The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office has put out this picture of a woman accused of a truly despicable crime. After a shooting at the high school, panicked parents rushed to Freeman High School to find their children. Parents parked their cars along a highway and ran to the school. Police believe that this woman then stole items from the cars.
Police say that a thief stole a purse left behind by a worried parent and then used the mother’s credit card and checks to steal over $36,000.
If found guilty, I cannot imagine anything other than a maximum sentence given the utter depravity of robbing parents rushing to find their children after a shooting incident. One child was killed and three injured in the shooting by a 15-year-old student.
Anyone with information regarding this theft or can help identify these suspect(s), please call Detective Dean Meyer at 509-477-3159 reference #10123636.
John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, this past week:
Let’s Make America Free Again: 230 Years After the Constitution, We’re Walking a Dangerous Road
By John W. Whitehead
September 11, 2017
“I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people in — and the West in general — into an unbearable hell and a choking life.”—Osama bin Laden (October 2001)
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/lets_make_america_free_again_230_years_after_the_constitution_were_wal
I WAS ROBBED!! ROBBERY LAWS IN WASHINGTON STATE AND THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ROBBERY, THEFT, AND BURGLARY
https://dellinolaw.com/i-was-robbed-robbery-laws-in-washington-state-and-the-differences-between-robbery-theft-and-burglary/
“Identity theft” is mentioned in the following article. And the police are looking for more than one person.
She apparently bought a boatload of paper towels and a new Shark:
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/sep/15/help-sought-to-identify-thief-who-charged-36000-to/#/1
“Property crimes themselves are typically hard for victims to deal with, especially when identity theft and fraud are involved, but the fact these criminals took advantage of such a tragic situation is particularly heinous,” Gregory wrote.
(No shortage of predators in the good ol’ USA.)
RCW 9.35.020
Identity theft.
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9.35.020
I can think of many things that are more depraved and despicable than what she did. And what she did was horrible.
hardball – I just binged the series Mind of the Serial Killer on Netflix and there are people who are way beyond this woman for depravity.
She’s not accused of robbery, but of larceny and forgery.
Did anyone say “robbery?” She is also guilty of fraud by using the stolen credit cards.
Yes, Prof. Turley (or his headline cutter).
Mea culpa, Desperate. Very good pickup! The misuse of “robbery” is one of my pet peeves. I consistently read newspaper articles written by allegedly seasoned reporters on the court beat get it wrong. An even worse sin is “the defendant was found innocent.” You are urbane and know a defendant is found “not guilty.”
What is confounding is that JT would use the word “robbery.” I have surmised for some time that when speaking, saying the word “burglarized” is more difficult than saying “robbed” and so lazy people go the easy route. Writing “robbed” is a bit easier than writing “burglarized.” When I was a juvenile probation officer in KC many of the kids on my caseload were convicted of auto burglary, stealing CB radios and 8 track tape decks. I think you could guess the era. Think Boogie Nights.
Nick – if theft is simply taking something without consent, and robbery is taking something off of someone’s person through the use of or threat of force, then what is the verb that you would use if something was stolen from you? You can say, “I was robbed”, but I don’t know the past participle verb for “I was “____” if it was theft. I’m thinking there is no proper legal way to say that other than “something was stolen from me” or “X committed theft”. I’ve always wondered about that…
Karen, “I was burglarized” is the proper term. And, as I said, I think part of the reason people say “robbed” is because “burglarized” is a bit of a tongue twister. Now, your house, garage, storage shed, auto can be burglarized if property is taken. But say you leave your bike outside a store and someone cuts the chain lock. Then you are SOL. Just kidding. I would then say there is not a specific word. You are a victim of theft. However, although I am anal retentive on this subject, if someone steals your bike while your in the store I have no problem w/ saying “I was robbed.” It’s not legally correct but one has to pick their battles.
Nick wrote: “…“burglarized” is a bit of a tongue twister.”
There’s this choice, as well: “burgled”
Great word. Makes me think of Bilbo Baggins!
“What is confounding is that JT would use the word ‘robbery’.”
******************
Doesn’t read like a JT article to me.
Much of the investigations I’ve conducted over going on 4 decades now involve fraud. The growth in insurance fraud, almost exponentially, is w/ the female sex. I hired a woman PI and tried to give her all the female subjects referred to my office. But it became quickly apparent she couldn’t handle all the female cases so myself and the 2 other male PI’s working for me would take a few. When you’re doing surveillance it is better to have a female watching a female. It takes away all the creepy questions a plaintiff’s attorney might ask when on the stand.
When it comes to aberrant behavior, men still are MUCH worse. We men almost have the market cornered in violent crime, particularly young men. But fraud, theft, women hold their own. I’ve often wondered why men dominate computer hacking. It would seem that would be something that would attract more women.
Nick, women want shortcuts to financial success just as men do, and with more women entering the workforce, it makes sense that we see increasing numbers of women engaging in criminal behavior, albeit mostly nonviolent criminal behavior. WRT women hackers: they’re currently outnumbered. Give it time, that’ll change, too.
Among those employed, 39% were women in 1974, 46% were women in 1995, and 47% are women as we speak. I think that’s a social trend which is pretty much tapped out.
Just because the percentage of the women in the workforce seems to have plateaued doesn’t mean that more women won’t choose CS as a degree path in the future or be capable of computer hacking (and using it to steal money). I have my own particular predictions WRT women in tech, but things may play out differently.
During the 2013-14 academic year, 18% of the bachelor’s degrees in computer science and IT were awarded to women; about 25% of those employed in computer and mathematical occupations are female. N.B. The entering cohorts are more male than the mean of the extant cohorts. During the 1974-75 academic year, 19% of such degrees were awarded to women. The record for distaff share is 37%, awarded in 1984-85. It would require quite a turnaround for your scenario to pan out.
Indeed, I was overly optimistic.
Too many people get worried that if they acknowledge physiological differences, that it somehow makes women unequal or worth less. It is reality that males tend to excel at math and science more than females, who tend to excel at communication, both verbal and written. Obviously, there are quite a few male artists and writers, as well as female scientists and mathematicians. Just because there is a general trend does not detract from the possibilities in each individual. We all have our own talents.
There are biological differences, although scientists have wondered at the role that nurture plays. Activists try to take away dolls from girls and force them to play with Legos. What would be more constructive is if we merely kept our eyes open to a child’s interests and talents, and nurture them accordingly. Whether girl or boy, and early interest in math, science, writing, or the arts, should be carefully cultivated and given the tools to grow.
