The Rod Blog

Track a Sex Offender

While listening to the news yesterday, I heard a story about a push for GPS tracking of sex offenders. This would allow authorities to know where they are and where they have been at any given moment. They claim this is essential because sex offenders often repeat their offense. This infuriated me. This is a gross invasion of civil rights. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a sex offender advocate by any means, but if they're so dangerous that they have to be tracked at all times, WHY AREN'T THEY STILL IN JAIL????

Instead of trying to push for tracking those who have served their time and 'repaid their debt' according to our judicial system, why not push for longer mandatory sentencing and keep them locked up? Unfortunately the current sentencing guidelines aren't sufficient, but someone who was convicted, sentenced, and served their time according to our laws should not be subject to additional 'sentencing' at the whim of lawmakers no matter what the crime. This infringes on our freedoms as a people.

Am I the only one seeing the big picture here?????

Why Not Roll Over and Pee!?

Former Chicago cop Michael Mette was convicted the other day for 'assault with serious injury' and sentenced to 5 years in an Iowa prison. Mette had just left the house to avoid a confrontation when one of the residents of the home followed Mette out of the house and began pushing him from behind. After the third hard push, Mette turned around and punched the guy in the face, knocking him out. He was taken to the hospital and later released and was seen a couple days later back to normal routine.

Even the Judge stated that Mette was not the aggressor in the incident. WHAT!? If he wasn't the aggressor, why is he not aquitted for self defense? Because according to the judge he should have walked away.

Wait a second... isn't that what he did by leaving the house and ignoring the first two attacks on his person? I guess he should have waiting to be hit in the head or stabbed or something to justify retaliation. This ruling is absurd! Judges ruling aside, why is he being pursued by the district attorney anyway? This man is a cop, a hero, a man who puts his life on the line for our safety. He was defending himself, LEAVE HIM ALONE! So much for the system working!

For those of you as outraged at this gross injustice as I am, there is a defense fund in place for him at http://www.mikemettedefensefund.com/.

On the Pill at Age 11

I heard a news report today about the Portland School Committe proposing to provide birth control to students at King Middle School in Maine. I think this is a horrible idea. Advocates cry out that kids that age are becoming sexually active and I rebut that it's happening because we enable them. ELEVEN YEARS OLD!!! Come on people. Talk about removing all hints of responsibility from their lives. You are enforcing a moral standard that is flawed and needs to be addressed, not patched. How about letting them get pregnant and learning lessons of responsibility for their actions. Hopefully the voice of the public, but most importantly the parent of kids in that community are heard loud and clear.

Round 1: Danny Bonaduce

During the taping of a reality awards program, Danny Bonaduce slammed Johnny Fairplay (Survivor fame) to the ground after Fairplay jumped up on him and started 'humping' his body. People are all upset at Bonaduce for the 'assault'. First of all, he didn't assault anyone, he defended himself from what he saw as an attack. Second, Johnny Fairplay is a moron for jumping onto Bonaduce who has a history of criminal behavior and violence.

I'm definately in Bonaduce's corner for this one even though I don't particularly like the man. Johnny Fairplay was looking for attention and now he has it. The district attorney's office agrees with me and will not be pressing charges in this obvious case of self defense. Fairplay is just lucky he's only walking away with some busted teeth.

Leave Rush Alone

Democrats are calling for a censure against Rush Limbaugh after he referred to certain soldiers who had made false claims about their military record 'phony soldiers'. Democrats were quick to accuse Limbaugh of calling all democrat soldiers 'phony'. What!? Not only did he not say that, but the soldiers that he was referring to were actually 'phony'.

Why not debate issues facing this country rather than wasting both time and taxpayer dollars with something so pointless. Oh yeah, it's in retaliation for the republican outrage over a moveon.org ad in which General Petraeus was essentially called a traitor because his recommendations were in line with what the white house was saying.

I hope someday both Republicans and Democrats can stop spending time on stupid pointless bashing of each other and start fixing things.

Naked and Empowered

Sue Worley confronted surveyors taking measurements on her property the other day, only to have one of them, an off duty police officer, call for backup and have her arrested. The charge was disorderly conduct for acting in a threatening manner toward them. After being processed, strip searched, lice showered, and put in jail, charges were dismissed and she was released.

The surveyors were checking out her land for placement of electric lines across her property. Many neighbors had protested the move but to no end. One of Worley's neighbors even threatened the electric company resulting in the police escort for the survey crew.

