I’m still having trouble with the bombing of a Monroe, Michigan lawyer.

I just can’t get my arms around what kind of an American would put an improvised explosive device under the passenger seat of a car taking two boys to a football practice.

This from the NY Daily News:

Erik G. Chappell was driving his sons to football practice late Tuesday afternoon when a pipe bomb planted in his Volvo station wagon exploded.

 

Chappell, 42, was hurt, but his boys, Grant, 13, and Cole, 11, took the brunt of the blast and were more seriously injured.

 

Investigators told the Monroe Evening News that the plotter packed the pipe bomb with shrapnel and placed it inside the car under the passenger seat, where one of the boys was sitting at the time of the blast.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/09/22/2011-09-22_targeted_lawyers_client_suspected_of_planting_bomb_in_mich_car_bomb_case_vics_91.html#ixzz1YuFuo3qW

The Chappell bombing concerns me because I know Erik and the kind of person he is.  He represented me some time ago in a series of business disputes.

Perhaps the local bombing was even more in mind because of proceedings in New York this week to decide whether or not the United Nations should award national recognition to the Palestinian National Authority, without holding its residents to negotiating the terms and borders of such a state with the Israelis.

Even as the logo which Palestinians were using to put forward their nascent nation takes all of the present State of Israel.

Absent from the logo is any hint that Palestine consists of anything other than Arab territory. No nod is given even to the U.N.’s 1948 decision to divide the region into Jewish and Arab sectors. As for the shape of Israel by the time it was forced into waging the defensive Six Day war in 1967: irrelevant. The logo illustrates that the Palestinian bid before the U.N. for support of a unilateral declaration of statehood is disingenuous and dangerous.

There is not too much left to the imagination here: Israel is “wiped off the map.”  http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/palestinian-logo-suggests-elimination-israel_594027.html

So it was with all of this in mind this morning that I included the names of Erik, Grant and Cole Chappell at that point in the synagogue service when all are asked to pray for those who are ill, or facing difficult circumstances.

After the service, I asked the rabbi, “So, if you were Erik Chappell would you make peace with the person who did this?”  Without missing a blink, the cleric said, “Yes, I have to believe it is possible.”   Underneath it all, we were also addressing whether it is possible for the Israelis to make peace with a group that bombs its people and proposes to wipe it off the earth’s face.

Which is why, I admit to you, that Erik and the Chappells are better people than I.  This is from the statement they issued after the incident:

“As horrific as the bomb and its immediate aftermath were, we continue to be uplifted by the support we have received.  It is a testament that good will always overcomes evil.

My experience, and that of my people is less optimistic.  It is not clear to me that, “Good will always overcomes evil.”  Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesnt.

Meanwhile, my fondest hope is that when officers go to arrest the miscreant who planted that IED in Chappell’s Volvo, the suspect chooses fight over flight.  And that it takes longer for morticians to remove the shells from his body than it took doctors to remove the ball bearings from Cole’s and Grant’s legs.

Eric Chappell looks like he once played football or basketball.  One might describe him as clean cut, well chiseled.

I think he told me he had once been an FBI agent.  A lawyer, he superbly represented me several years ago.

It was with shock and anger that I saw the following in Free Press today:

Erik Chappell is a respected lawyer who practices in Michigan and Ohio, handling cases such as divorces and civil litigation. He’s a husband and father, a boys’ football coach for the Catholic Youth Organization and a neighbor who hosts an annual Fourth of July party.

Who wanted him dead?

Authorities don’t know the answer yet, but they do know someone planted a bomb on his Volvo to do “maximum damage,” said Special Agent Donald Dawkins of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

As Chappell, 42, and his two young sons were driving in Monroe on Tuesday evening, the bomb detonated with such force that the blast was heard a mile away.

Flames poured out of the Volvo’s windows, and smoke billowed into the September sky.

The car burned to bare metal.

Chappell and his sons are expected to survive.

“It’s really a miracle, and it’s a blessing that everyone got out,” Dawkins said.

Dawkins said investigators had “a ton” of leads, but nothing was concrete. The ATF is offering a $10,000 reward to help identify the bomber

I am very thankful he and the boys are expected to survive.  My thoughts and prayers are with them.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110922/NEWS05/109220563/In-Monroe-shocking-car-bombing-an-unclear-motive

http://www.lydenlaw.com/

The American Thinker Blog has a piece today about a Walgreens pharmacist in Benton Harbor, Michigan, who was fired recently for using a personal handgun to chase off a pair of thugs attempting to rob the store.

