Ricin Beans

The big news out of Summit County the past day or so is the FBI bust of a man in Coventry Township who was arrested "on a federal charge of illegal possession of a biological substance" (Owner of house arrested on ricin charge). The ABJ story also contains a quote from the Coventry fire chief, saying "'a very small container in the refrigerator, less than a coffee can", and a reassuring one [sarcasm is my middle name]:

Gene Nixon, Summit County health commissioner, said the substance "seemed to have been there a long time" and endangered no one.

"Relax . . . there's never been a threat," he said.

At this point, the former resident (his house is in foreclosure) who is unemployed, on Medicaid, has no assets, and had to borrow a pair of glasses to read the complaint, has a warm place to sleep and plenty to eat in a publicly run hostel [AKA jail].

The article also states that the man being arraigned had not yet been interviewed by the FBI. It fails to mention the form or quantity of the "ricin". What we are told is that the FBI received a "tip" that ricin was present in the house, and acted to seize it. We are also told,

"Scott Wilson, an FBI spokesman, would not speculate on the motive for possessing the material but ruled out terrorism as a possible use."

I once had a high regard for the FBI -- until I had need of them. In all my life I have only notified authorities once of a crime -- it was so egregious that to ignore it would be to participate, seeing that I had been engaged by one of the participants as a ploy in covering it up and facilitating it.

Several years ago I was engaged to appraise a property for a sale. The home had not been completed, and a prior appraisal had failed to take into account the value "as-is" as well as "as-complete". The loan officer readily faxed me a copy of the sales agreement, which showed a price nearly $500,000 over the list price. It also did not have the seller's signature. I requested a copy of the agreement from the real estate agent, and what she faxed me had a sales price very near the list price. The original appraisal utilized comparable sales that were completely outside the subject's market, and fully supported the price on the loan officer's bogus sales agreement. I checked on the buyer -- the internet is a valuable tool for locating people -- and found that he had a strong Middle Eastern presence. Further, the property under consideration was one which I would consider ideal for certain types of para-military training operations.

So I called my local FBI office. And left a message. And called them again. It took nearly two weeks before an agent called me back to ask more about the particulars. I told him what I had discovered; that I had black-and-white evidence of bank fraud to the tune of a half million dollars.

His advice? The sum in question was too small for the FBI to be concerned about. I should call my local Sheriff and have his fraud squad take care of it. Do I respect the power of the FBI -- their arms and technology? You betcha. Do I think they are interested at all in upholding the Constitution? You gotta be jerking my chain.

After another week of phone persuasion the Summit County Sheriff sent over a deputy with a subpoena for my file. I specified what the subpoena should request, because I did not want anyone seizing my hard drive containing my appraisal software. The deputy left with the CD containing a complete copy of my findings, my appraisal report, and the original appraisal report. I cannot turn in the fraudulent appraisal to the state regulators because the subpoena forbids me to discuss the specifics of the case with anyone, and that is as far as I take this item.

I will tell you what I think happened to the man in Coventry Township. Ricin is the active ingredient in the pulp of the castor bean. After the bean is pressed for oil, the pulp can be processed and the ricin separated through the use of electrophoresis. I doubt that this man had the technological ability to create his own electrophoresis setup, and from the sound of it, had no money to purchase commercially available equipment. Even if he had, the ability to isolate the ricin from the electrophoresis gel is a further technological step. It is highly unlikely that the substance found in the refrigerator was actually ricin in a form that could be weaponized. If it was weapons-grade ricin, the quantity needed to be effective is so large that our own military has ruled out the practicality of weaponizing it. That is why the authorities could state with confidence that there was no danger and that terrorism could be ruled out.

My guess is that the man had some castor beans in his refrigerator, holding them there to be planted in the Spring. The castor bean plant is a very common ornamental. This fits with the "very small container" description, and the vagueness in describing what was actually found. His misfortune was probably telling somebody that the beans were there and then, perhaps in a fit of Darwinian genius, informing them that such beans were what ricin was made from. Snowballs roll downhill.

This case will probably quietly go away. Lots of tax dollars will be spent in make-work for law enforcement. Osama is probably ROTFL in his cave. The terrorists have scored again, because the US government showed up to help.

Yellow Journalism : The Devil is in the Details

As a grumpy old man I occasionally find myself empathizing with Elijah as he faced the prophets of Baal. One of the surest ways to twist my tail is to point me at a newspaper article where the salient facts are buried and the salacious facts are trumpeted.

Come now, let us reason together. Everyone who thinks that a convicted felon should be able to expect a jail sentence, raise your hand. Everyone who thinks that a person who lies to get a service someone else paid for is a hero, nod your head. Everyone who thinks it is acceptable to steal $30,000 for a good cause, say "Amen".

I thought so.

Do not mistake my targets. I do not wish to imply that only the reporters in the liberal press are demon-inspired. However, in the January 26, 2011 article in the Akron Beacon Journal, Kelley Williams-Bolar leaves jail but public outcry escalates, the following two statements are separated by a single paragraph :

"A jail official confirmed that Williams-Bolar, 40, was released about 10 a.m., after serving nine days of a 10-day sentence for improperly enrolling her children in Copley-Fairlawn schools."

and

"On Jan. 18, Williams-Bolar was sentenced to 10 days in jail after a jury convicted her of two felony counts of tampering with records. She also was given two years of probation and ordered to perform 80 hours of community service."

So which statement is true?

Let's recap some facts.