This story really upset me when I first heard it. Here you have a 60 year old woman confronting strangers on HER OWN PROPERTY and is then arrested on bogus charges. This was obviously an intimidation tactic by the power company and she is within her rights to sue them (which she is). Had the charges been real, they would not have been dismissed so quickly. This is a case when the officer escorting the survey crew has a definate conflict of interest and acted in poor judgement.

The power company has yet to so much as apologize for the embarassing incident.

Solution: Apologize, discipline the officer, schedule the survey time with the resident, settle with Worley over the emotional stress you caused her by making her feel like a prisoner.

O'Reilly a Racist? Yeah Right.

After visiting a restaurant in Harlem, Bill O'Reilly stated that he was surprised at the calm and respectful atmosphere. He compared it to an Italian restaurant in an all white neighborhood. Of course everyone screamed racist at these comments. He said he was merely pointing out that the stereotypes are not representative of reality and I agree. I don't think he's a racist at all, I think he's like a large portion of white americans whose majority exposure to black culture is via what we observe from the media.

I know I'm gonna get some flack from this comment, but I feel like the major black stereotypes are created by black artists and television shows. Take a look at Snoop Dog, 50 Cent, and other black rap artists. Take a look at black sitcoms like Cosby, Fresh Prince, Family Matters, or any other sitcom airing on BET in the evenings. I'm sure any black family would agree that black culture is nothing like that.

The same goes for white culture too. I'm sure the black view of white culture is heavily skewed toward what is observed in white actors, politicians, television, etc. I would never take offense to a minority man or woman observing white culture and commenting on their shock that it doesn't match the stereotypes they had believed to be true. I would be happy that they were willing to experience it in the first place.

Law Trumps Religion... Sorry.

Polygamist Warren Jeffs was convicted of being an accomplice to rape in an incident where he wed a 19 year old male to an underage (14 year old) female. Of course the defense for this Mormon offshoot was religion and religious persecution, but in this case could not hold up. I think a dirty old man was convicted of getting off on kids doing it rather than practicing a blessed religious act. Apparently the whole incident was against the will of the girl in the first place, hence the 'rape'. In a country where religious freedom is held so dear, it is easy to cry religion as a defense for anything. Unfortunately, the line has to be drawn somewhere. We couldn't have a religious sect pop up that believed and openly practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism now could we? There are fundamental human rights that each of us have, and the right to our own bodies is one of them. Rape under any circumstance or religious curtain is still rape, and in this country you'll pay the price.

Unions At It Again

Members of the UAW went on strike against GM for failure to come to an agreement on contractural issues. What a bunch of idiots! What a better way to better your employment than to move the employer closer to bankrupsy. That make a lot of sense. GM is struggling to survive and employees are going to have to make concessions or GM will flop. I don't know about you, but I would rather concede some things and have a job rather than hardline, strike, put the automaker out of business, and be out of a job. Unions are supposed to empower workers not abuse employers, there's a difference.

Hillary Health

Hillary Clinton was all over the news programs yesterday to present her plans for health care. Guess what? She's going to get the money from the wealthy. To some this might seem like a good idea, but to me it seems un-american. We live in a nation that is home to the 'American Dream' making something of yourself from nothing. The opportunity here is endless, or so it would seem. Taking money from the upper class to provide benefits for the lower class is essentially reducing class stratification. I recall from political science class that this is also what communism tries to achieve; elimination of social classes.

I'm not against this because I'm wealthy, I'm not. I would fall under the lower middle class category. I just don't see how continually taking away from the upper class because they have been successful goes against the principles this country should be proud of.

It is frustrating that Democrats often play solely to the lower classes of our society. Hillary's proposal will is not only an unfair communistic approach, but it will hurt the middle class small business owners that will be forced to provide health insurance to ALL of their employees. The question that also remains to be answered is 'who is wealthy?' A salary of $120K a year is a very healthy salary, but I wouldn't necessarily consider that person wealthy. According to current tax standards they are and are subject to the 'alternative minimum tax' which bumps their tax rate up to around 40 percent. Under Hillary's plan will that persons tax rate get bumped up even further?

How about instead of raising the taxes for the upper class, increasing and/or expanding the luxury tax. That way hard work that leads to riches isn't punished by the government, but if you wish to buy a 100K car (whether you are rich or not) you are going to pay a higher sales tax. I applaud Hillary for her motivation regarding health care reform, but she is WAY off base here. Enough milking the rich!