Here is a fun little story in between all the serious issues of the day. In a story I was reading online, reported that on Sunday, dozens of women posed naked on their bicycles on a bridge over one of Amsterdam’s historic canals. This in a city famed for its relaxed attitude toward nudity and sex.
They were among 2,000 men and women who participated in a series of four nude group photos in the city in the early hours of the morning as part of the latest project of U.S. photographer Spencer Tunick.
This is a bit of good fun that should occur daily around the world instead of all the violence and death. Maybe Mr. Tunick will grace our fair city with a visit sometime in the future.
I promise the next post will get back to serious issues. Smile and have a Great Day!!
nudes
Showing posts with label good. Show all posts
Showing posts with label good. Show all posts
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
Two Good Arrests, But Officers Injured
I have just finished an excellent story in the Iowa Press-Citizen concerning six people who were arrested after a melee in which two officers were injured.
Please read the whole story in the paper or online, but the short story is that Iowa City Police were called to 921 N. Dodge for a domestic abuse situation. They arrived and after arriving the situation escalated and resulted in an attempt to arrest James Michael Willis, 27 of that address. He pushed officer Laura Wood down injuring her back. Another officer , Matt Hansen, was punched in the face and other officers were injured in minor ways. The following people were arrested for interference with the officers as they tried to arrest Mr. Willis: Demetrius James Bledsoe, 26, same address, Antonio Maurice House, 27, of 913 Willow St., Kimberly Rachel Willis, 24, Adam M. Melcher 31, and Lakisha D. Thomas, 24 of Coralville. Miss Willis was also arrested on escape charges as she fled after being handcuffed and was found 15 minutes later a few houses away.
I went to the reader comments after reading this story and it looks like most of them were favorable toward the police reaction in the situation. In fact, one of the comments was by the person who called the 911 complaint in and he said the man arrested was screaming about killing everyone in the residence, he was using the N word even though he is African-American. In the story it says he was yelling about killing white people when the police arrived, so the situation was bad and while it seems that this young man’s friends like him a lot, as evidenced by their stupidity in trying to interfere with the police, it is also illegal as they now know.
From all of the reporting I think they should be happy that someone did not get shot, because being attacked by several assailants at once would in my estimation make it imperative to stop the violence as quickly as possible. I find the restraint used by these officers as evidence of the high quality training that they receive and the discipline with which they control their emotions. I know that it their job, but think about yourself, if you were in a situation that put you in grave danger would you not react on emotion and not rational thought, it would be “flight or fight time”.
So congratulations to the police on this incident and perhaps it will educate some people not to attack the police. I know a few officers and find them to be good people who do a hard and sometimes dangerous job for and they get too little respect for it most of the time. I quibble sometimes about the occasional speeding tickets which I have received, and that they could be doing something better, but in reality everything that they do to keep the rule of law upheld is the true and right thing to do. These young people better wake up and realize that breaking the law is wrong for anyone, no matter their age or their race, that is what civilized society is all about.
So remember kids alcohol or other substances, loud voices, mingled with threats of bodily violence, will invariably bring a knock at your door by the police, how you respond can get you either a warning or if you choose to be stupid, a night in jail, followed by charges, fines , and perhaps even serious jail or prison time. Worst of all if you escalate it too far, it could have ended in serious injury or even death. May Officers Wood and Hansen get well soon.
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Eleven peace activists who claimed they were justified in staying in the federal courthouse after hours because they wanted to end the war in Iraq were found guilty of trespass by a Linn County judge.
“While wanting to end the further loss of lives is a goal of the utmost importance, the
Court does not find that this goal amounts to justification for the Defendants' actions given the completely speculative nature of the outcome in this case,” Magistrate Judge Jill Ableidinger said in a written order issued Monday afternoon.
She tried all 11 together on April 25, each on a single simple misdemeanor trespass charge.
Ableidinger said the defendants didn't know if Grassley would speak to them, secondly had no way of knowing that a conversation would cause him to act and lastly that if the Senator did what effect, if any, the action would have on saving lives.
Frank Cordaro of Des Moines, a former Catholic priest and seasoned activist, expressed disappointment in the judge's decision. It's been his experience that the judicial branch of the U.S. government sides with the executive branch in war making, Cordaro said. His first arrest dates back to a 1977 protest at the Pentagon.
