No-Knock Warrants:Update

Meantime, a black man named Cory Maye was still sitting on death row in Mississippi, the last I heard, because he heard men trying to break into his Prentiss, Miss., home late at night in
December 2001, where he was alone with his 18-month-old daughter. Mr. Maye, who had no criminal record, got the child down onto the floor and lay down beside her to protect her. When one of the men finally broke into the bedroom, Cory Maye shot and killed him...........
In Virginia, a terror-stricken woman, a previous burglary victim, shot and killed a young police officer executing a 'no-knock' warrant as he burst into her bedroom in the middle of the night."

Astonishingly, although that officer was also the son of the local police chief, no prosecution resulted, so far as I've been able to learn. The old woman, waiting terrified behind her closed bedroom door, had repeatedly called out, "Who's in my house?" As with Chief Pennington in Atlanta, the bereaved Virginia chief said he would "review" his department's use of no-knock warrants..........The African-American suspects -- who had moved -- were sought on suspicion of identity theft, not a violent crime. There was no suspected "stash" that could be flushed down a toilet.

So why didn't police knock at that door at suppertime, allowing a clothed couple to come to the door and calmly read their warrant before inviting police in to look around and confirm that the three African-Americans that police sought no longer lived there? more

Bent Cops, No Knock and Getting Whacked

I have referred to the no knock warrant in other posts, some now defunct due to the time line, but for a good all-round background,and the ever increasing use of swat teams for domestic busts, I have a link to an excellent article from Slate.com in one of my longer compositions,
Driving Lessons, Child Abuse, And A Nation Obsessed.

It's written in my "Roundabout" style, preferring to get from A to B via the country roads as opposed to blasting down the motorway as it were. A small piece here then that includes the link. I hope you might take time to read it.

And just as there is no sin as a separate entity, the exact same must apply to Evil. Evil isn’t going to creep into your bedroom and give you a “Gotcha” as you hide your head under the covers. Hopefully it will be your partner playing silly buggers, or worst case scenarios, a real bad dude that we misguidedly call evil, or worst still the cops bursting in with a “No Knock Warrant”

The original story of a Ninety Two year old granny got herself wasted can be found here. Seems she took exception to people breaking into her home in the small hours, getting a few shots off in defence of her person and her home very quickly resulted in one dead granny as the cops blasted her to death. The whole raid by the way was based on a tip from some scumbag informer. The cops gave the usual yada yada bullshit at the time but for once it didn't go the "right" way for the dirty cops and some months down the line we appear to be seeing a little justice being done.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution 04/26/07
Two Atlanta police officers made a second appearance in court today to plead guilty to felonies in the fatal shooting of a 92-year-old woman in her home

Officers Gregg Junnier and Jason R. Smith made their second stop Wednesday afternoon to plead guilty to violating the civil rights of Kathryn Johnston by killing her during a botched drug raid at her home Nov. 21. 2006.

Before the hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Julie Carnes the two officers sat side-by-side on a bench. Junnier stared ahead while Smith read silently from a Bible opened to the book of John.

When I read shite like that it burns me, it sets me on fucking fire.

Junnier, who has retired, was charged with three counts of felony murder, violation of oath by a public officer, criminal solicitation, two counts of burglary and one each of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and making a false statement.

Yes so very Christian of him, and who knows how many innocents are banged up due to planted or bent evidence. What a goddamn hypocrite. More

You can find lots of examples of No Knocks that have gone awry here, they all seem to end up with somebody being very dead. But then don't they all when the cops and swat teams get all dressed up and nowhere to go.

Update. Atlanta Journal.

Driving Lessons, Child Abuse, And A Nation Obsessed.

Driving Lessons, Child Abuse, And A Nation Obsessed.
A story without borders. (In part)

Analogies, I have no great love of them, but for want of something better I fear I must employ one.
For those of us that no longer enjoy that sublime feeling of youth, a feeling I suspect more given to our children than the majority that read this forum, it is then I address you as a mature readership if not as parents.

And as such, being parents that is, has it not befallen us on occasion the pleasure of teaching our kids to drive?
I say pleasure for that it what it is, or should be for those among us that without delusion know themselves to qualified and adept safe drivers.
Not only a pleasure but parental duty to pass on to our offspring the benefits of the years of our safe driving experience.
We embrace this charge of tutorage for it is our lot as parents.
And for those among us that recognise our shortcomings as drivers we take the obvious course of action and employ a professional instructor.

What then would we think of the parent or parents of a child who from an early teach their children in a manner that we would consider foolish but totally irresponsible if not downright dangerous.

We wouldn’t for instance consider it wise or good parenting if said parents made a habit of running red lights with their children in the car.
It is not uncommon for drivers in Arab countries to adopt such practises,
Putting their faith in Allah that he will see them safely through the intersection irrespective of the colour of the traffic signal.
No we would not consider it good parenting to teach one’s children that faith would ensure a safe passage through the junction.
In fact as rational thinkers we would say “Sooner or later they, the children, will be involved in an accident and if they are not killed outright they will at least be badly hurt and no doubt require medical attention, oft times lifesaving medical attention.”
For has not experience taught us that the roads constitute a very dangerous environment as does life itself.
So much so that it is the more fortunate and the minority among us that travel life’s path and never have to seek medical aid of such a nature.
If you will keep this in mind I shall move on.


At this point a question arises, might I ask you to ask of yourself,
“Do I believe in Limbo?
The same Limbo that should a child die unbaptised it shall be doomed to spend eternity doing whatever one is supposed to do in Limbo.
I would like to think the answer is no, for even the Catholic Church is about to consign Limbo to it’s rightful place, the theological trashcan.

“In 1984, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and the head of the Vatican's doctrinal department, he called limbo "a theological hypothesis". "It is linked to the cause of original sin.

Now I know Catholics barely qualify as Christians in some circles, but it is well to remember that were it not for my BFF Henry V111 wanting a divorce, Catholicism would still be the "One true faith."
It would be rather nice at this juncture if they were to send the “Other Place” to same said trashcan. Can we, as rational thinkers in the twenty first century really believe that this place called Hell exists. And before we move on can we consign two other items to our theoretical trashcan? or failing consignment let us redefine them.

“Sin” and “Evil” are not stand alone entities that should be assigned their own tangible slot in the scheme of things, both are titles we, or more accurately our ancestors, misguidedly gave, to what are only concepts.

There is no such thing as Sin; sin is a concept of morality dreamt up by Bronze Age people as they scribbled away in their respective caves as they looked for new ways to cower and intimidate the lower orders.

And just as there is no sin as a separate entity, the exact same must apply to Evil.
Evil isn’t going to creep into your bedroom and give you a “Gotcha” as you hide your head under the covers.
Hopefully it will be your partner playing silly buggers, or worst case scenarios, a real bad dude that we misguidedly call evil, or worst still the cops bursting in with a “No Knock Warrant”


So let us return to hell, or more precisely the subject of hell.
There are those among us that, without hell, existing as a separate entity, would be for want of a more descriptive term, “In Shtuck” for what then would this abuser, for he is but that,
employ to frighten the living daylights out of these kids?
Perhaps he would do that which Adolf Hitler had no need as I paraphrase, “Had the Jew not existed, I would have had to invent him.”

The shorter being; Jew, hell or some other bogeyman is required to frighten whichever chosen group the abuser uses to further his own religious/political agenda.
It is a road I shall not go down in this post, but we have the perfect contemporary example of the use of the “Bogeyman”
albeit under another name.

But some few seconds into this clip we have a perfect example
an abuser going about his agenda.

“We want to leave an indelible impression that hell is a place where they absolutely don’t want to go.”

How any parent could subject their children to this is totally beyond my comprehension.
I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

The virus of faith. Dawkins. Part 3


I ask you then to watch this second clip as the good professor Dawkins shares his views with us on children and child abuse, this from the five to seven minute marker followed by an interesting conversation with Jill Mitten.

“A child is genetically pre programmed to accumulate knowledge from figures of authority.
A child brain, for very good Darwinian reasons has to be set up in such a way that it believes what it is told, for there just isn’t time for the child to experiment with warnings like “Don’t go too near the cliff’s edge, or don’t swim in the river there are crocodiles.”
Any child who applied a scientific sceptical questioning attitude to that would be dead.”

No matter what you may think of Dawkins, I think his logic is unarguable.
He then goes on:

“No wonder the Jesuit said, “Give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man.”
“The child brain will automatically believe what it is told even if what it is told is nonsense, and when the child grows up it will tend to pass on that same nonsense to it’s children, so religion goes from generation to generation.
For many people part of growing up is killing off the virus of faith with a good strong dose of rational thinking, but if an individual doesn’t succeed in shaking it off, his mind is stuck in a permanent state of infancy, and there is real danger he will infect the next generation."

