Go back home

Anybody remember a guy named Abraham Lincoln? Among other things, he made a little speech one day. He made reference to "government of the people, by the people, for the people."
Remember that? Here's a news flash for you, dear reader. YOU ARE THE PEOPLE. All of us together. Can anyone here disagree with my stating that this country, this state, this county, this municipality where you live is a mess? Its a world class clusterfuck. Why is that? How did it get this way? We did it. We caused it. Its our fault, yours and mine, 'cause we sat back on our fat, dumb lazy asses and we did very little to stop it. We did nothing. Another guy said, and I paraphrase, excuse me, its late and I'm not looking it, up something along the lines of it only takes good men to do nothing to allow evil to triumph over good. What's going on now in our "government" is unmitigated evil and again, I say, we did nothing to stop it. All we had to do was spend a few minutes of our day twice a year to go to the polls and vote. Just go and vote.
Now, you say to me, "its too late, the system has been so wrong for so long its beyond hope" and I say to you wrong. Dead wrong, its not too late and the fix is so ridiculously simple. About a third of the population on average elects all of the government and a good portion of THAT third are zealots of either the left or the right and they vote for the people who pander to them. All of that means nothing anymore. We can fix this by doing this: vote them out. Democrat, Republican, Green, Independent, Libertarian means nothing. What ever they are, if they are in office NOW vote them out. ANY incumbent. ANY present office holder. Take a minute next time the election cycle comes around, find out who holds the office now and VOTE THEM OUT. Nothing will get the attention of these professional, career politicians who have stacked the deck so squarely in their own favor by altering district boundaries and election laws quicker than one election that sees a majority of the incumbents, regardless of party affiliation, length of time in office or how good looking they are on TV, nothing will get their attention quicker than realizing that for the first time in history people went to the polls and resoundingly sent a message:
Go back home. You've been here long enough. Take your government pension, your life long health care, take it all, you can have it just GO BACK HOME!
Try it my friends. What have we got to lose? Take the time. Make the effort. Find out who they are and just send them home.

Republicans, Democrats and Tiger Woods

I woke up cranky today. In and of itself that is not news. I wake up cranky most days. Waking up cranky and flipping on the cable news channels to hear of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama is like pouring gasoline on a fire. As is my wont I fired up Facebook and made a few disparaging remarks and then lit up Twitter with a few more gems, especially after I heard the game of golf had been approved as an Olympic event commencing in 2016. More on the Olympics and golf later if I'm not too tired and drunk on Jim Beam and if I really think anyone has hung in and read that far. After a couple of "Tweets" I made some breakfast and took my two pit bulls out for their morning walk and game of dog hockey. Upon returning home and scoping the Blackberry out I found that two people, both total strangers, had found my remarks regarding the president sufficiently incendiary to prompt them to post replies, chastising me for my position and use of language that they felt was offensive when applied to their hero, President Barack Obama, whom I am fond of referring to as "Obamass, because, well, honestly that's what I think he is a good deal of the time. All three of these people, though, made it a point of calling me an "extreme right wing Republican", and frankly folks, that pissed me off. I thought name calling and generalizing was what "extreme right wing Republicans" did, not thoughtful, intelligent and enlightened supporters of our President. Notice that I did not refer to these people as anything other than supporters of the president. I did not make a snap judgement about them and assign them a label and button hole them into a certain group based on a few short statements because I have no freaking idea what or who they are. Do NOT LABEL ME.

For the record. I can't stand George W. Bush. I despise Dick (was there EVER a more aptly named man?)Cheney. I was inclined to support John McCain last year in spite of, not because of, him naming Sarah "NRA Barbie" Palin as his running mate. Full disclosure: As a red blooded American male pig I find Sarah to be incredibly hot! As a politician and the potential holder of the postion "one heartbeat away from the Presidency" I found her to be a joke. I would have actually voted for the Tina Fey version of Palin over the real one. I think Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, the triumverate leading the charge of the neo-cons in modern day DC should be arrested and charged as war criminals, as profiteers, as murderers for the loss of life in our US Armed Forces and for being stupid in public. I don't think there's nearly as much difference between a Republican and a Democrat as people think there is, especially once they have been elected to high state or national office. I pretty much despise ALL of them equally as much as the other. I think the war in Afghanistan was necessary and right. I think the war in Iraq was unnecessary and wrong. I honor, no revere, the service and sacrifice of the men and women in our armed forces who did not question the mission but went forth and did was asked of them regardless of my opinion or anyone else's of the decisions of the men(predominantly) who sent them to either or both theaters of operations. Those of you who know me know that I was a police officer for most of my adult career. I have openly and publicy endorsed the concept of the police shooting more offenders and beating people who truly deserve it while resisting arrest but I insist, no I demand, that the police play by the rules, be held to a higher standard of conduct than other citizens and I vehemently support the Bill of Rights and the concept that what I do in my house is my business and shame on you if you show up without a properly prepared and legitimate search warrant. I am a "law and order" guy so I endorse the death penalty, right? WRONG. I think the death penalty, as it is presently administered in this country is a disgrace. Poor people get executed, not moneyed or connected people. Taking upwards of 10 years to execute an offender is, to me, akin to waiting a month to punish your child after you catch him/her pilfering Chips Ahoy from the cookie jar. I support the broad term "gay rights". Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgendered is too much to type, so I'll use the generic term. Sue me if you don't like it. If two people are in love and are truly committed to each other I think they should have the right to marry. What the hell do I care? I think they should be able to have a say in legal and health care matters for their partner. I do not EVER want to hear about a GLBT person assaulted or harmed because of his her or ??? sexual orientation but at the same time I refuse to support "hate crime" legislation being expanded to include members of that group. I do not support assigning special victim status to people who manage to pigeon hole themselves into a specific group or class of people because I believe assault is assault and murder is murder. I endorse capitalism. If you can build a better mousetrap, market it, sell it and make a billion dollars I say more power to you but I believe if you do make that billion dollars you should pay at least the same per centage of your earnings in taxes as the guy who gets up every day and goes to work at your mousetrap company. Its not like that now - you know it and I know it. The deck is stacked against you if your are not a big money person. The state legislatures and the Congress have perverted the tax codes and the rules to allow big money, big companies, big business to make more. "It takes money to make money" has NEVER been truer in our country and I guess that's where this is headed.

