Safety tips for the Holiday Shopping Season

A set of Safety tips for the Holiday Shopping Season:

Theft and crime in parking lots at Shopping Centers and Malls is at its highest this time of year. Folks are carrying lots of Cash and may have hands full of shopping bags, gifts, and coffee. Not to mention kids. Folks are distracted to say the least and may be weary and tired. But this is the time, more than ever we need to keep our wits and take basic precaution to prevent crime.

Don't forget when you shop to travel in groups of competent adults, you'll make a less tempting target.

Tis the season to steal and rob; but getting your car broken into is much more common than being robbed or kidnapped.

At the Parking Lot:

1 - ALWAYS when you Park your car, Park your car near well lighted areas or light poles and where you may be seen by passers-by. Dark corners of the lot are to be avoided.

Getting out of your car:

2 - NEVER leave a purse in the car. EVER. If you don't want to carry it in the store, leave it at home.

3 - NEVER leave packages or any other valuables in the accessible part of your car, especially if it is visible. Best to buy stuff, go home, put it away, and go back out if need be - thieves know your bad habit of going store to store and dumping your winnings in the back seat too. They WILL break your window and have a Merry Christmas themselves. Best to store items in a locked trunk, a lock box if you have one installed in your vehicle, and if you are in a wagon or minivan, try taking a large plastic storage container and putting it in the back with a lock or two, and use a bike chain or other device to secure it to the vehicle itself. Make things difficult for a thief, and they are likely to give up.

4 - NEVER leave you car unlocked, and never leave any keys visible in the car. Nor cell phones, credit cards, wallets, or other valuables.

In the Store:

5 - ALWAYS be observant when you are shopping. Make sure your children are close, even older ones, and try not to split up in a crowded mall. Staying together is one of the best ways to prevent crime. Know your surroundings, know where you are going, observe those around you - especially if people are following you or seem to be aimless.

6 - NEVER put a purse in a basket at Walmart or other places with baskets. It can disappear with you HOLDING the cart. This has happened over and over again at our local Walmart, often to older women who better targets due to more money, more credit cards, and less awareness.

7 - ALWAYS take the elevator instead of the stairs. (Stair wells are horrible places to be alone and the perfect crime spot. This is especially true at NIGHT!)Elevators usually have a Phone for Emergencies. Use them.

8 - NEVER be afraid to call mall security or local PD if you think something suspicious is happening. EVER. During the Holidays, many police departments have extra officers working the shopping corridors just to make citizens feel safe, to scare off thieves and other miscreants ... and it's often on the clock overtime, so don't be afraid to ask an officer to work for it.

Going back to your Car:

9 - ALWAYS be aware: look around you look behind your car and underneath it as you approach. If something is out of place, walk away, return to the building, but whatever you do get out of that situation.

10 - ALWAYS be observant, take time to Look at the cars parked on either side of yours before and after going to the store. At your car, be especially be sure to check the driver's side of your vehicle, where you get in. If an adult male is sitting alone in the passenger seat, of a nearby car, leave or go back into the mall, store, or work, and get a guard/policeman to walk you back out. This is unusual behavior, and just plain creepy.

11 - ALWAYS notice your surroundings, if you find that you are parked next to a big van, enter/leave your car from the passenger door. Many kidnappers have attacked their victims by pulling them into a van or delivery vehicle while the person is attempting to get into their car.

12 - ALWAYS double check your own car before you get into it: Look into your car, at the passenger-side floor, into the hatch (if glass hatchback) and in the back seat. Is it the way you left it, are things out of place, is someone in there?

13 - ALWAYS look and note when things are out of place, or don't make good sense. If they are out of place, then this is a good time to summon assistance from local PD. IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY.

After Shopping:

14- LEAVE: Do not hang around parking lots. Many multi-taskers have a tendency today to get into their cars after shopping, eating, working, etc., and just sit (doing their checkbook, checking the PDA, or checking a list, etc. DO NOT JUST SIT IN YOUR PARKED CAR!) Someone may be watching you. AS SOON AS YOU GET INTO YOUR CAR, LOCK THE DOORS AND LEAVE.

If confronted:

15 - KEEP YOUR WITS. If a robber asks For your wallet and/or purse, DO NOT HAND IT TO HIM. Toss it away from you....chances are that he is more interested in your wallet and/or purse than you, and he will go for the wallet/purse. RUN LIKE MAD IN THE OTHER DIRECTION!