The virus of faith. Part 2


Hopefully by now my direction is becoming apparent even if I have taken a circuitous route, and for those among you unfamiliar with Richard Dawkins I at least hope he has given food for thought.

This article started with an analogy of motorcars so befittingly we shall bring it to its conclusion in the same manner.

Our irresponsible parents are but a mile from home, and isn’t always the case, so close and yet so far, the cop in his cruiser in full “music and lights mode” has pulled the parents over and is castigating them for being totally irresponsible for driving around with their child in the front seat sans seat belt.


But when the cop gets a result on the check he has just run on the couple he finds that this is not an isolated incident but one of many, a pattern of incidents in fact.

Now the cop, having scraped numerous bodies up off the highway, justifiably is a tad upset and thinks these parents have no right to bring their kid up in this way, sooner or later the kid will end up dead.
And as it happened the kid did end up dead, not by the parent’s automobile, but by something equally as deadly, the parent’s “Faith.”

"Out of all of the sects in the world, we notice an uncanny coincidence: the overwhelming majority just happen to choose the one that their parents belong to. Not the sect that has the best evidence in its favour, the best miracles, the best moral code, the best cathedral, the best stained glass, the best music: when it comes to choosing from the smorgasbord of available religions, their potential virtues seem to count for nothing, compared to the matter of heredity. This is an unmistakable fact; nobody could seriously deny it. Yet people with full knowledge of the arbitrary nature of this heredity, somehow manage to go on believing in their religion, often with such fanaticism that they are prepared to murder people who follow a different one."
Richard Dawkins.

Update on “No knock search.”

Bent Cops No Knocks. Requests For Search Warrants All But Stop

Graphic !!!


It couldn't be anything to do with the Feebies investigating just how corrupt all the Atlanta narcs might have been, surely not ?

In the six months since Kathryn Johnston died in a botched police raid, Atlanta narcotics officers have not

sought a single "no-knock" search warrant, court records show. They served at least 25 no-knock warrants during a comparable six-month period a year earlier.

Magistrate Court as part of a federal grand jury investigation into misconduct by the Atlanta narcotics squad, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.

Jones said his team was also looking at warrants obtained by other of officers

We are exploring ... just how widespread that type of conduct was

and where exactly it goes beyond those beyond those two that obviously have pleaded guilty," Jones said.

Several Atlanta defense attorneys, meanwhile, hailed the dropoff in warrants as further evidence that officers' tactics prior to Johnston's death were suspect. more

Graphic !!! WTF is this shite?

Tyranny In The Heartland. Amerika's Stormtrooper Police

My focus on this article begins at the While Hilary was enjoying her rant. If you watch the video, you might ask yourselves, just what on earth were the cops trying to achieve? Other than throwing their weight about; because they could.

Then follows another article about Jose Guerena, who survived two combat tours of Iraq only to be shot to death by in his home by an invading swat team.

China: The New Bin Laden
By Paul Craig Roberts
May 11, 2011

George Orwell, the pen name by which Eric Blair is known, had the gift of prophecy, or else blind luck. In 1949 in his novel, 1984, he described the Amerika of today and, I fear, also his native Great Britain, which is no longer great and follows Washington, licking the jackboot and submitting to Washington’s hegemony over England and Europe and exhausting itself financially and morally in order to support Amerikan hegemony over the rest of the world.

In Orwell’s prophecy, Big Brother’s government rules over unquestioning people, incapable of independent thought, who are constantly spied upon. In 1949 there was no Internet, Facebook, twitter, GPS, etc. Big Brother’s spying was done through cameras and microphones in public areas, as in England today, and through television equipped with surveillance devices in homes. As everyone thought what the government intended for them to think, it was easy to identify the few who had suspicions.

Fear and war were used to keep everyone in line, but not even Orwell anticipated Homeland Security feeling up the genitals of air travelers and shopping center customers. Every day in people’s lives, there came over the TV the Two Minutes of Hate. An image of Emmanuel Goldstein, a propaganda creation of the Ministry of Truth, who is designated as Oceania’s Number One Enemy, appeared on the screen. Goldstein was the non-existent “enemy of the state” whose non-existent organization, “The Brotherhood,” was Oceania’s terrorist enemy. The Goldstein Threat justified the “Homeland Security” that violated all known Rights of Englishmen and kept Oceania’s subjects “safe.”

Since 9/11, with some diversions into Sheik Mohammed and Mohamed Atta, the two rivals to bin Laden as the “Mastermind of 9/11,” Osama bin Laden has played the 21st century roll of Emmanuel Goldstein. Now that the Obama Regime has announced the murder of the modern-day Goldstein, a new demon must be constructed before Oceania’s wars run out of justifications.

Hillary Clinton, the low-grade moron who is US Secretary of State, is busy at work making China the new enemy of Oceania. China is Amerika’s largest creditor, but this did not inhibit the idiot Hilary from, this week in front of high Chinese officials, denouncing China for “human rights violations” and for the absence of democracy.

While Hilary was enjoying her rant and displaying unspeakable Amerkan hypocrisy, Homeland Security thugs had organized local police and sheriffs in a small town that is the home of Western Illinois University and set upon peaceful students who were enjoying their annual street party. There was no rioting, no property damage, but the riot police or Homeland Security SWAT teams showed up with sound cannons, gassed the students and beat them.

Indeed, if anyone pays any attention to what is happening in Amerika today, a militarized police and Homeland Security are destroying constitutional rights of peaceful assembly, protest, and free speech.

For practical purposes, the U.S. Constitution no longer exists. The police can beat, taser, abuse, and falsely arrest American citizens and experience no adverse consequences.

The executive branch of the federal government, to whom we used to look to protect us from abuses at the state and local level, acquired the right under the Bush regime to ignore both US and international law, along with the US Constitution and the constitutional powers of Congress and the judiciary. As long as there is a “state of war,” such as the open-ended “war on terror,” the executive branch is higher than the law and is unaccountable to law. Amerika is not a democracy, but a country ruled by an executive branch Caesar.

Hillary, of course, like the rest of the U.S. Government, is scared by the recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) report that China will be the most powerful economy in five years.

Just as the military/security complex pressured President John F. Kennedy to start a war with the Soviet Union over the Cuban missile crisis while the US still had the nuclear advantage, Hillary is now moving China into the role of Emmanuel Goldstein. Hate has to be mobilized, before Washington can move the ignorant patriotic masses to war.

How can Oceania continue if the declared enemy, Osama bin Laden, is dead. Big Brother must immediately invent another “enemy of the people.”

But Hillary, being a total idiot, has chosen a country that has other than military weapons. While the Amerikans support “dissidents” in China, who are sufficiently stupid to believe that democracy exists in Amerika, the insulted Chinese government sits on $2 trillion in US dollar-denominated assets that can be dumped, thus destroying the US dollar’s exchange value and the dollar as reserve currency, the main source of US power.

Hillary, in an unprecedented act of hypocrisy, denounced China for “human rights violations.” This from a country that has violated the human rights of millions of victims in our own time in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, secret CIA prisons dotted all over the planet, in US courts of law, and in the arrests and seizure of documents of American war protestors. There is no worst violator of human rights on the planet than the US government, and the world knows it.

The hubris and arrogance of US policymakers, and the lies that they inculcate in the American public, have exposed Washington to war with the most populous country on earth, a country that has a military alliance with Russia, which has sufficient nuclear weapons to wipe out all life on earth. The scared idiots in Washington are desperate to set up China as the new Osama bin Laden, the figure of two minutes of hate every news hour, so that the World’s Only Superpower can take out the Chinese before they surpass the US as the Number One Power.

No country on earth has a less responsible government and a less accountable government than the Americans. However, Americans will defend their own oppression, and that of the world, to the bitter end. ICH

Americans Are Living In 1984 by Paul Craig Roberts

- - -

He Served the Empire Abroad; The Regime Killed Him in His Home
William Grigg
May 11 2011

Jose Guerena survived two combat tours of Iraq, only to become a casualty of the Regime’s longest war — the one waged against its domestic subjects in the name of drug prohibition. The former Marine was slaughtered by a SWAT team during a May 5 assault on his home in Arizona.

Guerena’s wife, Vanessa, heard a noise outside the couple’s home near Tucson at about 9 a.m. Jose, who had just gone to bed after pulling a 12-hour shift at the Asarco Mine, suspected — correctly, as it turned out — that his family was threatened by an armed criminal gang. Grabbing his AR-15, Guerena instructed his wife and four-year-old son to hide in the closet while he confronted the intruders. According to Mrs. Guerena, the stormtroopers from the Pima County Regional SWAT team never identified themselves as police; they simply stormed into the home and started shooting.

