This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • Harlan Ellison passes

    Harlan Ellison passes

    David sends us the sad news that Harlan Ellison, an American writer has passed at the age of 84. He is probably best known for his science fiction work that included screen plays for episodes of Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, and Babylon 5.

    Like most of his generation he was a veteran of the US Army from 1957-1959.

    Ellison’s disputatious personality was legendary among science-fiction aficionados. He was as caustic and pugnacious in person as he was on the page—a confrontation with Frank Sinatra is recorded in the famed Esquire profile “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold”; he settled out of court over allegations that James Cameron had plagiarized elements of his work in writing the screenplay for The Terminator (1984); and he once sent a dead gopher to a publisher who violated a clause in his contract. He frequently mocked his own fractious tendencies and misanthropic attitudes, indicating a more-humanist worldview than his ornery disposition might initially have suggested. His flamboyance was on full display in the documentary Dreams with Sharp Teeth, released in 2008 after more than 25 years of filming.

  • B17 crew comes home to Arlington

    B17 crew comes home to Arlington

    DocV sends us a link to Stars & Stripes tells the story of the B17 crew, First Lt. John Liekhus, Tech Sgt. John Brady, Tech Sgt. Allen Chandler, Staff Sgt. Bobby Younger, and Staff Sgt. Robert Shoemaker, that was interred together at Arlington this week after they were recovered from a crash site where they were left after they were shot down on November 2, 1944;

    The U.S. Army Air Forces airmen were members of the 323rd Bombardment Squadron, 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy), Eighth Air Force. On Nov. 2, 1944, they were part of a nine-man crew that joined an armada of bombers on a mission to Merseburg, Germany and the Leuna Werke, a sprawling chemical factory that produced synthetic fuels.

    Their B-17 was hit by flak, or ground, anti-aircraft fire, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. As the B-17 fell out of formation, German fighters attacked. Witnesses reported seeing the aircraft burst into flames and then descend rapidly. Three crewmembers survived the crash and were taken prisoner. One of the airmen killed was identified in May 1945; the other five crewmembers were declared missing in action.

    On Wednesday, they returned to US soil and were interred together at Arlington National Cemetery.

  • BYU students search for families of missing troops

    Stars & Stripes reports that Brigham Young University’s Center for Family History and Genealogy is helping DPAA search for the families of soldiers who were missing from America’s wars overseas.

    The process of finding those relatives, though, is a difficult one. Jill Crandell, who oversees BYU’s family history center and its efforts on the project, said there’s often little information to start with. It’s sort of like if Sherlock Holmes were trying to solve a case blindfolded.

    And the genealogical researchers are essentially working in reverse. Instead of building a family tree back in time for several generations, they’re trying to build it forward to today. They’re finding the living through the name of the dead.

    “There’s just enough clues for us,” Crandell said.

    BYU, a private university, is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has a dedicated genealogical division and operates FamilySearch (one of the world’s largest databases for family records). That’s why the military chose the school for its project. It’s the only college of the 19 participating to focus on finding living relatives for missing soldiers; the others specialize in anthropology and archaeology.

    […]

    The BYU team — five students, a fellow and Crandell — worked on a case in which the mother of a soldier continued to set a plate at the dinner table each night for her son, who was missing in action. They also spoke to the 97-year-old widow of a WWII soldier who still wants to know what happened to her husband.

    If I remember correctly, the BYU’s Genealogy department exists so that Mormons can search for antecedents and make them Mormons.

  • Jesse Iwuji saving the world

    Jesse Iwuji saving the world

    Jerry920 sends us a link to the story of NASCAR driver and Navy Lieutenant Jesse Iwuji who rescued a family from their burning mini-van;

    He was cruising through the Grapevine, California, area on Interstate 5 and noticed a minivan stopped on the side of the road. He noticed the family. He noticed a “small little fire, like a couple of candles or so” coming from underneath.

    Something seemed ominous, especially when Iwuji noticed the slight smoke starting to rise. And Iwuji, with 38 combined starts in the K&N Pro Series East and West, has been around race cars enough to know about combustibility.

    “As I was walking toward them I noticed that fire underneath was getting just a little bit bigger,” Iwuji said. “Just being around race cars and things that can catch on fire, I knew that something like this just doesn’t slowly become a big fire.

    “It can quickly ignite and become a bad situation really quick.”