16 - RUN. If you are confronted by a predator and he has a gun, before he has you under his control, and if you have the opportunity, RUN! If you are a running target you are unlikely to be hit (less than 4 in 100), and that's if he actually shoots the gun. RUN, Preferably in a zig-zag pattern!

17 - RESIST. Use whatever you have to get away from an attacker, the hot coffee in your hand, your keys, a MAG flashlight. Get out of his control. Then RUN!

At Home:

16. NEVER open the door to Strangers. Even infants! You can never repeat this one too many times! Recently during the search for a suspected serial killer, a potential victimm heard a crying baby on her porch, and she called the police because it was late and she thought it was weird. The police told her "Whatever you do, DO NOT open the door." The lady then said that it sounded like the baby had crawled near a window, and she was worried that it would crawl to the street and get run over. The policeman said, "We already have a unit on the way, whatever you do, DO NOT open the door." The Detective told her that the serial killer they were investigating has a baby's cry recorded and uses it to coax women out of their homes hoping that the victimm will think that someone dropped off a baby. Be aware that a recorded message may be anything devised to get you to open the door to your house and catch you off your guard; like an injured puppy, a smallchild's cry, or young girl.

Dont be afraid to go out, but shop safe, shop smart, shop 'S' Mart!

Of course you realize, this means War!

There was a time in these United States when the mere hint that the Mexican Government was interfering with our affairs would be enough for a declaration of War. The idea that Mexico might feeding its Economy on drug money should be a red flag to somebody in Washington to at least look into our Border Issues. The idea that these drug lords might be actively supported by the Mexican Government is scary stuff.

The fact that the information about what is going on at our southern border is being covered up, ignored, and buried by the Press is scarier still.

In reading other associated links, this is not the first occurrence of uniformed Mexicans coming into the U.S and interfering with the Border Patrol. So far, no one has confirmed that Mexico was officially involved in any occurrence. Wouldn't you think it would be important to know, for certain, that the Mexican Government was not involved.

Can you imagine the Public Opinion if this was the lead off story on the nightly news on all major networks each time it occurred. The People would be calling for the Invasion of Mexico!



Armed standoff Rio Grande
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

U.S. Border Patrol agents were backed down this week by armed men, dressed in what appeared to be Mexican military uniforms and carrying military weapons, who seized a captured dump truck filled with marijuana from the U.S. agents and dragged it across the border into Mexico with a bulldozer.

The border incident occurred Thursday evening when Border Patrol agents attempted to pull over a dump truck on Interstate 10 in Hudspeth County, Texas. The driver fled from the agents, exiting the freeway and driving toward the Rio Grande which runs within 2 miles of the interstate in this portion of West Texas. The driver abandoned the truck after it became stuck in the river bed, escaping into Mexico. Agents called for reinforcement from the Texas state troopers and Hudspeth County sheriff and began unloading the haul estimated to have been nearly 3 tons when everything changed.

Officers "started to retrieve the bundles when the armed subjects appeared," said Agent Ramiro Cordero, Border Patrol spokesman. According to Hudspeth County Chief Deputy Mike Doyal, the dump truck driver returned with armed men, some of whom drove "official looking vehicles with overhead lights." Some of those armed, Doyal told the El Paso Times, appeared to be Mexican soldiers in uniform with military weapons. "It's a very serious incident," Doyal said. "We are very fortunate ... no one got hurt. Everyone had the presence of mind not to cause an international incident, or start shooting."

As WorldNetDaily has reported, there are widespread reports of U.S.-trained Mexican commandos, called the Zetas, making cross-border runs into U.S. territory in military-style vehicles, armed with automatic weapons.

The Zetas were trained as elite commandos by U.S. forces to combat the drug cartels, but they have switched sides and are working for the drug smugglers in the border area posing a special hazard to American law enforcement and Border Patrol agents, according to a U.S. Justice Department memo. Under the control of reputed drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the Zetas are conducting a bloody war for control of the entire southern border in an effort to secure a monopoly on drug-smuggling and people-smuggling routes.

As both sides faced off, a bulldozer appeared from the Mexico side of the river and was used by the armed men to pull the dump truck and the two-thirds of the marijuana that had not yet been unloaded into Mexico. The bulldozer, Doyal said, is believed to be used regularly to make makeshift crossings over the Rio Grande.

The "armed encounter with drug smugglers," as Cordero described it, is under investigation. No confirmation was made as to whether or not the "soldiers" belonged to the Mexican military.

