It's Time To Go Home

My parents live in a small town and there are not very many entertainment options. There is a popular tribal casino located just a few miles from their house and the casino has become a sort of hang-out for locals. My mom and dad go there nearly every day. They don't really do a lot of gambling. My dad is retired and sits with all of his retired friends drinking beer, talking sports, playing keno, and arguing politics. My mom will put $5 or $10 into a slot machine and play until it is gone or until she wins a little bit of money, then she goes home and plays video games on their home computer. Later, she will go out and pick up my dad when he is done socializing.

My parents don't lose much money and it is truly a place for them to go and socialize and have fun. When it is time for them to go home, they go home. I usually go out there with them when I am visiting. I am not so good about knowing when to come home, but I do come home of my own accord when I get tired of being there. Luckily, we always drive out there so we can come and go as we please.

Some people really don't know when to come home. There are frequent announcements at the casino to tell people that the bus that brought them there is loading. They will make this announcement two or three times, then they will start to announce the absent passengers by name through the casino. There is almost always one or two holdouts that can't tear themselves away from craps or blackjack or the slots until the very last second. They won't go out to the bus until repeated threats over the announcing system that the bus is leaving without them, then they will sprint to the door hoping to catch the bus. Some of these people look pretty elderly and kind of frail. It can be kind of frightening watching them sprint for the door.

I remember one late night in particular, a wife had requested numerous announcements for her husband to come out to the car.

The announcements started with the usual: "Robert, your party is waiting for you at the security podium,"

then progressed to "Robert, your ride is leaving,"

then further escalated to "Robert, your wife says that if you aren't at the security podium in one minute, you will be walking home,"

and culminated with "Robert, your wife is going home and throwing your stuff on the lawn."

These were late night announcements and people kind of make light of these situations when someone doesn't want to come home. I just read an article about a woman that took it to new extremes. Apparently, when she didn't want her husband to gamble away the money they were saving for a car, she phoned the casino and told them that her husband was on his way to the casino with a fertilizer bomb to blow the casino up.

She wouldn't tell them her husband's name but said he was intent on blowing up the casino as revenge for losing a whole bunch of money. Unsurprisingly, this is not the woman's first brush with the law. She has been arrested several time at the casino and at other places for drinking, drugs, trespassing, and so on. She said she wasn't too concerned about the charges, but was awfully upset that her phone records were released:

She said she wasn't worried about the charge. She was more upset that police had obtained her telephone records, "violating my civil rights and my privacy."

"I thought this was still a free country," she said.

You can read the full story here. You should take a look at it. It is good for a few laughs. As they say: Life is hard. It's harder when you're stupid.

A New Fan Convention

I guess Comic-Con is one of the most popular fan conventions that there is. I remember once when we pulled into San Diego while Comic-Con was going on. One of the guys that worked for me was incredibly excited. It was all that he talked about for about two weeks before we pulled into San Diego. He was, of course, mocked and scorned by everyone else on the boat.

When we went on liberty after we pulled into Point Loma, a few of us went to the bus stop by the mini-mart and waited to go into town. Darth Maul from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was also waiting to take the bus. I didn't know that Sith Lords took the bus, but there he was.

Anyway, everywhere in San Diego that we went, we were running across people dressed up for the convention. I had no idea that people got into movies and comics to that extent. Tens of thousands of people went to the convention.

The guy that worked for me tried to convince everyone to go with him to Comic Con. He promised that anyone that went with him would have a great time. Everyone refused. A few days went by and we left San Diego. When we got out to sea, he was telling people how great the convention was. He told another guy that worked for me that he saw Gene Simmons at the convention. This other guy was a huge KISS fan and was greatly disappointed that he had missed the chance to see one of his musical heroes.

During a field day, he was lamenting "Man, I can't believe I missed Gene Simmons!!"

A shipmate, nicknamed Wookie, said "So what? Who cares?"

"Gene Simmons, man...I missed Gene Simmons!!!"

Wookie: "So what, you missed a dude that exercises with fat women. Who cares?"

Wookie brought everyone to silence with his ignorance, followed by lots of laughter.

Anyway, the reason that this story was brought to mind this morning was an article that I read in the paper this morning. Apparently, there is a new fan convention happening in Seattle tomorrow. It is called CatchCon and it celebrates the crews portrayed in The Deadliest Catch. There were 500 tickets and they are already sold out with 600 people on a waiting list, so you are too late if you want to go and don't already have a ticket.

Apparently, the people from The Deadliest Catch aren't entirely comfortable with having a crazed fan-following. One of the captains hides his boat when he pulls in because people come looking for it.

"People are always creeping around," said Hansen, who hides his fishing boat now. "It's kind of flattering, but weird."

Fort Lewis: Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy?

A sergeant at Fort Lewis has made the news. It was for allegedly committing a crime.

Pierce County prosecutors have charged a Fort Lewis soldier with promoting prostitution, alleging he directed two teenage girls to trade sex for money.

The girls involved in the case are 16 and 17 years old.

Stories about crimes that occur near a military base that involve military members frequently make it into the local newspapers. In some cases, the stories appear to be written in a manner that are trying to put the military in a bad light. Fort Lewis has certainly been in the news over the last few years. Not for little crimes. For big, bad crimes. I don't think the newspapers are picking on Fort Lewis, either. McChord AFB is the next door neighbor to Fort Lewis. A search for news stories about McChord yields results like "Air Show" or "Fireworks" or "USO Hugs and Kisses", but no stories about criminal behavior.

A sampling of some crimes committed or allegedly committed by Fort Lewis soldiers:

Olympia Police Arrest 2 Fort Lewis Soldiers:

Police have arrested two Fort Lewis soldiers following the weekend stabbing of a 24-year-old man outside an Olympia, Wash., bar.