Cape Cod also mentioned women juggling family and careers. Here is what I’ve learned. There are 24 hours in a day. A woman has maybe until she’s 35 to get easily pregnant without too high a risk of complications, maybe another 5 years where it’s still fairly easy. After 40, it’s fraught with risks and hardships. Time passes quickly. A lot of mothers work 10 hours, pick up their kids from daycare, feed them dinner, give them a bath, and put them to bed. That is the sum total of their parenting. They really are counting on either day care or nannies to actually raise their children and instill values. On the weekend, they run errands, clean the house, get groceries, get the car fixed, and frantically try to get everything done. Maybe they can go to a soccer game. Helping with homework is tough. I’ve known a lot of mothers who missed their kids’ first steps, were upset because someone else taught them to tie their shoes, or they were torn over being pulled in two different directions. I’ve known women who were desperately jealous because their kid liked the nanny better than them. I’ve seem women respond by firing nannies when their kids got too close, out of jealousy, with the result that those kids failed to make lasting attachments. Mom wasn’t there and they couldn’t count on anyone else to be stable.
Some wanted to advance their career, but the reality is that women tend to take more time off than men. It’s usually (but not always! Remember the individual possibilities!) the nurturing mother who stays home with the sick kid, or who takes maternity leave. She wants to get ahead, but kids are sick once a month oftentimes the first few years of school. And if she has more than 1 kid, forget it. My own niece and nephew seemed to trade off, with one sick every 2 weeks, for years. It’s so hard for anyone to take off that much time and not lose their job. And there are jobs where you really need to plan far in advance for any time off. And daycare for sick, contagious kids is tricky. My sister’s day care would kick the kid out of daycare if a parent dropped them off sick. You literally cannot have it all. If you put in all that overtime to get ahead, that’s time you’re missing with your kids. If you put in more time with your kids, that’s time you’re missing at your job. If Bob works more hours than you do, and completes more projects, then it’s not sexist if Bob gets more raises and advancements than a female who is constantly missing work.
There absolutely are women who have full time, successful, high level careers as well as a family. They require either a stay at home dad, or live in grandparents or other family, or a staff of daycare and nannies to make it work. If you don’t have that, you’re going to be pulled in two different directions.
I do think that there are things we could do to make jobs more family friendly, with better work life balance. I never want to be like Japan, where the men actually die from being overworked. They even have a name for it: karoshi. I’d rather our attitude towards the work day, not the economy, be more like France.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4270278/
Thanks for the article, Karen S, and I appreciate your thoughtful comments.
“Ellen Pao: Has Anything Really Changed for Women in Tech?”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/16/opinion/sunday/ellen-pao-sexism-tech.html
This article indicates the numbers are a bit better than what you cited, but the trend is still downward. We’ll just have to see how the economy goes over the next 7-10 years. I don’t see social policies changing enough to affect women’s decision to stay home after having kids. And perhaps women are seeing that the adverse effects in their children not having a mom at home outweighs any benefits she receives (money, self-worth).
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/upshot/us-employment-women-not-working.html
The % of employed persons who are female is almost precisely what it was in 2003. it has fluctuated up and down around that set point ever since.
Thanks for the article, CCS.
In France — since mespo brought it up — albeit in a different context:
Women in France, meanwhile, tell a different story. In numerous interviews, they said the system supported them as they tried to keep their careers after having children.
“If you want to work full time, everything is there in France to make that possible,” said Abbey Ansart, 36, a strategic consultant at an American software company in Paris who has three children. “I couldn’t have had the career in the U.S. that I have here.”
Like every mother in France, Delphine Dubost, a public-school teacher in Paris, was required to take a month and a half off before the births of her children. She was also able to take two and a half months of maternity leave afterward, all while receiving her full paycheck. After her second child, the law permitted her to work 80 percent of full time without a salary cut. She enrolled her children in France’s state-run day care system where, for about $740 a month, children receive organic meals and even diapers. “It was great,” she said. “You can keep working, but can also spend time with your children.”
I forgotten who it was who said (thinking of Sandra Fluke, no doubt) that feminism consisted of a woman with an open mouth uttering “I want…”.
The French labor code has a Table of Contents nearly 80 pages long. If you want an idea of why Mediterranean countries have had hideously inflated unemployment rates for a generation, part of your answer is there.
Anonymous, the situation sounds really good for the French women taking maternity leave, and then working afterwards, but this kind of mandated employer benefit wreaks havoc on companies that have a high percentage of technical talent. It’s one thing to hire a temp to handle administrative tasks. Hiring duplicate engineering or design capabilities is not financially viable, even if you could find anyone who’d be willing to work short-term, and it’s impossible for most, if not all, companies in the US to maintain production capabilities while one or more key employees are home enjoying extended leave. Some larger firms might be able to spread the work around so that the on-leave employee’s responsibilities are covered;small to medium firms likely don’t have the manpower to cope.
The woman she’s referring to is a public employee. Not sure about France. In the U.S., there’s a great deal of temp labor in that woman’s trade and if she works for a large enough school they can parcel her students out among sections taught by other teachers (if union rules permit).
DSS, I agree it’s easier depending on the skill set of the expectant mother. Temp teachers aren’t hard to come by in general here in the states, paper pushers are a dime a dozen, no doubt DMV employees could be replaced with competent HS students, but the situation changes once we get above and beyond basic organizational skills and executive functioning.
Cape Cod Skeptic – finding temp teachers is not the problem, finding them with the right credentials is the problem.
Absolutely! In my experience, most schools do not care as they often have larger concerns.
Anonymous doesn’t tell you that for all of the coddling professional women receive at the insistence of the French state, their tfr is no better than that in Britian, Ireland, or the U.S. (It’s quite good by occidental standards, but no better than ours).
France’s TFR is 9% better than ours; both are miserable (cue George in 3, 2, 1…..). I suspected one of the reasons might be high housing costs (which Douglas Murray states is a primary causative agent for smaller families in England), and this cite I found suggests that is true, among other reasons. The website has an agenda (you’ll like it DSS!) but it is the most recent one I could find on a quick search (most govt/NGO data are much older). The socialist safety net in France is failing…..and consequences of the craptastic global economy continue to be seen.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bon-voyage-frances-population-rate-takes-a-dive
Neither is miserable. There is room for improvement. The American rate has fluctuated around a set point of 1.9 for about 40 years now. France and Britain have had a fertility recovery and are in that zone. Ireland is in that zone. Russia has had a fertility recovery in recent decades and may arrive there. Israel is the odd occidental country which reproduces above replacement rate.
“perhaps women are seeing that the adverse effects in their children not having a mom at home outweighs any benefits she receives (money, self-worth).”
I agree with you Cape Cod. Others can call me a sexist, but I am now watching women becoming the major breadwinners in their families and then coming home to take care of the kids and the household. I like the idea of a parent staying at home and it can be either one, but in general I think woman are better than men in taking care of young children. Have we done society a favor? Have we done our children a favor? A good family setting is better than an extra bathroom and square footage.
STEM courses lead to great jobs for women and men, but in many of those STEM fields leaving it for a number of years all too frequently means leaving it forever. Science changes very quickly. That, I believe is why so many women do not choose some of the STEM fields.
Finally for those like anonymous thinking about the jobs women hold in France open your eyes and look at their unemployment situation that in recent years is at 10% just recently falling to the high 9’s. Take note unemployment has almost always been high in France. Nominal average wage in France is $40,718 while in the US it is $60,154. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_wage
There is a lot of air between the ears of all too many.
