Keys To Your House

I tutor guys at the local library to help them earn their GED's.  All of them are convicted felons arrested for various crimes such as drug use, general thugery, sex offenders and thieves.  Either their parole officers are making them do this or they hope to turn their lives around and get a job.  Until our society "bans the box" that won't likely happen, the economy notwithstanding. 

One of my guys said that his food stamps have been cut (thanks Schumer), he has three children and no income to put food on the table.  I asked him how he provides for them and he said that he "does what it takes."  He said that one of the things he USED to do was go to theater parking lots and look for cars with both a GPS and garage door opener.  He knew the  owner would be at the show for at least two hours and he would break into the car, stealing both the GPS and the door opening.  He would then activate the GPS and if it wasn't locked, would tell it to "go home."  The GPS would lead him straight to the former owner's home and he would park his own car in the garage where he would have about an hour to load it up in the privacy of the garage.  He said he would avoid vehicles with car seats because the generally meant the kids were home with a babysitter.   Although, car seats are valuable on the black market.   He would use Facebook much the same way, to find out when an acquaintance would be out and for how long.

So, things you can do to prevent being a victim of crime:
Write your lawmaker demanding to ban the box.
Write your lawmaker and demand they re-establish the food stamp program.
Ask your employer to give someone a second chance the next time they are hiring.

OR . . .
Don't leave your electronic devices visible in your car.
Enable the lock on your GPS.
Don't set "home" on your GPS to your real home.  Set if for half a mile away or so.
Install an IP camera in your home so that when it detects movement in your house it will email a picture to your phone (although you probably silenced it while in the theater).
Encourage your neighbors to be nosy.
Don't go to the theater.
Have kids but don't take them anywhere.

Criminalizing Life in the United States

A new study came out today that said 49% of the drivers on the road text while they drive.  Another study said 4 out of 5 college students text while driving.  Of course, politicians will now want to draft new legislation to increase the penalties on top of the already existing penalties for texting while driving.  Police departments will get additional grant money to purchase more vehicles so they can peer down into your vehicle to see if you are texting in your lap.  Senators will get to appear on TV news spots so they can inform the public of the wonderful job they are doing to protect you.

Texting laws don't actually make our roads more safe, they make them less safe.  If 50% of drivers are texting, which is against the law, making another law isn't going to stop them.   They obviously don't care about the law or they think they can get away with it (those criminals).  When cell phones first came out, I used to see people texting all the time by holding their phone up in front of their steering wheel so they could see both the road and their phone.  Now that it is against the law and they don't want to get caught, they text in their laps where they have to take their eyes off the road.  This is more dangerous than playing with your GPS, radio or cruise control.  The roads were more safe when they held their phones up to the road.  These laws have probably caused more accidents than they prevented.  People who text are not going to stop texting.  Period.  It's against the law to drive drunk, too.  What about marijuana, burglary, and prostitution?  Laws only stop honest people because either they are afraid of getting caught or the are educated by the law.

If our politicians rescinded the texting law and promoted education about the dangers of texting while driving, our roads would be more safe because the people who don't care about their own life or your life will at least be texting back up in the open where they can  maintain partial eye contact with the road.  This way, also, the taxpayer won't have to foot the bill for police departments to purchase new undercover SUV and vans used to catch people texting.  There will also be less arrests, court costs, incarceration, fines, increased insurance rates and the ancillary burden to the pocketbooks of the people who don't break the law.

Our politicians are excellent at creating laws that don't work and cost us more than they save.  Skylar Capo was 11 years old when she rescued a woodpecker who was about to be eaten by a cat.  Since the bird was injured, she wanted to nurse it back to health and she carried it to a local hardware store to get a cage for it.  While there, a USFWS agent issued a $600 ticket to Skylar and informed her that she faced up to one year in prison for violating a federal law against transporting migratory birds. 

Carey Mills procured all the state and local permits to build a camp on his waterfront property.  The day he began clearing for what was to be the foundation, the EPA arrested him for violating the Clean Water Act and he did 21 months in prison despite getting permits from the state. 

Steven Kinder ran a caviar business on the Ohio River which forms the Ohio-Kentucky border.  Mr. Kinder was arrested because he reported that his business was in Kentucky but was seen harvesting from "Ohio waters."  He faced $250,000 in fines and five years in prison.  He took a plea deal for three years probation and a $5,000 fine.

Lisa Snyder was a say-at-home mom and as a favor to her Michigan neighbors, would watch the local children for 15 minutes every morning until they caught the bus - because the bus stop was in front of her house.  When the police caught wind of this, she was threatened with 90 days in jail for operating a daycare and offering "babysitting services" without a license. 

Jeff Counceller and his wife found an injured baby deer and nursed it back to health.  Jeff was charged with possession of a deer and the animal was to be euthanized per state law.  Fortunately it "escaped."  The greater lesson is not to post pictures to Facebook.

Eddie Anderson of Idaho took his son camping where they found an "Indian" arrowhead.  He found himself facing two years in prison for theft of archaeological resources and  a $1,500 fine but took a plea deal for one year of probation.  The greater lesson is not to post these finds to Facebook.

Nancy Black operates a whale watching business and had videotape of a crew member whistling at whales to get them to stay near the boat.  After viewing the footage, NOAA burst into her home demanding the unedited tapes of the day in question.  She is facing 20 years in prison for withholding evidence.  The greater lesson is not to post your life to Facebook.

