As The Ferguson Missouri Story Proceeds, Unwinds, Unravels...A Few Details To Ponder

Mr. Brown died from gunshots fired by Officer Wilson on August 9, 2014. That fact is not in dispute. Everything else is, but that is not. 

As of August 8, 2014, however, life in Ferguson was far from idyllic. Looking at the Wikipedia page about the little city, we find that it only occupies 6.4 square miles of real estate, north and west of St.Louis proper.

Turnout at the last mayoral election was twelve percent. 12%. That's two percent more than 10 percent. 

Karl Denninger, a fire-breathing Libertarian, vociferously points to years of management of the city that resembles an organized crime operation. Almost every household in the city was involved in some way with the court system. Traffic violations fines and fees comprise an outsized proportion of the city's revenues. This smells very very bad. The police were being used to exact tribute instead of serve-and-protect, and the city invested into a lot of military-style gear to ride herd on the citizenry. This is a recipe for tragedy.

OS can relate, because the Southern county in which he resides was operated in that manner from about 1945 until 2010, when the family that controlled the 'plantation' was swept from office. The little town down the road still is, complete with its new tricked-out RoboCop black SUV that followed OS from the village gas station to his driveway six miles away, five feet off his bumper the entire journey, late one evening. He was looking for a ticket to write, and lost the battle.

But there is something else to discuss here. 

Missouri voted for Romney in 2010, except for three or four counties, including the county where Ferguson is located. The vote there was a Democrat landslide, down the ticket. 

St. Louis City 100.0% Reporting	B. Obama (i)	Dem	82.7%	116,654
	M. Romney	GOP	16.0%	22,617
	G. Johnson	Lib	1.2%	1,660
	V. Goode	CST	0.1%	204
St. Louis County 100.0% Reporting	B. Obama (i)	Dem	56.2%	294,735
	M. Romney	GOP	42.5%	223,102
	G. Johnson	Lib	1.1%	5,705
	V. Goode	CST	0.2%	1,086

From <http://www.politico.com/2012-election/results/president/missouri/> 

  

The Congressman for the District is a Democrat. His words in the wake of the tragedy were, let us say, rather provocative. Nothing about the rule of law, protection of the innocent, protection of private property from looting--nothing. 

"I commend Governor Nixon for his decision to transfer control of public security in Ferguson to the Missouri Highway Patrol.
Since the tragedy occurred this past weekend, I have been in regular contact with Governor Nixon regarding the troubling situation in Ferguson.
I expressed my absolute commitment to pursue justice for Michael Brown and his family, and to restore safety and order for citizens and media who should be free to exercise their constitutional rights, without fear of police repression.
I look forward to working closely with the Governor to ensure the viability and complete independence of the criminal investigation.”

 Anything here calling for calm, due process, presumption of innocence, protection of innocents, protection of businesses--anything? He did use the word 'police repression' prominently. And, granted, the militarized police force of Ferguson does not inspire confidence. But...there is a time to speak, and a time to refrain, in the words of King Solomon.

Governor Nixon is a Democrat, by the way.

OS is not a conspiracy theorist. This was not some plot hatched in evil minds to set off some race war. But, look at what life was like on August 8! Can anyone claim with a straight face that decades of Democrat Party rule of Ferguson Missouri have succeeded? It's as if this place was a tragedy waiting to happen. 

Now, ponder Memphis, TN, who voluntarily abandoned their own school district to the county and state. The GOP counties around it thrive. Why doesn't Memphis thrive?

Ponder Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, the entire State of Illinois for that matter. 

Ponder what life looks like under long-term Democrat rule. And yet we are assured, day after day, that this is the only way forward. 

And the media seem to be silent as to who was in charge of Ferguson, Missouri that fateful day of August 9, 2014.

The 'JV Squad', aka ISIS, Beheads Journalist James Foley: Have We Had Enough Yet?

Or, do we sit meekly by while assured by Himself and all his apologists that this incident, however unfortunate, is not truly demonstrative of the nature of Islam, and that these bad things could never ever ever ever ever happen here.

We will also have carefully explained to us that this brutality is all George Bush's fault, that no one could possible expect Himself, halfway through his second term in office, to have had any responsibility for this modern-day repeat of the Cambodian slaughter of the mid-1970's.

Archbishop Amel Nona has seen the evil, and calls it so: Cranmer`

Cranmer is once again in fine form.

In the face of the tragedies that have overtaken the Christians of the Middle East, he is sounding the alarm, and giving a platform to those on the ground who cry at the top of their lungs about what awaits us in the West, unless we pay attention now.

