Category: random

Three students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are murdered and their deaths used as propaganda.  The victims, all members of the Muslim faith, Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife, Yusor Mohammad, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, were shot and killed by Craig Hicks.

Although the shooter’s motive is unclear, the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a statement noting the possible connection between Hicks’s anti-religion statements and the religious affiliation of the victims.

“Based on the brutal nature of this crime, the past anti-religion statements of the alleged perpetrator, the religious attire of two of the victims, and the rising anti-Muslim rhetoric in American society, we urge state and federal law enforcement authorities to quickly address speculation of a possible bias motive in this case,” the statement read.

Their deaths also gave rise to the hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter and #chapelhillshooting.

A Facebook post alleged to belong to Hicks has been widely shared online, including: “When it comes to insults, your religion started this, not me. If your religion kept its big mouth shut, so would I.”

Hicks is reportedly a member of groups including “Friends of Freedom from Religion Foundation,” “Atheism on Youtube,” and a fan of renown atheist Richard Dawkins’ book, “The God Delusion.”

Again — no one has been able to confirm the authenticity of the post or his Facebook page. Meanwhile, police have charged Hicks with three counts of first-degree murder, but have yet to confirm the shooting as a hate crime.

Police spokesman Lt. Joshua Mecimore said a preliminary investigation indicates the crime was “motivated by an ongoing neighbor dispute over parking” and that Hicks is cooperating with investigators.

However, bowing to pressure, Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue added in a press release, “Our investigators are exploring what could have motivated Mr. Hicks to commit such a senseless and tragic act. We understand the concerns about the possibility that this was hate-motivated and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case.”

Samsung’s Smart TV appears to be too smart for our own good. The boilerplate language in its instruction booklet seems blasé, until:

“Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third-party through your use of Voice Recognition.”

The warning’s adding fuel to the debate over how much control humans are willing to give up to automation for the sake of convenience. Artificial intelligence is an increasingly hot topic, with guys like Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates warning about the unintended consequences of unchecked ‘smart technology.’

This isn’t anything new as smart meters are gathering unencrypted data that can, among other details, show when a homeowner is away from their residence for long periods of time. The electric wattage readings can even decipher what type of activities a customer’s engaged in, such as watching TV, using a computer or even how long someone spends cooking.

It’s also well-known that smart-phones are collecting information for marketing purposes. However less known is that some gathered data is not only being sent to the federal government, but overseas to countries like China.

Add to this the knowledge that thermostats, refrigerators, automobiles and even some toilets are now designed to interact with human beings. They can, through their computerized systems, collected data that’s designed to ‘make life better,’ for people.

Recently, my wife’s former roommate’s husband, Dan Kaufman appeared on ’60-Minutes.’  Known as ‘DARPA Dan,’ he’s the head of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Information Innovation Office.

“So the fear is as everything becomes networked, right– so first, maybe they can mess with the refrigerator,” Kaufman told Lesley Stahl. “You think, “Well, that’s bad. It’s not that horrible.””

“But that refrigerator, of course, as everything becomes networked, well maybe that also happens to talk to your garage door,” he adds.

“There’s always a dark side and it’s something we wrestle with tremendously,” Kaufman finally warns.

Now, back to Samsung’s Smart TV — you can disable the TV’s voice feature. But as the TV learns, it’s possible it could ‘learn’ to enable that same feature even after it’s been turned off.

Until then jus’ don’t say or do anything around it you wouldn’t want heard or seen by “Big Brother.”

He died December 22, 2014 after being struck by two vehicles as he was walking on a crosswalk in front of the Bonanza Casino in Reno, Nevada. Vincent Yowell was only 54-years-old.

A woman driving the first car pulled over and called for help before the second car ran over him. The second driver told detectives he thought he had hit an animal.

Vincent was born and grew up in Elko and graduated from Reno High School. He enjoyed walking for exercise, tribal pow-wows and rodeos where he would greet everyone with a smile and a hug.

He was known to me on two fronts; first as a driver for the local para-transit outfit and then as a radio jock. His death really hit the local broadcasting community hard as he was always at our local events.

Vince is one of a dozen people killed in the past 15-years trying to cross the dark, wide stretch of North Virginia Street between McCarran and Panther. Five of those people, including Vince,  died crossing in front of the Bonanza Casino.