I don't like Barack Obama. I think the day he was elected was a bad day for America. Is it because he's black? Lately its been popular in the media to say anyone who does not approve of him or questions his judgement or decisions is racist because he's black. I know he has a dark complexion and his hair appears to be similar to that of most persons of African descent but wait a minute. Last I heard Obama was HALF WHITE! So if the people who are against him are racist for doing so are they just half racist? Why is he the first "black president"? Why isn't he the first "dual racial" president? I have yet to hear a black person refer to Obama as so. They seem to want to completely disregard the fact that the man's mother was a white woman and he was raised by his white grandparents. What he is really doesn't count unless you are racist!!! I don't like Obama because I think he is bullshit. I refuse to believe, in my heart of hearts, that Obama is anything but a snake oil selling politician, no better or worse than 99.9 per cent of all the other snake oil selling politicians who have managed to get elected and are now running the country (into the ground). Obama was elected, largely on the strength of overwhelming turnout by younger people and African Americans who admittedly voted for him ONLY FOR THE COLOR OF HIS SKIN. Its a fact, people. Its a fact. Ask an African American. I know the reasons and can accept the reasons but please, just ADMIT IT! Consider this: A person who had reached the legal voting age of 18 by last November's presidential election was 10 years old when George W. was elected. As these young people came of age all they had as a politcal example was W and his ilk. To a young person living through 8 years of W and his bullshit and the war and terrorism and everything else that's gone on ANYBODY but Bush was a good choice, especially when the political process views issues and honesty as "an inconvenient truth" and is able to use spin and TV commercials and Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show as legitimate sources of political information. Michael Moore, who I think is an incredibly intelligent and gifted man, makes movies condemning white middle aged men who have too much money. Just about every bad thing in our lives in the past 25 years or so has been blamed on white middle aged men. We all know that is not true. White middle aged men are only responsible for about 90 per cent of all the bad things in our lives! Michael Moore is a white middle aged man who is a certified multi millionaire! His latest film excoriates the American system of capitalism that Moore has used to make millions and millions of dollars. He owns five houses and a Manhattan condo and when questioned about the hypocrisy says, "I own a house. I have to live somewhere". He is everything he rails against and is being celebrated by liberal people while he deposits another million in his accounts! Come on, people. Open your eyes! I couldn't imagine a person between the ages of 18 and 30 NOT voting for Obama. My problem is that its just like the Wizard Of Oz. Its all smoke and mirrors. Obama may turn out to be the greatest president the country has ever seen, and frankly, I hope it works out that way but when you see younger people interviewed on TV and they say they are so thrilled he was awarded the Nobel Prize because of "his ideas and his personna" and "because he's really smart" and "because he's bringing us the change we need" (these are all actual quotes heard today on both cable and broadcast news programs, folks, I swear its true) and "because he's African American and he understands us" and numerous other senseless, inane, assinine answers that have NOTHING to do with his actual running of the country! For Pete's sake (who the hell is Pete, anyway?) the guy's only been on the job for 9 months, how much can he have accomplished already? My biggest problem with him? The whole government propping up businesses, that, because of the way people running them ran them into the ground and should have been allowed to fail as a consequence and his blatant, bold faced 180 degree about face on the whole situation in Afghanistan and his refusal to take the advice of the people HE assigned to give him the story....while our young people continue to die there. My bottom line is this: No one. NO ONE. Gets elected President Of The United States Of America who has not already sold his soul to the devil by making deals (BOTH parties do it) with the big money interests who pull all the strings behind the scenes. Call it a conspiracy theory, call it what you will, but if you honestly believe there is more than "talking points" that make up the difference between a Republican and a Democrat once he attains high state and then national office I just think you're wrong. Maybe I'm wrong and you're right. Who knows? I just believe, with all my heart, that Barack Obama doesn't give a shivering shit about the plight of the average, every day, middle class American, be they black, white or whatever any more than George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon.....you get my point....did. The only difference is what they say in the TV commercials. "Change We Can Believe In" is the biggest pile of steaming, stinking bullshit sold to the American Sheeple in the past 50 years! If Obama actually does ever manage to change anything for the betterment of the average American I'll be the first to give him his props. But until then I'll continue to call him out when I feel its right, not because he's Dem. or Rep., black or white, left or right, conservative or liberal or what ever!

Golf? In the Olympics? Come on, now, seriously. Several outlets who supposedly have the ability to garner the information needed to make these pronouncements pronounced that Tiger Woods will make over ONE BILLION DOLLARS from playing golf and all the assorted endorsements, winnings and what ever. A billion dollars. In one year, folks. One year. One guy. Probably more than that next year. Phil Mickelson: upwards of half a billion. Hell the poorest guy on the PGA tour last year probably made several million. Although the ladies playing pro golf don't make nearly the money the men do, the top players on the LPGA tour are all multi millionaires. The Olympics lost the whole amateur thing years ago and we've been treated to NBA stars and NHL stars and I suppose its natural the pro tour golfers wanted in on it, but really, come on. They took softball out. Although a few of the ladies who played USA Softball were able to garner some endorsements and such (Jenny Finch, Cat Osterman) most of the competitors in the Olympics are really never going to become household names. They truly do compete for the love of their sport of choice and for the chance to represent their country. Do you honestly, for one milli second, think Tiger Woods or Michelle Wie are going to be out there for the glory of the good old U S of A? How many millions of dollars is it worth for Nike to be "the official golf equipment supplier to the US Olympic Team"? Hmmmm....money. Now there's a familiar theme.

BTW - dog hockey is played by going to the city recreation center on Academy Road and using the outdoor street hockey court. The court is only accessible by two doors which can be closed, allowing the two dogs to run free without worry of them taking a powder to chase a poodle. A pair of "Kong" brand nearly indestructable rubber balls can then be thrown for the aforementioned mutts to chase the balls, and themselves, to their hearts content while I laugh at their antics. Its good exercise for them and they love it!

Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read my ramblings. That's the View From The Mountain! What do you think??
William J. "Mountain Bill (don't you dare label me) Paupst

Full disclosure: I was in no way, shape or form compensated for my endorsement of the KONG brand of dog toys, although Sofie (my beloved mentally challenged shelter rescued pit bull terrier) was given a milk bone by the girl behind the cash register at PetCo when we bought the KONG balls.

Wish I Knew

This post, if it ever sees the light of day, is a fairly severe departure from my regular type. Its not a rant, or a complaint, or a call to action or arms. I'm not sure what it is. I sat down with no idea what, if anything, was going to make the trip from my head through my fingers and onto the screen. Normally I have some notion or topic that I want to cover or explore and I go with it. I actually believe, in my twisted mind, that I'm writing something that someone would actually like to read. I just don't know if that's the case here. This is not a rant. I suppose if truth be told its more of a whine. I've been reduced to whining because I just don't know what else to do. I have never, ever, in my life felt so powerless to influence or affect events that have such an impact on my life and the lives of my loved ones. I'm whining because I'm scared shitless that I'm going to get the call telling me my son has been killed in a foreign land by enemies of our country, savages who want nothing else in this world than the deaths of as many American soldiers as they can possibly cause. Animals who kill other humans as casually as we would tread on a spider and who have become so skilled with ways and methods so barbaric and horrific that details and accounts of their deeds are not believed by the rest of us. I can't do anything to stop it. I can't do anything to help him and I can't do anything to influence the people who are running this war and this country to make him or any of them with him any safer. I am not unique. I am no one special. Across this country thousands and thousands of other families deal with this every day and every night and I'm thinking most of them don't whine about it. They suck it up, accept it for what it is and hope for the best. Far too many of them have already had to deal with the nightmare. Right now 9 American families are finalizing funeral arrangements. No spoken or written word can do anything to help those people. I feel ashamed, knowing what these families are going through right now, to say one word about how hard this is for me to deal with. I feel ashamed, knowing what my son's wife goes through every day, to complain. I feel ashamed when I see my four grand children coping with every day life with no Daddy around. Let me tell you folks, it sucks and I only hope that my whining does not diminish his service. Something tells me that even though its wrong to feel this and even worse to express it, if I don't I'm going to explode. Maybe someone will read this, maybe not. Maybe just getting it out of my head and into black and white in front of me will be enough for me to move past it, suck it up and put my "game face" back on. I just don't friggin' know. All I know is I've never seen any other parents of a deployed soldier write anything like this. But I have to wonder if any of them feel or felt the same way.

Many, if not most of you know that my son, Billy, is currently serving a deployment with his Army Engineer Batallion in Afghanistan. He's been there since the first week of this past May and his deployment is scheduled to last until May 2010. We are hoping he will be able to come home for a "R&R" leave right around Christmas time. That's not guaranteed but we're hoping it will come about. Afghanistan is big news right now. I posted a rant a couple of weeks back imploring President Obama to follow the advice of his chosen Army generals to expand the war effort so as to be able to accomplish the mission as he, Obama, laid it out both during his campaign and upon being elected. Since the news broke of the Army's assessment of the situation the entire Afghanistan campaign has become the most hotly contested political argument surpassing even the debate over the health care reform efforts. This week on the CBS Evening News Katie Couric devoted three entire 1/2 hour news casts to the situation in Afghanistan and the debate currently underway in Washington regarding the course to be taken. Its obvious that there are no easy or simple solutions but once again, in true D.C. fashion the whole deal is being boiled down to the same old bullshit Democrat vs. Republican, Us vs. Them, Blue State vs. Red State, Liberal vs. Conservative and any number of other A vs. B scenarios and while all the arguing and posturing and statements and counter statements are going on one thing is constant: American kids are sweating and suffering and dying and, in the immortal words (at least here in the Philadelphia area) of one Ricky Watters, I have to wonder, "for who - for what?"

Ricky made a half hearted attempt to snag a football thrown his way and when chided for the blatantly obvious failure to give the expected "110%" that athletes are supposed to exert in their efforts to entertain us with their blood sport, Ricky responded with the above quote. To Ricky, doing so would have most likely resulted in his taking a pretty severe hit from the defending players, and, in Ricky's estimation, expending the effort required to make the catch would not have resulted in a substantial gain of territory on the field and so we were treated to, "for who - for what?" Ricky didn't care. Pro athletes get paid the same win, lose or draw.

