I wouldn't come back for the punishment if that wasn't the case.  Special thanks to TL for putting up with me all these years.   It was the 2004 election that turned me onto this site and it's been fun ever since.

Right now I'm rocking a pretty sweet morphine pump and hopefully will get a permanent pain pump put in tomorrow that will allow me to have some quality time with the fam Christmas.  If I send out any crazy posts at 2am you'll know why :)

The drugs and the TL love fest are already working their Magic.

The Hawaiian language has a word, 'Ohana, which in general English translation means "family." But in the Hawaiian Islands during the period prior to Western contact, the term also held a somewhat broader meaning. If an Ali'i (a person of nobility or high rank) told you that someone from his or her Ahupua'a (territory) with whom you had a personal disagreement or dispute was 'Ohana, you would respect the claim as nothing less than a veiled warning that this Ali'i and his or her people would stand resolutely with that person, come Hell or high water -- even if that person was not a blood relation to anyone. You therefore crossed that line at your peril.

As such, the term as it's come to be understood by modern Native Hawaiians and longtime Kama'aina can also encompass not only our own nuclear units but our extended family relatives and our Hanai relations as well -- that is, those persons who aren't necessarily close blood relations at all, but who are nonetheless so near and dear to us as to be considered an integral and natural part of our 'Ohana.

As such, there is an unspoken compact amongst its members that the 'Ohana strives always to look after and care for its own, and to further ensure that nobody is ever neglected or left behind involuntarily. (In that regard, it also follows that an 'Ohana is only as strong and effective as its members' own collective sense of family and community.)

Now is the time, Slado, for you to allow your 'Ohana to embrace you, and to let their love and support lift you aloft and carry you to your desired destination, which is your full recovery.

Don't ever hesitate to ask for assistance whenever you feel you need it, and please don't worry about your dependence upon your 'Ohana and what you might owe individual members in the future. This is the sort of personal debt of intangible value that's always either paid to someone else in full going forward, or forgiven by all in its entirety.

For one day in the future, you'll likely be called upon to do the same for someone else in your 'Ohana who faces a similar challenge and need (if you haven't been already), and because of your own personal experience you'll no doubt seize upon that moment with neither hesitation nor question.

Because simply put, that's what members of an 'Ohana do for one another. So, as you face the tough days and weeks ahead, please remember always that you are a much-valued part of your 'Ohana for good reason, and that you are loved and cherished by your blood relations and Hanai alike for just who you are, and not for whatever you might say, believe and / or possess at a given time.

Honest mistake? I don't think so. WBFF-TV's Melinda Roeder was previously called out for this very sort of "creative reporting" back in October 2011 -- by the Baltimore Police Dept., no less -- when she was covering the Occupy movement in her city:

"[Last] night's misstep is not the first time [Ms. Roeder] made waves with a controversial -- or apparently bogus -- story centered on the actions of members of a protest movement. On Oct. 31, 2011, Fox 45 aired Roeder's interview with a woman who claimed she had been raped in a tent on McKeldin Square during the Occupy Wall Street protest. Brietbart, the right-wing site, re-aired the segment. [...] The next day Baltimore police said the rape allegation was 'unfounded,'and that the 'victim at no time reported a sexual assault to police[.]'"

The best and most time-honored method to ensure general maintenance of professional ethics and standards is peer review, in which we strive to protect and ensure the integrity of our respective professions by policing our own and calling out wrongdoing.

To that effect, why aren't other mainstream journalists speaking out against and denouncing Melinda Roeder's blatant hackery? The Daily Beast's contingent is apparently too busy playing the role of public stenographer to even be bothered to notice, since they're still more than happy to continue disseminating Ms. Roeder's malicious falsehood to the general public 24 hours after it's been debunked.

Just find it odd that one is universally acceptable and the other is somehow controversial.

And playing semantics games?

The mayor's statement, that the tape "appeared" to show a firearm, and my comment, that the kid "allegedly" displayed a firearm, are wholly consonant.

You've been race-baiting on cops killing kids at least since Wilson killed Brown, back in August.  Why dontcha just pour some more liquor into your eggnog, put on your hood, and go hang with your like-minded friends down at the Klan hall.

As for the firearm recovered, I'm guessing you've never heard of throw-down guns that some cops use to justify killing a suspect they know wan't armed.

In fact here's a definition from Police Magazine:

An untraceable gun dropped at a crime scene, usually left by an officer who needs to justify a bad shooting. Few cops carry throw downs, and even fewer admit to it. If you're caught with a throw down, your career is over.
by Tim Dees on Jun 06, 2012

As for the firearm recovered, I'm guessing you've never heard of throw-down guns that some cops use to justify killing a suspect they know wasn't armed.

In fact here's a definition from Police Magazine:

An untraceable gun dropped at a crime scene, usually left by an officer who needs to justify a bad shooting. Few cops carry throw downs, and even fewer admit to it. If you're caught with a throw down, your career is over.
by Tim Dees on Jun 06, 2012

I just think #9 needs to be tied to #7 because you can choose to lead a very selfish life that violates #7.

"I am I because You are You.."

In school.  I was a National Merit Scholar, but they don't teach that stuff in school.  What I was taught in school was that even though I was smarter, I was not the physical equal of the guys who beat me up in gym class.  That gave me empathy, which I consider the basis for morality.

Whatever the cause, somehow I learned morality.  69 years old, never been arrested.  Managed to change the world more than most, for the better.  Still married to my first wife, our daughter was an honor student all the way through college.

My daughter just got thrown into the deep end in her new job (she is 26, living in LA, job in high tech - but WTF? she was an english major) and has to do some whatever it is called - coding. She says "It's no problem, mom, you just go around the internet and pick up lines of code that have already been written, copy them, and then add them into the ? lines of code that one wants".

So now people (mostly in the US) think they are making a 'statement' by watching a stupid comedy "the Interview" and just sticking it to NK. Well, the humans in NK do not care or even know about it. And, oddly, being all excited about making a 'statement' by watching 'the Interview' is actually a 'statement' about supporting Sony who appears to be a horrid corporation who does not care about security.

I run a business too. I am the sole employee. But I have email and a website hosted by "my guy" - the computer expert. He is brilliant. But he does not always return my calls. I know this, he has been "my guy" for over 20 years. On the last day of this September I hit some 'thing' on my computer and it started to breach all of my programs and access some other things (what? I did not know). So I texted him and he called me within 5 minutes and then spent the next hour working remotely on my two computers. (him, "wow these people are very tricky - you cant just delete the malware, you have to come at it from a couple of sides")(and this was his 'family time - evening from 7-8pm). I just sat back and watched my cursor flit around while listening to him 'comment' into my phone earbuds. He talked about computer security and how certain entities were just trying for access. After that hour, I then spent the next hour (mostly on hold) canceling my credit card and wishing I was like Kdog.