Right to Keep and Bear Arms

A primer for survival guns.

"I’ll summarize for you to make a quick reference list:
            1. Shotgun: Pump Action, 18” interchangeable ‘riot’ barrel, ghost ring sights if available, flashlight forend if available, 28” interchangeable hunting barrel, 4 to 6 round tubular magazine, synthetic speedfeed stock usually holds an additional four (4) shotshells in the buttstock, sidesaddle shotshell carrier typically holds 3 to 6 additional shotshells on the side of the receiver, and sling for carrying.  I would keep a minimum of 100 shotshells available (they come in 25 round boxes).  I would store 25 shotshells in “#4” buckshot, 25 shotshells in “OOO” buckshot, 25 shotshells in one ounce rifled slugs, and 25 shotshells in birdshot – probably #7½ or “BB” size (.177 diameter) being good choices.  12 gauge with 3” chambering for men or 20 gauge with 3” chambering for women and children.
            2. Handgun: 6” barrel revolver, .357 magnum caliber, 5 to 8 round rotary magazine, 3 dot sighting system, half a dozen speed loaders, duty type belt holster and at least one dual speed loader pouch.  I would keep 100 rounds minimum available.  (They come in 50 round boxes for the most part.)  50 rounds of 125 grain semi-jacketed hollow points in .357 magnum for medium game and 50 rounds in 148 grain lead semi-wadcutter for target shooting or small game.
            3. Rifle: .308 Winchester / 7.62x51mm NATO caliber, bolt action, 10x fixed rifle scope for a full sized rifle or 2½X fixed forward mounted rifle scope for a ‘Scout’ rifle, 3 to 5 round magazine (integral preferred over a detachable box type), synthetic stock for durability, and a sling.  I would have 100 rounds minimum for use.  150 grain hollow points or pointed soft points in .308 Winchester would be my selection for ammunition.  (These typically come in 20 round boxes).  Barrels for a Scout size range from 16 to 20 inches.  Barrels for a standard size range from 18 to 24 inches.
            4. Rimfire: If you want a handgun, choose a revolver.  I’d make it a 6” or 8” barrel with holster and speed loaders.  If you’d rather a rifle, make it bolt action with a 16” or 18” barrel and a fixed power scope – probably a 2 to 6 power being fine, and a sling.  A magazine of some sort would be nice (tubular, integral, detachable, etc.) but not necessary.  Regardless of handgun or rifle, I would keep a minimum of a 500 round “brick” available.  These come in 50 round boxes and ten boxes are the size of a brick – hence the name.  Chose the high or hyper velocity 40 grain hollow point ammunition and any vermin and small game can easily be bagged.
Those four firearms should form the basis for each individual’s personal battery.  Then you can expand upon it for whatever specific or unique threat or purpose you may face."

Not a bad starting point.

Education

Handcuffing children and the road from prison-schools to prison.

Politics

Sorry Judge, there's no way Obama will be impeached over his harmful implementation of sequestration.

"If he prioritizes so that we stay free and safe, so that the government does what we basically have paid it to do, he’ll be doing his job and saving us a tiny bit of cash. But if the president enforces the laws so that they hurt rather than work well just so he can say "I told you so" rather than "I’ll work with you," then he will be inviting his own political misery or even his own impeachment. And we will have sunk deeper into the abyss of fear, division and red ink that already engulfs us."

That's never going to happen. The Republicans have figured out they can make hay with this. Even much of the mainstream media is bashing Obama.

I'm skeptical that Boehner won't cave on tax hikes. While some Republicans undoubtedly support that position, I'm sure the top dogs do not. Boehner has been Obama's best ally. If Obama has screwed that up, he's stupider than I thought. It's ironic how the guy who just raised taxes is now talking like a libertarian. What a liar.

Global Warming and Energy

Headline says snowstorms slightly eased drought conditions in plains. I think I know what's going on with this whole drought narrative. I think they're seeding the Big Lie that the depletion of Ogallala aquifer and others like the Edwards Aquifer is due to natural causes instead of gross mismanagement through overuse by government.

It's sad, but government's corruption of science makes me skeptical of even the snowball earth theory.

Gore organization insinuates that global warming will end music.

Planet's temperature as of February: normal.

"February 2013 global temperature anomaly compared to 1981-2010 mean: -0.001°C or 1/1000th of a degree below avg."

It's a shame alarmists make scientists publish this stuff to refute their lies.

Tax and Spend

The Mises Institute has published an article titled "Without Pharoahs, who would build pyramids"? What a fantastic title. If it doesn't make you laugh, you need to look in the mirror.

Local

An Englewood elementary school was locked down because of a bomb threat.

Magazine plans to rank Dayton as number one for new businesses and business facilities. In another instance of journalistic malpractice, the article doesn't mention Wright-Patt, universities and hospitals as the cause, all of which are funded by the government and will soon suffer huge budget cuts.

Federal Reserve

Praise for a Wall Street Journal article debunking myths about central banks. Ending the Fed is going mainstream. Bernanke must be quaking in his boots by now. There's never been a Fed chief suffer so much scrutiny and criticism. He'll go down in history as the guy who destroyed the institution of central banking for a while. After people forget this, the government and the bankers will manage to re-create central banking again.

Series of articles show the Fed is addicted to inflating asset bubbles which it is doing with the near record high Dow.

Inflation tends to lead to violence. 

No matter how many times fiat money systems implode, bringing down the economy of the rulers, a new set of rulers manages to convince people this time will be different, then they repeat the same process.

Economy

Fewer Ohioans are starting their own businesses. In an act of journalistic malfeasance, the article doesn't mention regulation and taxes are only mentioned once, but here's a comment:

"Is it any bloody wonder? Business owners are not only competing for fewer and fewer dollars but at war against a continuous assault of regulations and taxes from an ever expanding medling government hell bent for a communistic society."

It's sad when you have to go to the comments to understand what should be in the article.

Fed pushes Dow just below record high from October 2007. 

In a terrible indictment of the damage government has done to entrepreneurs, many of 150 MIT spin-off companies can't raise capital in the US, so they go overseas. This is a consequence of onerous taxes and regulations.

Peter Schiff predicts Canada will divorce the US and marry China. I'm still skeptical about China. They're building ghost cities. Their central planners are misallocating resources on a fantastic scale. It will have consequences. Big ones.

Media

Now the White House is in a battle with Woodward over the threat he inferred, and media people are taking sides. This is good news for Republicans. More media figures come forward and claim Obama's staff threatened them. This is rapidly blowing up on Obama.

Not seduced, Glenn Greenwald slams Woodward.

"As Brian Beutler points out: "the obscure type of budget document Woodward's referring to is called a duly enacted law — passed by Congress, signed by the President — and the only ways around it are for Congress to change it. . . . or for Obama to break it." But that's exactly what Woodward is demanding: that Obama trumpet his status as Commander-in-Chief in order to simply ignore - i.e. break - the law, just like those wonderful men before him would have done. Woodward derides the law as some petty, trivial annoyance ("this piece of paper") and thus mocks Obama's weakness for the crime of suggesting that the law is something he actually has to obey. "

I don't agree with Greenwald or Woodward. Obama doesn't have to stop an aircraft carrier deployment. He could fire bureaucrats instead. It's his choice to keep the bureaucrats and forego the aircraft carrier. But Woodward doesn't attack Obama for choices. He attacks him for not being militant enough.

"All of this, of course, is pure pretense. Is it even remotely plausible that Obama is refraining from engaging in military action he believes is necessary out of some sort of quaint deference to the law? Please. This is a president who continued to wage war, in Libya, not merely without Congressional authorization, but even after Congress expressly voted against its authorization. This is a president who has repeatedly argued that he has the right to kill anyone he wants, anywhere in the world, not only due to Congressional authorization but also his own Commander-in-Chief powers. If Obama really wanted to deploy that second aircraft carrier, he would do so, knowing that journalists like Bob Woodward and members of both parties would cheer him. This is just a flamboyant political stunt designed to dramatize how those Big, Bad Republicans are leaving us all exposed and vulnerable with sequestration cuts."

