August 27, 2014

From the facebook page of Charles Vacca, the range instructor who was killed by a 9 year old

Shooting Instructor Dies After Being Accidentally Shot In The Head By Student

Charles Vacca was a shooting instructor in Nevada who was teaching a 9 year-old girl on vacation from New Jersey how to shoot an UZI.... yeah, an UZI.

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From the facebook page of Charles Vacca, the range instructor who was killed by a 9 year old with an UZI http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevada/shooting-instructor-dies-after-being-accidentally-shot-girl

Here are some of the pictures he posted to Facebook:







Hard to argue with him since he went out and proved it. Looks like there is one less tea party member in Lake Havasu City.



MORE:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/arizona-girl-accidentally-shoots-instructor-in-head

August 27, 2014

Rams’ Chris Long: Dear ESPN, Everyone but you is over it.

Rams’ Chris Long Tweets Perfect Response To ESPN Report On Mike Sam’s Showers

http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2014/08/26/3476114/espn-asks-rams-players-if-they-are-showering-with-michael-sam/

August 26, 2014

New Audio: At least 10 gunshots — a cluster of six, followed by four.

The FBI has questioned a man who says he recorded audio of gunfire at the time Brown was shot by Ferguson police on August 9, the man’s attorney told CNN.

In the recording, a quick series of shots can be heard, followed by a pause and then another quick succession of shots.

Forensic audio expert Paul Ginsberg analyzed the recording and said he detected at least 10 gunshots — a cluster of six, followed by four.

“I was very concerned about that pause … because it’s not just the number of gunshots, it’s how they’re fired,” the man’s attorney, Lopa Blumenthal, told CNN’s Don Lemon. “And that has a huge relevance on how this case might finally end up.”


http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/26/us/michael-brown-ferguson-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

August 26, 2014

Ta-Nehisi Coates: "if Michael Brown was not angelic, I was practically demonic."

Michael Brown's Unremarkable Humanity
On Monday, The New York Times published a profile of the dead St. Louis teenager, calling him "no angel"—part of a dubious language of "morality" about black men.

TA-NEHISI COATES
AUG 25 2014, 4:48 PM ET

The New York Times has a feature today looking at the brief life of Michael Brown, informing us that he was "no angel." The reasons for this are many. Brown smoked marijuana. He lived in a community that "had rough patches." He wrote rap songs that were "by turns contemplative and vulgar." He shoplifted and pushed a store clerk who tried to stop him. These details certainly paint a portrait of a young man who failed to be angelic. That is because no person is angelic—least of all teenagers—and there is very little in this piece that distinguishes Brown from any other kid his age.

What horrifies a lot of us beholding the spectacle of Ferguson, beholding the spectacle of Sanford, of Jacksonville, is how easily we could see ourselves in these kids. I shudder to think of my reaction, at 17, to some strange dude following me through my own housing development. I shudder to think of my reaction, at 17, to some other strange dude pulling up next to me and telling me to turn down my music.

And if Michael Brown was not angelic, I was practically demonic. I had my first drink when I was 11. I once brawled in the cafeteria after getting hit in the head with a steel trash can. In my junior year I failed five out of seven classes. By the time I graduated from high school, I had been arrested for assaulting a teacher and been kicked out of school (twice.) And yet no one who knew me thought I had the least bit of thug in me. That is because I also read a lot of books, loved my Commodore 64, and ghostwrote love notes for my friends. In other words, I was a human being. A large number of American teenagers live exactly like Michael Brown. Very few of them are shot in the head and left to bake on the pavement.

The "angelic" standard was not one created by the reporter. It was created by a society that cannot face itself, and thus must employ a dubious "morality" to hide its sins. It is reinforced by people who have embraced the notion of "twice as good" while avoiding the circumstances which gave that notion birth. Consider how easily living in a community "with rough patches" becomes part of a list of ostensible sins. Consider how easily "black-on-black crime" becomes not a marker of a shameful legacy of segregation but a moral failing.

We've been through this before. We will almost certainly go through it again.

MORE:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/08/michael-browns-unremarkable-humanity/379080/

August 26, 2014

multiple choice

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/08/17/236691/mcclatchy-cartoons-for-the-week.html

August 26, 2014

No such thing as a good kill...

the terminology itself is revolting.




