Displaying items by tag: Texas

On Sunday morning, two people were killed by a gunman at the West Free Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas. Thankfully, the church had a team of armed volunteer security and within seconds of the initial attack, Jack Wilson, head of the security team, drew his weapon, fired a single shot and killed the attacker.

The church service was being live streamed at the time and the entire attack was caught on video. The video was removed from the church website but it was captured and posted to multiple sites. The video is shocking but I think it’s worthy of viewing. It does show the gunman killing two innocent people but it also shows the heroic actions by multiple parishioners. The video, which you can watch here on offgridsurvival.com, is from a camera across the room, I want to point out that it’s not a close up of horrific violence. Just so you know what you are getting into. (If you click the link above you have to scroll down a bit to Video 1, in order to watch it). 

Jack Wilson, the man who killed the gunman, is a reserve deputy sheriff and a firearm instructor and a volunteer security officer at the church. The gunman has been identified as 43 year old Keith Thomas Kinnunen who has had several run ins with law enforcement but, due to his death, Kinnunen's motivation for attacking the chruch remains unclear. The names of the two victims have now been officially been released as Anton Wallace and Richard White, both of which were volunteer security officers, and during the attack White was reaching for his weapon as he was shot by the gunman. 

Tiffany Wallace, daughter of slain Anton, witnessed the attack and said the gunman was wearing a fake beard and a wig and was wearing a long dark trench coat. No one recognized him but no one had any reason to believe he was dangerous. She said the gunman said to her father, “drop it” before opening fire. According to witnesses her father, a deacon at the church, was holding a communion tray. 

Tiffany’s interview at NBC can be viewed here. 

After the attack, Jack Wilson released this statement on his FB page:

We had another nutburger start shooting at police last weekend in West Texas.  

The lame-o media—in this case NBC News—decided for America that the important part of the story was this:

• The attack, the second mass shooting in Texas this month, prompted a round of calls for stricter gun laws from some hopefuls running for the Democratic nomination for president.
• U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said on Twitter, “America is sick of this. We need to act.”
• Former Congressman Beto O’Rourke of El Paso, Texas, where 22 people were killed in an Aug. 3 attack at a Walmart, tweeted, “More information is forthcoming, but here’s what we know: We need to end this epidemic.”
• U.S. Sen Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said on Twitter that the violence makes her “heartsick.” “We’ve already lost far too many to gun violence-Congress must act now,” she said.
• Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, also called for stricter firearms rules.
• Entrepreneur Andrew Yang tweeted, “We are better than this. We will do better for our kids.”
• And California billionaire Tom Steyer called for “emergency gun legislation.”

Imagine that.  Six Democrat who think they could, when they grow up, become President of the United States are so consumed with their run to get the nomination to nowhere that, irrespective of the facts, they hear about a crazy person using a gun to kill innocent citizens and can think of nothing more than we need new laws.

Answer me this: Isn’t murder and jacking a USPS mail truck already illegal? 

To me, this comes under the heading of, “but Achmed, we can’t do that in the United States, there’s a law against that.”

For its part, Google gives the so-called national media infinite amounts of preference when you google “Odessa TX shooting”  On early Sunday morning, you had to get to the fourth page before you got past CNN, MSNBC, NBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc.  I never actually found the Odessa American on Google as a news source for the shooting, even though they had their police reporter assigned to it.  The Washington Post?  The New York Times?  Seriously?

The fact is that the shooter is a resident of Odessa who was killed by police at a theatre complex after he hijacked a U.S. Postal Service truck killing the truck driver.  And, had been fired from his job that morning.  It has been reported that he called the FBI and other law enforcement tip lines before he used what appears to be an illegally purchased weapon.

The point is that, short of repealing the Second Amendment and confiscating over 300,000,000 guns, nothing “proposed” by the six Democrats referred to above would have prevented any of the “mass shootings” we have recorded since 1966.