Greenwald has that 100 percent right.This media civil war is the most interesting thing I've seen in politics for years if not decades. I believe it will enlighten the American people.

The media is working double time to help Obama on sequestration. In this case the US Today claims that cutting government spending will lead to more spending.

"Some budget cuts designed to save billions this year might actually end up costing the government more money later on."

Baloney. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so criminal. The worst thing that can happen for the government, the establishment and therefore the media is for these cuts to happen and public opinion be unchanged. But that's likely to happen because, the day before the pseudo-cuts are scheduled, Republicans haven't caved. This may seem dumb, but it's part of a longer term strategy. Obama and his minions are setting up a narrative that spending cuts today lead to more spending tomorrow. He's making the cuts in such a way to support that narrative.

Big government loving Bloomberg piles on Obama over sequestration.

"As I said yesterday on Bloomberg TV, the cuts are best described as much ado about nothing."
"The other issue -- how the cuts are applied -- is trickier. And this is where the accusation that the Obama administration is merely playing politics rings true. Both Democrats and Republicans have decried the indiscriminate, across-the-board cuts. And there’s no denying that the sequestration mechanism is bad policy. But the cuts don’t have to happen that way.
First, the administration probably has the authority to reduce spending in more intelligent ways. This makes its doomsday scenarios completely disingenuous."
"Second, negotiators in both the House and Senate have come up with alternatives to give the president the ability to make the spending cuts with a scalpel rather than a meat cleaver. Unfortunately, these alternatives have met with resistance from Democrats. "

More evidence that Obama is intentionally applying the cuts in as damaging manner as possible to set up a future narrative about how damaging budget cuts are.

How government has thoroughly corrupted Hollywood to support its aggression at home and overseas.

War

The US loves to complain about foreign hackers hacking US sites, but the Chinese claim that US hackers frequently attack its sites too.

"The sites were subject to about 144,000 hacking attacks each month last year, two thirds of which came from the U.S., according to China's defense ministry."

What an incredible waste of resources on both sides.

Boeing pushes proven super-Hornet as alternative to the unproven F-35 at half the price.

Here's a scary description of what our troops go through in Afghanistan.

"This year for Christmas I received a copy of The Outpost by ABC’s White House correspondent Jake Tapper, which was particularly daunting as it is nearly 700 meticulously researched pages in length. I was given the book by my daughter because it tells the tale, among many others, of a friend of hers from high school who went to Afghanistan with the Fourth Infantry Division and was killed there. My daughter had seen her friend on his last home leave and he had described the base in Nuristan province that he was posted to as a death trap where he and his comrades were attacked every day with little ability to defend themselves. He predicted that he would not be coming home again. He was twenty-one years old when he died."

That's a different perspective than the one provided by government's media.

"Tapper explains in an epilogue that he set out to "better understand what our troops go through, why they go through it, and what their experience has been like in Afghanistan." He tells his tale dispassionately, inexorably demonstrating the human cost of a war that need not have been fought on a small stage where blunder after blunder killed quite ordinary Americans who under other circumstances, in another place and time, might have been our next door neighbors. The book describes in detail the devastating wounds that kill and maim a succession of soldiers posted to the indefensible Combat Outpost Keating, located inexcusably in a depression overlooked by mountains on three sides. He follows the wounded through their hospitalizations, writes about their grieving families, and chronicles the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and even suicides that afflict many of them when they try unsuccessfully to return to civilian life."

This sounds like a much needed book.

"The original rationale for the siting of the base in a valley was that it provided a presence in remote Nuristan province that could be supplied by a road. The road quickly becomes unusable as the tale unfolds but the soldiers remained in place, bleeding, dying and killing for no reason whatsoever."

That sounds like a snowglobe version of all foreign wars.

"American resolve gradually becomes a confused sequence of "kinetic" (combat) operations interspersed with COIN (counter-insurgency) interludes, none of which successfully take root in a remote region which was littered with the wrecks of Soviet combat vehicles. Some of the local tribesmen believed that the Americans were actually Russians left over from the 1980s and found it difficult to understand why they should not be driving out the new invaders. "

What an amazing example of Hayek's fatal conceit of central planners.

"The book is admittedly about the Americans involved in the war and most of the Afghans are snapshots, but the insurgents come across as tough, dedicated and tenacious fighters who quickly learn to adapt to the changing tactics used by the better trained and equipped U.S. Army. The fighters, willing to suffer heavy casualties to engage the foreign soldiers, consist mostly of highly motivated local villagers who are seeking to drive out the invaders to defend their homes and way of life, not ideologues who are trying to bring some particular type of governance to Afghanistan. Indeed, they clearly have difficulty in relating to Afghanistan at all.
The American soldiers fight doggedly in a situation in which they know they are sitting ducks with a high likelihood of a fatal outcome. They fight hard and die often, accepting it as part of their job. Their allies, the Afghan National Army, frequently choose to run rather than fight and often betray the Americans to the insurgents, highlighting the futility of the entire enterprise of nation building in a place where all loyalties are local, illiteracy is nearly universal, and corruption mixed with drug trafficking is the only business worth engaging in."

This contradicts government's narrative of the war.

Bradley Manning pleads guilty to 10 of 22 counts.

""I believe that if the general public ... had access to the information ... this could spark a domestic debate as to the role of the military and foreign policy in general," Manning said in court, according to the Reuters news service.
Pfc. Bradley Manning would plead guilty to sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, in violation of military regulations but not in violation of federal espionage laws."

That sounds heroic. More.

"Army Pfc. Bradley Manning pleaded guilty Thursday to 10 charges that he illegally acquired and transferred highly classified U.S. materials later published by WikiLeaks, saying he was motivated by a U.S foreign policy that “became obsessed with killing and capturing people rather than cooperating” with other governments."

Sounds accurate to me.

The CBS headline reads: Manning pleads guilty in WikiLeaks case. They don't even bother to differentiate because the government wants him destroyed. 

Thirty four killed and 70 wounded in Iraq. It's interesting how some people blame this violence on the US invasion and others blame it on the US withdrawal.

Federal Reserve

Summary of the 2012 Fed report, and it shows that banks are reducing their deposits at the Fed. That means they're lending more money. That increases inflation. The statement has an arithmetic error. Too funny.

Bernanke as a Classical comedian.

Misc

I'm skeptical that scientists have measured the spin of a black hole.

War

In another example of double-speak, now our rulers want us to believe that directly arming the Syrian rebels will reduce al Qaeda influence. No it won't. It will make al Qaeda stronger.

""And if there is (not more help) from the international community, then there is going to be a lot more casualties," he added. "

If the US stopped arming the rebels through proxies, there would be a lot fewer casualties.

More on this:

"Recently, these war hawks have been pounding the drums for U.S. greater intervention in Syria.
Their argument isn’t that the Syrian rebellion will fall apart if the United States doesn’t provide arms, it’s that when the insurgents finally take over Syria, the U.S. will won’t have much “influence.” They argue that militant Islamists among the rebels, who are the most well armed and ruthless fighters, will become dominant if the United States does not arm the more secular and democratic forces. Yet the war hawks don’t ever ask themselves how the Islamists became the most well armed groups in Syria—answer: by being the most ruthless. So far, the United States has reportedly helped Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other Sunni Arab arms providers to vet the groups to which they are arranging weapons shipments. Yet despite those efforts, media reports indicate that the Islamists seem to be getting the lion share of the weapons anyway. In chaotic war situations, such unintended consequences are usually the rule rather than the exception."

