Posts Tagged ‘datechguy's magnificent seven’

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.

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.

Progressives are trying to kill Thanksgiving – we must not let them

Posted: November 24, 2022 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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The political left are a rather humorless and mean spirited lot. They are not satisfied making themselves miserable, they try very hard to ruin things for everyone else. 

Holidays particularly draw the ire of progressives and other cultural Marxists.  Thanks to the politically correct mob, Christmas is treated very much like a swear word.  Nativity scenes have been removed from town squares, Christmas tree lightings are now called tree lightings, and schools even ban candy canes and Christmas napkins.

There is a major move amongst progressives to replace Columbus Day with indigenous people’s day. They are now working very hard to replace Thanksgiving with A National Day of Mourning.  Articles such as this NPR article are popping up across this nation.

Members of Native American tribes from around New England are gathering in the seaside town where the Pilgrims settled — not to give thanks, but to mourn Indigenous people worldwide who’ve suffered centuries of racism and mistreatment.

Thursday’s solemn National Day of Mourning observance in downtown Plymouth, Massachusetts, will recall the disease and oppression that European settlers brought to North America.

Sadly, these Native American activists parrot the usual progressive revisionist history, which they no doubt learned from college.

“We Native people have no reason to celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims,” said Kisha James, a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag and Oglala Lakota tribes and the granddaughter of Wamsutta Frank James, the event’s founder.

“We want to educate people so that they understand the stories we all learned in school about the first Thanksgiving are nothing but lies. Wampanoag and other Indigenous people have certainly not lived happily ever after since the arrival of the Pilgrims,” James said.

“To us, Thanksgiving is a day of mourning, because we remember the millions of our ancestors who were murdered by uninvited European colonists such as the Pilgrims. Today, we and many Indigenous people around the country say, ‘No Thanks, No Giving.'”

The latest liberal anti Thanksgiving talking point is captured in this Breitbart article.

A recent Washington Post essay faced backlash online after listing common Thanksgiving foods and their “climate impact” in order to inform readers which of the festivity’s staples can be consumed “with a clear conscience.” 

The Thursday article by food columnist Tamar Haspel, titled “The climate impact of the Thanksgiving meal might surprise you,” begins with the author admitting that “tallying the environmental impact of a holiday feast” does not seem to be in the holiday spirit.

We must stand firm against this progressive assault on Thanksgiving.  We must stand firm now before this insanity gains steam.

Report from Louisiana…in Oklahoma

Posted: November 21, 2022 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By:  Pat Austin

HOCHATOWN, OK – We are in Oklahoma this week, in a mountain “cabin” enjoying the great outdoors and visiting with family.

Hochatown is a small, unincorporated community in southeast Oklahoma, near the Texas border. The signs says population here is about 250 people, but with 2,500 luxury cabins in the area, and more in development, this area feels more like Branson, Missouri. The two lane highway is a constant stream of traffic as tourists check in and check out of these mountain homes.

There are multiple companies that rent these places out and the images you see make them look so secluded, so remote, but once here, you see you are in a congested, developed area. Even though as I type this and look out the cabin window I see woods, just behind that tree line is another huge cabin and next door I can see another. Driving through the neighborhood it is just that, a neighborhood.

The homes are lovely; they have open floor plans, lots of windows, fire pits, covered porches for sitting outside, and all the amenities. The one we are in has a hot tub outdoors, a shuffleboard inside, and an arcade machine with a dozen games on it. There’s a sleeping loft and two bedrooms; this one sleeps ten. The décor is your basic Hobby Lobby rustic.

I can’t help but wonder what the actual locals think, those who have lived here for decades. How do they feel about this development boom? This area has always been known for being beautiful for hiking, fishing, camping, and all things outdoors. In the past few years it has become the playground for people in Texas, specifically the Dallas area, to get away from the city for a while. With recent low interest mortgage rates, development has exploded here.

And now the Choctaw Nation is developing a huge casino (on that congested two-lane highway). The casino will bring even more tourists. It will feature 100 hotel rooms, restaurants, bars, a live music venue, and a shopping area.

So the question becomes, is all of this destroying the natural aspect of the area, destroying what people are actually looking for? I mean, you are not secluded or remote at all. And even as there are woods around us, and other “cabins,” we see deer daily in the yard. They have nowhere else to go. We are all over their natural habitat.

Because Hochatown is unincorporated, some developers play fast and loose with the building rules and some of these developments are better than others. Again, something the locals worry about. On the flip side, property values have risen some 65% in the past few years. There is no question that it is pretty country here.

For now there are still many beautiful hiking trails and we spent the afternoon watching people fly fishing in the Lower Fork River, just minutes from the house. Even in these woods we are literally two minutes from the highway, from two breweries, a couple of wineries, a petting zoo, several t-shirt shops, an axe-throwing place, and lots of restaurants and bars. Seclusion is relative.

It’s still a lovely place to get away and recharge. At least until they pave over the pines and hardwoods to build more cabins.

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