The only thing which might work is repealing Democrat sponsored bills like those which make it illegal to consolidate databases of mental health issues and allow for one central constantly updated database against which background checks are made.

And even that’s a relatively long shot.

Because, in my opinion, what stops bad guys with guns are good guys with guns—and the training to make a difference.

They may be crazy when they go somewhere and shoot it up, but they’re not stupid.

These shootings almost never happen where there’s much of a chance that someone there might be able to shoot back.

But the left can’t accept that.  Guns bad.  Criminality good.  That’s the way the left sees it—which is why NOTHING meaningful will ever happen.

If, by chance, one of these idiots were to get elected President and Democrats take Congress, you might see an armed revolution.

Or, more likely, we would find out that these guys were blowing smoke up our butts all along.

----

Fred Weinberg is a columnist and the CEO of USA Radio Network. His views and opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of GCN. Fred's weekly column can be read all over the internet. You can subscribe at www.pennypressnv.com. This is an edited version of his column, reprinted with permission. 

I don’t know about you but I was hoping to have a relaxing weekend of BBQ, beer and games. Instead, Hurricane Dorian was upgraded to a Category 5 and absolutely devastated the Bahamas. Dorian is expected to remain Category 5 and hit parts of Florida and Georgia but meteorologists hope a wind shift will push the hurricane a bit East and the two coasts will avoid the worst of the storm. 

Another mass shooting killing rampage happened, this time in West Texas. A 36 year old man was fired from his job and then, a few hours later started massacring citizens. At least 7 people were killed with another 20 wounded. It ended when police rammed the shooter’s vehicle and, as he tried to exit the stolen car, police shot him dead. 

A 75 foot boat called the Conception caught fire off the coast of Southern California. At least five people have been rescued but the ship was entirely ablaze and it looks unlikely rescuers will find other survivors. Approx. 30 people, maybe more, were on board. 

For thirteen weeks protestors in Hong Kong have been battle state authorities. That’s - thirteen weeks! Hong Kong is obviously a city in China but for more than a century it was a colony of the United Kingdom until 1997 when the British handed it back to China. The problem being is that Hong Kong still has a political and legal system based off British rule which is known as the Basic Law, and it guarantees freedoms that Chinse outside Hong Kong do not have. These include freedoms such as the right to a free press, free speech and the right to protest, etc. 

More about Hong Kong’s Basic Law, from wikipedia: 

• All Hong Kong residents shall be equal before the law. Permanent residents of the HKSAR shall have the right to vote and the right to stand for election in accordance with law.
• Hong Kong residents shall have, among other things, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and of publication; freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of procession, of demonstration, of communication, of movement, of conscience, of religious belief, and of marriage; and the right and freedom to form and join trade unions, and to strike.
• The freedom of the person of Hong Kong residents shall be inviolable. No Hong Kong resident shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful arrest, detention or imprisonment. Arbitrary or unlawful search of the body of any resident or deprivation or restriction of the freedom of the person shall be prohibited. Torture of any resident or arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of the life of any resident shall be prohibited.
• The provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and international labour conventions as applied to Hong Kong shall remain in force and shall be implemented through the laws of the HKSAR.

Well, Beijing and the rest of China is pushing back against Basic Law and the citizens of Hong Kong are not having it. Hence the thirteen weeks of protests up to and including several violent clashes with police. 

Finally, the Amazon rainforests continue to burn and comedian / actor Kevin Hart was seriously injured in a car accident. 

Maybe next year I’ll be able to round up all sorts of heart warming stories that occurred Labor Day weekend but this year - not so much.

Henry Ross Perot was an American’s American.

He died this week at age 89.

His 1992 and 1996 independent runs for President were a pre-curser for Donald Trump’s win in 2016.

His legacy, however, is embodied in every American who ever took a risk and either succeeded or failed.

