Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Busy Busy

Haven't been keeping up with the blog here since I have been a little busy. Yesturday was Zachary's first day of school in 2nd grade. Other than that it seems I have taken up the genealogy bug - again!!

UGH!!

and it all started this time with an article in my home town newspaper about geni.com. It's a flash player based online site and free so I just started. I knew a handful...then it grew and grew. Then it got to be too much to manually enter in all the information I was finding from other sources so I started a site on ancestry.com with a two week trial.

I think that was last week. As of today I have over 1000 people in my tree. I don't think 1000 people actually makes a tree....more like a rather large hedgerow.

I think later this week I will have it all polished and ready to put in report form. I bet it will be something like 2-300 pages lol


Today Shelly was informed of her promotion!!!! She started at the plant Nov 1 of last year and already they are moving up. It was just 1.5 years ago she was working the midnight shift while working on her bachelors degree and as of her promotion today she has more than doubled her salary.

I wish my 19 year old daughter would see the value in that little piece of paper.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Is He BLACK Enough?

This question came up early in this election season and will undoubtedly come up again so I thought it about time I address it.

I first must state that I am a registered republican but my political views tend to lean towards moderate conservative.

This question seems to bother me and I hope it bothers many of us.

There should be a standard to which we elect our politicians into office and that standard should be...is he GOOD enough? I did say he but he could be a she just as effectively. But why should we use discrimination in this manner? Certainly when deciding who to support for president we use some form of discrimination. Does Denise really stand a chance? Most of us think not and probably don't give him a second though, if he got a first at all. That in itself is discriminatory. Hell, the guy might even have a decent idea or two.

What makes a person black enough for that matter? Let's look at his background.. ok, so he had what some would call a privileged upbringing and attending Columbia University. Being born in 1961 he unfortunately wasn't around for civil rights, never met MLK or marched with him why does this not make him Black enough.

I am lost here. Who is asking this question? Is it us crackers who say this because we don't think people of color feel he is one of them and therefore will not be pulling his lever.....or, is it the African Americans who feel this?

If you read the Time Magazine article about this you get the sense that he does not have slavery in his blood line and therefore not screaming reparations that he is not one of them.

If that's correct, that's a damn shame.

The fact that we (as a people) even pose such a question is rooted in sheer stupidity. Should we now question whether Hillary is woman enough or whether the next congressman from San Francisco is gay enough to represent his or her respective establishment? Although we prefer to befriend those with shared backgrounds or experiences is there any reason to detract those who are of the same qualities regardless of how they arrived at such qualities?

We don't have to live the life of those less fortunate to appreciate their struggle as most likely it is a struggle of a bigger picture, of all humanity. One can even embrace the struggle that is naturally foreign to himself as a struggle of his own. How else would a american born of upper middle class privelege in California give it all up and become a jihadist for Bin Laden? "Walk in someone else's shoes" is not meant to be taken literaly but rather embrace with compassion and empathy the travels of another.

Are the qualities one needs to become our president found exclusively within the ethnic, race and gender struggles one has been through in their lifetime?

I hope not and if the answer to that question is yes then it is a damn shame.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Here's To You My Brother

Marcus just bought himself a Wii.

It's so easy........

     

The Tribe has spoken....

I went to Borders yesterday and browsed through the movie section where I checked on a few blu-ray DVDs. Then I went next door to Best Buy, and perused the blu-ray DVD players. I only saw one, and it was well over $300. I glanced at the HD one, but found myself quickly over by the video games and ended up with a... wii.

There were only about three of them on the table and some guy had his sons there, playing baseball with him. He had a big smile on his face like he was 10 years old without a care in the world. He grabbed one of the consoles and held it, saying... "I'm getting it!" So, I went and checked on what games were available, came back a few minutes later, noticing somebody sort of followed me over there doing the same thing. The guy then set his down and told his son "better check with your mother, first." That's when I grabbed one of the last three, and the sales associate told the guy, "Sir, if you're 'thinking' about getting one, you better hold onto to because these are the last we have". On the way to checkout, another sales associate looked surprised, saying "I didn't even know we got more in", to which I replied "and there's only one left!" For note, I have never seen these at Target--always sold out.

So, I picked up the Zelda game and Madden '08. The interactive style, I think, makes up for a lot of the shortcomings in comparison to other system's graphics. They're not bad, but I wouldn't say they were much better than a P2. Maybe a bit, but not a lot. In the end, I knew the Zelda game would be something fun to play, having sat up in that bedroom of my youth back home and playing that thing for hours and hours. I've already raked up 3+ hours last night playing it, and woke up sore this morning.

Ultimately, while I think the p3 has the advantage of better graphics, the blue-ray should be optional. Is nice if one is looking for both, because then they can get a system and the dvd player for a reasonable price combined--otherwise, $500 out the door for just the console alone is a chunk of change for most people. One of the things that have bothered me over the last 10 years or so is, the better the graphics get, the less fun the games sort of become. I get sick of 'watching' 5 minute cartoon intros to games, wondering why they didn't spend that money making the game itself more fun to pay. I think this is the main reason why I went with the wii, though the $250 price-tag didn't hurt. It just seems like something I'm going to become less bored with over time.

