International Eat Ice Cream For Breakfast Day

With all the turmoil and strife going on across the nation and abroad, I was looking for something a little more tasteful to write about this weekend...and I FOUND IT!

Did you know that the FIRST Saturday of February is "International Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day"?  I personally did not, but I hope some of you have been celebrating it since the original big day sometime back in the 60's.  It seems this holiday (though not nationally recognized) was invented by a mother in Rochester, New York as a means of diversion on a snowy weekend when the kids could spend little if any time outside.

Now from I know about kids, it actually seems a little counter-productive, as the ice cream would seem more likely to rev up a kid than to calm him down on a snowed-in day.  But apparently the idea worked.  The kids had an ice cream breakfast and seemed to enjoy it.  I have to think that the scandalous idea of eating ice cream instead of eggs for breakfast is what really appealed to the children.  Come to think of it, that scandalous idea appeals to me, too!

So, on the first Saturday in February, you know what I will be having for breakfast - ice cream!  And not just any old ice cream.  It will be Blue Bell's Dutch Chocolate ice cream!  By the way, the first Saturday in February falls on the 6th of the month.  If any of you decide to join me for an ice cream breakfast on February 6th, shoot me a comment and let me know.

God Bless America...and thank God for ice cream!

Midland County Makes The News Saturday - But Not In The Good Way

Midland County made local, state, regional, national, and probably even the London, news, on Saturday when officers with the Midland County Sheriff's Office raided a "cockfight" in progress.  I am sure several other law enforcement agencies must have assisted, but I do not have a list at this moment, although it almost goes without saying that the Border Patrol was represented in the raid.  By the time it was over, more than thirty people from three states and the nation of Mexico were in custody, fifty roosters had been collected, and the usual assortment of dope, stolen property, stolen guns, and gambling money were confiscated.

I am somewhat ashamed for this county that such a large cockfight venue was located here and that many arrested.  I am even more ashamed that this is actually very common in Midland County and the surrounding area, and that there are so many people around here that do not feel the least remorse in being a part of this "sport."  The fact is that all one has to do is drive around this and other counties in the area to see all the homes and farms where fighting cocks are being raised and trained.  It is a big industry in West Texas, Southwest Texas, New Mexico, and of course in Mexico as well.  As far as I know, there is no law against raising fighting roosters - as long as one does not "fight" them.  But clearly, when one can see nothing but fighting cocks covering entire lots, indeed entire acres, there is no doubt what is the ultimate purpose.

As the fights are advertised, largely by word of mouth, people come from all over West Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma (yes, it's true!) and from Mexico.  And as if the cruelty of this sport were not bad enough, we must factor in the criminal element that is attracted to such gatherings.  Gambling on the fights, though of course illegal, is very profitable, and those who are involved in the gambling are often involved in other criminal activity as well.  For instance, drugs are bought and sold, firearms are traded or sold, circumventing license requirements, and allowing felons to obtain weapons.  And even stolen property changes hands at these events.  At Saturday's raid, it is very fortunate that no one attempted to shoot officers as they arrived on the scene.

By now most of those arrested have bonded out of jail, or have been placed in detention awaiting deportation.  These people do not realize and/or do not care about the harm they are doing to the animals, the general feeling of safety and order, and the reputation of this city and county.  From what I have seen personally, cockfighting will be a big sport around here for years to come.  And I am sure, much to the dismay of most the good people in Midland, we will make the news again in virtually the same way in just a few months.  Well, I can hope not...but the number of rooster farms and sales of fighting cock equipment and accessories are not indicative that the end will come any time soon.

Midland will make the news once again...but not in the good way.

"If"

 

I must confess, although I have read several of Kipling's works, I had never read this one until yesterday.  This poem is so impressive, and so motivating, I decided to allow Mr. Kipling to be my guest blogger for today.  So I give you Rudyard Kipling's "If"

 

 

IF

 

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

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Source: A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1943)

2016 Already Deadly For Police Officers

With the passing of the first few weeks of January, already three police officers across the nation have been killed.  One of those perished in an on-duty car accident.  The other two were murdered, one in Utah and one in Ohio.  The nature of these two deaths is disturbing, and officers should take note.

Officer Douglas Barney, of Salt Lake City, had responded to an automobile accident that occurred on a city road at ten in the morning.  Broad daylight!  As the officer arrived, one of the drivers and a passenger began walking away.  As the officer approached to ask for the driver's information, the driver shot the officer in the head.  He and the female companion fled.

