Renee Elizabeth Jones Is Missing

Renee Elizabeth Sue Jones is missing from Brown County, Kansas. She is sixteen years old, has long blond hair, glasses, and is about 5'2". She was last seen on Monday. Anyone who knows her whereabouts or has any information is requested to contact the Brown County Sheriff at 785-742-7125.

Update: Ms. Jones has returned home safely.

It's The End Of The World As We Know It

And now, for the end of the world as some folks know it, we have a Supreme Court ruling that the Christian icon, the statue of the ten commandments at the state capital building in Oklahoma, must come down. There have been previous rulings in lower courts that the statue could stay, but only if joined by Baphomet. Since nasty and selfish religious folk in Oklahoma persisted in blocking this, it became evident that coming into compliance with the law is beyond certain individuals there, so we now have a ruling from the Supreme Court to remove all religious debris from government property.

This blogger would have preferred that the statue of Baphomet sit alongside the other statue, but that would have augured the end of the world as some folks see it.

Abbie Hoffman Moment

Federal Law Applies To Kansas, Too

It's really about time. It has been found that the Constitution grants marriage licenses to all couples, regardless of sexual preference, and that the fourteenth amendment offers legitimacy to the marriages of gay men and women. But Kansas Governor Sam Brownback has a problem with America's Constitution. He refers to the Supreme Court as an "activist court", and promises to "review the ruling carefully to understand it's effects on the people of Kansas." Is he serious? When was this governor ever concerned about the effects of anything on the people of Kansas? From fighting Obamacare tooth and nail to stripping public schools of funds, Brownback has not shown much concern at all about the people of Kansas. But now Kansas will be required to recognize marriage, everyone's marriage. And about de-funding public schools; block grants do not work as well in funding numerous, tiny, redundant schools as they do in funding larger, more efficient, better staffed schools. In order for the type of funding for which the Kansas GOP has opted for the public schools in Kansas, the schools will have to be consolidated, county by county, and answerable to the state, rather then to hundreds of "unified school districts". This would actually be a very good idea for Kansas, but the legislature has put the cart before the horse......the small, community schools should have been shut down and reorganized first, into bigger schools. Then, block grants, rather than the yearly handouts based on the number of students each school contains, would have been more sensible. The Supreme Court in Kansas made a decision for Brownback, though: de-funding education this way is unconstitutional. Brownback has vowed to appeal this decision. It seems he cannot get around the Constitution today!

If Kansas Republicans were truly conservative, the Kansas Department of Education and all of the "unified school districts", along with their schools, would have been in receivership a long time ago. Instead of small schools, serving less than one hundred students from kindergarten to twelfth grade in some cases, schools would be consolidated. Rather than forcing tax payers to fund the lifestyles of three or four high school principals in a county that only has three or four hundred high school students, there would only be one high school principal to pay. We could completely eliminate nonsense positions, such as "curriculum adviser", because the curriculum would be dictated by the state and by national and global standards. Allowing small towns in Kansas to waste money on tiny, inefficient schools is a frivolous waste, and no conservative worth his salt would allow such a thing to continue under his watch.

In other news, a legislative panel has dismissed a charge against Congresswoman Valdenia Winn, D; Wichita, Kansas. It seems that some Kansas Republicans did not like it when she referred to them as "racist bigots" when they tried to deny in-state tuition to immigrants. The Constitution strikes again! This time, with the First Amendment! It appears that the Constitution is sending a message to Kansas bigots today.

Participate In Government

Nuances. And information that has not been properly read and comprehended by our representatives.
Highlighted is a link to representatives for each state. Give your elected official a call.

Insight

Abbie Hoffman Moment

Summer Solstice 2015

Happy Summer Solstice. Today is not only Fathers Day, but also the longest day of the year. Because of the earth's axial tilt, which gives us our seasons, the sun shines directly on the northern hemisphere, and it is summer above the Equator. This day is also a Pagan Sabbat, the time of the mystical marriage between the Holly King, who rules from now until Winter Solstice, and Mother Earth. This holy day is not only about the upcoming harvests, it is about balance. Blessed Be!

