The Vulture Lurks

New Tizona Post

2012-01-29T19:26:00.000-05:00

Occupy….Frederick?!?!?

How do “Frederick, MD” and “Occupy” end up in the same sentence? Behold, Occupy Frederick!

Heart, broken

2012-01-23T12:36:00.000-05:00

It was going to be a game that came down to turnovers. That was supposed to favor the 49ers, who finished the season an astounding +28 on turnovers. Of course, that was before Ted Ginn was declared unable to play because of a bum knee. It was yesterday that we all learned just how valuable Ted Ginn really is to the 49ers.

He was replaced by Kyle Williams. Kyle MF'ing Williams.

It seemed as if old Kyle thought he was playing in some meaningless pickup game instead of for a chance to play in the Super Bowl. He carelessly bobbled a pitch early in the game, fortunate to fall on his own fumble. He dove (DOVE!!!!!) to catch one punt, coming up with it, but risking a costly turnover with really nothing to gain from it.

And then he got down to seriously screwing the pooch.

A poor punt by the Giants resulted in a ground ball bouncing along the sideline. Even a fan like me knows what the punt returner is supposed to do in that situation - yell out the signal for blockers to get as far away from the ball as possible and then do likewise.

Oh, but not Kyle MF'ing Williams. No, he ran alongside the bouncing ball like a retarded dog chasing a stick. The ball grazed his knee and was recovered by the Giants. It's bad enough that the asshat broke a cardinal rule of punt returns by placing himself in the path of an erratically bouncing football. It's what he did after the ball grazed him that made this heartsick Vulture lose his marbles. He made no effort to chase down the ball. Rather, he play acted that the ball hadn't touched him, and acted all aggrieved when the referee confirmed the call on the field, that the ball had touched him and was Giants' ball.

A handful of plays later, a Giants touchdown gave them the lead.

The Niners moved down the field and tied the game at 17, where it remained at the end of the 4th quarter.

Overtime.

Overtime looked just like the final minutes of the 4th quarter. The 49ers couldn't mount any offense. The Giants were being dominated by the 49ers defense.

Enter Kyle MF'ing Williams.

The Giants punted after yet another 3-and-out. Williams fielded the punt cleanly, took a few steps while holding the ball like a loaf of bread, and was promptly stripped of the ball.

The Giants were in field goal position at that point, but they ran a few plays to set up a closer field goal, which they made to win the game 20-17.

So here's the breakdown. The 49ers defense allowed 10 points in the first half, but didn't allow a drive of over 30 yards or allow the Giants to cross midfield from the 3rd quarter through overtime.

The Giants only two scoring chances in the second half and overtime were gifts courtesy of Kyle MF'ing Williams. Those two scoring chances resulted in 10 points, and victory for Big Blue.

The final score of that game should have been 17-10 or perhaps even 14-10. The Giants rightly should have been shut out in the second half. The 49ers should be the team headed to Indianapolis for the Super Bowl.

But that isn't how it turned out. Thanks almost entirely to Kyle MF'ing Williams, it's the Giants, not the 49ers, who will represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

Thanks a buttload, Kyle. You single-handedly destroyed your team's dream season.

A dream season continues

2012-01-18T20:26:00.001-05:00

A Division title - the first in 9 years. A playoff victory - the first in 9 years. Oh, but it wasn't just ANY playoff victory. It was one of the most exciting and suspense-filled games I've ever witnessed, and, trust me, in my 53 years I've seen a metric shit-ton of football games.

The 49ers jumped out to a 17-0 lead on the strength of 4 forced turnovers in the first half. The Saints rallied to close to 17-14 by halftime. Going into the fourth quarter, the 49ers lead 20-14. The Saints hit a field goal. The 49ers hit a field goal. At 23-17, it was exciting, but nothing special. Ah, but the last 4:11 was something beyond special.

The Saints scored on a quick strike pass to Darren Sproles to take their first lead of the game, 24-23, with 4:11 left on the clock.

Now, you gotta understand what goes through the mind of a fan who's lived through the torture of 8 straight losing seasons. Not just losing seasons, but seasons ranging from putrid to merely mediocre...but mostly putrid. I'd seen this movie about a half dozen times over the previous 8 years. Niners exceed expectations, jump to a big lead....and then managed to lose -- sometimes badly. This seemed oh so much like deja vu.

Ah, but the script changed. The Niners marched down the field, getting a big play in the process on an Alex Smith to Vernon Davis pass for 37 yards. It wasn't the first the two had during the game. It wouldn't be the last.

With 2:18 remaining in the game, on third and eight from the Saints 28 yard line, the Niners pulled a complete surprise out of the back of the play book. Alex Smith took the snap from shotgun formation, then sprinted left. A seal block by diminutive wide receiver Kyle Williams on 280-lb defensive end Will Smith made the first down certain. But it was sprinting left tackle Joe Staley, who laid out a Saints safety at the 5 yard line, who assured the score. A two-point conversion attempt failed, but no matter; the 49ers had retaken the lead, and their top-notch defense was going to seal the victory. I was sure of it.

Uh, yeah.......about that.

Drew Brees is one of the most amazing quarterbacks I've ever seen. He's a first-ballot Hall of Famer, for sure. A 5 point deficit with just over 2 minutes to play is nothing to him. He connected with all-world tight end Jim Graham for a 66-yard lightning bolt, and I was right back to those deja vu feelings all over again.

Now the shit was real. A poor kickoff return left the Niners stuck on their own 15 yard line. Only 1:37 left. I might have been optimistic had the QB been named Montana or Young. But, as much as I like and admire Alex Smith, he's no Montana, no Young. Or, at least he wasn't prior to this game. It was time for Alex to step up and play like the former greats.

It seemed so obvious at the start of the drive; get down the field, kick a tying field goal, hope for the best in OT. The 49ers had other plans.

On the second play of the drive the 49ers surprised the Saints with a deep crossing pattern to Vernon Davis that went for 47 yards down to the Saints 20. I started to believe again - we were going to get that tie, and we were going to overtime. Two plays later, the 49ers showed me and the world that OT wasn't in the plan. Alex Smith hit Vernon Davis on a skinny post for the game winning touchdown with a slim 9 seconds left in the game. A squib kick, a gimmicky desperation play by the Saints, and it was a final. The 49ers were headed to the NFC Championship Game, the team's first since 1997.

This team has brought me more sports-fan happiness than any team since the '94 champions. More than the '89 monster team that outscored the competition by 100 points in three playoff games. More than the '88 team that beat Cincy with 34 seconds left in SB XXIII. More than the 18-1 '84 champions. Even more than the '81 team, the first SB championship team, and the team that most reminds me of the '11 group.

No matter what happens Sunday in the Championship game I am thrilled with what has happened this season. But I don't think they're done.

Can this team win the Super Bowl? I wouldn't bet against it.

New Tizona Post

2012-01-05T14:37:00.000-05:00

If you get your news from any American paper that subscribes to the Associated Press feed (such as the Washington Post), you might be thinking right about now that the Team Elephant presidential primaries have resolved into a two-man race: "front runner" Mitt "Presidential Hair" Romney, and Rick "Bomb the shit out of Iran!" Santorum.

Just one problem: it's a complete lie.

Read more at The Tizona Group.

Wiener of the Year - 2011

2012-01-02T20:41:00.000-05:00

It's time for the least prestigious unknown award currently presented by the denizens of the old WWW - The Vulture's Wiener of the Year.

I received a number of nominations for WotY for 2011, including three very good ones from April Day. Each and every individual nominated is certainly deserving of derision. The list includes:

California Jim (AKA Jammin, AKA CAJim) - a troll from the execrable FLDS Texas ~~website~~ bigotry cauldron, who once took over this blog's comments for a full week to debate "journalistic integrity" and my lack thereof.

Gregory Prickett (AKA The Prickette, the 2010 WotY - nominated due to his ludicrous lawsuit against various blogger cohorts of mine, a lawsuit meant simply to harass, a lawsuit dismissed by a judge who saw through the pointlessness of the suit.

Former Seattle police officer Ian Birk, about whom I wrote earlier last year, for murdering in cold blood an innocent civilian. Throw in the fact that Seattle PD did NOTHING about it - no charges, no disciplinary action, N-O-T-H-I-N-G, and you have a most Wiener-worthy nominee.

The usual suspects came up as well. Il Duce. Big Media (the BM for short). Congress. The TSSA*. The inaptly named "justice" system. The Occupy movement. Team Elephant.

But this is the year when the Wiener of the Year award achieves absolute synchronicity. The 2011 WotY award winner truly IS a Weiner -- Anthony Weiner.

Weiner, a gawdawful socialist member of Congress since 1999, inadvertently sent a tweet intended for a single individual to his entire "followers" list. Ah, but this wasn't just any old tweet. This was a picture of little Anthony's, well, wiener. After claiming that his Twitter account had been hacked and trying one excuse after another for another several days, Weiner finally resigned from Congress. As I noted at the time, Weiner "pulled out" at a senior center in his District.

What makes Weiner's story even more wiener-worthy is that he is married to a smoking-hot woman who was pregnant when all of this was going on. What. A. Douchebag.

But isn't that what makes a Wiener, after all?

Heretofore, the Wiener of the Year award logo will no longer be the three strutting wieners I've used since 2007. From now on, this will be the WotY logo.

Congratulations to former Representative Anthony Weiner! You are the 2011 Wiener of the Year!

* You can't abbreviate Schutzstaffel without the double 'S'.

New Tizona Post

2012-01-02T18:21:00.000-05:00

PayPal? Or PayBully? Click here to read more.

New Tizona Post

2011-12-29T12:16:00.000-05:00

It’s bad enough that Abraham Lincoln is revered in this country, notwithstanding the Constitutional wreckage his presidency left behind. But most Americans – including, until yesterday, me – aren’t aware that another Constitution-wrecker is being given special posthumous honors on an annual basis.

Read more at The Tizona Group.

The best Christmas EVER!

