False rape accusation punished

On Monday I wrote a post addressing the reality of a false rape allegation being no laughing matter. I wrote that, in spite of the inherent humor in the situation described in the original story, no false criminal accusation is the least bit funny so long as our legal system is as FUBAR as it currently is.

Oh how right I was!!!

A young mother who falsely cried rape, sending an innocent man to prison for nearly four years, will experience firsthand what he suffered -- she'll spend one to three years behind bars for perjury.

"I wish her the best of luck," said William McCaffrey last night of Biurny Peguero Gonzalez.

"Jail isn't easy."

McCaffrey, 33, of The Bronx, was locked up after Gonzalez accused him of raping her at knifepoint on a Bronx street back in 2005.

It was a lie she repeated to doctors, cops, prosecutors, a grand jury and the jury that convicted McCaffrey.

"What happened in this case is one of the worst things that can possibly happen in our criminal-justice system," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon said as he pronounced sentence.

Gee, Charlie. You really think so? [/sarcasm]

In light of what has been done to him, I think William McCaffrey showed a lot of class in his comments about the heinous shrew whose lies caused him to lose four years of his life and forced him to endure an unmentionable hell in prison. Even so, there is justifiable bitterness.

A person who would "lie and paint somebody as a rapist is worse than a real rapist or a real murderer," McCaffrey said

He also blamed "the arresting officers, the prosecution." Everyone, he said, "wanted to believe the lie, the ADA [assistant district attorney] first and foremost."

My advice to Mr. McCaffrey is this: sue everybody! Sue the city. Sue the District Attorney's office. Sue the hosebag who made the false accusation against you.

The police, in their usual fashion, latched onto a suspect and made no effort to do no more than absolutely necessary in order to continue to dine at the public trough. The ADA was only concerned with getting the win once the case was referred to him. This is true of most 21st century DAs. They couldn't care less if the person they convict is guilty or not. They just want the win.

While at first glance it is something of a feel good story -- lying Jezzibel gets jail time, innocent man is to be freed -- there is still an inequality that screams for remedy. Why, in the name of all that is good, did the bitch only get sentenced to 1 to 3 years? She should have -- at a minimum -- served the same number of days in prison as Mr. McCaffrey endured. At. A. Minimum.

If the courts were concerned with eliminating false accusations of this kind (hint: they're not), they would have sentenced her to 10 years. That's what I would have done if I was the judge. We've got to make it clear to lowlifes like Ms. Gonzalez that robbing a man of his freedom is an offense every bit as heinous as violently assaulting his person.

Scott Brown - once messiah, now turncoat?

Of all of the stupid nonsense! Scott Brown, once hailed as the golden boy, the new Team Elephant messiah, is now being lambasted as a Benedict Arnold on "conservative" web sites. His crime? Voting for Il Duce's "jobs" legislation.

"We campaigned for you. We donated to your campaign. And you turned on us like every other RINO," said one writer, using the initials for "Republican-In-Name-Only."

The conservative-tilting Drudge Report colored a photo of Brown on its home page in scarlet.

Get hysterical much, Elephants?

Brown, to his credit, went on the offensive.

The new senator responded by calling in to a Boston radio station.

"I've taken three votes," Brown said with exasperation. "And to say I've sold out any particular party or interest group, I think, is certainly unfair."

The senator said that by the time he seeks re-election in two years, he will have taken thousands of votes.

"So, I think it's a little premature to say that," he said.

Look, people. Let's get something straight. Winning Ted Kennedy's seat with a slick, carefully scripted "man of the people" campaign didn't make him the Team Elephant messiah. Brown's win seemed to be of greater importance because his win derailed much of Il Duce's Fascist agenda by eliminating the Donkeys' 60 vote "Go eff yourselves Elephants" super majority. Beyond that, it wasn't all that surprising. Hell, even the People's Republic of Maryland elected a "moderate" Republican in the past decade, and for the same reason that Brown won Massachusetts: because he ran against an "entitled" candidate who happened to be a moron.

Bob Ehrich won the Maryland Governor's race in 2002 because his opponent Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's sole qualification for public office was her maiden name. She lost -- against all odds in heavily liberal Maryland -- because she possessed the intellect of a house plant.

