A Cop's Eye View

I copied this whole post at Democratic Underground.  The author says he asked his nephew about Darren Wilson killing Mike Brown. Take it or leave it according to your own bent.

Not only is he a 29 year cop, he is the third highest ranking officer in the county that he works in. I asked him about this. Being the Republican that he is, I expected him to jump to Darin Wilson's defense. He had this to say.

He would not say it was a racial thing because he doesn't know. He did say he read all of the reports and the grand jury testimony.

1- He said at very least Wilson is completely incompetent. That you never get out of the car by yourself if you know there is going to be a physical confrontation with an unarmed person. Especially if you were in Wilson's words, "afraid" of the guy.

2- He said Wilson should have let Brown go, followed him as far as he could in the car as he called for back up. If he had to, arrest him later.

3- He had no business firing once Brown was down on the ground. He fired four shots too many even if you believe his story.

4- It is unheard of to leave the guy laying in the street for four and a half hours.

5- If all of this was in accordance to Wilson's training, an idiot trained him.

6- Brown's family will get a huge settlement from Ferguson because if this goes to civil trail it will cost them many millions more.

What my nephew thinks happened is that Wilson got into an argument with the guy, got out of his car to whip his ass. Quickly realized he bit off more than he could chew, so he shot the guy.

Take it for what it's worth.

Today's Wow

I'm something of a Sapio-Sexual, so I think any Fem-i-Nerd is kinda hot anyway, but holy crap.  If STEM courses are populated with women like this one, I suddenly have reason for hope.

Merry Mythmas

Where's The Outrage?

Yo - "Conservatives",

Michael Jackson was plagued with financial problems at the time of his death in 2009. Last year, the IRS sued Jackson’s estate, claiming that it owed over $700 million in federal taxes.

If you're really all that het up about Da Gubmint staying off everybody's back, then you need to be raising something of a stink every time.  Being selective about your deep concern over who's getting stepped on is why the rest of us are pretty sure you're a lot more worried about who gets to join your little club and who doesn't.  

BTW, here's a tip for ya: You're not in the club.  And your eagerness to slag people in order to keep them out of the club is an obvious attempt to suck up to the bosses who are in the club, and - listen to me now cuz I'm talking sense here - that's not gonna get you into their club.  They need you to think they think you're cool so you'll go on doing the heavy lifting, but you're just another credulous rube gettin' played for a cheap trick.

The Power Of Marketing

A slightly alternative view:

If you buy that new $2000 TV on sale at 20% off, you are not saving 400 bucks - you're spending 1600.

Today's Pix

Today's Arrogance Of Ignorance

If ignorance is bliss, this is one happy lady:




John Cleese wraps it up neatly for us:



hat tip = Addicting Info

Perspective

Happy NFL/Turkey Day

Baloney Detection

1) Is the source reliable?

Errors occur, but if the source's errors tend to be all on one side or bunched together, it should raise a big red flag.

2) Does the source make similar claims on other subjects?

On related (or even marginally tangential) topics, is this source making the same general statements of fact?

3) Have the claims been verified independently?

Can the claimed results be replicated? 

4) How does the claim fit with the way we know the world works?

Too good to be true = prob'ly not true

5) Is the claim falsifiable?

What's the alternative explanation?  What's been done to try to disprove it? 

6) Where does the preponderance of evidence point?

Any claim supported by only a few points, while challenged by lots of other points, is prob'ly bogus.

7) Are you playing by the rules of the scientific method?

UFOlogy vs SETI

8) Is the one making the claim presenting positive evidence?

Or are they just making unsupported denials of an "opposing" theory?

9) Does the new theory account for as many phenomena as the old theory?

Pointing out a few anomalies or outliers doesn't negate current theory

10) Is the claim being driven by personal belief?

Is Confirmation Bias at work here? Is the claimant pushing a "theory" in support of an ideology and/or religion and/or world view?

Barely A Start

So that's 1 down and only 1,499,999 (veterans living in poverty) to go.

Our veterans would be a lot better off it we'd just stop making so many of them, and if we'd stop acting like spoiled children when it comes to paying what we owe.

Mo' Buttuh

Meanwhile, Back At The Planet

I hate it when I get to thinking there's more truth being spoken by fictional characters on a TV show than by anybody in any position of authority anywhere here in These United States of Opinion-As-Reality.

At the same time, I wonder if this is just to see if anybody's listening. 

And I wonder if this little vignette is simply a plot device in Aaron Sorkin's devious little brain. 

And what if it's only an attempt to illustrate his other point about Crowd Sourcing and the dangers of instant reactions due to the immediacy of social media driving the mob, which is masquerading as "true democracy"?

And I wonder if the whole thing is so twisty-turny that it spins off into the infinite numbers of universes where everything that can happen does happen, and all you have to do to make it real is to say it's real.

And what about the very very very very real shit hitting the fan because of Climate Disruption?

and and and - fuck, I hate my brain sometimes.

God Love The Onion

Even when they hit a little too close.  Or maybe because they hit so close.

FERGUSON, MO—Ahead of a grand jury’s decision over whether to indict officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, police in the city of Ferguson have reportedly heavily increased their presence this week to ensure residents are adequately provoked. “We’ve deployed additional officers throughout Ferguson in order to make absolutely certain that residents feel sufficiently harassed and intimidated,” said St. Louis County police chief Jon Belmar, assuring locals that officers in full riot gear will be on hand to inflame members of the community for as long as is necessary. “It’s absolutely essential that the people of Ferguson have full confidence that law enforcement is committed to antagonizing them every step of the way.” At press time, the Missouri National Guard was on standby with tanks and urban assault vehicles in case Ferguson residents required additional incitement.

hat tip: Democratic Underground

All That Snow

I haven't been following it closely, but I know that the Buffalo area got something like 88 inches of snow over just a few days at the end of last week.  And now the weather is turning a lot warmer, so they're expecting to add the problem of significant flooding to the problems of dangerously stranded people and collapsing roofs and assorted other calamities.

But as I read thru some of the articles posted online and as I browse thru the video reports being run on Big Media, I keep wondering how it is that nobody's asking, "When was the last time something like this happened?"

I've been in Buffalo during a Lake Effect snow storm, and I wanna tell ya, it's impressive watching 15 or 20 inches of snow pile up overnight, but here's the thing:

Seven Fucking Feet in about 2 ½ days

And yet nobody's the least bit curious that it might have anything to do with a little thing quaintly referred to as "Climate Change"?

It was said years ago that people had already been born who would die as a result of catastrophic disruptions due to shifting global climate patterns.  Well, there're at least a dozen dead because of this storm, which means Climate Change is (and actually has been) killing Americans.  And here we sit doing nothing but watching coin-operated politicians and corporate managers and lobbyists and press poodles playing grab-ass in the mud for another 2 years?

We are so very fucked.