About two dozen protesters waited outside the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley, which is on the second floor of the federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids, on Feb. 26 hoping to talk to the Senator by phone to convince him to push for an end to the war.
They were participating the Occupation Project, part of the Voices for Creative Non-Violence campaign, which is an effort to stop the war in Iraq.
Grassley was on a plane to Washington, D.C. The war protesters waited, hoping to speak with him by phone. They were repeatedly asked to leave. An hour and a half after the courthouse closed to the public, Cedar Rapids police were called in to arrest the 11 who remained in the hallway.
Ableidinger said they could have attempted to contact the Senator earlier, or waited until the next day.
Sentencing is set for July 6th in Linn County District Associate Court and they face up to 30 days in jail.
In addition to Codaro those convicted include:Andrew Alemeo,19,of Cedar Falls Joshua Casteel, 27, of Cedar Rapids; Megan R. Felt, 20, of Iowa City; Timothy L. Gauger, 36, of Eugene, Ore.; David A. Goodner, 26, of Iowa City; John P. Hornbeck, 25, of Iowa City; Ryan D. Merz, 20, of Maple Plain, Minn.; Conor A. Murphy, 29, of Madison, Wis.; Rosemary M. Persaud, 47, of Iowa City; and Justin N. Riley, 19, of Crystal, Minn.
So we have had two good outcomes in two different stories dealing with law breakers, which shows that no matter what you think your goals are you do not get to violate the law and expect to get away with it.
I am proud of Senator Grassley not caving in and actually talking to these whack jobs. I know if you really want to stop the war in Iraq why don’t you hop a plane and talk to your Al-Qaida buddies and ask them to stop killing our troops and the Iraqi citizens. I am sure if you are so in touch with your feelings about stopping the war, then you really need to go to the source and I am sure you can hold hands in brotherhood with the terrorists, they’ll agree, the killing will stop and then our troops can come home.
There see it really is that easy, isn’t it? Oh right, No it is not! I hope you enjoy your jail time, it will be easier if you pretend you’re the victim’s! Right, I already know that you do, but you are wrong, the victim’s are the poor citizens of Iraq and our troops being killed by your terrorist brethren, or in the story our fine police officers, who were only doing their jobs.
Please read the whole story in the paper or online, but the short story is that Iowa City Police were called to 921 N. Dodge for a domestic abuse situation. They arrived and after arriving the situation escalated and resulted in an attempt to arrest James Michael Willis, 27 of that address. He pushed officer Laura Wood down injuring her back. Another officer , Matt Hansen, was punched in the face and other officers were injured in minor ways. The following people were arrested for interference with the officers as they tried to arrest Mr. Willis: Demetrius James Bledsoe, 26, same address, Antonio Maurice House, 27, of 913 Willow St., Kimberly Rachel Willis, 24, Adam M. Melcher 31, and Lakisha D. Thomas, 24 of Coralville. Miss Willis was also arrested on escape charges as she fled after being handcuffed and was found 15 minutes later a few houses away.
I went to the reader comments after reading this story and it looks like most of them were favorable toward the police reaction in the situation. In fact, one of the comments was by the person who called the 911 complaint in and he said the man arrested was screaming about killing everyone in the residence, he was using the N word even though he is African-American. In the story it says he was yelling about killing white people when the police arrived, so the situation was bad and while it seems that this young man’s friends like him a lot, as evidenced by their stupidity in trying to interfere with the police, it is also illegal as they now know.
From all of the reporting I think they should be happy that someone did not get shot, because being attacked by several assailants at once would in my estimation make it imperative to stop the violence as quickly as possible. I find the restraint used by these officers as evidence of the high quality training that they receive and the discipline with which they control their emotions. I know that it their job, but think about yourself, if you were in a situation that put you in grave danger would you not react on emotion and not rational thought, it would be “flight or fight time”.
So congratulations to the police on this incident and perhaps it will educate some people not to attack the police. I know a few officers and find them to be good people who do a hard and sometimes dangerous job for and they get too little respect for it most of the time. I quibble sometimes about the occasional speeding tickets which I have received, and that they could be doing something better, but in reality everything that they do to keep the rule of law upheld is the true and right thing to do. These young people better wake up and realize that breaking the law is wrong for anyone, no matter their age or their race, that is what civilized society is all about.