“I saw this guy pointing me at the window, Vanessa recalled in a television interview. “So, I got scared. And, I got like, ‘Please don’t shoot, I have a baby.’ I put my baby [down]. [And I] put bag in window. And, I yell ‘Jose! Jose! Wake up!’”

“A deputy’s bullet struck the side of the doorway, causing chips of wood to fall on his shield,” recounts the Arizona Daily Star, paraphrasing an account provided by Pima County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) functionary Michael O’Connor. “That prompted some members of the team to think the deputy had been shot.” Guerna never fired a shot; the marauders who invaded his home fired no fewer than seventy-one. As is standard procedure in such events, the invaders claimed that Guerna had fired on the officers, as he had every moral and legal right to.

Neither Jose nor his wife had a criminal history of any kind. The attack on their home was described as a narcotics enforcement operation, but there are no reports that narcotics were found at the residence – - even though the invaders reportedly “seized” (that is, stole) something that belonged to the victim.

“Tucson is notorious for home invasions and we didn’t want it to look like that,” insisted PCSO spokesman O’Connor, exhibiting the dull-witted refusal to acknowledge the obvious that typifies tax-feeders of his station. He also maintained that the death squad “went lights and sirens and we absolutely did not do a `no-knock’ warrant,” a claim refuted by the only surviving witness, Vanessa Guerena. Such details are morally inconsequential, since there was no reason — apart from the institutional vanity of the PCSO and the indecent eagerness of the armored adolescents who compose its SWAT team — to conduct a paramilitary raid to serve a routine search warrant.

“I never imagined I would lose him like that, he was badly injured but I never thought he could be killed by police after he served his country,” lamented the wife of the murdered ex-Marine, who died on his feet, a rifle in his hand, and his face to an unexpected enemy. The grim but unavoidable truth is this: We shouldn’t be at all surprised that a Regime capable of sending Americans abroad to terrorize Iraqis in their homes would employ the same state terrorism against Americans here at home. LRC

Related.

Gasbag Hillary Blasts China on "Human Rights"
By Mike Whitney
May 11, 2011

Is there anything more irritating than listening to US officials blabber about "human rights"?

I mean, really, doesn't it drive you crazy? Here's Hillary Clinton bashing China for their "deplorable" human rights record, and meanwhile Bradley Manning sits naked and freezing in a 6' by 8' cinderblock cell in some far-flung American gulag waiting to get fingernails yanked out. Can you see the hypocrisy?

And that's just for starters. What about Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and the myriad other dungeons, concentration camps and black sites the US has scattered across the planet. Seriously, the United States is the biggest human rights abuser in the world today. No one else even comes close. Clinton's in no position to be giving other people lectures. more

Blowing Shit Up It's The American Way

To what avail?

U.S. Military Desperate To Be Handed Just One Solid War It Can Knock Out Of The Park
March 28, 2012

ARLINGTON, VA—Reportedly fed up with complicated and protracted operations overseas, top Pentagon officials acknowledged this week they were desperate to be given just one straightforward, no-nonsense military engagement they could really knock out of the park.




"Given all these messy, ambiguous conflicts we've been fighting against enemies you can't even put your finger on, what we could really use right now is a plain old war against a clear-cut bad guy employing conventional tactics and weaponry," said Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "No roadside bombs or plainclothes militants hiding out among innocent civilians—just a fair fight where two sides shoot at each other and someone wins. That's it."

"If Congress or our commander in chief could pull a few strings to make that happen, I swear we could totally nail a war like that, no question," Dempsey added. "The sort of thing where you go in, blow up a number of actual tanks and jets, declare victory, plant a flag, and then exit—that's all we're asking for."

Citing the country's long history of winning wars against sovereign nations with actual standing armies, the Pentagon's top brass repeatedly assured reporters they would "completely wipe the floor" with such an opponent if given the chance, and promised they would make America "very, very proud."

Additionally, military leaders said that engaging in such a conflict "would be a huge confidence boost for [them] right now."

"We'd be really grateful if the United States became embroiled in a war requiring us to bomb munitions factories, engage in aerial dogfights, or torpedo battleships," said Marine Corps commandant Gen. James Amos, noting that when it comes to facing actual armies with actual naval and air weaponry, the U.S. is "great at that stuff." "I guarantee it would be an absolute slam dunk for us."




"Come on," the four-star general added, "we really, really need this."

Admitting they "can't even look at a map of the Middle East anymore," members of the Joint Chiefs also said they were still skittish about Southeast Asia and would prefer to "stay as far away as possible" from any situation in which the term "insurgency" might apply.

Additionally, the nation's top generals stressed it was vitally important that any new conflict have a clear standard by which to measure victory, front lines "that are actually lines," and conditions under which dropping bombs actually weakens the enemy instead of rallying more people to its cause and making it stronger.

"While we'd gladly take almost any conventional military confrontation, we'd really prefer to liberate an oppressed citizenry that would be unconditionally happy when we arrived," said Gen. James Mattis, head of U.S. Central Command. "Ideally, we'd like to avoid that whole mixture of violent loathing toward us as occupiers and utter dependence on us as peacekeepers. That's not really our strong suit."




"I should also point out that it's been a while since we last had a good old-fashioned European war," Mattis continued. "Because that sort of thing might just do the trick for us. We know the area, the culture, and all the languages real well. Give us a war with a nice, dependable Western front, and we could bang that sucker out in our sleep, no problem. Just something to think about."

Pentagon leaders also said they were open to the option of a sovereign nation attacking the United States directly, stating that nothing mobilizes a country or boosts troop morale faster than the defense of one's home soil. In addition, they noted that a war in which America is not seen as the aggressor is "exactly the type of thing we're talking about here."




"Ultimately, we just want a chance to unleash our full land, air, and sea power on actual uniformed soldiers for a change," Army chief of staff Gen. Ray Odierno said. "Believe me, if America let us do that, I've no doubt we could totally lay waste and come home victorious."

As of press time, the Navy had positioned its entire Atlantic fleet along the coast of Portugal and informed the president and Congress it was "ready to go" if given the word. The Onion

Miracles In Missouri

Miracles In Missouri
A story with borders.


No more queues at the airport, no more long flights, and no more mingling with those left wing pacifist pinko French.

If you had a visit planned to Lourdes that is.
No more changing dollars for those queer looking Euros, and given the confidence in Dubya’s Dollars, just as well I guess.

No; stop at home, because if you’re looking for miracles, they be right here on your doorstep; its all happening in Missouri.

It’s all happening if we are to believe this latest example of brain washing and child abuse.

Perhaps you may wish to view this little clip, (link dead, but it was another end of the world scenario, because Dover PA school board rejected ID) hosted by the bastion of reason and light, this fine upstanding example of the Christian right, going about his daily business of conning dollars from little old ladies and other misguided souls, the very same fellow that not only talks to God, but actually has a two way conversation.



Yes it is he, Pastor Pat Robertson, who might I add seems to have a selective memory of the scriptures, never more so than when recalling, eyes of needles, camels, rich men and the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 19:24)
But I digress, for this article is not about Robertson, no indeed, it is about brainwashing masquerading as miracles.

Let us examine a few things from the transcript.

Pastor Carol Koch's church kids played a prominent role in the documentary, and she points out they weren't worshipping Bush, but praying for him, as they would for any American president.
"It's all about honoring that Scripture that tells them to pray for those who are in authority," said Pastor Koch, who believes we should be equipping this generation to pray.

Not even a hint of subtlety in that one pastor; “pray for those in authority”

Pray for those in authority indeed, never question “Authority.” Never question that “Authority” might come in a guise of a President that boasts an IQ of a lentil, just do as he wishes.
Just pick up your musket, go over the top without question and come home in a flag draped box.

Oh and whilst you’re at it, don’t question what’s written in this book, after all there is no greater authority than the Big Fellow.

And the founder of Jesus Camp, Becky Fischer, says she was teaching the
kids to do spiritual warfare against Satan and his demons, not against flesh and blood enemies.

Ah yes, the bogey man again.

But what both women think believers will see through the cloud of controversy is that God wants to, and is, moving in a radical new way among children -- that He's expecting churches to stop treating kids like second-class Christians -- that they can hear from God and do great deeds for Him just like older believers.

Sorry Pat, it seems you don’t have the monopoly on a direct line.

Lenny said, "We now have children who are being moved by God in such a way in healing the sick, and hearing His voice and praying for their nations and praying for their cities."

Yes of course, miracles in Missouri.

By now, the children have seen enough answered prayers, miracles, and healings to already have a steady faith that God is listening to them and working through them.

Now we are getting into really dangerous territory.