Today's post focuses on the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Amel Nona. Feel free to ignore whatever OS might spout, but please take this man's words to heart:

"Our sufferings are the prelude of all Europeans and Western Christians"
"I lost my diocese to Islamic radicals"
"Your liberal and democratic principles are worth nothing here"
"You are welcoming in your countries an ever growing number of Muslims - you are in danger"
"You think all men are equal, but that is not true: Islam does not say that all men are equal"
"Your values are not their values"
"You will become the victims of the enemy you have welcomed in your home"

For all his failings, G. W. Bush came to understand and publicly assert one fact: If there is to be a battle with militant Islam, best to take the battle to them, and win it over there. Waiting for disaster to strike, here or there, is not a strategy.

Barack Obama, for his part, has spent his life in pursuit of the Next Election. He was so eager to get out of Iraq in time for 2012, never giving a thought to potential consequences. He threw hundreds of thousands of innocents under the bus, leaving them to their fate.

He referred to ISIL as 'the junior varsity'. No mention anywhere of that these days...

'Leading from behind' is just a polite term for 'abdication of responsibility'.

Policing--Us vs Them? or Us With Them?

OS picked up the following quote on a thread for Denninger's post this morning--no time to chase down and verify, but it seems apropo for the time. It guided, and still guides to some extent, policing in the UK--low-key, usually unarmed, keeping the peace being the priority.

It is a stern warning against the militarization of the police, the employment of the police to harvest cash from the citizenry, and the erosion of trust that has now become endemic between citizens and the police. Slowly, surely, it has become an Us vs. Them scenario, even down to the small-town level. The air is becoming thick with it, which is a bad thing for us all.
  

Sir Robert Peel's (5 February 1788 2 July 1850) Nine Principles of Policing:

1: The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.
2: The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon the public approval of police actions.
3: Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observation of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
4: The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
5: Police seek and preserve public favor not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
6: Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient.
7: Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
8: Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions, and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
9: The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.

Moral Hazard Creates Corruption. Corruption Disrupts Lives, Disrupted Lives Tear The Cluture To Shreds: Red Light Cameras and Moral Hazard

It will not be surprise to anyone with any experience with the city of Chicago that the red-light-camera operation begun there in 2003 was a corrupt enterprise from the outset.

It is surprising to learn that it was actually uncovered, and indictments have been issued--with the obligatory civil suits between the various parties filling dockets as well. Someone, obviously, was late on a payment to someone somewhere at city hall, would be OS's surmise.

What of the thousands of erroneously issued moving violations during that period? Undoubtedly drivers lost licenses, or insurance, or saw premiums skyrocket. They saw their lives disrupted due to this criminal enterprise.

To where do they go for redress? To get their reputations and fortunes restored?

The courts? Really?

OS and Mrs. OS drove the streets of Chicago from the south to the lakefront this summer, not wishing to risk the logjams of traffic on the freeways. Chicago used to be a wondrous place, and parts of it still are. So much of it now bears the marks of an unraveling society--the despair permeates block after block.

Back to local gossip, back down in the hometown...

1. A local restaurant is opening in OS's county, opening shop under the ownership of a Chicago citizen who woke up one morning deciding he had had Enough of Chicago.

The crime, the taxes, the corruption. He researched places to move, and wound up here.
Welcome, friend, glad to have you.

2. A husband and wife OS has known for three decades or so, long-time Chicago citizens, successful in their professions, respected...visiting next month, having arrived at the same conclusion. Those who can leave, one by one, are departing. No headlines, no muss, no fuss. They're just quietly slipping out the back door, these people with educations, skills, stable lives and marriages. It will be great to have them here, not worrying about their safety.

Now, to make certain our little county never installs the red-light-cameras, and gets rid of the snooping ticket issuing cameras in their squad cars.

They are the stuff of moral hazard, and set the citizenry and the peace officers at odds with one another.

Enough already...we're running out of places to move.

Just To Keep Things Simple: The Israelis v Hamas

The link takes you to a simple chart comparing Israel with Hamas and its ilk....

 

Doug Ross @ Journal: HELPFUL COMPARISON CHART FOR JOURNALISTS: The Pale...:



A few additions to the list could be:



Number of world-class musicians born and trained in Israel--hundreds!

Number of world-class musicians born and trained in HamasLand--maybe a handful.



Which country developed the technology for the mobile phones we use?

(Hint, it wasn't HamasLand!)



