Is media’s deep interest in fatal Illinois car accident explained by the driver accused of murder pleading guilty to January 6 riot crimes?

Posted: November 27, 2022 by John Ruberry in crime, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

On the evening of November 8, a woman from Skokie, Illinois, which is the town just east of where I live, was tragically killed in an automobile accident on Interstate 55 just south of Springfield, Illinois. 

The victim, Lauren Wegner, 35, by all accounts a wonderful woman, was fatally injured when a GMC Sierra, according to police officials driven by Shane Woods, 44 of Auburn, Illinois, drove the wrong way on the interstate.

The Chicago media and other sources in the Prairie State have been repeatedly reporting on this story. And a primary reason for its deep interest in it appears to be because Woods, also known as Shane Castleman, pleaded guilty in September to assaulting a Capitol Police officer and a media photographer during the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. He is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in January. Woods faces up to eight years in prison for those crimes. Woods of course faces much more serious prison time if he is found guilty of killing Wegner–from 20 to 60 years. He has been charged with first degree murder, eluding a police officer, aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol, and aggravated fleeing. Woods is being held in the Sangamon County Jail, bail has been denied.

Once again, and probably not for the last time, I feel it is important that I unequivocally denounce the January 6 riot at the Capitol. Those people who stormed the Capitol on that sad day, including Woods, who destroyed property and attacked people deserve to be punished.

But just like MSNBC, the Illinois media can’t let go of obsessing over January 6. In regard to the Wegner death, the worst example of that obsession in regard to the Woods story is a State Journal-Register article from November 16 that was as much about the Capitol riot and Donald Trump as it was about the victim. The piece even mentions two men from Springfield who also allegedly participated in the riot–both of whom have no connection to the accident that killed Wegner. Was that necessary?

Absolutely, the January 6 angle is a valid part of the story of the fatal accident, as it appears Woods may have been trying to commit suicide when he started his SUV on the evening of November 8.

Here are some of the Illinois media headlines of stories that I found about the deadly car accident after a Google News search. Yes, some national outlets picked up the story too.

Also, Shia Kapos’ Politico Illinois Playbook newsletter linked to January 6/Woods stories on November 14, 16, 17, and 23.

Media obsession over January 6? I believe so. But I expect the drumbeat to continue. As for Woods, he is a despicable person.

Memorial contributions in the name of Lauren Wegner can be made to Community Animal Rescue Effort of Skokie (carenorthshore.org).

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

The Ultimate Ukraine Irony

Posted: November 27, 2022 by datechguy in war
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Something hit me today concerning Russia with it’s army and reputation it the worst position it’s been in since Japan rolled over them at the turn of the last century.

Poland, Romania and Hungry along with the Baltic States all have a grievance with Russia over a half century of enslavement under communist rule not to mention their invasion from the east while they were trying to fight off the Nazi’s in the west. The wounds are still there and the fear of Russian Invasion after the fact never really left.

Ironically now the Pols have one of the most modern tank forces in the world, they are well trained, highly united as a country and very invested in a Ukrainian victory but there is one fact more.

If Poland decided to use it’s army and take revenge on Russia it is very likely that the Russians would not be in a position to stop them from going deep into their territory and there is no longer a US ready to provide lend lease to supply them in the event of such a war. Particularly if the other states who all own Russia a bloody nose decided to join in under the theory that there will never be a better chance to end the danger from Russia once and for all.

Now it’s my opinion that the Pols have no interest in doing so and are happy enough with the knowledge that Russia has has to fear them, but if they did decide they wanted to go after them only two things would stop them

  1. Russia’s Nukes
  2. NATO

That’s the ultimate Irony, right now NATO is the single strongest guarantor of the territorial integrity of Russia in the west.

Who woulda thunk it?

Pray for the Walmart employees

Posted: November 26, 2022 by navygrade36bureaucrat in Uncategorized
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Imagine my surprise to wake up and see a news headline talking about a shooting in Virginia, and then to realize it was at a Walmart I often shop at!

The Chesapeake Walmart off Battlefield Boulevard is not the closest Walmart to me, but I do shop there often enough in my travels that I know the store layout. It’s a very busy Walmart, and its in a nicer part of town. As of now, it seems the shooter was a night shift manager that did not like the people he was working with, was angry at his treatment and wanted to get revenge. More data is coming out as the FBI and local police continue their investigation.

Considering that the shooter is black and doesn’t wear a MAGA hat, I don’t expect the national media to care too much in another week or two. The shooting does bring up a bigger point about bullying though. We associate bullying with children, forgetting that it happens all too often in adults. A few years back, my wife was a volunteer for one of our kid’s PTAs when she returned from a board meeting in a pissed off mood. I found out that the President of the board was a raging jerk that regularly put her down for some of her fundraising suggestions. After a tense exchange and an open meeting, where I watched the school principal not say anything, she eventually quit, prompting a bunch of other volunteers to quit and the PTA to eventually dissolve due to lack of volunteers.

