Deafening Silence

Woodburn Bombing Update

I had marked my calendar that today was the date of a bail hearing in the Woodburn bombing case, but as of yet I can't find any news about it.

In the meantime, I would like to draw your attention back to one of the victims of the bombing, Capt. Tom Tennant.  

The local community raised funds to send members of Tennant's family along with some officers of the Woodburn Police Department to National Police Week in Washington, D.C.  Jason Horton of the Woodburn Independent covered the event: 

For Det. Rick Puente and three other Woodburn police officers, along with members of Capt. Tom Tennant’s family, National Police Week in Washington, D.C., was a rollercoaster of emotions.

Puente, along Sgt. Nick Wilson, Sgt. John Mikkola and Det. Craig Halupowski were the first responders the night of the Dec. 12, 2008 West Coast Bank bombing. Those officers, along with Capt. Tennant’s wife, Mary, and their children Becky, Jenny and Scott, attended the weeklong event thanks to the donations and work of the Woodburn community.

...

He said as the narrator spoke, a thin blue line appeared over the audience and slowly began to widen over the crowd until it covered everyone.

“I just lost it,” Puente said. “It was just very, very moving.”

Then the names of every recognized fallen officer from the past year was called out. Oregon’s names were read by Oregon State Patrol Trooper Mike Blank, Senior Trooper Bill Hakim’s partner.

I hope all Deafening Silence readers will join me in applauding the good will displayed by the Woodburn community in raising the money to send these officers and family members to the event.  Here are some more links related to this year's National Police Week:

2009 National Police Week- Never Alone, Never Forgotten

Candlelight Vigil Honors Officers Who Gave  Lives- Clarence Williams/WaPo-

The deceased officers "are forever bound together by an unbreakable bond of valor," said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who spoke to a crowd of several thousand. "They served, and they sacrificed, for a purpose far greater than themselves. Though we may grieve, we must emphatically reject despair."

Elvert Barnes at JPG has a nice photo essay and more links to the event.

Please take a moment to remember the fallen officers and their community, Woodburn, today.  None of them deserved this.

A Polite Round of Applause...

...for Jennifer Lopez, of all people.  Not for her pop-culture stylings, but for this:

U.S. film star and singer Jennifer Lopez, the mother of twins, wants parents and adults to get a pertussis, or whooping cough, vaccine to protect infants.

"This issue is important to me. I didn't know too much about it before becoming a parent but whooping cough is on the rise. There have been a significant increase in reported cases over the past decade," Lopez told United Press International.

"Parents don't realize that they can get pertussis and transmit the disease to their babies."

Lopez is the spokeswoman for the Sounds of Pertussis, a joint initiative of the March of Dimes and sanofi pasteur, to raise awareness that all new parents and others in close contact with infants, get vaccinated with an adult tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis vaccine.

She does not mention childhood vaccines, but this is still a refreshing change.

Yes, Pertussis is on the rise, and yes, it can be a killer.  And even if it wasn't a potential killer, it still makes you pretty darn miserable, often for 6 months at a time.

Take a look at the Sounds of Pertussis site for details about this disease.  It's just one of many preventable and potentially fatal diseases re-emerging due to this anti-vaccine madness.

If you think you may have been exposed to pertussis, see a doctor.

Then go cough on Jenny McCarthy.

Just kidding. 

Sort of.

The Way They Were

"It's a love story. I just don't know how to play this one. I won't know this world without her," O'Neal said.  "Cancer is an insidious enemy . "

Farrah Fawcett made the news for what might be the last time this past week, when Ryan O'Neal announced that her cancer had become terminal and all treatment had been stopped.

Fawcett and O'Neal have both had plenty of bad publicity moments in recent years, but as soon as this announcement was made, it was as though time was rewound like a cassett tape.  YouTube tributes to Ms. Fawcett were montages devoted to her "Charlie's Angels" years- the fluffy hair, the famous red swimsuit poster, the perfect white teeth.

It made me think about Mr. O'Neal in his prime.  It made me wonder how he felt, now that he was essentially living out his most famous movie role in real life.

Whatever his shortcomings, the situation is weirdly cruel.

Love Story made O'Neal's career.  The movie, a film version of Eric Segal's novel, elevated O'Neal from soap-opera actor to matinee idol.  He was handsome young Oliver Barrett, watching his beautiful young wife, Jenny Cavalleri, die of cancer.

I'm just a little too young to have seen Love Story in its first release- I had conservative parents and back in those days people actually paid attention to the movies they let prepubescents see.  So I   browsed the internet for clips and trailers to resurrect my memories of that era.

