Author: Darren Smith

Environment

Nature’s Reclamation Project: A Closed Campground With Fall Colors
A USFS sign reading CAMPGROUND CLOSED with arrow pointing toward entry

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

We as a rather insular species often forget that nature tends to get along well when left to its own devices, while a human construct such as bureaucracy tends to languish and fail when permitted equal liberty.  I found credible proofs to both when traveling on business recently–a former Forest Service campground, abandoned apparently due to red tape and yet showing quite clearly that nature still moves on.  And it does so vibrantly.

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Criminal law, Justice, Society

Depravity: Breaking Oaths of Office and Child Molestation
Scales of Justice

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

According to Court records via the local news, a former middle-school para-educator pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of Communicating with a Minor for Immoral Purposes after she allegedly facilitated the statutory rape of a thirteen year old girl by her husband.

The former Kennewick, WA educator acted as an intermediary in the exchange of “love letters”, providing a cellphone,  and arranging for sexual relations between the child victim and her husband, a former Umatilla County Oregon Corrections officer.

I have often lamented in the past that virtue has its limits but depravity knows no bounds. And with these two having positions of both authority and responsibility to the public, especially children, there simply is no redemption they may qualify.

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Bizarre, Criminal law

Yes, We Have Coke & Bananas: Grocery Stores Receive 100 Pounds of Cocaine in Banana Shipments

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

The innocent days of only finding tarantulas stolen away in banana crates seemingly came to an end when several grocery stores in Washington State received shipments of bananas packed with cocaine.

Safeway stores in Bellingham, Woodinville, and Federal Way received the shipments reportedly worth over one million dollars.

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Constitutional Law, Courts

WA County’s Guardian Ad Litem Should Be Dismantled After Egregious Due Process Abuse Case

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

As many know I am often a staunch critic of Washington’s child protective services and a system that at times has shown itself to be rife with incompetence, vindictiveness, and laziness. For the past several years hardly a six month time period elapses without news of yet another major debacle occurring that shatters the life of a child or family member and results in millions of dollars paid out by the state in damages.

But the latest spell in my view goes beyond the usual bureaucratic blundering and crosses a line into what many would consider to be corruption.

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Free Speech, International, Society

Fourth of July in Derry, Northern Ireland

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

I thought it an interesting twist and in the end quite fitting to celebrate this year’s U.S. Independence Day in Derry, Northern Ireland which coincides a month shy of the fiftieth anniversary Battle of the Bogside and the birth of the Free Derry zone within NI.

I’ve noted in my travels that one can learn from different expressions of freedom, or the lack thereof, in visiting other nations that in the end resulted in a better appreciation for the gift of Liberty that we have a civil right to experience in the United States.

The Derry Murals: (click on each to enlarge)

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Politics, Society

Ethical Certainties: Why Pro-Life Supporters Cannot Morally Abandon Their Cause (Revisited)

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

Life
Life
Life
Life

The issue of abortion is at the very least highly contentious. Decades of heated arguments are not likely to end this discussion soon even in light of various statutory and common law mandates laying out a legal framework for which it is permitted or denied. The matter is a perennial source of political maneuvering, and litmus tests that can in some areas make or break the careers of politicians. This article will not discuss the ethical or legal aspects of abortion but rather the perspective and moral position of those who support pro-life, and why they cannot abandon their cause. It is an exercise in empathy that is applicable to other subjects in ethical studies.

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Criminal law

An Interesting Perspective On Residential Burglaries

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

I came across an interview with a convicted burglar who agreed to discuss his tradecraft and thought it could offer many an opportunity to learn how one can protect their own property and homes from invasion by burglars.

The convicted burglar claims over a hundred residential burglaries during a twenty-year crime spree before finally being brought to ultimate justice. He provides his police interviewer with a candid insight into his “trade” which soon becomes evident to the viewer that he goes about his crimes with a professional approach where if the illegality of his deeds was not considered, he would otherwise seem as though he was developing a niche market in the ordinary business sense. 

It should be recognized that our interviewee in my experience is not a typical burglar who operates mostly on opportunity and luck. Yet for a certain demographic of citizen, mainly of those in upper-income neighborhoods, this type of burglar cannot be safely dismissed of discounted.

At the very least the reader can benefit from a perspective as to what motivates the mind of a professional felon.

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Academia, Free Speech

High School Bars Student From Graduation Walk For Discussing Bullying And Sexual Assault At School

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

After a high school senior chose to deviate from a pre-approved speech at an event and instead discussed allegations of bullying and assault at the school, administrators provided a learning opportunity of what bullying is really about–banning the student from his graduation walk.

While the school could have simply let the matter go, it instead managed to enshrine itself in an avoidable controversy simply because it could not see beyond the administration’s collective egos and will suffer the resultant benefits of its actions: National embarrassment. 

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Society

The Benefits of Hiring a Private Social Worker

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

Most individuals at some point in their lives will for themselves or a close family member require the services of a social worker. While we usually think of social workers as state or hospital employees, there are significant benefits in hiring a private social worker to better protect and advocate for the loved one.

This article will introduce the reader to a few of these benefits.

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Bizarre, Environment

Dept. of Energy Official Passes Off Natural Gas as “Freedom Gas”

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

Did Congress’ France disparagement campaign of renaming French Fries to Freedom Fries cause a butterfly effect that manifested sixteen years later? Apparently possibly.

The U.S. Department of Energy posted on May 28th an announcement of approving additional exports of domestically produced Liquid Natural Gas at the 10th Clean Energy Ministerial in Vancouver, BC. To spice up perhaps a rather bland news announcement, U.S. Under Secretary of Energy Mark W. Menezes decided to import some ill-considered political pontificating by renaming LNG as “Freedom Gas”.

Liberty and Freedom encompass many enlightened notions. But as a gas, that’s a new one for me.

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Constitutional Law, Politics

WA Supreme Court Upholds Fine Against Presidential Electors Who Failed To Cast Vote In Accordance With Popular Vote

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

The Washington Supreme Court upheld the imposition of a thousand dollar fine against three Presidential Electors who violated their oath by voting in the Electoral College for candidates other than those winners of the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election. In this latest episode of electioneering in American politics, individuals took it upon themselves to decide who they believed deserved election and not support that of the common voter.

In this case, three electors reportedly perceived that then Candidate Donald Trump would win the election and to at least in a hail Mary type of stunt forestall this by casting their vote for Colin Powell instead of Hillary Clinton who won the state’s popular vote. Pursuant to the Constitution, if a candidate fails to receive an absolute majority of the Electoral College Vote the election is then decided by the House of Representatives, which the electors reportedly perceived would be more conducive to a win by Clinton.

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Environment

More Photos Along a Green Dot Road

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

A few days ago brought me another business trip comprising six hours of driving to facilitate one hour of actual work. It did nevertheless provide an opportunity to visit another green dot road within country I haven’t seen in nearly thirty-seven years.

For me it brought a few quick memories of places, memories that were occasional and fleeting as I drove past. It made for a convincing argument that we must as individuals return to what we found as hobbies during our teen years as something that can remind us of whom we were then–that was, in fact, the person from whom we evolved.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Justice

Most Hapless Felon Ever

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

Every year in reading of the human experience, individuals continue to reinforce the notion that while intelligence has its limits, stupidity knows no bounds. But today’s case-study  imports an existential question into the latter element: Stupidity can be so self-actualized, that it succeeds in preventing procreation, thus constraining the bounds of inheritable haplessness.

It all began simply enough–a felon reportedly stuffed a pistol into the front pocket of his pants and shot himself in the testicles. And yes, the story does get worse for him.

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