It's amazing how the people who are wrong all the time continue to be treated experts and worth listening to.

"And the situation in Syria may be about to get worse. Media reports indicate that the Saudis have ramped up their arms financing—purchasing and sending to Syria a large shipment of Croatian infantry weapons, a transaction that seems to have been facilitated by the United States. In addition, the Syrian rebels have extorted pledges of more humanitarian aid from the United States and United Kingdom in exchange for attending a Friends of Syria meeting in Rome. Previously, the U.S. has shipped “non-lethal” communications and medical supplies to the rebels.
So the public pronouncement that the United States is not arming the rebels is only technically true; the reality is that the U.S. is vetting and facilitating the delivery by other countries of weapons to the insurgents. Even the communications equipment the U.S. sends directly could be used to increase the coordination, and thus effectiveness, of rebel missions."

Of course it could. That's why they sent it.

"Is there any crisis the United States can stay out of? With huge federal budget deficits and a monstrous national debt of $16.5 trillion, one would think “conservative” Kristol, McCain, and Graham would want to at least save some government money. And if they actually looked at the track record of recent U.S. interventions, which wasted taxpayer money on failing enterprise after failing enterprise, they might see that the case for cost avoidance in Syria is even greater."

Failure is subjective. All those guys and their cronies got richer off those wars, so they were a success from that point of view.

"Thus, after analyzing and admitting such a record of failed interventions, how can anyone in the United States, with a straight face, advocate wading deeper into the Syrian swamp?"

I don't think they would agree with that analysis.

Bradley Manning prosecutor to call 141 witnesses.

Local

Taxpayers funding government's destruction of wealth.

Bill's Donut Shop one of fifty best donut shops in the US.

School locked down. For the first 400 years since America was colonized, no school was ever locked down. The term didn't exist. Now schools are locked down every day. Government has turned our schools into military-style prisons, and we wonder why children get such bad educations.

Phones are out to Moraine police.

Foodbank Inc. buys 7.6 acre former Reynolds and Reynolds site for $5. Why doesn't this happen for every "blighted" property?

"According to city documents, Dayton has owned the property since 2003 and marketed it for years, but received little interest from developers because of poor accessibility."

Apparently they were asking too much.

Tax and Spend

Boortz agrees that Republicans will cave on sequestration and raise taxes again.

More double-speak about the sequester.

"As thousands of civilian medical workers are furloughed because of the "sequester," patients will be sent to private doctors at public expense to receive timely medical care, according to the military medical officials."

That's absurd. If it was true, nobody would do it unless they were an idiot. Maybe it is true then. It also presumes that the military provides medical services more inexpensively than the marketplace. I don't believe that either.

Media

Leftist icon Bob Woodward slams Obama, calling his actions a "kind of madness". That's awesome. When Obama's finally gone, Democrats will run from his legacy like animals from a forest fire. Woodward claims an Obama staffer gave him a veiled threat.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Gun control debate tends to break along rural versus urban lines.

A record 78,000 concealed carry licenses issued in Ohio in 2012.

Global Warming and Energy

NOAA claims global warming has reduced labor. This is absurd. Labor may have dropped while the planet warmed, but correlation is not causality.

Concern about the environment drops to 20 year low.

Economy

Music sales increased for the first time since 1999. This isn't a sign of recovery. The music industry didn't change anything to make this happen. This is a sign of inflation.

Dow flirts with record high. This is another sign of inflation. At least the article mentions the Fed.

"The market surged following more evidence that the Fed will keep interest rates low, housing will keep recovering and shoppers aren’t pulling back on spending, though they’re paying more in Social Security taxes this year."

The market surged following more evidence that the Fed will keep interest rates low, housing will keep recovering and shoppers aren’t pulling back on spending, though they’re paying more in Social Security taxes this year. - See more at: http://www.boston.com/business/markets/2013/02/27/stocks-surge-dow-track-high-close-year/GmO6dADCaxfIVaUJKdqoLK/story.html#sthash.xYLTuEzA.dpuf

So interest rates have been low for a long time and are expected to remain low, housing is sort of booming, and consumer spending is up. That sounds a lot like 2007. This stinks of manipulation. We've had an economic decline in Q4 and a terrible jobs report in January. What better way to fool people into think the economy is OK than manipulating the stock market to a new record?

British farmer entrepreneurs laying their own rural internet lines. The market works. That would probably be illegal here.

Health Care

Russia bans import of US meat as unhealthy.

Diolofenac causes heart attacks much like Vioxx.

The Greek government's health care system is facing a shortage of pharmaceuticals. That's probably good for most people.

""Companies are ceasing these supplies because Greece is not profitable for them and they are worried that their products will be exported by traders to other richer countries through parallel trade as Greece has the lowest medicine prices in Europe," said Professor Yannis Tountas, the president of the Greek drug regulator, the National Organisation for Medicines."

That central planning didn't work real well.

War

Our rulers claim that drone strikes are used to target al Qaeda leaders, but apparently they target anybody.

"The focus on American citizens overshadows a far more common, and less understood, type of strike: those that do not target American citizens, Al Qaeda leaders, or, in fact, any other specific individual.
In these attacks, known as “signature strikes,” drone operators fire on people whose identities they do not know based on evidence of suspicious behavior or other “signatures.” According to anonymously sourced media reports, such attacks on unidentified targets account for many, or even most, drone strikes."

Another lie exposed.

A scary summary of the escalating violence and unrest in the Middle East, North Africa and the Sahara.

Illegal Immigration

What would be the most divisive service for Obama to cut because of sequestration? How about freeing criminal illegal immigrants on the way to being deported from detention? Notice he did this even before the pseudo-cuts kick in?

Politics

Senate confirms Hagel. Rand Paul votes for him.

Local

Two threats at Fairborn school.

Federal Reserve

The Bank of England is printing towards stagflation, but the Fed has no plans to stop printing money.

"Just a few months ago Ben Bernanke announced specific inflation and unemployment triggers that would apparently put monetary policy on automatic pilot. But just last week, Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen announced that those goalposts (6.5% unemployment and 2.5% inflation) should not be considered "triggers" but as thresholds past which the Fed "may consider" tightening. When U.S. prices start to rise in earnest, look for the denials and rationalizations to come in torrents. The Fed will never acknowledge high inflation no matter what the data, nor will it ever take any steps to combat it. The simple reason is that it will be unable to do so without bringing on the economic contraction that is so terrifying to the British."

Contraction is coming one way or the other.

CEO of JPMorgan Case admits the banks benefit from economic downturns.

Global Warming and Energy

Survey shows people aren't concerned about climate change.

Police State

A nation of laws of aggression.

"In a nation that incarcerates more people than any other, New York City hopes to jail a hefty proportion of its residents, too. The Daily News reports that the City now boasts more than a million "open bench warrants" for such heinous "crimes" as "drinking a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon on a West Village stoop" and "walking a dog without a leash." The News lies somewhere to the left of Pravda, but even it marvels that an eighth of New Yorkers could languish in the pokey, which "number of outlaws ... nearly matches the population of Dallas.""

No matter how bad things are, they can always get worse.

Supreme Court upholds FISA spying on Americans unless somebody can show harm. Then what's the point of the Fourth Amendment?

Economy

Violence in Greece increases as society collapses.

"Chrysanthopoulos says that the government has hired Blackwater, the American private military firm infamous for its activities in Iraq, which now goes by the name 'Academi', along with five other international for-profit security outfits. Explaining why this has happened, he says bluntly: 'The Greek government does not trust the police whose salaries have also been cut."

Coming here soon.

Misc

NASA estimates Russian meteor 1,000 times bigger than originally thought. Experts wrong again.

