October 18, 2015


Veteran fights off man wielding knives at children's chess class
AP October 17, 2015


MORTON, Ill. -- A 75-year-old chess instructor who fought off a knife-wielding man threatening to kill children at a central Illinois library says this week's attack will not stop his class from holding its next meeting.

Army veteran James Vernon has one arm in a sling and says his life has been inconvenienced since he disarmed 19-year-old Dustin Brown, who entered the Morton Public Library on Tuesday threatening to commit murder.

But Vernon, who says knife training he received nearly five decades ago helped him in the scuffle, told The Associated Press that he was "not going to let this stop the important activity" of teaching children chess next Tuesday.

"We're not going to be intimidated or scared off," said Vernon, who described the attack as "an anomaly" and says he's since spoken to a parent coordinator about moving forward as scheduled.

Plus, you only need one arm to play the game, he said.

Vernon was instructing 16 children when authorities say Brown entered the room with two knives. According to a court affidavit, Brown told police afterward that he "failed in his mission to kill everyone."

"He actually ran into the room yelling, 'I'm going to kill some people!' He was holding two knives," Vernon told the Pekin Daily News. Vernon described the knives as "hunting types" with "fixed blades about five inches" long.

"I said this can't be happening," said Vernon, a retired Caterpillar Inc. employee. His second thought: "I can't let this happen."

The children were able to escape the room after Vernon put himself between Brown and the door. And Vernon says they did not hear or witness the struggle, which left him with two slashed arteries in his hand and damaged a tendon in his finger.

Brown, who was awaiting trial on child pornography charges, is now being held in lieu of $800,000 bond on additional charges of attempted murder, armed violence and aggravated battery. Attorney information for Brown was not available Saturday and it is not known if he has a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.

After the attack Vernon received medical attention at a nearby hospital. That's when he called his wife of nearly 50 years to inform her.

"I'm proud of him, but then I expected him to do that," said Hanna Vernon, 73. "You need to take some responsibility for your community and your country."

James Vernon, who will turn 76 next Sunday, says he's learned a heartening lesson from his experience: "Sometimes old guys aren't as easy of a target as you may think."




“Army veteran James Vernon has one arm in a sling and says his life has been inconvenienced since he disarmed 19-year-old Dustin Brown, who entered the Morton Public Library on Tuesday threatening to commit murder. But Vernon, who says knife training he received nearly five decades ago helped him in the scuffle, told The Associated Press that he was "not going to let this stop the important activity" of teaching children chess next Tuesday. …. Vernon was instructing 16 children when authorities say Brown entered the room with two knives. According to a court affidavit, Brown told police afterward that he "failed in his mission to kill everyone." "He actually ran into the room yelling, 'I'm going to kill some people!' He was holding two knives," Vernon told the Pekin Daily News. Vernon described the knives as "hunting types" with "fixed blades about five inches" long. …. The children were able to escape the room after Vernon put himself between Brown and the door. And Vernon says they did not hear or witness the struggle, which left him with two slashed arteries in his hand and damaged a tendon in his finger. Brown, who was awaiting trial on child pornography charges, is now being held in lieu of $800,000 bond on additional charges of attempted murder, armed violence and aggravated battery.”

"I'm proud of him, but then I expected him to do that," said Hanna Vernon, 73. "You need to take some responsibility for your community and your country." James Vernon, who will turn 76 next Sunday, says he's learned a heartening lesson from his experience: "Sometimes old guys aren't as easy of a target as you may think." Between these two elderly, but not “old,” people, they have stated something that we have been missing in our society in recent decades. People have gotten to the point in too many cases that they feel too weak, too tired, too hopeless to defend themselves or others. Human beings have to maintain a mental attitude that is both able to achieve and willing to do it. We are becoming a fat, lazy society. I was really impressed with this man. He is also mentally active – teaching chess is a great way to use his mind and stave off dementia.







THE NEW ZOMBI CRAZE – WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE AND IS THE INTEREST FUELED BY RELIGION AND THE APOCALYPSE?


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/deadly-shooting-zombicon-fort-myers-florida/

Deadly shooting at ZombiCon in Florida
CBS/AP
October 18, 2015

Photograph -- Emergency medical workers and police work next to a person at the scene of shooting Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015, at ZombiCon in Fort Myers, Fla. Police say a shooting at the gathering killed one person and injured four others. MELISSA MONTOYA-OCAMPO/THE NEWS-PRESS VIA AP


FORT MYERS, Fla. - Police say a shooting at the ZombiCon gathering in Florida killed one person and injured four others.

