May Is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Crazy People Are Dangerous

Posted on | May 24, 2020 | Comments Off on May Is Mental Health Awareness Month, and Crazy People Are Dangerous

Last week, a shocking video went viral showing a young black man brutally beating an elderly white man. James Woods posted the video to his Twitter account, and even President Trump took notice. Online sleuths using face-recognition software quickly identified the suspect as 20-year-old Jaden Hayden, and linked him to social-media accounts with bizarre racial rants:

Content Hayden had previously uploaded to his YouTube channel suggested he holds black supremacist beliefs.
“The black race is the chosen race, the black race was supposed to rule the earth, but now…they have to go to the white man for everything and that’s not good,” Hayden says in one video.

Hayden had also reportedly uploaded other videos showing him attacking elderly white people and, according to his father, was being treated for mental health problems in Washtenaw County — the Ann Arbor area — before being diagnosed with COVID-19, and being transferred to the Detroit-area nursing home where the attack occurred:

The suspect’s father, who asked not to be named, said his son has mental health issues and a pending assault case in Washtenaw County and should never have been placed in the nursing home.
“He has issues and for them to put him in a facility like that, nothing good was going to happen,” the suspect’s father told 7 Action News.
He said his son was recently moved to the nursing center because the 20-year-old was diagnosed with COVID-19 at the University of Michigan Hospital.
The father said he’s been working with Washtenaw County Mental Health Services to get his son the help he needs and that he was placed in a group home in Chelsea. But, recently, he said his son began hearing voices and that’s when he was taken to the hospital and it was there he says that his son was diagnosed with COVID-19.
“He never should have been housed… quarantined with the victim that he eventually assaulted. That should have never happened,” he said. “Someone dropped the ball.”

Why am I thinking about the title of a 1974 Richard Pryor album?

Never mind — the point made by many people on Twitter was that, if something like this had happened with the races reversed, CNN would be in 24/7 coverage mode, and the liberal media wouldn’t be satisfied until they had whipped up enough anger to spark a deadly riot. As it is, of course, most of the media are ignoring this incident, and certainly none of them are suggesting that the actions of Jaden Hayden represent any widespread danger. Whereas, by contrast, we are told by the media that incidents like the death of Ahmaud Arbery are socially significant, as if no black person is safe from such violence. The media’s distortions of reality — white on black violence is actually rather rare — probably play a part in inciting the kind of paranoid racial resentments that may have inspired Jaden Hayden’s crime. His posting of hateful video rants suggest that Hayden’s mental illness had a racial aspect, and it is fortunate that he is now in custody. Just imagine what might have happened if someone like that had gotten his hands on a firearm. It’s scary.

Meanwhile, we can report that the victim in this attack, 75-year-old Army veteran Norman Bledsoe, is recovering from his injuries, and Hayden has been charged with assault and larceny.

Category: Crime, Michigan, Racism

‘A Team of Editors’

Posted on | May 24, 2020 | 1 Comment

This is going to become the stuff of legend, so I wanted to take note of it: The New York Times decided to devote the entirety of its front page to a list of 1,000 names of COVID-19 victims. It’s Memorial Day weekend, and we are at or near the 100,000 mark in terms of nationwide death toll from the virus so . . . Well, there was some rationale for this, anyway, and the New York Times staff devoted hours to the project:

Simone Landon, assistant editor of the Graphics desk, wanted to represent the number in a way that conveyed both the vastness and the variety of lives lost. . . .
“We knew we were approaching this milestone,” she added. “We knew that there should be some way to try to reckon with that number.”
Putting 100,000 dots or stick figures on a page “doesn’t really tell you very much about who these people were, the lives that they lived, what it means for us as a country,” Ms. Landon said. So, she came up with the idea of compiling obituaries and death notices of Covid-19 victims from newspapers large and small across the country, and culling vivid passages from them.
Alain Delaquérière, a researcher, combed through various sources online for obituaries and death notices with Covid-19 written as the cause of death. He compiled a list of nearly a thousand names from hundreds of newspapers. A team of editors from across the newsroom, in addition to three graduate student journalists, read them and gleaned phrases that depicted the uniqueness of each life lost . . .

Scarcely five minutes after their list was published, people on Twitter began pointing out an obvious error: Jordan Haynes, 27, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was the sixth name on the Times list, but he did not die of COVID-19. He was a homicide victim, whose body was found in a car in a wooded area near Interstate 380. Exactly how the “team of editors” made such a colossal blunder, we don’t know, but they’ve deleted Haynes’ name from the list and promised to publish a correction tomorrow.