Class action lawsuit against Anheuser-Busch for watering down beer. If this is true, it's fraud, but how will anybody show they were harmed?

Positive view of the Dark Ages.

"What changed, that brought man from an unwritten law, one that kept the king in check, to a written law, captured in a constitution? I do not know with certainty, however I present the following for thought: the change was grounded in the change from allodial land title to fee simple title. This happened in England first, and preceded the much-heralded written constitution, the Magna Carta, by 150 years.
This change occurred as a result of William the Conqueror’s defeat of Harold Godwinsson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. As a result of this, William claimed that he had won the whole country by right of conquest. Every inch of land was to be his, and he would dispose of it as he thought fit.
All land was thereafter owned by the crown. Perhaps in this can be found the seeds of the desire by the lords for the Magna Carta."

That's interesting. Explanation of alloidal and fee simple titles.

Foriegn Policy

Pat Buchanan ridicules the claim that Iran is a threat to the US.

Sports

Tom Brady and the Patriots have figured out what I've been saying for a decade: you can't win the Super Bowl if your quarterback sucks up a huge chunk of your salary cap, so Brady restructures his contract to greatly reduce his cap hit. Good for him. This is going to be a big deal for all quarterbacks. It will likely become the norm to pay quarterbacks less.

Health Care

GM salmon is still heading our way.

Tax and Spend

This sequester debate is small potatoes. The real debate is over shutting down the government at the end of March. It'll never happen.

This alarmism from the military brass about sequester non-cuts cracks me up. It's not going to harm military readiness.

The billions of dollars in defense budget cuts scheduled to begin at the end of the week will have a swift and severe impact on military readiness and Congress needs to take fast action to stop them, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday in an 11th hour bid to keep the reductions from going into effect. - See more at: http://www.daytondailynews.com/ap/ap/top-news/military-leaders-say-congress-must-stop-sequester/nWZnY/#sthash.eHvZIHN0.dpuf

The billions of dollars in defense budget cuts scheduled to begin at the end of the week will have a swift and severe impact on military readiness and Congress needs to take fast action to stop them, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday in an 11th hour bid to keep the reductions from going into effect. - See more at: http://www.daytondailynews.com/ap/ap/top-news/military-leaders-say-congress-must-stop-sequester/nWZnY/#sthash.eHvZIHN0.dpuf

The billions of dollars in defense budget cuts scheduled to begin at the end of the week will have a swift and severe impact on military readiness and Congress needs to take fast action to stop them, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday in an 11th hour bid to keep the reductions from going into effect. - See more at: http://www.daytondailynews.com/ap/ap/top-news/military-leaders-say-congress-must-stop-sequester/nWZnY/#sthash.eHvZIHN0.dpuf

The billions of dollars in defense budget cuts scheduled to begin at the end of the week will have a swift and severe impact on military readiness and Congress needs to take fast action to stop them, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday in an 11th hour bid to keep the reductions from going into effect. - See more at: http://www.daytondailynews.com/ap/ap/top-news/military-leaders-say-congress-must-stop-sequester/nWZnY/#sthash.eHvZIHN0.dpuf

The billions of dollars in defense budget cuts scheduled to begin at the end of the week will have a swift and severe impact on military readiness and Congress needs to take fast action to stop them, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday in an 11th hour bid to keep the reductions from going into effect. - See more at: http://www.daytondailynews.com/ap/ap/top-news/military-leaders-say-congress-must-stop-sequester/nWZnY/#sthash.eHvZIHN0.dpuf

The billions of dollars in defense budget cuts scheduled to begin at the end of the week will have a swift and severe impact on military readiness and Congress needs to take fast action to stop them, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday in an 11th hour bid to keep the reductions from going into effect. - See more at: http://www.daytondailynews.com/ap/ap/top-news/military-leaders-say-congress-must-stop-sequester/nWZnY/#sthash.eHvZIHN0.dpuf

The billions of dollars in defense budget cuts scheduled to begin at the end of the week will have a swift and severe impact on military readiness and Congress needs to take fast action to stop them, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday in an 11th hour bid to keep the reductions from going into effect. - See more at: http://www.daytondailynews.com/ap/ap/top-news/military-leaders-say-congress-must-stop-sequester/nWZnY/#sthash.eHvZIHN0.dpuf

The billions of dollars in defense budget cuts scheduled to begin at the end of the week will have a swift and severe impact on military readiness and Congress needs to take fast action to stop them, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday in an 11th hour bid to keep the reductions from going into effect. - See more at: http://www.daytondailynews.com/ap/ap/top-news/military-leaders-say-congress-must-stop-sequester/nWZnY/#sthash.eHvZIHN0.d

Media

I'm unimpressed with this claim that Zero-Dark-Thirty, whatever that means, was snubbed at the Oscars. I was pissed that all the contenders were pro-state, lying pieces of crap. What this year's Oscar's said to me was that Hollywood loves mass murder by government. In a sea of movies that promoted the state, one of which won Best Movie, singling out of the bunch which didn't win makes no sense.

Misc

Praise for the natural right of freedom of association, often called discrimination, and accurately so.

Nuclear waste is leaking from containment vessels near the Columbia River. I'm skeptical of the damage claimed here.

Train yourself to think like a gunfighter. I would suggest you learn ancient martial arts.

Walter Williams smacks down the Lincoln myth.

Global Warming and Energy

Solar cycle 24 has already produced five consecutive colder winters, and since the cycle continues to perform well below normal, we can expect it to keep getting colder.

Tax and Spend

Paul Ryan explains the difference between Republicans and Democrats:

"On NBC's Meet the Press last month, Paul Ryan--the GOP budget committee chairman--said that had GOP "reforms" gone through, food stamps "would have grown by 260 percent over the last decade instead of 270 percent.""

He's supposed to be the fiscally responsible adult in the room.

War

The US is already arming al Qaeda rebels in Syria through proxies. Why would this representative want to send them more, heavier arms directly? To funnel more taxpayer money to weapons makers, I guess.

To fight China or not to fight China. That's an easy question. Let's not fight anybody.

Local

Now school threats have spread to Wilmington College.

Foreign Policy

Honest analysis shows that claims of Iran trying to develop nuclear weapons are intentionally exaggerated.

"Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has also weighed in: “Are they [Iranians] trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No.” Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who spent more than a decade as the director of the IAEA, said  he had not “seen a shred of evidence” that Iran was pursuing the bomb, “I don’t believe Iran is a clear and present danger,” he said. “All I see is the hype about the threat posed by Iran.”
In any case, if Tehran tried to “break out” and race to the bomb, this would be detected by IAEA inspectors, who check the relevant facilities roughly weekly. And all declared nuclear material in Iran, according to the IAEA, remains under the agency’s containment and surveillance.
To “break out,” either Iran would have to kick out the inspectors or the Iranians would get caught cheating. In either case, Iran would be forced to break its four-decade-long adherence to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty  a momentous step that would likely prompt swift military action from the United States or Israel.
So if we are looking for real “red lines,” the obvious trip-wires should be either the expulsion of IAEA inspectors or the detection of diversion of nuclear material to non-peaceful uses – not some artificial red line drawn by a non-NPT member state."

It's nice to read honest articles.

The North Koreans aren't a nuclear threat to us either.

"However, North Korea’s third nuclear test was less than half the explosive power of the bombs dropped in 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States."

Nobody would tolerate that, but it shows the primitive nature of North Korea's program.

Health Care

Firms likely to drop insurance coverage because the Obamacare penalties are cheaper than insurance. This was the plan all along. This harms the insurance companies and moves everybody toward socialized medicine. The next demagogue will blame the free market, claim government tried to work with companies, but the companies refused to do the right thing, so government has to take over all health insurance.

Beards are good for you. If not, we wouldn't be able to grow them.

