As per usual, we've been scouring the web for news stories of local interest this morning. News is a mite slow today however, to say the least. We did nevertheless find several items we thought to be worthy of sharing, just to get the discussion going:
Here's something for Burger King fans. This one ought to whet your appetites, we think:
Video shows Burger King employee bathing in sink:
XENIA, Ohio (WDTN) - Some workers at a Greene County restaurant are in hot water with the health department, after an employee took a bubble bath in a store sink.And this one speaks volumes about the encroachment of technology upon personal privacy, in our modern "Big Brother" surveillance state:
It happened at the Burger King on Orange Street in Xenia.
A four-minute video posted on MySpace.com captured the employee, self-described as Mr. Unstable, bathing nude in a large stainless steel sink as several other employees and a store manager looked on.
The video began making its rounds on the Internet Monday morning. One of the recipients was Greene County Health Commissioner, Mark McDonnell.[...]
All of the employees involved were fired.
Google's Street View captures the moment a drunken Aussie keeled over outside his home:
A man who fell asleep in a drunken stupor on the grass outside his home was horrified to find his embarrassment posted on the internet.During the course of the past year or so we've all fretted about the crime and gang violence that's largely concentrated in fairly small section of our inner city. Here's how a small Arkansas city approached a similar problem. This is right up Boss Godfrey's alley, it seems to us:
He had been drowning his sorrows over the death of a friend and collapsed after climbing out of a taxi.
As he slept off his excesses, a car-mounted video camera passed by to record pictures of the street for Google's StreetView website. [...]
Within days a photographic record of the neighbourhood and its unusual presence was available for worldwide viewing.
Arkansas city neighborhood under 24-hour curfew:
HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. (AP) - Helena-West Helena Mayor James Valley says he ordered a round-the-clock curfew and heavy police patrol in a ten-block section of town because the neighborhood was "under siege with repeated gunfire, loitering, drug dealing and other general mayhem." [...]The ACLU: Pantywaists!
Thursday night, 18 to 20 police officers carrying M-16 rifles, shotguns and night-vision scopes patrolled the "curfew zone." They arrested about eight people and confiscated drugs and loaded weapons.[...]
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas says the curfew is "blatantly unconstitutional" and has demanded that Valley lift the order immediately.
Consider this an open topic thread, if you like.
27 comments:
uh, Rudi,
The ACLU will nad has sttod up for all fo your rights for a long friggin' time. Withou them we would be living under worse tyranny than we have now. They have continuallty worked to keep our govt. in CHECK. Something that our constitution was formulated to accomplish but has been dismantled steadily over the last century while fools sit by and allow it to happen because the "refinements" "won't affect them" That means you Rudi. The constitution is a PRINCIPLED document. Meani9ng it is written in the most minimal language to protect the widest swath of liberties. That includes yours and mine. If you don't like the ACLU maybe Russia or China would be more to your liking as I am sure no groups of such principle are allowed to exist or function in those parts.
I do find the storm troop patrol in this sorry city to be a sign of things to come all over the US. Welcome to the new police state. You can thank drug and other prohibitions for the conditions that demand this kind of police state response. You can now sit by and cheer while your fellow countrymen are under siege by your own hired storm troopers. While you whine about heavy handed government in Ogden zoning codes you cheer these tactics because they don't affect you. Enjoy your Nazi State.
Sorry about my speed typing errors. Didn't think to spell check. I'm on the run this am. You get my point...
Tec:
I'm pretty sure Rudi was being sarcastic.
We all love the ACLU here. I myself was a card-carrying member for a while, just so I could say I was a "card-carrying member of the ACLU".
Mono:
Just pay your dues again, and you can still be a card-carrying member. Here in the Gret Stet of Zion, just the sheer fun of being able to say that to people is worth the minimal annual fee. The good work the ACLU does standing between Utahns and the Chris Butters wing of the Utah Republican Party [aka "the House and Senate majority"] is just lagniappe.
Card Carrying Member Curmudgeon
I am always amused and amazed how in the 1930's it was quite clear to the country that after enduring the nonsense and violence and gang warfare that was bred by prohibition the decision to repeal was a no-brainer. Unfortunately the intellectual capacity of the average 'merkin has diminished in the last 7 DECADES, hence the disconnect that prohibition of any substances only breeds a huge and profitable black market. During alcohol prohibition the corruption and gangsterism was confined to America. The Drug war has now created worldwide gangsters with immense fortunes and incredible power. The CIA works willingly with them as they provide info and conduits into areas that the cia cannot operate.
