Category: random

Two Las Vegas police officers and a civilian were shot and killed by a pair of suspects armed with rifles before one of the shooters shot her partner dead before taking her own life.

The male and female shooters stormed a North Las Vegas Cici’s Pizza location Sunday morning, killing the two patrolmen as they ate lunch, before stealing their weapons and running to the Walmart across the street. Witnesses say the pair also shouted ‘tell the police the revolution has begun.’

The two suspects then shot a bystander to death who is believed to have been carrying a concealed firearm and had opened fire on them as they ran into the Walmart. The bystander’s body was found just inside the front door to the store.

The suspects then shouted at everyone to leave the store and continued to claim a revolution had begun. The two suspects then exchanged about 20 shots with SWAT officers.

The two officers killed are identified as Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo.

Police have not established if the incidents were a series of random acts or part of a larger movement possibly targeting police officers. The investigation is ongoing.

In September 2011, a man armed with an AK-47 opened fire in an IHOP restaurant in Carson City, killing five people, including himself and three Army National Guard soldiers, and wounding seven others.

06/09/14 UPDATE: Las Vegas police say they are looking into whether the two suspects in the shooting deaths of the two officers had been at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch during a standoff earlier this year. Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the two suspects, Jerad Miller and his wife, Amanda, had ideology that was along the lines of “militia and white supremacists.”

The couple was from Indiana. Officials say they also had plans to take over a courthouse and execute public officials.

The Clark County coroner’s office says Joseph Wilcox of Las Vegas died as he tried to stop the suspects. He was shot and killed by the female gunman.

My son and I went for a weekend dig. It was a university­ sponsored event and he found a Chinese coin dating to the late 19th century. The head of the operation said that he could keep the find since they had over a thousand of them from the site.

My little man was very proud of himself. It seemed to spark an interest in archeology for him as he jabbered all the way home about this method of digging verses that method of digging. To me I only know of one way of digging, so I was actually learning something here.

Later that night he asked if I had a chain so that he might put his coin around his neck. I gave him the chain from my old military dog tags.

The following day I to take him home to his mother. Four days later I picked him up and I noticed he wasn’t wearing his coin on his neck. I waited until he was in the car and we were out of the driveway before I asked where it was.

He told me that his mother didn’t want him wearing it any more because it didn’t ‘t represent Jesus. I instantly felt angry, but I managed to keep my mouth shut for the sake of my son.

Later that evening, he and I sat down and had a little discussion. He wanted to know if wearing the coin around his neck was the same as ‘idol worshipping?’

I told him that it was not. I explained that idol worshipping was when a person starts ‘putting’ something before Jesus, like money, work, or even worry.

This is when my son’s understanding and wisdom knocked my socks off. He looked at me and asked, “Then a golden cross full of diamonds could be an idol even though it represents Jesus, right?”

I had to sit and think about that for a moment. I answered, “Yes.”

Then he reminded me, “After all the original cross was made by man.”

There is a story finding its way around Facebook claiming President Obama and Vice-president Biden are a couple of rubes, who know nothing of the West. Though funny, it isn’t true.

“For those of you who have never traveled to the west, or southwest, cattle guards are horizontal steel rails placed at fence openings, in dug-out places in the roads adjacent to highways — sometimes across highways — to prevent cattle from crossing over that area.

For some reason the cattle will not step on the “guards,” probably because they fear getting their feet caught between the rails.

A few months ago, President Obama received and was reading a report that there were over 100,000 cattle guards in Colorado. The Colorado ranchers had protested his proposed changes in grazing policies, so he ordered the Secretary of the Interior to fire half of the “cattle” guards immediately!

Before the Secretary of the Interior could respond and presumably try to straighten President Obama out on the matter, Vice-President Joe Biden, intervened with a request that — before any “cattle” guards were fired, they be given six months of retraining. ‘Times are hard,’ said Biden, ‘It’s only fair to the cattle guards and their families be given six months of retraining!

And these two guys are running our country.”

The original “cattle guard” piece was simply a joke that more than a few credulous readers were willing to believe as a true story. Where the tale actually began is anybody’s guess, but a February 1995 article took a stab at identifying its putative origins:

The Pinedale Roundup, Pinedale, Wyoming became the latest newspaper to fall for a joke originated in the Billings Gazette.