The list goes on--universities, agricultural development, free press, philanthropy, arts, sciences, literature, free elections, etc. etc.



Hmm...so OS surmises that's why the various Leftists of the west are so eager to help Hamas destroy all this. So much easier to do that than actually buckle down and produce something...much easier to pontificate and spend Other People's Money.

Welcome To Mr. Obama's Brave New World--MicroHomes in Louisville

OS has taken some time off from his blogging. It was time for a break, time needed for other things, and to watch and reflect.  Life has been eventful, productive, happier than he had any right to expect.

All this to say--for Mr. and Mrs. OS, much of the American Dream has come true. We have been able to pursue our lives and careers and creative passions, and succeed. We were able to launch our children to better lives than our own, which was the number one goal. We live in an environment of freedom where Christian faith is not yet under direct attack, where anything is possible. In fact, one of the conversations now ongoing is What Next? Twenty-something years ago, we dreamed up what seemed an impossible list of goals, and we have seen everything and more come to fruition. We have not built wealth yet, that task lies ahead for us.

What next, then? Where next? How next?

So, OS  finds this seemingly innocuous story in the Louisville Courier-Journal about 'tiny houses'  chilling.

So many, so beaten down by an economy that just will not grow, and a government more interested in surveillance and control of  our lives than in legitimate governance (such as operating on balanced budgets, controlling the borders, restraining criminal activity by bankers and mobsters, etc), have resorted to building tiny little houses on used flatbed trailers. They can park them where they can find a spot, no mortgages, no codes, no fixed address, none of the normalcy that should accompany normal lives in America.

These are not street people, scrounging out lives to support drug habits, or untreated manic depressives released to the streets. These are formerly middle class people who have thrown in the towel, who have decided that the American Dream is beyond reach, and they are happy to settle for a Tiny House, away from the banks and the feds and even the local government.

They are, in effect, opting for a version of Amish life, or old-school Mennonite life. Here in the rural South, there are many more of those folks than one might suspect, living anonymously in plain sight. No social security numbers, many of them not vaccinating children (since that leaves a paper trail of the child's existence), home-schooling, never voting,  quietly living out of sight of a society they have decided is more of a threat than a blessing. The more fervent await The Second Coming, most simply have decided to opt out, come what may.

OS does not think this is a good path to follow, and is troubled to see this practice spread. It creates a dead-end for the children of these families, for starters. We may yet see the return of the Hoovertowns of the early 1930's, places where the dispossessed of the Great Depression gathered to live, because there was no place to go.

In the end, Liberalism crushes Hope. Duh' Prez can preach all he wishes about Hope and Change. The real change OS sees in many places is the evisceration of Hope--of the expectation that today's labor will result in tomorrow's rewards, that life will improve, that the children of a family will surpass the parents. Hope, the thing that keeps people going in the face of adversity. Hope.

OS lays this at the feet of Massah Obama and his ilk, who have gleefully expanded welfare rolls, encouraged indebtedness, used every tiny corner of government as a means to reward cronies and punish enemies--the Chicago model of governance now employed on a national scale--and now are encouraging a mass migration of the indigent and criminal from Central America over our southern border.

To what end? Qui bono? Who benefits? Where are these people to live, and under what conditions?

What about the people who were born here, who have worked here, embraced American life, and have decided that the only way forward is life on a flatbed trailer?

What about them, Mr. Obama? What about them, Mr. Boehner? Mr. Paul? Mr. Cruz? Miss Hillary?

Why Yes, In Fact We ARE The Stupidest And Most Dishonest Lot To Ever Hold Office: The ObamaCare Thanksgiving News Dump

While you are traveling and cooking, HHS quietly announces that the small business portion of ObamaCare that would allow small businesses to shop for coverage online will be delayed for a year.

Thus, if you own a small business, you are still required to comply with all our incomprehensible and expensive regulations.

Only, you'll have to do it all on paper.

Happy Turkey Day from Barack Obama and his Democrat toadies, many of whom will have to stand for re-election in November of 2014.

Here's hoping that we'll be able to send the toadies on their way, and have even more to be thankful for this time next year.

OS Muses On The Senate Rule Changes: Failure, Hubris and The Removal Of Restraint

While yesterday's events seem arcane to most, the Senate rules changes will change everyone's lives. Any sense of restraint, from either extreme of the political spectrum, if not already erased, will soon vaporize. Welcome to the 1850's, deja-vue-all-over-again.