The blog piece is here http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/09/walgreens_pharmacist_fired_for_using_gun_to_foil_robbery.html

In the links included are absolutely terrifying videos of the robbery from the store’s surveillance system.

Apparently, Walgreens execs think employees should fully comply with demands of anyone robbing their stores.

Perhaps someone should send Walgreens the following, from www.nypost.com today.

The gunman accused of killing four people at a Long Island pharmacy this past June pleaded guilty today to five counts of first degree murder — with his lawyer saying the shooter wanted to spare the families from reliving the ordeal during a long trial.

David Laffer, 33, who showed up in a Riverhead courtroom wearing a green prison jumpsuit, nodded when asked by a judge if he wanted to plead guilty to charges — one for each of the four victims and a fifth because there were multiple murders.

“Yes, your honor,” Laffer said, as more than two dozen family members of the four victims looked on.

snip

Laffer shot and killed Raymond Ferguson, 45, employee Jennifer Mejia, 17; and customers Jaime Taccetta, 33, and Bryon Sheffield, 71, during the June 19 massacre at Haven Drugs in Medford.

Laffer allegedly swiped 10,000 pills — mostly the painkiller hydrocodone — to satisfy her addiction. Cops later found 2,000 pills in the couple’s home.

Other evidence against Laffer included surveillance video of him donning a wig and sunglasses inside the store, fingerprints that he left at the pharmacy and the murder weapon recovered at his home.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/li_pharmacy_shooter_pleads_guilty_EemQYqLSwHWVkvjbW0Nf2O#ixzz1XQJfB45v

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/li_pharmacy_shooter_pleads_guilty_EemQYqLSwHWVkvjbW0Nf2O#ixzz1XQIyl75C

http://www.wzzm13.com/video/1148135991001/0/Walgreens-pharmacist-fired-for-using-gun

Three times as many Michiganders joined Gov. Rick Snyder to walk the Mackinac Bridge Monday than heard President Barack Obama deliver a Labor Day address in Detroit.

MACKINAW CITY — Gov. Rick Snyder led his first Mackinac Bridge Walk on Monday, striding across the 5-mile-long span with thousands of others in cold, windy weather and continuing one of Michigan’s most popular Labor Day traditions.

About 36,000 made the crossing — fewer than usual, probably because of the gloomy weather, said Bob Sweeney, executive secretary of the Mackinac Bridge Authority. Monday’s walk was the 54th-annual trek across the bridge linking Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas.  http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011109060327

And then there was this in the Free Press:

In his strongest words of support for organized labor, President Barack Obama told a riverfront crowd of thousands Monday in Detroit: “As long as I’m in the White House, I’m going to stand up for collective bargaining.”

snip

The crowd, estimated at about 12,000, filled the GM parking lot next to the Renaissance Center and repeatedly chanted “O-BA-MA,” “More good jobs,” and “Four more years” during the speech, especially when Obama said he was prepared to stick up for organized labor.

Then, there was this as described on FoxNews.com

Teamsters President James Hoffa called on workers to get involved in opposing Tea Party-aligned lawmakers next November.

“President Obama, this is your army, we are ready to march,” Hoffa said. “But everybody here’s got to vote. If we go back, and keep the eye on the prize, let’s take these son-of-a-bitches out.”

A Google search of the James Hoffa speech produced 22,700 results, with dozens and dozens of citations.  A search of the NY Times website, on Hoffa speech Detroit, produced the AP story about President Obama’s Labor Day speech, which contained  no reference to Hoffa’s remarks.

President Barack H. Obama spoke these words in Detroit today.  “Labor is on board.  Business is on board.  We just need…”

He was speaking to an audience of organized labor, to the accompaniment of cheers in the background:  Four more years, Four more years, Four more years!

What  he said (verbatim) was, “and we just need Congress to get on board” to his plans of spending massive amounts on what he described as reconstruction of America’s roads and bridges.

What he meant  (de jure)  was that we just need all of you, and your children, and your grandchildren, and probably their children as well, to get on board for servicing the debt we are going to incur to build these roads.

Of course, it’s possible what the President meant was that he would agree as the nation’s chief executive (as every ceo does) to a program of setting priorities with the nation’s capital.  Perhaps to afford funds to rebuild roads and bridges, we should spend less on providing medical care for illegal aliens who cross over our borders to have Anchor Babies.

