Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Dec 9, 2015

• Windy Waves of Rain
• Dead Pedestrian
• Whereas Wreaths
• Profligate.gov
• Team Liberty
• Intoxicant County
• FB History
• Winery Restrictions
• Chez Marie
• Odd Remark
• Online Exchange
• Yesterday's Catch
• Transit Needs
• Mein Donald
• Trump Obsession
• Admiral's Rear
• FrankenComments
• Cannabinoid News
• Hate Crime

FLOOD POTENTIAL WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY for small streams & urban areas.

A series of storms will bring periods of moderate to heavy rain to Northwest California on Wednesday and Thursday. Expected rainfall amounts: 3 to 5 inches across Del Norte and Humboldt Counties and 2 to 3 inches in Mendocino and Trinity Counties.
 Rapid and significant rises are expected the main steam rivers but the rivers are expected to remain below flood stage. Rapid and significant rises are also expected on the small stream and tributaries. Small stream flooding is possible especially in Del Norte and Humboldt Counties.
 Standing or ponding water is expected in low-lying areas and in those areas with poor drainage. Also urban street flooding is expected where the storm drains are plugged with leaves or are unable to keep up with the rainfall. 
Listen to NOAA weather radio or your local media for the later updates on this situation.

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Dangerous waves up to 18 feet will pound the coast. Never turn your back on the ocean. The waves may appear to be subsiding right before a strong wave or an unexpected "sneaker wave" slams the coast. Extreme wave run up is expected with these waves, with long lulls in between the wave sets, increasing the risk of being washed into the sea. On the open ocean, conditions for commercial vessels--or the unfortunate cruise ship passing through--this week will hit with "significant wave heights" up to 27 feet by Thursday.

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Wednesday: Rain. High near 57. South wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.

Wednesday Night: Rain. The rain could be heavy at times. Low around 49. South southwest wind 7 to 12 mph increasing to 13 to 18 mph after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between three quarters and one inch possible.

Thursday: Rain before 10am, then showers, mainly after 10am. The rain could be heavy at times. High near 55. West wind 9 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.

Thursday Night: Showers. Low around 40. West northwest wind 9 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.

— National Weather Service

ON TUESDAY, December 8, 2015, at approximately 4:30 AM Ukiah area Highway Patrol officers responded to a traffic collision on Center Valley Road west of Sawyer Lane outside of Ukiah. Prior to Officers' arrival paramedics on scene pronounced a 49-year-old male pedestrian of Willits deceased at the scene. Evidence at the scene indicated that the victim was possibly walking westbound in the eastbound lane wearing dark colored clothing when he was struck by an unknown vehicle. It appears that the vehicle stopped at the scene then fled in an unknown direction on Center Valley Road. The Highway Patrol encourages anyone who has information regarding this collision to contact the Ukiah Area Highway Patrol office at 467-4040. Victim information is being withheld pending family notifications.

(CHP Press Release)

FIRST THINGS FIRST IN MENDO!

(First Item on Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors agenda)

Proclamation Of The Mendocino County Board Of Supervisors Recognizing “National Wreaths Across America Day in Mendocino County”

(Sponsor: Board Chair Carre Brown)

Whereas, a Wreaths Across America Day will be held for the second year in Mendocino County as an undertaking of the Ukiah Shamrock, Redwood Valley-Calpella, Potter Valley and Fort Bragg 4-H Clubs that began earlier in the year with the Willits 4-H, the American Legion Post 529 and the University of California ANR Hopland Research Extension Center joining the local endeavor to organize, educate and participate in the ceremonies being held at cemeteries throughout the Nation, other locations in all 50 states and overseas; and

Whereas, the local ceremonies like the national observances will simultaneously be held at 9 a.m. on December 12, 2015 at the Russian River Cemetery in Ukiah, the Rose Memorial Park Cemetery in Fort Bragg, the Potter Valley Cemetery, Cemetery District of the Redwoods in Willits and the Hopland Cemetery; and

Whereas, Wreaths Across America is a national nonprofit organization founded in 2007 with a mission to Remember, Honor, Teach and continue to expand their annual wreath-laying ceremony first begun at Arlington National Cemetery by Maine businessman, Morrill Worcester, in 1992; and

Whereas, the National Wreaths Across America program is to spread their message about the importance of remembering our fallen heroes, honoring those who serve, and teaching our children about the sacrifices made by veterans and their families to preserve our freedoms; and

Whereas, since 2008, Congress has issued a national proclamation officially recognizing “Wreaths Across America Day” each December with the theme for 2015 being “Remember, Honor, Teach – Every Stone Has A Story.”

Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved, that the Board of Supervisors of the County of Mendocino truly appreciates the participation of the local 4-H Clubs, the American Legion Post 529 and the UC ANR Hopland Research Extension Center in the national movement to teach all generations about the value of their freedoms and the importance of honoring those who sacrificed so much to protect those freedoms along with demonstrating to our veterans and their families – that we will not forget.

Be It Further Resolved, that the Board of Supervisors of the County of Mendocino, hereby proclaims, December 12, 2015, as: “National Wreaths Across America Day

In Mendocino County”

Dated: December 8, 2015

Carre Brown, Chair

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AGENDA ITEM 6(b) December 8, 2015

SUMMARY OF REQUEST: Proposed salary and benefit adjustments, consistent with the Department Head MOU, for the Auditor-Controller, Assessor-Clerk Recorder, and Treasurer Tax Collector have been presented separately for Board of Supervisors consideration on today’s consent calendar. While I am proud that the County has been able to offer reasonable and sustainable increases in compensation to its employees this year, I feel some further adjustments are warranted in the case of the Sheriff and District Attorney. Based on the nature of the work of the Sheriff and District Attorney and the advances in public safety under their respective tenures, I am recommending salary and benefit adjustments more in line with their peers. Below is a chart showing the current salary and benefits of the Sheriff and District Attorney (based on actual numbers from the most recent pay period), as well as proposed adjustments that I feel are appropriate for fair compensation of their work to protect the citizens of Mendocino County.

All benefits included in the Department Head MOU, excluding time off accruals for which elected officials are not eligible, would apply to the District Attorney and Sheriff, with the only differences being the proposed salary adjustments. Any salary adjustments adopted by the Board are proposed to take effect December 20, 2015. A draft resolution has been prepared should the Board choose to adjust the current salaries as proposed.

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MUCH AS WE ADMIRE the Sheriff and the DA's job performances, we think it's preposterous that they're in line at today's (Tuesday's) Supe's meeting for huge raises. Sheriff Allman and DA Eyster will get about $60,000 more between the two of them. Allman already rakes in a cool $254,817 annually (including benefits) while Eyster gets $194,751 (including benefits) for shooting the usual suspects in the Courthouse barrel. These huge salaries, huger all the time, also mean fat increases to their pension checks when they shuffle off into their Golden Years.

YEAH, YEAH, both Allman and Eyster stay within their budgets, but they do that thanks to the annual dope interdictions with their accompanying property seizures.

THE WAY WE SEE IT, government, at all levels, pretty much now exists as its own purpose, and the kind of money our public administrators are pulling down in a lightly populated, meager tax-based county like ours, can't reasonably be borne without bankrupting the County. In living fact, the County is already bankrupt, given that it owes more in existing pension payouts than it can ever possibly pay.

THE SUPERVISORS will probably give the badged boss mans the money because they've never denied the upper echelons of County management, including themselves of course, anything they've wanted. (I wonder if Supervisor Hamburg's "service dog" gets some kind of County stipend for soothing Hamburg's savage breast at public meetings?)

IN FACT, THEY DID:

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4893709-181/mendocino-county-supervisors-approve-16

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WHILE we're throwing around depressing numbers, Kitty Elliot, interim County Counsel, like the County Counsels before her, in addition to her big pay, gets $3000 a year car allowance. Like she can't pay for her own fuel? And since she lives in the Ukiah area a nice hunk of the three thou will go straight into her pocket.

AND YOU MAY BE AWARE, the profligates at the state and federal levels, kick down $3.3 million a year to Mendo for substance abuse prevention, a peculiar investment considering there are more drunks and dopeheads around than ever. A rational person would ask, "Well golly gee, how come we're giving you people all this money and more of you than ever are succumbing to the lure of drug and drink?

UP UNTIL ABOUT 1967, elected reps generally spent public money like it was their own. That's wayyyyyy out the window now.

