The Oklahoma Capitol hosted a rally in support of lawmaker Sally Kern, who said gays were more dangerous than terrorists. It's a question of family values. When the movie Oklahoma airs on television, the local station puts a blue dot over the dancing scenes.
James over at The Mahatma X Files shares a list of people accomplishing some extraordinary social feats with out of the box thinking to problem solve in today's America.
Some accomplishments off the list that are my favorites:
Health clinics in rural New Mexico are community supported and succeed in ways corporate health care and insurance cannot.
A taxi cab cooperative in Madison, Wisc., run by the cabbies, brings in $6 million per year.
A pharmacist in Austin, Texas, works less and accomplishes more since he quit working for a chain and set up a pharmacy that ignores insurance companies and sells the least expensive generic medicine.
Strippers in San Francisco have unionized.
Today in the Oklahoma State Capitol Building over 1,000 supporters including over 50 Christian leaders held a rally in support of Sally Kern and her now infamous bigoted continued statements regarding LGBT citizens and those practicing Islam in the United States. Her ignoring Governor Henry's admonishment to "cool it" is leading to some frightening social trends and damaging statements being made, it's not looking good for LGBT citizens. Doing a Google search on Kern's name draws out two divisive sides on the issue of granting rights to a minority and the claim by Kern and national leaders that both gay Americans and Muslims living in America should be viewed as terrorist and a threat to our country.
Quotes by Kern to the rally of supporters today included:
"This is not about me," "It's about the church having the right to speak out for the redeeming love of Jesus Christ Who died to set us all free from sin. The Lord gave me a verse I've been claiming. Philippians 1:12, 'I want you to know that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel.'" "I compared homosexuality to terrorism because [homosexual activists] want to destroy the traditional family and traditional marriage," "the radical homosexual agenda is seeking to destroy the very foundation upon which this country has been built, and we need to wake up and stand up for our conservative values, yea our biblical values as Christians, or we will lose not only the freedom to express our own opinions, but we will lose the freedom to influence our children with our biblical lifestyles"
In recent interviews Kern stated "homosexuality has deadly consequences" and the most disturbing statement when asked about what should be done in response toward LGBT minorities she said "I was not in any way advocating that we need to go after these people [physically]. I was giving an example. I was making a point, using a metaphor…" when comparing the threat of having homosexuals and American Muslims citizens in the United States to our war with radical Islamic terrorist with the publicly expressed goal of establishing a fascist Islamic State in replace of the United States.
I expect Kern to fade into a footnote of history but her actions as a political leader speaking in the State Capitol erodes hard won ground so passionately fought for in the struggle for rights of the individual citizen. Our history is replete with minorities fighting for equal rights for all in the United States. Some moderates on the side of no special rights for lesbians and gays are trying to spin a more palatable option of "let the mass market" or "let the voter decided". There is another word for that moderate approach, it's called Mob Rule. It's my belief that the right to speak freely in our society comes with responsibility. It's an abuse of the right to Freedom of Speech by Sally Kern to make such statements as a public lawmaker to the mob against an unprotected minority of US citizens.
I don't know about everyone else but I was taught that it was mob rule and tyranny that caused courageous people to found this great experiment we call home. Our nation has lost its way many times in history due to mob rule, during times of strife, fear and ignorance. This type of minority fear based politics and statements by leaders led to forced relocations and military attacks against Native Americans resulting in the almost extinction of entire native tribes. Mob rule against minorities and supporting slavery again led in part to a Civil War causing 620,000 US deaths with millions of injuries, then yet again during World War II with internment camps on US soil imprisoning over 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans, 62% of which were US citizens.
Kern has made it clear she would not want things going that far again but her actions leave people with the option of someone else picking up where she leaves off in her mad crusade of demonizing a minority to appease, in this instance, the religious sanctity of the mob. History has a way of repeating itself, Kern claims to possess knowledge of world history in legitimizing her outrageous arguments, however it would appear her knowledge of US history is lacking.
