Mendocino County Today: Sunday, Nov 22, 2015

• Catholic Mugging
• Arrest Stats
• KAVA Concept
• Hendy Update
• Pension Mess
• Mental-Health Crisis
• Restraining Affair
• Silver Scam
• Catch of the Day
• Small Mindedness
• Islamist Barbarity
• Hydrotherapy Meditation
• Crazy Barometer
• Bobcat Ban
• Syrian Refugees
• Anarchy Tower
• Marco Radio

AT SATURDAY’S FOOTBALL playoff game between Fort Bragg and Marin Catholic, at Marin Catholic's Temple of the Jock, Kentfield, this eyewitness can confirm that the game was closer than the final score, which was 49-0 Marin Catholic. MC had a little too much size, a little too much speed and they have a great quarterback, a speedy little dude with a rocket arm. Your witness, however, thinks Fort Bragg's quarterback, Kaylor Sullivan, has a better shot at a qb job at the college level because he also has a gun and seems to be the more accurate of the two with a better touch, as they say. He's also a lot bigger, and he's pretty quick. (Colin Kaepernick, the former 49er who totally lost his mojo this season, has a terrible touch, rifling 20 yard passes so hard his receivers can't handle them.)

FORT BRAGG brought a lot of people to Kentfield this afternoon, some of them presenting a rather primitive spectacle in the sedate, upscale Marin setting where pitbulls and portly tatooed women are not familiar sights.

I THOUGHT there were two plays, maybe three, that should have gotten Marin Catholic players kicked out of the game. One, a terrific blind side helmet-to-helmet downing of an unsuspecting FB player, which put him out of the game for a while, and a clotheslining of a FB runner which the FB kid miraculously bounced right up from. But both are illegal hits at the high school level — all levels of football — and the clothesline vic was very lucky he wasn't hurt.

AND A THIRD FORT BRAGG player was badly hurt; who he was and how badly he was hurt is not yet known. The game was delayed for about ten minutes as emergency services people finally carried him off the field and, eventually, on down the street to Marin General Hospital. I didn't see the play the boy was hurt on and can't have an opinion if it was clean or not.

FORT BRAGG was 11-0 coming into Saturday’s playoff game, Marin Catholic had lost one close one.

MARIN CATHOLIC, like all the Catholic schools of the Bay Area, and Cardinal Newman in Santa Rosa, recruits players from all over the place. Although MC is presently at an enrollment comparable to Fort Bragg's — about 700 students — it draws athletes from all the public school districts of the area, many of them enrolling at MC tuition-free because they know they will be playing on a winning team that plays at a high skill level. A public school like Fort Bragg simply hopes it will have a group of athletes that will compete against other small schools. Marin Catholic, and the rest of the Bay Area's Catholic sports powers should have their own league. Public schools can't compete against them. But then there are, as we know, a lot of people around who think 49-0 is a contest.

* * *

FORT BRAGG'S HISTORIC SEASON CRUSHED BY MARIN CATHOLIC

by Lori Carter

Fort Bragg’s historic football season came to a crushing finish Saturday as the stronger, deeper Marin Catholic Wildcats ended the Timberwolves’ undefeated streak and dreams of a North Coast Section championship.

Marin Catholic, ranked No. 1 in Division 4 after having played in the larger Division 3 championship last year, routed 8 seed Fort Bragg, 49-0, in the quarterfinal.

The Wildcats scored on each of their first five first-half possessions, failing only when a long field-goal attempt missed at the end of the half.

Fort Bragg, meanwhile, was forced to punt three times in the first half and turned the ball over on downs twice — including at the beginning of the quarter when the Timberwolves had the ball a half-yard from the goal line.

Marin Catholic led 35-0 at halftime.

With the victory, the Wildcats, 10-1, advance to play No. 4 seed Moreau Catholic, 11-1, in a semifinal Saturday at home. Fort Bragg ends its season as champions of the North Central League I (7-0) and 11-1 overall.