I'm sorry if I insulted any house plants with that comment.

Likewise, Scott Brown would have NEVER beaten a Donkey with any kind of charisma or ability to articulate an intelligent thought. He won because he ISN'T Martha Coakley. That and nothing more.

That Scott Brown would turn around and shaft the people who got him elected is no surprise, either. The problem with "conservatives" is that they haven't yet learned that the Elephants are not their friends. The Elephants are every bit as bought-and-paid-for as the Donkeys. They're simply a different side of the same coin. They care as little about you and your ideals as the Donkeys do.

You have to believe me when I say that only a third party or a hostile takeover of one of the two existing major parties will allow "conservative" and libertarian voices a place at the table in Washington.

CPAC shocker

Will wonders never cease? The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) presidential straw poll wasn't won by that phony Mitt Romney. It wasn't won by that phony Mike Huckabee. It wasn't even won by whiny "you hurt my feelings talking about retards" Sarah Palin. It was won by the man himself.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, a stalwart foe of government spending, won a blowout victory Saturday in the annual Conservative Political Action Conference presidential straw poll.

With participants naming "reducing the size of federal government" as their top issue, the 74-year old libertarian hero captured 31 percent of the 2,400 votes cast in the annual contest, usually seen as a barometer of how the GOP's conservative wing regards their potential presidential candidates.

Right on Dr. Paul! And right on Young Conservatives.

Paul's victory might be seen, in part, as a result of his support among anti-establishment Tea Party activists -- who turned out in force at this year's conference and expressed some frustration with the Republican Party.

Reflecting the college atmosphere of the annual event, young people dominated the voting: 54 percent of participants were between the ages of 18 and 25.

It seems that the generation that will get stuck with the bill for government's profligacy wants its voice heard.

Team Elephant's neocommie wing had a beef with the poll results.

The announcement of Paul's win, a surprise victory unlikely to have a major impact on the 2012 presidential contest, drew a volley of loud boos from the CPAC audience.

"How dare those impudent curs vote against our platform of fascism (albeit implemented more slowly than it has been by Il Duce) and war without end!"

Two positive things or one negative thing can come out of this straw poll. Guess which I'm betting will happen?

• More and more mainstream Elephants will get behind Ron Paul and his vision of a return to Constitutional government.
  


• The Rockefeller wing of Team Elephant will kick and scream and fight, driving the Tea Party wing to split and form a third party with Dr. Paul as its standard bearer.
  


• The Rockefeller wing of Team Elephant will rig the next straw poll to favor a candidate more to the liking of the oligarchical elite that has run the party since...well, for as long as I can remember.

Team Elephant hasn't got the brains to see the writing on the wall. They will once again buck the will of the party faithful in favor of the party elite and push forward with their stubborn neo-commie agenda and slate of bland, phony-baloney candidates. They're too stubborn and too stupid to realize the gift that Il Duce has laid in their laps that could lead to them dominating the political scene for generations if they'd only listen and act accordingly.

Expect Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee in 2012. Trust me on this one.

Toyota troubles continue

Toyota has had a rough time of late. On the heels of an accelerator pedal problem that actually caused Toyota to suspend production of 8 popular models, another recall was issued for its popular (among tree-huggers and Hollywood asshats) Prius model because of a braking problem.

Since bad news tends to set upon us in groups of three, Toyota got hit with yet another potential recall - this time on the Corolla.

A growing number of complaints over steering problems with Toyota Corolla vehicles has sparked a federal investigation, and may result in yet another Toyota recall. The troubled auto-maker has already recalled millions of vehicles in recent months over defective gas pedals, floor mats and problems with brakes.

It just keeps going from bad to worse, from worse to awful, from awful to "Oh s***!". I wouldn't wish what's happening to Toyota right now on anyone. Okay, maybe on Oracle, but no one else.

To summarize the situation:

• Sudden acceleration problems
• Braking problems
• Steering problems

Top that off with xfloggingkylex's hypothesis that Toyota drivers are predominantly made up of the very worst drivers on the road, and you have the perfect storm.

All in favor of banning Toyotas from the roads for the foreseeable future, say "aye".

Quoth the Vulture: "AYE!"

