This is depressing. But it’s worth reading nonetheless.
Apparently the proposed US military deployment to West Africa to assist with the current Ebola outbreak is not exactly very well thought-out. It’s apparently gotten about the same amount of thought and planning to date as you’d devote to planing taking a shower.
Operation Massive Cluster, indeed. Unfortunately.
We’re all very aware of the Ebola outbreak in west Africa. But you really have to wonder about the intellect – or sanity – of some of those involved.
Recently, the government of Australia pledged a substantial contribution – $2.5M each to both the WHO and the NGO group Medicines Sans Frontiers, or MSF – to be used to defray costs associated with containing the outbreak. It also pledged a contribution of $2M to the UK government to help with their efforts in Sierra Leone. This brings Australia’s contribution to the effort to contain the Ebola outbreak to $8M.
MSF turned the money down. Why? On the grounds that Australia was “shirking it’s responsibility” to help contain the epidemic (or words to that effect) by not sending people.
What a load of horsesh!t.
Now, I think MSF is a fine charity. They’re doing great things, worldwide, in helping to reduce suffering. But here, they’re just freaking out to lunch.
They’re a charity. Charities help people when they can’t help themselves. They don’t make policy.
What follows is a message for the head of MSF:
“Listen up, f**kwit. No – don’t try to say a damn thing. Just sit down, STFU, and listen up.
You obviously don’t ‘get it’.
The government of Australia is helping the best way they feel that they can. They have advised their own citizens that they have no capability to evacuate them from western Africa should things go bad. They’ve determined that they don’t have the capability to provide help in kind – or that doing so is not in their national interest.
Your organization has no claim on Australia’s resources. And the government of Australia doesn’t have any ‘responsibility’ to anyone but Australians. They obviously don’t think it’s in their best interests to send large numbers of people to west Africa right now. That’s their call – not yours.
Get a grip, and remember who – and what – you are. Quit acting like a combination prima donna and spoiled brat who got a different toy from the exact one they wanted.
Take the Australian money, tell them thanks, and buy some sh!t your organization needs. Or use it to hire some folks to do things you can’t do now. But damn – quit being stupid. And concentrate on doing your freaking job instead of trying to tell others how to do theirs.
That is all. Now, get yer ass out of here and get back to doing something useful. You’re actually pretty good at that when you put your mind to it.”
Sheesh. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face . . . .
. . . the state has banned brownies and other chocolate treats in schools.
The late author Robert A. Heinlein said it best: “Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.”
This comes from KHOU out of Houston Texas
Jonn has posted about the Militarization of Police here and here but it seems that no less than 10 Texas School Districts are using the DOD program to get M16s, body armor, militarily vehicles, ammunition and other goodies. Remember this is the same DOD program that has been so successfully managed by police departments around the country. That was sarcasm by the way.
State records show 10 different school district police departments in Texas received military surplus equipment, including trucks, guns, and armor, through a Department of Defense program. The districts include the following:
Frenship ISD
Texarkana ISD
LaJoya ISD
Linden-Kildare CISD
Aledo ISD
Beaumont ISD
Ector County ISD
San Antonio ISD
Edinburg CISD
Spring Branch ISD
These are K-12 school districts. My question is how did the DOD give this stuff to them? Is there no oversight? Yea I know that they use Sandy Hook, Columbine and others as a reason. But come on. do they really think those tragedies would have been averted if the school district had been armed better than some NG units?
In all, the departments received 64 M16 rifles, 18 M14 rifles, 25 automatic pistols, and magazines capable of holding 4,500 rounds of ammunition as well armored plating, tactical vests, and 15 surplus military vehicles.
Under the program, school police departments received the equipment at little-to-no cost. But not everyone’s thrilled.
“We don’t necessarily believe that this kind of equipment leads to students feeling more secure and safe in schools,” said Brennan Griffin of Texas Appleseed.
The group has studied school police polices for years. Griffin calls news that military rifles have found new homes in Texas schools “concerning.”
“We’ve seen how even much less-lethal devices like tasers and pepper spray get used inappropriately and end up harming children,” he told the I-Team.