“This team accomplished great things,” Fort Bragg coach Roy Perkins said after the loss, exchanging emotional hugs with players and parents. “It was an absolutely phenomenal season, a historic season.”

The Timberwolves broke multiple offensive records in their undefeated regular season, largely on the shoulders of senior quarterback Kaylor Sullivan, who led the state in passing yardage.

In its first two drives, Fort Bragg looked solid, though not dominant.

Sullivan connected with wide receiver Lucas Triplett on a 19-yard catch in tight coverage to move the Timberwolves to the Wildcats’ 30-yard line after just six plays. But two incompletions and a penalty forced Fort Bragg to turn it over on downs.

Fort Bragg’s second possession was its best scoring opportunity.

Trailing 7-0, the Timberwolves put together an 11-play drive, highlighted by a 14-yard reception by Shane Giaccani and an 11-yard catch by Triplett. But the drive stalled out near the goal line.

A Sullivan pass was tipped, he was stopped short on a rush attempt and on fourth-and-goal inside the 1, then Sullivan and Triplett couldn’t connect near the corner of the end zone.

Taking over at its own goal line, Marin Catholic marched down the field on nine plays in 2:33, capped by a 24-yard touchdown pass from Darius-James Peterson to Peter Armusewicz. Sean McKeough’s point-after gave the Wildcats a 14-0 lead.

“That goal-line stand at the 1-foot line, that was enormous,” Marin Catholic coach Mazi Moayed said. “That was really a 14-point swing; we stopped them and went down and scored. That took the wind out of their sails.”

Sullivan agreed.

“We were in the red zone two or three times and didn’t finish,” he said. “If we would have scored on those, it would have been 14-14. Then our momentum would have kept us going.”

Marin Catholic quarterback Peterson had a hand in five of his team’s seven touchdowns, throwing for two and running for three.

Fort Bragg’s Perkins was disappointed having to play a powerhouse like Marin Catholic, a private school in the same division based on enrollment, but one that can attract quality athletes from virtually anywhere.

Ultimately, that creates an unsafe and noncompetitive atmosphere, he said. Three Fort Bragg players left the game with serious injuries, including one with a possible broken leg.

“Our section talks about competitive equity,” he said. “Was there competitive equity here today? We were 11-0, and in playoffs we become cannon fodder for bigger schools. It’s a travesty. This is a violent sport and our system is broken. There has got to be a better way.”

(Courtesy, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE it’s interesting to look at what the California Department of Justice statistics say about Mendocino County’s arrests and clearance rates. A “clearance” is, essentially, an arrest of a suspect. All police jurisdictions in the state have to report their felony crime and arrest stats to the Department of Justice. Unfortunately, as with everything else, Mendo officialdom doesn’t bother to regularly review any stats on any of their 20-some departments. That’s why it always comes as a surprise when something like a critical Grand Jury Report or some other crisis erupts and Mendo officials act surprised and defensive about whatever they’re forced to face.

AS WITH MANY THINGS at the California state level the crime stats are presented in a clumsy manner making it harder to draw any conclusions. For example in the accompanying charts they report “Clearances” and “Clearance Rates” but not the number of serious crimes that were subject to “clearance.” So when you see in the case of Humboldt County that they “cleared” 201 violent crimes in 2005 with a “clearance rate” of 51.02, we could calculate that there were 391 violent crimes and 201 arrests. (Or, perhaps somewhat cynically, the odds of getting away with a violent crime in Humboldt County are about 50-50.)

LOOKING AT Mendo’s crime and clearance rates and comparing them with Humboldt County, probably the most comparable neighboring county, Mendo actually looks a bit better.

MENDO REPORTED 305 violent crime arrests in 2014 with a clearance rate of 59.57. So 512 violent crimes and 305 arrests for a nearly 60% clearance rate. Whereas HumCo reported 485 with 206 arrests. Overall, Mendo’s clearance rate for violent crimes hovers around 60% over the ten year reporting period. HumCo runs lower, at below 50% over most of the ten-year reporting period.