Finally, the state is going to do something about this dangerous stretch of roadway by installing a traffic signal where he died. The decision came after Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, who also knew Vince, reprimanded Nevada Department of Transportation for not acting sooner.

Sandoval personally knew Vince.

As one person wrote in the Reno Gazette-Journal, “Vincent, I hope you get your ‘Awful-Awful’s’ wherever you are.” I couldn’t agree more.

The mother of James Foley — the first American hostage beheaded by ISIS — says the alleged death of Kayla Mueller is proof the Obama administration is doing nothing to rescue U.S. hostages from ISIS/ISIL. Diane Foley, whose son was killed last August, says ‘nothing was done’ to save those in captivity.

“We were always told to trust that Jim was the highest priority and that our government was doing all it could and I really found no evidence of that,” Foley told ABC News. “Instead we were kind of told just to trust and that did not work out well. I shouldn’t have trusted. We regret not having done more privately ourselves.”

In an August 29, 2014 post titled, “The Raid that Never Happened,” I pointed out:

“Oddly enough, the Syrian government has remained quiet about the deadly raid. However, the second the Obama administration announced plans to over-fly Syria to look for ISIS/ISIL activities, the Syrian foreign minister threw a fit saying such actions would be considered an act of aggression.

It doesn’t make sense. That’s because it’s all smoke and mirrors meant to deflect any criticism Obama incurred from callously returning to the links instead of the White House.”

Now, add to this what intelligence and counterterrorism senior staff writer Sean D. Naylor reports in the online magazine, “Foreign Policy.”

“The parents of an American woman being held hostage by the Islamic State did not want the U.S. military to launch a risky mission to rescue her,” Naylor writes, “and instead asked that her release be negotiated, according to a military official familiar with the discussions.”

Mueller was taken hostage August 4, 2013 and had been held alongside other prisoners — some of who’ve been beheaded. Her identity was not widely known until ISIS/ISIL said she died.

The White House has since confirmed Mueller’s death, though it remains unclear when or how she was killed.

Meanwhile, Jordanian officials say no air raids occurred over Raqqa, Jordan, where she was being held, at the time ISIS/ISIL claims Mueller died. They dismissed the statement as “criminal propaganda,” while U.S. officials say they haven’t not seen any evidence to corroborate the report.

ISIS/ISIL threatened to kill Mueller last summer. They set a deadline of August 13, for a ransom of nearly $7 million to be paid to prevent her execution.

This is what happens when an entire administration disregards the long-standing precedents of “not negotiating with terrorists” and “leaving no one behind.”

Five Reno, Nevada police officers are in Ukraine for two-months to help train Kiev’s police force, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported on February 4, 2015. The department was identified as a participant through former Reno Assistant Chief Ron Glensor, who is now with the U.S. Department of Justice’s International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP.)

What is bothersome about this is the fact that organization is a well sourced front for the Central Intelligence Agency. During the 1990’s ICITAP began providing the agency with ‘official cover’ to infiltrate foreign police agencies when it began its first operations in Panama following the U.S. military invasion.

As Strategic Culture Foundation’s Wayne Madsen writes:

“Operations were then expanded to Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Georgia, Croatia, Serbia, Armenia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Macedonia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Albania, Liberia, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, South Africa, and Iraq. ICITAP and CIA operations were closely linked in counter-narcotics/insurgency operations in Bolivia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize, and Haiti.”

“In August 1999, ‘The Progressive’ magazine reported that, “Janice Stromsen, a career employee of the Justice Department who served as ICITAP’s director, resisted the program’s takeover by CIA elements,” Madsen points out. “In February (1999,) Stromsen was relieved of her duties after complaining to the Justice Department Inspector General that ICITAP was being used by the CIA to recruit agents among foreign police officials.”

“ICITAP grew out of a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) program started in the early 1960s that saw U.S. police officers assigned to foreign police agencies for the purpose of training,” adds Madsen. “However, it soon became obvious the CIA was using the USAID program to gain influence over foreign police agencies to combat Soviet and Chinese influence.”

