable as Dracula. He is often found lurking, an eerie Where’s Waldo?, in the back of blurry photos online. He has long, spider-like limbs, no face, and stories say he can hypnotize children into walking into his embrace.

It seems likely to me that we’ll see more examples of the virtual reality colliding with reality, resulting in action – of some kind or another.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Former POW Bowe Bergdahl: ‘I’m ashamed to even be an American’

Good Day World!

 What were President Obama and his advisors thinking when they went all-out to arrange a prisoner swap with the Taliban?

What was the hurry? Why now after all the past attempts at making the same bargain have failed? What really changed?

The official word is he’s sick and needs medical attention. I’m sure he does. The Taliban aren’t known for serving steak and potatoes to their enemies.

Is he dying? Did Obama think his record may be stained if a POW dies under his watch with the world as a witness? Whatever the reason, it was a stupid move.

I say that for two reasons.

One; we are now negotiating with terrorists. Not just any terrorist organization, but the same one we invaded two countries going after. It’s always been a firm National Policy not to bargain with terrorists. For good reasons. But they were disregarded.

Was one sick POW reason enough for this sneaky swap? Not informing Congress was a flat-out violation of an agreement not to free Guantanamo Bay prisoners without a 30-day notice. A belated apology doesn’t make that right.

To compound this apparently ill-thought out prisoner swap, we got screwed!

We ended up with one American deserter, and they got five high-ranking officials. Pardon me, but any moron can see that was uneven swap. What do you think those five men are going to devote the rest of their lives too?

That’s right. Killing Americans. But we have Bowe Bergdahl. Excuse me, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. He got promoted a couple of times as his captors were indoctrinating him into Islam. Don’t be surprised if he announces he’s a Muslim now.

The U.S. Army is preparing to launch a full high-level inquiry into the circumstances of Bergdahl’s disappearance from his outpost in Afghanistan. That inquiry will determine whether a formal investigation into possible criminal charges against him.

Bergdahl was deployed to Afghanistan in May 2009. Just six weeks after his arrival in the region, he was captured in Paktika province in Afghanistan and taken into captivity. The Department of Defense classified his status as “Missing-Captured.”

That summer, U.S. officials confirmed that Bergdahl had “just walked off” the base in a remote region near the border with Pakistan. By 2010, a Pentagon investigation, concluding that Bergdahl had left his unit voluntarily without his weapon or body armor, and pulled back the most aggressive efforts to retrieve him, the Associated Press reported.

Bergdahl’s platoon members say that those efforts proved deadly to six soldiers as they searched for their vanished colleague.

Rumors of his possible desertion were further fueled in June 2012, when Rolling Stone magazine published emails that Bergdahl reportedly sent to his parents before his capture, lamenting that he was “ashamed to even be an American.”

The administration was hoping for some kind of PR victory by bringing Bergdahl home. It was a bold move. But not the right move.

Look at what our country has given up. A precedent has been set. It’s now open season for taking American prisoners so the Taliban can swap them for their cohorts in Guantanamo Bay.

Bergdahl is no hero, by any stretch of the imagination. That will come out when the inevitable investigation is made on why he deserted his post.

Time for me to walk on down the road…