Good Morning! It's a beautiful sunny, hot Memorial Day in Maryland. Over 85 degrees and climbing.
All over the State, as I'm sure it is in the rest of America, parades are weaving through cities and towns in honor of our veterans, living and dead. Even me... I was technically in the Korean War, even though I spent my 4 year enlistment in Germany, the still bombed-out Germany of the 1950's.
Crazy news!
A 16 year old boy in Scranton told police that he shot and killed a cab driver because he was: "taking the long way and ripping him off."
When the police asked him why that bothered him enough to kill, he responded: "That's what I do to people who don't listen."
Wait for the copycats!
Marijuana: Candidates for the Maryland House of Delegates from my district were asked their position on the legalization of pot.
Republican candidates gave a resounding NO WAY! Democratic candidates said LETS WAIT AND SEE how those places that have legalized it make out.
Mandatory Sentencing: The Alleyne v United States decision by the Supreme Court last year found that juries, not judges, should decide whether a defendant committed crimes that trigger a mandatory minimum sentence. This has apparently caused mass confusion in some Court systems, especially in Pennsylvania. Interesting.
Most Wanted: My colleague, Jim, on the local TRIAD/SALT counsel, is the guy who puts pictures of criminals in the newspaper each week. They show up under the Most Wanted heading and some characteristics are listed to help in identification. Today, one guy's entry showed: HAIR: Blonde. However, his picture shows a guy with a billiard ball shine where hair should be. I'll have to needle Jim about that one.
Nice Bird News: A lady named Sue Yingling writes a column in the local newspaper about birds seen in her backyard. Elaine and I enjoy her insights. We are privileged to see lots of birds where we live, for instance: blue birds, red winged blackbird (only one shows up), mocking birds, woodpeckers (2 kinds), blue jays, mourning doves, sparrows, cow birds, chickadees, cardinals, robins, starlings, finches (some yellow), and others like the giant hawks that Elaine often sees but I miss.
Book: I finished Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK by Bonnar Menninger. This was the book hinted at by Anonymous when I inquired about the Sun Paper reporter, Ralph Reppert. When I started the book, I believed that there was a conspiracy about the assassination. However, having read the book and reviewed the evidence presented over the years by Baltimore Gun Expert, Howard Donahue, I now believe that the third shot, and the one that killed JFK, was accidently fired by a weapon that was already primed to fire when it was hurriedly picked up by a Secret Service Agent, who was jostled as he stood on the car seat. I don't think that the Secret Service has wanted to hear that and have ignored and/or maligned Mr. Donahue and his evidence. Read the book for yourself and decide.
I started to read: Whitey.. a life of Whitey Bulger, Southie Boston's answer to crime in the big city. The book was written by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill. Reading about his young life in Boston, I am reminded of myself at that age. My activity paralleled a lot of his. So... why did I turn out to be a "goody goody" person, and he turn out to be a vicious gang lord and murderer? I have my theories, which will be included as blog entries from time to time.
EVIL: The 16 year old boy mentioned above.. as well as Whitey.. and Hitler.. and Stalin.. and others could be called EVIL persons. Do you believe in SATAN? Do you think that he causes humans to do bad things? Why do some non-Christian religions believe in a benevolent SATAN? Fallen, but still "good" angel? Challenger of God? Or.. is EVIL just an evolutionary trait that helped mankind become master of other creatures? Whatever your belief, keep your eye out for an advertisement for my seminar on EVIL.. probably in August of this year.
Another Book: I just downloaded a book sample to my Kindle because I heard an interview on the Kojo Nambe Radio Show (DC) about it. The title is Villains, Scoundrels and Rogues by Paul Martin, retired National Geographic official. I read the first chapter, about the Bristol, Rhode Island merchant who was involved in the slave triangle during the 18th and 19th century. The triangle was: Shipping rum and household goods from Rhode Island to the West Coast of Africa, exchanging these goods for slaves and carrying them across the ocean to southern slave cities where the slaves were sold and goods bought to bring back to Rhode Island. Mr. DeWolf was the man who maintained this triangle, even when it was against the law. His ancestors today are trying to do good works in order to clean up the DeWolf name.
Other villains and scoundrels that I am anxious to read about are: John Parker, Abraham Lincloln's "would be" bodyguard who disappeared after Intermission, and whose disappearance allowed John Wilkes Boothe free access to Mr. Lincoln. Also: a Mr. Davenport, who developed the nasty science of Eugenics. (I am related to Davenports and I need to know if he was a kin.)
Enough!
No comments:
Post a Comment