Westview High School in Beaverton, Oregon has 75 valedictorians. Many students and educators there are in favor of scrapping the idea of valedictorian entirely, deeming it "antiquated," an idea that has caught favor elsewhere.
Pity poor Irene Libov, a valedictorian whose internalization of the Special Olympics credo makes her achievement taste like dust:
Irene Libov, 18, will be named valedictorian of Southridge this year. She's on the waiting list at Harvard. She said she worked hard throughout high school to go to college, not to become valedictorian.
Now, as valedictorian, Libov has mixed feelings about the recognition.
"I think recognition is important, but it makes other students feel inferior," Libov said. "I don't think graduation should be a time when students get recognition over someone else."
"In a perfect world, we would have all students achieving at that level," said Mike Osborne, Beaverton School Board chairman. "They would all be valedictorians."
My thanks to the public school system for turning out yet another generation of winners. May life reward them though they shrink from competiton and may they spend all the days of their lives comfortably wrapped in the soft cotton of their empty self-esteem.
(Via Fark.)
Guess who's crazier, Iran's Ahmadinejad or President Bush? I'll give you a hint: one said Israel should be "wiped off the map," and that it is a "rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."
Right. It's the other one.
Conspicuously missing from this Hamish McDonald article: the word "Israel."
Did Jon Stewart's show inspire a thief to steal a woman's "Support Our Troops" sign?
Stacey Kelley of Tampa had been in a dispute with her homeowners' association since December over the two-foot tall, ribbon-like sign in her front yard. Kelley's husband David had given her the sign before leaving to serve in Iraq.
The "Daily Show" showed up to film a segment on the dispute, which had the "reporter" pulling the sign out the ground and running away saying, "Problem solved!"
The showed aired April 20th and the sign was stolen the 21st.
Kelley hopes whoever stole it doesn't just throw it in the garbage.
Her husband has said he finds the whole dispute to be upsetting - understandable since he's off risking his life.
We were down this morning due to a DOS attack from Saudi Arabia on our blog host. We were out again this evening.
Since I heart Mohammed desperately and often fantasize about being one of his many wives (I'm the exotic blonde one he prefers above all others), hopefully in the future the cyberjihadis will learn how to do surgical strikes on the infidel blogs, leaving mine unaffected.
Although I do understand the bit about having to break some eggs to make an omelette.
Hi-larious hijinx from some taser-happy cops:
There's an internal investigation at the St. Petersburg Police Department after a miscommunication during a training exercise.
Several police officers were conducting a mock arrest Wednesday night when two other officers, who were not involved in drill, heard chatter on the radio. They responded to reports of a suspicious person carrying a golf club and acting in a threatening manner.
When the officers arrived, they confronted the other officer, posing as a suspect, and tasered him. The officer wasn't seriously hurt, but did get some bumps and scratches when he fell to the ground.
Two members of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were riding along at the time of the incident. The St. Petersburg Police Department calls the incident "unfortunate."
In retrospect, talking to the 'suspect' for a minute was probably the way to go; but I wouldn't want to second-guess the decision made by the police during the heat of the moment of this dangerous encounter.
It seems a certain WuzzaDem is trying to Patterico me.
We all know it's common Internet practice to use assumed names, and some people do indeed have multiple blogs. What does it matter if someone is 'Florida Cracker' here and 'Instapundit' there, as long as they don't high-five each other?
Everybody is sending me the story of the antipodal chainsaw-chomping crocodile. Now, when I see a title like "Crocodile Attacks Chainsaw," I'm hoping to read about the saurian equivalent of a Darwin Award-winning Indiana Jones-type bad guy, so bent on evil that he blunders into rotating helicopter blades. Instead I'm treated to Brutus, the persnickety saltwater Tony Randall who had a hissy over a bit of noise pollution. I'm sure he had to have some Haagen-Daz afterwards just to calm down.
Florida gators continue to show why they're the professionals -- maintaining their focus, they've attacked three humans this week alone.
(Via David, Baron, et al.)
"Since the Vietnam era, reporters have convinced themselves that they are the real heroes in any story."
A great article by Ralph Peters; be sure to check it out.
(If needed, NY Post login/pswd=nypost1@dodgeit.com/password)
A pain-in-the-ass gets a pain in the leg:
A man being pursued by Houston police officers Wednesday afternoon was shot by a homeowner in the 9800 block of Benning.
He was wounded in the leg, said Sgt. M. Peters of the HPD Homicide Division.
"He had forced entry into a house in the 9400 block of Spellman, which is the adjoining street, and they chased him out of their house into the the neighbor's backyard," Peters said. "The suspect then made an overt move toward his pocket, and fearing for his own safety," the homeowner shot him, Peters said.
A resident of the 9400 block of Benning said the residential neighborhood near Beltway 8 and West Bellfort is usually quiet. The resident said about a dozen Houston police officers, and a police dog were chasing the man. He ran through about six yards, breaking through some wood fences.
"He was just somebody running from the police, over nothing and he caused all this trouble," Peters said.
A dozen police officers and a police dog in hot pursuit, and it's the homeowner who helps take a bite out of crime. That's good citizenship (and good marksmanship).
How many were killed at Chernobyl? The answer might surprise you.
Instead of adding another update to yesterday's story about Phil Walden's memorial, I'll note the news from today's story, which I didn't expect: not only was Phil buried in Rose Hill, but he's also joined the select company of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley in the old section. The spot was hard to come by, but very fitting:
About 100 people showed up today to pay their final respects to legendary record producer Phil Walden, who was laid to rest in Rose Hill Cemetery.
Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell, singer Bonnie Bramblett, members of Otis Redding's family and Galadrielle Allman, daughter of the late Duane Allman, were among the notable attendees of the brief, 10-minute service.
Walden was buried in the old part of Rose Hill per his wishes. Originally, it was thought there wasn't an available plot in that part of the cemetery - where Allman, Elizabeth Reed (namesake of an Allman Brothers song) and Allman Brothers bassist Berry Oakley also are buried - but a plot that Walden had bought and sold to the city in the 1970s and had remained unsold was available.
Duane Allman's daughter Galadrielle at the memorial for Phil Walden.
UPDATE:
Juan Paxety has more and says the grave is somewhere near the Little Martha statue.
Don't have top of the line forensic light equipment? We've just found an alternate use for your old black light that's been gathering dust for thirty years:
A man in Seminole County, Fla., was arrested on a voyeurism charge after his cousin found hidden holes in his walls that led to her room and apparent body fluids underneath the holes, according to a police report.
Daphne Trosper said she recently evicted her cousin, Richard Strout, from a home both shared at 7431 Colonial Court in Sanford.
When Strout did not arrive to pick up his belongings, Trosper began moving items out of room, the report said.
During the process, Trosper noticed a hole behind a stereo speaker and another behind a poster.
