A Good Guy Gets What He Deserves

No I'm not claiming to "know" Jered Weaver, but I am claiming to have gotten to spend a few minutes with him along with his manager Mike Sciosia and Dallas native, Torii Hunter, who caught the 27th fly out of Weaver's no no last night.

My moment came last September 11 when I was invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch as one of the responders who did what we do ten years earlier.  The Angels were playing the Yankees and if you were looking for the definition of class act you would look up "Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles" in the dictionary as Tim Mead and his crew were amazing to both me and my family.

It only figures that good things would happen to people in his organization as they are good people.

P.S. If you are watching the standings, don't.  They don't matter today nearly as much as they will at the end of September and the Halos will be where they belong then.

Is The Fifth Amendment A Suggestion?

So recently Attorney General Eric Holder told us that "The U.S. government has the right to order the killing of American citizens overseas if they are senior al-Qaeda leaders who pose an imminent terrorist threat and cannot reasonably be captured."  This can happen without the benefit of trial, conviction, or any due process.


The Attorney General continued in his speech to students at Northwestern University that “the American people can be — and deserve to be — assured that actions taken in their defense are consistent with their values and their laws.”  Well, our values are encumbered in a document many of us like to call the Constitution.  While this may be a difficult idea for the nation's top lawyer, it is one the rest of us get.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

I realize that the time of fiat has returned when Presidential administrations see themselves as kings (or potentially queens) who can rule without the consent of the people, the Congress, and so forth, but once again Mr. Holder, you are out of line with the document you swore to protect.  It did take a while, but isn't it your administration that is gloating over the successful capture of Osama bin Laden?  If you want to score political points with that story you should not then steal away the rights of citizens born in this country because the question has to be asked: what is terrorism?  Is it planting bombs in a cafe?  Is is it talk of sex change operations and who should pay for them or contraception?  The problem with a policy that allows an unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat to take on the murder of an American citizen is where does it stop?


As a Catholic it is clear that the death penalty serves very few needs and that is a process by which a trial occurs, a verdict of guilty occurs, then a judge signs a death warrant.  You do not see that in this process and makes me wonder if the Fifth Amendment is simply a suggestion?

Way Too Close and Speaking Volumes To My Heart ...

Amazing. Thank you Mr. Hanks and thank you Thomas Horn and thank you Sandra Bullock.

Perhaps it is my connection to September 11 that I get this movie. Maybe it is working in Fire and EMS as a responder still, ten years later, but this movie speaks to me.

I think all of the time about the people we meet or who we know in our lives who we never say thank you to enough or I enjoy working with you or those nasty words: "I love you". When Tim Tebow talks about his relationship with Jesus Christ he says would your wife be happy if you only told her you loved her once or do you do it all the time.

Well Mr. Tebow, maybe part of the problem for the mainstream media and many with your Christianity is they have insulated themselves so much in this world and are so self absorbed that they don't bother telling anyone they love that they do care. This movie will get the reviews it gets from critics, but for me it earns five stars as a reminder that tomorrow is unpromised. Today is all you have and it would be best to use it to your ability.

I am not suggesting that days should be used for nothing, but personal recreation, but the commodity that can not be returned is time. Once it is spent, it does not return and time that can heal all wounds is terribly unforgiving. Missed baseball games will never be caught again. Missed third grade plays will never be played again and so this movie hopefully reminds us all that while we must move on from tragedy when it strikes, another use of our time might be to go searching for those people who we can connect with on the most human of levels.

We must let go of the need to say "if only" at the unexpected funerals that come suddenly from national or personal tragedy. Too many times I have attended funerals for victims of all kinds of calamity only to hear the wish lists rattled off like a Christmas list for God.

I do not want to wish. I want to go jump in rain puddles with my children. I want to protect them and tell them I love them today. I want go have an amazing meal with my wife and remind her why she is the girl I married so many years ago.

The movie's title is perfect. How loud do you have to be to understand love and be with your family while you can? How does the message get to you. Apparently for most of it, the message has to be extremely loud and incredibly close, but I got the message. Loud and clear.

TSA...totally stupid assessments.

Wow. All in one day.

I am sure eventually it will get better because TSA continues to top itself again and again, but on the same day it admits...woops, we went too far with your grandmothers and that there is no radiation risk from their scanning equipment, we find out we are in real trouble.

During a routine passenger entrance, screeners missed a firearm. Woops.

Let me guess, the woman went through the screening with her carry on and her bag looked like it had a blow dryer on it. This situation reminds me of the Jerry Seinfeld joke about who is it we put in front of these scanners. There is always the heavyset woman with the metal tongs on her pants hanging on for dear life right there at the x-ray machine. "What is this a bowling ball candle? What is that a blow dryer with a scope...you're fine, you're fine."

Once again, we have all this invasive security equipment and an intrusion into our lives, but we are still relying on people. People who are not serious about their business and really no different than what we had on 9-11. This would be funny, if it were not so sad because while this woman may or may not have had ill intent, what is clear is the bad guys might have and there is no stopping them from transferring the weapon to another person if they had wanted to. What then?

Another tragedy. Another tragedy in the sky, while the keystone cops engage another tragedy altogether against our human and civil rights on the ground.