We have Clearance, Clarence

I'm not ignoring all of the violence.  I'm just tired of it, and I don't have a whole lot to say right now except that we need to stop shooting each other.  Since the last post, we've had a black man shoot a bunch of officers in Baton Rouge, and there's breaking news from a few hours ago that an officer in Miami shot a black man who had his hands up and was literally doing his job, which was taking care of an autistic man.  Thank God that man survived.  Maybe God will use him to bring some sanity and unity to this nation.  I've never met him, but he just looks like the kind of guy who may be able to help do just that.  And unlike a lot of the others that became BLM poster children, this guy is both alive and appears to have done absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever, in fact going out of his way to make sure he did everything right to make sure that he would not get shot.  And yet he did get shot.  And then he got handcuffed?  What the hell?  There aren't many details on this yet, and we don't know which officer fired the shot or even what race the officer was, so let me move on to the topic I've put off for a few weeks now...

I work for a company that makes a lot of parts for defense contractors.  Naturally, I know a lot of people with security clearances because of this.  I also know some people who have had their security clearances revoked.  One, I believe, had it revoked for defaulting on a loan.  There are tons of other reasons you can have it revoked or not have it granted in the first place.  Check them out for yourself here: http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/security-clearance-jobs/security-clearance-eligibility.html.  I'm not making this up.  Now, based on that list, how many times is Hillary Clinton disqualified from having a security clearance?  Be honest.  Did you lose count?

One of the more egregious things you can do to disqualify yourself from having a security clearance is being extremely careless with classified information.  According to the FBI, Hillary did exactly that.  According to EVERY SINGLE PERSON I've talked to about this that has a security clearance, if they did the same things that Hillary did, they would not only unquestionably have their security clearances revoked, but also almost certainly be terminated from their jobs, and likely face legal action as well.  Meanwhile, Hillary is not facing legal action and is currently seeking the highest job in the land.  She is running for President when she should not even be allowed to have a security clearance, because she put our nation in danger by being extremely careless with classified information on her personal server.

Assuming she sleeps with a former President with the same last name at least a few times per year, I understand that taking away her security clearance is a moot point.  Being a former President, Bill is still briefed on the the most sensitive of matters, and Hillary is certainly privy to these briefings.  But what makes this whole thing worse is that Hillary lied about what she did.  Repeatedly.  Trey Gowdy tore her a new one when he questioned James Comey.  That man should be this nation's Attorney General.  And I hadn't even mentioned her terrible leadership and lies surrounding Benghazi until just now, and I've already given you plenty of reasons why Killary should never serve as Commander-in-Chief.  And while I'm not the most enthusiastic Trump supporter, to put it mildly, it seems very likely that I will be sounding the Trump-Pence when I vote this November.

Donald Trump has said some stupid things, and he's done some stupid things, but I can't recall an incident in which he truly put national security at risk.  I don't know of a reason why he would be disqualified for a security clearance.  And, while many may dislike him, he does not have blood on his hands like Hillary does.  But please, tell me again how outraged you are that a chunk of Melania Trump's speech the other night echoed Michelle Obama's speech from eight years ago. Apparently this has become relevant, with the Left demanding an apology.  Has Hillary apologized to the families of the Benghazi victims yet?  Or the American people?  Or the world?

Black and Blue

When will we all come together?  When will we realize that those who want to rip people apart, put them in categories, and pit them against each other are evil?  Why do we feed into it?  Why do we allow it to happen?  Why do we allow the media to help facilitate this?

My heart is broken.  I watched videos posted online of two black men dying this week.  I pray to the Lord that justice prevails in both of these circumstances.  From the video I saw, it did not appear that Alton needed to be killed.  And while there was no video of Philando being killed, the video of the aftermath of it was heart-wrenching.  I mean, I really felt a bit sick.  The moment near the end where the little kid who witnessed the whole thing tries to comfort the mom shooting the video was just about unbearable.  And if it truly happened the way she said it did, the officer should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  But this should not be turned into a blacks vs. police officers war, or a black vs. white war, or any war whatsoever.  Actually, the officer who killed Philando wasn't even white.  And really, we don't know whether these officers were just too quick to use deadly force and unfit for the job, actually scared for their lives, or racist against blacks.  But it sure does not help black people trust police officers, as it again shows why many black people fear police officers.  But does anyone really think that those officers woke up that morning thinking, "What I really want to do today is shoot a nigger."  I would highly doubt that very highly.  Are there racist police officers?  Yes.  Does our nation have an unfortunate history of racist police officers?  Yes.  Are black people more likely to get pulled over for little to no reason?  It sure seems like it.  But do police officers kill black people at an alarming rate?  That depends entirely on how you spin the statistics.

Let me explain what I mean here.  I love statistics, especially baseball statistics, but that's not important right now.  In my love for statistics, I've figured out that if you're clever enough, you can find a way to spin and twist most statistics to fit what you want them to say.  To take a ficticious example from baseball, let's say Hitter A plays shortstop for the Red Sox.  He hits .300 before the All-Star break and .333 after the All-Star break.  Hitter B plays shortstop for the Yankees.  He hits .297 before the All-Star break and .330 after the All-Star break.  Which player has the better batting average?  The Red Sox player, right?  I mean, the statistics don't lie!  He had a better average before the All-Star break AND a better average after the All-Star break!  But there's something I chose not to tell you here (besides the fact that I'm a Yankees fan).  The Red Sox player had 90 hits in 300 at-bats before the All-Star break and 59 hits in 177 at-bats after the All-Star break.  The Yankees player had 89 hits in 300 at-bats before the All-Star break and 99 hits in 300 at-bats after the all star break.  Thus, the Yankees player had the better batting average!  He hit .313, versus the Red Sox player hitting .312.  So, bringing this back to my point, which person is correct?  The person who says that black men are 3.5 times more likely to be killed by police or the person who says that white men are 1.3 or 1.7 times more likely to be killed by police than black men?  Well, the answer is both.