If her arguments are not checked at some point and carries out, conceivably internment camps will again be on US soil imprisoning its own citizens. The one thing I do know, having worked in the government for years, is that the soldiers and civil servants given orders to carry out will not bother with the luxury of a fine dance around the question of Kern's Son being homosexual, he will be placed on a bus with the rest of us. This is what has happened in our history against the minority by the mob due to leaders like Kern. Have we evolved past the horrors that scar our history, if so how do you explain the rally for Sally?
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals" - "K," Men In Black
New for 2008 the origins of the Easter Bunny ... the true story of what happens when a bunny goes wrong. Happy Easter everyone!
After traveling almost 5,000 miles this month I'm tired but I wanted to wish all of you a Happy Easter 2008! Enjoy this repost in high quality video of what the Easter bunny is doing the other 364 days a year with "The Easter Bunny Hates You", if crucifixion was not violent enough! I'm going back to bed folks... enjoy the video and hands off the Peeps and chocolate bunnies.
Last Friday the Air National Guard mistook Tulsa for Kansas and dropped a 22 lb practice bomb about 3 miles from my house! The drop occurred at night which begs the question how can one mistake a lit up mid-sized city, in this case Tulsa for Kansas, a huge flat square dark empty expanse. The bomb hit Canyon Creek Apartments and buried itself in the buildings concrete foundation, lucky no one was hurt and the bomb was not armed.
On a positive note this weekend the City of Tulsa is finally shutting down its makeshift mulch factory behind my house. Imagine living right next to a lumber mill going 24/7 and trying to keep a pool clean much less endure the smell and dust penetrating your clothing and home. The city has ground enough trees limbs to make 120,000 cubic yards of mulch … in my back yard and it's gross. The mulch has been pretty much removed now but we are left with a huge city park that looks like a tilled empty pasture with a big concrete parking lot. I think the persons whose bright idea it was to setup a mulch factory in a city park should have to replant the entire park by themselves. My heart goes out to the residents living around the airport and across the Arkansas River in the Turkey Mountain area as mulching is most likely going to be ramped up in these areas. Fun!
Tuesday Oklahomans for Equality and Oklahoma PFLAG will be hosting two rallies in Oklahoma both at the Tulsa Equality Center and at the State Capitol building as Oklahoma citizens call for Rep. Sally Kern to either apologize or step down due to hate speech and her expressed bigotry towards the LGBT community and Oklahoma Muslims. Everyone is encouraged to attend and express your support of equal rights for all Oklahomans.
Finally on a personal note I will be leaving for Texas after the rally on Tuesday to check on my Father who is scheduled to leave soon from the physical rehabilitation center he has been in for the last few months. Most of my time will be consumed taking care of his affairs but I hope to snap some photos of Spring 08 in East Texas. It's very pretty this time of year in Texas and will make for a wonderful drive south. Have a great week everyone and I hope to see many of you at the Tulsa rally Tuesday.
Special thanks to My Tulsa World for Image
Although Havana may have a thriving gay community, communist dictator Fidel Castro has a long history of human rights abuse against LGBT Cuban citizens. With the dictator stepping down new hopes are stirred for gay civil rights.
Fidel Castro today announced his resignation as the political and military leader of Cuba, 49 years after he seized power and installed a Communist regime in the Caribbean island nation.
The 81-year-old's poor health in recent years has sparked a renewed national debate about the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans Cubans.
Sexual diversity was seen by Fidel Castro as a corrupt consequence of capitalism. Cuban poet Jose Mario, an important artistic figure in the country, suffered in Cuban labour camps as Castro's regime 're-educated' homosexuals.
At the entrance of the camp there was a sign which said "work shall make you men", similar to the motto of the Nazi concentration camps, "work shall set you free."
Last month Mariela Castro, who is the daughter of acting President Raul Castro and niece of Fidel, revealed that the Cuban Communist party is considering granting legal recognition to same-sex unions, as health officials prepare to authorise sex-change operations.
