Gun Debate in NH
Every now and then something will come across the evening news and I just tilt my head to one wide and ask, “They did wha…?”
So here’s the story. Dennis Fleming of Farmington, NH, comes home to his 19th century farmhouse to find he has been burglarized. He spots 27 year-old Joseph Hebert, climbing out of a window at a neighbor’s home. Fleming shouted “Freeze!” before firing his gun into the ground, then held the would-be burglar at gunpoint until police arrived.
“I didn’t think I could handle this guy physically, so I fired into the ground,” Fleming said. “He stopped. He knew I was serious. I was angry … and I was worried that this guy was going to come after me.”
No one was hurt, but when police arrived they arrested Fleming on a charge of reckless conduct, which could potentially land him a jail sentence equitable to what the burglar would get. Fleming is scheduled to be arraigned March 20.
“I didn’t know it was illegal [to fire into the ground], but I had to make that guy realize I was serious,” Fleming said. “I’ve got a clean record. I really don’t want to be convicted.”
County Attorney Tom Velardi told Foster’s Daily Democrat he will review the case and determine if the charge against Fleming is appropriate under the state statutes regarding self-defense and defense of property.
Fleming, meanwhile, is hoping to catch a break.
Penny Dean, a spokeswoman for the Gun Owners of New Hampshire, said her organization is “absolutely outraged” by Fleming’s arrest.
“This homeowner fired at the ground, from all accounts, in a safe direction and held a burglar for police and did things correctly,” Dean said. “The fact that this man would be charged is an outrage. Burglars in New Hampshire must know it’s open season, since homeowners cannot defend themselves, as evidenced by this case. This is charging the victim.”
So, this guy did a service for his neighbor and the police by holding a criminal at bay waiting for local police to arrive. For his trouble he is arrested and now faces charges and the high cost of defending himself against those charges.
It’s just another symptom of what’s wrong with government and the gun-control argument.
I hope the District Attorney comes to his senses and drops these charges. Good luck seating a jury that would actually convict this grandfather of 14.
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Okinawa – 1974
I’m a veteran. I spent nearly four years in the U.S. Army from January 1972 through August of 1975. My last duty station was Okinawa, Japan.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Normally I wouldn’t whip out Dickens to compare my circumstances on a small Pacific island nearly forty years ago to the alcoholic attorney, Sydney Carton.
Still, it fits. It was the best of times and most certainly the worst of times. By bits and pieces I was beginning to kill myself in slow motion and didn’t even know it.
I arrived on the island around July of ’73. At that point in my life I hadn’t been to too many places outside the deep south. Beyond my ‘Summer of Love’ excursion to Atlanta and my last duty station in Tampa, the world was my oyster and I was looking for a Pearl. I was 19, married with a young son and had the maturity of a circus clown. It was not a good mix for the likes of me.
The next few months were pretty much a booze filled blur. I had some good times on the island. I got into Scuba diving which was incredible in the crystal clear blue waters surrounding Okinawa.
As they say, all good things must come to an end. My extracurricular activities got worse and I ended up divorced and in my first treatment. Looking back today with the benefit of vision, I didn’t have a clue how bad it had gotten for me.
The Army decided I was a lost cause, not a good candidate for rehabilitation, and in August of ’74 sent me home with discharge papers. I look back on my military service with mixed emotions. I was the beginning of a journey without end, an ongoing odyssey that continues even to this day. With sober eyes I have been blessed with the vision of where I went wrong and where I went right. Some days it’s a curse. Other days it’s a blessing beyond measure.
I’m not the man I would like to be but thank God I’m not the man I used to be.
“I am a disappointed drudge, sir. I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me.”
— Sydney Carton – A Tale of Two Cities
Happy Birthday Randy California
February 20 of 1951 – Los Angeles, a child by the name of Randy Craig Wolfe was born.
Randy was born into music a music family. His uncle, Ed Pearl was the owner and driving force behind the legendary Ash Grove folk club. He was 15 years old when his mother Bernice Pearl and new stepfather, Ed Cassidy (later to become a founding member of the band Spirit), moved to New York City in the summer of 1966 because Cassidy had a number of jazz gigs lined up.
It was there, at Manny’s Guitars, that Randy met Jimi Hendrix. He played in Hendrix’s band The Blue Flame that summer.
California, Cassidy and Pearl lived in an apartment building in Queens, New York called the Balfour, whose other residents included future Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker, who cites California’s blues-based guitar style as an influence on his own playing. (In an odd coincidental twist, California and Becker share this same birthdate.)
The stage name “Randy California” was given to him by Hendrix to distinguish him from another Randy in the band (who Hendrix dubbed “Randy Texas”).