This guy (http://www.copinthehood.com/2015/04/killed-by-police-2-of-3-race.html) explains it pretty well actually and shows all of the stats.  More whites are killed by police than blacks in the United States, which is an indisputable fact, but there are more white people in the United States than black people, so that is essentially a meaningless fact.  What would make more sense is to see how many black people are killed per capita, and when you look at that, you see that blacks are far more likely than whites to be killed per capita (3.5 times more likely, in fact).  But, if you adjust for the homicide rate of whites compared with blacks, white men are actually 1.7 times more likely to be killed by police than black men, or if you adjust for the for the rate at which white men commit the felony of killing a police officer versus the rate at which black men commit the felony of killing a police officer, white men are actually 1.3 times more likely to be killed by police than black men.  There are countless more ways you can spin these numbers, comparing and contrasting one statistic with another to get the narrative you want.  Statistics don't lie, but if you don't know the entire story behind them, they sure can be misleading.  Take what you want out of this analysis, but I don't see a disturbing trend of racist police officers murdering blacks in today's America.  Yes, there are certainly individual incidents that show that we still have a problem in this country, and we may have just seen some of those, but the perceived trend is probably fueled largely by disproportionate media coverage of black men being killed by law enforcement officers.

In fact, in most homicides, victims and killers are of the same race.  There's no way that I can see to spin that data to make it appear to show something else.  Here are the numbers straight from the FBI for the latest year for which they are available, 2014 (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/expanded-homicide-data/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2014.xls):
Whites killing Whites: 2488
Blacks killing Blacks: 2205
Whites killing Blacks: 187
Blacks killing Whites: 446
With white people being about 65% of the U.S. population and black people being about 13%, you don't see a 65:13 ratio of homicides committed by blacks to homicides committed by whites, and 446 incidents of black-on-white homicide versus 187 incidents of white-on-black homicide is disturbing, no matter how you spin in.  Certainly there are other statistics at play here, but regardless of how they are used in conjunction with this data, there is no way you will end up with a 65:13 ratio of white-on-black homicide to black-on-white homicide, which, with all things being equal, is what you would expect to see.  But all things are not equal.

I'm just presenting statistics here, and perhaps it's uncomfortable to see these statistics, but we need to analyze what's going on in order to stop it.  Yes, it has now come out that Alton was convicted of raping a 14-year-old when he was 20, but he was not killed for that reason here, although being a convicted felon, he could not have legally possessed a firearm.  But police officers should use deadly force only when lives are in danger.  Sometimes things don't happen that way, but I really believe that police officers are generally good people trying to do their jobs to serve and protect, and make it home to their families every day.  Sure, there are some bad cops, but we can't paint them with a broad brush and say that they're all racist because of the actions of a few cops, just like we can't demonize black people, calling them all thugs and implying that they deserve to be killed, for the actions of a few of them.  What happens when we do this?  We sew more fear and hate, and we cause more deaths.  More police officers die, more black people die, more people in general die.  And now we have five police officers murdered in Dallas and a bunch more shot.  There are bad people who want these kinds of wars. Stop the generalizations.  Stop the hate.  Black lives matter.  Blue lives matter.  Every life matters.

One thing I really don't understand is how this has become a Liberals vs. Conservatives issue once again.  We should all be upset about all 7 of these deaths, but you wouldn't know that from looking at social media.  It seems to be a mentality where "you took two of ours and we took five of yours" and vice versa.  I don't understand how we've gotten to that point as a nation.  I've seen disgusting things said on both sides, justifying the deaths of the officers, or showing callous indifference to the deaths of the black men.  But the hypocrisy is cringe-worthy as well.  When Alton and Philando were killed, a number of Liberals called out Conservatives for their silence after having said so much about Hillary Clinton (who was going to be the topic of this post until these terrible things happened, by the way).  Fair point really.  But then when five officers were killed in Dallas?  Crickets.  Maybe they had spent all of their energy trying to tear down the second amendment, but there was not a word from most of these folks about the police officers who were murdered.  There were more words about Alton and Philando from many of them.  A few implied even implied that the officers had it coming, a few acknowledged and decried the shootings of the officers, and some expressed disgust that officers killed the shooter, using a robot bomb, instead of taking him alive.  Ironically enough, the officers shot in Dallas were actually there SERVING AND PROTECTING the very people who were protesting the shootings of Alton and Philando.

Both sides must stop the rhetoric, which will only encourage more crazy people will come out of the woodwork and murder more people, whether they are police officers, Blacks, or Black police officers.  Conservatives must not blame what happened in Dallas on Black Lives Matter or Barack Obama or imply that the shooter is somehow representative of all blacks.  Go ahead and point out issues with Black Lives Matter or the way Obama has led the country, but neither wanted the shooter to shoot those cops in Dallas.  Liberals must not blame what happened in Louisiana and Minnesota on rampant racism or guns themselves or imply that the shooters are somehow representative of all cops.  Go ahead and point out issues with racism and gun control, but we don't know if racism sparked these particular deaths, and they certainly had nothing to do with gun control.  There are about 320 million people living here in America.  That means that, based on the 2014 FBI homicide statistics, every one of us has a 0.00086% chance of being murdered by a black person and a 0.00086% chance of being murdered by a white person.  Let's stop living in fear and work together to bring these numbers down even further, rather than fostering an environment in which they will rise.