Racist Ukrainians

I don't eat meat. I never ate pork. I have never liked eggs. Can't stand them. I find eggs' texture, look, and taste disgusting, along with their very concept. Eating chicken ova? Yuck. No thanks. However, if I were starving I wouldn't be so picky.

If some Good Samaritan offered me a hot plate of ham sausage, bacon, and scrambled eggs, I would graciously accept the food. I wouldn't throw it back at the Good Samaritan as if the food were raw sewage. It wouldn't be my preference but it would keep me alive. That's important.

One would think that Ukrainian refugees, running for their collective lives from their war torn country, would be happy to be allowed into another nation to live. One would think they'd be wise enough to keep minor complaints to themselves. One would be wrong. Apparently some Ukrainians really hate Black people and Asian people--and aren't shy about making this known.

2022 Midterms

I don't know who was the first person to say "Don't get high on your own supply". Younger people may recall a version of this maxim from rapper Biggie Smalls 1997 song "Ten Crack Commandments". I'm not young so my reference point for the line is from the 1983 movie Scarface. 

There are older sayings with similar meanings. H.P. Lovecraft in his 1927 horror novel The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward wrote the warning "Do not call up that which you cannot put down". Shakespeare's "Hamlet, written between 1599 and 1601, has the line "hoist by one's own petard" which warns of destruction by forces that the person has invoked. 

Republicans should have remembered these warnings before the recent midterms. At this time there are a few races yet to be called. But there was no red wave. Democrats will keep control of the Senate. Republicans will likely take control of the House by a small margin. 

With a few exceptions high profile Trump supported election denier Republicans lost. In Michigan, Republicans were shut out entirely. Michigan Democrats retained the offices of Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General, while taking the State House and State Senate.

Corion Evans Saves Three Girls and Police Officer From Drowning

You don't need superpowers to be a superhero. You just must be willing to help others, even if it means putting yourself in danger.

A Mississippi teen received a commendation Tuesday night for his heroic efforts in helping to save three teenage girls who crashed into a river and a responding police officer from drowning over the weekend.

Corion Evans, 16, jumped into the Pascagoula River in Moss Point around 2:30 a.m. Sunday after he witnessed a car drive off the I-10 boat launch, the Moss Point Police Department said in a press release Wednesday.

The teen driver of the vehicle told police that she was following her GPS and didn’t realize she was heading toward the water. 

After crashing into the river, the vehicle floated about 20 feet and began to sink. The three teen girls escaped to the roof of the sinking vehicle. Evans was already in the water helping when Officer Garry Mercer arrived at the scene and swam to the vehicle, according to police. Mercer said he was helping one of the victims to shore when she began to panic and caused him to go under and swallow some water. Evans helped safely bring Mercer and the teen victim to shore.

He ran downhill toward the water as fast as he could.
“I just seen the car in the water, then just seen them in the water saying ‘help.’ So I just took my shirt off, took my shoes off and threw my phone and I jumped in the water,” Evans said.

Undeterred by the dark water, Evans headed straight into the river. Later, he learned, alligators live in the river and its bayous. “I was scared, but I just focused on keeping everybody calm,” he said. He went on to save all three women in the car and a police officer who responded to the scene.

Everyone was fortunate that Evans was on the scene and ready to assist.

LINK1  LINK2

Senator Hawley vs. Professor Khiara Bridges

There are only a few situations where I can imagine voting for a Republican. But there are starting to be fewer situations where I tolerate voting for certain Democrats. I do not understand or accept the fevered progressive attack on basic biology and facts. Humans are animals. Animals reproduce sexually. Sexual reproduction requires two sexes. No more, no less. One sex does the impregnating; the other is impregnated. We can't change who does what. That's science fiction. Although there are people who wish they were the other sex, in fact they are not. I don't mind calling such people by whatever name they wish to be called and treating them with the same respect I give to everyone.