Litterbugs In Topeka

After riots in Ferguson, Missouri and prior to the dispositions of charges against violent police officers in Baltimore, Maryland; and also, concurring with a church shooting in South Carolina that not only killed nine people, but was done for racist reasons.......Topeka, Kansas has a problem with littering. These pamphlets were found on lawns and affixed to vehicles in Topeka.

According to KAKE, the telephone number listed on the pamphlet is non-functioning, but several people who have dialed it beg to differ.

Senator Clementa Pinkney, also the pastor of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina was among the slain. Will flags be flown at half staff?

Insight

Siriunsun's Art Gallery

Sketch by Kailey Prior of characters from Peter Pan.

Abbie Hoffman Moment

Lawyer Speaks About Racism At McKinney Swimming Pool

While we are on the subject of resignations and untimely discharges from employment for reasons of racism, and unprofessional expressions thereof, here is what the lawyer who is representing Eric Casebolt's victim has to say on the subject. Hopefully, every racist in the United States, the Midwest, especially, will take note and modify his or her professional stance.

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.

To A Local Kid

Mention was made to my daughter about the posts you see on this site about missing persons, especially children. She tells me that you feel that if you or one of your classmates or buddies went missing, I wouldn't look for you, post about you, share your picture, or pass out flyers if you weren't found right away, as I do for others who are missing. Please rest assured that I would do the same for you, no matter how much harassment your parents and the rest of your community reserve for me because I care about safety in schools and safety for children.

As often as you've been told that children are completely safe here, and that it is not a problem if your school's faculty violates state and federal laws by abandoning children along highways in random parts of the county, this is not the case. In fact, your state, Kansas, is home to one of the most problematic cities in the entire country for human trafficking: Wichita. It's in fifth place, out of all the nation's cities, for human trafficking of all kinds.Your parents simply won't open their eyes, but the fact that they do not care is not a reason to shut off my own empathy and let you down. I would certainly look for you, and I would do everything I could to raise awareness.

Insight

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?

Abbie Hoffman Moment

Kyron Horman, Missing Children, And Harassment

This is Kyron Horman's mom, Desiree Young, talking about the day her son disappeared from Skyline Elementary, in Portland Oregon, when he was in second grade. That was five years ago. During that time, she has worked hard to keep her child's case in the news, and to make everyone aware of child safety issues. Unfortunately, she has hecklers, ill wishers, and internet trolls, who do not appear to share her desire for the world to be a safer place for children. This trend, of heckling the parents of missing or murdered children is disturbing; Desiree is not the only parent to notice such individuals. It seems that any time tragedy strikes a family, and crime is suspected as the cause, the game of trolling the family seems irresistible for some. Why is that?

In Kyron Horman's case, IP numbers have been traced back to friends and relatives of Terri Horman, Kyron's sometime step-mother. In a spirit of defensiveness, they spam and comment-bomb anyone who merely shares Kyron's picture and contact information. There is a seventeen year old boy, named Colton Barrera, who disappeared in Kansas, in 2008. His case has hecklers, as well. Those are mostly the parents of young people rumored to have information about him. In an ongoing effort to silence any attempt to solve Colton's case, the parents of the persons of interest harass anyone who wants to know why Colton is missing. Law enforcement in Kansas is more worried about popularity than solving crimes, so Colton's case has not even been investigated. The forty year old missing persons case of Sheila and Katherine Lyon is another case that has attracted harassment from specific sources, directed at anyone who maintains and entertains a hope that the case will be solved. There is also a court date, on June 29, for the wife of a "person of interest". She took the whole thing a step further and actually lied to the grand jury about evidence in the case.

Even in a Kansas case that ended happily, with the missing child found, there was cover-up, in order to protect the criminality of a Frankfort teacher, and to cover the school's lack of protocol when a child disappears. Frankfort Kansas must really dislike No Child Left Behind, because Tom Schroeder left a child behind one day! The child's parents are still getting nasty emails from teachers at Frankfort High School and Tom Schroeder and his stupid frankfurter friends, defending his actions and lying for him. The only reason anyone would do this is, unfortunately, the same as the reason for harassing someone whose child is still missing or has been murdered: the perpetrator, along with any accomplices or enablers, wants to derail any chance of apprehension.

