Guess what I get to do tomorrow?

Yup, I got Jury duty tomorrow.  As I have little else to do right now, I'm going to a) do my civic duty, b) get the entertainment value, and c) hopefully earn a day or 2 of $40 a pop.

So tonight, I'm going to empty out all the things I've been waiting to unleash on my lovely readers but have been waiting for you to read previously published stuff first.  And if you make it through the rants to story #5, I have a funny for you!

Story #1-  You all know that I am constantly trying to get my Christian audience to do God's will the right way.  I was reading My Utmost For His Highest last night, where the point was brought up how too many of us end up offending the Lord- and everyone else- by jumping into a project on human impulse rather than seeking God's will first.  As such, I was seeking about doing this story in a "names changed to protect the guilty" way, until I learned that it made National news through the much-less-understanding-than-I Huffington Post about 2 hours ago.  So here's the WANE-TV story:

Garrett mayor apologizes for throwing out Sikh pamphlets

Updated: Wednesday, 05 Sep 2012, 5:57 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 05 Sep 2012, 5:57 PM EDT

GARRETT, Ind. (WANE) The mayor of Garrett has apologized to a local business owner for an act that she herself called, "unrighteous." Our partners at KPC News reported the apology on Monday.

The manager and part-owner of Quickway in Garrett, Kulwinder Nagra, 38, said he put pamphlets about his Sikh religion on the counter of the store after the shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin .

“I just wanted to let people know who I am,” Nagra told KPC News. “After 9/11, there was a lot of misunderstanding. ”
Surveillance footage shows Hoeffel entering the store at about 12:55 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 28. She bought a soft drink and walked away. She then returned to the counter, grabbed the small stack of pamphlets, took them outside and threw them into a trash bin.
Nagra said he went outside to ask the mayor why she took all four of the pamphlets that had been placed on the counter in front of the register.

“She said, ‘It’s against my beliefs,’” Nagra said. “She said, ‘This is against Christianity.’”
Hoeffel later said she disposed of the pamphlets because of a lack of personal interest, not as a statement about the religion.
Hoefell has since apologized, saying, "I just grabbed what was there. I just decided I didn't want it."
Hoefell and Garrett City Coucilman Brad Stump met with Nagra and his business partners on Monday to discuss the incident.
“I personally believe if you do something wrong, you go to that person,” Hoeffel told KPC news. “I apologized for offending them. I said I know they are a peaceful people.”
Nagra said the Sikh religion teaches forgiveness and the issue was resolved for him when Hoeffel apologized.

Okay, my friends, since people don't seem to understand the simplest of principles anymore, let's take it step by step.

1-Christianity does not excuse or ask for this action.  Jesus did not overturn tables at the Quikee-mart, He did it at THE LOCAL CHURCH!  While we have a Great Commision to spread the word, we have no commission to censor beyond our own home.

2-If you are a public official AND a Christian, you are to be held to a higher standard.  This action was even more heinous for the fact an elected official did it.

3-A Christian would NOT try to pass off such stupidity to the public by saying that, oh, I took the stack to read it, wasn't interested, and threw it away. That, Ms. Mayor, is LYING.

 4-This Sikh gentleman casts a much better light on his faith than she does.  If the Mayor had done this at an atheist's shop to atheist pamphlets, the FFR bunch would have sued- would have been in the right to- and would have won.  That Mr. Nagra just forgave her is the kind of amazing testimony to his faith that we Christians SHOULD be making.

5-Moral of the story- THINK BEFORE YOU ACT.  Think of the consequences beyond your action.  And if you are a Christian, WWJD should be applied.  It's not just a bracelet, it's a way of life.  If it's not yours, please don't bring your "Christian faith" into it.



Story #2- Y'all hear the latest way the thugs of Ft. Wayne have found to prove how stupid they are? From Indianasnewscenter:

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana's NewsCenter) - An altercation that started inside Piere's nightclub early Sunday morning left one person stabbed, three people shot and an ambulance driver injured.

Fort Wayne police were called to Piere's Entertainment Center, 5629 St. Joe Rd., just before 3 a.m. on a report of a stabbing. The man stabbed, 29-year-old Jermaine Loyall of Fort Wayne, was taken to a local hospital, and his friends and family members followed the ambulance to the hospital in a black Chevrolet Impala.


