Alot of of the people in the small Missouri town of Ferguson want justice for Michael Brown, the 18 year old man that was shot and killed by a police officer. This rush to judgement is exactly what is wrong with the justice system.
There is a big difference between justice and the truth. Once the grand jury winds down sometime over the next weeks, we, as the public, will be privvy to the facts and crime scene evidence presented by police. It will be with this evidence and facts that we will be able to find out exactly what happened that tragic day.
I trust in the justice system because it works. In this case if it comes out that the police officer did indeed gun the teen down in cold blood, then he should be indicted and prosecuted.
However, I believe that even if the evidence shows that it was a good shooting, common police terminology for justifiable use of force, then I fully expect the grand jury to indict the officer only to calm the tension in the community. Indiciting the officer to calm the people down, fully confident he will be exhonerated at trial, could be walking a slippery slope.
If we indict police officers just to calm down protests then we are, in essence, negotiating with terrorists. They are using peaceful, yet sometimes violent protests, to directly impact criminal proceedings to their benefit or satisfaction.
If we start here, where will it end? Will we start indicting everyone that falls under protest? Of course not. I know more than 50% of Americans protest and complain against President Obama’s misuse of Executive Powers. There is no indictment there. Millions around the world protest and complain against the Greek economic collpase caused by the misappropriation of funds by the European Union. Still no indictment there.
No, I think this will only stop once there has been war declared on the American people by its own government. This war isn’t white and black. It isn’t even Muslim and Christian. It is a war between the haves and the have nots. Something is coming and it is coming soon. This is just the beginning.
Category Archives: Opinions
Beyond 2012
I ran across another cool video in the web and wanted to share it, because I think it will give a new perspective to concentrate on the state of the planet from a politicosocial standpoint instead of focusing on a natural reason of devastation. Enjoy.
Gun Laws On The Table?
The violence we see spreading from shopping malls in Oregon, to movie theaters in Colorado, to college campuses in Virginia, to elementary schools in Connecticut, is being spawned by the toxic view of a violent popular culture, a growing mental health crisis and the proliferation of combat-style weapons.
There are alot of us that are for stricter gun controls but also know we have a second amendment right to bear arms that we cannot afford to give away, so where do we go from here. Some believe we should ban assault weapons. Some think a limit on the number of rounds people can purchase.
This morning I put myself in the shoes of a Congressman and thought to myself, if I had the power to change things, what policies would instill into a bill. What I came up with was that if even just the principle had a concealed weapon, then things would have ended better.
After Columbine, we installed better security measures. We taught teachers how to identify situations and keep students safe. Teachers had to learn to counsel student victims of bullying to prevent volatile situations and how to handle naturally occuring disasters. Now, in the wake of a tragedy we have never seen before, we should train teachers in another important aspect of a quickly failing society.
To shoot to kill. Along with a college degree and a clean criminal record, teachers should have a CHL(Concealed Handgun License) and a handgun locked in a safe in their desks I think violence in schools would cease.
Sure, violence will always arise in places because of the dramatization of violence and guns in music, movies, and art, but Lanza and the Trench Coat Mafia, would have thought better of walking into a school to massacre children when 100 school staff is packing protection.
When it comes to mental health issues in people, this is complicated, we’ve got to find a way to create a society in which those closest to people in trouble, mentally, acknowledge that and help them secure assistance.
As for violence in the entertainment and video game industry, I think we really do have to reopen the conversation and go back and ask ourselves, is there more we can do?
How Apes Became Human Part 2: Bone Structure
As I discussed in part one, bipedalism, the ability to walk upright on two legs, was the first genetic transition that occured in the human-ape split timeline.
Indeed our ancestors’ anatomy underwent all sorts of basic changes to accomodate this new upright way of walking. Many of these changes that occured would have had to help the body stay balanced and comfortable by countering and stabilizing the weight bearing loads and keeping the upper body balanced above the feet. To walk upright in a habitual way, you have to do it in a synchronous manner. If your joints, muscles, and ligaments are not aligned properly it leads to injuries, which would have led the earliest ancestors to become prey, not predator.
The most crucial evolutionary changes in the bone structure were those in the torso, chest and spine. The distance between the chest and the pelvis is larger in humans than in apes, allowing the spine to curve pushing the upper body centered above the pelvis bones for balance. The pelvis grew wider and humans developed a hip joint and other ligaments that stabalize the pelvis, thats why humans do not sway side to side when they walk, apes do.
Even more changes took place in the legs. On the thighbone, the bent part at the top is broader in humans than in apes, which increases balance. The human knee, too, is specialized for upright movement. To compensate for the thighbones being angled, there’s a groove at the end of the femur to prevent the kneecap from sliding off the joint. An ape doesn’t have this groove due to the lack of angulation between the knee and the pelvis. This change meant you were biped.