The lack of a spinal cord on the part of the principal is something we’re going to continue seeing. I have to wonder how many people watched this Walmart manager get picked on time after time. Didn’t anyone have the guts to say “Hey, maybe we ought to remind him we still care?” Did nobody notice this? Did anybody care?

It doesn’t excuse his actions, not by a long shot. He still chose to murder people, and ultimately he’ll face judgement of some kind over his actions. But we just celebrated Thanksgiving, where we give thanks for the people around us. This includes the people we work with, not just our families.

I ask that you pray for the victims of this horrible crime and their families. But I also ask that on Monday, when most of you go back to work, that you tell the people around you that you care about them. Even if that co-worker is an annoying Karen, it doesn’t give anyone license to push someone to the breaking point. Especially after years of government-induced COVID lockdowns and isolation, we should be trying to heal those around us and make our little part of the world better.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. Please pray for the victims of the Chesapeake Walmart shooting.

Under the Fedora: Day One of Peak, Black Friday Online, An Amazing coincidence with consequences, Some “mis-gendering” is more equal than others and The Clock is Ticking

Posted: November 26, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, Uncomfortable Truths, under the fedora
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Yesterday was Black Friday and day one of our “peak” season at work and the beginning of eight straight days of work for me.

As you might guess we were pretty busy, but based on the numbers I’ve seen overall volume was a whole lot less than normal. That won’t affect today, tomorrow or even Monday but the real question for me is: “Will we be behind to the point where next Saturday is voluntary?” In a normal year that’s how it works and by the time you get to Christmas you have managers who have worked 25-30 straight days since “optional” isn’t “optional” for them and some employees averaging 15 hours of overtime a week.

My gut and the numbers tell me that won’t be the case. I suspect we will only have one optional Saturday, next Saturday but that the volume will be at a point where we aren’t days behind rushing to keep up. Part of that may be to good planning on our part but the best planning can’t overcome incredible volume and based on day one, we just don’t have that.

Speaking of Black Friday shopping, most of mine took place on Thanksgiving evening and yesterday morning before going into the breach. A look at Amazon convinces tell me that while there are more and more pages of black friday “deals” (822 to be exact) there are less and less things on them that I need.

I also notice there are a lot of brands of “tablets” and “robot vacuums” that I’ve never heard of before as if there is an attempt to dump a lo of cheap electronics this year.

Of course with that many pages you’re bound to find something useful that your spouse might like or need (I just spotted something on page 29 that I never thought of which might work for her in the garden, but it’s all a question of how much time you want to spend (Indicently the cyber monday deals look surprisingly like the black friday deals

Good Luck.

By an odd coincidence as Elon Musk as cracked down on child porn on twitter apparently a lot of Antifa accounts have ended up dead while doing so.

They have not taken this well and there have been attacks on Tesla dealerships in the Northwest.

This is rather foolish for three reasons

  1. These will simply lead to insurance claims which puts money in the pocket
  2. Musk being one of the richest men in the world is in a position to put the type of security in place that won’t be as accommodating to the leftist thugs that don’t come enmasse.
  3. Finally he has access to the type of lawyers in a position to crush these folks on a national and international level

But if they want to poke the bear be my guest.

The loss of a cherished narrative is a terrible thing and CNN is doing it’s best to reverse it, But the Irony overload here is incredible:

And just like that you can look at someone, say they’re a dude and not be considered a bigot for it, at least if it serves the narrative.

That society has given in to this collection of mentally ill idiots is not an indictment of them, it’s an indictment of us for being suckers.

Finally there was some shock over a Christian commentator noting that those who were killed in Colorado didn’t accept Christ that they were likely in hell.

We are called upon not to judge the state of any particular soul but this type of thing is Christianity 101 or at worst 104. St. Faustina in her diary notes that Christ extends a hand at the time of death even to the most obstinate of sinners it’s just a question of grasping it.

People forget that the Good News of the Gospel is that there is a way into heaven and eternal life and avoiding eternal death and sufferings. For some people this is a hard message to take because it involves acknowledging sin, for others it’s a hard message to deliver because they want to go along and get along.

Christ was not one afraid to rock the boat nor afraid to risk offending people even inside their own homes. How many times was he invited to dinner which a Pharisee and then criticize them while there.

There is an excellent clip from The Chosen from the final episode of season 2 where Matthew is critiquing the Sermon on the Mount that illustrates this

The key line from Jesus:

“Did you think I was going to come here and say: ‘hey everyone keep on doing what you’ve been doing for the last thousand years since it’s been going so great?'”

If you actually love your neighbor you will tell them a truth they don’t want to hear to save their lives rather than shut up.

The good news is that you have your whole life to figure this out and come to Christ, but not a moment more.

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