"I've seen people who've been scrunched over and then they've been prayed for, and they just stand up and they're like, 'Hey, I can stand straight!'" said Trevor Burge.
"They had a tumor. We prayed for them. They went home and went to the doctor, and the tumor was totally gone," said Samuel Jackson Hood.
Donna Edwards is the choir teacher of the IHOP kids, but post-polio syndrome forced her to walk on crutches for several years until the kids prayed over her for 45 minutes one night.
Edwards said, "I was able to totally lay down my crutches."
"Thirty kids were marching around her, praying," Caleb Thill said. "We didn't want Donna to suffer," added Jerrod Demers.

Was that before she fell over? sorry wrong show, that was Benny Hinn I think. Still, don't knock a miracle when you see one.

Dalton Burge of Christ Triumphant Church went up to pray for two visitors suffering with abscessed teeth, who thought it was kind of cute, but "then they started feeling their mouths, and both of them had gotten healed," Koch said.

CBN News visited families involved in an extremely active children's program at New Life Centre just outside St. Louis, and they've seen wonders, too. A few weeks ago, a kitchen accident seriously burned Shelley Hunt's finger and caused painful blistering. Her kids prayed for her.
"Instantly, the redness went away, the pain went away, and it was just like the skin had never, ever been burned - in front of my kids' eyes," she said.

Eric Hunt said, "I grew up in a Pentecostal home and always knew that God was real and that God did great things, but now I'm seeing them in my own family." Fischer says children are yearning for this kind of active relationship with the Lord. She said, "They're looking for extreme encounters with God."

Koch believes if just 10 churches in every state activate programs like these that get children so close to the Lord; it'll set off a major renewal across the land.
"In 10 years or less, we will have a generation of children which will be the key that's going to change our nation," Koch said.

The last time I heard an agenda like that it involved blue-eyed blond haired kids singing..... might as well go for it seeing as I'm updating.

If you watch the the first, you must watch the second. The other are optional, but they do depict what happens to people when they stop thinking for themselves and choose to worship false gods. That's all of them by the way, supernatural or terrestrial.

But Fischer warns without this turn to a radical walk with Jesus, the future could well be lost.

Of course, the thousand year Reich.

"Seventy percent of the kids who are raised in Christian churches vacate the church when they become teenagers and young adults, and they never set foot in church again." Fischer explained.

Why am I not surprised?

~

I don’t think there is need for me to comment further, perhaps other than to echo Keith Olbermann. Good night and good luck.

On the subject of totalitarianism: Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith, is a novel set in USSR. Starting out with, but only covering briefly, the privations of the peasant farmers during the "Great Collective Experiment" the setting moves to the period between the Great Patriotic War and the time of Stalin's death in 1953.

For a début novel, Smith demonstrates remarkable ability in plunging the reader into the hopeless misery and the abject terror that pervaded Soviet society under Stalin. A society where the slightest little thing, a wrong look, a wrong word, could end up in a one way trip to the Lubyanka. Guilt by association always resulted in the Gulag or death; one family member guilty, all guilty. I recommend it highly, and will report in due course on Smith's sequel, The Secret Speech, which I have just started reading. Guardian review

Fred Reed: Republicans The American People and Other Tales From The Asylum

Catch up on Fred Reed, four selected essays.

Presidential Timber
Kindling. Sawdust. Charcoal.
November 15, 2011

All indicators point downward, I tell you. On the lobotomy box the other night I stumbled on what seemed to be sock puppets standing behind rostrums and hypnotically intoning “The American People...the American People...the American People.”

Puzzled, I speculated that it might be a troupe of performing autistics, but soon understood that it it was a debate among Republican candidates for the presidency. Why use people, I wondered? We could do it as well in software. Computer graphics, small recorded vocabulary, narcotic rhythm. Easy.

Someone named Romney was speaking. I checked the Wicked Pedia to see what manner of wight he might be. No surprises. Pampered rich kid, apparently not too bright, mediocre student in fancy private schools. A Mormon. Only one wife, though. A former missionary in France. It might have been worse. We could have bombed St. Denis.

I thought of all the Mormon missionaries I had seen in various countries, black-suited in Taiwan in August, peddling around like bicycle-borne undertakers, earnest, solemn, living in some eerie head-bubble inaccessible to outsiders. Oh help.

I'm going to become an ant, I decided. It would be less embarrassing. I don't know how to go about it, but there must be a way. I'll live in one of those high-rise mud nests in the Australian desert, except I think those are termites. How can they be termites with no wood to eat? Maybe they have it shipped in.

Among the American-Peoplers was Rick Perry, a Son of Texas in the mold of Bush II, dumb as turnips, inarticulate, a wing-nut Christian. I guess he's waitin' for thet ol' Rapture-suction to whoosh him up to drink Lone Star with Chay-suss. Poor Chaysuss. Rick wants to invade Mexico militarily, but only with the permission of the Mexican government. Thoughtful of him to ask.

Does he speak Spanish? No. English? Almost. Any experience outside the US? No. Doesn't need it. He has a direct line to God, who presumably speaks to him slowly, in words without too many syllables.

“The American People. The American People. We have to get America back on track. The Ordinary American. We have to get back to American Values. The American Dream.”

What the hell is the American Dream, I wondered? Seven credit cards maxed-out, living paycheck to paycheck, upside down on the mortgage in a boring house you don't really like, a job you hate but the retirement plan gotcha, your little boy buzzing on force-fed Ritalin, wife and daughter gobbling Prozac and everyone wondering, “Is this all there is?”

Actually, yes. Well, maybe a week at Disneyland with that stupid mouse.

Then Michele Bachmann, clueless evangelical daffodil. Complete ditz-rabbit. May God save us from Christianity. Brighter than Perry, but so is anything not actually inanimate. Not visibly intelligent enough to disqualify her for election, but maybe she is dissimulating. No experience in the world that I can see.

“America was not created to be a nation of followers,,” Romney told his followers. The key to election seems to be to tell Americans how wonderful they are, stroke them like cats, avoid puzzling them, and keep saying “The American Dream.” Tell them that we're a country of rugged individualists, just like Davy Crockett and Dan'l Boone. Probably we should wear coon-skin hats.

Somebody asked Romney, will he attack Iran if it doesn't obey Washington? “Absolutely,” responded this apostle of the Church of Latter Day Pattons. Japan's oil comes through the Straits of Hormuz, which his hearers believe to be a brand of beef stew. No oil, no Japan. No matter. “The American People....”

I'm going to slit my throat. Do ants have throats? A country of 315 million, nuclear-armed, able to wreck other countries it has never heard of in minutes, and the candidates sound as if they were addressing a warehouse of stuffed animals. This is the best we can do?

Yes.

The American People. The American Dream. We must turn this country around. Ok, then the East Coast would front on the Pacific. Why would that be better? It's probably some sort of real-estate scam.

Newt Gingrich. At least he's been to school, though he's smart enough not to emphasize it. The American People. The traditional values that made this country grate. Great. America is not a desperately sick over-policed welfare state collapsing into the Third World. No. Everything is as it always was. All we need is the Newt World Order and we will leap tall buildings at a single bound.

He too wants to attack Iran. The man has the military grasp of Tinker Belle. Grrr, bow-wow, woof.

Maybe instead of an ant, I'll become an aardvark. Though I'm not sure what one is. I need a change of phylum. What do cephalopods eat?

At least we no longer have that low-wattage high-school cheerleader turned moose-huntress. Stuffed animals fore and aft, I tell you. Contemplating Obama, I swore I'd never vote for another black president. After Bush II, I swore I'd nver vote for another white one. My options were narrowing. Now I'm thinking Obama or Herman Cain. Slick Empty in the great White Yurt on Pennsylvania Avenue is still corrupt and invertebrate, but now only starts small wars, as in Uganda. Cain makes pizzas and seems to be a human being. It's a novel concept but these are trying times. Besides they say he did sexually inappropriate stuff to some gals who want to be on talk-shows and get book contracts. Good for him. I'm going to start a group called Men Mad at Sanctimonious Priss Spigots. Cain can be a Founding Fondler.

Except for Cain (I think) and Ron Paul, the candidates all want to attack Iran. Rick Santorum too. I guess it's a manhood issue. Maybe we could buy them codpieces instead. Michele could get hers from Victoria's Secret, with sequins and flowers. Most of this crew were of military age during Viet Nam. How many served? Ah. Umm. Uh. Urg. A pack of martial dwarves without the tiniest freaking idea why the Pentagon can't beat Iran.

I couldn't take it. Before Ron Paul began to speak I went out for a gallon of Padre Kino red and an IV drip. I thought it might hold me over until I figured out how to become an aardvark.