PROPERTY CRIMES reflect a similar, if lower, overall trend. Mendo has around a 25% clearance rate on serious property crimes, and HumCo shows a much lower rate that seldom gets above 15%.

IT WOULD BE USEFUL for the Supes to put these kinds of stats — from all departments for that matter — onto a regular agenda and discuss what might be done to improve them. But…

STEVE HEILIG SUBMITS this “conceptual drawing for new AVA complex next to the Redwood Drive-In”—

HENDY WOODS UPDATE

Editor,

I just wanted to give you an update on the status of Hendy Woods while the parks water distribution system is being replaced.

As of today vehicular access by the public is being restored and the only issue is a one lane section of road at the park entrance. The public is still allowed to walk in and cycle in the park and will be directed around construction sites by the contractor.

There have been a lot of questions about Black Friday free day use and Thanksgiving Weekend. The contractor plans to stop work Tuesday of next week and have all roads open through the weekend.

Any questions or clarifications please let me know.

Sincerely,

Loren M. Rex

Mendocino Sector Superintendent
California State Parks—Sonoma Mendocino Coast District
12301 North Hwy 1, Box 1 Mendocino, CA 95460
(707) 937-3118 (707) 937-2953 fax
Loren.Rex@parks.ca.gov

GEORGE HOLLISTER WRITES:

AVA:

Job well done on the reporting of the county employee pension fund mess. Hopefully someone reads it.

You want John Dickerson to come up with solutions? I think JD is still in the "we need people to know we have a problem" phase. Unless there is a general recognition of the problem, there is no point in pursuing a solution. Solutions are also problematic, because from the view point of county and city governments with this problem, which is most, the solution is to wait for either bankruptcy or a central government bailout. These governments are lemmings, jointly running to the cliff, afraid to take the short term risk of separating from the group by dealing with their problem on their own, unless they are forced to.

So what to do? First do what can be done. What can be done is to change the laws that facilitated this problem happening in the first place. Trying to change the laws after a crisis, is not likely going to have a good result. Also, what can be done, is to prevent making the situation unnecessarily worse. Making matters worse is what the pension board has been doing.

A good question to ask in January is, what is the pension cost on the county right now? How much is pension bond interest? What percent of our discretionary budget goes to pay for pension interest, and what will it be in the future? What is the county doing to deal with this? If people knew the impact right now, it might help achieve JD's first goal, people need to recognize the problem.

Thanks again for doing the work, talking to people who know (there are not very many), and making some intelligent conclusions.

HEADLINE FROM LOST COAST OUTPOST

But no way it will happen in Mendo, the county that time forgot


Local Medical Society Calls for Grand Jury Investigation into Continuing 'Crisis' at County Mental Health

THAT WAS AN INTERESTING restraining order hearing in Ukiah last Friday afternoon. Jim Shaw, wife of Anna Shaw, boss of Fort Bragg's Hospitality House, wants to prevent a man named Dana Jess from talking about an affair his wife allegedly had with a former Hospitality House client called Mitchell King. Dana says he will resist the order and that Mitchell will say that he did indeed enjoy a relationship with Mrs. Shaw.

CITY OF FORT BRAGG AGENDA ITEM 15-484, 11/23/2015. Closed Session:

“CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL - EXISTING LITIGATION: Pursuant to Paragraph (1) of Subdivision (d) of California Government Code Section 54956.9: California River Watch v. County of Mendocino, Solid Waste of Willits, Inc. and City of Fort Bragg, United States District Court, Northern District of California, Case No. 3-15-C-03263-YGR”

SONOMA COUNTY ATTORNEY Jack Silver’s solo environmental group is California River Watch. River Watch has all the accoutrements of a a legit enviro do-good group with a bunch of Silver's friends functioning as his board of directors, a website, a mission statement, etc. But in fact he’s a run-of-the-mill hustler who sues or threatens to sue municipalities of the NorthCoast for clean water work. And the glib attorney has done quite well for himself, less well for the environment. He went after Willits not that many years ago, emerging from that flurry of threats with fat legal fees for himself, and nothing for Willits that Willits wasn't already doing. And now he’s got his sights on Fort Bragg, the County of Mendocino, and Solid Wastes of Willits. Years ago, local Congressman Mike Thompson promised to close the legal loophole that allows Silver to run his scam. Nothing was done. And here he is yet again.

