In Case You Missed Church On Sunday

False Arrests And Perversion

While on the subject of abusive cops, here's one whose picture everyone should see. His name is Daniel Holtzclaw, and a couple of weeks ago, he was in Oklahoma City, chasing down speeders, arresting drunk drivers, eating doughnuts, and raping women; and in general, just doing normal cop stuff. Most of the women he assaulted are black, by the way. Now that his crimes are under investigation, it appears that his choice in victims was a pattern.

One of his victims recently complained. She did not expect anyone to listen to her, but was surprised when someone did. She was further surprised when Officer Holtzcreep was arrested and charged. A few more women have also come forward. One even stated that he threatened her with arrest if she did not cooperate with the sexual assault! So this is what law enforcement in Oklahoma City needs from anyone with more information about Holtzclaw or his criminal activities: everyone who has been one of his victims to come forward. It's a very big challenge to come forward and testify about a crime of that nature, but being quiet about it is the equivalent of writing this creep a ticket to continue this behavior in the future.

ACLU Addresses The Rights Of Photography

It's become abundantly clear, lately, that police officers in America do not like added scrutiny provided by amateur and professional photographers and cell phone users. Unfortunately, this finding also coincides with a massive revelation that police officers often think that they are above the law, and can inflict violence whenever their little hearts desire, even to the point of murder. Many of them do not even understand the United States Constitution, much less respect it.

The good news is that those of us who take pictures of police officers and grab cell phone video of our tax dollars being spent are, according to the law, within our constitutional rights. No police officer has a right to shut down a news team or a private citizen taking pictures. The only loophole, in certain states, has to do with wiretapping laws: recorded audio cannot be deliberately captured and shared in all locales. But then, an officer carrying out his duties in public is not a private conversation, so the wiretapping laws do not apply in those instances.

The American Civil Liberties Union has found itself defending cases involving private citizens with cell phone and corporations such as television stations because of this issue with police officers and photography. As recently as the second week of August, police in Ferguson, Missouri did not want their tear gas activities photographed and recorded by journalists, so they handcuffed and arrested a couple from the Huffington Post and the Washington Post. As it happens, the only laws broken were broken by police.

Why is accountability so difficult for law enforcement to accept?

Insight

An Arrest Might Help

In the gloomy retrospect of young Micheal Brown's funeral yesterday, a question seems to keep getting asked here and there, on various news websites and on local TV news: now that the funeral is over, what can we do to effect productive change and ensure justice for Michael Brown and his family? Here's a quick answer that could have saved quite a bit of trouble in the first place.....arrest Darren Wilson, the officer who murdered Michael Brown almost three weeks ago. Had an arrest been made immediately, and had the officer been held just as accountable as Michael Brown would have been, had the situation been reversed, no one would have ever felt the need to riot.

In other news, the ACLU got involved in the career of Officer Gofuckyourself, featured in the video above, and effective August 20, he is no longer on the force. Unfortunately, the citizens of Missouri are probably still paying his salary.

Rest in peace, Michael Brown.

Abbie Hoffman Moment

In Case You Weren't In Church On Sunday

Can anyone say "overkill"? Responding with the words "bless you" when hearing a sneeze is not what our forefathers had in mind when they agreed upon separation of church and state. This Tennessee classroom has obviously gone overboard in giving a child in-school detention for instinctively using those words when a classmate sneezed. Now; if she seriously believed the archaic German/Christian superstition that one's soul disappears into the mists via the sneeze whenever this happens, and had reiterated that failing to say "bless you" could lead to eternal damnation, there may have been a slight violation; but this did not happen. Perhaps along with "overkill", she should say "gesundheit" next time.

Through The Lens Of Siriunsun's Camera

Enrollment Fees In Public Schools

If you are a parent of a child who attends public school, and you were pressured or harassed to pay enrollment fees, this was never legal and never constitutional. Federal law clearly maintains that public school districts must provide free and equitable education to all students. This includes activities and materials, as well as the right to attend school. Some educators and school administrators in California didn't believe that, and the ACLU got involved. Now, those schools no longer attempt to extort money from parents, and all of the school districts named in the lawsuit were audited. A bill was even drafted to consider punitive fines and other actions against the offenders. How interesting. Dean Dalinghaus, at good ole' Frankfort High School, thinks that parents owe his so-called school monies in addition to their taxes, too. He will even stoop to the level of bullying and threats to force parents to pay him money. If you live in Frankfort, Kansas, and have been pressured by the school board of USD 380 to pay enrollment fees, just say no.

Insight

Trusting Law Enforcement Is A Mistake

Despite all the cover-ups, lies, and initial nondisclosures of information, such as Darren Wilson's name, after he shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; a person with a cell phone video came forward. So; for all the illegal seizures of cell phones and cameras, all the shutting down of local and national news coverage, and all the false arrests and unlawful detentions of journalists, we have a clear video that shows a police officer shooting an unarmed young man's head and killing him, apparently because that's what the cop felt like doing at the time, and the checks and balances upon which we depend to keep government from getting out of control isn't as helpful to some citizens as it is to others. But there really are no secrets, as the Midwest is learning.

