As usual this morning I was scanning the globe looking for answers to life’s most difficult questions.  One of which is, how do you stop violent people from killing college classmates.  The answer is self defense.  This is from Wednesday’s Washington Times:

Washington Times Editorial

On some other issues one week has passed since the racist President of Salisbury University was “outed.”  One week later and this woman remains on the job.  Why?  Why isn’t there a no-confidence motion from the faculty?  Why has the local and national media attention waned?  Is it because Dr. Janet Dudley-Eshbach is “one of them?”   One of “those people?”   You would think the woman’s husband would at least take her to task.  Then again I‘m not sure she’s married, however.  The hyphenated last name suggests if she is, he doesn’t wear the pants in the family.

Speaking of women in pant-suits Thursday will mark two weeks since Queen Hillary was asked about my dismissal from my last talk radio show.  Of which she may have had some sort of role in my departure by suggesting the radio station’s license could face a difficult renewal process.  I didn’t see this interview but folks say Mrs. Rodham-Peron fumbled and said there was a misunderstanding and surely her staff would straighten all of this out.  Very soon.  Tomorrow will mark two weeks and not one member of that staff has telephoned offering me an explanation.   

Dogs are dying horribly.  Have you seen the stories in The News Journal?  One dog found hanging, really it was just a puppy, and another friendly family dog was strangled.  On national TV I saw a story about a Dahmer-in-training convicted of killing a dog by kicking it like a football.  Another pervert held the dog in place as if it was a field goal try.  People who torture and kill small animals eventually find pleasure in doing these things to their fellow humans.  Sorry, I’m not sure these psychopaths are human because you need humanity to qualify. 

The very nice young man hosting our Spanish language show suggests the proposal to offer a free ride to college students here illegally guarantees we keep these great young minds in this country.  He tells me the tuition offer is only for the most gifted.  I shared this with a friend and he wondered if your kids would get a reciprocal in Bolivia, Argentina or Costa Rica?  Especially if you and your family entered those nations illegally.  Speaking of which, my daughter is very gifted.  Will the Democrats be giving a free trip to college?  If it’s at Salisbury U. can we decline?  How will the Latino children of illegal immigrants adjust to college life at old Sal U?  Especially when getting caned by Dr. Dudley-Eshbach?   Can you imagine the images on the recruiting posters?  Will the illegal aliens get an opportunity to fondle the President’s daughter as in the staged photographs Dudley-Do-Wrong posted on the Internet? 

Back when I was at college this type of behavior would’ve gotten me expelled.  And that was during the dark ages known as The Reagan Era.  But then I wasn’t here illegally and couldn’t gain protected status from the wacko left even then dominating academia.  Someone, possibly in the words of Dudley-Eshbach, has some ‘splainin’ to do.

Enough disease of the day talks, please.  The main job of today’s mainstream media is to frighten and not inform.  It’s an old fight in newsrooms.  An Executive Producer I worked with used to argue we needed to frighten people because there are a great many scary things out there.  Lions and tigers and bears I suppose.  At least the ones still ranging in places where human predators haven’t done gobbled them up.

Let me paraphrase some folks debunking Internet myths and apply it to the latest disease threats.
 
You are unlikely in your lifetime to die from an infection caused by drug resistant bacteria.  You aren’t likely going to fall victim to West Nile Virus.  Or dog bites or AIDS or hurricanes or from a lack of water. 
Yes some people will succumb and the media coverage will be intense but you actually have far better odds of hitting a really big lottery jackpot.
 
Most of us will actually die from heart disease, car accidents and cancer.  Many of these deaths will be considered to have been preventable through early detection, better diet and the use of seat belts.  Things we have some degree to control.  Even with a great diet, good doctors and avoiding the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the day will arrive when you die.  Someone will take your place.  In fact many are likely going to take your place. 
 
Local and national media don’t spend much time on all of this because stories about better diet aren’t really news and like any nagging you’re likely to avoid it.  I recommend changing the channel.  It works for me. 
We do hear about car accidents when tire manufacturers skimp on the product and then try and duck the consequences.  That does qualify as news and it’s nice to see folks getting their comeuppance but it’s still a rare story.  At least on the grand scale we saw a few years ago.  More people at the time were still croaking from heart disease caused by slothfulness and greasy potato chips. 
 
What gets me about this latest scare, and I was around 15 years ago for the last “flesh eating” panic, is that you have some measure of control here.  Judas Priest, people, wash your gold darned hands!  Sure your life is hectic but back in grampa’s day the workday was 4 to 8 hours longer and the toilet was outside and the roads were rutted and hospitals were few and far between.  To put this in perspective you’ve got the time to wash, shave and brush your teeth and still have hours to spend in front of your TV set.  Again, wash your hands.  If need be use the towels to shut off the faucet and grip the door handle.  It may appear you’re OC but it sure beats being a small statistic that will draw massive media glare.
 