Gary Svee, opinion editor for the Billings Gazette, said the paper ran the item in a section reserved each Friday for puns and jokes. But believes someone picked it up and ran it seriously.

Svee said he has heard the item had run in numerous papers throughout the West.

Others say it a take-up of a joke from the early 1950s. And this could very well be true.

Former Texas state senator Kent Hance, for example, has been known to tell the following story:

“I was on a ranch in Dimmitt during my high school days, and a guy drove up and asked for directions to the next ranch. I said, ‘Go north five miles, turn and go east five miles, then turn again after you pass a cattle guard.’

As the guy turned around, I noticed he had Connecticut license plates. He stopped and said, ‘Just one more question. What color uniform will that cattle guard be wearing?’”

A Russian fighter jet threatened an American reconnaissance plane in international airspace over the Sea of Okhotsk, which lies off Russia’s east coast, north of Japan.

“On the afternoon of April 23, a U.S. Air Force RC-135U flying in international airspace on a routine mission over the sea of Okhotsk was intercepted by a single Russian Su-27 Flanker,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said. “The Su-27 approached the RC-135 across the nose of the U.S. aircraft within approximately 100 feet.”

While the U.S. aircraft did not take evasive measures, the Russian pilot exposed its belly to the American crew as a way of showing that it was armed. It is the latest source of concern for U.S. officials since a heightening of U.S.-Russian tensions following Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine.

The RC-135U is a highly specialized reconnaissance plane equipped with communications gear designed to find and identify foreign military radar signals on land, at sea and in the air. Their crews, composed of two pilots, one navigator, two airborne systems engineers, at least 10 electronic warfare officers and six or more technical and other specialists.

The showdown was video-recorded by the aircrew.

Disclosure of the U.S.-Russian aerial faceoff comes as the Obama administration approved Russia’s use of upgraded sensors on planes used to fly over sensitive U.S. and allied military installations in Europe under the 1992 Open Skies Treaty, last week. The treaty permits flights using four types of sensors: optical panoramic and framing cameras, video cameras with real-time display, infrared line-scanning devices, and sideways-looking synthetic aperture radar.

The fiscal 2015 defense authorization bill has a provision that would prohibit using any funds to certify the upgraded Russian aircraft sensors. The provision blocks certification unless the Pentagon and intelligence leaders certify to Congress that the digital equipment “will not enhance the capability or potential of the Russian Federation to gather intelligence that poses an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States.”

It also would link new equipment approval under Open Skies to a requirement that Russia is no longer illegally occupying Ukrainian territory and is no longer violating the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

“The committee is committed to effective and complete compliance with the Treaty on Open Skies, provided such compliance is not allowed to become a threat to the national security of the United States,” the bill says.

Four members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence — two Republicans and two Democrats — also expressed opposition to the sensor upgrade. The senators wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry earlier this year urging him to “carefully evaluate the ramifications of certification on future Open Skies observation flights.”

The State Department, the agency leading the Obama administration’s arm control-centered agenda, pushed for the aircraft certification in a bid to protect the treaty, even though Russia has violated several of its provisions. The agency’s own 2013 report on arms compliance said the Russians are violating the treaty by restricting spy flights over parts of Moscow, Chechnya, and near the Russian border with Georgia, closing airfields and failing to provide proper film in violation of the treaty.

The Russian violation of international airspace contrasts sharply with the Obama administration’s insistence on pursuing legal international arms agreements with Russia as a way to win Moscow’s favor. Officials call the treaty a confidence-building measure that allows legal spying on military sites.

“It contributes to European security by providing images and information on Russian forces, and by permitting observation flights to verify compliance with arms control agreements,” a White House statement said.

In mid-April a Russian Su-24 flew as close as 1,000 yards from USS Donald Cook at an altitude of only 500 feet. The fighter made up to 12 passes near the destroyer and failed to respond to radio contact made by the ship.

A second Su-24 in the region did not engage the destroyer.

The Su-24 fly by follows accusations from Russia that the U.S. violated the so-called 1936 Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits. Those rules call for warships from countries with out a coast on the Black Sea to leave after 21 days.

The Cook entered the Black Sea on a presence mission to reassure U.S. allies following the Russian invasion of Crimea. The ship is armed with a ballistic missile defense variant of the Aegis combat system and is designed to intercept and destroy rogue ballistic missiles as well as aircraft.