Perhaps he meant that we should spend less on unemployment compensation for folks who’ve been on the dole for over a year.  Perhaps he thought that funds going down the Green Energy rat hole are best used for road construction.

If that is true, he has every opportunity to tell the nation about it on Thursday night when President Obama addresses a joint session of Congress about his plans to expand the nation’s jobs and conserve the nation’s capital.

Those who still harbor some last bit of optimism that Obama might give the cost of a Green Lantern comic book towards caution about our expanding levels of debt might want to re-think what the warm up speaker for the President had to say about America’s Tea Party.  Teamsters President James Hoffa Jr. said:

“President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let’s take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong,” Hoffa added.

Republican voters don’t want a responsible steward for their party’s Presidential leadership.  That’s what the managing editor of Grio.com told National Public Radio Friday.  If you’ve never heard of Grio.com, it was described by the network we fund as an NBC News site focused on the African-American community.

In the Week in Politics segment Friday on All Things Considered, the network our tax dollars supports invited two journalists to review developments in the Presidential race:   David Brooks of The New York Times and Joy-Ann Reid,  Grio.com’s managing editor.

Ever protective of the President, program host Melissa Block began by asking both guests about the White House’s poor polling results.  Quickly, however,  the subject moved to whom the Republicans might choose and why

BLOCK: Now, on the Republican side, we have seen a number of polls now showing Texas Governor Rick Perry vaulting ahead of the presumed GOP frontrunner, Mitt Romney. David Brooks, do you see Romney maybe tilting further to the right to more directly take on Rick Perry, and try to turn those numbers around.?
BROOKS: Yeah, they’re having a debate in Romney camp, what to do. Because the Perry numbers are broad and they’re real and they’re, I think, probably permanent. You know, there are two courses. One is just hope the guy implodes. He’s kind of a loudmouth…

BLOCK: Rick Perry, you’re talking about?

BROOKS: Rick Perry implodes. And I think they’re going to do that. And I guess I would do that. Through September, there are going to be three presidential debates, see how Perry does in those. But I think it’s more likely than not that Romney is going to have to go after Perry. And it would be a mistake to try to out-conservative him. Romney is, A, terrible that that; B, it would offend people who are Republican primary voters.

He has to find some other tact. And I think the two tacts to take is to point out that Perry uses campaign money as a governing and a political tool, and that reminds people of Tom DeLay. The second thing is, if this is a war on Washington and the opponents are Nancy Pelosi, then Perry is going to win.

But if Romney can shift it to a discussion about America’s place in the world, competition against China and India, then he seems like, I think, a more responsible steward. And that’s more his natural ground. But so, for a little while, they’re going to do nothing. Then I think Romney is going to have to prove his toughness and go on the attack.

BLOCK: And, Joy-Ann Reid, what do you think about what David is proposing there as a strategy for Mitt Romney, if he wants to take on Rick Perry?

REID: Well, I think it sound like a fine strategy. I don’t think it’s going to work. You know, the way I’m reading the Republican base right now, I don’t think they want a responsible steward. They want a firebrand, evangelical preacher that’s going to bring back what they see as the good old days of America before it was burdened down by horrible entitlements and the minimum wage, and all of these ghastly liberal policies that the Tea Party Republicans want gotten rid of.

Let’s get this right.

The NBC sponsored web site for black Americans sees a responsible steward as one who will bring back unbridled spending, record deficits and increasing loans from India and China.

To be more specific, Grio is worried about a moderation in the trend of taking things from those who pay taxes (the Tea Party) for benefits to those in the 50% or so who don’t.  Awful.  Awful.

What I find as awful is the choice of talking heads meant allegedly to represent America’s left and right.  Only someone who could fire Juan Williams would consider David Brooks as anything resembling conservative America.

But, hey, they don’t ask me about such matters.  They tell me to hand over my money.

What’s funny is that the Grio.com woman’s advice to Obama is actually pretty good:

REID: Well, you know, I think it’s interesting that, you know, one of the problems that the Obama campaign has had is that ever since he came into office, the American people wanted to talk about jobs, right? They wanted to talk about jobs, jobs, jobs and maybe mortgages. Those were the two hot topics.

But we spent the first two years going on about health care and sort of dragging through a big fight about that. And then we moved on to financial reform. And then we’ve spent the last year talking about deficits and spending. And deficits and spending fascinates the Beltway and fascinated the media, but the American people are not interested in that, so much as they are, again, about jobs.