Let them eat cake...or take mass transit...or something. Just stay off the roads. Please.

TSA - the "gift" that keeps on giving

It seems that the Transportation Security Administration (TSSA - because you can't spell Schutzstaffel without the second S) just can't stay out of trouble. I expect that they'll be providing me with blog post material for the foreseeable future.

Their latest "accomplishment"? It's a beauty.

Did you hear about the Camden cop whose disabled son wasn't allowed to pass through airport security unless he took off his leg braces?

Unfortunately, it's no joke. This happened to Bob Thomas, a 53-year-old officer in Camden's emergency crime suppression team, who was flying to Orlando in March with his wife, Leona, and their son, Ryan.

Ryan was taking his first flight, to Walt Disney World, for his fourth birthday.

The boy is developmentally delayed, one of the effects of being born 16 weeks prematurely. His ankles are malformed and his legs have low muscle tone. In March he was just starting to walk.

Mid-morning on March 19, his parents wheeled his stroller to the TSA security point, a couple of hours before their Southwest Airlines flight was to depart.

The boy's father broke down the stroller and put it on the conveyor belt as Leona Thomas walked Ryan through the metal detector.

The alarm went off.

The screener told them to take off the boy's braces.

The Thomases were dumbfounded. "I told them he can't walk without them on his own," Bob Thomas said.

"He said, 'He'll need to take them off.' "

Ryan's mother offered to walk him through the detector after they removed the braces, which are custom-made of metal and hardened plastic.

No, the screener replied. The boy had to walk on his own.

But surely the screener's supervisor would handle the situation properly - surely they would see the ludicrous pointlessness of what the screener was asking, right? Uh....no.

By then, Bob Thomas was furious. He demanded to see a supervisor. The supervisor asked what was wrong.

"I told him, 'This is overkill. He's 4 years old. I don't think he's a terrorist.' "

The supervisor replied, "You know why we're doing this," Thomas said.

Thomas said he told the supervisor he was going to file a report, and at that point the man turned and walked away.

"You know why we're doing this." Because you're imbecilic tools? Because there are thousands of developmentally-challenged 4-year-olds just DYING to blow up a plane for Allah? Because it gives you totalitarian wood?

Face it, there was no good reason to require the child to remove his braces. TSSA even admitted it after the fact. Of course, TSSA never admits to ANYTHING until the press gets involved. Your feeble little complaint at the time of the violation of your person or dignity? They couldn't possibly care less.

Keep flying, sheeple. Keep submitting to the degradation.

May your chains rest lightly upon you.

Not amusing

Okay. I’ll admit it. I laughed when I heard the story.

Two Tennessee women who accused a man of rape have admitted to cops that they had consensually agreed to sex with him in exchange for a pack of cigarettes. One woman told investigators that the duo filed a phony police report because they "didn't enjoy the sex," according to cops.

You have to admit, the image of these two heinous water buffaloes prostituting themselves for cigarettes, then claiming rape before owning up to their fraud is chuckle-worthy. That is, until you think through the consequences that potentially faced the poor gentleman (and, boy, do I use THAT term loosely) who managed to achieve and maintain arousal with those two fugly hosebags.

Two counts of rape. The average sentence for an individual convicted of rape is 11.8 years. A casual interwebs search found sentences between 11 and 20 years for two counts of rape.

"Oh c’mon, Vulture! There’s no way he would have been prosecuted!" Really? You’re telling me that some Mike Nifong wannabe wouldn’t press charges? You’re telling me that some unscrupulous prosecutor wouldn’t hide exculpatory evidence to ensure that their "won-loss record" wouldn’t take a hit? You’re telling me that a jury of "his peers" (read: people not smart enough to get out of jury duty) couldn’t be persuaded by an emotional pair of women tearfully recounting how this man had "deflowered" them?

In 21^st century America there is NO situation where being charged with a crime is the slightest bit funny. Because in 21^st century America our tangled legal system seems to be designed to make criminals of us all rather than to assure the safety of the citizenry. And in that sort of legal system, no one is safe from malicious, fraudulent, or mistaken prosecution. No one.

