RIDING in the SQUAD with CHRIST

Interesting Info Graphic About Famous Heists

2012-01-20T16:15:00.004-06:00

A True Camping Story- 5.11 Adventure Contest Entry

2012-01-05T18:01:00.003-06:00

Our camping outings have never been too successful. They typically involve risk to self and others, destruction of property and the decent into insanity (well, not for me but for others…maybe I’m unknowingly responsible for our fellow campers shrugging off the coils of sanity and embracing the crazy woodpeckers in their head…but I digress). The following is an absolutely true story.

So it’s 1990, I am a sophomore in college at Baylor and back in the Chicago Metro land for summer break to see my girlfriend (now my wife) and to go with my church college youth group to our two day Michigan Dunes camping trip. It’s the night of day two and we are all sitting around the camp fire, sober, which is fine for a college youth group outing but extreme intoxication would have better explained our flawed/bizarre/idiotic decision making skills that night. Anyway, it’s around ten o’clock in the evening and someone, I think me, suggests that we jump into Lake Michigan for a night swim. My fellow suicidal campers think that this is a good thing and away we go into the water. It’s cold, it’s dark and the twelve of us are utterly alone. So conditions being perfect for safety and wellbeing, we decided to swim out over our heads to the “second sandbar”. At our campsite on the lake you can swim out, way over your head and soon come onto a sand bar that you can stand on with your head above water. But even better, there is a second sand bar, way past the first, that you can get to and its right about the time your arms and legs are burning and you are wondering if anyone will ever find your bloated corpse, that you arrive at the second sand bar. So, alone in the dark, in the cold without anyone knowing where we are, we set out to go to that magical place, death, no I mean the second sandbar. Fast forward to exhausted breathing, burning legs and shouted theories of blame, we arrived at the second sand bar. All of us except my girlfriend who is swimming way behind the rest and does not seem to be using the classic straight line approach to our destination. Being the gallant caring boyfriend that I am, I start yelling at her to hurry up and then threw out a few verbal jabs that my fellow sand bar-eians thought was the cat’s meow. It soon occurred to me that something was amiss. My short Italian sweetie was always ready with a quick verbal counter thrust. I started watching her progress and when it ceased to be a horizontal progression and instead turned to a negative y axis motion, I realized she was in real trouble (something about no longer being able to continue on top of the water concerned me for some reason). I raced over to where I last saw her and swam down and grabbed her and pulled her back to the surface. Sputtering from her thirty seconds of submersion, I swam her back to the second sand bar for her to catch her breath. When we arrived, the ten other sand bar guests inquired as to her condition and we were all informed in an exasperated sarcastic voice, that she had developed a muscle cramp (she then pointed at me) said “But because this big idiot wouldn’t shut up, no one could hear me calling for help!” (Ah, yes, the beginning of a fine series of “no matter what happens it’s my fault” declarations. A program that would become the backbone to our relationship. ) With the near drowning putting a cramp in our water plans we decided to return to shore with me pulling my girlfriend along, swimming for two, in a physical act of penance.

Arriving on shore we quickly dragged our bodies back to the campfire that we had forgotten to put out and had grown to burning the wood pile outside of its retaining wall of found stones. Quickly throwing all the burning logs into the center of the stones we sat down and began to drink our remaining supply of pop and water. I decided to prank our exhausted group with a pop bomb. I covertly took a six pack of diet Pepsi and pretending to stoke the fire, I placed the cans into its heart, giggling like the Hamburgler right before Ronald catches him fleeing with his hot beefy bounty. I then used my college math skills, when I figured that the last time I put a can in the fire it was funny with the popping noise and soda shooting out, it would be six times as funny with six cans. I waited. I waited with baited breath. I got bored so I told my girlfriend so that I had someone to wait with in prankster anticipation for the pop and then our laugh at the surprise expressions of our camping-mates.

Then…BOOM!!!! The camp fire flew into the air spreading itself evenly onto the tents and the assembled people. A blessing for the cascade of diet Pepsi that came airborne with the wood was that it instantly turned the fire to just an airborne grouping of glowing embers. The curse to the boiling Pepsi however, was wherever it landed, it latched on and gave a little gift of its heat to that lucky individual or item. The campers, yelling in surprise and in pain for their minor second degree burns where instantly plunged into darkness that was dotted everywhere with tiny red dots. A second then went by when someone shouted, “The tents!” Yep, each little glowing dot covering each tent was one of our little friendly embers trying to burn through the covering. The camp then sprang into action and with more profanity then what should normally be heard on a church outing, the embers were swept off the tents.

Suddenly there was a scream! We quickly ran to our overwrought female camper and demanded to know what was wrong. She just started yelling over and over, “It’s gone!” We waited as long as we could, then shaking her we asked her what was missing. She pointed to her feet and said, “That!” We looked down and observed one bare foot and one foot shod with a sock. You lost your sock? We all asked incredulously. She went on to inform us that this was her lucky pair of socks and she could not go home without it. We then initiated a halfhearted search of the sandy camp site for the forlorn sock while our fellow camper stood with raised bare foot asking us every five seconds if we had found it yet. Sticky, burned, tired and impatient we searched the campsite for the sock. After finding three socks that belonged to owners other than our one shod female camper, I asked her what color the sock was. She stated with an intense serious tone, “Sandy Brown”. The assembled campers froze and stared at our “victim”. Everyone then went into their tents without a word other than someone said, “Half luck is better than no luck at all”. She then sat down and cried.