Kiev police candidates face a four-stage process that includes a test of general skills, physical agility, psychological profiling, and a face-to-face interview.  The selection and training will be supervised by those five Reno Police officers.

The Reno Police Department is the first police department in the U.S. to be selected for such a mission. The Department of Justice is footing the entire bill for the mission.

UPDATE 02/25/15:  The Reno City Council has voted to bring back the five Reno Police officers who are training police officers in Kiev, Ukraine. The council was initially told the Department of Justice would be picking up the tab; it turned out the city was paying their salaries.

Senate Democrats halted a Republican attempt to pass legislation that would defund President Obama’s executive action on immigration. After a brief debate, the Senate voted 51-48, with every Democrat and one Republican, Nevada’s Senator Dean Heller, voting against it.

Listening to those 51 Senators, because of this immigration battle, the Department of Homeland Security hangs in the balance and without action by February 27, the department will disappear. The same thing happened in the fall of 2013 during a 16-day government-wide shutdown, that left our national parks and monuments dosed, but the DHS running.

Most people working for the Secret Service, the Transportation Security Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard will continue operating. And while some employees may not get paid until a funding bill’s passed, others funded by fees, instead of by congressional appropriations, would continue their functions while still drawing a paycheck.

So what would stop during in a shutdown?

Mostly administrative staff would be furloughed. This includes support workers at DHS headquarters, Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, research and development employees, those responsible for operating and maintaining the E-Verify system and staff who make grants to state and local governments.

The President’s plan will protect about 11 million illegal aliens from deportations. His plan will also allow illegal immigrants trained in high-tech fields to enter and stay in the U.S. and it changes rules on how foreign entrepreneurs can get a visa.

Meanwhile, 26 states are suing the federal government over Obama’s executive actions on immigration, including Nevada – though Nevada’s two Senators, Harry Reid and Dean Heller are failing to back their home state.

Born in Ferndale, California, Don Clausen and serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1963 to 1983, died February 7, 2015. He was born April 27, 1923 and graduated from Ferndale elementary and high schools, enrolling in the Naval Aviation Cadet program at St. Mary’s College after the U.S. entered World War II, going on to serve as a 4FU Corsair pilot in the Pacific theater.

Following the war, he served as a member of the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors from 1955 to 1962. During that time, Don started a flight school and ambulance/charter service at the Del Norte County Airport, where the terminal still bears his name, as well as an aviation program at Del Norte High School.

While in congress, he served on the Public Works and Transportation and the Insular Affairs committees.  His work Congressional included creating the Redwood National Park in 1968, and later expanding it in 1978, securing funding for both the Klamath and Eel rivers, creating the King Range National Recreation Area, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and establishing the 200-mile off-shore fishing limit.

After Don left congress, President Ronald Regan appointed him to the Department of Transportation where he worked as the Director of Special Projects with the Federal Aviation Administration, remaining there until 1990, and moving to Fortuna shortly afterwards.

Don was preceded in death by his wife of 63 years, Jessie. He’s survived by daughters Dawn Marie Baumbartner of Ferndale and Bev Mendenhall of Kenne, Texas.

The schooner ‘Martha’, piloted by Captain Olsen, tried to cross a sand bar at the mouth of the Klamath River the morning of October 25, 1926. Loggers from the ‘Bull & Dunn Cedar Company’ quit work early to help pull the ‘Martha’ from the bar.

She floated free, but before she could get under away, she became caught by an incoming wave. Again she came ashore, but this time on the south beach.

Freed again and again driven into the sand bar, a final effort succeeded in freeing the ‘Martha.’ Once off the sand bar, the schooner returned deeper water and headed up the coast towards Crescent City.

During the time the ‘Martha’ blocked the river’s mouth, she caused the waters to back up until it covered the south bank of the Klamath, where cars drove onto the ferry. As soon as the ‘Martha’ broke free, the backed-up river rushed out through the channel.

But before that happened, several motorists turned around and drove back to a recently built road leading to the Douglas Bridge. And though dedicated six-months earlier, the bridge was not officially opened to traffic, but motorists drove across it anyway.

Frank Bosch ran the ferry until the Douglas Bridge officially opened to traffic. The ferry then went out of business.

President Obama and his administration continue to refuse to admit that ISIS/ISIL’s coupled to radical Islam. But there is more evidence to prove jus’ the opposite.

