Run Away Amish

What do we know about the Amish, or Amish people? We know that some of them don't utilize many of the modern conveniences that have become staples in our every day lives.

They don't drive, own televisions, use telephones, or even electricity. But do we know why, and how far this aversion to modern day advances goes?

All aspects of Amish life are dictated by a list of written or oral rules, known as Ordung, which outlines the basics of the Amish faith and helps to define what it means to be Amish. For an Amish person, the Ordnung may dictate almost every aspect of one's lifestyle, from dress and hair length to farming techniques. The Ordnung varies from community to community and order to order, which explains why you will see some Amish riding in automobiles, while others don't even accept the use of battery-powered light, and others shun medical care no matter how much it is needed.

The parents of a 10-year-old Amish girl with leukemia have fled their home in Ohio, leaving the country at one point, so she won’t be forced into resuming chemotherapy treatments, the family’s attorney said yesterday.

The family has been fighting a hospital in court for months after the parents decided to halt the treatments because they were making the girl sick.

They left their home in rural northeastern Ohio just days before a state appeals court appointed a guardian in October to take over medical decisions for the Sarah Hershberger, said attorney Maurice Thompson.

“They don’t want Sarah to be taken away,” he said.

Doctors at Akron Children’s Hospital believe Sarah’s leukemia is treatable, but they say she will die without chemotherapy. The hospital went to court after the family decided to stop chemotherapy and treat Sarah with natural medicines such as herbs and vitamins.

An appeals court ruling in October gave an attorney who’s also a registered nurse limited guardianship over Sarah and the power to make medical decisions for her. The court said the beliefs and convictions of her parents can’t outweigh the rights of the state to protect the child.

The family has appealed the decision to both the appeals court and the Ohio Supreme Court. They also plan to file a motion to terminate the guardianship.

They have not had any contact with the guardian since the ruling, said Clair Dickinson, the guardian’s attorney.

A taxi was sent to the family’s home nearly two months ago after the guardian was appointed to take Sarah to the hospital in Akron, but someone at the home said the family was not there, Dickinson said.

There are no plans to ask the court to find the family or force the girl into chemotherapy while the case is being appealed, he said.

He said Sarah’s last known chemotherapy session was in June, and doctors have said she could die within a year if treatments don’t resume.

“I’m very concerned about her,” he said.

The girl has undergone alternative-therapy treatments and is doing well, Thompson said. The family told him she has more energy and CT scans show the treatments are working.

Thompson, who leads the libertarian 1851 Center for Constitutional Law in Ohio, said he believes the case is an example of the courts trampling on the rights of parents and freedom to refuse medical treatment.

State laws give parents a great deal of freedom when it comes to choosing medical treatment for their children, but not always when the decision could be a matter of life or death.

While these disputes are rare, they most often come up when a parent objects to treatment because of a religious belief or because they want to use natural medicines instead of chemotherapy, which some holistic practitioners oppose because of the chemicals that kill cancerous and healthy cells.

A Minnesota mom fled the state with her 13-year-old son in 2009 during a court battle over whether he should be forced to continue chemotherapy. She wanted her son’s cancer treated with natural healing methods, but the two returned after about a week and the boy underwent court-ordered chemo.

Andy Hershberger, the Ohio girl’s father, said this past summer that the family agreed to begin two years of treatments for Sarah last spring but stopped a second round of chemotherapy in June because it was making her extremely sick.

Sarah begged her parents to stop the chemo and they agreed after a great deal of prayer, Hershberger said. The family, members of an insular Amish community, shuns many facets of modern life and is deeply religious. They live on a farm and operate a produce stand near the village of Spencer in Medina County, about 35 miles southwest of Cleveland.

Hospital officials have said they are morally and legally obligated to make sure the girl receives proper care. They said the girl’s illness, lymphoblastic lymphoma, is an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but there is a high survival rate with treatment.

I am a Christian, a man of faith who is an unapologetic follower of Christ. I am prone to fall just like anyone else, just by virtue of being human. But there is NOTHING that I wouldn't do to save my children's lives even if it meant violating a religious or moral principal. If necessary I would even do some things that would cause me to seek the throne of grace for repentance later. With that being said, I cannot conceive a scenario in which one of my children would die because I decided to take a foolish stand. One of the best things about living in America is the fact that we have freedom of religion. But is there a point where religion goes too far? 