Lately I've been kind of thinking along Ricky's lines when it comes to the goings on in Afghanistan. It just doesn't seem to me like anyone in Washington really wants to win the game. Obviously there's a whole hell of a lot more at stake here then who wins a stupid football game and don't think for one minute that I am trying to compare the war to a game. Its not. People can get hurt playing football but people die in war. The soldiers and marines over in "the Stan" don't think its a game either and they can't understand why the politicians who are running the country and the war think it is. Lately all we've been hearing about is Obama's "strategy" for moving forward, forming a "new strategy". What is wrong with his last strategy? What's changed since he formed the last strategy? I don't know. Do you? Does anyone? Last I heard there were people in Afghanistan who wanted to kill us. All of us. As many of us at one time as they could. Remember 9-11-01? I do. Us going in to Afghanistan was to find and eliminate the people who did that as well as all their friends and relatives who were lined up waiting for their chance to do the same. I suppose all we can do when faced with a situation we have not had to deal with previously is try and relate in some way to something we have dealt with. In my case I think back to a period of time in 1990 when I was assigned a foot beat in one of the most notoriously violent public housing projects in Philadelphia. I walked, with one other officer in and around 3 high rise apartment buildings. At any given time we were outnumbered probably 2000 to 1. Groups of loiterers gathered outside the building entrances in groups as large as 40 to 50 individuals and most of them either had guns on their persons or had them stashed close by and readily available. Our only hope of gaining any measure of respect and maintaining any hope of survival was to convince the locals that we were, A - the two baddest, craziest psycho cops they had ever seen and that, B - ANY effort on their part to challenge our authority or do us harm would be met with swift, sure and deadly retribution. You don't want your police to act that way? Get over it. It goes on every single night of the week and if it didn't there'd be more cop funerals than you could believe. Were it up to me there would not have been only two of us there. There would have been two HUNDRED! And we would have cleaned out the bad guys, locked them up, beat them up or shot the sons of bitches who we couldn't lock up or beat up and make sure they all knew if the decent people who lived in the projects had to live in fear and never come out of their homes then we would be back and we'd do it all over again. Doesn't work that way I guess. Can't be violating the civil rights of criminals lest we have Jesse and Al raising hell. But Afghanistan is not the projects and the animals over there have no civil rights.

War sucks. For the life of me I don't know why we all just can't get along and war over religion....RELIGION....is the most stupid thing I've ever heard of. Stupid. The word doesn't cover it. Asinine. I have no thesaurus handy, but war over religion is as dumb as it gets but we've been doing it since they invented religion and I don't guess its going to change anytime soon. But no matter how stupid the reason, war is war, and if you're going to get into one then you damn sure better make certain you win. Over whelming force, applied mercilessly and swiftly. Eliminate the enemy once and for all. If you're going to send our kids over there and ask them to accept the risk of getting killed they MUST know that their country and their leaders are giving them every thing they need to do the job, do it right, do it with extreme prejudice and then get them the hell out. Maybe if Leisure Suit Larry in Iran sees what happens to the Taliban and bin Laden's buddies he wouldn't be so quick to rattle his saber and that would be one less place we'd have to worry about sending our kids off to next.

So here I sit, in front of a computer, warm and safe in my home, and perfectly able to go to sleep (most likely with the assistance of some pretty gnarly drugs) and rest knowing that there is no one on top of the hill surrounding my house who is devoting every moment of his existence trying to figure out how to kill me. Is my way the answer to the problem? Hell no. I know that. I wish it weren't so but I know. But there's a lot of ground between my way and the way we've been doing things so far and maybe if we moved the operations a little closer to my way, and let the bad people know that we're there to stay and make life miserable for those who oppose us both my son and I could sleep a little better tonight. And I wouldn't feel like I was letting him down by being so worried. Thanks for hanging in and reading this far. 'Preciate it.

Balls (or the lack thereof)

I've been quiet for a while. Maybe the meds are working. Except for a fairly significant melt down a couple of weeks back I've been maintaining an even keel. I got a rant published in the North East (Philadelphia)Times two weeks ago dealing with the thievery of Philadelphia City Council and the DROP program but nothing lately has really riled me. Until the last couple days.

One of the planks on Barack Obama's political platform as he ran for office last November dealt with the situation in Afghanistan. I agreed with Obama (imagine that!) when he said the United States had a legitimate reason to be fighting there, that we had a job to do that had been neglected by Bush's prosecution of the Iraq war and that the people responsible for the events of 9/11/01 were still there and still plotting terrible things. I also agreed with the President that we could not afford to allow Pakistan to fall to the Islamists and by defeating the Taliban and AlQaeda once and for all we could forestall that happening. For the record I agreed with all of this before my son, a Spec.4 in the US Army was sent to Afghanistan with his Army Engineer Batallion. I continued to agree with it when I learned he was going. I continued to agree with it once he got there, knowing full well the possibility of his not coming home - and I will continue to do so as long as I am convinced that the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE CONGRESS AND THE ARMED FORCES CHIEFS continue to BELIEVE IN THE MISSION.

Right now that belief had been seriously undermined by the events of the past few days. Let's suppose you're driving and not sure of how to reach your destination. You stop and ask directions to Main Street. The good citizen supplying the directions would be justifiably pissed, if, after giving you the directions you argued with him over the route he supplied!
While still a candidate for President Obama stated he would end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home from there. He said all along, however, that he would do what ever was necessary to fulfill the mission in Afghanistan. Upon being elected President he fired the Army General who was in charge of the Afghan theatre. He appointed General McChrystal, a highly regarded and respected general who had come through the Army Special Forces ranks. Again. General McChrystal was Obama's hand picked man for the job. The general was given a mandate to survey the situation, identify what was being done right, what was being done wrong and to make the recommendations for what ever changes needed to be made to assure a positive outcome of the mission there. Again. This was Obama's HAND PICKED MAN. The guy Obama stopped to ask directions of so to speak.

Earlier this week General McChrystal's report to the President, which was supposed to remain secret, was "leaked" to the Washington Post and picked up with lightning speed by media outlets across the country. In a nutshell the general opined that the war in Afghanistan could easily be lost without a significant increase in troop strength and equipment. "Boots on the ground." He stated quite clearly that the mission could very easily become a failure. A failure. The outcome is by no means assured if the level of commitment to the mission remains at its present level. Naturally, President Obama immediately expressed his support for the general's assessment and advised that the nation would bring to bear all of its resources to do what ever was necessary to keep this from happening, right? W R O N G. Well, wouldn't it be easier if I went up to Elm Street and made the left? He asked for direction and now he doesn't like the answer he got. Neither does Senator Levin, Dem. Mich., the chair of the Armed Services Committee. He doesn't want to commit any more troops or money or equipment to the fight. Neither does House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Dem. Calif. She's in the process of doing a major flip flop as well as a whole group of spineless, witless idiots (overwhelmingly Democrat) who are taking serious issue with the findings and recommendations of General McChrystal.

For the record. I don't give a rat's ass about the people or the country of Afghanistan. Its an underdeveloped, backwoods, third world, hell, fourth world, shit hole of a country mostly unfit for human habitation. Soldiers and Marines there have dealt with temperatures as high as 130 degrees to as low as minus 15 degrees. The people who live there, mostly primitive tribesman of cut throats and dope peddlers have known nothing but war and fighting for over a thousand years. If they don't have anyone to fight I doubt that they're happy. If the people supposedly running this country do not have any interest in continuing our mission there, then fine, I don't either, but if that is the case....THEN BRING OUR KIDS HOME RIGHT MOTHERFUCKING NOW!!! RIGHT NOW. Pack them up and get them the fuck out of that stone age shithole as fast as we can load the transports to do so. No more wasted time, money, equipment ......or lives. Right NOW.

That's one choice. The other is take General McChrystal at his word and give him what he says he needs to do the job that you, YOU, President Obama, told him to do. Its one or the other. Anything less is nothing but politics. Playing politics with the lives of thousands of brave men and women who have sacrificed to go there and do what you told them to do, Barack. What YOU told them to do. And now you're turning your back on them. You're telling them that politics is more important than the mission and its more important than their lives. And you're telling the American people that "change we can believe in" is the biggest pile of steaming, stinking bullshit that we've had crammed down our throats in a long time.
You need to grow some balls, Barack. One way or the other you need to show you have what it takes to either get the job done or bring our kids home. You haven't shown me too much lately but I'm still willing to give you the chance. But I'm not going to wait for long and neither are a lot of people like me who have sons and daughters and husbands and brothers and sisters thousands of miles away in a foreign shit hole sweating and hurting and dying because YOU, the President of The United States, has no BALLS.

