Carol ReMarks
Carol reMarks on glamour, pop culture, and front-page news. Join me. I'm not a traditional podcast. Most of the time I am recording on-the-go with my iPhone voice memo app. Come along with me.
Carol ReMarks
Gun Laws, Capital Punishment, and Coffee Culture
Is nitrogen gas a humane method for executions, or is it a step too far? Join us as we dissect Alabama's controversial decision to use this method on Alan Eugene Miller for his 1999 triple murder. We’ll guide you through the ethical debates, the chilling details of Miller's last moments, and the broader implications for capital punishment in the United States. Our discussion then takes a dramatic turn with the arrest of Kyle Arena, whose alarming social media activity led to the discovery of a massive illegal weapons cache in New Jersey. What does this say about the Second Amendment and the responsibilities that come with it?
In the latter half of our episode, we wrestle with the moral and legal challenges of reporting suspicious behavior, drawing on historical comparisons to informant cultures. Kyle Arena’s case is a stark reminder of the balance between public safety and personal liberty. But it’s not all heavy; we lighten things up with a look at a refreshing trend in Brooklyn coffee shops—ditching tips for fair wages. Plus, hear our quirky story about the tipping policies at a Starbucks inside a Kroger store, showcasing the varying landscape of customer service. Don't miss this engaging blend of hard-hitting issues and lighthearted insights.
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Hello, good morning, happy Friday. We have three topics to go over, starting with Alabama man convicted of killing three put to death in the country's second nitrogen gas execution. Then we're going to talk about this New Jersey man caught with a massive cache of illegal guns and other things, and then we're going to talk about we're going to leave it with a light hearted topic, with a Brooklyn coffee shop no longer allowing tipping. But first we're going to get to this. This is the second time Alabama, for a while, stopped executing people while they were investigating the ways that they execute people because apparently there were some bad things happening or things not going right or something. But they're doing it again now, and this is the second time now in the last few months anyway, that they have put somebody to death by nitrogen gas execution. This is a new way of doing things. All right, alabama man convicted of killing three put to death in the county's. Country's sorry second nitrogen gas execution Atmore, alabama. Associated Press reports Alabama.
Speaker 1:Alabama used nitrogen gas Thursday to execute a man convicted of killing three people in back-to-back workplace shootings. The second time the method that has generated debate about its humaneness has been used in the country. So this guy, alan Eugene Miller. He's 59 years old, was pronounced dead at 6.38 pm, local time at a South Alabama prison. He shook and trembled on the gurney for about two minutes, with his body at times pulling against the restraints. That was followed by about six minutes of periodic gasping breaths. Periodic gasping breaths.
Speaker 1:Miller was convicted of killing three men Lee Holbrooks, christopher Scott Yancey and Terry Jarvis in 1999, and the state had previously attempted to execute him by lethal injection in 2022. Oh, I didn't know this part. Oh, wow, so they had previously attempted to execute him. Maybe this was the case that shut down the execution for a couple of years while they investigated things. I didn't do anything to be in here, miller said in his final words that were at times muffled by the mask that covered his face from forehead to chin.
Speaker 1:Miller was one of five inmates scheduled to be put to death in the span of one week, an unusually high number that defies a years-long trend of decline in the use of the death penalty in the United States. Let me tell you you come to Alabama, you're going to F-A-F-O in Bama, all right. Tonight, justice has finally served for these three victims through the execution method elected by the inmate. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement, his acts were not that of insanity but pure evil. Three families were forever changed by a heinous crimes, and I pray that they can find comfort all these years later. The execution was the second to use the new method Alabama first employed in January when Kenneth Smith was put to death. The method involves placing a respirator gas mask over the inmate's face to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death by lack of oxygen. Alabama officials and advocates have argued over whether Smith suffered an unconstitutional level of pain during his execution, after he shook in seizure-like spasms for more than two minutes while strapped to the gurney and then gasped for breath for several minutes. This boy looks big too. He's a big boy. At least that's what he looked like when he was arrested. Perhaps that was in that picture, that is, by in 2022. He's a big boy.
Speaker 1:A delivery truck driver, miller, was convicted of capital murder for the august 5th 1999 shootings that claimed three lives and shocked the city of pelham, a suburban city just south of Birmingham. Police say that early that morning Miller entered Ferguson Enterprises and fatally shot two co-workers, holbrooks 32, and Yancey 28. He then drove five miles away to Post Airgas, where he had previously worked and shot Jarvis, who was 39. Trial testimony indicated that Miller was paranoid and believed his co-workers had been gossiping about him. That is no reason to shoot somebody, hon. Oh, my goodness, you've been spreading rumors about me. A witness described Miller as saying before he opened fire, all three men were shot multiple times. My goodness gracious, miller had initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but later withdrew the plea. A psychiatrist hired by the defense said that Miller was mentally ill, but his condition wasn't severe enough to use as a basis for an insanity defense. According to court documents, jurors convicted Miller after 20 minutes of deliberation and recommended by a vote of 10 to 2, that he received the death penalty. Mm-mm-mm, well, mm-mm-mm. Mm of deliberation and recommended by a vote of 10 to 2 that he received the death penalty.