The proposed change to Cuban family law would put members of same-sex unions on a par with heterosexual couples.
The principal needs of Cuban homosexuals "are related to the right to their recognition as consensual couples, as non-matrimonial couples, but that authorities recognise their property and inheritance rights in those non-legalised unions," she said.
"That is their principal interest. They are not interested in marriage, they are not interested in adoption, because in Cuba there are hardly any children to adopt."
The BBC is reporting that Saudi religious police is banning again this year the sale of Valentine's gifts deeming the holiday "Un-Islamic".
The Saudi Gazette quoted shop workers as saying that officials had warned them to remove all red items including flowers and wrapping paper.
Black market prices for roses were already rising, the paper said.
Saudi authorities consider Valentine's Day, along with a host of other annual celebrations, as un-Islamic.
In addition to the prohibition on celebrating non-Islamic festivals, the authorities consider Valentine's Day as encouraging relations between men and women outside wedlock - punishable by law in the conservative kingdom.
The Saudi Gazette reported that some people placed orders with florists days or weeks before Valentine's Day in anticipation of the ban, which is a regular occurrence.
"Sometimes we deliver the bouquets in the middle of the night or early morning, to avoid suspicion," one florist said.
Family pets are the latest victims of the sub prime mortgage fall out as hundreds of thousands of home owners are losing homes and a home for thousands of dogs and cats.
CHICAGO (AFP) - Forget about the lost furnishings and finances, the most pitiful victims of the subprime mortgage crisis rocking the United States are the family pets.
Shelters across the country have seen sharp upticks in the number of people giving up their pets in recent months because they have been forced out of their homes.And -- more tragically -- neighbors, police and foreclosure agents are finding increasing numbers of pets left to fend for themselves in abandoned homes.
"We're finding too many animals who have starved to death," said Stephanie Shain, director of outreach for the Human Society of the United States.
While some people dump their pets on the street, others go so far as to lock the animal in a closet where their cries for help are harder to hear, she said.
It can take weeks for an animal to starve to death and desperate scratch and bite marks are usually found on doors and windows.
"They will eat anything -- furniture, or carpet or wallboard -- to try to ingest something," Shain said in a telephone interview.
"It's a very fearful and frantic and panicked situation for that animal to be in."
The Humane Society recently instigated a public-awareness campaign to offer tips on finding animal-friendly rental housing and remind people that pets are much better off in a shelter. Rest of the story with Mira Oberman - Yahoo News
If you know of anyone moving that has pets they cannot care for or you want to adopt a spayed or nutured dog or cat here are some regional and national web sites. Save a life today.
It is on this third Monday of January, 2008 that we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. born January 15th, 1929. Doing research on the internet into Rev. King's life I came across a prophetic short speech he delivered in support of the striking sanitation
workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968 — the day
before he was assassinated. Listen to the words of one of American histories great leaders and perhaps you will wonder as I do if he knew his days where limited.
Reading about today being World AIDS Day I found these very controversial public awareness photos. I believe all of these came from ACT UP Paris and Mtv and are pretty out of the box.
The Spider and the Scorpion
The "no penis/no vagina=no sex=no aids" campaign
MTV HIV/AIDS Awareness
Hat Tip to Nate - Progressive Christian Gay Guy
Scarborough Research report just released finds that Austin, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle are the top markets for people who read or contribute to blogs. Oklahoma City hedges out Tulsa in the report but overall Oklahoma represents surprisingly well compared to other states. According to researchers:
Demographically, bloggers are young and hail from middle class families. They are 66 percent more likely than the national average to be between the ages of 18 and 34. Fifty percent of bloggers are part of a household that has children under 17, as opposed to 41 percent of the total population. Bloggers are 20 percent more likely than the national average to have an annual household income between $50k and $100k per year.