So laugh if you will at the hideous HURTings now charged with filing a false police report. But I’m not laughing. Not as long as our system of laws is as effed up as it is right now. Not as long as innocent people can have their lives ruined by false allegations in a system run amok. And certainly not as long as people like this can practice law.

RGD: A scary look at what awaits

Anyone who has read this blog for more than 5 minutes knows that I have a great deal of respect – nay, admiration – for Vox Day. It was Vox Day, after all, who opened my eyes to the realities of American politics, which made my eventual conversion from "conservative" to libertarian possible.

I read his previous book, The Irrational Atheist, back in 2008. It was because of that exceptional book that I decided to take a chance on The Return of the Great Depression, notwithstanding my lack of economic knowledge.

The book is eminently readable, even for those lacking economics training. Vox was able to describe the economic mess in which we find ourselves, the steps that got us into that mess in the first place, and the likelihood that the steps currently being taken by our ruling class will exacerbate the situation, in terminology that wasn’t overwhelming. This book is understandable by ANYONE, regardless of economic background, prior study, or existing expertise. I consider this to be quite an accomplishment on Vox's part.

Some parts of the book were true eye-openers. Call me economically naïve, but I had NO idea that our economy was such a house of cards, the “cards” being our dependence on the issuance of new debt. Just as a shark cannot survive unless it is moving forward, our economy will collapse without the issuance of new debt. It finally made sense to me why the government bailed out the financial institutions in 2008, and why they made some of the other counter-intuitive decisions of the past two years.

Vox takes aim at the “blue skys and sunshine” financial “analysts” (read: stock pimps) that host the various investment shows. He points out the logical fallacies in their reasoning and explains why their pie-in-the-sky predictions for a short recession are way off the mark.

I came away from reading this book extremely concerned for the future. I am convinced that Vox is 100% right when he asserts that the path Keynesian economists are recommending will only make the economic contraction worse and will result in a lot of unnecessary pain for ordinary Americans.

This is a book I would heartily recommend to anyone concerned about our economic future.

More TSSA unnessary roughness

The Transportation Safety Administration -- TSSA, because you can't spell Schutzstaffel without the double S -- pops up in the news quite regularly due to its penchant for running roughshod over the citizenry it is ostensibly charged with protecting.

Their most recent "achievement" was to scare a 22-year-old coed half to death by planting contraband in her bag as a "training exercise". Apparently, the TSSA tool in question thought it was funny. Funny. Right.

Now they're at it again, and, once more, the site of the affront is Philadelphia.

The businesswoman spent a night in the lockup at 55th and Pine after Transportation Security Administration agents said she assaulted them during a screening at the airport.

Uh huh. A tiny 57-year-old woman assaulted two TSSA thugs. Sure.

Look, I'll be the first to say that Ms. Pellegrino doesn't come across as the most sympathetic of victims in this case. Her over-the-top germaphobic QQ'ing and whiny tone defy sympathy. But the tapes of the incident have been disposed of by the TSSA because, "...most of the incident took place outside the cameras' view, either in the private screening room or at the doorway".

Uh huh.

If you think for one second that the tapes would have been disposed of if there was ANY corroborating evidence to support the TSSA gorillas' claim of assault on them then you're either a TSSA employee or a moron. The tapes were disposed of because they would either vindicate Ms. Pellegrino or, at minimum, introduce some doubt as to whether the TSSA actions were justified.

The fact is that TSSA thugs treat ANY failure to passively submit to their every command as an assault. And that isn't about to change anytime soon until the American people wise up and let their elected officials know that they're not going to put up with it any more.

Which, knowing the lack of spine and intelligence of the vast majority of Americans, leads me to believe that we will never be free of the excesses of the TSSA.

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How have the interwebs changed the world? I was alerted to this story by an Aussie living in South Korea. Is that awesome, or what? Hat tip t'ya, Bingbing.

Transitioning comments

You may notice that my site is somewhat "broken" for the next little while as I attempt to transition my comments from soon-to-be-dead Haloscan to Echo.

Please excuse our dust while we perform this tedious exercise.

Thank you.

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I think I've got all of the kinks ironed out. Please let me know if you encounter any weirdness when entering comments.