Keep your eye on the ball. The American, Australian and European birthrates have all entered a “death spiral.” Their populations are imported. Women have rejected the function nature assigned; bearing and nurturing children sufficient to maintain the viability of the race and nation. In 100 years, there won’t be an American left in America. Americans will have been diluted into extinction or “fundamentally transformed” out of existence. The hyphenates learned well that,
“Nonviolence is the answer
to the crucial political and moral questions of our time:
the need for man to overcome oppression and violence
without resorting to oppression and violence.”
In other words:
If you exceed the love making of your enemy, his destruction is only a matter of time.
Look around you. Whose babies do you see?
Entropy. Neither good nor bad. It just exists.
allan, yes the original article I cited indicates that women make more in the US than they do in France, and more women are employed in upper management than in France. I don’t think those are the take-home messages anonymous was focusing on. I think professional women would like to find a balance between meaningful work (using the brains in their heads) and raising families. That to me is the enduring struggle. Raising children to the best of one’s ability IS meaningful work…but it ends once the children leave the home for college. What then? Volunteering? It’s not the same. Men get a lifetime of work that allows them to learn, grow, stretch their creativity and talents. Women generally don’t. And once wages started to stagnate in the 70s, it became a moot point anyway. Households cannot make it with only one wage earner. I don’t know the answers; I’ve been fortunate to be able to put my kids first and still have some meaningful work always available to me, but I’ve had to sacrifice.
“I think woman are better than men in taking care of young children.” I think this is true for the vast majority of families. I, however, think men are vital parents and when they are not engaged, things go sideways.
Cape Cod, Two parent famiies are best. We live in an imperfect world so we have to work around its imperfections.
Look at what we are seeing today. Parents are abdicating their responsibilities to people that are not qualitfied to bring up children.
What should a woman do? I don’t have the answers, but as a man I would have liked to spend more time with my children. What should men do? I spent as much time as possible with the family, but someone had to pay for them and we both wanted special things for our special children so we both had to forgo some of the desires we both had.
My spouse is a STEM graduate. There were only a couple of universities offering her sought after degree which was just opening up. It was very important for the economy and the military. Only two other women were accepted along with her and two never even went into that field. My wife did, but when the first child was born she gave it up never to go back because that particular field’s technology was so fast moving.
She is not American and she saw the other side of the world that all too many people here think is so wonderful. Suffice it to say that suffering and fear of death brought her to the US just like my family that came a generation earlier. What she calls free and a happy environment is quite different than what we hear from many on this list. If she is permitted to live and thrive with or without discriminatiion she is happy and productive and feels priviledged.
allan, your wife would be interesting to talk to, particularly given her life experiences. I agree that 2-parent families are best. I think Americans take a lot of stuff for granted, and there is too much focus on what we don’t have instead of what we do have. Your statements are reminiscent of our family life….just working hard to do the best we can by our kids, while striving to be productive members of society.
Cape Cod, I have the luxury of talking and living with her for many years. I want to add that in order to get here she risked being shot dead and when we were married, though her training was about the best there was in her field, she was denied a job because of discrimination.
Unlike enigma who bitterly complains, after he builds a cell around himself, her and my only response was that she loved those people that discriminated against her because despite their dislike they didn’t try to kill her or prevent her from succeeding elsewhere. She got a job elsewhere. America is a land of opportunity and personal choice, not the best nation to live in for those that wish a government to choose a future for them.
Look at what we are seeing today. Parents are abdicating their responsibilities to people that are not qualitfied to bring up children.
See Midge Decter’s writings. We live in a world as child-centered as any in living memory. The trouble we have is an autonomous (and frequently vicious) juvenile peer culture, weak authority within households, and a deficit of informal authority outside it frequently replaced with bureaucratic cack-handedness.
Not sure which ‘not qualified’ people you have in mind.
DSS, You apparently have in mind your own choice of who is or is not qualified to bring up one’s children. I’ll discuss your choices if you desire.
Speaking of insurance fraud, did you follow the news a few years ago on the King Drew Hospital scandal? It was one of the worst examples of affirmative action that I know of. They would hire almost exclusively African American. Superficial skin color was more important than quality, experience, expertise, or education. Frankly, when you’re in the hospital, you don’t really care what skin color your doctor is; you just want to survive.
The hospital ended up losing its accreditation after years of the most hideous malpractice, fraud, and medical mistakes. Staying in the hospital was deemed extremely risky to your health. Doctors billed more than 24 hours a day. And the humble chair was the most dangerous object in the hospital. Nursing staff would fall over backwards and go on disability with a regularity that would have been hilarious if the backdrop hadn’t been so many people dying from medical mistakes.
The LA Times ran a series of articles outlining the scandal. Activists rallied the neighborhood and tried to claim that old white men racists were trying to shut down an all black hospital. Because racism must be the only reason to do so, and not unacceptably high deaths due to medical malpractice. I can’t recall the percentage of times that their pharmacy dispensed the wrong meds, but I remember being shocked. When I first read about it, I thought, my God, these people need this hospital shut down and reopened with quality staff. No one deserves back alley care in their neighborhood hospital. I was at an utter loss as to why the activists didn’t think the neighborhood deserved the highest standard of care. Why they cared more about the skin color of the staff than the quality of care. But, I guess they needed a platform, and people did fall for it. I was shocked at the number of people who demonstrated in favor of keeping one of the worst hospitals in the entire nation.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-kingdrewpulitzer-sg-storygallery.html
Right, here we go:
“consider this week’s series on the creative energy at King/Drew Medical Center. Employees there filed 122 claims in 10 years for falling off chairs, collecting a cool $3.2 million for their tragic falls from a frightening height of about 18 inches.”
I was absolutely riveted by the Timesseries, which went on for months and months, and again when activists tried to claim it was all white racists’ fault. Man, checking into that hospital was like Thunderdome – it was like you had maybe a 50/50 shot of ever leaving.
Karen, I did read about this scandal after you gave me a heads up a while back. The entire work comp system in California is Thunderdome but this hospital is one of the worst examples of a system that KILLS JOBS. Companies are fleeing California for neighboring states.
Many blacks (and bourgeois blacks in particular) are addled by a shame culture that isn’t doing them any good. To some extent, it’s part of the human condition, but the reaction to this disaster shows you it has knots of exceptional and perverse intensity. The political careers of Marion Berry and Coleman Young are suggestive as well.
She needs to be sentenced and sent to a men’s prison. Maybe she will rape someone.
This is the unfortunate result of the legal system that has to be neutral and unbiased. Scum get off on technicalities that are there to protect the innocent and/or guilty from excessive and/or biased force. The woman is clearly a sociopath. Perhaps after the maximum sentence for robbery and whatever other charges can be attached has been served she could be revisited regarding her mental imbalance. In order to commit a crime a certain degree of sociopathic perspective is necessary. However, this degree of opportunistic criminal behavior illustrates a near complete absence of awareness of others.
