The Media and the old slide of hand magic trick!!!!

Zimmerman

 

 

Is it me or is American media only focused on one thing, The Zimmerman trial and the effects? It is as if all the media out lets have no other news to report, so there is nothing else going on in the US or the world for that matter. I admit the case is a tragedy, a young man lost his life, a mother lost a son and a man has to live with causing these events.

Baltimore, Maryland had sixteen unsolved homicides last month. That only got local coverage.

Webster’s defines murder as the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought.

According to Florida law The unlawful killing of a human being, when perpetrated by any act imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind regardless of human life, although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual, is murder in the second degree and constitutes a felony of the first degree, punishable by imprisonment for a term of years not exceeding life or as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

776.013 Home protection; use of deadly force; presumption of fear of death or great bodily harm.—

(1) A person is presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another when using defensive force that is intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm to another if: (b) The person who uses defensive force knew or had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry or unlawful and forcible act was occurring or had occurred.

So those are the laws of Florida, Zimmerman was charged and his lawyers proved to a jury of his peers that he was acting in accordance with the law. If juror B-29 felt he was guilty why didn’t she deadlock it, then there might be a retrial? Now he can never be charged again.

With so much going on why is this so special? It is as if we shouldn’t know about the economy, the middle east, Obama killing US citizens, or the NSA totally infringing on the Constitution and breaking the law.



Anything is possible and it can happen to you!



The two most important lessons to be learned from the period we have just finished analyzing, the US since 1940, is how creative Americans can be to succeed when they are told something is impossible, like getting a man to the Moon with Apollo 11. The second lesson is the US is not immune from repression or attack; September 11, 2001 demonstrated this fact.  First, I’m going to discuss the Apollo 11 mission and how German Nazis’ were used by the US to beat the Soviets to the moon. Second, I’m going to discuss the events that occurred on September 11 and the aftermath pertaining to the new laws that were implemented.

Sputnik

On October 4, 1957 the Soviets launched the first satellite, Sputnik, into orbit around the Earth. It orbited the Earth every 96 minutes transmitting beeps to the listeners on the ground.  This Soviet achievement rocked the American landscape.  Americans believed that they were far more technologically superior to the Soviets. The Soviets were proving they had the technical knowledge to keep up with the US and this brought panic. President Eisenhower tasked Wernher Von Braun to get the US in the space race and win. On January 31, 1958 they launched the successful Explorer Satellite. On April 12, 1961 the Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth. The two countries went back and forth pushing the envelope, until President Kennedy had enough and promised the American people, “ we will land a man on the moon and bring him back safely by the end of the decade.” President  John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 and would not get to see his promise materialize.[1]

Nazi

Wernher Von Braun was a German rocket scientist and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology, both in Nazi Germany during WWII and in the US after the war. He is credited as being the "Father of Rocket Science". In his 20s and early 30s, Von Braun was the central figure in Germany's Rocket Development Program, responsible for the design and realization of the V-2 Combat Rocket, which rained down on England. After the war, he and select members of his rocket team were taken to the US as part of the then secret, Operation Paperclip. Von Braun worked on the US Army Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile Program before he and his group were moved to The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Under NASA, he served as director of the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center and as the chief architect of the Saturn V Launch Vehicle, and the super-booster that propelled the Apollo 11 spacecraft to the Moon in July 1969.[2]



Apollo Mission Patch

Armstrong's Landing

Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Armstrong became the first man to step on the lunar surface.  Aldrin collected lunar samples to be brought back to Earth. The third member of the mission, Michael Collins, piloted the command spacecraft in lunar orbit, until Armstrong and Aldrin returned for the trip back to Earth. Launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida on July 16, Apollo 11 was the fifth manned mission of NASA's Apollo program. The Apollo spacecraft was composed of three parts: a command module with a cabin for the three astronauts; a service module which supported the command module with propulsion, electrical power, oxygen and water; and a lunar module for landing on the Moon. After being sent to the Moon by the Saturn V's upper stage, the astronauts separated the spacecraft from it and travelled for three days until they entered into lunar orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin then moved into the lunar module and landed in the Sea of Tranquility. They stayed for 2.5 hours on the lunar surface gathering samples and conducting experiments. After lifting off in the upper part of the lunar module and rejoining Collins in the command module, they safely returned to Earth landing in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969.[3]

Splash down!!!!

 

 

The success of the Apollo 11 mission is a triumph for all man-kind, not just the US. There were sacrifices and lives lost by both countries during the space race. It’s because of the sacrifice of those fallen heroes we, as humans learned and succeeded. Now we have the International Space Station, manned by Soviets and Americans. The space race seems so cartoon in retrospect. A Nazi that developed technology to destroy the US ultimately led us to victory against Soviets in the race to the Moon.