Army Files Charges Against Soldier in Death of Teen at Fort Lewis:

Pvt. Timothy E. Bennitt, 19, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of Leah King. He was also charged with wrongful use and distribution of controlled substances and conspiracy to use controlled substances.

Soldier Sought in Abductions, Fires:

A Fort Lewis Stryker Brigade soldier accused of abducting and torturing two women is being sought on a warrant that charges kidnapping, rape and arson.

Fort Lewis Soldiers Charged in University District Holdups:

Three Fort Lewis soldiers accused of robbing University of Washington students at gunpoint last month were charged with robbery Friday in King County Superior Court.

Fort Lewis Officer Among Soldiers Accused of Skimming Reconstruction Money:

In a federal indictment in March, prosecutors alleged that Nguyen skimmed more than $690,000 in cash while acting as the civil-affairs officer responsible for overseeing millions of dollars intended for reconstruction projects and payments to private Iraqi security forces northeast of Baghdad.

Nguyen, 28, a West Point Military Academy graduate, is accused of packing stacks of cash into boxes and mailing them to his family's home.

Former Army Ranger Gets 24 Years in Prison for Bank Robbery:

According to documents filed in the case, Sommer was an Army Ranger stationed at Fort Lewis when he recruited two other Rangers, Chad Palmer and Alex Blum, and Canadian nationals Tigra Robertson and Nathan Dunmall to participate in the Aug. 7, 2006, robbery of a Bank of America branch on South Tacoma Way. The robbers, some armed with AK-47s and wearing body armor, made off with $54,011.

Admittedly, the embezzlement crime happened in Iraq, but I felt justified in including it in the list because the money was spent at or near Fort Lewis. Other than the bank robbery, which occurred in 2006, these crimes were all committed in the last six months.

What is the U.S. Army doing about this? These are serious crimes that pose a big risk to the local community. They are robbing community banks, robbing local college students at gunpoint, being very involved in the death due to drug overdose of a local girl, and pimping out local girls.

I certainly don't want to indict all of the soldiers at Fort Lewis. In fact, the soldiers that were robbing college kids were turned in by a fellow soldier after bragging about pistol-whipping one of the students. Still, these are a lot of serious crimes happening in a pretty short period of time. I have commented on these stories in the past, defending the soldiers. It is getting kind of tough to continue to comment that most of the soldiers at Fort Lewis are good people. I think that the time has come that the Commanding Officers of the base and the various units take action to protect the community. These thugs may represent only a small percentage of the soldiers at Fort Lewis, but they pose a substantial risk to the members of the surrounding communities.

I think it is time some officers at Fort Lewis get fired. I am not talking about the O-1's and O-2's. I mean guys that have scrambled eggs on their hats. They are failing in their duties and have squandered their chances to stop this crime wave emanating from Fort Lewis.

A Squirrelly Situation

The situation with the ground squirrels in Finch Arboretum is rising to the level of national attention. The Spokane Parks and Recreation Department has been using a product know as the Rodenator Pro to cause small underground explosions to kill ground squirrels which are detrimental to the trees in the arboretum. I don't know if blowing up squirrels falls under the "Parks" side of the Parks and Recreation Department or the "Recreation" side of the house. It looks like the people that were blowing up squirrels in the video I found on YouTube the other day were having a pretty good time.

There is an article in the Spokesman Review that gives a little more background. The Parks and Recreation Department had already started using the Verminator Pro without making any announcements. After they had been using it for a little while, people began to call in. I guess the Parks and Recreation Department hadn't considered that people in the neighborhood would be concerned about hearing explosions in the park. Anyway, people called in to ask what was going on in the park, because it sounded like things were blowing up. The Parks and Recreation Department decided it would calm everybody down by informing the public that they were only blowing up squirrels.

Whoops!!!

Turns out that some people thing blowing up little varmints is kind of mean. How could anyone have seen that one coming?

Here are a few key points that I gleaned from the article:

Rush Limbaugh mentioned it on his show in an effort to tweak the animal rights crowd:

Radio host Rush Limbaugh mentioned the detonation plan on his show Tuesday, saying he wanted animal rights activists “to try this one on for size.”

But Limbaugh focused more on the name of the Finch Arboretum and said it was the first time he’d seen the word arboretum.

“The name for a park, is that what it is?” he asked.

The Humane Society has condemned the practice:

Spokane Humane Society Executive Director Dave Richardson called the “killing of native wildlife” a temporary, unethical and reactionary response to a problem that could be solved by limiting the animals’ food supply.

I am not going to say that one side is right or wrong. But regardless of whether you are in the "Blow 'Em Up" camp or the "Don't Feed 'Em" camp, I think everyone can agree that the people in the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department should reconsider what they are doing:

The Spokane Parks Department once lined burrows with sticks of Wrigley’s juicy fruit gum after hearing rumors that eating the gum would destroy the animals’ stomachs and kill them, Goodspeed said.

Are people that tried to kill squirrels with chewing gum really the same people that we want running around with propane and oxygen explosion generators? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Junior is Back in Town

Things are starting to wrap up at school and the last few weeks that I have spent with my nose to the grindstone are finally starting to pay dividends. I still have a substantial amount of work to get done, but the list of remaining reports and presentations before the end of the semester is now at a reasonable level.

I have finally made enough progress that I can watch the Mariner's home opener. I am watching the pregame ceremony now. I think they will have a little tribute for Nick Adenhart, the Angel's pitcher that was killed by a drunk driver last week. They have quite a few things lined up before the game starts.

The biggest attraction of course is the return of Ken Griffey Jr. to the Seattle Mariners. Seattle is pretty excited to welcome back their favorite son and thrilled to have him wearing a Mariner's jersey. I am sure Safeco Field will explode when he is introduced.