Blizzard of '10 - the sequel

Holy criminy! Will it ever end?!?!? The Blizzard of '10 took a break between Sunday and Tuesday afternoon, then returned with a vengeance. Frederick took another 18" of snow -- though who could tell how much we got, what with wind gusts up to 47 MPH creating monster drifts everywhere. That 18" puts us up over 4 feet in the month of February. Compare that with our normal annual snowfall of between 8" and 24". It's nuts. Absolutely nuts.

Snow plows were called off the job because officials figured out that it was futile to plow roads that will be re-covered in mere seconds due to the winds.

We may get out of the house sometime tomorrow...but we're not driving ANYWHERE prior to Friday. Right now everyone -- including snow plows -- has been told to stay off the roads.

Cabin fever? We got it...in spades.

Summer can't come soon enough.

How to offend folks on both sides of an issue

Audi has accomplished something I had previously thought impossible -- they've managed to offend people on both sides of the "green" issue. If you watched the Super Bowl, I'm sure you saw the ad. It was, not to understate the obvious, epic in its effect on people, regardless of political persuasion.

The Left hates it, yet nonetheless has tried to spin it as positive in that it targets "urban and suburban professional males in Audi’s target market", as opposed to the "teabaggers" targeted by the rest of the advertisers. The telling quote was this one.

The ad only makes sense if it’s aimed at people who acknowledge the moral authority of the green police—people who may find those obligations tiresome and constraining on occasion, who only fitfully meet them, who may be annoyed by sticklers and naggers, but who recognize that living more sustainably is in fact the moral thing to do. This basically describes every guy I know.

He obviously doesn't know me, a suburban professional male who USED TO BE in Audi's target market. Until the commercial, that is.

The Right sees the add as tomorrow's reality if we don't stand up to the forces of political correctness. Jonah Goldberg put it this way.

[T]he moral of the story is that we should welcome our new green overlords and, if we know what's good for us, surrender to the New Green Order.

Funny, but that's kind of the take overall around my house when we watched the commercial live.

The casa Vulture is a place where libertarianism is the de facto political belief system, from papa Vulture on down to Baby Vulture (if one can call an almost 21-year-old "baby"). Oldest son stated emphatically, "Well, I'll never buy an Audi."

And, in truth, who would? Why would anyone who believes in the freedoms espoused by the Founders EVER dignify such a dehumanized portrait of what we should be? Is that what Audi sees as the future, the US as a nation of sheeple who meekly submit to Das Überwachenden constantly in your business?

Bad move, Audi. Bad move indeed.

Big Media finally asks the question

A question that has been asked thousands of times in hundreds of different ways by those of us who are not ideologues has finally found its way into an opinion piece in the Washington Post. That question is: Why are liberals so condescending?

Though I suspect that the author of the article is himself left-leaning, he demonstrates the kind of intellectual honesty that is so rare among the Left. To this point, I was aware of only one left-leaning writer -- Camile Paglia -- whom that could be said of.

Two ideological pompous douchbags in particular come away from the article looking extraordinarily bad. Those individuals would be Il Duce and Markos Moulitsas (the Daily Kos).

Do yourself a favor and read the WaPo article. Regardless of your political perspective, Left, Right, Center, or Libertarian, you'll come away with a better understanding of why Leftists are soooooooooooo condescending.

I commend the Post for printing such an extraordinary article. It's not the kind of thing one expects from that pro-Stateist rag.

One last thing - don't you on the right celebrate this article too loudly. You're still on the hook for King George the Dim!

Super Bowl Sunday

It's here! Super Bowl Sunday!

I'm going to go out on a limb here (not at all) and pick the Colts to win easily. Of course, I'm the kiss of death, having picked the Patriots and Cardinals in the last two Super Bowls.

I'll update this post post-game with my thoughts on the game.

---

Ouch! I really AM the kiss of death.

The Colts, a better team on both sides of the ball during the regular season, played like crap the entire second half, while the Saints, after a dismal 1st quarter, played inspired football. The resulting 31-17 shellacking was as beautifully executed as it was painful to watch.

I started to get nervous when the Saints pulled off a successful onside kick to start the second half. Brilliant. Just brilliant. Even if it had failed I would still say it was brilliant because it was so random and unexpected.