Thank you.

Have you ever been offended, rejected and hurt by a church? A pastor at the Dagsboro Church of God brought this new site to my attention for anyone interested in sharing their experiences:

http://www.onesorrychurch.com/

A WGMD listener who lives in Long Neck had expressed concern this week about the increase in crime in the Long Neck area (this is Route 24 between Route 113 in Millsboro and Route One in Rehoboth). She said the area is notorious for sex offenders, particularly in areas where there is private property. She says that there are families living near the woods, and that last year some guy just sat in a tree on the property. This week she saw several unmarked cop cars as if there was some drug bust going on, or as if they were looking for someone. She was worried because it could have been a child predator on the loose putting the children in danger. It turns out that there was a reported burglary that was later unfounded. Corporal Barnett of the State Police this week said this about the Long Neck area:

“Long Neck is a busy area, and we handle several complaints there on a daily basis.”

The caller stressed that Long Neck needs to have their own police department. Maybe you live in Long Neck, and like this woman, you are fed up with the crime that seems to be on the increase. Of course Long Neck is not the only town dealing with sex offenders, home invasions, robberies, and drug-related crimes. But do you feel like there aren’t enough cops in Long Neck, or an ongoing police presence covering the area? Perhaps they need to have a police station near some of these private properties? Of course funding is always an issue. So time will tell.

That’s the breaking news from Baltimore right now and it sent a chill down my spine, here’s the story:

(WJZ) BALTIMORE WJZ.COM has learned a fuel truck has been stolen from a gas station in South Baltimore.

Officials say that the truck operator was refilling the gas tubes at a gas station on 3100 block of Vera Street, when a black male, wearing a blue jump suit, got into the driver seat and took off.

Police say the driver tried to get back in the truck, but the suspect pointed a gun at the driver and told him to get out of the truck.

The truck is described as a 1997 Peterbuilt with dark wood. On one side it says “Baltimore Tank Lines.” There is also a silver trailer attached to the truck.

The license plate is 1268185 from Maine.

There may be some front end damage to the truck, because the suspect struck a fence on his way out.

The truck was last seen heading toward Interstate 95.

New reports say it may be heading towards Delaware. That fast, that easy. Do dangerous trucks need to have two drivers and reinforced doors like armored trucks? Is this a disgruntled worker, an angry husband or just someone trying to make a buck?

Scary stuff, say a prayer to the entity of your choice if it’s the worst case scenario.

UPDATE:

Courtesy of WJZ TV in Baltimore… Police are still searching for the truck that was last seen heading towards I-95 in the Fairfield section of South Baltimore. A helicopter is involved in the search. The police are treating it as a robbery and “not as an act of terrorism.” The truck is believed to be carrying about 7,000 gallons of #2 diesel fuel.

UPDATE: Tanker truck found in DC.

Baltimore police said that law enforcement authorities found an 18-wheel tanker truck on the streets of Washington this afternoon, after a man stole the vehicle at gunpoint early this morning in South Baltimore.

The tanker was found unoccupied about 1 p.m. on 2nd Street and Malcolm X Avenue in the southeastern part of the district. A city police spokesman could not say which police agency found the tanker or whether the tanker was still filled with the 7,100 gallons of diesel fuel.

Whew!

A view looking up the south side approach to where the new Indian River Inlet Bridge will someday stand.

No, you’re not imagining it. When you drive over the Indian River Inlet Bridge, the approach for the new bridge on the south side of the inlet is, shall we say, a little tilted. That’s because the west side of the approach is settling. The settling is also making the road that leads to the south side’s campground tilt, too.

I spoke with Darrel Cole from Deldot and he explained that judging how much settling will occur during a project like this is an “inexact science,” and that there is certainly a “settlement issue” with both the approach and the road running next to it. On October 22, work will begin to level the road, but the question is, when will work begin on the new bridge?

The road to the campground on the south side of the Indian River Inlet is settling along with the approach to what will someday be the new Indian River Inlet Bridge.

According to Cole, the state expects to announce the new bidding process for the project “within a month,” and the contract to be awarded “within a year.” Construction on the new bridge should begin shortly after that. And to answer a question that has been posed on the air a few times, whatever bridge ends up being built should work just fine with the new approaches. *Whew!*

A view from the north side to the south side. It’ll be nice to get that parking lot behind the fence back someday so we won’t have to drag our umbrellas, chairs, coolers and assorted toys for what seems like forever to get to the beach on the north side.