That morning we emerged from our tents. Our sleep molested by the tiny holes in each tent that was perfect for letting mosquitos and water in and heat out. We gathered our sticky burned and melted clothing and shoes and loaded the Pepsi stained van. No one would talk to me and an active argument ensued that included my girlfriend as to who would be unfortunate enough to be forced to sit with me since at the last minute then had decided they would not be leaving me behind after all. The matter resolved we left the camp.

It was a long silent eight hours.

They do talk to me now, twenty years later. But they don’t let me go to the Dunes any more. I wonder if I outfitted them to replace their lost and damaged items they would change their minds and let me go…………….probably not.

Polarized sunglasses, Flashlights, and Hiking boots.

One Year through the Bible

2012-01-03T20:04:00.000-06:00

I just finished my second One Year Through the Bible (Pictured) and I highly recommend it. It is a great way to get into the habit of being in the word and in just a few pages a day before you know it you have read the bible cover to cover. I just throw it in my bag and when I have a few minutes of free time I rip it out and read it. I promise you not a day will go by when something won't leap off the page right at you and into your life.

Well the genealogies can be a little challenging but you can say you read them at least once.

Happy New Year

2012-01-03T19:52:00.001-06:00

Its 2012 I hope and pray its a great year for each and everyone of you. 2011 for us was not the best; death in the family, damage to the roof, flood damage (on separate occasions), children struggling in school and the like. But the Lord is in charge and it'll work out all right.

Hebrews 8:13
In that He says, “A new covenant, ” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T12:00:00.000-06:00

Luke 2:11

King James Version (KJV)

11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

Best Christmas Present EVER!

Occupy Wall Street Infographic (To View Better CTRL +)

2011-12-06T21:23:00.001-06:00

Via: Online MBA Guide

Risk Reduction Justice Delayed

2011-12-06T00:34:00.001-06:00

The Penn State sex scandal or a better way to state it, a long running multiple person conspiracy to aid and abet a pedophile in his crimes, has brought to light a growing blight in American culture. It is the idea of sliding away from duty and obligation and rather standing in the swamp of risk/labiality/benefit analysis.

It can be seen in the multiple civil lawsuit settlements where money was paid out but no fault was claimed. I have personally heard the justification of “we have done nothing wrong but it will be more expensive successfully defending ourselves than just paying off and getting rid of the problem.” What is missed is the value of justice, the reward of perseverance and a declaration of an intention to fight rather than capitulate. The message it really sends is there is no value in right and wrong but rather life is a benefit analysis. If there is a victim let him/her be properly compensated if it is a false accusation let them be punished. But there is no change if there is no fault assigned and the actions are not made public. The organization, whether public or private, learns there is no value in values and justice. Rather, there is a calculation about the ability to control people and information. If the information and personnel can be controlled the event or action is buried, if it cannot be controlled a settlement is then rendered, no fault is declared, a gag order is made and everyone moves on. There is no correction, there is no blame assigned, there is no shame, there is no reward for good and punishment for evil, it is just another entry on the balance sheet.

Now layer this event over and over through the years. The system rewards tight information control and inaction. If I don’t know about it then I cannot get pulled into it, happens again and again, till the first response is personal risk exposure minimization becomes the first priority. It is the first priority because that is what is rewarded. Identification and notification only increase exposure and ensure punishment. This is how you get an assistant coach’s first response on a child rape is to call his Dad and have a meeting about what to do, rather than take action, call the police and make notification.

This can best be illustrated by a call that I have responded to hundreds of times. It’s a theft call at a local business. I get ushered into the senior manager’s office and told about an employee that they suspect is taking money out of the petty cash fund. They are concerned and want to know what to do. I end up interviewing the employee and usually after about ten minutes they confess to most (never all) that they have done and there is a sad story to accompany the story to show that they are really not a bad person, just a person in a bad situation. I then go back to the senior manager and ask what he would like to do. I always suggest prosecution, to recoup the money, to create a record of their conduct to make illicit action more difficult in the future and steer the offender in a more positive direction. The manager listens to me patiently but always asks if that has to be done and I say no. But I interject is you let them resign they will just go to another employer and do the same thing much like what has already happened to you. I then am told that firing an employee is a tedious process and expensive. Further, they do not want to take all the time off work to go to court. So out the door goes the now ex-employee having resigned and tearful. Fast forward about six months and I am called to a different business about the same offender and they too opt for resignation rather than prosecution and more victims are created. The crime is not large and the loss is not great in each incidence but over time added together it ends up with a multitude of victims and a large amount of theft that one person doing the right thing could stop. But no one does. This is the society we are living in, here in America. Where justice is inconvenient, expense is more important than protecting the innocent and silence is awarded.

But that does not have to be that way. If each of us sides with the truth, protects the victims over expense and inconvenience, refuses to stay silent in the little things, then when the big things come the course of action is clear and people are saved.