The only real concern I have with it is what appears to be a lack of mature games. I could be wrong--there is Scarface, the Godfather, etc. But Nintendo seems to be centered on family-friendly titles such as Mario Brothers, Zelda, Sonic, etc. Sure, there's Mortal Kombat, but I don't see a mature "flagship" type of game such as Halo. There is, however, Zelda--and I can attest to it being one of the best games out there in terms of using your brain to figure out puzzles.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Fill Your Tank Up Soon!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070818/ts_nm/storm_dean_dc_39;_ylt=AmRm7vMFKdVrI2_pvgxF6CgE1vAI

Hurricane Dean seen becoming deadly Category 5

MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Dean is expected to grow into a ferocious Category 5 storm as it passes Jamaica and nears Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and the oil and gas rigs of the Gulf of Mexico after it smashed into several Caribbean islands, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Saturday.

With top sustained winds of 150 mph early on Saturday, the hurricane center said Dean was a Category 4 storm, the second-highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale and capable of widespread destruction.

The hurricane center said it was expected to strengthen to Category 5, with top sustained winds in excess of 155 mph, before plowing directly over Jamaica toward the Gulf, home to a third of U.S. domestic crude oil and 15 percent of natural gas production.


So fill your gas tanks up now my friends cause after this storm hits and causes damage to the oil and gas platforms in the gulf the price will jump very quickly.

What Do You Do When....

Your brand new tv stopps working?

Yesturday afternoon we had a tornado warning (or was it a watch)in our area so I went about the neighborhood letting the people know. Just a couple miles down the road the streets were flooded and tree damage and hail the size of golfballs.

So to say the least we never even got as much as a raindrop. We live in this little valley that has its own climate. 5 miles to the south it had downpoured and was 15 degrees cooler. None of us have had to do any amount of lawn mowing since July 4th.

So I come into the house and turn the tv on and....nothing. I turn on the cable box and get sound but no picture so....I open the owners manual for the first time. We men often try to get by without touching it for fear of bursting into flames. It goes through the cycle of trying to turn on the light 8 times before the red LED flashes to let you know its time to unplug the set, plug it back in and try it again.

Again brought more of the same at which point I called Toshiba. They talk me through this procedure where I remove the cover to the lamp housing, remove the lamp and then procede to tap on all sides of the lamp houseing (not the lens BIG NO NO)and then return the lamp to the housing and try it again.

Again it brought the same results. I thought I would try again while the lady was on the phone. Went through the whole routine and tapped a little harder to the point where the lady on the other end of the line told me I was doing a fine job on the tapping part.

Again, no luck.

So then we procede to get all my info into the system...my address, serial no. etc. and she tells me that the info probably won't get into the order center until Monday and I should get the new lamp by Thursday/Friday next week by FedEx 2 day ground.

Damn....oh well. The set does have 1 year parts and labor so at least I don't have to worry about a cost to myself for some time.

So I hang up the phone with Toshiba and before I call Shelly to tell her the news I try one more time. I am thinking I will tap everywhere and just a little harder....maybe somewhere this side of banging it against the wall. I return the lamp to the housing, put the cover back on and move to the front of the set.

Ta Da!!!!!

Back up and running like she should be.

So I get back on the phone with Toshiba to cancel that new lamp and the guy tells me it is something about the mercury in the lamp and that after a cople fo weeks that it should settle.

Just watching regular tv the dlp makes a world of difference and I put in a blu ray (HD) movie and it was like looking through a window and the picture absolutely spectacular.

Friday, August 17, 2007

...and now what?

Apparently the fallout from the sub prime fiasco was worse than we thought.





WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve on Friday said it cut the primary discount rate by a half point as the downside risks to growth have increased "appreciably", a surprise move aimed at calming jittery global markets.

"Financial market conditions have deteriorated, and tighter credit conditions and increased uncertainty have the potential to restrain economic growth going forward," the Fed's Federal Open Markets Committee said in a unanimous statement.

The Fed cut its primary discount rate, which governs direct loans from the central bank to commercial banks, to 5.75 percent from 6.25 to "narrow the spread between the primary credit rate and the Federal Open Market Committee's target federal funds rate to 50 basis points."



This is not the rate your mortgage or your credit cards are based on. When banks or financial institutions need short term loans but can't get the funds anywhere they can turn to the federal reserve and borrow the money.

What this means is the federal reserve wanted to assure the financial markets that there would be "cheaper" money available should they need it. Rarely do you see a very conservative federal reserve move in .50% increments and even more so do you see thay move in such a suprising manner.

This could have a reassuring effect on the markets which have been very volitile as a result of the financial fallout from the subprime debacle or after a frenzy of buying sometime this morning it could have the opposite effect. It could signal that the worst is not yet over and exactly how far into the financial sector reaches could be more profound than we know.