Please throw the book at her, and let’s fail to consider doing anything differently that might have kept a gun from a 15-year-old that killed a child and injured three others.
enigma, a simple Internet search would have told you the laws were adequate here. WA state mandates open carry, but only if you are 21 and have a license to carry a concealed pistol. Possession of a gun on school grounds is prohibited. The parents are at fault here, because they gave a minor child access to the gun safe, and because they did not do enough to ensure a teen who had left a suicide note on the kitchen counter was receiving help from one or more qualified mental health professionals. Frankly, a school counselor is not up to the task. If parents of offending minors bore legal responsibilities in these cases and saw actual prison time, these horrible incidents might start to decrease.
You are mostly correct about the law.
Minors under 18 cannot possess a firearm unless permitted under certain circumstances RCW 9.41.042.
Washington is an open carry state. Open carry does not require a concealed pistol license.
Possession of a firearm, other than persons such as police officers, is illegal but an exception is made for those who are not students and of legal age who keep the firearm locked in the vehicle the entire time when they have business at the school.
The legislature for the past five years had a bill to permit someone to be criminally charged if they allowed an unauthorized person to gain access to a firearm that resulted in injury or death. (such as might be the case here) but it failed every time. I don’t believe if passed the law will survive a constitutional challenge. However the parent certainly could be sued in civil court.
Darren, I knew you’d come to correct any mistakes I made in interpretation of WA law. Thank you. The site I looked at specifically talked about needing a licensed pistol permit in order to carry, and that one must be 21. I will try to find the link, perhaps I bungled the description. At any rate, stricter gun laws would not have prevented this outcome, IMO. Regarding the bill that has failed 5 times, is it a question that the courts do not consider parents criminally liable for offenses of the minor in any case, no matter the nature of the crime? Individuals are responsible for their own actions from infancy to adulthood? How likely would it be for a civil case to be successful, assuming the victims’ parents have the funds to pursue such a thing?
Darren, the conditions listed in RCW 9.41.042 did not apply to the shooter. This seems to be relevant also.
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9.41.050
The shooter did not have the requisite permit as he was not of age, and he would not have been able to carry his guns on the bus anyway.
The parents are at fault here, because they gave a minor child access to the gun safe, and because they did not do enough to ensure a teen who had left a suicide note on the kitchen counter was receiving help from one or more qualified mental health professionals. Frankly, a school counselor is not up to the task.
The parents are not at fault for not predicting their son would be a 1-in-a-million ringer. People who are suicidal want to harm themselves, not others. “Qualified mental health professionals” are commonly ineffectual and annoying when they’re not ethically dubious.
“The parents are not at fault for not predicting their son would be a 1-in-a-million ringer.”
Maybe. But there is the argument that children should not be given unsupervised access to firearms.
Providing a child the combination to the gun safe would violate that principle.
These parents are lucky this did not occur in Maryland. I am pretty sure they would be facing charges as well as civil suits.
BTW, I strongly support the clear meaning of the 2nd amendment, that individuals have a right to firearms.
I had unsupervised access to firearms when I was 15. They weren’t in a safe. I haven’t shot any of the participants here…yet. With few exceptions, anxiety over these matters is irrational risk assessment.
DSS – I was given my first rifle at 12 and taught firearms safety. It actually sat on the top of my closet, we did not have gun cabinets in those days. I still had it through college and passed it down to younger brothers. None of them killed themselves or anyone else.
“Qualified mental health professionals” are commonly ineffectual and annoying when they’re not ethically dubious.”
And yet you find nothing wrong with the parents relying on the school counselor to handle their son’s mental problems? Crimes like this do not happen acutely, the problems and issues build over time. The father (and perhaps the mother too) clearly shoot guns recreationally, and the son was engaged in that activity. The level of responsibility is higher for families like this because the risk of accidents is higher. The presence of a suicide note was reason enough for the parents to change the combination on the gun safe so only they could gain access. BTW, it’s also reason enough to make sure any potentially lethal alcohol and medications are properly stored out of the kid’s reach, as well. I stand by my statement, the parents are at fault; no they didn’t commit the crime, but they didn’t make sure their guns were properly out of the hands of a minor who had emotional issues.
“…the parents are at fault; no they didn’t commit the crime, but they didn’t make sure their guns were properly out of the hands of a minor who had emotional issues.”
And you’re absolutely right.
He may have found another way to access a weapon, but the parents bear responsibility for not securing theirs.
Cape Cod Skeptic – when did the parents find the suicide note? Before or after the guns were taken?
Excerpted from the second link above:
“Later, Sharpe’s mother, Erica Sharpe, reported finding a suicide note that her son had written a week earlier and left behind on a counter.
Sharpe “bragged of owning multiple pistols,” a friend, identified in the court papers by the initials D.A.P., told police. He also claimed to have made explosives known as IEDs “from various chemicals and white gas,” the documents say.
The teenage suspect also posted several YouTube videos in which he and another youth appeared to be shooting at each other with some kind of guns, NBC News has confirmed. The videos have been deleted, and it wasn’t clear what kind of weapons they were wielding.”
The reporting is unclear as to when the note was found WRT timing of shooting. I interpret that the mother found it sometime in the week before the shooting. Even if it was one day prior, the guns should have been off limits. BTW, I shot skeet in PE while in high school, and grew up in a house with guns, also.
I love to shoot, and am pro-2nd amendment. In addition to the police, people in the business of selling guns, teaching gun safety, and running gun ranges are in my experience, deadly serious about how guns are handled. Too many parents are lax. And it is idiots like this kid’s parents who cause legislators to go crazy and over-legislate the issue. You and DSS and thousands of others are/were responsible around guns. But clearly others aren’t, and they’re the ones that make it difficult for everyone else. If parents don’t have an inkling of where their kid’s head is emotionally, they’re not paying attention.
“Later, Sharpe’s mother, Erica Sharpe, reported finding a suicide note that her son had written a week earlier and left behind on a counter.
This says when it was written. It’s ambiguous as to when she found it.
Yes, I believe that’s what I said. But I think if the kid wrote a note and left it on the counter and his mom didn’t find it for a week, that speaks volumes to how the house is run.
Highlighting what CCS wrote:
“And it is idiots like this kid’s parents who cause legislators to go crazy and over-legislate the issue. You and DSS and thousands of others are/were responsible around guns. But clearly others aren’t, and they’re the ones that make it difficult for everyone else. If parents don’t have an inkling of where their kid’s head is emotionally, they’re not paying attention.”
Absolutely right on the mark.
Cape Cod Skeptic – where any teenager is emotionally at any moment is a crap shoot. Personally, I would not have left behind a note or video, I just would have done it. However, I have never contemplated shooting up my school or even particular classmates. And during the winter in Montana, it would not be hard to get a gun into school with everyone wearing parkas and jeans.
