POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

How Low Can You Go?

Question addressed by Jill in comments here.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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To The Friends of James Cruckson and Josie Warner

In reading the continuing comments posted to the posts regarding the tragedy in Fon du Lac, wherein an officer was killed, another wounded, and a man apparently suicided, it strikes me that the crux of the issues being debated centers around moral guilt of this party and another. Where an entire community of people... in particular the loved ones of both the murdered and the murderer... have suffered having their worlds torn apart... especially to the children of the deceased... it is important to keep in context that there is Mercy. And there is Justice. And none escapes this world without embracing the one or the other.

There is no one person responsible for this most terrible event. There is no one person responsible for the aftermath and suffering.

No doubt, James Cruckson appears to be guilty of killing an officer in the line of duty. He only compounded his crime by taking his own life.

But there is another who also appears to have blood on their hands.

For those of the Christian Faiths, I beseech thee to consider the following. On this Palm Sunday, we are faced with the knowledge that we, each on of us, accuses Him, denies Him, convicts Him, and crucifies Him. It is our collective guilt.

Scandal is real, my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Among us are Judases. Within each of us lives Judas. God have mercy on each of us.

Respect for the Dignity of Persons

Respect for the souls of others: scandal

2284 Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. the person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor's tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.

2285 Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."

Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep's clothing.

2286 Scandal can be provoked by laws or institutions, by fashion or opinion.

Therefore, they are guilty of scandal who establish laws or social structures leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to "social conditions that, intentionally or not, make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible."

This is also true of business leaders who make rules encouraging fraud, teachers who provoke their children to anger, or manipulators of public opinion who turn it away from moral values.

2287 Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. "Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!"

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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Denver Motorists Get the Shaft, Jesse Jackson Gets the Head

Charged with soliciting prostitution, a man's truck was impounded by the city as having been used for illegal purposes. Even though he was found not guilty by a jury, they then demanded he pay $5,000 in impound fees-- something they believe they can do under a bizarre and fascistic "Bend Over and Take It" ordinance that they have used to take possession of 1,600 vehicles over the past year--or hand them the title. The truck is listed for auction. There is a class action lawsuit pending.

The victim's name is . . . wait for it . . . Mc . . . Anally. Well, Mr. McAnally isn't taking this lying down.

You may have raped McAnally, but you're about to get screwed McBack.

Jesse Jackson's such a POS that I haven't bothered with this, but now that it's been rendered in Taiwanese animation, I must. Alas.

Animation hardly does justice to his pervy little mustache, but I think it would be unfair to convict him on that detail. Kind of.

Meanwhile, Jesse Jackson, Jr. accuses Apple's iPad of putting people out of work. Here's how the Jacksons support labor:

But numerous accusations of extortion and corruption have dogged PUSH’s activities over the years, as well as the activities of Jackson’s successor organizations, the Rainbow Coalition and the Citizenship Education Fund. These activities have been detailed in several sources, including Timmerman’s Shakedown. Jackson has repeatedly threatened businesses and corporations, black and white, with boycotts, racially biased criticism, and (implicitly) outright violence, if they refused to enrich him or his organizations. Among the companies: Coca-Cola, Texaco, Viacom, AT&T, Boeing, and Coors. In addition, his organizations have received at least $50 million from the U.S. government.

To site some specifics: Coca-Cola was induced to award a lucrative distributorship to Jackson’s half-brother, Noah, in order to protect itself from racially based attacks by Jackson (Noah is currently serving a life sentence in prison for arranging the contract murder of three business associates); Anheuser-Busch awarded a beer distributorship to Jackson’s sons, Yusef and Jonathan, for the same reason; President Jimmy Carter directed $7 million in government funds to PUSH; President Bill Clinton sent Jackson on a junket to Africa that cost American taxpayers $42 million; Jackson opposed the merger of Viacom and CBS, and attempted to force Viacom to sell the UPN Network to Percy Sutton, in whose Inner City Broadcasting company Jackson held $1.2 million worth of shares; and Jackson opposed the merger of SBC Communications and Ameritech until Ameritech sold its cellular business to a group headed by Chester Davenport, another Jackson friend.

Jackson has received literally millions of dollars for his Citizens Education Fund as part of negotiated settlements with companies he has frivolously accused of racist employment practices.

They can blow me. Figuratively.

In related news, Farrakhan still wonders who Obama thinks he is, messing with his sweet, sweet Gaddafi petrodollars.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Pretty Much Just Sunday Links

Wasn't around much, yesterday, because I was helping the mother of a friend of my daughter move house. I don't think she's very aware of how much stuff she has. I mean, she's nowhere near a candidate for Hoarders, but the two of them (the father lives elsewhere) have enough stuff between them that it's significantly more than the 5 of us do. We moved the stuff that was located where the two of them have been living, a pick-up truck and part of a van and a rental moving truck, unloaded, went to one storage unit, loaded and unloaded that, and by that time it was only three of us (the daughter being with her dad for the weekend): Stephanie, Brian Bock and I.