I'm pretty sure no one noticed that in August of 2001 the Taliban leadership were visiting Washington and were snubbed by the administration. You see the Taliban had succeeded in virtually eliminating poppie production by harsh secular state methods. Much like our current drug war. The DEA refused to take notice of the greatest contribution to the war on drugs since it's inception.
Guess what happened the next month...sept '01.
Then we invade Afghanistan and the result. Poppie production is back to normal to supply the Russian mafia who now are being played by the greater powers to rise to such an insane financial power that we then have the precursor to that future invasion. This is perhaps a decade or 2 in the future. Our troops are not coming home until prohibition ends. Our middle east and asian campaigns are about the drug war and mostly the manipulation of unfathomable blocks of wealth as precursors to greater actions. End prohibition and we eliminate the foundations for most of the world's black market. Unfortunately for the uninitiated who are too small minded to see the world view as cleanly as the CIA, the world black markets provide the bartering pipelines that includes weapons and black operations. It is essential to their ops. The pentagon or cia budget simply does not have the room for it.
What does this have to do with policing the bad streets of Helena, Ark.? Legalize all drugs and we can solve so many of the world's ills.
Good Day.
Tec, I am part of the .00001% of the population that agrees with you on this. So obvious. Yet nobody knows.
Thanks, Danny.
Some would call this scenario conspiracy theory assuming that it requires a single person or council(CFR,Bilderberg,TLC) to implement. No it is far more sinister. It is fueled by ignorance and apathy on the part of the citizens of the most powerful nations. They are the only hope to shift these events by becoming more aware, activist and undermining the terror/drug war bogeyman. it takes people talking about it and shaping the human and media conversation. As long as we get caught up on fragmented and extrapolative issues the big picture status quo is allowed to fester. It is time for the citizens of the most powerful nation(not for long) to force change on this fundemental level. Stop prohibition NOW. Stop international intrigue NOW. Stop the international crime conspiracies NOW. It may be too late. Certainly they have the backing of none other than the U.S. Govt.
Danny and Tec:
0.00001% of 270 million people in the US is 27 people. At least three of them are on this list, because I too favor decriminalization of victimless crimes such as drug abuse and prostitution.
"It is possible," Gore Vidal once wrote, "for any citizen with time to spare, and a canny eye, to work out what is actually going on, but for the many there is not time, and the network news is the only news even though it may not be news at all but only a series of flashing fictions."
came across this on the huffington post.
So just three of us. That's better than none. Seems WCF posters would rather talk about gondolas, godfrey, gadi, and brown lawns. Meaty issues like making a difference in limiting the rapidly convergent worldwide fascist government is not so interesting. Funny thing is that we actually have a better chance of shaping these worldwide events than this little stuff at home. Just keeping the conversation alive and spreading the truth will have that effect. It's the silence and subservience to the machine that empowers the international fear cartels.
Four, actually. But for the record, we don't just like to talk about gondolas, godfrey, gadi, and brown lawns; I think we enjoy hearing about the hotness of our Council Chairwoman. ;-)
tec,
Different blogs for different topics. I think there are better places to discuss national and international issues.
I'll have to disagree with you there, Dan. That is exactly what the greater powers like. Local issues are so overwhelming who has the time to discuss national issues. Yes, there are fantastic blogs for national issues but it is all talk until locally people find common ground. The federal government likes your attitude. That keeps the critics from finding more local homegrown power. As it is, there is little homegrown power over national issues. Stopping the Vietnam war was not accomplished by blogs and would not have been if blogs existed at that time. It started with people caring about the fact that their neighbors son came home in a pine box. It started with neighbors getting together to make picket signs and show up for LOCAL rallies. When will their be local rallies to end the war? There have been a few in SLC but in Ogden. I guess Ogdenites love the war. They voted for a NeoCon-artist. I guess local people can keep themselves muddling in issues like local street crime enforcement when the much larger underlying issue of prohibition can be left for Washington. GFL(good f****ng luck)Do I sound a little fired up. When will a few more of us get a little fired up that our government is looking more and more like the Third Reich. Silence in the communities allows the centralized powers to consolidate.
Activism has no legs in the virtual world. Only when neighbors start to take issue with their federal government will the next neighbor find the courage and willingness to express themselves. The silent majority becomes a little louder with each neighbor. Today most people are fearful and unwilling to express outrage over the war and behavior over our govt because the bullies in big trucks and jocks and contractors are all McBush ass lickers. The republican fanboyz have successfully linked themselves with machoism. 'Merkins like the macho dumbass over an educated common sense All-American like Obama. Fortunately at the moment Obama seems to have momentum but FoxNews and the Rovians have plenty of time to muddy the national discourse.