PR

Just When You Thought You Heard It All News (11-30-2013)

Side Bar: Who left the gate open?!

Gargamel got out!

It's not the knockout game, but it is a knockout over a game.

A psycho Oregon father is in jail after allegedly knocking out a teenager after his son was elbowed during a pickup football game.

If I was this boys father they would have been picking this jerk up after the pick up game.

Investigators in Coos County, Ore., arrested Mark Andrew Colton, 34, last Saturday for second-degree assault stemming from an October incident involving his 10-year-old son.

The boy had been playing football with a group of kids at the city park when he was elbowed in the face during a play.

The child went home and told his father, who then went to the field and demanded to know who had hit his son.

When a 13-year-old who had not struck Colton's child spoke up the suspect allegedly struck him in the temple, knocking him unconscious.

The kid was taken to a hospital and treated.

Colton was taken to the Coos County Jail and held on $25,000 bail. Hopefully someone remembers to lock the gate this time.

Before you even read this story let me ask all of the mothers. How many of you would let your 12 year old daughter go out looking like this?

An African-American girl could be expelled unless she cuts her hair.

Twelve year old Vanessa VanDyke was told she has a week to decide whether to cut her natural hair or leave Faith Christian Academy in Orlando, Fla.

"It says that I'm unique," VanDyke said. 

Nope! It's says that your mother didn't, can't or won't braid your hair.

"First of all, it's puffy and I like it that way. I know people will tease me about it because it's not straight. I don't fit in."

In my opinion the issue is not about her hair being straight. It's about her hair looking like the girl from " Beasts of The Southern Wild". Even "Hushpuppy" got her hair done when she got some money.

VanDyke's mom, Sabrina Kent, said her daughter has had the same hairstyle since the beginning of the school year, but school officials only became concerned after Kent complained to them about her daughter being teased.

"There have been people teasing her about her hair, and it seems to me that they're blaming her," Kent said.

Faith Christian Academy did not immediately return calls nor did the school answer any questions from the media.

Kent said officials told her VanDyke's hair is a "distraction."

I guess that is the politically correct way of putting it.

One of the reasons I love writing "Just When You Thought You Heard It All News" is because I can always manage to find a crazier story week after week, and I can always manage to find a dumber criminal than the last.

The narcotics trafficking defendant who attended a Florida court hearing wearing a sweatshirt imprinted with a cartoon like recipe for producing crack cocaine was convicted last week for a pair of felonies and sentenced to 3 years in state prison.

They should give him 3 more years for wearing his confession to court.

Christopher Patterson, a convicted felon who previously served time for cocaine possession entered no contest pleas last Tuesday to distribution and conspiracy charges related to the sale of the painkiller Oxycodone to an undercover cop.

The 27-year-old Patterson, who was jailed following his plea, has an August 2016 release date. 

As seen above, Patterson made an unfortunate wardrobe choice when he appeared last year in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom for a hearing in the Oxycodone case. Patterson’s colorful sweatshirt carried the slogan “Stack Paper Say Nothing” and included drawings-baking soda, spoons, an open flame, and a crock pot depicting the procedure to manufacture crack.

The photo of Patterson was taken by a lawyer who noticed the defendant’s incongruous courtroom attire. Patterson’s sweatshirt was manufactured by a firm called Stash House and had a zipper pull in the shape of a handgun.

Patterson’s criminal history includes arrests for pot possession, larceny, resisting arrest, probation violations, and failure to appear in court. He has also been convicted several times for cocaine possession. 

PR

The Latest In George "The New O.J." Zimmerman News

The slow unraveling of a murderer continues as he reeps what he sows.

Court documents filed on Monday indicate that police uncovered a collection of weapons and several rounds of ammunition inside George Zimmerman‘s girlfriend’s home. After being accused of pointing a shotgun at Samantha Scheibe during a dispute last week, the former volunteer night watchman faces domestic violence  and assault charges to which he has pleaded not guilty.

Zimmerman, 30, was reportedly in possession of a 12-gauge shotgun, an AR-15 assault rifle, and three semiautomatic handguns, according to reports. The public search warrant featuring the listed items was made public, with the Sun-Sentinel stating in a video report that Zimmerman collected the stash of weapons for leisure (most likely African-American target practice), as well as a means to protect himself.

