Nation's Police have a New Crime Fighting Tool

Checkmate, evil-doers!

Note this date because we’re now the recipients of the full protective muscle of the nation’s law enforcement officers. Police cars across this great land are being equipped with a new, more powerful, potentially overwhelming crime-fighting device.

It can't help but make police work easier because it's so revolutionary.

 It’s such a simple concept; inexpensive to produce (we can even use the ‘Made in China’ version), easy to adapt to any vehicle, available in a multitude of colors and styles, instantly noticeable and immediately effective. It’s a wonder this hasn’t been standard equipment on all law enforcement vehicles since men and women began wearing badges. This new ‘weapon’ is guaranteed to help police, and that’s according to high government officials, politicians, numerous sheriffs, police captains, priests, and mullahs across the nation.

We can now redirect our police armored divisions to stopping illegal immigrants instead. 

This simple, new weapon will traumatize criminals, law-breakers and scofflaws, causing them to turn from their illegal activity and flee any time they see a law enforcement vehicle armed this way. No longer will any alleyway or tunnel be too dark to investigate. No longer will outlaws ‘outgun’ police. No longer will gangs of thugs be able to control a street, let alone an entire municipality. The proponents of this method allude that it will stop offensive conduct cold. 

And it has a tremendous upside too because those people the police claim to protect and serve will be instilled with delight, relief and a strengthening of their belief whenever they see these newly equipped vehicles.

“It’s worked so well in other countries, it’s just difficult to believe we didn’t do this years ago” said one deputy who asked to remain anonymous due to his undercover work. "It only took ten seconds to install."

Let the word go forth…

...is the new aid in helping to take a bite outta crime.

Just kidding. 

Here’s what they're actually equipping their cars with…

Nothing says "Trust in God" like wearing a handgun, Taser, mace, baton, knife, handcuffs and body camera.

I feel safer already

The Confederacy and the Cross

Living in Florida, I see Confederate flags all the time; in places where they offer to take “Old Time” photographs, in novelty stores along any major highway, faux battle sites, on beach towels, bikinis, race cars, and goofy license plates. I have no idea if those places are run or operated by racists. Maybe its because I considered the South the losers that I considered the Confederate-promoting items as simply something to sell at a profit, like a pair of shoes, so it is kept on hand for commercial, not bigoted, reasons. But that is derived from my ignorant white-centric view of the flag.

Still, I always wondered why they wanted to actually fly the Confederate Battle flag, like the huge one near Tampa at the intersection of I-4 and I-75. The war is over, the South lost, Lee surrendered, the Confederacy no longer exists, so what is it supposed to represent? No one flies a South Vietnamese flag anymore. We don’t fly the British flag from the colonial period, and you don’t see the flag of Mussolini’s Italy on flagpoles anywhere. So why fly the flag of the defeated side from a distant war? I suspect the recent attraction to flying the flag of the Lost Cause has to do with our current president, or rather, his skin color. Nothing satisfies some people like jabbing Obama and other like-minded people in the eye with the symbol of the slavery issue in a war that split the Union for four years. The flag's supporters always say "...but the Confederate Battle flag is not about hate, it’s about heritage". Really?

 Look at all that heritage on display.                    

Neo-Nazis, skinheads, the KKK, and other White Supremacist groups also fly the United States flag because you have to broaden your appeal to the people who live in states other than former Confederate ones. But the most frequent flag used for the past half century, with virtually no complaints from white Southerners, is the Confederate Battle flag, not the actual flag of the Confederate States of America; the Battle Flag. With whom are they in a shooting match? Defenders claim that just because somebody misuses the Battle Flag doesn't mean it represents anything bad. Alright, then what part did the bigots and racists get wrong?
       I understand why there was the call to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from in front of the capitol building in Columbia, South Carolina, and from the Mississippi flag. Walmart stopped carrying anything with the flag on it and many other stores have followed suit. Naturally, this will create quite a black market for sale of the flag. But those who have demanded its removal, or fought any display of it, seem to imagine the flag’s disappearance will signal the end of racism. As the band Aerosmith sings…“Dream On”. It won’t happen because the attitude is not based on the flag. The flag is a symptom, not the cause

                    Not much has changed in the state of Texas either

Ignorant, under-educated, narrow-minded bigots will not let go of their hate, and they hate a lot. For starters: liberals, moderates, gays, democrats, Yankees, carpet-baggers, the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, long hairs, Prius owners, Jews, Catholics, Muslims, Mexican’s, Native Americans (who were here before the bigot's ancestors arrived) and, of course, blacks. You see, blacks were freed by damned Yankees after the war and the people of the former Confederacy were forced, FORCED, to live in equality, side by side with them rather than owning them like animals and keeping them penned up in shacks and barns like…well, like cows, pigs and chickens. This ain’t right. Blacks used to be property and now they’re free…To live next to us…And use the same roads, buildings, water, and food, even breathe the same air! Hell, it’s like we now have to live in harmony with free-range farm animals. Damn them fuckin’ Yankees!

