I Simply Cannot Buy Rolling Stone Magazine…

Since this came out, I have not been able to even bring myself to buy that magazine.

Once upon a time, there was a wonderful magazine that gave us articles about music and the music world–along with artists that were engaging in worthwhile pursuits at times. Then one day, someone decided to throw the very things that those of us who came to that magazine wanted to get away from, which includes depressing news and politics, in our faces.  However a person in charge of this magazine decided it would be appropriate to put a young man’s face on the cover who was the epitome of everything that is wrong in this country.  

“But what could possibly be wrong in this country?” some would think aloud.

“Complacency.” was the word that came to mind of others.

As a society, we have become far to complacent when it comes to what the media wants to subject us as an audience to.  If it were NEWS that would be one thing.  However in recent years, the media likes to bombard us with editorials. It gets really old. If I want someone’s opinion of what is going on in the world, I’ll simply ask them.  HOWEVER, when I want to know what is going on in this world, I only want the facts–and not their opinions of how they think these things should be or should not be.  Evidently the media no longer believes that we can make up our own minds on any issue,  so they try to tell us “how to think”…

We have also become far too complacent as a nation as to our own security.  Why do  I say that? Simple. Look around.  We’ve got teenagers going around targeting elderly people–especially if not of their own race, and yet no one DARES call that a hate crime IF the victim is white. IF the person who does it is white and the victim is black,  you can bet there will be serious jail time involved. This seriously leads me to question what truly is a hate crime if one group of  people who attack ANYONE due to race is not prosecuted while one person manages to get the collar… It is time to change that, people.  One form of racism does not justify another and if hate crime laws are not going to be equally prosecuted, they shouldn’t even be on the books. Justice is supposed to be blind–not subject to the whim of the US Attorney General or his boss. If one is really concerned about these young people getting hurt and killed for pulling such antics, then maybe the parents should step up to the plate and start monitoring who their kids are hanging out with again. Now back to my original topic…

Maybe IF this guy’s parents had done THAT much and kept their sons away from other radicals, they might not have ended up killing 4 people and wounding/maiming plenty of others. However, the mother isn’t too concerned about it given the clip below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqiinOlrc3o

Did you notice where he told her, “Don’t say anything.”  Why would he say that? That statement is out-of-place unless one is hiding something…Nice try. Russia even knew about her fanaticism. I think we know where these two men went wrong and it lies within their own mother. Sorry. She raised them to be as they are/were. She is more upset that they actually got caught in their own game, and if they had not done it, they wouldn’t have hijacked that Chinese boy’s car afterward to get away.  He will get the best defense on American soil money can buy. What I want to know is, who will hear the victims’ cries for justice as the blood calls out from their graves?

And this magazine seems to want to paint an empathetic picture of what is wrong with this guy, or am I mistaken? Sorry…I don’t buy into it and will no longer read Rolling Stone.

Food for Thought: Don’t Go on YouTube if You’re a Dumb Twit!–Nana’s on a Roll!

Good morning everyone! Now that I have gotten your attention I want to say a few things before you view this video that Carly Taylor posted on YouTube.  First off, she is a con artist. Secondly, she is racist.   This video is  full of foul-language but I used it for a training tool.  I even called Dunkin’ Donuts corporate over this and demanded they do something about this woman because what she is doing in the process of breaking a few federal laws is scamming for a free meal.  I say she is scamming because she waited for the next shift to show up with a video camera to harass what appears to be a minor (Needi) at work.

Not only did she make terroristic threats toward the staff, she also videotaped customers and staff without getting a SIGNED release prior to posting to YouTube. If she has a business degree, as she claims, she truly needs a refund because she got short-changed and her lawyer (if she didn’t lie about having one) should be disbarred for not telling her to STHU and leave the video camera at home.  Anyone who appears on that video can sue her and that is one of the reasons Dunkin’ Donuts needs to file an injunction against her since she had no permission to be video taping in their establishment.  Most journalists won’t even do this crap unless they are investigating ILLEGAL activity in order to expose it.

She wouldn’t have lasted 20 seconds in my store. I promise you all that she would have been escorted out in handcuffs within 60 seconds.  This is what SHOULD have happened:

1. Management should have been present. If they were, it wasn’t indicated.

2. Management should have directed her and warned her that she would have to leave if she didn’t turn off the camera.

3. I would have stated on camera, you do not have permission to use my image or that of any other employee on any public forum. Please turn off the video camera and we will get your meal.