Assisting officers arrived a short time later and located the suspect.  A gunfight followed in which the killer was shot dead and a police officer was wounded.  During the confusion the female slipped away.  The killer turned out to be a wanted felon, with both state and federal warrants out for his arrest.

So police officers need to approach all situations with one eye on danger, even as simple a call as a minor accident.  I have personally arrested several felons in the process of working car accidents.  I was luckier than Officer Barney, because I did not pay for a similar mistake with my life.  On that particular day the felon tried to "play it cool" until he realized that I was about to learn he was wanted.  He acted in a similar manner as Officer Barney's killer, by "edging" toward the back of the crowd as I was running his name through TLETS.  I saw what he was doing at that point, but during the previous fifteen or so minutes he could have done something worse.  Luckily he was unarmed, and I survived, a much smarter officer in just a couple minutes.

In Ohio, Officer Thomas Cottrell, Danville Police, was simply shot out of ambush.  Someone hid in the shadows outside the city building and just waited for a police officer to come to the building on business.  As the officer got out of his car and walked toward the back of the building, he was shot by a local man who had some minor run-ins with police over the years, although not necessarily with Officer Cottrell.  The killer took the slain officer's weapon and also stole the patrol vehicle.  As is most often the case, the killer was later confronted head on by two officers and meekly surrendered, as the press often says.  This killer, like the man who shot the off-duty deputy in Houston a couple of months ago, wanted to kill a police officer, but was a coward when it came time to look into gun barrels himself.  Those police officers, still saddened and angry at the murder of their friend, took the high road and gave the killer an opportunity to surrender...an offer the killer himself did not make to his victim.

In Midland this week an officer going above and beyond the call of duty to help out a cold and penniless "homeless" person also found out the person was a wanted felon.  The officer was prepared to spend money out of his own pocket to help this man.  In the end the officer found out the person's right name and checked him.  The man indeed was running from a felony charge.  The officer's vigilance kept the this situation from ending badly for all concerned.

So to all police officers, please stay safe, trust your gut, act on those "feeling" when you believe something is just "not right" with a person.  I hope and pray for a safer year for police officers as 2016 moves forward...

And God Bless America

Sickness And Trying To Blog

After four days of really feeling badly, losing interest in most things except sleep, and being sort of confused or easily befuddled, first due to lack of medicine, then as result of TAKING the medicine, I have been lax about this blogging business.  Also, the foggy state of my brain kept me from focusing on any one of so many events, celebrity and other deaths, weird news stories, and aliens (ET's).  After getting some steroids and anti-biotics on board, I am feeling much better.

So I am more in the weird news mode tonight, and this story snagged my attention immediately!  Here is a link, although there are many more:

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/deputies-alleged-burglar-killed-alligator-while-fl/npdzS/


The burglar suspect (and I emphasize "suspect" as he was not charged with this crime or others that I know of) was running from the police after a home owner caught him and his partner in the act.  I do not know whether this man was an "outdoorsman" type or whether he was an urban guy.  Either way, he eluded pursuing deputies by climbing down into a stock tank that was unfortunately near an open waterway.  The young possible burglar was very cool.  While in the pond he used his cellular phone to call his spouse and tell her he was hiding from the police.  The woman could hear the police radios in the background during the phone call.  The young man told her the deputies were getting close and ended the phone call.  It turned out that the deputies did not see him and continued past his place of concealment as they pressed the manhunt.

Fast forward three days.  A very upset, near hysterical woman calls the local sheriff's office to report her husband missing.  And she has the courage to tell the police the circumstances concerning her man's disappearance.  The police return to the last place they saw the suspected burglar - at the little stock pond.  A short search produces remnants of a person, with just enough clothing and other details to positively identify him as the cat-burglar with a suddenly shortened career.

Crime does not always pay, and many times it cost the criminal more than he will ever make as a thief.  Alligators, on the other hand, do not discriminate between criminals and honest persons - both are just tasty morsels to a hungry reptile.  To all burglars in the deep south, DO NOT HIDE WITH THE ALLIGATORS UNLESS YOU KNOW THEY HAVE ALREADY EATEN.

(while this is a tongue-in-cheek posting, my sympathy to the family who lost a loved one.  He was wrong to choose a life of crime, but his crimes (if he indeed committed them) would not have drawn the death penalty.  Some commenters called this instant justice; however, the Good Book tell us that the thief who breaks in and steals in the daylight does not deserve death.)

 

Mexico's Civil War Contiues: El Chapo Recaptured

Today Mexican Marines recaptured Sinoloa Cartel leader Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman in a raid in Los Mochis, Sinoloa.  El Chapo escaped from prison in 2015 and was on the loose for months prior his recapture.  But the Drug War there goes on, and I believe it is in reality a "civil" war.  Last year nearly 20,000 Mexicans were killed in this war.