      When idiots lack understanding, comprehension is often found in firepower.

 The Battle flag’s presence across the south has been a simmering issue for over 50 years but the recent impetus to remove it stems from Dylann Roof killing nine people in cold blood this past June at a Charleston, SC church. Some people claim that since Roof was shown holding the Confederate Battle flag, it had a hand in inciting his hostility toward blacks, and that makes it's all the more reason to banish it. But he is also shown in shorts, t-shirt, and sunglasses. Are these any more indicative of a racist? No. Racism is a learned response from reading racist material, and from hearing about how and why one group is superior to another. Where might that have happened?

                                  One thing leads to another

 Many won’t like this aspect of the racism rampant in this country, but it is because of the Bible…a book that, at its core, is an explanation about why one group of people is exalted over all others. The Biblical god claims the “Jews are his chosen people”. When only a select few are glorified as “God’s favorites”, a two-tiered system is automatically generated where one is considered superior while the others are inferior. This is exactly what this biblical standard has fostered.
       The bible also shames blacks because Ham (the father of Canaan and the original ‘black’ according to many bible interpreters) saw his drunken father Noah sleeping naked in a tent. How stupid is it to condemn an entire race because of a fable? The bible specifically endorses slavery in Exodus 21. Jesus never condemns the practice either, and even describes how and when slaves are to be beaten. The bible was the justification for slavery being established and maintained in the U.S. and other “Christian” countries. It was the Southerners' justification for the preservation of slavery when Northerners had abandoned the practice as the North became more industrialized. Frequently, the bible is held up as the reason for the abolitionist movement, but it was really in spite of the bible. Quakers led much of the charge and did not use scripture for their reasoning. It was because they believed human beings should not own other human beings...to hell with what the bible stated.

       But the men who wrote the Confederate constitution did not see it that way. They explicitly wrote in the document that they recognized the Christian God (since 99% of Southerners were Christian) with the phrase “invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God”. Article IV, Section 3(3) specifies holding blacks against their will in perpetuity with “the institution of negro slavery as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress.” Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens made it crystal clear that the Confederates considered the white race superior when on March 21, 1861 in a speech in Savannah, Georgia, he said “With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system.” Notice the mention of Canaan from the bible as justification. 
       The roots of Western slavery stem from the bible, the roots of the Confederacy stem from the bible, and the roots of racism are found in the very same book. Is it any wonder the Confederates chose a cross to be on their battle flag?

Why celebrate Columbus Day?

                                           Left to right, Niña, Santa Maria (Columbus' ship) and the Pinta

             In the early morning hours of October 12, 1492 a lookout named Rodrigo de Triana shouted what every sailor aboard the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria had been hoping to hear for 33 days since leaving the Canary Islands far to the east. The three ships had sailed from Spain on August 3^rd and the men were now on the verge of mutiny. Except for that quick stop for provisions in the Canary’s; after over two months of seeing nothing but the broad expanse of water in front of them, the men wanted to return home, any shortcut to Asia be damned.

“Land, land,” Rodrigo shouted from the crow’s nest of the Pinta. The soft white moon-lit sand of one of the southeasterly islands of the Bahamas beckoned. No one knows exactly which one it was; most often Samana Cay or Watling Island are chosen as possibilities. Rodrigo was also quite excited because Spain’s king Ferdinand and queen Isabella had offered a pension of 10,000 maravedis (around $1,300) for life to the first man who sighted land. At the time, seamen made about 12,000 maravedis in a good year so it was a sizable amount for any of them. Rodrigo was most likely smacking his lips in anticipation of the reward. But rather than compensate the lookout as promised by Spain’s rulers, Christopher Columbus, leader of the expedition, claimed he saw lights on the horizon a few hours previously and kept the reward for himself. It is not recorded if anyone questioned him about how he could see those distant lights, yet they were missed by all the other sailors, and why he never mentioning the sighting to anyone until after Rodrigo’s detecting the shoreline. This glimpse of Columbus tells us a lot about the man who would be crowned Admiral of the Ocean, and provides insight into his dishonesty and cunning.

