Nine Shot Dead in Black Church in South Carolina

A 21-year-old white man suspected of killing nine people at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina was arrested on Thursday after an attack that the United States is investigating as a hate crime. Law enforcement officials arrested alleged gunman Dylann Roof after a traffic stop in Shelby, North Carolina, about 220 miles (350 km) north of Charleston, said police chief Gregory Mullen. "This individual committed a tragic, heinous crime last night," Mullen told reporters. Apparently the killer participated in a Bible Study on Wednesday night an hour before he open fired.  He had "sandy blonde hair".  One quotation of the man is "I did it because those kind of people only rape our women and take over our country".  The victims were the pastor and two other men and six women.  The mass shooting on Wednesday followed months of racially charged protests over killings of black men which have shaken the United States. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said her office was investigating whether to charge Roof with a hate crime motivated by racial or other prejudice. Such crimes typically carry harsher penalties.  I've heard that FOX news is frantically searching for ANY other cause for the shootings other than racial bigotry.  Rotsa ruck!  "The fact that this took place in a black church obviously raises questions about a dark part of our history," U.S. President Barack Obama told reporters. "We don't have all the facts but we know that, once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun."   But all FOX news can say is "Well if everyone at that prayer meeting had had a gun then they could have defended themselves".   But pragmatically it's another reason why we should make sure the wrong people don't get guns.  The Southern Poverty Law Center, which researches U.S. hate groups, said the attack illustrates the dangers that home-grown extremists pose. "Since 9/11, our country has been fixated on the threat of Jihadi terrorism. But the horrific tragedy at the Emanuel AME reminds us that the threat of homegrown domestic terrorism is very real," the group said in a statement, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.  This church is one of the oldest African Methodist Episcopal churches in the South and has been around since 1820.  One time the church was burned to the ground because in those times the church was used as a haven for runaway slaves.  For a while South Carolina had laws which stated that Blacks couldn't meet together to form a church.

The US Supreme Court has ruled that in Texas the obtainers of state license places don’t have a “free speech right” to a confederate flag on their license plate. We have discussed this one before. It’s because the license plate is state property and therefore not to be dealt with on the same basis as a bumper sticker. It’s like Windows offering you a limited choice of colors and you have to pick one. You don’t have the right to tell Apple Corp for instance that you have a “right” to a customized phone for the same price different from any other phone. So in this case it’s the state of Texas which is on the side of sanity in not offering Confederate Flags.

Pope Francis has his Global Warming encyclicle today. Of course this is a positive step for the Catholic Church to have their feet plainly planted in the 21st rather than the 19th century in terms of energy production and such. Pope Francis has a degree in chemistry and knows a thing or two about the dangers of global warming, which contrary to what the other side says, is getting worse all of the time. The Pope I imagine considers it part of his holy commission to do teaching on ALL of scripture and among these Bible verses is God’s admonition to Mankind to be good stewards of the earth. So good for Pope Francis for making the right decision here.

The House of Representatives this morning voted 218 to 208 to pass “fast track” on the Trans Pacific Partnership. 28 democrats broke ranks and voted for the bill. Fifty republicans broke ranks and voted thumbs down on this fast track authority bill. Now the bill goes to the Senate to see if the Senate will accept this bill without the job assistance provisions included. It seems ironic to me that in one breath they can say “This bill won’t harm jobs’ and in the other want to pass a bill saying we’ll take x billion out of Medicare to help train people who have lost their jobs. Thirteen democratic senators voted for the fast track authority last time around, with the job assistance provision. Thom Hartman has a theory that the Senate will act on this passed House bill quickly- - particularly today or tomorrow since it’s such a busy news cycle now. Some theorized the Senate would vote just before the Fourth of July weekend.

Sometimes a whole new fad or trend will burst upon society and sociologists would would say "This creates a whole new Dynamic of society.  Hence a "Dynamic" could be said to be "Anything which can be measured in its own right".  For instance if you are a business selling some product, you could say gross revenue from Sales is a dynamic.  Customer satisfaction is a dynamic.  Worker efficiency is a dynamic.  Even the temperature of the plant or shop or factory is a dynamic.  A dynamic in other words is anything, any database criteria, which can be used to sort the database on.   I have grouped each and every possible Dynamic is sort of a generic "dimension" of the dynamic.  Light and sound are dynamics.  Another word for dynamic itself could be "dimension" because in databases it opens up new vistas of Tables which could be created by your program.  We in the past have said dynamic can also be "amplitude".   But we needn't confine ourselves to thinking of alternating sine waves when it comes to "amplitude".   Amplitude can also be Direct Current in nature.  Indeed a loud speaker works with rectified DC current.  Our own nervous system works on a DC rather than AC, though admittedly electro encephlographs deal in AC representation.  As you may remember the term for Amps - - in electricity studies is I for "inductance".  Thus it might even be inferred that stimulants increase induction and depressants decrease induction.  Remember when we had that "Gemstone" symbol with the twelve dots?   Two new dimensions have been added since we did that a few years back.  One is dynamic.  The other is feng chue energy "strings".  There are two ways of looking at what you'd either call astrological configurations or feng chue energy strings.  If you are into longitudinal analysis- - you would say that "everything is pre ordained.  The future cannot be changed" or "The result is already baked into the cake".  If you are a latitudenal purist however- - you would say that these "energy strings" when they are transversed or "plucked" then CHANGE the picture and alter what Would Have Been to something that's different now.  This is why I mentioned the notion of "a whole new dynamic".  There are a lot of new "Dynamics" today that I wasn't writing about eight years ago in 2007.  My conscious was not Aware of- - things that did not yet Exist.  We need to beware then because even a relatively short time into the Future such as in 2020 the "Dynamic" of that time may be very different from right now.