2011-12-27T10:54:00.000-05:00

There are Christmas gifts, and there are Christmas gifts. Some of those gifts are tangible items you can hold in your hand and touch. Then there are those gifts that are more abstract, but also more likely to last a lifetime.

Sunday my family got one of those gifts when my son Tyler asked his girlfriend to marry him.

The setup was perfect. My oldest son, Kyle, asked Tyler if he got everything he wanted for Christmas. Tyler replied, "No, not quite everything." He then dropped to a knee and asked Amber to marry him.

To say that this was one of the most joyous moments in my life is to grossly understate what I felt -- what we all felt -- in that moment. We love Amber, and already consider her part of the family. Tyler and Amber have been friends for over 5 years - long before they fell in love. It's a relationship that's made to last.

So when I'm asked if I had a good Christmas, I can only say that it's the best Christmas ever....well, with the exception of the first one, that is.

New Tizona Post

2011-12-22T11:47:00.000-05:00

Ron Paul's self-inflicted wound

And here I was worried that the media, the Team Elephant establishment, and the other GOP candidates were going to take down Ron Paul. It appears he's pretty good at it himself.

Read more at The Tizona Group.

New Tizona Post

2011-12-20T12:50:00.000-05:00

And it begins...

The pattern has been played out over and over. A potential Team Elephant presidential candidate starts to rise in the polls. A bulls-eye is affixed to that candidate. A combination of Republican elites, their allies in the punditocracy, and Big Media (the BM for short), which simply can't help itself when an opportunity to dump on a Republican presents itself, begin hammering on any and all perceived defects of said candidate. Next thing you know, the new frontrunner is cast on the scrap heap, either to quit (like Herman Cain) or to flounder haplessly trying to regain momentum (like Michele Bachmann and Governor ~~Perry~~ Gardasil).

Now that Newt Gingrich is dropping faster than shares in Freddie Mac, Ron Paul has surged into a virtual tie and perhaps even the lead in Iowa.

That's bad.

Read the rest at The Tizona Group.

Soliciting nominees for Wiener of the Year

2011-12-16T16:15:00.000-05:00

In two short weeks I will be naming the Wiener of the Year. As such, I am soliciting nominees for the "honor" from readers.

Among this year's candidates are Il Duce, Big Media (the BM for short), Congress, the TSSA*, the inaptly named "justice" system, the Occupy movement, Team Elephant, plus a mystery nominee I'm keeping to myself.

Feel free to add your nominees via the comments link, or email me.

* You can't abbreviate Schutzstaffel without the double 'S'.

New Tizona Post

2011-12-14T16:40:00.000-05:00

This isn't an election we're witnessing. It's a coronation, at least on the Team Elephant side of the ledger.

Why would I call it a coronation? How could I call it a coronation when there is no clear front-runner and the first primary hasn't even occurred yet? Follow along as I read the tea leaves.

Read the rest at The Tizona Group.

Vulture's amazing Thanksgiving adventure

2011-11-27T14:46:00.000-05:00

Anyone who has read this blog for more than a minute knows that the Vulture loves him some 49ers. The 49ers have been my team since I was 12...not to put too fine a point on it, but that's a LOOOOOOOONG time ago.

The past few years have been cruel ones for 49ers fans. Okay, make that the past 8 years. But this year is different. This year the Niners are good. REALLY, REALLY good.

I was looking forward to watching the 49ers-Ravens game on Thanksgiving because (a) the Ravens are a dominant team, (b) good teams get better by facing other good teams, (c) there are TONS of Ravens fans in Frederick, what with it being equidistant from Baltimore and Washington. You know, bragging rights and all that.

So imagine my shock, bordering on catatonia, when my brother-in-law, a Ravens season ticket holder since the team came to B'more in 1996, surprised me with an invite to go to the game with him while we were at his home for Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone in the family knew he was going to surprise me with the ticket, meaning that (a) they're very, very good at keeping secrets, and (b) I can't trust a one of them. [/kidding]

You have to understand how huge this was for me. I hadn't seen the 49ers play in a regular season game in-stadium since the early 70's. During the team's glory years, when I still lived in Sacramento and could have, in theory, gone to the 'Stick and seen the team, a combination of (a) every game was a sellout, and (b) I was poor, conspired to make that impossible. Needless to say, I was CISED to see my boys in person in a year when the team is actually really, really good again.

It's hard to describe the atmosphere. Unless you've been to a game at M&T Bank Stadium, you can't imagine the electricity of that place. Ravens fans are as rabid as any in the NFL, and they're rabid without being assholes like the fans in Philly.

The 49ers lost the game, 16-6, but it was tied 6-6 at the start of the 4th quarter. Two factors contributed to the loss. The short week left little time to prepare to face one of the premier defenses in the NFL. And an injury to starting guard Adam Snyder meant that human turd Chilo Rachal had to play. Rachal's penalty for chop block (technically assessed against Frank Gore, but Gore engaged first before turd-boy fell on the Raven player) negated a 79-yard touchdown pass from Alex Smith to Ted Ginn. And Haloti Ngata played turd-boy like a fiddle. The offensive line was overwhelmed -- especially once the Ravens took their final lead -- and surrendered 9 sacks.

It was so great to see my boys in person, even in defeat. We went toe-to-toe with one of the NFL's best teams on one of the craziest home fields in the NFL on a short week. And I got to see for myself, in person, just how good that 49ers defense is.

To see pictures of my excellent adventure, hit this link. Note: the picture at the top of this post is a screen capture from the NFL network telecast of the game. That's right, the Vulture was on the telly, scowling as one would expect from a Vulture.

The perils of an extensive vocabulary

2011-11-17T16:19:00.000-05:00

Ah, first-world pains. I used a word that means exactly what I meant to convey, but, because it so closely resembles another word -- a not-very-nice word -- it was, shall we say, cause for unintended offense.

Our story begins...

I accepted a position with a new company back in October, with the intent of starting that new job on October 24th. I started that job yesterday. Yeah, I know - yesterday wasn't October 24th. What pushed back my start date was a call from the old employer telling me that if I wasn't actively employed by the company on November 15th, I would forfeit my utilization bonus for Q3. Since we're talking about a pretty sizable chunk of change, I wasn't happy.

Fortunately, both the hiring company and the new customer were understanding and agreed to push my start date back to November 16th.

In the interim, my supervisor from the old company wanted me to talk to him about what had made me decide to leave the company after 14 years. I sent him an email detailing the things that had left me dissatisfied. On the subject of the "stay until 11/15 or lose your bonus" matter, I wrote:

I was informed that my earned Q3 bonus would be forfeited if I weren’t on the payroll 6 weeks after having earned it. That is seriously the most niggardly policy I’ve ever seen.

I used the word "niggardly" because it conveyed exactly what I thought of their policy.

niggardly - adjective
1. reluctant to give or spend; stingy; miserly.
2. meanly or ungenerously small or scanty: a niggardly tip to a waiter.

I sent it off to my supervisor and cc'd my HR rep.

On Tuesday I had my exit interviews with the old company. As I was wrapping up the interviews, I ran into the Director of Professional Services, a man I've known for several years. For the purposes of this tale, I'll refer to him as "Bob". To further assist you in understanding how this conversation started and where it went, I will further note that "Bob" is a black man.

"Bob" said to me that he appreciated the candor of my "why I left" email...but he was troubled by my choice of wording. Puzzled was I. What exactly had troubled him? He pulled up the email and read back the offending passage.

Niggardly. Yeah.

I explained to him what I meant by it, but he still seemed puzzled/concerned. I finally got through to him when I described it as "mean-stingy - like Ebeneezer Scrooge". It was as if a light bulb turned on over his head. He finally grocked that "niggardly" had nothing to do with "nigger".

At that point his whole demeanor changed. He wished me the best of luck and expressed his wishes for me to one day return to the company, etc, etc.

Words have meaning. But sometimes a word that sounds too much like another word can really bust your balls. Fortunately for me, "Bob" went to me directly and asked me about it man-to-man. But what if "Bob" wasn't a measured, intelligent man? It could have gotten sticky, I suppose (although one has to wonder, what was he going to do, fire me?).

Would I use that word again to describe a similar affront? Possibly. But it's a dangerous world these days. Check this out to see how use of the word "niggardly" can be hazardous to your well-being.

The moral of the story is: just because you know what a word means doesn't give you license to drop it like a grenade in the midst of people who don't know what it means.

Unless, like me, you enjoy that sort of thing.

Windows 7 fail

2011-10-31T13:30:00.000-04:00

I've had an interesting run with the old laptop over the past month or so. First the hard drive became corrupted. Rather than buy a new laptop and incur that expense, I decided to install a new solid-state hard drive.

The new drive is awesome. REALLY awesome. Breathtakingly fast.

However, because my OEM install for Windows Vista was so old, there were literally hundreds of updates that had to be applied post-install. Okay, not an issue, right? Wrong! One of the updates kept breaking Vista and throwing a blue screen of death on boot up.

Again, undaunted I was. I purchased an OEM copy of Windows 7 64-bit to install on the old laptop. Everything was ducky. The software installed, outstanding updates applied quickly, and I was ready to rock and roll.

Or so I thought.

I began to notice that my wireless connection would drop at random intervals. Oh sure, it's easy enough to fix using the troubleshooter's drop-and-reset functionality. But not having a reliable wireless connection makes large downloads an adventure, and makes maintaining a consistent system backup (you know, like the one that saved my bacon when the hard drive became corrupted) impossible.

I made the rounds all over the Interwebs and discovered that I wasn't alone. No, far from it. It turns out that literally hundreds of Windows 7 users have had this issue, and Microsoft refuses to acknowledge that it's their problem. They blame the ISPs, the routers, the router firmware, the wireless cards, the wireless drivers...everything except the position of the moon and the stars. But they will not acknowledge that their operating system might have anything to do with it.