Through The Lens Of Siriunsun's Camera

Kyron's Parents, After Five Years

Kaine Horman, Kyron's dad, talking about his missing son and the ongoing efforts to find him.

Note: Terri Moulton Horman was not seen releasing red balloons anywhere today.

Five Years And The Kyron Horman Case

Five years. Kyron Horman has been missing for five years, as of today. Everyone who had anything to do with Kyron, or with Skyline Elementary, from where he disappeared, has been interviewed by  police, and their alibis checked and double checked. Everyone, that is, except for one person. That person is Kyron's former stepmother, Terri Moulton Horman. Early in the investigation, when it was  still a search and rescue effort and not yet a criminal investigation, Terri's story did not match her alibis, her cell phone pings, her former stories, or eyewitness accounts. Not too much later in the process, law enforcement brought in polygraphers. Everyone who took a polygraph examination passed, with the exception of one person, Terri Moulton Horman. Eventually, Terri hired an attorney, whose refrain is that "Ms. Horman was not the last person to be seen with Kyron." This is in direct contradiction to the testimony offered by two eyewitnesses who were in the bus run, and saw Terri leave the school, WITH her infant daughter, Kiara, and Kyron.

According to Kyron's dad, Kaine Horman, others are now on the FBI's radar as potential suspects. This is interesting: for over four years, Terri Horman has tried very hard to stay out of the public eye. It has only been a recent development that Terri has taken to appearing in public, in two failed attempts to change her name, and one defunct career move as a caregiver for disabled people at a place called Shangri La. At this writing, Terri reportedly bunks with one of this site's sometime trolls, Sandi Lessman. It is the opinion of yours truly that as Terri branches out socially, each contact, especially each contact who denies knowing Terri personally, but actually...ahem...knows her personally, gives law enforcement more to investigate. So it is quite natural to hear Kaine mention this.

No child deserves to have childhood and life stolen. No one left behind deserves to be a tangental victim, either. Skyline Elementary and the surrounding community have taken some measures toward never losing a child again. Hopefully, anyone who knows where Kyron is right now will come forward. It will not undo the heartbreak of the last five years, but Kyron's family and community would like resolution.

Insight

No, Mr. Schwartz, I Am Not Glad It Happened In The Country

The remains in question here turned out to be a Kansas man who disappeared in July of last year. His name is Jason Southern. We still do not know the circumstances of his death. The reason he wasn't found until March 2015? This location is in the country, that famous location that a Kansas congresswoman Sharon Schwartz's husband gave to a constituent in defense of Frankfort School, in Frankfort, Kansas, for the continued employment of a guidance counselor who dropped a fourteen year old girl off four miles away from the school, despite her parents instructions against managing class this way, and just went home and had dinner when she did not return to school.

The "country" often has no cell phone signal and no surveillance cameras. It is one hundred percent certain that Tom Schroeder, the guidance counselor at Frankfort High School, knew this prior to leaving a female student in the isolated area in the "country". In fact, he probably knows exactly where signals pick up and fade away, and he probably knows exactly where surveillance cameras are, and are not installed.  There is also no doubt that he realized the girl was missing before he went home, as he discussed her situation with a second grader from the school. There is also no doubt that he DID NOT call the police. To lay some misinformation to rest, law enforcement keeps records of that data, and there is no such call to them from Tom Schroeder on that day. Schroeder just didn't care. If Schroeder had any other motive for endangering a child, such as production and promotion of child pornography,  the "country" would be the perfect place to get away with it. The "country" is also the location of choice for the hiding of evidence after a murder. Suppose a child who is allergic to bee stings gets stung after being abandoned alone, "in the country"? What happens if such a child falls, and suffers a broken bone? Then what? No, Mr. Schwartz, I am not glad it happened in the country.

Abbie Hoffman Moment