NAUGATUCK — Two medieval-weapons aficionados were arrested early Sunday after they got into a sword fight in an apartment they share on North Spring Street, police said.

Jesse Ridge, 27, and Jason Fricke, 33, both of 501 North Spring St., Apt. D, began a debate around 1 a.m. about the various styles of sword fighting after they had been drinking, police said.

The debate escalated, and the men decided to show off their techniques in an actual fight, according to a police report. Fricke told Ridge he wanted to fight with plastic swords, but Ridge insisted on using medieval metallic swords.

Police said the men wielded their long swords and began swinging them at one another in the apartment.

The fight quickly got out of hand, and Fricke left the apartment with his wife. Ridge became enraged and began stabbing several holes in the apartment walls.

Ridge, who was staying with Fricke and his wife in the apartment, told police Fricke grabbed him around the throat and choked him during the fight, police said.

Ridge had a cut on the bridge of his nose and his forehead. Fricke did not report any injuries.

Both were charged with first-degree reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct, police said. Ridge was also charged with third-degree criminal mischief, and Fricke was charged with third-degree strangulation.

The men were released on respective $5,000 bonds after their arraignments Monday at Waterbury Superior Court. They entered no pleas Monday, and their cases were continued to Feb. 4.

Torrington fast-food fight unraveled
Stab victim vows to not drink or break laws
BY BRIGITTE RUTHMAN \ REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

LITCHFIELD — His shirt stained with blood from stab wounds inflicted on him by a man whose car he mistook for his own, Jeffrey Bradley nodded his head toward his girlfriend but said nothing when he faced Judge Cara Eschuk on Tuesday in Bantam Superior Court.

Bradley’s bond was reduced from $50,000 to $1,000, an amount he posted after pledging not to break any more laws or drink.

Torrington police are still unraveling the events that prompted Bradley to spar with 72-year-old Edward Kittle Jr., of Torrington, in the parking lot of the Burger King on Torrington’s East Main Street on Monday afternoon. Late Tuesday, based on interviews with witnesses who portrayed Kittle as acting, at least to some extent, in self-defense, police dropped assault charges against Kittle and charged him only with interfering with police and breach of peace. Kittle is free on $100,000 bond awaiting arraignment next week.

Bradley, 47, of Avon and New Hampshire, is charged with third-degree assault of an elderly person and breach of peace.

Bradley had been drinking heavily when he stopped at the fast food restaurant to grab a bite to eat, according to police and eyewitness testimony.

“He probably did that because he had been drinking and wanted to put food in his stomach,” Bradley’s girlfriend, Ronda Noel of Torrington, said following Tuesday’s hearing.

Noel said she was waiting for Bradley to pick her up so they could go out for dinner.

“He is happy when he drinks,” Noel said. “He must have been provoked.”

According to police, Bradley mistook the car he got into for his own rental vehicle. He plunked himself into the driver’s seat of Kittle’s car and demanded to know what Kittle was doing in the passenger’s seat. The driver, 39-year-old Cheryl Beecher, of 35 Schibi St. in Torrington, had just stepped out. She was later charged with drunken driving. Kittle also has a history of arrest for drunken driving.

The two men sparred verbally, and Bradley then began punching Kittle, of 17 Fox Run, who suffered bruises. Kittle unfolded a pocket knife and stabbed Bradley nine times. None of the wounds proved life threatening.

When police arrived, Bradley insisted Kittle’s Hyundai Tiburon was his, but the key he produced didn’t work. It did work on a Mazda parked nearby, documents state. Both of the vehicles were black.

The father of two children he supports with savings, Bradley has been unemployed for two years and suffers from medical problems, his attorney, Larry Peck, said.

He has a history of three convictions for drunken driving and has substance abuse issues, according to court documents. His case was continued.

I made friendships that will last a lifetime, but I also learned quite a bit as to what not to do and how not to treat other people.    You only have one go at life, and in the end, all the material crap goes away.  It’s the life experiences and how you treat others and yourself that is most important.   I look at this job the same as riding a ride a Disneyland as a youngster.   While you were driving home in the backseat of your parents’ station wagon, you were not sad that you were no longer on Space Mountain, but happy for the experience of having done it.   That’s how I feel about this job, although it was nothing near Disneyland!     It was hell at times, but it made me stronger and will help me exponentially in my new endeavor where I need to be a leader.   I never want to be a part of a company again where the average stay is under a year!

My very close friend, who worked with me on my team and who has been nothing short of stellar, just gave me the happiest news yet.  They have given him my boss’ position, and while he is only 25, he is going to manage 20 people in leasing.   I am so proud of him, and he has worked so hard.   I truly hope that my current company is going to turn things around and put people with integrity and heart into the leadership positions.  

