Good-guy-with-a-gun shoots family dog during child's birthday party.

A 5-year-old's birthday party took a grisly turn on Saturday after her family's dog escaped from the yard and was shot by an armed pedestrian.

Emily Martinez recalls hearing a gunshot after her dog Clifford jumped a fence during her daughter's party, The Denver Post reported. The family poured into the street and found a stranger, apparently walking his own dog, standing over the family pet, still brandishing a gun.

According to neighbors and guests at the party, the man who shot the dog was shouting that he was within his rights.

"I have a concealed weapon license," they recall him saying.

The animal was shot twice in the neck, and died after the family rushed him to a veterinarian.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/family-dog-birthday-party-shot

Bobbie Gentry - Ode To Billie Joe (VIDEO)

Poppy Family - Which Way You Goin' Billy (VIDEO)

Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi (VIDEO)

Second Arrest In Two Days For Trying To Enter The White House Unlawfully

Less than 24 hours after Gonzalez' arrest, a second man was apprehended after he drove up to a White House gate and refused to leave, the Secret Service said, prompting bomb technicians in full gear to search the vehicle as agents shut down nearby streets.

There were no indications the two events were connected. Yet the pair of incidents in short succession only intensified the scrutiny of the Secret Service, which is still struggling to rehabilitate its image following a series of allegations of misconduct by agents in recent years, including agents on Obama's detail.

"Unfortunately, they are failing to do their job," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House subpanel on national security oversight, told the AP. "These are good men and women, but the Secret Service leadership has a lot of questions to answer."

"Was the door open?" he added incredulously.

Gonzalez, of Copperas Cove, Texas, was transported to a nearby hospital after his arrest for evaluation. He faces unlawful entry and other charges.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/20/white-house-arrest_n_5855202.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

There’s a Kind of Workplace Discrimination No One’s Talking About

As the executive director of Philadelphia’s non-profit Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly (CARIE), Diane Menio’s job is to improve the quality of life for older people. Through advocacy, education, training and counseling, her organization helps older people in an increasingly challenging landscape, providing “direct assistance to the elderly, their families, and professionals in the aging field.”

How much of an issue is ageism today?

Ageism has always been out there and we don't talk about it much. I think there's more of an effort lately to get older people in the media and so on, but I think most of us aren't feeling positive about aging, period. When I was young I looked at older people and never thought I'd be there. But guess what? It happens. Even people who are getting older often don't think kindly toward other older people. A lot of volunteer programs are bringing younger people together with older people and hopefully that's helping a little bit. But who knows?

How about workplace discrimination against older people?

You only have to look at the unemployment numbers to see that the numbers of people over 50 who are unable to find another job are greater than those who are under 50. I work at a non-profit and I'm happy to hire older people and there are other non-profits that are as well, but in the private sector it's much more challenging to get a job.



http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/prudential_living_longer_project/2014/08/there_s_a_kind_of_workplace_discrimination_no_one_s_talking_about.html#!/

Finally watched "Waiting for Superman", and here is what I come up with..

The movie gets one point right in that in larger school districts like my own, with a few really good schools, quite a few bad ones and a whole bunch in the middle. It also show the lengths many parents are willing to go to get their kids out of genuinely bad schools. However, the movie begins and ends with a large set of incorrect assumptions:

1. Every parent cares equally about their children's education.
2. Every kid is equally ready and willing to learn.
3. Kids never come to school smelling like their parents' pot (as I personally smelled on kids' clothes when my son was in kindergarden).
4. Kids never come to school hungry.
5. Every public school teacher puts in the same minimal effort.
6. Kids never come to school with bruises on their faces.

In other words, the movie assumes every teacher is working with the same blank canvas and, with the right tools and creativity, they should be able to achieve the same results.

Washington Election Observer Free To Carry His Gun

A certified election observer in Washington freaked some people out when he showed up to his county auditor's office last month carrying a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol, but the law's the law.

Election workers in Clark County, Wash. had expressed misgivings over Gerald "Rick" Halle's decision to work last month's primary while wearing his weapon, but the "state has preempted the area of regulating firearms," Chris Horn, the county's chief civil deputy prosecutor, told The Columbian.

The were no incidents with Halle, who apparently wears his firearm on his hip every day, but the county staff members will ask election observers in the future "to voluntarily put their firearm in a newly purchased gun safe," according to the Columbian.

If they should decline, county auditor Greg Kimsey, a Republican, said that "they will still be welcome to carry out their responsibility."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/washington-election-observer-ok-to-carry-gun

For the first time, a White House fence jumper was able to get to the building.

What's so different about this president? Hmmmm.....let me think.

Scotland’s referendum: Why the “no” vote was still a stunning watershed

As for the waverers, there’s no doubt that a good number were scared into voting no by Cameron’s dark warnings of the economic risks of secession. But much more significant is the number who were swayed by the package of concessions that the prime minister was forced to offer as part of his desperate effort to keep the U.K. intact, giving Scotland much more authority to set its own policies on taxation, public spending and social welfare. So this was something much more subtle than just a crude yes/no split. While Scotland clearly rejected outright secession, it demanded, and will now gain, a much greater degree of autonomy. Cameron’s promises of devolving new powers to Scotland were so explicit that he is now bound to honor them, and he has said as much.

But the real key to understanding what happened yesterday is how the vote broke down by age and geography. Only two of Scotland’s 32 council districts voted yes, but one of them was Glasgow, by far the biggest city, and the other was Dundee, the fourth-largest (and coincidentally my grandmother’s hometown). The core of the no vote was older and rural. Voters over 65 favored staying in the U.K. by an overwhelming 73 to 27 percent. But younger voters were radically different. Fifty-nine percent of those between 25 and 34 said yes. In the 35 to 44 age band, 53 percent voted for independence.

These people are Scotland’s next generation of leaders. For them, nationalism is no longer about kilts and bagpipes and haggis (though whiskey doesn’t seem to have lost its popularity). This generation is liberal, green, edgy, cosmopolitan. Its coming of age coincides with the emergence of Glasgow and Edinburgh as distinctive, internationally renowned cultural centers. Young adults and those approaching middle age have grown up with a strong sense of European identity, one big reason being the devolution of power away from Westminster that has already occurred, rooted in the rebellion against Thatcherism and the collapse of the Tory vote in Scotland. Since its creation in 1999, the Scottish Parliament has been vigorously internationalist, strengthening its commitment to a Scandinavian-style social safety net and pushing the EU to set more ambitious goals for a transition to renewable energy. Now it will have control over taxes, expenditures and social policies as well.

So the fat lady did not really sing in Scotland yesterday. David Cameron said last night that the matter was now settled for a generation. But in the context of 700 years of history, a generation is nothing. More significant is what the SNP leader, Alex Salmond, said in conceding defeat: “Let us not dwell on the distance we have fallen short, let us dwell on the distance we have traveled.” And I have a feeling my grandmother would have agreed.

http://www.salon.com/2014/09/19/scotland’s_referendum_700_years_in_the_making_why_the_no_vote_was_still_a_stunning_watershed/