Today’s entry comes from Sin City.

A police department review found that Officer Derek Colling violated police policies when he used "excessive force" on Mitchell Crooks, reports the Las Vegas Review Journal.

…

Earlier this week, the Internal Affairs Bureau notified Crooks that Colling was found to have violated Las Vegas police policy - a development which pleased Crooks.

He beat up a citizen because he had a video camera.  News flash not just for police but anyone in public.  If you don’t want it on video for the world to see, don’t be doing it in public.  This officer had previously been involved in two fatal shootings and now beat the hell out of someone for having a camera.  It makes me wonder why he was so against having more footage of any police encounter.  If anything as long as an officer is behaving himself within the confines of law and decency, video strongly works to their benefit.

For example see this video involving an open carrier out of California:

The FBI is investigating a video from a Tennessee police car dashcam that shows police stripping a man naked and then beating and tasing him.

Now evidently he was out of parole, but overall this whole incident speaks of excessive.  None of the officers tried to express any restraint on their fellow officers.  Each was more than willing and complicit in their own actions and that of their fellow officers.

While officer safety is a concern, most certainly a man lying on the ground naked in the snow is not a threat worthy of beating and tasing, especially if you’re the individual responsible for stripping him.

The fact that 3 officers were all involved and all three mutually worked to abuse this individual instead of thinking the problem through given their superior numbers earns all 3 a place on the count.

State Sponsored Criminal Count: 10

Just because a cop has the ability doesn’t mean he should, just like the rest of the civilian populace.

Time and time again I am hearing about TSA agents stealing from airline passengers.  They’ve been caught stealing cash, electronics, organizing thefts with their coworkers, and some have even busted for child pornography.  Now with the addition of the “Fast and Furious Scandal” we are finding that the government knowingly gave felons a clear background check even though they should have been stopped.  Our government provided arms to disqualified purchasers.  Given all of this information when I received an email today of yet another incident with the TSA I felt it was time to create something similar to the Dead Goblin Count. 

The rules are simple:

1. The person worked for the government, IE: TSA, DHS, FBI, BATFE, or any other part of the government, local, state or federal.
2. The person committed the crime while on duty, or his job provided access to commit the crime under color of law (see the pedophile above).
3. High level incidents such as the “Fast and Furious” incidents count.  Individual incidents involved in the same program can be counted separately.
4. Must have accompanying documentation with the submission.

To submit incidents, please use this form.  You can also recommend any additions or changes to the rules, I may or may not accept them.  Even if you don’t think it will fully meet the requirements above, most likely disqualifying factor is rule #2, send it anyway it will at least get an honorable mention. 

So here’s the first entry in the list goes to the one that finally pushed me to actually do it.

Burger King is hiring. Do yourself a favour; do your department a favour; and do the rest of us a favour -- find a job doing something else ... before you cripple or maim an innocent "putting lumps" on them, or you "put ten rounds" into someone who doesn't need killing.

You complete, utter and total jackass.

LawDog – What The Hell…?

[For those who haven’t seen the video, here it is: (Language makes it NSFW, if you do make sure you have headphones on.)

Normally I would have a nice long commentary of my thoughts on the subject, but I just am too severely enraged by the incident.  Seriously the thick necked Neanderthal of an idiot is nothing more than a high school bully who then went and got a badge and a gun.  This man should not be in law enforcement, he is not there to protect and serve, he is there to harass and intimidate.  May the legal system he supposedly represented come down upon him like a ton of bricks.  Then may an individual who ended up in jail because of him make that officer his bitch.

-B]

It appears that there is a new service out there catering to doing online background checks of potential employees.  Overall I don’t have much of a problem with this, a private company certainly has a right to use any information that it feels would affect performance in the workplace.  This new middleware company does the work to keep the employer from seeing information that could lead to other biases which are currently legislated against.  For example they make sure to strip off marital status, sexual orientation, religious views, etc.  What did catch my attention however was the following statement from the companies CEO.

Then it assembles a dossier with examples of professional honors and charitable work, along with negative information that meets specific criteria: online evidence of racist remarks; references to drugs; sexually explicit photos, text messages or videos; flagrant displays of weapons or bombs and clearly identifiable violent activity.

What’s wrong with that?  If the individual has broken no laws what is the issue.  If you dig through my website you will find many photos of firearms.  Numerous pictures of explosives going off.  As well as numerous articles involving self-defense, which is a violent response against someone doing violence against you.

Mr. Drucker said. “We also see flagrant displays of weapons. And we see a lot of illegal activity. Lots and lots of pictures of drug use.”

He recalled one man who had 15 pages of photos showing himself with various guns, including an assault rifle.

There’s that set of words, assault rifle.  Obviously this man is a puritan who is projecting his belief system on others and judging them based upon his world view.  There is nothing on my site which promotes illegal activity.  I have gone through extra effort to make sure I am legal and as a result have had myself placed on numerous government lists.  Why sir are you attempting to limit the employment of gun owners who are proud of their stance on gun rights?  I might advise Mr. Drucker to be quite careful since I’m sure if someone finds out that their ownership of firearms caused a negative report from his company and thusly resulted in missed employment opportunities, his company now carries the liability for the discriminatory action.  It might be quite difficult to prove, but eventually given enough people it can happen.