Health Care

Scientists examine teeth of skeletons and discover that our ancestors had more healthy bacteria in their mouths and therefore had much healthier teeth.

"Scientists analyzed examples of this oral bacteria in teeth from different historic periods to see how it compared with the diseases evident in other previously studied skeletons from that time period. As it turns out, ancient hunter-gatherers actually had pretty good dental health, as evidenced by their healthy teeth and diverse bacterial populations. Things didn’t start going downhill until the Neolithic period, about 10,000 years ago."

That's when their diet switched to eating grains.

"Then came the industrial revolution in the mid 1800s, when processed flour and sugar took over. Diets became even more carbohydrate-rich, and bacterial diversity plummeted. With less diversity in mouth bacteria, these microbiomes lost their resilience."

Another disease of civilization that can be overcome by adopting a paleo lifestyle.

The science behind junk food. Junk food creators won't eat it.

Here's another problem created by government. Big Pharma resists negotiating over Medicare drug prices.

"“PhRMA opposes implementing Medicaid’s failed price controls in Medicare Part D,” said Jenni Brewer, spokeswoman for the trade group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). “Such policies would fundamentally alter the competitive nature of the program, undermine its success and potentially cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs.”"

Here we go with the doublespeak. Negotiating prices is price controls.Of course government doesn't negotiate anything. It dictates. This is another conflict that wouldn't exist unless created by government. Government is no the solution. It's the problem.

Government's Big Ag policies not only harm our health, they harm our environment.

War

The Afghan government orders all US special forces to stop actions and leave a province because of torture and murder. Whether or not these charges are true, they'll make more Muslims want to kill us.

Four think tanks that promote war.

Media

This article wants us to believe that all governors think the sequestration cuts are bad, but the only people criticizing cuts are Democrats. Republicans are criticizing the politics. And of course, they don't quote any governors who are happy about the cuts, though you know many are.

Police State

Another article against police socialism.

"Mises identified the inability to engage in economic calculation as the key practical limitation of socialism that rendered it unworkable. This incapacity to divert resources to their most urgent use is one of the most conspicuous results of a socialist criminal justice system. Thus do we see police expending hundreds of thousands of dollars arresting, prosecuting, and punishing an individual for a victimless crime, when it is hard to imagine a private institution finding such a witch hunt economically viable."

No kidding.

"The state has every incentive to expand its activity into nearly any area that the people will tolerate, regardless of whether such activity makes economic or moral sense. Since it monopolizes conflict resolution — and acting in this capacity is another opportunity to expand its size and reach — the state actually has an interest in fomenting conflict, thereby maximizing its role in society. The more crime and punishment, no matter their effect on the innocent, and the more laws, no matter how outrageous or contradictory, the more business for the state, which, in a supreme conflict of interest, gets to determine what the laws are." 

This is true for every service government provides. This is why government never cures diseases.

"In practice, law-enforcement socialism is even worse than socialism in most other areas, since it involves a state monopoly on legal violence, and thus is expected to act coercively. Whenever an innocent person is brutalized — which will happen about as often as we could expect any kind of mistake from government work — it is seen as a small price to pay to protect the innocent.
As terrible as it is to allow central planners to decide how and where to produce shoes, cars, or widgets and where to divert them, it is a bigger problem when central planners are given free rein to decide how force is to be used in all of society. Indeed, by capitulating to its monopoly on violence, we accept its very power to monopolize and socialize. Freedom is never secure so long as a ruling class of people is permitted to monopolize the very means of monopolization, from which further abuses of the market and liberty can only follow."

That's a real good point for people who advocate limited government.

"When a welfare state worker gets it wrong, it is a waste of resources and can create waves of disastrous social repercussions. When a law enforcer gets it wrong — or searches and seizes the innocent in pursuit of the guilty — justice itself has been defiled and liberty attacked. "

Or somebody gets killed.

War

Sixteen ways to cut military spending.

Regulation

World's biggest gold storage company, in Switzerland, dumps US citizens because of oppressive US regulations.

Tax and Spend

Detroit taxpayers are withholding their taxes because the city doesn't provide services.

Global Warming and Energy

652 snow records set this past week.

New model says increasing CO2 will cause more snow at poles, less everywhere else. Last week seems to contradict that.

Local

Medicaid corruption? Imagine that. More.

Miami Township officials want to move beyond the highly public exhibition of their corruption. I'm sure they do.

Five Dayton homicides in five days. Society is breaking down.

I'm happy to see the DDN investigating how much taxpayers pay government employees to stay at home.

Politics

This is a pretty good analysis of the politics behind Republican opposition to Hagel. It looks like he has the votes to get nominated.

"With two other Republican senators already pledged to vote “aye” and more than half a dozen other Republicans, including Sen. John McCain, who have promised not to delay a final vote any longer, it appears all but certain that Hagel will be confirmed with a healthy majority of as least 58 votes in the 100-seat chamber. "
"On more substantive issues, they complained that Hagel has “proclaimed the legitimacy of the current regime in Tehran, which has violently repressed its own citizens, rigged recent elections, provided material support for terrorism, and denied the Holocaust.
“Any sound strategy on Iran must be underpinned by the highly credible threat of U.S. military force (to attack Tehran’s nuclear facilities),” they argued. “If Senator Hagel becomes Secretary of Defense, the military option will have near zero credibility. This sends a dangerous message to the regime in Tehran, as it seeks to obtain the means necessary to harm both the United States and Israel.”
The letter’s focus on both Israel and the alleged threat posed to it by Iran – the same issues that overwhelmingly dominated Hagel’s confirmation hearing last month – reflected the degree to which defence of the Jewish state has become a litmus test for core Republican constituencies in the Rocky Mountain states and the so-called “Bible Belt” that stretches from Texas and Oklahoma to the southeastern Atlantic seaboard.
Christian Zionists, who play an out-sized role in Republican primary campaigns, are especially strong and politically engaged in these states."

I hope the nomination of Hagel will put an end to the US threatening to attack Iran.

"Indeed, Rubio, who gave the official Republican reply to Obama’s State of the Union address last week, departed immediately afterward for a visit to Israel.
“Any Republican candidate wants to plant his flag in Israel, not just in Iowa and New Hampshire (early primary election states),” Larry Sabato, a political analyst at the University of Virginia, told the Washington Times. “Christian conservatives are a big chunk of (Republican) primary voters in a large majority of states, and they care about Israel as much as Jewish Americans do.”"

It looks like Rubio is joining Rand Paul in the 2016 race.

"According to some analysts, the senators who have been most outspoken in opposing Hagel, especially those from Texas, Oklahoma, and other states with a disproportionate number of big military bases and defence-manufacturing facilities, may yet regret their stance, particularly in light of the anticipated defence cuts caused by the so-called sequestration.
“While Hagel had to play defense during the (confirmation) hearing, that will change when he gets to the Pentagon,” noted former senior Ronald Reagan defence official Lawrence Korb and Lauren Linde in an article on foreignpolicy.com this week.
“Based upon his past experiences in business, the non-profit world, and the Senate, he will be a take-charge leader, and one of his challenges will be reducing defense spending. And his choices could hurt the constituents of the very officials who have done the most to hurt him.”"

The bottom line is always money.

Education

Even the New York Times acknowledges that government has done so much damage to our schools, a college degree is the new high school diploma, the minimum necessary to get an entry level, unskilled job.

"Many jobs that didn't used to require a diploma — positions like dental hygienists, cargo agents, clerks and claims adjusters — increasingly requiring a college degree. From the point of view of business, with so many people going to college now, those who do not graduate are often assumed to be unambitious or less capable."

We're the stupidest people in the world.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Nice essay describing the change of US culture from great freedom to great oppression and the effect of that change on our outlook toward firearms. I like how he ties the transition to feminization.