BACKGROUND: https://www.theava.com/archives/28795#5

CATCH OF THE DAY, November 21, 2015

JUSTIN TIME ARNOLD, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

SAMUEL CORIA, Point Arena. Domestic assault, failure to appear.

ZEBULON COUTHREN, Willits. Drunk in public.

RAYMOND ELLIS, Ukiah. Domestic assault, criminal threats.

SANDRA GONZALEZ, Ukiah. ID theft, receiving stolen property, probation revocation.

BRITTANY KOHLMANN, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

DAVID ORELLANA, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.

STONED BY DOPES

Letter to the Editor

Re: James Kunstler Stoned By Dopes! (mental clusterfucks and verbal batshit)

To Tom Quinn and Rhonda Frederick:

First of all, calling James Kunstler a "neocon" pretty much negates your six paragraphs. And furthermore, batshit and clusterfuck need no critique for anyone not trying to hang the messenger.

Obviously a good writer using slang doesn't lower that writer’s craft any more than an illiterate using common language elevates their speech. In what way are batshit or clusterfuck vulgar I wonder?

JHK's reference to HBO had nothing to do with blacks opting out of society. He was actually talking about how pop culture uses black English in an atmosphere of violence and criminality. Just an observable fact.

How does stating obvious facts about language use in a racially diverse society become "fatuous racial stereotyping"? JHK's article can fit any race you want, also obvious. Because he was focusing on black culture there's a problem? Most likely his concern is motivated by a virtue called empathy.

Such distinctions get lost when the GRAND LIBERALS begin their emotional posturing as poor me victims or self righteous saviors. Insecurity is a killer of truth, knowledge, and wisdom.

You clearly suffer from a vast lack of knowledge about where JHK is coming from if you think he doesn't understand the underlying reasons for people opting out. Reasons that anyone can see affect all too many regardless of color.

How sad when a wise person who's pointing out ways to improve our dysfunctional society is attacked in some second hand cowardly way for daring to breach these difficult topics. The real crux of the attack is clearly JHK's having the nerve to even bring these troubled waters up for discussion. The issues he addresses will be talked about and hopefully the frightened, offended, and reactionary noise makers will be able to calm down enough to learn something new. Wishful thinking, no doubt.

This attack reminds me of paranoid Jews calling Noam Chomsky anti-Semitic for correctly pointing out that Israel and the US are to blame for no peace in the Middle East conflict. Inconvenient truths that trouble fundamentalist Zionist types. Even a much needed peace can be unthinkable when the reasons for its absence are too demanding to even bring up in polite company.

And Tom, in your third paragraph you say that JHK says "blacks depart from accepted standard English usage in more formal settings such as school and work more than any other ethnic group." And that he offers no evidence for this contention. After going over his article many times I see that not only did he offer no evidence, he didn't even make or imply the "contention" you construed. You might want to read it again after you calm down enough to see better.

I bet you and Ms. Frederick want to know what color my skin is. Also my income bracket and what degrees I hold, if any. None of which has much to do with much of anything except to feed small minded divisiveness. I'll have to leave you in suspense with your little red book for comfort.

Good luck with your petty war against JHK who is actually someone who should be honored for all that he does in trying civilize and humanize this sick and vulgar society.