And I think what we’re seeing for the Obama in numbers is this long, slow drip of people just being fed up at the jobs picture and the economy, for them personally, not feeling like it’s improving and not feeling like Washington is on message, right? So, on the one hand, I think his problem is that jobs number – that lingering, nagging ache over the economy.

But, on the other hand, if you look at the AP-GfK poll, it’s incredible how actually remarkably stable the president re-elect number is. It’s gone down exactly one point since the last time they took the poll.

And I think the other issue for Republicans, what they have to look at is that they’re not benefiting from people’s long, slow ache on the economy. Because when people look at Republicans, they like them even worse. And when they look at the Tea Party, they like them the least of all. So I think that for the Obama administration, the blessing for them in all of this is the existence of the Tea Party.

An unbiased host might have asked Reid whether Tea Partiers don’t have a point in highlighting the link between unbridled spending and uncooperative business owners’ re hiring.  But still….

The full transcript is here http://www.npr.org/2011/08/26/139977270/week-in-politics-obamas-vacation-obamas-approval-rating-republican-presidential-

The federal government is refusing to help Michigan delete non-citizens from its voter rolls, MI Secretary of State Ruth Johnson told WJR Radio’s Frank Beckman this week.

In an August 22 interview, she revealed that:

1.  “Thousands” of illegals are on the state’s voter rolls.

2.  The Social Security Administration has been asked to verify Michigan’s voter rolls, but refuses to do so.  Michigan has offered to send its data to Washington, preserving SSA privacy, but the federal agency nevertheless refuses to cooperate.

3.  The state has been asked to approve same-day registration, but declines to adopt it, because of obvious chances at fraud.

There is no transcript of the interview, but a podcast of it is available on the Frank Beckman page at www.wjr.com.  It should be accessible here http://www.wjr.com/FlashPlayer/default.asp?SPID=34613&ID=2267603

Respectfully, I suggest management of Redstate get her thoughts before readers directly.

What if there emerged on an American campus an academic who asserted  in a major op-ed beliefs such as the following?

Islamic terrorism is the nation’s  number one problem of national security.

You think the campus Muslim community would send around petitions calling for his or her ouster?  Ya think?

That is exactly what has been happening this summer at Harvard University, where summer school instructor Subramanian Swamy, who teaches economics courses, published How to Wipe Out Islamic Terror in a major Indian newspaper.  http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/analysis_how-to-wipe-out-islamic-terror_1566203-all

The article identified four radical Islamic goals in India, and suggested ways of dealing with each.  His idea of those goals:

1.  Overawe India on Kashmir

2.  Blast temples, kill Hindus

3.  Turn India into Darul Islam

4.  Denigrate Hinduism through vulgar writings and preaching in mosques, madrassas, and churches to create loss of self-respect amongst Hindus and make them fit for capitulation.

His suggestions as to how best to deal with these radical objectives:

The first lesson to be learnt from the recent history of Islamic terrorism against India and for tackling terrorism in India is that the Hindu is the target and that Muslims of India are being programmed by a slow reactive process to become radical and thus slide into suicide against Hindus.

snip

The second lesson for combating terrorism is that we must never capitulate or concede any demand, as we did in 1989 (freeing five terrorists in exchange for Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s daughter Rubaiya) and in 1999, freeing three terrorists after the hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC-814.

snip

The third lesson is that whatever and however small the terrorist incident, the nation must retaliate massively. For example, when the Ayodhya temple was sought to be attacked, we should have retaliated by re-building the Ram temple at the site.

snip.

Does the following sound familiar?

“According to bleeding heart liberals, terrorists are born or bred because of illiteracy, poverty, oppression, and discrimination. They argue that instead of eliminating them, the root cause of these four disabilities in society should be removed. This is rubbish. Osama bin laden was a billionaire. In the failed Times Square episode, failed terrorist Shahzad was from a highly placed family in Pakistan and had an MBA from a reputed US university.”

The instructor, who is also a senior politician in India, calls for reclamation of properties once built as Hindu shrines but later seized and rebuilt as Muslim mosques.  

Response on the Harvard campus was nothing if not predictable.

In July, the following appeared in Harvard’s campus paper.

A group of Harvard students have started a petition calling on the University to sever ties with Subramanian Swamy, a Harvard Summer School economics instructor who wrote an op-ed against Islamic terrorism that many have called offensive and inflammatory.