She then realized that the holes showed views of her adjacent bedroom and an area where she changed clothes.
Trosper said one hole was in a position to view her as she dressed and the other hole was in a position to view her in bed, the report said.
Trosper became upset with the discovery and contacted a friend, Michael Cleveland, to repair the damage to the walls.
Cleveland used a black light and discovered the evidence of possible bodily fluids, in Strout's room, directly below where the holes were placed in the walls of the two rooms, according to the report.
A sheriff's deputy recovered a section of carpet from Strout's room where there were possible body fluid stains.
So not only can they provide that special psychodelic ambiance, apparently they're spooge-detectors as well.
In honor of Newsweek magazine's truly prescient 1975 article on global cooling and the upcoming mass starvation, comes this from climatologist Dr. Chris de Freitas:
"Recently, media and politicians have virtually stopped talking about global warming and are now referring to climate change instead," states de Freitas. "That's because predictions of doom and gloom from warming just aren't coming true. But with 'climate change,' Kyoto advocates can now cite any change or phenomenon as proof that CO2 emissions have upset the global apple cart."
It's the old 'heads-I-win, tails-you-lose' trick played on a massive scale by "the global warming industry" who want to keep their hundreds of millions of research dollars flowing when their dire predictions of catastrophic warming are proven false, if not completely fraudulent.
They're the L. Ron Hubbards of the scientific world, peddling a new religion.
(Via Lucianne.)
More Roomba blogging: little Rani Roomba hits the streets of the big city; doesn't wind up in the chop shop.
WARNING: Styx soundtrack.
(Via James in e-mail.)
Sounds like someone isn't getting enough private quality-time in the bathroom:
Sheriff's deputies in Iowa are in the midst of a disgusting investigation.
Deputies in Henry County are trying to find the person who is dumping bags of what looks like human vomit.
Deputy Dan Wesley said they've found as many as 50 garbage bags containing regurgitated food over the last three years. He said it's pretty weird.
They've sent some samples to a lab for analysis, but Wesley said they haven't gotten any DNA yet.
Wesley said they just hope whoever is doing it will stop.
A suspicious character had been seen lurking in the vicinity, and deputies have hopes of luring the perpetrator into a humane trap baited with a 12-pack of Krispy Kremes, a sack of discount Easter candy, and a economy-sized bag of Funyuns.
This may surprise you, but the American news media have hardly any reporters in Iraq, and the ones that are there hang out in Baghdad. I know, I was shocked too:
Journalists are reviled by many for alleged negativism and over-focus on bad news in Iraq. Or perhaps the problem is: Their employers are just trying to do it on the cheap. Ironically, the same media that criticizes the U.S. for sending too few troops to stabilize Iraq send too few reporters to cover much more than the dramatic bombings around Baghdad.
So how can these bureaus operate with such a lack of reporters? The answer is, they employ inexpensive local stringers. I suppose that's what they have to do. It's either that or we'd all be reading articles about what bureau chiefs had for lunch in the hotel restaurant that day.
When I first heard a few years back that Krispy Kremes were being sold at the US Open in New York, I was horrified. 
I knew that to the Yankees these potato-flour Dixie doughnuts would be just one more comestible to shove down their maws, and not the venerated symbol of the South in pastry form that they truly are. I tried to reason with myself that Coca Cola is a Southern potable that has gone global, but somehow I knew that trying times were ahead for the beloved Carolina kruller. But this, this... desecration in Georgia, this is something I never foresaw:
I hate to ruin your day, but another sacred Southern icon has been desecrated by infidels.
Let us now mourn the shameful treatment accorded that sweet Dixie delight, the heavenly Krispy Kreme doughnut.
Oh, they're still as tasty as ever, and when the irresistible "Hot Doughnuts Now" beacon lures you to the corner of Raleigh's Peace and Person streets for a sackful, you will still swear they were kissed by angels.
But the devil lives down in Georgia, and he has had his evil way with North Carolina's second most famous culinary achievement. It is the confectionary version of putting a Speedo swimsuit on Michelangelo's statue of David.
At a pub in Decatur, Ga., a fiend fried a hamburger, topped it with cheese and bacon and thrust it between two halves of a Krispy Kreme doughnut.
That is just so wrong. Purity has been defiled.
I feared the worst when corporate America discovered Krispy Kreme. And I was right. Long lines formed at stores that had sprouted like kudzu. Famous people embarrassed themselves wearing the hat. That hat, like Mickey Mouse ears, should never be seen on the head of anyone but employees and kids younger than 8.
Krispy Kreme became, in a word, trendy. Which as anyone who owned pet rocks, mood rings and Boy George albums will attest, is a cultural and financial death sentence.
The sugar rush that so excited Wall Street drove stock prices higher than my Uncle Doc on a Saturday night. Then it became more akin to the queasiness I felt when I was 10 years old and ate a dozen of the little beauties in one sitting at Myrtle Beach.
Executives were fired, fortunes were lost and our humble doughnut became, in the minds of many, just another Southern bad idea. Like Atlanta.
Wall Street might have lost its appetite, but an unsullied Krispy Kreme doughnut remains the perfect Southern food. It is a medley of three of our primary food groups in one easy-to-handle shape: grease, sugar and flour. Add barbecue and bourbon, and your food pyramid stands tall.
It would have been forgivable for a bored cook in a backwater burg like Decatur to tinker with our native nosh for his own amusement. But the stupid idea not only caught on in Georgia, where people will obviously eat anything, but crossed state lines, which makes it a federal offense.
It seems the Gateway Grizzlies minor league baseball team near St. Louis sells these gut grenades for $4.50 to people who obviously have had way too much Budweiser.
This madness must stop. This is a sugary sacrilege. If we do not teach people that they cannot toy with Southern food, I predict a bad moon rising.
How long will it be before someone (probably in Cary) puts lettuce and tomato on a barbecue sandwich and thinks that's acceptable, too?
See, you're already thinking about it, aren't you?
Stop. Such depravity is what led to the slathering of innocent hot dogs with ketchup and relish instead of the way Jesus intended, which anybody from Wilson knows full well is with chili, mustard and onions.
Some people just don't know when to leave well enough alone.
(The link to the beautiful writing of Dennis Rogers via Consonant Man in comments.)
Duane and the Brothers on the porch next door to the Big House.
Wail on, Skydog!
Locales, according to the H&H site:
The Allman Brothers Band's First House (1969); 309 College Street (on right)
The Allman Brothers Band Cover Location (on left)
As a bonafide son of the South, we note the passing of one who was instrumental in the promotion of our music. The other stuff, we won't mention.
(Pic via Mike in comments.)
UPDATE:
The funeral was held today. I've included the text of the AJC funeral article in the comments.
