File this one under, 'What goes around, comes around'. This opens a whole can of whoop ass. U.S. agreements with Saudi Arabia prevented either side from taking court actions against the other. Now all bets may be off.
Hey, it's not like Obama didn't warn what could happen. Anyone taking on Saudi Arabia better have big pockets and a damn good case
I'm a big believer in you broke it. You pay for it. I don't think car insurances should eat the costs nor car owners premiums be increased because of them. Neither should taxpayers eat the related costs for these police reports and the judicial process.
I'm sure it won't happen, but I truly wish each of these knuckleheads would be forced to pay back every nickel and dime for both the damages, associated police, judicial costs and for any of the inconveniences suffered by these car owners. If I were king I'd make sure every dollar they ever earned would be forfeited towards paying all of this back. I'd also make sure they wouldn't be eligible for any federal, state or local benefit until they did no matter how long it takes. Instead they'll be most likely end up in the penal system costing us even more.
All too often these incarcerations end up filling our jails repeatedly costing society (sometimes for lockups lining private investors pockets) and do little to end this never ending cycle. We need to start holding these kind of jerks financially responsible for their deeds. Lock em up, charge them room & board and send them out on work details till they pay their debts. The more they work at fair wages the sooner they can get out.
Those that still refuse, release them after a certain period if they're not a danger. Of course there will always be those too hardcore to be allowed back in society. On the other hand all too many in our current prison system are drug users, low level threats and jerks like these three kids The penal system should place emphasis on rehabilitation and compensation for their victims. Locking people up in cages doesn't get us where we need to go. Jails should be used as only a last resort for humans who behave like animals posing a danger to others if they weren't caged.
In my opinion we far too many times chose punishment as a means of retribution rather then an opportunity to offer a way for some people to turn their lives around when even they themselves realize they've gone too far. It's a tough call, but not everyone in jail belongs there. Some actually do want to turn their life around. We shouldn't lose sight of that.
Why are people forced to put cash into MTA kiosks in NYC for a pass to ride subways? Why not simply swipe a credit card for them as well as a bus ride here in the Lehigh Valley too? Why not eliminate all the other stuff making it unnecessarily complicated for every place we visit for parking meters/decks, toll roads, etc.?
It seems government makes things much more complicated then things need to be. Maybe perhaps because there're in cahoots with businesses enabling each to profit from fees off these services. Think about this for a minute.
eZpass requires a minim balance. So too subways, bus and train fares require advance deposits for commuters. If these things only required a swipe of a credit card it would be a pay-as-you-go thing. In addition knowing (for security's sake) it wouldn't be linked into each of these many individual services to one's checking account people wouldn't be tying up funds for something they may not use for weeks, months or maybe never with the related security risks involved.
Simply put, a credit card would eliminate the requirement for access to checking accounts, smart phones and make all these services easily accessible to nearly everyone who has one or more credit cards already in their wallets plus the overhead costs involved. One card would work everywhere travelers go for everything. Why not?
The very nature of news is to expose only the negative things when they occur. Here's a few stories I found more of a positive nature over the last few days.
"Napoleon Harris III is formerly of the Minnesota Vikings and is a US senator. Staff at his Chicago pizza franchise were overworked so he delivered a pie, but the 'customers' were four robbers lurking at an unoccupied home. He fought off all four of them and then chased their car to a timber yard. They escaped, but the car was linked to the death of a Georgia man. Police now have four suspects, two of whom were charged with murder."
"Ozzy Khalil arrived at the Muslim American Society in North Philadelphia at 6 a.m. Sunday to start making breakfast. Khalil, 40, cooked scrambled eggs, French toast, turkey bacon and grits for almost 1,000 Philadephia police officers before they began their workday at the Puerto Rican Day Parade hosted by the 25th District - "so they could get something to eat before they go out on the streets.."
There's some positive stuff coming out of Charlotte, N.C. you may not have heard.
"Every night this week, unorganized individuals have taken it upon themselves to pick up those cases of water bottles and hand them out to protesters, to journalists and to each other... Captain Mike Campagna of the Charlotte Mecklenburg police department, the same department coming under fire over the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, approached individuals with first aid kits Friday night. “Are you in need of medical help?” he asked.
Though a midnight curfew was announced as the city of Charlotte was in a state of emergency since Thursday, police did not arrest protesters marching peacefully after midnight. “The curfew is a tool that we will use to keep the peace,” Major Gerald Smith of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said. "And right now we have a peaceful protest."... To express their appreciation for the officers, many protesters were handing them flowers throughout the night."
Not every political figure hates each others guts. (I wish so many rabid supporters didn't either).
"Earlier Saturday in Washington D.C. George W. Bush went viral when he tried and failed to take a group selfie, and instead interrupted Obama to take the photo for him."
How quickly things can turn around when the victimizer becomes the victim. I am always well pleased when it doesn't go well for criminals. They shouldn't assume they are always the biggest meanest and scariest person on Earth. Many of them should consider another line of work that isn't so dangerous.