THAT IS WHY WE NEED TO KEEP TALKING!!!
tec,
I think this blog is a fine place to discuss national and international issues when there's a local angle, such as a local event or some other opportunity for people to act locally to make a difference.
When the discussions have no local angle, so they could just as well be taking place between people who are scattered across the country, then I think another forum would be more appropriate.
Of course, my opinion on the scope of this blog is irrelevant. Rudi is the Decider.
I believe Dan S. is right, Tec. WCF has basically become a local issues blog. This hasn't happened by editorial edict, BTW. When I first started publishing in 2005, it became immediately evident that the folks of Emerald City had a crying need for a community discussion board to counteract the propaganda of the Godfey House Organ, the Standard-Examiner.
Since WCF's initial founding, the blog has merely gone with the flow, and centered discussions on stories and issues which have an impact on local citizens. Our generally robust comments sections always provide the editorial guidance; and I've tried over the years to focus on the issues which are most important to the local lumpencitizens.
As I've said many times before... Weber County Forum is not my personal soapbox. I've joked from time to time in private conversations with various readers that I could probably start out each morning's discussion with a weather report, and that within the day the conversation would morph into an important local issue discussion.
Dan is right. There are thousands of blogs who deal with what you call "national issues. If you want to read Utah blogs who deal with these issues, you can find at least a couple dozen of them here.
Yes, we're a local issues blog. But keep in mind that our main theme -- if there is one at all -- is honest, transparent and citizen-friendly government.
And don't forget the wise words of Thomas A. "Tip" O'Neill: "All Politics is local."
Consider this blog not only a place for local readers to blow off steam, but also a guerilla training camp for citizen activists.
The invitation's always open, Tec for you to submit your own article, BTW. If you'd like to spout off on a national issue, send me a writeup.
And keep your eyes on this space, Tec. I'm working on an article with national impications right now. Expect to see it posted shortly.
P.S.: Put me down as the fifth vote against prohibition of currently illegal drugs.
Betcha a burger at "Big Jim's" that south of the border drug cartels are the biggest sponsors of U.S. anti-dope legislation.
Dan, ever wonder why there is so little money for transit? ever wonder why there is so little money for wilderness expansion? ever wonder why no amount of law enforcement can contain a gang problem? It's the federal government wasting trillions on wars. It's the federal government conspiring with the worldwide black market in drugs and weapons fueling the gang and drug problems at home.
That is why we must demand a thorough review of the federal government and it's powers.
I am quite surprised at your complacency on these issues. While we squander our national resources and spirit, cities like Ogden crumble and you think that the war is not a local issue. It is all about national and world issues for us with a bigger picture view.
I'll gladly leave the local squabbling to others. In the meantime, I have a war to stop and small children to save from incineration by our locally made eaponry. I have a commitment to myself to cripple an international drug cartel run by our own government from bringing more illegal substances to our streets. Stop prohibition now and destroy the international drug cartel. We will quickly see a reduction in crime, addiction and likely more unemployment for awhile as the vast underworld distribution network has nothing to do. The shady dealers in any downtown flophouse to the mid to high rollers in black Escalades will evaporate in weeks.
Rudi,
Good to hear you have a clear view of the prohibition issue. It is the biggest issue of our short lives yet seems to always fall by the wayside. 30+ fucking years old and now repackaged as the War on Terror. I will keep this issue on the front burner and I will always seek to link it to ALL local issues. It is the underlying issue to ALL of the shortcoming in our future as a nation.
STOP PROHIBITION NOW!!!
YOU ARE EITHER WITH US,OR YOU ARE WITH THE CARTELS.... STOP PROHIBITION.
My caps will not get larger.
Since Rudi has apparently been too busy to comment on today's news, let me point out a few interesting items.
Today's most entertaining article was this report by Scott Schwebke on how Riverdale's mayor has complained about the Standard-Examiner's coverage of the Hansen foot-shooting incident. Be sure to read Don Porter's especially amusing remarks.
In this article we also learn that Managing Editor Andy Howell has some concerns over Mayor Burrows's use of a taxpayer-funded utility bill insert to voice his opinion. We can only hope that Howell will next turn his attention to the inappropriate uses of taxpayer-funded resources by another of our local mayors.
