Baltimore Police Department Targeted By Major Gangs-Is This War?

Police said in a statement that they have received information that members of "various gangs" — including the Black Guerrilla Family, the Bloods and the Crips — have "entered into a partnership" to harm police.

While it isn't really out of the ordinary for an officer to get a threat of some kind or even a death threat from an individual, now we have not just one gang but at least three gangs that have basically waged war against an entire police department. This police department really needs to be on their toes right now as they have one hell of a slippery situation on their hands, will they lose officers over this? I'm not saying lose them through violence, but lose them because they know what they are up against and because of that they may leave the department out of fear? You know most of the officers have families and taking gangs on in a full out war is not on their agenda.

Wow, there are so many angles that should be looked at in this situation, will this basically be another kind of civil war? While the gangs that are in question are very large in numbers and easily out number the police department and more than likely out gun them as well, will the fact that their lack of organization be their demise? Most of these gangs are divided up into sub groups you could say, all of them have a "leader" working towards a main cause but somewhat like politicians they have their own agenda of power and money. This isn't like back in the "hay day" of gangs where there was a firm foundation and structure for them, relying on the guidance of the leaders somewhat like the "mob" if you want to look at it that way. These gangs are all super violent and won't hesitate to shoot on impulse for any reason, skin color being one of them and uniform being another. Another thing, the affiliations the gangs hold, do the officers need to worry about the gangs calling in reinforcements from other gangs?

Although the police department is highly trained in the use of firearms, they employ prior military personnel that are experienced in combat situations, and they are equipped with para military vehicles, will they ultimately be able to stop the gangs from attacking? Will the "law" hinder them from doing anything? They can't exactly "shoot first and ask questions later" they are the ones that have to be shot at first before they can do anything at all, they can't stop you simply because you "look like a gang banger" and they want to know. This puts all of the officers in a bad situation because they could be killed before they could even do anything about it.

With such a big problem on the hands of the Baltimore Police Department, will the government step in and take control? The police department is looking at a full scale war with at least three major gangs that absolutely in reality could wipe the department out, either in a long term war by picking off officers one by one until the department has no more resources or they could go for a strong arm attack and balls to the wall fight until the department is destroyed. Should the government step in and send military troops to "take out" the gang members before they strike? Should the government do anything at all or just wait to see if the city police department can handle it themselves and lose officers that legitimately protect their citizens to gang members that have no respect for the law or those that faithfully uphold it?

Adele - Rolling in the Deep (ft. guest Artist, Amanda Scott) - ThePianoGuys

The Butterfly Child - Do You Feel Sorry For Him?

Honestly I don't feel sorry for this young man, I do feel bad that he has been given such a horrible disease to deal with, but I don't feel sorry for him because of his outlook about it. I chose not to feel sorry for him because he has taken his bad situation and is trying to make something good out of it, this should cause us not to feel bad but to find him an example and inspiration.

Most adults that experience half of the pain and discomfort that this boy has to deal with every minute of every day would crumble (including myself). We should all look up to him. look at how he is taking his situation and turning it into something positive, trying to help others that are in the same situation as he is. Be honest with yourself, at his young age could you have taken that situation and spun it in the direction that he has? Could you keep going strong like he does every day? I couldn't.

It is absolutely horrible that we have not found a cure for this as of yet, but I have done some looking around and it seems as if we are heading in the direction of finding one! I found an article on "Today" that spoke of a little girl that had a bone marrow treatment and her condition drastically improved. No this isn't a cure but it is hope that we are heading that way right?

"Transplanting bone marrow from Stella to Elisa populated her blood with healthy cells. First, though, scientists had to give Elisa chemotherapy and radiation to make room for the new cells to “set up shop,” Tolar said. An extra boost of full-body irradiation appeared to allow the cells to engraft, or take hold, even better."

Attorneys Warn U.S. Supreme Court: ‘Gay Marriage Could Bring God’s Judgment on the Nation’

Attorneys Warn U.S. Supreme Court: ‘Gay Marriage Could Bring God’s Judgment on the Nation’

WASHINGTON – A legal brief recently submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court warns that forcing states to recognize same-sex “marriage” could bring God’s judgment upon the nation.

Oh boy, here we go with one of the hottest debatable topics that you can find at the moment! Should gay individuals be allowed to get married and have it recognized by the court systems? Obviously if you were to ask a Christian they would tell you that same sex relations are not accepted, but if you were to ask someone that has no affiliation to religion they could possibly give you a different answer.

