I Said Lord Have Mercy, Help Me In My Wicked Ways
Yeah, yeah, this lyric is going to be a bit tougher to figure out without Google. If someone posts a comment asking for a hint, I'll give one. It is a great song though, from a great artist. And in case you didn't read Monday's entry; this week's morning blog titles are lyrics from songs with that day of the week in them.
I found that lyric very appropriate for the morning after the firefight in which Christopher Jordan Dorner probably was killed, or killed himself. A siege where two more police officers were shot, almost certainly by Dorner. One of them died. How many lives were lost, how many more shattered by this man's vendetta? One is too many. More than that it just a multiplier of tragedy.
Some want to use this to shine a spotlight on the racism that continues to be a pervasive cancer within the Los Angeles Police Department. Not that all cops are racist or act in that manner. But the thin blue line prevents those who want no part of institutional bigotry from speaking out or taking action. Was Dorner a victim of racism? We will never know with 100% certainty.
One thing the media did get right in all of this was a story that pointed out the reason Dorner lost his Board of Rights hearing was an issue of credibility. Police officers with more experience and training seem to automatically have more credibility in such hearings than those with less of both.
Perhaps the answer is in technology. I've never heard of this idea before, but if I were King of things police-related, I'd mount not one camera atop police cruisers, but two of them. Both on swivel mounts. Each camera would be connected to a GPS-type locator worn by the officer, so the camera would follow them whenever they step out of the vehicle. There would be a record of everything they do within range of the camera. It isn't a perfect solution, but it would be a first step. I'm not advocating portable cameras worn on the uniform of every cop so that their POV would be recorded constantly.
Some will use the Dorner incident to argue in favor of an assault weapons ban. Those arguments just pile atop the previously offered arguments and won't convince anyone on either side of the debate to change their position. If such weapons are banned, who will confiscate all of them that are already out there? I am in favor of such a ban but I don't see how it will do anything to remove these weapons from the hands of those who will murder. If someone's willing to murder, a law that would punish them for obtaining an assault rifle isn't going to be of any concern to them. This genie is out of the bottle. By all means, ban assault weapons so no more are added to the mess. Just don't expect this to be a panacea that will magically stop mass shootings.
Other things I'm pondering on a Wednesday morning:
I have decided I'm not going to blog about work things involving clients or colleagues. Client information is sacrosanct and I'd never reveal anything specific outside the office, or to anyone other than my manager and the actual client. Colleagues who need help with things deserve not to be made to look foolish, which is how some could construe such things. The truth is no one knows everything there is to know about doing a tax return properly. The trick is not to know in your head but to know how to make sure what you think is right, actually is. Or if you have no clue about what to do, how to find out what to do.
But I will write about general things. Like how happy the clients are with this new electronic signature pad. Rather than signing 8 to 12 documents, the client signs twice electronically and their signature is affixed electronically to most of the other documents. There are only 1 to 5 documents, depending on the situation, that now require an actual signature. They love it. So why can't legal documents be handled this way? Or maybe they can but I'm just not aware of it.
Do you think LL Cool J can safely go back out in public, now that Dorner has been killed? Was he wearing a shirt that said "Hey, I'm not Dorner" in big letters?
How many morons will see Daniel Radcliffe on the cover of "Out" magazine and automatically assume that the young man who brought Harry Potter to life on-screen is gay?
Is it really prison if you can throw a Super Bowl party in your 80 square foot cell? O.J. Simpson has a personal TV in his cell and invited fellow inmates there to watch last Sunday's game. I'm guessing there was no beer and no chicken wings though.
Would someone explain to me when and where the Tea Party became the equivalent of the Democratic or Republican parties? Why else would they get coverage of their response to the President's State of the Union address, if they weren't on the same level? It makes no sense. One has to wonder if the driving force behind the large amount of media coverage the Tea Party gets is a combination of the conservativism of Fox News and the liberal mainstream media's desire to demonize Republicans by drawing attention to the extreme right. Then again, the extreme right shoots itself in the foot so often, they may be drawing the attention to themselves.
What moron decided to lead a campaign to get wrestling taken out of the Summer Olympics? It was part of the Games all along. It belongs there.
There's an idiot mother in Ohio who got arrested for helping her daughter to beat up another student in their high school classroom. What the heck was she thinking?
Who will give out the free tequila shots and kiss the women entering El Tepeyac Cafe, now that Manuel Rojas has passed away? The world is a poorer place with his loss.
This Date in History:
On this date in 1542, King Henry VIII's fifth wife, Catherine Howard is executed for adultery.
On this date in 1668, Spain recognizes Portugal as a separate country.
On this date in 1689, William and Mary become co-rulers of England.
On this date in 1935, Bruno Hauptman is convicted of the murder and kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby.
On this date in 1954, Frank Selvy becomes the first and only (so far) Division I basketball player to score 100 points in one game.
On this date in 1955, Four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls are obtained by Israel.
On this date in 1960, France becomes the fourth nation to have nuclear weapons.
On this date in 1960, Black college students stage the first lunch counter sit-in, in Nashville.
On this date in 2000, the very last original "Peanuts" comic strips appears, one day after Charles Schulz's death.
Famous folk born on this date across the decades and centuries:
Emperor Jimmu of Japan
Pope Alexander VII
Paul Deschanel (President of France)
Bess Truman
Georgios Papandreou (Prime Minister of Greece)
Grant Wood
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Chuck Yeager (he was born really fast)
Kim Novak
George Segal
Bo Svenson
Carol Lynley
Peter Tork
Stockard Channing
Jerry Springer (a boxing ring bell was going off in the background)
Peter Gabriel
David Naughton
And on this date in 2005, one of my personal heroes and one of the greatest bowlers ever to play the game, Dick Weber, passed away at the age of 75.