After developing his friendship with Jimi Hendrix, Randy California returned to the west coast and with step father Ed Cassidy formed the band Spirit. The band’s demo was produced by Barry Hansen, later to become Doctor Demento. Their biggest commercial success came with the hit single, I Got a Line On You.
Randy California drowned in the ocean while rescuing his twelve-year-old son from a rip current near the home of Bernice Pearl at Molokai, Hawaii. He managed to push his son Quinn (who survived) towards the shore. He was 45 years old.
Read MoreKyle Busch Wins Shootout
DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. — In the NASCAR season opener, Kyle Busch survived some almost crashes to eclipse defending Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart at the finish line. It was the closest finish in Bud Shootout history.
The M&M’s Toyota started the race at the back of the pack in a backup car. Busch got tangled up in the practice crash on Friday started when Stewart bumped Kurt Busch a half hour into the practice session.
Marcos Ambrose followed the front-runners to a solid third, followed by Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin. Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards and Juan Montoya rounded out the top 10.
Stewart took the lead on lap 74 with one lap remaining when a melee developed in Turn Four that sent Jeff Gordon‘s No. 24 Chevrolet barrel-rolling through the turn sliding on its roof toward pit road.
Gordon had been following Kyle Busch on the backstretch when contact between the cars turned Busch onto the apron. For the second time tonight Busch made a spectacular save. Gordon ricocheted up the track and collected the Chevrolets of Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray.
As all three cars intersected the outside wall, Jimmie Johnson edgeded beneath the right rear bumper of Gordon’s car and flipped it over. The wreck sent the race to overtime.
“With Gordon behind me, I don’t know what the deal was there — I’d like to talk to him about it,” Busch said. “When we came off [Turn] 2, he had me sideways, and then all the way down the backstretch, I was still sideways — left, right, left, right, everywhere — then we were off into 3 and he turned me sideways again. He was on the left side of my bumper instead of the right.”
Sprint Cup qualifying for the Daytona 500 will be tomorrow, (Sunday 1:00 pm EST of Fox TV)
Read MoreR&R Saturday – It’s A Beautiful Day
As a matter of fact, it is, but I was talking about the San Francisco band of the same name..
In 1967 David LaFlamme was the founding member of IABD. Born in Connecticut LaFlamme moved to L.A. when he was very young. As a child he picked up the violin and showed remarkable talent with little instruction.
After a short stint in the Army, Laflamme ended up in Salt Lake City and became a virtuoso violinist with the Utah Symphony Orchestra. He moved to San Francisco in the early sixties and started working with some of the emerging rock and roll artists from the bay area, notably Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Santana.
It was there that LaFlamme met future manager Matthew Katz, who worked with Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape. It was a relationship that brought the band together and ultimately drove them apart. After signing with Katz, their new manager sent them to Seattle to play in a nightclub he controlled – The Encore Ballroom.
The band stayed in the attic of an old house Latz owned by Katz and wrote and rehearsed new songs in between club performances. Few customers saw the band play in Seattle during December 1967.
LaFlamme spoke of their time in Seattle where they wrote their signature song, White Bird.
“We were living in the attic of an old Victorian house in Seattle, and performing at the Encore Ballroom. It was a typical Seattle winter day, rainy and drizzly, and we were looking out from the attic window over the street in front of this old house. It was on Capitol Hill, the old section of town across from Volunteer Park. There was a statue of some famous general right across the street in the park.
“The song describes the picture Linda and I saw as we looked out this little window in this attic. We had a little Wurlitzer portable piano sitting right in the well of this window, and I’d sit and work on songs. When you hear lines like, ‘the leaves blow across the long black road to the darkened sky and its rage,’ it’s describing what I was seeing out the window.
“Where the ‘white bird’ thing came from … We were like caged birds in that attic. We had no money, no transportation, the weather was miserable. We were just barely getting by on a very small food allowance provided to us. It was quite an experience, but it was very creative in a way.”
Upon their return from Seattle IABD saw moderate success performing around San Francisco and the subsequent release of their debut album, It’s a Beautiful Day, produced by LaFlamme in a Los Angeles studio and released by Columbia Records in 1969.
It’s A Beautiful Day – Original lineup
David LaFlamme – Electric Violin
Linda LaFlamme – Keyboards
Mitchell Holman – Bass
Val Fuentes – Drums
Hal Wagonet – Guitar
Pattie Santos – Vocals
By the early 70s the band was starting to become unraveled. Matthew Katz had a death grip on the IABD name and when Laflamme left the group in 74, the band name stayed behind. It would be many years before he would again play under the name of the band he founded.
In 1989 founding member Pattie Santos was killed in a car crash.
It's A Beautiful Day - today
Although no dates are listed on the band’s 2012 touring calendar they remain active and mesmerize crowds whenever they gather on stage.
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