Something to make you think a little here, Christians believe that if you are "gay" you can't be married correct? Our judicial system (in some remaining states) carries that same belief that "gays" can't get married right? Would you say that those judicial systems are holding up religious principles? Is our government imposing their beliefs on our lifestyles and should they be allowed to?

Recently I blogged about our country and religion and had someone argue some very good points with me that really made me think. I flat out said that I am a Christian and he flat out said that he carried no religion at all. I thought that having "In God We Trust" on our money and in our courtrooms was not harmful at all and he stated that was the government imposing religion onto him where it shouldn't even be present. This reader really made me think about that, while I am Christian and I do believe in God, I would have to agree with him in that our government should be impartial regarding the topic, it really shouldn't be in our government buildings.

This brings me to another point, if our judicial systems are supposed to be impartial to religion then what do they care if "gays" get married or not? Don't you think that to them the bottom line would be money? Don't you think that if you let gay individuals get married they would have to pay for that license just like anyone else and in the end the government profits? Wouldn't a gay couple have to pay insurance just like a straight couple? I don't honestly see why the government would care so much about same sex marriage if ultimately they make the profit on it and there is no other harm coming from it.

With these advances, a record number of Americans live in states that recognize relationships between same-sex couples: Nearly 72% of the U.S. population lives in a state currently issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples state-wide. 

Did you know that many states already allow same sex marriages? I sure didn't until I started writing this blog, but I also didn't care that they did and still don't! Why do people hate the gay community so much? Aside from their obvious sexual preference, these people are no different than anyone else is and if you chose to hate them for it than you are no better than a racist. They pay their bills like everyone else, pay taxes, purchase homes and take out their trash the same right? In Florida they are a great source of income as they hold fundraising events, gay pride events that draw in money and many other things. 

Atlantic City police brutality caught on video, K9 officer purposely uses dog on knocked out man

Atlantic City police brutality

Video can be very good proof when things happen, in this case it looks like the officer has a man on the ground and the man appears to be knocked out, as the man is lying on the ground and not resisting, the officer commands his K-9 to attack, but for what reason? You have the man on the ground, obviously not resisting and not even conscious or he would have screamed when he was attacked by the dog, at least three other officers on scene that could have went hands on to aid in cuffing the man.

I see obvious excessive force here with the dog and a cop that has poor judgement, does he deserve to be punished? One problem that I have is that the video tape doesn't start from the beginning so we don't know the events that lead up to the man being put on the ground and we don't really know the reason for the officer using the dog. In all actuality the officer could have been justified in that use of force, but from what I see in the video, the man is not resisting but he is simply not conscious so he can't comply.

Connor The Crusher, A Boy With Cancer Meets His WWE Hero

It's really great when you see these "bad ass" guys break character for special occasions like this.

Nelly Gets Caught With Drugs And Guns

St. Louis rapper Nelly arrested for felony drug possession

Seriously! This man has everything that you could possibly want, fame and fortune, anything that money could buy and it's all his yet he gets caught up with marijuana, meth and guns! what the hell would possess you to be that damn stupid?

PUTNAM CO, TN – Rapper Cornell Haynes, 40, commonly known by his stage name “Nelly” has been charged with felony drug possession after his bus was stopped for not having the correct stickers in Tennessee. The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security says troopers noticed the smell of marijuana when they stopped the bus on Saturday morning.  They found a plastic bag containing methamphetamine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia.  Several handguns were also found.

What I don't understand is why people idolize this guy? See him as a role model?

Does that look like a role model to you? Guess what, just as soon as he was booked he also bonded out and I'm pretty sure that whatever the consequences would be for you and I, he sure won't have to face.

Is music so powerful that it can control our emotions?

Can music really be so powerful that it can control our emotions? Believe it or not, even the most "Manly" of men will submit to the power of music in one way or another.

The soothing power of music is well-established. It has a unique link to our emotions, so can be an extremely effective stress management tool.

Listening to music can have a tremendously relaxing effect on our minds and bodies, especially slow, quiet classical music. This type of music can have a beneficial effect on our physiological functions, slowing the pulse and heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and decreasing the levels of stress hormones.

Have you ever found yourself watching a television show or movie at the theater and you cry? Maybe you got excited! Did you think it was because of what you were watching? Some of it maybe, but for the most part you are connecting what you see with the powerful messages from the music which elicits the emotions that you had such as fear, sadness or happiness.

It is visceral. It hits us like no other human language can. And its sound and impact on our lives is something to which we keep returning. We need what it provides. We need its beauty, is harmonies, its consonance and its dissonance, to bring resolution and meaning to our actions. And if music is important for us all, then musicians must be by extension.