If we had a problem with another student, there was a lot owned by the railroad across from the school where we could settle our differences. I was over there a couple of times. 🙂
Sure Paul, you and I grew up in different times. Our parents let us run around after school and didn’t care where we were as long as we were home for supper. You likely had much more freedom than I, as you grew up in MT. Kids now are dealing with way too much insidious social crap and the parents don’t have a handle on it. That’s no excuse. Frankly the old ways of handling one’s disputes in a fistfight in a back lot has a lot to recommend it.
But boys are being told their masculinity is toxic and they have to check every instinct they have. Public school curricula are set up for girls, not boys. Every conflict has to be resolved verbally at a time when it’s very hard to express one’s feelings or thoughts verbally. I’m not trying to say this is the school’s fault or advocate for teenage brawling in the streets, but I am trying to say growing up is different now, it’s more complicated than when we were kids. Past shootings involving teenagers should have woken parents up, but everyone thinks it can’t happen to them.
Cape Cod Skeptic – I did have to change out of my school clothes before I went out after school. However, I was very lucky to have an elementary school directly across the street from me where we could all meet as we came from our various homes. We would choose sides for whatever we were playing and as more kids came, they were added. Everyone got to play. We tried to balance the teams as best we could by skill. Still, we were playing for fun, not blood.
We played dodgeball in PE in middle school when I lived in a non-affluent northern TX town for a few years. Best game ever. Girls vs. girls, boys vs. boys. What a way to get out pent-up aggression or just plain ol’ extra energy. That game has been largely regulated out of childhood due to helicopter parents and their enabling school boards, and we’re all the worse for it, particularly boys who are forced to sit for 6-8 hours while a teacher drones on at the whiteboard boring everyone stiff. Not every school can afford expensive fitness equipment, and playing four-square or tetherball (or the modern equivalents) ain’t gonna cut it. (And as for dodgeball as a bullying tactic, see my previous statement on No Guff week.)
Cape Cod Skeptic – at my schools’ dodgeball was full contact all gender sport. Nobody was left out. 😉
No, I would not have relied on the school counselor. The school psychologist should be there for diagnostic assessments re vocational guidance and placements, not to be an all purpose guru. Public agencies are not families and they’re not spiritual directors, either. We could do with a great deal less mission creep on the part of the school system. We can start by maintaining among ourselves a circumscribed understanding of their function.
Without knowing the daily table talk in that family and what was said just when, I’d be loath to hold them responsible. That aside, it’s often not a bad policy to treat attention whore youngsters to a dose of benign neglect. The trick is knowing when it is a bad policy. People make mistakes. They seldom have consequences like this.
The youth in question will go to prison and should go to prison for a good long time. His was a gross and extreme response to a social and cultural problem that we commonly just accept: the youth of the nation behave with petty cruelty to each other. It would benefit the youth of the nation to spend less time around each other.
I understand your caution on assigning responsibility, though I don’t agree with it. And I concur with the statement on mission creep, although I see that as a natural consequence of US parents abdicating their responsibility to actually PARENT their kids in favor of being their kids’ friends or living vicariously through them. WRT your last statement, and kids’ cruelty, it is amazing to me that kids can be as mean as they are despite constant “be nice” efforts by the schools like No Guff week. School systems should abandon worthless programs like that and instead engage in practice sessions in which teachers and support staff work with students to be able to handle snide comments, taunts, and general verbal abuse from others. If you can’t develop coping mechanisms (including practicing verbal retorts and learning when you may have to defend yourself if conditions escalate), you will be a victim throughout life. It’s great if you can get the whole school to be nice to each other during the school year. What happens when the students inevitably encounter people who clearly don’t care about common courtesy?
Enigmainblack:
The simple fact is that in a free society there is very little you can do to stop a person hellbent on harming himself or others. We’ve always taken the position all the other alternatives are far worse. The French say it best: “Better a few throats slit in the Champs-Élysées than a gendarme on every corner.”
That may be a French saying but they have strict gun control laws. Also, that this is a “free society” is a matter of opinion.
Not for anyone caring to compare it to any of the others. Elsewise, we ‘d see an exodus and sadly we have the opposite.
Free shouldn’t be a relative term.
But of course, it is unless you’re a denizen of some fairly land where humans don’t dwell. There are precious few absolutes and hoping for them won’t make them so. If you can name a freer more advantageous country, please do so. Otherwise, try and live in the world of the possible not the perfect.
Switzerland seems to top most lists. My experience in Geneva and Zermatt does nothing to dispel that claim. I was struck by the armed guards at border crossing points.
Switzerland is fine if you’re Swiss. They detest immigration — legal or otherwise — and are very class conscious. You’re not Swiss, I presume. You might want to guess again.
I wasn’t Swiss, don’t look Swiss, and felt quite free. Take a close look at how you described Switzerland and ask yourself, which of those doesn’t apply in America?
Americans only detest illegal immigration like we detest any crime that oppresses citizens and their opportunities. Legal immigrants are welcome if they assimilate as we’ve shown throughout our history. You do have to earn acceptance but that is true in any organization with standards.
I think you’re quite wrong that “Americans only detest illegal immigration.” There are efforts right now to change what is legal to exclude “anchor babies” who are legal. There are efforts right now to give higher weight to people that look more like some than others. There are efforts right now to cease immigration altogether.
There are always priorities in immigration but they aren’t based on looks. They usually involve letting in people with special skills a s who are self-sufficient. That’s not only right it’s prudent. Anchor babies are a scam as everyone knows. Limiting immigration of their parents seems fair to me.
So you’re saying policies are not weighted to favor Europeans? And haven’t historically been that way?
Sure they were and properly so. Most Americans have European roots and bringing over qualified family was a priority. Nothing strange there since this priority likely meany shared values which is fundamentally what immigration and more broadly nationhood is all about.
I guess the inscription on the Statue of Liberty needs to be a little more specific.
No, the inscription is fine sentiment but bad law. We need to recall one is based on emotion; the other on rational thought. The latter usually trumps the former in sane times. I agree these are not sane times.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/09/30/how-u-s-immigration-laws-and-rules-have-changed-through-history/
@ enigmainblackcom:
“Also, that this is a “free society” is a matter of opinion.”
True.
http://worldhappiness.report
https://youtu.be/Se2gfFKp1Iw
The well credentialed and venerable, World Happiness Report. LOL!
I see Iceland is way up on the list. They must be “happy” that they have virtually eliminated Downs babies from being born. What freedom and happiness!!
Glad you got a laugh out of it, Nick. : )
(Happiness is a good thing.)
Whatever keeps you laughing, Nick! : )
World Happiness Report
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report
“World Happiness Report 2017 score shown on a map of the world. Darker shades of green show a higher score with darker shades of red showing a lower one.
“The World Happiness Report is a measure of happiness published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The World Happiness Report is edited by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs.