AS IT HAPPENS, I have before me an AVA dated Tuesday, June 4th, 1963. The lead story is titled, "Tempers Flare & Accusations Fly When Board Grants Use of Two County Cars." The story describes a huge fight among the Supervisors over use of one County car for a total of five County employees to drive to Sacramento and back in one day. The County administrator wanted to take a second County car for himself and another department head. Two of the Supes wanted to send all five in the one car, with $16 bucks food money. They finally compromised on two cars but no food and no gas money.

ROSS LIBERTY is that rare species of bird, a guy who has established a successful and fairly large business in Ukiah. He's now apparently organized a group of local moneybags to acquire 65 acres of the old Masonite plant north of town. Liberty's investors are informally organized as “Ukiah Industrial Park Team.” Team Liberty says their development could mean some 600 well-paid jobs for the Ukiah area. The Supervisors were discussing the proposal at Tuesday's meeting. Stay tuned.

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY: “We’ve made billions of dollars off of people from all over the world who smoked our herb and drank our wine, and now we’re complaining that a couple hundred pot heads and drunks chose to migrate directly to the source.” —James Marmon

OVER THE TOP

Editor:

It is a shame that Rex Gressett is so over the top. I wish he had been around to take on Dominic Affinito, Gary Milliman, and the bought and paid for city council. He might have then had a better understanding of corruption, good ol’ boy politics, and the current situation.

A 45 year resident of Fort Bragg

COULD IT HAPPEN HERE? (Winery restrictions? Even consideration of winery restrictions? Of course not.)

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/4887903-181/napa-mulls-restrictions-on-winery

MARVELOUS MARIE WRITES, and take it from the AVA these people serve up the goodie good goods: "Our amazing oceanfront French restaurant at the Elk Cove Inn & Spa, Chez Marie reopens tomorrow night. Chef's surgery went well and he is ready to delight your taste buds with his marvelous creations. Tuesday and Wednesday nights plus some Saturday's. Call 707-877-3321 for reservations well in advance. Almost full for Tuesday night but we have space on Wednesday. The coast's biggest bargain. $39.95 — full dinner includes wine, soup or salad, entree and dessert."

ODD REMARK on MCN: "Petra talks produce and then she conjures God Good Juxtaposition. I was thinking about this earlier, not that I needed to but it just happenstanced. The subject has come up lately, especially from Woo Woo Tom. Here's my take: God is a fungus gnat, God is a Cecile Breunner rose, God is Billy-goat, God is us. So, Mother Nature is God. Oh, and Tom, God is science. (not vice-versa)."

THE CONSTANT ALLURE of the internet often pulls me (and many of you, I'm sure) into on-line exchanges. I enjoyed one this morning inspired by the December 7th memories of the attack on Pearl Harbor where, according to family lore, I almost got killed when a Honolulu store we'd just left got hit by a stray bomb.

(One) A reader wrote: I think many Oregonians worried about possible invasion….my relatives were all prepared…

(Two) My mother took me and my brother on a troop ship to San Francisco where we stayed at the Fairmont Hotel, which was the evac center for people fleeing Hawaii. We left Hula Land because everyone assumed a land invasion would follow up the air attack. My father stayed on for about a year before heading for Frisco where he worked at Hunter's Point loading submarines. He said he could have bought up half of Honolulu for peanuts if he'd had the cash. The people who did stay got very, very rich off the war and bargain real estate deals.

(One) Was and is there still a conspiracy theory, that FDR knew in advance and allowed the airstrike to advance the war?? I think my dad and uncles believed that…

(Two) I've never believed that. FDR knew the Japanese were preparing for war and assumed it would begin in Southeast Asia, which it did. Pearl Harbor was a total surprise. The US didn't think the Japanese had that kind of long-range capacity, Asians being not smart enough to pull it off, you see. The Brits were similarly caught off guard when the Japanese roared down the Malay Peninsula on bicycles all the way to Singapore, taking the whole area in a few days.

(One) My dad, a constant source of tall tales, told me he and my older siblings were targeted by a Japanese sub when they were at the beach that fired a shell at them…because of my brothers bright red hair! Also that I had Chippawa blood, a lie I believed proudly for years… Also that he wrote Waltzing Matilda… Etc etc. Taught me never to trust anything a Man said…

(Two) My father spared me tall tales, seldom communicating much at all. But when I came back on leave from the Marines he noted that I was drinking my coffee black. "Good," he said approvingly. "Because if you don't you'll be constantly frustrated. Some people will have cream but no sugar, or sugar but no cream." He followed that advice up with, "You know flies take off backwards. If you aim slightly behind them you'll get them every time." Thus armed I strode out the door to meet the world….

