Island Fever

Another Friday night commute from Block Island to Marblehead.
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Man, I am so sick of that island..... not specifically all of Block Island, but the tiny patch that houses that Verizon cell site.

Unfortunate Email

And to the DipShit who decided to send me an email and call me racist... let me just tell you....
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I grew up with Black kids, went to school with Black kids from the 1st grade on. Roomed with a Black kid in college, took race relations training as a dorm counselor, my kid's Godfather is a Black man, was co-captain of my high school track team with a Black man. In many situations, was the only white guy in a host of social situations. Had close relationships with Black people, but also had a Black man physically hold a knife to my throat. And the list can go on.
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But I'm not some freaking phony who will jump to a lock step liberal position because the parties are Black.
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You don't know shit about me. But I know that you are a low life, close minded asshole.
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I have no problem calling Gates a racist. Because those are the overwhelming facts. And I have no problem busting your balls as well. Asshole.

Pisc said...

The media started telling this story in Cambridge as a white cop having an encounter with a black man, and filled in the blanks that the white cop is a racist, simply because he had an encounter with a black individual. That is racist. It is time to call it out. “All white cops are racists” is a racist statement, and the conclusion that the media, in not talking about any facts other than the race of the cop and the man breaking into a residence that happened to be his own, was reporting by omission. People who reject racism must not accept that thinking and should call it out as wrong. It was poised to obscure the character and personhood of the Cambridge cop, making him an “it”, and not a person with dignity, and intellect, and pride. And when the facts came out, sure we have an unfortunate incident, but a completely understandable one, without any racial implications. Unless you want to put them in there. Which you can. But the world is going to call out people who do so, call them out as racist.

Pax Vobiscum.

News Brief

This excerpt for WBZ news is particularly insightful. What is incredible about this Gates incident is that Gates keeps coming up as a racist prima donna, and that President Obama killed his opportunity to focus the nation on the health issue by saying that the "Cambridge Police acted stupidly."
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Forget about Gates. This gives us way more insight into Obama.

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Jul 23, 2009 3:37 pm US/Eastern

Gates Arresting Officer: Obama 'Way Off Base'

BOSTON (WBZ) ―

Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley speaks to WBZ Radio July 23, 2009.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is arrested outside of his Cambridge home.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. mug shot from Cambridge Police.

Close

The white police sergeant who arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. said Thursday President Barack Obama was "way off base" claiming Cambridge officers acted "stupidly" during the incident.

Read: White House Clarifies Obama's Remark

Sgt. James Crowley, who is a police academy expert on racial profiling, responded to Gates' home near Harvard University last week to investigate a report of a burglary and demanded Gates show him identification. Police say Gates at first refused and accused the officer of racism.

Gates was charged with disorderly conduct. The charge was dropped Tuesday, and Gates has since demanded an apology from Crowley.

'THERE WAS A LOT OF YELLING'

"I acted appropriately," Crowley told WBZ Radio's Carl Stevens Thursday.

Watch: The Crowley Interview

"Mister Gates was given plenty of opportunities to stop what he was doing. He didn't. He acted very irrational he controlled the outcome of that event."

"There was a lot of yelling, there was references to my mother, something you wouldn't expect from anybody that should be grateful that you were there investigating a report of a crime in progress, let alone a Harvard University professor."

According to the police report, Crowley asked Gates to talk outside, to which he responded "Yeah, I'll speak with your mama outside."

OBAMA ON THE ARREST

Obama was asked about the arrest of Gates, who is his friend, at the end of a nationally televised news conference on health care Wednesday night.

"I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "Number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And number three -- what I think we know separate and apart from this incident -- is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."

Watch: President Obama's full comments

PRESIDENT 'WAY OFF BASE'

Crowley maintained he had done nothing wrong in arresting Gates.

"I support the president of the United States 110-percent," he told WBZ Radio.

"I think he's way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts, as he himself stated before he made that comment. I don't know what to say about that. I guess a friend of mine would support my position, too."

Crowley has taught a class on racial profiling for five years at Lowell Police Academy. In the class, he teaches officers about different situations and how officers should handle them.

GATES: 'NOT ABOUT ME'

Gates has said he was "outraged" by the arrest.

He said the white officer walked into his home without his permission and only arrested him as the professor followed him to the porch, repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number because he was unhappy over his treatment.

"This isn't about me; this is about the vulnerability of black men in America," Gates said.

He said the incident made him realize how vulnerable poor people and minorities are "to capricious forces like a rogue policeman, and this man clearly was a rogue policeman."

RACISM CLAIMS 'UNFORTUNATE'

So what does Crowley think about Gates' claim that he's a racist?

"It almost doesn't even warrant a comment it's so ridiculous. My friends, my family, my colleagues, those people (whose) opinions mean the most to me, they know who I am. They know what I am and what I am not."

"It's an unfortunate thing that the professor or other people have even mentioned that."

'APOLOGY WON'T COME FROM ME'

Crowley, 42, said he won't apologize. And his union has expressed "full and unqualified" support for him.

"The apology wont come from me. I've done nothing wrong," he told WBZ.

REGGIE LEWIS CONNECTION

Fellow officers, black and white, say he is well-liked and respected on the force. Crowley was a campus police officer at Brandeis University in July 1993 when he administered CPR trying to save the life of former Boston Celtics player Reggie Lewis.

Lewis, who was black, collapsed and died during an off-season workout.

SUPPORT FOR BOTH SIDES

Gates' supporters maintain his arrest was a case of racial profiling.

Supporters of the Cambridge police were stunned the incident came up at the White House news conference.

"We were shocked to hear the president weigh in on this during a prime time news conference. They are a model police department; true professionals. It's a shame that they are being nationally targeted like this," Harold MacGilvray of the Massachusetts Municipal Police Coalition said in a statement.