In other news, the Standard-Examiner has a localized version of a wire-service article on the increasing conflicts between motorized and nonmotorized trail users. Be sure to check out the terrific quote from the conservation chair of the Ogden Sierra Club!
Turning to the issue of mass transit, UTA has announced that the extension of the FrontRunner to Pleasant View will be in operation by the end of September. And the New York Times reports that cities across the U.S. are considering streetcars as an increasingly viable form of mass transit. The article mentions Salt Lake City as one of these cities, but not Ogden.
Anti-drug legislation is the single issue that has led to the cancerous growth of the international police state. Without the flow of illegal drugs, international weapons distribution will no longer have the cash commodity to accomplish barters and grease it's wheels.
BTW, Rudi, I will not be joining you for any meat eating lunches. We can go tackle some wildlife for meat consumption if you like but I'll have nothing of farm raised cattle. Those are cows that makes those burgers. Loaded with female hormones that enlarge your organs. I'll chomp the heart of an alpha male lion but no female beef for me. No warrior would subsist on lazy ass grazing cattle.
Since I do not have time to hunt down the local predator I'll do fine with garden vegetables and my own fruit trees. Vegetarian diet makes for a lean and mean hunter when the need for meat arises. Daily meat eaters couldn't catch the next meal. It's unnatural.
I'll gladly meet you for some Indian Food at Bombay Grille.
Tec,
By all means, get involved in the issues you're passionate about.
You would be interested to meet my 90-year-old father, who also believes that we must focus on the big, fundamental issues of our time. He even moved himself to Washington, DC, ten years ago so he could attack the evil at its root. He routinely belittles the well-meaning souls who merely want to solve some small, local problem. Unfortunately, after devoting his life to the big issues, he would be the first to admit that he hasn't made any discernible progress.
Understanding West Helena...
Ogden is besieged by illegal immigrants, who have formed about four gangs. They are competing for the drug business over an area covering a wide swath of Ogden residences. For this example, let us assume from Harrison west to Monroe and from 22nd St. to 32nd St.
There are indiscriminate drive by shootings killing innocent men, women and children as the gangs are shooting at each other without regard for who happens to be within range. When they are not shooting at each other they are stabbing and beating people to death.
To make matters worse, the drugs they are selling ("a victim-less crime according to Tec and other baffoons) are killing more people. The Meth they are cooking is also causing addicts to kill each other and shoot/murder business owners and clerks all over Ogden.
But wait! There are those who claim it is all because "drugs are illegal" and therefore a "victim-less crime" to sell or deal in drugs. It is the law and the gangs that are the problem, not drugs. After all, we all use drugs all the time. What could be wrong with recreational use and legalization of drugs? We all (well most all) have sex all the time. What could be wrong with sex? With legalization of prostitution? It is the world's oldest profession. And Hash, Opium,Peyote, etc. have been around probably as long... Why not live and let live? No limits, no laws, nothing but personal individual restraint and responsibility.
What planet did you come from? How can any mature educated intelligent adult say such things... and apparently mean them?
Perhaps if and when the hypothetical Ogden such "air heads will volunteer to serve on ACLU missions of peace and cum ba la, singing to quieten and calm the situation. Maybe a few Peace Symbols, Grateful Dead tiedyed T-shirts and anti war songs will do the trick.
Ya THINK? Do you think at all? Maybe that is a way to reduce our dependance on foreign and domestic oil. Let people on psychothropic (mind altering) drugs drive cars until no one dare venture onto the public roadways.
YGBSM!
YGBSM, please tell us why you feel compelled to imply that there's something wrong with, Peace or peace signs, Grateful Dead tye-dyed T-shirts,( I assume you're including their music), and anti war songs.
Drugs aside,(another geat hoax on the American Public) had your ritalin today?
Tec, may be more zealous about his priority being the prohibition of certain compounds, and not quite appreciating the local aspects of our national delema, so here an example for you.
It's the local level where the errosion of our freedoms begin.
Seatbelt laws are a prime example.
Marketed to the public as a no-brainer public safety issue, they overwhelmingly passed the laws. The people more than willing to allow the powers that be to make a decision for them. Without the propaganda used in the public safety campain, and widespread acceptance of, and comfort with this intrussion on your ability to decide for yourself, there never would have been the newfound Corporate welfare achievement of mandatory airbags in all vehicles sold in this country today. Forget the fact that 85 to 95% of these will never be deployed, or that a wreck at our existing freeway speeds will kill,(airbag or seatbelt in use or not). Your choice has been eliminated, you have no say, is that what America is about?