Despite an empty calendar this week, Dickie Betts was the only Brother to attend. Gregg sent a letter.
There's no mention of Walden's passing on the ABB site. Dickie has a brief personal message up on his Great Southern site.
I don't know what it all means, so I'll just consider it another episode in my favorite long-running soap opera.
(AJC login/email/pswd=nunya/nunya@mailinator.com/abc123)
UPDATE II:
Juan Paxety offers his remembrances.
UPDATE III:
The Macon Telegraph has more, including quotes from Dickey and Galadrielle.
Even if you're a bliss ninny flower child, when you've got musical arranger and director Edwin Hawkins handling background, things are going to work out.
He's such a talented man.
Oftentimes in movies when they show a supposed gospel choir singing, all I can think is "Gee, they sound like crap." If that's not the response the filmmaker had hoped to elicit, he probably shouldn't have stuck 30 people in a box and told them to ululate. It takes a lot more than supple voices to make a good choir.
And although I'm poking fun of Melanie now, back then I bought the record. On layaway, even. Heh.
This story has been driving me mad for days. I keep checking for updates, but nothing:
EDGECOMBE COUNTY, N.C. -- A group of teenaged boys who have been floating on a raft in the Tar River overnight refused to come back to shore -- even after authorities got involved.
The boys -- aged 13 to 17 -- are on a raft in the river in Edgecombe County.
A parent of at least one of the boys tried to coax them back to shore, but they refused to return.
The sheriff's office became involved, but has also been unable to get the group, which has been on the river since 7 p.m. Thursday, to return.
Authorities said it is unclear why they are in the river.
This story hasn't been updated since April 21! Are the boys still on the raft? Why would even the entreaties and blandishments of parents and police not make them return to shore? It's starting to look like there might be someone or something in the waters of the Tar river. As far as I'm aware, there's been little if any communication between Edgecombe County and the rest of the world since the weekend.
I guess you can never tell about chimps. One minute they're wearing diapers and puffing on Marlboros, and the next thing you know they're killing everyone in sight and speeding away in taxicabs:
Police hunted Monday for chimpanzees that escaped from a Sierra Leone preserve and mauled a group of American and local sightseers, killing one man and injuring four people.
The U.S. Embassy warned Americans against traveling to the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, where the chimps escaped before Sunday's attack on a taxicab.
The Sierra Leonean driver died as the chimps ripped his body apart, and three Americans were treated at a hospital for minor injuries, said Oliver Somasa, a top police official.
Another Sierra Leonean man in the group had his hand amputated after the mauling, Somasa said. U.S. officials had no further comment. The Americans were in Sierra Leone to help build a new embassy building, Somasa said.
I knew gorillas were brutal, having seen General Ursus in action; but I really never expected this from the chimps.
Ahh, so this is what Michelle Malkin's been working on.
Another iron in the fire. That girl must eat her Wheaties.
Congrats, Michelle!
(Via Lucianne.)
Keepvid and FFMpeg. What an awesome combination. It doesn't get any easier than this. Even the technologically-challenged will get it right on the first try.
1. Get the URL of your chosen video from YouTube, Google video, or other popular video sites.
2. Go to KeepVid. Select the site tab, plug in the URL, then click 'download.' It will produce a flash video file.
3. Right click and use 'save target as' or 'save link as', changing the extension to .flv
4. Download, unzip, and open FFMpeg.
5. Click 'add' and put the file information in the input box.
6. Browse the output folder and click where you want the end product saved to.
7. Leave the output options at 600 and select MP1, MP2, or AVI.
8. Hit 'process'. In a minute you'll be watching your video.
It's taking a little time to work it's way around the blogosphere, but some people have figured out who the accuser is in the Duke lacrosse case.
The accused have been identified; do you think the accuser should be as well?
***
Previous postings:
Accused Duke Lacrosse Player Guilty
The Duke Case
What's On The Menu
Twists And Turns
Sick and tired of having to shave your legs? Why not replace all that unwanted hair with esthetically pleasing laser-made designs?
The lady below chose the fashionable checkboard pattern.
Actually, she didn't. The rules about who can use a hot laser on human tissue and what kind of training they should have are a little confusing in Florida. So unless you're a Floridian who would find scarification just as attractive as nice smooth skin, I'd hold off on the laser treatments until they get the training and licensing issues worked out.
Lives that had been going nowhere for a long time: an in-depth write-up of the three Ft. Lauderdale teens whose taste for the ultra-violent led to murder.
***
Previous postings:
The New Normal
No House Arrest For You, Little Man
Homeless Attackers Identified, Warrants Issued
Some Homeless Are More Equal Than Others
A Bit Of The Old Ultra-Violence In Ft. Lauderdale
This was a small filler item in the 'Around South Florida' section of the Herald:
BUS 'BOMBER' CHASED BY RIDER WITH GUN
A Hispanic man boarded a Metrobus near the Miami International Mall on Friday afternoon, lugging a roll-on suitcase and speaking excitedly in Spanish.
The bus driver doesn't speak a word of Spanish. But one of her passengers did.
The translation: ''[He] said he had a bomb in the luggage,'' said Miami-Dade police spokeswoman Nelda Fonticiella.
That's when it really got interesting: Another passenger pulled out a gun and pointed it at the would-be bomber. The man, in a black shirt and olive shorts and still dragging the suitcase behind him, took off running -- with the armed passenger in pursuit.
The two were last seen running toward the mall, at Northwest 107th Avenue and 14th Street.
No one was hurt, police said.
''When the police got there, everyone was gone,'' Fonticiella said.
Just another day in Miami.
On its 36th anniversary, eco-evangelist Mike Weilbacher compares the first Earth Day to the barely-noticed present one and makes dire predictions for this century, including the inundation of Miami. Delightfully, he ends his apocalyptic vision of our imminent future if we don't stop raping Gaia with our hydrocarbons by telling us to buckle up because we're in for a bumpy ride:
While the Cuyahoga is cleaner, Lake Erie lives and eagle populations soar, today's concerns are of an entirely different scale than 1970. Global surface temperatures are rising, glaciers are melting, the ocean is warming, rainforests are burning, species are vanishing at the highest rates since the Great Extinction killed the dinosaurs, coral reefs are bleaching and dying, deserts are spreading, and forests continue to fall. For every hybrid car, there is a Hummer getting 8 miles to the gallon, and even with curbside recycling firmly entrenched, the amount of garbage each of us produces goes up, from 4 pounds daily in 1990 to 4.5 pounds today. And scientists starkly estimate we are losing 100 species every day to an unconscionable wave of extinction sweeping the world.These issues will soon conspire to radically transform the political, social and geographic landscape of the entire planet in the near future. As climates collapse, water scarcity widens, more species vanish, and sea levels rise to where whole regions fret about drowning - Bangladesh, the Nile delta, the Maldives, Miami, the Jersey Shore - a global chorus demanding change will one day soon rise in a green tsunami of outrage. And Earth Day will become a centerpiece of the change ahead.
