How To Help Harvey Victims

Hurricane Harvey, now a tropical storm, has affected many people in southern Texas. In addition to all of the services the Red Cross typically provides during a disaster, this storm has necessitated the need for long term shelter for people who now have nowhere to live. To donate to the Red Cross, you can call 1-800-REDCROSS, or to make an immediate $10.00 donation, you can text "Harvey" to 90999.

Pictured below, is what those affected by the storm do not need. Donald Trump visited Baton Rouge last year, after some serious flooding displaced a large number of people. He was convinced that they needed Play Doh. He is scheduled to visit the Houston area on Tuesday. Hopefully, he will not make the same mistake again.

Look Who Came Home!

Elizabeth Thomas, who has been missing for almost six weeks, and Myra Alissia Freeman, who has been missing for fifteen months, have both been found this week. Thomas had been kidnapped in Tennessee by one of her teachers, who was subsequently given his pink slip in absentee, both she and the fired teacher were found in Northern California, near Yreka. We still do not have a lot of details about Freeman's situation, but we know she is alive and well. She disappeared from her Alabama home, and turned up in El Paso, Texas. It's always a pleasure to see missing persons found alive and well. Thomas's teacher, Tad Cummins did not have any cell service in Yreka, but he has "cell" service now! He is being held without bond.

Affluenza, A Petition From MADD

Remember Ethan Couch, the "affluenza kid"? Now that he has been caught, after Tonya Couch, his so-called "mother", helped him hide in Mexico in order to avoid the constraints of probation for the four murders of which he was convicted in 2013, and is fighting deportation, a judge has the option of transferring his case from juvenile court to adult court. Had he been held accountable for his crimes, or even if he had shown some gratitude for his light sentence and taken advantage of the opportunity to sober up, perhaps so many people would not be outraged at him and his mother.

Among those outraged are Mothers Against Drunk Driving. They have circulated a petition to show Texas how the rest of the nation feels about rich teens who drive drunk, kill people, and get free passes from the judicial system to do it again, while otherwise violating probation. The link is shared here, and it is not only worth reading, but worth signing. Petition To Fight Affluenza

Texas School Tries Hard To Ruin A Child's Life

A fourteen year old high school freshman in Irving, Texas was arrested on Monday because he built a clock and took it to school. And also, because his name is Ahmed Mohamed. He built the clock out of a pencil box, for an engineering class, and a nasty female teacher called the police, reporting that Ahmed had brought a bomb to school. Since the teacher's IQ is probably average or slightly below average, and she is probably a racist and christian, she thought that a child who is intelligent should be punished for his intelligence, humiliated in front of his peers, and robbed of any chances to attend college. So she went out of her way to hurt him.

President Obama heard about this and invited Ahmed to the White House to show him the homemade clock. The teacher who called the police will probably not get to  go to the White House, and the only people who want to meet her are probably small minded creeps, like herself.

Here's the response from the police. Notice that it contains no apology.

It is obviously the intention of the school and the community of Irving, Texas to continue to harass any promising student who happens to have a dark complexion, an Arabic name, or a religion other than Christianity. It has been argued, by the few who support the police here, that school safety is of utmost importance in all of America's schools. That simply isn't true, and the proof is in this message. In March of 2015, an eighteen year old senior named Casey Farrant took a gun to Frankfort High School in Frankfort, Kansas and threatened another student. Federal law maintains that after such an incident, the student must be expelled and barred from entering the building for a whole year. Seven weeks later, Casey Farrant attended graduation. He did not build a clock. Casey is probably not smart enough to build a clock. Instead, Casey presented an actual threat, but since he is white and has christians in his family, the threat he presents is not taken seriously by Frankfort High School, Dean Dalinghaus, the principal, or USD 380. Had a Muslim child done something of that caliber....pun somewhat intended....the law would have been followed. It's all about maintaining a racist environment.