                            The arrival of Columbus' ships as seen from the Taino's vantage

The natives he was about to meet would have been better off wiping out the ship’s crews as they came ashore. Those who lived on the island swam out to meet the newcomers as their boats neared the beach. The Taínos, as they were dubbed by the Spaniards, were part of a larger group of island natives called Arawaks, and were described as “naïve and free with their possessions” offering to share all they had with Columbus and his crewmen. They also discover the Taínos women were very free with sex as well. Because of small gold ornaments they wore in their ears and noses, several were taken prisoner and ordered by Columbus to lead him to the gold’s source. Columbus’ true reason for his voyage was revealed. It was not for discovery; it was for human and mineral plunder.

          Columbus claims the new land for God and Spain completely ignoring the desires of the natives who live there (seen in unauthentic dress in the background).

We now know that Columbus was not the first European to detect the American continents and nearby islands. Vikings had beaten him to it by around 500 years and there is evidence that other cultures and seafaring men may have stumbled upon the New World in the decades and centuries prior to Columbus’ voyage. Certainly what Columbus’ visit did was set in motion the annihilation of millions of natives who had flourished throughout the Americas. And Columbus’ justification? This is from his diary: "It was the Lord who put it into my mind, (I could feel His hand upon me), the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me. There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures.......

I am a most noteworthy sinner, but I have cried out to the Lord for grace and mercy, and they have covered me completely. I have found the sweetest consolation since I made it my whole purpose to enjoy His marvelous Presence.

For the execution of the voyage to the Indies, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps.
It is simply the fulfillment of what Isaiah* had prophesied......(probably Isaiah 40:22.
In this scripture passage the prophet Isaiah made reference to "the circle of the earth.) No one should fear to undertake any task in the name of our Savior, if it is just and if the intention is purely for His holy service. The working out of all things has been assigned to each person by our Lord, but it all happens according to His sovereign will, even though He gives advice. Oh, what a gracious Lord, who desires that people should perform for Him those things for which He holds Himself responsible! Day and night, moment by moment, everyone should express their most devoted gratitude to Him."

Yes, god through the bible told Columbus to go west. And once there, god and the bible were the justification for all sorts of heinous acts committed by the Spaniards in service to Columbus. Since the natives had no recognizable religion, they were considered fair game for anything. A young priest named Bartolome de las Casas recorded what happened to the natives in their interactions with Columbus’ crew of one of his later voyages. The Spaniards “grew more conceited every day and refused to walk, so they rode on the backs of the Indians, or were carried in hammocks by the Indians running in relays. They thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and cutting slices off of them to test the sharpness of their blades.” In another passage he wrote about how “two of these so called Christians met two Indian boys each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots and for fun beheaded the boys.”

                                           The Natives were slaughtered for no reason at all by their Spanish overlords.

                Natives by the thousands were rounded up and forced at sword point to dig for gold in mines while the women were put to work cultivating fields of crops for the Spaniards. Most died within six to eight months. This kind of treatment set the stage for the English, Portuguese, Dutch and French invaders whose treatment of the natives they met was just as harsh as the Spanish. In most every case, they claimed God wanted them to kill all the Native Americans found over here. The land was deeded to Christians and would soon be theirs. One English governor put it succinctly when he wrote “Sickness [in the Indians] was the physical manifestation of the will of God.” In less than 300 years, the American continent’s original inhabitants had been reduced by almost 90%.

                If Christopher Columbus should be remembered for anything, it is not for his guidance, compassion, and honesty, since he deliberately misled his own men with a phony ship’s log so the men didn't know how far they’d traveled on that first voyage. Plus, he had vastly underestimated the circumference of the earth figuring it was about one fourth its actual size. He contemptuously kept the reward for discovering land from the man who actually had sighted it, and his mission turned out to be to claim any land for Spain through God, plundering the new land for riches and capturing the natives as slaves, or just out and out killing them in the name of Christ. He should be remembered for what his actions, grounded in the belief that God has ordained it, unleashed on an unsuspecting population. Genocide.

                Nothing says a religion is true more than death and destruction meted out by its believers.