Pictures of The Profit

So, last Sunday, after I had completed a nice little piece of work, feeling all proud, I started drinking. This being the normal modus operandi on most days that end in "y". Seriously, last week's entry was good, you should read it. I'll wait.

See?

So, I am in a chat room, listening to tunes. Feeling all spiffy when some lady from Canada asks, "Hey, didn't you say you lived in Texas?".

"Why, yes. Garland to be specific, Eh."

"Dude, you are on CNN!"

While my first thought was, "Man, that was a really good blog! To get scooped up that quick! I mean, even if it is CNN... Still..."

Not have cabling anymore, I went to the trusty interwebs. Sure enough, there was a shooting at the convention center in my town. Holy Testicle Tuesday, Batman... It happened less than three miles from my doorstep. 2.8 to be exact.

Next... What was going on at the ol' Curtis Caldwell Convention Center, besides alliteration?

"Draw the Prophet" Contest... Why in the name of all that which is truly fucking stupid would anyone do that? We will come back to that. Now, back to the breaking news.

Two gunmen pulled up in the front of the center, about 100 yards or so from the actual building. They got out and shot at some cop type peoples. They wounded one Garland ISD Cop type person... He was out of the hospital before 10:00 that evening.

The two gunmen then got lit the fuck up by another cop(s). Dead. It was really refreshing to see news of cops shooting ARMED suspects for a change. The two corpses lie in the street for a good long while because no one knew if the vehicle they were in was rigged with explosives or any other nefarious materials.

There were also later debunked rumors of a third gunman who hoofed it to the nearby Wal-Mart and had a grenade. Bogus sensationalism... *cough*CNN*cough*

So... Those are the facts... After doing 15 minutes of research, it played out a little like this...

Some assholes had a contest which they knew would piss off these other assholes, and the other assholes did indeed get pissed and wanted to shoot the first group of assholes. So the assholes went to shoot the assholes and got shot... I dunno if the person that shot them was an asshole... So...

Here are the cast of characters...

The two dead guys. Their names are public knowledge, but honestly, they were assholes. The media and a lot of the right wingers are making a stink about the connection to ISIS. ISIS would claim responsibility if someone farted in an elevator and it was complained about on Facebook.

The event organizers, the American Freedom Defense Initiative. Man... That is just a helluva name... It is all patriotic and jingoistic! They are listed as a "Hate Group" due to their hatred of Islam. They claim they are against the "Islamification of America"... Okay... Don't be Muslim if you don't like it. Done.

The event was christened a "Free Speech Event!". Let me get this straight... By having a contest, where the entries are drawings of the prophet Muhammad, which is considered verboten in the Muslim faith, that is "free speech"? Gee, if it looks like an asshole and smells like an asshole...

Pamela Geller, the head asshole and public assface, for the AFDI, has to be loving the publicity. I am betting her nipples could cut glass, and she had to change her panties. Twice. I had never heard or known about the event. I would have NEVER known about the event until this incident.

The AFDI's game plan is to try and buy advertising space for their purely anti-Muslim and anti-Arab propaganda, and if the person balks or tries to refuse to run the offensive material, the AFDI will threaten a lawsuit under First Amendment grounds. Then they would get the free publicity from the lawsuit.

I am crooked today... So, let me get THIS straight... Say I own a cab company. They come in, "Hey, I would like to run this ad, depicting all Muslims as wanting to kill everyone who is not Muslim, in all of your cabs."

"Um. No. That sounds like an asshole thing to do."

"WE WILL SUE YOU INTO THE STONE AGE!!! CALL CHANNEL 5!!!!"

"Well, will you pay for any damage done to my cabs or pay the hospital bills for any of my drivers who might, and probably will, get hurt driving with this fucking bulls eye in my cabs?"

"Well, that is a salient and well thought out point, and WE WILL SUE YOU INTO THE STONE AGE!!! CALL CHANNEL 5!!!!"

"Okay... I will allow it into my cabs..."

"WE WILL SUE YOU INT.... Wait, what? Oh... Fantastic... CALL CHANNEL 5!!!!"

Assholes.

Last perp in this little one act play of idiocy is ol' Mo himself.