Drew Brees played incredibly well. He is definitely in the top 3 or 4 quarterbacks in the game right now; he may, in fact, be #1.

Peyton Manning played well, but made one fatal mistake, the interception returned 74 yards for a touchdown in the 4th quarter with the Colts driving and down a touchdown.

Good game, all told.

Next year the NFC will be represented by the Niners! (he says, taking another sip of that Kool-Aid).

The Blizzard of 2010

The "paralyzing" storm predicted for this weekend lived up to the hype. Frederick got 30". But, unlike previous storms, Frederick, usually a champion on the high end of snowfall totals, fell short of points east of here. Elkridge got 38" to take the "prize" for worst hammering.

Thankfully, the winds weren't as strong as the '03 storm, so drifts weren't nearly the issue that they were with that storm.

One more picture for your enjoyment - the storm from the perspective of a 4 1/2 pound dog.

Paralyzing storm

Well, it's a first for me. The Weather Channel website has predicted that the major snow storm headed my way is not simply a "disruptive snowfall", as is forecast for areas west of here. No, it is a "paralyzing" storm.

I have visions of the Blizzard of '03 in my head. In '03 we got over 30" of snow over a 2 day span, with drifts of over 6'. It took 3 days for my youngest son and I to shovel out. Deadeye and oldest son were stranded in South Carolina because all highways into and out of Maryland were closed. It was, in a word, epic.

Will this storm also turn out to be 'epic'? Stay tuned to this Bat channel.

A job opening for TxBluesMan?

Tip of the hat to Tizona Group's "token American", Angus Dei, for this beauty.

The Civil Rights Division encourages qualified applicants with targeted disabilities to apply. Targeted disabilities are deafness, blindness, missing extremities, partial or complete paralysis, convulsive disorder, mental retardation, mental illness, severe distortion of limbs and/or spine…

The Department of Justice welcomes and encourages applications from persons with physical and mental disabilities.

What's that? The DoJ is looking for retard lawyers? I have just the guy for the job. What's that? He's OVERQUALIFIED? Can't say I'm surprised...

BTW, Tizona -- if you're looking for another American to add to your stable, I'd be honored.

The kitty of death

When one imagines the Grim Reaper they seldom conjure up the image of a cute, fuzzy kitty. But in one Rhode Island nursing home that appears to be the case -- Death is a cat.

A cat with an uncanny ability to detect when nursing home patients are about to die has proven itself in around 50 cases by curling up with them in their final hours, according to a new book.
[...]
The tortoiseshell and white cat spends its days pacing from room to room, rarely spending any time with patients except those with just hours to live.

If kept outside the room of a dying patient, Oscar will scratch on the door trying to get in.

When nurses once placed the cat on the bed of a patient they thought close to death, Oscar "charged out" and went to sit beside someone in another room. The cat's judgement was better than that of the nurses: the second patient died that evening, while the first lived for two more days.

The doctor who wrote the book detailing the cat's "uncanny gift" believes the cat to be gifted with an amazing predictive ability. I, however, have a different take.

I believe that this filthy vermin is preselecting victims and, once the staff is out of the room, the Kitty of Death administers the Kiss of Death.

I always suspected that cats were evil! Now we know just how evil they can be! *

* This post is entirely tongue-in-cheek. I don't really believe the cat is killing people. And I don't really hate cats - I just hate that they love to climb all over me to trigger full-blown asthma attacks -- as if they know that they're causing me distress.

Is The Vulture irresponsible?

Notwithstanding that the question can be answered in the affirmative regarding SOME aspects of my life, I think, on balance, I'm a fairly responsible person. I mean, if there's a stream of f-bombs emanating from my work area, you can be sure I'm responsible.

[Cue rimshot]

All joking aside, I'm a little taken aback at being accused of irresponsible behavior by a spokespuke from the World Health Organization for simply speaking my mind on the farce that is the attempted fear mongering of that organization and a number of national government organs regarding the H1N1 virus.

The World Health Organization on Monday slammed as "irresponsible" critics who claim swine flu is a fake pandemic created for the benefit of drug companies.