As in 1970, when Earth Day catalyzed the comeback of bald eagles, the future Earth Day will regain its relevance in a shattered world to become the first secular holiday celebrated worldwide. This future version of Earth Day will look decidedly more like 1970. That is what we need right now: several billion activists pulling in the same direction, stitching together the threads of an increasingly tattered world.
As we mark the low-key 2006 edition of Earth Day, buckle your seat belts. The ride ahead is going to get bumpy. Earth Day is one of the strongest tools for healing a wounded world.
Happy Earth Day, Ira!
(If needed, login/pswd=realcities@r.com/realcities)
I'm on pins and needles here:
A controversial television seance airing on Monday will claim it has reached the spirit of John Lennon, but viewers will have to pay $9.95 to find out what the peace-loving Beatle has to say.
So what do you think he said? I hope he made a big pronouncement that the Sixties are over at last. Maybe he also added an apology to the world for all the infantile music he released after leaving the Beatles, and for letting Yoko Ono get anywhere near a microphone.
One can only hope.
Gino is an 11-year-old foul-mouthed Internet sensation doing club dates at $5,000 a pop.
My cousin was funnier and fouler than this, and at a much younger age. Unfortunately he was surrounded by adults who'd swat his behind if they overheard his blue comedy, instead of booking him into clubs.
That's why some people never prosper, I guess.
Crime stories just don't get any better than this: a bank robber gets thwarted by an armed Cracker, a K9 officer makes the collar, and a tearful robber exhorts his children from the police car "This is what happens when you don't do the right thing, kids."
That there's video is just icing on the cake.
"Do the right thing, kids!"
You know what's sad? When you love and stand behind somebody with all your heart, and then they just turn around kick you to the curb like you're nothing.
Oh, for another chance!
(If you need it, login/pswd=guest1/guest1)
I was reading through the treatment for the new Hugh Grant/Sandra Bullock movie, and it sounds pretty good:
A MAN who claims he mistakenly had sex with "the wrong woman" after entering a dark bedroom at the home of a Sydney magazine editor was yesterday committed to stand trial for rape.
Paul John Chappell, 31, was invited back to the editor's Bondi flat after they met during a night out.
The pair went to bed and Chappell later got up to use the bathroom.
But Chappell claims he mistakenly returned to the wrong bedroom, where the editor's 23-year-old flatmate was asleep.
He got into bed with the flatmate and initiated sex, allegedly believing she was the other woman.
The flatmate participated because she thought it was her own boyfriend who had come to bed after falling asleep in the loungeroom.
When she turned on the light, the "hysterical" woman saw Chappell in her bed and realised her boyfriend was still asleep on the couch.
The double mistaken identity set-up may be a trifle stale, but you have to admit no one does romantic-comedy like the Bullock.
Hi, I'm the cry that fell from your lips when you saw this Jim Dandy pic! The Hot Rod's hit a stretch of bad road, but he wants you to know the horn still works.
On with the links:
*Gay parents, why limit yourself to bumperstickers? Make your child a toddling political statement!
*If you can't beat 'em, join 'em: Babalu starts selling Che t-shirts. Ay, que cosa!
*The ever-evolving Paris Hilton gets down to brass tacks: furcoat, acrylic nails, and monster herpes.
*Juan Paxety audits Tom Cruise and finds a butt-load of Body Thetans.
and
*The Religious Policeman lowers the Muslim Offense Level. It now sits at Condition Blue for "Somewhat Offended." Good job; now let's keep our provocations to a minimum.
It's been said that overspending is a "chronic problem among Americans," so I know you'll be understanding of Janie Lee Espinoza's spending her dead son's $250,000 insurance money that was meant for his little daughter.
I mean, she didn't get herself a $500,000 shoe collection like 9-11 widow Kathy Trant did, just the things she really needed - like a baby grand piano and whatnot. You know, the essentials.
(Via F.R.)
Street harassment just got a whole lot more entertaining.
A young Alice Cooper makes a point after getting pied in the face at the 1970 Cincinnati Pop Festival.
Lester Bangs discusses it in a festival write-up here, if you can take reading Lester. He may be the iconic rock critic, but his articles made me roll my eyes as a ten year old, and they're still having the same effect on me decades later.
A win for the Minutemen:
Members of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps can continue patrolling on state trust lands without permits because they've been invited by ranchers leasing the land and agreed to do ranch work, a state official said.
The decision ends an attempt by the American Civil Liberties Union to get Arizona to force the volunteer anti-illegal immigration activists off the land because they hadn't gotten state permission.
I've no idea what train of logic made the ACLU the illegal alien's best buddy when there are still no many cities with "Saint" in their name that need to be sued into submission.
In more globalization news, India is taking the lead in reproductive tourism:
Driven by many of the same factors that have led Western businesses to outsource some of their operations to India in recent years, an increasing number of infertile couples from abroad are coming here in search of women such as Mehli who are willing, in effect, to rent out their wombs.
None of the eggs belong to the Indian women; they're either from the intended mother or from anonymous donors. So far there hasn't been a problem with any of the ladies not being willing to relinquish a baby, but I imagine that will come in time. There's always the woman that gets hired to be a toaster and ends up wanting to keep the toast.
It's starting to get a little confusing as to which body parts it's legal to rent out.
Of leaving a cab driver a nice tip at the time of the alleged crime.
Oh, also of having rich parents.
These two analyses make for an interesting contrast. One thing they both agree on though: this is about an election. This case won't go to trial until after that's over.
***
Previous postings:
The Duke Case
What's On The Menu
Twists And Turns
"She's A Beauty" - The Tubes.
(Via Chickman.)
Gone fishing.
Wail on, Skydog!
Good thing she's not from Syracuse like the old man, huh?
Lots of placenta recipes here. It keeps for about three days, so no need to eat it all at once.
Two students charged in the Duke lacrosse case have been arrested. Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann were arrested and posted bail. They'll appear at their plea hearing later today.
Meanwhile, the media continues to do itself proud in its coverage of the case:
Throughout Monday, there were many more reporters on the sixth floor of the courthouse than the 18 members of the grand jury panel. Reporters tracked the district attorney's movements in minute detail. Just after noon, Nifong emerged from his office and walked across the hallway to the bathroom.
Reporters surrounded the bathroom door in a crowd that included five television cameras, three still photographers, sound men with boom microphones and at least a dozen print reporters. At the sound of flushing, the group tensed, raised cameras and prepared. Nifong did not emerge with news.
If only they'd gone in and performed a colonoscopy. The answers were right there.
"I no longer get to go anywhere in my community without people knowing who I am," said Nifong, who faces two challengers in a primary election May 2.