Scarborough list of the top cities:
Scarborough Local Market Analysis: Top Local Markets for Bloggers
I came across this essay several months ago on the historical significance to war in our society and the current war we are involved in globally to fight Islamic Fascist and restore human rights, freedom and our national security. It is worth a read if for nothing else to give pause to those who want to "redeploy" our troops currently in overseas Middle East operations. I was startled this week when our President, George Bush, proclaimed "if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing [Iran] from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon." While I still have mixed feelings about invading Iraq and outrage in how the "liberation" has been executed in Iraq; the writer makes many startling references and I see our citizens lacking the backbone our Grandparents had to have to survive World War II. Is our nation willing again to make the sacrifices our ancestors made for the survival of our way of life? Or have we become too fat and lazy, leading ourselves to be washed away by the sands of history?
Historical Significance
Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat. The Nazis had sunk more than 400 British ships in their convoys between England and America taking food and war materials. At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war.
Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, who had not yet attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had few allies. France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of France quickly aligned itself with its German occupiers. Germany was certainly not an ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe. Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controlling all of Asia. Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invading Canada and Mexico, as launching pads to get into the United States over our northern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control of Asia and Europe. America's only allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia. That was about it All of Europe, from Norway to Italy (except Russia in the East) was already under the Nazi heel. The US was certainly not prepared for war.
The US had drastically downgraded most of its military forces after WW I because of the depression, so that at the outbreak of WW II, Army units were training with broomsticks because they didn't have guns, and cars with "tank" painted on the doors because they didn't have real tanks A huge chunk of our Navy had just been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor. Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England (that was actually the property of Belgium) given by Belgium to England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler (a little known fact). Actually, Belgium surrendered on day one, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day just to prove they could.
Britain had already been holding out for two years in the face of staggering losses and the near decimation of its Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a relatively minor threat that could be dealt with later. Hitler first turned his attention to Russia, in the late summer of 1940 at a time when England was on the verge of collapse. Ironically, Russia saved America's butt by putting up a desperate fight for two years, until the US got geared up to begin hammering away at Germany. Russia lost something like 24,000,000 people in the sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow alone . . . 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than 1,000,000 soldiers. Had Russia surrendered, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire war effort against the Brits, then America. If that had happened, the Nazis could possibly have won the war.
All of this has been brought out to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things. Now, we find ourselves at another one of those key moments in history. There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants, and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world. The Jihadist, the militant Muslims, are basically Nazis in Kaffiyahs -- they believe that Islam, a radically conservative form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world. To them, all who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel, and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra. (Goal)
There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East -- for the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation, but it is not yet known which side will win -- the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists. If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadists, will control the Middle East, the OPEC oil, and the US, European, and Asian economies. The techno-industrial economies will be at the mercy of OPEC -- not an OPEC dominated by the educated, rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadist. Do you want gas in your car? Do you want heating oil next winter? Do you want the dollar to be worth anything? You had better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins. If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, live in peace with the rest of the world, and move out of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away. A moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge. We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We can't do it everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battle at a time and place of our choosing . . . . . in Iraq. Not in New York, not in London, or Paris or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we are doing two important things.
(1) We deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack or not, it is undisputed that Saddam had been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades Saddam was a terrorist! Saddam was a weapon of mass destruction, responsible for the deaths of probably more than a 1,000,000 Iraqis and 2,000,000 Iranians.
(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, and a flash point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killing bad people, and the ones we get there we won't have to get here. We also have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be a catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed.
WW II, the war with the Japanese and German Nazis, really began with a "whimper" in 1928. It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for fourteen years before the US joined it. It officially ended in 1945 -- a 17 year war -- and was followed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own again. A 27 year war. WW II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year's GDP -- adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars. WW II cost America more than 400,000 soldiers killed in action, and nearly 100,000 still missing in action. The Iraq war has, so far, cost the United States about $160,000,000,000, which is roughly what the 9/11 terrorist attack cost New York.
