An anonymous caller to WGMD said this week that he was abused as an inmate at The Sussex Correctional Institution and talked about his experiences on and off the air. He claims he is among several former SCI inmates who were brutally tortured by guards. There was actually a story about one of these cases in the News Journal earlier this year:

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dgrfjsw8_144f2n9cb

The anonymous caller claims he had 18 smashed ribs, ruptured muscles and intestines, a punctured lung and threats of sexual torture made against him. He added that there is a recent case this fall, in which an 18-year old guy was arrested and taken in completely healthy, but he left crippled. One of them was said to have had as many as 400 stitches from dog bites. The caller says there is litigation right now that involves nearly a dozen others who say they were abused by guards. One guard was reportedly busted. This is Sussex Correctional Institution now, not Abu Ghraib. This man, who I believe is in his 50’s, stated that this stuff was and is going on in the pre-trial building and claimed that the abuse over there is worse than Abu Ghraib. I am not sure about the extent of all of this, but the reputation surrounding Delaware’s prison system in terms of health care isn’t particularly good. Here is the News Journal’s history of stories in the last few years about “Delaware’s deadly prisons.”

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/NEWS/50923004/1006&theme=PRISONDEATHS&template=theme

Here’s another report from Human Rights Watch from last year. Note that Delaware is included in the list of states:

http://www.safetyandjustice.org/info/nation/story/947

Is there a cover-up here? Is there more going on than we think? Are these allegations of abuse true? These are guards now, not just inmate attacking inmate. You may happen to know an inmate or may even have a friend of yours in prison. You probably can’t trust the other inmates, but can you trust these guards? I plan to follow up on all of this to try and find out what is really going on.

Dawn broke cold at Long Neck.  The Weather Channel offered a temperature in neighboring Millsboro of 24 degrees.  It also offered a matching temperature at Buffalo International Airport.  While it wasn’t my prime motivation for moving here the promise of a better climate played a role.  It was my plan to spend this cold weekend in the upper reaches of New York State but my daughter’s split family provided a different outcome.  With but a few hours I could spend with her and calculating a cost for gasoline and tolls of 100 dollars I deferred our holiday together.
 

Instead I drove Saturday morning to Berlin, Maryland for an oil change.  Sure, it’s a hike as well but I know some fellows who can keep the cost in line, rotate my tires and not insist that I need to rebuild my low mileage 3 year old car.  My co-worker, Wayne Cannon, tells me if I plan to become a permanent resident of this wooded peninsula that worse choices could be made than Berlin.  He was also the first person telling me it was where a movie named The Runaway Bride was filmed.
 

Berlin isn’t a money magnet like nearby Lewes and Rehoboth but it sure could be the picture used to illustrate that loosely invented word “Americana”.  Some big colonial and Victorian homes line some of the streets.  One of the big Victorians is for sale.  The house and not any actual person living or once living is implied.  There are also some streets where the houses could be described as plain but it’s sure a pleasant ordinary.  The shopping district is red brick.  All of it red brick.  And mostly antique shops with a few scattered stores selling quilts. 
 

There is a small tavern on one street and I believe the name is “Goober’s”.  I didn’t go inside.  I’ve given up beer but from outside the windows it looked like the place to catch some good college football.  Or if not then the Maryland Terrapins.  There were two diners I visited for breakfast.  At the first I was offered a seat at the only available table, which was abutting a table where a family was already seated.  While reading the Washington Post I was asked who had won the Hawaii-Boise State game.  I sighed and offered Hawaii.  The family also sighed.  Boise State may be the real “America’s Team”.  The family got its breakfast.  After I got coffee nobody ever came to take my food order.  I went to the counter and mentioned this as I was going to pay for the hot drink.  Instead I was given the coffee at no cost and offered an apology.  One block away I found another restaurant, an ice cream shop really, serving breakfast.  So I ordered blueberry pancakes.  The waitress explained there weren’t any blueberries.  So I ordered plain pancakes.  My coffee came black.  When I asked for cream it was explained to me that cream should be ordered before the coffee is served.  Also there wasn’t any cream but I could have some milk.  When the pancakes arrived I was provided with a thimbleful of syrup.  It was explained there wasn’t any more syrup available.
 