Vick and the Eagles

You knew I would get here sooner or later, especially if you've seen anything on Facebook I posted regarding this whole mess. I do actually think, however, that I may be able to put a little different "spin" on this if you will. First off, right up front: I believe Michael Vick has paid the debt he was assessed as far as the justice system is concerned. He was tried, convicted and served his time. I also believe he has a right to make a living. He plays football for a living and I believe there is no legal reason to preclude him from doing do.

My whole problem lies in the second chance concept and the timing. I'm all for second chances, for people who truly deserve a second chance. I don't think that Michael Vick has yet demonstrated his qualification for that second chance. I just think its too soon. He hasn't had time to prove he deserves it. If he had completed his incarceration, laid low for a short time and began to show true remorse and contrition and began contributing his time and efforts to the animal rescue and welfare cause away from and out of the spotlight (as much as possible) I would tend to lend more credence to his words and his proclamations. He may very well be sincere. He may very well be humbled and ashamed and changed and truly sorry for the terrible things he did. We just don't know yet. And until we know I don't think he has yet earned that second chance. I think had he been released 4 to 6 months before the beginning of the NFL season or right at the end of last season a lot of the brouhaha would never have occurred. Its the timing. We were still in the middle of training camps and the start of pre season games and the Eagles wanted him here NOW. Its about winning at all costs and money and morality be damned. If morality played any part whatsoever in the staffing and operation of a NFL franchise at least a dozen different players ( a whole bunch of them from the Dallas Cowboys) would have been out of jobs years ago. Draping Michael Vick's signing in the cloak of "second chances" and allowing a man to redeem himself is a classic case of pissing down your neck and telling you its raining.

Now for the fan backlash. For the hard core Eagles fan - you know who you are - the idiots in the parking lot drinking 8 hours before kick-off, the ones who necessitated the opening of a special court room in the stadium, the ones the TV cameras love to show screaming the E A G L E S chant at the top of their lungs while spilling beer all over each other, the knuckleheads whose entire rooms, nay HOMES, are decorated in team paraphernalia, the ones who spend 24 hours a day seven days a week tuned in to 610 WIP, you get my point. They don't care a lick about anything Michael Vick did, didn't do, deserves or doesn't deserve. They want to win, they want to win NOW and anything and everything that Jeffrey Lurie and Andy Reid do is just fine with them, no matter what they may say. These are the people who want to jump off the Walt Whitman bridge the day after a regular season loss.

I fit into a different category and I really do believe there are a lot of people like me and I would like to believe that WE are the ones the Eagles are underestimating. I watch the Eagles. I root for the "home team". I played football as a kid, I coached youth football for a bunch of years and I truly do love the game. Not necessarily the way the pros play it but I always liked the game. That being said, I can live without it. If I watched an Eagles game of course I wanted them to win but if they lost I shrugged my shoulders and went on about my business. Its a freakin' game! Their win or loss has no effect on my or my life what so ever. And that's why its so easy for me to completely write them off. I have no season tickets to give up. I own not a single piece of Eagles merchandise or clothing and they have now assured me that I never will. I feel strongly enough about the Eagles premature signing of this man that I WILL follow through on my boycott of their games, sponsors and anything else that would indicate the slightest chance that I approve or condone of their actions. I think maybe the Eagles don't believe there are that many people who will actually follow through on their threats to abandon the team and I can only wish that at some point during the season they will find out differently. I don't know whether it will be a decrease in TV ratings, a decrease in merchandise and clothing sales or fewer people trying to climb the Walt after a loss. I just hope I'm right and the Eagles can find out somehow that they are just plain wrong.

D R O P

Folks, this is a long one! My friend, Fefe, who I admire and adore, is pissed and said so in a Facebook post I read a few minutes ago. Now before we go any further I need you to know that this latest rant is in no way, shape or form meant to reflect poorly on her. She is merely the inspiration. My "muse" if I may be so bold!

Fefe is pissed, and rightly so, because the City of Philadelphia, of which I am a resident and she is not, is threatening to cancel an event which has been held for many years here in the city, that being the ABATE (Alliance of Bikers Aimed Toward Education) Toy Run For The Kids. The kids being referenced are young patients being treated for illness and accidents at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. ABATE, (I am old enough to remember way back when I joined ABATE in the 70's when the acronym meant "Alliance of Bikers Against a Totalitarian Establishment"). The organization, like me, has mellowed a bit as the years have passed. I still like the old name. Even though I was a cop for many years I like to think I still harbor a good deal of that "stick it to the man" attitude. Anyway, back to Fefe. The toy run, as well as a motorcycle run conducted by the POW/MIA awareness group Friends Of The Forgotten, are both the victims of the big time budget crunch that allegedly exists here in the City Of Brotherly Love. Fefe and many many others that I know who ride motorcycles for recreation and fun have been regular participants in these events and others like them over the years. Now these events are in danger of being scrapped because the City can not afford to pay the costs that the Mayor, Michael Nutter, claims the City incurs when these events and others like them are held. Its not just motorcycle events. Numerous civic and ethnic groups have been threatened with the cancellation of their festival or parade unless they come up with a big pile of money to reimburse the City for the costs. The whys and whens and hows and ins and outs and the actual numbers involved escape me at the moment (I will conduct further research to ID some specifics) but the bottom line is that the city is no longer able to fund the costs of police and fire and ems services, as well as the streets department who cleans up after the events and all the other city agencies who are involved in one way or the other when an event is held.

I know that the St. Patrick's Day Parade, a big time deal in Philly, was nearly cancelled until a group of corporate sponsors stepped up to provide the funding. Similar appeals were made for donations to allow several other groups to keep their affairs running. Several corporate and civic organizations helped with funding to allow the Gay/Lesbian Pride Fest to go on as planned. The GLBT Fest (please don't slam me if I'm not calling the event or group by its formal name, I'm just trying to make a point) like many others, brings a lot of visitors to the city. They spend money. Hotels, restaurants, taxis, you name it, all benefit from these events. No one group or organization is more important than the other, each and every one is important to the people who organize and attend them and rightly so.

Is there a point here, Bill? Yes! Its hard to take the whining and crying and moaning and hand wringing and the whole Chicken Little the sky is falling act seriously when you look at some of the blatant, bare faced scams and corruption being perpetrated by the people who are elected to govern and administer the City budget and make sure the money that the City does have on hand is being spent wisely. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you DROP. D R O P. Delayed Retirement Option Plan.

Without getting too technical and making your eyes glaze over too much, DROP was designed to offer senior, experienced and valuable employees an incentive to stay on the job for a couple extra years. An employee who was eligible to retire would, from the date he was originally scheduled to do so, remain on the job and all the money he or she would have collected in retirement/pension payments would be placed into his/her "bank". In four years (term could vary) the employee would retire, begin collecting the monthly pension and all the money accumulated in the "bank" would be paid in a lump sum with interest. So in that four years, not only were you still working full time and collecting your regular salary, you were also getting monthly contributions equal to what would have been your pension payments. OK, I've really, REALLY simplified this whole deal in the interest of saving time and space but that's pretty much the deal in a nutshell. Please, dear readers, feel free to offer any additions or corrections or better explanations of the program if you have them.

Now this is the part that pisses me off and should piss you off as well. Several members of our esteemed City Council, long a bastion of crooks, criminals and general scalliwags and ne'er do wells, discovered a loophole, an anomaly, a glitch, in the DROP program. Although the program was never intended to be for ELECTED OFFICIALS, several council persons realized they could get in on the goods. One of them, Joan Krajewski, a long time represenative of the area known as the "River Wards" (Kensington, Bridesburg, Fishtown...ring a bell?) enrolled in DROP, continued to serve on Council collecting the big bucks and perks. Retired. Retired for ONE DAY. UNretired, pocketed over $300K - that's three hundred THOUSAND DOLLARS - and then went back on council, continues collecting a regular council person's salary and benefits and walks around without a care in the world. Several other members of council are already enrolled in DROP, their "bank"is growing every day and they fully intend to do the same thing as Joan when their day comes. Council President Anna Verna stands to pocket well over half a million dollars. How would Dr. Evil say that? Half a m i l l i o nnnnnnnnnnnn dollars. Council members Frank Rizzo jr., Frank DiCicco, Marian Tasco and one or two others (its late folks and I'm writing this off the top of my head) collectively stand to pocket around two and a half million dollars.