So what we really need is for the existing bridge to last until the new bridge is finished. And there is good news on that front.

Today was supposed to be the day that the legislators in the districts surrounding the bridge met to find out the results of the inspection that was done a few weeks ago, but the funeral of Senator Vaughn delayed that meeting until next week.

Fortunately, State Representative Pete Schwartzkopf (D-RB), had the skinny on the bridge report. He was told that basically the bridge hasn’t gotten any worse, but he won’t know any of the details until the meeting.

And since I drive over that bridge all of the time, I’ll take any little bit of good news I can get.

Did you see the story in the News Journal about the lack of public interest in a new Governor?  What amazes me is there are, for the time being, four candidates listed and a pair of them have 50 or more percent unknown status and these people have prior experience campaigning for statewide office.  This in a state no wider in most places east to west than Manhattan is long from north to south.  And with a much smaller population base than the big city up north.  You can easily dismiss all of this by arguing the real campaign is months away.  Or so you could but as mentioned some of these folks have campaigned before and campaigned statewide.

I’m a talk show host.  It’s my judgment to withhold on the campaigners until after the new-year and election season really gets to rolling.  Now I’m having some second thoughts.  Delaware doesn’t have a large concentration of news media.  Daily newspapers are few and one of the benefits of a newspaper versus the web, and this is anecdotal, is that people more thoroughly read a paper than its companion website.  You needn’t point and click because another story to the right catches the eyes as you flip a page.  Television coverage has its own limitations.  While not getting ink all over your fingers it’s also easier to set back and occasionally click a remote than to lean forward and constantly click a mouse.  Yet is it a surprise to any of you that TV stations don’t have massive teams of beat reporters chasing politicians across the 2 to 3 states the local affiliates are serving? 

Last night I watched the late newscasts and made a few observations.  TV news is pretty much the same in Baltimore as in Salisbury as in Philadelphia.  Pictures of crime and accident scenes and sound bites with police officers and pretty young ladies tying it all together before the weather are the staples of television.  Honestly, there isn’t room in 30 to 35 minutes to adequately cover campaign issues.

I don’t have all the answers but I’ve got some proposals.  A few crossed my mind Sunday morning as I listened to an interview one of my coworkers did with a newsmaker.  First, and there must be a groundswell of interest from the public in advance, I propose radio debates.  Not ordinary radio debates.  What I’m conjuring is a two hour give and take between candidates with no moderator.  First between primary candidates and then between party nominees and borrowing from a proposal Newt Gingrich has made for national debates it’s my desire that each candidate be required to say something nice about the opposition.  Not a comment about the selection of a tie or hairdresser but to say there may be some merit to at least one idea the other side offers. 

This initial conversation will be criticized if one strong personality dominates.  So be it.  Sometimes as citizens it’s what we’re looking for.  It’s also only a start.  There would be another series of one hour discussions.  There would be a moderator but each discussion covers but one topic.  At the moment I’m considering 4 debates in this format.  One would consider power generation and energy issues while another can ponder healthcare solutions.  Housing and development could well be number three and there are numerous topics vying for chat number four.  You get the idea.  Moderators would be selected from a panel nominated by the state’s media outlets.  Candidates won’t be granted veto power when it comes to selection of moderators.  You agree to the terms or 53 percent of folks polled can go on not knowing your name.  It’s the candidate’s choice to bow out but this will be very much noted by the hosts.

These ideas are for circulation.  If there is a great interest I’ll present a more detailed plan to my handlers.  As well as to Delaware’s combined media for a consensus and possible modifications and with a specific set of requests for my peers.  No debate coverage will reference frontrunners and no winners or losers will be declared.  After all, how can you even measure a subjective judgment?  Leave it to the voters. 

Delaware’s worst polluter, NRG’s Indian River Power Plant in Millsboro.

The chief executive of NRG Energy, Inc., David Crane, penned an op-ed piece in the Washington Post yesterday that my colleague, Bill Colley, shared earlier in the post below. It’s certainly worth the read.

Mr. Crane is apparently very concerned about CO2 emissions, global warming and “the future:”

We are not running out of time; we have run out of time. Decisions we make today in the U.S. power industry will have a significant impact on the size of the problem we bequeath to our children…

Global warming should be at the top of Congress’s agenda — because action by this Congress will turn the tide of climate change around the world. Never before have we faced the prospect of fundamentally damaging our global ecosystem by the day-to-day activities of each and every one of us. A cap-and-trade system is the place to start. America must act now to protect our future.