By the way, if the Times wished the list to be representative of the U.S. coronavirus toll, at least three-quarters would be over 65 years of age, and about 52 percent would be from four states — New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Michigan — with the highest death tolls. Iowa? With only 449 reported coronavirus deaths, the Hawkeye State is not even a full percentage point of the death toll, but 0.45%. If the “team of editors” needed the names of four or five dead Iowans to represent this, in a list of a thousand names, how was it that they chose this homicide victim? And if they can blunder so badly in this, what else do they get wrong?

Category: Iowa, New York Times

The Early Summer Book Post

Posted on | May 24, 2020 | Comments Off on The Early Summer Book Post

— by Wombat-socho

Since the end of tax season, I’ve been making up for lost time. I’m a little behind on my Kindle Lending Library borrows, but on the other hand, I had some spare cash this month after paying bills, and I spent it wisely. On books. For my Kindle, because I’m still not in my own space – yet. SOON.

Going to start with an oldie but a goodie – Tom Clancy’s Red Storm Rising, which used to be a technothriller but is now an alternate history thank to the Great Politics Mess-Up. On the off-chance you haven’t read this, it’s a great recounting of the Third World War that never was, sparked by a massive act of jihadi sabotage against a major Soviet oil refinery. While Larry Bond’s name isn’t on the cover, Clancy gave him (and Bond’s game Harpoon) a ton of credit in the foreword, and rightly so. Clancy manages to keep several plot lines on both sides moving all through the book, and foreshadows the great work he’d later do on the best books from the Ryanverse. Highly recommended.

Kurt Schlichter’s Kelly Turnbull novels remind me somewhat of Clancy’s tales of John Clark, if Clark had less empathy and more of a tendency to get shot up…anyhow, I binged Wildfire and Collapse last weekend, and they’re both good reads. Turnbull’s mission in the former is to stop a bunch of jihadis from releasing a particularly nasty variant of Ebola Marburg in the People’s Republic while pretending to be a PBI agent. Bonus points for the many humorous parts where Turnbull turns the genderfluid transracial & transsexual craziness of the PR against its bureaucrats. The latter reads uncomfortably like a near-future technothriller in which the corrupt rulers of the PR’s Pacific States are selling out to Red China to save their own hides from the starving masses; initially, Turnbull’s mission is to smuggle in an ace hacker to trash the control systems for the reactor aboard the former USS Theodore Roosevelt, but as so often happens, he and the very unwilling hacker find themselves headed for San Francisco along with a team of Rangers and a somewhat demented demo expert whose dream of blowing up the Golden Gate Bridge is about to come true.

Jerry Pournelle’s heirs are getting his last works finished up and on the market. The last third of the Heorot trilogy, Starborn & Godsons, co-written with Larry Niven & Steven Barnes, is out (and on my reading list), and the long-awaited Mamelukes (finished by David Weber & Philip Pournelle) is due out next month. In the meantime, there is John Carr’s memorial anthology for Jerry, The Best Of Jerry Pournelle, which contains some of the best of Jerry’s short work, some of it in collaboration with Larry Niven (“Reflex” and “Spirals”) and some of it previously uncollected – there’s a Wade Curtis story that somehow didn’t get picked up before, and Jerry’s contribution to The Last Dangerous Visions, which is still going to be published Real Soon Now. This is an excellent collection just on the basis of the stories, but there’s also a lot of tributes from Steven Barnes, Larry Niven, and others. Highly recommended.

I am unenthused about the release of Uncle Bob’s The Pursuit of the Pankera. I thought the original version (The Number of the Beast) was terrible and was glad I’d just borrowed it from the library. However, if someone wants to shell out the $10 (or loan me the book) so they can get my opinion, I’m willing to tackle it.

On a more positive note, a bunch of authors I respect are having a Memorial Day Weekend sale. I’ve reviewed a fair number of these books over the last few years, and you could easily pick up a lot of good reads for five bucks without even trying hard. Go forth and browse!

