Christmas Eve

It's the night before Christmas, and all through the house, and all that rot.

Christmas carols are playing on the Cable channel, my cat is begging me for attention and so I can't type.  At least I have wrapped all of my Christmas presents.  It was my best wrapping job ever, thanks to Google and videos on "how to wrap a present."  For once my presents don't look like they were slapped together by a madman.  One of the major tools in accomplishing this is double-back scotch tape.  You can hide the tape between the folds and the package looks much better that way.

My third son is here with his new wife and their two Pomeranian dogs.  Our tradition is to attend a Christmas party in San Jose with family and friends.  There will be lots of food, drink and conversation.  By the time we get home it will be Christmas morning.

We will spend Christmas day watching corny Christmas shows on television, eating, drinking hot cider, coffee or cocoa and being gloriously and decadently lazy.

Hope you have a great Christmas.

Christmas Tree in the Woods with Animated Snow #photoshop

I published this Photoshop last year, on Christmas Eve, 2013.  That didn't give anyone time to copy and post it elsewhere.  However, now that we are almost one year after its initial appearance, it has become my number one visited page.

Here it is again.  Merry Christmas y'all!  Feel free to repost on your website or blog.

For full enjoyment, start the YouTube video below and listen to "O Come All Ye Faithful" while watching the falling snow.

A White Cop Speaks Out On Black Violence

Via Cohen Flaherty, I learned of this blog by a police officer called "Anonymous Cop."  He writes about the inner city where he works as a policeman, and has much experience with the people who live there (black people).  He is a political conservative.

In his latest blog post, Anonymous Cop writes that the greatest enemy of black people is themselves.  See his post From a White Cop: Blacks Fight For an End to All Violence Except Their Own.  He writes:

With exponentially higher abortion and murder rates throughout black communities than any other race, what right do blacks have to imply that anyone values their lives less than they do themselves? In some areas blacks abort more babies than are born and kill each other several times more than any other race. Blacks also murder other races at rate higher than other races murder them. Statistically, it wouldn’t be unfair to say that life in general appears to mean the least to blacks.

I will link to his blog in my left sidebar.  Other bloggers may wish to do the same.

Diane Feinstein Apologizes to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (Photoshop)

For background on the latest Democrat hit job on their own country, see Political Clown Parade at this link.

Two Democrat Post-Midterm Strategies: False and Destructive, As Always

The Democrats are seeking to regain political traction after their historic losses in the recent midterm elections.  Two memes are becoming obvious.

One meme is that, omigod, the CIA tortured Islamic terrorists during the Bush Administration.  They fed Ensure to one poor wretch, whose only crime was that he masterminded the 9/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.  What horrible torture!  Oh yes, they even waterboarded him and two others.  Shame, shame!

Today they are having congressional hearings about these terrible crimes.  Diane Feinstein is faking outrage at such inhospitable treatment of these poor genocidal terrorists.

What's the purpose of this meme?  To sow shame among Americans and indirectly slam Republicans, since Bush was in power when these horrible sins happened.  Feinstein and Co aren't seeking to apologize to the world for Americans in general, they are seeking to apologize for Republican rule.

The other meme is that blacks are being slaughtered in the streets by racist white cops.  This meme is not only false, it is destructive of social peace, and may help to incite the race war some have warned about.  The latest example is that of idiots wearing T-Shirts that read "I Can't Breathe," referencing the death of Eric Garner who died after being put in a chokehold by police.  Garner's death was tragic, and may have been the result of police error or even incompetence, but it certainly wasn't racially motivated in any way.

Some radical black leaders have promised massive demonstrations all across the US to protest this mythical racism.  If they can make a pretense of civil unrest, they may scare the public into restoring the Democrat Socialists to power.

The real reason for this new "racist" meme is simple:  to keep blacks on the Democrat plantation, which has been increasingly difficult as many realize that Obama's presidency has hurt them badly.

The Final Touch on Midterms: Mary Landrieu Defeated in Louisiana Senate Race!

