Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Quick Hits: Volume CCCLVII

 - The first presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump took place Tuesday evening. And as per usual, most partisans believed their side prevailed. 


For those who are intellectually honest, the takeaways would be that Harris was allowed to lie with impunity by the lefty-biased moderators while Trump blathered on in his typical undisciplined manner. This election has basically been Trump's to lose, and he seems hellbent on losing. 


There may not have been a definitive winner this debate, but there was one sure loser - the United States of America. 



- Prior to the Miami Dolphins hosting the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, their star WR Tyreek Hill was detained by police near the stadium after being deemed "non cooperative" with the officers during a traffic stop. 


The bodycam footage was released Tuesday. 





The first I learned of this incident was when a video clip circulated online of Hill lying face down with officers standing over him. While that evoked some bad memories of a certain infamous 2020 police incident in my home area of Minneapolis, I was willing to reserve judgement until we got the entire context of what led up to this. 


After viewing the bodycam footage, I'll just say this. Unless a driver being pulled over is violating some sort of obscure law which prohibits keeping the drivers' side window rolled up, the cops unnecessarily escalated this situation. Hill basically pled guilty to the moving violation by telling the officer to go ahead and give him a ticket so he could move on with his day. Why the insistence he keep his window rolled down? 


In the end, it was Hill himself who was looking to move past this incident while also focusing how situations like this don't have to occur. 



- It's the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. 


As has become custom, I like to pay homage to Minnesota native Thomas Burnett, Jr. on this anniversary of said attacks.



July 2017 - At the Flight 93 National Memorial near the site of the crash


Tom was one of 40 passengers and crew members on United flight 93 on 9/11. This particular flight was noteworthy in that the passengers, knowing what had happened to the World Trade Center earlier that morning, decided to thwart further carnage by overtaking the hijackers in the cockpit.


The flight ended up crashing in an abandoned field in rural Pennsylvania, approximately 20 minutes flight time from its intended target of the Capitol building in Washington DC.


Has America had its problems since then? No question. In fact, I'd say the divisiveness is worse than pre-9/11. But do I believe we are still, as Michael Medved, proclaims, the greatest nation on God's green earth? Without a doubt. 


May we never forget the bravery and heroism that occurred that day in the face of a horrific tragedy. 


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