Anybody like rollercoasters??? I haven't played the market since right before the internet bubble burst and have no desire to play....nope been there and done that. It's like gambling lol. Put your money in a solid company and periodically buy more and leave it for the long term.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

T Day

Yesturday was a travel day for myself, Zachary, Courtney and Chelsey. We got everybody up, fed and we were out the door by 7:30 for our 4.5 hour trip back home to Watertown NY.

We bought a Garmin GPS navigation thingy for the car a few months ago since we seem to be always on the road and being new to this area...well, it's more than paid for itself I can testify to that.

One strange thing is that it is set to give you the fastest route so as we leave here in Watsontown PA it tells us to go one way which is about an hour due north to 220, 17 and then catch I81 at Binhamton. You would think that it would take you back the same way but it doesn't for some reason. Comming back about 10 miles outside of Binhamton it tells you that it has found a better route and would you like to use it. It does save about 15 minutes and takes you down I81 to I80 and so on.

It also has you taking the PA Turnpike around Scranton. I figured it was taking us west of Scranton and connection to another road. Nope, just bypassing Scranton to get back onto I81 which I don't think saved us much time if any. Now if you go off course the little voice will let you know that it is "recalculating" and will remap the route for you.

We call her Judith and Zack says she gets "pissed off" too easily. I laugh and told Zack that I don't think he is old enough to use that word yet but he was right...Judith gets pissed off. You can alost hear the sigh of frustration in her voice when she says "recalculating" over and over in your trip.

We left here at 7:30 and arrived about 12:15 and was back on the highway after hitting MIcky D's at 12:45. The price of gas up there at 2.94 is almost .25 more expensive than it is here in town and the weather was a bit on the cooler side.

Hearing all three kids singing to Linkin Park along the way....


Now that's PRICELESS


This morning the guys from Best Buy show up and deliver the new tv

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

The Perfeect Storm Part Deaux

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070814/bs_nm/markets_stocks_dc_32;_ylt=AhYHxfBc1GdXcucvPc1mg.UE1vAI

Stocks slide on credit worries and Wal-Mart's view

In the latest signs of a deteriorating credit environment, Sentinel Management Group Inc., which oversees about $1.6 billion in assets, has told clients it wants to block redemptions from the fund to avoid forced liquidation.

Inflicting further pain on financial stocks was news a Canadian trust couldn't find the funds it needed to repay outstanding asset-backed commercial paper and that a bank had declined to provide liquidity.

And Swiss bank UBS (UBSN.VX), the world's largest wealth manager, warned that market turmoil was likely to hit its investment banking business in the second half of the year.



When you have financial institutions that prevent you from withdrawing funds that is never a good sign.

The Perfect Storm

Wikipedia - The phrase perfect storm refers to the simultaneous occurrence of events which, taken individually, would be far less powerful than the result of their chance combination. Such occurrences are rare by their very nature, so that even a slight change in any one event contributing to the perfect storm would lessen its overall impact.

The US housing market has been in decline over the past couple of years...certainly off it's highs of recent memory.

Cheap products comming primarily from China helps to keep our economy chugging along in that we spend less for goods we can buy more.

One can argue that it has been our housing market that has kept our economy going in recent memory considering the vast expenses of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the debt that goes along with it. People in general were tapping into the equity of their current homes to finance everything from second homes to new cars and the lifestyles that go with it. This was fine as long as there was ultimately someone willing to buy your home.

In many regions of the US there was a boom in housing. Builders could not build houses fast enough and the size of the average new home was at all time highs (say 2700 sq ft +). I think everyone could agree that this scenario was not one to go on indefinately. Indeed, a study just this year showed a downturn in the size of the average new home by about 250+ sq ft or so. Not a big drop by any means just one observation that shows that we as Americans were stepping back from the "bigger is better" in our homes even if those steps were baby steps.

We find out now that part of the housing boom was financed to people who were at higher risk of defaulting. They gave loans to people who had little documentation of income and gave them loans at low initial variable rates. When the loack on that variable was removed and the prime interest rates went up these risky borrowers were left to either pay substantially more monthly payments or to refinance.

What happens when you buy a large house at very low variable rate with very little or no money down and then housing sales fall off and your interest rate rises causing your payment to rise like the floodwaters from Katrina?

You often find that your house is not worth what it was when you bought it and with little or no equity or tightning of loan qualifications you find you cannot refinance. We now are finding out that those loans were bought up by a number of hedge funds who have lost 100's of millions if not billions and of which several have closed. The extent of the damage to the banking and funding insdustry will take some time to discover but there are people in financial circles who are very antsy lately

Now in the past year or so it is hard to open up a newspaper or browser to not notice a story about one recall or another. Sure we have our own problems (peanut butter, mad cow, e coli contaminated food from California, etc) but these recalls are comming more and more from our largest trading partner - China.