So the heat is climbing throughout most of the country and heat like cold is detrimental on most things.  I stumbled across a nice article that quickly lays out some of the issues that causes problems in the power grid when it gets hot out.  I have decided to permanently move the power series articles to the weekend.  This should make it easier to push them out since the amount of time it takes to write one section.

Though it appears that if you’re in Texas, this can work to your advantage in the short term, go buy a side of beef.  Expect the prices to go back up, if not climb higher due to the end effects of having to thin the herds. 

This started off as a comment over at Robb's place but then turned into a post in and of itself. Robb pointed out that if we could act like the government we would all be doing something different right now.

[begin sarcasm]
Now Robb, know you're roll as part of the 1/3 of Americans who actually pay taxes. You are responsible for paying for all the unnecessary crap we don't need. We don't need to stop spending, we just need a bigger credit card. That will solve all of our problems, I promise!
[/end sarcasm]

It's amazing to me that when you look at the minority who actually support the debt ceiling increase, amazingly non pay taxes and they're in the lower income brackets. Maybe it's because they did exactly what the government wants to do and haven't made the correlation that increasing your debt limit != making more money. Debt's have to be paid back, you don't just get the money for nothing. Debt when used wisely can be beneficial, however in this case it is being used to support programs and items that are not actually needed for the general welfare of the public.

I spent a hard 5 years in school to get my degree and I'm seriously wondering if it was wasted since pretty soon the government is going to auger this place into the ground like a 747 nose down at full throttle. I've heard rumors of a 70% effective tax rate and the return of pre-Regan taxes rates.

I have a bright novel idea for those ass-hats in Washington, STOP SPENDING MONEY YOU DON'T HAVE. I would like to point out that credit card companies and banks determine how much I can take out on loan. The government (who is borrowing the money) is determining their own limit, does no one see a problem with this. The running joke about democracies (we're a republic) is that, "They last just as long as it takes for people to discover they can vote themselves money from the treasury." In this case people have found a way to do it through the elected representatives. It appears that we should have had some sort of check on our representatives because it appears that they figured out how to do the same.

The states, and even people throughout this country have tightened their belt in this economic mess and our elected representatives have spent as if we're in the middle of a boom. I have cut out numerous things I did have after my wife was fired from her last job. Thanks to fearless leaders economic environment, finding a job is difficult if not impossible. Don't believe me, here's what Steve Wynn had to say on the subject:

And I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I can prove it and I could spend the next 3 hours giving you examples of all of us in this market place that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right. A President that seems, that keeps using that word redistribution. Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration.And it makes you slow down and not invest your money. Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America.

Our government as usual is making problems worse. Instead of realizing that, they are compounding the issues more and more claiming they can make the problems go away. Government is not suited to solve problems like this, never has been nor will be.

On the debt and debt ceiling: News flash for everyone, we are ALL responsible for that debt. It doesn't matter if you are a D a R or an Independent. The government is writing checks with your name on it. You might want to tell your representatives that is enough. It's your lively hood Washington is selling down the river, you might want to take notice before the bill collector shows up at your door.

My dad often apologized to me for the actions of his generation, at the time I didn't quite understand. Now that the chickens have come home to roost, I perfectly understand what he was talking about. We have gone so far up shit creek I don't know how we're going to get back without getting covered in shit. And those who have put us here will be gone by the time these problems are in full swing, it will be my generation and my kids who get to clean up this mess. Unfortunately most of my generation has been brainwashed by the previous one and it's going to take a full crash to wake them up.

Today I’m going to cover the basics of AC circuits, how they differ from DC circuits which I covered previously.  Again there’s going to be a bunch of math, please don’t get hung up on details.  If you’re confused by something roll forward and see if there’s something that helps clear it up.  If not, ask a question.  The math is merely a tool to help explain what’s going on, don’t get lost in it.

A side note from as I wrote this, I forgot how complicated a lot of this stuff is.  Seriously, most of the stuff on this page I don’t even give a second though and trying to remember how to explain it isn’t easy.  I have a heavy math background and it’s simple for me, though I know it won’t be for everyone.  I have no doubt someone’s going to get confused, seriously ask questions, please.

Obama placed on full display today how out of touch with reality he is:

President Obama on Friday kept up the pressure on Republicans to agree to revenue increases in a deal to raise the debt ceiling, claiming 80 percent of the public supports Democrats' demand for tax increases.

"The American people are sold," Obama said. "The problem is members of Congress are dug in ideologically."

This is what we call reaching deep up into an orifice and pulling out a chocolate covered pretzel and calling it a gold nugget. A much lower claim around 40%, even 50% might be believeable. This just smacks of elitism and a superiority complex. Especially given the following:

As the Beltway politicians try to figure out how they will raise the debt ceiling and for how long, most voters oppose including tax hikes in the deal.