Recently, ISIS/ISIL burned a Jordanian pilot, and then they buried him in a massive pile of rubble. But why would they do this?

First, we need to know what the Quran states about punishment:

“O you who believe, qiṣāṣ has been prescribed for you in cases of murder … But if any remission is made by the brother of the slain, then grant any reasonable demand, and compensate him with handsome gratitude, this is a concession and a mercy from your Lord. After this whoever exceeds the limits shall be in grave penalty.”  Quran — 2:178

As Niaz A. Shah, senior lecturer in law at the University of Hull, in England, writes, there are a couple of ways Sharia law provides for a murder victim’s relatives to get justice.

“The Quran provides two options to deal with someone who is found guilty of intentional murder: qiṣāṣ (i.e. that he/she be killed in the manner in which the victim was murdered) and forgiveness by the heir/s of the victim,” writes Shah. “The conditions for the second option are that the victim’s heir/s are required to ask for ‘fair’ diyat (blood money) and the guilty person is obligated to pay diyat in a ‘good’ way.”

Qiṣāṣ is an Islamic term meaning ‘equal retaliation’ or ‘revenge.’

In this case, according to ISIS/ISIL, the pilot burned his ‘victims,’ by dropping bombs on them, burying them in ‘rubble,’ and in return, the radical Islamists did the same. However they failed the Prophet when they fore went the second option of “mercy,” and “a ‘good’ way.”

Following basic training I was assigned to Brooks Air Force Base for technical schooling. I simply took a Blue Bird from the back gate of Lackland right onto my newest assignment in San Antonio, Texas.

In a group full of  young, excitable men, were three women. One of those women was a young lady by the name of Jane.

What attracted me to Jane was her bright red hair. She was sitting alone at a table in the enlisted man’s club, watching television, when I asked if I could join her.

I had two beers with me as I sat down across from her at the table, offering her one, which she accepted.

After finishing a second beer each, she and I decided to clear or buzzed-heads with a walk. We left the club, crossed the common and the main roadway to the base’s golf course.

The moon, while not a full one, was bright as we wandered from green to sand-trap to water hazard. It was also a warm night, which made the evening walk all that more pleasant.

Jane asked if I’d like to go with her to her barracks room, to sit and talk some more. I jumped at the chance, thinking I was going to somehow get luck and get laid.

She was being house in the Base Airman’s Quarters at the time, as the women’s third floor dormitory was full. So her living arrangement seemed much more upscale than what I had, especially since she had a real closet, a full-size bed and a private bathroom with a bathtub-shower.

Since it was a non-duty day, we sat up chatting and listening to her new album, “The Dog and the Butterfly,” by Heart. It eventually grew so late (or perhaps early) that I started to excuse myself to head back to my room for some much-needed sleep.

It was somewhat surprising then, when Jane suggested I stay with her. I was even more surprised when she invited me into her bed.

We cuddled up next to each other and both fell fast asleep. The sun was already high in the sky when I awakened.

I couldn’t help myself as I felt her pressing against me, waking me by gently kissing me on the neck.

Before I realized it, we were making out and that evolved into heavy petting. But I must have gone too far, too fast.

“What in the hell are you trying to do?” Jane screeched, “Get me pregnant?”

I immediately stopped and back away from her.

My mind was racing: had I confused her signal to me or something? I didn’t know until she kicked at me through the covers.

“You should go,” she commanded.

As quickly as I could, I pulled on my jeans and shirt. I didn’t bother to put on my shoes as I just wanted to get away from her cold stare.

I felt embarrassed and ashamed, although I had no idea why.

Once outside, I stopped, slipped on my shoes, then raced towards my barracks. I was hurt by her sudden jilting and it left me angry — at her and more over at myself, for my ignorance about women.

For the remaining nine-weeks I had left in tech-school, I did everything I could to avoid her. She eventually started keeping company with another guys in class.

Later. a tech-sergeant, who was our course supervisor, surprised me one afternoon by bringing Jane up in a conversation. I guess my moodiness over the sudden rejection was clear to him, though I thought I was hiding it fairly well.

“What did you seen in her?” he asked.

My answer was simple, “Her bright red hair.”