Today Mattel will announce yet another recall

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070814/bs_nm/mattel_recall_dc_5;_ylt=AqmZ7RY43Sei.cyx7CZTT10E1vAI

The recalled products include about 7.3 million Polly Pocket, Batman Magna, Doggie Daycare and Shonen Jump's One Piece play sets with the small magnets. According to a statement from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Mattel, about 2.4 million of the play sets were recalled on November 21.

About 683,000 Barbie doll Tanner play sets were also recalled due to a magnet hazard and about 253,000 Pixar Sarge die-cast toy cars with lead paint were recalled.


Inevitably there are two scenarios here. One is that these Chinese companies producing tainted products whether those be food or manufactured products will be forced into correction which will lead to higher prices or we will come to a collective decision that all chinese products = BAD! and avoid them like the plague.

Look at Walmart

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070814/bs_nm/walmart_results_dc_6;_ylt=AizlXRNnm7pbrW2du4ZfzaME1vAI

With more than 127 million customers visiting a U.S. Wal-Mart store or a Sam's Club warehouse location in America every week, the company is considered a barometer of the health of the nation's retail sector.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT.N) reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit and cut its full-year earnings forecast on Tuesday, saying its customers remain under economic pressure.


One has to wonder how these recalls from China effect WalMart's bottom line. God knows WalMart is ruthless when it comes to margins and pressures on suppliers to keep prices low......it's not too much of a stretch to understand how a chinese supplier would cut corners to get an egde over another chinese competitor.

If WalMart wants a widget for 5 cents and my competitor can make a lead free widget at 4.9 cents well what the heck if I use this lead based paint and sell that widget at 4.75? It's not all that far fetched.

So those are two completely different sectors of our economy where individual problems could occure and our economy would be resilient. Taken together though it is comepletely something different.

Perhaps add to that an energy crisis. Maybe Iran or Al Quieda does something to block vital oil shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz or perhaps Hugo Chavez does something to disrupt the supply of oil to the US.

The result would be a perfect storm comprising of financial, energy, retail/housing crisis.

Or

It could be a good movie

Monday, August 13, 2007

One Big Chocolate Bar

One of our souvenirs from Hershey Park. Yes it is a 5 lb chocolate bar!!!

The girl is my niece Courtney who is up with her sister Chelsey until Wednesday.


Penns Cave

Just a short clip of our trip in to the cave...actually we are returning. The tour is about an hour long and totally by boat. Half way through you come out of the cave to a small lake then circle around and head back. It's a nice place to go when it's really hot outside.


Sunday, August 12, 2007

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Let Them Dance

The 1800's saw the introduction of new systems and a tightening of the prison regime. The "Silent and Separate Systems" were used either to keep a regime of silence or to keep prisoners in solitary confinement. The idea being prisoners could not infect each other with criminal ways. These methods were soon criticised with people citing the high incidences of insanity amongst prisoners.

Improvements were made in 1815 when an Act was passed to prevent jailers from charging prisoners. The state now paid jailers, while magistrates were given the responsibility of inspecting the jails. The Gaols Act changed this in 1835 when it introduced prison inspectors to advise local authorities.

In 1850 the Convict Service was established which gave the Secretary of State the authority to appoint Directors of Convict Prisons who took over the management of the hulks, and of the prisons.

Uniformed staff carried out the bulk of the work in convict prisons. Their work involved discipline, clerical, educational and instructional duties. By 1877 all prison staff were salaried and commissioners stressed that staff would be selected on merit alone.

The Prisons Act of 1878 brought all prisons under the control of a national system run by the Prison Commission and later the Prison Department. As a result, prison commissioners were appointed to inspect all prisons and submit annual reports on the prisons to Parliament.

The Act led to the closure of the worst prisons in the country and set the tone for the future by adopting John Howard's principle of prisons being for reformation rather then punishment. It was believed that reformation and deterrence should now be the main objectives of prisons.

Two alternatives were introduced. Decarceration, which involved replacing prison sentences, with supervision in the community and Therapeutic Incarceration, which reduced the penal elements of prisons.

In 1919 prison warders were renamed prison officers. Separate confinement of prisoners was abolished in 1922 and soon over 400 voluntary teachers started work in prisons.

However, prison staff struggled to implement the therapeutic regime in prisons that were unsuitable for the task. It became clear that officer's training was not keeping pace with the growing sophistication of the Service. Improvements were made in 1935 when the first staff-training course was established at Wakefield Prison.

During the Second World War large number A of prison officers and prisoners were released to fight for their country. Staff shortages resulted in a recruitment drive, which led to a significant rise in the numbers of women prison officers.

The 1948 Criminal Justice Act recommended longer periods of imprisonment to allow time for training and rehabilitation of prisoners. As a result efforts were made to involve prison officers in the reform of prisoners.

Now, in 2007 a new turn has been taken in the reforming of those who have chosen the criminal path...... utter embarassment.

Yes, I dare say set aside the pillary, the shackles, the work gangs, the solitary confinement...... let them dance!!!