This report could end on these sour notes but the pancakes weren’t sour even if not perfect. 
 

I spent most of the day after breakfast wandering the village streets.  It’s just magnificent. 
 

I walked Berlin’s streets until late in the day.  Then I went to a local burger joint on the end of town.  A place that shames any fast food restaurant I’ve ever visited.  It’s the type of place I’d have wanted to hang around in as a teenager and I could see myself in twenty years seated there on some Friday night, whiling away the evening with some local talk and a chicken dinner. 
 

My drive home was of the meandering variety, I mean.  Where am I going in any hurry?  It took me through Ocean Pines.  Very pretty and I’m sure it would be a nice get-a-way for a week in summer or weekend in late September or early April but it all looks too planned for me.  And you really can’t walk to mail a letter or fill a prescription or to a church.  At least from what I saw today. 
 

The day did warm before it was over.  Somewhere in the low 40s I’m guessing.  Cool weather doesn’t slow life here.  The shops along the beaches were busy as I drove home along Route 1.  Even the bicycle shop at Bethany Beach was doing a brisk business. 
 

Then I closed the day at church.  It strikes me there will be a time when I can no longer see new things.  God’s glory is on display, always has been.  It’s just that I didn’t always look in the right places.  Thanksgiving Day I went to a morning church service and then had two hours before I had to go to work.  I raked leaves under a sunny sky and with a thermometer reading of 71 degrees.  There was a hawk perched not far away in a tree.  A neighbor pointed it out to me.  Then the bird raised its wings and soared.  In circles and figure eights and it looked like a kite dancing on wind.  Last year at Thanksgiving I wasn’t employed and was approaching residence at a Rescue Mission.  What a God-given turn of events.

Joni Mitchell sang, “They paved paradise & put up a parking lot”… condo, town house, mini-mall…..    

Yeah – I can play the “I remember when” game when it comes to Delmarva.  I remember when I was a kid when there really wasn’t anything much north of 33 Street except the Carousel Hotel.  I remember when Route 1 in Delaware was pretty much two lanes and bumper to bumper traffic – well some things never change.  But tell me – when did Ocean City turn from a place I used to love to go to as a kid and a teenager – to one pretty ugly town?   There’s development and then there’s development gone wild.  I know folks in Sussex County say development is out of control, but there are development districts in the county – where development is allowed (like it or not) and other places where there’s no infrastructure to support development – and you can’t develop those areas.  In Ocean City – it seems the entire town is one ginormous development district – and if there’s not the space to build – they’re filling in the bayside wetlands to create more space to pave over!   There’s so little green in Ocean City today – about all that’s left are the ball parks at 3 Street and Northside Park.  Much of the rest of Ocean City today is tar and concrete.                                     I was watching a DVD recently by an aerial photographer, Jim Whaley.  While his “A Bird’s Eye View” DVD has some spectacular shots of the resort I spent at least part of every summer in since I was a kid – it also made me realize just how “developed” Ocean City has become since I first saw it as a child – and ugly.  When the condo my parents live in was built in 1975, it was one of the tallest buildings in the lower part of town (basically south of 33 Street).  Height variances had to be obtained to build as high as they did – 11 stories – with a parking garage at the ground level (so 12 stories actually).  There was nothing taller to the south.  Not any more.  While Mayor Cropper dreamed in the 1960s of developing Ocean City to the state line, I don’t know if that dream included what has come to be.  Some of the ugliness can be attributed to a handful of people – like Buddy Jenkins who started filling in the bayside wetlands to develop 28 Street bayside and gave others the idea to fill in the other bayside wetlands – like Charles Holland – who’s new Sunset Island at 66 Street is one of the ugliest creations I’ve seen.  Those are only 2 examples – there are many.  Of course all that wouldn’t have been possible without the approval being granted for all these projects by the Ocean City planning & zoning commissions and the town councils through the years. Condo Row in North Ocean City was inevitable, but the bayside was supposed to stay less developed with smaller buildings – like single family homes or town homes.  Even the high density mobile and manufactured home developments like what’s mostly at 94 Street and Montego Bay, while pretty ugly – at least allow for something green – like a lawn.  Not multi-level monstrosities like Rivendell at 81 Street.  A high rise condo on the bayside that was, oops, built taller than what was approved, but the town council has not said – “oh well – it’s already there, so it can stay.  Besides they’re going to pave the sidewalks and powerwash the neighboring buildings as a consequence for being too tall.”  Right now the centerpiece in the current crop of OC ugly is the monstrosity that’s being erected at 48 Street and the ocean.  The Gateway Grand - a 16-story, 196-unit, oceanfront luxury condominium.  What was wrong with the old Gateway?   Oh – I get it – a motel just doesn’t generate the revenue that these condos will bring in - prices range from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000+.  Just how many Bill Gates and Warren Buffetts do they expect to be moving to town?  The Gateway Grand is just too – everything.  Too big, too tall, too out of scale to the rest of the area and too UGLY (of course that’s totally my opinion).  Of course it also brings up the questions everyone asks – there’s someplace to house all these folks – but there’s no place for them to go.  Coastal Highway can’t handle the traffic, there’s no where to shop because they’re closing many of the stores to build more housing (45 Street Village), grocery stores are far and few between.   And you just can’t have EVERYONE in town head to the second main attraction in town – the Boardwalk – all those people & their cars just won’t fit.  You just can’t pour a gallon of water into a pint bottle. At the rate that Ocean City is being developed – both up and out, it’s a wonder they haven’t decided to just fill in the bay and become one with Bishopville, Ocean Pines and Berlin. I think I’ll stay in Delaware – compared to Ocean City – even eastern Sussex County is the wilderness! Photo credits - Jim Whaley’s “A Bird’s Eye View” DVD and the GatewayGrand.com