Listen up, Redmond! It IS your operating system that is causing the issue. There are too many people from too many walks of life with too much prior OS experience having the exact same problem regardless of laptop manufacturer, router manufacturer, wireless card make and model, or ISP. In my home alone the following operating systems are actively running without any wireless connectivity issues:

Windows XP
Windows Vista
Ubuntu (Linux)
Mac OS X
iOS 4 (iPhone and iPad)
Android (3 different phones running Gingerbread, Honeycomb, AND Ice Cream Sandwich)

The driver software on my laptop is current. The router firmware is current. The ISP is a national carrier.

My sons and I have over 50 years of experience with computers between us, including 10+ years building custom PCs. I think we know what we're doing here. I think we know how to diagnose and troubleshoot.

The problem is Windows 7, Redmond! Fix the problem. Now. Because you're making Linux look like a more attractive solution with every dropped connection.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

2011-10-24T18:47:00.000-04:00

Fox News wants us to be upset because the number of deaths of law enforcement officers increased by 17% this year, from 48 to 56. Meh.

Understand, I garner no joy from the death of a police officer. Many have families. Many are good people trying to do the right thing. Not all cops are flaming assholes, though I would submit that the majority -- particularly campus and traffic cops -- are.

But I can't get too worked up over 56 police deaths when you compare it side-by-side with the statistics of those killed by police officers.

Between 2003 and 2009 (the most recent statistics on the interwebs), 2,844 people were killed by police officers. Of that number, 2,684 were shot dead by the police. That's 406 deaths per year, 383 of those shot dead by the police.
You don't have to be a math whiz to figure out that 406 > 56.

"Come on, Vulture! You can't equate criminals being shot in the commission of a crime with law enforcement officers!" You're quite right. I wouldn't for a moment claim that there weren't some -- hell, maybe 90% or more -- of that number who desperately needed killing and whose shootings were 100% legit.

But what if 10% of those killed by police were innocents, people in the wrong place at the wrong time. People mistaken for someone else. People like the guy shot because a cop mistook his lighter for a handgun. People killed during the execution of a no-knock warrant who weren't involved in any crime.

Hey, Fox News. If you want me to care more about police deaths, how about you hold the police accountable when they bash in grandma's door and gun down grandma and her sleeping grandkids during a no-knock raid where some puke informant gave them the wrong address. In fact, how about you simply get behind the cause of abolishing blatantly unconstitutional no-knock warrants.

When the police start to behave like peace officers instead of law enforcers (trust me, there's a big difference), then I'll be more sympathetic when one of their number is killed. In the meantime.....meh.

New Tizona Post

2011-10-21T15:14:00.001-04:00

While the sheeple pretend to live in the freest nation on the face of the Earth, the police state expands. TSSA - coming to a highway near you.

Who saw this coming? Not me!

2011-10-20T16:56:00.000-04:00

Nobody knows anything. Certainly not me. Who could have predicted that the 49ers would be 5-1 going into their bye week? Who could have predicted that they would knock off one of the last unbeaten teams on the road with a 4th quarter comeback on a 4th down play?

I said before the season started that the 49ers would go 5-11. I couldn't have been more wrong. The 49ers are the second-best team in the NFC and getting better as the season progresses.

The so-called experts at ESPN picked the Niners to finish 3rd in the West. So did I. Nobody knows anything.

So what's a fan to do? I'll tell you what - ENJOY IT!!!!! The 49ers have been bad for 8 years. Now they're pretty good, maybe borderline great. Enjoy it. Bask in it. Love every minute of it. This is the stuff we took for granted for 17 years of nearly unbroken excellence. I'll never take it for granted again.

For once I'm glad I was wrong about something. Go Niners!

New Tizona Post

2011-10-17T12:52:00.000-04:00

New Tizona post - Will TSSA parody become illegal?

Top ten reasons why the Vulture hasn't posted

2011-10-14T17:35:00.000-04:00

Some of you are probably wondering what happened to the Vulture and his blog? Well, it seems that life sometimes gets in the way of things.

Here are the top ten reasons why I haven't posted in the past month.

10. I've had a song stuck in my head and can't make it go away. Worse, it's a song by Celine Dion (shoot me, please!).
9. I discovered Twitter.
8. My current work assignment has me this close to burnout.
7. Late-onset puberty.
6. Early-onset senility.
5. Two wrongs don't make a right.
4. Someone has incriminating pictures of me with Paris Hilton (or is that Paris, Idaho?).
3. The 49ers keep winning, leaving me at a loss for words.
2. I've been in rehab for Angry Birds addiction.
1. I'm a lazy f***.

Okay, there are some REAL reasons why I've been noticeably slothful in posting. I was in Arizona visiting with my parents and sick brother for the past week. And, truthfully, news and current events just haven't been terribly interesting lately. I'm either too burned out to care, too jaded to be stirred to righteous indignation, or I just stopped giving a damn. Or.......wait for it.....news and current events just haven't been terribly interesting lately.

I'm really going to try to get untracked and back in the saddle again, I swear. No, really!

Annual NFL Predictions

2011-09-08T19:36:00.001-04:00

It's that time again, kiddies! Time for the Vulture's Guaranteed-to-be-wrong picks for the the NFL Season. Last year I picked the Saints to repeat as league champions, with the Ravens as runner-up. Wrong! The Saints wheezed out in the Wild Card round, and the Ravens were defeated by eventual AFC champion Pittsburgh in the Divisional round.

I didn't do so great in my general playoff predictions, either. I predicted that the 49ers would win the West at 10-6; they under-achieved to a 3rd place, 6-10 finish.

Overall, I predicted one division winner (Colts - like THAT was hard) and one Wild Card (Philadelphia). I can take half credit for picking New England as Wild Card and New York as Division winner, since both made the playoffs, just in opposite order. Okay, maybe not.

Even with that complete display of ineptitude, I still feel a need to make predictions. I guess it's just part of The Season.

NFC East: Eagles (13-3)
NFC North: Packers (12-4)
NFC South: Buccaneers (11-5)
NFC West: Rams (8-8)
NFC W/C: Saints (11-5) and Falcons (10-6)

AFC East: Patriots (14-2)
AFC North: Ravens (12-4)
AFC South: Texans (10-6)
AFC West: Chargers (11-5)
AFC W/C: Steelers (11-5) and Jets (9-7)

NFC Championship Game: Packers at Eagles
AFC Championship Game: Ravens at Patriots

NFC Champion: Eagles
AFC Champion: Patriots
Super Bowl Champion: Patriots

And what of the 49ers? No lofty predictions this year. New coach, new offensive and defensive systems, same old sorry-ass Michael Crabtree. The 49ers will finish 5-11 this year, but will get better as the season progresses. Jim Harbaugh will have the 49ers in contention next year. That's a guarantee. In the mean time, there's still too much to overcome for a young team that desperately needed an offseason together. Curse you, lockout!

Kick-off is in 30 minutes. "It's the most wonderful time of the year!"

New Tizona Post

2011-09-07T13:53:00.000-04:00

A huge victory for the cause of freedom: a Federal court has ruled that cops can no longer treat videoing them in the course of executing their duties as a criminal offense.

With regard to my prolonged absenses

2011-09-07T12:15:00.000-04:00

Not that my detractors would care, but I haven't been posting much in the past month or so. Okay, that's a major understatement: I've barely been posting at all. The problem? My current work situation. I've been handling responsibilities once performed by 4 people by myself for 16 months. I had once considered myself burnout-proof. I've since learned that no one is burnout-proof. Some of us are burnout-resistant. But no one is burnout-proof. So the combination of an insane workload and a long-ass commute have left me too beat to post on weekdays and too brain dead to post on weekends.

That situation is approaching a resolution, however. Not to disclose any details (don't want to count those chickens before they've hatched), but I am quite confident that I'll return to doing the work of a single person very shortly.

This, of course, means that soon I'll once again be contributing to the incivility of our national discussion. Deadeye can hardly wait.

How not to fix a wrongful prosecution

2011-08-21T18:31:00.000-04:00

On Friday the news broke that the "infamous" Memphis 3 -- Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley were freed.

Freed, but not cleared.

The trio, convicted nearly 20 years ago for the brutal rape and murder of three cub scouts in Arkansas, have spent half their lives imprisoned despite overwhelming evidence of their innocence. So why were they freed but not cleared? If you don't know the answer to that question, you haven't been paying attention to the horror that is the modern American "justice" system.

[A] 1996 HBO documentary titled "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" drew the attention of celebrities including Vedder and Maines. Joined by other stars, they helped fund a legal team that sought a new trial.

Last fall, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered a new hearing for the three, asking a judge to consider allegations of juror misconduct and whether new DNA science could aid the men or uphold the convictions. Then, suddenly, there was the plea deal.

It involved an unusual legal maneuver that allowed the men to maintain their claims of innocence. But with murder convictions still on their records, supporters say they've got to find whoever's responsible for the boys' deaths to clear the men's names.

Just to clarify that last paragraph (the AP must have an affirmative action program that requires them to hire the mentally challenged as reporters). The three were forced to make an Alford plea, "admitting" guilt as "overwhelming evidence", before the execrable Arkansas "legal" system would free them. Actually, as bad as that sounds, it's worse than that. One defendant was told to take the Alford plea or his friend wouldn't be freed from Death Row!

These are not the actions of a justice system. These are the actions of predatory prosecutors who are only interested in keeping their won-lost record intact, the innocence of those prosecuted be damned. This was about prosecutors covering their ass rather than administrating justice.

This is, to put it bluntly, a complete miscarriage of justice.

Either give the three fair trails in which to prove their innocence, or pardon them, or exonerate them. But don't pull this obscene abortion aimed at deflecting attention away from criminal prosecutors (take that naming either way you choose) who are utterly disinterested in justice and only interested in winning.

Response to a troll

2011-08-04T15:33:00.000-04:00

CalJim, aka CaJim, Jammin, and "Guest", takes umbrage to comments I made in response to comments he made (re-read it - it'll make sense on the second pass). For those of you who don't know about good old Jimmy, let me introduce you.