Other items seized from the home include three handgun holsters, a flashlight, a pocket knife, a soft-sided gun case, and a pair of smartphones. Last week, Zimmerman claimed he was in debt for millions and could not afford his own counsel, so he was assigned a public defender, Jeff Dowdy. On Monday, Zimmerman dropped Dowdy and is now working with a private attorney. It is not known who is funding his defense. But I suspect that anonymous supporters has come to his aid.

In an indigence filing last week, Zimmerman said he had only $144 and had amassed $2.5 million in debt. Zimmerman also had a colleague of Dowdy’s file a motion for him to recover his iPhone and Blackeberry devices as well as the aforementioned pocket knife.

Zimmerman is currently out on bail.

But he is not free, and will never be free.

PR

A Thanksgiving Prayer

Lord I thank you for giving me and my family life, health, and strength.

I thank you for your grace, mercy, peace and favor.

I thank you for the food on our table and the hands that prepared the food for the strengthening and nourishment of our bodies.

Lord you said we have not because we ask not, so Lord I'm asking..........

For you to take all of the things away from us that are not like you.

Lord you said we have not because we ask not, so Lord I'm asking...........

For you to heal our minds, our bodies, and our souls.

Lord you said we have not because we ask not, so Lord I'm asking..........

For you to guide us on this journey of life so that we will fulfill your purpose and be used for your glory.

Lord you said we have not because we ask not, so Lord I'm asking...........

For traveling mercy as we travel to spend time with our family and friends. 

So that our homes will be the same they were when we left them.

In Jesus Christ our Lord we pray.

AMEN & AMEN!

PR

Kennedy's Missing Brain

One of the reasons that I love conspiracy theories is the fact that some of them actually sound reasonable enough to be true, and interesting enough to make me think. Friday marked November 22 marked the 50th anniversary of assassination of  President John F. Kennedy. 

Conspiracy theorists have always had a field day when it comes to what is arguably the controversial assassination in U.S. history. Some have claimed that there was a shadowy figure who fired a shot while hiding behind a grassy knoll, and others believe that Lee Harvey Ozwald, the killer, was secretly working for the C.I.A, and was murdered by Jack Ruby to keep him quiet.

But other rumors have actually turned out to be based on facts, and after all fact is stranger than fiction.

Who stole JFK's brain? It has been a mystery since 1966 when, three years after the president's assassination, it was discovered that his brain, which had been removed during the autopsy and stored in the National Archives, had gone missing. Conspiracy theorists have long suggested the missing organ would have proved Kennedy was not shot from the back by Lee Harvey Oswald, but from the front.

The latest theory puts forward a less juicy cover-up – James Swanson, author of a new book on the assassination of Kennedy, suggests the president's brain was taken by his younger brother Robert, "perhaps to conceal evidence of the true extent of President Kennedy's illnesses, or perhaps to conceal evidence of the number of medications that President Kennedy was taking".

The world that surrounds the JFK assassination is, at baseline, so bizarre and so susceptible to any cockamamie idea that the news that the former president’s brain is missing seems like a standard news dispatch, a routine day at an office where alien abductions are greeted with a bored shrug.

But the fact is, somehow, JFK’s brain cannot be accounted for. A second fact about JFK’s brain is that, horribly, Oswald’s bullet blew away a large portion of it. The autopsy of JFK describes that a “portion of the projectile [bullet] made its exit through the parietal bone [skull] on the right carrying with it portions of cerebrum [brain], skull, and scalp.”  Furthermore, a large portion of the brain was clearly missing. In a ghoulish recollection by the doctors who treated Kennedy and performed the autopsy, published as apart of a three-part series, one recalls spotting Mrs. Kennedy near the emergency room bay where the nominally alive JFK was still being worked on. Dr Pepper Jenkins recalled, “I noticed that her [Mrs. Kennedy’s] hands were cupped in front of her…As she passed by, she handed me what she had been nursing in her hands a large chunk of her husband’s brain tissue.”

LIke I said the truth really is stranger than fiction.

 PR

Ever Think To Yourself, "Where Was God?"

Sometimes I try to write blogs that inspire my readers. Often times my writing is a cathartic process that helps me heal. But there are times when I find it hard to inspire myself much less anyone else.

Have you ever felt like you've been kicked in the gutt? Have you ever been so down, so hurt, and so disappointed that you could barely get down on your knees to pray? During my morning prayer  recently I felt like yelling, "where are you?"

Where was God, and why would he allow something to happen that could not remotely work for my good?