You can't help but crow when something so serendipitous occurs right before an election.
(Via Coalition of the Swilling.)
***
Previous postings:
What's On The Menu
Twists And Turns
I don't know why some Finns have their bowels in an uproar about the band Lordi representing them at the Eurovision music contest -- from this write-up, they sound like a hoot:
"In Finland, we have no Eiffel Tower, few real famous artists, it is freezing cold and we suffer from low self-esteem," said Lordi, who has horns protruding from his face mask and sports black fingernails 15 centimeters, or 6 inches, long.
As he stuck out his tongue menacingly, his red demon eyes glaring, Lordi was surrounded by Kita, an alien- man-beast predator who plays flame- spitting drums from inside a cage; Awa, a blood-splattered ghost who howls back-up; Ox, a zombie bull who plays bass; and Amen, a mummy in a rubber loincloth who plays guitar.
Dragging on a cigarette, Lordi added, "Finns nearly choked on their cereal when they realized we were the face Finland would be showing to the world."
I guess it wasn't KISS cereal they were eating.
It must be said the band's sword and baby doll props are a novel approach to showmanship and they're sure to win some points on originality alone.
Read the article. It's a lot of fun and will make you the resident expert on Finns.
(Via Lucianne.)
Despite photographic evidence showing their accuser showed up drunk, bruised, and missing fingernails; despite none of the players' DNA being on the stripper, nor there being any trace of latex found; despite no trace of her own DNA being found in the bathroom where she claims she gang-raped; and despite the other stripper present saying nothing untoward went on, two Duke lacrosse players were indicted for her rape.
Other ham sandwiches indicted for the same crime include: Robert Clark, Thomas Doswell, Gary Dotson, and Bernard Webster.
However, as this sports columnist notes, one or more team members had in the past been busted for urinating in public, so clearly it follows they were a violent sexual assault just waiting to happen.
***
Previous postings:
Twists And Turns
What was bad for the Cambodians works to the good of the Sudanese:
One of the world's most land mine-ridden nations sent a team of soldiers to Sudan on Saturday to clear mines laid in a 21-year civil war.
Cambodia dispatched 109 troops to join 26 already in place for the nation's first U.N.-peacekeeping mission after its own civil war, which left it riddled with land mines from nearly three decades of conflict. Extensive aid from the international community helped Cambodia build mine-clearing operations and expertise.
Other experts on tap include the Alabamans: if there's any country out there that's got some kind of boll weevil plague, just give them a call; they'll be glad to help.
Yep, yep. Just give them a call. They're ready and willing to answer all boll weevil plague questions, day or night.
I'd be so happy if people stopped demonizing whole parties (except for the Maim and Pillage party - they're anathema).
It's tedious hearing Republicans called evil (usually in my newspaper) and it's just as ridiculous to hear it said of the Democrats.
It sells, though. Whether they're drinking grape or orange, all Koolaid drinkers like to attend their little political white nights.
UPDATE:
Here's an excellent example of bias short-circuiting the thinking process. It took about 30 points off this lady's IQ, rendering her incapable of distinguishing a photograph from a simple caricature of Condi Rice. Instead of admitting she was wrong, she drains her refreshing beverage to the dregs: they made the grossly distorted features in Hillary Clinton's caricature more flattering that those of Condi.
(Via WuzzaDem in comments.)
These days it seems like everybody is keeping a blog.
Looking at Kevin Underwood's blogroll, it appears even cannibal murderers get a kick out of Dave Barry.
867-5309 (Jenny) - Tommy Tutone.
(Via Aussie Wav Station.)
The Miami Herald's Nikki Waller offers a simplistic and forgiving explanation as to why girls who knew that Thomas Daugherty, Billy Ammons, and Brian Hooks had beaten a homeless man to death didn't come forward:
It's a cliché that often holds true: Young women are attracted to bad boys. Experts say girls' attraction to dangerous, even violent boys, and their ability to emotionally detach themselves from the boys' crimes are typical of adolescence and symptomatic of modern teen life.
Is it also typical of the middle-aged? This pair are at least being held accountable for their actions:
As the hunt for fugitive Carlos Garay intensified on Friday, detectives arrested two women they say helped the accused rapist after he escaped by stealing an unmarked police car while in handcuffs.
Police charged Garay's girlfriend, Giannandrea Gonzalez, 35, and her friend, Lucelena Slyper, 43, with harboring a fugitive.
The two allegedly hid Garay in a warehouse Slyper rents to raise tropical fish.
''What's wrong with these broads? There can't be anything that great about this guy,'' said Phil Clark, who rents her the warehouses and land behind his West Kendall house.
Waller interviews Mitch Spero, director of Child & Family Psychologists, a local firm:
Teens can coolly compartmentalize in the face of murder, because the victims were not part of their community, Spero said.
A homeless man with seemingly no family or attachments becomes ''almost not a person,'' he said.
Mr. Spero must have forgotten about this case, made into the movie "River's Edge":
A teen-ager who the authorities said bragged to friends about killing his girlfriend pleaded guilty today to first-degree murder, ending his murder trial.
Anthony Jaques Broussard pleaded guilty to strangling 14-year-old Marcy Conrad despite a ruling by Judge John Flaherty of Santa Clara Superior Court that a diminished capacity defense could be used in the case.
The police said that the 17-year-old defendant displayed the corpse to friends who reportedly threw rocks at it and did not report it to the authorities. One youth covered the body with leaves so it could not be seen from the road. The corpse was found in a ravine near Milpitas, southeast of San Francisco.
No mention is made in the article of any criminal liability these girls might have for aiding fleeing felons or hindering prosecution. By Waller's lights, it's all just a part of growing up.
(Herald login/pswd=crockett@tubbs.com/miamivice)
**
Previous postings:
No House Arrest For You, Little Man
Homeless Attackers Identified, Warrants Issued
Some Homeless Are More Equal Than Others
A Bit Of The Old Ultra-Violence In Ft. Lauderdale
Meet "Angry Ernie" Chambers, Nebraska's lone black state senator. As a child, he was traumatised by going to school with whites. Now that he's gotten the entire Omaha school system segregated, he feels much better.
UPDATE:
Had to include this marvelous bit:
The senator is dividing a district he attended as a student into what amounts to three areas separated by race and on Friday he told the country why he did it.
"If they had not mistreated me as a child, they might not have to deal with the Senator Chambers you see here today," he said.
Legislation as personal psychotherapy. Why hasn't any one thought of this before?
(Login/pswd=greed9999/greed9999)
Whew! Rapid time travel is a bear! Sorry if you've got whiplash from the transition, but what can you expect from a turbo-charged, souped-up time machine like this Cindy Sheehan pic? Sure you don't just want to stay here? Some folks never leave, you know.