Anthony had this to say a few days ago-- "I'm not a journalist. Or a foreign policy wonk. My politics are my own. Contrary to the assertions of angry Twitter warriors who think I'm getting regular guidance from the "Communist News Network," I've never once received a phone call or an e-mail or had a conversation that contained the words "wouldn't it be a great idea if...?" or " how about?"...
The second floor of the small, family-run, decidedly working class Bun Cha Huong Lien restaurant, in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, is not exactly the kind of place the President was likely to be taken by his hosts on any official state visit. I got the definite impression that the Secret Service was initially less than delighted with our choice of venue... In general, he spoke with the lack of careful calculation of a man who is no longer running for office."
Here's a clip where Anthony and Anderson Cooper talk more about it
This program will air Sunday 09/25/2016 on CNN at 9:00 PM and again on Sunday 10/02/2016 at 8:00 PM
Bikers can ride everywhere. City streets, every other city park or one of the millions of dollars spent for these hundreds of miles rails-to-trails. Walkers had one respite only four days a week. Now it's been taken away completely.
I can't tell you the number of times a biker yelled at the wife or me, "BIKE LANE" when she or I dared to get even near the marked lane for the spandex crowd. No way in hell the 10 mph speed limit is going to be enforced everyone knows that. Tell me how we're suppose to keep our 3 year old twin granddaughters in check. Are we supposed to put leashes on them like dog walkers who are now threatened as well?
This is so wrong !
The city's now talking about having dedicated parks just for dogs. Why not just one dedicated to the elderly, joggers and those too young to understand just unto themselves?
Huffington Post: Refugees Are Not a Risk to America-- "In the fourteen years since 9/11, the United States has taken in 784,000 refugees, only three of whom have been arrested for terrorist-related activities.... A US citizen was thousands of times more likely to be killed in St. Louis, Missouri, which is ranked among the 50 most dangerous cities in the world with 59.23 homicides per 100,000 residents. St. Louis was joined on that list by Detroit and New Orleans. Since most of those homicides were due to handguns, it would be vastly more rational to ban handguns and New Orleans vacations than Syrian immigrants."
I'd like to believe we haven't become a nation whose people have become a bunch of paranoid schizophrenics scared of their own shadow. These false beliefs are like a disease permeating our society. People set on this blind hatred of anyone not like them ignores all statistics and facts that say otherwise. In this current social climate we have a far larger problem best described as mass mental illness. A nation based on these false beliefs is unhealthy for everyone. Refugees, foreign based policies and yes even our neighbors and family alike. It's like a slow rot within.
Refugees In America (Part 1) | ABC News (09/21/2016)
Part 2
When we lose compassion, empathy and trust with others throughout the world we slowly lose it within and among ourselves as well. Much of what we're witnessing today is a rising state of self interested divisiveness on almost every level of government and within our various groups of people. This because against all logic we no longer are open to the idea we all share a common bond even being we're all forced to spend our lives on this same planet we all need to share Is this the kind or world we want? I sure don't.
Is there evil out there? Absolutely, but first one has to recognize the evil of mental illness (ignoring reality) within oneself. One guy put it this way... John 8:7- "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.. ". Put simply, there's no justification for the way people are acting these days against others. These are those who make it miserable for everyone else. We can choose for ourselves to either add to the misery or help make this a better world.
As for myself, whether there's a life hereafter or not, I don't want to spend my remaining days in fear and suspicion. Nor contribute to the woes others must needlessly suffer because of false beliefs or prejudices which documented facts speak otherwise.
Kudos to all the local law enforcement officers and federal agents regarding Saturday night's bomb explosion in Chelsea New York.
The New York Post (09/19/2016)-- "Authorities were able to link the cell phone to 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami who was wounded in a police shootout in New Jersey Monday morning and taken into custody, sources said."
The Penn State Operating Budget for 2016-2017 is $5.1 billion. Presently there are 97,494 students enrolled at Penn State. At that rate the costs are $52,310 per student.
We out of compassion were forced to put down Salem. "Bud" was with us for 16 years. Out of all five cats he lasted the longest.
Each became part of our family. Only one died on her own, Samantha
Never again do the wife and I want to be forced to decide ending one of our cat's lives to relieve them of their suffering because of our compassion for them. Never again to choose between our own selfishness for wanting to keep them in our lives as long as possible over the selflessness of having to stand in judgment over ending their lives.
I feel both sadness and anger with the "universe" which allows such disconnect with those we love to come into our lives, taking them away and forbids us ever again to remain part of whatever or wherever they go after this life. It's cruel and hurtful. For this reason I still remain in doubt whether our creator is a compassionate loving God or more like the uncaring self centered humans whom are said in Genesis to have been created in his image.
Each week I compile a list of shows we want to watch. In a few weeks new and returning shows will begin airing. Looking over my list the following won't be coming back. By nature I hate change. I know we liked these but not sure which of the new ones are going to be worth watching. You almost dread becoming attached to any of these new ones realizing another whole batch of these will be cancelled no matter how fond you grow of them after only a few episodes.