I'm going to challenge you, if you think you are the type of person that is not effected by music then listen to your favorite song, hear a new one on the radio or watch your favorite movie then tell me how you felt. One way or another you will have feeling of some kind, listening to classical music can give you a wide variety of emotions such as happiness, anger, relaxation, and even fear.

I think that today we take take good music for granted. Today music has deteriorated to people almost talking into a mirophone, there is no more art to the music that is produced anymore. A major thing is that our lives have become a state of rushing, hurrying and not spending the much needed time to relax, enjoy good music and take down the stress levels that have overcome our lives.

To answer the question of if music is so powerful that it can control our emotions, the answer is absolutely it can! There are tons of websites out there that have been devoted to the studies of music and its powers on people and even animals.

Video Games-Obesity And Anger

I think we have all heard someone say or we were the ones saying it, that playing to much video games will make you fat and video games are teaching our children violence. How in fact can you blame a video game for making your child fat and angry though?

I want to start off talking about the obesity related to video games. As I was growing up I do remember some of the more nostalgic games that are now relics such as Pac Man and Pong on the Atari gaming system, we could never blame those games for making us fat because, lets face it, they were boring has hell and we would lose interest with them after about a half hour of playing them and it was outside we went right! Nowadays the games are far more entertaining and realistic and this gains our attention for hours on end if not for an entire weekend in some cases.

But can we really blame the video games for making us obese? I don't think that we can put the blame on the game honestly, we need to look at ourselves for that blame as nobody is holding a gun to us and demanding that we play, in fact we are actually paying to buy the system, the game and even subscriptions to continue gaming.

An estimated 12.5 million children between the ages of 2 and 19 are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Over 45% of Americas 12-17 year olds spent more than two hours per day glued to a screen

And did you know that as Americans we are stereotyped as this? The numbers for overweight children is extremely high from what I keep seeing in articles along with the amount of time that we spend playing video games, I don't think that the child obesity rate is so high for any other reason than our parenting skills have turned to crap! Instead of watching our children or playing with them, we let the video games do it for us! I am also guilty of this at times so I'm not excluding myself. To counter the obesity issues, some game manufacturers have come up with great games that I have even purchased for myself and my child such as the WII Fit where you are encouraged to be more physically active along with playing a video game, my daughter loves those dance off games and she gets a brutal workout with some of them while I end up on the floor.

Bottom line is that we can't completely blame video games for making our children fat, as parents we have to take the blame since we are the ones letting them play Battlefield and eat chips and drink high sugar soda. We need to give them fruits to snack on and have them play a physically active game if that is what we want to do or better yet, take your kid to the park and let them play there for an hour.

Speaking of Battlefield, this transitions perfectly into video games and anger issues. Would you seriously put a military grade weapon in the hands of your child and tell them to go kill everything they see? Lol, I highly doubt it, but that is really what we are doing with the video games and we all know that this can lead to anger and violence......right? No!

97% of 12-17 year olds in the US played video games in 2008, thus fueling an $11.7 billion domestic video game industry. In 2008, 10 of the top 20 best-selling video games in the US contained violence.

Still, can you put the blame on the video games or is that again in the hands of the parents? I can tell you from personal experience that it is completely on us as the parents. I used to love playing Battlefield games and I noticed one day that there were more and more kids playing it, those kids would use the worst language that you could imagine and guess who the learned it from? Yup, parents, they would also get super pissed off when something happened to them that they didn't like, again you know who they got that from!

I never really thought much of it except for maybe the parents were idiots or something and they didn't supervise their kids well. Guess what, I decided to let my daughter play that game since she had been asking me for a while and she started acting just like me, getting angry and yelling, yup my poor parenting in that area was shining like a star! Since then I don't play violent video games too often and my daughter is not allowed to at all, keep in mind that this is a kid that is normally happy and very positive that had turned angry. I don't think that it is the game to blame, but myself to blame as she saw how dad acted so that is how she thought she was to act also. Now I like to play more strategic games and she sticks mainly to games like the Smurfs that has no violence. I still let her play Star Wars here and there and I will catch her from time to time getting an attitude when things don't go as planned, again another learned response.

South Carolina officer dismissed after shooting man in back

(Reuters) - A white South Carolina police officer has been fired after being charged with murder for shooting a black man in the back as he fled, but questions remained on Wednesday about some details of the killing that was filmed by a witness.

