Sleepless in Midland

One Hundred Grand from the Bad Boy Blast

Last month the Bad Boy Blast clay shoot fund raiser took place -- see Blasted Away at the Bad Boy Blast.  And this afternoon at a small ceremony at the CEED building Kevin Carathers of Halliburton and Lewis Woods of ConocoPhillips representing the two corporate sponsors expressed thanks to the area law enforcement offices, announced the net proceeds from the event and handed out checks to the recipients.

Last year the event brought in $62,600.  And their optimistic goal this year was $80,000.  Well, when the bucks were counted and the expenses withdrawn there remained a whopping $100,00 from what could have been the biggest fund raising clay shoot to date in the U.S.  What an accomplishment.

And Janie was there.  That's our Janie, the Midland blogger.  And if you haven't met Janie yet, you are missing out on a certain something.  She is every bit as delightful and charming as her blog.  And with her involved in the planning and execution of the Bad Boy Blast, it's no wonder the thing was so successful.

The purpose of today's event was to hand out the checks, and the Midland Police Department, the Midland County Sheriff's Office, the Odessa Police Department and the Ector County Sheriff's Office each got giant checks for $25,000.  Last year's money was used to buy guns, make range improvements and to buy radios.  And this year?  It will be up to each of the offices to do with the money as they see fit.  But check back here for some suggestions.

A Sea of Cycles

708 motorcycles!  What a sight!  It was the Ride to Remember, and never before have I seen so many motorcycles in one location.  There were some great looking bikes there, too.  (Makes a person wish he had bought stock in Harley Davidson way back when.)

The counter displayed 702 by the time Zeb, traffic director and official bike counter, had to walk up the line to his own bike.  And six more bikes arrived to take their places at the end of the line for a grand total of 708.

It looked like the participants were having a grand old time.  The caravan wound it's way through the Midland streets and then headed out the highway toward Big Spring.  And those who got to the starting line in time received a ticket for a meal once they arrive in Big Spring.

Here's a note on these pages about last year's event.  And here is Victor Silvester's writeup.  Excerpt:

Last year, this program brought together over 600 motorcycle enthusiasts and supporters who rode for “Those Who Can't. This event has grown in such popularity it now incorporates civilian riders who previously may not have had a connection to a war or to a veteran, but who have taken up the cause honoring the men and women of our Armed Forces who have stood, or now stand in harm’s way defending the freedom’s we enjoy.

Finally, how do you say "thank you" to those who died so that we may be free?  There really isn't any way, but we can appreciate their sacrifices by showing a little respect and honor to them with this day of memorial.

Active Shooter Training at PBLEA

The Permian Basin Law Enforcement Academy (PBLEA) has frequent training sessions for officers in area law enforcement agencies.  And today they conducted an Active Shooter Training session at the shoot house on the grounds of the Midland Police Department shooting range.  (Click here to see the photos.)

One of the team leaders, MPD patrol officer Brad Robertson, explained that in training for something new the steps can be analogized as crawl, walk, trot, and finally, run.  Today's session was the trot stage.  Future courses might include a medical situation, an improvised explosive device, and someone shooting back.

"Inoculation" was the buzzword in today's training session.  That's inoculation as in getting an officer accustomed to the unpredictability of a dangerous situation and the possibility of facing gunfire.  Retreat is usually the most common reaction when shots are fired.  So the trainers used blanks to help increase the level of stress in the trainees.  And if the trainee's first reaction is to hesitate, then after a few times he/she becomes as accustomed as someone can get to the idea of someone shooting at them.

The trainees were from the Midland Police Department, the Midland College Police Department, and the Department of Public Safety.  And a team might be composed of people from each of those departments who might be strangers to one another.  Then if a real event were to occur the officers from various departments would all have had the same training and could work together well, hopefully.

The MPD is currently under scrutiny from citizen groups due to the recent shooting by the police of a suspected murderer.  Officers often have only a split second to make a decision, and rightly or wrongly, sometimes people get killed.   And from the news accounts of the recent shooting death of the murder suspect, it was one of those ambiguous situations in which the officers didn't want to risk their own lives where the suspect appeared to be pointing a gun at them even though he turned out to be unarmed.

Today there were targets representing bad guys/gals and good guys/gals.  So look at the targets in the photos and ask yourself whether the person in the target is armed with a handgun.  Look at the hands.  If there's a gun pointed at you, then shoot.  If it's ambiguous, then there's a big the risk.  And there's not much time to think it over.

And finally, be sure to check out the rules on the sign in photo #4.  Rule number 3 says: "Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target."  Now scroll down to numbers 13 , 14 , 15 and 16 where you'll see those rules put into practice as Officer Robertson (gray shirt, camo hat), enters a room.  Initially he has his finger off the trigger, but when he spots the target his finger goes into the trigger guard.  Then it goes out again once the target has been neutralized.

By the way, I was standing outside looking in the window.  The red tape in the handguns indicates that the guns had been unloaded,  inspected and marked.

Menchaca Out, Hudson In

Rick Menchaca is stepping down as Midland, Texas, city manager, and Tommy Hudson has been appointed interim city manager.

Here's my nomination for the next city manager:  former Police Chief John Urby.  He has management experience, he works well under pressure, he knows the city, and the city knows him.  And he's currently between opportunities.  The City Council would do well to snap him up before he lands a plum job somewhere else.

