Remember HB 5 and SB 121?  Read the liberal Mr. Cohen and draw some conclusions:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/03/AR2009080302222.html

Some genius has posted a comment somewhere on the internet that contains my name.  I received a Google Alert late this Saturday afternoon.  The writer suggests if a minority police officer arrested Sgt. Crowley of Cambridge and me for doing something criminal we wouldn’t like it either.  It’s a reference to a story some of you may have missed about Henry Louis Gates, Jr.  A story I’ve offered some earlier radio commentary.

My reply to the other opinion writer would look something like this:

Do you suggest anyone getting arrested for doing something criminal is pleased? 

The internet has a democratizing effect and a lot of people are using it stupidly.  If I’m to put myself in the shoes of someone breaking the law do I get a series of choices?  Killer, arsonist, New York State legislators?  Or is my critic suggesting in order avoiding hurting people’s feelings we should shout a hello and allow rapists, thieves and murderers to pass? 

Professor Gates certainly isn’t accused of any such heinous behavior but he did verbally abuse an officer of the law.  An officer of the law, we should note, performing his duty at the time of the verbal assault.  Are any of you aware of any city, town or village in America where this is legal and considered acceptable social behavior? 

The conclusion my critic appears to have reached is that it’s acceptable for any non-Caucasian minority to engage in rude conduct as a form of reparation for past wrongs, perceived current wrongs and any potential wrongs which may occur in the future.  And a very orderly culture we’ll create when we establish rules allowing some folks wider latitude in life than others.  Oh, sorry, we’ve already done that; it’s called Affirmative Action. 

Under these newly enshrined guidelines the arrest of any member of a self-defined minority community shall result in a series of options.  We can start by allowing the arrestee to refuse.  Extreme?  Perhaps we can allow every member of a self-defined minority a series of get out of jail free cards.  These can be used up to a standard limit of three and if the persecuted wakes one day finding himself/herself out of cards a court of arbitration will be convened.  If the court rules in favor of the police a proportional number of white men will also be ordered to jail, which can be accomplished simply by pulling Social Security numbers from a jar.  Even to better represent white men in prison and balance historical wrongs we can order a secondary round of white men to the big house. 

You could argue it isn’t obvious these targeted white men have committed any crimes but there is the written law and then there is the law waiting between the lines for interpretation.  In keeping with fairness this demands a seat for a Latina on the Supreme Court of the United States.  Understand a woman is a far better “decider” when it comes to dispensing justice.  A wise Latina, self-admittedly through her own life’s experiences, is an even better interpreter.

I reside in Delaware and all of what I suggest is standard thinking among local academics, many of whom propose just being born white is an expression of aggression and oppression.  Grant it, my white parents were quite oppressive.  They wouldn’t let us outside to roam the streets at night and frowned on poor grades, skipping school and doing drugs.  It’s exactly the type of parenting leading to more aggression and oppression and as it’s a learned behavior when we’re young it’s unlikely we’ll ever be fully rehabilitated. 

So I await the knock on the door at 3:00 A.M.  I know it’s coming the day the local crack addict finds his deck empty and arbitration provides my comeuppance. 

Sarah Brady dropped me two poison pen emails.  Mrs. Brady is the wife of former Reagan Press Secretary Jim Brady.  She’s also a gun confiscation advocate and you probably don’t need an explanation for her position.  More than a year has passed since I last heard from her.  During the Delaware Presidential Primary she called my program when Patrick Kennedy was an on-air guest.  “Hi, Patrick”, she giggled.  Then she didn’t have anything else to say. 

The emails arrived at my work account late Saturday morning.  One was addressed only to me and the second was addressed to me, my coworkers and managers.  She demands my show move to overnights and she says the demographics of our region have changed and we need more enlightened talk show hosts.  I wrote a polite reply and suggested she get back to enjoying her retirement. 

The woman claims she rarely listens but can cite all sorts of things I’ve said offending her. 

First, I’ve been a broadcaster for 25 years.  People who make such claims are lying.  They tune in everyday for their regular dose of righteous indignation.  Two, the demographics along a narrow stretch of beach have changed.  The rest of the region is about the same as it has been for 300 years, exceptions being paved roads and electricity.  Three, Michael Savage came to national prominence broadcasting a local show in San Francisco.  He wasn’t fired or moved to overnights for needling the loons on the left.  In fact, his ratings soared.  Fourth, since I arrived the afternoon drive slot has become so popular (in a numbers sense) the station’s entire ratings have nearly doubled.  If you figure the weak kneed on the left don’t admit to hearing me then you can extrapolate an even larger audience. 

Fifth, I’m not a conservative but primarily a libertarian.  While I admire Pat Buchanan I gravitate politically in the direction of Ron Paul, however.  If this country can’t survive as a Republic I sure as heck wouldn’t choose a socialist to run the show.  Number six, a program director in Raleigh called me a “Rush” impersonator some two summers ago.  While it would be nice to be making Rush money if I had been a Bush basher would the man have called me an “Air America” Impersonator?  Opinion leaders don’t reside in the center and I’m paid to be an opinion leader.  My opinions aren’t moderate and certainly not left-of-center.  Read the map of where I was raised and how my parents raised me. 

