NOT AGAIN! Danville, Virginia "cop" murders mini dachshund!

This is the second time in as many days that this blog has reported a story like this. The first was from Ohio, where two big Blue Ash Police Department officers tasered, then shot and killed a five-pound dog that they said was "threatening" them.

Now comes word that the same thing has happened just across the state line from here in Danville, Virginia.

On the left is a photo of Killer, who had been an 11-year old miniature dachshund weighing about 12 pounds. He was regarded as a "friendly, friendly" dog that was not only a companion to the Harper family that owned him, but well liked throughout the neighborhood.

On Monday night a Danville Police Department officer - and I will gladly post the name and home address of this bastard who has no business with a badge if someone will provide it to me - shot Killer dead while at the adjacent property serving papers.

Here's the story as reported by GoDanRiver.com...

According to a news release from Danville Police Chief Philip Broadfoot, an officer shot and killed the dachshund Monday night while serving two outstanding warrants to a neighbor in the 100 block of Berman Drive.

As the officer returned to his car, “he was surprised by a growling dog running through the yard directly at him from the rear, leaving him with just seconds to consider his options,” according to the news release. The options for the officer in that type of situation include running to the squad car; distracting the dog; or using pepper spray, a baton or firearm. The dog lunged at the police officer and attacked him as the officer fired one shot that hit and killed the dog, Broadfoot said.

An investigation by the Danville Police Department found that the dog displayed aggressive tendencies before other people.

“Shooting a dog which is actively presenting a threat to an officer is within the department’s policy,” ac-cording to the release.

Lt. Mike Mondul, public information officer for the Danville Police Department, said that the lag between the incident and acknowledgement from the department was due to an administrative decision.

“The decision was made by department administration that the chief would address it on Thursday,” Mondul said.

Carlos, 14, was upstairs when he heard the gunshot.

“I saw my mom, and she started to cry,” Carlos said.

The children came downstairs, he said, and their mother told them that a police officer shot Killer.Tawaiin drove home from work after getting a call from Carlos about the shooting.

“When I got there, the dog was laying with his guts hanging out,” Tawaiin said.

The officer leaned against his patrol car, smoking a cigarette, and Tawaiin walked over to talk to him. He said the officer told him that he had to shoot the dog because he was barking at him. Tawaiin asked for his badge number and name, but the officer refused to give it to him and said his supervisor was on the way.

His supervisor arrived and couldn’t believe what happened, Tawaiin said.

“(The lieutenant) was very, very remorseful,” Tawaiin said. “He kept apologizing. And he said I know apologizing can’t bring the dog back, but I just don’t know what to say.”

The dog was a member of the family, Tawaiin said. Nicole was 4 and Carlos was 3 when the family wel-comed the new addition.

“He was like a brother to me,” Carlos said.

Killer greeted Tawaiin every time he came home. Whenever a car pulled into the cul-de-sac, Killer barked to let everyone know that someone new was there.

“He was the security guard around here,” Tawaiin said.

Neighbors said Killer was a sweet, mild-mannered dog.

“He just kind of walked up and down the neighborhood and didn’t bother anybody,” said Jenine Edmunds, who lives on the cul-de-sac. “He was just a little house dog.”

Friends and neighbors have asked the Harpers if they will get a new dog.

“You can’t replace Killer. He’s one of a kind.

“I’m still trying to soak it in because the dog had been with us so long. He was a family member. They took a family member away.”

So the Danville Police Department officer killed a harmless dog, then coolly began smoking a cigarette and refused to identify himself.

This asshole "cop" needs to be fired at the very least. And in a saner world and a different age perhaps dragged out into the street and beaten within an inch of his life.

Like I said yesterday, I have no sympathy for anyone who abuses authority entrusted them like this. But no doubt the "internal affairs" of Danville Police will come back after an "investigation" - which we already know will be a joke - and will report that this officer did "nothing wrong". And a family will still be without its miniature dachshund: one of the most playful and harmless breeds around.

Like I also said yesterday: this kind of thing is not going to stop until a lot of the bad cops are dead.

EDIT 06/11/2009 05:08 p.m. EST: What kind of "police officer" is it who would shoot and kill a miniature dachshund that was only barking and was known throughout the community as being a happy, harmless doggy?