News roundup:
CBS 7;
News West 9 ; and
MyWestTexas.

A question for LULAC

The League of United Latin American Citizens (no local website) is in the local news.  Recently they were defending Chad Sanchez, the suspected murderer who was shot and killed by police on April 23, 2007.  See Community Asks Why? In Police Shooting and Midland Hispanic group.

And now we learn that they are defending Rick Menchaca whose job as city manager could be on the line.  See Council meeting agenda raises questions about Menchaca's job status.

These two individuals have two things in common:   They both came under some form of attack by a governmental body, and they both have Hispanic last names.

I only have one question for LULAC:  Given the zealous defense of people with Hispanic names, why have you abandoned Alberto Gonzales, of whom you said in 2005, “Now is the time to set aside politics and focus on Gonzales’ tremendous qualifications for this position?”

Hooked on "Heroes"

Is it just me?   Save the cheerleader, save the world.  Mind reading, mind control, invisible men, super strength, time travel, seeing the future, changing the future ... Yeah!  I can't get enough of Heroes.

My favorite character is Hiro, the reluctant, humble, Japanese office worker who finds himself with a super power and an obligation to save the world.   In a way, he's similar to the Jimmy Stewart everyman of the old movies, the ordinary guy who stumbles into a situation in which he must draw on strengths he didn't know he had.

The show has become so popular that NBC plans a new season with 30 episodes which would include six episodes of a spin off titled "Heroes: Origins."  Hopefully the writers can keep the show interesting enough for all of those episodes.   And here's an interesting  development.  The NBC website comes complete with blogs for some of the characters.  Here's Hiro's blog, written in character with entries "Posted by Hiro Nakamura."

Part of the show's popularity must come from the Superman phenomenon.   Superman appeared in comic books in 1938 when the world was in turmoil and the U.S. watched from the sidelines as the super villain Adolf Hitler was building his evil empire.  So like then, as we watch an evil menace try to envelop the middle east, the appearance of super heroes on our small screens gives us momentary relief from the threats to the world.

There's this one little problem with the show, but it's such a common theme that most of us accept it as simply a byproduct of the Hollywood mentality.  The super villains are all white guys in suits.  If we look at the major threats in the world, we see the face of Islamic terrorism.   But just like Jericho and Prison Break, the evil and powerful conspirators are white guys in suits, either in government or corporations.  Soooo 1970's.

I don't find that plausible, but if we are going to believe that those characters have all of those powers, then why not?  And after all, according to Rasmussen, "Overall, 22% of all voters believe the President knew about the [9/11 terrorist] attacks in advance."  So given that such a sizable number of people are willing to buy into that, then the the gov/corp super villain probably isn't that much of a stretch for them.

In any event, I'll be anxiously awaiting the season finale on May 21.  And here's hoping the show comes to some sort of finality and doesn't simply end with a cliff hanging "To be continued."  If it does, it might be good for NBC to remember that absence might make the heart grow fonder, but it's as likely to make the heart forget.

Oil Rig, Wind Farm and Rain Storm - a photo

There really isn't anything magic about this picture, and it's rather amateurish by present standards.  But it captures a lot that is West Texas today.

Taken on a recent stormy day, it shows a drilling rig, mesquite bushes, yellow flowers, a wind farm, a rain storm, and a pickup truck with a trailer.  Maybe there's a country  song in there somewhere, too.

Filling Imus' shoes

There are probably thousands of morning radio shows drifting along the airways, and the last couple of weeks MSNBC gave us a sampling  in the time spot that once belonged to Don Imus.

First up was Michael Smerconish.  Then Stephanie Miller was on for three days.  Then came Tucker Carlson, Larry Elder, and finally, Joe Scarborough.

Carlson and Scarborough were already in the MSNBC stable, and their morning shows probably did not depart much from their regular shows.

By far the worst of the bunch was Stephanie Miller who, with guests like Maxine Waters and John Conyers, gave us a rare glimpse of left wing radio.   When I tuned in to the show she was talking with a small child on the radio.  The kid was saying "right wingers are fat hypocrites."  Ms. Miller praised the kid, and one has to wonder if his ability to make rational political decisions might be forever stunted.

She went on to ridicule Bush's efforts to implement a missile defense system which makes one suspect that her own ability to make rational decisions is stunted.

One of Joe Scarborough's call-in guests was Lauri David, the poster girl for the global warmist jet set.  She gave the listeners her side of her dust up with Karl Rove -- in short, she was sweet, he was rude.  And to save the planet from global warming her tip for the proles was that they should unplug their chargers.

Scarborough had a guest who would never have been on if Imus still been there, Senator Hillary R. Clinton.   I missed that segment, but you can see a transcript here.

I hope MSNBC continues with the sampling approach so that those of us in the small markets of flyover country can hear what others are hearing.  I would like to suggest a few radio hosts for our listening pleasure.  An intellectual conservative like Hugh Hewitt would certainly get our brains going early in the morning.  And a comedian like Al Franken could show us a humorous side of Democratic party politics.   Or perhaps the entertaining libertarian Neal Boortz could grab the spot for a few days.  In any event, if they put on a different host each week it may not help their ratings, but it would certainly give their viewers the variety that they we crave.