There was more stuff in Hinesburg, but it couldn't possibly fill in the truck, she said, so there we went. I was having back spasms, by then, but I really didn't want to go back today. Well, we filled up the rental truck, and there was still enough for a half load.

Problematic, because a lot of it was (underpacked) knick-knacks and paddy whacks, decorative kitchen stuff, 10-year-old McDonald's Happy Meal toys, and God only knows what else. I'm sure I sound as though I'm complaining, and I'm sure I am, though I wouldn't be writing this if there were any chance of anyone I know here reading it, which, thankfully, there is not.

If it were me, or, I daresay, my daughter, whose mantra is "when in doubt, pitch it," there would have been a dumpster at the end of the line for all the stuff that went into the garage to be sorted later. The place is much nicer than where they've been the last couple of times, roomier inside and out, but all of that junk is bound sooner or later to become clutter. The daughter is a very grey-eyed goddess Athena (not that there's anything Zeus-like about me), but also under her ruthlessness very tender and nostalgic. She seems genuinely perplexed and upset that someone might be injured by her often pointed observations. She excused herself from the proceedings on the basis of her inability to abide the haphazard nature of the packing, having helped them move before. She's generally of the opinion that while there may be numerous ways of skinning a cat, only one or possibly two of them make any sense at all, and she's certainly not shy about sharing those opinions. So, I thought it best to leave her out of it.

Kill Truck is no longer blogging about politics anymore, for reasons outlined here. There are, after all, better things to blog about; for example, the ones Johanna does.

Obama's not feeling the love in Venezuela. Oddly enough, Gadaffi's been nicer about their little tiff.

Did you know there's another "conservative" blogger in Vermont? It's true, and you can check out his very worthwhile stuff, here.

Are you interested in 19th century (English language, mostly) literature and culture? I don't believe it's racist to observe that The Girl with the Twisted Lip (not a Stieg Larsen fetish) writes articulately on those and related subjects.

Dana Milbank: Nancy Pelosi was the rudder that the Obamanauts threw overboard, due to its contracting radioactivity, or something. What? Obamanauts? You can read about them here.

Theodore Dalrymple on the imagined socialized efficiencies in medical care. Bureaucracies always take care of themselves, first, and they absolutely hate having to learn anything new.

New and improved Rahm still petty and vindictive.

AP lying:

"Hey, folks! He's trying to save your jobs and your pensions!" Palin yelled into the microphone. "Your governor did the right thing and you won! Your beautiful state won! And people still have their jobs!"

Walker, a Republican, signed a bill into law last month that calls for almost all public workers to contribute more to their pensions and health care coverage, changes that amount to an average 8 percent pay cut. The plan also strips them of their right to collectively bargain on anything except wages.

I've italicized the lying for your convenience. Just in case you wonder why I'm so confident that they're lying, consider that they're being asked to double their contribution to their health plans (to 12.5%) and contribute 6% to their pension funds. Then consider what percentage of their compensation these two things cover, then consider the average $800 or so they can save in previously mandatory withholding of union dues. Finally, reflect that their union-provided health care plans were overpriced by $200 or $300 on the open market and imagine where the AP might have discovered that counter-factoid.

A friend (who goes by @antijenx online) would very much like to win this contest to narrate a Neil Gaiman novel. It will take you a couple of minutes to sign up, but if you would, that would be kind. She's also a gifted photographer and a hottie.

Hmmm. Finally?

Barack Obama raised a record-shattering $750 million on his way to winning the 2008 presidential election. But that stunning flood of cash has triggered an investigation by the Federal Election Commission, which is taking a detailed look at the campaign's records and transactions.

According to Roll Call, the audit of Obama's financial records began Barack Obama, Federal Election Commission, Investigation, 2008 Presidential Election two years ago. It was not required by law, since the Obama campaign did not accept federal matching funds and funded itself entirely with private donations. But allegations of improper contributions, coupled with the FEC's suspicions of certain transactions, led to the probe.

Obama recently officially launched his 2012 campaign effort, and a representative there admitted to Roll Call that a review was under way.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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In Hell

“I think I can make that case, and I think that, in the debates that take place over the next 18 months, the American people will feel that I deserve a second term," President Obama told the Associated Press in an interview.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose:

As Judicial Watch reports, “The group has been busted for forging voter registration applications in key battleground states and submitting falsified forms in more than half a dozen others. In 2007, ACORN settled the largest case of voter fraud in the history of Washington State after seven workers were caught submitting about 2,000 fake registration forms.”