Just 34% think a tax hike should be included in any legislation to raise the debt ceiling. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 55% disagree and say it should not.

Even if you dismiss the above, even within his own party he did not reach the 80% support he is claiming. America is reaching the end of her credit limit, the problem we have is those who are spending all the money can also arbitrarily increase the limit. Those at the head of all of this are totally out of touch with the public and are spending like drunken sailors on liberty.

Obama, as in touch with reality as a vegan running a steak house.

The Microsoft Object Embedding Tool.

Seriously, I’m not kidding!

In the engineering world we often say the following in regards to Futility:

futility (n) \fyü-ˈti-lə-tē\: The act of doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.

Unsurprisingly our leaders in government do not seem to have ever heard of the word or understand it's meaning.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Wednesday that a new stimulus program is in the works that will entail additional asset purchases, the clearest indication yet that the central bank is contemplating another round of monetary easing.

The economy hasn't budged even with all the money they've been throwing at it. They've actually started throwing enough money at the problem it's making it worse. Instead of cutting back and trying to control spending and pulling back, they approached the problem like a sailor with his pay on liberty. Spending money on beer and women while wasting the rest. They dumped money into running guns across the Mexican border through the last stimulus, what is the next state sponsored terror?

Unemployment, by their crappy metrics, is still at an exorbitant high. Given all these problems their solutions are to spend more money we don't have and tax the hell out of the people trying to make ends meet to do it.

News flash to everyone, it didn't work the first time and it's not going to work this time. But that isn't what anyone wants to hear now is it. Some time's the truth hurts.

If ye love wealth better than liberty,
the tranquility of servitude
better than the animating contest of freedom,
go home from us in peace.
We ask not your counsels or your arms.
Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.
May your chains set lightly upon you,
and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.

-Samuel Adams, August 1, 1776: Philadelphia State House

[I was reminded of this quote while writing a response to Ubu bad mouthing my suggestion to start turning up the heat on TSA employees over at Joe’s place.  Joe has obviously spent some time in contemplation of the subject.

I modified her closing remark into the following, striking out her original words:

I can't think of anything more useless than a plot to verbally disrespect people to condone sexual assault, molestation, and humiliation of the law abiding under the guise of "security" and think it is going to accomplish something actually make us safer.

Seriously the TSA just needs to stop issuing statements considering it has become blatantly obvious they do not operate according to their own policies.  It is nothing more than sponsoring child molesters and pedophiles to prevent their arrest.  Don’t believe me, here’s TSA’s statement regarding pat downs of children under 12.

"After a thorough risk assessment and after hearing concerns from parents, we made the decision that a modified pat-down would be used for children 12 years old and under who require extra screening," TSA spokeswoman Kristin Lee said in a statement.

Pistole then modified that statement to the following:

Indeed, the only “change” to the TSA’s policy is that it now says it will “make every effort” to exempt children under 10, where as before it said all children under 12 were unequivocally exempt.

Don’t believe me, some TSA pedophile felt that a 6 year old boy heading to Disneyland on a surprise trip.  He got not one, but two pat downs, and did it severely enough to where he didn’t want to go anymore.

I never really bothered to pay attention before, but there’s a LOT of Remington 700’s at Boomershoot.

Seriously, I just walked down the line taking pictures and I’m finding that most of them are 700’s. 

I know most of you won’t get most of it, but for those who do, this currently is what my life feels like.

It is not choice then, but necessity that calls for Independence as the only means by which foreign Alliances can be obtained ; and a proper confederation by which internal peace and Union may be secured.  Contrary to our earnest, early, and repeated petitions for peace, liberty and safety, our enemies press us with war, threaten us with danger and Slavery.

Richard Henry Lee: June 2, 1776

[One month later the thirteen colonies would vote unanimously on his resolution for independence.  John Adams had this to say regarding the passage of the Lee Resolution.]

Yesterday the greatest question was decided which was ever debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided upon men.  A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, that those United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.

John Adams: July 3, 1776

[Frankly I couldn’t put it better myself.  Enjoy your Independence Day, and remember at the end what it really means.  -B]

I did some maintenance last night on the blog.  If you see anything that’s out of whack please let me know.  I must say that collapsing all those sites into one Drupal install overall was easier, but it was a bit more difficult to do it safely.  All the sites had to come down simultaneously and then get upgraded for each.

The updates were simple and really the most annoying part was having to disable all the plugins and re-enable them.  It lost my layout and some other stuff in the process, but I have some new features now and some security problems are solved.

Today was a long day outside as well.  But the boat is finally ready for summer and it’s finally warming up enough to be able to use it.

On this day in history 235 years ago the greatest thing in the history of this country happened.

The Lee Resolution for independence was adopted by 12 of the 13 colonies, New York abstained, courteously.

The Declaration of Independence was considered immediately afterward.

The Lee Resolution was what allowed the birth of the Declaration of Independence.  The Declaration was created to provide the world the justification behind the Lee Resolution to the world.  It was the resolution itself which declared the following for those thirteen colonies.

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.

That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation

John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail the following regarding July 2nd and it’s role in history.

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfire and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.