The City closed swimming pools in rec centers all over the city. Thousands of inner city kids spent this summer sweltering on the mean streets where they spend all day worried about dodging bullets fired by rival thugs. I believe the average cost to open and operate a swimming pool for the summer is around 60 to 100 thousand dollars. How many pools could be opened with just the money scammed by Joan Krajewski? Mayor Nutter is threatening to lay off police officers, fire fighters, reduce trash collection to twice a month, he's already closed fire stations and reduced the number of paramedics on the street, he wanted to close libraries and the list goes on and on. And now the City wants to charge ABATE thirty thousand dollars to hold the Toy Run. Thirty grand from a NON PROFIT ORG. who charges no fees to attend the event, asking only that participants bring a Christmas present for a kid in the hospital. Where is ABATE going to come up with 30 large? Where was Friends Of The Forgotten supposed to come up with 13 thousand to hold their run?

The DROP money scammed by Joan Krajewski alone could fund TEN toy runs. The DROP money scammed by Joan Krajewski alone could have opened FIVE swimming pools for poor inner city kids. The DROP money already scammed and scheduled to be scammed could do a lot of good things besides line the pockets of greedy, self centered, do nothing, feckless, disgusting pieces of shit taking up space that could be occupied by decent people. Michael Nutter, who campaigned on a promise of "reform", has been out to lunch on this one, folks. A former council member, he lacks the balls to take them on and call them what they are (see above). He is spineless and gutless and a whole lot of people may see a whole lot of good things go away, good things that benefit people that politicians just don't give a fuck about. A whole lot of people who just want to come to the city, ride a motorcycle around and see the sights and maybe....just maybe make the day a little brighter for a sick kid. People like my friend Fefe.

Thanks for getting pissed off, Feefster! I don't know if I got all of the specific facts and figures right. I know I'm damn close. I'm not vouching for spelling, grammar or punctuation either. I don't know if I have any talent as a writer at all. But I do know that I've never written anything before in my little rant space here on The Mountain that I'm as proud of as this one.

Arlo Guthrie, in Alice's Restaurant, (and I'm paraphrasing not quoting) said if one person does it they just think you're crazy...and if two people do it they'll think you're weird ( I know what he really said....its a new time, people) and if more than three people do it then its a movement. Let's start a movement together. Let's drop DROP.

Thanks, Fefe. And thanks, Facebook. That's the View From The Mountain. I beg of you, dear reader (if there are any) PLEASE tell me your thoughts.

Potheads

First things first. Full disclosure: YES. On more than one occasion in my lifetime I smoked pot. Yes, I inhaled. Did I like it? Not really. All it really did was dry my mouth out and make me hungry and all you need to do is take one look at me and know I don't need any assistance in finding a reason to eat. What were my reasons for smoking it? Peer pressure mostly. I didn't want to be the oddball in the group. I don't care about things like that anymore. Frankly I don't give a shit what you think about what I do or don't do or whether I'm cool or not. I view the whole pot smoking thing to be something you do when you're young and rebellious and worry about things like peer pressure. I thought eventually you grow out of it and move on. Apparently a lot people never grew out of it. Pot is bigger than ever and its not just young folks. I'm actually amazed at how many people my age - boomers - still partake of the weed on a regular basis while they worry about their own kids and grand kids drug use.



I honestly don't know what the lure marijuana is. Its supposedly not addictive yet I find the number of people who don't seem able to give it up utterly astounding. One of the situations that I found to be ironic was the fact that for over 20 years I was a law enforcement officer and was charged with arresting people who broke the drug laws and I never once had to submit to drug testing. Upon retiring from the police and entering the trucking business I was constantly tested.

Go figure. I knew that many other drivers and applicants for driving jobs were regularly testing "hot" for drugs. I had no idea how ridiculous it was until I got into a management position at a trucking company and was responsible for conducting the pre employment drug testing program. On average during my tenure of approximately 18 months between 2 and 3 of every 5 applicants failed the drug screen. A test they KNEW they were going to take. In my time there I terminated the employment of 3 drivers, who after being hired, were caught hot in random tests, again they KNEW they were subject to this testing. How stupid is that? More importantly, how stupid is it that their love or need for weed was stronger than their desire to attain or retain a relatively high paying job with good benefits? Its not a rheortical question. I really want to know. Can someone explain it to me? I'm not a prude or a religious nut or against having fun. I smoke cigars, drink whiskey, ride a motorcycle and am heavily tattooed. I'm not exactly a poster boy for conventional behavior but I really have a problem with the whole pot thing.



The thing is, there's a whole lot more at stake here than just a few knuckleheads losing a truck driving job. Unless you're living under a rock you have to know that violence along the United States/Mexican border is at an all time high. Murders are an every day occurrence. In some areas of northern Mexico many towns and villages are under absolute states of siege with running gun battles, kidnapping and murders at such a rate that Mexican Army troops have been sent in to make some sort of attempt to restore some semblance of order. Its not working. The source of all this violence and mayhem is fighting among the big drug dealers for market share. In the drug business you don't eliminate the competition by building the proverbial better mousetrap or by providing superior customer service. You eliminate the competition. Literally. Secretary of State Hillary (Mrs. Bill I did not inhale) Clinton makes a state visit to Mexico and rather than address the underlying causes of the street wars, accepts American responsibility for the carnage because so many of the weapons being used in the war are being purchased in this country. Its all the fault of the NRA. And the fault of law abiding, non mentally ill gun owners and sportsmen. Like yours truly. I fail to see how further restricting the type, amount or frequency of my firearms purchases is going to do anything to stem the carnage along the border.



Its not my fault, folks. Its yours. By yours I mean all you people who still find it necessary or whatever you find it to purchase and consume marijuana. Unless you're growing and processing it yourselves the weed you're smoking is highly likely to have come into this country by way of, or originated in Mexico and is being grown, processed and imported by the big time drug businesses that are murdering, kidnapping, raping and terrorizing entire areas of Mexico and southern America. You may not feel that the little bit that you consume has anything to do with this but you are wrong. I don't care how much you buy. Unless you can prove to me that your weed was grown and processed domestically by someone you know personally then I submit it was supplied by one of these blood thirsty murderous animals. YOUR pot smoking is financing this war. YOUR pot smoking contributes directly to the bombings and drive by shootings and intimidation and murder. YOUR pot purchase money goes to the drug dealers who use the profits to hire crooked police and soldiers. YOUR pot purchase money goes to the drug dealers who use their profits to hire paid assasins to kill honest police officers, soldiers, prosecutors and judges. Its all a matter of record. I'm not making this up, folks. Its happening every single day.

If they had no customers (YOU) they would have no reason to be in the drug business, and no reason to be trying to eliminate their competition.



Legalize it you say. I say, "no problem". I don't care if its legal. I don't care if you want to use it. I really don't give a shivering shit whether you get so stoned you can't remember your own name as long as it doesn't affect me. Don't do it while driving or working and if its legal I'm on your side. What pisses me off is that so many of the people who do smoke it on a regular basis actually believe that their use is harmless and has no consequences and that is just plain wrong.
Dead wrong for a lot of people. Just go ahead and keep burying your head in the sand. Sign a petition to make gun laws stronger. Do you honestly think that they won't get the guns they want and use if they don't get them from sources in the USA? Do you really think there aren't thousands of arms dealers around the world willing to supply guns for money? Support "common sense" gun legislation; and then abandon all of your common sense when you think that your recreational drug use has no impact on anyone outside your little circle of stoned friends. You're kidding yourself. You're helping to get people killed.