Seventh, Sarah Brady self identified in her first email as a “moderate”.  The word, from my perspective, is synonymous with “wimp”.  I concur the woman is anything but wimpy.  In fact she’s a clear and present danger from the vantage of our Constitution.  No moderates are campaigning to expunge the Second Amendment.  It’s number two and not 18 or 23 for a reason.  It’s number two because the brilliant people drafting the document recognized the value of self defense.  There are 305 million American citizens.  An overwhelming majority didn’t shoot anyone else over the holiday weekend.  Many more blew fingers off with fireworks, drowned or got loaded and slammed a car into someone else.  Even far greater numbers instead sought to have someone else kill their own children growing inside mommy’s tummy.  Yet Mrs. Brady chooses to lobby for my silence.  I pray to God I’ve a voice until he calls me home.

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:”";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”;}

O.J. Simpson was “acquitted”. The word “acquitted” doesn’t mean “not guilty”. There is a legal difference. Michael Jackson, a writer tells me, was “acquitted” twice. Then he went on TV and chatted about sleeping in the same beds with little boys. This is a man who wasn’t unfamiliar with social mores. He understood clearly how his behavior would be viewed. His callousness is evidenced in the video of the man hanging one of his infant children over a balcony in Berlin. Had he been a poor man, Jackson would’ve been imprisoned and segregated for his own protection from other inmates. Last night a Washington Post columnist wrote Jackson benefited from the dawn of the music video and the tight production of Quincy Jones. When the video fad waned so did Jackson’s career.

Now, earlier I stated Ed McMahon was a role model. He left a budding broadcast career to return to the Marine Corp and dodged flack over North career on 85 distinct occasions. Ed McMahon was a great man. His TV obituaries reduced him to some sad clown guffawing at Johnny Carson’s jokes. For the record, Carson flew no missions over North Korea.

I’m also hearing comparisons between Jackson and Elvis Presley. The latter walked away from his career when it was at its peak and gave his country two years in the Army. Then he returned and had two distinct and successful careers before dying.

In an earlier note I mentioned I live a short drive from Dover Air Force Base. It houses a mortuary where fallen heroes come home for the last time. It was recently in the news as mainstream news media demanded they be given access to some very private family (relatives and military family) moments. Partial access was granted; the media showed up for a couple of days and then vanished. Most of the young men and women come home from their final battles and their names are rarely remembered beyond some urban neighborhood or small Nebraska town. Some came from hardscrabble backgrounds even more trying than anything the wealthy Mister Jackson endured. Yet they didn’t complain, they instead put on uniforms and sought more hardship. Past generations of Americans were almost wholly that way, taking depression in stride and then still offering to do a duty for their country.

There are no apologies I’ll make about my feelings for Michael Jackson. He was a media creation. The current media frenzy tells us a great deal about where we’re headed culturally and why there is so little hope for the future. Jackson could dance, sing and fellow a choreographer’s directions. Apparently far better than most people but what does he leave us culturally? The circus has left town and perhaps we need to take stock of what it really means to be an idol. A hero, for a much better description, and next week a large plane will land at Dover. Then how will you define greatness?

I’ve read comments at Facebook from cousins and old friends calling me a monster for suggesting Jackson was anything less than a demigod. He was just a man given great gifts, which then were squandered for some inexplicable reason. He’ll deal now with God as the rest of us will. Alone, carrying nothing from the temporal world.

I’ve been battling with folks on the left for almost a decade and can look back 25 years when I battled alongside them and reach some sober conclusions.  First, I usually wasn’t sober when I was involved with radical leftist groups.  As no one made me take the drink I can’t dismiss once playing for the other side.  All I can do is now work to make right the wrongs I committed against my God and my country.  The second thing I’ve noticed is the left can’t seem to make logical connections.  Which is why I guess the government schools are constructed in the current tense.  You create more liberals when Johnny can’t read and has only the dole as his only resort.  Last week a writer at The Christian Science Monitor bemoaned the lack of modern critical thinkers.  This infers critical thinking is something you can teach.  It may just be some folks are wired differently and can think on several levels at any given time while others don’t have the talent.  I believe I can make this statement because the left argues wiring is the root of all differences between people we used to consider just making lifestyle choices.  Notice I wrote I believe and not I feel.  The only thing I feel is the sometimes knot in my stomach when I’m asked to cheerlead for a cause that makes me uncomfortable.

A Roman Catholic Bishop I once heard saying a homily claimed the knot was part of God’s wiring and a reminder ethics aren’t situational. 

Over the weekend I had quite a bit of time for reading and came across the words of a columnist at The Washington Post.  Jim Hoagland writes the American people are getting angry.  Very, very angry and the anger he believes may get very, very ugly.  Hoagland, from what I know, has never been a paragon of the political right.  He’s just an observer witnessing what a great many others are seeing.  This morning I received an email from one of my friends serving in Iraq.  He was telling me 50 percent of working Americans are just two paychecks away from disaster.