If you are going back to the future, be sure to check out these links:
*The story of Million-Dollar Murray begins to make that wacky 1811 Eastlake project look downright practical.
(Via Dean Esmay.)
*Beth Donovan promises to make you lose the weight or your money back.
*Don Miguel's research has uncovered a new syndrome for inclusion in the DSM IV.
*Carnal Reason is celebrating its first blogiversary. Most bloggers' first posts are of a "Hello, world" nature. It's pretty sweet and special that CR's very first post was about infamous San Francisco protest-haunter, Inflated-Scrotum Man.
*Tammi just linked to nastiest, most disgusting thing I have ever read. Thanks a bunch, Tammi. This post might help a little in scrubbing it off your brain.
and
*Some libraries have it tougher than others -- Don't hold your breath waiting for the ALA's support, y'all.
I had three of their albums and spent countless hours of my young life listening to them. Watching and listening now, all I can do is wonder what in the world I was thinking.
Gotta love the washboard though.
UPDATE:
How's this for a bio: "The Tightest Pants In Dixie."
And might I interest you in some words with your salad?
Teacher Paul Dawson got too hip for his own good and said, "Sit down, nigga" to a student. The news clip detailing his crime is one of the funniest thing I've ever seen. Its unintentional hilarity on so many levels is a delight to watch. Dawson's Gene Wilder impersonation (with visual aids) is especially enjoyable.
(For first link Login/pswd=Flannigan_Anger@mailinator.com/stamper)
Why is this man saying all these things? To boost his profile in the eyes of the Islamist world? I defy even Kim Jong-il to produce such insane rantings.
I certainly don't want us to go to war with Iran, so I'm giving Mossad permission to throw a banana peel where he'll be walking:
The president of Iran again lashed out at Israel on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated. He also appeared to again question whether the Holocaust really happened.
"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."
Ahmadinejad provoked a world outcry in October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map."
Since France's only naturally occuring oil is sebum (and it's got that going gushers), it's now attacking for poor little oily Chad:
"We have just learned that since this morning, in eastern Chad, French army aircraft have been carrying out a military intervention," the representative in France for the United Front for Change (FUC), former Chadian foreign minister Laona Gong, said.
"We deplore the numerous civilian victims of the French bombings in the towns of Adre and Moudeina", he said, without giving a precise number of casualties.
First the Ivory Coast and now Chad. If you need me, I'll be with that big crowd of people demonstrating over at the French consulate. No blood for neither cocoa nor oil!
Then the video director said, "You know what we need to make this Dixie Chicks video touching and poignant? Those two little girls from 'The Shining.'"
Outstanding. This must be some kind of first:
BRITISH doctors have revived a 12-year-old girl's dormant heart and removed a donor heart which she had started to reject, hospital officials said late today.
Hannah Clark, who lives in south Wales, underwent the operation on February 20 in London by surgeons advised by heart specialist Sir Magdi Yacoub.
Sir Yacoub came out of retirement at the request of the girl's parents, they said.
Hannah had enjoyed good health until November when a cardiologist found during a routine examination that her body was rejecting the organ which Sir Yacoub had transplanted 10 years ago in a life-saving operation.
The procedure done ten years ago is called a piggyback heart transplant. It leaves you with a very peculiar EKG pattern.
The best ever while-I've-got-you-on-the-line moment came courtesy of Bill Schroeder, recipient of the second Jarvik 7 artificial heart. When President Reagan phoned to give him a get-well message, Schroeder asked him why his Social Security check was late. It was hand-delivered the next day.
Remembering the happy anticipation felt by Mr. Cracker and myself when crossing back into Germany after vacationing in unsanitary France, I present you the foundation for our elation: the lowly German Klofrau, or toilet lady. She walks her tiled beat in public restrooms, keeping things tidy and fresh. Toilet paper on your shoe? Not on her watch:
She has the most unappreciated job in Germany, she's the butt of some of the worst scatalogical humor and, for the most part, she's poorly paid. But Germany's "toilet ladies" ensure that your bathroom experience here will be an unforgettable one.
And it's true; I haven't forgetten. German public restrooms are the best I've ever encountered.
The worst ones? While it's said that Hell has but one portal, that's in error. Hell, in fact, has many gateways, and all are located in filling station commodes in South Carolina.
A woman claims to have pulled her two neighbors from a fire when they're right there to deny her story, and a girl claims to have watched a pack of non-existent sextuplets drink milk (video).
For heaven's sake, can't people aim any higher with their delusions? Be like me and combine your big dreams with a bit of plausible deniability:
-The grand opening of the Shop-N-Go down on Main last week? I cut the ribbon.
-I won the centerpiece for my table at the Lion's Club Christmas party. It was the prettiest one in the whole place too.
-Seeing that we were running dangerously low on toner for the office printer, I ordered some.
-I was there the day this girl caught her foot in her bicycle spokes. I pushed her bike home for her.
These are all warm, comforting delusions you can tell people and no one can prove they didn't happen.
Go ahead and steal my bicycle-spoke story; I know you will anyway.
If you thought people were distraught at the death of Valentino, the fans of Indian actor Raj Kumar fans have taken things to a whole new level:
Hundreds of distraught fans rioted in Bangalore when police prevented them from forcing their way into the late actor's home, New Delhi Television reported.
Police used bamboo canes to drive away angry fans who shattered the windows of several buses and set a half-dozen cars and motorcycles on fire.
The actor's body was later moved to a large public park in the heart of the city to allow fans to pay their last respects. The regional government in southern India has decided to give Kumar a state funeral, according to Press Trust of India.
Taking the term "matinee idol" literally, Kumar's "fans were known to worship his image and pray that his films would be successful at the box office."
Despite the Flight 93 cockpit transcript's (PDF) being riddled with numerous unsubstantiated claims that Allah is the greatest, it's the one thing you should read today.
That the terrorists were spending all their time trying to cope with all those pesky passengers who were breaking into the cockpit is very satisfying.
My gratitude always to Todd Beamer, Jeremy Glick, Tom Burnett, and all the other passengers who overcame their fear and stood up to fight.
(You scanners should probably click that last link; it's very good.)
UPDATE:
I would recommend clicking that last link.
This was a great photo session and I love both these pics.
There has to be more than two, so I'll keep my eye out.
Wail on, Skydog!
For those that are interested, here's an interview from this week with Butch Trucks. A Level 60 Human Paladin on World of Warcraft? Who knew?
St. Pete authorities have a corpse, but can't quite decide if a crime has been commited:
Sometimes it's hard to keep in mind all those times we've read about, where cooler heads might have made all the difference in the world.
What happened between two strangers along a road in Seminole one January night reads like a script from Law & Order.
Except one man is really and tragically dead, and another man's life hinges on whether authorities believe he committed a crime.