1. Williams-Bolar lives in Akron in subsidized housing where the subsidy is dependent on the number of occupants
2. Williams-Bolar signed affidavits both stating that her children were residents of Akron (to obtain the subsidy) and Copley Twp. (to get taxpayer provided education)
3. Copley-Fairlawn Schools determined that the amount of tuition stolen from the district by the deceit was about $30,000
4. Williams-Bolar was given opportunity to repay the stolen tuition but refused

I count three (3) commandments of the Big Ten violated: the ones that have to do with coveting, lying, and stealing. However, because Williams-Bolar is black, people like the Rev. Al Pinhead see this as a case of racial oppression, and droves of others across the country have expressed solidarity with this criminal -- "A Change.org web-based petition seeking to reduce William-Bolar's sentence on appeal had collected almost 7,000 signatures by midafternoon. 'She has been robbed of the opportunity to elevate her life and the lives of her family through her own intelligence and hard work — the alleged "American Dream," ' the petition read in part."

Bullfeathers. Certainly anyone who seeks a better set of circumstances for her children will find sympathy in the population at large. However, the fact that a supposedly "Christian" nation throws the Ten Commandments under the bus whenever they conflict with self-delusional righteousness is an indication that the "Christianity" professed by the majority is nothing but the fraud its atheistic critics claim it to be.

Let us get some things straight. God is not the author of situation ethics. It is never right to do wrong. Sin is not measured by degree; the Bible is clear that if a person offends in one point of the Law, he has broken the whole thing. The problem is not that people sin. The problem is that people refuse to confess the sin and repent. What foolishness to raise money to appeal the conviction when a better purpose would be served by raising the money to repay her debt to the taxpayers she cheated.

It is not hard to visualize a situation in which a person makes a deliberate decision to sin in order to avoid an unpleasant alternative. I fully understand that kind of situation. To claim that something is a lesser evil, however, still leaves you with an evil. To claim that the lesser evil somehow is mitigated by the situation is to despise the sacrifice of Jesus for all of our sin. The bogus Christians will read this and start looking for some big stones, because it will irritate them as greatly as Stephen's audience was irritated.

The liberal press would have you try to serve both God and self. God would have you die to self and live for Jesus Christ. The outrage that has been expressed is only a symptom of the ignorance of righteousness within the general population. Don't be a chump. Stand up for the Ten Commandments, and don't let anybody tell you they no longer count.

Liberalism = Mental Illness

Liberalism has been described as a form of mental illness (Lyle H, Rossiter, Jr., MD, The Liberal Mind : The Psychological causes of Political Madness, Free World Books LLC, St. Charles IL, 2006). [n.b. There are other books out with similar titles and conclusions, but to mention them here would immediately cause manifestation of psychotic symptoms in people whom I wish to cause to think rationally.]

One of the hallmarks of the modern liberal movement has been the concept of political correctness, that is,

1. Of, relating to, or supporting broad social, political, and educational change, especially to redress historical injustices in matters such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.
2. Being or perceived as being overconcerned with such change, often to the exclusion of other matters.

(Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Houghton Miflin Company, NY, 1997)

In attempting to redress perceived injustices, it is argued by those subscribing to the concept that censorship is good if it is controlled by people who have a more righteous mindset (i.e, similar thinking liberals).

Enter the selective use of certain words. At this point it is appropriate to postulate a null hypothesis that God did not confuse the languages at Babel to try to prevent political correctness. I welcome any and all tests which might tend to cause that null hypothesis to be rejected at, say, a confidence level of 10%. In any event, the PC (politically correct) crowd has moved with great success to take out of literature those things which they deem offensive; they specialize in tare removal (viz. Matthew 13: 24-30). That this is a good thing is possibly linked to the belief that people with sensitivity to gluten won't miss the wheat anyway.

Here we have poor Huckleberry Finn on the cutting room floor (New edition of 'Huckleberry Finn' to lose the N-word) where the term that Huck uses throughout the story to describe his friend Jim is converted to a form that is less offensive to Certain People.

Language is a means of transporting thoughts from one person's mind to the mind of another. It may be through the use of words; the term has also been logically extended to drawings (the alphabet is a type of abstract art), gestures ("body language"), actions (kisses and punches come to mind), or smells (some people are deliberately raunchy). What is most important, however, appears to be context. Pushing a person into the path of a car has a completely different meaning from pushing a person out of the path of a car -- both actions are communicating a thought by pushing, but the context makes the message.

So I would ask, what is the difference between the term that Mark Twain placed in Huck Finn's conversation, and the use of "n-word", "n*****", or some other euphemism, as used by good liberals, if the intended meaning is the same? For that matter, as a descendant of Slavs, I should be able to claim that the term "slave" needs to be banned, since it is a derogatory word that is derived from the language of my ancestors, and besides, sláva roughly translates as "glory" (moc a sláva = power and glory, or, sláva Kristu veliká = glory to Christ the great).

Further, the word "slave", which is to be used instead of "n-word" in this new PC re-write of Twain's classic is quite imprecise. The classic Latin term servus, or "slave" is the origin of our English word "servant", but servitude is broken down into both voluntary and involuntary servitude. The latter is what most people mean when they say "slavery". However, voluntary slavery -- indentured servitude -- was the means by which a substantial number of Europeans were brought to America. Thus, to be precise, if Huck's companion is to be called Slave Jim, he should really be retitled Involuntary Slave Jim to differentiate him from some immigrant Irishman of the time who would properly be called Voluntary Slave Jim.

There is another consequence to this whole flapdoodle. Let us say that another generation passes, indoctrinated in the new PC ignorance. The only people who use the "n-word" are people privileged by birth and skin color to do so. Students reading history will have the impression that the involuntary servitude of people of African descent was really not such a bad thing after all, since, based on rewritten PC literature, the slave owners politely called their slaves "Slave ***", and whenever they see the "n-word" used in a historical context, it will have been laundered to mean that the person so tagged was viewed as a fraternal comrade. So much for the corruption of history.

Indeed, liberalism is a mental illness.