4. If she refused, I would not have spoken further given the fact that she was belligerent and making threats, I would have gotten her locked up.  As I said she violated several federal laws here–one of which was to make a terroristic threat toward staff and NO establishment should EVER tolerate such abuse.

5. Corporations need to give all staff training for these situations and the authority to take action when this is taking place in case management is occupied with vendors and such.  The remedy for such issues should not be limited solely to management staff. Any employee should be able to kick such people out of the establishment. It is common sense.

Here is the link to the video (Warning: Again, this video does contain foul-language!) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7UElWxqGIs

If there is one thing Nana hates, it is racism. If Needi (the employee threatened) was a minor, I hope her parents also filed charges.  To me Ms. Chapman is nothing more than a con artist trying to get her 15 minutes of fame, but if you read the comments under her video, it obviously backfired on her, and rightfully so.

Here is another link about this to look at.  It’s a pretty good article too for coming from “The Smoking Gun”…

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/viral-video/polite-dunkin-donuts-worker-768402

I was so angry when I saw this that I used this video to train staff on how to handle this situation.

Is There Any Way to Phase a Terrorist?

I am seriously so tired of all this experimenting our government does with these terrorists to get them to talk. I have the perfect solution to deal with terrorists both foreign and domestic–especially for those who come here from other countries to claim citizenship under false pretenses.  It will sound strange but it would work because they would receive no word…No news…Nothing of this country or their home country.  It would amount to solitary confinement on a prison ship at sea with NO visitors allowed aside from their cleric or the lawyers.

Regardless of their country of origin, they should receive no news from it. The logic being that if they renounced their own country and took an allegiance to this one and then betrayed it, they deserve no news  from either place.  Give them religious accommodation with a cleric from whatever religion they claim to be in–but do not let that cleric discuss news with them.

I think this would be a greater punishment than death or life in an American prison. Their actions would have real consequences. They would have no cause to support if they were stripped their countries, would they? I mean to the point to where there is NO television or radio either…

Their families would be notified of their well-being via a letter from them every week, but the offenders of this nature would only receive letters with notices of births, deaths and news of a personal nature–not anything that involves politics and such.  They would only be allowed on radio phone call with relatives after the death of an immediate family member, with clear instructions that if the family member tries to relay any news of either country, the call would abruptly be ended.

Does that sound too extreme?  Well…I wonder if they would be so eager to try to push their ideals and fear onto this country if they knew this would be the fate that awaited them…

I should give credit to the late Edward Everett Hale for this idea.  I really think as sad as the story “The Man Without a Country” is, it is far less tragic than the events we have seen unfold in this country in the past 13 years.  I think the concept of isolation and no news is worth some serious thought.  For whatever their cause is, it wouldn’t serve them well to receive this sentence.

At least I can honestly say it is an approach that has not been used before.  As long as they are fed, clothed and allowed their choice of whatever religion they want, a shower, and medical care  then they would be a lot better off than a lot of the American people are now. What do you think?

Well, that is my take on the subject and if it offends anyone, oh well…I’m used to that. If anyone has any other ideas that might ACTUALLY work, feel free to share them because after 13 years of crap, I’m open to something that might actually work as a solution.

Dear America: What Has Happened to Us?

I have watched things unfold in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing…I am not going to be any less blunt than normal and am only going to express this once.  Anyone who has malice in their hearts toward a group of people, and carries out an act of mass killing directed at that group of people for whatever reason is, in my book, a terrorist.  Whether they target military for being military, Americans for being American, etc…That IS a terrorist and not all terrorists are Muslim.

However it is my opinion that Homeland Security and the FBI dropped the ball.  IF people go to countries like Yemen and such and show signs of extremism when they return, that is obviously a problem.  If our government wants to make the population guinea pigs and become the “thought police” and try to disarm anyone, these are people they should start with.  Then they should disarm anyone with family members living in the household who have mental illnesses that can make them dangerous to others, too.

