While the "new blogger" plays havoc with my posting schedule, I just wanted to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. While I am at it, Happy St. Patrick's Day. It may be that long before this gets fixed.
In the meantime, I thought this was a truly bittersweet YouTube video that all should watch.
Six year old Heather Martin sings a Christmas song for her brother in Iraq.
Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas. In the midst of abundance, let's remember those at war and those who have had war brought to them, and let's work hard for the REAL message of the season:
Peace on Earth.
12.26.2006
12.21.2006
At last, a substitute for Kudzu!
Mexican officials have found hybrid marijuana that grows in two months and is impervious to herbicide.
12.20.2006
12.19.2006
12.12.2006
What the heck is Mel Watt thinking?
I love Mel Watt, and I think he is a great North Carolinian and true public servant. But he is dead wrong on this one. A Party elected to power on a promise to clean house does not need to be putting William Jefferson in charge of a subcommittee. For that matter, it shouldn't be putting Alan Mullohan in charge of one either. Congratulate them both on their wins and send them to their nice new offices in the basement.
If you are serving the public, keep your nose clean.
If you are serving the public, keep your nose clean.
12.11.2006
Killed for a video game
Peyton Strickland may have been a guy who deserved punishment for allegedly stealing two Play Station III's from a UNC-W student in an armed robbery.
What he didn't deserve was to have his home raided by paramilitary Sheriff's deputies, to have his dog shot, and to have two bullets put into his body through a closed door.
Peyton Strickland was, plainly and simply, murdered.
It's good to see that my old law school classmate, Ben David, District Attorney for New Hanover County, and the Grand Jury agree.
The entire situation reeks. What about the recovery of two video game systems necessitated an armed raid of a private residence? Why didn't UNC-W police, who requested the assistance of the New Hanover SWAT team, approach Strickland somewhere other than his home? The 18-year-old was known around his neighborhood as being handy with engines, and often worked on his boat in the front yard. Why didn't they approach him there?
Why, when Strickland answered the door, did the Deputies attack with a battering ram?
And why did Deputy Christopher Long, who had already shot two unarmed people in a traffic stop a few years ago, discharge his weapon through a door into an occupied residence, when no other officers even reported that they felt threatened?
This is not just a story of an out of control deputy, though clearly Deputy Long sees himself as Dirty Harry out to eliminate the punks. This is a story of an out of control system, a system that lends itself to exciting episodes of COPS, where search warrants are served with deadly force, thrown on the bleeding dying body of an 18-year-old kid. Here kid, stop the bleeding with the judge's signature, now where's that copy of Madden '07?
Police claim they needed deadly force because Strickland's alleged accomplice in the robbery, Ryan David Mills, had posted a photo online of himself and two other friends holding weapons. Now, understand that Mills did not live with Strickland, and Strickland was not in the photo with the weapons. In other words, the police had no reason to believe that Strickland had a weapon. It was enough that he knew someone who did.
They could easily have waited for him to leave the house. Evidently, someone in the New Hanover County Sheriff's Department and the UNC-W Police had a date that night. Couldn't be bothered to stake out the place, you see. Had to go in hot, or the video wouldn't look so cool.
In the way of these adreneline junkies with badges was a messed up kid who made the mistake of not wearing body armor to answer his own front door. Doesn't matter. He's dead.
How free are we when the fact that your friend has been seen with a weapon means that the police can enter your home with guns blazing? Hopefully, DA Ben David and the people of New Hanover will show that we are supposed to be more free than that, even in the world of the Drug War and the War on Terror, where all civil rights are deemed to be of questionable value where they stand in the way of law enforcement and "public safety." There have to be limits on this type of activity.
David should not stop with the indictment of Deputy Long. Deputy Long, who should never have been on a SWAT team after his earlier shooting incident, would have never been in that area had someone in the UNC-W Police Department not freaked out and overreacted to a strong arm robbery and a photo on the internet.
The rest of us are, in a sense, lucky that Peyton Strickland was who he was. He was not an anonymous kid from the wrong side of Wilmington killed in another drug raid. No, he was a child of privilege, the son of a prominent, successful and damn good trial attorney. I should think that the wheels of criminal justice have been greased by the urine of the public officials who realized just who it was they had killed. Let's hope those wheels continue to turn. That way, maybe something can be salvaged from this tragic and disgusting mess.
UPDATE: It seems the wheels of justice have reversed, as the Grand Jury foreman has told the Court that he mistakenly checked the wrong box. Something is deeply wrong here. The same Grand Jury probably indicted the DA's ham sandwich yesterday.
What he didn't deserve was to have his home raided by paramilitary Sheriff's deputies, to have his dog shot, and to have two bullets put into his body through a closed door.