Why Public School Teachers Should Not Have Tenure

After former officer Eric Casebolt resigned because he could not stop himself from the assault and battery of an innocent child at a public swimming pool, former fourth grade teacher Karen Fitzgibbons took to posting on Facebook about the incident, stating that she wanted forced segregation again. Luckily, the school board was not amused, and fired her. It rather frightening to think of what any minority students endured in her class, and equally frightening to imagine what she taught all of her students. Another termination from employment because of this is that of Tracey Carver Albritton, who had been employed with Corelogic, because she started the commotion with racist comments.

It's good to see that manners and empathy are still in the vogue among a few Americans. If Karen Fitzgibbons had some sort of tenure, or other guarantee of not getting fired for being a crappy teacher, the school would not have been able to dispense with her "services". We still apparently have a long way to go. Here's a public school teacher in Frankfort, Kansas, who also makes racist comments on the internet, yet does so with the approval of her employer, USD 380, Vermillion, Kansas.

Good Riddance To Violent Texas Cop

A very violent police officer named Eric Casebolt has just resigned, after the public has seen the footage of his attack on the teenage girl in Texas, who was invited to a pool party. Apparently, a few young people who were not invited to the pool party arrived and crashed the party, but since they were the same race as this young lady, she got assaulted and battered by a police officer. That's as much sense as yours truly can make of the whole mess, anyways. But here's a question: even if the kids were completely in the wrong to be at a swimming pool, clad in bathing suits and clutching towels, why is that much force required against children? And if you watch the video, you will notice that, not only was a gun pulled on these children, it was waved in all of their faces. Is this how white police officers in Texas are trained to treat black children? It seems so....the white mother in the video who did not want her racist face shown thought the cops were just doing their job of keeping the swimming pools in Texas white. Shouldn't America have grown up by now?

And One Ring To Bind Them

Just when I think I've heard it all, a kid from Texas gets suspended from school because he told another kid he had a magic ring and would use it make the other kid invisible! Where the hell is the eye-rolley where I need it?! A fourth grader named Aiden Steward, who recently watched one of the movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings trilogy, took a ring to school and told another fourth grader that it was forged in Middle Earth, and had the power to make people invisible. Later, that same day, young Aiden's parents got a call from the school to tell him that Aiden had been suspended for making "threats of terrorism".

In an ongoing climate of "zero tolerance", this little boy was persecuted for wearing a piece of jewelry and for using his imagination. It's definitely harassment of an intelligent and precocious child, but another idea that occurred to me is that the teacher of this fourth grade class may not be as well read as her students, and not understand literary references when she hears them. Also, being a midwestern teacher in a midwestern school, the teacher might think she is justified to punish children whose parents are Pagan or Wiccan. If a christian whose IQ is in the typical range of IQ's for Christians (around 96) thinks she can get away with humiliating and harassing a child who discusses Pagan ideas by having him suspended for "terrorism", you can bet your bottom dollar the midwestern teacher will do it. This teacher and her administration may be trying to drive Aiden's parents out of the school district. The trend among christian churches these days is to be as intolerant, threatening, and as unmessianic as possible, in hopes of gaining brownie points with God. Also, how come all these "zero tolerance" schools still have bullies?

Above is Aiden, our little would-be Frodo, holding his newborn brother. When I think of terrorists, this is not what comes to mind. Indeed, Aiden's father commented, "I  assure you, my son lacks the magical powers necessary to threaten his friend's existence."

While modern public schools make empty claims about their "zero tolerance" policies, yours truly does not suffer fools gladly. If any of the readers, fans, or trolls of this blog share this sentiment, following is the contact information in order to call and politely ask the ringwraiths who run the school to kindly insist upon teachers who know the difference between reality and fantasy.

Ms. Roxane Greer, Elementary Principal
601 S. Poplar, Kermit, Texas, 79745
432-586-1020
rgreer@kisd.esc18.net

Burglar Sleeping On The Job

Yikes! Christopher Provazek, of Houston, Texas, fell asleep while robbing his neighbor's house, and is now in jail. Yep; Kevin Connolly got up early to get ready for a trip, and discovered the thief asleep in the guest room! The thief claimed he wasn't actually trying to steal anything, but the question of why he was wearing the victim's coat was never answered! Oh well....he'll get his hat back when he gets out of jail. He left it at the scene of the crime.

