Chamblee54

This is a repost from this time last year. It is about two homicide cases. One of the cases was the outrage of the week in the national attention span. In the past 365 days, there have been many homicides, all of which were fatal. Every week has produced another excuse for facebook pearl clutching. This is good for page views, and sales of blood pressure medication. Whatever happens, somebody will blame Donald Trump. Usually, today’s outrage will be forgotten in a few weeks.
Both cases are apparently in the court system. Outside of a courtroom outburst video, details on Jeremy Christian are tough to come by. It seems like he was denied bail. Mr. Christian will remain in jail until the trial, set to begin June 24, 2019. “Lawyers … hinted Wednesday that they might raise his deteriorating mental health as a possible defense. Attorney Greg Scholl … implied that Christian was set off by comments from others on the train moments before he took out a knife and began stabbing three men. Scholl also suggested that he could argue Christian didn’t have the mental capacity to intentionally kill two of the men or that Christian was acting in self-defense.”
Prosecution will seek death penalty in Cory Godbolt mass shooting case The other case discussed here is moving right along. Mr. Godbolt was arrested alive, after killing a deputy, and seven family members. Like Mr. Christian, the case may take a while to come to trial. … the prosecution is still waiting on completion of four of the eight autopsy reports from the shooting spree that left eight dead in Lincoln County almost a full year ago. … This is not the first time the Lincoln County District Attorney’s office has said that the backlog at the state crime lab has affected its ability to move forward with the case. In November, District Attorney Dee Bates said the crime lab still had not returned some important evidence and the case would wait to go to grand jury for the evidence to be processed.” “The right to a speedy and public trial” is not what it used to be.
“This Memorial Day, remember three Americans were killed by white supremacist terrorists, two victims were veterans, and the President was silent. He did take the time to congratulate a man who choked and body slammed a journalist.” This meme mentions three incidents, and a tweet. The two deadly incidents were in Bowie MD, and Portland OR. A congressional candidate assaulted a journalist in Montana, and was praised by @realDonaldTrump.
The meme did not mention a much deadlier incident. The night after the Portland attack, 8 people were killed in Mississippi… “8 people are dead, including a Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy, after overnight shooting” William Cory Godbolt (WCG) went to a house. He said he wanted to talk to his children. There were family issues. Before long, WCG started shooting, and 8 people were dead. One of the dead was a Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy. 7 members of WCG’s family died. Few have called the alleged perpetrator, Willie Cory Godbolt (WCG), a terrorist. The incident has gotten a fraction of the coverage devoted to the Portland killing.
WCG gave a statement. “I was having a conversation with her stepdaddy and her mama and her, my wife, about me taking my children home,” he said. “Somebody called the officer, people that didn’t even live at the house. That’s what they do. They intervene. … They cost him his life, I’m sorry. … My intentions was to have God kill me. I ran out of bullets. Suicide by cop was my intention.”
The people killed in Portland, by Jeremy Joseph Christian (JJC,) are being called heroes. They are Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, 23, and Rick Best, 53. JJC created a disturbance on a train, and people tried to get him to leave. It is not known who touched who first. What is known is that JJC cut three people, two of whom died. While this intervention was brave, it was also voluntary. We don’t know what would have happened if JJC had been allowed to continue his rant, until he got to his destination. What would have happened if the police had been called, instead of volunteer bystanders? In the future, people will think twice about confronting obnoxious people. Maybe next time, the bystander will be the one to use a weapon.
One of the family members in Mississippi is being called hero. “Jordan Blackwell died a hero, shielding his 15-year-old cousin Caleb from the bullets when a man barged into their Brookhaven home in the middle of the night in a hail of gunfire. The home on 1658 Coopertown Road was the second stop in a three-home shooting rampage that began late Saturday night and ended early Sunday morning with the arrest of suspect Willie Corey Godbolt.” The Deputy, William Durr, 36, is a law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty, and is remembered accordingly. The other 6 people that died in Lincoln County… Barbara Mitchell, 55, Brenda May, 53, Tocarra May, 35, Ferral Burage,45, Shelia Burage, 46, Austin Edwards, 11 … did not make a choice to intervene. They were were just living their lives, until WCG lost his mind.
Anti-social media has not been quiet. LISTEN UP, RACISTS is one digital outburst. JJC’s facebook page has been taken down, but not before helpful people recorded some of his thoughts. WCG’s facebook page is still up. One of the people he killed, Barbara Mitchell, is a facebook friend.
JJC is plausibly labeled a white supremacist. Since he was shouting hateful nonsense during the incident, this might be relevant. There is much hand wringing about dealing with the issue of white supremacy, as if this will stop people who want to kill. JJC clearly has issues galore. Was he a violent asshole because of white supremacy, or was he a white supremacist because he was a violent asshole?