This is, of course, a rhetorical question because I know where God is. But I felt like asking recently because I believed that surely an ever present, omnipotent God must have his eyes on me. After all, if his eyes are on the sparrow, I know that he is watching me. But sometimes when he allows things to happen that hurt me to my core it makes me feel as if he's not even there.

All of my readers, friends and family may be wondering why I chose to write about this. Some of you may ask yourselves if I'm losing faith. 

The answers are because I'm human, and fearless when it comes to my feelings. I know that I'm not the only one who's felt like this. I'm probably just one of the few who admitt it. I haven't lost my faith by any means. But on this one step at a time journey, on some days it feels like one on the steps is either too damaged, or too broken to repair.

When I feel discouraged I have to ask.....

WHY?! God WHY?!

PR

Just When You Thought You Heard It All News (11-23-2013)

I think everybody has at least 1 crazy ex. Some are crazier than others. A friend of mine once told me a story about an ex-girlfriend who tattooed his name on her forehead in capital letters "SHAWN". But the thing is, he spells it SEAN. Let that be a lesson to all of you stalkers. If you absolutely have to have a forehead tat, make sure you spell the name right. The following story is about another scorned, crazy, nut ball.

After her boyfriend of three years, Ryan Boyd, broke up with her, this 22-year-old from Austin allegedly didn't waste any time unleashing her inner crazy. Boyd's phone records show McClain called him up to 750 times a day and sent between 20 - 100 daily text messages, threatening to make his life miserable.

She also sent him some blank text messages. You know, just to show that she was thinking about him.

It wasn't until three months after the break-up, though, that police say McClain really took things to the next level. In November 2012, she allegedly drove to the home of Boyd's mother and ran over the woman with her car. Thankfully she survived.

Ordinarily I'd make a clever comment about this woman having a prison named after her because she spends so much time behind bars. Or having a custom made cell with a revolving door made just for her. But this time I'll take the high road, and I will not write that if ugly was a felony she would have been locked up twice as many times. Oops!!

Shermain Miles has seen the inside of a prison cell a total of 396 times! Now after her latest release from prison, where she served a year for assaulting a city alderman, Miles has taken a vow that she plans on sticking to: no drinking, drugging, and — hands-down — no more arrests! Miles swears she is on a new path toward making positive life changes, so that she is never arrested again.

Over the years, Shermain Miles, 51, was arrested 65 times for disorderly conduct and 59 times for crimes related to prostitution, among other things. She has used at least 83 different aliases and is well known among merchants and residents in several neighborhoods on Chicago’s North Side. One florist called police about her 25 times last summer.

Miles’ rap sheet roots were established in 1978, and according to her, drinking was the cause of all her arrests. The 52-year-old says that the drinking transformed her into a “monster,” fueling her spirit in a bad way and resulting in her committing crimes. WOW!

My Grandmother once told me that it takes all kinds of people to make a world. But some how I don't think that Grandma had any idea how many different kinds of crazy people there really are.

 A South Carolina man who stored his severed leg in a barbecue smoker, (what a genius!) that was later auctioned off is locked in a custody dispute with the North Carolina man who found it. 

John Wood's leg was amputated near the knee after a 2004 airplane crash. He asked doctors to give it to him so he could be buried as a whole man when he died.

The limb, which Wood had kept in the smoker in a storage facility after he lost his home, was bought by Shannon Whisnant last Tuesday in an auction held by the storage company because Wood had missed his monthly payments 

Whisnant initially gave it to police, who subsequently turned it over to a funeral home when it became clear it was not the result of foul play.

But Whisnant, who put a sign on the empty smoker charging adults $3 and children $1 for a look, now wants the leg back.

"He's making a freak show out of it," Wood told the local media. "He wants to put money in his pocket with this thing."

In my opinion only a freak would keep his severed leg in a smoker. Or keep his severed leg at all. It's a good thing that nobody decided to smoke anything.

Whisnant, who was unsuccessful in his bid to get the leg from the funeral home, consulted with a lawyer and decided his best move was to persuade Wood to share custody and profits.

"It's a strange incident, and Halloween's just around the corner," Whisnant said. "The price will be going up if I get (a stake in) the leg."

Wood, who is heading to Maiden to pick up his leg, said the two men can meet, but he is not interested in using the leg to make money.

"I just think it's despicable," he said. "I don't mind having the 15 minutes of fame, but I'm not looking to really profit off this thing."

PR

Black & Missing: Does America Care?