Clownfighter

Roger Clemens versus Brian McNamee?

Rebublican Reps versus Democrat Reps  in House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform?

 What good does it do the country when our national past time is used as a pawn during an election years?    Yes, we need rules, that are enforceable, in professional sports as well as pretty much any other activity to keep order.  But do we need elected representatives trying to seize control from the Baseball Commissioner?   If we allow that to happen, what stops them from regulating the NFL, NBA, NHL, WTA, PGA, LPGA etc?    

Yes, drugs are bad.   It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to tell you that, but what right does Congress have to step in and push their laws and agenda upon Major League Baseball?  As far as I know HGH continues to be legal in the US, when prescribed by a physician.   What right does Congress have to say that HGH is illegal for baseball?    It is the right of the league itself to set up their own rules.

 I’m not saying that Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee are being completely honest.  From watching their testimonies, I would say that much of what they are saying is untrue.   Perjury is illegal, especially when it comes in front of a Congressional hearing.  Yet, we should never have gotten to this hearing.  This matter should have been governed by Commissioner Selig.

Clown Fighter

I think it is similar to the womb, and at the same time, subjective and unique for each and every one of us.  I think the magnitude varies as well.

It could be a warzone for one person, a prison for another, or a sandy beach for someone else.   We tend to migrate to what is comfortable and known.   I remember getting my own bedroom when I was five or six, leaving the comfort of a bunk bed shared by my little brother. 

 The first night I cried.  It wasn’t really sadness but confusion and fear that led to those tears, but for three years I had shared a room, and now I was alone.  I remember each time I graduated or changed schools.  I remember moving seven years in a row: four years of college, two at MBA school and then when I graduated.   Each time was a shock.   My comfort zone was rattled, but not destroyed.

I’ve been blessed in a major way to have my entire family in the same town, but that is going to change for me soon.  Moving 2,906.7 miles away from my family was not something I thought I’d ever do, but it is very much a reality.    This adventure will be my first true foray out of my comfort zone.

 I’m nervous, but every excited.  I also know that the stakes are much higher.  This is not just a trip abroad or a semester at sea or a backpacking trip to Europe.  I have a baby and a wife that rely on me, so the magnitude of this trip outside my comfort zone is ten on a scale of one to ten.

 The one thing that money cannot and will not buy is time, and it can never be replaced.  There are many birthdays, meetings, dinners, etc. that I’m going to miss over the next five to ten years.  My Parents are getting older and things are changing for my brothers.   My hope is that I will be able to balance this move and the job that comes with it with the personal things that matter most.  Spending quality time with my loved ones.

Clown Fighter

By NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press Writer Thu Jan 17, 4:43 PM ET LOS ANGELES - Conservationists vowed to return to court to challenge President Bush’s decision to let the Navy continue using high-power sonar in its training off Southern California, a practice they say harms whales and other marine mammals.  The president’s decision to exempt the Navy from an environmental law will not by itself allow the anti-submarine warfare training to go forward, because an injunction remains in place. But the Navy believes it will significantly strengthen its argument in court.A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had been expected to rule on the future of the Navy exercises on Friday. But after Bush’s decision, the appeals court on Wednesday sent the issue back to the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to consider. The Navy asked the court for a decision by 4 p.m. Thursday.Scientists say loud sonar can damage marine mammal brains and ears. It may also mask the echoes some whales and dolphins listen for when they use their own natural sonar to locate food.But much is still unknown about how sonar affects whales and other marine mammals. For example, the sound can hurt some species while not affecting others, and experts don’t fully understand why.The White House announced Wednesday that Bush signed the exemption a day earlier while traveling in the Middle East. In his memorandum, Bush said the Navy training exercises “are in the paramount interest of the United States” and its national security.Peter Douglas, executive director of the California Coastal Commission, which joined in the lawsuit to provide the mammals greater protections from sonar, called the exemption unprecedented in California.“I’m not surprised at all,” he said. “It’s typical for this Republican administration to ignore environmental protections under the banner of fear.”Attorneys for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has been fighting the Navy’s sonar training, said the group would file papers with the District Court to challenge Bush’s exemption.“The president’s action is an attack on the rule of law,” said Joel Reynolds, director of the council’s Marine Mammal Protection Project. “By exempting the Navy from basic safeguards under both federal and state law, the president is flouting the will of Congress, the decision of the California Coastal Commission and a ruling by the federal court.”A federal judge in Los Angeles issued a preliminary injunction this month requiring the Navy to create a 12-nautical-mile, no-sonar zone along the Southern California coast and to post trained lookouts to watch for marine mammals before and during exercises. The order required that sonar be shut down when mammals were spotted within 2,200 yards.The court found that using mid-frequency active sonar violated the Coastal Zone Management Act, and Bush exempted the Navy from a section of that act. Complying with the environmental law would “undermine the Navy’s ability to conduct realistic training exercises that are necessary to ensure the combat effectiveness of carrier and expeditionary strike groups,” Bush said.The Navy says the exercises are vital and that it works to minimizes the risk to marine life.A statement from the Defense Department said that the new exemption covers the use of mid-frequency active sonar in a series of exercises scheduled to take place off California through January 2009 and that the Navy already applies 29 measures to mitigate the effects.In a separate development, the Pentagon statement said Navy Secretary Donald Winter signed a memo Tuesday agreeing to greater public participation and better reporting on the issue while officials complete an environmental impact study for Southern California.Use of sonar “is part of critical, integrated training that must be done in the Navy’s operating area off the coast of San Diego to take advantage” of features there related to water depth, as well as extensive ranges, airfields and other infrastructure needed for training, the statement said.About half the Navy’s fleet will receive “its most critical, graduate level training” there before it deploys its forces around the world, it said.___