After all, Ron Paul is tiresomely predictable. He would say hateful anti-American things. You know, we should get out of damn-fool wars, pick the military leech off the back of the republic, dismantle an empire that bankrupts the US, and end our perpetual state of martial priapism against Iran. Completely unelectable. A commie, I figure.

- - -

Oo-rah
War and the Free Will of Pool Balls
October 29, 2011

I read frequently among the lesserly neuronal of the supposed honor of soldiers, of the military virtues of courage, loyalty, and uprightness--that in an age of moral decomposition only the military adhere to principles, and that our troops in places like Afghanistan nobly make sacrifices to preserve our freedoms and democracy. Is not all of this nonsnese?

Honor? A soldier is just a nationally-certified hit-man, perfectly amoral. When he joins the military he agrees to kill anyone he is told to kill, regardless of whether he has heard of the country in which he will kill them or whether the residents pose any threat to him or his. How is this honorable? It is cause for lifelong shame.

It is curious that so many soldiers think that they are Christians. Christianity is incompatible with military service, if any Christianity is meant that Christ would have regarded with other than repugnance.

The explanation of course lies in the soldier's moral compartmentation. Within his own tribe or pack, these usually being denominated “countries,” he is the soul of moral propriety—doesn't knock over convenience stores, kick his dog, or beat his children; speaks courteously, observes personal hygiene, and works tirelessly for the public good in the event of natural disasters. A steely gaze with little behind it and a firm handshake amplify the appearance of probity.

In conflict with foreigners, he will burn, bomb, rape and torture indiscriminately. His is the behavior of feral dogs, which humans closely resemble.

Sacrifice? GIs do not make sacrifices. They are sacrificed, sacrificed for big egos, big contracts, for the shareholders of military industries, for pasty patriots in salons who never wore boots. They fight not for love of country but to stay alive, and from fear of the pusnishments meted out to deserters. If you doubt this, tell the men in Afghanistan that they may come home on the next plane without penalty, and see how many stay. Troops are as manipulated as roosters in a cock fight, forced to choose between combat and the pot. more

- - -

A Conversation with Hant
A Theory of Economics from the Grass Roots
October 14, 2011

Saturday morning I walked down the holler, along the old rail line, with a fresh jug of Beam to see what Hant was up to. I wanted to ask him about dodge ball and jumping jacks and violence and all. Hant knows everything. Well, nearly about.

Summer was just starting to get up a good head of steam and the sun was pouring down the holler like it had something in mind and bugs was shrieking and buzzing the way they do, trying to get laid. If I was a bug, it's what I'd do. Considering what bugs looks like, I don't see how they ever do it. Anyways the mountains was green and peaceful like. The tracks was mostly weeds since the coal mines went bust. Pretty much most of West Virginia is that way.

Hant works a moonshine still that's hid off in the woods. He sells to yuppies out of Washington, the Yankee Capital, that wants a Authentic Mountain Experience. Most of them survive it. I won't drink that panther sweat he makes. It ain't much worse than battery acid and don't really kill more than a few yups every year, but I alway carry me some Beam.

Hant was standing over by his pile of authentic mountain stone jugs he gets bulk lot from Taiwan and pouring a bottle into the mash. He's getting on in years now and kinda stiff, and when he sits down it looks like a buck knife folding. He's got a jaw like someone in the family went into the bushes with a front-end loader, and this flat slouch hat that made you think he found it behind a cow.

“What you putting in that mash this time?” I said.

He's always putting some new devilment into that bust-head he makes. It's to give the yups a little extra kick. He tried stove polish and bug spray and I don't know what all. LSD d he trick but the yups ran into so many electric poles that we didn't have light for a week.

“This here's Joe's Cuervo. It's Tea-kwiller that them Meskins drink. I reckon Joe is who makes it. Tastes like floor-wax remover. It's most likely why Meskins don't have teeth. ”

Hant don't actually exist. He's a Literary Apparition. You find them inWest Virginia, mostly around damp spots in the woods. more

- - -

A Fatal Self-Absorption
The Tea Party and American Exceptionalism
October 3, 2011

If I were to speechify to a conclave of Tea Partyers, “America is the free-est...the most democratic...the best educated and most dynamic country the world has ever known, an example to all mankind,” the assembled would hoot and hooroar and applaud in dizzy exaltation. Here is the soul of the American approach to existence, bottomless self-admiration devoid of knowledge or curiosity, wrapped like a psychic burrito in the patriotism of overwrought middle-schoolers. And there are many, many of them.

We face rule by pajama party. Saints preserve us, someone with the foregoing understanding may become the president of the (for a few moments more) most powerful, erratic, and ignorant country on the planet. Among presidential possibilities we now have Rick Perry, Michele Bachman, Sarah Palin and, in the Great Double-Wide on Pennsylvania Avenue, Precedent Obama—political epiphytes all, fantasists, tent-revival Christians, provincial governors, inward-looking certitudinous naifs. The difference between Americans and Mohammed Ali is that when he said, “I am the greatest!” he was.

Suppose, though, that realism intruded its ugly head. Suppose that to the Tea People I spoke as follows. “Yes, you are right. We are most astounding democratic. I cannot doubt it. Just to satisfy my thirst for understanding, can you give me three ways in which America is more democratic than, say, Japan, Germany, or Australia? More free than France, Switzerland, or Uruguay, wherever that is?”

But I am cross, and a curmudgeon.

Are Americans the “best educated”? Or do they just think that they are? I submit, and could back it up with countless surveys of “college graduates,” that the US is not nearly as schooled as it thinks it is, and doesn't come close to Japan. more

Taking a Gamble: Championing The McCanns as Suspects

Championing The McCanns as Suspects. Then as now.

 I never cease to be appalled by some of the things people say. said Jim Gamble of a woman who exercised her right to hold an opinion that differed from that of the McCann party line, and its champions must be said,  to wit, one James "Jim" Gamble.

Leaving the irony of such a statement aside, it just falls to me to say, I know the feeling well. After seven years of listening to the pathetic utterings of the Doctors McCann, not only do I know the feeling well, I think I have become, as no doubt many others have, an expert in the appalling.

But it is not the Doctors McCann that concerns us here today, no, it is the aforementioned Champions, who, without the tiniest piece of irrefutable evidence to bolster their claim, and often acting outside their remit, champion the parents claim, that Madeleine McCann was in fact abducted from the now infamous apartment 5A, Praia da Luz, Portugal.

And should any of these champions, so called experts, or detective chief inspectors, produce that tiny piece of again, irrefutable evidence, that supports the McCann's claim of stranger abduction, not only will I eat my hat, close all my blogs, and apologise profusely, but will wear sackcloth and ashes for the remainder of my years on this planet.

So that said, what lies below, is nothing more than a copy and paste job. Heaven knows, I have written more than enough about our featured champion in the past, time then for someone else to say a few words, and who better, and what better, than the product of the fine analytical mind of the discerning, Dr Martin Roberts.

Below Doctor Roberts' piece, you will find a transcript of the offending interview with Jim Gamble, and here I give heartfelt thanks to Nigel Moore of the McCann Files for transcribing this (all in all) lengthy radio show. And my thanks are heartfelt, having undertaken the same tiresome task myself on occasionions past. 

I have however omitted the transcript of "Sarah" the target of Jim Gamble's ire. The content of which, is for the purpose of this article, quite academic. But needless to say, the complete transcript is available below at the relative link.

That just leaves me to say, having read Jim Gamble's tirade, and it can't be described as anything but, I cannot help but come away with the impression of someone in a bit of a panic. Of someone who has nailed his colours to the wrong mast. Nailed his colours to the mast of a vessel so full of holes, that it is imminent danger of foundering. And anyone who has ever been in that (real life) situation, knows only too well, how easy it to sound, if not act, a little panicky.

But no matter what you may think he sounds like, he doesn't sound like an impartial (previous) officer of the law with many years of policing under his belt. Of which by the by, and taken from the recent turgid puff piece in the Belfast Telegraph, you will find mention at the bottom of the page.  

TAKING A GAMBLE
By Dr Martin Roberts
25 May 2014

Nowadays, for the McCanns and their public champions, appearances before the camera or on radio are fraught with more risks than ever before. Former head of CEOP, Jim Gamble, illustrates the point only too clearly. Interviewed recently for the Belfast Telegraph (19 May) he concludes with:

"I think Gerry and Kate McCann will get closure in my lifetime. My heart goes out to them. I never cease to be appalled by some of the things people say.

"A woman on the radio earlier was more fixated that Kate and Gerry left the kids and went for a meal.

"You know what? Lots of people make mistakes. Few people pay this price. Sometimes people should just think before they speak.

It must surely be a comfort to know that 'closure' for the McCanns will come within a lifetime. Can we afford to sustain Operation Grange for quite that long? But you're right Jim. People really should think before they speak. The world would be a happier place if we all did so, including your good self if I may make so bold.