Old Jimmy is a butt-buddy of the Caput a Palos
Old Jimmy is a prominent voice for the FLDS persecution club (FLDS Texas)
Old Jimmy still refuses to believe that Greg Prickett is the Caput a Palos
Old Jimmy thinks that the Vulture is guilty of journalistic malpractice
Old Jimmy has reading comprehension issues

Let's address old Jimmy's gripes, one by one.

I have never called you a pedophile nor even inferred it, your need to broad brush many topics might work for you but don't accuse me of such simple minded thought processes. Come on Vulture admit it, I never called you a pedophile.

You, Jim, may not have ever called me a pedophile. But how would I know, since so many of you over there at FLDS Texas and the (thankfully) dead Caput Penitus Culus post as "anonymous".

But that's not even the point. I said, "Your side categorizes my side as being pro-pedophilia." Your side != you personally. There's that reading comprehension problem again.

Your preoccupation with 'Due Process' I've criticized, especially now in the light that minor children brought to the YFZ Ranch from Canada definitely were sex trafficked from British Columbia.

Really? Children brought to the YFZ Ranch from Canada were sex trafficked? See, I did a Google search under "News" (so as to filter out wild accusations from bloggers like little Greggie), for "FLDS sex trafficking Canada" and I didn't get a single hit. Not one.

That's how your side works. Some blogger repeats gossip and it's fact to you, because it's what you want to believe. Legitimate news operations risk lawsuits if they print wild accusations. That's why there's no mention of any of that under "News" on Google. Even Big Media (the BM for short) wants no part of allegations that might get them sued.

You, however, stay mute on anybodies rights other than FLDS Church Priesthood men and their Prophet. Howze that? The women and children of this fanatical sect are look upon by their tenets of faith as literal property but you somehow clam up on that topic. Does equality stop at the MENS room door for you?

First, it's "anybody's", not "anybodies". Do try to be articulate when you write.

Second, you want to talk about a "broad brush"? The very idea that my interest in Due Process starts and ends with the FLDS is ridiculous on its face. See the right hand column, where it says "Labels"? See how it starts with various amendments, includes categories such as "bad law", "constitution", "crime", "Das Überwachenden", "Der Staat", "DHS", "F'ing lawyers", "Free Speech" - I could go on and on. The FLDS? Child please! They're way down on my list of priorities. I've spent way more time railing about cops, prosecutors, and politicians who violate the public trust than I have on the FLDS - and a lot of the FLDS posts were to defend myself against the likes of you and your execrable cohorts.

Tell me, when I write about black men who spent decades in prison because of planted evidence, prosecutors hiding exculpatory evidence, or other malfeasance, does that mean I don't care about white men in the same situation? Or do you simply choose to only see what you want to see? I suspect the latter.

Scott Ledbetter republished your opinion pieces and his 'Ye Olde Journalist' blog fancies itself as a mainly journalistic site fighting yellow journalism and you allow him to pass off your writings as news content and it has never been labelled as editorial nor opinion column.

For the love of Pete! This is the exact same argument he raised months ago when Greggie's story appeared in the UNT student newspaper. Apparently old Jimmy expects Ye Olde Journalist to adhere to some kind of high standard of journalism, like The Washington Post or The New York Times. As if! Jimmy, those fishwraps regularly print opinion masquerading as news! Virtually every story about Global Warming is nothing but propaganda and political posturing slathered on like mustard on a ball park frank, masquerading as legitimate "news". What's the difference between Dana Milbank of The Post writing a Page 1 "news" article that says that Republicans are obstructing "progress" and me writing - well, anything? Get a clue, son. There is no "pure" journalism. Stop whizzing on Scotty. He can put anything he wants in his blog because....wait for it...it's HIS BLOG.

You're nothing but a troll, Jimmy. I don't know why I wasted my time responding to you. Nobody gives a rat's stinking tuchus what you think about anything. Your own mama doesn't even listen to you. Give up. Please.

Long time, no time

2011-08-03T13:12:00.000-04:00

I've been extremely busy at work, and unmotivated with regard to posting in my free time these past two weeks. I know that my biggest fan, CalJim, missed me. I'd like to think others did as well, but I wouldn't hold your breath on that one. I am going to try to get back into the swing of things and post more regularly.

But it's not like I missed anything the past two weeks. The debt ceiling Kabuki dance? Child, please! Like anyone didn't know that it would play out that way. "We averted default! Yay for us!" Yeah, you averted default. You kicked the can down the road. You bought us what? Maybe 3, 4 years tops. Like a ship with a great gaping hole in the side, we continue to sink. We're headed for the same fate as Rome and all the other great empires that preceded us. And yet...I don't much care.

Warren Jeffs is on trial...hey, how 'bout that? [/sarcasm] Yet another Kabuki dance. Texas LE has a major hardon for the FLDS, and Jeffs is going down hard. Maybe he deserves it, I dunno. The fact that a great deal of the evidence to be used against him was obtained as fruit of the poisoned tree (the military-style raid on YFZ) should bother me...but it doesn't.

I think my "give a damn" tank is on 'E'.

There is one thing on my radar, and I hope to make the time to do it justice. That's the (should be) scandal surrounding Operation Fast and Furious.

Stay tuned.

Did I mention that I'm right?

2011-07-14T12:30:00.000-04:00

Piling on more "I told you", I cite another source certain that creating law under the influence of emotion is a bad, bad idea.

Within minutes of the Casey Anthony verdict, much of America devolved into the mass media equivalent of a mob bearing torches and pitchforks. Twitter lit up with calls for vigilante justice, and proposals that we revoke the Fifth Amendment's protection against double jeopardy (or at least that we revoke it for Casey Anthony). Nancy Grace nearly spit fire, proclaiming, "The devil is dancing tonight." Conservative syndicated columnist Ben Shapiro wants to change the jury system entirely.

Even as DNA testing continues to exonerate wrongly convicted people, including people who were nearly executed, it's this rare case -- in which a jury recognized that there was no physical evidence linking Anthony to her daughter's murder -- that has America questioning its justice system.
[...]
Laws named after crime victims and dead people are usually a bad idea. They play more to emotion than reason. But they're disturbingly predictable, especially when they come after the death of a child. So it's really no surprise that activist Michelle Crowder is now pushing "Caylee's Law," a proposed federal bill that would charge parents with a felony if they fail to report a missing child within 24 hours, or if they fail to report the death of a child within an hour. What's surprising is just how quickly the Change.org petition for Caylee's Law has gone viral. As of this writing it has more than 700,000 signatures, and is now the most successful campaign in the site's history. For reasons of constitutionality and practicality, it seems unlikely that Caylee's Law will ever be realized at the federal level. But according to the AP, at least sixteen state legislatures are now considering some version of the law. That's troubling.

This is a bad way to make public policy. In an interview with CNN, Crowder concedes that she didn't consult with a single law enforcement official before coming up with her 24-hour and 1-hour limits. This raises some questions. How did she come up with those cutoffs? Did she consult with any grief counselors to see if there may be innocuous reasons why an innocent person who just witnessed a child's death might not immediately report it, such as shock, passing out, or some other sort of mental breakdown? Did she consult with a forensic pathologist to see if it's even possible to pin down the time of death with the sort of precision you'd need to make Caylee's Law enforceable? Have any of the lawmakers who have proposed or are planning to propose this law actually consulted with anyone with some knowledge of these issues?

These excerpts just scratch the surface of Mr. Balko's arguments. Please read the entire article. He makes the best case imaginable to avoid making Caylee's Law a reality.

I hate being right

2011-07-08T13:26:00.001-04:00

In my last post, I wrote about my dread about bad law resulting from a knee-jerk reaction to the Casey Anthony verdict. I hate being right.

Michelle Crowder of Durant, Oklahoma is calling for Caylee's Law, a piece of legislation that would make it a felony for a parent to fail to report a missing child to law enforcement. And people are listening. Important people.
[...]
This won't help Caylee directly. But it will help America's kids.

It will help the quarter of gay teens who are kicked out of their homes by their parents simply for admitting they love someone of the same gender, kids whose parents leave them to rot on the sidewalks. As it stands, parents CAN kick their kids out, and with rules that don't require they report them missing, abdicating their duties to love and protect their children isn't a felony.
[...]
Caylee's Law, or whatever you call it, would help us make sense of how a system will punish a parent with child abuse charges for leaving children unattended for a long period of time (and rightly so!) but let a parent skate for not reporting a child missing. It can't be one but not the other, America. That's why we need a law.

Did I not tell you? Yet another law "for the children". Ye gods!

But the law of unintended consequences always rides shotgun with these kind of emotion-laded knee-jerk laws. Exhibit A: your 16-year-old daughter runs away with a musician after trying to poison you for the insurance money. You want this back in your life? You figure, "Eh, goodbye and good riddance." But if you don't report your daughter missing and take her back with open arms when she is returned by the cops, you're guilty of child abuse. Of course, if you do take her back, you'd better sleep with one eye open.....but I digress.

And where did this statistic about one quarter of gay teens being kicked out of their homes come from? Sounds fishy to me. I'd wager they're including "boy toys" who ran off with an older man who promised them goodies in exchange for butt sex in that obviously embellished tally. But that "leaving them to rot on the sidewalks" line? Priceless.

Emotions and law make bad bedfellows. But politicians pandering for your vote don't care. They'll pass whatever ridiculous law you tell them you want.

And you wonder why you are less free every day.....

Trial by Media

2011-07-06T20:11:00.000-04:00

Deadeye watched the Casey Anthony trial with rapt fascination over the past six weeks. I would venture that there is no one out there as knowledgeable about that case (outside of the attorneys, that is) than Deadeye. When Casey Anthony was found not guilty on all charges except lying to police yesterday, Deadeye was dumbfounded. She has officially lost all confidence in the jury system.

While I would tend to agree with her the the cumulative evidence should have led to a verdict of guilty, I'm less concerned with the verdict and more concerned about a growing trend that became apparent during this trial. Call it what you will, it boils down to trail by media.