Another Surveillance

2011-12-06T00:12:00.000-06:00

Statics...some good some bad.

2011-12-04T00:02:00.003-06:00

Statics ()=Source

It is estimated that 25% of Police Officers are alcoholics. ( http://milestonegroupnj.com/?p=142)

The rate for the population at large is 17.7 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholism

6% of criminals arrested suffer from severe mental illiness (http://karisable.com/crmh.htm

The best estimate of suicide in the law enforcement profession is 18.1 per 100,000. This figure is 52% greater than that of the general population but 26% lower than that of the appropriate comparison group (white males between the ages of 25 and 55). (http://www.policeone.com/health-fitness/articles/137133-Police-Officer-Suicide-Frequency-and-officer-profiles/)

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that officers were not wearing a seat belt in 42 percent of fatal car accidents. According to federal numbers, car accidents are the leading cause of death for police officers throughout the country. (http://www.austinaccidentattorney.com/blog/2011/03/officers-unbelted-in-42-percent-of-fatal-police-car-wrecks.shtml)

Police and detectives held about 883,600 jobs in 2008. About 79 percent were employed by local governments. State police agencies employed about 11 percent. Various Federal agencies employ police and detectives.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, police and detectives employed by local governments worked primarily in cities with more than 25,000 inhabitants. Some cities have very large police forces, while thousands of small communities employ fewer than 25 officers each. (http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos160.htm

Projections data from the National Employment Matrix
Occupational Title	SOC Code	Employment, 2008	Projected Employment, 2018	Change, 2008-18
Occupational Title	SOC Code	Employment, 2008	Projected Employment, 2018	Number	Percent
Police and detectives	—	883,600	968,400	84,700	10
First-line supervisors/managers of police and detectives	33-1012	97,300	105,200	7,800	8
Detectives and criminal investigators	33-3021	112,200	130,900	18,700	17
Fish and game wardens	33-3031	8,300	9,000	700	8
Police officers	33-3050	665,700	723,300	57,500	9
Police and sheriff's patrol officers	33-3051	661,500	718,800	57,300	9
Transit and railroad police	33-3052	4,300	4,500	200	5
NOTE: Data in this table are rounded. See the discussion of the employment projections table in the Handbook introductory chapter on Occupational Information Included in the Handbook.

(http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos160.htm)

To date in 2007, 157 Law Enforcement Officers have been killed in the line of duty.

The statistics for the last 10 years are as follows:
2006 - 147
2005 - 159
2004 - 162
2003 - 147
2002 - 159
2001 - 242
2000 - 163
1999 - 151
1998 - 175
1997 - 176

Source - the Officer Down Memorial Page (http://www.odmp.org/index.php )

In the last decade (since 2000) the homicide rate declined to levels last seen in the mid-1960s.
Based on data from 1980 and 2008, males represented 77% of homicide victims and nearly 90% of offenders. The victimization rate for males (11.6 per 100,000) was 3 times higher than the rate for females (3.4 per 100,000). The offending rate for males (15.1 per 100,000) was almost 9 times higher than the rate for females (1.7 per 100,000).
The average age of both offenders and victims increased slightly in recent years, yet remained lower than they were prior to the late 1980s. (http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2221)

The percent of U.S. residents age 16 or older who had face-to-face contact with police declined from 2002 (21.0%) to 2005 (19.1%) and declined again in 2008 (16.9%).
White (8.4%), black (8.8%), and Hispanic (9.1%) drivers were stopped by police at similar rates in 2008.
Male drivers (9.9%) were stopped at higher rates than female drivers (7.0%). (http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2229)

The U.S. murder arrest rate in 2009 was about half of what it was in the early 1980s. Over the 30-year period ending in 2009, the adult arrest rate for murder fell 57%, while the juvenile arrest rate fell 44%.
From 1980 to 2009, the black forcible rape arrest rate declined 70%, while the white arrest rate fell 31%.
Between 1980 and 2009, while the adult arrest rate for drug possession or use grew 138%, the juvenile arrest rate increased 33%. Similarly, from 1980 to 2009, the increase in the arrest rate for drug sale or manufacture was greater for adults (77%) than for juveniles (31%). (http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2203)

The estimated 12,575 local police departments operating in the United States during 2007 employed approximately 463,000 full-time sworn personnel.
Operating budgets of local police departments totaled $55.4 billion for fiscal year 2007, 14% more than in 2003 after adjusting for inflation.
In 2007, average starting salaries for entry-level local police officers ranged from $26,600 in the smallest jurisdictions to $49,500 in the largest. (http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1750)

PS: I know that the table bled into my margins but I really liked it. Go to the site to get the whole totally readable one or wait till this post get old enough that it slides down and does not mesh with the side bar.

Judges 8:14
He caught a young man of Sukkoth and questioned him, and the young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven officials of Sukkoth, the elders of the town.

Any way they can get it

2011-12-02T16:35:00.001-06:00

I have very low expectations about our ability to combat vice crimes. It even has its own educational facility...jail. Prisoners sit around all day scheming up ways to get drugs, sex and the means to improve their ability to successfully attack guards and their fellow prisoners. The following is an example of a temporally successful scheme to provide sexual services and while funny, its just one example of all the illicit activities happening in each and every correctional facility in the U.S..