To boil it down:
-Two men have a road rage incident, including a bit of bird shooting.
-Mercedes man flashes a badge and has truck man pull over.
-There are two tire scuffs on the Mercedes. The men exchange insurance cards.
-Truck man writes the info down and goes to the Mercedes to return the card and retrieve his own.
-He finds the man slumped and snoring. He takes his card and the paper the man had written on and goes on about his business.
-The Mercedes man dies of a heart attack.
Is he responsible for the man's death?
Debbie Schlussel will be on Ace's live call-in show today. I hope plenty of people call in and ask her why she threatened to call the FBI on Beth Donovan, and why she has threatened so many conservative bloggers with lawsuits.
Rusty Shackleford of the Jawa Report will be calling in to challenge her about Jill Carroll.
You can listen here.
UPDATE:
From The Jawa Report:
So, during the break, Schlussel says she doesn't want to talk with me and that had she known I was going to confront her that she wouldn't have agreed to the interview. She also had the audacity to call me a "nut". Me. The nut. Right Debbie, right. I'm a "nut" for saying it's not good manners to attack a woman who is being held hostage. You, on the other hand, are the voice of reason.I won't be on. The offer was retracted after Schlussel threw a fit. I'm not blaming Ace or Goldstein. They were just trying to be good hosts and have some class since Debbie Schlussel was the original guest.
Another update: I'm not even sure Ace knew I was calling in, but Jeff thought it would be good radio.
The offer was retracted. In fact, no calls were taken whatsoever for this show.
That's disappointing.
My hope is that he will be the guest on next week's show. He won't mind people calling in -- he can cope if someone out there disagrees with his views. Come to think of it, so could Ann Coulter
.
But then Schlussel's no Coulter.
Read the rest of Jawa's post here.
UPDATE II:
Ace explains what happened. She refused to debate and there wasn't much they could do about it.
***
Previous postings:
Lunatic Fringe Pt. II
From The Mind Of Dare Wright
Syndicated gossip columnist Liz Smith is all aswoon over Syria's king. This surprises the rest of the world, as they know him as President Assad, a dictator and the son of a dictator.
Liz, along with fellow gossip columnist Cindy Adams, are graduates of the prestigious TenWatt School of Journalism.
Oh, dear. Bush Derangement Syndrome strikes again:
A newly elected village council member is suing the municipality to have the oath of office declared unconstitutional because it supports the federal government, something he says he does not do.
Basil E. Dalack, 76, an appellate lawyer, also wants the words ``and government'' removed from the section that reads, ``I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support, protect and defend the Constitution and government of the United States and of the state of Florida.'' The lawsuit was filed last week in federal court.
...
Dalack said if he reads the oath, he would be a blind supporter of the war in Iraq and of the Bush administration...
Maybe at some point he'll find cause to sue his own self. Note it never occured to him to either: a) not run, or b) decline the post.
Since he at one point must have been an intelligent man, it might be that senility has rendered him incapable of distinguishing between an entire system of government and a single administration.
What to make of no player's DNA being a match in the Duke lacrosse team rape case? And the woman's DNA not being found in the room where she said she was gang-raped? Hmm, quite a puzzler, that one.
It's almost like this case has been ripped from the scripts of Law & Order. I hope the stripper has the excellent Shambala Green for her attorney.
UPDATE:
Ah, the boys claim to have taken tons of time-stamped pictures showing the stripper arriving at the party already scratched and a whole lot of non-rape going on. *THUNK THUNK*
All kidding aside, maybe this was her Marabar caves. I'd prefer to think her mind spun up an attack rather than that she made a conscious choice to damage other people's lives.
We'll just have to wait and see how this all plays out.
Another case has come to light of a snotty Detroit 911 call. During this dispatcher's scolding of a woman shot in the head and back, she asks the woman if she's a mental patient; tells her if she'd really been shot in the temple she'd be dead; then asks to speak to someone else, in this case, the person who'd shot her. The woman only got help after she called her son in Minnesota, who then called police in Detroit.
The audio is here.
I screwed up once dialing India and had the cavalry arrive, much to my embarrassment. So despite these horror stories, I feel pretty good about our own local service.
State Senator Gary Siplin (D-Orlando) is back for more fun and hijinx.
Last heard from saying, "I love you, Joshua" three dozen times to the reporter who asked him about questionable campaign contributions, there's now a warrant out for his arrest for other campaign malfeasances.
Since it wouldn't be a Siplin post without entertaining video, here he is today filmed climbing over a fence to escape questioning about the charges.
According to WFTV.com, this is the first time that the state attorney has charged a sitting state senator with a crime related to activities in office, and there may be more charges yet to come.
UPDATE:
Senator Siplin takes a very nice mug shot.
Why did John Kerry lose the election? According to him, it was the spending cap that is applied to those who accept federal matching funds. If he'd used only outside money, he could have spent more and won.
That's not what he said in January 2005 on Meet the Press, however -- and for good reason; he very famously underspent what he'd been allowed:
MR. RUSSERT: One area that many Democrats were concerned was leftover money. This is the way one of the papers, The New York Times, reported it: "Senator John Kerry had more than $14 million in one of his election accounts in late November, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission, causing some Democrats to complain that he should have spent all of it to defeat President Bush or to help other Democratic candidates."
Why did you hold that money? Why didn't you spend it on yourself and other Democrats?
SEN. KERRY: Well, we spent unprecedented sums on other Democrats around the country. No candidate has ever given as much money as I did to the Democratic Committee. We gave $40 million. I gave $3 million, $4 million, to the DSCC, to the Democratic Senate committee. I gave $3 million to the House committee. We gave money to parties, to the degree that every state director wanted. And the reason we had some of the money left over is that, as you know, I wanted to hold my--I wanted to accept the nomination later. There was an uproar in the party. People didn't want you to accept it because there was a 13-week general election for our campaign and an eight-week general election for the Republicans. We couldn't spend the money legally in the month of August. We had the money held in reserve in the event that some state director said, "We desperately need the money," and we gave more money than the directors seemed to be able to--we were--money was not an issue in the outcome of what happened in this race.
Of course, John Kerry is the current record-holder for most number of words a politician has had come back to haunt him. It must be difficult for him to hear over the sounds of all the chains rattling.
Chirac folds like a cheap suit:
President Jacques Chirac has decided to scrap the First Employment Contract (CPE), a youth jobs contract that has been widely contested by student and labour unions in recent weeks, his office announced.
Students threw a fit and he capitulated on behalf of the country. He's just told them they have the right to be carried through life on a velvet pillow. Lucky them!
Who says the world doesn't owe you a living?