The worst offender was Nancy Grace, of course. Were it up to Ms. Grace, Casey Anthony would be dead already. Nancy Grace has spent the past three years proclaiming the guilt of "tot mom". I thought that the "not guilty" verdict might elicit some sort of contemplative pause from her. As if! She said in response to the verdict that "the devil is dancing tonight". On her show last night, she spent an entire segment excoriating the defense team for having the audacity to celebrate their victory. Claiming "I never did that as a prosecutor", she heaped derision on Casey's attorneys. Being ever cynical...and knowing Nancy's predilection for playing fast and loose with the law during her career as a prosecutor...I would guess that the reason she never celebrated was because she didn't want to draw too much attention to her tactics.

If it were just Nancy Grace acting this way on the airways, you could dismiss this is as one bitter crank amid a sea of babble. But it's not just Ms. Grace. It's Jane VOLUME-Mitchell. It's Vinnie Politan. It's the hosts of In Session on Tru TV. The babble from this Tower of Babel is not just harmless words. If you listen to the comments of people around the country, they are convinced that the jury flat out blew the case. They're convinced that Casey Anthony is GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY. And the reason they're so convinced is because they've been harangued for three solid years by people selling sensationalism for ratings.

Still not convinced it's all that dangerous, Vulture. Okay, indulge me for a second. What happens when a sizable segment of the populace is worked up into a frenzy about something or other? Answer: laws get passed. Bad laws. Laws that make us less free and more susceptible to unwarranted incarceration. THIS is what concerns me. THIS is what I see as the danger.

Here's hoping that the Casey Anthony verdict does NOT have the effect of giving politicians a premise for abolishing or negating trial by jury.

New Tizona Post

2011-06-30T18:06:00.001-04:00

A Leopard cannot change his spots. Nor a libtard his libtardedness.

Governor Jerry Brown of Kahleefornia must have felt that he hadn't left enough wreckage his first stint as Governer (1975-1983), during which he earned the moniker "Governor Moonbeam" as a result of his wacky libtard ways. Apparently he learned absolutely nothing in the ensuing 28 years, because he's still finding new and inventive ways to ruin the Golden State.

On an unrelated note, I've decided to stay on Blogger. The post editor for Wordpress stinks. It ate my first draft of the Jerry Brown post. That makes me...searching for words here...a little bent.

Input needed

2011-06-27T11:53:00.000-04:00

You may have noticed that I haven't posted in a while. There's good reason for that -- I've been pondering the future of this blog. Not whether or not I will continue to post; that's not changing. Rather, I've been contemplating whether or not to switch from Blogger to Wordpress.

Why switch? Comments.

I used and was very happy with Haloscan during the early years of this blog. Then those rotten bastards at JS-Kit bought out Haloscan and implemented the gawdawful abortion that is Echo in its place. I hate Echo with a hatred that burns white hot 24x7.

I put up with it because (a) this isn't exactly a comments-heavy site to begin with, and (b) I was too lazy to look into what I needed to do to replace it.

But when my beloved, Deadeye, told me that she was unable to enter comments the other day due to Echo, that was the last straw. Nobody disses Deadeye. Nobody.

So I began exploring a replacement for Echo in earnest. Blogger native comments was never an option; been there, done that, hated it. After exploring the interwebs, I installed Disqus on this site because it is very highly recommended.

But that creates a dilemma. Echo makes it impossible to export comments w/o prior experience with their API. They really are assholes, in every sense of the word.

Okay, so I lose 3 years of comments - so what? There's nothing been said in those comments that amounts to a hill of beans. But there was an argument not so long ago around the topic of deletion of comments from those bigots at FLDS Texas. They claimed I delete comments from trolls just like they do. The problem for them is: I don't. To this point I've deleted only one comment on this site, and that was to protect the commenter from themselves (overt racism with your real name attached to it = not smart). Ultimately, I decided that I don't give a tinkers damn what those subhumans think. Lost comments? So what.

Then I was taken with another idea. Why not cut the cord to Blogger entirely. So I started playing around with Wordpress. I really like the layout I built, the color scheme, etc. It bothers me that it's not customizable to the extent I would like, but I can live with that, I suppose.

So here's the deal: This is your chance to weigh in. Stay with Blogger and the status quo, or move over to this? Click here to vote. As in Chicago, you can vote as many times as you like.

New Tizona Post

2011-06-16T12:28:00.000-04:00

Weiner pulls out.

The schadenfreude has been beyond blissful. A creepy libtard is caught flashing his namesake. Caught lying about it. Accused of asking a former prØn star to lie for him.

Not a dummy after all

2011-06-14T18:06:00.000-04:00

Vox Day wrote a post about Big Media's surprise at Sarah Palin's writing ability. Her overall level was 8.5 on the Flesch Kincaid scale. However, it was Vox's own rating that piqued my attention, not Sarah's.

Out of curiosity, I popped my most recent column into the Readability Calculator: "Flesch Kincaid Grade level: 13.10". And my recent email to KW came in at 14.74.

It made me curious. So I popped a few of my blog posts in to see how I fare. This is the scorecard.

The Eisenhower Warnings - 10.50
An idea whose time has come - 10.07
Taking credit - 8.74
Prosecutorial misconduct - Texas style - 8.39
Maryland's Lost Icon - 7.61
Who to believe? - 8.38
The Circus is in Town - 9.00
A Retraction of Sorts - 8.59

That last one was a puzzler to me. I used the words "plausible deniability" and "habitue" in it! And STILL couldn't make a 9th grade level! My average score for the 8 posts was 8.91, not a whole lot higher than Sarah Palin's. And these posts were more or less cherry picked; I only included longer posts with minimal slang in my sampling. Sarah Palin's sampling was 24,000 fricking pages!!!!

If my writing, which hardly qualifies as simplistic, can't make it out of High School, what's a moron like Al Gorebells score? 3rd grade?

Kinda puts all of those "stoopid Sarah" stereotypes in perspective, doesn't it?

Vulture wisdom

2011-06-14T13:22:00.000-04:00

Those who can, do.
Those who can't, schedule meetings.

- Vulture

Like I couldn't have guessed it

2011-06-13T12:28:00.000-04:00

I was shocked -- SHOCKED -- to find out that Leftists are behind the big push for Net Neutrality. [/sarcasm]

Documents made public yesterday by Judicial Watch describe extensive collusion by Federal Communications Commission officials with a left-wing advocacy group in a campaign to expand government regulation of the Internet.

The documents, obtained by Judicial Watch in a December 2010 Freedom of Information Act request, were created after Democrat appointees solidified their 3-2 control of the agency in March 2009.

The coordination between FCC officials and Free Press, the advocacy group, supported a proposal for the agency to regulate access to the Internet as if it were a public utility, in the interest of ensuring "Net Neutrality."

Proponents said doing so would assure equal access for all Internet users by barring companies from offering preferred rates for higher delivery speeds. Other users, especially in communities with limited Internet access, would be forced to accept poorer service.

But critics said the proposal would actually give the FCC a tool to regulate content, and they argued that the FCC has no authority over the medium in the first place. It would be akin to forcing FedEx and UPS to treat all packages the same way the U.S. Postal Service does.

Anyone with half a brain knows that (1) any effort to regulate the interwebs, regardless of stated purpose, is an attempt to regulate content, and (2) Leftists are the primary movers and shakers behind any effort to restrict speech.

Next thing you know someone will report that Leftists are behind efforts to ban handguns, or some other piece of obvious information.

New Tizona Post

2011-06-06T15:19:00.000-04:00

Romney. *shakes head ruefully*

Yeah, he’s trying to appeal to everybody. He certainly appeals to the Elephant Elitists, who have all but anointed him as The Chosen One. But if you really examine who he is and what he represents, he certainly won’t appeal to YOU.

From each according to his ability...

2011-06-03T14:34:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Amerika!

Americans break into two roughly evenly matched camps on the question of whether the government should enact heavy taxes on the rich to redistribute wealth in the U.S. Forty-seven percent believe the government should redistribute wealth in this way, while 49% disagree, similar to views Gallup found four years ago.

Republicans and Democrats have sharply different reactions to the government's taking such an active role in equalizing economic outcomes. Seven in 10 Democrats believe the government should levy taxes on the rich to redistribute wealth, while an equal proportion of Republicans believe it should not. The slight majority of independents oppose this policy.

I'm not at all surprised that 70% of Donkeys support wealth redistribution. I wish I could say that I'm surprised that 30% of Elephants support wealth redistribution...but I'm not. See McCain, John.

Of particular interest is the way men and women view wealth redistribution. Only 42% of men, regardless of political party, approve of it, while 52% of women think it's just ducky.

That any American citizen finds wealth redistribution acceptable saddens me. It is yet another example of how the public schools have failed us. Stealing from the productive does NOT end poverty. It just spreads it.

New Tizona Post

2011-06-02T13:11:00.000-04:00

Some guys just never learn. Sean Salisbury. Brett Favre. And now aptly-named Congress-critter Anthony “wanna see my” Weiner.

Read the complete post here.

The rapture that wasn't

2011-05-23T16:02:00.001-04:00

As a Christian, I find folk like Harold Camping.........challenging. Why in the name of all that is good do Camping and other deceivers like him troll about proclaiming that they have "secret knowledge" regarding the Second Coming, when scripture very clearly states, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Mark 13:32)?

I get a little bent over it, because of the impact it has on the deceived and the opening it gives militant atheists to bash Christians. But don't worry -- old Hal Camping is going to have his own little taste of hell over the coming weeks and months. Getting in the first shot is Ed Stetzer.

Harold Camping needs to publicly apologize for being wrong about his doomsday prediction and leading people astray, said a Southern Baptist leader.

The California radio broadcaster’s wrong prediction about the rapture and the end of the world reflected poorly on Christians, said Ed Stetzer, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay Research and LifeWay’s missiologist in residence.

Stetzer issued a series of tweets about Camping’s eschatological prediction on Saturday, among which one noted that there was no earthquake in New Zealand after 6 p.m.

“Harold Camping, pls update www.family.radio.com w/your repentance statement & instructions to your now-broke followers,” Stetzer tweeted.