This particular subject kind of hits home for me. My cousin has been missing for 7 years, and the Police have put little or no effort into trying to find her. Her and I had not spoken in quite some time but I can't help but feel sad when I think about the possibility of never having the opportunity to speak to her again. Although I have no idea where she is, I am 100 percent certain that people don't just fall off of the face of the earth. Somebody knows something. Somebody always knows something!

A staggering 30 percent of persons missing in the United States in 2012 were people of color. Although our government acknowledges these disappearances in pages of data, legal officials and national media outlets can barely cite a case by name. Herein lies the problem.

Americans are oblivious. They have no desire to learn about the dozens of black faces that vanish nationally every day. Elizabeth Smart and Natalee Holloway become the subjects of a national news media frenzy, while other stories fall by the wayside.

 Police in Washington D.C. say there are 30 unsolved cases involving missing people of color in the city.

This is one such case.

On the morning of Sept. 15, 1999, Sabrina Logan got a frantic call from her daughter, Stephanie Logan. Sabrina’s sister, Allean Logan, wasn’t answering her phone. Could Sabrina go over to Allean’s home in Southwest Washington and see if she was okay, Stephanie asked.

When Sabrina got there, she heard Allean’s infant son, Jerome, crying through the locked door. Worried, Sabrina rushed to get an apartment manager. When the door swung open, she found Jerome sitting in his chair. Allean, 36, was nowhere to be found.

“You could tell his diaper was soaking wet, like he had it on a couple of hours,” Stephanie Logan recalled her mother telling her.

No one has seen or heard from Allean since. Nearly 14 years later, there are still more questions than answers. Allean’s family says she never would have left Jerome alone. They say she would have taken personal items such as Jerome’s stroller, her cigarettes, her keys and her shoes if she planned to leave and never return.

“Sometimes, it gets kind of depressing,” Stephanie, 41, said. “We just miss having Allean around. She had a real uplifting spirit.”

PR

FREEZE!! Now Rap For Your Life!!

This story is reminiscent of the mental torture inflicted upon many African-American's during the Jim Crow era. Their lives often depended on how well they followed the dubious orders of authority. Some had to literally sing for there supper. While others had to dance like puppets on a sadistic string just to stay alive. In 2013, things have changed somewhat. But not much at all. Gone are the days when dancing and singing were forced on some Black people by fear an intimidation. These days.....

The New York Police Department allegedly forced Quinshon Shingles to rap in order to avoid arrest, and now the 27-year-old aspiring rapper is filing a lawsuit.

Shingles, whose rap moniker is “Sauce Da Boss,” said NYPD Officer David Grieco and Detective Joseph Patton unlawfully entered his cousin’s home and handcuffed him.

Once they learned that he was a rapper, they told him to spit a few “hot” lyrics. If the lyrics were good enough, officers allegedly told Shingles, they wouldn’t take him to jail. But if they didn’t pass muster, they were taking him in.

“$30,000 in pocket that’s loose change. I throw a billion in the sky like Bruce Wayne,” Quinshon Shingles rapped.

Those lyrics set Shingles free, but the experience made him lose his “artistic creativity.”

“I felt like the old days, slavery. Like dance for the master, dance and sing for the master. It just messed me up inside,” Shingles said.

“This is about me being able to tell my story so this won’t happen to another kid. This is outrageous. This is very disrespectful,” Shingles said.

Shingles and two friends were handcuffed for 90 minutes while cops performed their search, said the suit, which seeks unspecified damages. They apparently wanted to question a visitor to the apartment, but that man was not charged.

Shingles’ cousin Tyriek Fortune was arrested on a previous charge.

PR

It's Not A Game!

This story goes out of all of the Black teenagers who wonder why they get profiled. Those of you who whine about being unfairly treated, and those of you who think that the world should overlook your rampant foolishness and treat you fairly. Outrageous narratives like the following is a reason why you will probably never gain the respect that you seek.

 A terrifying new ‘game’ that’s already caused deaths in Syracuse, St. Louis and New Jersey is sweeping the nation, and it preys upon unsuspecting people walking the streets, anywhere.

A recent report shed light on the growing trend, displaying unsettling footage of psychopathic teens participating in this game that they call "Knockout". It involves randomly targeting passersby, with the ultimate goal being to knock them out with one punch as they walk by.

http://youtu.be/qF9lV319yg4

One victim shown in the footage was 46-year-old Ralph Santiago of Hoboken, N.J., who was found dead with his neck broken and head lodged between iron fence posts.

