The birds certainly weren’t singing when I woke up this morning and its a safe bet they won’t be all day. Should the little beasts chance opening their noisy beaks to break into song, the sheer volume of rain falling will drown them instantly. That’s La Nina for you. Get used to it.
Todays bits for you really do have some bite. Take for instance, what could be the most accurate statement made in the Braidwood Taser Inquiry to date : Canadian police have been brainwashed. This comes from Dr. Michael Webster, a top psychologist who works as a crisis negotiation consultant with law enforcement agencies in Canada and the US. He says Canadian law enforcement have fallen for the propaganda issued by taser manufacturer, Taser International, hook, line and sinker. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/13/bc-080513-taser-inquiry-webster.html
No kidding. Webster hit the nail right on the head with this statement. When you are repeatedly told you need something ( be it a taser, tranquilizers, whatever!) long enough, when you are told that it could save your life, and that this is the best alternative to shooting someone, perhaps you start to believe it after a while. Some cops passionately feel the taser is a vital weapon that must be had at their disposal, and where do you think it started ? You can thank Darren Laur for that one. The reality is that cops survived and performed their jobs very well for years without the taser, and would continue to do so should it be removed from their arsenal. The only people who truly need tasers are the greedy fat-ass shareholders and employees of Taser International,who’ve been banking on a fat retirement one day.
Condolences to friends and families of the victims in the tragic and bizarre helicopter crash in Cranbrook. It makes me think about how much we take life for granted. I’m sure the young Kenyan student who was walking to post a letter to his family back home never imagined in his wildest dreams that this was how his life would end, in a bizarre twist of fate no one could ever have explained, or predicted.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/05/14/bc-helicopter-crash-victims-names.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080514.wbcchopper14/BNStory/National/home
So how about this? Take 5 minutes from your busy little life, and put down the crackberry. turn off your pager and phone. Hug your kids. Tell your husband or wife that you love them. Do it now, and do it every day, because you just never know when your time is up. Be thankful.
What the hell is this? Clifford Olsen has a MySpace page? http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=6986394a-cf40-4768-aa23-0ea5628045d4
Whats wrong with this picture? Prison certainly isn’t what it used to be, nor what I think it should be. Minimum security facilities with not even a fence, that hold maximum risk offenders, access to the finer things in life, conjugal visits, etc- take it all away. As they say, commit the crime- you do the time. and how about making it actually feel like some sort of punishment, hmmm?
I found this bite under Yahoo’s “Odd News” , but really, its such a freaking normal occurrence in todays world, there really is nothing unusual about it. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080513/koddities/oddity_tv_driving
So what? This guys watching a DVD while hes driving, he gets pulled over and ticketed - whats so odd about that? Let me tell you what’s wrong with this picture- HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO THE ROAD!!!! Enough already with multi-tasking drivers- this term wasn’t created for reference to vehicular activities.
Let me tell you some of the things I’ve seen people do, all while in the act of actually driving a vehicle - not stopped at a light, or while waiting in traffic. Driving. At high speeds.
- eat a giant bowl full of cereal perched on a lap , apply eye makeup, apply full face makeup, curl hair with portable curling iron, watch porn on ceiling mounted DVD player, pluck eyebrows, type on a laptop beside them, shave face and neck, tie a tie, text message, yak on cell phone, remove top, paint toenails, write notes on pad of paper on centre console, read a book, read a map, yada, yada, yada . You get the idea. And people wonder why there are so many accidents every single day….
Ciao everyone, see if you can beat that, and let me know : What is the weirdest thing you’ve seen someone doing while driving ? !
Filed under: Blogroll, CKNW Talk SHow Idol, Credits, Laila Yuile | Tagged: bc liberals, bc politics, birds, braidwood taser inquiry, brainwashing, cars, CKNW Talk SHow Idol, cliffod olsen, cranbrook crash, darren laur, death, driving, fate, funny news, inspirational stories, la nina, Laila Yuile, law enfocement, love, michael webster, myspace, odd news, polic brutality, RCMP, taser international, tasers, tragedies, weather, yahoo
[...] fredflare.com / blog wrote an interesting post today on Bits and Bites – Wednesday May 14th,2008Here’s a quick excerptClifford Olsen has a MySpace page? http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/…; [...]
2 thoughts. Don’t cannonise Webster yet. He has some serious credibility issues. Think Neil Boyd and his pronouncements. 2 And the alternative to the taser is? Oh sorry, 3. Laur is hardly a motivating force for the Federal Government. Provincial / local? Who knows, but Federally I doubt it.
Good points all around- but the theoryof “brainwashing” fits with the way current society works in general.
Everyone’s looking for an easy way out- do you think law enforcement are any different? Look at my post about fat cops. I bet you are more likely to get taserd by a fat cop than a fit one…. ; ) or shot for that matter.
That being said, my argument remains that police forces have been operating well for years without the taser, what prompted the ‘rushed’ adoption of a still dubious at best weapon?they’ve got batons, they’ ve got pepper spray, and they have their bodies and defense training.