Best of luck,

Marvin Blake

Elk

PS. Notice that the scared little keepers of the hallowed ivory towers of knowledge will prove out his importance in discussing these important issues by not having the integrity to engage him face to face for a clearing of the air, their pet hysterias being far too coveted to humor…

PPS. And where would we be if he had said: the great problem facing white Americans is that they aren't taught proper English?

PPPS. Remember when Frank Zappa was attacked by Tipper Gore and the ax wielding rightwing Christian nut cases for the sin of using his art form to bring up with humor the issues of race, religion, war, sex, and human stupidity? I personally esteem James Kunstler in the same way I do Mr. Zappa for their uncompromising mental faculties when it comes to seeing and expressing what's going on in the world around them, with the balm of humor no less for those who aren't too far gone to laugh at themselves and the human condition.

‘I STAND WITH PARIS, BUT…’

by Patrick West (on Spiked):

Weasel words abound today. “Inappropriate,” “hurtful,” “uncomfortable” and “problematic” all sound harmless, but they are snide tools employed to silence voices, words and ideas. They are passive instruments of evasion, cowardice and censorship.

The weasel word of 2015 par excellence has been the simple “but.” We heard it after the Charlie Hebdo murders: “I condemn violence, and I’m all for free speech, but…” You know the rest. In the war against the barbarians, the word “but” has become shorthand for “it’s the West’s fault’; “we are reaping the whirlwind”; or “Muslims are all tetchy, mental infants anyhow so we mustn’t provoke them.”

After the most recent slaughter in Paris, “but” has resurfaced from the mouths of liberal-left flagellants, Islamist apologists and students with room-temperature IQs. But what about French foreign policy? But what of our interventions in the Middle East? Didn’t we bring this on ourselves?

It’s all so predictable. So, too, are those who believe that disasters have a hierarchy of grief. “I see this whole Paris thing,” one British Muslim told The Times on Tuesday, “and think what about Beirut? What about Yemen and Libya and Syria and Palestine? Where are the tears for these places and those people?’

Asking “where are the tears for the people in Yemen?” is like asking “Why did you cry when your father died, but not when mine did?” The closer something is to home, literally and figuratively, the more it’s going to affect you. You or I could have been victims of those attacks. These were people like us: listening to music, eating pizza or watching football on a Friday night out. That’s how shock, horror and disgust work. These are instinctive emotions beyond the governance of reason. And remember that Paris is a global city, and France the most popular tourist destination in the world.

The ultimate defense among those who seek to rationalize Islamism is that it’s “perverted” or “twisted’: it’s not “true Islam.” One can forgive this argument from Muslims, most of whom are appalled by these gun-toting jihadists who murder in the name of their faith. But it’s not excusable from secular folk who know better. It is another form of evasive servility.

There’s no such thing as “twisted Islam,” because there’s no “true Islam” either. Faiths, which have no external referent, are merely what their believers believe them to be. Those kindly, aged Methodists down the road from you are just as Christian as the Crusaders who butchered their way through the Holy Land in the Middle Ages. They just live in a different time and space.

Much of the secular liberal-left and imbecile Twitterati don’t understand or won’t admit to non-material reasons for people’s behavior. It must be about “poverty” or “inequality.” Similarly in sections on the right, there’s the temptation to dismiss these Islamists as inveterate criminals or psychopaths.

Poverty, personality and Western interventionism may be aggravating factors, but they are not the spur to Islamist barbarity. These attacks on Paris were spawned by a sense of righteousness, by a love of power and lust for violence, and the promise of the afterlife.

If this was about poverty and inequality, why aren’t white Frenchmen shooting strangers? If it’s about foreign policy, why do no world leaders, generals and statesmen live under a fatwa, but writers, artists and activists do? What do you think was behind the motives of those who killed people in places where sexes could mingle, drink alcohol and listen to infidel music? Why was the liberal, cosmopolitan 11th arrondissement attacked and not an instrument of the French state? Paris, say ISIS, is “the capital of abominations and perversion, the one that carries the banner of the cross of Europe.”