Sleepy Hollow Lane

How to lose a job

In case you were wondering what you needed to do to lose your job just follow this guy's lead. I can't imagine he'll keep his postion long.

Head of the Orlando NAACP changes parties

When life imitates South Park II

If you remember the episode when Reford brings his Sundance independent film festival to South Park, then you will remember how Cartman describes what all independent films are about:


Gay cowboys eating pudding


The Hollywood Reporter will give you some more info here

Blog Cornucopia...

See it here:

Punditdrome

Its a great site to take in a wide variety of Blogs with just a sample instead of going to each and every site. Don't forget to check out page 2.

Doesn’t the Press have to prove that documents at the center of an important story are authentic? Mary Mapes: "No, I don't think that's the standard."

Apparently a lot has changed since High School journalism back in 1987. This was not the standard then. I assure you an unfounded story like the Guard Documents couldn’t make it into a leaflet, let alone the “Torch”, in our High School’s Paper. Our journalism professor, Mrs. Grimm, with cigarette hanging from her lip would have backhanded Mapes across the mouth, bounced her out of journalism (permanently), and used her as a prime example of what not to do. That little lady was tough as nails, and knew her job. To bad that kind of journalism is fading from the scene.

By Mapes standard, lies and defamation make good copy, generate ratings, and apparently sell books. And that doesn’t require a backcheck. An unsubstantiated story is true until proven wrong by critics.

Not in 1987, and not now, goodbye Mrs. Mapes.

Mrs. Grimm please forgive these political zealots who would use journalism as their personal platforms for governmental overthrow, they have no idea how destructive the changes to our society will be…


A full transcription of the November 9, interview:

Charlie Gibson: "We're going to turn next to the woman whose investigative reporting on President Bush backfired and ignited a scandal at CBS News that wound up involving anchorman Dan Rather. Former CBS News producer Mary Mapes tells her side of the story in a new book out called 'Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power.' And she's given her first interview to our chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross, who's here with me this morning, Brian."

Brian Ross: "Good morning, Charlie. CBS fired Mary Mapes earlier this year and she's not been heard from until now. She is unrepentant and defiant. Refusing to accept membership in the journalism hall of shame."

Mary Mapes: "I loved that job, loved it wildly and suddenly there were pictures of me on the Internet. They were saying mean things about me, saying that I was an angry, man-hating femi-Nazi. I had people driving by my house and taking pictures. I have a little boy, seven years old, and--"

Ross: "What did you tell him?"

Mapes: "I didn't tell him much."

Ross: "Mary Mapes was the woman behind the scenes, the producer who researched, wrote and put together Dan Rather's 60 Minutes report on President Bush's National Guard service. A report which Rather and CBS would later apologize for airing."

Mapes: "Friendships were destroyed, trust was abandoned and it was a very, very dark time. It was a very dark time, I mean, it was like having a little, mini witch hunt within the corporation."

Ross: "And at the heart of that was Mary Mapes."

Mapes: "Yes. Yes, that's true. I know."

Ross: "In the ten months since she was fired, Mapes has been working on a book titled, 'Truth and Duty,' her answer to her enemies in politics, critics in the media and one-time colleagues at CBS News.
"You're seen by many as the person who brought down Dan Rather and CBS News."

Mapes: "Oh, probably. I think that's an accurate characterization. I think I'm somebody who got fired for trying to do their job in a difficult atmosphere."

Ross: "Nothing to do with bad journalism?"

Mapes: "I don't think I committed bad journalism. I really don't. I don't think I've done a good job for 25 years, woke up on the morning of September 8th and decided to commit professional hari-kari."

Ross: "At the heart of the controversy were documents CBS said came from the files of President Bush's then National Guard commanding officer."

Dan Rather: "Now, news about CBS News and the question--"

Ross: "After 12 days of defending them, CBS and Dan Rather later admitted they could not vouch for the authenticity of the documents and that they should not have been used and the story should not have aired.
"Do you still think that story was true?"

Mapes: "The story? Absolutely."

Ross: "This seems remarkable to me that you would sit here now and say you still find that story to be up to your standards."

Mapes: "I'm perfectly willing to believe those documents are forgeries if there's proof that I haven't seen."

Ross: "But isn't it the other way around? Don't you have to proof they're authentic?"

Mapes: "Well, I think that's what critics of the story would say. I know more now than I did then and I think, I think they have not proved to be false, yet."

Ross: "Have they proved to be authentic though? Isn't that really what journalists do?"