I have looked into it... The best answer as to why you cannot draw Muhammad is that it prevents him being worshiped more than Allah. They saw what happened to Christianity... Idolizing something other than God. Even though Jesus was God... So... at the end he should have said "Forgive myself for I know not what I do"? I digress... and blaspheme!

I look at it like the final test to pass... "We have this guy... We love him because he was a prophet... And he had a direct line to Allah..."

"Cool beans, do you have a poster of him I can hang on my wall???"

"INFIDEL!!! WE WILL STONE YOU BACK TO THE STONE AGE!!!!"

And Christians... If I were to draw a picture of Jesus blowing a cross dressing Adolph Hitler, in an alley, behind a cheap Thai food place's dumpster, while he was getting fucked squarely in the ass by a pack of South Korean Elvis impersonators, while the radio played "96 Tears" by Question Mark & The Mysterians*, I would probably receive an unkind letter or ten... thousand... I am also willing to bet that one of those unkind letters would include threats to my very life... So...

All this week did is solidify my distaste for all things religious.

I do not condone violence over a cartoon. I do not condone violence over someone not believing in what you believe.

I am a rational human being.

People who decide that a drawing is worth killing over, can not claim to be rational human beings. They no longer get the benefit of the doubt. They no longer get a seat at the big boys table.

Organizations that claim "Free Speech", and do things to intentionally antagonize and provoke a group of irrational types, need to do so with out making my tax dollars pay for it.

The event had it's own security force. Not a detail, no... a force. However, due to the FORESEEN attack, I know a great many people who work for the City, as I do, put in some overtime. My boss was one of them. She didn't make it in Monday. She was still part of the "Emergency Operations". They had to bring in food... They had to run school buses to shuttle the event goers to safety... They had to set up and make ready for the FBI, the DHS, and whoever else wanted jurisdiction... That is not something done on the cheap...

This weekend, the Curtis Caldwell Convention Center is holding a massive graduation ceremony. I have heard some parents are not letting their kids walk or participate due to fear of more attacks or retaliation.

Meanwhile... Pamela Geller has made off with a nice little sum and a lot of publicity off the incident, that she undoubtedly caused.

I am not a fan of terrorists or religious extremists... I am even less of a fan of parasitic cunt nuggets who dare them to come into my backyard.

Happy Mother's Day!

d

This blog brought to you by White Zombie, The Beatles, Tenacious D, 1000 Homo DJs, Marilyn Manson, Foreigner, Cheap Trick, Megadeth, Anthrax, Pet, Van Halen, Metallica, Def Leppard, System of A Down, and the Doors.

* Just wait til the next time you hear "96 Tears"... YOU'RE WELCOME!

Tennessee V. Garner.

So... Lessee... Baltimore ate itself this week. Or at least attempted to. I think the breakdown of looters vs. peaceful protesters broke out to maybe 15%/85%... The peaceful types were the 85%... Just for clarification... Something the media epic failed at denoting.

Were there asshats looting, and breaking the windows of small businesses, and setting things on fire? Yes. Sadly, many reports are that the people causing all the ruckus were not even from that neighborhood. It was people who were just opportunistic parasites.

This cauldron of pent up emotions suddenly erupted over the death of Freddie Gray...

Wrong.

Dead fucking wrong.

A cauldron is a large, metal, cooking apparatus. It holds a large quantity of fluid. You can't just strike a match and have the contents suddenly boil over the edges of the cauldron. No. That fire would have to be started. Tended to. Stoked. More fuel to the fire would have to be added over time to increase the volatility of the atoms of what ever was being heated.

So.. Maybe a culmination of events were the last pieces of the fuel. Freddie Gray's nearly being decapitated while in police custody. Coming a couple of weeks after Walter Scott was straight up murdered by a police officer. That came a week after a man was killed by a 73 year old Sheriff's Deputy wanting to taze a suspect who was running away, but grabbed his gun instead. Well, oops.

This all coming after the Ferguson SNAFU. SNAFU means "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up".

And it truly is just that. All fucked up.

I have mentioned the "salt of the Earth types" I work with. Basically rednecks, all of a different degree or hue. And we discussed the situation in Baltimore. They said I wanted to blame "society" for all the things that happened. They maintained that Freddie Gray made his "choice".