Kansas Used To Have Cooler Signs

Instead of the overused Christian message, "God hates fags", and Jews, and politicians, and entertainers, and many, many others, Kansas once had people who actually cared about the world living within it's borders. Here is a picture that was taken in 1967, during the Vietnam War, outside of the City Building in Wichita. Where did all those informative signs, and the creative sign painters, all go?

Abbie Hoffman Moment

Anonymous To Ferguson

Anonymous has postulated a suggestion that all the ado and delays, such as stalling about disclosing the name of the offending officer to completely militarizing Ferguson, Missouri; was really a pathetic attempt to buy more time in order to come up with a really good excuse and story to explain why a white cop would shoot another unarmed black teenager. Sounds logical to me. How many times do they want to sell this theme? Michael Brown was shot because a police officer and a police force thought there should not be a problem with killing him. He was not a robbery suspect, and did not have a criminal record. He wasn't even "in the wrong place at the wrong time".

Hopefully, authorities in the Midwest will start to understand what they are doing when they pull the pendulum of racism and violence so far in one direction that when it is released, it cannot help but swing an equal distance in the opposite direction.

In Case You Slept Through Church On Sunday

If you slept through church this Sunday, you hopefully will not sleep through this track from Abbie Hoffman's "Wake Up, America"!

Wichita Gets Unpopular With Voters

The city of Wichita, Kansas obviously does not want to decriminalize marijuana, but the people do. After a petition to put changes in the law about marijuana on the ballot this November had garnered more than enough signatures and was presented to the city council, the city council somehow determined that there were not enough signatures. Because citizens called city hall to let Wichita know what they really thought of that, the city has decided to allow Kansans For Change to draft a new petition. Okay, Wichita. Whatever. It appears you know what your voters want. Just don't make them ask for it 420 times.

First Day Of School In Frankfort Kansas

School starts again tomorrow in Frankfort, Kansas, and; as promised, this story will appear again on this site, because the school here in Frankfort has not seen fit to come into compliance with safety standards observed by schools in other parts of Kansas, and has not come into compliance with federal law concerning the presence of weapons on school property, bullying, or student safety. The only change made is that credit shall be granted where it is due: the name of the errant and uncorrected guidance counselor who has been granted carte blanche to endanger children is Tom Schroeder.

Anyone who's listening, I will tell you a story. It's a true story, and it happened in October of 2009. Thankfully, it had a happy ending.

My oldest daughter used to be quite the avid cross country buff when she was thirteen years old. She was good at it, too. But one day, while she was at practice, and I was at home, just assuming that all was well, her coach drove past my house, stopping to talk to my eight year old son. Mr. Coach wanted to know if Mr. Eight Year Old had seen his older sister. Mr. Eight Year Old had not. No one had seen my daughter in over two hours. She was lost. Why was she lost? Because her coach had dropped her off by the side of a highway, four miles south of the town we live in, by herself, and just left her. It was part of cross country practice. No supervision. If she had been stung by a bee, had tripped and hurt herself, or had some other medical emergency, no one would have been there to help her. (at this juncture, you should know that I offered to volunteer to help with cross country, but since I do not attend a Christian church, my offer was rejected. The school staff thought it better to take chances with a child's safety in the way I just described) When my daughter realized that she did not know her way back, she started to wander on a side road, hoping it would bring her to a house, or another person. This area has a lot of commercial farms, and there were no houses or places my daughter could go to for help.

Back to my eight year old son.......Twenty minutes went by. While he did not realize the signifigance of his conversation with Mr. Cross County Coach, (also Mr. Guidance Counselor) he did realize that no one knew where his sister was, and it was getting later and later, and no one was looking for her. So he told me about it. I looked all over town, called all her friends, searched the school (why was the school left unlocked after everyone had gone home?) and finally started home to call the police, when a couple of senior boys drove up with my crying daughter in their car. It was still within a few minutes of when I found out she was missing, but this cross country coach had known all afternoon, and had not called the police, or spoken to me. Why? I guess whatever he cared about, it WASN'T my daughter. Well.........I actually DO care about my daughter. Nowhere else have I met a teacher that did NOT care, at least a little, about the children he teaches, but I think that is what the problem is with Mr. Cross Country Coach/ Guidance Counselor.

Suppose it was not young men from her school who found her, but a dangerous person? I have been told time and time again by the people who live in this small Kansas town that "those things don't happen here", and "there ARE no dangerous people here", but there was a sex offender whose address was within half a mile of where my daughter was abandoned. The police were quick to point that out, but the principal only argued his harmlessness as a sex offender with them and the school board is not worried about the incident.

My children no longer participate in cross country at their school. It isn't safe.

Insight

What's Wrong With The Truth, Tom Schroeder?

About a year ago, your ever observant blogger was running an errand in the teeming metropolis of Frankfort, Kansas, and also minding her own business, when the Frankfort High School counselor, Tom Schroeder, pictured to the left, accosted her with loud accusations of "spreading lies". He then plunged into a loud verbal dissertation on the subject of out-of-district student transfers, despite the fact that no one had asked him about out-of-district student transfers, stating that there was no such thing in Marshall County. Curiously, your faithful blogger discovered this very application for out-of-district transfers right on his own school's website. That could only mean one of two things; either out-of-district transfers are only selectively offered for reasons of favoritism and the enhancement of football teams; or Tom Schroeder is a liar. Or it could mean both.