The lab in the following story shows consistantly inconsistant discharge levels among tested tasers. I am trying to get alink to the actual video clip showing the output levels of tasers tested for the on-air segment.
http://www.ctvbc.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080505/BC_Taser_Testing_080505/20080505/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
No police force has the ability to test these weapons. Why is that? Would it not be expected that routine safety testing should be a part of normal weapons maintenance?
They arent even allowed to test them on themselves anymore, and I highly doubt that it has anything to do with the possibility of falling and hurting themselves. Workers Compensation issues ? My ass. Cops face other threats while on the job and Worksafe BC isnt interfering there.
I agree Darren Laur probably doesnt hold a ton of Federal influence, but perhaps he knows someone who does. Nice to be a little bug in someones ear, and who knows who’s got a padded hand in someones back pocket. Think political profit motives.
This whole taser issue parallels the ongoing stories that surface surrounding pharmaceuticals that are rushed to approval based on the sheer profit capability of doing so. Long drug trials? – Pshaw!! Why bother when real problems and side effect – if there are any- start showing up within a couple years? The money made during that period offsets any loss as a result of the inevitable class action that will follow. The dead or maimed? Writeoffs – education.
Do you honestly think the taser was tested, in all aspects, before release to the public? Not a chance. Law enforcement and Taser International are learning as they go in what amounts to a massive trial, on the market.
A dangerous game to play, but even if it gets pulled, they’ve milked it for all its worth. It may be a weapon to consider if and when 1) a reliable testing method can be found for forces using it 2) when highly defined protocals are agreed upon for its appropriate use and 3) when the sum total of all the new information that surfacing is used to ensure the safest technology in models being sold.
Valid argument with respect to society. Cast your mind back and what was the outcry of the media when filming police interaction with the public? Raised batons, raised fists, kick in the ribs, choking somebody from behind, and dog piling. I would say there are a number of contributing factors to a move to a weapon such as the taser. The outcry about police actions as above, the fact that the court system views assault on the police as part of their job, society’s ‘its not my fault’ attitude, less physical requirements for law enforcement, and rules apply to everyone else but me, to name a few.
Having lived in a community where assaulting a police officer meant automatic jail time, I can assure you that behavior towards the police was much more civil and respectful. There was recourse in law for incorrect actions by the police, as there still is today. What changed? Society as you mentioned in its present condition. Be it a brainwashing mantra or other facet. “I can do anything I want, say anything I want, work anywhere I want, disregard any rules I do not like.”
We have developed an attitude that all authorities are corrupt, should not be listened to or believed, always challenged, and rules do not apply to me. We justify everything as resistance to injustice.
The courts have adopted their own attitude as I mentioned above, plus Canadian courts are moving to an already discarded notion that you punish the police for errors by dismissing the cases even for minor charter infractions. I have some news for the learned judges, they are not punishing the police, they are punishing the public for what are the most part good faith errors in a vast and ever complicating legal system. As I mentioned there are remedies in law for infractions by authorities. I will admit thereto lies an increasing problem of ever increasing costs for the average person.
Back to the taser. Instant gratification can be partly to blame for the adoption and use without regular testing. I find that the discrepancy’s between the two tasers output mentioned in the article disturbing. All the breathalyser equipment is rigorously tested both during its use and in the court system. The taser is just another tool and should be subject to some operational standards.
Speaking of pharmaceuticals, don’t you just love the commercials for some simple ailment that then lists the side effects that are a litany of ailments worse than the target of the drug?
Reaction to video coverage of cops beating on citizens is exactly the same reaction we now have to the tasering videos that have emerged in the ” citizen journalist” world we live in. Give a man a cell phone with video capability and you have a plethora of alleged civil injustices that come to light.
I think even baton use has more reliability as a method of gaining compliance, because of the excessive force defense. Cops know they can only go so far- due in part , I believe- to the possibility that video will surface detailing any abuse of police power.If any good comes from this incredibly public life we all live, it is the knowledge that anything we -including cops- do at any given moment might come back to haunt us. In criminally prone neighbourhoods where surveillance cameras have become the norm, crooks must resort to stealing the cameras in order to continue their shenanigans.
Now we have “traumatized teen” Willow Kinloch, who after many years comes forward only when there is video of her in the cell. $ 60,000 for her experience? How can you put a price on actual trauma vs, I see a chance to get some quick cash? The jury award in her case alarms me. Every teen with undevelped brain cells is going to take this as permission to get drunk, rowdy and belligerent- becuase its their charter right. Wow. What a lesson.
Bottom line with the taser- money maker without the proper controls or protocals. AS Dziekanski’s mums lawyer said on the stand, the lowly electric fence has more standard and protocal than the taser does… not good hmmm?
Those output discrepancies are going to be a building block for a massive lawsuit, mark my words.
Ahhh, don;t get me started on drugs ! Thats one of my biggesst beefs with the world today. Everyones looking for a fast fix for their life, or their imagined ailment. Depressed? Take a pill. Horny? Take a pill. Fat? Take a pill.
Oh yes, I guess the only good side effect of a drug that I know of is the inception of viagra as an erectile aid- although who knows what othe side effect will emerge down the line.
Perhaps we will begin to see, in the future, many happy smiling men with bizarre skin growths and overdeveloped groin muscles due to too much, ahem, action…
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