Today was the runoff election in Louisiana, between incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu and Republican Challenger Bill Cassidy.  Polls have been predicting a rout for Cassidy over Landrieu, and now it's official:  Cassidy wins by 16 points.  Another Obamacare supporting Democrat has been giving her walking papers, yielding the 54th senate seat to Republicans, nine more than the Democrats hold.

Louisiana voters are said to have been angry at Obama and those who supported him, like much of the rest of the country.  From hero to zero in only six years!

Meanwhile, President Obama checked into the hospital with acid reflux.  Guess the bad news finally got to him.

Bass and Big Band Class Update

Thursday evening my big band class had its final practice for the semester.  The next semester begins January 15.

My note reading skill continues to evolve, and my ear gets better too, as time goes by.  Songs we have been studying lately include Caravan, Blue Monk, Georgia On My Mind and Sing, Sing, Sing.  This is in addition to our songs carried over from last semester, e.g. In The Mood and Pennsylvania 6-5000.  Next semester we will study Corner Pocket, Killer Joe, The More I see You and Don't Get Around Much Anymore.  

If you haven't heard of some of these songs, neither had I.  They were popular songs in the 1930s and 1940s and are still used for jazz.  You can find all of them on YouTube, played by various musicians, including the original artists.

The last two songs interest me greatly -- they are called "standards" in musical parlance, which usually means love song ballads -- think Michael Buble or Harry Connick Jr.  Playing jazz versions is called playing "jazz standards."  Jazz standards is what I most aspire to.  These are some of my favorite standards (in addition to the two previously noted):

Fly Me To The Moon
Stardust
Moon Glow
My Funny Valentine
Taking a Chance on Love
Baby It's Cold Outside
Thanks For The Memory
All of Me
Besame Mucho
Quando, Quando, Quando
A Foggy Day In London Town
Fever
Autumn Leaves
Misty
I've Got You Under My Skin

Those are some that immediately come to mind.  There are many more.

After our last practice ended, some of the other musicians told me that "the bass sounds really good," and that made me happy.

During the Christmas break, I hope to continue studying and practicing the song list on my own.  I feel that I am on the verge of a break-through, i.e. that point at which one rises to a new level of performance.

Here's Frank Sinatra singing "Fly Me To The Moon."  He really nails it.

The Death of Eric Garner: Police Negligence and Excessive Force?

Another white cop has been cleared of wrong-doing in the death of a black suspect.  The suspect's name was Eric Garner.  Wikipedia describes his death:

On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner, an African American, died in the Tompkinsville neighborhood of Staten Island, New York, after a police officer put him in a chokehold, a tactic banned by the New York City Police Department (NYPD).[5][6] Garner was initially approached by Officer Justin Damico on suspicion of selling “loosies”, single cigarettes from packs without tax stamps.[7][8] After Garner expressed to the police that he was tired of being harassed and that he was not selling cigarettes, officers made the move to arrest Garner. Officer Daniel Pantaleo, also on scene, put his arms around the much taller Garner's neck, applying a headlock or chokehold shown in a widely viewed video recording of the event.[1] Garner was pronounced dead approximately one hour later at the hospital.[9]

The chokehold may have been a major factor in Garner's death, but Garner was in bad health, and that contributed as well:

After the incident, city medical examiners concluded that Garner was killed by neck compression from the chokehold, along with “the compression of his chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police”. Contributing factors included bronchial asthma, heart disease, obesity, and hypertensive cardiovascular disease.[10][11] Garner had health issues, including diabetes, sleep apnea and severe asthma.

Eric Garner was no angel.  He had a long record of criminality, most of which appears non-violent:

Garner had been previously arrested and was out on bail for selling untaxed cigarettes, driving without a license, marijuana possession and false personation. Garner had a criminal record that includes more than 30 arrests dating back to 1980 on charges such as assault, resisting arrest, grand larceny. An official said the charges include multiple incidents in which he was arrested for selling unlicensed cigarettes.

