Curmudgeon's Corner

This & That...

Posted by Al Campbell on Dec. 17, 2008

Police, Quality of Life

Several things keep coming to mind this morning and I can't choose between them so...

Frivolous Court Actions...

I was thinking more about the John Doe investigation triggered by the prisoner that was aimed at the Germantown Police Department.  There were real affects beyond the story itself.  The department lost time dealing with this farce.  The officers...all the officers, and not just those directly involved...will think about this in the future even though they were exonerated by the judge's decision to drop the investigation.  Second guessing in their line of duty can and does cause injury and sometimes worse.

How might this be dealt with in the development of a new law?  How about prisoners that bring frivolous actions of this nature being subjected to some punishment?  How about those who are able to look forward to parole being kept from that for a time as a lesson?  How about those who'll be inside forever...if there are any of those in this day and age...being subjected to tougher time with the loss of all privileges, time in solitary, etc.?

Some Parents...

I guess I'll have to end my habit of listening to Jay Weber each weekday morning.  He found a story from New Jersey about a family, named "Campbell" of all things, who had given one child the middle names of Adolph Hitler and another the middle names of Aryan Nation.  They attempted to buy a birthday cake from a grocery store and were suing because the store refused to include the Adolph Hitler portion of the child's name in the cake's decoration.

First, they are not related to me, even distantly...I hope!  Second, this reminded me of what some parents inflict upon their youngsters in the interest of making some kind of social statement.  Never mind that these people are fairly obviously 'white supremacists'; even they should know better.

That reminded me of a Doctor with the last name of "Berry" whose nickname is, of course, "Raz".  He is actually in private practice in Tennessee or Kentucky as I recall.  That was most likely bestowed by his classmates at a tender age.  Mine called me "Alley Cat" since my first name was "Alan".  They're all so old now that they've forgotten what they used to call me.  There are advantages to aging.

Global Warming = Repetitive Snow Storms...

Sorry; I can't help but sprinkle more salt on the wounds of global warming enthusiasts.

We find ourselves in the pattern of a snow storm every two or three days with intermittent cold weather.  This seems quite the aberration for a planet that is warming at a dangerous pace.

Seems that this was our pattern last year as well.  I'd certainly invite Al Gore to come up and share a shovel with any of us...but he'd probably have the private Gulfstream IV cranked up and would spew the heavens with who knows what.  I guess we do better leaving him where he is and doing our own shoveling. 

More Newspaper "News"...

Finally, another newspaper or two in Detroit will cease printing seven issues per week for home delivery and drop down to printing home delivery newspapers on Thursday, Friday and Sunday since advertising is still fairly strong on those days.  We are witnessing the change of an industry that might ultimately have nearly as much impact as the Gutenberg press.

I shared that I have now become a Sunday-only subscriber.  I confess that I still miss the tactile sensation of a paper in my hands, but I don't miss any news thanks to the Internet, and I don't miss the ink that I have always had on my finger tips after fondling my newspaper.  And, I seem to have a few more minutes available in my morning schedule since I whip through the articles at a much faster pace on the Internet.