Friday, August 10, 2007

Hershey Park Or Bust

Wednesday morning Zachary hopped into the car and left at 7:30am for NY...specifically Watertown. We went to pick up Courtney and Chelsey and bring them here for the week. We got home about 5pm which isn't bad for a 600 mile reound trip.

Yesturdat we headed for Hershy Park. Hershey Park is only 50 or so miles from us but it is an hour and half drive and we got there at a decent time after first stopping by AAA to purchase our discount tickets.

The lady inside advised us to take a change of clothes in the event of rain. When it rains the park clears out she said, then you have shorter wait times for the rides.

Hmmm, maybe AAA was only a side job and she was actually a weather forecaster.

We went into the museum first since it is right before the entrance to the park. After that we headed towards the rides. There are all kinds of shops there right before the entrance and immediately after. We decided to hit those for souvenires on the way out.

So the kids and Shelly ended up waiting at one of the wooden roller coasters. Then the black skys started to move in. Then they closed this coaster. So the kids lined up for one of those swing rides...then the rain came.

and came

and here we were stuck under a tree in a torential down pour. I think we waited about 20 minutes under the tree while Zack and Chelsey went on that swing ride. I am not sure why they would keep this ride going while closing everything lese but they did.

So we're all soaked and without a change of clothes. We don't know how long this rain will laste so we head out towards the car. On the way we stop at one of those shops we bypassed earlier and bought a couple of towels and shirts for the kids as well as some other souvenirs.

We get to the car and get inside while everyone trys to dry off the best they can. I was content with just ringing ou my shirt. I think about 40 minutes into the rain and now back at our car we decided to leave and at least get something to eat. I was ready to head home but at that point we had spent about $400 so....let's just get some lunch. If it had been up to me we would have headed home but smarter heads than I prevailed.

We had lunch at Fudruckers and while we where there the rain stopped and blue sky was in sight.

For our second forray into the park yesturday we did get to do alot more. Shelly and the kids went on that wooden roller coaster they had missed out from earlier. We all went on a smaller coaster and Chelsey and I went on one.

Then it rained again. This time harder than the first time. We were luckier this time as we were under an awning of one of those food places so we weren't getting soaked at least. I think we waited about 15 minutes and it really wasn't letting up so we headed for the car, although relunctantly. We stopped to get some chocolate...including one of those 5 lbs chocolate bars and we left. We were soaked this time from head to toe. It seemed like we had to traverse some monster streams that were running everywhere to get to the parking lot and our car.

We were parked right outside the entrance so at least we didn't have far to go.

So the kids got to ride a few rides but we missed the zoo but overall I think they enjoyed themselves. At the very least it was a memorable day.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

South Park

Never willing to step back from social commentary, South Park tackles yet another controversial topic.


Monday, August 06, 2007

War Torn Soldiers

http://www.syracuse.com/articles/news/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1186304488243900.xml&coll=1&thispage=1


They were closing out one of those long, hot summer weekends, working late on a Sunday, almost done. At 11:36 p.m., Officer Douglas Pennock noticed movement in the window outside the Cicero police station.

From the desk, Pennock saw a stranger in a ball cap and waved the man around to the side entrance, as he moved to the door.

"Are you expecting anyone?" he called to Sgt. Andrew P. Scherer, who was in the evidence locker, processing material from a drug bust. "There's a guy at the back door."

And so it began: the 15 seconds . . .

In that wink of time last Sunday, two cops and a troubled U.S. Army soldier approached the edge - then stepped back.

Fifteen seconds . . .

"Can I help you?" Pennock asked, and opened the door.

Before him stood Matthew Campbell, 33, a native of Maine and a specialist in the Army's 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum. In June, Campbell had returned from a 15-month tour of Afghanistan, where he served as an infantry medic.

His face held what the two cops later described as an expression of pain and anguish. His right hand clutched what appeared to be a high-caliber, semiautomatic assault rifle.

"What are you doing with the gun?" Pennock said loudly, directing his voice not only at the stranger but also at Scherer, who had stepped from the evidence locker.

Pennock drew his gun and closed the door partially, seeking to shield himself with the frame. Scherer drew his weapon and moved closer.

Standing on the pavement, Campbell lifted the rifle muzzle, as Pennock would later write, "so it was pointed in my general direction, in what I perceived as the male preparing to fire the rifle, at which time I prepared to defend myself."

Barely five seconds had elapsed . . .

In the culture of law enforcement, the tragedy goes by several names: "Suicide by cop," "police-assisted suicide" or, in the worst-case scenario, "victim-precipitated homicide."

For all the names, it is a simple event:

Someone points a gun at an officer, forcing the response.

For many reasons, they're hard to quantify. A 10-year study of 473 officer-involved shootings by the Los Angeles Police Department concluded in 1998 that 11 percent one out of 10 shootings could be suicide by cop.

It leaves a victim and, often, a broken career.

"You did what you had to do what you were trained to do," the Web site Suicide by Cop tells police officers. "The moral excellence that is part of you still exists. Whether you decide to continue in a law enforcement career or seek another profession, remember . . . you went home alive."