Video surveillance shows Santiago walking in an alleyway in broad daylight, and just as he’s about to pass a pack of teenagers, one launches the fatal, knockout blow.

And what’s the point?

“For the fun of it,” one teen said in the video.

“They just want to see if you got enough strength to knock somebody out,” said another.

D.C. has not been spared of this violent trend.

One local woman, who was attacked on 14^th Street NW in Columbia Heights on Thursday, she believes to have been a target of this game, as a group of around eight males on bikes came up behind her, with one hitting her in the head. According to the report, police categorized the attack as “simple assault.”

The woman says that she believes others in the area should be on the lookout for similar types of attacks.

What they don't realize is that they're ruining their lives just for the fun of it. As I wrote in one of my first blogs, "The Crime Solution"

(http://theprbrownreport.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-crime-solution.html?m=1). 

Penalizing parents for their children's crimes is almost guaranteed to decrease  the crime rate across America.

PR

George "The New OJ" Zimmerman

Have you ever seen a building implode? It is unsettling, magnificent, destruction when you watch a structure once designed to ascend into the sky for all eternity collapse into itself. I almost feel guilty admitting how breath taking it is to me. The buildings that I have seen seem to just fold into themselves as if someone suddenly pulled out the last pin that was holding it together. In reality the implosion is a planned series of explosions or events from within that cause a devastating demise. To me the ultimate irony is the fact that the victor's who accomished the architectural feat, had to idea that fate would have their work undone.

Such is the on going delicious 

saga of George Zimmerman. Or as I like to call him the new O.J.

Zimmerman was arrested following a disturbance on Nov. 18, 2013 at a Fla. home and is being held without bail on charges that he threatened his girlfriend with a shotgun according to the Seminole county Sherrifs Department.

Zimmerman, 30, was taken into custody Monday afternoon following a disturbance call at a home in Apopka, Fla., about 15 miles from Orlando, according to Chief Deputy Dennis Lemma of the Seminole County Sheriff's office.
In July, Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
Lemma told reporters that Zimmerman has been charged with aggravated assault, battery, domestic violence, and criminal mischief.
"The victim indicated that she and George Zimmerman were having a verbal dispute and at that time she alleged that he had broken a table and pointed a long barrel shotgun at her," said Lemma.

SMH!

On Feb. 26, 2012, Zimmerman shot and killed Martin, who was 17-years-old and unarmed at the time of his death. It took several weeks for police to arrest Zimmerman for the shooting, setting off waves of protests across the nation. Zimmerman, who was acting as a volunteer neighborhood watchman at the time of the shooting, claimed he shot Martin in self-defense during an altercation.

On July 13, Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder by a six-person jury. 
Since the acquittal, Zimmerman has had several run-ins with law enforcement. He was stopped for speeding in Texas about two weeks after his acquittal, and pulled over twice more in Florida (once for speeding and once for overly tinted windows and improperly displayed tags) over the next few months. And in September, police were called to the home of his estranged wife, Shellie, after she told a police dispatcher that he threatened her with a gun. No charges were filed in that incident.

The PRBrown Report promise:

Each and every time George "The New OJ" Zimmerman screws up, (and he will again). You can read about it here.


PR

The Absence of Apathy

It is the death of ambition, and the silent killer of dreams, and although simple to diagnose,  it's complexity renders it indistinguishable in the realm of greater reasoning.

Apathy: 1. absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement. 2. lack of interest in or concern for things that others find moving or exciting. 

We've all been there, mainly because it's an easy place to go. Life moves along in a daily routine, and we find ourselves accepting the good as it is, without an effort to make it better, or accepting the bad as a fact of life without striving to change direction. 

The question is. How do we become passionate about the course of our lives?

Firstly, passion is ignited by vision, and vision is driven by faith and effort. 

2 Corinthians 5:7 

7  For we walk by faith, not by sight

James 12 14:17

14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

The fact of the matter is that if there has to be a real desire to do better, or else applying these biblical principals are in vein. I cannot impassion anyone or spark a flame that will spur their ambition. All that I can do is impart the principals. After all, there has never been anyone who has been a catalyst for change through osmosis. It begins with the absence of apathy, and the essence of effort.