Perot was largely successful.  He started Electronic Data Systems with $1000 and experience at IBM as a salesman fresh out of the Navy.  In 1984, he sold it to General Motors—the least entrepreneurial company in the United States—for $2.5-billion dollars.  He got a seat on GM’s board and became its biggest shareholder.

That’s when the fireworks started.

Perot wanted GM to make better cars.  He soon found out that GM Chairman Roger Smith regarded EDS as a shiny new thing.  “At EDS when we see a snake we kill it. At GM they appoint a committee to study snakes,” was Perot’s comment.

Smith soon had enough and the company coughed up another $750-million to get rid of the Texas provocateur once and for all.

What GM didn’t get was a non-compete agreement.  Perot soon started Perot Systems which was bought by Dell in 2009.

One other thing about Perot was important.

Being from Texas, he never lost touch with Middle America.  No matter how rich he became, he never stopped being the guy from Texarkana whose Daddy was a cotton trader.  He always understood that between the east coast and the west coast was a majority of Americans who worked hard, played by the rules and he had immense respect for us.

I remember meeting with him one day when I owned radio stations in Tulsa and he spent quite a bit of time quizzing me about the radio business.  He was interested in just about everything.

What he never appeared to be much interested in was his legacy.

His legacy will be huge because he lived a huge life well.

His last, most Perot-like quote was this:

“Texas born, Texas bred and when I die I’ll be Texas dead.”

If God, ever needs a Texas poet-laureate, He won’t have to look far.

----

Fred Weinberg is a columnist and the CEO of USA Radio Network. His views and opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of GCN. Fred's weekly column can be read all over the internet. You can subscribe at www.pennypressnv.com. His column has been reprinted in full, with permission. 

Before I get to the teacher in question, I want to talk education for a minute. It's been written many times that U.S. students are, well - not number one. They are not number one in math, not number one in science and not number one in reading/writing. In fact, they are far from number one. The World Education Ranking system ranks, as you can guess - education in the world. The U.S. has never been number one. Ever.  In 2016 U.S. kids had their best showing since the 70’s and placed 7th, but in 2017 dropped to 20th and last year (2018) - the U.S. dropped off the list entirely.

But you know what U.S. kids are number one in - thinking they are number one. No, seriously. If you ask U.S. kids how they expect to perform on a test when up against kids from other countries, American children universally believe they will perform much, much, much better than they actually do. And many U.S. kids honestly believe they will be number one in math, science, literacy and pretty much everything else under the sun. Number. One.

Well, let’s take a look. There is a test called the PISA (Program for International Students Assessment) and it’s a worldwide exam administered approx. every three years to 15 year old's in 72 countries. About half a million students take the exam. The test results are compiled by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). Their most recent test was in 2015.

Out of 72 countries tested:

U.S. kids ranked 40th in math with a score that puts U.S. teens 11 spots lower than the average score.

U.S. kids ranked 24th in reading comprehension with a score that puts U.S. teens 4 spots higher than the average score.

U.S. kids ranked 25th in science with a score that puts U.S. teens 4 spots higher than the average score.

Not exactly “‘We’re number one!” And, sadly, according to those 17'-18'World Education Ranking numbers I posted above, it looks like U.S. kids are dropping further down the list.

So, what’s going on? Who’s to blame?

Well, I don’t really know and I’m not going to speculate much; however, I find it interesting to hear how much self confidence U.S. kids seem to have vs. how they actually perform.  Keep in mind, just because I’m not going to speculate doesn’t mean that other folks won’t speculate. Hell, everyone seems to have all the answers these days, you know? Just check social media where everyone is certain their all caps FB post is clearly the one and only way you MUST think or they’ll unfriend you.

It seems as if parents blame teachers. Teachers blame parents. Republicans blame teachers. Democrats blame the system. Education administrators don’t seem to blame teachers, but they certainly bail out on protecting teachers when irate parents come screaming or, God forbid - someone on a sports team is failing! “You can’t fail our basketball/baseball/football star!”