But, oddly enough, he and his company seem hardly concerned about the direct health threat coming from an NRG facility right here in Sussex County. When the state of Delaware tried to curb NRG’s hazardous emissions of mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides at the Indian River Power Plant, Delaware’s worst polluter, NRG responded by suing the state:

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) initiated emissions regulations requiring power plants in the state to clean up mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions by 2009, with additional cleanup to be complete by 2012.

NRG officials filed a lawsuit stating the company could not meet the 2009 deadline because designing and engineering the wet scrubbers and emissions-controlling equipment would take too long.

Incidentally, when DNREC put out that regulation in 2006, they clearly stated that the deadline was perfectly reasonable:

They have relied upon accepted industry information that the pollution control equipment can be installed economically and in time. The EGUs should have planned for the installation of pollution control equipment long ago, but even with the December 11, 2006, effective date of this regulation, the Department has provided the EGUs with sufficient time for the pollution control equipment to be installed.

Really, if Mr. Crane was as concerned about “the problem that we bequeath to our children,” as he professes to be, he wouldn’t need a federal “carrot and stick” to “protect our future,” and NRG certainly wouldn’t sue to push back deadlines on curbing emissions that are “fundamentally damaging our global ecosystem” and clearly harmful to living things, even *gasp* “our children.”

Lots of companies are willing to sacrifice on their own if they really believe that their activities are harming the earth. Just look at News Corporation, the parent company of The Fox News Channel, they’re dedicated to becoming carbon neutral by 2010. Yes, it will cost them money, but they’re doing it anyway.

As for the federal “carrot and stick” that Mr. Crane requires before his company can do the right thing, I know precisely where the fed should send them.

From my Sunday reading:

 

Washington Times Commentary

Washington Post Op Ed.

The Columbine Massacre (from the Boston Globe):

The two killers had allegedly been repeatedly bullied before they shot 10 students to death and killed themselves.

Virginia Tech Massacre (from CBS news)

“Long before he snapped, Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui was picked on, pushed around and laughed at over his shyness and the strange way he talked when he was a schoolboy in the Washington suburbs, former classmates say.

Wisconsin Deputy’s Shooting Rampage (from BayouBuzz.com–Louisiana Daily News)

CRANDON, Wis. (AP) - A young sheriff’s deputy who opened fire on a pizza party and killed six people flew into a rage when he was rebuffed by his old girlfriend - and others called him a “worthless pig.”

One local teenager who knew the entire group of close-knit friends also said that Tyler Peterson had a history of being bullied by other students in high school.

Tragedy at a Cleveland High School (From the Associated Press)

CLEVELAND —  Despite 26 security cameras, officials couldn’t say Thursday how an armed, suspended 14-year-old student was able to get into his downtown school a day earlier and shoot two students and two teachers before killing himself.

Christina Burns, who volunteered at one of the schools Asa Coon attended, said Coon both received and delivered abuse. She said that in seventh grade, he did nothing after a classmate dropped a book on Coon’s head while the teacher wasn’t looking. “That child was tormented from his classmates every single day,” she said. “Everybody’s making him out to be a devil, a demon, but nobody knows what was going on with this kid.”

Pennsylvania High School Plot (From Fox News)

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. —  A home-schooled teenager who amassed a cache of weapons, including a hand grenade, and tried to recruit another boy for a possible school attack in Pennsylvania was charged with solicitation to commit terror, authorities said Thursday. The 14-year-old, who authorities said had felt bullied, was taken into custody after police raided his home in the Philadelphia suburbs on Wednesday evening. He had talked about mounting an attack on Plymouth Whitemarsh High School similar to the 1999 massacre at Colorado’s Columbine High School, authorities said. In that incident, two disgruntled teens killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves.

“I heard they called him strange, they called him fat,” said Whitemarsh student Samir Panah, 15. “I think he just couldn’t take the pressure. A lot of kids get bullied and they try to seek revenge, kind of like the Columbine situation. If he was at school, God knows what would have happened.”

Obviously there is a pattern here. Do kids go on a rampage like this because they’re just mentally ill? It’s clear to me that how they are treated influences them to the point of setting them off. Of course there is always the other side as well. How do the bullied students act that might lead to the bullying? Still on many occasions, the bullied students can’t help the way they are. So what are schools and the government doing about this? Is enough being done? What is being done here in Delaware to prevent this kind of thing from happening here? The YMCA Resource Center and Office of Early Prevention have started a bullying prevention program. Their number is 302-571-6975. Also the Prevention of Child Abuse for Delaware has a bullying program, and that number is 1-866-925-7223. Also under House Bill 7, schools need to establish a bullying program with methods to report and prevent bullying.