I was pretty happy to see him back with the Mariners, although I don't expect a lot of production from him. I am just happy to have a legitimate sports superstar with no hint of scandal attached to him back in town. I am hoping to see a little bit of magic from Griffey today, but even if he doesn't hit one out of the park, I am sure he will get a very warm welcome and I am really happy that I have the chance to watch the game, even if I couldn't be at the ballpark.

Go M's!!!!

Blowing Stuff Up...A Northwest Tradition

I haven't had much time to browse the news and see what has been going on. The news has been dominated today by the story of the American ship's captain that was rescued from the pirates. I am happy that he is coming home safely.

As I was browsing the Seattle Times online tonight, I ran across an article entitled "Spokane Parks to Detonate Squirrels." I thought maybe it was just a headline meant to grab peoples attention, but it turns out to be pretty descriptive of the plan.

The Rodenator Pro pumps propane and oxygen into the tunnels of squirrels, then sends an electric spark that causes an explosion. The shock waves kill the squirrels and collapse their tunnels — but in a humane way, the agency said.

Propane, electric sparks, explosions, shock waves, and collapsing tunnels ...well, at least it's humane.

I went and searched YouTube for Rodenator, and there were quite a few videos showing this machine in action.



As the blog title says, we do have something of a tradition for blowing things up here in the Northwest.



Hopefully, the Spokane Parks Department will watch the exploding whale video before they get started and take away a few "lessons learned" from that brilliant idea.

Huey Lewis & The News

The concert last night was very nice. There were lots of excited moms and kids and Huey Lewis put on a great show. I had forgotten exactly how many songs they have put out over the years. It was a great trip back to the 80's for me.

They opened with "Heart of Rock & Roll" and we also heard "Doing It All For My Baby", "The Power Of Love", "Hip To Be Square", "I Want A New Drug", and many others. Here are a few pictures from the show.

All in all, it was a great show and I would go see them again in a second. Hope everyone else has had a good weekend.

Mom's Weekend

Not my mom, specifically, but Mom's Weekend for the mothers of any Washington State University Cougar. Mom's Weekend is this weekend. My mom has always declined to take part in the festivities. She is a pretty smart woman. As I have said before, Pullman is a pretty small town that is dominated by the university. Now, we add in all the mothers (and fathers that tag along) and Pullman is overwhelmed.

They have Huey Lewis & The News playing tomorrow night. One nice thing about being old enough to be the father of most of the students here is that I am as old as their parents. When they book entertainment for Mom's Weekend and Dad's Weekend, it is geared towards people my age. I haven't taken advantage of this yet, but I decided that I would take in the concert tomorrow night. I passed up on a ZZ Top concert last year, which I probably would have enjoyed a lot, but Huey Lewis & The News should be a good time.

This weekend should be quite a bit more relaxed than the last few weeks. I have gotten ahead on enough schoolwork (or at least caught up enough) that I have tonight and tomorrow night off. I will be going to the concert tomorrow night and I decided to watch a movie tonight. I am going to break out True Romance.

If you haven't heard of this movie, it is a Quentin Tarantino directed love story. There is violence, drugs, violence, politically incorrect language, violence, pimps, violence, prostitutes, violence, mafia, violence, and of course, True Romance.

It has a LOT of well-known actors: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, James Gandolfini, and Brad Pitt. This is by far my favorite Brad Pitt role. Here is a little snippet from the movie where Gandolfini meets Brad Pitt.

There is a tad bit of violence in this movie, so you probably don't want to let the kids watch it. At least, they probably shouldn't watch it until they are about 35 years old or so.

I decided I would grab some Guinness Beer to enjoy while I watched the movie tonight, so I ran down to Safeway to grab some. My ID is rarely checked when I buy beer. Today was an exception. The cashier gave me ***REALLY BIG SMILE*** and said loudly, "I know you are probably over 21 sir, but I am required to check ALL ID's for alcohol purchases." I guess he said this to show all the moms in town for the weekend that their kids can't buy booze without being 21.

He didn't need to bother with that. With the exception of two moms, all of the moms (and there were a lot of them) in Safeway were in the beer section buying beer for their kids. I guess it's possible that they were buying beer for themselves, but I don't think that 120 pound blond mama was going to drink two cases of Corona all by herself. The other two moms that weren't in the beer section were in line right behind me with shopping carts full of beer. Well, they might have asked to see my ID to put on a show, but I guess it is nice to show the parents that their babies can't buy booze unsupervised. Personally, I don't have a problem with people drinking at age 18. Old enough to vote, old enough to go to jail as an adult, and old enough to serve in the military...should be old enough to crack open a frosty can of brew.

Well, in any case, I think this will be one of my more enjoyable weekends here in Pullman. I hope that everyone else has a great weekend, too.

Graduation Fair

I will be finishing my last semester at Washington State University in about six weeks. We had a "Graduation Fair" here earlier this week. All of the graduating students received a notice telling us about the fair and we had to go there to order items such as caps and gowns. They will be renting caps and gowns from the bookstore starting next week, but I decided to get mine now while it is still early.

When I arrived, I was directed to stand in a line to check in with the registrar's office. I stood in line for about twenty minutes. When I got to the front of the line, they asked for my student ID number. They punched it into a computer and told me that I was good to go. The only thing that they were checking was that I had applied for graduation. The deadline for applying to graduate was several weeks ago, but they do allow late applications if you are willing to pay an extra $75 fine. None of the four students in front of me had applied yet and they were hit with the fine. They didn't seem too worried about it. I guess maybe they were spending Mom & Dad's money.

