If the bills were real, why would the investigation continue? Are they investigating why a bank (usually expert at handling money) would think authentic bills were fakes? Maybe our real bills are too easily confused as bogus? They do look funny. Is the investigation related to how some individual came into possession of the particular series of currency in question? Maybe "the investigation is continuing" wasn't just the lazy journalism of this news reporter at all, but was offered by the Secret Service people so that they could stay on and enjoy a couple more days on sunny Cape Cod. That would be a slick way to buy a day or two off for an overworked Secret Service agent: investigate a report of counterfeit bills (or even plant some), identify the currency as legitimate, and then hang out for a few days under the auspices of a continuing investigation. Maybe the Secret Service has a two day minimum?
Personally, I would like an investigation into why the investigation was continuing, and how many days we paid people to stay here investigating.
Technorati Tags:
Cape Cod, counterfeit, journalism, government, tax-dollars, funny-money
The reactions in the days since the raids have run the gamut from exclamations of outrage at the conduct of the undercover operation and cries of entrapment from enabling parents, to the news being met with the heartfelt appreciation of many students, parents and residents who long to see the distraction of drugs eradicated from school property. What is most surprising about the public reaction to the results of this investigation, is the obvious denial that runs rampant throughout the community. Anyone who has graduated from a public high school in the last 25-30 years (at least here in New England) knows how prevalent drugs are. Still, every time a drinking or drug related teenage death occurs, arrests are made, or a tragedy occurs, the reaction is the same. The stunned looks and dropped jaws are apparent everywhere, but what was the big surprise?
The supposed adults in the community began authoring excuses for this little mistake within a few days of the arrests. The lead headline in the editorial section of yesterday's Falmouth Enterprise read: "Put Arrests Into Perspective". Despite acknowledging that the undercover officer was able to purchase drugs on school grounds 32 times, the piece asks, "How serious is it?" The column goes on to question whether the "media hoopla" surrounding the arrests might have been the result of "a slow news day." The author even openly inquired as to the possibility that maybe these teens were just good kids who had made bad choices.
Was this editorial for real? Is this how we judge the seriousness of such stories today? Apparently, the media's scales of justice weigh the two sides differently; are these good people doing illegal things, or are these bad people doing illegal things? It seems that this is the gauge that is now being applied to everyone from our corrupt, good-intentioned politicians, to the "good" kid with the digital scales, blunts and bags of money in his bedroom. Admitting that the problem of drug use is rampant in our society (amongst teenagers and adults) is necessary to honestly putting this situation into perspective. Drug use is real, marijuana is just the tip of the iceberg, and it is not just our teenagers abusing them.
Here in Falmouth, some concerned parents will surely continue their efforts toward combating the drug problem. They were active in this before any arrests ever occurred. Lines of communication may even be opened as a result of this shakedown, and some kids may even get the help they need. But what of the countless teenagers throughout this community and throughout the country who will not get that help? What of the untold legions of adults who will continue on with their own bad habits, without any consideration for the examples they are setting for our children? As the Falmouth Enterprise has asked, how serious is it? In my opinion, it is all too serious. Falmouth, Massachusetts, Cape Cod hometown to the author of America the Beautiful,, can now count itself as yet another example of America the Ugly. We are continuing to see the results of generations of denial, enabling and tolerance of drug and alcohol abuse in our society. Although exposing these flaws may be an embarrassment to some, denying their seriousness is contributing to the problem, not helping. It was a very wise person who said, "problems should not just be faced, they should be attacked." Acknowledging and confronting these problems is our last and only chance at regaining control. Many of us are encouraged by these small signs that we may still have the strength of conviction to continue the attack. Our future may depend on it.
Related articles:
Technorati Tags: Massachusetts, Cape Cod, law enforcement, crime, illegal-drugs, high-school, education
Add to Del.icio.us | Add to Technorati Favorites! | Blogroll Me!]]>"'Wherever I go, there's my bicycle.' The bicycle obsessed pursuits of a Cape Cod cyclist."If anyone (anyone?) was wondering where I have vanished to, and why the lack of blog posts, I have a couple of excuses:
and a few others I won't bore you with.
With the wedding only a month away, there is obviously much happening on that front as well. Tomorrow we go to the town hall for the marriage license, and Sunday Morning Blog (Dead Bloggers Society, Commute-a-Blog, etc.) will soon be joined forever with Jesse Loves Brady. Amazing!