Mapes: "No, I don't think that's the standard."

Ross: "CBS News strongly disagrees. An outside panel appointed by CBS found the story did not meet CBS News standards and that it was caused by a 'myopic zeal' to be first, to report on the President's National Guard service. It's harshest criticism was for Mapes, herself.
"They essentially suggested you didn't tell the truth."

Mapes: "Right. I know they did."

Ross: "Basic reporting was faulty and her responses when questioned that others who trusted her down the wrong road, her confidential source was not reliable."

Mapes: "I think what they were hired to do was basically come in and handover some heads and I think that's what they did."

Ross: "Mapes says she feels CBS network president Les Moonves used the damming report as a pretext to remove Dan Rather as the anchor of the CBS Evening News."
Mapes: "I also think, frankly, Les Moonves viewed the news department as being kind of an uppity group of folks who thought they worked in news rather than television news. And he wanted them to work in television."

Ross: "And you think he used this then?"

Mapes: "Sure."

Ross: "In her book, Mapes blames plenty of others but as to herself, admits only a few regrets."

Mapes: "Oh, in a cosmic sense, like so I could be back at work and everything would be fine, like Groundhog Day, if I could turn it back and do it over, maybe. Just from a human standpoint."

Ross: "Maybe?"

Mapes: "Well, Brian, as a human being, but as a journalist that was a good story, that is a good story, that's a story that deserves coverage."

Ross: "In a statement CBS says Mary Mapes' disregard for journalistic standards and for her colleagues comes through loud and clear in this interview and her book, which CBS says tries to rewrite history. CBS says the idea that a news organization would not need to authenticate such important source material is 'just one of the troubling, erroneous statements in her account.'"

The Failure of Diversity training...

Another great quote!


"Americans should take note. France's riots are the logical consequence of awful urban, multiculturalist, and socio-economic policies. Rather than bringing people together multiculturalism keeps people apart. Rather than freeing people economically, welfare causes resentment. Add to the mix wrongheaded labor and affirmative action policies and you've got a ticking fragmentation bomb. Perhaps I am getting a bit carried away; nonetheless the next time I hear a liberal educator stress the importance of multilingual and multicultural education I will remember Paris burning."


Christopher Orlet


I enjoy the opportunity to embrace other cultures and their ways, but we must remember that at the end of the day we are all Americans.

France and Progressive law Fail:

Please engage carefully gentle reader, these riots now appear very serious, and I fear France may not have reacted with sufficient force in time.

For US the jury is still out. In time of riots I believe the old way is the best. No matter who is doing the rioting, nor what is being stolen or vandalized, our police should shoot to kill until the rioting and situation under control of the proper authorities.

Anarchy, er I think not!

If France had done that on Night one the situation may be under control and never made the American media BliTz. And Icky and I might be using this space to debate the merits of T.O. or not!



a peice from Paris Burning: How Empires End

"These newcomers worship a different God and practice a faith historically hostile to Christianity, a traditionalist faith that is rising again and recoils violently from a secular culture saturated in sex.

Severed from the civilization and cultures of their parents, these Arab and Muslim youth may hold French citizenship and carry French passports, but they are no more French than Americans who live in Paris are French. Searching for a community to which they can truly belong, they gravitate to mosques where the imams, many themselves immigrants, teach and preach that the West is not their true home, but a civilization alien to their values and historically hostile to their nations and Islam.

The soaring Muslim population is a Fifth Column inside Europe."

by Patrick J. Buchanan
Posted Nov 7, 2005

This is a job for the UN, or World Police...

Pirates! You gotta be kidding me, in this day and age? Check it out here.

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20051106/2005-11-06T000045Z_01_
SCH573731_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-CRIME-PIRATES-DC.html

No way this sould go on, and this isnt the first attack either. I would say that a completely lawless nation like Somalia comes under the jurisdiction of the U.N. And if they artnt going to do anything about it, because "the rights of those pirates to make a living might be violated". Then its time to dispose of the U.N. once and for all. And I dont want any of that typical, " Well if the Americans will step in and do it all, by-themselves, then ok," Crap! Time for the French and Germans to really step-up! Its their back yard, its primarlly their citzen tourists at risk, and past time for the civilized world to send the message we are not prepared to go thousands of years backward in history.

Stop placating the criminals. Stop the pay-offs and bribes. Man-up for crying out loud , I mean this is completely outrageous. Where are you Western Europe?