In the eyes of the law if you are only driving the get away car when your partners go into rob a bank and one of them kills someone during the commission of the crime you are just as guilty as murder as the one who pulls the trigger. Even if all you did was help them to plan the crime and never even went to the scene if it can be proven that you were part of the conspiracy you are again just as guilty of murder as the guy who shot the gun.

By buying your little ounce of "harmless, recreational" weed you are directly aiding and abetting the people who are committing the murders.

As far as I'm concerned you should be tried, convicted and put away. Yo, asshole. Don't bogart that joint....pass it over to me.....you murdering motherfucker.

Driving School

Most people, when pressed, will be pretty honest when the discussion comes around to the things they do or don't do well. People will admit to being poor house keepers, poor dressers, having bad taste in entertainment, bad taste in picking mates and even being bad parents. No one will admit to being a bad driver. No one. Time after time in surveys and questionnaires sponsored by insurance companies and police departments and AAA auto clubs, respondents will all claim to be possessed of much higher than average driving skills. They pronounce themselves to be courteous, safe, considerate and well versed in the "rules of the road". To this I offer a hearty and resounding, "bullshit"!

I'm here to tell you that even though you, dear reader, may indeed be in the ridiculously small percentage of the motoring public who are safe and courteous drivers, the fact is the vast majority of you just plain suck. Who the hell am I to making these assumptions? I think I have a historical perspective to back up my claims:

I was a police officer for well over 20 years, having spent the bulk of my time on uniformed road patrol. I saw it every single day, when I observed the violations and investigated the accidents. Accidents happen when people mess up! I've observed people do things so horribly stupid and dangerous in FULL VIEW OF A MARKED POLICE CAR that I almost couldn't trust my own eyes. Upon retiring from the police department I embarked on a second career of sorts. I drove trucks. Big trucks. Dump trucks and tractor trailers. I've run local, regional and over the road operations. In the years since I left the police department I managed to accumulate well over 400 thousand miles of VERIFIABLE accident and violation free miles. I ran around and into the five boroughs of New York City. I've driven tractors pulling trailers into places they were never intended to go and then had to back them into places that they should not have been able to fit in to. I've run the Cross Bronx Expressway, the BQE, the I-285 "race track" around Atlanta, I-495 around Boston , the beltways of Baltimore and DC and across most of the interstate highways in the eastern portion of the country. I've run local roads and been in traffic for 8 or 10 hours a day. Accident and violation free. I've also ridden a motorcycle for my entire adult life and have so far managed to survive literally hundreds of attempts on my life by people driving cars with their heads up their ass. In addition I have traditionally eschewed commercial air travel in favor of driving and have made at least 30 trips in a car or pick up truck in excess of 2500 miles. I know what I've seen, I know what I know and what I know is that you people can't drive worth a shit.

You might think I'm talking about the occasional idiot you see blistering through traffic, cutting lanes and running 30 to 40 miles an hour over the speed limit. That guy's bad enough but he or she isn't the one I'm talking about. He knows he's being a dick and is simply tempting fate. I'm talking about the dumb ass stupid shit that most of you do ever single solitary time you get in the car. I guess my most recent trip down to Columbus, GA. is the impetus for this rant. I saw enough stupidity in 14 hours of driving to convince me that the situation is hopeless. I'm a big believer in cruise control. I prefer to drive using it. Its nearly impossible to do, however. I'll have the cruise set, running the right side lane (more on THAT in a bit) and a car will pass me and pull in front into the lane I'm running; and then slow down, requiring that I pass him. Within 3 miles the SAME car will come hammering past me and we'll do this time and time and time again and I will never have deactivated the cruise. I've been running the exact same speed and yet this guy passes me and gets passed again.

On ramps. Oh. My. God. Do any of you have any notion what so ever what the word "merge" means? I don't think so. Not based on what I see time after time. Merge, for the purposes of our discussion means observing the traffic on the highway you wish to enter and by either ACCELERATING or NOT you gauge your speed against the speed of the other vehicles and either pull ahead or pull in behind the others. It does NOT mean drive to the end of the ramp and stop and then sit there looking stupid. It certainly does not mean reaching a certain speed at which you're all warm and fuzzy and then maintaining it so that you end up running out of on ramp while constantly trying to get the guy who's right along side of you to get out of your way and driving on the berm and it absofuckinglutely does not mean that the vehicles currently driving on the road you intend to enter have to stop or slow down to let you on! Merge. Yield. These terms mean something. You should have been taught their meaning in driver ed. Obviously you weren't. Or, most likely your mommy, daddy or big brother who taught you to drive did not know what the words meant so you never learned.

OK, here's a scenario: You're out driving along at 70 miles an hour, putting on your makeup, chatting with your bff (or even worse, texting) and adjusting the radio. You're in the left lane (we're getting to that) and you see a big orange sign that says, "RIGHT LANE CLOSED 2 MILES". What do you do?
A-continue all of the above as if the sign is not there
B-continue all of the above as is the sign is not there
C-continue all of the above as if the sign is not there AND light a joint
D-move into the right lane
You'll say the answer is "D" and of course you're right.....but you WON'T DO IT!!!!
Of course the answer is D. You know what the correct thing to do is but you'll just keep running down the left hand lane. You'll pass several more advisory signs right up until you run up the ass of all the other idiots who are still in the left lane and are actively trying to get ahead of as many other cars who have moved into the right lane and now there's a big traffic jam of people trying to jam their way over and no one is going anywhere. The sad part is the fact that had you just moved over when you saw the first sign there would be no traffic jam. You and the other morons who have a pathological need to get in front of one more car CAUSED the jam. YOU caused it. Are you really that stupid?

Last but not least. The posted speed limit is 65 mph. Its a 2 or 3 lane interstate highway. Why in the name of General (now Government) Motors are you in the far left lane doing 60? Why are you so intent on the cell phone conversation you're in the middle of that you cannot see in your rear view mirror (that thing you use to check your hair or makeup) a line of 10 to 20 cars lined up nose to tail behind you, blowing horns and flashing head lights? Ok. You're doing the speed limit. 65 mph right on the nose. No one should be going any faster, right? If you're obeying the law you're gonna damn straight make sure every one else does too, right? Here's a news flash. Some of us want to go faster than the posted limit, even if its only by 2 0r 3 mph. Who made you the sheriff? PULL OVER MORON!! I wish it was this attitude that causes the back ups but its actually a combination of inattentiveness and just plain ignorance of the so called rules of the road. The signs are out there people: "KEEP RIGHT/PASS LEFT". You don't have to know the rules we'll post them for you and yet you still either can't or you just plumb refuse to go along with the program.I know for a fact that some people are just happier in the left lane. I wish I knew why. I've come up behind someone and after managing to get his or her attention and get them to actually move over to allow me to pass them they immediately pull right back into the left lane and continue to cause problems for other vehicles coming up behind them.

Lastly. You're at a stop sign and traffic is passing in both directions in front of you and need to cross the roadway. You're at an intersection and need to make a left turn across the path of approaching traffic. You're waiting to exit the shopping center parking lot on to the highway into traffic.
What is the guiding principle that determines when you should make the movement into or across the traffic? We all know the correct answer is, "when its safe". If only that were true. Stop and think about it honestly for a minute. Really be honest with yourself. You know that more often than not the question you ask is not "is it safe?" What you're asking instead is, "CAN I MAKE IT?"
There's a big difference there if you think about it, really think about it. The life you save may be yours. Or some guy's on a motorcycle. Like me. Think about, it please?

Acting Stupidly

I've finally made it. I've joined the ranks of all the other scoundrels in the country. I've become an angry white male. Some of you who know me and have read my material may have classified me as such long before this. Well, I'm here to tell you "you ain't seen nothing yet." I'm not just angry. I'm down right pissed the fuck off and I hope the whole world knows it. Two different news items, one local and one national have gotten me to this point.