That 'woman on the radio earlier' was followed by none other than our Jim, interviewed on the same programme no less (The JVS Show phone-in on BBC Three Counties Radio, 15 May). But before we take a closer look at the thoughts of career copper 'Cap'n Jim', let's just adjust the starting blocks with another of his explanations to the Belfast Telegraph:

Q. "You invested a lot in CEOP, you built it up but then you walk away in 2010. Do you regret it?

A. "I came to the point it was a matter of principle. For me it was the right thing. My fear was that it would be subsumed into a larger organisation. The Home Secretary said it would retain its identity, its profile and they would build on the success it had. Well, arrests have dropped in the last three years, the sign outside CEOP no longer says CEOP. It says National Crime Agency. Its profile has dropped. In NCA the C stands for crime. In CEOP the C always stood for children".

Never mind the beguiling Home Secretary and Gamble's paternal concern for children, the answer to the question is writ large in sentences 1 – 3. 'Subsumed into a larger organization' would mean, inevitably, that he would no longer be 'top banana', and since 'wherever egos Jim goes', Jim went.

The sheer arrogance of Jim Gamble is reflected in his conspicuous lack of professionalism toward fellow police officers and sardonic ungraciousness toward others. He and Gerry McCann no doubt got on very well together. After listening to what 'that woman on the radio' said earlier, Gamble expresses his considered opinion with respect to the proposed excavation of Praia da Luz requested by the Metropolitan Police:

"'Why now?' that's a question perhaps for the Portuguese police. These issues are being addressed because they weren't done at the time. The... the British authorities and the Metropolitan Police, who have brought a real professional focus to bear on this..."

Implying, of course, that the Portuguese police brought something other than 'a real professional focus' to bear. Gamble's insinuation is not only tactless, it is unwarranted, disrespectful and quite disgraceful. But no more so than his comment upon 'that woman's' (Sarah's) earlier point of view:

"I think it's misplaced and she's given us a lot of her opinions, so let me just give you my opinion of her call.

"I think it's spiteful, I think it's small-minded, I think she's a condescending individual that needs to reflect on the hurt that parents feel - not the issues in the margins". He later adds:

"So, I think she needs... she really needs to look in the mirror, and if I was her this morning, after listening to my interview be broadcast, I wouldn't want to look in the mirror, and, quite frankly, I wouldn't want to meet ordinary mums and dads in the street after what she just said, whether it's in Praia da Luz or where she lives".

Well, Jim, we are each of us entitled to hold an opinion about things, but is a concentrated character-assassination really worthy of a former Police supremo with residual ambitions? I think not. The true worth of Jim Gamble's advocacy of the McCanns soon emerges, as he continues:

"but the fact that a child was, you know, has... was... did go missing... is still missing, and that those parents are tortured..."

Let's get one thing out of the way shall we? The parents have been 'tortured', as Gamble puts it, for seven years. Their daughter Madeleine is dead for eternity.

Now, what was it he twice had to duck out of saying? 'has been abducted', 'was abducted' perhaps? What makes him so uncertain? Let's allow 'big Jim' to tell us himself:

"These are the parents of a child who is suspected to have been abducted".

(The boot's on back-to-front here isn't it? 'She was the child of parents who were suspected of hiding her body').

"The initial inquiry had led, you know, to... to no... no one being arrested, no one being held to account for this".

(Standing a bit too near the edge again here are we? The initial inquiry had led, you know, to... to the McCanns. That’s in the evidence the 'professionals' engaged in Operation Grange will have reviewed)

"I mean, this is about searching for a child who may well have been abducted and who may well have suffered, you know, harm including murder. And I really don't like to speculate about what may, or may not have happened, but had the investigation covered all these bases in the beginning we wouldn't be here now".

Ah Jim... Jim... No sooner do you attempt to feed the world bullshit than you give yourself the impossible task of polishing a turd.

"I mean, this is about searching for a child who may well have been abducted"

The child may have been abducted. On the other hand she may not. Small wonder then that Gamble declines to 'speculate about what may or may not have happened'.

You see, as Jim Gamble so eloquently explains, this is all about a child who may have been abducted OR...

Our Jim, for glaringly obvious reasons, refrains from articulating the alternative. The same alternative that was expressly 'shut out' from the (published) remit for Operation Grange. But since he has introduced the element of doubt, there can be nothing illegitimate about our clarifying the situation on his behalf.

Madeleine McCann may have been abducted, or something else must have happened to cause her disappearance. Now what could that be? There's no way she could have left the family's apartment on her own (we've been told that often enough) and yet she has not been seen in her parents' company, or anyone else's for that matter, for seven years. Someone must have taken her from 5A. But that's abduction isn't it? And she may not have been abducted (the admissible alternative to Jim Gamble's 'may well have been').

Notwithstanding his understandable reluctance to speculate, Jim Gamble nevertheless gives us, in the same breath:

"...but had the investigation covered all these bases in the beginning we wouldn't be here now".

All what bases? The ones pertaining to the search for a child who 'may have been abducted'. Which makes the question of abduction itself a base to be covered, then as now.

So you're thinking of pruning a tree in your garden which happens to overhang the fence with your neighbour (who is entitled to engage in deforestation on his own account), and considering which side of the fence to work on yourself. No contest. Especially when you weigh up the number of branches involved. No one makes unnecessary work for themselves do they? No. So the first base either the Portuguese or the Met Police should have covered, Jim, is whether Madeleine McCann was abducted or not – not who might have abducted her in the event that she 'may have been'.

Well the seemingly less professional Portuguese acted sensibly. The Met, on the other hand, are lumbered with pruning all those extra branches. Which means, Jim, that you, the McCanns, and the rest of us, will probably have to wait a lifetime after all for the 'closure' to which you refer, unless or until someone in authority decides to lift the taboo on the blindingly obvious, and permit examination of the forbidden alternative, the existence of which you yourself have admitted.

Care to take a gamble on how long that might take, Jim? It would make a change from taking the Michael for the past seven years. http://www.mccannfiles.com/id232.html

~

The JVS Show phone-in on the Madeleine McCann case

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Jonathan Vernon-Smith:  Jim Gamble is a former policeman and was head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. He was involved in the search for Madeleine from 2007 to 2011. Good morning to you, Jim.

Jim Gamble: Good morning.

Jonathan Vernon-Smith: Morning. So, listening to what Sarah says, she says that, you know, many years have now passed since this very unfortunate incident took place - it's time to move on. Can you understand her sense of frustration with this or do you think it's misplaced?

Jim Gamble: I think it's misplaced and she's given us a lot of her opinions, so let me just give you my opinion of her call.

I think it's spiteful, I think it's small-minded, I think she's a condescending individual that needs to reflect on the hurt that parents feel - not the issues in the margins, but the fact that a child was, you know, has... was... did go missing... is still missing, and that those parents are tortured. This is an unusual case - they're not, you know, twelve to the dozen. This is a case that has perhaps only one other child been missing in these circumstances, over this period of time, in a similar way, and that's Ben Needham.

So, I think she needs... she really needs to look in the mirror, and if I was her this morning, after listening to my interview be broadcast, I wouldn't want to look in the mirror, and, quite frankly, I wouldn't want to meet ordinary mums and dads in the street after what she just said, whether it's in Praia da Luz or where she lives.

Jonathan Vernon-Smith: [interrupting] Well, you know Jim...

Jim Gamble: Her interview was disgusting.

Jonathan Vernon-Smith: You know, Jim, she is getting some support as well. There are people contacting the programme already saying 'this... this woman from Hertfordshire has vocalised what I've been thinking all these years'.

Jim Gamble: Well, do you know what, and maybe there is a... a number of people out there that think that, but they're not the people that I've spoken to over many, many years in this investigation. There are a small group, for example, who go online on a 'hashtag' and they talk about the McCann case in the most vociferous and spiteful way. In fact, you know, if we were able to identify who those individuals were, their comments as such, that you'd prosecute them for harassment. These are the parents of a child who is suspected to have been abducted - we don't know what has happened to her - and to... to pour your bile out against them in the way that she has, in that condescending and aloof manner, with no real experience of... of investigations, or investigative strategies, or why the police do what they do, when they do. It's just despicable.

Jonathan Vernon-Smith: Well, let's just run through some of the points she makes and you can obviously respond to them.

So, first of all, she says that Kate and Gerry McCann, they lost their daughter because ultimately they went out for dinner and they left their daughter, and their other two children, in a hotel room, on their own. And they could have taken their children to the restaurant with them but they didn't - they left them in a room, on their own. They did something that they possibly wouldn't have even considered to doing back home in the UK and yet they went to a foreign country and they did just that. And yet, there is a sense that everybody should feel sorry for them. That was the first point that she made.