Some have drawn links to the many soldiers returning from war.

"The number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran suicides keeps escalating," wrote Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, a nonprofit advocacy group, in a recent editorial to his membership. "And a highly disturbing, yet very small, pattern is emerging: suicide by cop."

In 2005, a 19-year-old Marine, back home in California from Iraq, fired on two cops, killing one before being shot. Last December, a 29-year-old soldier, preparing for his second war deployment, barricaded himself in his Maryland home and pointed his gun at an officer, forcing another to fire. In May, a 28-year-old Minnesota National Guard member, back from Iraq, fired on police in a highway standoff. They shot back.

Sunday night,Pennock raised his weapon but did not pull the trigger.

Pennock's account comes from the written statement that accompanied the arrest. He was not available last week for an interview.

In the parking lot, he saw Campbell turn haphazardly to his left, letting the rifle drift back and forth in the direction of the doorway.

"What are you doing with a rifle?' Pennock said again.

Campbell looked into Pennock's eyes, then staggered backward, the gun barrel pointing downward. He cupped his hands over his face, raised the muzzle to the sky and bent forward.

"Drop the rifle," Pennock yelled.

Campbell lowered his hands, the muzzle downward, and studied Pennock, according to the statement.

"Stop! Drop the rifle!" the officer yelled.

Campbell backpedaled, dropped the weapon and fell to his knees, hands covering his face.

Ten seconds . . .

"I can't tell you the number of officers I've seen who probably would've shot this guy," said William Gaut, a former commander of detectives in the Birmingham, Ala., Police Department and a nationally recognized expert in law enforcement procedures.

Gaut reviewed a two-page report of the incident provided to him by The Post-Standard.

His conclusion: "Give the officer a medal."

He said Pennock did everything right. When confronted, rather than shoot, he sought cover. Then he let his fellow officer know the situation.

"Once he got his gun trained on (Campbell) and he's ready to use deadly force if it becomes necessary, he just talked to the guy and assessed the situation until the guy dropped the gun."

Gaut said he believes the officers would have been justified under the law if they'd shot Campbell.

But in the moment of truth, Campbell's gun hit the pavement.

"It got awfully good when he turned away and dropped the firearm," Scherer said Friday.

Pennock shouted that the weapon was down. Scherer rushed through the door and kicked the rifle across the pavement, out of reach.

They handcuffed Campbell and called for backup.

Over the nexthour, Scherer sought to calm the anguished man and learn what brought him there.

"Aren't you supposed to shoot people with guns?" Campbell asked.

How did Scherer respond?

"I told him that we were both sitting here, looking at each other, and a great thing had happened tonight."

Campbell was arrested on a charge of second-degree menacing, a misdemeanor, because the rifle turned out to be a pellet gun. The soldier had sought to provoke a shooting, but not to hurt anyone.

Scherer declined to discuss his talk with Campbell, saying he considers it private. In his arrest statement, he noted that the soldier had come with one purpose in mind.

"He acknowledged that he did not want to live anymore," Scherer wrote. "He explained that he had nothing to live for. He stated that he was a coward, not a good father, nor a good soldier."

He said Campbell at times broke down in the middle of an explanation and apologized to the police.

"I think the real issue is the concern that we should have for the individual who made that choice to come out here and do what he was doing," Scherer said. "That's where our time and efforts and thoughts and prayers should be."

Officials at Fort Drum last week released little information about Campbell's military record. He served in the 2d Battalion's 87th Infantry, a unit that suffered four deaths during its most recent tour of Afghanistan.

Campbell was being held for mental evaluation.

His lawyer, Ken Moynihan, said Campbell's family was too distraught to comment.

"We're just grateful nobody got hurt and that the police did the right thing," Moynihan said.

A 20-year police veteran, Scherer, 47, said he has been in gunfights but never fired on a person. Nor has Pennock, who came to the Cicero force in 1996.

In his job, Scherer teaches young officers firearm safety and the use of force. In those sessions, he stresses the need for training, because life or death can ride on a split-second decision.

Or 15 seconds.

"I'm a human being, you know, and a police officer," Scherer said. "Sometimes, being a human being comes first."

Hart Seely can be reached at hseely@syracuse.com or 470-2247. John O'Brien can be reached at jobrien@syracuse.com or 470-2187.




I saw this article over the weekend and had to put it here to spread it around. It hist home in many many ways. I grew up just outside of Ft Drum NY, I served in the military, I have previously fought battles with depression and have one brother-in-law who is in his 3rd tour of Iraq and a sister-in-law who is in Qatar.

How can your heart not go out who is suffering like this. We can only imagine the pain that brought him to that point outside the police station. We can only imagine as mental pain in silent and not easily visable....in the end pain is pain and you just have to wonder how many others are comming back like this but are suffering silently.

Godspeed

Monday Monday

Saturday we fed the neighbors. We ended up with alot of food Saturday evening so I sent some BBQ home with a couple of the neighbors and froze the rest. One neighbor family was gone for a week so he will get some when he returns. Got some nice compliments on the food which is always nice.