This is hardly an exhaustive list of ACORN’s wrongdoings.

So brazen is ACORN that its voter-registration arm, Project Vote, allowed Ms. Busefink to run its voter-mobilization campaign in the fall even while she was under indictment for election-related improprieties in Nevada. Amazingly, Project Vote, which used to employ President Obama, continues to operate unmolested in ACORN’s former Washington, D.C., headquarters.

Looking forward to Vadum's book Subversion, Inc., coming next month.

Naked women in Allure.

ATF trouble gets bigger by the week.

Having watched Vermont's government weatherization "pros" at work, I'd made this easy prediction a long, long time ago:

President Obama's $5 billion stimulus injection into a decades-old program to help lower energy bills for millions of low-income families by retrofitting their homes to improve efficiency has been plagued by reports of mismanagement, waste and fraud in several states. (AP)

Nobody can say that Obama hasn't been good to racketeers.

Yesterday's search of the day:

11:10pm [Saint Louis, MO, USA] 24.107.152.253 2 actions 41s google.com nude OR fake "mary katharine ham"

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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It’s the Worst Life In the World

So, Keith Olbermann is sitting at a bar, drinking too many appletinis and complaining about all the blowback that he's gotten from tweeting that S.E. Cupp should have been aborted, and every time he gets a message on his iPhone, there's that #bathtubboy hashtag. Suddenly, a stranger (let's call him Biff) appears at his elbow and offers after a little discussion to take him to a world where he'd never been born.

Everyone's really happy, especially his parallel universe non-co-workers and a couple of women who had been fans whom he'd awkwardly screwed in hotel rooms and then conjured never to contact him again.

Then Biff pushes him off a bridge into the icy waters below and he drowns, and Biff (who, it turns out, is an angel) gets court-martialed but is exonerated and gets his wings, and there's a funeral that nobody attends and lots of tweets about #bathtubboy. And the last scene is a Big Wheel engulfed in flames, which is kind of weird, but . . . whatever.

see more funny videos, and check out our Yo Dawg lols!

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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NYC Cops Serving and Protecting?

Guess maybe Bloomberg has outlawed jokes, now?

via @survivalstation

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Ultimate Area Man Discovered in West Allis, Wisconsin

The Onion can officially stop looking.

Yes, I understand that the proposition of Ultimate Area Man seems self-contradictory. Still. And when I discovered he was from West Allis, I slapped the heel of my hand to my forehead: "Of course!"

But here's a salute to Andy Zoladkiewicz, the alpha and omega of pizza delivery. If ever a man deserved his own "Real Men of Genius" beer commercial, A.Z. is that guy.

God bless you, sir.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Prosser Wins; Will Kloppenburg Concede?

With all the 72 Wisconsin counties having certified their returns, Prosser holds a lead of 7316 votes. Mind you, that's not the exact 7500* votes that the Daily Kos held Prosser needed, but it's substantially more than the 240 that Kloppenburg decided to declare victory over.

A conservative justice has weathered attempts to link him to Wisconsin's governor and a divisive union rights law and won re-election, according to county vote totals finalized Friday.

Tallies from each of the state's 72 counties show Justice David Prosser defeated challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg by 7,316 votes. State election officials said they will wait to declare an official winner until the deadline for Kloppenburg to seek a recount passes. She has until Wednesday to call for one.

So, by Wednesday, we should know whether she intends to try to manufacture enough votes via the recount route to replace Prosser, and whether Professor Hasen thinks that that's deleterious to democratic institutions and the prestige of the Court.

Meanwhile, disgruntled Dems want an investigation into the 2006 race that made Van Hollen Wisconsin's AG.

I'm hoping that I can stop blogging quite so much about Wisconsin, soon, but I'll note that Fond du Lac is getting a new Police Chief, and they're looking closely at a candidate from Greenfield:

Greenfield Police Deputy Inspector Brad Wentlandt is a finalist for the job of police chief in Fond du Lac, according to the Fond du Lac Reporter.

Nine people applied to replace Chief Tony Barthuly, who will retire June 30. Wentlandt is one of five finalists for the job. He currently commands the Support Services Division in Greenfield.

Barthuly announced his impending retirement back in November, so it has nothing at all to do with the shootings in March that resulted in the deaths of Officer Craig Birkholz and his shooter, James Cruckson. It will be interesting to find out what the investigation reveals and to see whether it has any impact on the choice of the new Chief.

For that matter, I'd love to hear what questions about that matter the candidates for the position have put to the Board, and what they've been told, since Fond du Lac's citizens are still waiting for a coherent explanation of what happened.

* "The margin is within the limit that would allow Kloppenburg to request a free, statewide recount."

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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