 
WTC

On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group Al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the US. Two of the planes were flown into the World Trade Center Towers in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks resulted in extensive death, destruction, and extreme fear triggering major US initiatives to combat terrorism, both at home, through the USA Patriot Act and the development of the Department of Homeland Security, and abroad, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over 3,000 people were killed during the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., including more than 400 police officers and firefighters.[4]

NY

The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. The title of the act is a ten letter acronym that stands for: Uniting (and) Strengthening  America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001.The act significantly reduced restrictions in law enforcement agencies' gathering of intelligence within the US; expanded the Secretary of the Treasury’s authority to regulate financial transactions, particularly those involving foreign individuals and entities; and broadened the discretion of law enforcement and immigration authorities in detaining and deporting immigrants “suspected” of terrorist-related acts. The act also expanded the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism, thus enlarging the number of activities to which law enforcement powers can be applied. On May 26, 2011, President Barack Obama signed the PATRIOT Sunsets Extension Act of 2011, a four-year extension of three key provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act: allowing for roving wiretaps, searching business’ records, and conducting surveillance of  individuals “suspected” of terrorist-related activities.[5]

God Bless the USA

As a result of the events of September 11, 2001, the US has become a police state. President George W. Bush said in June 2002 televised address to the nation, "I ask the Congress to join me in creating a single, permanent department with an overriding and urgent mission: securing the American homeland and protecting the American people." Before the attacks on September 11, most Americans were under the false illusion that the government had a handle on homeland security. The Department of Homeland Security was established by the Homeland Security Act in November of 2002 and went operational on March 1, 2003. It encompassed twenty-two existing agencies including: Customs, FEMA, the Coast Guard, and the Secret Service. Tom Ridge, the former Governor of Pennsylvania and then Homeland Security Adviser, joined the Cabinet as the first head of the new department. When President Barack Obama appointed Janet Napolitano to the position in 2008, he announced, "she will be a leader who can reform a sprawling department while safeguarding our homeland."[6]

They Suck!!!

 

From 1940 to the present, the US has had its glories and its blunders. Apollo was a great achievement for the country, considering all the social issues tearing the country apart and the Vietnam War. The attacks on 9/11 were very tragic, but the majority of Americans never batted an eye when suicide bombings were going on in Israel or people were being massacred in Africa, but 9/11 brought terror home and showed that the US was not immune. As a result Americans let their freedoms get stripped away in the name of Security!  Benjamin Franklin expressed so eloquently in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, “Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!

 

 

 

---

[1] Stone, Oliver and Peter J. Kuznick. The Untold History of the United States. New York: Gallery Books, 2012. 274-277.

[2]"Biography of Wernher Von Braun." Biography of Wernher Von Braun. Accessed May 11, 2013. http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/bio.html.

[3] "Apollo 11." Apollo 11. Accessed May 11, 2013. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo11info.html.

[4] "9/11 Attacks." History.com. Accessed May 11, 2013. http://www.history.com/topics/9-11-attacks.

[5] "USA PATRIOT Act." Wikipedia. October 05, 2013. Accessed May 11, 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act.

[6] Silver, Alexandra. "Top 10 Defining Moments of the Post-9/11 Era." Time. Accessed May 11, 2013. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2068862_2068866_2068870,00.html.



 I DID MY PART!!!

 

 

 



Lazy and Crazy!

PI from the air

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth was an excellent documentary that captured the evolution of urban decay. The project started out with 33 brand new buildings funded by the Government for the rural poor to move to the city and have better living conditions. As time moved on and less and less people paid their rent, the projects started to break down, due to lack of maintenance. The housing authority depended on the rent to pay their workers to maintain the grounds. The projects got worse and worse and as they did more people moved out, leaving vacant housing for criminals to move in and destroy the structure and the society that had developed in the projects. By the time the buildings were imploded they had been picked over for anything of value, the windows broken and no amount of maintenance could restore the projects to its original glory.





building C-15

PIM

The Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex in St. Louis, MI was infamously imploded in 1972. According to many advocates, “It became a symbol of how the United States had failed to deal with its urban poor.” I say, “That’s crap.” Those people were given a hand out and destroyed it themselves. The residents are the ones that didn’t watch their kids as they destroyed the elevators and vandalized. The residents thru their garbage all over the site and destroyed it for themselves. We do not live in a socialist society, this is capitalism, and those people should have taken better care of their own living environment.

In the documentary the residents talk about how the police never came, then in a segment later they talked about throwing bottles and bricks from the eleventh floor at the police. I wouldn’t go in there either, if I were a policeman. The whole idea that the US owes its poor something is asinine. If you don’t like where you are at get an education and do something about it. Don’t have five kids, smoke and drink then complain that you have no money and the government owes you this.   