The U.N. health agency said the outbreak of a new strain of H1N1 influenza in North America last year had all the scientific characteristics of a pandemic, adding the WHO was never improperly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry that has benefited from huge government orders for vaccines and anti-viral drugs.

"The world is going through a real pandemic. The description of it as a fake is wrong and irresponsible," the WHO said in a strongly worded statement Monday.

A WHO spokesman declined to spell out who the World Health Organization was responding to in its statement, saying only that "this applies to anyone who believes it is not a real pandemic."

I'm so hurt! [/sarcasm]

Lest you succumb to the temptation to fall for the spokesmonkey's rhetoric, let me show you some numbers -- THEIR numbers -- on the "toll" of this "pandemic".

According to a WHO tally dated Jan. 17, more than 209 countries and territories have reported laboratory confirmed cases of swine flu, including at least 14,142 deaths. This is far fewer than would be expected to die each year from seasonal flu, but the figure is likely to exclude many unreported cases, according to WHO.

So, we have a "pandemic" that doesn't even rise to the level of a "normal" flu season...and we who are simply pointing out this fact are the "irresponsible" ones. Riiiiiiiiiight.

Welcome to the surreal world of the One World Socialist Utopia dimwit bureaucrat.

TSA - the 'A' stands for ?

Apparently, at least in this case, it stands for "A-hole".

In the tense new world of air travel, we're stripped of shoes, told not to take too much shampoo on board, frowned on if we crack a smile.

The last thing we expect is a joke from a Transportation Security Administration screener - particularly one this stupid.

Rebecca Solomon is 22 and a student at the University of Michigan, and on Jan. 5 she was flying back to school after holiday break. She made sure she arrived at Philadelphia International Airport 90 minutes before takeoff, given the new regulations.

She would be flying into Detroit on Northwest Airlines, the same city and carrier involved in the attempted bombing on Christmas, just 10 days before. She was tense.

What happened to her lasted only 20 seconds, but she says they were the longest 20 seconds of her life.

After pulling her laptop out of her carry-on bag, sliding the items through the scanning machines, and walking through a detector, she went to collect her things.

A TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him.

Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on - the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder.

She remembers his words: "Where did you get it?"

Two thoughts came to her in a jumble: A terrorist was using her to sneak bomb-detonating materials on the plane. Or a drug dealer had made her an unwitting mule, planting coke or some other trouble in her bag while she wasn't looking.

She'd left her carry-on by her feet as she handed her license and boarding pass to a security agent at the beginning of the line.

Answer truthfully, the TSA worker informed her, and everything will be OK.

Solomon, 5-foot-3 and traveling alone, looked up at the man in the black shirt and fought back tears.

Put yourself in her place and count out 20 seconds. Her heart pounded. She started to sweat. She panicked at having to explain something she couldn't.

Now picture her expression as the TSA employee started to smile.

Just kidding, he said. He waved the baggie. It was his.

And so she collected her things, stunned, and the tears began to fall.

Another passenger, a woman traveling to Colorado, consoled her as others who had witnessed the confrontation went about their business. Solomon and the woman walked to their gates, where each called for security and reported what had happened.

A joke? You're not serious. Was he hitting on her? Was he flexing his muscle? Who at a time of heightened security and rattled nerves would play so cavalierly with a passenger's emotions?

Can you believe this? She cried - I would have messed my pants! What in the name of God's green earth would possess this mendacious jerk to single out this poor young woman - hell, to single out ANYONE - for that kind of stress when going through a TSSA checkpoint is stress enough for anyone?

There's more.

When she complained to airport security, Solomon said, she was told the TSA worker had been training the staff to detect contraband. She was shocked that no one took him off the floor, she said.

"It was such a violation," the Wynnewood native told me by phone. "I'd come early. I'd done everything right. And they were kidding about it."

I ran her story past Ann Davis, regional TSA spokeswoman, who said she knew nothing to contradict the young traveler's account.

TSSA (two S's, because you can't spell Schutzstaffel without the second S) wouldn't come out and say what sort of punishment this tool was given for this patent violation of...well, if nothing else, the laws of human decency. But a TSSA spokestool did say that the individual was no longer associated with the agency.

Hey, how 'bout that? [/sarcasm]

And people ask me why I'm so anti-TSSA.....