WHAT MOLLY IS TALKING ABOUT…
2159 by Jeff Hess
30 September 2007
30 September 2007
WHAT THEY SAID…
2147 by Jeff HessWhat does that mean? This: 9/11 has made us stupid. I honor, and weep for, all those murdered on that day. But our reaction to 9/11 – mine included – has knocked America completely out of balance, and it is time to get things right again.
It is not that I thought we had new enemies that day and now I don”t. Yes, in the wake of 9/11, we need new precautions, new barriers. But we also need our old habits and sense of openness. For me, the candidate of 9/12 is the one who will not only understand who our enemies are, but who we are.
Before 9/11, the world thought America”s slogan was: “Where anything is possible for anybody.” But that is not our global brand anymore. Our government has been exporting fear, not hope: “Give me your tired, your poor and your fingerprints.” Thomas L. Friedman
30 September 2007
WHEN THEY SHUT DOWN THE CITIES…
1720 by Jeff Hess
You do what every revolutionary has done: take to the countryside. Molly at After Enlightenment is on to something when she notices that the disparity between news reporting from Burma in the United States and the same reporting in Europe, particularly from the BBC. We are not getting the full story here. Long live the bloggosphere.
30 September 2007
WOMAN DIES WHILE IN AIRPORT CUSTODY
1646 by Jeff Hess
With the millions of people moving through the nation’s airports it was inevitable that someone, somewhere would die while in the custody of the Transportation Safety Administration. I expected a heart attack or some related episode as a result of a passenger’s treatment. I did not expect this:
The stepdaughter-in-law of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum died while in police custody in Phoenix following a heated argument with an airport-gate attendant, officials said yesterday.
Phoenix police said Carol Ann Gotbaum, 45, who lives in Manhattan, appeared to have strangled herself while trying to wriggle free from handcuffs while in a holding cell after the Friday incident.
Strangled herself while trying to wiggle free from handcuffs. Huh?
She arrived late for her U.S. Airways flight to Tucson and was told that the plane was preparing to depart, airline spokesman Derek Hanna said.
She allegedly began shouting at the gate attendant, and her persistent unruliness prompted the agent to call the cops just before 3 p.m.
“She became extremely irate, apparently running up and down the gate area,” Hanna said.
Gotbaum ran into the responding officers after going back through the security checkpoint toward the main terminal, said Sgt. Andy Hill, a police spokesman.
“The officers were not able to calm Ms. Gotbaum and eventually arrested her for disorderly conduct.”
Gotbaum resisted, and was “continually screaming” after being put into a holding cell, Hill said.
Officers checked on her every 15 minutes, but some five to 10 minutes after one check-in, he said, she had gone silent.
They then found that she wasn’t breathing and attempts to revive her failed.
“It appeared as though Ms. Gotbaum had possibly tried to manipulate the handcuffs from behind her to the front, got tangled up in the process, and they ended up around her neck area,” Hill said.
Read that last bit again. Now put your hands behind your back, as if they are handcuffed. Try to imagine what possible body moves you might make where your handcuffed wrists could end in a position near your neck in a way that would strangle you.
Can you imagine that?
I can’t.
This is so wrong on so many levels I’m not sure where to start but I’ll ask two questions:
First a woman is hysterical, why the feck is the solution to put her in a holding cell? Holding her for what? Were they attempting to transport her to a mental hospital or other medical facility? Or was the goal to just lock her screaming butt up until she calmed down?
Second, a woman is hysterical, handcuffed and placed in a small cell. Do you suspect, just a little, that she might be mentally unstable and watching her all the time might be a good idea?
Here’s what I predict. There will be no murder trial. No charges will be brought. Those involved will be given protection by the Department of Homeland Security and the family will begin civil proceedings that the Supreme Court will eventually find improper.
30 September 2007
MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…
1400 by Jeff Hess
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Quickly removing scratches from CDs and DVDs.
30 September 2007
THE MOST UNSECRET SECRET EVER…
1356 by Jeff Hess
30 September 2007
FROM THE SANDBOX…
1200 by Jeff Hess
Eddie: How many times can you almost get hit??? Yesterday was my first day back out on patrol after almost a week off. The way our schedule works is we rotate guys in the squads off on patrol days, and I happened to have my day come at the right time to get five days off! It was great not doing anything, but it came to bite me in the ass, as yesterday was extreme…
30 September 2007
30 September 2007
30 September 2007
FROM MY DAD…
0800 by Jeff Hess
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
30 September 2007
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0400 by Jeff Hess
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from So, You Want To Write by Marge Piercy.
We want stories that help us make sense out of our lives. We want to see all this mess mean something, even if what we discover is a shape perhaps beautiful but not necessarily comforting. p. 28
30 September 2007
I’M GLAD I DON’T WEAR A WATCH…
0200 by Jeff Hesshe says the last time I saw my father
he was asking me about my life
how I was making out and he
went into the next room
to get something to give me
oh I say
feeling again the cold
of my father’s hand the last time
he says and my father turned
in the doorway and saw me
look at my wristwatch and he
said you know I would like you to stay
and talk with me
From Yesterday by W.S. Merwin.
30 September 2007
TIME POWER: TODAY…
0001 by Jeff HessToday, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: You cannot plan an effective list of goals for today without a clear picture of intermediate goals. You should not start on meaningful intermediate goals until you have your long-range goals written, refined and prioritized, and your long-range goals should not be prepared until your unifying principles are similarly written, refined and prioritized. We call this continuity in goal planning and it is basic to the Time Power System.
29 September 2007
WHAT THEY SAID…
2033 by Jeff HessIt does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds. Samuel Adams
29 September 2007
IT’S ALL SPECIAL ONCE YOU WAKE UP…
2011 by Jeff HessI am not made young
by my daughter’s mornings;
I age relentlessly.
Yet I am made to marvel
at the durability of newness
and the beauty of my new one.
From My Daughter’s Morning by David Swanger.
29 September 2007
MY COMMENTS…
2004 by Jeff Hess
Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.
29 September 2007
THIS IS WHAT GREAT LEADERS DO…
1806 by Jeff Hess
Earlier today I posted a message of prayer from the Dali Lama to the marching monks in Burma. Great leaders don’t pray. Great leaders march. Like Gandhi marched from his ashram to the sea to make salt and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched from Selma toward Montgomery, Alabama to make History.
If the Dali Lama is truly a great leader he will stop praying and start walking.
I’m not sure where he ought to start from (the Dharsana Salt Works would seem a good place) but he needs to start. And he needs to keep marching until he reaches the border of Burma. And he needs to keep walking until he reaches Yangon.
And you know what will happen as he walks?
Two people will join him. Then 20 more will walk with those three. Soon, 200, 2,000, 20,000 maybe even 200,000 will march.
And by the time they reach the border there will be too many to stop. And even if every bullet is fired, there won’t be enough to stop the marchers.
This is what great leaders do.
29 September 2007
BUSHLAND, BUSHLAND ÃœBER ALLES…
1542 by Jeff Hess
Earlier today I posted a video linking to a piece by Naomi Wolf on the use of shock to reformat individuals and societies. Terry at I See Invisible People emailed me another piece by Wolf on the ten easy steps to a Fascist state. Somewhere between Step No. 1 and Step No. 10 Fascism happens.
But it can be difficult sometimes to know just when that is.
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens’ groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treasonAnd finally…
10. Suspend the rule of law
Did Wolf miss anything?
29 September 2007
29 September 2007
MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…
1400 by Jeff HessI’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is 14 Numbers Your Cell Phone Can”t Live Without.