I have termed this war a civil war because in reality it involves a struggle between legitimate government (the people) and criminal enterprises (again, the people).  These criminal enterprises, the various "cartels" that control the drug trade in their respective "jurisdictions" are actually engaged in rebelling against and overthrowing the elected government.  The cartels have infiltrated the military, the civilian government at all levels, and industry.  One level of government the cartels have penetrated (maybe this is an industry as well) is the Mexican prison system.

El Chapo will return to a prison somewhere in Mexico.  This is what is supposed to happen.  Now, factor in the various cartels.  There is no way to know how many members of what cartels work in, cater to, or even ADMINISTRATE the prisons there.  El Chapo will be once again housed in a prison somewhere that may be operated to some extent by cartel-connected guards, officers, and even wardens.  To help prevent another "escape" the United States Department of Justice, through Attorney General Lynch, has mentioned that perhaps El Chapo would stay in prison longer if he were extradited to the United States, where he has been indicted by several states and the federal government for various narcotic and racketeering law violations. 

I believe that this is a valid concern.  We have in seen in Mexico both corrupt prison administrators and guards, and intimidated prison officials.  Who can blame a prison warden for letting all the prisoners go, when his entire family is threatened with death?  This is believed to have been what facilitated El Chapo's escape in the first place.  On the other hand, if El Chapo were guarded by corrupt prison officials, he could easily buy his way out of prison.  Either way, there is a strong likelihood that El Chapo will again somehow get out of jail a little early if he remains in the Mexican prison system.

President Nieto has his work cut out for him.  One, he has to keep El Chapo in prison somehow, while at the same time convincing the United States DOJ that El Chapo will indeed serve his sentence in Mexico.  That is a problem, but there is a bigger problem for President Nieto.  He has to find some means of stopping the war.  He may not be successful, as none of his predecessors have.  At stake are not just the drug trade profits, but now the much diversified enterprises the cartels control.  The combined cartel budgets are probably a match for that of the Mexican government.  This is speculation on my part, but I am sure you can find sources that would support this speculation.  But there is another statistic that is more alarming to me.

In the years from 2007 through 2014, approximately 21, 415 Afghanistan citizens were killed in the ongoing US created "war on terror" (WOT).  Turning to Iraq, 81,636 Iraqis have perished in the ongoing civil war there, again a result of the US created WOT.  But in Mexico during those same seven years, 164,345 people have died in the War On Drugs.  Arguably the United States started this one as well.  But the death toll in Mexico is hardly news-worthy anymore.  We in the United States are concerned about where we can "safely" travel in Mexico, but beyond that we hardly bat an eye at what is  happening over there.  To the Mexicans, death is so frequent and so close that many citizens just exist, no longer having any faith in the federal government, and awaiting the inevitable cartel "takeover" of their towns and villages.

So El Chapo has been recaptured.  That is one up for the Mexican government and the brave Marines who took part in the raid.  The Marines are particularly brave given that they probably have cartel infiltrators in their own numbers, some of whom may have tipped off (or tried to tip off) El Chapo that they were on the way to capture him.  I wonder how many will give their lives to keep this worthless criminal in jail, and how many others will die until the Mexican government finally defeats the cartels and brings law and order back to that nation.

Good luck, President Nieto, and may God bless all the Mexican people.

Gallup Poll: Most Admired Man and Woman, 2015

I do not spend a lot of time reading polls, even if they are done by the respected Gallup Company; however, the Gallup poll released yesterday really grabbed my attention.  This poll intrigued me somewhat because of the topic, "the most admired man and woman of 2015."  Actually the topic was less interesting than the people who were chosen under this criteria.  President Obama was the most admired man of 2015, says Gallup, while Hillary Clinton took the top woman's position.  But more interesting to me was that Rev. Billy Graham, the Dali Lama, and Pope Francis were listed in the same poll in the Top Ten.  Talk about diversity!

Donald Trump was the fifth highest except that he TIED with Pope Francis!  Some people esteem a wealthy entrepreneur as much as others esteem a world spiritual leader.  Gallup officials state that sitting presidents are almost always in the Top Ten or at THE TOP of the list each year.  That might in some way explain why our current leader, President Obama, got top billing; however, how can that logic explain why Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman in the nation?  Who can say?  But neither the President nor Hillary Clinton are MY most admired people of the year.  And as usual, no one from Gallup Poll contacted me for my input.  Curiously, I do not know ANYONE who has ever been polled by Gallup, but I suppose such people really must exist.