On the way to the hospital, police say a white Ford Crown Victoria with tinted windows drove by the Impala and ambulance in the 2200 block of St. Joe Ctr. Rd., less than a mile from Piere's, and opened fire. The three passengers in the Impala, 22-year-old Dominic Loyal, 27-year-old Latasha Loyal, as well as 31-year-old Lashanda Conwell, were injured.

The ambulance driver, who is also a firefighter, was also injured during the shooting

The ambulance driver provided a description of the white car, and Allen County police found the vehicle that matched the description near downtown Fort Wayne.

After a short pursuit, Allen County police stopped the white car at West Jefferson Boulevard and Fairfield Avenue. The four people inside the white car were arrested. 18-year-old Jakwan Braster, 27-year-old Alfonso Chappell, 24-year-old Traneilous Jackson, the fourth occupant was detained and later released.

Braster was arrested on a charge of “minor consuming,” Chappell on “resisting and fleeing law enforcement” and Jackson was charged with “Aggravated Battery,” “Criminal Recklessness with a Firearm”, and “Possession of a Firearm by a Felon.”

Jermaine eventually made it to the hospital, and was listed in stable condition.

The three people shot inside the Impala drove to the Marathon gas station at Washington Center & Coldwater Roads, where they were treated by paramedics. All three are in stable condition.

The ambulance driver was treated for his injures and released.

According to my son, who was there, it all started when the thugs in the "general population" started blowing crap to those in the VIP section.  Soon later, he saw "about ten guys" pounding hell out of one dude.  This was the dude that got stabbed, apparently with a broken beer bottle.  The victorious group celebrated the victory by hoisting aloft one of the victim's shoes.  Police apparently thought the scene secured, and I'm sure "nobody saw nuthin'" as per usual.  But apparently beating, stabbing, and whatever else they did to this kid was not enough.

INC's reporter said that there is currently no law that increases the penalty for attacking a public safety vehicle.  If we weren't living amongst such animals, it wouldn't be necessary.  Ft. Wayne has a huge unrecognized by city-gov't problem, i.e. they are afraid of offending the black community and the ministers that crawl out of the woodwork to defend any of these "poor dears" that get caught.  Thus, the entire southeast side of the city is only patrolled by police on a "when needed" basis.  Anything more would send the local NAACP screaming to their lawyers.

I'm not saying this out of prejudice, these are the facts and can easily be researched.  We who live in Ft. Wayne don't need to, we know it.  75% of the crime we face in this town could be nipped in the bud where they live.  But the city, afraid of lawsuits, allows this crap to be exported to the north side- just across the river from where I live.

Plus, Pierre's is the largest night club in the area, and "coincidentally" seems to have some sort of immunity from the consequences which less-well-known spots such as the former Rick O'Shays (also not far from me) couldn't withstand.  They have 5 -count 'em 5- off duty cops on the weekend for security and a "million dollar, Las Vegas-style security system".  But I keep hearing of smoking (despite the smoking ban), even of pot, within the club under their watchful eyes.  They supposedly check IDs, but both one of the shooters and one of the vics were underage. They supposedly pat people down, but my son says a guy got in "with a bag" that night.

I'm for shutting the damn place down.  I fail the see the need for off-duty police to to get paid for a job they aren't even doing. I'm for this City doing the things necessary to PREVENT such crap in the first place.  But somebody is obviously making money off the situation (which, to me, is the greatest racism involved here, as those who are "discriminated against" are constantly being sold out of making something better of themselves), and our Prosecutor is so budget conscious that she'd plea bargain a murder into a trafiic ticket, so I don't forsee anything getting better soon.

Story #3- I guess our first report on the NHFFL will be delayed, but I can tell you that the KCAs are looking pretty safe to beat the Greenwoods, the B2s have beaten the Clock BBQs 36-21 and the Porkchops (apparent winners of the unannounced best-logo competition) tipped the Ducks 40-35 thanks to a certain former Colt QB, and everyone else is too close to call.

Story#4- Just to clean the books, the KHL Lokomotiv won again Monday, topping Metallurg Novokuznetsk 5-4 in a shootout.  The enemy scored first at 13:41 of the 1st, and made it 2-0 on a goal by 15-year NHL vet Chris Simon just over a minute later.  Then with our Roman Lyuduchin in the penalty box, Alexei Kalyuzhny, a Belarussian who came over from Avangard Omsk, scored shorthanded to cut it to 2-1 after one.  Yegor Averin got his second score for the young season at 3:51 of the second to tie it at 2-2, but they took another lead at 10:06.  29 seconds later, Daniil Apal'kov netted his second of the season unassisted, and MN pulled their goalie and brought in his backup.