“In July 2011, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution inviting member countries to measure the happiness of their people and to use this to help guide their public policies. On April 2, 2012, this was followed by the first UN High Level Meeting called “Happiness and Well-Being: Defining a New Economic Paradigm,” which was chaired by Prime Minister Jigme Thinley of Bhutan, the first and so far only country to have officially adopted gross national happiness instead of gross domestic product as their main development indicator.
“The first World Happiness Report was released on April 1, 2012 as a foundational text for the UN High Level Meeting. It drew international attention as the world’s first global happiness survey. The report outlined the state of world happiness, causes of happiness and misery, and policy implications highlighted by case studies. In September 2013 the second World Happiness Report offered the first annual follow-up and reports are now issued every year. The report uses data from the Gallup World Poll. Each annual report is available to the public on the World Happiness Report website.
“In the reports, leading experts in fields including economics, psychology, survey analysis, and national statistics, describe how measurements of well-being can be used effectively to assess the progress of nations. Each report is organized by chapters that delve deeper into issues relating to happiness, including mental illness, the objective benefits of happiness, the importance of ethics, policy implications, and links with the OECD’s approach to measuring subjective well-being and the Human Development Report.”
Freedom in the World 2017
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2017
Key Findings
“With populist and nationalist forces making significant gains in democratic states, 2016 marked the 11th consecutive year of decline in global freedom.
“There were setbacks in political rights, civil liberties, or both, in a number of countries rated “Free” by the report, including Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Tunisia, and the United States.”
https://freedomhouse.org/report/fiw-2017-table-country-scores
Table of Country Scores
PR = Political Rights
CL = Civil Liberties
CL, PR, Freedom Rating Explanation: 1 = most free and 7 = least free
Aggregate Score Explanation: 0 = least free, 100 = most free
The U.S. has an aggregate score of 89.
Uruguay is at 98; Iceland, 97, I believe; and Sweden’s score is 100. Finland is @ 100, as well…
(I haven’t gone through the entire list.)
(One might guess, as well, that there’s some rough (or not so rough) correlation between freedom and happiness.)
Freedom House is the least corrupt ‘human rights’ organization and the only one worth bothering with. However, they’re no longer neutral with regard to contentious issues in occidental countries. So they construct indexes re ‘LGBT rights’, include weirdly non sequitur paragraphs about abortion (under the heading of ‘personal autonomy’), and say little about property rights. You’re telling me that a collection of cosmopolitan non-profit functionaries fancy it’s a bad thing to not be cosmopolitan. Gosh, no kidding?
LOL!! What about Venezuela???
Sweden and Finland are both at 100; Sweden has cities with no go zones due to Islamic control of entire neighborhoods, and Finland is reportedly offering former ISIS terrorists the ability to re-enter the country to get free services including housing. Something tells me this freedom survey is BS.
Cape Cod Skeptic – saying that it is BS is just being nice. It is much worse than that. It is false propaganda from the left.
Paul, I have been up since 5 am but still have not had the requisite amount of caffeine injected into my veins to characterize falsities properly. I will endeavor to improve! 😉 BTW, the dawn chorus can’t possibly be up in AZ yet.
Cape Cod Skeptic – it is currently 3:30 am here in AZ. I am watching The Fortune Cookie while I am blogging on here. 🙂
I have never seen it, will have to check it out. Love those guys.
Cape Cod Skeptic – first movie they worked in together. Directed by Billy Wilder.
Paul, I saw Wilder’s name, good stuff, and Matthau got an Oscar for it, yes? Highly rated on Rotten ‘Maters, not that I generally care about that. 😉
Cape Cod Skeptic – Best Supporting Actor. He is so slimy in this. 🙂 The Oscar is well-deserved.
“Something tells me this freedom survey is BS.”
Yes, you have hit the nail on the head, Cape Cod, BS, BS and more BS. This is a bunch of people patting each other on the back.
It’s true or false or opinion. Try to keep that straight.
mespo – I am voting True.
10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-the-united-states-still-the-land-of-the-free/2012/01/04/gIQAvcD1wP_story.html
True back in 2012, and it’s still true: “The U.S. is no longer the land of the free.”
“Dishonesty from politicians is nothing new for Americans. The real question is whether we are lying to ourselves when we call this country the land of the free.” -Jonathan Turley
…And why was Turley saying what he did. A defining paragraph as to why America is not so free is laid at the feet of Obama. Obama was two-faced and betrayed the civil libertarians. I supose that with her love of freedom anonymous didn’t support Obama.
“The indefinite-detention provision in the defense authorization bill seemed to many civil libertarians like a betrayal by Obama. While the president had promised to veto the law over that provision, Levin, a sponsor of the bill, disclosed on the Senate floor that it was in fact the White House that approved the removal of any exception for citizens from indefinite detention.”
Just the largest “Land of the Free.” I’ll take on the reclamation project.
“It’s true or false or opinion. Try to keep that straight.”
Or, for some it could be true that the society is free, while for others the society is far more restrictive – through both law and social convention.
In my opinion, that is far closer to the truth.
bfm:
At least in this country, you are only a prisoner of the chains you forge yourself.
“Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen..nobody knows the sorrow.” I challenge anyone to name a more free country than this great US. Gives us a list, and why countries on that list are freer than the US. Thanks.
This is going to be so subjective and if having the most guns per capita represents freedom the US wins hands down I Googled “Countries with more freedom than the US” and dozens of lists came up with the US ranging between 16-20th. There is a good case to be made for the fact we don’t even have free elections given the weighting of the Electoral college, gerrymandering, lopsided redistricting for the sole intent of shifting power and my favorite… voter suppression.
The Human Freedom Index (HFI) is the most comprehensive freedom index so far created for a globally meaningful set of countries. The HFI covers 152 countries for 2012, the most recent year for which sufficient data is available. The index ranks countries beginning in 2008, the earliest year for which a robust enough index could be produced. This preliminary report was updated (using data for 2013) and will be subsequently presented and updated on a yearly basis.
On a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 represents more freedom, the nonweighted average rating for 152 countries in 2012 was 6.96. The level of global freedom stayed about the same compared to 2008, but almost all countries experienced changes in their ratings, with about half of those increasing their ratings and half decreasing.
“The top 10 jurisdictions in order were Hong Kong, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. The United States is ranked in 20th place. Other countries rank as follows: Germany (12), Chile (18), Japan (28), France (33), Singapore (43), South Africa (70), India (75), Brazil (82), Russia (111), China (132), Nigeria (139), Saudi Arabia (141), Venezuela (144), Zimbabwe (149), and Iran (152).”
enigma, Gollllly! All the socialist countries are bunched up at the top. But, if you are willing to rely on some organization that heavily favors “free pony” economies, then you have many to choose from. You have an economics degree IIRC. Then why remain in this hell hole US. But, none of those countries have free speech like we do here. So don’t be badmouthing some Muslim who attacks you. You will be the one prosecuted.