Foreign Policy

Chavez may have returned to Venezuela to be sworn into office from his hospital bed then relinquish power before he dies.

Global Warming and Energy

Obama to effectively ban coal power plants by executive fiat.

Reminder that the global warming frauds predicted snowfall would be a thing of the past.

IPCC chief admits no global warming for 17 years. Some say more.

Media

Media busted for more alarmist lies directed at Iran.

I like how this headline puts it...

"Democrats Press G.O.P. to Start Talks to Avert Budget Cuts"

It's like the poor Democrats are working so hard on behalf of the American people, but Republicans are mean, they have all the power, and they refuse to talk. What a load of crap. Does anybody remember Obama going to Florida and playing golf with Tiger Woods? Forget it. Republicans are to blame.

Federal Reserve

How the Fed created the poker bubble. It also created the golf bubble.

Tax and Spend

Government officials under investigation for disciplinary reasons continue to be paid by taxpayers. Nothing new here.

Unions threaten to delay and disrupt air travel if sequestration cuts kick in.

Police State

Homeland Security steals boat.

"Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, lives near Seattle and bought a boat there. He ordered it from a company based near him, but across the border in Canada. Yesterday, the company tried to deliver it to him, and it had to clear customs. An agent for the Department of Homeland Security asked him to sign a form. The form contained information about the boat, including its cost. The price was correct, but it was in U.S. dollars rather than Canadian dollars. Since the form contained legal warnings about making sure everything on it is true and accurate, Arrington suggested to the agent that they correct the error. She responded by seizing the boat. 'As in, demanded that we get off the boat, demanded the keys and took physical control of it. What struck me the most about the situation is how excited she got about seizing the boat. Like she was just itching for something like this to happen. This was a very happy day for her. ... A person with a gun and a government badge asked me to swear in writing that a lie was true today. And when I didn't do what she wanted she simply took my boat and asked me to leave.'"

We did this to ourselves.

TSA apologizes for abuse of three year old with spina bifida. But did anybody get fired?

Against police socialism.

"But in the current situation of police socialism, government bureaucrats have stolen from the people their ability to provide their own security, by making such attempts artificially unlawful and through disarmament schemes weakening the people’s abilities to physically defend and protect themselves when their lives and property are threatened.
The government bureaucrats have usurped and forcibly monopolized the means of production in security provision at the people’s expense. That, in a nutshell, is what police socialism is."

I'm against that.

War

Al Qaeda's 22 tips for avoiding drone strikes. Americans will need to do the same soon.

US and NATO plan to leave troops in Afghanistan past 2014.

Russia accuses US of double standard regarding Syria. Russia is scoring big points here.

"Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the United States on Friday of having double standards on Syria, saying it had blocked a U.N. Security Council statement condemning a car bomb attack in Damascus. Washington denied it had blocked the statement and said it had only asked for balance. The disagreement was likely to sour the atmosphere before Lavrov meets newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry next week in Berlin."

It's not terrorism when it's carried out by US allies.

Health Care

Even doctors recognize many medical procedures are unnecessary and even dangerous, driving up health care costs.

Police State

More on the police no hesitation training.

"The company’s marketing team explains that the "non-traditional targets " were created at the request of police officers and trainers, who are seeking to dis-inhibit the killing instincts of police "when deadly force is required on subjects with atypical age, frailty or condition…. This hesitation time may be only seconds but that is not acceptable when officers are losing their lives in these same situations…. If that hesitation time can be cut down due to range experience, the officer and the community are better served."
That is to say, it can condition them to overcome the natural and indispensable reluctance to kill the innocent and helpless. This is summarized in the company’s sales slogan: "No more hesitation.""

Do you feel safer?

"According to Law Enforcement Targets, Inc., its training materials are used by several federal agencies, every branch of the military, and "thousands of law enforcement agencies at the municipal, county, and state levels." Its materials were almost certainly used to train some of the officers assembled at the Special Operations Center for Obama’s February 4 photo-op. It’s likely that company officials had been invited, as well. " 

Now do you feel safer?

War on Drugs

Fatal overdoses up in 2010.

"Medicines, mostly prescription drugs, were involved in nearly 60% of overdose deaths that year, overshadowing deaths from illicit narcotics. "

Deaths from marijuana overdose are always zero. You are safer taking illegal drugs than taking Big Pharma's drugs.

Global Warming and Energy

New process could make coal energy really clean. Environmentalists will attack this. Their goal is not clean energy. They're goal is to destroy capitalism.

Scientist booted from editorial peer review board for criticizing a bad paper.

It's the sun, stupid.

Misc

Millionaire plans mission to Mars in 2018. That's fantastic. If the government didn't steal our money, we'd have no poverty and we'd have outposts on the moon and Mars already.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Nationwide gun rights rallies on 2/23. This local writer failed to mention the location of the local event. The Dayton Tea Party site has nothing on its calendar. It doesn't appear to have been updated since last summer.

Analysis shows how rare mass shootings are.

"The 934 deaths account for less than 1% of all gun-related homicides, and nearly half involve a suspect slaying his or her family members, the detailed examination shows. USA TODAY combed through FBI records and news accounts to identify 146 mass shootings since 2006 that matched the FBI definition of mass shooting, where four or more people were killed."

Yet this is supposedly the impetus for banning assault weapons. Baloney. They're banning assault weapons so Americans can't defend themselves from government stormtroopers.

Regulation

Big software corporations revolt over ruling that nullifies software copyright for APIs. This illustrates how much wealth government transfers to those companies through copyright and patents.

Independent bookstores sue Amazon and the big publishers over anti-trust claims. They're looking to government to solve a problem created by government. The solution is to abolish copyright aggression, but those bookstores don't want that any more than Amazon or the big six.

Local

Police arrested two kids for making threats at Tipp City schools. I wonder if they got the right ones or the only ones. More on the threats.

Boy arrested for Troy school threat.

I-75 construction crash.

Now we get the full story about the cancellation of the First Four festival. The NCAA was protecting corporate sponsors. Other events.

Police make big drug bust.

"Police recently confiscated tens of thousands of dollars in cash, 8 pounds of marijuana, multiple vehicles and six firearms during a search of a home in the 100 block of Whitmore Avenue."

They miss thousands of times that amount at least.

I haven't read any of the articles about the firing of this DiPietro guy, but I clicked on this article about a second firing and read this:

"The administrator’s termination follows the firing of former Deputy Chief John DiPietro, who was found guilty Feb. 13 of several violations of the township’s professional code when he hosed down a naked 17-year-old girl in police custody."

Clearly, anybody who would do this was sure they could get away with it. They've probably done it many times. What a horrific example showing how government attracts the most brutal, sexually deviant people in the country to work for it.

"Following the vote, the trustees immediately hired a firm to conduct an internal audit, including a review of contract bids and examination of records “in order to determine if any employee of Miami Twp. misused their authority for either monetary or non-monetary gains,” according to the contract."

That's funny. They all profit from stolen money, so they're all guilty of doing that.

"With Trustee Charlie Lewis absent, the trustees also approved a five-month, $7,000 contract with Strategic Public Partners, a Columbus-based firm, to help with public relations, and the six-month, $30,000 contract with consultant Mukesh Singh to audit the townships’ contracts and finances."

So now, because the government is so corrupt, they're going to steal more money from taxpayers to hire a public relations firm to fool people into believing they aren't that corrupt.

"Hanahan’s absence came to light in December when Nolan told a reporter covering a disciplinary hearing for DiPietro that the trustees were negotiating Hanahan’s resignation as a money-saving move."

So they're firing the guy to save money and because he doesn't show up, but...

"Trustees Mike Nolan and Deborah Preston voted 2-0 to terminate Administrator Greg Hanahan’s contract “effective immediately,” although he will be paid his salary for the rest of the year."