So remember kids alcohol or other substances, loud voices, mingled with threats of bodily violence, will invariably bring a knock at your door by the police, how you respond can get you either a warning or if you choose to be stupid, a night in jail, followed by charges, fines , and perhaps even serious jail or prison time. Worst of all if you escalate it too far, it could have ended in serious injury or even death. May Officers Wood and Hansen get well soon.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Eleven peace activists who claimed they were justified in staying in the federal courthouse after hours because they wanted to end the war in Iraq were found guilty of trespass by a Linn County judge.
“While wanting to end the further loss of lives is a goal of the utmost importance, the
Court does not find that this goal amounts to justification for the Defendants' actions given the completely speculative nature of the outcome in this case,” Magistrate Judge Jill Ableidinger said in a written order issued Monday afternoon.
She tried all 11 together on April 25, each on a single simple misdemeanor trespass charge.
Ableidinger said the defendants didn't know if Grassley would speak to them, secondly had no way of knowing that a conversation would cause him to act and lastly that if the Senator did what effect, if any, the action would have on saving lives.
Frank Cordaro of Des Moines, a former Catholic priest and seasoned activist, expressed disappointment in the judge's decision. It's been his experience that the judicial branch of the U.S. government sides with the executive branch in war making, Cordaro said. His first arrest dates back to a 1977 protest at the Pentagon.
About two dozen protesters waited outside the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley, which is on the second floor of the federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids, on Feb. 26 hoping to talk to the Senator by phone to convince him to push for an end to the war.
They were participating the Occupation Project, part of the Voices for Creative Non-Violence campaign, which is an effort to stop the war in Iraq.
Grassley was on a plane to Washington, D.C. The war protesters waited, hoping to speak with him by phone. They were repeatedly asked to leave. An hour and a half after the courthouse closed to the public, Cedar Rapids police were called in to arrest the 11 who remained in the hallway.
Ableidinger said they could have attempted to contact the Senator earlier, or waited until the next day.
Sentencing is set for July 6th in Linn County District Associate Court and they face up to 30 days in jail.
In addition to Codaro those convicted include:Andrew Alemeo,19,of Cedar Falls Joshua Casteel, 27, of Cedar Rapids; Megan R. Felt, 20, of Iowa City; Timothy L. Gauger, 36, of Eugene, Ore.; David A. Goodner, 26, of Iowa City; John P. Hornbeck, 25, of Iowa City; Ryan D. Merz, 20, of Maple Plain, Minn.; Conor A. Murphy, 29, of Madison, Wis.; Rosemary M. Persaud, 47, of Iowa City; and Justin N. Riley, 19, of Crystal, Minn.
So we have had two good outcomes in two different stories dealing with law breakers, which shows that no matter what you think your goals are you do not get to violate the law and expect to get away with it.
I am proud of Senator Grassley not caving in and actually talking to these whack jobs. I know if you really want to stop the war in Iraq why don’t you hop a plane and talk to your Al-Qaida buddies and ask them to stop killing our troops and the Iraqi citizens. I am sure if you are so in touch with your feelings about stopping the war, then you really need to go to the source and I am sure you can hold hands in brotherhood with the terrorists, they’ll agree, the killing will stop and then our troops can come home.
There see it really is that easy, isn’t it? Oh right, No it is not! I hope you enjoy your jail time, it will be easier if you pretend you’re the victim’s! Right, I already know that you do, but you are wrong, the victim’s are the poor citizens of Iraq and our troops being killed by your terrorist brethren, or in the story our fine police officers, who were only doing their jobs.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Good Samaritans, Bad Laws, And More
I was just reading the story of the good samaritans who helped after a roll-over accident on Interstate 80.
Julie and Brian Davie as well as their 4 children were traveling home in Normal, Illinois, after a camping trip in Lincoln, Nebraska, when the camper they were towing began to swerve and threw there Ford Expedition into the ditch. She said that a large highway sign stopped their towed camper from rolling over their vehicle after they went into the ditch.
She was so happy to see a young man’s face after the accident and commented how everyone remained calm as they did whatever it took to get her family out of the vehicle. She said “ It was an amazing chain of events that happened just the right way.” as reported in the Iowa Press-Citizen.
Davie said she and her husband always been sticklers for their children to wear their seatbelts. Everyone was buckled up when the crash took place, she said
A short time later, Davie said paramedics arrived and took the family to University Hospitals. Davie, who is six months pregnant, and her son, Alex, 9, stayed at the hospital overnight for observation. Alex had a slight concussion and some stiffness, but other than that, Davie said everyone escaped with a few scratches and bruises.
