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Time and time again we read of people in the public eye who deserve the worst..  This guy, Andy (the) Dick is a fine example.  Is or was he ever funny?  Where have we gone wrong?   He belongs in Atascadero State Prison.  Criminally insane.    Get back to the basics, people.  This is from today's LA Times.

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(This is a rather long post from my friend in Iraq.  He has lived in 10 countries, including Venezuela under the dictatorship.)

> German's View on Islam

> A man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II owned

> a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German

> people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude

> toward fanaticism.

> 'Very few people were true Nazis ' he said,' but many enjoyed the

> return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one

> of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the

> majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it,

> they owned us and we had lost control, and the end of the world had

> come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp

> and the Allies destroyed my factories.'

>

>

>

> We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that

> Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims

> just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may

> be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to

> make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of

> fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is

> that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.

>

>

>

> It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of

> 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically

> slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are

> gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is

> the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honour kill. It is the

> fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who

> zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and

> homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the 'peaceful

> majority', the 'silent majority', is cowed and extraneous.

>

>

>

> Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in

> peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of

> about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.

> China 's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists

> managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

> The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a

> warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way

> across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the

> systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by

> sword, shovel, and bayonet.

>

>

>

> And, who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery. Could it

> not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?

>

>

>

> History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our

> powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of

> points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their

> silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't

> speak up because, like my friend from Germany , they will awaken one

> day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world

> will have begun.

>

>

>

> Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs,

> Afghanis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and

> many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up

> until it was too late.

>

>

>

> As for us who watch it all unfold; we must pay attention to the only

> group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

>

>

>

> Lastly, at the risk of offending, anyone who doubts that the issue is

> serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, that person

> is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand.

> So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope

> that thousands, world wide, read this - think about it - and send it

> on, it is worth some discussion at least ...don't you think?

>

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I don't think an ordinance requiring life vests for anyone on the Kern River or Lake Isabella will do any good.  You can't enforce stupid.  Yesterday, Monday, I was returning to kernville from Lake Isabella and at the French Gulch bridge, there was a family, appeared to be Hispanic, a man about 35, two boys 8 to 10 and a girl about 10.  The boys and man were on the bridge with one of the boys wearing a bathtub float ring, tied to a big rope.  They were wet and appeared to be jumping into the lake,.  Where do they think they are, Acapulco?  We don't do cliff jumping here.  Number one, it is illegal to jump or fish off the bridge anytime.   Number two, it is about 30 feet to the water.  This was about 2:30 in the afternoon, and what with the fires and all, there are probably 30 official vehicles, sheriff and fire, traveling that road. but I guess no one noticed.  Will it matter if the boy was wearing a life jacket instead of a plastic toy?  I don't think so.