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Books

FMJRA 2.0: Walking In The Shadow Of The Big Man

Posted on | May 23, 2020 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Rule 5 Sunday: Sarah Rose McDaniel
Animal Magnetism
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL
Ninety Miles From Tyranny

Remember How Everybody Was Going to Die Because Georgia Ended Lockdowns?
Gregor Mendel Blog
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: Hocus Pocus
A View From The Beach
EBL

‘Out-of-Towners’ Blamed for ‘Mayhem’ After Florida City Re-Opens Beach
The Pirate’s Cove
357 Magnum
EBL

An Appeal From Bear Creek
Animal Magnetism
EBL

Trust the Health Experts!
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 05.18.20
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL

The Battle of Atillis Gym
The Pirate’s Cove
EBL

An Experiment That Failed
357 Magnum
Dark Brightness
Pushing Rubber Downhill
EBL

In The Mailbox: 05.19.20
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL

Chelsey Coyer: American Hero
EBL

‘Biological Leninism’
EBL

The Big Yellow Button Has Returned
EBL

We Made It
EBL

In The Mailbox: 05.20.20
357 Magnum
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL

Dining at the Longbranch
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 05.21.20
A View From The Beach
Proof Positive
EBL

In The Mailbox: 05.22.20
357 Magnum
Proof Positive
EBL

West Virginia’s COVID-19 ‘Hot Spot’

Posted on | May 23, 2020 | 1 Comment

After our trip to the Longbranch Saloon in Hedgesville, W.Va., I discovered that we had actually been in more danger than I knew:

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice said Thursday that West Virginia National Guard members were being sent immediately to the Eastern Panhandle because of an increasing number of positive COVID-19 cases.
Depending on their findings, Justice said he may consider making it mandatory to wear a face covering or mask while in public in Berkeley and Jefferson counties.
“We have been really watching an issue that’s been brewing in the Eastern Panhandle in Berkeley and Jefferson counties again,” he said during a news conference.
“Those numbers are not good and that’s all there is to it. Berkeley and Jefferson had 15 and 20 (new) positive cases, respectively, yesterday,” he said.
It’s time for action, but not time to panic, he said.
“We’re running to the fire. I’ve directed our National Guard to go, and go within hours, and to report back to me first thing in the morning as to all of their findings — with the assistance of the health people there — and any and everything they can come up with,” Justice said. . . .
State Department of Health and Human Resources’ numbers have consistently shown a local increase in the number of positive cases and especially during the last 10 days.
Berkeley had 191 cases on May 12, and that number had grown to 248 Thursday morning.
Jefferson had 88 on the same date, but the number had risen to 131 cases Thursday morning, according to DHHR data posted on its COVID-19 dashboard.
Justice said the increase in cases may stem from the counties’ proximity to nearby metropolitan areas like Washington, D.C., where the virus is also on the uptick. . . .
Both counties had previously been declared coronavirus “hot spots” because of their higher number of positive cases.

You’re going to see lots of stories like this about different parts of the country as statewide lockdowns end. In the case of West Virginia, which has a very low rate of infection ever since the coronavirus pandemic hit, the Eastern Panhandle was a “hot spot” only in comparison to the rest of the state, and an increase of about 45 cases in 10 days in Berkeley County is really a drop in the bucket, by nationwide standards.

Georgia, Florida and Texas have all reopened without experiencing disaster — so far, so good — but that doesn’t mean there won’t be “spikes” or localized outbreaks that cause public-health concerns. If your local area’s current level of infection is low, a couple dozen new cases can produce a troubling “spike” in the statistical trend, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in imminent danger. The liberal media have spent weeks trying to promote the narrative that corpses will soon be stacking up like cordwood in rural America (e.g., “The coronavirus invades Trump country”), but most of this is just statistical voodoo: “Look at this outbreak at a North Dakota meat-processing plant! ICU overcrowding in Montgomery, Alabama! See? We told you so!” If you examine such stories with a skeptical eye, however, you find that anomalous events are being dishonestly portrayed as examples of a “trend” that doesn’t actually exist. Meanwhile, in West Virginia:

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — State officials are moving forward with a plan to address the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Berkeley and Jefferson counties.
But people won’t be required to wear face coverings while in public, Gov. Jim Justice said during a news conference Friday.
The decision comes at the same time results have been announced for the approximately 1,600 local residents who were tested last weekend in Martinsburg and Charles Town.
Justice said officials had been compiling information on the situation from a number of sources including the West Virginia National Guard, legislators, local health departments and other state health professionals.
“The net of the whole thing, at least at this time, is that everyone concluded things are OK and aren’t at high alert,” he said.
“We want people to continue to know in Berkeley and Jefferson counties that it’s a high-exposure area. So we want them to continue to wear a mask as much as possible but we’re not going to make it mandatory,” he said. . . .
[T]here will be a greater emphasis on community testing in the Eastern Panhandle, including Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties, said Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, Adjutant General of the West Virginia National Guard.
Bill Kearns, executive director of the Berkeley-Morgan County Board of Health, said results are now available from the testing conducted May 15 and 16.
Fifteen positive cases were reported each from Berkeley and Jefferson counties, he said.
“You have to remember that we’re talking about testing 872 people in Berkeley County, which has a total population of about 119,000, so the number was relatively low,” he said.
“But out of those 872 people who tested positive, the amount only comes out to be about 1.6 percent,” he said.