What I absolutely refuse to do is pretend that a man is a woman or a woman is a man. Women do not have penises. Women can not impregnate anyone. Men do not have ovaries. Men do not get pregnant. Stating otherwise is asinine. To the extent that accepting this bovine excrement and repeating it has become a required demonstration of bona fides on the left then I guess I will no longer be on the left. I do not like Missouri Senator Josh Hawley. I really don't. But when Hawley says 2+2 = 4 I am going to agree with him, not with UC Berkeley Professor Khiara Bridges who insists that 2+2 = Alaska and anyone who disagrees is well, "transphobic".

Self-Defense Examples

There were three recent cases of apparent self-defense in which a person used deadly force to stop an attack. 

One incident happened about a month ago in Des Moines, Iowa. In a Hy-Vee store for some reason which is still unclear, a woman named Kapri Lashawn Francis attacked another woman, allegedly blindsiding her and putting her in a headlock while she continued to give her what for. 

Unfortunately for Ms. Francis the woman she attacked happened to be a legal concealed carry gun owner. And wouldn't you know,  that lady had her gun on her. She used the gun to stop Ms. Francis.

Police said suspect Kapri Lashawn Francis, 30, attacked the woman without provocation inside a Hy-Vee grocery store at about 10 a.m. local time. The unidentified woman was legally armed and fired one shot at Francis.

The suspect was shot in the leg, while a male customer was shot in the foot after the bullet ricocheted. Francis was arrested and charged with assault causing bodily injury after receiving medical attention at a local hospital. Police said the victim fired her gun in self-defense after interviewing witnesses and reviewing store surveillance footage.

Supreme Court Decisions

The Supreme Court issued two critical rulings. Although I am liberal I have always been pro-life and believed in self-defense. In the Bruen case the Supreme Court ruled that: 

"New York’s proper-cause requirement for obtaining an unrestricted license to carry a concealed firearm violates the Fourteenth Amendment in that it prevents law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms."

If you wanted to conceal carry a firearm in New York--most notoriously New York City--the authorities could require that you proved "proper cause."  

If the state didn't like guns, didn't think people of a certain race should have guns, or just didn't like you, then the state could deny you a concealed carry permit. The Court decision changes the "may issue" standard to a "shall issue" standard. New York must have objective criteria for concealed carry. People who dislike guns claim this decision will result in greater carnage. 

Most other states including my own have "shall issue" standards. Legally armed conceal carry people are not the people murdering folks. 

Jumi Bello and Plagiarism

There are some career paths where "fake it 'til you make it" is a viable strategy to get ahead. Some of my favorite musicians stole songs from other musicians and made millions. 

I have known people in the information technology or accounting fields who lacked the leadership experience or knowledge that they claimed to have or should have had given their expected salaries or job titles. Sometimes this worked out for them because they worked diligently to catch up. 

Sometimes this worked out for them because they were related to, friends with, or married to more powerful people who ran interference for them. Sometimes this worked out for them because they were the correct complexion or gender. So it goes. Life isn't fair.

However in today's world it's easier than ever to check up on someone and verify that they have the credentials they claim to have or have created the work they claim to have created. So regardless of what people have gotten away with in the past, it's probably the best move today to be honest about things like credentials and creations. 

Jumi Bello, an aspiring author, learned this the hard way. Bello, forced to admit that portions of her debut novel were plagiarized, wrote an explanation and mea culpa that were also plagiarized. 

Michigan Democrat Fights Back!

It seems that some Democratic elected officials are finally waking up to the fact that when someone hits you, you hit them back. Harder. It's the only way to deal with people in real life. Turning the other cheek or assuming that your presumed audience will see through the lies is an excellent way to lose respect and lose elections. As the saying goes "A lie can travel halfway around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots."

The new Republican tactic is to call Democrats pedophiles and child groomers. One Democratic Michigan State Senator, Mallory McMorrow, recently let everyone know she didn't appreciate anyone, in particular the Republican Senator Lana Theis calling her  a "groomer" in a fundraiser email. This sort of forceful rebuttal to lies could and should become part of a Democratic rapid response playbook.

