Just a few things that need to be said:
Cameras, cameras everywhere… – We’ve all seen the videos of cops acting up in most-unprofessional ways. Running away from the police is almost always a crime, but it shouldn’t be punishable by death. I wonder whether those two most recent videos of guys running away and getting shot to death (in the back) will make the next guy more likely or less likely to run.
What we can probably be sure of is that the explosion of cameras (security, cell phone, etc.) is bound to bring about a change in the way law enforcement personnel go about their business. We all hope that it makes the tiny minority that can best be described as the more reckless and trigger-happy among them think twice before letting their urges overwhelm their training. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that it may cost the lives of some good cops as they hesitate in that life-or-death split second, worrying about how it might look on the 6 p.m. news.
All over the national news this past week was the dashcam video of the Marana police officer who ran down a suspect with his car. The video is pretty graphic and, not surprisingly, it has prompted a fair share of criticism. A local preacher says it’s just another case of police brutality, while the human pinball—one Mario Miranda Valencia—already has a lawyer ready to sue the Marana Police Department.
The case will work itself out in the courts, but in the meantime, I’d like to make this public proclamation. (This is just for me and not for anybody else.) If I commit an armed robbery, start a fire at a church, break into somebody’s house, steal a car, rob a Wal-Mart, and walk down the street shooting a stolen rifle in the air, I hereby give any and all law-enforcement personnel the right to use their car bumpers to knock me 40 feet in the air before I can commit another crime. And when I land, if one or both of my arms are still attached to my torso, you have the right to put me in handcuffs and take my punk ass to jail.
And I won’t sue.
On Tax Day, April 15, I was driving south on Shannon, getting ready to turn left onto River. Someone has put up a sign that read “Taxes Are Revolting! Why Aren’t You?”
Well, I have to admit that I am sometimes, especially after a couple hours in a gym on a summer day. As for why I’m not revolting against taxes, my response is that I’m an American and I realize that things like roads and bridges and Army people cost money.
I have been blessed with a long and healthy life and lots of free time with which to observe my fellow humans. Over the decades (with very few exceptions), I have come to view people who complain about taxes to be (in the immortal words of Denis Leary) whiny little maggots. Or skeezy politicians, if you’ll pardon the redundancy.
For the amount of services that the average American wants and expects (and, for the most part, deserves), we are probably under-taxed. I know nobody wants to hear that, especially around this time of year, but it’s true.
¡Viva Batista! I found Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s big political coming-out party last week to be sadder than anything else. First off, he tries to portray himself as a Republican champion of the middle class that is shrinking almost entirely because of Republicans. You have to understand that Republicans care about the middle class like truck drivers care about gravel. Every now and then, they can’t help but notice it, but it’s never more than a minor inconvenience.
The extra sad part was that Rubio is still beating that tired old drum about Cuba after President Obama did what an American president should have done two or three decades ago. It’s a disgrace that we have allowed a tiny group of people in South Florida to dictate American foreign policy for the past half-century.
Now, Fidel Castro was no hero (and neither is his brother). And young people who wear Che Guevara shirts need to be lined up and slapped like a scene from a Three Stooges movie. But I’ve always wondered what these Cuban ex-pats want—the return of Fulgencio Batista, one of the two or three worst tinhorn Latin dictators of all time? (And that’s really saying something, considering the existence of Anastacio Somoza, Augusto Pinochet, and Manuel Noriega.)
For those of you who don’t know the history of Batista (who was propped up by American government and corporate money), here’s a dictator who suspended all civil rights and political parties, and was simultaneously in bed with drug kingpins, the CIA, and the American Mafia.
Yeah, we want THAT guy back!
And finally, a shot in the arm. A Spokane, Washington school district removed 100 kids from school because their parents hadn’t provided vaccination records. It’s about damn time.
Let’s go through this again. You have every right as a parent to not have your kid vaccinated. At the same time, you have NO right whatsoever to have your little unvaccinated disease factory interact with kids who parents have brains in their heads.
This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2015.
What makes the swerving to hit the bad guy reckless is that the police officer couldn’t see what was beyond the wall he was heading for. There could have been people, traffic, even ducklings! Yes, ducklings! The bricks flew all the way across the street beyond the wall. It was by pure chance nobody was on the other side of that wall or traveling on the street beyond. What if the guy had the wherewithal to jump out of the way? The cop is in the wall and the guy is standing there with a gun. It was reckless. If there had been just an empty lot beyond the guy and no wall and the cop had run him over, stopped the car and arrested what was left of the idiot, I’m fine with that. But this incident was pure recklessness on the part of the cop. Thank god no ducklings were injured.
Even ducklings are smart enough to run away when some wacko is walking down their street firing a rifle.
Ignoring the rest of Tom’s usual blithering, I would like to say that most people realize that we need taxes, it’s the mountain of wasteful spending of those funds that we find repulsive.
