Talk Radio inspired shooting

Despite your take on the shooting in Arizona, I think public discourse has seemed to reach all-time lows.  Belling, Rush and the rest are now doing little more than scaring the shit out of simpleminded folks for ratings.  I'll remind you of our own little incident back in March:

From the paper:

Anger over health care boils over

Man accused of threatening Obama, shooting at deputies
By KRISTIN WALDEN Daily News Staff 



    A drunken rage over health care reform allegedly sent a man on a shooting rampage at his town of Polk home.

    Darin E. Haizel, 34, appeared in Washington County Circuit Court Friday on felony charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, three counts of first-degree reckless endangerment and one count of intentionally pointing a firearm at a law enforcement officer.

    The charges stem a March 19 incident during which Haizel allegedly made threats against President Barack Obama, armed himself with several guns and shot at Washington County Sheriff’s deputies, according to a criminal complaint.

    According to the complaint:

    Haizel’s girlfriend, who lives with him and their two daughters at the Highway Z home, told deputies Haizel was drunk and had listened to a discussion of health care reform on the radio. The woman told officers Haizel is opposed to health care reform and the president. She said Haizel told her they needed to stockpile food because things were going to get ugly after the reform passed. Haizel allegedly said Obama messed with the Constitution, the country is becoming Communist and he was “going to Washington to kill that (expletive).”

    The woman said Haizel continued to drink and yell at the radio. Haizel told her he didn’t want his children to see how bad the world was going to be or live in that kind of situation. Haizel then asked her to wake up the children and talked about having them baptized. At about 11:30 p.m., she said, he sang “I will see you in heaven.”

    The woman left the home with the children and called Haizel’s parents, who she said have been able to calm him down in the past. His parents were unable to calm him, however, and Haizel armed himself with a shotgun and assault riffle.

    Deputies arrived and reportedly heard a gunshot from inside the house. Five minutes later, deputies said they heard 19 shots in rapid fire, breaking glass and the sound of smoke detectors.

    Haizel allegedly shot several more rounds through windows, the home’s siding and roof before climbing out a back window. He walked toward a deputy and shot at him, hitting a tree about 6 to 12 inches away.

    That deputy and another deputy returned fired at Haizel, who fell onto a snowbank and eventually dropped his gun.

    Deputies found 12 shell casings from a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun and 19 shell casings from a 7.62 caliber rifle in the house. A total of nearly 6,500 rounds of ammunition were also found in the home.

    In addition to the request for charges, the Sheriff’s Department notified the Secret Service of the threat against Obama.

    According to Sheriff Dale Schmidt, District Attorney Todd Martens told him the deputies’ use of force was justified under state statutes.

    The deputies who responded to the incident — Dirk Stolz and Jeremy Miller — were back at work on Friday.

    During Friday’s court appearance, Haizel was in a wheelchair with a bandaged arm.

    “We’re asking for a high cash bail, with conditions of absolute sobriety and no possession of firearms. (Haizel), if convicted, faces up to 120 years in prison,” said Martens. “He discharged 31 rounds out of the house surrounded by officers. This was a violent and extremely dangerous situation.”

    Martens added that Haizel has a conviction for using a firearm while intoxicated.

    Attorney Erin Larsen, however, asked for a “reasonable cash bail,” citing his life-long residency in the county and good court attendance for earlier operating while intoxicated charges.

    “This was extremely dangerous behavior. Not only for the officers, but for the individual residents in adjacent homes. If these (allegations) are true, it could have resulted in the death of an officer,” said Judge David Resheske, who set a $100,000 cash bail.

    Haizel will next appear in court on April 9. 

Haizel 

Tyree Retires

Small item in the paper today... Michael Tyree retired on Friday.  You may remember him as the director of the local library and from the class he showed in standing up to the local religious bullies in town.  Thanks for that Michael!

Once per month or once every 30 days?