Senator Lana Theis accused me by name of grooming and sexualizing children in an attempt to marginalize me for standing up against her marginalizing the LGBTQ community...in a fundraising email, for herself.

Hate wins when people like me stand by and let it happen. I won't. pic.twitter.com/jL5GU42bTv

— Mallory McMorrow (@MalloryMcMorrow) April 19, 2022

Believe Women or Believe Evidence

There are some feminists of both genders who subscribe to a believe women ethos which means that to them the default should be to automatically and uncritically accept allegations of misbehavior that any and all women make, particularly if such charges have to deal with sexual or other violence against women. 

Some such people get frightfully wroth if anyone is impolitic  enough to point out that women, like other human beings, are capable of being mistaken or deceitful. I think that any standard we use, whether in criminal court, civil court, or the court of public opinion, must have some provision for evidence. In other words no one should be uncritically believed without evidence.

Such faith might be something that individuals give to intimates or close relatives but it's not something that society can or should give to anyone who makes a claim. I recently read about another example of this.

Six weeks after Sherri Papini was arrested and charged with faking her own kidnapping in 2016, the so-called Super Mom from Northern California has signed a plea deal and will admit that she orchestrated the hoax, her attorney told The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday.

William Portanova, a prominent Sacramento defense attorney who signed onto the case in late March, said Papini, 39, signed a plea agreement Tuesday morning in which she will plead guilty to counts of lying to a federal officer and mail fraud.

“We are taking this case in an entirely new direction,” said Portanova, a former federal prosecutor. “Everything that has happened before today stops today.”.

#BLM: Dealing In Dirt And Stealing In The Name Of The Lord

In the George Orwell book Animal Farm, the farm animals successfully revolt against the cruel human overlord and his minions. The pigs, being more intelligent and selfish, seize leadership and gradually return the other animals to their previous low status. 

The pigs either rewrite the rules or employ insulting lawyerly sophistries to declare that a violation of both the word and spirit of the commandment is actually no violation at all. The pigs claim any detractor is a traitor working with the humans. 

I recalled this fiction when I ran across a news story about a similar set of pigs evidently working assiduously to enrich themselves from the blood, sweat, and tears of those they apparently regard as less than.

On a sunny day late last spring, three leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement — Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Melina Abdullah — sat around a table on the patio of an expensive house in Southern California. 

“For me, the hardest moments have been the right-wing-media machine just leveraging literally all its weight against me, against our movement, against BLM the organization,” Cullors said. “I’m some weeks out now from a lot of the noise, so I have more perspective, right? While I was in it, I was in survival mode.” She was referring to an April 2021 article in the New York Post that revealed her purchase of four homes for nearly $3 million.

Elderly Man Shoots Teen Home Invader

Actions have consequences. Unfortunately some people must learn that the hard way. I don't think that anyone should look for violence but the sad truth is that there are predators among us. And the only way to stop them is to apply superior violence. If this incident indeed happened as described then the would be robber is lucky to be alive. I hope he will find a better lifestyle than performing home invasions on senior citizens.  

AKRON, Ohio (WBFF) — A homeowner shot a teen who allegedly forced his way into his home in Akron, Ohio, police said. Officers responded to a call about a home invasion shortly before 7:30 a.m. in the 700 block of Johnston Street. A 16-year-old boy was found inside his home with a gunshot wound. The 74-year-old homeowner, James Lowgher, told police that the teen forced his way into the home, and at one point, the homeowner confronted the teen and shot him multiple times. LINK

Will Smith Slaps Chris Rock At Oscars

I don't watch the Oscars. This morning when I heard that Will Smith had slapped Chris Rock at the recent Oscars ceremony I thought that it must have been a skit or some insider joke. 

When I found that it was real I thought that Smith must have taken offense to a Rock joke about Smith's apparent open marriage with his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Jada Pinkett Smith has done the do with at least one man not named Will Smith while still being married to Will Smith. 

But that wasn't was set Will Smith off last night, although the actress Regina Hall made a joke cracking on the Smith couple for precisely that reason. 