Violent Cops At School

Do we really need law enforcement in public schools because of cell phones?

Frankfort School's Deranged Priorities, Once Again

A couple of nights ago, I spoke with a child who attends Frankfort School, in Frankfort, Kansas. This is not unusual, since the (ahem cough cough ahem) school, and I do use the term loosely, here; is in the district that includes my residence. What is unusual is the fact that this child had heard bits and pieces of information by way of character assassination of an innocent man, along with some serious misinformation about his family, yet had heard nothing at all about the spouse of a teacher at the same school who is currently in federal prison; Carswell, in Texas, to be exact; for embezzling truckloads of money from her previous employers! I was stunned, because according to some of the older students, this woman had been allowed in and out of the school building regularly to see her husband, despite the dangers involved in allowing convicted felons access to schools and children, yet no notices explaining this decision had been sent to parents in order to enable qualified decisions about student safety and the children who knew about this had been told to "keep quiet" about the whole thing, in order to "preserve" the widdle feelins' of the thief's spouse!

This is a crock for several reasons. First of all, lies, false testimony, and confidential information has been spewed almost everywhere at Frankfort School about yours truly and family. My culture, family, and religion have also been denigrated by teachers and administration there, to the extent that all six of my children have come home in tears, partly because of the bullying efforts of the children of the aforementioned thief. Despite my complaints about all of it, and my requests that it stop, no one "working" at the school had any concerns about my feelings, or the feelings of my children. Why would the feelings of someone who "feels" that state and federal law only applies when convenient, or to other people, be more important than the feelings of law abiding citizens? Secondly, most schools do not employ federal criminals or their spouses. There are simply too many risks and problems connected to such individuals. Everything from a defendant possibly becoming a fugitive, or becoming perceived as a fugitive by authorities, to retaliation of unhappy victims can create an unsafe environment for others, and a convicted felon has lost the right to vote, and many of the other rights of citizenship, so the felon and those who protect the felon generally do not have as much to lose in terms of future opportunities as the rest of us. Parents have a right to know this is going on at Frankfort School, and the administration of Frankfort School has apparently denied that knowledge to parents. Third, it seems entirely possible, at this point, that the faculty at Frankfort School has an unrecognized, but very real, interest in covering up any dangers presented by criminal behavior on the parts of their "own". They work hard to turn everyone against anyone whose lifestyle, race, or religion is not the product of Frankfort Kansas unvaried genetic pool in order to smokescreen and hide their own crimes. All to keep their white elephant of a school open so that a few teachers and secretaries can collect unearned salaries until they retire. Perhaps Frankfort School should become a private school, so that no one's taxes are drawn upon to support this crap, and so that parents who love their children can send their children to a real school.

Just as there is no valid reason to harass the innocent, there is no valid reason to protect the guilty.

Nomei Velazquez Found Safe

Nomei Velazquez, for whom an Amber Alert was issued several days ago, has been found sae in Lubbock, Texas. She was, indeed, taken against her will. She did not run away from home, as some people had suspected. Her mother had initially thought, when she did not come home from school, that she was participating in an extracurricular activity, but in reality, she was missing. Isn't that interesting, Tom Schroeder?

The suspect has been charged in this case and is now in custody. Thank the Gods for a happy ending this time.

Another Kansas Amber Alert

This is a picture of fifteen year old Nomei Velazquez, from Texas, and an older man with whom she disappeared yesterday, after school. In fact, she did not go home from school yesterday. Juan Delacruz, the suspect, drives a silver 2004 Volkswagon Passat, with Texas plates DF7T507. There is an active Amber Alert for Nomei, whose nickname is "Mimi", and her cell pinged, earlier this evening, in Lenexa, from a cell phone tower along Rt. 35. Nomei is about 4' 11'' tall, and about 120 lbs. Delacruz is about 5' 11" tall. 