So yesturday morning I thought we would just relax a bit. We went to dinner Friday evening with some friends of Shelly's from work in Williamsport where they have what they call Fir Friday. It's a cultural thing on the first Friday every month during the summer where they have music and arts on the streets in the downtown. So I was a bit stiff in the knees yesturday morning from the walking Fri night and the sitting Saturday lol.

So yesterday at 11am says "let's go to Knoebels". My first thought is that something like that I would rather go first thing in the morning when it would be less crowded and cooler. lol When we pulled into the parking for the park it was 97 degrees outside.

It's not a bad amusement park. They don't have the pay one price on the weekends so we had to buy tickets (they have free admission) which are broken into .10 .50 $1, etc and each ride costs $.90 - $1.50 to ride. They have a couple of roller coasters but they are wooden ones so something I was thinking of avoiding entirely.

Since I have that disc problem in my neck I don't think any sudden jerking movements are good for it. As it was I went down a small flume ride and called it a day as far as the rides go. Shelly and Zack went on the big flume ride and got soaked. When they got off I stopped Zack and said we could watch the next car come down the flume. I guess he didn't realise that it sprays water about 50 ft ahead of it. So as the next car was about to come down the flume in front of us and Zack had his eyes fixed to it I ran back out of the way.....Zack got his with another downpour of water!!! That was PRICELESS!!!

This week will be busy busy. Wednesday Zack and I take a 4.5 hour ride up to NY to pick up my neices who are going to stay with us for a week and then Thursday it is off to Hershey Park.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Friday, August 3

After smoking 20 pounds of beef all day you immediately have to remove your clothes, throw them into a medical waste bag and sterilize them. They do require washing but I am egsagerating a little. Now I have two crock pots full of beef. Almost got all of it in....I think 16 pound or so in the sauce. If you let it cook all day it breaks down really nice. Hmmmm, may I can call spoon pulled bbq?

So yesturday I was getting my potato salad ready to make which for me means dicing up eggs, radishes, a little onion, green peppers. I don't think I have mastered potatos yet on the stove so they are done to over done and are in the fridge cooling down to be diced up later along with the cuccumbers.

Yesturday was a bit hot here. It got to 97. When we moved down here we rented til our house in NY sold so we signed a 2 year lease cause this was a nice house and we wanted it. The lanlord put in central a/c but if you ask me she did it on the cheap. I hope they didn't pay too much for it. When the outside temp gets 95 or higher our a/c stops blowing cool air. The fan outside is still humming along mind you but its no where near cooling the air.

We're not asking for walk in freezer type temps but at least draw the humidity out of the house. I turned it off for about an hour then turned it back on....it started to work. My landlord is clueless and the guys that installed the system aren't any help. We've put a bug in here ear about buying the place if she's interested and if we do, that will be on our list of projects.

Zack and I went to the local market to pick up some hot dogs and when we started the car the outside temp said 122!!!

Here's some news I forgot to mention. I am a memeber of a website for disabled veterans call The Veterans Benefit Network and have been for quite a while now. There are a number of different forums where people ask questions about this or that...anything concerning veterans really, and hopefully someone will provide correct guidence for them. About a week ago I had an email from one of the administrators. He was looking for a few more moderators and my name came up. It was very touching.

I don't mind taking the time to use my life experience to help someone else and although I don't look for any reckognition there have been a few times where I was thanked for helping someone and that really is enough. This was a touching compliment though.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Bring It Home

I got up this morning and I do my usual routine of which is to check out Newzjunky for news from back home. It not only has alot of local news and happenings from the area back home in NY but state, national and world news....Newzjunky. I am the sort of person that if the info is available I want it now!!

So I am scrolling down the page and yes I see the story about the bridge collapse in Minn. but I saw that last night on CNN before I went to bed at 10 or so. I then saw the headline Fisher "Price to Recall Nearly 1 Million Toys" and I am thinking to myself that this has got to have something to do with China. I click onto the link and wouldn't you know it....those dang Chinese are cutting corners yet again just like I thought.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/business/02toy.html?ei=5090&en=1f7a68aea860bd6e&ex=1343707200&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1186054661-bJvBWKMfkUL0+dekpnIenQ

Lead Paint Prompts Mattel to Recall 967,000 Toys

Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, is recalling nearly one million toys in the United States today because the products are covered in lead paint.

According to Mattel, all the toys were made by a contract manufacturer in China.

The recall, the second biggest this year involving toys, covers 83 products made from April 19 to July 6. Many of them feature Sesame Street and Nickelodeon characters — including the Elmo Tub Sub, the Dora the Explorer Backpack, and the Giggle Gabber, a toy shaped like Elmo or Cookie Monster that toddlers shake to hear giggles and funny noises.

Mattel says it prevented more than two-thirds of the 967,000 affected toys from reaching consumers by stopping the products in its distribution centers and contacting retailers, like Wal-Mart, Target and Toys ‘R’ Us, late last week. But more than 300,000 of the tainted toys have been bought by consumers in the United States. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the toys may have a date code from 109-7LF to 187-7LF on the product or packaging.