Below is the editorial policy for the Daily News.  There were only 17 days between Mary Weigand's letters, so I assume the policy means one letter per calendar month, not every 30 days, right?  I had always assumed it meant one letter every 30 days.  Might be a good time to write a letter responding to Mary's nonsense since she can't reply for about 4 weeks!

Mary Weigand strikes again

Sad letter from Mary Weigand in the paper today.  She must realize she has very little support because she resorts to the old Mark Belling standby (it's like the Green Bay Packers power sweep - you know it's coming and there is nothing you can do about it) of attempting to paint this as a liberal vs. conservative issue, when of course, it isn't.  

Most of my friends are conservative (true!) and they think Pastor Dunsford's charter school - as proposed - was not a good idea.  

Mary, it's not liberals who think you are crazy.  It's people with brains.

It was nice to see a letter right after Mary's that again calls her and the whole crew behind this proposal out for what they are trying to do.

Read the letter here:

  I’m always amused how liberals respond when conservatives make their views known or become involved in public policy. After reading Joseph Palma’s editorial I’m as convinced as ever that liberals are closed-minded and will stop at nothing to misinform in order to advance their ideas. 
    My recent editorial stated that several modern items have been found “permineralized (in other words as fossils in rock form),” a true statement. I know it is surprising, given that we’re always told it takes millions of years for that process to occur.
    Palma also might not know that fresh, unfossilized dinosaur bones have been found in the Western United States. Even evolutionists say they couldn’t have survived in that state for 70 million years. These bones have soft tissue inside, while being permineralized on the outside.
    A Google search will bring up articles on the subject. Crocks of butter in bogs in Ireland have been found in the same condition-soft on the inside, yet rock hard on the outside. 
    Science is about facts, not about presuppositions. I can’t help it if the facts undermine the evolutionary paradigm. These facts don’t fit in with the conclusions evolutionists draw from paleontology and are food for thought.
    Palma must not know either about the fraud of Haekel’s embryos as “evidence for evolution.” This is slowly being corrected in science texts, but still the lie lingers in some people’s minds.
    Now to the real reason for his editorial. He is opposed to educational choice for parents and their children. He likes the current school monopoly.
    In reality, tax dollars are supposed to be used for the educational needs of all children in the district. The School Board must take all children into consideration when fulfilling this mission.
    Thankfully, we now have a governor who seems to understands this. 
    Mary P. Weigand Trenton

Mary & Dave Weigand got served!

Clearly the people of West Bend aren't as dumb as Mary & Dave Weigand think we are.  From the paper today:

Misinformation of fossilization should raise education concerns

 Here’s a quiz. Which one of these modern items has been found fossilized? 

    1. A hat
    2. Butter
    3. A boot with partial foot
    4. A ham
    5. A bag of flour
    Answer: NONE OF THEM. Mary Weigand erroneously claimed these items have been found fossilized. Fossilization occurs when minerals replace the original organic material. The items above are examples of concretion or calcification. This is where the original organic material remains and is only covered with minerals leached from surrounding strata by water. This is similar to the calcium build up on your faucet. Mary should check the validity of her creationist sources by going to www.talkorigins.org to debunk this and other creationist canards.
    The overwhelming evidence for the theory of evolution is not at all dependent on how fast or slow fossils form. This is a straw man argument. The evidence for evolution spans many disciplines from genetics to paleontology to embryology and beyond. Evolution is the foundation of all the life sciences that we use today. Try Jerry A. Coyne’s book “Why Evolution is True” for a comprehensive explanation of the evidence for evolution. Creationism has no scientific evidence in its favor and must rely on fallacious arguments like the one above to trick people into believing in it.
    We should be concerned that West Bend School Board member Dave Weigand, Mary’s husband, shares these fundamentalist ideological views. One might think that his recent support for Pastor Bruce Dunford’s charter school proposal was based on his personal relationship with his clergyman or his religious ideology and not on the betterment of the schools of West Bend. It would be unfortunate if Dave would, so easily, cast away his vaunted fiscally conservative values in favor of a constitutionally dubious, financially reckless and unproven religious charter school proposal.
    Joseph A. Palma, West Bend