Already, Tom Harkin, smelling fresh blood in the water, is calling for the removal of all restraints on legislation as well.

OS watched the replay of Senator Levin's eulogy for the Senate last night, as he warned his enthusiastic leftist colleagues that they had just won a Pyrrhic Victory. Ni modo, hombre--a mi me no importa--seems to be the response from the left. We won, we won, we won, we won...we slam-dunked Rand Paul and Ted Cruz and any and all who would stand in our way as we get what we want. We drew blood, we can beat our chests.

Levin was telegraphing to his colleagues one simple truth: What Goes Around, Comes Around. The opposition we will face in the future will not be on the model of a Lamar Alexander, Howard Baker, or Susan Collins. An entirely new breed of cat has now entered the cat-fight, with long memories about our behavior, and a completely 'don't-give-a-flying-f*** about what Missah Harry thinks, or what the Yew Nork Times writes'. Harry's old, and the Yew Nork Times is going bankrupt, circling the drain along with the Blue States upon whom the Red States are now staging cavalry raids to cherry-pick what remains of their industrial base. One day, probably soon, the tables will be turned.

Missah Harry and Massah Obama may sense that as well. While it can still be done, let's promote our friends into the lifetime sinecure of the federal bench, the ultimate patronage job. We can pull the puppets' strings long after we've been tossed from office.

After all, all of life is about Power. Pure and simple, straight-no-chaser, 100 proof, gloves-off, raw Power. It's exhilarating, it's the ultimate drug. Hubris just isn't for Greeks, you know. Besides, we know  better than those guys. We won't fall into those traps. We've got this whole thing sussed out.

OS writes these things because he can find no other explanation for what he observes.

Normal people undertake ambitious projects throughout life: Education, Marriage, Parenthood. They create businesses, works of art, institutions such as schools and churches. They undertake science to understand how the universe operates, and out of that they create useful inventions. They enter government and public life.

Failure stalks every attempt to achieve. It is an inherent part of the process. Many ventures fail. Normal people, when aventure fails, invariably reflect upon the failure. What went wrong? At what point did things go pear-shaped? Were my assumptions wrong? Did I trust the wrong people? How much of this mess was my responsibility?

And most importantly:

What can I learn from this failure that may fuel the success of the next undertaking?

How can one describe this past year's work of the Obama administration (apart from remaining in power) as anything but massive failure? Need the litany repeat?

Benghazi.
The IRS suborned as a political enforcement arm of the Democrat Party.
The chaos and bloodletting of North Africa and Egypt.
The Syrian tragedy.
The revelation of our tapping the personal cell phones of world leaders.
Snowden.
The attempt to draw us into a civil war in Syria, and the promotion of Putin thereby.
The rise of a nuclear Iran as we stand helplessly by.
The ObamaCare 'rollout', which has burned through at least 600 million dollars, and disrupted millions of lives--and we're just on the front end of that particular adventure.
The chronic unemployment that will not respond to zero interest rate policies.
The stock market bubble roars on, while more and more citizens (and non-citizens) live on Food Stamps.

All of the above fueled and explained by a constant stream of lies from the lips of the President, which corrodes what little confidence yet remains in the office.

Normal people, when confronted with this massive sort of failure, pause and reflect. It is a function of the conscience. Obama and Company drop not a beat, and press forward to gather more power unto themselves, to enable them to undertake more of their ventures. Not a moment's reflection, not a moment's hesitation, simply a push forward to the next item on what seems to be a script, a play-book. No matter what happens, move on to the next item. If we seize enough power while we can, the failures won't matter--we'll have the power, and can stuff the record of those failures down the Memory Hole.

These are not normal people. And OS fears that another group of not normal' people may arise from the Right, or from even Farther Left. He fears we are staggering toward our next Civil War, or a dictatorship, or both. Heaven only knows what tragedies await us.

Yesterday's events will serve as an accelerator of that process, but will not be a principal cause. They were symptomatic, the inevitable result of the hubris that fuels the present regime.

An Obama Speechwriter Explains What Himself Really Meant...

Really, you just can't make this up!

Jon Lovett, a former Obama speechwriter, explains what Himself REALLY meant when he claimed repeatedly 'If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance!'

It was an ObamaMantra, endlessly hammered home.

Any and all who pointed out that this would not be the case were derided, considered to be racist, or at least someone who enjoys watching sick people suffer.

Really, the problem has been that we were not sufficiently clairvoyant to understand what Himself really really really meant.

Silly us. Click on the image in order to find out what we should have known all along.