First the national: You know where I'm going here. Cambridge,Massachusets. If not the geographic center of good old eastern, old time liberal USA, its pretty darn close. Home of Harvard University and an area that went overwhelmingly for Obama in the last election. We all know the basics. A big shot Harvard professor locks himself out of his house, is observed "breaking into" his own home (by a neighbor no less, so much for knowing who you live around) who calls the police and reports a burglary in progress. What happened from there all depends on what side you've decided to take here. I'll tell you right up front, I'm on the side of the police officers who got the call and arrived at the house. OK, professor lives there, ID's himself as the resident and the shit hits the fan. I have a sneaking suspicion that no matter what the cop did as far as the professor was concerned the cops were wrong and racist, regardless of what they did or said or how they did or said it. The professor basically admits he flipped out. He apparently feels he is entitled to do so. He's not. He's supposed to identify himself as the resident of the property in question, cooperate with the officer who is doing his job and shut the fuck up. Answer a couple quick questions, be civil with the officer and shut the fuck up. Elmer Smith, a notorious race baiting columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, said the same thing in his rant in this morning's edition. According to Smith the professor was merely questioning the cops' authority and that got him locked up. There's nothing to question. The officer got a legitimate radio call and went to investigate. Supply ID, answer the questions and shut the fuck up.Since this story broke one phrase keeps popping up in the media coverage and its this phrase that has me so fired up over this. "RACIAL PROFILING".

There was absolutely positively no profiling involved here. I would submit that thanks to the idiots in mass media less than 5 percent of the population actually has half an idea just what profiling even is. Profiling, boiled down to its simplest point, is very similar to a line from an old Dirty Harry movie. Harry claims to have shot a male who was intending to commit rape. When questioned as to how he made that determination Harry said, "when I see a naked man chasing a woman with a butcher knife and a hard on I don't figure he's out collecting for the Red Cross."
That's profiling. Stopping men of middle eastern descent carrying copies of Osama bin Laden's autobiography about to board an airplane is profiling. Stopping a car full of young white kids in a car cruising a notorious drug corner in an all black neighborhood is profiling. There was NO profiling there and if you still can't accept that, contact me and I'll explain it so your 2nd grade level brain can grasp the concept. The police officer here did his job. He did it competently and professionally and within his department's guidelines and procedures and finally the professor's running his mouth got to the level of being more shit than the officer got paid to take and he got locked up. And for this the President of The United States says the police acted "stupidly".

Closer to home, the web site www.domelights.com has been shut down by its operators. The shut down is voluntary but is a direct result of all the pressure being exerted by the usual group of race baiters and apologists, such as Philadelphia Inquirer columnists Annette Jon Hall and Monica Yant Kinney. A small percentage of the rank and file of the Philadelphia Police Department had embarked on a crusade to shut the web site down because of alleged racist remarks made by posters to the site's forums. Once again, a small but vocal segment of a group is dictating what can and cannot be done or said by a much larger group. You have the right to be a racist. You have the right to like or dislike anyone you want. You can be for or against what ever you want. You have the right to express your opinions. If people don't like it, or you, they can shun you, not read your posts or express an alternate view. Who the hell gave such a small group the right to censor and silent the rest of the public? I was an occasional poster on domelights. Frankly I didn't much care for the site because of what I perceived to be a cliquish, in crowd sort of attitude. A core group of regular posters were quick to skewer any one who did not agree with the main stream opinion and were quick to skewer any one who was not a Philadelphia Police Officer. I saw many posts where they skewered other Philadelphia cops who were not part of the clique. I think a good number of the regulars on domelights were assholes. I saw some blatantly racist postings but I'll tell you they were few and far between and usually the poster was taken to task for it by many of the other regulars. The point here comes down to the fact that a ridiculously small percentage of the police department in particular and the general population in general is dictating what the rest of free Americans are and are not allowed to say or read. That is just plain wrong. What happened to free speech? What happened to "not agreeing with what you say but defending to the death your right to say it"? What has happened in this country where a few rabble rousing, race baiting charlatans (Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, et al) can scream racist and 88 per cent of the rest of us cower in fear of being branded a racist?
Where has my country gone? Is this why I have a son serving in harm's way in a foreign land?
I want my country back and I'm telling anyone who cares to listen that I, for one, am prepared to fight to get it back.

Bring it motherfuckers. Bring it. And if that makes me a racist in your eyes, tough shit. I'm a racist then.

That's the View From The Mountain.
What do YOU think?

Swimming Pools and Web Sites

Over the course of the past couple of weeks one of the hottest stories has been the situation at the Valley Swim Club. Within 12 hours of one local TV station "breaking" the story it had "grown legs" and gone national. A story about a local swim club tossing a bunch of little brown and black skinned kids out of a swimming pool is just what will make most media types begin to slobber at the thought of reporting it. It certainly did not help the situation when the president of the swim club stuck his face in front of a microphone and managed, with two words, to make a bad situation even worse. I mean really worse. You have to wonder. The guy, from what I understand, is a doctor. I thought doctors were supposed to be smart. If there's a Nobel Prize for stupid this guy wins hands down.

Was the whole incident a "racial thing"? It sure appears to be so, again, based on media reports. I've not spoken to anyone directly involved in the situation so anything I say is pure speculation. I think the club handled the situation badly. I have to wonder if parents who were at the pool that afternoon and pulled their children out and made disparaging remarks about the day camp children arriving at the pool may have had no idea that the kids were coming in the first place. Is that an excuse for their alleged behavior? Absolutely not, but how much of this could have been avoided if all of the club members had been advised of the impending arrival and then the Klan members among them could have just stayed home on the days the camp kids were scheduled?

In my opinion "what we have here is a failure to communicate", and there's the rub. The newly appointed Attorney General of the United States, Mr. Holder, has stated that most white people are cowards when it comes to discussing matters of race. Here we have a situation that appears to have been caused by possibly only one single person, the club president, and in spite of numerous calls for discussion and meetings and mediation there's been none of it but plenty bandying about of the "L" word. Lawsuits. The director of the day camp has indicated she has no desire to discuss the situation with any representative of the swim club and has stated her intent to file a law suit. I'm no lawyer, thank the stars, but I just can't see anything good coming out of going to court. What's the upside for the day camp? A big monetary pay day? I don't think that's going to happen. The club would just shut down, dissolve or what ever. Can the directors or who ever runs the club be held personally and financially responsible? Is that the right thing? We don't know if any of those people harbor any of the bias or bigotry that's being charged so why should they suffer? How many other members of the club, who hold no such feelings should be punished by the loss of their club, their recreation, for which they've paid serious money.

This situation can only be resolved by talking. Communicating. Interacting with each other. How is a big pile of money going to solve any of the problems created by this incident. How is money going to soothe the feelings of the little kids who were the brunt of unkindness? Besides, who is going to end up with most of the money? The fucking lawyers! (I apologize for the profanity but I find it horrifically difficult to say the word lawyer without the descriptor "fucking" or a derivative in front) The club directors and any and all members who desire to participate must sit down with the camp staff, the kids and their parents (yes, the .............lawyers can attend) along with any politician who would like to be involved. Senator Arlen Spector has been at the point of this from jump street, perhaps he would be willing to mediate the discussion. Apologies must be offered. Sincere, heart felt apologies along with a sincere genuine invitation to have the kids come back and be welcomed. Make this a learning and growing experience for everyone. This is the only way that this situation can ever be resolved to the satisfaction of most of the parties involved. I say most because there will always be a few on the fringe of both sides who have an axe to grind and want to extract that pound of flesh (let's see if I can work any more cliches in) and will never be satisfied. Those folks have to be ignored. If the folks in the middle of this mess can't find a way to work it out it will never go away. It will fester and rot and do nothing to contribute anything positive and who ever comes out on the losing end of a law suit will only dig their heels in the sand and become even more convinced that their way was the right way all along and they are being persecuted. Sit down and talk, people.

The title of this blog is Swimming Pools and Web Sites. Well we've had several paragraphs on the pool what's up with the web site? The Guardian Civic League, an organization made up of exclusively African American Philadelphia Police Officers, has filed...what else....a law suit against the web site www.domelights.com. The site was founded and is administered by a Philadelphia Police Officer and has been a popular site over the years for police officers and their friends, families and supporters to express opinions in an open forum format. The GCL, in their filing, claim that the web site has contained postings from registered members that are rascist. I am a registered user of domelights.com and have posted to its forums. On occasion I have seen postings from persons claiming to be both white and A.A. officers and frankly there was some degree of rascism expressed by both sides. Its not often, its actually pretty rare and most of them are usually the "tit for tat" kind of thing but the GCL is claiming that not only does the site administrator permit such postings (each user signs an agreement pledging not to do so) and fails to prevent them but the officer is doing the admin work while on PPD time using city computers, thereby making the City a co-defendant. Naturally the wagons are being circled on both sides and the rhetoric is heating up. The truly disturbing thing about this particular situation to me is the fact that the fighting is being done amongst police officers who work together and are dependant upon each other for their very safety. Those of you who know me are aware of the fact that I am a retired police officer and I know first hand the need to trust that your fellow officers are coming to your aid if you need it. Surely, there must be a way to work this out. Once again everyone needs to step back, take a breath, rein in the lawyers and figure out a way to talk, and more importantly, listen.