Are y'all ready for this?

Click here for more about Murrill McLean of the Danville Police Department.

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Finally, FINALLY finished FALLOUT 3

It was back in February that I first started playing Fallout 3: the next generation follow-up to the classic computer role-playing series of the late Nineties. I have been playing on and off since then, but in the past week or so decided to plow on through to... whatever the heck it was that was waiting at the end.

A little while ago, after logging just over eighty hours of game time since then, I completed Fallout 3 at long last. By my calculation I could have wrapped everything up in about twenty hours, if I hadn't been such a fiend for exploring the Capital Wasteland (what the irradiated ruins of Washington D.C. are called almost three hundred years from now).

And I still didn't get to scout out every location on the map! There's roughly 1/4th of the Capital Wasteland - almost entirely in the northeast quadrant - that I thought I'd be able to get to see somehow, until I got catapulted into the showdown with the Enclave at the Jefferson Memorial.

So what did I think?

Fallout 3 is an unparalleled achievement in video gaming. Never before had I known as much freedom and utterly vast territory to run around in. The story is solid, the characters are rich and well developed, and on a technical level the graphics, sound and programming alone will be a milestone by which games will be measured for many years to come. I also loved the voiceover work, especially Liam Neeson as James and Malcolm McDowell as President Eden.

But the real star of Fallout 3 is the Capital Wasteland itself. Along with Rapture in the BioShock series, the Capital Wasteland is a character all its own. And I think that both Fallout 3 and BioShock have set a new definition for gaming excellence with their sheer geography: in my mind, this is the "virtual reality" that was so vastly hyped a decade ago.

Anyway, I finally finished the game. Won't say that I "won" it, anymore than you could say that you "beat" a book by reading it. And I honestly can't remember any other video game that left me at once feeling a sense of profound achievement and terrible exhaustion. Going to let this one rest for awhile... before playing the Operation Anchorage, The Pitt and Broken Steel add-on content! :-)

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Scene from a hay field

Actually, I was told that it's bails of straw, but farmer though I've been I've never been able to tell the difference :-P

Just something that I thought would make a good photo while out and about this afternoon. That's one of the largest family-owned dairy farms in the country in the background, here in Rockingham County, North Carolina. And that hay straw has been gathered up to eventually feed to the cows.

Maybe I'll post a new picture of this field a few weeks or months from now, when the same straw comes back as spread cow manure.

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Blue Ash, Ohio cops MURDER five-pound dog (and how to stop law enforcement abuse)

This is gonna be another post where I'm compelled to use "less polite" language, folks. But I think you'll agree: it's more than warranted.

Here is a photo of Jack, a five-pound Chihuahua-mix dog that until last week was owned by Scott and Sharon Bullock of Blue Ash, Ohio...

And these are the three bullets that Blue Ash Police Department officers shot into Jack this past Friday evening when they killed the dog on the front porch of the Bullock home...

Here's the story from WCPO.com:

Family Outraged After Officer Shoots Their Dog
Reported by: Lynn Giroud
Photographed By: Jeremy Glover
Web Produced By: Neil Relyea
Last Update: 8:46 am

CINCINNATI, OH -- A Blue Ash family is outraged after returning home to find their dog had been shot and killed by a police officer.

The dog was a Chihuahua-mix named “Jack” that Scott and Sharon Bullock had given to their 12-year-old son for his birthday a few years ago.

When the Bullocks returned home from a family member's funeral on Friday, they found blood and three bullets on their front porch – along with a note to call the Blue Ash Police Department about their dog.

The Bullocks were shocked to learn that Jack had gotten out of the backyard and two officers who tried to catch him, ended up shooting and killing him right on the family's front porch.

"He was cornered on the porch and scared," said Sharon Bullock. "The officer bent down bare-handed to pick up Jack, and Jack bit him."

"My five-year-old cried himself to sleep the night before last, wanting his dog," said Sharon Bullock.

"He ‘barks’ for him" added Scott Bullock. "He'd ‘bark’ and Jack would always come to him, so he's outside going ‘Bark bark bark,’ hoping he's gonna come back. It's heartbreaking."

The Bullocks told their five-year-old and three-year-old sons that Jack ran away.