    Iwuji ushered the family – parents, and two children – away from the van. He said he had to practically pull the father out, who was trying to get every item out of the vehicle that he could.

    “We got away and just right after that, the engine just burst into flames,” Iwuji said. “From there, it then went into the front seat, then into the back seat, then it got to the fuel cell area and the whole thing erupted.”

    […]

    “Don’t be a passerby,” Iwuji said. “Go help if you see something wrong. Don’t just drive by with your cell phone and record it; stop and help. That was the main reason, to really show people that you can do your small part. It has nothing to do with trying to be a hero or anything like that. You just do the right thing.

  • Crackpot kills five at Annapolis Capital Gazette

    A lunatic was charged with five counts of first-degree murder in Annapolis, Maryland yesterday when he was arrested after a rampage in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette newspaper. The lunatic had a long-standing gripe with the periodical after a 2011 article they did about him stalking a former high school mate, according to the Baltimore Sun;

    In the 2011 column about the harassment charge, Hartley identified Jarrod Ramos as a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employee with no previous criminal record and a degree in computer engineering.

    The harassment case centered on an online relationship Ramos tried to kindle with a former high school classmate. Hartley’s column said Ramos sent a friend request on Facebook to the woman, and the experience turned into a “yearlong nightmare.” Ramos allegedly wrote the woman and said she was the only person who ever said hello to him or was nice to him in school.

    Ramos then allegedly called her vulgar names and told her to kill herself, Hartley wrote. He allegedly emailed the bank where she worked to get her fired. Ramos pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor harassment charge, receiving probation from a judge who called his behavior “rather bizarre,” the column said.

    So, the lunatic filed a lawsuit against the newspaper which failed in 2015 when the court sided with the periodical;

    Ramos’ subsequent defamation suit against The Capital worked its way through the Maryland courts until 2015, when the state’s second-highest court upheld a ruling in favor of the newspaper.

    The day after the ruling was issued, the Twitter account in Ramos’ name used the same words it would again Thursday: “F— you, leave me alone.”

    So, the crackpot had been stewing in his hatred for a while before he went into the newspaper’s office yesterday with a shotgun and murdered five people. It turns out that he wasn’t encouraged by Trump’s anti-media words or Maxine Waters’ call to arms – he was just a lunatic, and he’s been a lunatic for a long time.

  • Friday morning feel good stories

    Friday morning feel good stories

    From Salt Lake City, Utah;

    The homeowner who shot and killed a woman who broke into his home in West Jordan will not face criminal charges, according to Sim Gill, Salt Lake County District Attorney.

    On June 8, Makayla Yeaman, 23, entered a home at 6845 W. 7605 South about 5:30 a.m. after obtaining a garage door opener from a truck parked outside the home, according to investigators.

    Police said when she made it into the house, she was confronted and shot by the 26-year-old homeowner, whose name has not been released. He told police he heard the garage door opening and dogs barking, so he took a gun with him to investigate.

    A knife was discovered near Yeaman’s body, according to police. Gill said Wednesday she had been pulling out the knife before the shooting occurred, making the threat to the homeowner more serious.

    “The homeowner’s home had been invaded and the homeowner had a reasonable concern for his own safety, and therefore defended himself,” Gill said.

    Smart criminals in Imperial, Missouri discover that they couldn’t kill their intended victim with a replica handgun;

    On June 24, 18-year-old Casey Lynn Duncan contacted a friend, 19-year-old Jesse Noal Killian, and informed him of a plan to break into a home in the 5100 block of Autumn Ridge Drive and kill the homeowner because that man’s daughter had recently dumped him.

    Killian traveled from his home in Cape Girardeau to Duncan’s residence in Fenton in the early morning hours of June 25. The two then traveled to the victim’s residence in Imperial.

    Duncan brought with him a large knife, a replica Beretta handgun, and a loaded .22-caliber rifle. He gave Killian the rifle and kept the replica pistol.

    Police said Duncan and Killian went to the back deck and contemplated breaking in through the rear door and shooting their intended victim. Instead, the two men gained access to the attached garage and got inside the residence through an unlocked door.

    The suspects took alcoholic beverages from a fridge in the garage and placed them in the victim’s SUV.

    Duncan and Killian searched the home and found the victim, his wife, and a young child asleep in the living room. The pair was unable to follow through with their plan, so they fled in the victim’s SUV and stole the garage remotes.

