For Want Of A Seed

For want of a seed, there was no plant.                           

For want of a plant, there was no crime.

For want of a crime, there was no warrant.
For want of a warrant, there was no lawful search.
For want of a lawful search, there was no evidence.
For want of evidence, there was no proof.
For want of proof, there was no effective prosecution.
For want of effective prosecution, there was no order.
For want of order, there was no community.
For want of community, there was no harvest.
For want of a harvest, there was no plant.
For want of a plant, there was no seed.

Laura Johnson McNish; you never fail to amaze me with your stupidity. Instead of lying your ass off in court about something that did not happen, why not prosecute the young man who drove through someone's cornfield, for fun, in the summer of 2013? Or prosecute hate crimes? Or maybe domestic violence? Or at least, things that happen and are real........

Someone who has a newspaper open to a story about decriminalization of marijuana in Wichita sitting on his table has not committed a crime, and the story he was reading is not evidence that he has. Neither is any other information he may have on the subject. Because of the United States Constitution, it is lawful for a man to lobby his representatives for change, if he so desires; and it is also lawful to read about those ideas and discuss them. Have you completely lost your mind, McNish?

Disclaimer: Yours truly does not use any recreational drugs. She does, on occasion, read about election issues and results, however; and decriminalization of marijuana has been in the news lately.

Abbie Hoffman Moment

Farmers Market In Marysville, Kansas

 

Just a few of the homegrown and homemade things one can find at the Farmers Market in Marysville, Kansas. Saturday mornings from 8AM to 11AM, beside the Wagon Wheel.

Abbie Hoffman Moment

Trump Hands Out PlayDoh To Flood Victims

After being asked nicely by Governor John Bel Edwards, of Louisiana, to stay out of heavily flooded southern Louisiana for now, and not to grandstand or use the situation for a photo op, Trump went ahead and graced the state with his presence, anyway. He did not even contact Governor Edwards prior to showing up. Curiously, Mr. Trump did not explain why he thought big boxes of PlayDoh would be useful to people who do not have homes.

 

Donald Trump and Mike Pence distribute PlayDoh to homeless flood victims.

First Day Of School In Frankfort, Kansas

It's that time of year again in Frankfort, Kansas, and this story will appear once 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.

Abbie Hoffman Moment

Coherence And Personal Responsibility

This is an excellent point made by the late John Trudell about coherent thinking and personal responsibility. The video is a bit longer than videos that usually appear on this site, but it is well worth watching.

Mark Foley Is Already Famous, Donald Trump

Donald Trump made an interesting promise at a rally, yesterday. He announced to his audience that everyone sitting behind him, in the path of the cameras, would be famous as a result where they sat at the event. Then he made some inflammatory statements about Seddique Mir Mateen, the father of the deceased suspect who has been dubbed "The Orlando Shooter". Apparently, Mateen attended one of Hillary Clinton's events, and was spotted on camera. Trump proceeded to make him famous because of it. What Trump failed to point out, however; was that at the very moment he was making someone at one of Clinton's events famous, he had a little bit of fame at one of his own events.

Mark Foley, who at one time represented Florida in Congress, was seated behind Donald Trump, in clear view of the cameras. It really wasn't necessary for "the Donald" to promise fame, though. Foley is already well known. Foley was the co-chair of the Missing and Exploited Childrens Caucus, and he sponsored the Adam Walsh Child Safety and Protection Act of 2006. His involvement with those two agendas strongly suggest that he disapproves of child predators and kiddie porn. But then, he sent some sexually explicit and completely inappropriate messages via instant messenger to congressional pages. He resigned during an investigation. So, what was he doing at a Trump rally, seated behind The Donald, himself? Certainly not seeking fame, as he already has it.

Through The Lens Of Siriunsun's Camera

Abbie Hoffman Moment

Trump Learned Nothing From Watergate

In addition to his lack of empathy toward parents whose son died in 2004, while fighting in Iraq, Donald Trump has gone for the international jugular vein and invited hackers in Russia to commit espionage by hacking email accounts owned by government officials, most notably Hillary Clinton. Standing before a live microphone, he actually asked them to hack and reveal sensitive information. It's almost as if he thought that sort of thing was legal, and without any risks!

Hacking and wiretapping with the intention of influencing an election is hardly original. Trump apparently has forgotten 1972, when Nixon unlawfully recorded conversations of his political opponents. Of course, an obvious difference between Nixon and Trump is that Nixon was intelligent enough to understand that such actions are against the law, and attempted to hide his involvement when the news broke. Trump, it seems, either does not remember Watergate, or failed to learn from it.

While Clinton could have handled her email correspondence more safely while she served as Secretary of State, invoking the criminal element of another country, particularly one that is not one of our allies, is dangerous. It is also something that is no laughing matter, so if Trump is jesting, he should learn self control. Why would a presidential candidate laughingly request that others make a crime victim out of his opponent?

Abbie Hoffman Moment