Category Archives: National news

* What’s in a name?

March 12, 2014Clippings, Get on your feet, National news, The William Tell ShowChanging names, Detroit, Malice, Malice Green, Name change, Names, Police brutality, Resisting arrest, The Homeless BloggerWilliam Tell

(Originally posted 05/23/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 03/22/18.)

Some years ago, I was home on vacation (that is, visiting my mother out-of-state) and saw this item in the newspaper. In Detroit, this fellow was resisting arrest and the struggle got really mean, and he wound up sustaining injuries from which he died.

On the one hand, OK, too bad, it happens.

On the other hand, I had to wonder what other end this gentleman could have met; his mother having named him “Malice Green.”

Did either of his parents ever bother to consider what that name means?

Give your child a sensible name!

If your parents failed to do so, you may want to give yourself a sensible name.

We have a page devoted to this issue (here).

talk show host, on air talent, radio talk show, the homeless blogger

* A case for the death penalty

March 8, 2014Clippings, Justice, National newsArthur Goode, Capital punishment, Cary Jay Smith, Death penalty, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Immortality, ReincarnationWilliam Tell

Death penalty sought for alleged Boston bomber Tsarnaev

A friend of mine, a Lutheran pastor, opposes capital punishment. But to my mind, her story, which she told me circa 1985, poses the premiere case for the death penalty.

She had a son, a lively pre-teen, who died suddenly under suspicious circumstances. At first, police found a person of interest in Arthur Goode, a known pedophile who was known to have been in the area at the time. It was soon enough established that Goode had been nowhere near the time and place of the death, and the death was ruled accidental.

That did not prevent Goode from harassing the family for years with phone calls and letters in which he spewed forth lurid details of what he now alleged he had done with the boy.
Continue reading * A case for the death penalty →

* Eggsactly right; and other news

February 24, 2014Clippings, Justice, National news, World NewsAmanda Knox, Animal rights, Bail, Child pornography, Eggs, examiner.com, Humane, Justin Bieber, Medical malpractice, newsmax.com, Parkinson's DiseaseWilliam Tell

Bookmarks:
The flap over eggs • Amanda Knox • Another child star meltdown
Child porn is not so simple • Promise for Parkinson’s • Bail is for the birds
Birth injury fund sought

———— ♦ ————

Missouri AG challenges California egg law

This came up in Yahoo!’s “Trending Now,” and the search results included pages at newsmax.com and examiner.com. I had to search a bit to find an article at a REPUTABLE site. For everyone’s information, in general henceforth I will avoid clicking anything leading to newsmax OR examiner: the former is disreputable, and the latter generates too many ads … too many for me to cause y’all to have to deal with.

The new law, in short, seems to me to be good for everyone (read: humanity), and IMO though it’ll cost ’em money, Missouri has no reason to cluck.

Continue reading * Eggsactly right; and other news →

* My homeless self: White “resentment” and black power

January 25, 2014Clippings, Justice, National news, National politics, PovertyAvidit Acharya, Black power, Matthew Blackwell, Maya Sen, Race, Racial resentment, Racism, The Homeless Blogger, The Political Legacy of American Slavery, Upward mobilityWilliam Tell

“Generations of slavery and discrimination make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower classes.”

Do you agree with that statement? If not, you harbor resentment toward blacks.

That is the premise, not the conclusion, of a recent study by three political scientists. As reported by James Goodman in the October 6, 2013 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the study’s conclusions seem indisputable. I question its premise. I ask whether “resentment” was the best or right thing to measure; whether this criterion statement was the best or right way to measure it; whether the criterion statement is factual, and if so, whether it matters.
Continue reading * My homeless self: White “resentment” and black power →

* “Scandal:” The meaning of the word

January 11, 2014Clippings, National news, National media, News, Media, Local newsThe Homeless Blogger, Media, National, News, Handguns, Local, Dylan Klebold, James Holmes, Jared Loughner, Neil Edwin Prescott, Travers JohnsonWilliam Tell

(Originally posted 2012-07-28 at Trojan Horse Productions. Note that this was after Aurora and prior to Sandy Hook. Reposted 2017-09-21.)