It has also cost about 3,000 American lives, which is roughly equivalent to lives that the Jihad killed (within the United States) in the 9/11 terrorist attack. The cost of not fighting and winning WW II would have been unimaginably greater -- a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism. This is not a 60-Minutes TV show, or a 2-hour movie in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always has been, and probably always will be. The bottom line is that we will have to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if we ignore it. If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an ally, like England, in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer the world. The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient and never ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons. Unless somebody prevents them from getting such weapons.
We have four options:
1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons.
2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).
3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East now; in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America.
OR
4. We can stand down now, and pick up the fight later when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe. It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.
If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today. The history of the world is the history of civilization clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win. Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them.
Remember, perspective is everything, and America's schools teach too little history for perspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind. The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; forty-two years! Europe spent the first half of the 19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany! World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year occupation and the US still have troops in Germany and Japan. World War II resulted in the death of more than 50,000,000 people, maybe more than 100,000,000 people, depending on which estimates you accept.
The US has taken more than 3,000 killed in action in Iraq. The US took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism. In WW II the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week -- for four years. Most of the individual battles of WW II lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far. The stakes are at least as high. A world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms. Or a world dominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law) It's difficult to understand why the average American does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis. "Peace Activists" always seem to demonstrate here in America, where it's safe.
Why don't we see Peace Activist demonstrating in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, in the places that really need peace activism the most? I'll tell you why! They would be killed! The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc., but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc. Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are coming down on the side of their own worst enemy!
Author Raymond S. Kraft is an attorney and writer in Northern California. He can be reached at rskraft@vfr.net
Hot, humid and oppressive, welcome to Oklahoma in August. Ugh!
After a week on the road and over 1000 miles clocked on my car I am back from Texas. I spent the week trying to visit with as many members of my extended family as possible, catching up on family gossip and news. Many of my cousin are having families now of their own and I had to learn over a dozen names of new additions to the clan. Luckily I will be around sixty when many of them graduate from college and the cycle starts again learning new names.
It was a nice rest being unplugged for the most part from the news, the internet and in some cases cell coverage. However I am back and there has been all kinds of things happening since I have "unplugged".
NASA has been in the news prior to the launching of the refitted Endeavor space shuttle. The committee commissioned to investigate Lisa Nowak's crazy 900 miles road trip discovered at least two incidences of astronauts taking off in the shuttle while drunk. I can see taking a Xanax maybe but I would hurl in zero G while drunk much less from the take off itself. It was also discovered this week by NASA inspectors that wires in computers to be installed on the International Space Station to control power had been purposely cut by a worker. Charges are pending but would treason count as an offense?
Moving on to Broadway news the musical version of "Brokeback Mountain" is hitting the Big Apple.
X-Men co-stars Hugh Jackman and James Marsden have been named as the two actors they are shooting for to star as Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist in the weeper love story.
Hugh Jackman had a tony winning performance singing in "The Boy from Oz" where he played gay singer and songwriter Peter Allen. Jackman also starred in the musical "Oklahoma" playing Curly McLain. To many Jackman is best known from his role as Wolverine from the X-Men movies. Marsden who played Cyclops in the X-Men franchise can be seen in this year's film "Hairspray". Truth is stranger than fiction.
On the local front QT Corporation has bought the naming rights to the Expo Center in Tulsa. The county and QT signed a 10 year 2.6 million deal for naming rights and is building a new kiosk and promo booths for the company at the fairgrounds. With the removal of Bell's Amusement Park and additional parking available the county gets an interesting deal from QT.
When I drove from Texas back to Oklahoma I noticed many ranchers bailing up the large rounds of hay you see on the side of highways and rural roads in the region. Thankfully the rain that has slammed Oklahoma and Texas has let up and equipment can get into the overgrown fields. With luck two more cuttings will be possible this year. I was a bit surprised that the price paid to ranchers is less than 40 dollars for a large roll. I counted well over 150 rolls in one rancher's field outside of Paris, Texas.
I had a productive trip but after being gone most of the month of July I am happy to get back into the swing of things. This weekend Kathy Griffin will be performing a sold out show at the historic Brady Theater. Read about the history of the Brady and see who has performed over the years. My partner and I have tickets to Kathy's show and I will be posting a review for your Sunday reading.