Article from the Miami New Times Riptide 2.0 Blog Source Link

Stripteases, sexual favors, booze, porn mags, and fat stacks of cash would be run-of-the-mill in many Miami strip clubs. But at downtown's maximum security Federal Detention Center?
Multiple attorneys interviewed by Riptide say the FDC visitor rooms have been taken over by South American pole dancers posing as paralegals for wealthy drug lords inside. Lawyers hired by the accused narco dons allegedly list the scantily clad women as "legal assistants," and the FDC lets them in. Meanwhile, attorneys who refuse to go along risk losing their clients to lawyers with busty beauties on staff.

"They take off their tops and let the guys touch them," veteran defense attorney Hugo Rodriguez says. "The majority of these young, very attractive women are noncitizens brought in exclusively for the purposes of visiting the FDC. Any lawyer can sign a form and designate a legal assistant. There is no way of verifying it. The process is being abused."

The accusations are difficult to prove. An FDC spokeswoman declined to comment, and prison officials refused Riptide's requests for any incident reports on faux paralegals being tossed from the facility.

But attorneys swear the scam is ongoing. One "discovery room" normally used to discuss trial strategy was recently closed, they say, after guards caught an inmate and a paralegal "discovering" more than legal documents.

"Everyone knows about it," says a private investigator who is familiar with the FDC and asked not to be named. "We call them the 'little hoochie mamas'... They are making a mockery out of the prison system here."

Among the offenses allegedly committed by so-called paralegals: smuggling in a Playboy, feeding alcohol to an inmate by slipping a straw through a grate, and sneaking in $3,000 inside a purse.

In a scene straight out of a porno, one woman was caught on video stripping for an inmate in the jail's Special Housing Unit, attorneys say. The stripper was banned from the FDC.

Female lawyers say the phony paralegals are an embarrassment.

"I find it offensive," says an attorney who asked to remain anonymous. "This is still kind of a male-dominated profession. We try to be taken seriously, but these women aren't helping."

Not every lawyer is up in arms over the FDC fiasco, however.

"If you want some good people-watching, try the FDC," attorney Marc Seitles says. "It certainly beats paying a cover and waiting on lines to get into LIV."

Mark 7:21
For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder,

Some Surveillance yields results others yield nothing...

2011-12-01T22:15:00.000-06:00

I was on surveillance the other day. This was created as a result. I will let you guess if we yielded positive results or not while we were out there.

Psalm 106:43
Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin.

Silliness...Fantasy Football

2011-12-01T21:56:00.000-06:00

I set up my first fantasy football league this year. I can only name maybe three officers, that I have ever known, that are not enrolled in one league or the other.

So, I am on the bubble. I have to win last week's game and this week's game to make it into the playoffs of the league I created.

So it comes down to the Monday night football game (11-28-2011). I only have Victor Cruz (WR, New York Giants) left and he is down to Drew Brees (QB, New Orleans Saints). My points, 222.20 and his points, 222.50 and the game is in the fourth quarter. Suddenly the back up quarterback for Eli Manning starts to warm up. Its over. I get mad. Maybe some remotes are thrown and some words were said that should not have been said, it's all a little fuzzy. So I change my team's name to "The 000's" (Police term for dead) and my team's slogan to "Screw it, I give up, whatever...whatever...let me know where and when I need to be at the winner's dinner."

And....

Then Cruz catches a pass and runs it into the end zone and I win the week. Which....launched a flood of texts, emails and calls pointing out I may have jumped to conclusions before it was truly all over. Which caused me to change my team name again to "Captain Jumps to Conclusions". I then drew this as my new mascot.

PS: The birth of a new hero. My son wants to know why one arm is bigger than the other and I just said it's his super power. He shook his head sadly and just walked away.

What's with all the Grotto?

2011-11-06T01:30:00.000-05:00

I was digging into the internet for the previous post about Castles that maybe i'll get to visit one day, when I kept running into Grottoes. I had only heard that term once before when it was used to describe a room on Hefner's estate.

A grotto (Italian grotta and French "grotte") is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans.

So on to some Grottoes...

The Blue Grotto

The Blue Grotto (Italian: Grotta Azzurra) is a noted sea cave on the coast of the island of Capri, Italy. Sunlight, passing through an underwater cavity and shining through the seawater, creates a blue reflection that illuminates the cavern.

Venus Grotto

The building is wholly artificial and was built for the king as an illustration of the First Act of Wagner's "Tannhäuser". Ludwig liked to be rowed over the lake in his golden swan-boat but at the same time he wanted his own blue grotto of Capri. Therefore 24 dynamos had been installed and so already in the time of Ludwig II it was possible to illuminate the grotto in changing colours.

Fingal's Cave

Fingal's Cave is a sea cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, part of a National Nature Reserve owned by the National Trust for Scotland. It is formed entirely from hexagonally jointed basalt columns.