The Cook did not go to battle stations during the incident which lasted about 90 minutes.

New Mexico has a new ‘wilderness area’ containing 500,000 acres known as the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. It’s located next to the Mexican border and has five mountain ranges with prehistoric rock art and more recent historic sites such as a training area for the Apollo astronauts.

The Bureau of Land Management will oversee control of the land. About half of the land is to be set aside, meaning it will be closed to vehicles and construction.

The agreement remains controversial for both sides of the immigration debate.

“This is about opposing so many thousands of acres that is going to create nothing more than a pathway for criminals to get into this country to do their criminal acts,” said Dona Ana County Sheriff Todd Garrison.

“My fear is these areas will be used more than they are now because they’ll have access to it that will be private and closed off to every law-abiding citizen,” the sheriff said. “I believe this monument will hamper law enforcement’s ability to effectively patrol the area we need to patrol.”

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency refuted the claim that the designation would threaten border security.

“This designation will in no way limit our ability to perform our important border security mission, and in fact provides important flexibility as we work to meet this ongoing priority,” said spokeswoman Jenny Burke. “CBP is committed to continuing to work closely with the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service to maintain border security while ensuring the protection of the environment along the border.”

Administration officials said the declaration will merge a 2006 agreement between the Interior Department and the Homeland Security Department that allows U.S. Border Patrol some access to the land. That agreement prevents most routine patrols through wilderness, though it does allow them to continue to follow smugglers in hot pursuit.

Congressman Rob Bishop, of Utah argues the environmental restrictions will continue hurt the Border Patrol’s ability to do its job and sent a letter to Mr. Obama asking him to hold off until the border can be controlled.

“It’s irresponsible to focus efforts on new land designations rather than finding solutions to existing criminal activities plaguing the border,” the congressman wrote.

Bishop pointed to a case in which a National Park Service employee at Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona detailed the vicious attack she suffered at the hands of an illegal immigrant. Authorities said the man smashed her head into a metal bathroom door and hit her head with a rock, striking so hard that the rock broke.

“By creating this monument, President Obama is ensuring a pathway to get drugs into the country” said Zack Taylor, Chairman of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers.

Taylor, a 26-year border security veteran, pointed out that one of the most dangerous cities in the world, Juarez, Mexico, is right across the New Mexico border. Impeding law enforcement near this section of the border could allow Juarez’s cartels and violence to enter the U.S. with ease.

“This is the wrong place to put a monument,” Taylor said. “The New Mexico border has no river–it’s just an imaginary line. If criminal illegal aliens can walk across the border and into the sanctuary area, they will use that land for criminal activity and use it extensively. Everything surrounding the monument is in peril.”

“Who benefits form this more than the cartels?” Taylor asked. “The people who live there don’t benefit, law enforcement doesn’t benefit, the sheriffs don’t benefit. The only people who benefit from this monument are illegal immigrants brining drugs into this country.

Environmentalists say we’re protecting this land by shutting people out, but we’re actually doing the opposite.”

Conservationists and tourism businesses have been pushing for the designation, hoping it will bring more visitors.

“The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument will help protect our way of life while allowing for responsible development and expanding opportunities for all Americans to enjoy the beauty and multi-cultural history of this unique landscape,” Billy Garrett, Dona Ana County Commission chairman, said in a statement.

The half-million-acre proposal also has the backing of the state’s U.S. senators.

“An Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument will preserve important cultural links to our past and strengthen southern New Mexico’s economy by boosting tourism and recreational opportunities, like hunting, hiking, camping, and horseback riding,” Senator Martin Heinrich said in a statement.

The New Mexico wilderness area is Obama’s second designation this year. In March, he added 1,600 acres in the Point Arena-Stornetta region to the California Coastal National Wilderness Area established by President Bill Clinton in 2000.

Life-long Klamath, California resident Pam Collins passed away May 29, 2014. Born March 4, 1943 to Pernie and Ernest “Mike” Benedict, she married Tom Collins, June 25, 1960.

We used to go with our folks to visit ‘Grandma’ Pernie and ‘Grandpa’ Mike. Her brother was better known as ‘Uncle Ron,’ to me and my siblings, since he used to come to the house for dinner before he got married.

