Father of soldier slain in Yemen raid refused to shake Donald Trump's hand, wants investigation.

Courtesy of the Miami Herald:  

Owens’ father, Bill, had learned only a short time before the ceremony that Trump was coming. Owens was sitting with his wife, Marie, and other family members in the solemn, living room-like space where the loved ones of the fallen assemble before they are taken to the flight line. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t want to see him,’’ Owens recalled telling the chaplain who informed him that Trump was on his way from Washington. “I told them I don’t want to meet the President.” 

It had been little more than 24 hours since six officers in dress uniform knocked on the door to Owens’ home in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. It was not yet daylight when he answered the door, already knowing in the pit of his stomach what they had come to tell him. 

Now, Owens cringed at the thought of having to shake the hand of the president who approved the raid in Yemen that claimed his son’s life — an operation that he and others are now calling into question. 

“I told them I didn’t want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn’t let me talk to him,” Owens said Friday, speaking out for the first time in an interview with the Miami Herald. 

Not only was Mr. Owens repulsed by the idea of meeting the man whose carelessness resulted in his son's death  (He was not even in the Situation Room during the raid.), he wants an investigation.

“Don’t hide behind my son’s death to prevent an investigation,” said the elder Owens, pointing to Trump’s sharp words directed at the mission’s critics, including Sen. John McCain. 

“I want an investigation. … The government owes my son an investigation,” he said. 

I don't support using this man's tragedy as a political tool, nor do I want this to turn into some Benghazi style witch hunt, but the man DOES deserve a little closure.

And he also deserves the right not to be exposed to the toxic personality of Donald Trump.

Can you even imagine how inappropriate he would be in a situation like this?

You can almost feel her cringe.

Source

If Donald Trump starts going after Hillary because of Bill's affairs, I would love to see a reporter ask him on camera about his clearly unhealthy relationship with his daughter.

Because any man who proclaims to everyone that he wants to have sex with his daughter really needs to be asked about that.

Man shoots and kills 14 year old son he mistakes for an intruder.

Courtesy of the AP:

An armed man who believed he was confronting an intruder in the basement of his home Tuesday morning instead fatally shot his 14-year-old son, who was supposed to be on his way to school, police said. 

Police said the teen had headed to the bus stop but apparently came back home through a back door. The man said he heard a noise in the basement. Police said when the father opened a door within the basement, the boy appeared. 

"He scared me!" the distraught father said in his 911 call shortly before 6:30 a.m. "I thought he was in school. I heard noise, so I went downstairs looking and he jumped out at me. .... Oh, God. Get here quick!" 

The man told police he accidentally shot his son with a .45-caliber handgun. After initially telling the 911 dispatcher the boy was hit in the chest, he then said it was in the neck. The dispatcher told him to put the gun on the kitchen counter, then talked him through first aid steps and tried to calm him until police and emergency vehicles arrived. 

The boy died at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Police identified him as Georta Mack.

You know the really sad part of this is that I have to pick and choose which gun fatality stories to share, out of a never ending stream of them that show up in my e-mails and in the comments.

There are so many, and come at such a quick pace, that at times it literally seems overwhelming.

When are people going to finally understand that the weapon they have purchased to keep themselves safe is the very thing that now puts them is constant danger?

According to Bristol her baby is going to arrive on Christmas Eve. Well isn't that convenient?

Source

Caption:

Oh best friends 💁🏻 five days until my due date! But I have a feeling baby girl won't want to come anytime soon ..

Of course that was posted yesterday, on December 19th, so five days from then puts the due date on December 24th. Hey, who doesn't want to spend the night before Christmas pushing a little human being out of your uterus?

Perhaps more interesting than that was this response to one of her commenters:

bsmp2 about 14 hours ago 

It my daughter's father wanted to be a part of her life, he would @trisha.s10

(I think that first word is supposed to be "if.")

Well this is kind of interesting because as we know that IF Bristol wanted the father of her baby to participate in her life, she has the means to at least make him financially responsible. And yet I have serious doubts that she will do even that.

So here we have Bristol not only making it almost impossible for Levi to be a part of Tripp's life, without intervention from the courts, but acting like a victim because the sperm donor for her most recent baby bump does not want to participate in the child's life. 

I guess you really do reap what you sow.

"You will not have my hatred." Message from a Parisian man to the terrorists who murdered his wife.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

YOU WILL NOT HAVE MY HATRED 

Friday night, you took an exceptional life -- the love of my life, the mother of my son -- but you will not have my hatred. I don't know who you are and I don't want to know, you are dead souls. If this God, for whom you kill blindly, made us in his image, every bullet in the body of my wife would have been one more wound in his heart. 

So, no, I will not grant you the gift of my hatred. You're asking for it, but responding to hatred with anger is falling victim to the same ignorance that has made you what you are. You want me to be scared, to view my countrymen with mistrust, to sacrifice my liberty for my security. You lost. 

I saw her this morning. Finally, after nights and days of waiting. She was just as beautiful as when she left on Friday night, just as beautiful as when I fell hopelessly in love over 12 years ago. Of course I am devastated by this pain, I give you this little victory, but the pain will be short-lived. I know that she will be with us every day and that we will find ourselves again in this paradise of free love to which you have no access. 

We are just two, my son and me, but we are stronger than all the armies in the world. I don't have any more time to devote to you, I have to join Melvil who is waking up from his nap. He is barely 17-months-old. He will eat his meals as usual, and then we are going to play as usual, and for his whole life this little boy will threaten you by being happy and free. Because no, you will not have his hatred either.