If you haven't watched any early O'Neal footage in over a decade (like me), the first clips of Love Story can hit you like a punch in the solar plexus.

My first thought: What a preposterously beautiful young man.

It was an era of astonishingly pretty male ingenues: Redford, Beatty, O'Neal.  A flock of fluttering eyelashes and feathered locks employed to repackage Sensitivity as a masculine trait. 

It worked.  And it wasn't bad idea: it pushed both acting and writing in interesting new directions.

Daniel Craig might never have fit in with this lot, but the angst in his portrayal of Bond would not have been possible without them. 

To say nothing of Jude Law's eyelashes.

Love Story was also the prototype of a new genre: The Cancer Tearjerker.  It would become a stereotype of 70s Pop Culture, from Brian's Song to Bang the Drum Slowly.

In some ways this was also a good thing.  It opened up a national discussion about cancer that fed- and was fed by- advances in research.  It gave Americans a vocabulary to apply to terminal disease, a vocabulary would eventually facilitate public understanding of AIDs and Alzheimer's.

Suddenly, dying people didn't have to be hidden away and whispered about.

Without the success of Love Story, Away from Her would never have been filmed.

But it did some harm, too.  In selecting only the young and beautiful as victims, the Cancer Tearjerker glamorized and misrepresented the disease.  The most common cancers often prey on those who are middle-aged and older.  I'm reminded of the way a young acquaintance summed up her first trip to the oncologist: "It was just me and a bunch of 60-year-old guys."

It can be difficult to get Dad in for that prostate checkup if cancer is only presented as a disease of beautiful young starlets.

That films in the 70's were awash in the young, beautiful and dying makes a kind of sense.  It can be taken as sign of the times.  Youth Culture was at its height, loudly rejecting everything the last generation had built.  Maybe some of these films were a way of demonstrating that young people would literally rather die than inhabit their parent's society.

But let's get back to beauty for a moment before we finish.  If you're my age, you're already much older than O'Neal was when he was cast in Love Story, much older than Ms. Fawcett was in her famous poster.  It's comforting to look back and be reassured that they really were as beautiful as we remembered.  Maybe it means we were, too.

And that's something.  Whenever a truthfully examined memory doesn't disappoint, it's something.

Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering; In the faith that looks through death, In years that bring the philosophic mind.

William Wordsworth

 

A "Hear, Hear"! Post

I don't usually agree with many of the notions put forth on Classical Values, but I read it fairly often, anyway.  My comments below are in red:

Today, however, Classical Values hit my nail square on the head with this post:

I read Hawkins regularly, and I like his blog. Although I don't consider myself especially nice, the point of this post is not to take sides in this dispute so much as it is to make an admission by way of disclosure (at the risk of repeating myself).

In his rebuttal to Adams, Hawkins (who is in a position to know these things, so I won't fact check him), makes a couple of observations I just can't ignore:

it's worth noting that Ann Coulter is the single most popular conservative columnist in America...

So noted.

And this:

Moreover, the Right is slowly but surely narrowing the media gap. For example, WorldNetDaily -- which Mr. Graham disparagingly mentions -- gets more traffic than the Associated Press and the top seven conservative talk radio hosts alone reach more than 60 million people a week combined.

The problem is, Ann Coulter irritates me and I can't stand WorldNetDaily. (I feel guilty for not disparaging that dishonest outfit even more.)

Personally, I think Ann Coulter is making a pretty penny out of being a jerk.  I find much of the material on WND spurious as well, and will never link them for any reason.  (I was once falsely accused of using WND material by a commenter at Moderate Voice.  I avoid commenting there now because while I don't mind vehement disagreement, I draw the line at smears.) 

And, fwiw, I don't have much use for Michelle Malkin, either.  I frequently find her tone juvenile, and I was appalled by the whole Fox/Baby Mama incident.  Malkin doesn't need my help, and I don't want hers.

The same goes for many left-wing blogs.

If Coulter and WND are "the Right," then to that extent, I'm very definitely not.

Nor can I stand Michael Savage. Yet the man is often described as a conservative. (No references are necessary here, as I don't want to be seen as picking fights. But trust me. He is routinely called a conservative -- by conservatives.)

I never listen to talk radio, so I have no opinion of Mr. Savage.  I've read the name here and there, but that's it.

My point is, if Ann Coulter, WorldNetDaily, and Michael Savage represent conservativism, then I have a huge problem with conservatism, and I cannot call myself a conservative.

My thoughts exactly.  And I'm genuinely sorry to say it, because there are 'conservative' issues that I sincerely support.  Not all of them, but some.