They're going to pay him the rest of the year even though they fired him. And guess how much he makes?

"Hanahan, who was paid $121,500 a year, plus $5,000 in deferred compensation and a $9,000 gas allowance, had been out of the office on accrued paid leave since Nov. 14."

Great work if you are willing to join the local super-mafia and steal money from your neighbors and order them around at the point of a gun. You don't even have to show up. Your enforcers will do all the dirty work.

"Residents have also taken sides over discussion of contracting with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office or creating a police district with an adjoining community, rather than funding an independent township police department following the rejection of a police levy by local voters."

Apparently locals are sick and tired of paying for local cops to strip their children naked and hose them down. Makes sense to me. They should abolish the whole government, not just the police force.

"Preston said the decision to terminate Hanahan was made between the township and Hanahan.
“It was a mutual parting of the ways,” said Preston."

I'm sure Hanahan just walked away from his high paying, absentee job. There's more to that story than is being reported. If these guys are serious about cleaning up local government, their only option is to abolish it. Every organization funded by theft and based on violence is corrupt. More on Dipietro's actions. He was alone with the girl when he hosed her down to decontaminate her from pepper spray. It was caught on surveillance cam.

"DiPietro has been deputy chief for 12 years. Before he rose to that position, he was part of two prior internal affairs investigations concerning misbehavior involving women. One of those investigations came after he and another officer each pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor."
"In 1993, DiPietro and another officer became the subjects of an internal investigation after each of them pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of trespassing, according to Dayton Daily News stories published that year. The two were accused of using a credit card to open the lock of an apartment inhabited by a female student at the Miami Twp. Police Academy after a December 1992 police association Christmas party, the Daily News reported.
DiPietro was fined, suspended without pay, had his salary docked $7,000 per year, was put on probation, ordered to perform 80 hours of community service and was demoted from sergeant to detective, the Daily News reported."

Had a non-government employee done this, you would go to jail. This guy gets off with a misdemeanor, keeps his police job and eventually gets promoted to Deputy Chief. It seems DiPietro climbed the ladder thanks to his political connections with MADD.

"In April 1996, the sheriff’s office finished a four-month investigation into the Miami Twp. Police Department, covering alleged misdeeds dating back 15 years, the Daily News reported. Examples included male officers shackling a female officer, an officer being “involved” with a female homicide suspect and an officer lying about taking a stereo from the property room."

So Miami Township police corruption is well known, ongoing problem.

"DiPietro, now re-promoted to sergeant, and two other officers were cited for improper conduct for “dating” or going to bars and other places with a prostitute while on duty. DiPietro admitted knowing that the woman “was a person with a reputation in the community for involvement in criminal behavior when he ‘dated’ her,” the report states. “He also admitted knowing that he and other police officers should not be watching a pornographic video … in the police station while on duty.”"

Ya think?

"Krug, a Dayton officer who led the internal affairs bureau, was hired to be Chief. DiPietro rose up the leadership ranks. He often appeared on local television news and also worked for a while as a part-time helicopter traffic reporter for Channel 7."

He also snuggled up with the media, not just MADD.

"Bruce Langos, Chief Operating Officer at Teradata, said he’s known DiPietro for about two years and serves with him on the board of the Humane Society of Greater Dayton.
“I find him pleasing to be around; he talks very ethically, behaves very ethically,” Langos said. “He plays a strong role in supporting businesses and residences in the Miami Twp. community … that’s a great thing to have.”"

This is a reminder that people who rise in power in government tend to be able to lie without conscience. More information from after the investigation.

"Miami Twp. Maj. John DiPietro committed six acts of improper conduct during and after the decontamination of a 17-year-old girl who had been pepper sprayed, including taking a photograph of her tattoo and sending that photo to a friend, according to the internal affairs report released Wednesday."

The report was 57 pages.

"The report offers several details that were previously undisclosed, including that the 17-year-old girl had been decontaminated twice by other officers before DiPietro took her to the sally port, that a woman officer was available but not called, and that DiPietro mentioned the incident to Krug the day it happened, but failed to say he was the one who took her to the sally port and that he did the decontamination."

It sounds like all the cops wanted to see this girl naked.

"As he left with his attorney, DiPietro, who is the deputy chief of the police department, said he was a victim of a conspiracy.
“I’ve served this agency for 26 years, I’ve done a great job,” DiPietro said. “What’s happened here is a conspiracy to me and we’ll deal with it when I come back.”"

This is what happens when somebody is singled out for corruption in a system drowning in corruption. He's just doing what he's always done and what all the other cops have always done. But he's being singled out, so he believes it's a conspiracy. He might be right. But his actions are still unethical and disgusting. He should have been fired after he broke into that woman's apartment in 1993. According to this story, the first two decontaminations sound legit. One was at by fire department at the scene of the arrest. She was dressed during the second at the police station. I have to say, the report makes this all sound less salacious though still unethical and slimy.

"There was a third person in the sally port, another girl doing community service who was washing a cruiser. As DiPietro spoke to her, the 17-year-old entered the sally port with another officer. She was wearing only a bra and underwear.
The 17-year-old told investigators that her face and lower back were burning at the time, and DiPietro told her to disrobe.
“He told me I could take all my clothes off,” she said. “I wasn’t going to take my clothes off, but since he recommended it…I was like, maybe if I wash my whole body with this soap, then my whole skin will stop burning.”
Asked about these comments, DiPietro denied that he recommended that she disrobe. In a written statement, DiPietro wrote “she took her top off and I told the community services worker to leave the area. I continued to hold the hose outward and to keep her at a distance.”
The other girl gave a written statement, in which she said that 17-year-old asked DiPietro if she could take her clothes off, and DiPietro responded “Do what you wanna do. It’s not like it’s anything we haven’t seen before.”
Asked about that, DiPietro told investigators “I don’t recall that statement,” then added “I have been doing this for 26 years. I’ve seen plenty of naked people. It is possible that I said that.”
DiPietro admitted he did nothing to stop the girl from disrobing and that he should have, the report said. He said he discovered the girl was a juvenile while she was showering in the sally port."

Three different points of view.

"Sheriff’s investigators wrote that Beatty did not believe the girl was in “obvious distress” after she was placed in the cell and “after watching the video recordings, there was no indication” that the girl was “in enough distress from the pepper spray to justify her being decontaminated for a fourth time.”"

So DiPietro thinks this guy is part of the conspiracy.

"There was a female officer present, Officer Nancy Strope who was on light duty. DiPietro said he declined to involve Strope during the decontamination because the girl had been combative during her arrest and DiPietro was concerned that Strope could get injured. Investigators noted that video footage showed that, at one point, Strope escorted the girl to a holding cell, and that DiPietro allowed Strope to interview Cooley."

Oops. Busted.

"After the girl was finished showering, DiPietro gave her small towels, usually used to clean vehicles, to dry herself. She was returned to the holding cell, covered only in those towels. A portion of the cell is glass and faces a room where employees could see her. The video recording showed that the towels did not adequately cover her."

OK. It just got super creepy again.

"“I look back at it now, and maybe somebody could have grabbed a blanket for her,” DiPietro told investigators."

Ya think? Then it gets even more creepy.