An hour later he tweeted again, “6pm here in Turkey. I’m standing at the Temple of Athena waiting for the Rapture. Nothing happened. ;-)”

Of course, given that Camping has made this self-same WRONG prediction before, in 1994, I wonder if he's capable of shame. Given that many of his followers blew their life's savings backing his lunatic assertion, I would say that anything short of donating every penny he has to his followers to make them whole again will fall far short of genuine repentance.

Or maybe he'll try again. Third time's the charm. [/sarcasm]

UPDATE: It seems my sarcasm was wasted: Camping IS going for a third time.

And, he decided to give it another go: on Monday night, in his first radio broadcast since his May 21 prophecy proved a bust, Harold Camping conceded he didn't plot his rapture prediction "as accurately as I could have." But, nevertheless, the elderly pastor rejiggered his apocalyptic calculations for five months from now: October 21st. So, look forward to rehashed Camping coverage beginning two weeks prior to the next non-event.

FFS.

The Eisenhower Warnings

2011-05-21T16:36:00.000-04:00

Frequent Tizona Group commenter J.M. Heinrichs made the following comment in reference to a comment I made about Ron Paul being the only Team Elephant candidate who would take on the military-industrial complex.

People keep forgetting that Eisenhower issued two warnings, and the Mil-Industry one was the lessor.

That got me thinking. Everyone who knows anything about history is familiar with Eisenhower's admonition about the military-industrial complex. But another warning? I was intrigued. I googled Eisenhower's speech and found this.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite. (emphasis mine)

Does that sound familiar to you? It should.

The War on Man-made Global Warming (AGW) is just one example of what has become a symbiotic relationship between left-leaning politicians, left-leaning bureaucrats, and left-leaning academics. Science has been co-opted by this nefarious troika to the detriment of both science and humanity.

Government money is allotted to those scientists who come up with the "results" that government wants to see. Public policy is made on the basis of these "influenced" findings. And politicians leverage these "facts" to demogogue against those who question their agendas.

It's a pity that this Eisenhower warning wasn't given the same weight as the other, equally important warning. Only time will tell whether it will be the military-industrial complex that is our undoing or the scientific-technological elite.

New Tizona Post

2011-05-20T12:15:00.000-04:00

Former media stalwarts call out current White House press corps. No, really!

New Tizona Post

2011-05-18T12:12:00.000-04:00

Coming soon to a country near you. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

The "Justice" system fails again

2011-05-18T12:05:00.002-04:00

I have a bad rap with so-called "Law and Order" types because I won't bend to their fawning "our cops and prosecutors, right or wrong" view of law enforcement. This story (hat tip: Debra Farver) puts into perspective exactly WHY I think the system should be examined with higher scrutiny.

First, the basics of the story.

The festive atmosphere of Fourth of July celebrations turned somber as Tacoma police were called to investigate the kidnapping of a 12-year-old girl. Zina Linnik was last seen walking in an alley behind her parents house at around 9:45 p.m. on July 4, 2007.

A witness heard a girl scream, looked in the alley and saw an unknown Asian male get into an older model, gray van and drive away. Authorities issued an AMBER Alert. Police say that the Washington license plate of the van contained the numbers 677 or 667.

An Amber alert was issued the next day (more on that later). But it was for naught.

Tacoma Police announced they found the body of 12-year-old Zina Linnik in Pierce County. The information came from a sex offender arrested earlier this week.

Sad. Very sad.

But "sad" wouldn't be the dominant emotion for long. First, that little passage about Zina's death -- the information came from a sex offender. That's a story all by itself. Meet Terapon Adhahn, child rapist and murderer.

Thai national, Terapon Dang Adhahn, a 42-year-old construction worker, who has legal US residency on a green card...a convicted sex offender and pedophile

How'd he get the label "sex offender" in the first place?

Adhahn...was convicted of incest in 1990 for violently raping his 16-year-old half-sister.

Yeah. You read that correctly. He violently raped his own sister.

And how did our "Justice System" deal with Mr. Adhahn after he brutalized his sister? After all, he had committed a heinous, violent crime. And, while he was a legal alien, he was STILL an alien, subject to deportation. Not to worry, sez "Justice".

During therapy, when he was again diagnosed as having an “extremely problematic” personality, it is considered that the authorities were negligent in not recognizing the danger. He was only classified as a level I, or low risk sex offender.

Not deported. Not classified as a dangerous offender, notwithstanding the considered opinion of Psych professionals. Not given an appropriate jail sentence (only 2 months behind bars).

After he was arrested for the murder of Zina Linnik, he was linked with still more acts of violence and murder.

According to the Pierce County Proescutor’s Office , Adhahn was booked into the Pierce County Jail on one count of kidnapping and three counts of first degree child rape for the May 31, 2000 kidnapping and rape of an 11-year-old girl who was found duct taped to a tree at Fort Lewis.

Adhahn has also been booked on one count of first degree rape, three counts of second degree rape and three counts of third degree child rape involving a girl who lived with him in Spanaway between 2001 and 2005. Probable cause documents indicate the girl told investigators that she was raped once or twice a week and that the total number of rapes was somewhere between 150 and 200. In some of the cases the girl, who lived with Adhahn between the ages of 12- and 15-years-old, told police she would sometimes be restrained. She said she ran away after the last rape in which she allegedly told Adhahn “No, I’m not doing that anymore.” The documents say “the defendant pointed a gun on her and told her to ‘shut up and just do it.”"

More allegations followed.

The man suspected of killing 12-year-old Zina Linnik has been named as a person of interest in the death of Adre’Anna Jackson, who was found dead in a Pierce County field in 2006.

Lakewood Police Lt. Dave Guttu said officers went back and showed Terapon Adhahn’s photo to residents in the Tillicum neighborhood where Adre’Anna lived, and several people said they saw him in the area around the time Adre’Anna disappeared.

All this because he wasn't given an adequate jail sentence, nor was he deported, nor was he recognized by law enforcement as the vile sociopath he is.

Fail.

But the "Fail" had only begun by that point. Remember the Amber Alert? It wasn't issued until SIX HOURS after the girl was reported missing. Why? The official reason given back in 2007 was "continuing police work".

Uh, about that.

Police Department spokesman Mark Fulghum was on-call during the early morning hours of July 5, 2007, when he went back to sleep instead of issuing the [Amber] alert as requested.

You read that right. He went back to sleep. FFS.

Surely he was fired, or at minimum suspended without pay, or reprimanded, or something, right? NOT.

Tacoma Police Sergeant Mark Fulghum won't be disciplined in any way following an on-the-job nap that delayed the issuance of an AMBER Alert for Zina Linnik by six hours after she was kidnapped and later killed by deranged sex-offender Terapon Adhahn in 2007.

It was only after the public outcry reached Biblical scale that a reprimand was issued. Sort of.

In a sudden about-face, Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson announced Friday that he has reprimanded Police Chief Don Ramsdell for withholding information regarding the Zina Linnik investigation.

The reprimand does not concern the chief’s misleading of the news media about why the issuance of an Amber Alert was delayed after the 12-year-old girl was abducted July 4, 2007.

A reprimand against the Chief for lying to the City Manager, NOT for lying to the general public. No reprimand against Sgt. Fulghum for sleeping on the job, either. Nice.

And what of Sgt. Fulghum? Has the public outcry caught up with him. Not exactly.

Fulghum...remains on duty while the internal investigation runs its course. He has not been disciplined for his handling of the Amber Alert.

Nor do I expect him to be. Lapdog local media will be complicit in it: his "exoneration" will be buried in the paper on page D-11, next to the Want Ads, where John Q. Public will be most likely to miss it. Local TV news might mention it 15 minutes into the broadcast in what should be about a 20-second news item. Not a knock on the media. It just won't strike them as news-worthy. Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen are out there doing something more important, after all.

"Our cops and prosecutors, right or wrong"? Not me. Law enforcement needs to get its house in order before that will ever happen for me or anyone thinking past the end of their nose.

New Tizona Post

2011-05-16T12:56:00.002-04:00

Stacy Allgood emailed me a link that resulted in this new Tizona Post. Enjoy.

New Tizona Post

2011-05-13T14:42:00.000-04:00

See who's been a naughty jihadi.

An idea whose time has come

2011-05-10T16:55:00.000-04:00

I'll let the article speak for itself, then explain why I believe that this is an idea whose time has come.

A long-simmering movement by liberal stalwarts in southern Arizona to break away from the rest of the largely conservative state is at a boiling point as secession backers press to bring their longshot ambition to the forefront of Arizona politics.

A group of lawyers from the Democratic stronghold of Tucson and surrounding Pima County have launched a petition drive seeking support for a November 2012 ballot question on whether the 48th state should be divided in two.

The ultimate goal of the newly formed political action committee Start our State is to split Pima County off into what would become the nation's 51st state, tentatively dubbed Baja Arizona.

Can I get an amen from the congregation?

Why do I think this is an idea whose time has come? Because I, too, live in a divided state.

Like Arizona, there is a predominant political philosophy that is heavily weighted towards one region of the state. The other, less-populated areas of the state are of a different political philosophy, and as such have no voice in state government nor in the election of the President because we are squeezed out, just as Liberals are in Arizona.

My state is Maryland -- AKA the People's Republic of Maryland. I live in Western Maryland, politically more conservative than Bawlmer and the counties surrounding DC. The area of the state known as the Eastern Shore is similarly inclined towards conservative beliefs.

I think it's a valid desire for Pima County to petition for statehood so their political wishes can be given representation in keeping with their political leanings. I also think it's valid for Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore to be granted similar status.

Arizona may well agree to let Pima County go off and become its own state. After all, Arizona doesn't need their libtard asses.

But places like Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore will never be granted freedom from the People's Republic in which they stand. The looters need them to pull the wagon and keep the gravy train going.

And it begins...

2011-05-05T18:18:00.000-04:00

You knew it was coming. After all, you can't just kill Usama bin Laden and declare victory. Oh no. You have to milk the sumbitch for all it's worth. Welcome to 2001, the sequel.

