Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Is Gullible in the Dictionary?

Your LakeCountyEye, for whom fear is a four letter word, is reduced to a quivering pink bunnyrabbit whenever straying west of Rte 12 and into McHenry County. This is the same McHenry county where the Sheriff supports concealed carry, and where your LakeCountyEye does not venture without first donning protective Kevlar armor. Case in point: the McHenry County Sheriff's Deputy (Eric Woods) who was hit by ricocheting bullet fragments at a March 15 training exercise.

The McHenry Sheriff is facing re-election this year and his opponents point to the accident as evidence of the Sheriff's incompetence. Of course in a County as trigger-happy as McHenry, your LakeCountyEye is surprised that accidents like these are not regular spectator events.

Operatives interested in the details can go over to the McHenryCountyBlog. While your LakeCountyEye will go to the trouble of explaining the details when necessary to advance a story, the line is drawn when the story covers McHenry County.

All things considered, your LakeCountyEye is not surprised that the Sheriff's opponents will attempt to spin the mishap for political gain. The Northwest Herald (sort of) agrees ...
For weeks, whisper campaigns and gullible bloggers claimed that Woods was the victim of a hazing incident gone awry, that officers purposely fired live ammunition at steel targets as opposed to frangible ammunition to somehow intimidate Woods.
Politicizing an accident
The Northwest Herald does not identify the gullible bloggers by name (or more importantly by URL). Perhaps because of the defamation counter-suit filed against their own defamation suit filed against blogger Cal Skinner, of the aforementioned McHenryCountyBlog. Operatives interested in the details can refer to the Daily Herald ...
Ex-legislator, newspaper dropping suits against one another
For newbies unfamiliar with the McHenryCountyBlog: this blog is Energizer Bunny of the local blogosphere, posting more stories each day than your LakeCountyEye hopes to muster in a week. The posts are mostly political and bespeak a definite point-of-view. Among other things and in the past, the McHenryCountyBlog has praised the benefits of off-shore oil drilling ...
Congressman Don Manzullo (R-Egan) today said Congress' action to end the Congressional ban on oil drilling off America’s shores will help lower gas prices and reduce our dependence on costly foreign oil.
Manzullo Praises Oil Drilling Vote
And has exposed global warming to be a media created hoax ...
If you ever wondered how ridiculous some newspaper stories are, please take a look at the headline of this Associated Press story by Seth Borenstein. It ran on page two of Elgin's Courier News on Thursday. "Blame global warming," the story says. I wonder what we blame for today's snow. You've heard of the folks who live inside Washington's Beltway, of course. There are apparently reporters who can't read weather forecasts. Ours for Good Friday was S-N-O-W.
"Spring Keeps Coming Earlier"
There is still no definitive word on who the gullible bloggers might be, although your LakeCountyEye strongly suspects the use of the plural bloggers is a red herring -- the Northwest Herald may very well intend a single unnamed local blog. Operatives are working their sources in the Northwest Herald. Your LakeCountyEye will keep you apprized as the situation warrants.

2 comments:

MammaBlogga said...

First, you sent us on a mission to find out just what 'frangible ammunition', wondering if it was another typo. However, we found the following "A frangible bullet is one that is designed to disintegrate into tiny particles upon impact to minimize their penetration for reasons of range safety,"

Second, after reading what the McHenryCountyBlog reported, It is quite obvious that the department has missed the biggest problem regarding the incident.

The Departments report on 'Contributing Factors' or 'Remediation Recommends' completely overlooks the fact that "One of the targets had a vicious dog target on a steel plate".

Anyone with half a brain would have suggested that they do away with steel plate target stands, even if they are using frangible bullets to reduce the possibility of ricochet injuries. I would give their internal investigation a D- grade.

Barney Baxter said...

hi CatMan,
It does sound like the Keystone Kops are running the show. But you're welcome to borrow my Kevlar vest whenever you need be in McHenry Co.
-BB-