Yes, yes teachers can and should be able to fail students up to and including athletes. It is the teacher's exact job to evaluate if a child has done the work to pass, or not. If kids are terrible s#!t heads and parents are ignoring email, after phone call after text message saying, “Hey - your kid is a bully, hasn’t turned in 10 of his assignments this year and I might have to fail him! Please respond!” Well, if parents don’t take a vested interest in their own child’s education and their kid acts a damn fool and never does his/her school work - that kid deserves consequences. Just sayin.

And that’s exactly how Julie Marburger felt. Marburger is a sixth grade teacher at Cedar Creek Intermediate School in Texas. She was worn down by the chaotic destructive students and the irate road raging parents. And so, just before she quit, she wrote an epic FB post blasting them all. The rant went viral and within two weeks had millions of hits. (Editor’s note: It doesn’t appear as if she quit. She expected to receive hatred for her post and thought she would have to quit as a result but instead of recieving negative press she has received overwhelming support and it sounds as if the support has stayed her hand from quitting, as of yet).

Marburger’s view is that parents and children have become awful, abusive, entitled pricks. The kids don’t seem to care about consequences and parents lose their minds if their Precious Angel doesn’t get an A. It doesn’t matter if Precious Angel destroys school property, turns in zero work assignments and verbally abuses teachers and/or students because parents will still demand that Precious Angel recieve an A!  After two years of, as Marburger describes it - abuse, she finally had enough and called parents and students out for their behavior. 

Her full FB post:

“I left work early today after an incident with a parent left me unable emotionally to continue for the day. I have already made the decision to leave teaching at the end of this year, and today, I don’t know if I will make it even that long. Parents have become far too disrespectful, and their children are even worse. Administration always seems to err on the side of keeping the parent happy, which leaves me with no way to do the job I was hired to do ... teach kids.

I am including photos that I took in my classroom over the past two days. This is how my classroom regularly looks after my students spend all day there. Keep in mind that many of the items damaged or destroyed by my students are my personal possessions or I purchased myself, because I have NO classroom budget. I have finally had enough of the disregard for personal and school property and am drawing a line in the sand on a myriad of behaviors that I am through tolerating. Unfortunately, one parent today thought it was wrong of me to hold her son accountable for his behavior and decided to very rudely tell me so, in front of her son.

Report cards come out later this week, and I have nearly half of my students failing due to multiple (8-10) missing assignments. Most of these students and their parents haven’t seemed to care about this over the past three months, though weekly reports go out, emails have been sent and phone calls have been attempted.

But now I’m probably going to spend my entire week next week fielding calls and emails from irate parents, wanting to know why I failed their kid. My administrator will demand an explanation of why I let so many fail without giving them support, even though I’ve done practically everything short of doing the work for them. And behavior in my class will deteriorate even more. I am expecting this, because it is what has happened at the end of every other term thus far.

I have never heard of a profession where people put so much of their heart and soul into their job, taking time and resources from their home and family, and getting paid such an insultingly measly amount. Teachers are some of the most kind and giving people I have ever met, yet they get treated so disrespectfully from all sides. Most parents can’t stand to spend more than a couple hours a day with their kid, but we spend 8 with yours and 140 others just like him. Is it too much to ask for a little common courtesy and civil conversation.

It has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember to have a classroom of my own, and now my heart is broken to have become so disillusioned in these short two years. This is almost all i hear from other teachers as well, and they are leaving the profession in droves. There is going to be a teacher crisis in this country before too many more years has passed unless they abuse of teachers stops.

People absolutely HAVE to stop coddling and enabling their children. It’s a problem that’s going to spread through our society like wildfire. It’s not fair to society, and more importantly, is not fair to the children to teach them this is okay. It will not serve them towards a successful and happy life.

Many will say I shouldn’t be posting such things on social media ... that I should promote education and be positive. But I don’t care anymore. Any passion for this work I once had has been wrung completely out of me. Maybe I can be the voice of reason. THIS HAS TO STOP”