Skipping ahead a bit:

This is not to say that I would not vote for a conservative over a liberal. I would do so unhesitatingly, as I have many times. My problem is that I'm lacking in the enthusiasm factor, and I would be dishonest if I did not admit it.

I personally have voted all over the map, politically. Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Conservative, Liberal.  It depends on my perception of the issues and the candidates at that time.  I am a registered Independent who can't imagine ever joining any political party.  Orthodoxy is not my strong suit- neither is signing my name to the gigantic package deal that a party platform represents.

......................

Is there some pressing reason I should have to decide between liberal and conservative? Where was that rule written, and who wrote it? Liberals and conservatives? Perhaps it's time to return to basics. After all, rejecting these labels was a primary reason I started this blog.

I'm tagging this post "Religion" because that's how the parties seem to view themselves these days.  You are required to buy into the dogma wholesale, genuflect upon command before all the designated Sacred Cows, and contribute your blindly shouted support but never your constructive, creative thoughts.

Bag it.

Update:  Welcome, Classical Values readers!  Nice to meet ya'.

Thursday Roundup

Welcome to the roundup!

As we head into the weekend, why not surf over to The Crepes of Wrath and pick up some cooking ideas?  Like this decadent-sounding morsel, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Blondies:

 

Lest you think The Crepes of Wrath only deals in sugary treats, allow me to point out the new entry for Pasta e Fagioli.

If you'd rather play with your food than eat it, Dark Roasted Blend has some whimsical food art photography:

(This image has no attribution, sorry.) 

Next, Michael Totten gives his take of the current Swine Flu panic in a rare, lighthearted post:

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's only known pig has been locked in a room, away from visitors to Kabul zoo where it normally grazes beside deer and goats, because people are worried it could infect them with the virus popularly known as swine flu.

The pig is a curiosity in Muslim Afghanistan, where pork and pig products are illegal because they are considered irreligious, and has been in quarantine since Sunday after visitors expressed alarm it could spread the new flu strain.

Keep reading 'till the punchline.

If you're in the Blue Point, Long Island area on May 16, you might want to join the tattooed heroes of Rescue, Ink for the 1rst Anniversary celebration for Forgotten Friends of Long Island.  They are raising money for the care of elderly or sick companion animals.  These are good guys doing good stuff.  Stop by if you can.  Even better- adopt a new friend.

I guess no roundup post would be complete without some gorgeous photography by Rick Lee:

 

A friendly warning: Never argue with a Mountainneer- they're crack shots!

The NCAA Champion WVU rifle team earned the No. 1 ranking in the final Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association (CRCA) Poll.

The Mountaineers (11-1 overall, 5-1 GARC) were previously ranked No. 1 this season on Feb. 9, marking the first time the squad earned the top spot in over a decade.

Details over at WVU Press Box.

Have a nice weekend!

Updates on Woodburn, Arkansas Bombings

Frequent readers of Deafening Silence will recall that this blog had been following two bombings that took place in the U.S. this past winter:  The Woodburn Bank bombing and the car bomb that nearly killed Dr. Trent Pierce in Arkansas.

Investigations and court proceedings have been moving slowly but surely in each case, and here's some of the latest information:

First, you can see previous postings on the Woodburn bombing here, here, here and here. (There are many more, but these will provide should give the basic facts.)

It looks as though the trial of Bruce and Joshua Turnidge, the alleged bombers in the case, might be postponed until as late as September 2010.  From an article written by Stacey Barchenger for the Statesmanjournal.com:

During Wednesday's proceeding, Hart scheduled a tentative trial date for March 1, 2010.

The trial could be delayed until September 2010 depending on the caseload of the defense attorneys.

The pair are being represented by two prominent attorneys.  Bruce Turnidge's wife is apparently unhappy with their legal representation, and the lawyers themselves are complaining about the volume of evidence turned over in the case:

[Judge]Hart also said he received a fax from the wife of Bruce Turnidge, who expressed concerns about his legal representation.

Bruce Turnidge said in court that he was satisfied with his attorneys. He is being represented by John Storkel and Mark Brownlee.

Joshua Turnidge's attorneys are Steve Krasik and Steven Gorham.

...

A scheduled bail hearing was postponed at the request of the pair's defense attorneys because of a large amount of evidence.

-It has been rescheduled for May 29.

A much older story, posted  February 27 and credited to Kyle Iboshi of KGW.com, claims that Joshua Turnidge had been planning to rob a bank for 15 years:

Court records obtained by KGW suggest the two Oregon men charged in connection with a deadly bank bombing in December often talked about robbing a bank and even practiced a dry-run in Woodburn in 1994.