Widespread testing with a low rate of positive results will produce an increase in the number of known cases, but that doesn’t mean the community is experiencing an emergency situation, and so the governor is not going to make it mandatory to wear masks in Berkeley County. This is eminently sensible, far more sensible than what is going on in Michigan, where the wretched Gretchen Whitmer has extended her statewide lockdown order until June 12. She’s doing everything possible to make sure Trump wins Michigan by a landslide in November.

Category: Health Care

Further Developments

Posted on | May 23, 2020 | 1 Comment

The October 2018 murder of Univerity of Utah student Lauren McCluskey is a topic I’ve blogged about before (“An Apparently Consensual Relationship”), but I hadn’t followed further developments in the case. The man who murdered McCluskey, convicted sex offender Melvin Rowland, shot himself to death a few hours after the murder, and you might think there could be no further developments. However, officials and reporters kept probing the chain of failures that led to McCluskey’s murder, and it is a very long list indeed:

Sept. 2, 2018: Lauren McCluskey met Melvin Shawn Rowland at London Belle, a Salt Lake City bar where he was working as a bouncer, and began a relationship with him. He gave her a false name and age, and didn’t disclose that he was a convicted sex offender on parole. He visited her often at her residence hall and quickly built friendships with other students in the building. Later that month, she went pistol shooting with Rowland and his friends; as a felon, Rowland was not allowed to possess a gun. . . .

Oct. 9: McCluskey learned Rowland’s real identity — including that he had lied about his age, 37, and not disclosed that he was a registered sex offender — in the first days of October, and briefly went home to Pullman, Wash. On Oct. 9, she invited Rowland to her dorm room, confronted him with the information, and broke off their relationship. He admitted his sex-offender status, but denied the age difference. McCluskey allowed him to spend the night in her room and borrow her car the next day to run errands. She began receiving text messages, purportedly from Rowland’s friends; some urged her to kill herself. . . .

Oct. 13: At 9:22 a.m., McCluskey again contacted university police, reporting she had received more messages she believed were from Rowland or his friends. The messages demanded money in exchange for not posting compromising photos of McCluskey and Rowland online. McCluskey said she sent $1,000 to an account as demanded, in hope of keeping the photos private. She spoke to an officer by phone, then in person, then by texts, and eventually called the Salt Lake City police department, which referred her back to campus. Chief Dale Brophy said police took the report, pulled Rowland’s criminal history — but did not learn he was on parole — and assigned a detective to follow up later on possible charges of sexual extortion. . . . “There was never an attempt by any of the officers involved to check [Rowland’s] ‘offender status.’ Further, there were no policies or procedures that required such checks.” . . .

It goes on from there, including the fact that the company that employed Rowland as a security guard had hired him under a false name (“Shawn Fields”) and had not run a background check. There were so many things wrong here, to say nothing of McCluskey’s poor judgment. She was 21, and probably a lot of 21-year-olds think of themselves as savvy enough to handle themselves in any situation, but like most college kids, she was not “street smart.” Rowland had obvious sociopathic traits (“He was really good at trying to say what he thought I wanted to hear,” said one woman who had briefly dated him a few months before McCluskey’s death), but McCluskey didn’t recognize those traits as danger signs.

The police handling of the case was a disaster from start to finish. Any woman who relies on police to protect her in this kind of situation is putting her life at risk. And the reason Lauren McCluskey’s case popped up in the headlines this past week had to do with the campus cops:

Lauren McCluskey explained to the officer at the University of Utah that she was being extorted over explicit photos she had taken of herself. Someone — she wasn’t certain who at that moment — had accessed her files and was threatening to release them if she didn’t hand over $1,000.
Scared by the demand, she paid the money and then sent copies of the messages and the pictures to the campus police department as evidence.
When Miguel Deras, one of the officers assigned to her case, received them, he saved the photos on his personal phone. And days before McCluskey was killed by the man who was blackmailing her, Deras showed off at least one of the images to a male co-worker and bragged about getting to look at them whenever he wanted, according to two fellow officers.

Disgusting. The whole thing is disgusting.

Category: Crime, Utah

In The Mailbox: 05.22.20

Posted on | May 22, 2020 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Deadline to submit links for tomorrow’s FMJRA is noon; for Rule 5 Sunday links, midnight. All times Pacific. Please remember to link this and other posts on Twitter and other social media.

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