You are a better man than I Antoine Leiris.

1927 newspaper article indicates that Donald Trump's father was arrested along with KKK members fighting against the police. Well that potentially explains a lot.

Donald Trump and his father Fred Trump

Courtesy of Boing Boing:

According to a New York Times article published in June 1927, a man with the name and address of Donald Trump's father was arraigned after Klan members attacked cops in Queens, N.Y. 

In an article subtitled "Klan assails policeman", Fred Trump is named in among those taken in during a late May "battle" in which "1,000 Klansmen and 100 policemen staged a free-for-all." At least two officers were hurt during the event, after which the Klan's activities were denounced by the city's Police Commissioner, Joseph A. Warren. 

“The Klan not only wore gowns, but had hoods over their faces almost completely hiding their identity,” Warren was quoted as saying in the article, which goes on to identify seven men “arrested in the near-riot of the parade.” 

Named alongside Trump are John E Kapp and John Marcy (charged with felonious assault in the attack on Patrolman William O'Neill and Sgt. William Lockyear), Fred Lyons, Thomas Caroll, Thomas Erwin, and Harry J Free. They were arraigned in Jamaica, N.Y. All seven were represented by the same lawyers, according to the article. 

The final entry on the list reads: “Fred Trump of 175-24 Devonshire Road, Jamaica, was discharged.”

The post goes on to point out that Fred Trump, who would have been about 21 at the time, lived at the same address listed for "The Donald's" father at the time the article was written.

It also provides other information about the incident that strongly suggests Trump senior was involved, and also provides other data strongly suggestive of Fred Trump's uncharitable attitude toward minorities.

If true, I think it goes a long way to help understand why the Donald Trump of today is garnering so much support from the white supremacists.

84 year old man shoots and kills his son over cable dispute. Plans to continue the argument in the afterlife.

Courtesy of the Star Tribune: 

An 84-year-old Maplewood man fatally shot his son over a dispute about installing cable in the family home, according to charges filed Thursday. 

Pang Se Vang, 84, was charged in Ramsey County District Court with second-degree murder in the death of his son, Chue Vang, 36. 

Maplewood police responded to the family home in the 1800 block of County Road B East about 11:51 a.m. Monday, where they found Chue Vang dead in a hallway and Pang Vang bleeding from self-inflicted knife wounds to the chest and neck. 

According to the complaint: Pang Vang called his pastor that morning and said he was upset that Chue Vang would not pay to install cable in the home. Chue Vang owned the home and lived with his parents and siblings. Father and son had argued, and Chue Vang told his father he could move out, the pastor told authorities. 

Pang Vang’s wife said their son asked his dad to talk to his sons about any problems. 

“I’m not talking with you kids,” Pang Vang said before closing himself off in his bedroom. 

Chue Vang opened the bedroom door, said, “Dad!” and was shot once by his father, charges said. 

Another son wrestled a rifle away from their father and family members fled the home. 

“If you are not afraid of dying then come in and bother me,” Pang Vang told his wife when she confronted him in their bedroom. “If you are afraid of dying, then you better run away.” 

Damn, this guy really holds grudge. Still I am sure that he must feel terrible about killing his son over something so trivial. Or not:

Pang Vang eventually surrendered to police after telling them he would settle the dispute with his deceased son in the afterlife.

So apparently being very religious, does NOT make you a more moral person? Gee who would have thunk it?

Well it's a good thing the old man had a rifle to protect him from losing an argument with his son.

You know the only thing that stops a bad son from not installing cable and offering to pay for it, is a good father with a bad attitude and a loaded rifle.

Of course the next stage of this conflict may be a little tougher on the old man, because I am not sure that they allow guns in heaven.

What am I saying? There is NO way that so many conservatives would be working so hard to get there if they didn't!

Father arrested and charged with five counts of second-degree child endangerment after his 4 year old kills his six year old neighbor with a unsecured gun.

Courtesy of Slate:  

In April, a 4-year-old New Jersey boy accidentally shot and killed his 6-year-old neighbor with his father’s .22-caliber rifle. On Monday, the boy’s father, Anthony Senatore, was arrested and charged with five counts of second-degree child endangerment (for storing five unsecured firearms in places where they were accessible to his children), and one count of third-degree child endangerment (for storing one of those firearms in a place where it endangered the welfare of the 6-year-old who was killed). Each second-degree count could potentially bring 5 to 10 years in prison, which means that if Senatore is convicted, he could theoretically face up to 50 years in prison. (He won’t, of course, get 50 years in prison, but, if he is convicted, he will likely face some jail time—if you are convicted of a second-degree offense in New Jersey, it is presumed that you will face a prison term.)

This is the kind of gun laws that we need to enforce all over the country.

And in my opinion NOT just for parents who allow their guns to fall into the hands of children, but also gun owners who do not sufficiently lock their guns away in their homes to keep them out of the reach of burglars who may steal them and use them in crimes or sell them on the streets to other criminals.

In my opinion the purchasing of each and every gun by an American citizen should bring with it a whole slew of responsibilities, and potential problems, that would make the purchaser think long and hard about whether they needed that gun at all, and just how many guns they were willing to take responsibility for.

I can guarantee that if the laws surrounding gun ownership were tightened up we would RARELY see people with arsenals of weapons in their homes anymore.

A sweet Presidential tweet.

The above was tweeted by @BarackObama a few hours ago.

One of the things I appreciate about this President is his obvious humanity. When I see pictures like this, I am reminded of what makes a person truly worthy of admiration.