While I am against government programs I would be happy to set up the Bureau of Self Deportation. Any US citizen who wants to move to another country, must give up their US citizenship, and gets a free ONE WAY ticket to whatever country will accept you, and we will give you a free pony as a parting gift. I’m just kidding about the pony, but not the other stuff. And seriously, a month’s salary on the US taxpayers as well. Just write when you get work and come back to visit when you can.
IIRC, the White House Press Secretary just suggested a citizen be fired from her job for exercising free speech. I’m not out to prove how bad the US is. I will say it’s not free and that what freedom exists is a variable often based on class and race.
Socialism ostensibly is about eliminating class differences. It makes it worse, always devolving into dictatorships. In just the past year, I offer you Venezuela. Discuss. Socialistic/Communistic leaders are always more ruthless than capitalistic ones. But, you are a socialist, unhappy and feeling victimized, and there’s nothing I can do that will change that. My grandparents didn’t come here as slaves, but they did come penniless and oppressed. If you care to come out of your envelope, I suggest you read, The Black Hand, and read what my family had to endure. I’ve read many books about your people, read one about mine.
How many false assumptions can you fit about me in one paragraph? And while I have yet to read this one book about Italian history, what history do you imagine is taught at every grade level in America. Until recently, and perhaps again if Texas has its way. American history didn’t begin until Columbus.
I’m curious as to what books you’ve read about my people? And who wrote them?
LOL! Do I get a pony for jumping through your sanctimonious hoops You’ve read NOTHING about Italian immigrants. If you did, you would have named them. Don’t forget what I do for a living. But, here goes. I was educated back when the nuns had reading lists and they be down w/ the struggle, as were the Jesuits who taught me.
The Souls of Black Folks W E B Du Bois
The Autobiography of Malcolm X Damn shame he is not revered like MLK, because MALCOLM HAD THE MESSAGE!!
The Diary of Malcolm X
February 1965 The Final Speeches of Malcolm X
Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Thurston[She makes the overrated Angelou and Morrison look like the ham n’ eggers they are.]
Native Son Richard Wright
The Warmth of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson
Roots Alex Haley
Black Like Me John Howard Griffin This was a summer reading list book and the nuns had Griffin speak @ our opening assembly
You know what, these are just off the top of my head. There are at least 8 to 10 more but as I write I get more angry. So, this will do, massa. I hope I pass. Now, admit you know and care little about any other suffering except for dark skinned people. You are IMMERSED in victimhood and think no one knows your pain. Read more from Malcolm and forget all the self pity. And once again, remember what I do for a living and I have been reading you for some time now, and you are a very easy read, sir. Malcolm would slap you upside your head and tell you to stop whining and feeling sorry for yourself and start living.
Black people have been part of my life since high school and I mean my social life. The black folk I hang w/ can’t stand your victimhood.
I was curious that’s all, it wasn’t an inquisition. That’s an excellent list.
You seem to have a need to categorize me as some self-pitying victim? Perhaps to dismiss the true things I bring up contextually in discussions?
Oh, I just finished a couple months ago, In The Midnight Hour, a pretty good bio of Wilson Pickett. A talented and crazy mofo.
I’ve read bios of many black athletes and performers but I doubt they would count in your criteria. LOL!
Nick – who can forget Pele’s autobiography which he admitted he both didn’t write and didn’t read. 🙂
As a youth, I loved baseball and read every biography/autobiography available going back to Warren Spahn, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, (Roy Campanella was somehow available). You said elsewhere that I’ve “read nothing” else I would have mentioned it. Really? It’s impossible not to be taught a whitewashed version of American and European History in this country. When I was introduced to the Harlem Renaissance in college I was immersed but never stopped reading everything else I got my hands on. I was fascinated by Watergate and read the stories of Dean, Halderman, et. al., I recently res Louis Frey’s autobiography about his time at the FBI which wouldn’t be on the Liberal reading list. I read everything I could about The Tudors, Norse Mythology, Thor is my favorite superhero! Shakespeare, I’m fascinated with Roman history. Didn’t care much for Bronte’ but I’ve read her. World War Two history, Any yes Malcolm X, Roots (potentially partially plagiarized) Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison. Then there’s, The Bell Curve (so I can understand the thinking at Fox News and the comments on this blog).
enigma – Roots was more than ‘potentially plagiarized.’ Haley lost his suit over the book and had to pay out a packet of money. The whole section on his roots in Africa was lifted from another author. The only thing that is true for Haley is his roots in the USA if that.
Who was that pimp who wrote an autobiography? Something Slim? That was an educational book. 🙂
BTW, if you are interested in soul/funk/blues singers I have a young woman you should keep an eye on. Niki Crawford. Incredible pipes, great range. Saw her in concert in Chandler, AZ but she is mostly on the West Coast right now. Her first album does not show how powerful and magnetic she is on stage. She is capable of blowing out a sound system. 🙂 She is working on her second album and I hope the new one shows her powerful voice.
Iceberg Slim, read his series as well.
enigma – thanks for Iceberg Slim. I knew it was Ice something, but I kept thinking “pick” but that did not seem right. 😉 Try Laurence Holder and August Wilson for a change of pace. 🙂
I was always a jock and too uncultured to enjoy a good play. Working on that, does watching the movie, “Fences” count for any credit at all?
enigma – yes it does. I saw Danny Glover on Broadway in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Great play, it was just sad that it did not get the run that it deserved. Although, in my life in the theatre, I have never seen any sweat as much and a heavily as Glover on stage. Wilson was a brilliant writer and a great loss.
Also while I was in NYC, I saw an interesting production of Amira Baraka’s The Dutchman. It was staged in a gutted and retrofitted brownstone.
I did manage to see Top Dog/Underdog on Broadway with two actors I truly enjoy, Jeffrey Wright and the actor formerly known as Mos Def (didn’t look up his new name).
In another career I handled merchandise sales at multiple venues including a performance arts theatre that got about 10 off-Broadway shows a year. Because they were relatively unprofitable I usually worked them alone which meant I sat in the lobby listening to 8 performances over 5 days of shows like Hello Dolly (Carole Channing), South Pacific (Robert Goulet), Madame Butterfly (always watched the helicopter scene) The Sound of Music, Oklahoma, Jesus Christ Superstar. Of course, listening isn’t the same as viewing but something must have sunk in. At the larger venues, I saw every type of music and while I never came to appreciate County. I did love it when Garth Brooks came because he made us a lot of money, Brooks & Dunn, and Hank Williams, Jr. Once George Strait came on a night I had a headache and the twang I swear made it worse.
enigma – I grew up in a family that loved musicals, so I was in some and saw a lot. I am finally seeing Joseph and the Amazing TechniColor Dreamcoat in early Oct. However, I grew up in Montana where the call letters of our radio station were KATL. We learned to like both kinds of music, country and Western. 🙂 However, I met some of the great Western singing groups as a kid. The Range Riders were originally from my hometown and would visit periodically. One of their mothers babysat me. They either backed Gene Autry or Roy Rogers, if I remember correctly.
enigma, We have one of those free little library boxes on my block. I picked up Louis Freeh’s bio. It was tedious. Before being a conservative[he was appointed by your guy, Bubba] Freeh is a Deep State bureaucrat. And there’s no doubt he wrote it!!