(One) Wow! Practical info… In first grade, I got into a heated dispute with the vast, pigeon-shaped bitch/teacher over who exactly wrote Waltzing Matilda…it’s all been downhill from there… Didn't the Japanese bomb the mainland a couple of times?

(Two) I don't think so. They lofted some fire balloons from a submarine off Brookings, as I recall, and there was a shell or two lobbed from a submarine at an oil refinery near Ventura, but that was about the extent of it without researching the precise facts.

* * *

Incidentally, Gary Milliman is city manager at Brookings, and a constant source of controversy. Milliman was Dominic Affinito's gofer when he had Ruffing's job in Fort Bragg.

CATCH OF THE DAY, December 8, 2015

BRANDI JO ADKINS-CASEY, Ukiah. Robbery, use of someone else’s ID, conspiracy.

TIMOTHY BENNETT JR., Laytonville. Pot possession for sale, sale-transport-furnish, probation revocation.

LISA BIGGS, Fort Bragg. Possession of controlled substance, no license, failure to appear.

DYLAN COOK-SCHULETER, Ukiah. Under influence, probation revocation.

SHAYLA CRANFORD, Willits. Probation revocation.

JAMES LORQUET, Albion. Court order violation.

STEVEN MOSES, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ADELAIDO ORTIZ, Ukiah. Meth possession for sale.

EDWARD RADENZEL JR., Fort Bragg. Domestic assault.

PETTY RAND, Ukiah. Burglary, use of someone else’s ID.

TYLER SHIVELY, Willits. Trespassing, resisting, probation revocation.

THE PRESS RELEASE begins ominously: "A list of possible unmet transit needs in the county was forwarded by the Mendocino Council of Governments Monday to the Mendocino Transit Authority for further consideration."

Translation: One group of incompetents is talking to another group of incompetents, the whole show being the usual Mendo clusterfuck.

"MTA is expected to prepare an analysis for project operational costs, ability to provide service and prioritization of needs of a list of approximately 95 recommended unmet transit needs, although there are currently some duplications on that list, according to Janet Orth, deputy director and CFO of MCOG. Orth said MTA’s analysis would come back to MCOG’s Transit Productivity Committee in April or May, prior to its budget talks, with potential recommendations that may be included in MTA’s 2016-17 transit claim for funds due to MCOG on April 1, 2016."

"PRODUCTIVITY COMMITTEE"? Har de har. I guess it's theoretically possible for a Mendo committee to produce something of value, but offhand I can't recall productivity beyond minimal funding levels ever happening around here.

PLOUGHING THROUGH the introductory thousand words of pure bullshit, we get to "productivity" notions, a few of which might be of real value to Mr. and Mrs. Mendo Citizen:

• Transportation to and from various senior apartment complexes to the Ukiah Farmers Market on Saturdays
• To Plowshares (airport bus stop), with vouchers, during lunch hours 11 or 11:30 a.m. with return in approximately one hour; and same for dinner at 5 or 5:30 p.m.
• Wheelchair accessible door-through-door assisted service for seniors on Wednesday in the Ukiah area (the day the Senior Center transportation does not run due to budget constraints)
• Assisted service for seniors on weekends, and for those going to church on Sundays
• Non-emergency medical transportation, including trips to out-of-county locations and outside of normal Senior Center transportation operating hours
• Volunteer driver program for remote areas – revitalize funding and partnerships
• Assisted service for Laytonville and Covelo

Needs identified by the Mendocino Transit Authority from public outreach during its 2014 countywide transit ridership survey: (to which virtually no one replied)

• Inland service: Additional service on Route 7, “The Jitney” in Ukiah
• Inland Service: Service to Laytonville
• South Coast service including service along the ridge east of Gualala
• North Coast service including:
  • Restoring 2008 service cuts, including the Saturday connection with Route 75 at Navarro River Junction, Saturday Route 5 and Route 60, same as weekday, and Route 65 connection to and from Mendocino
  • Mid-day Coaster, Route 60, service
  • Weekday and Saturday Fort Bragg-Willits service
  • Service between Fort Bragg and South Coast with same-day return
  • Offer 30-minute headways on Route 5
  • Service from the South Coastal Trail to the North Coastal Trail as a pickup point
  • Service to and from “The Woods”
  • Service to MacKerricher State Park
  • Make the 8:55 a.m. Route 60 deadhead a “live” trip to the yard.