Speaker 1:All right, next story I want to know your thoughts on that. How do you feel about that? The way the method of uh, lethal execution or whatever you want to call it all right next up we have. I'm confused about this story too. I mean, uh, this seems long and involved. We'll try. We'll try to make it short.
Speaker 1:There's a new jersey man caught with massive cache of illegal guns, knives and explosives thanks to his own shameless Facebook post. Okay, first of all, don't post your guns on social media dumbasses. But if these were all illegal, should he have been caught? Should he have been arrested? Alright, we're going to read on. A New Jersey man's shameless post on Facebook led police to uncover a massive cache of illegal guns, knives and explosives stashed inside the suspect's home on a quiet suburban block.
Speaker 1:This week, kyle Arena, 35 years old, of Totawad, new new jersey, is facing multiple firearms and weapons charges stemming from a home raid tuesday that yielded rifles, handguns, dozens of knives, ninja stars, brass knuckles, 129 fully loaded illegal high capacity magazines, thousands of rounds of ammunition and even four explosives. Totawa. Now, before we go any further, I have questions. Okay, is this a violation? Not a violation? I'm sorry. How does this fall into the Second Amendment? We have the right to keep and bear arms correct. I don't know that. The Constitution says they have to be legal. I'm not sure. Somebody, please step in. I'm sure that you will, and I hope you do, because I need to know the truth about all of this. All right, going back to the article, and there's all of this. All right. Going back to the article, he, and there's pictures of it. He had a lot.
Speaker 1:So an anonymous tipster alerted cops to Arenas concerning social media posts, an alleged arsenal of guns, and investigators had to look no further than his Facebook page for probable cause. Arena made a habit of flashing his guns online and posting questionable content in various Facebook groups. According to authorities, all right. Second question Do you think these people reporting him are like the people that used to report? You know back? You know back in nazi times when people would tell on each other? All right, so we're reading on. In one post he pointed a gun at people while driving by in his car. In other posts he shared pics of illegal items such as silencers, police said. In another photo, arena can be seen holding up a rifle to his square black rimmed glasses, pretending to take aim at an unseen target. The emailed tip included screen grabs of Arena's Facebook post to a group called Meal Team 6.1 Mid-tier main group. According to authorities, that private group of gun enthusiasts boasts 14 000 members. Meal team 6.1 men tier group main group. That's a long title for a group. Y'all has a number of rules posted to their home page, including do not use facebook reporting options or face removal. The rule encourages members to askew facebook content moderators for fear that any intervention into the private group would result in it being shut down entirely.
Speaker 1:With the multiple I'm sorry with the multitude of evidence from his social posts, total police were granted a search and seize warrant, called a temporary extreme risk protection order by a judge, to search through the Lincoln Avenue home where Arena lives with his parents. Oh my god, he lives there with his parents. That's the number one red flag right there. And he's a grown man. He's in his 30s right. Investigators found the huge arsenal of weapons hidden inside a crawl space inside the home. Should have been at the bottom of the lake, right, all right.
Speaker 1:Nearby residents told ABC7 they couldn't believe one of their neighbors was hoarding the stockpile of deadly weapons. See, I have questions. I there. What's the line here? What is the line? What is the line? Should he be able to have these under the second amendment or are these illegal? And if he's out there posting stupid pictures of himself and then pointing them at people living with his parents, I mean, and then these people telling on him uh, what do you do? Because what do you do? What if he shows up, you know, months later shooting up a whole school or something. I mean, what do you do in this type of situation? Uh, this is the. This is where I really need your input on.
Speaker 1:Officer seized all the items in a restaurant arena. With that incident. He was being held by the, all right, so I'm just curious about your take on this. I need your. Why are there two separate pictures? Is this the same person? I'm sorry, I'm going to go back and look, because they have a picture mugshot of Kyle Arena and who's this other guy that they have a mugshot of? Mugshot of the suspects, father Felix arena?
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, but the guy is 30 something years old, right? Is he 30 something? I think that's what he said. Yes, 35 years old, living at home with his parents. Come on, it didn't say what he does. He work, who knows? I'm curious.
Speaker 1:Your thoughts on this. Should should people have told on him first of all, he put it all over facebook and should have people have reported him. And did he have a right to have all these guns under the second amendment, even though they say they were illegal? So I don't know. I don't know what. I don't know what. I don't know. I want your opinion on this.