An advisory has been sent to law enforcement officials advising them to be vigilant about train security based on information uncovered after the death of Osama bin Laden, officials said.

Officials stressed the advisory is general in nature and the information apparently uncovered from the bin Laden compound dates back more than a year.

According to NBC News, U.S. officials say they have not found reference to specific plots. Instead, they say they've found what they call "aspirational" items -- events al-Qaida operatives were interested in trying to make happen.

I see. So...we're in a heightened state of alert and expected to endure God-knows-what in the name of "security" based on...al-Qaida's wishlist????

*bangs head on wall*

New Tizona Post

2011-05-04T11:04:00.000-04:00

Click here to view.

Tizona update

2011-04-28T16:35:00.000-04:00

See my first post (just an introduction, nothing fancy) here.

I'm big down under

2011-04-28T13:47:00.000-04:00

No, there's no double-entendre there. Let me explain.

Since around the time I went on vacation last month my site hits have been way down. Way down. Like, just barely out of the single digits. I thought that the numbers would come back up once I was back into a regular pattern of writing again. But no. The numbers are every bit as bad this week as last week as the week before.

I was starting to get a little dejected about this. After all, my blog is over 3 years old and I should be WAY past the days of daily hits in the teens. Hell, in the previous months my hits were routinely in the 30-70 range. WTF!!!

I was starting to consider that maybe I'd never establish any sort of real following and even toyed with the idea of hanging up my soapbox. Then I received an email that changed my mind.

Howdy,

You've been invited to The Tizona Group at http://tizona.wordpress.com as an author.

If you don't care, just ignore this email. :)

Cheers,
WordPress.com

WHA?!!?!? That's freaking awesome!!!!!

A little history. The Tizona Group is big down under. Again, no double-entendre. Tizona is a group blog featuring notables such as bingbing, spot_the_dog, thefrollickingmole, 1.618, and the Beef of God - Angus Dei. The Tizona Group is popular - approximately 2M site hits since its inception. The Tizona Group got more hits in one day - over 72,000 - than my blog has received in over 3 years!!!

Technically, Tizona is an "International Group Blog". It lives up to that status certainly, with bloggers located in South Korea, the US, and, if I recall correctly, the UK as well. But the vast majority of the contributors are Aussies, and the flavor of the blog is quite Australian. Fortunately, I speak the language.

I've been a follower of The Tizona Group for quite some time. I've....hinted....from time to time that I would love to be a contributor. And now it's finally happened.

This is the second blog to which I have been extended "author" rights, the other being Ye Olde Journalist, to which I've contributed from time-to-time since December of last year.

Much like a virus, I'm spreading. Damn it people, I'm gonna get you to read my shit one way or the other!!!! [/tongue-in-check]

Prosecutorial misconduct - Texas style

2011-04-26T12:57:00.001-04:00

When last I opined on the subject of prosecutorial misconduct, it was in the context of a fictional event from a television show. This is most assuredly NOT a made-for-TV miscarriage of justice. This is the real thing, and it cost a man 18 years and came this close to costing him his life.

For eighteen years Anthony Graves insisted that he had nothing to do with the gruesome murder of a family in Somerville. That’s exactly how long it took for justice to finally be served.

This is a tale of four prosecutors: one worthy of the harshest penalties society can mete against the wicked, one who showed himself to be a complete slimeball, one who showed himself to be a front-running publicity whore, and one who deserves to be praised from the rooftops.

Prosecutor Charles Sebesta is the worst kind of human scum. Let me count the ways.

Sebesta suborned perjury. Co-defendant Robert Carter was told that unless he testified, his wife would face criminal charges for capital murder as well.

Sebesta hid exculpatory evidence. Carter recanted his claim that Graves committed the crime with him before a grand jury well prior to Graves' trial AND the morning before he testified in the trail. Graves' defense was never made aware of this fact.

Sebesta used the power of his position to intimidate an alibi witness. Sebesta said in live court regarding that witness, "Judge, when they call Yolanda Mathis, we would ask, outside the presence of the jury, that the court warn her of her rights. She is a suspect in these murders, and it is quite possible, at some point in the future, she might be indicted.” No such allegation had been levied prior to this statement nor subsequent to the trial. This was bald-faced and cynical intimidation. Nothing more, nothing less. Needless to say, the witness fled the courtroom and never returned, nor did she testify.

Sebesta fabricated evidence. Graves' close friend Roy Reuter was asked if Graves owned a knife. Reuter, foolishly, said yes, that he had given Graves a knife just like one he himself owned. He - again foolishly - allowed the police to take possession of the knife. No surprise, the police "expert" found that the knife "fit the holes" in one of the victim's skull. Never mind that the knife in question was so flimsy it would have shattered upon contact with something as hard as a human skull, or that any one of a thousand knives would "fit" in a MF'ing hole. This, to Sebesta, was "evidence".

Sebesta employed the old tried-and-true "jailhouse snitch" technique, getting two skels to claim they heard Carter and Graves speaking in their cell and admitting their guilt. I can't believe that juries still fall for this. But they do, and cynical prosecutors know it. For the record, both snitches recanted later.

The Texas Rangers weren't exactly circumspect in their conduct in this case, either. But this isn't about them. This is about a public official that is expected to act in the public's interest and administer justice fairly.

Due to the work of a journalism class project and amazing investigative reporting by Pamela Colloff of Texas Monthly magazine (see here for the best pre-release details), Graves was freed from Death Row after 14 years in prison. The Federal appeals court issued a scathing rebuke of Prosecutor Sebesta.

In a unanimous opinion, the panel held that the state’s case had hinged on Carter’s perjured testimony. Had Graves’s attorneys known of Carter’s statements to the district attorney, wrote circuit judge W. Eugene Davis, “the defense’s approach could have been much different . . . and probably highly effective.” The court reserved particular criticism for Sebesta for having prompted two witnesses to say on the stand that Carter had never wavered, other than in his grand jury testimony, in identifying Graves as the killer. (Sebesta had done this not only with Carter but with Ranger Coffman as well.) Wrote Davis, “Perhaps even more egregious than District Attorney Sebesta’s failure to disclose Carter’s most recent statement is his deliberate trial tactic of eliciting testimony from Carter and the chief investigating officer, Ranger Coffman, that the D.A. knew was false.”

One would think that the Fifth Circuit's stinging rebuke of Sebesta coupled with their decision to free Graves would be the end of the issue. One would think. But remember, this is Texas we're talking about, and Texans are nothing if not persistent when it comes to being assholes.

The criminal justice system (heavy emphasis on the "criminal" part) decided to take one more bite of the Anthony Graves apple. The successor to Charles Sebesta decided to retry Graves. Never mind that the Fifth Circuit had stated as a point of fact that Carter's testimony was perjured. This is Texas, gawd-durn it, and when we say someone is guilty, they're guilty! In 2007, a special prosecutor, Patrick Batchelor, who, like Sebesta, had a penchant for convicting the innocent, was appointed to handle the retrial. One of his first actions was to try to pass the original case's transcript through a jury to get a rubber-stamp conviction. This action was rightfully disallowed by a judge.

For four more years Graves remained imprisoned, this time in County Jail instead of Death Row, awaiting his retrial. Seriously, four years? WTF?!?!?

In 2010, a new special prosecutor was appointed when Batchelor had to withdraw due to "health issues". Unfortunately, those "health issues" weren't fatal.

The new special prosecutor was Kelly Siegler. Kelly Siegler is a superstar among prosecutors. She is 19-and-0 in death penalty cases. But she is also a courageous and ethical individual; after a complete review of the "evidence" against Graves, she moved to dismiss all charges. She herself said that Graves is "an innocent man". Courageous and unusual behavior for a prosecutor.

Not unusual was the behavior of District Attorney Bill Parham.

At a press conference at the D.A.’s office in Brenham—just across the street from the courthouse where Graves’s retrial was to have taken place early next year—Parham told reporters that he was “absolutely convinced” of Graves’s innocence after his office conducted a thorough examination of his case.

His office?!?!?!? If not for the courageous actions of outsider Siegler, HIS EFFING OFFICE would have rammed through another death sentence for Graves. What a tool!

Siegler wasn't done, not by a long shot.

Former Harris County assistant district attorney Kelly Siegler, who has sent nineteen men to death row in her career, went even further in her statements. Siegler laid the blame for Graves’s wrongful conviction squarely at the feet of former Burleson County D.A. Charles Sebesta. “Charles Sebesta handled this case in a way that would best be described as a criminal justice system’s nightmare,” Siegler said. Over the past month, she explained, she and her investigator, retired Texas Ranger Otto Hanak, reviewed what had happened at Graves’s trial. After talking to witnesses and studying documents, they were appalled by what they found. “It’s a prosecutor’s responsibility to never fabricate evidence or manipulate witnesses or take advantage of victims,” she said. “And unfortunately, what happened in this case is all of these things.” Graves’s trial, she said, was “a travesty.”

Yeah, about that. Surely criminal charges have been filed, right? After all, Sebesta is technically guilty of attempted murder!

Silly Vulture! This is TEXAS.

In 2007, Houston attorney Robert Bennett filed a bar complaint saying Sebesta and two assistant district attorneys acted unethically in the prosecution.

The State Bar dismissed the complaint, and officials said Sebesta has no disciplinary record.

Un-effing-believable.

But wait! Texas STILL isn't done effing with Anthony Graves!

Graves should have plenty of money -- about $1.5 million -- what Texas state law says 18 years of wrongful imprisonment is worth.

Graves told CBS News, "They stole 18 years of my life man for something I didn't even know anything about -- and they tried to murder me."

He'd at least have the money, Schlesinger said, if it weren't for a paperwork snafu. The prosecutor who dismissed the charges and set him free did not write that there was evidence of "actual innocence," and because he didn't use those two words, Graves doesn't get one penny.

"Two words, two words -- they're holding me hostage behind two words," Graves said. "They're holding my future hostage behind two words."