Heather Mills wants you to think that cows are worse than “charity campaigners” in SUVs.

Heather Mills showed up at an “ecological event” in London last Sunday in a “gas guzzling” Mercedes SUV to tell a crowd that eating meat is killing the planet with greenhouse gases. She wondered why we don’t drink “rat’s milk:”

“There are many other kinds of milk available. Why don’t we try drinking rats’ milk and dogs’ milk?”

Mills, who became a vegan when she married Paul McCartney in 2002, allegedly turned down a $50 million dollar divorce settlement from the former Beatle because she wanted $100 million. After the London event, she went to Dublin, Ireland where her hypocrisy took an unexpected turn as she berated wealthy people:

“Because people are very snobby - these people who have lots of money, they’re either snobby or they’re stingy.

“If you have lots of money you have to be stingy because why would you want that amount of money.”

Yes, Heather, “why,” indeed. She went on to explain that basically she needs money because that’s what it takes to hang around rich people all day long “to actually make a change.” Mills apparently suffers greatly at cocktail parties to save the planet, and yet, she feels she’s being mistreated by the media:

“I don’t think anything can prepare you for being treated worse than a murderer or a paedophile when all you have done in 17 years is charity work,” she said.

(17 years? Would it be wrong to mention that if you go back 18 years Mills was shooting a German porn book? Ouch.)

And why does Mills think she’s getting a raw deal from the media?

She suggested at different stages that she is being attacked because she is a woman and also because she is campaigning for real change in the world.

“I’m a woman who puts fear into men who want to control women,” she said.

“If you look at every single person in the history of the world who has tried to make a difference, you’ll find a very long section of their lives where they were treated horrifically by the government or by the media.”

Heather…are you being “treated horrifically” by the media because you’re a woman trying to exact change, or could it just possibly be because you’re a hypocrite and a total flake?

Let’s face it, the friction created by Linda McCartney spinning in her grave right now is probably contributing more to global warming than all of the earth’s livestock and transportation combined.

(I guess this post means I’m “banned” by Heather Mills now, bummer.)

No, your turkey doesn’t cost more because it hangs out with President Bush and his buddies.