I believe the best in people until they prove otherwise, and I think that good samaritans are the rule, not the exception. We more often than not read or see the stories about the rude and bad people, because that is how news works. I have always thought that more news should be about the good and positive things which occur daily, but do not get reported on, so I was very happy to see such a good story when I checked the local news from the Iowa Press-Citizen today. This is good for us all.
One thing I wish we could have done in our community and in particular on Interstate 80 is to have much more law enforcement. This should be at the on ramps where truly rude, obnoxious driver’s, semi-trucks in particular almost always refuse to move into the left lane so that you can merge on the interstate. They fly past here in excess of 80 miles per hour and rarely is their a law enforcement presence. If they wish to enforce some laws it would be nice if they started there instead of giving tickets to people riding bikes on sidewalks, or young people skateboarding, which I have seen often when I lived downtown. In fact, one day when I was downtown, their was an officer ticketing two skateboards, while a person went the wrong way on washington street, went around the block and did it again, all the while the officer was writing the ticket and did nothing to stop the more dangerous person.
So please give us a little help and police the more important roads once in awhile.
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I just finished reading that nearly 4,300 people signed a petition seeking to set the age limit in Iowa City bars to 21, organizers said today.
Members of the Committee for Healthy Choices submitted 4,258 signatures to the City Clerk's office at 1 p.m. That's almost 28 percent more signatures than the 3,333 they need to force the City Council to act on the measure.
The group wants to make it illegal for people younger than 21 to be in Iowa City bars after 10 p.m. The current ordinance puts the age limit at 19.
The City Clerk's Office will take until the end of the month to verify the signatures. If the petition is deemed sufficient, the council would have 60 days to either enact an ordinance or send the decision to voters.
This is a perfect example of people who have too much time on their hands. I would like to see how old these people are as I would bet the majority of them were able to drink at age 18 and have now turned into everyone’s nanny’s as they get older and more bitter. It is insane that a young man or woman can go and fight for and possibly die for their country, but they cannot consume alcohol legally. If this is the law , which it is,then they should not be able to join the military until they are 21 and the people who pass these laws should be mandated by law to be in the military for at least two years, possibly more. This would insure that our politicians were in the pool of service members and perhaps there would be less conflicts if they were potentially being sent to fight and die.
If they can get a petition to stop anyone under 21 from entering bars, can we get a petition with more signatures and allow the existing law to continue without the city councils meddling. I don’t know, if you do please let me know.
__________________________________________________________________________
I am a committed supporter of the troops overseas and urge all citizens who feel this way to write your elected officials, because right now the only ones getting any voice our the anti-war nuts that think if we leave Iraq all will be right with the world. A view which will cause the deaths of thousands if not millions if their view is allowed to prevail.
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was saying yesterday that Senator Grassley needs to support withdrawing from the war in Iraq and called on Iowans to force Senator Grassley to help in Obama’s and other democrats efforts to help the Al-Queda terrorist’s and Iraqi insurgents in defeating our american troops.
Do you really want to listen to a defeatist like Obama or to anyone with Hussein as a middle name. Trying to help our nations enemies used to be called treason and if you took actions to insure that defeat it was sedition and now its’s called getting more seats in the next election. What nonsense how can anyone in Washington think that we will let them get away with not funding the troops and allowing the terrorist’s to not only win in Iraq, but cause the neighboring nations to be destroyed as they rush toward their ultimate aim of conquering all civilized nations and succeeding in restoring the Caliphate. The Caliphate is the one ruler over all Muslims and the last one was during the Ottoman Empire which ended after World War I and the broken into the nations which exist today. We do not want a world run my Islamic fascists which is what we will get if Obama and fellow traveler’s Senator Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are allowed to help the terrorist’s defeat our troops by bringing them home now. Wake up people we do not have much time to do the right thing, please do so today, and thank you in advance for being good americans.
Julie and Brian Davie as well as their 4 children were traveling home in Normal, Illinois, after a camping trip in Lincoln, Nebraska, when the camper they were towing began to swerve and threw there Ford Expedition into the ditch. She said that a large highway sign stopped their towed camper from rolling over their vehicle after they went into the ditch.
She was so happy to see a young man’s face after the accident and commented how everyone remained calm as they did whatever it took to get her family out of the vehicle. She said “ It was an amazing chain of events that happened just the right way.” as reported in the Iowa Press-Citizen.