Lt. Victor Medico of the Fort Myers Police Department said the shootings began at 11:45 p.m. Saturday, The News-Press reported. He said police were searching for a suspect, and the four people hurt had injuries that were not life-threatening.

No details were immediately available about the suspect or victims. Police told CBS affiliate WINK-TV in Fort Myers they don't know if they're searching for one or multiple suspects.

The annual festival had been expected to draw more than 20,000 fans dressed as zombies, the newspaper said. Medico said the scene was described as "shoulder to shoulder."

A statement on the ZombiCon Facebook page said organizers were saddened by the news and the group takes the safety of its patrons very seriously.



http://www.news-press.com/story/entertainment/2014/10/16/zombicon-returns-saturday-dark-art/17390703/

Zombicon returns Saturday — and so does "Dark Art"
CHARLES RUNNELLS, CRUNNELLS@NEWS-PRESS.COM

The zombies are coming. And they apparently love art — the spookier, the better.

Terry Tincher is ready for the undead hordes at his downtown Fort Myers art gallery, Tincture Gallery. And no, that doesn't mean he's boarding up the windows and loading a shotgun.

Tincher actually welcomes the zombies. And he's covered the gallery walls with just the kind of art that zombies love: Creepy, disturbing images of skulls, monsters, wretched souls, shrouded bodies, a chainsaw maniac and even a sugar-skulled Marilyn Monroe.

The "Dark Art" exhibit has been a part of the Zombicon zombie festival from the beginning. Both events celebrate their eighth anniversary this Saturday, when thousands of people dressed as zombies are expected to shamble into downtown Fort Myers for live music and other entertainment on five stages, a ZombiQueen drag show and the annual Zombie Walk.

Tincher started the first "Dark Art" exhibit at his Space 39 art gallery in downtown. But the exhibit moved to Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center two years ago after Tincher got out of the gallery business.

Dawn McPherson's leather sculpture "Lost Souls."
Dawn McPherson's leather sculpture "Lost Souls." (Photo: Photo by Charles Runnells/The News-Press)

Now Tincher owns a new gallery, and the dark art is back under his watchful eye.

It's not just zombies that like this spooky art, either.

"The genre of horror and sci-fi is just an exploding market," Tincher says, pointing out that his wife is always glued to the television Sunday nights for "The Walking Dead." "It's escapism. It's stimulating to the imagination. People are looking for a little excitement."

THE NEWS-PRESS

Things to Do in Southwest Florida

Artists this year come from as far away as Iran and Egypt and also from throughout the United States.

Spring Hill artist Dawn McPherson's wall sculptures are particularly unsettling: Jumbles of leather faces staring out into the gallery and looking like tortured souls or perhaps discarded masks once worn by Leatherface from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

McPherson, 51, said she created the two pieces just for the "Dark Art" show.

"Muerta Marilyn" by Lexi Hutchings
"Muerta Marilyn" by Lexi Hutchings (Photo: Photo by Charles Runnells/The News-Press)

"It's kind of spooky," she says. "And in the right lighting, they can be very intense. Plus there are more than just faces there. If you look closely, you can see hands, too.

"That made it even scarier. Because now, there are body parts."

Tincher says he looks forward to the arrival of the brain-eating masses on Saturday. But he admits he doesn't look forward to the clean-up afterward.

"It takes a couple of days to clean up," he says. "There's blood and make-up and drool. And I'll still be finding bloody hand prints on the bathroom wall.

"Zombies are messy!"




Well, I looked on the site showing what these “zombies” plan to do when they get together. Do you remember that great old Kingston Trio song "Zombie Jamboree?" What these modern day zombies are doing is exploring and exhibiting “Dark Art.” I looked at it. It isn’t what I consider to be mentally healthy at all, and I will wait in relative silence for this ridiculous craze to go away. See the Thoughts and Researches blog on this subject that I posted earlier today. It’s too negative for me altogether. It isn’t even good art.




October 18, 2014


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-my-immigration-plans-would-have-prevented-911/

Trump: My immigration plans would have prevented 9/11
By REENA FLORES CBS NEWS
October 18, 2015

Photograph -- U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures as he speaks at a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada October 8, 2015. REUTERS
Play VIDEO -- John Dickerson's Field Notes: Jeb Bush defends brother’s legacy against Trump


Donald Trump says that if he had been president in 2001, his immigration policies would have kept terrorists from attacking the World Trade Center on September 11.