The West fought alongside Muslims in Afghanistan during the Cold War. Before 9/11 we bombed a Christian country, Serbia, to protect Muslims in Kosovo. Today the attempted genocide of the Yazidis and the destruction of Ancient Syrian temples aren’t “our fault.” These actions are the product of a viral ideology possessed of self-righteousness, resentment and a sense of victimhood: the heady ingredients for a hideous mindset that is beyond reason and material considerations.

(Courtesy, District5Diary)

MEDITATION IN HYDROTHERAPY

Six hours a day I lay me down

Within this tub but cannot drown.

The ice cap at my rigid neck

Has served to keep me with the quick.

This water, heated like my blood,

Refits me for the true and good.

Within this primal element

The flesh is willing to repent.

I do not laugh; I do not cry;

I'm sweating out the will to die.

My past is sliding down the drain;

I soon will be myself again.

—Theodore Roethke

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE, it’s always scary going on stage. The thing about these terrorists is they can strike anywhere. They don’t care. When we were doing the Whitesnake tour in Europe, we went over and did Ireland. The first show was in Dublin, and everything was great. The next night was in Belfast, and it was quite a different scene. There were army guys rolling the streets. At the gig they had bomb-sniffing dogs. I asked the guy, “What are the dogs for?” He goes, “Finding bombs.” I go, “You mean there could be bombs under the stage?”

He goes, “Could be. That’s what the dogs are for.” That really scared me. But I don’t think that was about ISIS. I think it was just generally about terrorism, suicide bombers, and things like that.

It never goes away. I still grieve my friends, and most of them were people I knew, if not my name, by face. They’d been going to our shows for 20-something years. I saw them go from teenagers in high school to grown adults having their own kids, so there was a connection there. It’s hard to wonder, “Why was I saved? Why didn’t I get killed?” I guess they call that survivor’s guilt, or whatever. I don’t know how those other guys are dealing with it.

Every time I get on stage, I think of Dimebag Darrell, y’know? For some reason, it’s just… Ever since Darrell’s 2004 murder happened, it showed me that you’re never safe, even on stage entertaining people. There’s a lot of crazy people out there, y’know? I don’t understand them. I guess that makes me semi-normal? I always thought I was crazy, but when you look at the barometer, I guess I’m not so bad. It’s just a tragic thing, y’know? How would you deal with it?

It would be like if you owned a restaurant and made the same thing every day, then one day something horrible and inexplicable happened.

— Jack Russell, whose band Great White’s show ended in a fire that killed 100 people in 2003, commenting to the Eagles of Death Metal: ‘It’s honorable to keep going, but it’s okay to stop.’

CALIFORNIA REINS IN KILLING OF BOBCATS FOR FUR

by Glenda Anderson

It’s now illegal to use traps to capture bobcats in California for sport or to hunt them in any fashion for the purpose of making coats and clothing accessories out of their pretty pelts.

The ban, approved in August by the California Fish and Game Commission, took effect Friday.

It does not affect using weapons to hunt the bob-tailed wildcats for recreation, or trapping them if they eat domestic farm animals or pets. But the ban is nevertheless expected to substantially reduce the number of bobcats that are legally killed each year in California, said Camilla Fox, executive director of Project Coyote, one of many animal protection groups that pushed for the ban on trapping the wildcats.

“I think a driving force behind the killing is the pelt prices,” she said. Much of the demand for the fur reportedly comes from China and Russia.

During the last bobcat hunting season, commercial fur trappers killed most of the 987 bobcats “taken” in California, according to state wildlife department statistics in the 2014-15 Bobcat Harvest Assessment. Of those, 760 were trapped for their fur. The average price per bobcat pelt for the season was $191, according to the report.

Five of the bobcats killed last season were hunted in Sonoma County; 18 were in Mendocino County; and 19 in Lake County, according to the wildlife department. Only one — in Lake County — of those was for its fur, according to the wildlife department report.