When is this going to stop? Years ago, in an attempt to save $$ on the cost of manufacturing consumer goods they were made in Japan. Then they were made in Taiwan, then Mexico, now China. This is because the chinese workers are paid far less thanh even one dollar an hour. This is a country whose enviromental standards are back in the 19th century!

To a degree we can blame WalMart for this.

But this isn't about WalMart this is about China and the tainted consumer products they are sending us. When are we going to learn? Luckily we haven't had a rash of deaths as a result of tainted toothpaste or other food products. No, in the US no human have died, just our pets.

For those in the people republic of china reading this....

diethylene glycol in food ----- BAD
lead paint on child toys ------ BAD

get the point.

In an article I have seen today it stated that China has now banned diethylene glycol (found in antifreeze) in the making of toothpaste.

This was previously ok???

Did a government bureaucrat suddenly have an epithany and feel that a chemical you put in your auto may not be so good in your mouth? Christ, had they asked us we would have told them. It's not like its a state secret of ours. I know Kissenger and Nixon didn't go to China in the early 70's to open trade relations to sit at one of those HUGE confrence tables and say..."ya know Mr Chairman (Mao), lead paint and diethylene glycol in tooth paste may not be such a good idea."

When will it stop?

Do we need to actually have people die here in the US this cycle of stupidity ceases? Raise your hand if you really think somewhere in China they actually do make cardboard dumplings?? I know mine is up...at least I wouldn't put it past them. Do we as a county, as a people so really need stuff that is so inexpensive that we don't mind playing russian roulette with hazardously tainted products? If those same toys, dog food, tootpaste and whatever is next to be recalled (I forgot about the tires) were made here in the US certainly they would be more expensive.

Bring home the manufacturing jobs if anything just for the piece of mind.

For now this is nothing more than pie in the sky dreaming but some day there just might be a backlash and that is when we can bring it home.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Pizza Hut School Of Nutrition

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/01/the_skinny/main3122295.shtml

USA Today reports that a university is considering putting a corporate name on its diplomas.

"The University of Iowa is mulling whether to rename its College of Public Health after Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield's foundation in exchange for a $15 milion gift from the company's philanthropic arm," the newspaper reports.

"We're close to the tip of the sword for an AT&T School of Business or a Kodak School of Digital Communication. I can see that as not so far off," said Terry Burton, a naming-rights consultant.

The idea has ignited debate.

As Randa Safady, vice chancellor at the University of Texas, put it, "It's important that the public and we don’t equate the generosity of corporations with selling out."



I for one don't see what the problem is. There are a number of philanthropic gifts to universities which in turn have created a learning center in the name of the grantor.

One specific gift that comes to mind is the Newhouse School Of Public Communications at Syracuse University. The endowment today of some 20 million and an annual budget of 10 million.

Of course if the grantor was in the same league as the example used in the article "Pizza Hut School Of Nutrition" then there would obviously be no comparison.

There are many pillars of American Industry that are certainly worthy of having their name associated with an institute of higher learning.

Just A Smokin'

Zachary and I went to see The Simpons Movie yesturday afternoon. I thought yesturday would be a good day since it was suppose to be in the 90's and I didn't really feel like going down to the pool. It's been one of those weeks so far. There are times, right out of the blue when suddenly it seems like every joint in my body aches. Talk about getting old. lol Nausea has been kicking in late afternoon for a bit too. Christ, you'd think I was doing chemo.

I can't take anything during the day or I end up wasting it on the couch so I take the meds at bedtime and for the most part they work. Although I like to stay functional during the day at least I haven't needed to go to the ER.

Anyway. The movie was good....if you like The Simpsons. I used to watch it every weekend when it first came out...well, what? 18 years ago. Zachary never saw an episode until yesturday morning when we recorded the show from the night before. I admit it's still funny but alot of it a younger child (Zachary included) won't get cause alot of the comedy is from popular culture.

So today I was up at 7am so I could get the charcoal going in the smoker. I think the meat has been on about an hour now. I bought two whole sirloin tips from a local store (2.44 per lbs) and cut them down to reasonably smaller pieces to go onto the smoker. I love to smoke meat and I prefer Mesquite over Hickory wood. I am thinking I should be done some where around 1 and maybe we will go swimming this afternoon.

So, 20 lbs of beef are in the smoker and when done they will go into two crock pots with BBQ sauce. One will be Bulls Eye Original and the other will be Dinosaur BBQ sauce and maybe a bottle of Dinosaur Wango Tango sauce to boot and then will cook it till Saturday. Saturday we're having the neighbors over...well, anyone who would like a nice slow smoked, fork pulled BBQ and a cold beverage.

I live on a corner of two dead end streets and most of the nieghbors live across the street on one of those dead ends. Ever once in a while the wind will shift and send a plume of mesquite flavored smoke their way. Gotta Love it.