When I was a juvenile probation officer in KC, another officer in my unit had the daughter of Satchel Paige on her caseload. She was not a baseball fan and did not understand she was in the house of royalty on a weekly basis. I kept trying to get her to take me along w/ her but she refused. A good bio of Satchel came out about 5 or so years ago. Satchel” The Life and Times…is a good read. There is still not a quality bio of the greatest baseball player of all time, Willie Mays. A bio was written about 10 years ago by a woman author. It was OK, but she didn’t capture the man. Some people are difficult to capture, DiMaggio comes to mind. Richard Ben Cramer finally captured Joe D. One of the best biographies I’ve ever read. You would learn much about Italians in Cramer’s bio of Joe D.
enigma, you don’t understand. Jackie’s best friend on the Dodgers was Ralph Branca. Lombardi stood up for black players even threatening the football patriarchy if anyone tried to blackball one of his players for marrying a white woman in the 60’s. David Maraniss bio of Lombardi, When Pride Still Mattered is superb, as well as is Maraniss bio of Clemente. Italians understood oppression and that was passed on to me by my parents and grandparents. You know, one of the connections I’ve had w/ black people besides sports and music is food. We LOVE food, but we also LOVE to talk about food. I had a black secretary in KC and we would always talk about food and bring in food to share. The girl came to love eggplant parm!
enigma – Roots was more than ‘potentially plagiarized.’ Haley lost his suit over the book and had to pay out a packet of money. The whole section on his roots in Africa was lifted from another author. The only thing that is true for Haley is his roots in the USA if that.
Roots is a doorstop of a book. The passages ‘plagiarized’ from Wm. Courlander make up less than 2% of the text.
Supposedly, notes taken from his reading of Courlander’s book were found in his box files, and there was testimony that he’s received a copy of it as a gift.
In a separate connection, Haley’s 3d wife has offered an account of how the book was completed. Before they were married (or, IIRC, even involved), he had persuaded her to assist him in completing the volume. It took the two of them an 18 month marathon of writing and rewriting to get the work done. She said what they started with was a disorganized mess of research material he’d collected from his travels. It’s a reasonable guess that (1) she wrote the portions which copied Courlander, and had really no idea that she’d done so (at least in stark terms) and (2) that Haley was a disorganized and not (in the clinical sense) conscientious. He’d forgotten about the notes, forgotten about the book gift, and hadn’t reviewed his records before making affirmations. If Haley’s like me, his memory turned to mush when he turned 40.
A more substantive criticism of Haley’s work is that he bollixed his genealogical research and misidentified his ancestor. The genealogists who have offered this criticism have not, however, revisited the issue in the intervening decades to identify just who his ancestors were. (I think they conceded or proceeded under the assumption that Haley’s ancestors did have some association with the Waller family of Spotsylvania County, Va.). The identity of his great-great grandfather George Lea is readily verified, as the man was still alive at the time of the 1880 Census (where it is reported he was born in North Carolina ca. 1806).
Thanks very much for the information. Like Paul Harvey used to say, “and that’s… the rest of the story!”
You guys have listed some great books, but you left off Black Boy by Richard Wright. I enjoyed that one, too. For a kids book that can be enjoyed by all ages, I recommend Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor.
Nick, freedom and happiness are in the eyes of the beholder and dependent upon the questions asked and the nature of those that answer the questions. Most of it is BS. What shocks me is that those that feel so badly treated in the US refuse to leave and so many wish to enter.
I can take a starving person in a third world nation and give them enough food to survive and they will tell you how happy they are, yet if some people are sat at the wrong table in an expensive restaurant they will tell you how miserable they are. They will also tell you how much they suffered even though they haven’t suffered a day in their lives.
What we have in this country is too many complainers that complain from the moment they wake up to the moment they fall asleep. In fact on this blog that is all some people seem to do.
allan, Good comment. In this country more than anywhere, the Deadly Sin of Envy is @ the root of much of the resentment and unhappiness. We are wildly prosperous and those incapable or unwilling to prosper are envious. The Dem Party feeds that negative emotion. It has become their base.
You are right. Some people are born free and then paint pictures of bars (jail bars) in front of them. Then they complain that they aren’t free.
Agree totally.
Of the $36,000 how much was from credit cards and how much from checks?
That distribution will make a huge difference to the victim(s).
And how much was recovered, what did she do with $36,000 in such a short time?
This is the Chicago way. Don’t let a good crisis go to waste. Pick pockets used to work public executions.
I wonder if you can consider it looting?
I would like to see her get the maximum, but she will probably get a diversion program.
“This is the Chicago way. Don’t let a good crisis go to waste.”
Paul, are you saying her next stop is to seek office in Chicago? Will she do so as a Democrat or a Republican? 🙂
allan – I don’t think she can get elected in Chicago as a Republican. 😉
She shows a shocking lack of empathy or moral compass.
Hope they find her and put her in jail where she belongs.
I’m so sorry to hear about the school shooting. God, I hope she didn’t rob the family of the victims.
Once again, there were red flags in retrospect. Hind sight is 20/20. Why did a teenager under the care of a school counsellor for suicidal thoughts know the gun safe combination? Why wasn’t he in more professional care than a school counsellor? Why didn’t other students come forward when a suicidal teen bragged about having access to firearms, or posted a video of him pretending to shoot someone? I don’t think any child or teenager should have the combination to get into firearms. Teenagers are too moody and at risk for suicide. Families often take their kids to the shooting range and hunting starting at age 12, but it’s still responsible to withhold free access. And giving out the combination to a suicidal teen makes absolutely no sense at all. His parents have to be grieving over this mistake right now.
The only way to keep any metal weapon out of a school – be it a knife, a hammer, or a firearm, is to have a metal detector with a security guard, as well as good fencing, alarm systems, and interior door locks. You can say that a school is a “gun free zone” all day long, but you can only prove it if you use a metal detector. How would any teacher know if a student had a knife? And then of course his statements about IEDs raise the possibility of pipe bombs and other incendiaries in schools. That’s even more difficult to ferret out.
This woman is a truly despicable person.
Without seeing the report, I suspect she will be charged with multiple counts of forgery (for the checks) multiple counts of theft in the second degree for the credit cards and an aggregation of the amounts stolen into a theft in the first degree. If convicted, she faces an enhancement for major economic crime.
Washington is a determinate sentencing state so a formula is used based on offender score and seriousness of the offense.
Given the way in which she allegedly stole so much money using different types of media, I have no doubt she has prior arrests and convictions for theft and other crimes. That will add to her offender score.
I fully expect her to receive if she is convicted a prison sentence of at least several years. She will receive no mercy from a judge.
I forgot to mention, there probably will also be a Vehicle Prowling in the Second Degree charge.