There are laws and severe punishment for the actual crimes committed by what you'd term drug abusers, why overload our justice system with folks that haven't commited any crime except seeking an short escape from coping with the insane realities of functioning in our disfunctional society? Need I remind you of Utah's current ranking in legal help me cope drug abuse?
It makes more sense to require by law that every one try the Timothy Leary approach at a very early age so they can find out for themselves that coping is just hard work and fact of life. Then maybe everyones mom won't feel that being without a Valium or Zanax is a life threatening experience.
Oh, I forgot Librium and Prozac.
Peace.
YGBSM,
Thanks for putting words in my mouth but I did not make any case like drugs being a victimless crime.
You did however make a solid case for repeal of drug prohibition as those gangs would not be fussin over anything if they did not have some drug turf to protect. I am no buffoon but you have completely revealed yourself to be one. Your argument is full of double talk and typical D.A.R.E. fear propaganda.
You are the problem as much as the drugs that you so heartily want to keep illegal. You will never win the war on drugs in that manner. Your strategy has entrenched the distribution networks and corrupted everyone from Monroe Blvd. to Pennsylvania Ave. You happy. You've had your chance with your strategies. I don't know your age but I have seen this nonsense carried on for over 3 decades and it branded one of my kids with two felonies for marijuana possession. Screw those do-gooders who make criminals out of our youth. My kid did nothing wrong. He's a professional now and must carry those felonies wherever he goes in life. You get-tough guys should get tough on yourself and get smarter. Repeating all those drug war cliches is laughable.
You're obviously to young to have heard of alcohol prohibition and the mess it made of the country. That's the problem with most of the do-gooders of today. They have no sense of history.
There are huge differences between a joint, meth, or heroine. IMHO, marijuana shouldn't even be considered a drug, at least in today's modern, scary boogeyman sense, any more than alcohol could be considered so. To equate marijuana with meth or heroine is as absurd as equating a Budweiser with shooting crack.
Out of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana, in my personal experience cigarettes were the hardest to shake a habit of by oceans of distance. Alcohol had the most unpleasant side effects, not counting frequent bronchitis from smoking cigarettes.
As far as legalization of man-made chemicals, such as meth, ecstasy, heroine, etc. I'm sort of ambivalent. I don't think they're good for society, but I don't really think alcohol is either. And we saw how well prohibition of alcohol worked for us.
It is my opinion that marijuana is probably one of the most harmless mind-altering substances we have available. Alcohol can breed violence and abuse. We all know the term "bar fight", we don't usually here the phrase "weed fight". As Lewis Black said, "have you ever seen an aggressive stoner?" (yes, I'm sure you probably have on occasion, there's always exceptions to the rule.)
The reason we have the drug war - as far as I'm concerned - and the reason it will continue, is money. If we suddenly legalized all these drugs so they were regulated, taxed, and monitored, then parasites all over the map of the drug war would suddenly have their nourishing flow of greenbacks wither to a trickle.
All I can say is, Holland is still in existence, despite their relaxed laws on drugs, and so many other things. I'd move there in a heartbeat if I had any way to do so. In the meantime, I'm stuck here, hoping for a day sometime in the distant future when one can have the freedom here in America to go down to a local convenience store and buy a pack of Marlboro Greens. ;-)
Right on, Drewmeister.
The only aggression I feel while enjoying the pleasant effects of the kind bud, is towards the bobbleheads who carry the torch for more drug wars. They seem to enjoy making a shambles of our society with their heavy handed approach.
In response to your uncertainty or ambivance about meth or heroin, remember I am talking about the end result of prohibition that is the problem. Surely those drugs are debilitating and deadly. I do not condone their abuse. It is clear that prohibition has simply enabled a ubiquitous black market that reaches to the highest level of all the world's governments. The only way to root out this evil corruption is to repeal all prohibition and amputate it's legs. The rest will take care of itself. We have an entrenched underclass hopelessly dependent on these drugs as a result of prohibition. By repealing we can now deal with them in a public health scenario instead of law enforcement. Free up law enforcement, maybe they'll actually catch a terrorist in our midst if they don't have their hands tied chasing the next joint seller on the street corner.
Considering that most petty crime and most gang activity has it's roots in drug abuse and distribution, cops will actually be able to breathe easier knowing that the street gangs are probably home getting stoned on leagal weed instead of protecting turf for the selling of it illegally. I would hate to be family of a cop killed under these nonsensical circumstances. I am sick of endangering our policemen any more than they have to endure. Their job is hard enough. Want safer streets?
STOP PROHIBITION NOW!
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