After they verified that I had applied to graduate, I got sent upstairs where there was a HUGE line. It stretched past several booths where they were asking for money. The first was for donations for the Senior Class Gift. I didn't really get this one. I guess we are all supposed to donate money so that a plaque with "WSU Class of 2009" engraved on it could be hung up somewhere on campus. I don't know. Maybe it was for something cool. In any case, I declined to contribute.

The next booth was for Jostens. I remember this company from my high school graduation days. They came to our high school to sell the students outrageously priced class rings then encouraged us to go door to door selling some cheap crap to our neighbors, friends, and families so that we could earn money to buy their class rings. Jostens was selling lots of stuff at the graduation fair. The first Jostens booth was selling class rings. I didn't even bother to look at the price. I never regretted not having a high school class ring and don't think it will bother me to miss out on a college class ring either.

The next Jostens booth was for graduation announcements. The girl that I went to the fair with purchased two orders of 25 announcements. It cost her about $180 for these fifty announcements. Wow!! Over three dollars each. Even custom printed announcements shouldn't be that expensive.

Next were diploma frames. Another Jostens booth. The diploma frames were $160 each, with a "free" cap and gown rental. I think I will go to Walmart for my frame.

I finally broke down at the last booth. This was where you actually rent the cap and gown. You can rent a cap and gown for $30. They even let you keep the cap and tassel as a permenant memento. I sprung for a souvenier tassel that was made using Crimson and Gray colors. That cost an extra $7. We don't get to wear those tassels, though. Nearly everyone has to wear a black tassel during the ceremony. I think that the Veterans Affairs office on campus will have red, white, and blue tassels available for veterans. I seem to remember that the veterans are allowed to wear the red, white, and blue tassels during graduation.

Anyway, the Graduation Fair turned out to be long lines where students were sold many overpriced items. I felt fortunate to walk out of there spending only about $37. Lots of students were getting swept up in the moment and buying lots of stuff. I guess I just don't get it. Maybe I would have been right there next to them twenty years ago, but now I think that I would rather keep dollars in my wallet. I suppose I will eventually buy a nice frame for my diploma, but I sure hope I can find a nice one for less than $160.

Comments

I really enjoy reading news online. The Seattle Times has a website that I check in on every day. I probably spend more time reading the comments section for each story then I spend reading the stories themselves. I usually find it pretty interesting to see what other people think and sometimes I find myself disturbed by what other people think.

I find it really interesting how many people drag politics into a discussion. If there was a story about a dog getting run over on the street, people would be making comments about DIM-ocrats or Libtards or CONservatives. I occasionally leave comments and have at times been called an idiot liberal and other times called an idiot conservative and sometimes just get called an idiot. It doesn't bother me much. Years and years of submarine duty have thickened my skin a bit.

I read a story in the Seattle Times yesterday entitled "Bellevue man outwits 2 criminals, escapes in their getaway van." The story is about a guy that was working in his garage crafting a part for his hobby car. He heard someone in his house and discovered his house was being burglarized. He grabbed a hammer so that he had something to defend himself and went outside. The crooks had left their van in his driveway with the engine running and the doors unlocked. This guy hopped in the van and drove it a few blocks away to the house of a friend. Crooks came outside, saw their van was gone, dropped all of the loot on the porch, and took away on foot.

When I read the story, I kind of laughed when I thought about the look that must have been on their faces when they came outside and found that their van had been stolen. I also thought that the guy might have been somewhat foolish, but since he didn't get hurt, it was just a great story.

Some people that commented on this story seemed to have the same idea, but a lot of other people made comments that I find kind of disturbing.

One of the most common responses was along the lines of "Those guys are lucky that they didn't break into MY house or I would have BLOWN THEM AWAY!!!!"

Don't get me wrong. If someone breaks into a house, they are taking their lives into their own hands. I am probably not going to feel too bad about someone getting killed while they are breaking into a house. What disturbed me about these comments are the bloodthirstiness with which they are made. It seems like there are a whole bunch of Clint Eastwood wanna-be's sitting in their living room with a gun in hand hoping that something happens that would justify them killing someone. What kind of a person fantasizes about killing someone? It just disturbs me that people like this live in the same neighborhoods as me.

The other common responses focused on something else in the article. The article mentioned that the guy was recently laid-off, his wife was at work, his kid was in daycare, and he initially thought that it was his housekeeper in his house until he realized it wasn't the right day for the housekeeper to be there.

There were tons of comments along the lines of:

"How dare this guy be working on a hobby instead of looking for work!!!"

"How dare this guy have a child in daycare when he is not working!!!"

"How dare this guy have a housekeeper when he is not working!!!"

"How dare this guy....blah, blah, blah"

Seriously, why are there so many people out there that hate this guy for being able to weather a period of unemployment in comfort? If the guy can afford daycare, can afford to work on a hobby, has a wife that works, then I say good for him. Sounds like he spent a lot time living within his means and was smart enough to put money away for a rainy day, or perhaps his wife earns enough money to support their lifestyle.

Well, I suppose I will continue to read comment sections in the newspaper. I thought it would be illuminating to see what other people think. I guess it is illuminating, just not in the way that I thought it would be. I thought that I would see some well thought-out discussion that might persuade me to think about something in a different light or that might reinforce the way that I already felt. Instead, I find that we have many more bloodthirsty maniacs and petty, jealous little people living in our midst than I thought there were. I still hold out hope that these people making the comment are a small minority, but boy, they sure are vocal.

USS Louisiana Blue COB

There were a few rumors floating around on Bubblehead's blog over the last few days. I just came across a few news articles today about the COB from the USS Louisiana (Blue) appearing in court in Kitsap County Superior Court for second degree child rape. Here is a story from the Kitsap Sun.

Accused Navy Master Chief Makes His First Court Appearance

DNA Sampling - Unreasonable Search and Seizure??