"I am extremely, extremely tough on illegal immigration. I'm extremely tough on people coming into this country," Trump said on Fox News Sunday. "I believe that if I were running things, I doubt those families would have -- I doubt that those people would have been in the country."

The billionaire, in an escalating feud with Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush, continued his assault on the legacy of former President George W. Bush.

"Jeb said 'we were safe with my brother.' 'We were safe.' Well, the World Trade Center just fell down," Trump continued. "Now, am I trying to blame him? I'm not blaming anybody. But the World Trade Center came down. So when he said, 'we were safe' -- that's not safe. We lost 3,000 people."


And had his immigration proposals been in place at the time, Trump said, "there's a good chance that those people would not have been in our country."

For his part, Bush hasn't appreciated the constant barrage of 9/11 remarks against his brother.

"I don't know why he keeps bringing this up," Bush told CNN Sunday. "It doesn't show that he's a serious person as it relates to being commander-in-chief and being the architect of a foreign policy."

Rather than come across as a legitimate contender for the Oval Office, Bush said, the real estate mogul talks "as though he's still on 'The Apprentice,'" referring to the businessman's reality television show.

"I mean, literally, talking about Syria saying 'ISIS should take out Assad, then Russia should take out ISIS' as though it was some kind of board game and not a serious approach is just - this is just another example of the lack of seriousness," Bush said.

Next week, he added, "Mr. Trump is probably going to say that FDR was around when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor."

"It's what you do after that matters. And that's the sign of leadership," Bush continued. "Does anybody actually blame my brother for the attacks on 9/11? If they do, they're totally marginalized in our society."

The mounting war between the two has played out on Twitter, where Trump first fired at the former Florida governor on Friday for his comments during the Republicans' last debate in California.

.@JebBush, At the debate you said your brother kept us safe- I wanted to be nice & did not mention the WTC came down during his watch, 9/11.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2015
Bush took to social media Saturday to bash Trump over his "absurd comments":

.@RealDonaldTrump's absurd comments again raise questions on whether he possesses the judgment to be President: https://t.co/lLr1SF1jwp

— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) October 17, 2015
Another leading Republican presidential contender, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, waded into the 9/11 debate, saying he didn't blame former President Bush for the attacks.

When asked on ABC News what he made of Trump's suggestions that Bush should share the blame for the terrorist strikes, Carson said he "would probably ask [Trump] what he meant by that."

"I seriously doubt that he's saying that -- that George W. Bush is to blame for it," Carson said. "I certainly don't think so."




“Donald Trump says that if he had been president in 2001, his immigration policies would have kept terrorists from attacking the World Trade Center on September 11. "I am extremely, extremely tough on illegal immigration. I'm extremely tough on people coming into this country," Trump said on Fox News Sunday. "I believe that if I were running things, I doubt those families would have -- I doubt that those people would have been in the country." While it is true that all of the 9/11 attackers were in the US at the time, and they all had kept communications with the jihad movement, it is virtually impossible to keep track of so many individuals in this huge and populous country. Literally, people “get lost in the crowd” here. Every individual would have to be tracked to their first dwelling, school and job and then monitored by some means to make sure they haven’t moved, etc. Most of those hijackers had lapsed in some way from an originally legal residency status rather than sneaking into the country across the Rio Grande, as many conservatives fear. We just didn’t keep up with what date they should have renewed their visa, where they were living at all times, etc. That’s a really big job. Spot-checking is about all that is likely to happen.

The new face recognition technology is trying to work on the problem, but I personally don’t trust a generally fuzzy snapshot of a person that was taken from a bad angle to be reliable for identification purposes. I know. Computer techs can “clean those photos up” to make them more recognizable, but a large percentage of eyewitnesses to crimes make inaccurate identifications. That’s because they either didn’t really get a good look, they have forgotten what the “perp” looks like, or the photo isn’t any good. The Innocence Project is a group of lawyers who make an effort by testing old evidence for DNA characteristics in order to help prisoners who persistently say they didn’t commit the crime. Many of those whom they cleared had been convicted on eyewitness testimony and very little else. We humans are simply not as accurate at those things as we think, unless of course it’s someone who is well-known to us.