 

Man I'm Old!!!!!!

Heavy Metal

 

 

When I was younger I would steal my older brothers’ dirty magazines and thought it was awesome. Occasionally I would sneak down stairs late at night and watch Cinemax. I really thought I was getting away with something. I was young and stupid. As I grew older the magazines lost their appeal, I realized stuff that they talked about would never happen to me, until college. I watched an old Cinemax movie, Heavy Metal when I was really young and saw it some years later, thought to myself, “This movie is crap, the acting sucks and I actually think I am stupider after watching it.”

Fast forward to the present, I have a ten year old daughter and I would be extremely upset if she were doing the things I did. Watching the segments of Deep Throat in class made me think to myself, “I don’t want my kids exposed to the.” Twenty years ago I may have thought differently, but now that I am a parent trying to raise my children “right” I think the time and place for porn is not where my ten year old can access it. I guess I’m just getting old.

 

 

How She feels today.



Agent Orange Anyone?

                After class on Monday I was thinking about what to blog about. We had discussed so many issues: execution, Ron Kovic, monks burning themselves in protest and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Out of all these topics, I thought of how horrible Agent Orange is. Then Tuesday I was in the Veteran Affairs (VA) Hospital and struck up a conversation with a Veteran who had served two tours in Vietnam and was now suffering from cancer caused by Agent Orange, which gave me a personal connection to the negative effects of the chemical. He also told me that his children had genetic birth defects, which is common in people who were exposed to the chemical.

 I told my wife about my encounter at the VA and she told me about her best friend, Kate. She was born with physical defects that, through many surgeries, have almost been corrected. My wife told me that Kate’s father was in Vietnam and was exposed to Agent Orange and that is the cause of Kate’s physical impairments. Not only do I have a personal connection with a person affected by Agent Orange, but my wife does as well.

                Six days ago the VA posted a link for Veterans that were exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides used to defoliate Vietnam. This link is also for the children of these Veterans that suffer like my wife’s friend Kate. The link is: http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/, and it is filled with great information and resources.

 

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=agent+orange&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.44697112,d.dmg&biw=1646&bih=686&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=sX1bUd-MAo-84APm6YDAAw#imgrc=RuTq2BbfNVeOtM%3A%3B41s-cRiZp2Zj1M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.armytimes.com%252Fxml%252Fnews%252F2010%252F09%252Fmilitary-agent-orange-benefits-shinseki-092310%252F052909_agent_orange_800.JPG%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.armytimes.com%252Fnews%252F2010%252F09%252Fmilitary-agent-orange-benefits-shinseki-092310%252F%3B800%3B634

This Photo shows C1-30's in a staggered formation spraying Agent Orange over the forest canopy, with no regard for who it might be landing on, friend or foe.

   

From Vietnam to Iraq the VA. Still Sucks!!!

 

 

The main Character in “Born on the 4^th of July,” Ron Kovich is a person I can relate to. I did not see the kind of combat he did or sustain the injuries that he has, but we are both Veterans of war that were injured while serving our country and like Ron Kovich, I am dealing with the Veteran Affairs(VA). The VA has come a long way since Kovich’s era, but they still suck.

In July of 2009, I fell off an obstacle at the Air Assault course and hurt my shoulder. I was taken to medical, they gave me Ibuprofen and light duty for a week and said, “I banged it pretty good.” It was medically documented that I had sustained this injury. In February 2012, I reinjured my shoulder while training. I was due to get out of the Army in less than a month so medical didn’t thoroughly document the event. On June 1, 2012 I went to the VA and told them about my shoulder they ran test and MRI’s and on February 20, 2013 I finally got the surgery I had needed from 2009.    

Very long story short, on May 31, 2012 I filed an injury claim with the VA stating 30 service-connected injuries. On February 20, 2013 I had this surgery and now I am 100% temporarily disabled, unable to work. To compensate for me not being able to work, the VA is suppose to give me disability compensation. I went to the Veteran Affairs Benefits office to find out why my claim was taking almost a year and was told they are backed up two years, and I am going to have to wait. I informed them that I have no means of income, due to the surgery they performed, and they told me they were “working on it.”

So I go to the Maryland state VA office to talk to someone, I walk in at 3:00pm and sit down. A half-hour goes by and no one acknowledges my presence. So I pull out my camera and start recording what they are all doing, which is not working on claims. The large man is the Director of Veteran Affairs for the state of Maryland. He saw me and didn’t even say, ”someone will be with you shortly.”

I figured out why Veterans  are not recieving their benefits: too many people are not doing their job.



 

video by Jesse Youngs

 

 

As of the writing of this blog, there is still no word on the status of my claim.

My Lai....WTF?