Dickeyville Grotto

The Dickeyville Grotto is a series of grottos and shrines in Dickeyville, Wisconsin, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Madison, in Grant County, Wisconsin, United States. The site is visited by 40,000 to 60,000 visitors per year. It is located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 151 and Highway 35.

Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto

Our Lady of Lourdes is the name used to refer to the Marian apparition said to have appeared before various individuals on separate occasions around Lourdes, France. The apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes began on 11 February 1858, when Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old peasant girl from Lourdes, told her mother, after being asked, that she had seen a "lady" in the cave of Massabielle, about a mile from the town, while gathering firewood with her sister and a friend. Similar appearances of the "lady" were reported on seventeen further occasions that year.

The Grotto at the Playboy Mansion

Shell Grotto

The Shell Grotto is an ornate subterranean passageway in Margate, Kent. Almost all the surface area of the walls and roof is covered in mosaics created entirely of seashells, totalling about 2,000 square feet (190 m2) of mosaic, or 4.6 million shells. It was discovered in 1835 but its age remains unknown.

Pope's Grotto

Alexander Pope's villa has gone but the grotto, which formed part of the garden, survives in Twickenham, England . The grotto was formerly at the lower level of Pope's Villa and is now at the lower level of an Arts and Crafts building which is now a school. A passageway leads under Cross Deep road to what is now a girl's school. Apart from its association with the poet, the chief interest of the grotto is large collection of geological specimens which was used to line the brickwork of the vaults.

Finally,

Naica Crystal Cave

Buried a thousand feet (300 meters) below Naica mountain in the Chihuahuan Desert, the cave was discovered by two miners in 2000. The cave contains some of the largest natural crystals ever found: translucent gypsum beams measuring up to 36 feet (11 meters) long and weighing up to 55 tons.

Here is a link for more information and photos for the cave-very worth while. Link

Genesis 19:30
[ Lot and His Daughters ] Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave.

Maybe deep down I feel under attack so that made me look up fortifications. Castles Anyone?

2011-11-05T18:04:00.002-05:00

I don't know, maybe since my contract with the city is under attack, as well as my pension and our budgets, that why I feel under attack and that sent me to researching fortifications. I could use a financial castle right now.

Neuschwanstein Castle

is a 19th-centuryBavarian palace on a rugged hill near Hohenschwangau and Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. The palace was commissioned byLudwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as an homage to Richard Wagner, the King’s personal favorite performer.

Throne Room

Grotto made to look like a cave with water fall and secrete glass door that slid into the "rock"

The Castle Tour

Hunyad Castle

The Huniad Castle is a Gothic-Renaissance castle in Hunedoara (Transylvania), present-day Romania.

The Potala Palace Castle

In 637 Emperor Songtsen Gampo decided to build this palaceon a hill, and the structure stood until the seventeenth century, when it was incorporated into the foundations of the greater buildings still standing today. Construction of the present palace began in 1645 during the reign of the fifth Dalai Lama and by 1648 the Potrang Karpo, or White Palace, was completed. The Potrang Marpo, or Red Palace, was added between 1690 and 1694; its construction required the labors of more than 7000 workers and 1500 artists and craftsman.

Malbork Castle

The castle was founded by the Teutonic Order after the conquest of Old Prussia. Its main purpose was to strengthen their own control of the area following the Order's 1274 suppression of the Great Prussian Uprising of the Baltic tribes. No contemporary documents survive relating to its construction, so instead the castle's phases have been worked out through the study of architecture and the Order's administrative records and later histories. The work lasted until around 1300, under the auspices of Commander Heinrich von Wilnowe. The castle is located on the southeastern bank of the river Nogat. It was named Marienburg after Mary, patron saint of the religious Order. The Order had been created in Acre (present-day Israel). When this last stronghold of the western Crusades fell to Muslim Arabs, the Order moved its headquarters to Venice before arriving in Poland. Malbork became more important in the aftermath of the Teutonic Knights' conquest of Gdańsk (Danzig) and Pomerania in 1308. The Order's administrative centre was moved to Malbork from Elbląg (Elbing). The Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Siegfried von Feuchtwangen, who arrived in Malbork from Venice, undertook the next phase of the fortress' construction.[4] In 1309, in the wake of the papal persecution of the Knights Templar and the Teutonic takeover of Danzig, Feuchtwangen relocated his headquarters to the Prussian part of the Order's monastic state. He chose the site of Marienburg conveniently located on the Nogat in the Vistula Delta. As with most cities of the time, the new centre was dependent on water for transportation. The castle was expanded several times to house the growing number of Knights. Soon, it became the largest fortified Gothic building in Europe, on an nearly 52-acre site. The castle has several subdivisions and numerous layers of defensive walls. It consists of three separate castles - the High, Middle and Lower Castles, separated by multiple dry moats and towers. The castle once housed approximately 3,000 "brothers in arms". The outermost castle walls enclose 52 acres, four times the acreage of the enclosed space of Windsor Castle.