I don’t have the wherewithal to actually buy and read newspapers; at the convenience store, I merely read the headlines. I found this article by doing a news Google on “Crofton massacre” — which fact illustrates the point I’ll make below.

Police: Md. man made threat, ‘joker’ reference

The English word “scandal” comes from the Greek skandalon, which literally means “stumbling block;” as in Matthew 18:6, where in the King James Version it is translated as “offense,” and Matthew 13:57, which would be translated literally, “They stumbled at him.”

We find that scandals make two different kinds of people “stumble” in two different ways.
Continue reading * “Scandal:” The meaning of the word →

* Fusion; Scruffy people in commercials; The most bizarre Xmas ever

December 30, 2013Clippings, Homelessness, Media, National newsCommercials, Four Seasons, George Will, Hair Cuttery, McDonald's, The Homeless Blogger, Venture capitalWilliam Tell

George F. Will’s 12/21/13 column, “A dazzling bright future dawns in New Jersey,” is an infomercial for a fusion energy project.

Two points:

“Because of its large scale and long time horizon, the fusion project is a perfect example of a public good the private sector cannot pursue and the public sector should not slight.”

Whatever became of the concept of venture capital?

Continue reading * Fusion; Scruffy people in commercials; The most bizarre Xmas ever →

* Nancy Lanza, a mother tragic and infuriating

December 28, 2013Clippings, National newsAdam Lanza, conspiracy, Crisis actors, Gun control, Handguns, Karma, Nancy Lanza, On air talent, Sandy Hook, Talk radio, Talk show host, The Homeless BloggerWilliam Tell

PLEASE READ THE COMMENTS!

Nancy Lanza, a mother tragic and infuriating

When I saw the TV news segment on the official report a few nights ago, I tried to recall what had become of the mother.

Oh, yes. He killed her first.

I have to believe there were resources and expertise available that she did not avail herself of, in her decades of dealing with this difficult child.

I still do not understand those who oppose any limits at all on how many guns a person can own.

I strongly suspect karma plays a big role in what happened.

Ultimately, she shares culpability.

Recall that this is the story that made most of us aware of the term “crisis actors.”

(Reblogged 08/03/17.)

* The most outrageous feature of the Secret Service scandal …

December 4, 2013National news, News, World NewsColombia, Dania Suarez, Hookers, National, News, On air talent, Prostitution, Radio talk show, Scandal, Secret Service, Talk show host, The Homeless Blogger, WorldWilliam Tell

… is that he only offered her $30.

Any woman I’d engage gets more than that merely to bat her eyelashes and giggle.

In context, this detail only epitomizes the overwhelming hubris of the entire situation, and is well worth costing the gentleman his job.

(Originally posted 04/17/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 06/15/17.)

talk show host, on air talent, talk radio, the homeless blogger

* Trayvon Martin

November 27, 2013Justice, National media, National newsCrime, On air talent, Race, Radio talk show, Talk show host, The Homeless Blogger, Trayvon MartinWilliam Tell

But for the racial aspect, the Trayvon Martin case would not be noticed.

I admit being less concerned about him than about the dozens of other teens who are gunned down every month across the country for no better reason and by people of their own race. Someone will object that a black perpetrator would have been arrested. I answer that an arrest and prison term won’t bring back the dead.

(Originally posted 04/16/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 04/06/17.)

talk show host, on air talent, talk radio, the homeless blogger

* Kansas prisoners get the granny treatment

November 23, 2013Clippings, Get on your feet, Justice, National news, OUR BEST POSTS, The Way of PeaceBirur nitzotzot, Conversion, Crime, On the Road, Prisons, Redemption, Steve Hartman, SuEllen Fried, The Homeless BloggerWilliam Tell

Steve Hartman’s “On the Road” segment for the CBS Evening News, 11/01/13:

Kan. prisoners get the granny treatment

Here is a practical example of how brightening the “divine spark” within people can effect redemption or transformation.

(Reblogged 03/23/17.)