Okay, so did Garner deserve the rough treatment that resulted in his death?  I would have to say NO. His attempted arrest was for suspicion of a trivial crime.  The cop who choked him should have seen that the obese and older Garner might have health issues that would endanger his life -- or so it seems to me.  Rough arrests have resulted in deaths of suspects in other cases as well, either by taser or by ignoring serious medical conditions such as asthma or accidental asphyxiation.

Did the cop intend to kill Eric Garner?  I seriously doubt it.  However, the issues seem to be (1) was excessive force used to arrest Garner and (2) was police negligence a major factor in Garner's death?

I would vote for "all of the above," and a civil suit for wrongful death against the NYPD would seem appropriate.  However, the defense could argue contributory negligence.  If Garner had peacefully submitted to arrest, he'd still be alive.

The Causes of Interracial Strife: White Privilege or Black Dysfunction? Two Must-Read Articles

There are two must-read articles today on the causes of interracial strife.

The first is from Colin Flaherty at American Thinker, "Black Crime Claims Life of Apologist for Black Crime."  This past week David Ruenzel, a writer for the infamous Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), was killed in a black Oakland neighborhood.  The SPLC is well-known for its attacks on anyone who is not far-left on the questions of race, immigration and crime.  It is so aggressive that it has often called people's employers and attempted to get them fired for beliefs and opinions not shared by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Others are merely listed online as racists and bigots, and include prominent conservatives who oppose unlimited third world immigration or report the ongoing atrocities of Muslims.  

David Ruenzel was a proponent of "critical race theory" and a critic of "white privilege."  It appears Ruenzel was killed by the people he worked so long and so hard to protect and defend. 

The second article is by Fred Reed, "Fergusons In Perpetuity, Thoughts On The Unfixable." Fred's article is brutal in its honest depiction of intelligence differences between blacks and other racial groups.  The IQ gap is significant, and probably explains why blacks regularly destroy their own habitat through riots, looting and burning.  Fred writes:

Two questions, methinks, arise from Ferguson's latest outburst. The first, political, is "Why does the country tolerate it?" The second, more anthropologically interesting, is "Why the eerie incapacity of underclass blacks to understand evidence, or law, or much of anything?" Of the countless explanations given for the poor performance and poor behavior of blacks in the US, one of them dares not speak its name: Low intelligence.

It seems that the lower average IQ of blacks also explains their low impulse control, their lack of empathy for their victims, their inability to foresee the likely consequences of their criminal behavior.  

Black Teens Kill White Motorist; St Louis Police Chief Says "Not Racially Motivated"

Robert Mitchell

Zemir Begic, a 32 year old Bosnian in St. Louis, was killed Sunday morning by 3 or 4 black teenagers wielding hammers as weapons.  The attack was completely unprovoked:  it appears that Begic was simply the wrong color -- he was white.

Begic was driving in his car with his wife and aunt when the thugs began beating on his car with hammers, damaging it.  Begic exited the car to find out what was happening, when he was then assaulted by the thugs with hammers.  A blow to Begic's head killed him.

One of the assailants was (allegedly) 17 year old Robert Mitchell, who will be tried for first degree murder as an adult.  Two other suspects will be tried as juveniles.

St. Louis police Chief Sam Dotson spoke with residents at the street protest Sunday night. He said he was sorry about what happened and sought to reassure people the killing did not appear motivated by race or ethnicity.

OF COURSE the crime was motivated by race.  The unfolding tsunami of black teenage crime on the rest of America makes this clear.  This was a hate crime, but hate crimes are never charged against blacks.

St. Louis, Missouri is a great place to stay away from if you are any ethnicity but black.  If you're white or Asian, you are a target of these street savages.  Who needs it?

LINKS:
TEENS BEAT ST. LOUIS MOTORIST TO DEATH WITH HAMMERS IN FRONT OF HIS WIFE

The Saint Louis Murder of Zemir Begic – Not Random At All… Moments Earlier: “F**k the white people, kill the white people.”