Pena National Palace

The palace's history started in the Middle Ages when a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Pena was built on the top of the hill above Sintra. According to tradition, the construction occurred after an apparition of the Virgin Mary. In 1493, King John II, accompanied by his wife Queen Leonor, made a pilgrimage to the site to fulfill a vow. His successor, King Manuel I, was also very fond of this sanctuary, and ordered the construction there of a monastery which was donated to the Order of Saint Jerome. For centuries Pena was a small, quiet place for meditation, housing a maximum of eighteen monks. In the 18th century the monastery was severely damaged by lightning. However, it was the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, occurring shortly afterwards, that took the heaviest toll on the monastery, reducing it to ruins. Nonetheless, the chapel (and its magnificent works of marble and alabaster attributed to Nicolau Chanterene) escaped without significant damage. For many decades the ruins remained untouched, but they still astonished young prince Ferdinand. In 1838, as King consort Ferdinand II, he decided to acquire the old monastery, all of the surrounding lands, the nearby Castle of the Moors and a few other estates in the area. King Ferdinand then set out to transform the remains of the monastery into a palace that would serve as a summer residence for the Portuguese royal family. The commission for the Romantic style rebuilding was given to Lieutenant-General and mining engineer Baron Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege. Eschwege, a German amateur architect, was much traveled and likely had knowledge of several castles along the Rhine river. The construction took place between 1842–1854, although it was almost completed in 1847: King Ferdinand and Queen Maria II intervened decisively on matters of decoration and symbolism. Among others, the King suggested vault arches, Medieval and Islamic elements be included, and he also designed an exquisitely ornate window for the main façade (inspired by the chapter house window of the Convent of the Order of Christ in Tomar).

Entrance Gate

Hohensalzburg Castle

Hohensalzburg Castle (German: Festung Hohensalzburg, literally "High Salzburg Fortress") is a castle in the Austrian city of Salzburg, atop the Festungsberg mountain. Erected at the behest of the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg, it today with a length of 250 m (820 ft) and a width of 150 m (490 ft), is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe.

Château de Blois

The Royal Château de Blois is located in the Loir-et-Cher département in the Loire Valley, in France, in the center of the city of Blois. The residence of several French kings, it is also the place where Joan of Arc went in 1429 to be blessed by the Archbishop of Reims before departing with her army to drive the English from Orléans.

Built in the middle of the town that it effectively controlled, the château of Blois comprises several buildings constructed from the 13th to the 17th century around the main courtyard. It has 564 rooms and 75 staircases although only 23 were used frequently. There is a fireplace in each room. There are 100 bedrooms.

Château de Pierrefonds

The Château de Pierrefonds is a castle situated in the commune of Pierrefonds in the Oise département (Picardy) of France. It is on the southeast edge of the Forest of Compiègne, north of Paris, between Villers-Cotterêts and Compiègne. The Château de Pierrefonds includes most of the characteristics of defensive military architecture from the Middle Ages, though it underwent a major restoration in the 19th century.

Egeskov Castle

Egeskov's history dates to the 14th century. The castle structure was erected by Frands Brockenhuus in 1554. Due to the troubles caused by the civil war known as the Count's Feud (Danish: Grevens fejde), general civil unrest, and a civil war introducing the Protestant Reformation, most Danish noblemen built their homes as fortifications. The castle is constructed on oaken piles and located in a small lake with a maximum depth of 5 metres (16 ft). Originally, the only access was by means of a drawbridge. According to legend, it took an entire forest of oak trees to build the foundation, hence the name Egeskov (“oak forest”).

Psalm 31:3
Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.

I am at a loss for Post Material...So Here are Steven Wright Jokes

2011-10-24T21:58:00.000-05:00

Here are some Steven Wright Jokes. Thanks to http://www.weather.net/zarg/ZarPages/stevenWright.html

All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand.

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.

OK, so what's the speed of dark?

How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.

When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.

Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.

Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film.

Shin: a device for finding furniture in the dark.

Many people quit looking for work when they find a job.

I intend to live forever - so far, so good.

Join the Army, meet interesting people, kill them.

If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire.

When I'm not in my right mind, my left mind gets pretty crowded.

Boycott shampoo! Demand the REAL poo!

Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?

What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out.

I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.

Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?

If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.

The colder the X-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.

The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.

The severity of the itch is proportional to the reach.

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.

You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.

The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.

Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7th of your life.

The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.

A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.

Change is inevitable....except from vending machines.

A fool and his money are soon partying.

Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow.

If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments.

Drugs may lead to nowhere, but at least it's the scenic route.

I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.

Borrow money from pessimists-they don't expect it back.

Half the people you know are below average.

99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.

A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

Steven Wright's Site

Genesis 17:17
Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”

Catch Them Before They Fall

2011-10-17T22:26:00.000-05:00

I was speaking with a friend of mine who is on a different department when he told me about this incident.

The construction of one of our State buildings is in the shape of a cylinder. The offices, elevators and the stairwells are affixed to the inside edge of the cylinder leaving the entire center of the structure open from the roof to the floor, approximately seventeen floors.

A distraught middle aged woman pulled a chair to the railing, climbed to the rail and jumped to her death, falling seventeen stories to the floor. Her body remained intact, thou broken, but upon impact her skull split open and her brain slid two to three feet across the floor on the floor lubricated by her own cerebrospinal fluid. It takes about four minutes to achieve cellular death due to oxygen starvation. If her brain did not suffer massive structural damage and from what I was told it was totally intact with little to no sign of bleeding, she would have been conscious and aware sitting as only a brain on the tile floor for the four to six minutes till she passed. A grim, to say the least, ending.