We finally beat goalie #2 on a goal by left winger Niklas Hagman, a Finn veteran of 770 NHL games with Florida, Dallas, Calgary, Toronto, and splitting last season between the Flames and Anaheim's Mighty Ducks.  He's also spent time in the top leagues of his homeland as well as the Swiss National League A.  His power-play goal was matched by MN about six and a half minutes later, and we went to overtime.  After a five-minute OT that saw only 2 shots taken, we went to the shootout.  And guess who was the last of the first six shooters?  That's right, Mr. Hagman, and he was the only shooter to put one in the net to give us the 5-4 win.  Lokomotiv is off until Friday against Torpedo, who has a loss, an OT loss, AND a shootout loss to its credit.  Loko is currently tied with Dynamo Moscow for the best record at 2 wins and a shootout win.

Story #5- If you are a big fan like me, you can go on the KHL site and see text updates of the games as they play.  Of course, you have to use Google's translate function to read it, and sometimes it gets amusing.  Here's how Google translated one update in the season opener:

Gyunge made ​​his way to nickle visiting team. It makes the transfer partner, but the defenders of the Crusade did not allow him to complete the scene naked.

Apparently, the word for "naked" is the is the same as that for "goal" (Isn't THAT interesting?) and what it basically means is, "Gyunge made his way to the visiting team's end with the puck, and made a successful pass, but the defenders of the goal did not allow him to complete the play with a goal."  Now you see why I follow these games?

March Manglings

Got home at @ 6:45 tonight because trucking companies that deal with our companies are convinced that they will be struck dead if they don't show up for morning appointments after 4 PM (AKA 1/2 hour before quitting time). Combine that with a label printing system on our part that( for reasons too retarded to go into here) made it so that I had to re-label and re-scan what I would estimate to be a truck-and-a-half worth of product. Combine that with my number coming up on the random (and I laugh as I use that term) drug test for the third time in four months (the other victim this month was on his fifth trip in 8 chances). And, I had to attend a cutter's meeting (just to remind me that I am a cutter; I've been farmed out to other departments for all but 2 days so far this entire year) which, among its other messages, our super told us that they were trying "everything we can think of" to prevent the OMG OT we worked last year. I was of course filled with confidence at that.

Yesterday, had I a little more energy, I had enough material to do a who's dumber-athon. I've already commented on the star of that prospective show, Charlie Sheen, over on ms nk rey's blog. Rather than copy the next story, here: just watch the video of Bevis and Butt-head ignoring the two patrol cars outside and shoplifting in a store full of sheriff's deputies:




Contestant #3 was to be Iran, who looked at the curiously designed London 2012 Olympic symbol and declared it racist, because if you're burning the best incense you can see it spells out "Zion";

Yeah, I see it too. How could they? Actually though, here's the real truth:

But IOC President Jacques Rogge brushed off the country's claims, saying: "The IOC response is quite clear. The logo of London means London Olympic Games 2012, nothing more and nothing less."

HUH? Not only is it racist to idiots, it's also dangerous to epileptics:

The 2012 logo has been heavily criticised for its design. The animation version was removed from websites over fears it might trigger epileptic seizures.

But nobody cares that it's just plain butt-ugly, apparently.

I know I had yet another entry from Qaddafiduck, but I just can't find it. But time's a wastin' and Popper needs a shower. So good night and God bless...

Neighborhood crime meeting.

Tonight was the promised meeting at the clubhouse, and if the fire marshall had showed up, we'd likely have all been in jail. I'm sure that by the time everyone filtered in, we topped 100 residents. I was surprised that no TV cameras were there, but at the very end, there was a young man (who wasn't too far off the perp's description, but in dress shirt and tie) from Indianasnewscenter.

John from management emceed, introducing us all to our courtesy officer Chad Thurston, who is actually the third shift FWPD supervisor for our quadrant. After explaining to us when to call him (After calling 911 first for even a suspicious person report, and after the fact discoveries or reflections) and when not to (for broken furnaces- ya had ta be there), he in turn introduced Mike Joyner from crime prevention.