I have to say that this is a truly horrible thing that has happened and from the article that I had read on Reuters the victim was running away from the officer when he was shot in the back several times. I want to make it clear that I do think from what I have read that this was clearly excessive force, a gun was never needed at any point in time and the tazer really could be considered a little much when he could have simply used a physical take down on a man that is in his 50's and the officer is in his early 30's.

Scott's shooting stirred memories of the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri, where an unarmed black teenager was killed by a white police officer. A grand jury declined to indict the officer in that case. But not everyone agreed that Scott's case is like Brown's or that race was a factor. CNN

This is what really gets me, any time there is an officer involved shooting, whether it is right or wrong, the first thing that is noticed is the color of their skin. Seriously, the question that I have is why is it every single time a white officer shoots a black man, it is automatically considered to be racially provoked? Do you really think that every single white police officer has an itchy trigger finger when it comes to "black" people? Is every white officer a racist? I just don't understand why everything ultimately results to racism when it comes to white people, hasn't the thought ever crossed anyone's mind that maybe....just maybe we are not all racist? 

Don't get me wrong, I know that there are still some police officers out there that are stupid enough to let racism cloud their judgement and drive their actions, but not all of them are like that, why can't we look at it as there is another guy that never should have been hired because of his lack of situational judgement? Why can't we look at the department for why they would hire someone that would do something like that? Instead of looking at things like that, the "black" community is enraged with anger and sees no further than the color of the skin. To me this in itself is just wrong. I am not saying that police killing anyone, especially how this went down, is a good thing or even the right thing, but when was the last time you heard "breaking news" that a black officer killed an unarmed white man? Yea not that often, when it does happen there may be a story here and there but it sure as hell won't make front page news or headlines like this one.

Black Officer Shoots White Man, No Media Outrage

As the nation has come to a standstill over the events in Ferguson where a white officer, Darren Wilson, shot and killed a black man, Mike Brown, race hustlers insist that racism goes both ways. Of course, as we all know this is a message of convenience rather than authenticity, its only further proven by the recent events where there is little outrage after a black officer shot and killed an unarmed white young man.

Personally I could care less what the color of your skin is, it makes no difference to me. What I see is your attitude, personality, and your actions. I could see if the officer had prior negative experiences with black individuals and this has shown a history for him then yea it would be racial and for all I know this officer could have a bad history involving racism, but why does it always default to racism? Will racism ever be a thing of the past? Can't we just put that behind us and not see what was in the past and instead look at what we have now and in the future? Honestly, I know the answer is no and that racism is such a strongly rooted emotion for just about every ethnic background, not saying that every individual feels this way, but you know what I mean. I wish people could leave the racism out and look at facts, but I know that won't happen.

Former Hooters Waitress Awarded $250,000 in Racial Discrimination Case

At first glance at simply the title alone I would think to call this just another case of someone wanting to get money for nothing, but you really need to read the article that I found on NBC regarding the situation.

Farryn Johnson, who is African-American, was fired from her Baltimore restaurant job in August 2013 because "Hooters prohibits African-American Hooters Girls from wearing blond highlights in their hair,"

To be completely honest I find this very hard to believe that Hooters  would in fact have policy stating that an African American woman is not allowed to have highlights, the thought alone tells anyone that they would be left open to lawsuit for that, but on their own web page their policy states:

Want Hightlights?

Always be sure that highlights are complimentary to your original hair color. Drastically different hightlighted tones or colors in your hair is not attractive or permitted as part of the Hooters Girl Image.

Wait... I don't see where this states anything about race or maybe I'm blind? What I am seeing here is the company not really being in the wrong, but the specific manager that made the call on the behalf of the company and grossly took their policy out of context. The policy clearly states that you need to color your hair in such a fashion that it compliments your natural hair color, I am no expert in hair color or even what color is natural to certain ethnic groups but I have alway noticed that brown or black hair would be the norm for for an African American woman. I can show you plenty of celebrity African American women that have blond highlights in their hair and it looks great

Dascha Polanco black hair with blonde highlights

Michelle Williams

I am only going to put two pictures up, but tell me that their highlights don't complement their natural hair color? What I am seeing is discrimination from the manager not the company, the manager stated: 

While other women were allowed to highlight their hair, the restaurant manager told Johnson she couldn't be at work with blond streaks because it didn't look "natural" on African-Americans, the suit said.

"The manager at the time literally said, 'You can't have blond because black people don't have blond hair,'"

Wow, I don't blame the woman at all for going ahead and filling a lawsuit, but personally I don't think that the company should be held to blame for this, I think that the manager should be and yes no matter what Hooters is going to take the fall and pay up but this manager should not be employed and viewed as a liability now.