    Authorities in Ste. Genevieve County tracked the vehicle’s GPS and located Duncan and Killian at an area hospital. Killian had sliced his leg while climbing into the garage and required stitches.

    Police apprehended the two men at the hospital.

    “So they looked beyond just the initial crime of stealing a motor vehicle and discovered that there was a much bigger plot here,” said Sgt. Matt Moore, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

    From Houston, Texas;

    Police said two men were kidnapped and taken back to their home where a shootout broke out between the victims’ family members and the kidnappers when they tried to break into the home.

    Police said the kidnappers left the home and a deputy later spotted them driving erratically.

    The suspects sped away from the officers, leading them on a chase, police said.

    The chase ended at Irvington near Turner after the driver hit a curb. Police said at least two people ran from the vehicle and one woman stayed inside. She was arrested.

    From Center Pointe, Alabama;

    The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said a man was fatally shot after trying to rob someone at The Pointe Apartments in Center Point Wednesday evening.

    “Early Information from the scene is that the deceased attempted to rob the other injured party,” the sheriff’s office said. “There was an exchange of gunfire and both were struck.”

    The condition of the victim is unknown at this time.

  • Military Religious Freedom Foundation vs. U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa

    Military Religious Freedom Foundation vs. U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa

    Little Mikey Weinstein and his misnamed Military Religious Freedom Foundation have set their sights on U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa’s “Missing Man” table display which happens to contain a bible, according to Stars & Stripes;

    The dispute over the display began when a group of sailors, Marines and Department of Defense civilian employees stationed on Okinawa reached out to MRFF, asking for help get the Bible removed, according to Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the MRFF.

    “A group”, huh? Yeah, I believe Mikey-poo.

    MRFF lawyers then sent a complaint to [Rear Adm. Paul Pearigen, Navy Medicine West commander], citing the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The lawyers argued that the First Amendment not only forbids the government from establishing an official religion but also prohibits government actions that favor one religion over another. They also cited DOD and Navy regulations.

    Pearigen refused to remove the book. Weinstein and MRFF asked that Pearigen reconsider and asked that holy books of other religions be displayed.

    The official Navy or Defense Department stance on Bibles being included in POW/MIA “Missing Man” table displays remains unclear. However, a report on the Navy’s website from 2014 describes the Bible as being an official part of the display.

    I’m waiting for Mikey to explain how “religious freedom” means interfering with some folks’ expression of their faith.

  • New York Times Editorial Board; With Kennedy Gone, Justice Must Be Won at the Ballot Box

    New York Times Editorial Board; With Kennedy Gone, Justice Must Be Won at the Ballot Box

    So, yesterday, Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the US Supreme Court and the Left has been losing it’s collective mind.

    Chuck Schumer and Chris Matthews agree that the GOP Senate should wait until after the midterm Congressional elections to name a replacement. Somehow, that would be “revenge” for the Left’s loss of Merrick Garland as a nominee to the USSC in 2016.

    But the New York Times editorial board, leading the way to Crazytown, says “what’s the point, all is lost”;

    It is a dark moment in the history of the court and the nation, and it’s about to get a lot darker. Once President Trump names his second pick and the Senate confirms that person, you can forget about new or enhanced protections for gays and lesbians, or saving the last shreds of affirmative action at public universities. Longstanding precedents are now at extreme risk. Foremost among these is a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion under Roe v. Wade, which was preserved solely on the strength of Justice Kennedy’s vote.

    Meanwhile, count on more rulings that, like Monday’s decision upholding racial gerrymandering in Texas, give states the green light to cut back on voting rights, promote the rights of corporations over individuals, further erode the wall between church and state and look the other way when states cut corners and evade constitutional requirements in order to execute their citizens.

    So, the editorial board thinks that more voters in the midterms is the answer;

    Do not for a moment underestimate the importance of getting out and voting in November. Four years ago, only 36 percent of Americans cast ballots in the midterm elections. Had more people showed up, the Senate may well have remained in Democratic control, Mitch McConnell would not be the majority leader and Judge Merrick Garland would now be Justice Garland. In the days and months ahead, remember this.

    Yeah, and fewer voters would have resulted in different results in the November 2016 election.

    The board has good reason to worry – I understand that the fix is in;