WCG also has numerous issues. Since he is black, he will not be called white supremacist. Only 1 of his 8 victims was white. The word racist will not be heard. Does this make his crime less horrible? Is it worse to kill 2 white people, because of racism, than it is to kill to kill 7 black people, because you snapped? Condemning WCG does not fit the “woke” media narrative as much as denouncing JJC.
America has a violence problem. During the three days of the JJC and WCG killings, police were involved in 13 deaths. Hand wringing about white supremacy, and mental health, might help a little bit. Blaming Donald Trump will do about as much as blaming Barack Obama. Proudly labeling a psycho killer “terrorist” will not help. Trashing people with a different skin color will not help. This slack blogger does not know what to do. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

Woman Calls Police On Black Family For BBQing At A Lake In Oakland You have probably heard about this story. There is a series of *viral memes* featuring the caller, a well fed white woman. While the optics of the situation are unappealing, “BBQ Becky* might be right about one thing.
The City of Oakland has published a guide to barbecuing in the park. It clearly states “Non-Charcoal Portable Grilling: Allowed in designated areas only.” Find BBQ Locations in Parks goes into more detail. “Charcoal grilling is only allowed in designated areas where stationary grill pits have been installed. Please do not remove hot coals from pits. Non-charcoal grilling is only allowed in designated areas. You may bring in your own portable non-charcoal grill. Your grill can not be wider than 27 inches. Please note: Charcoal grills are not allowed in non-charcoal designated areas.” This prohibition is not race specific. Being black does not give your special charcoal burning privileges.
Is Oakland unique in regulating charcoal grills? A google search is inconclusive. DeKalb County does not appear to have any charcoal ordinances. Atlanta has “Rules Applicable to Piedmont Park Only: Grilling is allowed only in designated areas and only in grills provided. No portable grills or ground fires are allowed.” Massachusetts states “Only a few state parks allow you to bring in charcoal grills. … When using a charcoal grill, be sure to cool and dispose of your used charcoal in a fireproof container.” Burning charcoal is not a right guaranteed by the Constitution.
Why would a government want to restrict use of portable charcoal grills? Sacramento enacted a barbecue ban once. ““The parks facilities continue to become drier and increase our fire risk,” said Sacramento County regional parks director Jeff Leatherman. “This would prevent people from walking to an open space and setting up a barbecue.”
“Why might charcoal grilling be limited? Here are some potential reasons. Charcoal is carbon based and can be a polluter. A recent American Lung Association report suggested that the combination of traffic, dry weather, and wildfires have led to more soot in California. In fact, SFgate.com writes, “The Bay Area was alongside parts of the Central Valley, which after years of improvement saw increases in the number of days with unhealthy levels of soot between 2012 and 2015, the report shows. The Bay Area ranked among the country’s 10 worst regions for what is known as particle pollution.”
“Particulate matter is typically designated by its size. Particle mass concentrations with a diameter less than 2.5 (10) micrometers is called PM2.5 (PM10). By the way, the average human hair is about 70 micrometers in diameter. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates PM2.5 because smaller particles can penetrate deeper into our lungs causing respiratory and/or cardiovascular issues. Through the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), guidelines are set for levels of certain pollutants over a given period of time. Places that exceed these standards may be deemed nonattainment areas, which could have significant health, economic, or political ramifications.”
According to a Huffington Post article comparing charcoal and gas grills, “Charcoal is dirtier, but can come from renewable resources; gas has a smaller carbon footprint, but is derived from non-renewable fossil fuels. Most charcoal is a funky amalgamation of things like sawdust, corn starch and lighter fluid; when it’s burned, it can result in 105 times more carbon monoxide than burning propane and lots of harmful volatile organic compounds. But, “real” charcoal, also commonly known as “chunk charcoal,” doesn’t have the nasty additives, and burning it is carbon neutral.”
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Dorothea Lange took the pictures in California, in September 1939. The spell check suggestion for BBQing is Bobbing.

PG is running out of things to say. Never mind having something good to say about anyone, he doesn’t have anything to say, good or bad. Fortunately, archives are forever, as Richard Grenell found out. PG found this list in his archives. It is based on 20 Things You Didn’t Know About… Death, at Discover Magazine. This is a repost. These statements have not been verified, and may contain inaccuracies. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
1) The practice of burying the dead may date back 350,000 years, as evidenced by a 45-foot-deep pit in Atapuerca, Spain, filled with the fossils of 27 hominids of the species Homo heidelbergensis, a possible ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.
2) There are at least 200 euphemisms for death, including “to be in Abraham’s bosom,” “just add maggots,” and “sleep with the Tribbles” (a Star Trek favorite).
3) No American has died of old age since 1951. That was the year the government eliminated that classification on death certificates.
4) The trigger of death, in all cases, is lack of oxygen. Its decline may prompt muscle spasms, or the “agonal phase,” from the Greek word agon, or contest.