THE TRUMP SALUTE

TRUMP AND THE MEDIA: PROMOTING FASCISM

From Kevin Drum:

Trump has gotten 47% of all TV mentions among Republican candidates since he announced in June. Marco Rubio has gotten 6%. It's fair that Trump gets more than Rubio, but rather plainly he shouldn't be getting that much more. So who's responsible for this? This chart shows mentions over the past week. Fox News mentioned Trump 452 times, but the biggest guns by far were CNN and MSNBC, who apparently have serious Trump obsessions. CNN mentioned him 1,375 times and MSNBC mentioned him 1,484 times.

ADMIRAL REPRIMANDED for being found wandering naked around a hotel after being so drunk at official party he wet his own pants. Rear Admiral David Baucom, 56, was at a conference in Florida in April when he got so drunk he hit his head on a bar stool and had to be helped back to his room by a staff member.

A READER WRITES: "Saw a really great meme today: Trump is what would happen if the comments section became a human and ran for president."

THE NEW O’SHAUGHNESSY’S

by Fred Gardner

The Society of Cannabis Clinicians, founded in 2000 by Tod Mikuriya, MD with eight charter members, met Sunday, December 6 in Oakland and elected its officers and board unanimously. Jeffrey Hergenrather, MD, will give it another year as President. There are now 193 members. The secretary (c’est moi) said the new O’Shaughnessy’s was at the printer. Distribution starts Saturday at the Emerald Cup in Santa Rosa.

The main event consisted of talks by Ethan Russo, MD, and biochemist Dale Deutsch. Russo gave an overview of the field (Cannabis-based Medicine), and Deutsch described how cannabinoid molecules get transported from the cell membrane towards the organelle inside the cell where they are cleaved in two for recycling. Much of what Russo and Deutsch had to say is covered in the new O’Shaughnessy’s.

Deutsch’s presentation opened with a slide of police poised to raid student dorms at Stony Brook University — the Long Island, New York, institution where he runs a lab — to round up marijuana users. The raid took place 40 years ago.

Bu cosmic coincidence, 60 Minutes devoted a double segment December 6 to the targeting of college by law enforcement. Lesley Stahl reported on police use of students as confidential informants.

Most of the student victims are set up for small-scale marijuana sales to their friends. Google “Stahl Confidential Informants” — it’s must-see TV. Things may be changing for the over-21s, but the cops are still torturing the students! This reality is elucidated in the new O’Shaughnessy’s.

What will get taught?

When we first dummied the issue, the editorial was going to be a demand — the same demand we’ve been making since the first issue in 2003 — that Cannabis-based Medicine be added to the medical school curriculum.

But now we see how inadequate that demand is. The endocannabinoid system is about to be added to the curriculum. The class being taught by Drs. Metcalf and Horton at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science is surely a harbinger of many more to come in the period ahead.

The problem is: who will determine the content? Metcalf declares, “The entire course is based on what the primary, peer-reviewed, research literature has revealed about medical applications for cannabis and drugs targeting the endocannabinoid receptor system.”

But Barbara Weiland’s powerful critique of the primary, peer-reviewed research literature based on neuroimaging reminds us how unscientific that literature actually is.

We also intended to join the chorus of praise for Sanjay Gupta. His “Weed” Specials on CNN brought cannabidiol to the attention of the American people, and he acknowledged having been systematically miseducated on the subject of marijuana.

But he also paid homage to Dr. Staci Gruber at McLean’s Hospital, New England headquarters of the psychiatric establishment (a wholly owned subsidiary of Big PhRMA).

Dr. Gruber, the director of McLean’s Brain Imaging Center, is a PhD, not a medical doctor. Here’s the script:

Gupta (as if awed): She’s using high-tech imaging to see what happens in the brain when you smoke.