Kansas For Change And Wichita

          City Hall 316-268-4331 just say Put it on the Ballot.

                                                                              

          Election Office 316-660-7100 see if you registered

Real quick, everyone, the citizens of Wichita Kansas and Kansas For Change would really like to decriminalize marijuana marijuana in Wichita, Kansas. They collected about twice as many signatures as they needed on a petition to get the decriminalization of marijuana on the ballot, so everyone who votes can vote on it. Instead of simply including this item for voters, Wichita is falsely invalidating over half of the signatures, and no matter how many signatures Kansas For Change collects, there always seems to be a reason to disregard the wishes of the people.  If you are part of this district, and you also wish to be part of a constructive change, please call the number printed under the picture for City Hall in Wichita, and tell them you want decriminalization of marijuana on the ballot. 

*Yours truly does not approve or engage in the use of any recreational drug. She simply hates to see the judicial system waste her tax dollars and everyone else's on selective and insane prosecution.

Abbie Hoffman Moment

Part of an interview that was held within a year of Hoffman's death.

In Case You Skipped Church This Sunday

Once again, my all time favorite "jesus" picture!

Yay Wicca! Yay Supreme Court!

In Bloomfield, New Mexico, a monument on government property which legally does not belong there will have to be removed. Members of Bloomfield's Wiccan community have requested that a cheap statue of the ten commandments be removed from the lawn of Bloomfield's city hall building, because it shows a preference for Christianity. The suit was first filed in 2012, and yesterday, the Supreme Court gave the city until September 10 to load it up on a dump truck and dump it somewhere else.

According to Senior District Judge James A. Parker, the monument "has no place on City Hall property". This is because it shows favor of one religion over others, and the United States Government does not exist in order to play religious favorites. The silly-assed Christians who wanted it to remain tried to argue that it has historical significance, but as it was erected in 2011, history was found to have no significance whatsoever. 

There was also a sign alongside of the eyesore statue, announcing that anyone who objected to it's presence is an "outsider". Now that the Supreme Court has sided with the local Wiccans and Pagans, it appears that the "outsiders" are the federal law breakers who wanted to force their religion on everyone.

Writing That Transcends Time And Space

"Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose within them. 'There was a real railway accident,' said Aslan, softly. 'Your father and mother and all of you are---as you used to call it in the Shadow Lands---dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.'

And as he spoke, he no longer looked to them like a lion; but things began to happen after that that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us, this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has ever read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better then the one before."

C. S. Lewis, from The Last Battle

Insight

Terri Horman; The Name Remains The Same

Terri Moulton Horman is still Terri Moulton Horman, not Claire Sullivan.  No new name granted. This is good news for the real Claire Sullivan, whose trademark is now safe! But still very disappointing for Terri Horman, who will not testify or help in any way in the missing persons case of her former stepson, Kyron Horman. The name remains the same! If Terri Moldy Whoremoan, or whatever it is, wants to change her name, she should write something noteworthy, or become a world famous artist. That way, she could go to court and acquire an identity connected to her work. Or she could try to find someone, somewhere, of the opposite gender who has not heard about Kyron, and try to get married. She's had quite a career thus far as a professional married-getter, anyways! What's one more wedding? Isn't that how women used to change their names, before women actually had names?

Siriunsun's Art Gallery

Oil painting by Miller W. Woodliff. 

Abbie Hoffman Moment

In Case You Missed Church This Sunday

Lets see....reasons for missing church on Sunday, besides, of course, the fact that you already have a social circle and do not need a one-size-fits-most fantasy in your life......If you are in Florida, and are underage, you may have missed church because a registered sex offender is the pastor, and as a result, children are banned from Sunday services! That's right, an adults only church!

Picture courtesy of someone on Facebook

Apparently, this is for real. Reverend Darrell Gilyard has a criminal record and a permanent listing in the sex offender registry for making the wrong moves with teenage girls, and rather than simply finding another pastor, one who does not commit sex crimes, his congregation opted to retain his "services"! As if that wasn't outrageous enough, in a faithful and deluded sort of way, the congregation of his church now wants the restrictions that apply to sex offenders concerning contact with children lifted, as a special favor, in Gilyard's "special" case! Geesh! If such a thing is granted to Gilyard, the door and pearly gates will be open for every sex offender to lobby for the right to access children again. But the good people of the baptist church all know Gilyard has changed. Medical science makes no difference to them; they want their children exposed to this man. So; Jesus grants a special favor to Christians in the form erasing any requirement that Christians obey the laws, and the church, once again, favors sex offenders.

Children really do not belong in church.

The Cauldron At Lammas

On Lammas, yours truly spent most of the day in the kitchen, stirring the cauldron and baking bread. The cauldron bubbled over with homemade salsa, diced tomatoes with oregano and basil, and blueberry jam. One of her little Witches in Training baked some yummy zucchini bread and peanut butter brownies. Hopefully, everyone had an abundant Lammas.