Jim Gamble: Well, if you want to concentrate on that error of judgement, at that time, and you think that is the key issue, well... well knock yourself out.

But here's the thing, how many genuine parents out there listened to that interview and thinking: 'There but for the grace of God go I'. I, you know... those parents that sat in the lobby of a hotel, with the baby-listening on - you don't know what's going on there. Those parents that sit at home at night, and have a few drinks while their children are in bed, and have maybe one drink too many.

Lots of parents lose their children momentarily, for lots of reasons. Some people make momentary errors of judgement, you know. Would the McCanns do that again? Of course, they wouldn't. But the bottom line is, if that's where you want to focus your concern [stressed in a mocking away], you know, all these years after this child's gone missing, then... then to be honest, that says more about you. This should be about finding out what happened to Madeleine and seeking an end to this.

Jonathan Vernon-Smith: And actually that is very relevant to the latter point that Sarah made in her conversation with me. She makes the point that this investigation has now been going on for seven years, errm... and yet, seven years later, it has been decided at the beginning of the holiday season, in a holiday resort, in a country that is still suffering terribly from an economic recession, it has been decided to go and dig up some fairly major parts of that resort, which will have a... a very detrimental effect on the resort itself and on the businesses there. Do you understand that and she is woman who feels passionately about that particular holiday resort, having been going there for thirty years.

Jim Gamble: Well, I'm sure she doesn't feel as passionately about the resort as parents do for their children.

If you want to look at: 'Why now?' that's a question perhaps for the Portuguese police. These issues are being addressed because they weren't done at the time. The... the British authorities and the Metropolitan Police, who have brought a real professional focus to bare on this; that... that's not for them. They have... as soon as they've been able to aggregate all of the evidence, look at the issues and identify areas where there should have been perhaps a... a focus at the time. They can't now say: 'Well, we'll tell you what we'll do. We'll tie that in with people's travel arrangements; we'll tie that in with holidays'. I mean, this is about searching for a child who may well have been abducted and who may well have suffered, you know, harm including murder. And I really don't like to speculate about what may, or may not have happened, but had the investigation covered all these bases in the beginning we wouldn't be here now.

And the fact of the matter is, it is an unusual case because it crosses territorial boundaries and therefore there are tensions and sensitivities which means it takes quite a long time to negotiate and it's taken a long time to negotiate to get to the position where you have this positive relationship between the Metropolitan Police and the Portuguese police. Nothing would be happening there without the agreement of the Portuguese, so they obviously recognise the investigative value of this search. I believe it should have been done at the time - for whatever reason, it wasn't.

And if a child had gone missing, you know, in Bournemouth or Brighton, or a UK town in the same circumstances, and... and a case review had been carried out years later and areas had been identified that could have been more thoroughly explored, I have no doubt that in the UK we would be doing that and that...

Jonathan Vernon-Smith: [interrupting] So, we would allow...

Jim Gamble: ...not many people in Brighton and Bournemouth would be complaining.

Jonathan Vernon-Smith: [interrupting] So, we would allow foreign police to... to come over from another country and to start, for example, digging up parts of Brighton, during the summer season?

Jim Gamble: We would partner with... if you're saying a Portuguese family had come over, their child had been, you know, abducted, or a suspected abduction of that child in that area; they'd gone missing. The initial inquiry had led, you know, to... to no... no one being arrested, no one being held to account for this. The fact is that there's still a suspect at large and... and the police from Portugal came and said: 'Look, we've looked at this, we have these clues'. Of course local police would partner with them. It's not about another police force going into someone else's territory. The Portuguese police are leading this, partnered by the Metropolitan Police. If it was in the UK, local UK police would lead, partnered by the Portuguese.

This... that interview was all about the pettiness involved in this. It was all about, you know... to be quite honest, nonsense. I... I am quite disturbed having listened to that, that anyone would go on the air and.. and say some of the things that lady said.

Jonathan Vernon-Smith: Okay.

Jim Gamble: Even more disturbed that you would broadcast it.

Jonathan Vernon-Smith: Okay, well Jim, thank you very much indeed for having your say. That's Jim Gamble who's a former policeman and was head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. He was involved in the search for Madeleine from 2007 to 2011.  http://www.mccannfiles.com/id232.html

~

Jim Gamble: 'I was under threat but was more fearful for my family' Belfast Telegraph

Chris Kilpatrick talks to the former head of Special Branch in Belfast who applied to be PSNI chief constable and was chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

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Q. You served with the police for around 30 years, you were a highly-commended officer and you applied for the job of Chief Constable. Why did you not get it? Were you perceived as being outspoken or perhaps because of your security and intelligence background?

A. I think I was a round peg in a round hole at CEOP. The only job that could have attracted me away from that was Chief Constable of the PSNI. At the time I could not resist applying for it. Many of my friends said I was wasting my time because of my background with Special Branch, that would perhaps would be an impediment. Being shortlisted was an honour. Why didn't I get it? Maybe I wasn't good enough on the day. What I do believe with the gift of hindsight was that I wasn't the right person for the job given where we are now. Had I been chief constable people would have been more concerned during these fragile moments because of the political issues, the specific issues we see at the minute. My background as a Special Branch officer would have been unhelpful and perhaps unhealthy for the service. I've no complaints about that. Belfast Telegraph

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Our Reliance on The Micro-Chip A Doomsday Scenario

As a blog writer, a fellow faces many decisions, none of them life threatening or earth shattering, some might say not even important, and they would probably be correct. Nevertheless, two decisions crop up almost daily, and those decisions often involve, how serious or how lighthearted be the content of what is offered up to you the reader.

Too frivolous the content; what would be the point in bothering at all? And on the other side of the coin, whereas nobody wants to read about a cat not stuck up a tree, I'm sure likewise, they don't want to visit a site where the blogger is only a merchant of doom, and constantly come away with an upside down smile.

Having said all that, what I'm going to offer you today is nothing more than a very glum post about a doomsday scenario. But it is an extremely interesting doomsday scenario nonetheless, nobody can argue with that evaluation, and all involving solar flares and our near total reliance on the micro chip.

Drive on!

More gifs @ Wikipedia Coronal Mass Ejection

Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe
by Michael Brooks
March 24 2009

It is midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colorful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.

A year later and millions of Americans are dead and the nation's infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation. Europe, Scandinavia, China and Japan are also struggling to recover from the same fateful event - a violent storm, 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun.

It sounds ridiculous. Surely the sun couldn't create so profound a disaster on Earth. Yet an extraordinary report funded by NASA and issued by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in January this year claims it could do just that.

Over the last few decades, western civilizations have busily sown the seeds of their own destruction. Our modern way of life, with its reliance on technology, has unwittingly exposed us to an extraordinary danger: plasma balls spewed from the surface of the sun could wipe out our power grids, with catastrophic consequences.

The projections of just how catastrophic make chilling reading. "We're moving closer and closer to the edge of a possible disaster," says Daniel Baker, a space weather expert based at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and chair of the NAS committee responsible for the report.

It is hard to conceive of the sun wiping out a large amount of our hard-earned progress. Nevertheless, it is possible. The surface of the sun is a roiling mass of plasma - charged high-energy particles - some of which escape the surface and travel through space as the solar wind. From time to time, that wind carries a billion-tonne glob of plasma, a fireball known as a coronal mass ejection. If one should hit the Earth's magnetic shield, the result could be truly devastating.

The incursion of the plasma into our atmosphere causes rapid changes in the configuration of Earth's magnetic field which, in turn, induce currents in the long wires of the power grids. The grids were not built to handle this sort of direct current electricity. The greatest danger is at the step-up and step-down transformers used to convert power from its transport voltage to domestically useful voltage. The increased DC current creates strong magnetic fields that saturate a transformer's magnetic core. The result is runaway current in the transformer's copper wiring, which rapidly heats up and melts. This is exactly what happened in the Canadian province of Quebec in March 1989, and six million people spent 9 hours without electricity. But things could get much, much worse than that.

Worse than Katrina

The most serious space weather event in history happened in 1859. It is known as the Carrington event, after the British amateur astronomer Richard Carrington, who was the first to note its cause: "two patches of intensely bright and white light" emanating from a large group of sunspots. The Carrington event comprised eight days of severe space weather.

There were eyewitness accounts of stunning auroras, even at equatorial latitudes. The world's telegraph networks experienced severe disruptions, and Victorian magnetometers were driven off the scale.

Though a solar outburst could conceivably be more powerful, "we haven't found an example of anything worse than a Carrington event", says James Green, head of NASA's planetary division and an expert on the events of 1859. "From a scientific perspective, that would be the one that we'd want to survive." However, the prognosis from the NAS analysis is that, thanks to our technological prowess, many of us may not.