"About 15 minutes after he left the girl in the cell, DiPietro went to Leah O’Malley, the administrative assistant to Krug. O’Malley told investigators DiPietro asked her to make a DVD of what occurred in the sally port.
Shortly afterward, DiPietro came back to O’Malley’s office and said “Come here, you got to see this,” and took her to the room next to the holding cell, she told investigators.
“She had towels around her but she was butt naked,” O’Malley said. DiPietro told her to “look at this,” and O’Malley responded “John, I can’t unsee this,” and DiPietro said “I know” and walked away, according to her account.
O’Malley said she thought DiPietro was making light of the girl, the report said.
Later that day, O’Malley texted DiPietro and said “I didn’t know she was naked,” and DiPietro responded “I know…nasty.” O’Malley showed the text messages to investigators.
O’Malley said she made the DVD DiPietro requested, but she also made an additional copy and kept it, because she was concerned that the evidence would disappear, she told investigators.
Asked why he asked O’Malley to view the girl inside the cell, DiPietro said: “To explain what had happened and why I needed the video.”"

Here's what the chief's assistant had to say about corruption in the police department.

"“I’ve been here for 20 years and I have seen so much stuff happen,” said Leah O’Malley, Krug’s assistant who made a second copy of the video of the incident, in an interview with investigators. “And I knew what was going to happen with that. Nothing.”"

I'm sure DiPietro believes she's part of the conspiracy too.

"DiPietro has maintained his innocence and said in a statement released Thursday by his attorney, Richard Lipowicz, that he would be vindicated."

He also can't tell right from wrong, or at least he pretends he can't. The incident occurred on July 12. DiPietro continued to work until placed on administrative leave on Oct. 18.

"In 2000, he named DiPietro the deputy chief. DiPietro’s salary has risen from about $54,000 at that time to more than $84,000, according to township records."

Not bad.

"DiPietro continued developing a polished public persona and became one of the most well-known faces of local law enforcement. He has been honored by many organizations and received dozens of letters of thanks. It’s a persona that doesn’t match O’Malley’s characterization.
“I can prove that he does stuff and he gets away with it,” O’Malley told investigators. “If anyone else did that, we would be strung up and gone.”"

Exactly. She's a brave woman for saying so.

"When the girl was first brought into the station, another officer pointed out to DiPietro a tattoo on the girl’s lower back. DiPietro told investigators that he took a picture of that tattoo with his personal cellular phone, but the girl was at least partially clothed at the time. DiPietro also said he forwarded that photo to a female friend, but deleted it from his phone later that day."

I can't tell if he really thinks even this is OK or not.

"During an interview with investigators obtained by the Dayton Daily News, DiPietro said there was no reason to take the photo, but that it’s not uncommon: “I know it happens a lot with our officers. I don’t know that we have a policy on it or not, but certainly there probably needs to be a policy. It could be a policy failure on our part.”"

It's a common, degrading practice. It's a clear abuse of power.

"Two days later, the report said Krug received a phone call from Assistant Township Administrator Greg Rogers, who told him that administration officials had heard that people at a retirement party were discussing an incident in which DiPietro hosed down a naked girl in the sally-port, according to the report. Rogers asked Krug to investigate, Krug told investigators."

It's interesting the request for an investigation came from outside the department. None of the people who saw what happened said anything to the Chief.

"“Major DiPietro confirmed it is not common practice for Miami Township police officers to shower nude prisoners in the sally-port,” investigators wrote.
Reviewing the surveillance footage, O’Malley said she was shocked by what she had seen, adding “in all my time that has never happened.”"

If it's not commonplace, they must have been afraid of DiPietro.

"In an interview in the closed criminal investigation file, O’Malley told investigators DiPietro is the public face of the department.
“He is representing what we are, what we have worked for,” O’Malley told investigators, adding that there have been other times that DiPietro didn’t follow procedure.
“The truth never comes out,” she said. “The truth is always hidden,” O’Malley told investigators."

Brave woman. DiPietro fired.

"On Oct. 19, Krug placed DiPietro on paid administrative leave — which was superceded by Family and Medical Leave Act time at the request of Lipowicz. That’s when Krug received a 57-page internal affairs report citing six inappropriate actions concerning DiPietro’s actions during the decontamination of the girl, including taking a photo of one of the girl’s tattoos and sending it to a friend, allowing the girl to undress during the decontamination and failing to submit proper reports until ordered to by Krug."

Taxpayers have paid this guy since the incident. How does one just magically receive family and medical leave time instead?

"DiPietro, who has applied for a medical disability pension, had alleged a “conspiracy” and predicted he would be vindicated."

I guess he hurt himself while hosing her down.

"Before the disciplinary hearing resumed Wednesday DiPietro and his attorney said they were disappointed that township administrator Greg Hanahan would not be testifying.
“Since he has left the township, the attorney for the township said they would issue a subpoena for him — the township does have power subpoenas in these type of employment discipline matters,” Lipowicz said, though township officials said Hanahan was still technically an employee. “I was kind of chagrined to learn, only yesterday, that Mr. Hanahan will not be here again and the township reneged on its offer to issue a subpoena to him.”
Lipowicz would not elaborate on Hanahan’s connection to the case. Nolan has previously said Hanahan’s reported negotiated buyout was not connected to DiPietro’s situation."

It sounds like the deal the township made with Hanahan is they would allow him to just walk away as long as he didn't show up to testify about DiPietro. What is going on here? More evidence of a conspiracy. Turmoil in Miami Township.

"Former Deputy Police Chief John DiPietro was fired this week, as residents took sides over the future of the police department. Administrator Greg Hanahan and Police Chief Chris Krug remain on leave, leaving a staff — also decimated by the loss of two key administrative assistants in the past month — and a divided board of trustees to run the township."

Something is rotten in Miami Township.

"In August 2011, Nolan asked the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office for legal advice because he claimed Preston secretly recorded an executive session and was using privileged information to help opponents in an election. Preston admitted recording the meeting but said she did not share any of it."

The corruption starts at the top.

"The township’s top administrators have been out for months. Hanahan, who earns $121,500 a year, plus $5,000 in deferred compensation and a $9,000 gas allowance, has been out of the office on accrued paid leave since Nov. 14."

That's the same day that the DiPietro report was made public and the first day of his hearing.

"Krug, who earns $94,328, is expected to remain on medical leave until at least March due to knee replacement surgery."

That's not bad money either.

"Hired by Miami Twp. in 2002, Hanahan retired and was rehired as a contractor in 2005. Trustee Charles Lewis was the only member on the board at the time. Preston was fiscal officer."

He must be drawing a pension in addition to his salary.

"Last March, the township paid RG $1,544 after the Dayton Daily News revealed Nolan and Hanahan flew in May 2011 with RG President Randy Gunlock to visit an arena like one Gunlock and the township was considering developing in Miami Twp.
Ohio ethics law prohibits public officials from accepting travel from companies or individuals involved in business with the local government, according to Paul Nick, executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission.
Nolan said he went after consulting Hanahan, also a German Twp. trustee and a past president of the Ohio Township Association.
“That was a very quick call,” Hanahan said at the time. “It wasn’t a golf trip or something. It was work.”
At the time, Hanahan said he was looking out for the township’s best interest. “I know what’s right in my heart,” he said. “I’d rather not spend the township’s dollars.”
The turmoil has turned some residents like Harrington against the township.
“They don’t have the interest of the general populace at heart. I think there’s a rotten fish in the kettle somewhere,” Harrington said."

More corruption. So Hanahan would rather not spend township dollars. Then how come he drawing a salary and a pension? More on Hanahan.

"The township administrator, Greg Hanahan, has been on accrued paid leave since Nov. 14 while in negotiations over his contract. In December, Nolan confirmed Hanahan planned to leave his position a year before his contract expires."

It sure is suspicious that this coincides exactly with the DiPietro hearing.

Here's part of the county commissioners' economic plan.

"The County Commissioners also plan to increase ED/GE funds from $2 million to $2.5 million in 2013, with a $1 million designated to support small businesses."

They're going to take more than $2.5 million out of the economy, waste bunch of it on themselves and bureaucrats, then inject $2.5 million back into the economy, and they want us to believe that benefits us. It doesn't. It can't.