Lori and I attended school together at both Margaret Keating School and then Del Norte High. One time Mike was over at our house because Mom was babysitting him, and after irritating me with his constant teasing, I threatened to hang him on the wall by his thumbs.

When Pam found out what I said, she was ready to skin me alive. I don’t think Mom ever watched Mike again after that.

Pam’s survived by her husband Tom; her children Lori, Michael, and Joel.  She was preceded in death by her parents and brother.

Colorado law has trumped the individual liberty of ‘freedom of religion,’ as guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution, by forcing a man to bake a cake for a homosexual wedding, then making his employees take anti-discrimination training. The same thing is happening in Oregon.

The State of Michigan is now in charge of all children between the age of 12 and 17 years – and parents can go ‘suck wind.’

There was a real chill as President Barack Obama told the Class of 2014s United States Military Academy at West Point that fighting “climate change” will “help shape your time in uniform.

“Keep in mind, not all international norms relate directly to armed conflict,” Obama said. “We have a serious problem with cyber-attacks, which is why we’re working to shape and enforce rules of the road to secure our networks and our citizens.

“In the Asia Pacific, we’re supporting Southeast Asian nations as they negotiate a code of conduct with China on maritime disputes in the South China Sea,” he added. “And we’re working to resolve these disputes through international law.”

“That spirit of cooperation,” Obama continued, “needs to energize the global effort to combat climate change–a creeping national security crisis that will help shape your time in uniform, as we are called on to respond to refugee flows and natural disasters and conflicts over water and food, which is why next year I intend to make sure America is out front in putting together a global framework to preserve our planet.”

“You see, American influence is always stronger when we lead by example,” Obama included. “We can’t exempt ourselves from the rules that apply to everybody else. We can’t call on others to make commitments to combat climate change if a whole lot of our political leaders deny that it’s taking place.”

While Obama views climate change as a national security crisis, many Army officers will not have learned about it during their time at West Point. For example, cadets who take Environmental Engineering courses will study “air pollution concerns such as global climate change, acid rain and smog.”

In fact, the phrase “climate change” is mentioned only six times in the U.S. Military Academy’s course catalog for the class of 2016 and one meteorology course includes “a brief look at climate and climate change.”

Another course, ‘Environmental Security,’ offers a “case study approach” to environmental issues affecting national security, including “global climate change.” Finally an ‘International Organizations and Institutions, course includes the option of studying “the Kyoto Protocol/other Climate Change institutions.”

More frightening than Obama’s lack of knowledge about the USMA’s actual syllabus is how he views the nation’s standing in the world.

“It is absolutely true that in the 21st century, American isolationism is not an option,” Obama said. “Since World War II, some of our most costly mistakes came not from our restraint, but from our willingness to rush into military adventures — without thinking through the consequences; without building international support and legitimacy for our action, or leveling with the American people about the sacrifice required.”

“Here’s my bottom line: America must always lead on the world stage,” Obama claimed. “If we don’t, no one else will. The military that you have joined is, and always will be, the backbone of that leadership. But U.S. military action cannot be the only – or even primary – component of our leadership in every instance. Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail.”

He spoke of terrorism saying it remains the largest threat facing the U.S. and how he has asked Congress for $5 billion to fund new counterterrorism partnerships.

“These resources will give us flexibility to fulfill different missions, including training security forces in Yemen who have gone on the offensive against Al Qaeda; supporting a multinational force to keep the peace in Somalia; working with European allies to train a functioning security force and border patrol in Libya; and facilitating French operations in Mali,” he said.

Obama added that he did not want to commit the American military to Syria, but believes other actions can be taken to support the rebels.

“With the additional resources I’m announcing today, we will step up our efforts to support Syria’s neighbors — Jordan and Lebanon; Turkey and Iraq — as they host refugees, and confront terrorists working across Syrian borders,” Obama said. “I will work with Congress to ramp up support for those in the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to terrorists.”

In calling for multilateral action, he attacked the opposition to the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST.)

“It’s a lot harder to call on China to resolve its maritime disputes under the Law of the Sea Convention when the United States Senate has refused to ratify it,” he complained, ‘despite the repeated insistence of our top military leaders that the treaty advances our national security. That’s not leadership; that’s retreat.”