Jenks, Oklahoma a small thriving community adjacent to Tulsa made it in Money Magazines top 100 best places to live 2007. With its low crime rate, cheap cost of living and recent development on the Arkansas River the town has grown from just an antique shop mecca to a thriving and happening community. Check out Money Magazines review. No other city in Oklahoma made this list.
Recently the CIA released their long held documents showing the dirty underside of the organization. Everything from domestic spying, assassination plots, drug experimentation on unwilling persons, etc etc. All of these illegal actions where approved under the watch of Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. Not to be outdone, our current President opened the door to torture and abuse by the CIA and the military in
February 2002, when the president decided to chunk the Geneva
Convention.
One soldier, whose recent story was told on 60 Minutes, came forward with a data disc of photos showing some of the milder torture going on in the CIA run prisons. The cost he paid was a discharge from the Armed Forces, death threats, and total osterization by his home town. Think the torture stopped and the Geneva Convention guidelines started to be enforced after the photos where made public? Think again...
May it be to the world, what I believe it will be ... the signal of arousing men to burst the chains ... and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form, which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. ... For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.
~Last Letter Written by Thomas Jefferson on the 50th Anniversary of Our Independence Day
One of the main points of contention during the 08 election will be global warming and what to do about it. Although I am not a Democrat or a leftist the issue of mankind screwing up the planet and the results on public policy is something both sides of the aisle are finally starting to fumble through in typical Washington fashion. Below is a simplified and brilliant explanation of public policy decision making on the issue of Global Warming and how what we decide today will impact all of us in the very near future. An explanation so simple even George Bush and Jim Inhofe can grasp the concept.
A new street drug called “cheese” has made its way from Texas to Oklahoma. Dallas Independent School District has been battling the drug in their schools for the last two years with over 235 arrests of student dealers. One dealer of the new drug arrested was only 11 years old and was dealing to middle school age peers. To date over 21 deaths in Dallas have been documented from its use.
The new drug “cheese” is a dangerous mixture of Tylenol PM or similar OTC sleep aids and black tar heroin cooked together to form a powder. The powder is then snorted in doses called “bumps” much like cocaine is ingested. However “cheese” with its harmless sounding name is targeting middle and high school kids with each “bump” only costing a maximum of a few dollars.
The street name comes from the appearance of the drug that resembles grated Parmesan cheese but actually looks and feels more like coarse yellowish sand. Usually the drug is sold in small bags or in the schools in folded notebook paper, costing $30 dollars and providing 40-50 bumps or doses. The feeling the drug provides has been described as a mixture of a rush of an amphetamine combined with the floaty high of an opiate. The actual documented effects are euphoria, disorientation, lethargy, sleepiness, and hunger. Due to the opiate component of “cheese” the drug is highly addictive and withdraw symptoms rapidly occur even in short time users adding to a quick addiction.
The dealers creating the drug are by no means pharmaceutical scientist using quality control. Typically “cheese” is mostly Tylenol PM combined with 2-3% heroin creating a speed ball type effect. However stronger lethal batches of “cheese” have been found containing as much as +10% pure heroin. Strengths this high of heroin mixed with sleep aids then snorted cause near instant death.
DEA Agent James Capra says, "We've have some kids using it, trying it, and dying. There's no once or twice or three times. They die. We've had some instances where kids are snorting the drug and they're dying. They're overdosing and they're dying. Period. Goodnight."
Warning signs that a child or teen maybe using the drug include:
Below are pictures of the drug itself and how it is dispensed in schools.
Tulsa Police needs your help in keeping the drug off our streets and out of our schools. If you have any information you are asked to call (918) 596-COPS, you can remain anonymous and possibly save a child’s life.You can also contact the Tulsa Police Vice Squad at (918) 669-6068.