Ashley Warden was fined $2,500 after her three year old son Dillan pulled down his pants to urinate in his front yard.  A police officer spotted him committing this crime of exposure and he was facing charges and being put on the sex offender registry. 

Ann videotaped her husband changing their grandson's diaper.  Grandpa tickled the boy's "new-no" as he wriggled with glee and laughter. After posting pictures on their Facebook page, Ann was charged with distribution of child pornography and her husband did five years for molestation.  They are now registered sex offenders and were forced to move from their home of 40 years due to residency restrictions.  

Gary Harrington dug three ponds on his property to control rain water and snow runoff.  Gary was sentenced to 30 days in jail for collecting rainwater without a permit, which is against the law in Oregon.  He is now forced to continually drain his ponds.

Abner Schoenwetter of Florida shipped some marginally small lobsters in plastic bags to prevent leakage.  By law, lobster can only be transported in cardboard.  Abner was sentenced to eight years in prison because he didn't know of this regulation. 

Wallerstein and Wylie conducted a study of 3,000 New Yorkers who have never been arrested and found that 91% of them have "innocently" committed felonies but were not caught.  100% of them committed a misdemeanor of some type.  The next time you go out in public, know this, you are most likely walking among criminals. 

What can you do to reverse the orvercriminalization caused by politicians who feel they have to do SOMEthing in order to justify their high salaries?  Sign up for email updates from Heritage.org, NACDL.org, RightOnCrime.com, ACLJ.org, JusticeFellowship.org, ACLU.org, ALEC.org, FAMM.org.  Share your concerns with your elected representatives.  Demand that they focus on rescinding laws rather than pyramiding more laws on top of more laws.

Nat The Soldier

Over the past thirty years I have met many men who served our country during World War Two.  What treasures they are.  I have recently been blessed to make the acquaintance of an 85 year old man named Nat who was drafted right out of high school to serve in the army at the age of 17.

He recalled to me about a day while on patrol in France; As they were walking down a dirt road, he curiously noticed dust flying up around him.  He couldn't make sense of it when he suddenly realized that they were being shot at from a distance.  The shooter was so far away that they couldn't hear the gunfire.  He yelled,  “Hey, they’re shooting at us.”  Everybody hit the ground.  Pinned down by enemy fire, Nat could feel the bullets penetrating the ground beneath him.  They guy in front of him yelled “Mother, I’m hit.”  Nat reached up and put his hand on the foot of the wailing soldier and said “You’ll be okay.”  The boy never answered.  This was the first of many soldiers Nat would see die.

Another time, Nat was in a trench and was again pinned down by enemy fire.  He was waiting for support when suddenly a Panzer tank rolled over him and stopped.  It began firing and he said it was both deafening and terrifying.   Every time the tank fired, the ground shook, the ditch he was curled up in was crumbling around him. Nat thought that that was going to be the end of him.  American tank support approached from the other side and the Panzer tank retreated.  Nat would live to see another day.

Nat remembers it being very cold his first winter over there.  Many boys had frost bite on their feet and were taken out on stretchers because they couldn’t walk anymore.  Some even had to have their feet amputated.  Nat didn’t smoke but took every opportunity to scavenge  cigarettes which he would light and hold them cupped in his hands in an attempt to keep his fingers warm.  He would sometimes tunnel in the snow at night in an effort to keep warm from the deep, still cold. 

Nat and ten other men found themselves being shelled one day.  A bomb exploded nearby and everyone was hit by shrapnel.  Nat was hit in the heel of his foot.  Everyone was lying on the ground either unconscious or unable to move.  Nat, on his butt, grabbed each man by their armpits one at a time and on his butt, dragged them to safety and lifted them each over a nearby stone wall.  One boy told Nat to save himself and leave him but Nat said no and saved everyone there.   He later received a  Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and Silver Star for saving the lives of his fellow soldiers that day.

Nat often spoke of killing many Germans but would never go into detail about what happened.  He would pause, choke, stare off, and at times tears would well up in his eyes.  He considered what he did to be murder.   It has been sixty years and he still breaks down into tears when he talks about what happened.   When Nat returned home, his dad was standing on the train platform waiting for him.  As Nat got off the train, his dad ran up to him and hugged him.  Nat said that that was the first time his dad ever hugged him.  Again, Nat breaks into tears as he tells the story.  He has asked me many times to drive him to the cemetery where he always weeps at the grave of his parents.

Nat was taken advantage of by some smooth talking, slow, methodical and unspectacular young man with some sort of a felony conviction in his past. He told Nat that he would take care of him for life if Nat signed his house over to him.  Nat did.  Nat didn't want to risk winding up in a nursing home but wanted to die in his own home.  This young man was his salvation.  Nat had almost a million dollars in savings and it was willed to his nieces and nephews, his only living relatives. The young man knew that the only way he could get the money was to spend it. He had an addition put on the house, new roof, new wiring, new appliances, AC and began purchasing antiques.  The house is filled with so much antique furniture that there is only a narrow path through any one room.  The garage has three brand new Cadillac cars in it.  Nat told me that the latest purchases had been a $30,000 sofa and $20,000 tub.  The young man just makes the purchases and expects Nat to sign the checks, which he does.

Family and friends have all contacted the police, social services or the department of the aging but technically no crime has been committed.  When questioned by authorities, Nat says everything is okay.  He did confess to me one day that he made a terrible, terrible mistake. Despite all of that, the man is taking care of Nat in his own home and Nat's dying wish will be completed. A promise is not to be despised, not even when its advocate is no gentleman.