The Washington State Legislature is considering a House bill that would make DNA testing mandatory for all persons, juvenile and adult, arrested for a felony or a gross misdemeanor. One of the crimes which will be included for mandatory DNA sampling is shoplifting. This DNA test will be submitted to the Washington State Patrol database and the FBI database. If the person is later found not guilty, charges are dropped, or the conviction is overturned, the DNA sample will be destroyed.

This is one of those bill that really scares me. I don't understand how people can look at this and say that it not an unreasonable search which we are constitutionally protected against. Under the current law, DNA sampling requires a warrant unless the person is actually convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor sexual offense. This new bill would allow the police to take a DNA sample from someone arrested for suspicion of a crime without giving the suspect a day in court. In fact, it would be mandatory for them to do this.

On the surface, this might seem to be no more intrusive than fingerprinting during arrest. This is a quote from the executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs that appears in an article in the Seattle Times:

"It is good technology. It solves crimes," said Don Pierce, executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, which has long pushed for DNA tests at the time of arrest. "We take fingerprints at the time of arrest, which in many ways is a lot more intrusive."

This is simply not true. As an example, let us say that one of your siblings or cousins was arrested. If they are fingerprinted, those fingerprints belong only to that person. If there is fingerprint evidence somewhere for an unsolved crime, they will have only that individual's fingerprints for comparison.

If a DNA sample is taken from someone that has been arrested and entered into a national database, then that sample may be compared to DNA from a crime scene with an unknown subject. What happens if one of your close relatives is arrested and they have some genetic markers in common with a DNA sample from an unsolved crime scene? If that DNA has genetic markers in common with that unknown DNA sample, then a suspect pool consisting of closely related family members of the same sex can be made. What is to stop the authorities from using this as probable cause for a search of your property or person without showing any other evidence? You could be forced to spend thousands of dollars to defend yourself.

One part of the bill says that the sample will be destroyed if the person is not convicted or if the conviction is overturned. Can we really believe that once a DNA sample is entered into a state or national database, that it will be removed later? I think that is simply not true. If we could trust this sort of information gathering to be handled in accordance with law, there would have been no need for President Bush and our Senators and Representatives to give immunity to telecommunication companies that illegally recorded telephone conversations.

I also have serious reservations about the Washington State Patrol being involved in this process. They have a record of handling and analyzing scientific evidence improperly and then saying later that it doesn't matter.

Several years ago in Montana, a scientist provided erroneous hair-sample analysis that helped convict a man of rape. That man was later exonerated by DNA evidence. This man was also alleged to have provided analytical evidence that resulted in the wrongful conviction of two other Montana men for rape. This scientist later came to work for the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab.

In 2002, an internal audit of 100 cases handled by this scientist revealed errors in 30 of the cases. That is a 30% FAILURE rate. The Washington State Patrol failed to tell the defendants or their attorneys of the flawed test, deciding that they were performed well enough. They decided that the "sloppy work" built around "shortcuts and speed" were not a good enough reason to fire the guy. I guess they don't believe in following proper procedures when performing tests that can destroy a persons life if improperly performed. You can read about this guy and the official WSP response here.

If you read their response, you will probably arrive at the conclusion that they have cleaned house. However, about a year ago, they had to contact 130 people that had been issued citations for driving under the influence of alcohol. These citations were based on faulty breathalyzer tests performed on the people driving. The toxicology lab responsible for these mistakes is overseen by the WSP. An internal audit and several independent audits found problems. A panel of judges issued the following statement about the lab:

A panel of King County District Court judges said the lab and its leadership created a "culture of compromise" with so many "ethical lapses, systemic inaccuracy, negligence and violations of scientific principles" that the breath tests should not be used as evidence in pending DUI cases.

Well, at least they told the accused people about their lab problems this time, even though some of the people had already served sentences.

The WSP is definitely the wrong organization to be involved in the collecting and cataloging scientific evidence of DNA. Their laboratories and their leadership at the laboratories have not demonstrated that they take their responsibilities seriously.

Bottom line for me is this bill should be shot down. I believe this is a violation of our constitutionally guaranteed freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. I also do not have confidence that our government agencies will handle the collected samples properly or legally.

Twig: My Parent's Marley

My mom and dad have a dog named Twig. They got him long after all of us kids left home and Twig is their baby now. They spoil him shamelessly with food scraps and he can get kind of annoying at supper time (and at lunch and at breakfast). Other than that, he is a pretty well behaved dog and a pleasure to be around. He is kind of getting up there in age and appears to be losing his hearing. Still, he is very happy.

He has a few idiosyncrasies that add some depth to his personality. He hates changes. He is used to having the house the way that it always has been. My father got a small space heater last winter that he breaks out when it gets cold. When my dad breaks out the heater, Twig will go through pains to avoid the heater. He obviously doesn't trust it at all. If the heater is sitting out in the living room, he will squeeze between the coffee table and the couch and scramble over three sets of legs rather than walk in front of the heater.

When my parents changed his brand of dog food, he started a new ritual before he eats. He will stand in front of his dog dish for about two or three minutes barking at his food. Once he has barked his food into submission, he seems pretty content to eat it.

He also has a fear of cameras. Every time you point a camera at him, even a cell phone camera, he runs away. I have no idea what caused this phobia to develop, but it was a struggle to finally get a reasonably good picture of him. For some reason, he allowed me to take a couple of pictures of him the last time that I was home.

A few years ago, my parents had new linoleum installed in the kitchen. One of the things that Twig used to get a great deal of enjoyment from was coming in the kitchen when my dad was cooking bacon and licking up the grease that splattered on the floor. That was with the old linoleum. Now that there is new linoleum, he is afraid to set foot on the kitchen floor. You can put one of his favorite treats on the kitchen floor and he will sit and stare at it, but he is afraid to venture out any farther than his two front paws. If it is a really great treat, he will scratch at the floor with his front paws as if trying to pull the treat towards him. It is pretty funny to watch. When he wants to go outside, he has to cross a small patch of the kitchen floor and then go through two doors to get out. He has to see that both doors are open before he crosses the patch of the linoleum. Once both doors are open, he runs as fast as he can across the floor and outside.