This year your Thanksgiving turkey is going to cost more than last year because we’re turning to alternative fuels:

Turns out your Thanksgiving dinner is going to cost about $5 more this year. One big reason? Ethanol. Here’s why. The most expensive part of the dinner is the turkey (though some grocers give it away if you overload on everything else). And 60% of the cost of the turkey is the feed. Most of the feed is corn, and corn prices are through the roof because corn is being diverted to the hot item of the moment: ethanol.

California’s poultry industry alone has seen a “$100 million dollar” increase in the cost of corn feed. So is there a bright side? Well, no, not if the “side” you’re talking about is creamed corn or cornbread stuffing….

Bill O’Reilly had a familiar ‘local’ face and voice on the O’Reilly Factor last night—-Republican strategist Christine O’Donnell, on the issue of cloning. Is cloning monkeys morally wrong? You can read the transcript here:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311946,00.html

There is also a video available:

http://www.foxnews.com/oreilly/index.html 

I came across an interesting article and perspective on the issue of global warming—”The Bible and ‘global warming’” from WorldNetDaily:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58513

It makes sense. Who is Al Gore, and who is man to think that we can somehow control the universe and future of this planet—apart from the one who created all things? Is there any reaction to this–or reaction from Christians who may preach, teach, or believe in global warming?

Thank you, Giorgio Armani.

Let’s start with the most important news, David Beckham has signed a 3 year, $41 million dollar deal to model underwear for Giorgio Armani. Oh, yeah, and Becks is back playing for England’s national team:

Despite only just returning from a long injury layoff himself, Beckham was included in the squad to play Austria in a friendly on Nov. 16 and the potentially decisive Euro qualifier with Croatia five days later.

“He is a big-game player,” McClaren said. “He is an experienced player who has never let England down.”

Meanwhile, striker Wayne Rooney is out for England and for Manchester United with an ankle injury suffered during a game of head tennis. (Apparently “head tennis” is a form of football training on a tennis court where you use your head instead of a racket).

In more England news, national team coach Steve McClaren is one of many Brits concerned that the English Premier League is down to “38%” when it comes to English players:

‘Some reality has to come into it. Of course, the sheer numbers of foreign players in the Premier League cuts down my options.’

Finding a remedy for the problem is not going to be easy.

European employment law prevents the imposition of quotas, which England’s major clubs would forcefully fight the blanket imposition of any way given their need to tackle the biggest sides on the continent.

Some managers have gone so far as to call for minimum numbers of Brits on Premier League teams.

And, of course, ITALY + FOOTBALL = RIOTS. A Lazio football fan was shot and killed last week as police tried to stop fighting between rival football fans:

The police officer who fired the fatal shot is under investigation for manslaughter and has been reassigned to internal duties. Today the officer, who has been named only as Luigi S, said the shooting was a “tragic error”.

“I didn’t point the gun at anything, I didn’t aim at anybody,” he told Corriere della Sera. “The first shot I fired into the air and the second left me while I was running. Now I have destroyed two families, the man’s and mine.”

News of the shooting sparked rioting in Rome where a police station was attacked. You can check out videos of the rioting HERE, and HERE. In response, Italian football has suspended Serie B & C play, and a ruling will be made this week on whether Serie A play will suffer the same fate.

The threat of violence by “Ultras” during a game last Sunday, has AC Milan superstar, Kaka, talking about leaving town:

“Could I leave Italy? Yes, if these violent episodes continue,” Kaka told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“I love football because it brings me happiness, but at the moment I can’t enjoy myself.

“If there are big problems in Italian football that prevent me doing my job properly, anything could happen.

“I am worried for my family’s safety as my wife and parents frequently come to watch me, so there is a chance I could move to another country.”

You can check out the “Ultras,” the Italian version of British fooball Hooligans HERE. Oi.

Judson Bennett sent a letter to his Coastal Conservative Network, after one of our talk show hosts resigned his position at WGMD.  His letter fueled all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories and predictions of the financial demise of Resort Broadcasting Company.  The wacky theories about “why Randy left” were wrong, and I’m happy to report so were the predictions of our doom.  Today, Jud sent this letter, reprinted here with his permission. 

Dear Dan,

Judson Bennett