Lastly, there is the foot. What’s so important here is the height difference in the arch of the foot. The arch is larger and higher on humans than on apes. The arch is a great shock absorber. To create such an arch the ape’s opposable big toe became aligned with the others, and the muscles and ligaments used to grasp trees repositioned under the foot.
Many other changes took place over millions of years and thousands of generations. In the next part I will discuss the evolutionary transits that occured on the exterior.
How Apes Became Humans Part 1: Bipedalism
For nearly 300 years, paleontologists have suspected that bipedalism, the ability to walk on two legs, was the first evolutionary transition that split the human genetic line from that of the apes, and skeletal remains from those such as Java Man and Lucy, have supported this claim.
I want to discuss and pin down the why. What caused apes to evolve the same bipedalism that would start the chain reaction of evolutions that would eventually turn Ardipithicus ramidas kadabba into homo sapiens.
We must first take a look back at the area and time from before the human line first began to evolve.
There is an area in Ethiopa called the middle awash. Today it is nothing more than a hot, harsh, rock desert punctuated by tree-lined rivers and patches of lava dried up by the twice-a-year torrent of rain.
But around 5.5 million years ago, the landscape was very different here. The land was almost a mile higher than it is today due to tectonic shifting. As a result the environment here was cooler and wetter and overgrown with grass, bushes and trees. It was a rainforest inhabited by primitive elephants, giant rats, pigs, monkeys, and horses, along with dozens of other species long since extinct.
It was around this time a new type of primate arose. An animal not so different than it’s knuckle-walking cousins before it including fur, a small brain and , except one thing. It walked on two legs upright instead of scurrying along like a chimp on all fours.
This much we know as scientific fact, but what I am interested in is the harder to figure out, why.
Common accepted knowledge is that Africa began to change around the time that humans first evolved. The changes, becoming drier and hotter, would have shown favor of grasslands over forests, deserts over lakes, and our ancestors began to evolve in order to take advantage of the new conditions.
We learned to walk upright, so goes the theory, to be able to spot predators and prey alike over the tall grasses. Also, an upright position as opposed to a hunched over position, makes for a smaller target for the hot blazing sun and a larger target for cooling breezes.
The only problem I see with that theory is that it is wrong. While walking upright may have begun as behavior, evolution demands an explanation as to why the behavior persisted throughout thousands of generations. Looking at it logically, walking upright just doesn’t make sense. For our earliest ancestors, walking upright on two legs would have been slower than walking on four legs while expending the same amount of energy.
My theory is that bipedalism persisted through generations for one reason. Sex.
Much like other primates will stand on their back legs to display their dominance, our ancestors did the same. Those that stood, walked, hunted, or ran upright the most or most proficiently got more and more sex leading to more and more offspring that were also proficient in waking upright.
If males were out hunting and bringing home the Miocene equivalent of the bacon, then they would need their hands free to carry it. Over time, females would only choose to mate with those males who brought them food. Those were the males who were best adapted at walking upright.
The evolutionary transition of walking upright on two legs from lumbering on four was a genetic reward from mother nature for sex. Just a byproductual transformation from a primate’s basic instinct.
2012 Apocalypse??
December 21, 2012 is near. So is the end of the world. Or is it?
If you believe in the alleged Mayan prophecies, the world is set to end in just nine days. Yes, NINE DAYS. Better wipe out that savings account and do all the living you can before it comes.
You think that sounds crazy? Just do a google search for 2012 Mayan Prophecy. Pages and pages of results. Of people ‘living their last days. Of stories of the end of the world.
Alot of people have misinterpreted what the end of the Mayan calendar means.
Misinformation on the internet and television says that because the Mayan Calendar ends on December 21, 2012 that the world will end also. The truth is that the truth is not quite as interesting.
Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then—just as your calendar begins again on January 1—another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar as well.
Think of it is a clock. You use your clock to count the number of hours in a day, from midnight to midnight. Well, just because your 24 hour cycle is over you don’t buy a new clock to start a new 24 hour period. You use the same clock for the next cycle.
Either way, whether you are spending all of your money and building yourself an ark or stockpiling food and ammo, I’ll see you all for Christmas. Happy holidays.
Gun Control Laws
This morning evil visited Conneticut and brought tragedy with it. More than a dozen children woke up, grabbed their backpacks, hopped on the bus to their elementary school, and were dead before lunch.
The shooting spree lasted less than 10 minutes, but that was long enough to leave multiple families childless. We are heartbroken, yes, all of us, but in the wake of tragedy comes an opportunity.
We have the opportunity now to discuss stricter gun laws. I have heard people say now is not the time to discuss the incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School being a precedent for gun laws. I disagree, because ever since Columbine, it should be all we talked about until it changed something.
If the teachers had been allowed to carry a concealed weapon on the premises this could have ended better. I know some of you are weary of the teachers carrying a handgun would be more volatile, but think about it, it’s never the teachers that shoot up the school, it is always a student or disgruntled former student.