On her body was a note as to where her vehicle was parked, what to do at her apartment and who got her pets and personal property. Her family and friends received the letter she sent prior to her jump, explaining her reasons for suicide and her hopes for their futures.

As a Police Officer you run into suicides in many forms, using many methods for many different reasons. But in the final analysis they are all the same in the end. It is a story about a depressed individual who soon becomes overwhelmed by their real or perceived problems, isolates themselves, erroneously believes their personal issues insurmountable and escapes in the only way they know how.

We need to catch them before they fall. You know that friend/family member you had that you just somehow lost contact with? Contact them, find out how they are doing, not over the phone, but in person. Be brave, ask the real questions, have a relationship that goes deeper than the weather and sports. Get them moving, get them in the shower, get them running on the street, take them to lunch, have them meet your friends. Get them to the doctor, the hospital, have them meet some great firemen and Policemen (Trust me we all love alive people even if they do not want to see us-the dead ones tend not to do anything really fun). Intervene, be someone's savior. Give them Christ! Before their last act is to sit dying on the tile-truly and permanently isolated from us forever.

John 5:24
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

Surviving Zombie Attack starts with preparedness and proper gear.

2011-10-15T11:55:00.002-05:00

This was sent to me the other day. It has all the elements Cops love...well this Cop at least...Survival horror, gear and humor. What a cool marketing idea for a gear site...below is a little bit from their page. The link http://tacticalgear.com/zombie-gear-guide.

Zombie Survival Gear

Have the people in your life started to act a little … strange? A friend came down with a mysterious flu and now only craves rare meat. Yesterday, you caught a coworker attempting to gnaw off your hand. These unexplained events cannot be resolved in a hospital or a human resources office. It's time to stockpile essential zombie survival gear. Because there's no such thing as too prepared.

A Snap Shot of the History of American Law Enforcement

2011-10-15T11:36:00.000-05:00

Via: Criminal Justice Degrees Blog

NASCAR

2011-10-12T19:57:00.000-05:00

My first NASCAR Race.

Day one-was a rain out. The BBQ'ing and our attempt to ride it out only succeeded in getting every ounce of my clothes soaked and new found appreciation for deodorant as the six of us huddled under a tiny canopy.

Day two-the track was about 1/3 full and it was a great time.

Ecclesiastes 9:11
I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.

Impermanence

2011-10-12T19:49:00.002-05:00

If you have read the blog for any amount of time you would have noticed that I post tickets, pamphlets, things which have a very temporal existence. Watching the history channel, Antiques Roadshow, Pawn Stars and the like, there always is a section about an item that no one knows about and no one preserved an example of one. It struck me about the impermanence of everyday items we take for granted. I scan and post something I ran across, found or attended so I can, in a very small way, add to the collective archiving of our lives of the things that have no permanence.

Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

I haven't Stopped Blogging I Just lost track of time...for a month

2011-10-12T19:34:00.000-05:00

Wow neglected the blog there...but I'm back...

Survival starts with Preparation-Unconventional Attack-Maps

2011-09-12T22:51:00.000-05:00

A lot of intelligence was flying around about possible terrorist attacks and it got all of us put on alert for the weekend of 9-11. But it got me thinking about how should we respond to the consent threat of attack but the rare execution of the threat.

It's through preparation. It allows you to be ready and yet live your life outside of consent fear. Its not expensive and it provides for a piece of mind.

*Disclaimer* I am not an expert. I just have a bunch of low level training and like basic research. These should only be considered suggestions and not recommendations in anyway. Further if I miss something let me know and I'll add it in.

There are two basic kinds of attacks. They are conventional (bomb, armed terrorists) and unconventional (Nuclear, Biological). You really can think of it this way: conventional your radius of escape is relatively small and the duration of the danger is relatively short and unconventional, your radius of escape is long and the duration can be very long. Further, if it is biological, contact with your fellow survivors can put you at further risk.

What you need. I will start with unconventional terrorist attack. I am going to assume that you have escaped from the epicenter and managed to find your way to your vehicle.

1. Map. Find out your gas mileage and your gas tank capacity. Draw a radius on your map, this will be you r operational range. This is what you need to mark. Find all military bases, national guard depots (a careful internet search can reveal major fuel depots), BSL-3 and BSL-4 biological research centers, small local medical clinics, veterinary clinics, water pumping stations, food pantries , nuclear power plants and rural college campuses.

Break down: Military bases is an obvious one it can provide protection, medical, fuel, water, gear etc. But in an attack their number one priority is to remain operational so that they can provide a continuing response to the attack and its after affects. They may or may not let you in.

National guard depots-they tend to be lightly manned but chock full of useful stuff. Fuel, food, vehicles, medical supplies. They tend to be tucked away and not well known but once again a ten second internet search will provide you with the details you need. The downside is they are very lightly or if at all manned if you need help you are probably on your own.