Gruber: What we see is a very big difference in people who begin to smoke prior to the age of 16 and those who smoke after age 16. What we call “early” versus “later onset.”

Gupta: Gruber’s brain scans show that the white matter — those are the high waves that help the brain communicate from one point to another — are impaired in those who start smoking early.

Gruber: Maybe that there’s underlying white-matter-conductivity differences.

Gupta: Those white matter highways are just more disrupted in people who start smoking early.

Gruber: That’s what we see.

Gupta: Perhaps not surprising given what we know about the young developing brain.

Preliminary research shows that early-onset smokers are slower at tasks, have lower IQ’s later in life, higher risk of strokes, and increased incidence of psychotic disorders. And while these studies are not conclusive, some scientists are still concerned because in 2012, 35 percent of high school seniors lit up, and that could mean a generation of kids with damaged brains. And many fear something else.

Cut to a teenager identified in the CNN transcript as “Joel Vargas, Addicted to Marijuana.” Joel tells Gupta, “I never really told myself I need help.” We wonder who told him. Probably dear old mom and dad.

Gupta: A generation of marijuana addicts. When we come back, the truth and the science behind what’s being called a growing epidemic…

Gupta does not make good on his bold claim. ”In fact,” he says authoritatively when we came back, “nine percent of marijuana users will become dependent. Now that’s not as high as other drugs, like heroin — 23 percent of users become addicted — or 17 percent with cocaine, 15 percent with alcohol. But it’s still approximately one out of every 11 marijuana smokers.” This deceptive riff is reenforced by an accompanying bar graph.

There’s nothing like a specific number to make an assertion seem like a fact. The “9-percent-become-addicted” line has been put out by the National Institute on Drug Abuse since the 1990s. It is supposedly substantiated by the number of people in marijuana treatment programs. But very few people go into treatment because they think they are impaired by marijuana. Most go because they’ve been forced to by a judge, an employer, a school, or a parent. For many so-called marijuana addicts who use the herb for pain or insomnia and go to work unimpaired, the real “problem” is the metabolite level detected in their urine. For depressed teenagers the real problem is the situation and/or environment they find so unbearable that they want to alter their consciousness every day.

* * *

EMERALD CUP 2015

http://marijuana.blogs.pressdemocrat.com/10484/guide-to-the-emerald-cup-2015/

ON THE OTHER HAND, WHERE'S THE ANTI-MUSLIM BACKLASH?

From Breitbart.com, citing 2014 FBI numbers:

Of the 1,140 victims of anti-religious hate crimes:

56.8 percent were victims of crimes motivated by their offenders’ anti-Jewish bias.

16.1 percent were victims of anti-Islamic (Muslim) bias hate crime

6.2 percent were victims of bias against groups of individuals of varying religions (anti-multiple religions, group).

6.1 percent were victims of anti-Catholic bias.

2.5 percent were victims of anti-Protestant bias.

1.2 percent were victims of anti-Atheist/Agnostic bias.

11.0 percent were victims of bias against other religions (anti-other religion).

A full 84% of hate crimes based on a person’s religion are not directed at Muslims.

Jews are the people truly under attack, with a whopping 57% of hate crimes, which is way outside their percentage of the population. The DC Media doesn’t consider this statistic worth reporting. Jews-as-victims upsets the Narrative.

Outside of Jews and Muslims, 25% of these crimes are directed at other religions.

In a country of close to 325 million people, there were 183 hate crimes committed against Muslims last year. This is only 19 more over the previous year, which is meaningless in a country this large…(emphasis added)

Rob's comment: Of course I understand that Breitbart is a right-wing source. Even though I'm a liberal Democrat, I have to cite Breitbart because it's the only site making the important point that the anti-Muslim backlash in the US that our leaders---including President Obama---are so afraid of is simply not happening, and it's been not happening for years (see this, this and this).

The FBI stats above are for 2014. Maybe 2015 will see a significant increase after Paris and San Bernardino. We'll see.

But I think the president, Hillary, and other liberals seriously under-estimate the decency and common sense of the American people on this issue.

This is the only thing I agree with Marco Rubio about: "Where is there widespread evidence that we have a problem in America with discrimination against Muslims?" an incredulous Rubio asked.

Thanks to Salon for the link.

— Rob Anderson (et al). Courtesy, District5Diary