No what evidently made Smith so angry that he assaulted Chris Rock was that Chris Rock made a joke claiming that Jada Pinkett Smith was getting ready for a sequel to GI Jane, a film in which the lead actress, Demi Moore, famously shaved her head. Jada Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia and has apparently decided to keep a buzzcut.

Lithuania Cancels Covid Vaccine Donation To Bangladesh

Say you are at home. An earnest young woman knocks on your door. She has a petition for you to sign. The woman is also taking donations; a $50 minimum is suggested. Perhaps she wants to stop Evil Megacorp Inc. from committing environmental crimes. Maybe she's concerned about sexual, gender, or racial politics. Or maybe this is about a local recall election.

But you have no money to donate. You can't support the cause publicly. Maybe your spouse or parent(s) work(s) for Evil Megacorp Inc. Maybe your local representative has threatened police harassment of petition signers. Maybe you prefer avoiding politics. You don't sign the petition or give money. Angered, this canvasser produces a Molotov cocktail, lights it, and tosses it thru your open door, yelling that "You're either with us or against us!!" 

Or say the canvasser leaves. But the canvasser's husband runs the local sanitation service. No one will pick up your garbage--unless you sign the petition. Are you and your children surviving on church charity? The canvasser's brother-in-law is the church preacher. The preacher tells you that church charity is for petition signers. So you and yours can starve--unless you sign the petition.

Opioid Deal Finalized But Victims Get Squat!

Say you're the CEO of a heroin importation and wholesale distributorship company named Junk, Smack, & White Horse Inc. Life is good. 

You have begun vertical integration with overseas suppliers and some smaller dealers, bringing them into your conglomerate. 

You still have large competitors (those disrespectful muyerfuyer SOBs at Mexican Brown & China White LLC are testing your patience) but at least when police crackdowns occur you're not the only target.  

You face the minor irritations of customers dying, prostituting themselves, robbing others to pay for your product, becoming homeless, abusing their loved ones, and becoming unproductive junkies, but as any cook will attest, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Anyway, your customers don't live in your neighborhood. Your bank account, stock portfolio, homes, yachts, cars, children's private schools, and wife's dresses and jewelry let you know it's all worth it. 

Russia and Ukraine War: Quick Thoughts

I hope that the Russia: Ukraine War ends soon with minimal loss of life. In most cases war is an obscenity. 

However, it's impossible not to notice the tremendous implicit bias in the war's media coverage. 

Some pundits have expressed shock and horror that war is occurring in Europe. 

The unspoken feeling is that Europeans should be more advanced than this, not like those other "uncivilized" people of the world. For those other people, evidently, life really should be 'nasty, brutish, and short.' 

One journalist recently made this explicit. I doubt that he has any special animus against people who aren't white or European. He just takes it for granted that such people aren't as advanced or as civilized as his (presumably white) audience.

“Civilized”
pic.twitter.com/AiU7uVmjMr

— Imraan Siddiqi (@imraansiddiqi) February 26, 2022

There are deadlier wars currently occurring in Ethiopia and Yemen. There are people losing their lands and lives in a slow motion strangulation in Palestine. Western powers drop bombs on people in Syria and Somalia with a disregard for civilian casualties. Boko Haram is still kidnapping and murdering people in Nigeria. 

Bridgewater New Jersey Racism

Justice is supposed to be blind. If the so-called justice system is not blind then it's of no use. 

This is a truism if you happen to be Black and especially if you happen to be a Black male. 
You will be treated more harshly than anyone else for the exact same violation.

It would be comforting to think that this bias only happened in the bad old days or in certain backwards Southern states but it still happens everywhere today. 

The different standard is so obvious that in the latest example even the white (or at least non-Black) person who benefitted from this bias recognized it and called it out.

A video of police officers breaking up a fight at a New Jersey mall has sparked anger over accusations that law enforcement treated the two teenagers involved in the scuffle — one Black and one white — differently. 

Louisiana Female Teacher Commits Sexual Assault And Child Abuse

I don't have much to say about this story other than to repeat what should be blindingly obvious.