My favorite story about Twig is the result of a traumatic situation that he went through. Every time that my mom or my dad would hop in the car to go someplace, Twig would want to go along. If it was a short trip, they would usually indulge him and he would happily sit on the passenger seat and look out the windows while they were driving.

One day, after getting his hair cut, my mom was bringing Twig back home. They were driving down the highway at 55 mph. A car which had been sitting on the shoulder of the road decided he wanted to do a U-turn and turned directly in front of my mom. She slammed into the side of the guys car at 55 mph. It was a pretty bad wreck with air bag deployment and both cars were totaled. Luckily, other than some minor burns from the airbags, there were no significant injuries.

Twig was pretty shaken up by the accident. A few days later, my mom got in the car to go to the espresso stand and get a latte. Twig loved this ride in particular because he always got a doggie biscuit from the lady at the espresso stand. Now he was refusing to get in the car. My parents figured that his car riding days were probably over.

The next day, my dad got in the car to run a few errands. Twig started barking at him and my dad opened the door. Twig jumped right in the car and took a ride with dad. Turns out, he was perfectly happy to ride with my dad wherever he went, but he would not dare to get in the car when my mom was driving. Apparently, the lesson that Twig learned was that he couldn't trust a woman driver. This accident happened several years ago. After a few years of avoiding my mom's driving, Twig relented and is again riding in the car when my mom drives.

Twig is definitely an oddball, but I know my parents wouldn't trade him for anything in the world.

Washington Floods and Pictures

I just got back home from visiting my parents. You may have seen on the news over the last few days that Washington has been hit rather hard with flooding. My parents live near some of the hardest hit areas. Thankfully, while the town that they live in was surrounded by flood waters, the town itself came through pretty well. We were just cut off for a day or so. We had to take a fairly long detour around the flooding today so that they could drop me off at the airport this morning.

They are calling this "Historic" flooding and "Record" flooding. They used to call these sorts of floods "Hundred Year Flood" and "Five Hundred Year Flood", but since we have had several of them over the last few decades, I guess they decided to stop calling them that. In this case, we had about 7 feet of snow fall in the mountains over the course of a week. This was followed by a rain storm from Hawaii that brought warm air and huge rainfalls. Some areas of western Washington had 10 inches of rain fall in a single day.

The liberal media, liberal scientists, liberal engineers, and all the other members of the so-called Reality Based Community blame the floods and land slides on over-development in the areas that used to be flood plains, too much tree clear-cutting, and climate change. I haven't heard too many conservative theories on why the flooding has been so much worse, so I assume the conservatives blame the flooding and land slides on excessive corporate tax rates, over-regulation of the free market, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore. I guess the good folks of the Westboro Baptist Church probably blame it on the two lesbians that were kissing at a Seattle Mariners game at Safeco Field last year.

I don't know all the reasons for the flooding being so much worse than it used to be, but I do know that when you have too much water in too small of an area, the water gets real high real quick.

I have a few pics from the area around Oakville.

Water Over Roadway...Duh!!!



This road was damaged when some wet soil under the road collapsed.



This picture shows the land slide underneath the road.

Small Towns

About a week into my winter break from school, I got tired of looking at the snow in Pullman and hopped on a plane to Seattle. My parents picked me up at the airport and we drove to their house in Oakville, Washington. Normally, I would drive, but there is just too much snow on the ground between Pullman and Oakville. Now I am looking at the snow in Oakville, but at least here it is melting. Unfortunately, I am using a dial-up connection and my patience is already getting short. I was staring at the Dashboard in Blogger for nearly five minutes waiting for the New Post page to load. I guess I am truly spoiled by high-speed internet connections. The editing also seems to be a little screwy. I can't seem to insert spaces between paragraphs. I guess this is the new "roughing it".

Oakville is a pretty small town. If you want to get an idea what sort of town Oakville is, try to picture a one-stoplight town. Got it? Now, take away the stoplight. That's Oakville. There are about 700 people living here.

Oakville experienced a boom a few decades ago when a nuclear power plant was being built near the neighboring town of Satsop. In the late seventies, construction was begun on several nuclear power plants in Washington state. Eventually, because of cost overruns and corruption, the projects were halted and Washington state defaulted on a few billion dollars worth of municipal bonds. The project was named the Washington Public Power Supply System. The project name had the unfortunate acronym WPPSS, or "whoops" as it became known in the media. After the project shut down, the boom was over for Oakville.

Oakville has a few claims to fame, but that is about it. It is home to the last bank in Washington state that was robbed by men on horseback. There was also an incident in which gel fell out of the sky for a period of a few weeks several years ago. Some of the local people think that this was because of some sort of nefarious government experiment being run on the local population. It was even featured on Unsolved Mysteries.

From Wikipedia:

In 1994, over a two-week period in August, a gelatinous substance reportedly
fell from the sky six times. The mysterious goo allegedly contained white blood
cells and several acids from the human stomach, and was reported to infect
anyone it touched with symptoms of exhaustion, breathing problems, heavy
perspiration, fainting, and other flu-like symptoms. Several animals in the area
are reported to have perished because of this.

My parents tell me that it is true that the gelatinous substance did indeed fall from the sky. As for the reports of people getting sick and animals dying, they may not be factual.

Not to be outdone by the fine Governor of Illinois, the Mayor of Oakville has found himself embroiled in a political scandal. The fine mayor had purchased some land just outside of the city limits a few years ago. He bought it with the intention of building four single family houses which he could then sell for a handsome profit. The collapse of the housing bubble has changed his plans.