Bruce Turnidge and his son Joshua Turnidge are facing aggravated murder charges for the December 12th blast that killed a police officer, a state trooper and critically injured a police chief.

According to a police affidavit, a family friend, Ronald Laughlin, stated that he heard Bruce, Joshua and another family member who has not been charged in the case “speak so often about robbing banks that it became like ‘white noise’. Often, Laughlin said, they’d “discuss methods of robbery including diversions.”

Officials are deciding whether to add federal charges to the case.

Finally, an AP story posted May 2 on Oregonlive.com says that the two officers killed in the blast, William Hakim and Tom Tennant, will be honored:

An Oregon State Police bomb technician and a Woodburn police captain killed in a bomb blast will be honored by family, friends and fellow officers at two special events in Salem and in Washington, D.C.

The names of Senior Trooper William Hakim and Woodburn police Capt. Tom Tennant will be added to the national memorial wall in Washington, D.C.

In Oregon, their names and those of two other officers who died in 1908 and 1958 will be added to Oregon's memorial wall.

Both Turnidges have been held in the local jail all this time and commenters at all the news sites are baying for their blood.  They may not get a fair trial or may be able to claim their trial was unfair if they are convicted.  The longer the wait the less viable the venue could become, legally speaking.

.......................................

Dr. Trent Pierce of the Arkansas State Medical Board was nearly killed by a car bomb in his own driveway on February 4. (See here.)

Dr. Trent was taken to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, TN for treatment.  From a story filed by Lauren Johnson for Fox:

Moments after an explosive device detonated leaving Pierce in critical condition, Jason Haycraft stumbled on the scene and helped the doctor's wife make lifesaving phone calls for help.

"There were two police officers I think who showed up. One showed up, one followed maybe a minute later, and then the ambulance and fire truck," said Jason Haycraft.

Haycraft said in less than five minutes, Pierce was transported to the hospital where he was stabilized before being airlifted to the Regional Medical Center's trauma unit.

According to the story, the bomb went off in Dr. Pierce's face:

"You're talking about extremely fast moving debris, fragmentation, things like that, whatever the containment was," said Stuart Lowrey, ATF special agent.

Pierce underwent several surgeries to remove shrapnel from his neck and abdomen.

"It's not just the shrapnel itself, it's the concussive effect and how close it gets to vital structures as it goes through the body, especially larger pieces can actually destroy and tear tissue en route," said Mangiante.

Mangiante said from his experience with veterans who suffer similar injuries, Pierce is looking at a long road to recovery.

Remember the above passage the next time you hear about a suicide bomber or truck bomb.

This Feb. 19 story by Candace McCowan for wreg.com describes some of the scenes from the hospital room:

"He wants to know where exactly am I, what's my condition and one time he actually said am I going to live and of course she said yes" said Doctor Scott Ferguson who says he has nothing but good stories to tell this week. Yesterday, doctors removed bandages and a mask from Pierce's face.

He is now moving his lips and communicating. And after removing a patch, he can see out of his right eye. "They asked him if he could see the poster across the room and he could see it and he could read it," added Ferguson.

.........

Frisya, Dr. Pierce will have surgery to replace his badly damage left eye with a prosthetic. And this weekend, doctors plan on removing the tracheotomy from Dr. Pierce's throat. That means he could be speaking full sentences as early as next week. And although they know there is a long road ahead his family and friends find hope in his improvement.

.........

And with vision in his right eye, Ferguson expects Pierce to eventually be able to return to his practice.

The story also says that investigators had 200 leads in February.

On April 22 the AP reported that a fellow Arkansas doctor, Dr. Randeep Mann, has been designated a "person of interest" in the case.  Dr. Mann was already under arrest for possession of high-grade explosives:

 An Arkansas doctor arrested for allegedly owning high-explosive grenades is a “person of interest” in the February bombing that injured the chairman of the state Medical Board, a federal agent said Wednesday.

Investigators have been looking into many people who had conflicts with the board, but have named no suspects in the case.

Grover Crossland, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Little Rock office, said Dr. Randeep Mann remains “on the radar” for the unsolved bombing. That contradicts previous statements from the ATF saying the Pope County doctor was not being looked at over the attack on Dr. Trent Pierce of West Memphis.

...

Dr. Mann was connected to a recently discovered package of grenades designed to be fired from a launcher.  He also had a million dollars worth of machine guns and lived near the state's only nuclear reactor.

My.

But remember, he's a Person of Interest, not a suspect.