The police are saying that NYU student John Broderick Hehman's killing wasn't a hate crime at all, and that calls of "Get the white boy!" and "Get whitey!" were just "gratutitous slurs." This prompted Eric Adams, one the founders of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, a fraternal organization for African American police officers, to say:
"When you look at the logic they are using to come to that conclusion, it's really troubling. If the Police Department is saying identifying the race of the victim is merely a description, Mr. Adams said, then "we have to rewrite the current law for bias crimes. The mere fact his race was interjected, the courts have to decide why that was. Our position is it should be out of the hands of the Police Department and in the hands of the courts.'
"All people should be protected under hate crimes legislation," Mr. Adams said. "A white guy can be as much a victim as a black guy."
Either these statutes apply to everyone or no one. As it's being applied now, some people are more equal than others; especially when the utterance of a "gratuitous slur" in the absence of any crime is enough to make to the newspapers these days -- if it's a slur that counts.
***
Previous postings:
The Mind Of Dare Wright Presents
A British journalist takes a look at the American media, then he points and laughs:
This week is the first of a new epoch in American history. It might come to be known by historians as the Post-NBC-Couric Age, or possibly The Second Era of Katie. It is the first full week after Katie Couric announced that she was leaving the television network NBC to join the television network CBS.
Gerald Baker makes some funny and very true observations. Be sure to check it out.
Hi, I'm Dare Wright's mind! I had a lot of issues that I documented as photomontages and sold as a popular series of children's books. Today I'm bringing you some twisted links. Here we go!
*Alhamedi adores surprises, but I don't see what the surprises are here: a willful and disobedient restaurant owner is getting a spanking from the religious police (I hope they don't stop loving him!), and a naughty journalist ends up sad and lonely.
*Almost everything the Mayor of Mitchieville says is naughty and bad. Mr. Bear should spank him so hard the stuffing comes out of his arm.
*Bad Beth and Bluto get cease-and-desist letters from a very brave little troll doll.
*Some naughty boys chased John Hehman to his death because of the color of his skin, but for some reason it's not making the news. That's sad.
*Mr. Hal brings word of a tummy pacemaker that will tell me when to stop eating Cheetos. I already have something that tells me that, though -- an empty bag. Right, girlfriend?
and finally:
*Joe Wilson is a silly old thing. I'm just the therapy doll of a sexually-repressed female photographer, but even I know a change-purse has a clasp.
There are some awfully sad stories coming out of Gallatin, Tennessee. Although scientists say otherwise, Laurie David insists it's because of global warming, and she should know because she was both a talent coordinator and a sit-com developer.
Rusty of the Jawa Report has the latest word on how the viscious and irrational rush to judgement against Jill Carroll by some members of the blogosphere has hurt us all.
Joe Gandelman also weighs in and rightly pegs the guilty parties (Stand up and take a bow, Debbie Schlussel et al.) as blogging trolls:
Weblogs have always had "trolls" who hurl insulting adjectives around as they lurk beneath the posts in blog comments sections. They rant and make wild charges. But the only point a blog "troll" often makes is that he/she/it is starved for attention and somehow thinks being insulting or going on the offensive equals being intelligent, thoughtful or delivering some revelation (except for that writer's own IQ).
Now, more than ever, "trolls" are the ones who seemingly write blog posts on some blogs.
They've moved up in the world from the comments in the basement to the posts on the first floor.
It gets readership (with some readers) and is much easier to do than analyses or Google searches to confirm whether an assertion stated as fact is more a feeling someone may have in their gut (or in their fanny, where some of the thought processes for these vitriolic posts apparently originate).
The most vexing part of this whole thing is that for the first time in 30 years I've been forced to agree with columnist Ellen Goodman on something. A lovely streak broken.
***
Previous postings:
Lunatic Fringe Pt. II
There's always a dark side, isn't there?:
If a high-fat cholesterol-laden snack doesn't trigger a heart attack, then a healthy economy just might.
The risk of a fatal heart attack rises when the U.S. economy strengthens and increases further if macroeconomic conditions remain robust over the next several years, according to a study published last month.
The death rate rises in the year the economy expands and grows further if the lower rate of joblessness is maintained, Christopher Ruhm wrote in his study.
Evidently when times are good, people work more and exercise less. A good long-term economic disaster might be just the ticket to get us back into our fighting, Depression-era trim. I know one of my uncles used to cry so hard that roach-infested government corn-on-the-cob was going to be his only meal that day, that he could scarcely eat it. Little did he know that that was only his natural sense of good health speaking to him, telling him not to fill up on cheap starch.
UPDATE:
Yesterday's parody becomes today's news.
"America was founded by lunatic risk takers and it is about time one of them ran its biggest state.”
-Texas musician Mojo Nixon, on why he came out of retirement to support Kinky Friedman for governor.
Hey, that article's byline looks familiar...
Burglar and ex-con sex-offender Juan Caballero made an unfortunate decision to break into one Courtney Mann's house:
Mann screamed loud, then leaped from the couch and ran toward the front door. Approaching Mann, the burglar advised her not to call police. He then picked up a plastic bag and began wrapping it around his arm, the report said.
Finally, Mann unleashed a fury.
Still screaming, she punched the intruder in the face five times. He pushed her to the side and made for the front door. She then whacked him across the back of his head with the baseball bat.
He flew face-first into a flowerpot and then fled down the street. Police later found Caballero hiding in a metal shed, bleeding from the head.
It's very satisfying Courtney was able to defend herself and kick the snot out of a bad guy. Hopefully she'll get a gun to take the variables out of play.
Meanwhile, put Brian Chasnoff on the crime beat; that man writes with flair.
(Via Fark.)
I think John McCain is going to poll strongly in the South and I'm not looking forward to that mud that's going to be flung to take him down. Giuliani is a good leader, but hands will hesitate to pull a lever for a Yankee if there's another choice.
I know Rightwing Sparkle is pro McCain. Anyone else?:
Senator John McCain began his week by embracing the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the conservative religious leader he once denounced as polarizing. He ended it by joining Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the liberal Massachusetts icon, in a fight for an immigration bill opposed by many conservatives.
Mr. McCain has long sought to present himself as a singular sort of American politician — straight-talking, iconoclastic and hard to quantify. But as he began a campaign-style trip here that will take him through Florida, Ohio and Iowa, he faced an extraordinarily complex political challenge as he sought to appeal to an unusually diverse audience and cement his early standing in the emerging Republican presidential field.
(If login/pswd is needed, it's upyours63/upyours.)
UPDATE
Columnist George Will gives his take on McCain, and the commenters at Lucianne go to town on it.
America Back On Track by Ted Kennedy
In his book, Mr. Kennedy expresses his view that America is speeding drunkenly down a dark road and may miss the bridge to the future. He decries the erosion of the nation’s basic values and harkens back to the golden days of his brother's administration when decent men could run pantless in full expression of their civil liberties. Mr. Kennedy then presents a rather vague plan which he states is the key to "create a better