Here is what a 2004 silver VW Passat looks like:

If you see the vehicle or Nomei and Delacruz, please call the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at 800-572-7463 or dial 911.

Wrong Diagnosis

I noticed this item on Yahoo News today about Herlinda Garcia, from Texas, who was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. After going through seven or eight rounds of chemo, it was discovered that her illness was benign, not malignant, and she never actually had cancer at all! She sued, and a jury awarded her 367,000. After her ordeal with pain and suffering and side effects from the chemo, that does not sound like anywhere near enough.

A few years ago, I lost quite a bit of weight in a short time, lost almost all the color in my complexion, (I looked like a wannabe Goth!...dark hair, very pale) and developed horrible stomach problems. Horrible. Nothing I ate agreed with me. Also, I could eat and eat and eat and eat and never feel as if I had eaten anything, and never gain a pound. In fact, I lost so much weight, while inhaling somewhere between twelve and fifteen thousand calories a day, that I became dangerously underweight. I finally went to a doctor, and after hearing about my stomach problems, he decided that it MUST be colon cancer. The fact that I was also severely anemic (hemoglobin down to 6.5) seemed to be all the proof he needed. I argued that the problem with anemia had been with me for my entire life, although not always as severe, and that cancer usually kills it's victims in a much shorter span of time than I had tolerated these symptoms. Even the stomach problems were not new; albeit they were progressive: they had gotten worse over time, especially after pregnancy.

Three colonoscopies later, no one had been able to find any type of colon cancer or stomach cancer in any part of my soma; not even an ulcer. So what did the clinic recommend? That I undergo chemo, even though I did not have cancer! Outrageous! I said no. I was told I was going to die. I still said no. I researched stomach problems and found something called celiac disease, which is an autoimmune disease caused by intolerance to gluten; and is also hereditary. I was told that before insurance would approve the tests for celiac, which are almost prohibitively expensive, I would have to prove that it ran in my family! Unfortunately, most of my Dad's family had been deceased for quite some time, and no one had been diagnosed with celiac disease. There had been a "mystery stomach problem" that affected many of them, but without the diagnosis of a first degree relative, insurance would not cover the labwork. It would, however; cover chemo.

Eventually, the director of the clinic got tired of watching me suffer, and we did some genealogical research (a hobby of his) on some family members and ancestors of mine whose obituaries were either online or otherwise available to me. From those, he extracted and constructed enough of a family history consisting of a likelihood of gluten intolerance caused by celiac disease to convince insurance to cover the labwork. The results came back positive, and we also discovered that the type of anemia I have is hereditary as well, and is not the result of iron deficiency. Chemo and massive doses of iron would never have helped.

The moral of this story is that one should always question authority. Had I failed to question authority, I would have had chemo, stayed anemic, lost my hair for nothing, and still have been sick when it was all over, had I been lucky enough to survive. Because I questioned authority, the appropriate diagnosis was made, and I eventually recovered, much to chagrin of my ex husband! As an added bonus, my children are aware of hereditary autoimmune diseases, and of celiac disease, and if they, or any of their children ever develop symptoms, they will not have to suffer. Of course, pharmaceutical companies do not make money through celiac disease, as there are no medications or cures for it, other than carefully avoiding any food containing gluten. Health food stores, garden supply stores, and manufacturers of cookware are the businesses that make money because of it. That, I believe, is the real reason that insurance companies almost always refuse to cover the tests for celiac disease.

Hopefully, Herlinda Garcia can recover. Even winning a lawsuit is no substitute for simply being told from the very beginning that she did not have cancer.

 

Kidnapping Gone Wrong

Never turn your back on your baby while in public. Here is a story about a mom in Midwest City, Oklahoma, whose child was sitting in a shopping cart while she shopped in Walmart. It only took a minute for a loony toon to grab her daughter, hold a knife to the child's throat, and start making unreasonable demands involving phone calls to a Texas police station!

At about 3:12 in this video, you can see how easily the man simply removes the child from the shopping cart. Had he decided to keep on going, and leave the store with her, instead of ranting about fanatical Christian dogma, this situation could have ended much differently, and not in a good way.

