Took a few years to implement. I still get a chuckle out of an episode of "Hill Street Blues" where Furillo tells Howard Hunter they can't afford grenade launchers for his EATers, because the price is so high they could equip the whole precinct with kevlar vests for the same amount. Alas, it seems the law enforcement establishment didn't realize Lt. Hunter was supposed to be a comic character: now the precincts have the kevlar and the grenade launchers both.

-- Mal

more than a bit nuts. now he is, apparently, the poster boy for modern policing.

... Lt. Howard Hunter was not supposed to be the very model of a modern policeman.
(There's another, earlier episode where I swear Hunter is drinking from a coffee cup labelled "Lt Calley." Which if true demonstrates a genuinely twisted wit in the property staff...)

-- Mal

posts on wounded knee (one of the articles drew a direct line between wounded knee and mylai) so I wondered about him. turns out he is still around, showing the tiniest bit of remorse, but excusing his actions:

On August 19, 2009, while speaking to the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus, Calley issued an apology for his role in the My Lai massacre. Calley said:

There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai. I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.... If you are asking why I did not stand up to them when I was given the orders, I will have to say that I was a 2nd Lieutenant getting orders from my commander and I followed them—foolishly, I guess.[20][21]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calley

and medina:

After resigning from the army, Medina went to work at an Enstrom Helicopter Corporation plant owned by F. Lee Bailey in Menominee, Michigan.[4] He now lives in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, at Rennes East Nursing Home.

... it never grows stale.

I imagine there's a reason for that, too. The Institutional Man, the one who shows "loyalty" (whatever that is), who follows orders, who takes one for the team... this ideal is encouraged by a bureaucratic system that is more interested in "team players" than in actually getting anything done (to say nothing of right and wrong). Official cognizance must be taken, if somebody makes a loud enough noise about it, of wrongdoing, and some scapegoat or other picked (preferably from the lowest executive level possible) to appease the outrage, but nobody would ever be taken seriously who suggested reforming the whole system. Usually, it is some poor slob "just following orders" who takes the fall, too; what is ignored is that the poor slob would be out of a job, or (worst case) dead if he refused to follow the order.

Another sidelight on official recognition: three soldiers in a war somewhere raped a local bigwig's daughter, and he complained of the offense to the C.O. The advocate in charge of the prosecution was pissed at the soldiers... because they didn't kill the girl after they were done with her, and thus he had to be bothered to try them. Why didn't they just kill her? (This is rich): they said they "felt sorry for her."

-- Mal

lack of humanity that is, sadly, displayed by far too many.

Gun legislation in Germany is considered among the strictest gun control in the world.[1][2] The current law, the German Weapons Act (German: Waffengesetz), dates from 1972, and includes as well as modifies previous gun laws. This statute regulates the handling of knives, firearms and ammunition as well as acquisition, storage, commerce and maintenance of weapons. It also defines certain forbidden items such as nunchakus, switchblades and brass knuckles and bans their possession and distribution.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_legislation_in_Germany

USA has 112 guns per 100 residents.
Germany has 30 guns per 100 residents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country

Except of course for the 30,000 or so people who die from gun violence every year.

and I actually took cover... silly me. Those were unicorn farts after all.

and are verrrrrrrrry liberal.

Texas was once a solid blue state and there are more Democrats here than Republicans. Unfortunately the state is gerrymandered to the point that it's almost impossible to win at the state level unless you are a batshit crazy tea bagger.

We will be blue again. I promise.

I also believe that Texas will turn blue, unless the GOP can disenfranchise most of the young and brown Texans.

The US is obsessed with all things violence and militarism.



There is this scene in the autobiographic Johnny Cash-movie with Joaquin Phoenix.
Johnny Cash tries to make a phone-call. He's a drug-addict and to muster the mental strength to make a phone-call, he needs to pop some pills and hold a gun in his other hand.

I'm sure it hasn't nothing to do with a century of failed economy policies, failed social policies, failed racial policies, failed drug policies....

to serve and protect the one percenters.

to here them talk.........the police should shoot right after they pull their guns out if they don't have their hands in the air.

Christmas tends to be a big day for suicide by cop as does Thanksgiving.


On edit...... I am not saying all killings of civilians by cops are suicide by cop.