LOST is an agreement drawn up by the United Nations and ratified by 162 countries and the European Union that governs the oceans. The treaty has been described as a “constitution of the oceans” and was negotiated in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The U.S. signed the treaty in 1994 but hasn’t ratified it. In 2010, Obama adopted the recommendations of the Ocean Policy Task Force, but fortunately two-years later the U.S. Senate voted it down.

Obama also returned to his broken promise to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center and talked about the NSA data gathering.

“I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being,” Obama claimed. “But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it’s our willingness to affirm them through our actions,”

“That’s why I will continue to push to close Gitmo — because American values and legal traditions don’t permit the indefinite detention of people beyond our borders,” he continued. “That’s why we are putting in place new restrictions on how America collects and uses intelligence – because we will have fewer partners and be less effective if a perception takes hold that we are conducting surveillance against ordinary citizens. America does not simply stand for stability, or the absence of conflict, no matter what the price; we stand for the more lasting peace that can only come through opportunity and freedom for people everywhere.”

Obama’s approval rating among those serving in the military is only 32 percent and the ongoing VA scandal, like his commencement speech at West Point, won’t help that figure improve.

President Barack Obama’s “Summit on Concussions,’ suggests another progressive president’s attempt to ‘protect players from injury.’ Theodore Roosevelt hosted a similar summit on October 9th, 1905 at the White House for coaches and other representatives of the top football powers at the time: the teams from Harvard, Princeton and Yale.

TR claimed to love the game because he believed it toughened the men who played it, but he knew things had gotten out of hand.

“Football is on trial,” he told the conference attendees. “Because I believe in the game, I want to do all I can to save it.”

There was no forward pass in those days, and the only way to move the ball down the field was to use brute force, which in that era of minimal protective gear meant that severe injuries occurred regularly. Some wanted to ban the sport.

Retired University of Nevada, Reno President Joe Crowley writes in his 2005 book, ‘In the Arena the NCAA’s First Century,’ “The 18 fatalities and 149 serious injuries of the 1905 season brought critics out in force. Condemnations from the press were plentiful.”

Roosevelt’s intervention didn’t have an immediate effect, but after more prodding by from the president, reforms were accepted in 1906. They included legalizing the forward pass, abolishing mass formations that caused dangerous pile ups, and creating a neutral zone between offense and defense.

One-hundred and eight years later, in August 2013, the National Football League reached a tentative $765 million settlement over concussion-related brain injuries among its 18,000 retired players. This came after a number of high-profile former players sued claiming their neurological problems stem from on-field concussions and that the league hid the known risks.

Earlier in January of the same year, while speaking on the same subject, Obama stated that if he had a son, he’d “have to think long and hard” before letting him play because of the physical toll the game takes. Then last month he took offense when Carl Rove suggested Hillary Clinton had a ‘traumatic brain injury,’ following a fall she took in December 2012.

During his summit, Obama claimed to have played tackle football. While playing he said that he may-or-may-not have been left him with a concussion.

The national media has made a great effort to show how active the President is by providing video and stories of his athletic skills. Since taking office we have learned Obama can swim, golf, ride a bicycle, play basketball, bowl, throw a football and a baseball, shoot a shot-gun and kick a soccer ball.

Yet neither of his autobiographies, ‘Dreams of My Father,’ and ‘Audacity of Hope,’ mention this fact. The only sport Obama claims to have played is basketball on his high school’s varsity team.

But what is being overlooked by the media is a report from the U.S. General Accounting Office, which states traumatic brain injury, (TBI) “has emerged as a leading injury among service members” serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Though it’s hard to know the total number of soldiers dealing with TBIs, the 2011 RAND Corporation’s report, ‘Invisible Wounds of War,’ suggested about 320,000 soldiers have experienced a TBI since October 2001.

Breaking that number down, it’s possible as many as 40,000 U.S. service members have sustained TBI’s while deployed. The RAND Corporation’s report also revealed the absence of care for service members is 57% of those who may have experienced a TBI were never evaluated by a physician for a brain injury.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Inspector General has found 1,700 veterans have been left to wait for care from at least one VA hospital. The scope of the inquiry is widening, with 42 VA medical centers across the country now under investigation for possible abuse of scheduling practices, according to the report.

Note the dichotomy.