There are two problems to face. The first is the modern electricity grid, which is designed to operate at ever higher voltages over ever larger areas. Though this provides a more efficient way to run the electricity networks, minimizing power losses and wastage through overproduction, it has made them much more vulnerable to space weather. The high-power grids act as particularly efficient antennas, channelling enormous direct currents into the power transformers.

The second problem is the grid's interdependence with the systems that support our lives: water and sewage treatment, supermarket delivery infrastructures, power station controls, financial markets and many others all rely on electricity. Put the two together, and it is clear that a repeat of the Carrington event could produce a catastrophe the likes of which the world has never seen. "It's just the opposite of how we usually think of natural disasters," says John Kappenman, a power industry analyst with the Metatech Corporation of Goleta, California, and an advisor to the NAS committee that produced the report. "Usually the less developed regions of the world are most vulnerable, not the highly sophisticated technological regions."

According to the NAS report, a severe space weather event in the US could induce ground currents that would knock out 300 key transformers within about 90 seconds, cutting off the power for more than 130 million people (see map). From that moment, the clock is ticking for America.

First to go - immediately for some people - is drinkable water. Anyone living in a high-rise apartment, where water has to be pumped to reach them, would be cut off straight away. For the rest, drinking water will still come through the taps for maybe half a day. With no electricity to pump water from reservoirs, there is no more after that.

There is simply no electrically powered transport: no trains, underground or overground. Our just-in-time culture for delivery networks may represent the pinnacle of efficiency, but it means that supermarket shelves would empty very quickly - delivery trucks could only keep running until their tanks ran out of fuel, and there is no electricity to pump any more from the underground tanks at filling stations.

Back-up generators would run at pivotal sites - but only until their fuel ran out. For hospitals, that would mean about 72 hours of running a bare-bones, essential care only, service. After that, no more modern healthcare.
72 hours of healthcare remaining

The truly shocking finding is that this whole situation would not improve for months, maybe years: melted transformer hubs cannot be repaired, only replaced. "From the surveys I've done, you might have a few spare transformers around, but installing a new one takes a well-trained crew a week or more," says Kappenman. "A major electrical utility might have one suitably trained crew, maybe two."

Within a month, then, the handful of spare transformers would be used up. The rest will have to be built to order, something that can take up to 12 months.

Even when some systems are capable of receiving power again, there is no guarantee there will be any to deliver. Almost all natural gas and fuel pipelines require electricity to operate. Coal-fired power stations usually keep reserves to last 30 days, but with no transport systems running to bring more fuel, there will be no electricity in the second month.

30 days of coal left

Nuclear power stations wouldn't fare much better. They are programmed to shut down in the event of serious grid problems and are not allowed to restart until the power grid is up and running.

With no power for heating, cooling or refrigeration systems, people could begin to die within days. There is immediate danger for those who rely on medication. Lose power to New Jersey, for instance, and you have lost a major centre of production of pharmaceuticals for the entire US. Perishable medications such as insulin will soon be in short supply. "In the US alone there are a million people with diabetes," Kappenman says. "Shut down production, distribution and storage and you put all those lives at risk in very short order."

Help is not coming any time soon, either. If it is dark from the eastern seaboard to Chicago, some affected areas are hundreds, maybe thousands of miles away from anyone who might help. And those willing to help are likely to be ill-equipped to deal with the sheer scale of the disaster. "If a Carrington event happened now, it would be like a hurricane Katrina, but 10 times worse," says Paul Kintner, a plasma physicist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

In reality, it would be much worse than that. Hurricane Katrina's societal and economic impact has been measured at $81 billion to $125 billion. According to the NAS report, the impact of what it terms a "severe geomagnetic storm scenario" could be as high as $2 trillion. And that's just the first year after the storm. The NAS puts the recovery time at four to 10 years. It is questionable whether the US would ever bounce back.

4-10 years to recover

"I don't think the NAS report is scaremongering," says Mike Hapgood, who chairs the European Space Agency's space weather team. Green agrees. "Scientists are conservative by nature and this group is really thoughtful," he says. "This is a fair and balanced report."

Such nightmare scenarios are not restricted to North America. High latitude nations such as Sweden and Norway have been aware for a while that, while regular views of the aurora are pretty, they are also reminders of an ever-present threat to their electricity grids. However, the trend towards installing extremely high voltage grids means that lower latitude countries are also at risk. For example, China is on the way to implementing a 1000-kilovolt electrical grid, twice the voltage of the US grid. This would be a superb conduit for space weather-induced disaster because the grid's efficiency to act as an antenna rises as the voltage between the grid and the ground increases. "China is going to discover at some point that they have a problem," Kappenman says.

Neither is Europe sufficiently prepared. Responsibility for dealing with space weather issues is "very fragmented" in Europe, says Hapgood.

Europe's electricity grids, on the other hand, are highly interconnected and extremely vulnerable to cascading failures. In 2006, the routine switch-off of a small part of Germany's grid - to let a ship pass safely under high-voltage cables - caused a cascade power failure across western Europe. In France alone, five million people were left without electricity for two hours. "These systems are so complicated we don't fully understand the effects of twiddling at one place," Hapgood says. "Most of the time it's alright, but occasionally it will get you."

The good news is that, given enough warning, the utility companies can take precautions, such as adjusting voltages and loads, and restricting transfers of energy so that sudden spikes in current don't cause cascade failures. There is still more bad news, however. Our early warning system is becoming more unreliable by the day.

By far the most important indicator of incoming space weather is NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE). The probe, launched in 1997, has a solar orbit that keeps it directly between the sun and Earth. Its uninterrupted view of the sun means it gives us continuous reports on the direction and velocity of the solar wind and other streams of charged particles that flow past its sensors. ACE can provide between 15 and 45 minutes' warning of any incoming geomagnetic storms. The power companies need about 15 minutes to prepare their systems for a critical event, so that would seem passable.
15 minutes' warning

However, observations of the sun and magnetometer readings during the Carrington event shows that the coronal mass ejection was travelling so fast it took less than 15 minutes to get from where ACE is positioned to Earth. "It arrived faster than we can do anything," Hapgood says.

There is another problem. ACE is 11 years old, and operating well beyond its planned lifespan. The onboard detectors are not as sensitive as they used to be, and there is no telling when they will finally give up the ghost. Furthermore, its sensors become saturated in the event of a really powerful solar flare. "It was built to look at average conditions rather than extremes," Baker says.

He was part of a space weather commission that three years ago warned about the problems of relying on ACE. "It's been on my mind for a long time," he says. "To not have a spare, or a strategy to replace it if and when it should fail, is rather foolish."

There is no replacement for ACE due any time soon. Other solar observation satellites, such as the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) can provide some warning, but with less detailed information and - crucially - much later. "It's quite hard to assess what the impact of losing ACE will be," Hapgood says. "We will largely lose the early warning capability."

The world will, most probably, yawn at the prospect of a devastating solar storm until it happens. Kintner says his students show a "deep indifference" when he lectures on the impact of space weather. But if policy-makers show a similar indifference in the face of the latest NAS report, it could cost tens of millions of lives, Kappenman reckons. "It could conceivably be the worst natural disaster possible," he says.

The report outlines the worst case scenario for the US. The "perfect storm" is most likely on a spring or autumn night in a year of heightened solar activity - something like 2012. Around the equinoxes, the orientation of the Earth's field to the sun makes us particularly vulnerable to a plasma strike.

What's more, at these times of year, electricity demand is relatively low because no one needs too much heating or air conditioning. With only a handful of the US grid's power stations running, the system relies on computer algorithms shunting large amounts of power around the grid and this leaves the network highly vulnerable to sudden spikes.

If ACE has failed by then, or a plasma ball flies at us too fast for any warning from ACE to reach us, the consequences could be staggering. "A really large storm could be a planetary disaster," Kappenman says.

So what should be done? No one knows yet - the report is meant to spark that conversation. Baker is worried, though, that the odds are stacked against that conversation really getting started. As the NAS report notes, it is terribly difficult to inspire people to prepare for a potential crisis that has never happened before and may not happen for decades to come. "It takes a lot of effort to educate policy-makers, and that is especially true with these low-frequency events," he says.

We should learn the lessons of hurricane Katrina, though, and realise that "unlikely" doesn't mean "won't happen". Especially when the stakes are so high. The fact is, it could come in the next three or four years - and with devastating effects. "The Carrington event happened during a mediocre, ho-hum solar cycle," Kintner says. "It came out of nowhere, so we just don't know when something like that is going to happen again." Jim Pedan blog not been updated since 2009 hence full text coppied here.

H/T Michael Moore