Another seriously messed up part about this case is the settled upon amount of $250,000. The actual amount isn't what irritates me here but who got how much of it:

"Ms. Johnson did not receive $250,000 in back pay, but rather only $11,886.40, while her attorneys on the other hand received approximately $244,000 in attorneys' fees," it said.

Johnson and her lawyer said they were happy with the decision."

Of course the lawyer was happy with the decision!!! That jackass took damn near all of it! I know there are contracts in place with the law firm that state a percentage of the settlement that they will be entitled to and other fees that they charge that could range from $100-$600 per hour in the Baltimore area and if they had an expert witness it could cost up to $10,000 so we don't really know what the costs were for the law firm or how much they actually took as profit, but from the looks of it, I think the woman should have taken more than just $11k from this.

"In God We Trust" Do We Really Trust Anymore?

I know I am about to really irritate some people with the topic that I am about to bring up and I am ok with that, if you have a comment to leave I openly welcome it but don't be a complete jerk about it, we all have our opinions that we are entitled to and I respect yours so give me the same in return.

I want to touch on the topic of "In God We Trust", do we really trust in god anymore? The fact that religion is being slowly squeezed out of our schools, public buildings such as court rooms and ultimately our lives. We have the phrase printed on our money, printed on flags and it is out nations motto! but yet I have been seeing more and more lately that our society does not want anything related to god in our lives. Schools seem to be a big place that we are trying to erase God from our lives, in Tampa Florida one student was told to no longer say "God Bless America" in the morning announcements reported by the Huffington Post.

Florida Student Told No 'God Bless America' In Morning Announcements

I have found that a county in Pennsylvania no longer wants to show the motto in their public buildings any longer:

Pennsylvania County Rejects 'In God We Trust' Motto

Don't you think this is a complete slap in the face to our country, what principles it was built on and straight up just disrespect to our lord? I am going to put it out there and say that I feel it is! If you chose not to believe in God that is your choice and I sure can respect that as there was a point in my life where I chose not to, but does that give me the right to tell those that believe that they are not allowed to? If you can openly and publicly tell others that you don't believe why can't people do the same and tell you that they do believe in God? I remember when I was still in school, every morning we were told to stand up and state the pledge of allegiance to our nations flag:

I pledge Allegiance to the flag

of the United States of America

and to the Republic for which it stands,

one nation under God, indivisible,

with Liberty and Justice for all.

This 30 second statement that we used to make every morning is no longer said anymore, I almost feel that our country is slowly drifting away from the principals that we have had at least since the Civil War. People that don't believe in God have taken certain political positions that have allowed them to ban our freedom to practice religion anywhere that we please such as schools and government offices, last time I checked these are still public areas in which we really should be able to have freedom of religion right?

This is just my personal views, why should we take "In God We Trust" off of our money? Why should we stop reciting the pledge of allegiance simply because "God" is in it? And why are we beginning to banish the term "In God We Trust" from our public government offices? To me it looks like our country doesn't trust our lord any longer, you wonder why our country has so many problems? Our faith as a whole has fallen apart.

2 Chronicles 7:14

14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Gold City - When He Blessed My Soul

I am pretty confident when I say that any Christian should find this song to be very pleasing to listen to, yes I know that everyone has their own taste in music and it's not for everyone, but I sure liked it.

Brian Free & Assurance - "I Want To Be That Man" (Official Music Video)

When I was first exploring my whereabouts with God I had listened to this song and honestly it really hit home for me, I think that this is a good song for anyone to listen to whether you believe or not just hear it out.

Brian Free & Assurance - Say Amen (Official Music Video)

I know that religion is a very tricky topic to touch upon especially if someone doesn't believe, trust me I get that...of anyone I sure do. But this band is actually super good and even if you don't believe or if you kida do and just are not public about it I think that you should give them a good listen.

GREATEST BMX GAME OF ALL TIM.

I'm finding a little humor in how this dude is acting, the game is dumb as hell in my opinion but I just don't understand how this guy got 2 million views in a day! Damn sure know he is making money on this to and more power to him lol.

Snowboarder gets hit by a chairlift while selfie stick filming

That really had to hurt like hell but good thing he was wearing a helmet huh.

Dog on a Roomba - Easter Edition!!!

Alright for simple kicks I like this one, nothing too special but most dogs would not put up with this kind of abuse

Fake argument leads to incredible free-kick | BT Sport

Fat Burning Cardio Workout - 37 Minute Fitness Blender Cardio Workout at...

The Price Is Right - Manuela's Blooper