The rally, which drew only two non-white participants, also focused on the theme of “innocent until proven guilty,” and to illustrate this, most of the people interviewed by Dalrymple were quite certain that Michael Brown was a violent thug who assaulted Wilson, who had no choice other than to shoot him to death:

“We’ll all see this in the end that it was a good shooting. You know, it was a good kill,”

said Tina Morrison, a former Ferguson resident, pictured with the pink sign up top.

Read more at Wonkette: http://wonkette.com/558148/dozens-rally-in-st-louis-to-declare-we-are-all-a-cop-who-killed-an-unarmed-teen#ixzz3BSbDzZqC
Read more at http://wonkette.com/558148/dozens-rally-in-st-louis-to-declare-we-are-all-a-cop-who-killed-an-unarmed-teen#x1sv8uv6yF8b0fWX.99

Really? a good kill.

either every life is precious or it is not.
There is no winner when someone dies like this. None.
justified or not, this is a tragedy.
no matter the facts, this is a tragedy on so many levels.

In the human caring sense, I support both the police and the citizens of Ferguson... and above all, I support that the truth will come out, and that we all we make changes to see that this never happens again.

Is it okay to get shot for jaywalking - no.
is it okay to get shot for swearing - no.
is it okay to get shot for running away - no.
is it okay to get shot for hitting someone with your fists... for fighting - no.

I'm sure I could go on.

May truth and peace prevail.

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1324512/54322919#c31

August 26, 2014

Fox "News" guest: Was Michael Brown too large to be an ‘unarmed teen’?

Appearing on Fox & Friends, a former nominee for Labor Secretary took the media to task for inflaming racial tensions by describing slain teen Michael Brown as “unarmed” when he was, in fact, “six foot four and weighed almost three hundred pounds.”

Linda Chavez, who was nominated to head up the U.S. Department of Labor by President George W. Bush but withdrew when it was discovered she employed an undocumented immigrant as a maid, wrote a column last week for the New York Post stating, “Publicly available videos and still photos of Brown and Wilson show significant size differences between the two men, with Brown looking to have a height advantage over Wilson and outweighing the officer by about 100 pounds.”

Chavez also repeated the now-discredited report http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/22/cnn-source-unequivocally-disputes-report-that-ferguson-officer-suffered-broken-bone/ that Brown punched officer Darren Wilson in the eye and “was treated at a hospital for facial wounds, perhaps even a fracture to his eye socket.”


Speaking with host Steve Doocy, Chavez avoided addressing the errors in her column, instead blaming Attorney General Eric Holder and saying “the media has not acted responsibly.”

“I think the media has not acted responsibly,” she explained. “I think that what is happening is really not calming racial fears but is actually enhancing them by acting as if, you know, this mantra of the unarmed black teenager shot by a white cop. You know, that description in and of itself actually colors the way in which we look at this story. We’re talking about an 18-year-old man who is six foot four and weighs almost three hundred pounds, who is videotaped just moments before the confrontation with a police officer strong arming an employee and robbing a convenience store.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/25/fox-news-guest-thinks-unarmed-teen-narrative-is-misleading-because-michael-brown-was-large/

August 25, 2014

African-American police officer: Ferguson 'heart wrenching

Do you think it makes it easier for some of your co-workers to shoot dead a black man?

I don't feel they would have that same connection or compassion with that individual, so it may make it easier for them.

Do you think what's happened in Ferguson over the last couple of weeks might make some of your white colleagues listen more to the kind of things you and other African-American officers have been saying about their negative dealings with black people?

No, absolutely not. It's actually created that divide and made it larger. It's made it harder for me to want to talk to them about it any more.

They are so disconnected from it. Their rationale, perception and interpretation of the issues are so far-fetched.

The comments they make are very one-sided and show such a lack of compassion and understanding, or even the desire to understand. It's heart-wrenching. It's been very difficult.

So when black people in Ferguson say the issue is not just about Michael Brown, but the way they have been treated as a community, do you agree?

I can completely agree with that. It (the killing of Michael Brown) should be a learning experience.

Quite possibly the officer was in fear, as was the young man. It is sad no one is addressing that. Why was he (the police officer) so afraid of him that he had to use such intense force, and why was (Michael Brown) in such fear that it happened [that] way?

I don't know who is to blame for these perceptions, but it's almost like a fear-based society. You're told this certain type of people behaves in a certain type of way, and it sticks with you throughout your life. They never take the time to find out if it's true.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-28890068

August 25, 2014

Maybe (Duh) The Libertarian Movement Does Not Really Exist

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/25/in-search-of-libertarians/http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/pew-research-libertarian-study

August 25, 2014

Good.