PR

Just When You a Thought You Heard It All News (11-16-2013)

I have always been a big fan of super heroes. Batman, Superman, Aquaman, and Mr. T.....,Mr. T is to a Super hero, and of course my father. (Insert smile and one tear here.) But I would never name my son Batman Brown. On second thought that sounds kinda cool! But, NO! 

If I named my children after things I like their names would be, Pay Day, Vacation Day & Buffet.

Hey, it's a tough name to live up to.

Three years ago, Singapore man Batman bin Suparman whose name translates to "Batman son of Superman"....LOL, became an Internet celebrity after a picture of his ID card surfaced.

Now 23, Batman is back in the news after getting sentenced on Monday to three years in jail on a variety of charges. Batman was arrested in August, after surveillance video showed him stealing the equivalent of $400 from a store according to court documents.

In addition Batman stole the ATM cardof his brother, Nurazman Suparman, and fraudulently used it to make purchases totally about $680. He also pleaded guilty to unrelated counts of theft and heroin consumption.

Some fans of Batman have expressed their dismay on the Batman Bin Suparman Fan Club Facebook page, lamenting that their hero "has fallen to the Dark Side." Others have called for someone to break him out of jail. Police have nothing to fear. Planet Kryton blew up years ago. But they have to remember that he is still a billionaire with a huge cave, a fancy utility built, and a butler who will do anything he asks.

The stupidity of criminals never ceases to amaze me.

Four dumb young men who Instagrammed photos of themselves after purchasing $120 worth of fast food with a stolen credit card now have another photo to post on Instagram: a mug shot. Bet that’ll look pretty snazzy with an antique filter.

After a series of break-ins at a hotel parking lot, one of the victims noticed that she had a charge for $120 worth of food from Carl’s Jr. on her card. As salivatingly awesome as that may be, it was not her own purchase, and the police set out to find the perpetrator.

Once police arrived at the Carl’s Jr. location, they questioned an employee who offered up a license plate number, as well as an account of how she recognized one of the men in the car from a local high school.

Officers then learned photos of the thieves’ purchase may have been posted to an Instagram account. They checked the account and found a photo believed to be one of the suspects eating the food they purchased on the stolen card. With all that fast food goodness, it seems that the alleged hamburglars didn’t think the police could ketchup. Rim shot please!

Using this wealth of information, police were able to track down the vehicle in question. Upon finding it contained items reported stolen from the hotel parking lot, the four suspects were arrested.

Hopefully they enjoyed that meal, because it’s a heck of a lot better than whatever they’ll get to eat in jail  even if it was just Carl’s Jr.

Where do I begin with the endless bad judgement of these young dumb men?

If you're going to steal, and you shouldnt by the way. But if you absolutely must risk going to jail at least eat at a 5 star restaurant not a gourmet McDonalds.

There has been no shortage of crazy people calling the Police for nonsense. I've heard stories about a woman calling the Police because her crack dealer shorted her, and another jerk called the Police because he got the wrong order at McDonalds. But this guy........

Fellas, here's a lesson in how not to end a one-night stand. Or a good reason not to have one at all.

Wisconsin man Benjamin Duddles, 41, called police to remove a woman who was asleep in his bed and snoring so loudly he couldn't get to sleep.

Duddles spent the evening with the woman drinking and having "relations" before turning in for the night, according to a Waukesha Police Department report.

But the cuddle puddle with Duddles soon turned into trouble. LOL!

Duddles dialed police at 4 a.m. Sunday to ask that police come and take the woman from his home. He said she was "snoring like a freight train," according to the report. Police said the man sounded "extremely intoxicated" on the phone.

Still, they went to Duddles' residence to assess the situation. They determined that the woman who has sleep apnea -- was medically fine.

Police explained to Duddles that no crime had been committed and it was not a police matter because he let her into his home.

Officers then directed Duddles to his couch and advised him to work out his "issue" when he woke up. 

PR

Stripped, Violated, & Disrespected

The following narrative, although humiliating, degrading and unjust speaks to a much larger issue. The global, and blatant marginalization of African-Americans. Many immigrants come to America with a westernized ideal of what it means to be an American in pursuit of the American dream, and being an African-American or anything like an African-American is not a part of that ideal. It is, in fact the opposite of what they want to be. False imagery, propaganda, media spin, and decades old stereo types have been presented to many immigrants as fact. So they come to America having already been predisposed to false notions, with a predjudice disposition built into their psyche. So when they encounter African-American's there is little if and respect, and a vehement disregard for their humanity in some cases. The following story, and footage is a prime example of what this thought process is like.