Yesterday I attended a committee meeting of the Sussex County Community Organized Regiment.  A local man with a house just a few miles from where I live hosted it and he has a family, pets and a very good job.  These aren’t people frothing at the mouth and searching for a revolution.  There were ten people in attendance ranging from 19 years old to retired.  There had been an earlier committee meeting where something called “Victory Garden” was a discussion topic.  It appears these bitter clingers have ten acres of land available for tilling and planting.  Members of the group will grow vegetables and then, say it isn’t so, can them for what could be tougher months later this year and early next.  Any member who works on these plots is entitled to share in the bounty.  The barter economy is back. 

Before the session wrapped up there was light banter about the public reaction to creation of the organization.  Liberal bloggers in Wilmington are railing against the toothless right wing goons inhabiting the forests below the ditch.  You know the story.  The salons of the state’s biggest city can’t conceive of how folks can survive without big government.  Worse yet they can’t understand why you wouldn’t want the nanny state in your lives.  The beautiful crime and drug free streets upstate should be convincing, I guess.  Someone mentioned the follow up posts at the blogs contained liberal fears about the good people of Sussex County.  Some worry they’re at a disadvantage because we can handle guns and they can’t but if the figures are correct most of the “Wards of the State” locked up in prisons originally called New Castle County home.  The wards are often locked away because they committed gun crimes and often against liberals even more fearful of weapons they could use in self-defense against criminals. 

I don’t speak for the members of the Regiment but if things get interesting this summer some hungry lefties may be looking for a bite to eat.  God help them.  He just might if they could come to their senses.

Delaware lawmakers have deemed local residents too stupid to properly handle sparklers, bottle rockets and firecrackers.  Are those arrested for trying to bring a little bang to holiday,  patriots or pinheads?

Five people have been busted for possession illegal fireworks after State Police and fire officials watched them buy fireworks at Pennsylvania distributors. Then, when the fireworks were brought into Delaware, the five were arrested. All fireworks – even sparklers – are illegal in Delaware. Police say this was just the first of several similar operations planned for the weekend.

Patriots or Pinheads?

Taffy Bricker has been a long time supporter/caller to the Dan Gaffney Show on WGMD.  It was Taffy’s husband, Gary Bliss who was shot to death by Delaware State Police in Oak Orchard this past Wednesday. 

I interviewed Taffy this morning about her loss.  Listen to it here:

http://www.wgmd.com/SOUNDS/FEATURES/061308-taffy-edit.mp3

Taffy praises the way the police handled the situation; she talks about how bad she feels for the officers who were visibly shaken after having to shoot her husband.  She also wanted to explain her husbands mental illness and Post Traumatic Stress he suffered after his years in Viet Nam.

I have met Gary Bliss, and always considered him to be a wonderful man.  His loss is a sad tragedy for him, and his wife Taffy.

Taffy, my prayers are with you.

“It was the worst year of my life” said the Dorchester County Maryland school teacher, when describing the time she worked for Dana Goodman, the Sussex Central principal charged with 30 counts of rape. 

Teacher Jane Doe, (my name for her) also explained how Mr. Goodman would allow the middle school girls to refer to him as “husband” and would call themselves “Mrs. Goodman” while they adjusted his tie at lunch. 

Despite pages of complaints against Goodman, he apparently was given a glowing recommendation when seeking his job here in Delaware, because Dorchester wanted to get rid of him!

Click here and listen to my Jane Doe teacher interview audio.

With the help of a generous Court of Common Pleas judge and a good attorney, 38 year old former Sussex Central High School principal, Dana Goodman, is free on bail.  Judge Rosemary Beauregard reduced Goodman’s bond from $331,000 to $125,000 dollars, which he was able to post Thursday. 

 He has been ordered to have no contact with the 17 year old victim,  the Indian River School District or its employees and no contact - direct or indirect - with any children under the age of 18.  Goodman is charged with 30 counts of 4th degree rape and continual sexual abuse of a child and endangering the welfare of a child.  All are felony offenses.

On Goodman’s release the school district has this comment:

Statement concerning the posting of bond by Sussex Central High School Principal Dana Goodman: 

“Mr. Goodman continues to be prohibited from having any contact with Indian River School District students or staff while his case is being adjudicated. The Indian River Board of Education has directed administrative staff to advertise the position of principal of Sussex Central High School, identify qualified applicants to be interviewed by the board and conduct background checks on all such applicants consistent with IRSD procedures.”                                               

                                Susan Bunting, SuperintendentMay 9, 2008

Earlier this week the Indian River School District appointed former IR and Woodbridge School District teacher and administrator, Robert Powell, as the interim principal at Sussex Central High School for the remainder of the school year.  Also Assistant IR Superintendent Gary Brittingham has been assigned to the school for the rest of the school year. 

The school district has now announced a special meeting for parents and members of the community regarding Sussex Central High School: 

Did Dana Goodman the Sussex Central Principal charged with 30 counts of rape of a minor, have a problematic past at other schools?  I keep hearing it, but have no proof.

I did find some online buzz about him in Dorchester County claiming he had a sketchy work history.

Read it here:  http://www.newszapforums.com/forum11/58625.html

Click here to read our first post about the local Principal Charged with rape.