So, how was your weekend?

My Saturday post (just below this one) was written Friday afternoon, and set up for publication by way of the delayed posting ability in WordPress. Pretty cool feature. Almost worth paying hosting fees right there…

Speaking of hosting fees, don’t send any to StartLogic. They don’t seem to think that their users can and would be an accurate early warning system for impending failures. I can’t be nearly as eloquent as Texas Fred on this subject, so I will direct you to a post of his that really covers it.

I am really, really regretting going with them – even though it was on the word of a trusted adviser – since not just this site is on StartLogic, but also the site for the non-profit Black Canyon Railroad Corporation, of which I am a member and the webmaster. Down time can only hurt exposure, not help it.

Saturday the seventh was my Mother’s 80^th birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom.

Yesterday (Sunday the eighth), I had another migraine. This one hit hard and fast – right when I sat down after praise and worship, communion, and the offering (being in leadership, I was involved in all three). I tried to hide it, and just Marine my way through the service – but TMBWitW figured out real quick that I wasn’t praying silently but nearly writhing in pain with my eyes closed. She insisted we go home immediately. I took a migraine pill and went into hibernation mode – door closed, pillow over the head blocking sound and light – and slept for about six and a half hours. Woke up a bit groggy, but able to function.

For some reason, TMBWitW thinks that two migraines inside a week is cause for alarm, and that I should see the doctor about it. With a persuasive argument like that, I couldn’t help but be on the phone with the doctor’s office as soon as they were supposed to open. (0900) At 0915, they still hadn’t taken the answering machine off of weekend mode, so I left a message on the appointment line. Oh well. We’ll see where this goes.

OK – if you are eating anything while surfing this entry, you may want to either check out some blogroll activity, or go over to comics.com for a minute.

If you are still reading, then I am going to assume that you have a stomach that can handle what I’m about to write.

As my four or five regular readers know, I have five dogs. Lately, the weather has been warming up to the point where being outside after, say, 0730 is just uncomfortable. Not unbearably hot, but enough to make yard work unappealing. I haven’t been getting up and going outside early enough to get any yard work done before 0730 for about a month.

So – doing the math, my normal 1/2 – 3/4 bucket’s worth of yard apples has been building up a bit. Today I picked up four buckets, some of it still fresh, and I have more to go – but the rest will have to wait until tomorrow morning. I’m not going to deal with that stuff in the heat and direct sunlight if I can help it. The pick-up pattern is to stay just inside the shadow of the house as the sun rises, so you gotta move fast if you want to be efficient and stay out of the sun.

I’ve been hoping that the constantly rising price of gasoline would finally silence the liberals who say that we are in the middle east to steal the oil over there – but it doesn’t seem to be so. They are still claiming we are trading blood for oil – are they not seeing the prices going up, or are they still the clueless individuals they always were?

Never mind, rhetorical question.

Well, MEG is awake. The first thing she wanted to do was watch the “wawas”. Now she is watching Lilo and Stitch, and eating her morning waffle. I’m going to wrap this up now and start going about my business.

Ya’ll have a good Monday (if that is possible) and I will keep you posted on the migraine thing, OK?

Update:

I have an appointment for 0800 Thursday morning. Yes, Loon, I will be a good Marine and actually go to the appointment. 🙂

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Over at A Newt One, war has been declared on the high prices of fuel.

Get your marching orders here.

Leave word here when you have contacted the proper authority.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Are you wearing red today?

Join me on BlogTalkRadio for The O Word – today I’ll be going through the paper, and talking about pets.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

I don’t know where to start.

Yesterday afternoon (as TMBWitW was working from home, right before a Very Important Conference Call/Online Meeting) the connection was lost to the Internet. Where’s Al Gore when you need him? Several hours and many, many reboots and conversations with Cox later, and we are back online.

What a time frame to not have access – Shrillary basically hands the DemocRAT nomination to the Obamanation and then begs for the Veep slot. (I don’t know about BHO, but I would be remembering Vincent Foster when considering any dealings with Her Royal Pantsuit)

Ann Coulter has a lovely little piece on the whole affair, with some commentary about hypocrisy, in her weekly article.

I’ve added a link to my blogroll – her name is Samantha West, and she stores her thoughts here. She is very pro-military. I like her already.

I have three cats that need to find a new home – they are picking on the older two, and TMBWitW is not going to put up with that for much longer. Adopting them out is going to be much more humane than putting them on the street.

Speaking of pets – Logan is not doing real well. I introduced you to him here and for comparison purposes, here’s a recent photo:

Well, his polyneuropathy is starting to affect his bladder control. He has left a couple of puddles this week, and last week there was a bit of a BM issue by the back door. (when I went to help him stand up, it happened. I think he already needed to go, and my lifting him kind of added to the pressure.) We were told he would live between three and five years, and he just turned three. We might be losing him sooner than later. I am not looking forward to this stage of his life with us.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Remember back last week when I posted this?

No, that’s all right – go ahead and read it while the rest of us wait here…

OK, are you back?