I'll do my best to keep up with the posts, but at least now you all know what I am up to with my disappearing act.
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]]>"Associated Press KOKOMO, Ind. -- Police posted an around-the-clock security watch at the home of an Indiana soldier killed last week in Iraq after it was vandalized and his family received disturbing phone calls.The home of Sgt. Rickey Jones was egged Saturday, three days after Jones' family learned the 21-year-old and three other soldiers had been killed by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad. His family also received phone calls in which the caller said: "I'm glad your son is dead."
As an American, I feel that it is my duty to speak out against those who would seek to dishonor our soldiers who are in harm's way, protecting our freedoms. The people harassing our soldiers and their mourning families may think their attempts at dissent? are acts of patriotism, but they are acts of cowardice and ignorance instead.
Our soldiers will answer any call to duty we present them with, in defense of our homeland and our allies. Cowards like this reveal a small segment of our population whose only sense of duty is to the destruction of everything this country stands for. Will we answer the call, just as our soldiers have done? Most of us have already met the call to support our soldiers and their families, but it appears that it has now come to answering the call to actively defend our own here at home.
All of our soldiers and their families here at home are in my thoughts this morning. Sharing this along with similar stories, and joining the letter writing campaign in support of this family is the least we can do.
A tip of the hat to Gribbit's Word for this story.
Technorati Tags: National Defense, freedom of speech, Homeland Security, military, Patriotism
Add to Del.icio.us | Add to Technorati Favorites! | Blogroll Me!]]>"While our First Amendment certainly protects free speech, especially political speech, it does not allow someone to make false statements with the reckless intention to damage someone's reputation. Speaking to many local officials, I am hearing more often that some well qualified individuals decide not to seek elected office due to their apprehension that their personal integrity will be under constant attack."
Representative Jeff Perry of Sandwich hits the nail on the head with his column this month. It is a sad commentary on our local, state and federal politics when running for office requires that you must be ready to endure such libel and slander. Hopefully the voters will take Jeff Perry's message to heart, and send a clear message to the candidates that negative, attack campaigns will not be tolerated. Enough is enough...
Technorati Tags:
Massachusetts, politics, Republican, Representative Jeff Perry
"The number of blogs doubles every five months. As I'm writing this, Technorati is tracking 28.4 million blogs."
There's a whole lot of blogging going on...
(Via: tech.memeorandum)
People are Talking: blog, blogger, bloggers, blogging, weblog, weblogs, Technorati
Add to Del.icio.us | Add to Technorati Favorites! | Blogroll Me!]]>"Discrimination is never acceptable, and religious discrimination has been a hateful curse upon mankind for millennia. Ignorance often has played a hand in such vile behavior, but so too at the hands of intellectuals and religious leaders playing politics. Such is occurring today. "
How are we participating in the much needed conversations about this subject as bloggers?
(Via: insider.washingtontimes.com)
People are Talking:
blog, blogging, Muslim, Religion
Okay, so you knew the Vice President Cheney hunting fiasco would have to be turned into an online game at some point. Games are not a usual part of my online experience, but as this one is related to current events, I couldn't resist a peak.
A tip of the hat to Elephants in Academia for this new game.
Related Technorati Tags:
hunting, politics, Cheney, Vice President Cheney, Dick Cheney, gun safety, games
"The 2004 election left our country deeply divided over whether our country is deeply divided. For some, America is indeed a polarized nation, perhaps more so today than at any time in living memory. In this view, yesterday's split over Bill Clinton has given way to today's even more acrimonious split between Americans who detest George Bush and Americans who detest John Kerry, and similar divisions will persist as long as angry liberals and angry conservatives continue to confront each other across the political abyss. Others, however, believe that most Americans are moderate centrists, who, although disagreeing over partisan issues in 2004, harbor no deep ideological hostility. I take the former view."
There is no doubt about it, polarization is real and seems to be dividing our country more each year. In my opinion, a major contributor to this growing rift is our collective short-term memories. One need only look at September 11th and the months that followed to see how quickly we forget.
The increasing polarization here in America may very well play a part in our eventual downfall. However, I think it is important that we recognize that it is but a symptom of the underlying disease that is tearing us apart: radical individualism.
Read the entire essay:
Divided We Stand: Can a polarized nation win a protracted war?
by JAMES Q. WILSON
A tip of the hat to Sneakeasy's Joint for this great piece.