I did point out the economic hardships that have plagued Baltimore for decades, the manufacturing bust of the region as those jobs were shipped overseas, education failings of the inner cities, drug culture being almost allowed as long as it doesn't cross certain invisible boundaries, abject poverty, homelessness, minimum wage jobs that do not let a person live...  But yeah... He made a "choice".

The Ferguson situation was jacked because there were so many misleading reports from start to finish. "He was a mean kid who stole cigars from a convenience store just before". Um, I used to steal smokes from the Augusta, Ks. Dillon's Supermarket all the damn time... I was a great kid... Just didn't have the $1.60 for a pack sometimes... And addicted to nicotine... It was more of a public service... Keeping me cool and calm... Not plowing down school children...

The Walter Scott murder would have been another "gotten away with it" if it wasn't for the passerby recording the whole thing on his cellphone camera. The cop on his radio states "Shots fired. Suspect is down. He went for my tazer." Which he didn't. The tazer in question was placed next to the handcuffed corpse of Scott. It was moved closer to the handcuffed corpse by another officer. Brothers in blue, indeed. The FIFTY ONE year old man ran from a police officer and the officer fired at him EIGHT times.

In Tulsa, an old bastard, who reads like a man who read one too many Louis L' amour novels, and probably can only get an erection if there is a picture of John Wayne in his line of sight... Well, this old bastard greased the right palms, made the right contributions and donations, and Lo' And Behold... Sheriff's Deputy! At 73...

I have hung around old people. I worked at two old folks homes during, and a little after, high school. And these were not the "Retirement Communities"... No, these were Death's Doorstep Type Places. A lot of old people are racist as all hell. You tell yourself, they "don't know any better" and it "was a different time". You just wince and carry on. And hope to any fucking higher power that no one gives them a fucking badge and a fucking gun.

Or gives them too many options like A) Gun. B) Tazer. Hmm... Choices choices...

"OH, BUT SIR!!! In all those cases those people broke the law and made the choice to run or resist! They were criminals!!!"

True. My commute in the mornings is 1.5 miles. By the time I hit my desk at work, I have committed at least 5 crimes. It is pretty much the same with a vast majority of the population. If stopped, I would probably not run... More on that at the conclusion.

The point being, fleeing arrest, running, and stealing cigarettes SHOULD NOT BE CAPITAL CRIMES. THEY SHOULD NOT WARRANT A DEATH SENTENCE. This being the part where the title makes sense... "Look it up", as my Dad was fond of saying.

In Federal law, there are 41, just 41, capital crimes... States with the idiotic death penalty would probably be somewhere around the same number. The exception more than likely being Texas, where the Pro Lifers  Hypocrites in charge love them some death penalty. so there are probably double the number of capital offenses.

With the surplus of military weaponry being flooded into municipalities, some 4.7 BILLION dollars, why are there not more non-lethal options?

If cops are in "fear for their lives" so much... Maybe we need some cops with bigger balls? The ones I continually keep hearing about seem to remind me of Jimbo and Ned from "South Park".

If a suspect is running "away"... How does that equate "fear for your life"? Again with the title.

I think the people who are running are in fear for THEIR lives from those who advertise that they are there to "Protect and Serve". And maybe they heard that one nifty statistic, that in the last 5 years or so, you were 50 times more likely to be killed by a cop than you were a terrorist.

_______________________________

I do not think all cops are bad. There are some damn fine officers out there doing a not fun, thankless job. Jon Stewart phrased it perfectly...

"You can truly grieve for every officer who's been lost in the line of duty in the country, and still be troubled by cases of police overreach. The two ideas are NOT mutually exclusive. You can have great regard for law enforcement and still want them to be held to a higher standard."

_______________________________

From above... If I were stopped, I would probably not have to worry about running... I am white.

I will be recording though,

d

This blog brought to you by silence. It was not fun to write. But I wanted to get this out of my head. So many reports and time has been given to this sort of stuff... It is difficult to express without "quasi-plagiarizing", so I have linked and cited for the most part... Ugh... Just sucks.