He still thinks that the land can be used to build housing and turn a profit. However, instead of building single-family houses, he wants to build "fourplexes", which I gather is like a duplex with four units instead of two. Unfortunately, the county has zoned this area for single-family units and the fourplexes cannot be built there. Now, the mayor is leading the charge for the city to expand its limits and annex the land on which he wants to build the fourplexes so that it can be rezoned. If this happens, he will likely realize a tidy profit.

Obviously, some people view the mayor using his office to promote this project as a conflict of interest and abuse of power. The mayor has tried to appease his critics. Whenever the topic of this annexation comes up in city meetings, the mayor takes off his "Mayor of Oakville" hat and puts on his "member of the community" hat. The senior guy on the city council then takes over as the mayor for that portion of the meeting. After they discuss the issue of the property, the mayor once again becomes the mayor.

I guess that it is kind of like in the cop action movies where the cop takes off his badge and says "I'm not a cop tonight." I don't think that is how it really works.

The city council recently held a no-confidence vote against the mayor. The newspaper explained it. Apparently, the vote is to tell the mayor that they don't think he is doing a good job. That's it. There are no repercussions and no binding action has been taken.

Anyway, pretty interesting stuff for a town of 700 people. Politicians act like politicians no matter where you are. I guess that even boring little towns aren't really so boring after all.

Thunderstruck...or is it Thunder-Suck

I saw that the NBA had a game between the Washington Wizards and the Oklahoma City Thunder yesterday. Prior to the game, the two teams had a combined record of 7 wins and 50 losses. Oklahoma City was beaten 104-95 and walked away with a record of 3-28. They suck. The Thunder are really bad. A terrible team. It puts a really big smile on my face.

The truth is, I have no animosity towards the people of Oklahoma. I just detest Clay Bennett for the way in which he moved the Sonics. He had purchased the team in 2006 with vague reassurances that the team could remain in Seattle. It became clear that his intention all along was to move the team out of Seattle when some emails became public in which he was discussing the move with his OKC buddies.

I also blame Starbucks chairman Charles Schultz for selling the team to Bennett and then claiming to have been deceived when it became apparent that the team was going to be moved. The guy heads a multi-zillion dollar a year business, but he wasn't bright enough to see this coming?

The other person that I blame is David Stern, who basically told Seattle, "if you fight this move, you will never have basketball in Seattle."

Some people blame our liberal government in Seattle and Washington State. I don't. The reason I don't is because I am sure that Stern and Bennett were collaborating against Seattle the entire time. Bennett wanted a team in OKC because that is his town. He was willing to lie every step of the way to get what he wanted. Of course, he was selected as 2008 Oklahoman of the Year. David Stern was just greedy to expand the NBA into a new market. Never mind that Seattle had a team for 41 years with pretty good attendance and that excitement was building with the addition of Kevin Durant to the team.

Okay, enough ranting about the move. It is old news that was brought to mind again when I saw the results of the match between the two worst teams in the NBA. Let me say that I am thrilled the OKC Thunder have affirmed their place as the worst team in the NBA. I hope that this team eventually turns into a huge money pit for Clay Bennett.

Oklahoma, I wish I could say that I am sorry that the Thunder are having a terrible season, but I am not. Wasn't it enough that you guys sent us Brian Bosworth? Did you really have to take our NBA team as well? I don't have any real animosity towards you, but please forgive me if I express some glee that your team is an unmitigated disaster this year. I hope you have many more years of the same.

Nuts!!!

I read an article yesterday about a 19 year old guy that had been sentenced to four days in jail for simple assault. The assault in question occurred when the guy heard that a fellow high school student suffered from a peanut allergy. He took someones peanut butter sandwich, stuck his fingers in the peanut butter, and then rubbed it on the student with the peanut allergy.

When I was 19 years old, I probably would not have thought that a peanut allergy was particularly serious. On the other hand, I would not have tried to inflict an allergic reaction on somebody. As an older adult, I know that peanut allergies can even be fatal.

I figured that this was probably just a bully and four days in jail would probably teach him a lesson, even if it seemed a little harsh. Perhaps some community service would have been more appropriate.

Then I read this article in the Seattle Times and changed my mind. Here is a quote from the article:

Harmon said she honored the four-day jail sentence recommendation in part because a recent mental health evaluation concluded that Hickson suffers some cognitive deficiencies.

What the heck are "Cognitive Deficiencies"? I think in layman's terms, it would mean "The guy is a Dumb-Ass". Why is being a dumb-ass a defense for criminal activity?

The guy denies he actually committed these actions, in spite of several eyewitness reports to the contrary:

In court Tuesday, Hickson denied touching the boy. But several witnesses told police he did.

Still, these weren't the parts of the article that changed my mind. The part of the article that changed my mind was the part that showed me that he was not only a dumb-ass, but an unrepentant dumb-ass:

"What were you thinking when you did this?" Judge Nancy Harmon asked Hickson before sentencing.

He did not answer, only grinning and shaking his head. Harmon pressed, several times questioning Hickson about his motivation. He did not answer.

What kind of person would grin when being asked by a judge why he committed a crime? What kind of a judge is going to stand for that kind of disrespect in her courtroom? It would appear that the guy is a bully that still thinks what he did was funny. I am a little surprised that the guy didn't get forty days instead of four days.

Then, I read a follow up article in the Seattle Times today. Imagine my surprise when I saw that the part of the story that jumped out at me had been altered:

"What were you thinking when you did this?" Judge Nancy Harmon asked Hickson before sentencing.

He did not answer. Harmon pressed on, several times questioning Hickson about his motivation.