Speaker 1:All right, we have to move on to the coffee thing. We're going to end it in a lighter note. This is, I think, interesting. I need your thoughts on this too. All right, brooklyn coffee shops no longer allow tipping, but a latte will cost you $7. Look, if that's all it's going to cost, go for it. I think $7 is pretty cheap, quite frankly, in today's market they're tipped off. That's how this stupid article starts. Some local coffee shops are doing away with gratuities, removing tip jars and, more importantly, prompts for automatic gratuities on iPad payments portals. Most customers are thrilled. I don't have to decide how much to tip, I don't have to do the math.
Speaker 1:Enthused, a new mohan, a 35 year old who works at a cancer hospital in technology development and frequents the three-legged cat, a leafy cafe that opened in east williamsburg over the summer, with a line at the bottom of the menu declaring that tax and tip is included and that the cafe is proud to provide a living wage to its employees. All right, first of all, why do they have to name this person? Anu Mohan, her age, what she does for a living and the name of this stupid cafe is three-legged cat? Uh, I would not frequent that just because of the name. No, thank you, goodness gracious. All right, we're not going to read much more into that to try to save time.
Speaker 1:I have a story for you. When we traveled to oh, we went out. There's only near Starbucks there. Where we were staying was inside a Kroger. Now I know some of these Starbucks that are inside stores only have the name Starbucks and they're not really like us, they're not really like a Starbucks. I know one time here in the South I went into a Starbucks and I tried to use my Starbucks gift card and they said we can't use those here because we're not really a Starbucks. This was a long time ago. Maybe they've changed that, I don't know.
Speaker 1:So I was inside this Kroger getting my Starbucks and I was looking for somewhere to put some tip and I said where can I? You know, where do I put this tip? She said, oh, we don't take tips, we're unionized here. And said, oh, we don't take tips, we're unionized here. And she was kind of proud of it being unionized. She wasn't like real chipper, she was kind of I don't want to say rude, but she was not rude, but she was very northern, she didn't have that charm. You know what I'm saying. She was just a matter of fact. No, we don't take tips, we're unionized here. Like, move on, lady. That's kind of the vibe I got from her. But wow, wow, I never heard of that before. I mean, I know what unions are, but at Starbucks, inside of Kroger, I guess, because Kroger was unionized and they're probably Kroger employees, maybe I don't know.
Speaker 1:But what do you think about this? My husband said well, you know, it's socialism all over. It doesn't incentivize anybody to be nice and generous or nice and give good customer service, because they're already, you know, they're already getting paid. There's no need to go out of their way to be extra nice or whatever to earn that tip. And I'm like well, why can't you just be a nice person in general period? But I understand what he's saying and I understand that this is probably you know, but people don't want to tip either. Unless people don't want to tip if they're coming in to pick up the damn coffee, and I, you know, I agree with that. However, I will.
Speaker 1:When I do my Starbucks every morning, I do it on my app and, yes, I give a $2 tip. There's an option between one, two and five. I'm not going to give a five for me pulling around the drive-thru, but I will give a $2 tip, and here's why I do it. I don't smoke, I don't drink alcohol, I don't spend money on hair care products, I don't do drugs. So I'm going to buy a coffee and I'll give them a $2 tip. Come on, that's what I'm going to do. All right, that's just my thing, that's my vice that I have. I get coffee every morning from Starbucks.
Speaker 1:Okay, I had one commenter on Twitter say Starbucks sucks, their coffee sucks. You should use a local roaster. Blah, blah, blah. I said well, I like the coffee that I get. It's not actually coffee coffee, it's not hot coffee. I get the iced shaken oatmeal espresso drink. It's cold, it's iced, it's. I like it. However, we do frequent a local coffee roaster here in Huntsville, alabama. That's where we get our house coffee and, yes, we spend a good amount of money on that every month. So I just love it how people come in and tell me what I should and shouldn't do. Uh, all right, I guess. Gosh, we need a question of the day. Okay, I meant to ask this the other day Do you like the name that you have?
Speaker 1:And if you don't, if you could change your name. What would you change it to? I have always hated my name, carol. It's just, I don't know, it's harsh, I don't like it. So if I could change my name, I've always liked the name Constance. I have a friend named Constance, but I've liked that name even before I met her. I have an aunt named Connie. I don't know that her full name, her official name, is Constance or not. It might just be Connie. I like the name Connie, I love it. Okay, I think that's what I would name myself Connie. If I could change my name. I don't think I look like a Connie though. All right, what would you change your name to if you could? All right, got to go. I know I went a little long. I apologize and have a great Friday, and the gent and I will be back in the morning on Saturday. Have a great one. Thanks for listening. Bye.