The Bullocks admit they were at fault for leaving their dog outside, and are sorry the officer was bitten, but they say their dog was not a vicious animal and had never bitten anyone before.

They're wondering why the officers didn't call the SPCA to catch the dog.

"They didn't make that phone call other than to come scoop the dog off the porch after they shot him," said Scott Bullock. "Two grown men that can't gather up a five-pound dog – and they're trained police officers – sounds ridiculous to me."

That officer later explained to the family that he was following procedure.

The Blue Ash Police Department has not returned 9News’ calls for comment on this incident.

The family says there were two officers involved. One was bitten. The other officer tased, then shot the dog three times.

Two grown men, serving as police officers, use a Taser on a five-pound dog and then "follow procedure" by shooting it dead.

Dear readers, you know what is going to happen next the same as I do, the same as everyone knows who has read stories like this too damn many times: the police department's "internal affairs" will conduct an "investigation", and then declare that the officers did nothing wrong. To add insult to injury they might even get some kind of meritorious citation for "bravery in the line of duty".

And in case you haven't seen it already, in New Jersey a cop beat a man senseless because the civilian wouldn't zip up his jacket, or something (can't make this stuff up folks).

Let me say this already, lest there be any doubt: I do believe there are many good people out there who serve in law enforcement. Some are even family. But I respect them in regards to their chosen professions because they happen to have strong character and because they have earned that respect. Because they put serving others and using the brains that God gave them ahead of following "procedure" for procedure's sake.

I can not and will not respect them, or anyone else, simply because they happen to have a badge and a gun and a smartly-ironed uniform. I like to believe that those who I can give respect to will comprehend that already without me or anyone else having to say as much.

But then there are the "cops" that have no business at all being in a uniform with a badge and a gun. And these Blue Ash Police exemplify that.

These are the bad cops.

And this kind of thing isn't going to stop in America, ladies and gentlemen, until a lot of the bad cops are dead.

Is that a harsh assessment? Yer damned right it is. But as I see it, upholding the Constitution and laws of this land is something that every citizen is called to do without compensation. And those that do hear the call to uphold the law on a full-time professional basis must be held to a higher standard than the average citizen. If they are not, then they are inevitably going to abuse the authority that is entrusted them.

This kind of thing has gotten way out of hand. And it's not going until citizens send the message loud and clear to those in law enforcement who are irresponsible and corrupt: "We are not going to tolerate your kind any more."

These Blue Ash, Ohio cops think that their badges make them special?

F*#@ 'em.

Like I said, a lot of alleged "law enforcement officers" don't have the right mind or the right attitude to be armed in uniform.

And if they can't be made to understand this, if they persist in abusing their positions...

...they need to be put down like the dogs they are.

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Just finished watching THERE WILL BE BLOOD

An excellent movie! This is no doubt the greatest - and most mesmerizing and evil - performance that Daniel Day-Lewis has ever given. From the very first scenes (incredibly and as testament to its powerful story, There Will Be Blood goes almost fifteen minutes before a single word is spoken) I was gripped by writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson's tale of greed, corruption, paranoia, religion gone wrong, madness and ultimate ruin.

I'll definitely be buying the DVD for my permanent collection! But it's gonna be a long time before I probably want to go to a bowling alley again...

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My cousin, the supermodel

Yes, all the women in my family are this hot!

Awright, not just "hot" either: they are also among the most encouraging and inspiring examples of Christian virtue and character that I have ever been blessed to know. And Rachel and her family are no different. Guess I feel particularly close to them 'cuz I was ringbearer for her parents' wedding all those moons ago. If you were to see them together you could swear that Rachel, her sister and their mom were all sisters! And her dad is one of the most... interesting... ministers that you'll ever likely to meet (ask him about when he goes out on "Visitation" sometime :-P)

Anyway, Rachel is going off to Australia, and one of her friends put together this awesome video on YouTube, and it's too good not to share with this blog's faithful readers. So here she is: my cousin Rachel Hine, supermodel extraordinaire and devout follower of Christ!

Will be praying for you as you head Down Under, Rachel! :-)

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Chris sez that Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT is the glitziest musical he EVER saw!