In an article published July 16 in the Indian newspaper Daily News and Analysis, Swamy recommended demolishing hundreds of mosques, disenfranchising non-Hindus who do not acknowledge their alleged Hindu ancestry, and banning conversion from Hinduism.

Link is here http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/7/27/swamy-harvard-india-petition/

The petition begins as follows

We the undersigned members of the Harvard community are outraged to learn that Subramanian Swamy, an Indian politician whose recent editorial shows him to be a bigoted promoter of communalism in India, also teaches economics at Harvard University Summer School. We demand that the Harvard administration repudiate Swamy’s remarks and terminate his association with the University.

Swamy proposes a truly shocking set of “strategies” for “deter[ring] terrorism” in an op-ed appearing in the July 16th edition of the Daily News & Analysis, an Indian newspaper. These include “declar[ing] India a Hindu Rashtra in which non-Hindus can vote only if they proudly acknowledge that their ancestors were Hindus”; “[r]emov[ing] the masjid in Kashi Vishwanath temple and the 300 masjids at other temple sites”; “[e]nact[ing] a national law prohibiting conversion from Hinduism to any other religion”; and “[p]ropagat[ing] the development of a Hindu mindset.”

As the summer term wraps up this week,  the university appears to have stood pat.   An update of the controversy is here

The comment flow on these articles is as interesting as the news pieces themselves.    One asserts as follows

I agree to these point. Dr. Swamy’s comments if taken out of context may sound bigoted> However, if one examines the historical facts, then his interpretation is certainly valid. While many of his proposed strategies may sound off  the wall, some are comparable with a quid-pro-quo approach which is certainly the way many western nations have used to justify retaliatory  attacks i.e. Afghanistan, Iraq etc.

Not all students at Harvard are knowledgeable of world history or thinking of the view points of those of us who may be or will be affected.  Add to this the lack of awareness of Indian History, you have responses based on their need to support equal rights to all, without understanding their views are non representative of the majority for whom or to whom Dr,Swamy is addressing.

Was anyone else listening Saturday afternoon when Rush Limbaugh’s new bottled tea product turned up on Michael Feldman’s radio program ‘Whadya Know?’  (www.notmuch.com) this weekend?

At one point, Feldman asked callers to describe any Father’s Day gifts which wouldn’t be entirely appreciated.

One man called in, beginning the ‘interview’ by reporting he had just gotten what he wanted for the holiday:  “I got some of Rush’s new tea.”  Spurred on by Feldman, he described the brand of bottled ice teas launched this week by the political talk show host.  He didn’t mention the name, One if by Tea.

Feldman seemed unaware of the product launch.

Then, the caller added:  ‘Oh, and my wife gave me a margarita maker, because it’s her favorite drink.’

I had a wife like that once.

When I was a senior in high school, Mother sat me down for a talk.  “Let’s talk about college.  You can go anywhere you want as long as you live at home, work for your father, and pay for it yourself.”  Then the discussion was over.

I went to a high school where the only student anyone ever recalls getting into Harvard had an overpowering fastball and was All City pitcher.  Most of my friends either commuted, as I did, or attended one of the state universities away.

All of this came to mind this week, with headlines blaring that Ohio State athletes may have sold memorabilia earned while playing on its teams.

Media reports indentify one of the alleged violators as ex-Ohio State football player Ray Small.

Small said he used the money he got to cover his typical costs of living.

“We have apartments, car notes,” he said. “So you got things like that and you look around and you’re like, ‘Well I got (four) of them, I can sell one or two and get some money to pay this rent.”

I find it hard to criticize a player for converting a championship ring to cash for things like apartment rent or car payments.

Re car payments, on completing a four year degree commuting, I moved East to attend graduate school.  It was in a leafy, New England town graced with both a state university and an Ivy League college.  In the days when a VW bug was under $2,000, there was in the town a Porsche with license plates reading COORS.

I don’t think the Porsche came from playing football or throwing an overwhelming fastball.  I begrudge neither the beer scion’s free ride through an Ivy, nor my classmate’s fastball which got him into Harvard.  Incidentally the former baseball pitcher is a named partner these days in a very successful law firm.

Nor do I think that anyone should come down hard on a kid who sells his championship ring to pay the rent.  He earned it, he sold it, he spent it.  Leave him alone already.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/26/ray-small-ohio-state-sold-rings-cash_n_867342.html

Incidentally, I hate Ohio State.