Memorial Day – 2012: Remembering and Thanking Our Heroes For Their Service & Sacrifice

Memorial Day 2012 … Thank you for your sacrifice to make this country safe. We are all remembered today that freedom is not free.

click on pic for the Taps Buglers at Arlington National Cemetery

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13 – King James Version)

On this Memorial Day, a special thanks  to all of the men and woman, and their families, who have made the ultimate sacrifice and laid down their lives so that We the People, the United States, remain free.  To these Heroes we all owe a debt of gratitude today and always. Thank you for your service, sacrifice, honor and dedication to this country making the United States the home of the free and the land of the brave.

Take time today and always to say thanks for those of our American Heroes who have died so that we can remain free. Today, we stop  and say “thanks” to the men and women of our Armed Forces. It should be used as a day to spend a few quiet moments thinking about the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who went into harm’s way and never came home again.

As always and on a personal note I say thank you and you are missed to my uncle Red who is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. My uncle served in Patton’s 3rd Army where he received the following medals. a silver star. bronze star and multiple purple hearts.  So often he did not want to talk of what went on during his military server and his heroic efforts during WWII; however, true heroes are also humble. It was not until much later when I was in college and became a history major with a specialty in US military warfare and tactics did my uncle open up and provide me with the truth of what he experienced during his military days, some of that time spent in the Ardennes , better know as the Battle of the Bulge.  Thank you from your nephew and namesake, Red

Daily Commentary – Monday, May 28, 2012 – Miami Police Shoot And Kill Naked Man Biting Off Another Man’s Face

• He was like a rabid dog, actually chewing the other man’s head

Daily Commentary – Monday, May 28, 2012 Download

Silence of the Lambs, South Beach Edition: Miami Police Shoot Naked Man As He Ate the Face Of Other Naked Man (Update: Suspect ID’d as Rudy Eugene)

What on Earth …

The Miami police shot a naked man to death as he was in the process of of eating the face off another half naked man. The victim is struggling for his life at a local hospital. The police officer is being called a hero for saving the man with half his face eaten.  Sounds like a scene from Zombieland. There was no truth to the rumor that the man that was shot to death had also ordered a nice Chianti and a side of fava beans.

It was a scene as creepy as a Hannibal Lecter movie.

One man was shot to death by Miami police, and another man is fighting for his life after he was attacked, and his face allegedly half eaten, by a naked man on the MacArthur Causeway off ramp Saturday, police said.

The horror began about 2 p.m. when a series of gunshots were heard on the ramp, which is along NE 13th Street, just south of The Miami Herald building.

According to police sources, a road ranger saw a naked man chewing on another man’s face and shouted on his loud speaker for him to back away.Meanwhile, a woman also saw the incident and flagged down a police officer who was in the area.

UPDATE I: South Beach Hannibal Lecter Identified as 31 year old Rudy Eugene.

This is the face of the naked homeless man who was gunned down by a Miami cop while eating the face of another nude man.

Rudy Eugene, 31, appears smug and defiant in an old police mug shot shown on a TV news station Monday night.

The real-life Hannibal Lecter was shot to death Saturday in one of Florida’s most bizarre crimes.

VIDEO from CBS Miami.

The president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police, Armando Aguilar believes the entire incident is the fault of a new drug trend that has led to similar incidents. Emergency room doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital said they too have seen a major increase in cases linked to the street drug called “bath salts” or what is sometimes referred to on the street as “the new LSD”.

Victim of this bizarre, cannibal crime is identified as 65-year-old Ronald Poppo.

The victim of the vicious flesh-eating attacker on the MacArthur Causeway on Saturday has been identified as 65-year-old Ronald Poppo, The Miami Herald has learned.

Poppo remains in critical condition at Ryder Trauma Center with horrific facial injuries.

His attacker, killed by Miami police at the crime scene, has also been identified as Rudy Eugene, who as a teenager in the late 1990s played high school football at North Miami Beach High.

Happy Anniversary Barack Obama … Two Years Ago Today Obama Celebrates Solyndra … “The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra.” … Too Bad It’s Bankrupt

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO BARRACK OBAMA AND SOLYNDRA …

Today is the two year anniversary of President Barack Obama traveling to Freemont, CA and touting the green energy company Solyndra as a “brighter and more prosperous future”. One has to look no further as to why the US economy and job growth is in the crapper than to listen to Obama’s words of praise regarding Solyndra, ”The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra.” Really? Obama’s shining example of “green” energy and the future did not take long to go bankrupt.

But on this day in 2010, with Solyndra already facing serious obstacles, President Obama was filled with optimism. “The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra,” the president said.  “Less than a year ago, we were standing on what was an empty lot.  But through the Recovery Act, this company received a loan to expand its operations.  This new factory is the result of those loans.”

