Monday Morning Rant 88

Let’s get right to it this morning. If you are looking for yet more outrage, you have come to the right place. This story is so vile that it defies description.

We will start with exactly what happened. In Wilkes Barre/Scranton, Pennsylvania there were two judges (Mark A. Ciavarilla and Michael T. Conahan) who had a cozy relationship with the operators of a privately owned juvenile detention center. They were paid by the operators, by the head, for each person sentenced for incarceration there. The center’s revenue was garnered per head by their prison population numbers. The two judges then assured the operators of huge sums by sentencing juvenile offenders to the facility; the judges’ kick-back, $2.6 million dollars.

The justification for the sentencing was more often than not for such offenses as being in a playground fight, posting unkind remarks about school officials on the internet, and other trivial matters which normally would have resulted in detention at the individual school. For their own personal gain, they committed naughty kids to a penal environment for ninety days and up. Once convicted, the children now carry the stigma of the sentence throughout their lives. Thousands of kids were involved.

While pointing to the despicable judges, who received 7 years in prison, is appropriate, the case has many more actors. Among them, the prosecuting attorney, the operators of the detention facility, social service workers, and other courts right up to and including the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. I would suggest that the deprivation of the rights of a child might also hold some interest at the federal level.

One might suggest that not only did the system fail the victims of this scam but also points to rampant corruption at every adjacent level. For what ever reason, any of the above mentioned participants, whether remunerated in kind or influence should swell the population numbers of Pennsylvania’s prisons. I shall be particularly alert to the actions of the new attorney general, Eric Holder, in encouraging further investigation of all the miscreants involved.

A Few Thoughts from Jim Treacher

This guy comes up with some marvelous quotes of which I will share a few and you can click for the rest.

“One anagram of "President Barack Obama" is "An Arab backed imposter." Just one of those weird things that has nothing to do with reality.”

“When it comes to deficit spending, Obama burns down your house and reminds you that Bush once lit a match.”
“President Obama just sent Kim Jong-il a strongly worded apology.”

“Wepwesentative Bawney Fwank weceives incweasing evidence that wunnin' things, it ain't all gwavy: http://tr.im/iprH”

“Newly discovered documents reveal Lee Harvey Oswald acted on orders from 12-year-old Rush Limbaugh. Jack Ruby's dying word: "Megadittoes."

Try him, you’ll like him.

Some Other Random Thoughts

Walking on water is an appropriate action if one does not have feet of clay. Then, things are apt to get muddy and bogged down.

I apologize to my readers for supplying the reality of the film of your host. Perhaps it would have been better to let you imagine how I appear rather than confirming your worst suspicions.

Have we about come to the reality yet that “the one” can not speak without a teleprompter? I may have posted this earlier but if I didn’t; it’s priceless. If I did, you can always enjoy laughing one more time.

One of greatest things about the attendees at the tea parties is that the crude jokes from the left about “tea bagging” underscores that the humor has gone over their heads. It is difficult to either criticize or laugh at that which one does not understand or experience.

Obama today pledged that $100 million in "inefficiencies" would be eliminated from the federal budget. Let's see; that would be 1/32,000th of the total "stimulus" package. Wow! 1/32,000th!

Listen carefully to the “apology” which Janet Napolitano offered over the Assessment from the Department of Homeland Security. At no time does she actually apologize or acknowledge the hurt she caused to those who have served in the armed forces. She simply says that “an apology is called for” and then only for the footnote.

I could not have been prouder than to hear my adult Sunday school teacher confide that she had attended her local Tea Party in Miami, OK. She loved it!

The Real Thing

This is the resource for the following article. You will probably find much of interest on this website so don’t be bashful about clicking it. Please note that although they identify Coke as the villain, it applies almost equally to any soda you can name.

“Have you ever wondered why Coke comes with a smile? It’s because it gets you high. They took the cocaine out almost a hundred years ago. You know why? It was redundant.

In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness..
45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
>60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
>60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
>60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.
This will all be followed by a caffeine crash in the next few hours. (As little as two if you’re a smoker.) But, hey, have another Coke; it’ll make you feel better.

*FYI: The Coke itself is not the enemy, here. It’s the dynamic combo of massive sugar doses combined with caffeine and phosphoric acid. Things which are found in almost all soda.”

And finally

Life is good; life is full and life is active. Church, Tea Parties, spring cleanup and plantings, writing, and all the other things which keep the body and the mind sound (?) are in abundance here in the Ozarks.

On the south side of the new deck on either side of the entrance I built foot-high rock walled planters to accommodate the grapes. On twenty acres of trees and rocks I didn’t have sufficient good topsoil so I bought it at Wal-Mart in addition to natural fertilizers. I did cheat a little; we have the Missouri Extension Center research farm close by and they are running about a three acre experimental patch to evaluate the possibilities of vineyards for Missouri farmers. I went there for verifiable information on how to do it. The plants, from Lowes, are now about a foot high, mulched and leafing out. We were blessed with an easy shower over the weekend so no need to water today. I chose three different varieties and hopefully, one will climb up to the cross-hatched roof and provide what we need in cover, food, and decoration for us.

The balance of God’s world is in full-speed spring mode and flourishing. The grass (4 acres) is ready for its second complete mowing and all’s right with the world. My prayer is that you are able to enjoy this season of rebirth as much as we are.

In His abiding love,

Cecil Moon