A Little Known Fact About The Waco Fertilizer Plant Explosion

How's this for some trivia? The last time the Texas Fertilizer Plant in Waco, where an explosion took place on April 17, which killed fifteen people, was inspected by OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, was in 1985. The plant was called West Chemical & Fertilizer Company, and they were fined $30.00 for unsafe storage of anhydrous amonia. After that, Texas figured that OSHA did not need to reinspect, because the company had most assuredly learned it's lesson and was in compliance. Absolutely.

 

 

Texas Jailbreak Incident

 

It seems that two jail inmates have somehow become transported away from jail to an unknown location.....or.....escaped. Brian Tucker and John King have both disappeared from Hopkins County Jail in Sulpher Springs, Texas, as of this morning. They were being held on some rather serious charges, but how did they escape in the first place? If I were a defense attorney in Texas, I might be tempted to represent both of them pro bono, just for amusement, and remind the court that we cannot be one hundred percent sure that corrections officers did not remove the men from the facility against their will and abandon them in a randomly selected location, just to trump phony escape charges, terrorize the community using SWAT gear, and fly the helicopters.

 

Hugh Cranford Roaming Free

Kansas went ahead and let Hugh Cranford, the friendly Lutheran vicar in Topeka, Kansas, go free on $250,000 bond after charging him with sexual assualt of a minor. His court date is January 3 of 2013. He lives in Texas. Will he even show up for court? Kansas, don't get your clergy at Kmart!

Soto-Garcia Home Safe

Cleotilde Lucero Soto-Garcia, of this post, is no longer missing. She came home to her family in Manhattan, Kansas, this morning She disappeared on August 30, and had apparently gone to Texas, where she and her family used to live. It is always good to see a case like this resolved happily.

 

Can Sex Offender Brandon Lavergne Get A Fair Trial?

Sex offender Brandon Scott Lavergne, who has been charged with the kidnap and murder of Mickey Shunick, and whose mother knows nothing about his past as a sex offender, thinks he may not be able to get a fair trial in his home town of Lafayette, La. He thinks that he is a very special man, and that after he attempted to hide his status as a sex offender and hid and destroyed the vehicle caught on surveillance in connection to Mickey Shunick's disappearance, the very same community "owes him" a different venue!

If this were not about a missing person and crime victim, the notion that Lafayette owes Brandon Lavergne anything besides swift justice and a swift kick in the ass would be amusing. This is a man who owed the community the act of carrying ID that designated him as a disgusting sex offender at all times. He did not like the "disgusting sex offender" label, so he decided not to fulfil his obligation, which he OWED Lafayette, and everyone else, as a requirement of his parole. This is also a man who, when the police wanted to know more about three vehicles caught on camara at a certain time, took one of those vehicles far away and destroyed it. The owners of the other two vehicles came forward, with their vehicles, and are none the worse for wear. What did Sex Offender Lavergne do? He knew the police were looking for a missing woman, and instead of helping, hid the vehicle in Texas and burned the inside of it. But Lafayette still "owes" him something, he thinks.

Here's an idea for a change of venue: Texas! After all, Brandon Lavergne drove the truck in question to Texas, and started a fire there without a burn permit. Had law enforement in Texas known Lavergne was destroying evidence that was wanted in connection to a missing persons case, Lavergne probably would have been charged with a crime for that, as well. Then, he filed a false report about a vehicle theft. Since Texas obviously has issues with this sex offender, too, should they choose to press them, why not move the trial of the disgusting sex offender to Texas?

Amber Alert For Devon Davis

An Amber alert was issued for a two year old named Devon Davis, in Texas, on Tuesday. His family moved there about a week ago. According to the statement given by his mom, April Davis, she was taking a nap, and when she woke up, the door was open, and her son was missing. At this point, police have begun calling the search a "recovery", rather than a rescue. Not very encouraging.

This is Devon. The FBI is now involved, so if you see him, please alert local law enforcement.

Update: This is so sad; the little guy was found in a lake. He appears to have drowned. No one is sure how he got there.