I found that lyric very appropriate for the morning after the firefight in which Christopher Jordan Dorner probably was killed, or killed himself. A siege where two more police officers were shot, almost certainly by Dorner. One of them died. How many lives were lost, how many more shattered by this man's vendetta? One is too many. More than that it just a multiplier of tragedy.
Some want to use this to shine a spotlight on the racism that continues to be a pervasive cancer within the Los Angeles Police Department. Not that all cops are racist or act in that manner. But the thin blue line prevents those who want no part of institutional bigotry from speaking out or taking action. Was Dorner a victim of racism? We will never know with 100% certainty.
One thing the media did get right in all of this was a story that pointed out the reason Dorner lost his Board of Rights hearing was an issue of credibility. Police officers with more experience and training seem to automatically have more credibility in such hearings than those with less of both.
Perhaps the answer is in technology. I've never heard of this idea before, but if I were King of things police-related, I'd mount not one camera atop police cruisers, but two of them. Both on swivel mounts. Each camera would be connected to a GPS-type locator worn by the officer, so the camera would follow them whenever they step out of the vehicle. There would be a record of everything they do within range of the camera. It isn't a perfect solution, but it would be a first step. I'm not advocating portable cameras worn on the uniform of every cop so that their POV would be recorded constantly.
Some will use the Dorner incident to argue in favor of an assault weapons ban. Those arguments just pile atop the previously offered arguments and won't convince anyone on either side of the debate to change their position. If such weapons are banned, who will confiscate all of them that are already out there? I am in favor of such a ban but I don't see how it will do anything to remove these weapons from the hands of those who will murder. If someone's willing to murder, a law that would punish them for obtaining an assault rifle isn't going to be of any concern to them. This genie is out of the bottle. By all means, ban assault weapons so no more are added to the mess. Just don't expect this to be a panacea that will magically stop mass shootings.
Other things I'm pondering on a Wednesday morning:
I have decided I'm not going to blog about work things involving clients or colleagues. Client information is sacrosanct and I'd never reveal anything specific outside the office, or to anyone other than my manager and the actual client. Colleagues who need help with things deserve not to be made to look foolish, which is how some could construe such things. The truth is no one knows everything there is to know about doing a tax return properly. The trick is not to know in your head but to know how to make sure what you think is right, actually is. Or if you have no clue about what to do, how to find out what to do.
But I will write about general things. Like how happy the clients are with this new electronic signature pad. Rather than signing 8 to 12 documents, the client signs twice electronically and their signature is affixed electronically to most of the other documents. There are only 1 to 5 documents, depending on the situation, that now require an actual signature. They love it. So why can't legal documents be handled this way? Or maybe they can but I'm just not aware of it.
Do you think LL Cool J can safely go back out in public, now that Dorner has been killed? Was he wearing a shirt that said "Hey, I'm not Dorner" in big letters?
How many morons will see Daniel Radcliffe on the cover of "Out" magazine and automatically assume that the young man who brought Harry Potter to life on-screen is gay?
Is it really prison if you can throw a Super Bowl party in your 80 square foot cell? O.J. Simpson has a personal TV in his cell and invited fellow inmates there to watch last Sunday's game. I'm guessing there was no beer and no chicken wings though.
Would someone explain to me when and where the Tea Party became the equivalent of the Democratic or Republican parties? Why else would they get coverage of their response to the President's State of the Union address, if they weren't on the same level? It makes no sense. One has to wonder if the driving force behind the large amount of media coverage the Tea Party gets is a combination of the conservativism of Fox News and the liberal mainstream media's desire to demonize Republicans by drawing attention to the extreme right. Then again, the extreme right shoots itself in the foot so often, they may be drawing the attention to themselves.
What moron decided to lead a campaign to get wrestling taken out of the Summer Olympics? It was part of the Games all along. It belongs there.
There's an idiot mother in Ohio who got arrested for helping her daughter to beat up another student in their high school classroom. What the heck was she thinking?
Who will give out the free tequila shots and kiss the women entering El Tepeyac Cafe, now that Manuel Rojas has passed away? The world is a poorer place with his loss.
This Date in History:
On this date in 1542, King Henry VIII's fifth wife, Catherine Howard is executed for adultery.
On this date in 1668, Spain recognizes Portugal as a separate country.
On this date in 1689, William and Mary become co-rulers of England.
On this date in 1935, Bruno Hauptman is convicted of the murder and kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby.
On this date in 1954, Frank Selvy becomes the first and only (so far) Division I basketball player to score 100 points in one game.
On this date in 1955, Four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls are obtained by Israel.
On this date in 1960, France becomes the fourth nation to have nuclear weapons.
On this date in 1960, Black college students stage the first lunch counter sit-in, in Nashville.
On this date in 2000, the very last original "Peanuts" comic strips appears, one day after Charles Schulz's death.
Famous folk born on this date across the decades and centuries:
Emperor Jimmu of Japan
Pope Alexander VII
Paul Deschanel (President of France)
Bess Truman
Georgios Papandreou (Prime Minister of Greece)
Grant Wood
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Chuck Yeager (he was born really fast)
Kim Novak
George Segal
Bo Svenson
Carol Lynley
Peter Tork
Stockard Channing
Jerry Springer (a boxing ring bell was going off in the background)
Peter Gabriel
David Naughton
And on this date in 2005, one of my personal heroes and one of the greatest bowlers ever to play the game, Dick Weber, passed away at the age of 75.
posted by me at 7:40 AM
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