BSL-3 and BSL-4 biological research facilities. They are the one place you can run to and be fairly assured that the Small Pox or Ebola can not get in. They will also become the epicenter of the coming response. The major problem is lack of food, water and their existing security. In a crisis they will be very hard to enter.

Small local clinics and Veterinary clinics. If its a biological release it will take very few inflicted or radiated patients to shut down even the largest of hospitals. If you want to read a scary bed time story, look up for largest local hospital and find their on file preparedness plan. What you will find if that in the case of Small Pox for example it will only take 3 or 4 to shut the whole operation down. So, you need medical supplies and maybe someone to perform a service to fix that which is broken, these will be the only places operational in the short term. (Dogs leg, you leg really not much of a difference).

Water Pumping Stations: They tend to be in industrial areas with little actual population. They are built to protect the area in case a pipe blows and their power supply is dedicated so it would take a major local disturbance to cut its power. So they are fortified, they will probably have power, they have no one around and now you have water. Hunker down and wait.

Food Pantries-You need food. You need food that will not easily spoil and in a place most people will not think to pillage. It is here. Churches would be the best bet.

Nuclear Power Plants. They are never near populated areas. They have their own armed security force. They have their own water supply to cool the uranium rods. They have limitless independent power. They are fortified-once from attack and once for accidental detonation. They have mandatory food and medical supplies. Some even have air purifiers and bunkers. Problem is getting in and if their staff is first to be affected by whatever has happened, this perfect escape place becomes a secondary detonation.

Lastly Rural College Campuses. They are away from population centers. They tend to be agriculture based so now you have the ability to sustain your food supply. If they are pre-1970 they will have the then mandated bunkers. They will have on site food preparation and supply centers. They have a huge knowledge base. Most have their own armed police force. They have the ability and equipment to sustain complex mechanical and chemical systems. The downside is getting to them due to their location and they are usually unregulated as to entrances and exits. If your running from the biological hazard its going to find its way over to you, eventually.

End of Part One

1 Kings 18:4
While Jezebel was killing off the LORD’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.)

1996 White Sox Tickets...Vintage Memories

2011-09-06T18:22:00.000-05:00

Christian Cops of the Old West

2011-09-02T00:45:00.000-05:00

When I was writing the previous post I started wondering, who were the Christian Law Enforcement/Sheriffs in the Old West, and why don't I know about any of them. I knew I had to fix that issue.

Here is a brief summary of what I found. My occupational forbears who sought to provide justice in the shadow of the Cross.

John Oliver Allen (1850-1928) - A cowboy and Texas Ranger, Allen was born in Kaufman County, Texas on June 22, 1850. Raised on the frontier, he became a cowboy as a young man and enlisted in Rufus Perry's Company D of the Texas Rangers in early 1874. Though he served less than a year in the Rangers, he was wounded four times in Indian skirmishes and would later say that in one battle, every ranger other than himself had been killed. After leaving the Texas Rangers, he later settled at Cookville, Texas and became a chaplain for the Texas Ex-Rangers' Association. He died at Edinburg, Texas on June 7, 1928.

And...well that's it. I spent two hours combing the internet and that's all I could find. There most be a book in here for a group of men that clearly have not received their proper recognition. I couldn't even find a list of famous old west preachers. I think I have found a hole in the research into the American Wild West.

The Second Half of a Cops Working Life.

2011-08-31T00:50:00.000-05:00

The defined benefit pension that most Law Enforcement Professionals enjoy is a two edged sword. The positive side has it attracting higher caliber individuals that understand that the offset of the lower pay and limited promotional opportunities is a guarantee of a set payment at retirement that adds a huge net value to your personal wealth upon retirement that is independent of economic up/down turns and is free of most fees and taxes. The negative is that once the maximum benefit package/requirement are reached (most by 30 years of service and 50 + years of age) continued employment in Law Enforcement accomplishes little financial gain.

So anyone in Law Enforcement has to consider, plan and execute a second twenty career before they can truely retire. The following is a quick list, in no particular order, of some of the second careers my fellow Officers have chosen.

1. Dennis Farina-Chicago Police Officer-Actor (Law and Order, Midnight Run, Snatch)

2. Charles Fredrick "Chuck" Adamson-Producer/Writer (Created Crime Story, the movie Heat was based on one of his cases)

3. James Byron Huggins-Huntsville Police Department-Author, Christian Activist

4. Patrick Floyd "Pat" Garrett-sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico-Customs Agent, Saloon owner.

5. William Potts-Detroit Police Department-Inventor (Traffic Light (3 way))

6. Patrick G. Ryan Jr.-Chicago PD-CEO at First Look

7. Robbie Roberson-Inventor of the SOG SEAL Revolver knife

8. Phil Queller-World Record Holder-Most Holes of Golf in a 12 hour period.

9. Bryan Hammond-UK Police Officer-Painter (Not the wall kind)

10. Daniel Rodríguez-NYPD-Opera Singer

11. Bernard Ching-HPD-Actor (Hawii Five-O)

12. Theodore Roosevelt-NY Police Commissioner-President

13. Riding in the Squad with Christ Blogger-Law Officer-Zombie Killer

Ecclesiastes 3:22
So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?