If you are within driving distance of Rockingham County, North Carolina this coming weekend then you should seriously consider buying a ticket (or more than one) for Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I wasn't able to be in this production 'cuz of prior obligations, although I helped with set construction and that was the limit of my involvement with this show.

Well, I just got back from this afternoon's performance and folks, NOTHING could have prepared me for the unrelenting spectacle that is what Rockingham County people have done with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's much-beloved take on the biblical story of Joseph and his brothers. The Theatre Guild's production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is bar none the glitziest and most over-the-top musical that I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing! The Guild could take this show on the road and it would sell out like mad (as it apparently did today). Someone said that you'd have to do hard drugs to see and hear as many colors and sounds as this show assaults you with! The production values are considerably more elaborate than anything you would probably expect from a community theatre outfit, and the effort from everyone involved was nothing short of enthused and inspired. The show is directed by Jay Smith, with musical direction by Dr. Anne Lewis and choreography by Stephen Hale. Playing the leads are Stephenie Sanders as the Narrator, Robbie Hendrix as Joseph and Wayne Hughes as Jacob. And I would be remiss in my duty as a blogger if I did not mention Chuck Owens' turn as Pharaoh: without a doubt the most electrifying Elvis impersonation in state history!

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat runs again on June 12th and 13th at 7:30 p.m. and on June 14th at 2:30 p.m. at the Advanced Technologies Building Auditorium of Rockingham Community College. Click here for more information.

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Second trailer for NORMALSVILLE

Rising filmmaker and good friend of this blog Marco van Bergen wants y'all to know that the second trailer for his upcoming movie Normalsville is online. And he surprised me a bit by officially making me a real film critic! :-P

Shoot here for the official Normalsville website.

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Middle Ages crisis: The rise of Neomedievalism

Parag Khanna writes an intriguing essay at the Foreign Policy site in which he makes the case that the concept of traditional nation states as we have come to understand it is breaking down. In its place is what he calls a "neomedieval" paradigm that hearkens back to the Dark Ages...

Many see the global economic crisis as proof that we live in one world. But as countries stumble to right the wrongs of the corporate masters of the universe, they are driving us right back to a future that looks like nothing more than a new Middle Ages, that centuries-long period of amorphous conflict from the fifth to the 15th century when city-states mattered as much as countries.

The state isn’t a universally representative phenomenon today, if it ever was. Already, billions of people live in imperial conglomerates such as the European Union, the Greater Chinese Co-Prosperity Sphere, and the emerging North American Union, where state capitalism has become the norm. But at least half the United Nations’ membership, about 100 countries, can hardly be considered responsible sovereigns. Billions live unsure of who their true rulers are, whether local feudal lords or distant corporate executives. In Egypt and India, democratic elections have devolved into auctions. Delivering security and providing welfare aren’t just campaign promises; they are the campaign. The fragmentation of societies from within is clear: From Bogotá to Bangalore, gated communities with private security are on the rise...

I'm inclined to believe there's a lot of merit to what Khanna is saying. We are even seeing such fracturing here in America, where individuals and cities and states are beginning to question the hold that distant Washington D.C. has long had on their lives: much like how the Roman Empire could not keep the provinces under its thumb when its decline was going full tilt.

It's not a long piece, but quite fascinating in regards to what it portends. Click here for the rest.

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Sixty-five years ago today...

On June 6th 1944, Allied forces commenced on the largest amphibious invasion and assault in recorded history as more than 160,000 personnel landed on five beaches of the Normandy coast in the opening assault on Hitler's supposedly impregnable Festung Europa.

The liberation of western Europe had begun.

Here's the link to the Wikipedia entry, even though there's no way that an encyclopedic article could possibly convey the full scope of Operation Overlord: something that had never been done before and Lord willing, will never be needed again.

But to those who did, who waded ashore on Normandy so that others might be free - and especially to those among them who never came back home - this blogger can only give the most reverent of respects.

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LEGO model of the Yamato

Nearly six and a half years in the making. 22 feet from bow to stern. Measuring a meter across at its widest point. 1/40th the scale of the real thing. Nearly a quarter-million individual LEGO pieces. And the whole thing weighs 330 pounds.

Behold the achievement of Jumpei Mitsui, who has faithfully rendered the World War II Japanese battleship Yamato in LEGO...