File Under:
politics
"A comment this morning by veteran CBS reporter Bill Plante, while perhaps intended to be light-hearted, pulled back the curtain on just how antagonistic the White House press corps believes VP Cheney to be toward them. But more importantly, it suggests how antagonistic they likely feel in return."
The hype of this story is pathetic. Following CBS reporter Bill Plante's formula for White House disclosure, President Clinton should have immediately reported each of his sexual escapades to the press as they occured.
There is news that is critical to the operation of our country, and there is tabloid fodder. This incident is/was clearly the latter. Let's face it, what we are really talking about is the malice that much of the MSM has for this administration.
A hat tip to:NewsBusters for this story.
Similar Technorati Topics:
White House, bias, MSM,
"1) The Koran In A Toilet story, as dispersed by Newsweek. Wholescale riots swept the world, with demands for apologies and that the offending parties be turned over to Islamic courts for trial.]]>2) The infamous UK Burger King Ice Cream Lid incident. Burger King sold some ice cream with a lid that featured a stylized drawing of an ice cream cone. Because if you rotated the lid 90 degrees, it had a vague resemblance to the name 'Allah' in Arabic, British Muslims were outraged. BK apologized and withdrew the lids.
3) The Muslim obsession with the foot as unclean has led to some interesting stories. For example, I recall one account of a sneaker whose tread left a mark resembling the word Allah that got some Muslims incensed. Or Nike recalling a bunch of shoes because the stylized flames on the toes resembled Allah's name.
4) Back in 1992, Yokohama had to recall a bunch of tires whose tread -- designed to improve traction -- also seemed to resemble the name of Allah.
What do all these incidents have in common?
They all provoked outrage over insults that were never intended as such, or incidents that simply didn't happen."
"WASHINGTON -- The government concluded its Cyber Storm wargame Friday, its biggest-ever exercise to test how it would respond to devastating attacks over the Internet from anti-globalization activists, underground hackers and bloggers.Bloggers?
Participants confirmed parts of the worldwide simulation challenged government officials and industry executives to respond to deliberate misinformation campaigns and activist calls by Internet bloggers, online diarists whose sites include political rantings and musings about current events."
That Washington would include blogs in their "cyber war games" tells of the real power blogs now have in this country. If you previously doubted the might of a simple weblog, here is your sign.
Do you think newspapers or other forms of media have ever been analyzed as threats to Homeland Security?
Obviously, I view weblogs as a powerful communication tool and hope that they are never employed in any concerted efforts at disruption, but what should we make of all this?
Similar Technorati Topics:
blog, blogger, bloggers, blogging, weblog, weblogs, freedom of speech, government, cyber war games, Cyber Storm, Homeland Security, politics, freedom
"...in 1977, Mr. Carter and his attorney general, Griffin B. Bell, authorized warrantless electronic surveillance used in the conviction of two men for spying on behalf of Vietnam.The men, Truong Dinh Hung and Ronald Louis Humphrey, challenged their espionage convictions to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which unanimously ruled that the warrantless searches did not violate the men's rights.
In its opinion, the court said the executive branch has the 'inherent authority' to wiretap enemies such as terror plotters and is excused from obtaining warrants when surveillance is 'conducted 'primarily' for foreign intelligence reasons.'"
Along with some other uncouth Democrats, former President Jimmy Carter used Coretta Scott King's funeral as his political soap box to criticize the Bush administration for making the decision to pursue terrorists within this country by eavesdropping on their conversations. Yet again, it is apparent that Liberal outrage is a one way street.
(hat tip to: Stop the ACLU, and Rhymes With Right.)
Technorati Tags:
hypocrisy, hypocrite, bias, Liberal, National Defense, eavesdropping, wiretapping, President Carter, Former President Jimmy Carter, King funeral
"Patrick's attempt to rewrite the law of affirmative action, rather than prudently withdrawing the government's brief in this explosive case, must be ranked among the most peculiar decisions of the Clinton Justice Department."
"Peculiar" would not have been my word choice. In doing some research on Deval Patrick, I stumbled upon the above article. Is running on a platform of bringing "compassion" back to Massachusetts just a toned down version of his obvious racial preferences agenda? You be the judge.
Read the Article:Is affirmative action doomed? How the law is unraveling by Paul Burka From The New Republic, October 17, 1994
Technorati Tags:
politics, Massachusetts, Governor's race, Governor, Election, Campaign, Deval Patrick, Cape Cod