A man who allegedly tried to steal a candy bar at a Brooklyn 7-Eleven in October 2012 is suing the food chain and landlords of its Flatbush location, claiming he suffered “emotional distress” stemming from the incident.

Video footage shows store clerks restraining David Golson, who had allegedly stolen a Snickers bar. They eventually strip him to his boxers. He can be heard denying the stealing accusations, repeatedly yelling, “I don’t have nothin’!” The man filming the video seems to disagree with the clerks’ methods, saying, “You are attacking him.”

http://youtu.be/l7LIqU1if98

The lawsuit claims that Golson sustained a ”violent, unprovoked and widely publicized assault by … three employees, who beat, stripped, bit and restrained plaintiff, accusing him of stealing goods while he screamed that he was innocent.”

It also charges that their level of aggression was not in line with what he reportedly stole, saying, “employees intentionally, brutally and violently assaulted plaintiff in a manner completely disproportionate to what they were accusing, him of: stealing a candy bar.”M

“Despite his repeated requests to be released and his claims of innocence, defendants through its employees pulled, hit, bit and stripped plaintiff of almost all of his clothes with the exception of his underpants, shoes and socks,” the suit continues.

Video from the incident quickly went viral and made its way to media outlets including the New York Daily News, Huffington Post and ABC News. Golson claims he “suffered bruising, bite marks and was caused physical pain” from the event. His suit adds that the video has caused further harm:

“The media attention resulting from the extensive coverage of the incident and the widespread dissemination of images showing plaintiff stripped almost naked have caused plaintiff to suffer severe humiliation, mental anguish and emotional distress from which he may never recover.”

All of the money in the world could not restore this mans dignity, or assuage his shame.

PR

Doing Life For Non Violent Crime

I know what some of you are thinking. "There goes that PR Brown again criticizing the criminal justice system as If these people aren't guilty and don't bring it on themselves." No that's not the case. Many of the people who are incarcerated are actually guilty, and deserve to incarcerated. But when the scales of justice are so statistically unbalanced that African-Americans receive the lions share of long prison sentences for non-violent crimes, I would be remiss if I did not shed light on yet another "design flaw" in the system especially given the fact that the ranks of those who have been doomed to live out their days as state property has increased.

A new academic study of 58,000 federal criminal cases has found significant disparities in sentencing for blacks and whites arrested for the same crimes. The research led to the conclusion that African-Americans’ jail time was almost 60% longer than white sentences.

While serious crime rates in the U.S. have been declining for the last 20 years, the number of prisoners serving life sentences has more than quadrupled since 1984. As documented in a new report done by sentencingproject.org over 159,000 people were serving life sentences in 2012, with nearly 50,000 serving life without parole.

Key findings from the report include:

• One of every nine individuals in prison is serving a life sentence.
• The population of prisoners serving life without parole (LWOP) has risen more sharply than those with the possibility of parole: there has been a 22.2% increase in LWOP since just 2008.
• Approximately 10,000 lifers have been convicted of nonviolent offenses.
• Nearly half of lifers are African American and 1 in 6 are Latino. 
• More than 10,000 life-sentenced inmates have been convicted of crimes that occurred before they turned 18 and nearly 1 in 4 of them were sentenced to LWOP.

 Here is one mans story.

Robert Booker admits that he didn't really need the money he got from drug dealing. He grew up in a two-parent, middle-class family in Detroit in the 1970s, and his job as a lifeguard for the city's parks department paid "good money." But the drug business paid more, and by the late 1980s nearly all of his friends were showing up to the pool with new cars and expensive sneakers. "I was smarter than the average cat, and I was like, 'If they could do it, I could do it easy,'" Booker said by phone on Monday from the Federal Correctional Institution in Schuylkill, Pa. "I left lifeguarding and started hanging around."

Twenty-five years later, at 47 years old, Booker is two decades deep into a life sentence in federal prison for three related, nonviolent drug crimes: possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute crack cocaine, and operating a "crack distribution house." Although a trial judge initially sentenced him to 20 years in prison, the prosecutor filed two separate appeals, ultimately triggering an automatic sentencing mechanism that forced a federal judge to send Booker to prison for the rest of his life. 

He has used his time in prison to study law and write fiction, and published a crime novel, entitled "Push," in 2006.

PR