Private Message

My guess about that picture you keep sending around, and the person to whom it belongs, is that he is someone who tried to help you in the past, but realized, after awhile, what a leach you are. He probably picked you up while you were hitchhiking and let you stay in his home, at which point, you discovered some minor secret in his life. You left, threatening him, and attempted to use that secret to blackmail him....am I right? But then he decided not to respond to your threats anymore, and now you are trying to make his life miserable. If his identity was actually a mystery, as you say, you probably wouldn't have such a clear picture of him. That said, you need to butt out of the missing persons case to which you have claimed that he has a connection. All you are doing is interfering with the investigation and running a serious risk of causing harm to someone who isn't even involved at a bystander's level. But then, that's what you told him you would do if he didn't pay you, isn't it?

If you either know, or seriously think, that he should be investigated, go to the police. Don't send his picture to everyone you can reach via the internet. And stop threatening people. Just come forward with what you know, if anything, and stop blackmailing people.

Abbie Hoffman Moment

Private Message

Why did you kill him, Laura? Was he failing to plea properly, for your convenience? Did he insist upon a jury trial? Did you scare him into believing that his loved ones no longer cared about him? Did you tell him that he would never see his friends or his family again? How could you do a thing like that? He had only committed a misdemeanor, and had not even had the chance to put on a defense. Why did you kill him, Laura?

Did you suspend all medical treatment and physician's orders until he confessed to something he didn't do? Is the taking of another's life seriously better, in your world, than allowing a man to have his day in court? You're darn tootin' the whole thing is a tragedy for his family: just not so much for you! Was the cause of death even truthfully determined? It doesn't matter though; he was healthy, and you know you killed him.

When you ask for "privacy", a lot of us are able to see that request for what it truly is: code for a demand  for silence from the community about your misconduct. The only way to sidestep a thorough investigation, complete with reports of what you told him and how you threatened him is to push for privacy. Secrecy is always your best friend, Laura. You always want to hide your best work, but if you do something, you should have no problem standing behind what you do. Marshall County Kansas should be enraged with you because of this young man's death, Laura. If all of us, even your supporters, were given the choice between you and this young man, we would all have chosen him. His smile was beautiful, and will never be seen again because you killed him.

Whistle Blowing The Old Fashioned Way

Whistle blowing. A fun, new concept that really shouldn't represent a necessity. But yet, it does. What a shame that we do not teach history well enough in our public schools to avoid that other necessity of repeating history when we fail to learn an important lesson the first time. Or the second, third, or fourth time, as the case may be.

The subject of the expectation of privacy, and respect for the same, has been in the spotlight many times in American history. We have local and federal laws protecting privacy, and our nation's Constitution addresses it, as well. Verdicts in capital murder cases have been overturned because of governmental abuses of citizens' rights to privacy. A republican president even resigned as a result of the way his administration treated the rights of others to privacy. Anyone remember Watergate? So why was it necessary for Edward Snowden to remind the general public that we still have not learned a damn thing from our own history?

Back in the day, before the internet, we got things done the old fashioned way. A very recently published book titled The Burglary describes the actions of John and Bonnie Raines, and Keith Forsythe whistleblowing without the internet. J. Edgar Hoover, the head honcho of the FBI in 1971, was already notorious for blackmailing and threatening others. Despite American law and the Constitution, he established and sanctioned government practices of blatantly ignoring the rights of American citizens. Digging up dirt and using personal information to which he had no legal right was his most typical tool of blackmail, and it was his policy to encourage all law enforcement agencies to violate the law this way. Granted, he was FBI, not state or local police departments, but we cannot forget what rolls downhill.

Bonnie Raines cased the FBI building in Media, Pennsylvania, and one night, she and her cohorts broke in and stole a bunch of classified documents which outlined directives to snoop illegally, blackmail, threaten, and bypass the rights of anyone and everyone who found themselves at cross purposes with the government, as it concerned J. Edgar Hoover. After finding pertinent bits and pieces of information in their loot, the group anonymously gave it to a journalist for the Washington Post. The attorney general serving at the time asked the Post not to publish this information, and J. Edgar Hoover was furious.......yet, the show went on. Much of the privacy and many of the rights connected to privacy enjoyed by Americans today, along with the ability to question authority from the individual standpoint owes to this anonymous action and risk, taken by these three individuals. J. Edgar Hoover sought to become more powerful than the Truth, but alas! He was unsuccessful. The burglars were never caught, and their identities never came to light until their book was published. What did come to light was the corruption that had engulfed and swallowed all branches of the government at the time.

What isn't known is whether or not J. Edgar Hoover ever stopped to consider the irony of this particular burglary taking place in a town called "Media".

In Case You Slept Through Church This Sunday

In case you slept through church this Sunday.......you might have missed a marketing opportunity! Here's a new idea about sacrificial executions, martyrdom, and slain messiahs......

Exactly how did the kangaroo court trial and execution become so all encompassing that it eclipsed what the messiah is actually reported to have said, anyway?

Have all the stories been tossed into a meat grinder over the years and combined into guilt tactics and manipulation techniques that do not make sense?

The whole idea merchandising the relics (crosses) or selling the entire story to anyone who is not drunk is amazing.

Do you think we can market jewelry in the image of any mode of execution, or are we stuck with crosses?

Florida Republicans Try To Restrict Voting

Seems there is nothing less surprising than a bunch of Republicans trying to stop others from voting. Florida has taken the measure of reducing the number of days one may cast an early ballot. This action, of course, was undertaken by Republicans, noteably the Republican governor. Why can't an election just be an election? Why must the Republican party try so hard to manipulate the results and give the people what they don't want, instead of what they do want? Some people are even being forced to wait until one-o'clock in the morning to vote because of long lines. Nonetheless, I hope everyone votes.