Mike carried most of the meeting. His main task was to remind us that we are "2,000 sets of eyes" to assist the FWPD in their job, and to go over the things we can do:

1. Be observant- what is odd, strange, out of place?
2. Be a good witness- get details as much as you can.
3. Stand tall- the more confident we seem the better the chance he won't have the guts to strike.
4. Make NOISE- he doesn't want to be noticed. One girl in q&a suggested keeping a rape whistle handy, which Mike said was an excellent idea.
5. Get to know your neighbors; be prepared to help out.
6. Porch lights on at all times; blinds open when you're home, so he knows there's the potential to be seen.
7. Know your surroundings, since he obviously does.

Among the things discussed about the perp:
1. This last attack, he was wearing a ball cap and a "military style black flak jacket that came to his waist" according to the victim, who was there. This is somewhat different that the long black jacket and stocking cap that was described in the first three attacks.

2. He did get the gun wrestled away from him this time, and it had rounds in the thing. Joyner is hopeful that that means we will get prints.

3. They are convinced he has a getaway driver, because of after the fact witnesses and the fact that the dogs tracked him to a spot and lost him.

4. They profile him to be a north-side resident (sorry, Bob, not one of yours), possibly a former resident.

5. I asked about the possibility of a connection with the guy they got on picture at the gas station on Coliseum last night. The vic said it wasn't the same guy, to which I suggested that maybe the driver handled that one. Mike said in response to all speculation that A) they're analyzing all leads and B) needless to say, there were some things that the cops would not release.

Q&A included a lot of what should we do to defend ourselves. Some suggested arming oneself with Mace, pepper spray, guns, and tasers. (One woman said she heard that you should arm yourself with wasp spray, since it shoots so far. Mike questioned the efficacy of carrying around such a big can, and suggested that pepper spray shoots pretty far, too.) Mike's response was, if you do, you'd better A) know what you're doing with it ( lest you get caught, as often happens, in pepper overspray, or get your weapon taken from you, or, my personal probability, end up injuring yourself with whatever it might be. He suggested that you are better off A) letting him know you know he's there (IOW pay attention to people behind you), B) Draw attention, i.e. the rape whistle, C) do the things to make yourself less of a target (i.e. don't park in the darkest of corners, have someone to call that can come out when you arrive (my suggestion), don't carry a purse where it can be seen, avoid having both arms full with bundles, and D), give him what he wants- personal property can be replaced.

As the night wore on, the questions became more of a mild bitch session, and the crowd began to disperse. Mike took his last question, thanked everyone, and we were all basically escorted home by several lights-on cruisers who were doing a drive-around a la two nights ago. (Mike said this "wasn't staged, it's what we're doing", but I kinda wonder.

Anyway, that's the story. Tune in for more next time.

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Oh, and just for the record vis-a-vis my last post, Average Girl was inundated by the ferociousness of her followers' support, and has returned to the blogging world, including the "he said-she said" contest. Any of you that like good poetry should check out yesterday's battle where the contestant of each gender was to write a poem about the beauty or attributes of the other gender. They weren't funny; they were fantastically good. Do yourself a flavor and check 'em out.

Saturday Junk update

Item #1: Woodbridge sent out another letter; this one gave us a description of perp and event. Male black (surprise!), 5'6" to 5'10" and thin, wearing black trench coat w/ white piping and baggy pants (surprise again!). Scum approaches woman as she unloads her van, smashes her head into driver's seat as he grabs for purse in passenger seat. she struggles and he hits her on the noggin with she believes a gun. The gun described a a black semi-automatic. May be wearing either a fur lined hood or a stocking cap. Hopefully with all the attention he's meriting, he'll either move on to other hunting grounds or slip up and get caught. I'd like to see him hiding in a trash dumpster Monday morning and get picked up by Serv-all. Beats having him get shot by FWPD and listening to his pastor and relation crying about what a good boy he was and how evil the cops are. Y'ever wonder why we have stereotypes? Because certain types of people do the same stupid $#!t over and over.

Item#2: When my LaCrosse technologies weather station died after a mere 6 months on the job (in good weather), I replaced it with a $10 temp and humidity station from Accu-rite / Chaney. This week it also went the way of all flesh. I e-mailed Chaney about the problem, not expecting much based on my experience with LaCrosse. I've already wrote how the LaCrosse answer to every problem was "change the batteries", that if you persisted, they told you to send the ENTIRE UNIT back to them, and for your bother they'd tack on a $50 fee just to look at the $100 unit. And, I wrote about how I wrote to LaCrosse, Wal-Mart (where it was purchased), and the Weather Channel (who sponsor it) and told all involved it was a POS and so was LaCrosse's customer service. TWC was obviously too uninvolved to reply, Wal-Mart as usual was too big to care, and LaCrosse replied as always, "change the batteries."