One interesting and heartening highlight of the Gallup Poll was that Rev. Billy Graham has finished in the Top Ten for FIFTY-NINE YEARS!  Not fifty-nine consecutive years, because he finished below the Top Ten in 1962, and a poll was not taken in 1976, but 59 Top Ten finishes nonetheless.  No one else has come close!  President Reagan has been in the Top Ten 28 times, President Carter 27, and (INEXPLICABLY in my opinion) President Clinton comes in fourth so far, with 24 Top Ten finishes.

People are strange animals, and there is sometimes no accounting for taste.  One man's Judas is another man's Obama.  Oh how diverse, and seemingly irreconcilable, are our opinions.  I am disgusted that these two people, President Obama and Hillary Clinton, both enemies of our democratic republic, are chosen as the most admired man and woman of the past year.  Yet how sweet it is that Rev. Graham, Pope Francis, and the Dali Lama are also admired by Americans as well.

Well, Mr. Gallup, thanks for an interesting poll, one of the few I have read in several years, and....

God Bless America

2016 Five Days Old

2016 arrived in my home town just behind a record snow storm.  I did not really celebrate on New Year's Eve as my bride was out of town, so I did not imbibe in intoxicating beverages.  Fate must have had a hand in it because the next morning (while getting ready to leave town) I was summoned to work; therefore, it was a good thing that I had no hangover on New Year's Day.

I worked all day then came home and quickly loaded my car with the duffel bag and other things I would take with me.  I was headed for Central Texas to visit my folks and to meet my lovely bride on Saturday, when she returned with her sister from visiting our relatives on the Third Coast. 

On the five hour trip to my mother's abode, I had plenty of time to think - to ruminate about my life, the events of the newly departed year, and what was in store in 2016.  Along with all the things going on in my personal life, there are many things going on in the political world, the world news scene, the gun-grabbing, executive order-obsessed person holding the White House just now, the War On Terror (WOT, and so many other things that make great blogger fodder.

The political scene in this state (Texas) and this nation (the United States) is quite volatile.  The division in this nation at this point in time seems no less than that going on in the United States of 1860.  So many things are going wrong in this nation and around the world.  The WOT has been raging now for much longer than our "police action" in Viet Nam, with no end in sight.  Along with the endless war is the never-ending erosion of our rights and freedoms at home.  People across this nation are suspicious of our government and fearful of our law enforcement agencies.

On the other hand, so many things are going right as we head into a new year.  I am speaking of personal things and family things, mostly, but also of things going on in the nation and the world.  A new granddaughter in the family has brought many of us closer together.  The parents of the granddaughter are blessings in our lives as well.  We did not lose a daughter...we gained a son.  Those words are so true.  And we have spent more time with our son during the past year or so than at any other time since he left high school.  Our family was blessed with the new baby not so long after we said goodbye to my bride's mother and to my sweet grandmother.  Sad as we were, we were so happy to have the little girl.  I am certain that the granddaughter and so many other things will bless our lives even more as the year goes on.

As I blog this year I hope to focus on positive and good things more so than on the negative and the gloom.  There are so many things that concern me, so many things that threaten the freedom of this nation, but there are also so many things that bless us (all of us) and I hope to feature these things as well.  I will continue also to honor the heroes of law enforcement as I have done in this blog for over five years.  But one thing I would like to do differently is also to honor heroes of our nation who are not members of law enforcement.  I have seen so many times that heroes can be ordinary people as well as our brave public servants, and I will feature some of these in my blog.

A mistake (or an intention) of our United States government is to use the awesome power (legal and illegal) at its disposal to "protect" American citizens from "terrorists" as well as from the government's perception that we do not know what is best for us in our personal and collective lives.  I intend to continue to write about government over-reach and the unconstitutional acts of our leaders when I feel that such actions warrant a little "coverage."

Finally I hope to write about things that will be of interest, things that may be a little obscure, and things that are close to my heart...hopefully to yours as well.  I look forward to blogging through this year and on into the next, or for as long as the Good Shepherd allows me to do so.  And I would like to say before I am finished with this first blog of 2016 that I am so happy that so many of you take the time to read my feeble words.  I am more excited than I can say when I see that there are readers not only in Texas, not only in the United States, but also in so many nations around the world.  I know you could choose to read anything, but you chose to honor me by giving me a few minutes of your life by reading my blog.  Not every blog will be Pulitzer Prize worthy, but every blog will be straight from my heart and hopefully will be interesting, thought-provoking, or even controversial.  Thank you all for your readership and your support.  Happy and prosperous New Year to all of you.