5) Within three days of death, the enzymes that once digested your dinner begin to eat you. Ruptured cells become food for living bacteria in the gut, which release enough noxious gas to bloat the body and force the eyes to bulge outward.
6) Burials in America deposit 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid—formaldehyde, methanol, and ethanol—into the soil each year. Cremation pumps dioxins, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide into the air.
7) Eighty percent of people in the United States die in a hospital.
8) More people commit suicide in New York City than are murdered.
9) It is estimated that 100 billion people have died since humans began.
10) A Swedish company, Promessa, will freeze-dry your body in liquid nitrogen, pulverize it with high-frequency vibrations, and seal the resulting powder in a cornstarch coffin. They claim this “ecological burial” will decompose in 6 to 12 months.
11) Zoroastrians in India leave out the bodies of the dead to be consumed by vultures. The vultures are now dying off after eating cattle carcasses dosed with diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory used to relieve fever in livestock.
12) Queen Victoria insisted on being buried with the bathrobe of her long-dead husband, Prince Albert, and a plaster cast of his hand.
13) In Madagascar, families dig up the bones of dead relatives and parade them around the village in a ceremony called famadihana. The remains are then wrapped in a new shroud and reburied. The old shroud is given to a newly married, childless couple to cover the connubial bed.
14) During a railway expansion in Egypt in the 19th century, construction companies unearthed so many mummies that they used them as fuel for locomotives.
15) English philosopher Francis Bacon, a founder of the scientific method, died in 1626 of pneumonia after stuffing a chicken with snow to see if cold would preserve it.
16) For organs to form during embryonic development, some cells must commit suicide. Without such programmed cell death, we would all be born with webbed feet, like ducks.
17) Waiting to exhale: In 1907 a Massachusetts doctor conducted an experiment with a specially designed deathbed and reported that the human body lost 21 grams upon dying. This has been widely held as fact ever since. It’s not.
18) Buried alive: In 19th-century Europe there was so much anecdotal evidence that living people were mistakenly declared dead that cadavers were laid out in “hospitals for the dead” while attendants awaited signs of putrefaction.

Chamblee54 is normally a profanity free blog. However, for this piece, certain cuss words are essential to the free flow of information. In other words IF YOU DON’T LIKE CUSS WORDS, YOU DO NOT NEED TO READ THE TEXT. This discussion is going to be gender insensitive, and use the male form throughout. Just remember, when you read he, it also means she and it. Or, she it. If there is one thing we know about in Georgia, it is she it.
Once, when his blog was active, a radio whiner referred to a study, that said that one third of all people were not qualified to have opinions. This was said before a commercial break, without saying why this percentage should be without opinions. Possible reasons would be lack of education, inability to think critically, or a disturbing tendency to disagree with the person doing the study.
Opinion is derived from “1250-1300; Middle English < Old French < Latin opīniōn- (stem of opīniō), derivative of opīnārī to opine." In other words, the verb for sharing these thoughts is the namesake of the idea. The anagram of opinion is onion pi. The Power Thesaurus has 1,326 synonyms for opinion. Many are notoriously anal, like assumption. Or the sister of suppository, supposition.
“Opinions are like assholes, everybody’s got theirs .” The truth is, opinions have more in common with the waste that comes out of the anal sphincter, than the port of exit. Feces (thesis) is the product of food fed into the digestive system. Opinions are the result of information (and misinformation) fed into the thought system. Doodoo is influenced by the digestive system, like opinions are influenced by the attitudes, and thought patterns, of the individual. They all stink.
“Four Jews, Five opinions” is another crowd pleaser, like “You are entitled to your opinion.” The latter is usually said when you disagree with what you have just heard. When a Court of Law issues a ruling, it is called an opinion. Sometimes, a justice will write a dissenting opinion. When getting a provider to pay for a procedure, you often need to get a second opinion.
Opinions are frequently more valued by the giver than by the receiver . Some opinions are best kept to the owner. You should be wary of someone who feels that his shit does not stink, because he will usually feel the same about his opinions. You don’t have to have an opinion about everything. Many things are beyond or control, or do not interest you. Also, you should be wary of those who try to “fire up” your opinions. Often these people do not have the best of motives.
Opinions are seldom humble, no matter what the owner of the opinion might say. In fact, the act of holding an opinion is often self aggrandizing, and contrary to humility. Opinions are seen as a way of asserting ones individuality. Many people have lives of quiet desperation, full of struggle and turmoil. There are many situations where what the individual thinks is simply useless to the powers that be. In times like this, having opinions can restore a sense of self worth to the individual. I am somebody. I have my opinion. This does not mean that anyone is listening.
This is a repost with pictures from The Library of Congress. U.S.S. Brooklyn, after supper Edward H. Hart was the photographer, working for Detroit Publishing Co. The picture was taken between 1896 and 1899. The pictures are more reliable than the text.