Aruba: Protests against Chollers and the Drug Addition Problem in Aruba … Safety? … What about Natalee Holloway

Do people still think there is not a safety issue in Aruba? With the increase in drug addiction problems automatically comes an increase in crime. One does not occur without the other. The issue with the homeless, chollers and drug addicts has become so bad that Arubans have taken to the street in protest.

About 500 to 600 protesters showed their support to Michael Saladin, by protesting against the increased problems with drug addiction.  The protest march was peaceful; the banners spoke or themselves; the general sentiment is that hardworking people should not suffer under the addiction of others.  (Amigoe)

If anyone does not think that this increase in drug addiction and homelessness impacts safety on “One Happy Island”, think again.

In Aruba we have a lot of good things, but of course also some bad things. One of these are the problems of the homeless drug addicts, that we call ‘chollers’. These chollers beg, yell, fight and generally resist any help of the various local NA groups.

Yesterday, a woman was offered by one of those chollers to wash her car. She refused. When she came back the tires of her car were slashed. She called the authorities, a complaint was filed, etc. She also told her husband what happened. The husband, a local businessman whose stores have been held up a number of times, went to look for the choller who he thought slashed his wife’s car. (Arubagirl.ws)

Now imagine this issue of chollers, homeless and drug addicts with unsuspecting tourists. Tourists are told that Aruba is “One Happy Island” with no crime. What recourse would tourists have if confronted as Michael Saladin was? The answer is none. Not only would they not have access to a gun, knife, etc … the fact of the matter is as seen by what happened in the Natalee Holloway case is that the police would hush up the story for fear of hurting their tourism.

(Where is the Aruban outcry for Natalee and the impact on their tourism?)

One thing certainly comes to mind in that Aruban’s are protesting against this perceived problem with chollers and how in personally impacts them. Where was and still is their outrage to how the Natalee Holloway case was handled? Where is their protests to one of the single most bungled events in Aruba that has cost them dearly in tourism and their reputation around the world? Where is Aruba’s discontent? Why do they not want “Justice for Natalee” that would also provide an image change for Aruba?

So Aruba will protest if one of their own is impacted by a lesser form of the community, but they will not protest when a tourist like Natalee Holloway goes missing and they aftermath of event damages the Aruban economy? Nice. “One Happy Island” torward tourists.

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Pelosi Plays Politics With Troop Funding, Then Off To Meet With the Enemy

Nancy Pelosi has to be one of the stupider people to hold office. Thank god most of the media backs her otherwise she would be chased out of her Speaker’s role by the irate mob. But with a liberal media’s backing, her horrible behavior is being shielded and well hidden.

First, she allows billions of dollars to be added to a troop funding bill and sets timetables that are so unrealistic that a veto is guaranteed by the President. Don’t tell me President Bush could pass this, it would be impossible morally or politically. So Pelosi is playing hard core politics with troop funding. I do not like that part, but politics is a rough sport and I can live with it in the short term.

But then to go Syria in the midst of this battle over troop funding has to teeter on the edge of treason. We know that Syria is one of our enemy’s in the Middle East supplying aid and supplies to the enemy. They are not an ally in the region but a hostile combatant. For someone of her political stature to go and have meetings with them will empower an entity actively working against our military.

So in one week Nancy Pelosi has hurt the morale of our fighting men and women and raced off to meet their de facto enemy? Tell me that there isn’t something very wrong with this picture.

Pelosi will not be the first member of Congress in recent months to travel to Syria, but as House speaker she is the most senior.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the speaker “should take a step back and think about the message that it sends.”
“This is a county that is a state sponsor of terror, one that is trying to disrupt the Senora government in Lebanon and one that is allowing foreign fighters to flow into Iraq from its borders,” Perino said.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “probably really wants people to come, and have a photo opportunity, and have tea with him, and have discussions about where they’re coming from. But we just think it’s a really bad idea,” Perino said.
Pelosi’s office did not immediately return a call seeking comment on why she was not heeding administration warnings. via the AP

New Hampshire High School Newspaper Puts Out Sex Edition

You know, the line between discussion and obscene has many different layers, but most of us can agree that a high school should not put out an edition of the school paper that is based on sex. The discussion of janitors finding vibrators, anal sex, and topics like why men love women who love women are not appropriate for a high school paper.

But the faculty advisor to the paper seemed to have no problel with it thinking it was a proper venue for expression by the students. And the moron also was confused why parents at the middle school were up in arms that the paper was scheduled to be sent to their students.

The notion of freedom of expression by some of these liberal educators has to be curtailed and common sense let into the room. Sure you want the kids to think outside of the box, but at the same time you need to teach them that expression in a newspaper has to have proper boundaries.

And do not tell me that this same faculty advisor would not have gone ballistic if the student newspaper published a racist or sexist issue on the front page. He then would have felt that there were boundaries.

Some parents are protesting the “sex” edition of the student newspaper at Winnacunnet High School. Several said they were especially offended by a photograph of two women kissing under the headline, “Why men love women who love women,” a quiz question about anal sex, and an interview with an unnamed custodian who said he had found a vibrator in the girls’ shower.

“Those articles offended me personally as a parent,” said Venus Merrill, a school board member. “It’s not something you want to read with your 10-year-old and it’s not something that should be going home.”

Principal Randy Zito said the Winnachronicle had crossed the line of responsible reporting and that he had dealt with the problem privately. He also said he had pulled copies of the paper that normally would have been sent to middle schools in the cooperative school district.