Syfy has become the slasher channel for tweens. History channel has become home to pickers, pawn stars and a couple of goofy alien programs that ask more questions then it answers. About all USA airs is reruns and WWE. It seems the majority of cable channels owned by the major networks don't know what to do with them. Instead they park their old reruns and other shows which wouldn't even meet the standards for free channel access by local cable companies.
I'm still brooding over the loss of 'The West Wing', 'Boston Legal', 'Stargate' and several other extremely well written shows. Networks today don't want to invest the money for educated writers who not only entertain but are well versed in the background of scripts they create. Looking back over my list there was something which could be learned from them because there was some sort of background substance in them.
In other words any show which might cause people to think a little bit has been replaced by inexpensive so-called reality and competition shows.
The kind of programming that requires neither writing skills nor cause anyone to get a headache from having to think too much. << Putting it kindly
Without going into details we already had our own incident last Saturday.
Some 60 or so revelers showed up in one of the neighborhood off student rental homes in which an ambulance was called for one of their guest. It was either a overdose of alcohol and/or drugs at the end of the first week of classes.
Let me see if I can put this in the most gentle way possible.
Congress and/or the FDA needs to get off their asses and put an end to this bullshit. How many people have to die before government leaders tell these lobbyists from the pharmaceutical industry go straight to hell ?
I'm 100% convinced even if Pennsylvania received double the income they'd still manage to find a way to go broke. A couple of other things worth noting.
We're seeing an epidemic like never before from cheap street drugs like these as well the abuse of prescription medicines. This may become a greater problem facing us then from terrorists, illegal immigrants and all the political corruption combined. If this continues to grow the slow rot from within will be a greater threat to this nation then any of our foreign enemies could ever pose. What a damn shame if this country should wither because of our own undoing.
This country has won nearly every battle it fought except the war against the use of drugs. There is not a government nor police force powerful enough on this Earth to eradicate this plague so long as so many people are willing to pollute themselves. Take away the demand and these problems will disappear. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the direction we are headed.
Why? Is it even possible to fix this plague throughout the world?
Black students have segregated housing options at Cal State LA-- "Black students at California State University, Los Angeles are being offered segregated housing options.. The decision comes nine months after the Black Student Union issued a set of demands for change to university officials.."
Does this now mean white students will be offered the same opportunity? Is this only not racist when blacks demand it? If not, what makes this any different? What would MLK have to say about this?
Even though I don't always post about everything I come across the wife has to put up with my blowing around about some of the stuff I read. This was one of those times. Starting Thursday it started to tick me off how every last living breathing media from the nationals to the locals kept pumping up the story. Even Gov. Christie got into the act unnecessarily alarming tourists. It was around Thursday when it began to become apparent to me this storm wasn't going to mean squat to the Jersey shore after it started heading out miles to sea. Yet here they all were hyping up what should have been a non story.
One TV station even aired footage someone uploaded aboard a ship headed from New York to St. Thomas repeatedly for three nights. Let me tell ya something. On one of our cruises we encountered 24' waves. Yeah it was a bit rocky but no big deal. After a few hours it actually was amusing to see us all walking around like we were tipsy with the rolling of the ship.
I was really annoyed and started turning the channel every time these fools were parroting each and another's reports along the beach with it's splashing waves. Yeah that happens all the time when waves slap against the sea wall at the northern end of Cape May and the wall in North Wildwood by the Hereford Inlet. Not unusual at all.
One of the things I kept repeating was what the hell are they trying to do! This will cost merchants millions upon millions of dollars for no reason. And so it has. If there were true justice it would allow these merchants to sue the crap out of everyone to recoup the money these fools cost them. These shore businesses have only 4 months or so to make their money for the year. The largest two weekends are memorial and labor day.
All these media geniuses know that. Yet went full steam ahead without due temperance how it would impact the shore merchants economy. This along with hyping up the story in any way they could by placing reporters and using previous footage from the Carolinas which had nothing to do with what was happening in Jersey at the time. Even at the height of the threat on Friday most reporters stood in front of only slightly turbulent waters in well known locations where waters tend to splash about even on clear windy days in Jersey just so they could grab an audience. Hell the storm wasn't even considered a hurricane anymore by Saturday.
Ah but that didn't stop them from predicting it would become one again by Sunday. What happened instead along the Jersey shore, Sunday and Monday the sun was shining both days. No flooding. Little if any damage. This didn't mean it was safe to go in the water, but other then that it would have been an ideal Labor Day Weekend at the shore for tourists.
When there is an actual threat of a hurricane how many are going to believe them anymore?
The following video mainly concerns how Costa Rica is intent on eliminating fossil fuels. It is another example how even a relatively unknown country can set a great example for the United States to follow.
Before getting into the video here's a few facts one might wish to educate themselves about Costa Rica.
I'm not making claims Costa Rica is a paradise. No nation is. Rather it should serve as another example of what the United States can learn from our neighbors. Then apply those things we ourselves may benefit from to make this a better nation.