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/special-report/16327/my-lai-massacre--horrible-memoirs.html

The United States military tries to sell the image of a well-disciplined and morally just organization across the board. We are supposed to fight tyranny and spread democracy, so everyone can enjoy “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Occasionally, aspects of the United States military are “caught” doing what it's suppose to prevent. The My Lai massacre is one of the most horrific acts committed by the Army and one of the most disturbing events I have ever read about. There is absolutely no excuse or reason for those types of war crimes to be committed. All of the men involved, from the top brass to the Private should have been court marshaled for war crimes and shot.

On March 16, 1968, two platoons from Charlie Company 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, America Division went into My Lai looking for Viet Cong fighters, on the orders of Lt. William Calley to “search and destroy.” There are many conflicting accounts about how the event began, but what is fact is that not all the Soldiers took part in the massacre led by Calley, but enough of them did. The Army's official report states that only 10 Soldiers actually carried out the massacre.  Reports estimate that 500 people were killed in a few hours. Some of the corpses were mutilated. Some women who weren't killed were gang-raped. Other villagers were beaten and tortured. The massacre was filmed by an Army photographer Ron Haeberle. The news of My Lai didn’t reach the public until 1969.

On October 12, 1970 during his court-marshal, Lt. William Calley testified that Cpt. Ernest Medina had ordered that anybody they couldn't move would be "wasted." His defense and justification for the massacre was they were just “following orders.” This is why Calley said he and his men killed 350 Vietnamese, including more than 100 civilian men, women, and children. Medina was found guilty and given a life sentence, which was commuted to three years house arrest.

 

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/mylai.htm



 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS4OQc0mQNU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQA1V9uPFjU



The 1950's Had the Beaver, Today We Have Snooki. Are We Better Off?

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Leave-Beaver-The-Complete-Series/13428

 

The Life of a 1950’s Teenager by Richard Powers discusses how ridiculously conservative American adults’ views were toward teenagers. Powers discusses two phases adults used to categorize teenagers. The first phase was marginalization. “Teens were marginalized by the adults, who didn’t want to be bothered with the very different values the teenagers held.” Adults felt that the teenagers were rebelling and questioning. This rebelling and questioning was not how the adults were raised, so they could not understand. When the adults of the 1950’s were told to perform, they did so with no questions asked.

The second phase of categorization was condemnation of self-expression that didn’t conform to conservative societal norms. Adults blamed these ideas of self-expression on Rock and Roll or, as it was referred to back then, the Devil’s music. This condemnation extended beyond individual households to society as a whole. New rules, regulations and prohibitions were established to limit teenage self-expression. If a male went to school with his hair touching his ears he could be expelled. Girls were not allowed to wear pants and guys could not wear jeans. 

Despite these categorizations and limitations, life as a 1950’s teenager doesn’t seem to be that bad compared to what teenagers face today. Those kids watched Elvis shake his hips and thought that was provocative. Contemporary teens have thousands of television channels and the internet at their finger-tips. On afternoon TV, it is not uncommon to see a drunken girl fellating a banana, while half naked in a hot tub with multiple men.  The 1950’s were a time of censorship, but they didn’t have the social issues we face today: schools being shot up, kids being killed for wearing the wrong color and kids just having a total lack of respect. When I was younger I thought parental censoring was wrong, and I always tried to push the limits. Now that I am a parent I try to censor what my kids are exposed to.

Damn, when did I become old?

 

http://www.screened.com/nicole-polizzi/14-747303/all-images/132-1887106/7/131-450036/



Everyone loves video games!!!!!!!

http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=121232

 

 

I have already discussed McNamara and Truman’s decision to drop the bombs in my previous blogs. My feelings have not changed. I still fully support those men for the tough decisions they made. The drone era of warfare is a blessing. One drone can decimate a large population of the enemy, destroy fortifications and prop precision ordnances, while American Soldiers are far from danger. Granted there have been errors on the part of operators, when it comes to positively identifying combat targets, but every war has collateral damage.

Peace organizations, human rights groups and even the ACLU oppose the use of drones. Their argument is that drones are illegal under International Law and the U.S. policy on assassination which has been addressed by a series of Executive Orders, starting in 1976 by President Ford. These orders have prohibited employees of the United States from engaging in assassination during peacetime of political figures, but there is a presidential loophole, the Executive Orders have not clearly defined the exact meaning of,  “assassination.”  On July 30, 2008, President George Bush issued Executive Order 13470 amending Ronald Reagan's Executive Order 12333. Now, enemies of the United States can be targeted and eliminated.  All of this information can be found in the National Archives.

Drones are a blessing on the battlefield. They save American lives and the psychological effect they have on the enemy is demoralizing. This video is intense.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zg2A9M6QqY