Peyton Strickland was, plainly and simply, murdered.
It's good to see that my old law school classmate, Ben David, District Attorney for New Hanover County, and the Grand Jury agree.
The entire situation reeks. What about the recovery of two video game systems necessitated an armed raid of a private residence? Why didn't UNC-W police, who requested the assistance of the New Hanover SWAT team, approach Strickland somewhere other than his home? The 18-year-old was known around his neighborhood as being handy with engines, and often worked on his boat in the front yard. Why didn't they approach him there?
Why, when Strickland answered the door, did the Deputies attack with a battering ram?
And why did Deputy Christopher Long, who had already shot two unarmed people in a traffic stop a few years ago, discharge his weapon through a door into an occupied residence, when no other officers even reported that they felt threatened?
This is not just a story of an out of control deputy, though clearly Deputy Long sees himself as Dirty Harry out to eliminate the punks. This is a story of an out of control system, a system that lends itself to exciting episodes of COPS, where search warrants are served with deadly force, thrown on the bleeding dying body of an 18-year-old kid. Here kid, stop the bleeding with the judge's signature, now where's that copy of Madden '07?
Police claim they needed deadly force because Strickland's alleged accomplice in the robbery, Ryan David Mills, had posted a photo online of himself and two other friends holding weapons. Now, understand that Mills did not live with Strickland, and Strickland was not in the photo with the weapons. In other words, the police had no reason to believe that Strickland had a weapon. It was enough that he knew someone who did.
They could easily have waited for him to leave the house. Evidently, someone in the New Hanover County Sheriff's Department and the UNC-W Police had a date that night. Couldn't be bothered to stake out the place, you see. Had to go in hot, or the video wouldn't look so cool.
In the way of these adreneline junkies with badges was a messed up kid who made the mistake of not wearing body armor to answer his own front door. Doesn't matter. He's dead.
How free are we when the fact that your friend has been seen with a weapon means that the police can enter your home with guns blazing? Hopefully, DA Ben David and the people of New Hanover will show that we are supposed to be more free than that, even in the world of the Drug War and the War on Terror, where all civil rights are deemed to be of questionable value where they stand in the way of law enforcement and "public safety." There have to be limits on this type of activity.
David should not stop with the indictment of Deputy Long. Deputy Long, who should never have been on a SWAT team after his earlier shooting incident, would have never been in that area had someone in the UNC-W Police Department not freaked out and overreacted to a strong arm robbery and a photo on the internet.
The rest of us are, in a sense, lucky that Peyton Strickland was who he was. He was not an anonymous kid from the wrong side of Wilmington killed in another drug raid. No, he was a child of privilege, the son of a prominent, successful and damn good trial attorney. I should think that the wheels of criminal justice have been greased by the urine of the public officials who realized just who it was they had killed. Let's hope those wheels continue to turn. That way, maybe something can be salvaged from this tragic and disgusting mess.
UPDATE: It seems the wheels of justice have reversed, as the Grand Jury foreman has told the Court that he mistakenly checked the wrong box. Something is deeply wrong here. The same Grand Jury probably indicted the DA's ham sandwich yesterday.
"The Brain on a Stick" is Ours!
If it weren't for the woeful Carolina Panthers, I would assume that I was about to lose my job or get hit by a bus, because life is just too good to be true right now. New son. Stanley Cup. ACC Football Championship. And now...
Davidson 79 - UNC-Clay Aiken ... er.... UNC-Concrete... er ... UNC-Charlotte 51.
79 to 51.
TWENTY-EIGHT POINTS.
At one point in the second half, the Davidson students were chanting "Stop the beating."
Oh man, I love it.
Here are the boys around the ugliest trophy in college sports. The Hornets Nest Trophy, also known as the brain on a stick.
Go Cats!
Davidson 79 - UNC-Clay Aiken ... er.... UNC-Concrete... er ... UNC-Charlotte 51.
79 to 51.
TWENTY-EIGHT POINTS.
At one point in the second half, the Davidson students were chanting "Stop the beating."
Oh man, I love it.
Here are the boys around the ugliest trophy in college sports. The Hornets Nest Trophy, also known as the brain on a stick.
Go Cats!
12.05.2006
Presenting Lincoln
My son Lincoln was born yesterday at 4:25 PM, a healthy and hungry 9 lbs, 15 oz. All are happy and doing fine.
Once again, I realize I married well over my station in life.
There is no truth to the rumor that he was nearly named Deacon Grobe.
An early Merry Christmas to all of you. Here's what it's all about:
Once again, I realize I married well over my station in life.
There is no truth to the rumor that he was nearly named Deacon Grobe.
An early Merry Christmas to all of you. Here's what it's all about:
12.02.2006
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