Davie said she and her husband always been sticklers for their children to wear their seatbelts. Everyone was buckled up when the crash took place, she said
A short time later, Davie said paramedics arrived and took the family to University Hospitals. Davie, who is six months pregnant, and her son, Alex, 9, stayed at the hospital overnight for observation. Alex had a slight concussion and some stiffness, but other than that, Davie said everyone escaped with a few scratches and bruises.
I believe the best in people until they prove otherwise, and I think that good samaritans are the rule, not the exception. We more often than not read or see the stories about the rude and bad people, because that is how news works. I have always thought that more news should be about the good and positive things which occur daily, but do not get reported on, so I was very happy to see such a good story when I checked the local news from the Iowa Press-Citizen today. This is good for us all.
One thing I wish we could have done in our community and in particular on Interstate 80 is to have much more law enforcement. This should be at the on ramps where truly rude, obnoxious driver’s, semi-trucks in particular almost always refuse to move into the left lane so that you can merge on the interstate. They fly past here in excess of 80 miles per hour and rarely is their a law enforcement presence. If they wish to enforce some laws it would be nice if they started there instead of giving tickets to people riding bikes on sidewalks, or young people skateboarding, which I have seen often when I lived downtown. In fact, one day when I was downtown, their was an officer ticketing two skateboards, while a person went the wrong way on washington street, went around the block and did it again, all the while the officer was writing the ticket and did nothing to stop the more dangerous person.
So please give us a little help and police the more important roads once in awhile.
__________________________________________________________________________
I just finished reading that nearly 4,300 people signed a petition seeking to set the age limit in Iowa City bars to 21, organizers said today.
Members of the Committee for Healthy Choices submitted 4,258 signatures to the City Clerk's office at 1 p.m. That's almost 28 percent more signatures than the 3,333 they need to force the City Council to act on the measure.
The group wants to make it illegal for people younger than 21 to be in Iowa City bars after 10 p.m. The current ordinance puts the age limit at 19.
The City Clerk's Office will take until the end of the month to verify the signatures. If the petition is deemed sufficient, the council would have 60 days to either enact an ordinance or send the decision to voters.
This is a perfect example of people who have too much time on their hands. I would like to see how old these people are as I would bet the majority of them were able to drink at age 18 and have now turned into everyone’s nanny’s as they get older and more bitter. It is insane that a young man or woman can go and fight for and possibly die for their country, but they cannot consume alcohol legally. If this is the law , which it is,then they should not be able to join the military until they are 21 and the people who pass these laws should be mandated by law to be in the military for at least two years, possibly more. This would insure that our politicians were in the pool of service members and perhaps there would be less conflicts if they were potentially being sent to fight and die.
If they can get a petition to stop anyone under 21 from entering bars, can we get a petition with more signatures and allow the existing law to continue without the city councils meddling. I don’t know, if you do please let me know.
__________________________________________________________________________
I am a committed supporter of the troops overseas and urge all citizens who feel this way to write your elected officials, because right now the only ones getting any voice our the anti-war nuts that think if we leave Iraq all will be right with the world. A view which will cause the deaths of thousands if not millions if their view is allowed to prevail.
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was saying yesterday that Senator Grassley needs to support withdrawing from the war in Iraq and called on Iowans to force Senator Grassley to help in Obama’s and other democrats efforts to help the Al-Queda terrorist’s and Iraqi insurgents in defeating our american troops.
Do you really want to listen to a defeatist like Obama or to anyone with Hussein as a middle name. Trying to help our nations enemies used to be called treason and if you took actions to insure that defeat it was sedition and now its’s called getting more seats in the next election. What nonsense how can anyone in Washington think that we will let them get away with not funding the troops and allowing the terrorist’s to not only win in Iraq, but cause the neighboring nations to be destroyed as they rush toward their ultimate aim of conquering all civilized nations and succeeding in restoring the Caliphate. The Caliphate is the one ruler over all Muslims and the last one was during the Ottoman Empire which ended after World War I and the broken into the nations which exist today. We do not want a world run my Islamic fascists which is what we will get if Obama and fellow traveler’s Senator Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are allowed to help the terrorist’s defeat our troops by bringing them home now. Wake up people we do not have much time to do the right thing, please do so today, and thank you in advance for being good americans.
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