Locally, Spring Branch ISD police received 10 automatic pistols and 13 rifles.
Police Chief Brawner says the rifles are available only for use by tactically-trained officers in an emergency. He says when not being used in training, the military weapons are locked in the department’s armory.
But Griffin cites studies showing the typical active-shooter crisis lasts only about 12 minutes.
“It’s hard to see how an officer would be able to gain access to the armory, bring it to the school, assess the situation and somehow use that weapon in the time that a school shooting usually occurs,” said Griffin.
We already have problems with police stationed in schools being used to enforce school policy instead of the law. I can see a situation being escalated by the fact that the systems have this equipment so they feel they must use it. An upset parent or student being confronted by police in Body Armor and M16s instead of a principle or counselor that is willing to sit down and find resolution.
Having school systems own equipmet like this is a very bad idea.
Here’s a look at some recent bureaucratic inanity, courtesy mostly of our PC libidiot “brethren”.
And, just for our “global warming” propagandists aficionados:
Finally: just because I like this – and I think it fits here quite nicely – here ya go (smile):
Everyone knows that there are certain places EBT cards can’t be used. Liquor stores, for one.
So places where marijuana can be legally sold (in states where such sales are legal, like Colorado) must be places where EBT card use is banned – right?
Well, actually . . . no. The DHS has confirmed to Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama that EBT cards can in fact be used at shops where marijuana is sold lawfully.
Senator Sessions has announced his intent to introduce legislation banning that practice. My question: why in the hell hasn’t DHS done that administratively already?
Oh, yeah – I remember now why. The linked article indicates that DHS claims they have “no authority” to ban the practice.
GMAFB. Since when has that stopped anyone in the current Administration from doing anything?
According to the WaPo, it looks as if the current Occupant, 1600 Penn Ave, Wash DC, has decided on US “strategy” for countering ISIS. We’re going to
Oh, and he says he doesn’t need Congressional approval, either.
Yeah, that’s gonna work out just swimmingly. Assad is going to love both the violation of his national sovereignty and the US arming some of his foes. And we are also absolutely, positively certain that neither of those actions will cause any short-term or long-term problems.
I trust the sarcasm in the preceding paragraph was obvious.
Sheesh. If I’ve ever heard a more cockamamie strategy to counter a developing threat to US interests in the ME, I can’t recall what that absurdity might have been. Only Jimmuh the Clueless’ strategy of “encouraging” the Shah of Iran to grant amnesty to ex-patriot dissidents, then leave in favor of “Iranian democracy” (which then promptly allowed that nice fellow called Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to return to Iran and ascend to power a few months later, and which was predicted by anyone with half a working brain in the event of the Shah’s departure) even comes close.
As Harrison Ford said (in his role as Han Solo): “I’ve “I got a bad feeling about this . . . . “
WCSC form South Carolina reports That Alex Stone was suspended for completing a creative writing assignment. Now as Paul Harvey would have said “The rest of the Story”
Alex was given a writing assignment on his first day back at school to write Facebook post based in the future about an event. So he wrote the he killed his neighbors pet dinosaur in one post, then he wrote that he bought a gun to “take care of business”.
He could have used a better choice of words, But the school contacted the police, Alex had his person and his locker searched. Alex got upset and got arrested.
Attorney David Aylor, who is representing 16-year-old Alex Stone, said his client’s arrest over a creative writing assignment on Tuesday was “completely absurd,” and is seeking to appeal the suspension and “proceed with the legal issues of [Stone’s] arrest.”
“This is a perfect example of ‘political correctness’ that has exceeded the boundaries of common sense,” Aylor said in a statement released on Thursday.”Students were asked to write about themselves and a creative Facebook status update – just days into the new school year – and my client was arrested and suspended after a school assignment.”
The School and Police have a different version
“The information that is being reported is grossly incorrect in reference to what led to the juvenile being charged,” said Capt. Jon Rogers in a Summeville police statement released on Thursday.”The charges do not stem from anything involving a dinosaur or writing assignment, but the student’s conduct.”
I know a new High School freshman that has to read and write about “To Kill a Mockingbird” I guess she just needs to turn in a copy of the 5th amendment instead.