Is Pastor Roger Byrd a Pedophile?

Is Past Roger Byrd a Pedophile? I’m just trying to get people thinking about Pastor Roger Byrd of the Jonesville Church of God in Jonesville, S.C.

I ask this question simply to cause people to realize and to see what possibly could happen if we were to have another pastor out there who is a pedophile.

I don’t know. See it asks a question: Are they pedophiles? In other words, do they like sex with children? I don’t know. They probably say they aren’t. I hope they aren’t. But I don’t know. And it’s just something to try to stir people’s minds. It was never intended to hurt feelings or to offend anybody.

Maj. Freddy J. Welborn is a Coward

Below is an image I found of Maj. Freddy J. Welborn. Welborn is a coward.

Read here about how he failed to defend a U.S. soldier who was in harms way. In my opinion, this is about as weak as a man can be. The story explains that another soldier didn’t believe in the same things as many of the other soldiers with whom he’d been working. Despite threats and taunts, and reports of said activity, Welborn not only failed to assist the soldier, he may have contributed to the activity.

Way to go, Teehan! Way to Go!

Sargeant Teehan, second precinct narcotics detective, seems to have remedied our neighborhood drug dealer issue.

We were experiencing a revival of the drug pick-ups. Last summer, people would pull up, honk, kid would run out, drive around the neighborhood, and drop off kid. Since January, however, he stopped going out to the car, preferring to sell his goods inside the house. So, as those who read know, I began calling the Second Precinct of the Suffolk Police.

How Republicans happen to Good People

In this morning’s NYT is a story about an organic farmer being fined $50,000 for failing to apply for building permits with an agency that doesn’t issue building permits. Asked to produce evidence it had ever issued permits, the Adirondack Park Agency couldn’t answer. The point of this post isn’t necessarily to highlight the plight of the farmer. Instead, it is to point out how popular control of government is slowly ceded to conservative corporatists. Conservative corporatists capitalize on stories in which the little guy is beat up by government. They absolutely salivate over stories about liberals being put down by government liberals. This story involves the latter; it is a story in which New York’s Deputy Secretary of the Environment Judith Enck can’t see fit to muzzle one of her agencies. The Adirondack Park Agency fined a farmer $50,000 for failing to apply for building permits from them (though he’d received local building permits) even though the Park Agency had virtually no history of requiring building permits – an absolutely no history of regulating construction on farms. This is a story fit for ditto-heads, Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly’s oxygen deprived “culture warriors.”

I’m Judith Enck…”

…and I’m incompetent.

Officials at the park agency appeared to be unclear if the action they were taking was setting a precedent. Cecil Wray, the commissioner who presides over the agency’s enforcement committee, could not recall if the Adirondack Park Agency had ever required a farmer to have a housing permit.

After search further:

After a search, the agency found records of two permits that had been issued to farmers for housing in the last 30 years, including one for mobile homes.

“Praying Alone,” Fr. Putnam

Lots is being written in the NYT this week as the pope’s visit approaches. After reading the linked item above, I’m left wondering about this statistic:

The pope is expected to praise the American church’s vibrancy during his visit, and there is much for the church to celebrate. Catholics are the biggest religious group in the United States, about 23 percent of the population, a proportion that has held steady. Many parishes are healthy, and some are growing, with the influx of immigrants, especially Hispanics.

First, I was surprised to learn this. Given all of the talk of the rise of evangelicalism, Catholics certainly don’t get the recognition they deserve for being the largest church in the nation. Second, considering all of the negative attention the church gets, I would have figured the number to have shrunk over the past 15 years.

Catholic Schools Slowly Decline

As “mainstream” churches decline while “MEGA” churches soar, I have lots of feelings and concerns. But when my mind shifts to blame, I usually explore my own feelings – especially when concerns about the health of the Roman Catholic Church are discussed. This NYT article discusses the slow but almost certain demise of Catholic schools nationwide

East Northport Public Library

Sure, the East Northport Public Library may charge me excessive fees for not returning a book.  I’m fine with that, as it has been reinforced ever since our arriving here that for every bit you lose you gain something.  You have to give to get.  I’m struggling for another cliche here.

Anyway, as I sit here editing a manuscript, the “men” have arrived to play their chess.  There is a growing group.  Four old men and one 19-year-old-seeming man waiting to play.  Yesterday, a mother and her 7-year-old boy were playing chess at another table.

How is this different from Florida?  First of all, half of the books aren’t on tape.  Second, people are playing chess.  Young and old are playing chess.  They aren’t waiting for the 28th annual Chess for Christ social in order to get their Franklin Mint Christ-As-King chess set out.  Now, you know I just made that event up, because people in Florida don’t play chess.  

“Everybody done knows chess is for book-readers and homos!”

God I hate Florida.  

Scoobies in New York

A “Scooby” isn’t what you think it is. My brother lives out in Indiana and one of his pet-peeves are Scoobies. Scoobies are people who’ve lost their driver licenses due to DWI/DUI convictions. So how do they get in my brother’s way? Well, in Indiana someone with a DWI is allowed to drive to work on a scooter or a bike. I’ve seen these people while driving through Indiana – grown men with flannel shirts and cut-off jeans, mullets, smoking cigarettes on little red scooters with duct-taped mike crates on the handle bars. I’ll bet they’ve got Scooby snacks in their baskets!

Suffolk Cops Nab Drug Dealers – But Not Mine

According to Newsday two drug dealers were recently arrested in East Northport. They were nabbed in the home of one, dealing out of the house. Sounds familiar

Two men were arrested Friday afternoon by Suffolk County police, who said they seized cocaine, marijuana, prescription drugs, and drug packaging paraphernalia.

After a three-week investigation, detectives with a search warrant went to 3 Lewis Ave. around 2:30 and arrested two men who they suspected of selling a variety of drugs there.

What is extremely disappointing about this is that their investigation took three weeks. I’ve been calling for 8 months. Something tells me that a police officer lives there or that this neighborhood is a little ritzier than mine.

Local Drug Dealer Update

Fed up with the constant drug dealing across the street, I went over the head of Sgt. Teehan (2nd Precinct narcotics guy). In the last two weeks, Teehan has received no fewer than 15 phone calls from me at the phone number he gave me to reach him about this activity.

Since then, I’ve seen nothing happen. It has been nearly 8 months since I started making my calls, and yet nothing has happened. So, yesterday I went to the Suffolk County Police Headquarters website and completed a survey explaining my frustration with this matter. In 24 hours I received a reply from Deputy Inspector McKenna. I would have included the content of the email below, but there was a request in the email that its contents not be copied, so…