That's the view from the mountain. Thanks for your time and always...PLEASE....tell me what you think.

John Wayne and Snakes

"A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do." Supposedly that was said by John Wayne in a movie. I don't know what movie and I really don't know if he ever said it but I believe the basic premise of the statement to be true. What's this got to do with snakes? Ever since 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan I've been trying to come up with a way to demonstrate how I view the situations and why I believe one to be right and one to be wrong.
Let's suppose you buy a house and move in and shortly after moving in you discover that the house is inhabited by a couple of snakes. What kind? Whatever. What snake scares you the most? Rattlers, Black Mambas, whatever. For the sake of argument we'll just use the general descriptor "snake" but with the understanding that these are venomous, nasty critters. You think about this development and come to the realization that you're a fairly liberal minded person. You realize the snakes were actually there first and you're a live and let live kind of person so you resolve to live together in peace and harmony with some other of nature's creatures.
This goes along fairly well for a while, but nature being nature your family increases in size and so do the snakes. Now you see them more often in the house and as time goes by the house is getting crowded and its difficult to move without encountering each other and one night it finally happens. You get bitten. You call the ambulance, you get to the hospital and treatment is successful this time but now you have to make a decision. Its you or the snakes. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do and so do snakes. A snake will bite you eventually. Its what they do. The snakes have to go. Period. They have to go.
That's how I see the situation with Afghanistan. Osama and his people are snakes, they're multiplying at an alarming rate, they're living HERE in our "house" and they have to go. Afghanistan is their main nest. Its where the snake leaders are and that's why we need to be there cleaning out all the nests of snakes we can find, mercilessly, swiftly and surely. We didn't do that though. George W. Bush wasn't happy with cleaning up the snake pit that is Afghanistan.
Which brings us to Iraq. Iraq is full of snakes as well. Saddam Hussein was one of the worst snakes you'd ever encounter in your lifetime. There's one problem and one major difference, though. All of Saddam's snakes were in one place. They were not living in "our house" and they really were not going anywhere. All we had to do was take care of the snakes in Afghanistan while keeping an eye on the snakes in Iraq. If some of Saddam's snakes had done something that indicated they were going to be more of a problem we could have acted against them, but they didn't. We spent so much time, money, energy......and lives in Iraq that we lost sight of the snake nests in Afghanistan, we didn't kill the snake leader there, Osama, and now things there are out of hand. The war in Afghanistan was NECESSARY. The war in Iraq was OPTIONAL and we spent way too much on the wrong one and not enough on the right one.
My son is now in Afghanistan. I believe in him, his mission and the need for the mission but I can't help but wonder: If George W. Bush hadn't been such a lying asshole and done what should have been done from the start maybe my son wouldn't have to be there now.
Gotta go. There's a John Wayne movie coming on AMC.
That's the View From The Mountain. What do YOU think?

This Bud may be for "you" but this particular entry or issue or whatever you call this is for me. I've now joined the thousands and thousands of families across the country who have had to watch a loved one pack up and head far across the world to go to war. In my case its my son, Billy, and this being Father's Day I have some things I'd like to put out there.
Billy is 27 years old, married to Rachel (she's sure to be nominated for sainthood if I have a say) and they have 4 beautiful little kids: Liam 7, Owen 5, Cassie 3 and Abby, born just this past Memorial Day. Her father has not seen her yet except in photos. Billy's Army Engineer Company deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom at the end of April, departing from their home at his duty station at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Billy joined the Army just about a year and a half ago. He had been successfully employed in the construction industry as a heavy equipment operator and concrete specialist and had been a foreman of his own crew for a large contractor but decided he wanted to do more with his life, he wanted to make a contribution to his country and one of the prime motivating factors were the events of 9-11, so after some long and emotional talks with his wife and kids and his parents he enlisted at the age of 26 and upon reporting for boot camp found he was one of the "old men" in his training group. He was two years older than one of his drill sergeants but his age and maturity served him well and he was soon named to be the platoon leader and held the post through his graduation. Upon reporting for advanced training in equipment operation he was again named to a leadership position and scored higher in some of the practical exams than anyone had seen in a long, long time. Upon completion he was assigned to an Engineer Company.
My point is not to brag on him but to put a face on him. He's not some "support the troops" yellow sticker on the bumper of your SUV. Its high time we got around to honoring the men and women who serve and for the most part we're doing a pretty good job but there's a long way to go. Unless you have a family member or know a close friend who's serving or are involved with a troop support organization such as "A Hero's Welcome", "The Yellow Ribbon Club", "The Patriot Guard Riders", or "The Warriors Watch" or a host of others just what, besides hanging the little sticker on your car, are you doing to support the troops?
This morning, on Father's Day, I opened the morning paper to find the news that two American service members were killed in a rocket attack on Bagram Air Base near Kabul, Afghanistan. My wife told me, in light of the fact that Billy is there, that I shouldn't be reading that news as it would only upset me. What she said is what upset me. How many people actually read that article? How many people actually bothered to read it and determine the circumstances of their deaths? Did they publish the names? What branch did they serve in? Where are they from? Are their fathers being notified of the loss of their children.....on Father's Day?
READ THE FUCKING NEWS!! LEARN THESE KIDS NAMES!!
After 9-11 the New York Times started, every day, printing a short bio of all the people who wer lost in the attacks of that horrible day and well they should have. Has the New York Times published any bios of the kids killed since then in the actions in Iraq and Afghanistan? What makes the victims of 9-11 rate more than the men and women who volunteered in the aftermath to go and serve to avenge the attacks and attempt to bring the animals responsible to justice?
Our family has almost ten more months to worry about Billy's safety. I go to bed every night with the phone on the night stand. If you want to make me have a heart attack call my phone at 3 AM (if I survive it I will find you and kill you), but we know that we are just one of thousands and thousands of families across the nation who do the same things every day.
Don't do it for me or my son because I wrote this knowing full well that no one may ever bother to read it. We're nobody special. But every single one of our young men and women over there are. Do something this week to truly support the troops. Learn who these young people are. Take the time to read about them and learn their names if they are harmed.
Oh. And go out and buy a new sticker for the back of your car. That one's getting a little faded.

Another Blog?

Another blog. Why? Maybe I just have too much time on my hands. Maybe I think I have something to say that hasn't been said yet. Maybe one or two people on Facebook have told me they were interested in at least some of the things I had to say and suggested I try this. For these and a few other reasons I'm giving it a shot.
About me: My name's Bill, William if you're my mother or my wife and you're mad. "Mountain Bill" to my many friends in the motorcycle enthusiast crowd here in SE Pennsylvania. I've owned at least one (and at one time four) Harley Davidson motorcycles every day of my life since I was 17 years old. I'll be 55 in October - do the math. Harleys, the motorcycle community and the whole mystique surrounding it will probably be the subject of at least a few rants...er...blogs.
I'm a fan of the political world, well maybe fan isn't correct. I'm not a democrat or a republican or a libertarian or a conservative or a liberal. I've got views and opinions on some issues that would put me out there either to the right of Rush Limbaugh or the left of Karl Marx.
I'm married, the father of a soldier serving in the combat zone of Afghanistan (there's enough fodder there for 50 blogs) the grandfather of 4 kids whose future I'm plumb scared about, a retired police officer (27 years of service including substantial time in the ghettos of a major east coast city) and a former over the road truck driver. Some people call me a wise sage. Some call me a raving ranting lunatic. My wife thinks I've lost it. When I figure out what "it" is, first I'll let Bill Clinton know and then I'll clue you in. I hope you read this, if you like it tell you're friends and if not tell me....and your friends. If I don't get some readers I'll just fold it up and go but with your help and input maybe I can find my voice and not get too lost in the blogosphere.
Thanks.
See you real soon.