The weekend following that posting, I received this e-mail:

Hello Mr.Cartter,
I do not believe that you are a bad American, only a little self centered because you are appear to be unable to see things from someone else’s point of view. I believe that you were totally correct about your entire ” Bad American” post. I am a young black woman who is a U.S. Army Combat Medic. I love this country and will kick the ass proudly of anyone who opposes what is morally right. I do not believe in reparations or illegal immigration. There were a few things that I did see that, maybe you should look at from a different point of view. The police statement, I have never been so much as pulled over. I drove from Texas to Georgia, 17 hours to see my family for the first time in years because I was serving my country and as you know medics are constantly needed. We were pulled over in a small town by the police shortly after crossing a 4-way stop. He asked where I was coming from what I was doing in his town with Texas plates. He claimed that my fiance looks like he smokes drugs. He said we were speeding -a lie- but we complied everything checked out but it wasn’t enough for him. he got out with his dogs to check my car then claimed they alerted him to cocaine inside. I knew this was a lie I complied. He tore my car apart, my black hawk bags, he broke the latches on my door handles tore through my bags while I stood there and did nothing. All he found was an asthma pump which belonged to my fiance who has lung disease. He claimed the pump was the reason for his dog alerting him. Then wrote a false ticket claiming he’d clocked us at 65 in a 30. I was due back to go to court in a month just one more thing they had no courthouse for me to dispute it in. The officers father was the sheriff and refused to allow me to file a grievance. I drove all the way back to this town for court and the said that the building they usually have it in was closed so they’d have it behind someones house the directions they gave me to get there led me to on old dirt road and no one was there so I drove back to the office but the police station was closed. I met a man a black man claiming the exact same story who was looking for the place they hold court so I took his name and number and got on the road to head back home. They told me the ticket was over half a grand and wanted me to pay it in cash at the police station or their judge would suspend my fiance’s license. The clerk also refused to give me documentation of the ticket and why it was so high…Long story short I never went back but I was hurt deeply to know this is what I fight for what I risk my life for. On a good day I had 500 brothers of all races. I went to III Corps NCO Academy at Fort Hood Texas you may remember last summer a soldier died in training. We were taught to keep an open mind to what another person is going through always! We all go through our struggles and have a reason for what we believe in. Thats what I would like you to understand. Can you see things from another person’s point of view before you pass judgement now that would make you a Great American!

Well, I couldn’t help but notice a few things about this e-mail. First, and I’m sure you noticed it too, is the lack of detail. Little things – like which state, exactly, this supposedly took place in. The name of the town. The “highway” they were traveling on. Kind of reminded me (and a couple of trusted advisers) of a certain movie plot.

In today’s political environment, not reporting this to people higher in the chain than the local sheriff or justice of the peace is a form of enabling the crime. By not reporting the treatment received, the “victims” become an implicit part of the crime, making their actions criminal in nature also. Not being able to file a grievance in the jurisdiction in which the action took place sure shouldn’t have kept this person from filing a grievance at the state level – whatever state in took place in. Also by not reporting it the “victims” have allowed the crimes to continue – by not blowing the whistle, they have told the people who are responsible for this activity that it’s OK, they won’t tell anyone…

To top it off, if it had been me, I would have been talking to the media folks as soon as I got to where I was going. The media types love to jump all over this kind of story – perceived mistreatment of the black folks, over-reaching Johnny Law types, keeping the law in the family, that sort of thing – in fact, it tends to lead on certain newscasts.

The physical evidence alone should have been enough to take to somebody who could do something. Gosh, I would think that broken door handles and damaged personal belongings would draw some pretty good fines, fees, and reparations to the victims, wouldn’t you?

I sent the person a reply, and have yet to hear back from her:

Good morning:

Thank you for your service. It is the spirit of those who serve that embodies what I stand for.

The posting stands – I am a “Bad American” because, unlike a very vocal liberal left group, I don’t believe that the United States is guilty of anything but being a free country.

I am not a lawyer. I do, however, have the nasty little habit of applying common sense and critical thinking to a situation.

Now, as for your episode: I sure hope you have more notes and details than what you provided me. And, I hope you took pictures of the damages incurred by this rogue lawman. Beyond that, I certainly hope you have filed charges in that state’s supreme court, and I hope you have been very vocal about the incident both in that state’s papers and your home state’s papers and other media outlets as well.

Without some basic information (the name of the officer, the date(s) involved, the name of the town, the name of the state, the time of day, the names of the people you spoke to/with) you have allowed yourself to become victimized. If you have all this information, you need to be sharing it with that state’s prosecuting attorney. If you believe that whole state to be involved in this very “Deliverance” -like scam, then the next level is the national Attorney General.

By standing by and not resisting at the time, you did the right thing. By standing by and not doing anything NOW you are allowing a crime to continue. If you continue to stand by and do nothing NOW, you move out of the realm of victim and into the realm of enabler – enabling this scenario to be repeated on others.

My prayers are with you as you continue to serve. My prayers are also with you as you move to resolve this injustice.

Cary

Let’s see how this develops, shall we? I get the feeling that it will be much like the time I tried to engage the “moderate muslim” a while back – no response, because there was nothing to stand on. I’m not calling you a liar, Ms. Nayas, I’m just saying there seems to be more to the story and I would love to see it resolved with you coming out on top, so to speak.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!