If this is not the biggest LEGO model of all time, it is certainly the largest one that I know of.

Mash here for more about this incredible model. And thanks to Shane Thacker for the great find!

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Pastor tells congregation: Bring your guns to church!

A Kentucky minister plans to celebrate the Fourth of July next month along with the Second Amendment... by inviting church members to bring their guns to Sunday service.

New Bethel Church is welcoming "responsible handgun owners" to wear their firearms inside the church June 27, a Saturday. An ad says there will be a handgun raffle, patriotic music and information on gun safety.

"We're just going to celebrate the upcoming theme of the birth of our nation," said pastor Ken Pagano. "And we're not ashamed to say that there was a strong belief in God and firearms — without that this country wouldn't be here."

The guns must be unloaded and private security will check visitors at the door, Pagano said.

He said recent church shootings, including the killing Sunday of a late-term abortion provider in Kansas, which he condemned, highlight the need to promote safe gun ownership. The New Bethel Church event was planned months before Dr. George Tiller was shot to death in a Wichita church...

I love it! This pastor has the right idea: freedom never came without the price of vigilance. Good to see that being acknowledged, 'cuz there's nothing wrong with it in the first place.

Blast here for the rest of the story.

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Funeral home loses license after chopping off legs to fit corpse in casket

Cave Funeral Services in Allendale, South Carolina is out of business after that state's funeral board revoked its license following the discovery that the mortuary had cut off a tall man's legs in order to fit in inside a casket...

The body of James Hines was exhumed earlier this year because of rumors that circulated after he died in 2004. His widow said investigators told her his legs had been cut off between the ankle and calf to fit the coffin.

If you're a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, you probably are already shaking your head in disbelief since this is something straight out of his short story "In The Vault".

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David Carradine dead at 72

The sad news is coming out of Bangkok that actor David Carradine is dead at the age of 72, having apparently took his own life.

Carradine's most iconic role was no doubt as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s television show Kung Fu (and as Caine's descendant of the same name in the Nineties series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues). More recently Carradine found new acclaim when he portrayed sadistic assassin Bill in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Carradine's resume was profound but if you really want to see him shine across his spectrum of acting abilities, I'd suggest watching him as Frankenstein in Roger Corman's Death Race 2000: one of the most fun guilty pleasures of a movie you'll ever find.

Thoughts and prayers going out to his family.

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TETRIS turns 25

About the same time in 1984 when the video game industry was crashing in the west, a computer scientist named Alexey Pajitnov was busy playing with his first computer at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow... and wound up creating one of the most classic - and addictive - games ever.

The Guardian has a great story about Tetris on the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary. Among the highlights: how Pajitnov came up with the concept, the tale of how this communist-era game became a capitalist's dream product, and how Tetris has inspired everything from architecture to conspiracy theories.

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DJ & THE FRO will mock my commercial on MTV!

Earlier this evening the good folks at MTV sent along word that their new show DJ & The Fro will be premiering on June 15th (just less than two weeks from tonight). It's a new animated show that in the words of its creators...

Deep in the soul-crushing cubicle maze of Oppercon Industries sit DJ & The Fro, two 20-something slackers who spend their days blowing off work while they find and mock the sickest and most hilarious videos ever to grace the Internet.

What Beavis & Butthead were to the music video generation, DJ & The Fro are to the YouTube generation. They find the best web videos and make jokes about them so you don't have to.

When they're not watching videos, DJ & Fro kill time by doing things like blackmailing pedophiles into doing their work for them, drinking the breast milk of a co-worker, stalking alpacas and sexually harassing one another. Work at Oppercon Industries is a mere distraction from their true passion: being idiots.

And what will be among the first of the videos that DJ and Fro will be wasting their time watching?

None other than my "Star Wars"-ish campaign commercial from when I ran for Rockingham County Board of Education in 2006.

If this is gonna be anything like Beavis and Butthead, then I was already gonna be tuning in. Can't wait to see what they do with my ad :-)

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Coolest convenience store commercial ever!

This commercial for Sheetz has been running like crazy on television in this area. Everything about it is made of epic win. Who'da thought that going to a convenience store would be such an enthralling experience? :-)

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