The newspaper’s faculty adviser defended the editors’ decisions and said the February edition of the paper was intended to inform students, not shock people — although they knew it would stir controversy. via Newsday.com

2 Shot on Mexico Border, Article Buries Likely Culprits

Got to love Reuters. As you read this article about a human smuggler getting his car shot up on the border you naturally would assume that it was done by a band of roving redneck racists or rogue border agents. 

Unknown gunmen fired on a truck packed with suspected illegal immigrants in southern Arizona early on Friday, killing two people and wounding a third, police said.The gunmen killed a man and a woman traveling in a pickup truck near Green Valley, some 30 miles south of Tucson, Pima County Sheriff’s Department said.

Spokeswoman Dawn Barkman said the dead were believed to be Mexican immigrants traveling with three family groups from the poor southern Mexican state of Chiapas.Barkman said two children were among at least 14 people packed into the extended-cab pickup truck.

But then you get to the meat of the matter buried at the end of the article. That key phrase is “increased violence among smugglers”.

Police say increased security on the U.S.-Mexico border has made human trafficking a more profitable activity, resulting in increased violence among smugglers. A smuggling ring that Arizona police say flew thousands of illegal immigrants across the United States from the Phoenix area was busted earlier this week with 16 people indicted, authorities said on Thursday.  Reuters.com.

So only if you read to the end of the article do you recognize that smugglers are attacking each other on the border. Those that are entrusted to protect our borders now have to face a gun war amongst those who are smuggling illegal aliens across the border.

Nice…

Public or Private School … Makes no Difference, Teacher Linda Sinha Convicted of Sex with Students

This story is becoming like a broken record, teacher charged with having sex with students. This time at a prominent Manhattan private school.

A headmistress and teacher at an exclusive private Manhattan Montessori school, accused of having sexual relations with two young teen students, was convicted Thursday of sodomizing one of them when he was 13.

Lina Sinha, 40, showed no emotion as the jury foreman reported a partial decision of 11 guilty and two not guilty verdicts on various other charges. The jurors had reported earlier they were deadlocked on the six rape counts against her.

Assistant District Attorney Rachel Hochhauser told the judge her office intended to retry Sinha on the six rape counts. (Fox)

Daily Commentary - Friday March 30th, 2007 - Why Police Pursuits Are Needed

Dana discusses why:

• Why Police Pursuits Are Needed (even when chasing Dick Cheney, no wait, Jaclyn Smith, no really Paris Hilton’s sisters husband?

Want to Go To The Final Four in Atlanta? Be Prepared to Pay Up!

If you are looking to go to the Final Four this  weekend in Atlanta be prepared  to spend some serious money. The prices range for  ticket sellers started at $2,500 dollars and ranged up to $12,000 for courtside seats.

A little rich for my blood but if you want to head over to the Masters in Augusta, Georgia the cost of a badge, that is the Masters ticket, is in the $5,000 territory  for all days at the most famous golf tournament.

At Stubhub, a leading online ticket reseller, a pair of floor seats for the Final Four behind one of the baskets was offered for $12,000 — apiece. At least four dozen other seats, all situated in the lower levels of the Georgia Dome, were priced no lower than $2,500 a ticket. The only silver lining: those seats would have cost more than $5,000 apiece if they had been purchased before the Sweet Sixteen was over.
A look at four of the top sports events in the United States — the NCAA Final Four, the Masters, the Kentucky Derby and the Super Bowl — reveals that the prices for the best tickets to the biggest contests are heading through the roof, sometimes reaching five figures for a few hours of entertainment. The concept of face value is almost a joke, as top-notch seats command prices easily twentyfold above the printed charge. (Premium seats at the Georgia Dome this weekend are $204.) via MSNBC.com.

NOW Says Programs Created To Help Fathers Illegal

Ah, it must be election season. The day after NOW gave Hillary their support in the coming election, they decide to attack federal programs that are designed to help men become better fathers. There is 50 million dollars being spent by the federal government to fund programs that teach men who have had rough times to get off of drugs, find jobs, and work to support their children and wives better.

But the powers that be at the National Organization for Women have decided that this money is being spent in a sexist way and the dollars should be spent for both men and women. Of course, there may be a better explanation for this.

NOW may see these programs working and since their ability to raise money is predicated on the oppression of woman. If things are going to well for woman in the country there is no need for NOW. If the men are being supportive and loving to their families, they lose a plank in their campaign to build up the notion that women are being taken advantage of.

I think it is utterly ridiculous myself. Men have for years be stereotyped as not caring for their families and distant. Now the government is providing dollars to help the problems out there and NOW wants a piece of it? You have to be kidding.

NOW and Legal Momentum, another advocacy group, filed complaints yesterday with the Department of Health and Human Services alleging sex discrimination in the initiative that is funding about 100 programs this year.

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Boy Falls 9 Stories and Survives

God must have been looking after this young boy from the city of Hamilton in Canada. He took a fall from a 9th story patio at his apartment and survived after falling into a soft patch of grass. This picture is amazing.

A five-year-old boy has survived a nine-storey fall off a balcony in Hamilton and was talking coherently and complaining only of a hurt leg when emergency crews arrived.
Yong Jin Kim was listed in serious but stable condition at McMaster Children’s Hospital late yesterday and his survival is being hailed as a miracle by police and neighbours in the complex where he lives.
Hamilton police Staff Sergeant Mark Simchison believes the soft waterlogged turf where the boy landed cushioned his fall and saved his life. “It’s quite a miracle,” he said.
Police said the boy broke his legs and is being tested to determine the full extent of his long-term injuries via THERECORD.COM

Daily Commentary - Thursday March 29th, 2007 - Good Grief, Woman Sick From Eating Recalled Dog Food

Dana contemplates:

• Good Grief, Woman Sick From Eating Recalled Dog Food

Or listen to the Podcast