The hot spots for bobcat takes in California included Kern County, with 197; Modoc County with 100; and Los Angeles with 63. The highest numbers of bobcats killed for their pelts were in the Southern California region, with 215; northeastern California, with 178; the south Sierras, 145; and the eastern Sierras, 111, state wildlife data show.

Chris Brennan, a federal wildlife trapper in Mendocino County, said the Southern California desert bobcat is a particularly desirable catch because of its pale coat and dark spots. It’s also bigger than its darker-hued cousins to the north, weighing in at as much as 55 pounds, 14 pounds more than the largest male typically found in Mendocino County, he said. Bobcats typically are about twice the size of an average house cat.

The numbers of bobcats killed annually in the state has fluctuated over the years but has been on the decline since the 1970s. About 14,400 bobcats were killed for their pelts in the 1978-79 hunting season, according to state wildlife statistics.

The fluctuations likely have been influenced by a number of factors, including court cases challenging hunts, changing regulations — including bans on toothed traps and dogs, which made it more difficult to catch the elusive, nocturnal animals — and pelt pricing. The average price of a bobcat pelt has ranged from a high of $390 for the 2013-14 season to a low of $17.91 in 1986-87, according to the wildlife department.

The number of bobcats killed annually since 1990 has hovered between 2,000 and 1,000.

There are no current studies on the numbers of bobcats in the wild, but it’s widely believed to be a healthy population in the state.

Brennan estimated there are “hundreds of thousands.”

Nationally, there may be as many as a million bobcats, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Hunting organizations contend there’s no danger of depleting the populations of the wild cats and opposed the ban. The lobbyist for the groups could not be reached Friday for comment.

Fox conceded the ban is not based on data showing the hunts endangered the animals.

“Science wasn’t part of the discussion,” she said. “This really did become an ethical debate.”

(Courtesy, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The refugees that have captivated so much attention in the wake of Friday’s attack are fleeing precisely the type of senseless slaughter that happened in Paris. To slam the door in their faces — to decide not to help when we know that we can help — would be a betrayal of our deepest values as Americans.

President Obama is doing the right thing in the right way: protecting the American people even while providing refuge to some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

Here’s are the facts, the numbers, related to Syrian refugees:

23,092 … Syrian refugees UNHCR has referred to the U.S. Refugees Admission Program.

7,014 … Syrians Homeland Security has interviewed since FY 2011.

2,034 … Syrian refugees who have been admitted since FY 2011.

0 … Syrian refugees resettled in the U.S. arrested or removed on terrorism charges.

Zero threat. Thoroughly vetted. Net-positive contributors to the well-being of the United States.

Republicans are crybaby cowards, whiners, and fear-mongerers who live in a fact-free complaint zone and suffer from Obama Derangement Syndrome: The acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the statements — nay — the very existence of Barack Obama.

Cheney predicted another 9/11 withing the first six months of Obama’s presidency. It’s been more than six years with no new 9/11. Yet the whiners will whine, the complainers will complain, the haters will hate, bigots will call Muslims “vermin” and the cowards will cower in fear of Syrian refugees… ignoring the evidence of zero threat, ignoring that Islam is a religion of peace.

I LIFT MY LAMP BESIDE THE GOLDEN DOOR: CONCERTO FOR HORN AND HARDART.

"There’s a calm before every storm. And after storms it's calm too. Basically, it’s either calm or there is a storm." –Greg Dorris

At http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find the recording of last night’s (Friday 2015-11-20) KNYO Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show ready to download and keep or just play with one click.

Further, at http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com there are many worthwhile but not necessarily radio-useful items that I found while putting the show together. Here are just a few:

"This tragedy clearly demonstrates..." http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/16/1450193/-Cartoon-Sizzling-hot-takes

The Blast Supper. http://nonadventures.com/2015/10/24/the-blast-supper/

A game about a blind little girl. http://boingboing.net/2015/11/20/beyond-eyes-game.html

And point-counterpoint. Note the date. http://wondermark.com/c1176/