Jose Luis Nunez had a handgun in order to protect his son. The 4 year-old accidentally shot himself in the face with it in Houston on Tuesday. Joseph V. Loughrey had one for the same reason, and his 7-year-old son, Craig, died on
Saturday outside of Pittsburgh when that handgun accidentally went off while the boy was getting into his safety seat in front of a gun store.
And that was just this week. The same week that the NRA proudly tweeted it had reached 1.7 million “likes” on Facebook.
We cherish individuality in America. We see raising children as no one else’s business, and we have never managed to band together as a “parenting” bloc. It is
time. Guns are a parenting issue and we need to control them in the name of the children who died this morning. Even more, we need to do it in the name of their mothers and fathers.
So cry today. Comfort your kids. Curse, and pray. Then pick up the phone, a pen, a keyboard, or your checkbook and make your demands heard for stricter gun laws. All day and every day. But most especially, today.
Wendy’s Future
In today’s society, nothing can grab the attention of a consumer than value. Nowhere is that more true than in the fast food business, and Wendy’s is no exception.
Customer traffic at Wendy’s has been “flat to slightly down”
this year, Chief Financial Officer Steve Hare told investors
at a conference Wednesday. “I think one of the reasons…is because we’ve been more effective on the premium side than on the value side,” he added.
Wendy’s is in the midst of revitalizing, both, it’s image and menu, in hopes of becoming viewed as “a cut above”
traditional fast food. The chain’s premium burgers, salads and sandwiches also generate higher profit margins and have thus been of greater interest to franchisees.
“We’re so large; we also have to be competitive on the value side of the business,” Mr. Hare said. “And that’s one of the areas where we’ve been inconsistent.”
For 2013, Wendy’s is working with franchisees to come
up with a core menu of 99-cent items that every location will offer, and then another grouping of slightly
higher-priced signature items and more-filling foods that still represent value.
I, for one, think it is a good idea because it serves as a base model for other fast food chains to follow suit. In Texas, the McDonalds brand has a dollar menu that includes its large drinks but in Las Vegas, Nevada the McDonalds does not. Defining a set value menu to be offered at all corporate and franchised locations will increase the traffic of consumers whom the failing economy has hit, of which there are more of today than just 6 years ago.
Not everything on an establishment’s menu should designated premium and certainly shouldn’t be priced as such. Though the rising costs of food remain a challenge for all companies, value today will drive your core bottom line up and raise customer satisfaction.
Sad Day in Conneticut
In an emotional response to the horrific school shooting in Newtown,
Connecticut, President Obama said
today, “As a country, we have been
through this too many times.”
“Whether it’s an elementary school in Newtown, a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora…these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods and these children are our children,” he continued, appearing to choke up at times. “We’re going to have
to come together to take meaningful
action… regardless of the politics.”
Around 9:30 a.m. this morning, a man armed with at least two guns opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The shooting left 27 people dead, including at least 18 children ages five to 10 years old. The shooter, identified as 20-year-old Ryan Lanza, is now dead. The motive for the shootings is still unclear, but Lanza’s mother was a teacher at the school.
Most of the shootings were in her
classroom, and Lanza’s mother was
among the dead. Mr. Obama was first notified of the shooting at 10:30 a.m. by Homeland Security Adviser John Brennan.
The president called Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy, the governor’s office said today, to express his condolences and pledge whatever resources the federal government can bring to bear to assist the families and the investigation.
According to the White House, the
president also spoke with FBI Director Robert Mueller about the incident, and the FBI providing support to state and local police.
Restaurant Jobs “On the rise.”
According to the National Restaurant Association, this year will mark the 4th consecutive year of real growth for the industry, because of record sales to exceed 660 billion dollars. That’s a 3.8% increase according to the Restaurant Industry Forecast released today.
This is supposed to mean that the nation’s nearly one million food service establishments will continue their lead role as job creators in 2013.
This is true to a certain extent. As a worker in the above mentioned industry, I can tell you that the main reason for job creation in this business is the minimum required salaries. When it is cheap to hire hourly employees then employers will hire more workers.
The problem, though, is that I fear a decline in the growth of our sector. In an age of political corruptness, a backsliding economy, and the rising costs of food, it is more pertinent now, than ever, to downsize a workforce just to add a minute amount to your bottom line.
While restaurants are cutting employees and costs, those that do get to work are forced to work part time so the company doesn’t have to include healthcare benefits. Without good pay, benefits, and regular hours, people aren’t going to want to show up for work anyway. Getting quality, highly trained employees is even harder because of it.
I am of the opinion that minimum wages for food service employees should be on par with the salaries of other service industries. Benefits should be standard practice and regular hours a must. If we can get over this hurdle then we might truly see real growth.
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