Now there is no mention of the kid grinning about his little prank in front of the judge. I guess the newspaper thought that including something that shows the true character of this bully was unnecessarily inflammatory. I am pretty disappointed in the Seattle Times. Now it seems to portray the guy as a dumb kid that screwed up instead of the bully that won't accept responsibility for his actions and still thinks he is funny.

Atheists in Washington Hate Christmas

I hadn't realized how big of an issue this was. Now I see the news has been elevated to a national level. For the Christmas season, a nativity scene along with a holiday tree (or Christmas tree, I am not sure of the proper terminology) is decorating the Washington State Capitol. In 2006, a Menorah was displayed, although there is not one there this year. Now there is also a sign that supports an atheistic point of view. A statement from the Freedom from Religion Foundation is below.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, foundation co-president, said in a prepared statement that the sign is a reminder of the "real reason for the season, the winter solstice."

Read more from The Olympian

If celebration of the Winter Solstice was the true reason for the sign, I guess it would read "Happy Winter Solstice!" or something to that effect. It doesn't. In fact, this group went out of their way to offend Christians and anyone else that believes a higher power exists. The sign states:

"Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

What's next? Maybe the atheists can run around Santa Claus in the shopping mall and tell all the kids that Santa isn't real. May as well spoil Christmas for everybody and make a clean sweep of it. What a bunch of unbelievable jerks.

I am going to go off on a tangent here because I found something interesting while I was looking for good info on this topic. This is a link to a posting in NoGodBlog.com that went slightly off track. If you are a submariner, skim through the comments. Some of the comments got way off topic talking about Trident submarines and there is some humorous back-and-forth in there. Now I will get back on my topic. Sorry for the interruption.

Now, I am pretty liberal in my beliefs. However, to my way of thinking, this is an example of a minority group (atheists) out to ruin the enjoyment of the majority of people that enjoy the religious aspect of the holiday season. This is just a group of people that go out of their way to feel offended by others beliefs. I can't believe that any atheist has had their beliefs threatened by Christmas displays. Does an atheist walk by a Christmas Tree and spontaneously become a Christian? Of course not. They just want to piss all over people that are enjoying themselves.

If I were to walk up to somebody that happened to be Jewish, and I wished that person a Merry Christmas, I would expect them to take that in the spirit with which is intended. I doubt that they would be deeply offended by that.

Another article in The Spokesman Review has parts of the Governor's response to complaints.

“The U.S. Supreme Court has been consistent and clear that, under the Constitution’s First Amendment, once government admits one religious display or viewpoint onto public property, it may not discriminate against the content of other displays, including the viewpoints of nonbelievers,” the statement said.

Ummm....Doesn't a sign that says "Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds." discriminate against the viewpoints of believers? How come those of us that believe in Christ can't be protected against this?

A huge telephone campaign has been started to harass Governor Christine Gregoire until she has the sign removed. Bill O'Reilly is leading the charge. It's pretty rare that I find myself agreeing with Bill-O. I guess I would be okay with a "Happy Winter Solstice" sign as long as it didn't attack religion. As it is, the current version of the sign is out of line. To give Bill-O his due, here is his rant against the atheist sign and his call to arms:

Trip Report: Hanford

I just got back from my field trip a little while ago. Surprisingly, we had all except for one student show up on time to leave and the one that was late was less than 5 minutes late, so we got on the road just about the time that we planned to. The van that I was riding in had some pretty bad climate control. On the side of the van I was on, it was like sitting next to a furnace, but the people sitting on the other side were freezing. Other than that, it wasn't such a bad trip down there.

This was my second trip to the reservation. My first trip happened a few years ago when I was driving through the tri-cities and took a wrong turn. That time, I didn't get any further than the sign that said "Hanford" before I figured it out and turned around.

We actually ended up with three foreign national students on the tour. Apparently, it is not that unusual. One of the guys working there said some of the work had once been contracted out to a British company which later sold out to an American company, but apparently several British workers remained employed there.

The foreign students were separated from the main group for a special security briefing where they had their credentials checked a little more thoroughly than the rest of us. I asked one of the girls that had the special briefing what she thought of it. She said, "By the time they were done, I was scared of myself !!"

Most of the trip was spent discussing our particular projects, but they did take us to look at a few other facilities there. It was a fairly interesting trip. My impression is that you have to do a lot of driving if you work there. Very few of their facilities are even close to other facilities. Of course, I guess that is the sort of things that happen when you build a nuclear facility in the middle of the desert instead of in a big city.

All in all, not a bad day. It was kind of long because of the riding around in the van.

Hanford

Figured that I would get in a quick post before I hit the rack. I have to get up early tomorrow to be outside Sloan Hall (where I have most of my classes) at 6:00 a.m. This almost reminds me of meeting outside the NEX mini-mart at oh-dark-thirty in Pearl Harbor to go for a bus ride to the shooting range for weapons qualifications. Instead, I am going on a field trip tomorrow to Hanford. For my senior design project, we are trying to come up with a way to optimize a particular method in the processing of radioactive liquid.

One thing that I thought was kind of odd is that we are not required to be U.S. citizens to go there, or at least to see the nuclear-type of areas. Two of my classmates are foreign nationals. One is Japanese and the other is Mexican. Of course, I am sure that neither one of them has any sinister designs. In fact, one of them is giving me a ride to school tomorrow since we have to leave before the bus starts running in the morning. All in all, I am happy that they get to go with us.

I spent 20 years in the navy working as a nuke. Then I went to college to broaden my horizons. Now in the span of just a few weeks, I got to tour a naval shipyard and tomorrow I get to visit a nuclear reservation. I can feel my horizons broadening as I sit here typing this post.

Well, I guess the navy and/or the nuclear world is my calling. Things could be worse. At least there are some good job prospects out there for me.