Further reading:
Stopping a Kid Killer - MSNBC
Wikipedia
Tulsa Police Blog
CBS 11 News Dallas, Texas
Fox 23 News Tulsa, Oklahoma
The U.S. Government wants YOU for the fight against terror … Unless you’re queer.
Confronted with a shortage of Arabic interpreters and its policy banning openly gay service members, the Pentagon had a choice to make.
Which is how former Spec. Glover came to be cleaning pools instead of sitting in the desert, translating Arabic for the U.S. government.
More on the story at The Washington Post
Russian President Vladimir Putin has a new toy … Soviet style
MOSCOW (May 30) - Russia tested new missiles Tuesday that a Kremlin official boasted could penetrate any defense system, and President Vladimir Putin warned that U.S. plans for an anti-missile shield in Europe would turn the region into a "powder keg."
More on the story at AOL News
On the local front, could the Tulsa City Council get anymore redundant?
The mayor and some councilors want Tulsa police to start checking citizenship of anyone they arrest for a felony crime. It's already being done once a suspect goes to jail, but this would have the police checking first.
More on the story at The Tulsa Police Department Blog
Recently our state Taliban (The Oklahoma State Legislature) finally allowed tattoo artist to work legally in Oklahoma. Our state begrudgingly joining the rest of the Union on regulating health issues regarding getting a tattoo and allowing legitimate artist to work in Oklahoma without fear of prosecution. I guess Utah got the jump on us on this one. However the State Health Department still has their panties in a wad over the issue of getting a tattoo legally in Oklahoma.
A recent court ruling has overturned state requirements banning studios from being near churches, schools, or playgrounds and state requirements to have a $100,000.00 bond. The court decision is being appealed by our State Health Department. If someone can explain to me logically the health impact on kids and “Christians” of having a tattoo studio near them and how any small artistic start up business can afford a 100K bond I sure would love to hear from you. I would also like to know when medical scientist whose salaries are paid by tax payers started becoming moral authorities when it comes to art.
Doing research on the issue I recently read the mission statement for the Oklahoma Health Department, it is a follows:
"To protect and promote health of the citizens of Oklahoma, to prevent disease and injury, and to assure the conditions by which our citizens can be healthy. "
It doesn’t say anything about being a moral authority in regards to art. The Oklahoma Health Department is simply harassing artist and making it almost impossible to get a license. The Department’s legal actions have nothing to do with health issues and everything to do about money. By making it impossible for tattoo studios to get a license the Oklahoma State Health Department is making some state law makers very happy and happy law makers are good when annual budget increase request are submitted.
Our state government is yet again showing its collective ass to the rest of the United States reaffirming why Oklahoma should remain fly over country. It is also forcing tattoo artist to break archaic laws and hacks or “scratchers” as the industry refers to them to keep doing back alley art spreading blood borne diseases such as Hepatitis C and HIV.
I have a novel idea though for our Oklahoma Health Department; how about making it easy for tattoo artist to get a license, ensure the artist is following healthy and sanitary practices and upholding the mission statement so boldly displayed on the middle of their web site! By doing so it would prevent a lot of injury and disease and assure conditions by which our citizens can be healthy. I know it’s a mind blowing concept isn’t it…
I thought I noticed more fat asses in Oklahoma City last time I visited; now I know why I am seeing so many chunky butts. According to a new national poll just released Oklahoma City residents now rank #1 in heavy fast food consumption.
Don’t worry OKC residents. Tulsa is not too far behind in fatties and it’s a behind no one can miss.
Former male escort Mike Jones, whose long time client was Ted Haggard the ex-president of the National Association of Evangelicals, is in the news again. Last week he placed a massage table “where it all happened” with Haggard on E-bay. The auction was terminated hours before the bidding was to have ended by E-Bay. Haggard supporters are being blamed for putting pressure on E-Bay for pulling the plug. Money from the auction would have gone to Project Angel Heart, a charity that supplies meals for people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses in Denver and Colorado Springs. Jones is a long time resident in the Colorodo area.
Change is good
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