Associated Press writers Erica Werner and Pauline Jelinek in Washington contributed to this report.

What was he thinking?  There are plenty of other areas for the Navy to practice.   As well, his decision, in my opinion, is an affront to the separation of powers that makes our country so great.We have a democratic system that works, and as citizens, whether we agree or not with a vote or a decision, we need to support our system.  Look at Kenya, people being burned alive in a Church by another tribe, based upon an election result that was questionable?   Newsweek (Alexandra Suich - Jan 3, 2008)    “In the days following Kenya’s disputed vote, it is mostly young people who have taken to the streets to protest President Mwai Kibaki’s claim of victory after a deeply flawed ballot that saw challenger Raila Odinga’s commanding lead disappear overnight. The postelection violence has left at least 300 dead and, according to the Red Cross, an estimated 70,000 displaced. “Look back at the election between George Bush and Al Gore, in 2000:

Yet, when all was said and done and the chad issue was resolved by the Supreme Court and Bush won the electoral college, not one person was killed or injured.  Even though the popular vote was won by Gore, there were no mobs, killings, etc. in our country.   There were many unhappy people, who felt cheated, but no one took to the streets and tried to destroy our system. 

What I’m trying to get at is that our system works and when the President/Executive Branch steps on the feet of the Judicial Branch, it is wrong.

Personally, while I am a registered Republican, I am finding it hard to stay that way with what is currently going on.   I do not want to see the sonar testing going on and was relieved with the judge’s decision.   Bush has no right to use fear and war to push his agenda.    I am an adamant supporter of our troops and while I have mixed feelings about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I support our troops 1000% percent.  I do not feel that we are risking the lives of our troops by not letting the Navy test its sonar in one locale. 

 Trying to get into Bush’s mind and looking at it from his own agenda, Bush is actually hurting his own party.  In an election year, when environmental concerns prevail (and of course the economy is becoming more and more the main issue of this election), why would he do that to his party?  

I hope that our system of checks and balances/separation of powers prevails and Bush stops trampling our Constitution on this issue.

Clown Fighter….

Wed Jan 16, 8:32 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - Bad news for Coco and Blinko — children don’t like clowns and even older kids are scared of them. The news that will no doubt have clowns shedding tears was revealed in a poll of youngsters by researchers from the University of Sheffield who were examining how to improve the decor of hospital children’s wards.The study, reported in the Nursing Standard magazine, found all the 250 patients aged between four and 16 they quizzed disliked the use of clowns, with even the older ones finding them scary.“As adults we make assumptions about what works for children,” said Penny Curtis, a senior lecturer in research at the university.“We found that clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable.”(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Steve Addison)

 Thank you for looking at my site.   As you will see, I am a rookie when it comes to websites, so please be patient as we get this up and running.

 Now, how many of you have read John Kennedy Toole’s A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES?    It is one of my favorites books, in that Ignacious J.Reilly really was a smart man, who saw the world through his own eyes and tried his best to grapple with that world while all around him lived their own reality.

In our modern times, we see that everyday, and with the election coming next year, it’s going to be evident all the more.   People bend and live their own realities to justify their agenda.    There are so many clowns in this world, people who are out for themselves and who manipulate situations to better serve themselves.

 While I believe that no one could be truly altruistic, it would be great if everyone could make an extra effort in the coming year to better serve humanity and help make the world a better place.

 I’m not talking about world peace or in starting your own religion.  It could be small things, like picking up a piece of trash or giving a buck to a homeless person no questions asked.   Calling an estranged family member and reconciling.  Creating lasting, loving bonds with those around you.   Treating others as you would like to be treated!  It’s not brain surgery… just common sense.

 I have to get back to my day job, but more entries along this subject and others will be coming.

Thanks for reading,

Clown Fighter