And if your not capable U.N., lack the gumption, or dont want to risk resoursces. Then get the H*** out of the way of people who will do the job, and shut-up while its being done!

Take a look

I stumbled across this blog and I think some of you guys will like this guys perspective. Check out the link for American liberals who want to move to Canada.

http://tallcotton.blogspot.com/

Sunday Night on Fox...

...When Moral Busybodies Attack!!!!!!


Folks they are back! Hide your logic behind barred doors. Lock your good-sense in a trunk in the basement. Send your sense of humor to the neighbor's house. The moral busybodies who have, of course our best interests at heart are on the loose. Be extra careful because the have had their sense of humor euthanized and they are coming after your shirt. Well, that is if you are wearing one of the trendy new shirts from the industry leader in "trendy" Abercrombie & Fitch, like in the photo above. (Photo courtesy of The Drudge Report)

Some high school girls in one of this countries wonderful states is offended by these shirts and she wants A&F to know about it. To get their attention she has forme a "girlcott" with some of her humor deficient friends. You can read about their shenanigans here:

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/
ny-chifitch1103,0,2875928,print.story?coll=ny-hsports-allstars-features

I have a question. Exactly how full of yourself do you have to be to form a boycott, sorry "girlcott," against bad fashion? That's kind of like boycotting, sorry misspoke again "girlcotting," oxygen because someone passed gas. Sure it's bad for a moment, but if you tolerate for a bit the foul funk will pass. No, tolerance with other people's opinions on what is funny will not due. Someone needs to pay for making these offensive and degrading t-shirts. (Those poor little Vietnamese kids chained to the sewing machines in their villages who are earning 3 cents a day making those shirts better watch out.)

Please, these shirts are causing damage to no one except the morally self-indulgent busybodies who are offended by them and to that I say: "Great fun! Keep it up! Where that shirt with pride knowing you are doing society a service by making an "I care more than you do" activist have a conniption."

If you are a parent of a young girl and she has a question about the meaning of these shirts you could use it as an educational opportunity. It would be a perfect chance to teach your daughters about humor. About how not everything in life is to be taken as seriously has a chest pain after the "Fat-Boy Special Combo at Heart-A-Tack Burger." You can teach them to laugh at your sex and yourself.

As an aside, you don't see Bubba gathering the bar crowd out to boycott the TV networks because they are offended because fathers are portrayed as bumbling oafs in most TV sitcoms. Bubba's too busy laughing at Homer because he is a bumbling oaf and because Bubba remembers the times he acted the part.

As you can tell I don't have much respect for those girls and their cause and I don't. I wonder if those girls are bothered by the return to fashion of Che Guevara. His image is back upon the "trendy" t-shirts of America's youth. Of course that would assume these high school girls were taught about Che and the communists of Cuba and the world. He was the right hand man behind Communist Revolutionary Fidel Castro. He was the idea guy and Fidel was the strong arm. Together they saved Cuba from the tyranny of a right wing dictator and of the corporations and delivered a unto the people a left wing dictator and oppressive communist regime that appreciates the natural rights of man about as much as I appreciate the "girlcott" of A&F.

One of the reasons these girls don't mind "The Return of the Che" is because, whether they realize it or not, they are disciples of them same ideals: that I know better than you how to live your life and I'll use of the force of the government to show you.

And as if on cue:

http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=4067918&nav=3w6o

An Indiana State Senator with a "R" behind his name is introducing legislation in his state to force A&E from selling these "offensive" and "degrading" shirts. Now since I don't live in Indiana and I am a firm believer in the 10th amendment, I believe that "what happens in Indiana can stay in Indiana," but it is utter nonsense and foolishness to use the force of government to regulate the sale of a t-shirt with a joke on it.

So what is the moral of the moral busybody story?
Hmm...
Shirts with communist murderers on them --> A - Okay
Shirts with jokes about hair color or boob size --> B- Bad
People with "R" after their names are just as bad as those with "D" and anyone who tells you any different, Dread Pirate Roberts, is selling you something.

Who's that kid with the Oreo cookie?

You know I read the following article and felt like I should post the link to Sleepyhollowlane.blogsot.com and follow it up with a good rant about hypocrisy, racism, the slave mentality and simple minded followers, but I'll let your own hearts respond.

Let me warn you: What you are about to read will offend you sense of logic and decency.


http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20051101-104932-4054r.htm

Pumpkin Carving...

Off the front porch...
Natalie Portman

I love this time of year!


Happy Halloween Everyone!