Crowley said he wouldn't do anything different if he had the chance to do things over.

"If a similar call came in tomorrow, I wouldn't shy away from responding and I would do what I have to do."

Racist Cambridge

What does Judge Sotomayor think?

Gatesgate

I know that I said that the Gates arrest in Cambridge was not really newsworthy.
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But last night, President Obama decided to sound in about the incident during his press conference. Course neither he, I, nor anyone except Professor Henry Gates and Cambridge Police Sergeant Joe Crowley has the real facts.... except maybe the guy who lives across the street who said to NewsCenter5 that Gates was agitated but that the police were under control. Guy is probably a racist.

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Barach opined that the "Cambridge Police acted stupidly". That could have been a stupid comment as well.
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So if President Obama can make stupid comments, certainly I can do the same.
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Seems to me that the issue indeed is racism.... whether or not a prominent Black Harvard professor can pull the race card and claim that he can say anything he wants to a white Police officer when he is called to do his job.
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After all, didn't they know who he was??? And that he was a friend of President Obama??? How dare they question him about a breaking and entering call that was made to the Police? If he was a white guy, wouldn't the police have ignored the breaking and entering call and driven right by???
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Would Gates have gotten so irate if the first responding officer wasn't the white Sgt. Crowley, but one of the many black officers on the Cambridge Police force?
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Gates is right to say that racism plays a part here. But who is the racist?
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And don't be telling me that the People's Republic of Cambridge harbors a racist police force. Sell that Bullshit someplace else.
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Now Gates wants Crowley to "beg" his forgiveness.

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This professor has made a career in the study of racist America over at Harvard. Certainly he is sensitive to his outlook as a Black man in an oppressive society. But it seems as if he might have overreacted in this case.
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Benchdogs

Yesterday, when I was waiting for plan sets to be printed for the Mystic Country Connecticut permit run, I went over to Woodcraft in Woburn to kill a half hour.
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Forty five minutes later, I was walking out with two sets of brass benchdogs by Veritas. What the hell.... the workbench is coming along nicely and those benchdogs will really add a nice touch. I know that I owe you some pictures, and if I don't have to go out to Block Island this Friday, the bench should see some real progress.
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After that, the concentration will return to Kate's Adirondack chair, plus I have a couple of secret projects in mind that I can't tell you about right now.

Wishful Thinking

I'll be making the trek down to New London, Connecticut again today, with three permits to file at three different jurisdictions.
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It would be great to get this done before noon.
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Then I would have the dilemma of deadheading back to Marblehead, or getting on the Point Judith Ferry to check on the progress at Block Island.
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That's wishful thinking.
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Somehow, I'll probably be fighting stop and go traffic in both Providence and Boston during rush hour.

Misplaced Priority

It's a pretty slow news day around here.
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The breaking story is about a Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, who lipped off to the Cambridge Police about racial profiling and now is charged with disorderly conduct. Now the issue is whether the Police will drop the charges.
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Like I said... pretty slow.
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I even when to the "Harvey's Thoughts" blog to see if I could get some inspiration. My friend, Harvey Rowe, had something going on about gangs in Lynn exchanging gunfire, and the police response to it.
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Not for Nothing, but... that seems to be a bit more newsworthy than some high minded Harvard prima donna who thinks he can play the race card rather that cooperate with a police officer doing his job.
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I guess the Boston news media is more concerned over a full-of-himself, insulted Harvard professor, than the brave actions of Lynn and Nahant Police dodging gang bullets.

Full Moon

Forty years ago today, we landed a man on the moon in a spacecraft that had the computing power of an iPhone.
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There's been lots of debate over whether the expense and effort was worth it. There are even those who deny that it ever happened.
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I find these wacko's who say the Holocaust didn't happen, or that the Moon Landing was a hoax to be at the Pinnacle of Pompous Paranoia.
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Probably.
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For the record, if you wanted to rate the wasted expense of space exploration compared to the other stuff that the government spends our money on, I'd have to give the moon landing a big thumbs up. At least it's something that inspires some awe and pride. It's a lot cooler than the Big Dig.
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As a practical matter, the Moon is the only realistic place that we can frequent in space unless we perfect time travel. Everything else is just too damn far away. So there is no harm in checking it out.... every forty years or so.

Down Day

I truly thought that I had bounced back from the intensive travel schedule last week, but my ass is really dragging this monday morning. I feel like I'm just going through the motions at Nanepashemet Telecom... which is not good.

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Because we've got a ton of stuff going, and I have to snap out of it.

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I suppose one down day is acceptable.... even if you are a mountain of a man like me.

Tuna Lips said...

Nuttin' like a good beer buzz on a Monday mornin' to remind yerself that no one's the boss of yerself.

Bounce Back

OK Peeps.
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I know you were worried about my exhausted condition, but a mountain of a man like me bounces back fast. Slept in until 8:00 this morning and I am ready for another go at it.
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So we'll be springing into action today to check the lobster traps, revarnish the deck railing and make a dent in the workbench project. Maybe get some seed for the bare patches in the lawn.... and plant some daisies or something.
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Plus the grandkids are over.
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There's plenty of time for rest when you are six feet under.... which reminds me to get my prescriptions refilled.

POTW Week 28

The Road Trips this week to Maine, Connecticut and Rhode Island have taken their toll. I am a bit overtired and cranky, but still up to making the crucial Peep choices for this pathetic blog.

ANNOUNCING....
Nanepashemet Peeps of the Week for the 28th week of 2009

Linda O'Shea
Jay Turner
Will Crawford
George Clooney
Nathaniel Clarke
Lindsey Kepnes

Don't be calling me and asking me to do shit this weekend because the answer is a slightly rude "No". I won't be taking any action until the batteries are completely recharged.