“We’ve placed a big emphasis on clean energy,” Obama continued.  “It’s the right thing to do for our environment, it’s the right thing to do for our national security, but it’s also the right thing to do for our economy…When it’s completed in a few months, Solyndra expects to hire a thousand workers to manufacture solar panels and sell them across America and around the world.”

Hey Barack, how is that Solyndra-greeny thing working out for you today? We have no jobs, but we got solar panel toxic waste.

It is rather comical and disingenuous that Obama and his minions attack Mitt Romney for his days at Bain Capital and failures of Bain when Obama has a laundry list of failed green energy companies on his record. Does Barack Obama really want to compare his failed “public equity” financing record versus Mitt Romney’s private equity record?

Etan Patz Murder Suspect Pedro Hernandez Arraigned on Second Degree Murder Charge … Is He Guilty or Just Another Crazy John Marc Karr Type?

KILLER OR KRAZY?

33 years after 6 year old Etan Patz went missing in 1979, 51 year old Pedro Hernandez was arraigned and charged with second degree murder. Hernandez was arraigned Friday via a video link from a hospital ward on a charge of murder.  A judge ordered Hernandez held without bail and authorized a psychological examination to see if he is fit to stand trial.

Pedro Hernandez – confessed killer

Pedro Hernandez confessed to police that he strangled to death Etan Patz in 1979. Pedro Hernandez said he lured Etan Patz, who was walking to a school bus stop by himself for the first time, into the basement of a grocery store where Hernandez worked. Hernandez then said he strangling the child and then putting his body in a bag.

So do investigators have more than a murder confession from Pedro Hernandez? The man who confessed to the murder of Etan Patz has a history of being crazy. As reported at the NY Post, Hernandez had confessed years ago to the crime, but the police deemed him too crazy.Although, the police have denied that Hernandez ever confessed to killing Patz any time before Wednesday.

Etan Patz’s alleged killer tried to confess to cops years ago that he had murdered the long-missing 6-year-old — but he was dismissed as a nutjob and detectives never followed through, the suspect’s sister told The Post yesterday.

“Every time the anniversary of that little boy came up on TV, I would say, ‘Why doesn’t he turn himself in?’ ” recalled Lucy Suarez, 43, the youngest sister of Pedro Hernandez.

“And my sister said, ‘He did, but the police let him go because they said he was too crazy,’ ” Suarez said.

Sources yesterday also revealed that five days after Etan disappeared, cops saw Hernandez at the bodega, where one of the owners explained away his presence by noting he was merely his brother-in-law. There is no record that police ever interviewed Hernandez that day about Etan.

So the question remains, is Pedro Hernandez really guilty of murdering Etan Patz or is he just a crazy lunatic? Hernandez’ court-appointed lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, stated to the judge during the arraignment that his client is bipolar, schizophrenic and has a “history of hallucinations, both visual and auditory.” So did Pedro Hernandez really commit this crime or is he another John Marc Karr? For those who have forgot, John Marc Karr confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey. The only thing that might have been more crazy than the media circus surrounding the confessed killer was John Marc Karr himself. In the end prosecutors never charged Karr with the murder because their was not a DNA match.

So does the prosecution have more evidence than is presently known? Has Hernandez confessed to things and provided details of the murder than have never been disclosed and only the killer would know? That remains to be seen. There are many challenges ahead to convict Pedro Hernandez.

Miller says that now prosecutors have to build their case with police to defend Hernandez’s confession, which the defense lawyer has already started attacking with claims of hallucinations and bipolar disease.

“I think that that is Defense 101,” Miller said. “You have a guy that gives a clear, compelling, detailed confession, you going to have to either say that he was tricked into doing it or that he was making it up, and I think they’re beginning to forge that path.”

Miller said that, despite the confession, prosecutors will need more.

UPDATE I: From the NY Times comes, the police have their man and a confession to a 33 year old crime, now they must prove that Pedro Hernandez did what he claimed he did. Ann Althouse asks the question that many have since the confession of Pedro Hernandez, “People want to believe that at long last, we have the answer and a man to punish, but do we really know?”

It should be a detective’s dream come true. The police have their man, their investigation sewn up with a tidy bow of his own damning words.

Far from it, for now the police must try to prove that he did what he said he did. And in the case of the suspect, Pedro Hernandez, and the boy, Etan Patz, that is not going to be easy. In many ways, this confession is a worst-case scenario of corroboration, starting with the body.

With no DNA evidence, no real crime scene and no body what are they to do?

Detectives have most likely returned to Mr. Hernandez’s story.

“You always go back for more detail, more detail, more detail,” Mr. Geberth said. “The confession is usually devoid of a lot of facts. They just want to get it out. Once it’s out, the barrier has been crossed.” The need to confess behind him, the suspect may relax. “Get him something to eat, something to drink. ‘By the way, did you speak to anybody? Did you go to work the next day, or take the day off?’ Important things.”

For more updates, to read other opinions and analysis and to provide your own, go to Scared Monkeys Missing Persons Forum: Etan Patz.