The biggest wasteful spender in our government is the defense department. Yet nobody, republican nor democrat, dare propose a budget that kills making unnecessary, unwanted weapons. Just cutting that part makes a huge budget difference. Keeping a large army parked overseas (either in Saudi Arabia or Ukraine) is only for show and not for actual war. Troops are still deployed the way they were back in WWII. Time to rethink the whole thing. We don’t need thousands of soldiers in europe or the middle east. We can deploy an entire military force within hours of a threat. So, why base those troops overseas? Anybody remember how fast we got entire tank battalions on the ground in Kuwait? Let’s save money and bring the troops home.
Tom-I generally agree with your positions. But this one is wrong on so many different levels: “If I commit an armed robbery, start a fire at a church, break into somebody’s house, steal a car, rob a Wal-Mart, and walk down the street shooting a stolen rifle in the air, I hereby give any and all law-enforcement personnel the right to use their car bumpers to knock me 40 feet in the air before I can commit another crime.” First, every human in the U.S. has a constitutional right to be free from unreasonable seizures by a government agent. The poor guy who shot in the back because he ran from a cop because he had an outstanding warrant and was pulled over for was unreasonably seized. And so was the guy in Marana. He hadn’t been convicted of any of the crimes he was alleged to have committed. We reserve punishment for crimes for those who have been convicted. Marana PD had the situation under control. And finally, who gets to decide how bad a person’s act can be before the police can beat the hell out of him in order to stop them? You? The GOP controlled legislature? I’m disappointed that you support extrajudicial punishment when you’ve complained about government over reach on constitutional issues in the past.
It’s sad how Pulitzer Tommy can’t actually make a good point without saying something moronic to ruin it. Let me see if I’ve got this straight. If you’re a Republican you hate children, the middle class, the poor, the semipoor, the really poor, the working poor, the non-working poor and the part time employed poor, minorities,gays, women,clean air, clean water, people having health care, and anything else that can’t put money in their pockets. If the last one is true the Clintons would be poster boys and women for the G.O.P.
I found nothing in your column about the IRS targeting conservative groups.
Funny, I was under the impression that this country was founded by people who were upset about
their taxes and lousy representation.
I found nothing in your column about host number four at MSNBC being found to owe thousands in
back taxes. They tell the rest of us “whiny little maggots” to suck it up and pay our “fair share”, but refuse to pay up themselves.
Will you point them out as hypocrites Tom?
I doubt it. You will probably just go on bitchin about Fox News to your little amen chorus here at the TW
Vince,
Al Sharpton is a despicable human being and perhaps the King of All Hypocrites. I can’t stand him. As for the others, I will await their explanations before making a decision. Who among us has not had a difference of opinion with the tax people? Because I have multiple sources of income (none particularly impressive), I have to file a different way. Let’s just say that they’re quick to point out that they think that you owe more than you sent, but r-e-a-l s-l-o-w to let you know that you overpaid. If the MSNBC people are actually tax cheats, they don’t belong on the air.
CW13…….Well, look at you. You finally got something correct. Or at least 98% of it. Good job and nice doggie.
Sorry Vince but your just of subject again. Find someone else to hate.
Timmothy, let me ask you something. What is your fasination with my dog? Allow me to explain what he’s wearing. Being from N.Y.C. I’ve been a Rangers fan all my life. Last year during the Stanley Cup Finals ( which we lost to L.A. in 6 games) my wife put one of my Rangers jerseys on Lambert as a joke. My picture as most people who’ve been around here a while remember was one of me on my custom Harley. Because of my bad back I was finally forced to give up riding. Tucson’s roads didn’t help. So, I took it down and put up the my of my dog, who happens to be a Hell of alot better looking than me. As far as a doggie goes, he’s a Lab Shepard mix who weighs 131 pounds and is trained to protect.
cw……nyc that explains a bunch. As to fascination with the dog..it’s more a dislike of people who dress up animals . Always thought that somewhat strange. It’s not cute.
Neither are gorillas. It must suck being you
If your kid is vaccinated, then my unvaccinated kid can’t give your kid anything.
My kid will be healthier after a little bout of measles. Your kid could be brain-damaged by Big Pharma. They don’t care about your kid. They care only about money.
Yes, Linda your unvaccinated kid CAN infect vaccinated kids – and adults; because no vaccine is 100% effective. Even at today’s 97% percent effectiveness, your kid can harm others.
US News and World Report had this to say:
… even with a vaccine failure rate of only 3%, a large measles outbreak can end up infecting a lot of fully vaccinated people, Wallace says.
To illustrate why, Wallace suggested considering a scenario in which 1,000 people are exposed to measles, with 900 fully vaccinated and 100 unvaccinated.
Doctors would expect 90% of the unvaccinated people — or 90 people — to get sick. They would also expect 3% of the vaccinated people — or 27 people — to get sick, for a total of 117 people.
It’s every parent’s right to decide whether or not to vaccinate their kids just as it the right of health officials to bar unvaccinated kids from attending public schools. Home schooling is the obvious choice , not placing others’ health in jeopardy.