The saddest thing about any murderer, whether it be a terrorist or someone from any other background is that most of the time they do not realize the fact that they are not only destroying lives of the victims’ families but they are destroying their own families.  I wonder if when they are caught (if caught alive) and they see how distraught their families are if they really do begin to understand the magnitude of the fact they have accomplished nothing but destroying those around them they claim to love.

The families of these murderers suffer as much as victims’ families do and it is sad that we live in a society that after hundreds of years, there is a tendency to judge all for the actions of one…or two….All one has to do is read the comments under every story to see that the hatred from both sides of an issue runs deeper than the muddy waters of the Mississippi River.

When I was a sergeant in the correctional field, people would actually cheer if a murderer, especially a person who murdered a child was executed in turnout.  As the surviving family member of a murder victim, this type of mob mentality does sicken me. I do not understand it.  Even if they put this young man, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death, it will not bring peace to the families of those who died and it certainly won’t change the fact that the lives of those who survived are forever altered.

These men took more than four lives.  They have brought our nation to a crossroads–a test if you will…The real question is, will we as a nation continue to let these people cause enough hate and resentment between two sides of a debate hate each other, or will each side learn to accept that things are as they are for a reason and try to work together toward a solution that will not result in further dividing the country?

This story is going to lead to more political wrangling.  We all know this.  However there are two sides to the argument that are clear…On one side, some feel that law enforcement are our protectors and our heroes–and for the most part, they are.  On the other side are those people who feel that they cannot protect us all.  That side feels that they are outgunned and out manned. Not all people who wish to keep the right to own arms want to own them for the sake of posterity or pride. Some truly feel that the American people are under threat and that our government does not recognize the threat and how serious that threat is–or they choose to ignore that threat.

A few of them feel that the government is indifferent to what they feel and could become a threat themselves. As a society that does care, do we really want to continue to feed that beast of a thought train? I can tell you this, those who worship the party they vote for while attacking the others with such open hostility, including hate, regional bias and the like, will only lead to further divisions…Both sides of the political extreme in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party would like nothing better than to force their agendas on the rest of the NORMAL members of society who do not agree with them.

They are the ones that must be brought into compliance with one ideal: We are all Americans. We all bleed red and we all need to realize one thing:  hatred never accomplishes anything.  There is an old saying I used to hear–and granted it is biblical, but I feel that there is more truth in it than what Americans want to admit.  “A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.”   Whatever your political leanings are, you will not win hearts and minds by all the hate-mongering and Bush bashing you do…You won’t win them by bashing the Obamas either.

It is time for this nation to act like adults.  This is something the American people have not done in some time.  They have not learned to mind their own business.  They have not learned to stop attacking others for not worshiping the political party that they do.  It is time to learn how to not stoop to the level of either side.  A good first step in accomplishing this would be to turn off the TV and stop watching the puppets in the media.  Yes, you read that correctly.  We don’t see a lot of good journalism anymore but there are a handful of good journalists out there.

These are the ones who actually report THE NEWS without injecting how they feel things should be into the story.  There was a day when personal bias was left out of journalism and unless the people stop allowing themselves to be sucked into this game they play, they will continue to do this type of shoddy reporting to sway the hearts and minds of America by injecting inflammatory opinions into their own writing. Those things are meant to upset the population and sell papers.  When the field of journalism began to take off there was a term for that phenomenon. It was called yellow journalism and it is done by emphasizing sensationalism–especially about wars and such.  Now there is a time and place to do this. Now is not the time or the place because much of the nation is still in shock at the horrendous nature of this crime.

That being said, the pundits need to stop calling this person a “boy”, a “kid”, etc…He is 19 years old. He is a young man. He was part of a criminal act–which means he is a criminal himself. The question is, to what degree?  It will not be up to the public to decide, but that is not what the media is trying to accomplish. Some journalists already try to evoke sympathy in one direction or the other to the point that if this guy gets tried by a jury, I do not think he can get a fair trial.  It is time for the media to back off now.  The families need to finish burying their dead and the communities need to begin to heal.

It is also time to let this young man’s friends and family come to terms with the death of a loved one as well. It is also not fair to judge them by the acts of these two brothers. Some of their family members are as shocked as the rest of the nation–save for the “auntie” who is going to get 15 minutes of fame with this.

After that, it will be for a judge and/or a jury to decide this person’s fate.  Can we not wait until all is said and done to play the role of “armchair expert”?