New 9/11 video

This never before seen...well, you'll see.

Dubya did it!

Later

WV Timeline

When were sewers first proposed here in Wilkes-Barre?

When did cobblestone streets first appear in the city?

Visit the Wyoming Valley History Timeline courtesy of Wilkes University.

KD, when did Chief Muckamucka emerge?

Later

Bridges to nowhere

In a politically-correct world, this one goes untouched by white folks.

But it’s such a complete farce, somebody has got to touch upon it.

Ideas abound at Building Bridges meeting

"I hear it all the time, 'I'm going to get out of the city. The city's in trouble. Things aren't the way they used to be.' And we can cut and run to the Back Mountain, we can cut and run to Mountain Top, or we can choose to stay and fight. That's the choice I've made. That is a choice that I think collectively we have made - or you would not be here tonight."

While it’s not entirely clear which of the two presiding clerics the preceding quote should be attributed to, it is evidently clear that he inadvertently described what is known to demographers as “white flight.” That is, the out-migration of white folks from urban centers to the more bucolic suburban areas.

Therein should be the starting point of the people looking to build bridges to wherever it is or whatever it is they hope to arrive at.

Put as bluntly as possible, as the demographics of this once Lilly white city began to appreciably and noticeably change, the disturbing emergence of now nearly epidemic black-on-black crime shot through the roof and has longtime city residents grousing about the good old days.

I read both of our two daily newspapers every each and every morning. And so do most of the folks that drop by this site from time to time. And the seemingly non-stop reporting of high-profile crimes committed by one particular demographic group are there for all to search, peruse and draw conclusions from.

What is needed to build anything upon is less self-sympathetic hand-wringing and more painfully honest introspection. That’s your cornerstone of your yearned-for rebuilt community foundation. Hiring more police officers and having seminars with elected officials will do far, far less than some long overdue self-policing would.

But what do I know? I’m just some aging white boy who remembers the days when people were not gunned down with sickening regularity in Wilkes-Barre as well as Luzerne County.

Building bridges atop faulty premises?

Yeah, bridges to nowhere.

Later

DA: I'd tell you, but then I'd have to...

Eight weeks ago, somebody got murdered in Wilkes-Barre.

As a direct result, just yesterday, somebody (a minor) who claimed to be with the victim at the time of said murder was taken away in handcuffs.

Yet, astonishingly, we are not yet allowed to know the particulars.

I know not of retooled juvenile laws and the like. But I do know that when a heart-sickened community convulses after an unimaginable death tears upon it's worn and faded fabric, that community demands answers, not legalese and and evasive double-speak.

A gun was fired.

A boy died.

A double-secret courthouse hearing was held.

The only reported eye-witness to the murder was taken away in cuffs.

So now all that's required is to have the pig-tailed district attorney take a couple of big chick steps.

I do understand that this is Luzerne County, where openness and truth play like a skinhead metal band at a gay wedding reception.

But gunplay and resulting deaths should not be shrouded in secrecy for any length of time, no matter what and no matter the age of the players.

No matter how it's spun, this is as confusing as it is troubling. I know it. You know it.

Later

When Yoko became the second-most hated person

I waited a decade...

Still pisses me off.

Later

Waco documentary

Agree, disagree...whatever.

“Waco - Rules of Engagement”

Parts 2 through 6 can be linked to in the view box at the conclusion of this first installment.

I derived two disturbing things from this interesting documentary.

The first was how completely sidetracked and out-of-the-loop people can get when they become totally absorbed in ancient religious rule books, the authors of which are still the subject of centuries-old debates.

Secondly, I was struck by the carved-in-stone correct notion that only the people toting the Bibles could be surrounded, put under military siege for 51 politically-embarrassing days and then later executed at the hand of Fedrule agents in the land of the free---the United States. All other religious persuasions and perversions and obvious excesses are to be tolerated no matter what, they tell us, while those heartland red-state folks, steadfast adherents of whichever version of the Bible are deemed to be enemies of the (Democrats) state.

In a perfect world, Bill Clinton and Janet Reno head to the same hoosegow after the congressional hearings.

It all makes Ruby Ridge look like fun.

And it all makes the Oklahoma City bombing seem totally avoidable.

Later

My Body of Water

Pennsylvania has Tom Corbett.

New York has celebrity.

If you have not seen Kayak Dude's latest video (not the one I embedded), please visit his site and have a look.

Later

Fatal drift

On a typical "three-day" holiday weekend, I replace the batteries in my portable police scanner.

When the hoi-polloi know they have that extra day and/or night by which to consume enough alcohol to inebriate themselves two or three times over, Scanner Land can be wildly entertaining.

That said, you will never see a better argument for the wearing of seatbelts than you will when this minute-long video switches to slow-motion.

No paramedics needed with that one. No need to "put an X on it." That's a 10-45...Notify coroner.

At the risk of sounding like an Ad Council devotee, Buckle Up!

Later

KD in the news (again)

This is a story that might be unparalleled throughout the entirety of these United States.

Although, I imagine it'd be damn near impossible to verify.

Strong family ties with Memorial Day parade

If today's weather is right, Don Williams will march down Wyoming Avenue playing a fife that is older than anyone watching the parade - an instrument a Union soldier used in the Civil War more than 150 years ago.

Later

Prometheus

For me, it started with Arthur C. Clarke.

One more week and a couple of days...June 8...Prometheus, the Alien prequel.

I'll see you there.

Later