Women are not more morally upright than men. 

Women are just as capable as men of committing sexual assault.

Some women will assist in or direct sexual assault.

Making  gendered assumptions about the identity of the victim and criminal can make us miss the true perpetrator.

I am glad that this woman was caught. I would bet that this is not the first time or only time that she has done something like this.

I am not sure that I agree with the death penalty or that it should apply in situations where no one was killed.

I do know though, that if this woman happened to depart the world in a sudden and violent event in prison, I don't think many people would be shedding tears. 

I know I wouldn't. Also, it's a teacher and cop who are involved. Bad cops exist.

A former Louisiana middle school teacher has been sentenced to 40 years behind bars after admitting she fed students cupcakes laced with the sperm of her ex-husband, an ex-sheriff’s lieutenant.
Cynthia Perkins, 36, was sentenced Friday to 40 years of hard labor without the possibility of probation or parole. 

Female Twins Attempt to Murder Waiter

Some people like to make categorical claims that there is never any reason for violence against women, that no man should ever hit a woman, that any man who does use force against a woman is not a real man and so forth and so on. 

Although I would agree that in a domestic conflict situation no one should initiate violence against anyone else I can't agree that there is never any reason for anyone to use violence against a woman. 

There are, no matter how much both traditionalists and feminists might like to pretend otherwise, some physically aggressive, impulsively violent, and downright dangerous women in this world. 

A recent example of this came to light in a George Webb restaurant near Milwaukee where two women, apparently upset with the speed and quality of their food order, allegedly expressed their displeasure by assaulting, pistol whipping, and shooting the male waiter. 

Twin sisters are facing charges after a restaurant worker was shot in the face because their food was taking too long, Wisconsin detectives said. The twins, both 20 from Milwaukee, were charged with attempted first-degree homicide with a dangerous weapon after the Jan. 30 incident at a George Webb location in Wauwatosa.

Right-Wing Loons Force Closure of National Butterfly Center

When two people can't get along they have to stop living together. 

One underlying reason that people can't get along is that they no longer share the same reality. 

From a societal standpoint two people's personal problems don't mean very much.

But when entire swaths of society reject empiricism, embrace outlandish disproven conspiracies, and seek to harass and intimidate other people based on their distorted reality map then that is a much bigger problem than two people getting upset because they have different ideas about money, child raising, fidelity, or clothing choices. 

Society begins to fall apart when too many people no longer agree on reality.

Conservatives have been on the warpath about race (what else, I may have more to write on that later) but have recently taken a detour to attack the National Butterfly Center. Yes you read that correctly.

Email Spam and Lottery Win

In the past sometimes friends or loved ones sent me email which I didn't see either because I wasn't online or more likely because the email went to my spam folder. 

After a few unpleasant conversations that could (wrongly) end up with the person believing that I didn't think that they were important, I changed all of my personal email filters so that certain ids were automatically sorted into the appropriate non-spam folders. 

I didn't do this with my work email because there I think there are indeed many emails and senders that aren't that important. Still, from time to time, on both work and personal email accounts, occasionally stuff winds up in the spam folder that really isn't spam and really is worth my time to read and respond. So far such items have never included a notification of a $3 million lottery win but you never know right?
Jan. 21 (UPI) -- A Michigan woman checking her email spam folder for a missing message made a far more surprising discovery -- she had won a $3 million lottery jackpot. Laura Spears, 55, of Oakland County, told Michigan Lottery officials she bought a ticket for the Dec. 31 Mega Millions drawing on MichiganLottery.com.
"I saw an ad on Facebook that the Mega Millions jackpot was getting pretty high, so I got on my account and bought a ticket," Spears said. "A few days later, I was looking for a missing email from someone, so I checked the spam folder in my email account."
Spears said a message from the Michigan Lottery caught her eye.
"That's when I saw an email from the lottery saying I had won a prize. I couldn't believe what I was reading, so I logged in to my Lottery account to confirm the message in the email. It's all still so shocking to me that I really won $3 million," she said.  LINK