Flash forward to today. Chaney asked me one question and sent one reply. the question: when did you buy the unit. The reply: your new unit will be coming by FedEx in 7-10 days. Is there anyone out there from LaCrosse technologies? THIS IS WHAT CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ABOUT!!! Of course, after reading the reviews for my unit on Amazon.com, I'd guess if they had any real customer service, they'd be out o' bidness in a matter of weeks. They make a great unit in theory that does not function well in practice. It does not bear up well in any weather (an odd quality in a weather station) and changing the batteries is a lot like doing the hokey-pokey without the music. Congrats to Chaney Instruments for standing behind their stuff!

Item #3: Watching the East West shrine game. You Wisconsin fans, Tolzien blew chunks today. You're lucky he didn't play like this against TCU, you'd have bee humillerated.

Item #4: Indiana Workforce Development just sent Laurie and I each a form asking for info that they already have in our profiles and our weekly filings from last week. They needed to have this info that they already had within the next 7 days. And just to make their point that they REALLY need this info that they already had, they sent EACH of us TWO of the same letters with the same forms with the same date! To sum up, that's four letters sent out to collect info that they could have gotten in a few seconds of pushing keys. But, as long as they're doing it efficiently, I guess.

Where's that damned bat-signal?

Since Bob G. went ahead and blew the top off the Woodbridge armed-robber case over at his place, I thought I'd update y'all on the view within.

To recap: Woodbridge had armed robberies on Dec. 18 and New Years day. Both times were early-ish in the evening, so you know this is either a miscreant smart enough to watch his victims and find out when they get home at night, or he's conscientious about early to bed etc. Then last week, WANE-TV broke the story at an apartment complex off Wallen Rd. having two roughly similar attacks. The basis of that story was that the complex had not bothered to say anything to the residents.

I told Bob about our two incidents and he suggested I contact WANE. A good idea, methought; so I e-mailed a tip in. Lo and behold, that very day, Woodbridge told us that they had hired a "courtesy officer" who would patrol the area in addition to other miscellaneous 'my neighbor sucks' duties.

This brings us to last night, when this boil on the ass of humanity struck again, apparently assaulting the woman (how very brave) in the course of his too-lazy-to-workitude. This was on local news last night (Laurie forgot where she saw it for sure), and while Bob was doing his excellent piece, Aishah Hasnie decided to call me about being on the piece she did tonight. Of course, I was at work and unavailable, and good that it was so; I had really very little to add other than really wanting to meet Aishah, and the lady she ended up interviewing was a lot easier on the eyes than I would've been. Of course, the best part of this came after I listened to the message on the way home:

Chris: You'll never guess who that was!

Laurie: Who?

C: Aishah Hasnie!

L: (somewhat disbelieving) What did she want?

C: To see me.

L: (Much more disbelieving) WHAT did she want???

C: To see me!

L:Why?

As if pretty reporter-chicks aren't constantly dropping by to see me. ;)

In any event, her piece actually netted her the breaking news that they were going to send us out a second note with not only info on the latest attack, but tips to stay safe. They also mention that FWPD suspect that as I theorized, it is one and the same miscreant (in case you are out there and have pulled yer head from yer drug-riddled butt long enough to read this, a "miscreant" is defined as " reprobate: a person without moral scruples". Dat means ya don' give a f#ck abou' no'un no how.) that has struck all three complexes. And I might add, Woodbridge is so far the only one good enough to give WANE the time of day, so 2 pts for us.

Speaking of points, I've been lazying past putting up this week's Commissioner's cup update. (I know you've all been disappointed with me.) After last week's games, The State Ducks now have 131 pts and 2 players left; the Elks, 106 and 3; the T-Cubs, 84 and 4; SVA, 81 and 4; the Angels, 72 and 3; Begles 71 and 2; Buzz, 67 and 2; Rangers, 63 and 2; the Champion KCAs, 54 and sadly done; the Clock BBQs, 47 and 2; the Rhinos, 46 and done; and the B2s, 28 and done. So Laurie's teams are at 249 and 8; I'm at 213 and 2; Shenan, 211 and 8; and KC, 177 and 6.