Texas. Effing Texas. Be glad you don't live there. Be very glad.

Maryland's lost icon

2011-04-20T14:23:00.002-04:00

There are certain people one associates with Maryland. Cal Ripken. H.L. Menken. John Unitas.

One of those people synonymous with Maryland passed yesterday.

William Donald Schaefer, the dominant political figure of the last half-century of Maryland history, died Monday after a "do-it-now" career that changed the face of Baltimore while bringing a burst of energy to the city he loved. He was 89.

William Donald Schaefer was Maryland. No one before or since has dominated Maryland politics like Schaefer did in his heyday. He served 4 terms as Mayor of Bawlmer, 2 terms as Governor, and a couple of terms as State Comptroller for good measure. And he did it with a style all his own.

Schaefer transcended political labels. I voted for him every time he ran for whatever office he was pursuing. His party? Which office? Didn't matter. Willie Don Schaefer flat out got things done. Positive things.

Schaefer converted Baltimore from "Cleveland by the Bay" into the kind of place that actually attracts tourists (and their money). He acted to keep businesses in Maryland when his fellow Dems were actively trying to tax the bejeesus out of anything that moved (Maryland motto: "If you can imagine it, we can tax it").

But the most important thing WDS did, IMO, was take Maryland's third-world quality highway system and convert it into the East Coast's finest in the span of only 8 years. This is no exaggeration. Baltimore/Washington International Airport used to only be accessible via a 2-lane highway (actually a paved-over cattle trail) in the 1980's. Seriously, can you think of anything more third-world than that?

Willie Don could be a buffoon, to be sure. But it was calculated buffoonery. It was his self-deprecating way of calling attention to Maryland, and particularly to Bawlmer, HIS city.

RIP Willie Don. There'll never be another one like you.

I had to share this

2011-04-20T11:12:00.001-04:00

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This picture, courtesy of Theo Spark, is worth as least that many.

Law and Order UK

2011-04-18T10:23:00.000-04:00

The other evening I was relaxing in Vulture Manor with Deadeye watching an episode of Law and Order UK. The BBC version of this venerable franchise is, IMO, every bit as good as if not better than the original was back in the 90's.

Okay, I watched TV. What does that have to do with anything?

The episode in question unfolded with what police at first thought was a copycat murderer mimicking a convicted white supremacist serial killer (hereinafter referred to as "Whitey"). When they found the killer, they received quite a surprise: the murderer was a black Jamaican, the murders weren't racially motivated at all (the killer was channeling "commands from God"), and, the biggest bombshell of all, he wasn't a copycat. He was the killer behind all of the murders for which Whitey was convicted!

This is where the course of justice, UK version, diverged sharply from the course of justice, USA version.

Whitey was freed right away. That makes perfect sense, right? Except that in the US, once it's been established that you're innocent, you're lucky if you don't wait months for someone to get around to issuing orders for you to be freed. If at all.

Then the solicitor (attorney) for Whitey dropped an accusation that the Crown Prosecutor (DA) had spiked exculpatory evidence in Whitey's original trial that would have cast doubt about his guilt in the murders. The CP was actually brought up on criminal charges of perverting the course of justice as a result of this single accusation. Stop for a moment and ponder that. A prosecutor was charged with the crime of perversion of justice as a result of an accusation of withholding exculpatory evidence. Whoa!

It got me thinking. Why in the name of all that is holy is there no such statute on the books in any jurisdiction in the US for the crime of perversion of justice? Why is it that DA's in the US can run roughshod over the rights of the accused, prosecute individuals they know to be innocent, and hide or manufacture evidence without fear of any sort of consequences? Lest you think I'm exaggerating or simply spewing hyperbole, I suggest you take a nice long look at actual evidence of prosecutorial mischief. Spend a half hour at Will Grigg's place. Or at William Anderson's place.You'll swear that I've understated the problem by half.

Until US prosecutors are held to the same high standard as Crown Prosecutors, we can expect innocents to continue to be sacrificed on the altar of some scumbag prosecutor's career aspirations. One day it might be you.

Feeling like a jackass

2011-04-15T09:57:00.001-04:00

The following is re-posted from April 15, 2010. It is every bit as relevant now as it was then.

Once upon a time a community of wild mules, donkeys, burros, and jackasses roamed free. They lived in complete freedom. But there were problems. They were susceptible to predator attack. There were no rules preventing mules from abusing donkeys (or vice-versa). There were no protections against feeding ground encroachment.

So they formed a Pact. This Pact established common defense against predators and rules to protect against abuses and feeding grounds violations. Most importantly, the Pact gave assurances to each and every one of the assembled that their freedoms would never be violated.

The Pact established leaders who would represent the animals. These leaders would have a special wagon to be pulled by the other animals from place to place so that the leaders could perform their duties.

At first, because the wagon was small and the leaders and wagon workers few, it took but a few of the beasts to pull the wagon. This responsibility was shared by all. The burden was light, and the demands few.

But over time the leaders started to feel that the Pact restricted them too much. They became convinced that they could do "amazing things" if those limits were, well, limited. They were engulfed in an awful hubris. The "amazing things" they wanted to do were more important to them than the freedoms promised by the Pact.

The leaders were shrewd. They knew that any overt attempt to break the Pact would result in rebellion. So over time, bit by bit, the leaders chipped away at the Pact. By making rules that bordered on violating the Pact without actually doing so, the leaders set precedents that made other rules that DID violate the Pact seem okay. It was an incrementalist approach. It was brilliant.

The leaders engaged in a "divide and conquer" strategy. A number of the new rules were designed to create "favored" classes. Mules had been greatly wronged in the early days of the Pact. The leaders used this fact to make rules that allowed many of the mules to ride in the wagon with them.

Then animals without sufficient grazing lands were deemed a "favored" class and were beneficiaries of rules that allowed them to ride on the wagon as well.

The new rules required making the wagon bigger - a whole lot bigger. Now there were large numbers of animals on the wagon - leaders, wagon workers, and "favored" classes - and many animals were required to pull the wagon. No, required is too nice of a word. They were compelled to do so.

Some of the animals - particularly the donkeys and jackasses - began to resent the leaders and the demands placed upon them. They were branded as uncaring, bigoted, and evil by the leaders. Those on the wagon certainly agreed. And, unfortunately, there were enough donkeys, burros, and jackasses who believed the leaders were simply trying to help the "less fortunate" to prevent the donkeys and jackasses from pressuring the leaders to rescind the new rules.

More rules were created. Some rules limited the amount of feeding ground a beast could have. Others forced animals to cede some of their feeding ground to animals on the wagon. The amount of time animals spent pulling the wagon was then linked to the amount of feeding ground they controlled. More and more animals began to climb aboard the wagon, some as wagon workers, but most as "favored" classes.

Large numbers of burros began to enter the area. Some pulled the wagon, as had the burros who had been there at the start of the Pact. But some cried for "favored" status, and were granted seats on the wagon. Many - WAY too many - simply took over feeding grounds and avoided pulling the wagon.

Over time the situation worsened to the point that there were nearly as many animals on the wagon as there were pulling the wagon.

Most of those pulling the wagon were jackasses.

What prompted this little parable? This.

Tax Day is a dreaded deadline for millions, but for nearly half of U.S. households it's simply somebody else's problem.

About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability. That's according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research organization.

Wait, it gets better.

The bottom 40 percent, on average, make a profit from the federal income tax, meaning they get more money in tax credits than they would otherwise owe in taxes. For those people, the government sends them a payment.

"We have 50 percent of people who are getting something for nothing," said Curtis Dubay, senior tax policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

Feel like a jackass yet? If you don't, you're probably part of the problem.

Vulture Droppings: Budget negotiated, or theater of the absurd

2011-04-11T15:43:00.001-04:00

Vulture Droppings is a semi-regular feature of this blog. It's a kind of "Random Thoughts" post in which I try to quickly summarize a particularly large event or series of events. Think of it being sort of like what a vulture leaves behind after devouring a horse. You don't get the whole horse, just highly processed leftovers.

At one point in the budget negotiations, Il Duce said, "It's time for adults to take over the budget talks."

As if!

Sadly for We the People, there are no adults in Washington. It makes for a lousy government. But it also makes for great theater, if "theater of the absurd" is your preference.

This edition of Vulture Droppings looks at the absurdities of the past week's negotiations.

First, a little history.

Normally a budget is proposed shortly after the State of the Union speech and approved well before the end of the current fiscal year in September. Last year was different. Even with a Donkey as president, a Donkey-controlled House (by a big margin), and a Donkey-controlled Senate (with a 60-40 supermajority), Congress was unable (or, more accurately, unwilling) to complete a budget prior to the end of FY10. They elected to punt. The government has run on "continuing resolutions" for this entire fiscal year.

Fast forward to March. NOW all of the sudden it's the end of the world if the budget doesn't get passed! Mark this down on your score card as Childish Act #1.

But that was minor league compared with what would follow. Over the past two weeks we've been treated to juvenile behavior the likes of which is seldom seen in any government at any time.

First it was the Elephants, trying to slip in targeted cuts based on pure ideology. Oh, don't get me wrong: the government has no business giving tax dollars to Planned Parenthood, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS), National Public Radio (NPR), or the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Each and every one of those things need to have their funding cut. But, by playing the ideology card during a period in which the stated goal was to avert a shutdown (and the resultant boost to a wounded and vulnerable president: see Clinton, Bill), the Elephants proved yet again that they are the Stupid Party.

Not ones to let an opening go to waste, the Donkeys used the de-funding of Planned Parenthood as the focus of their retrenchment strategy. Or as an excuse to come unhinged, depending on your viewpoint.

Sen. Charles Schumer roared, "The dangerous, ideological cuts to Planned Parenthood that passed the House are never, never, never going to pass the Senate.” Never mind that your dangerous, ideological spending on Planned Parenthood is part of our debt problem. Schumer also got in a cheap shot against the Tea Party, saying, “What we have here is a flea, wagging a tail, wagging a dog,”

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter said that Republicans are "here to kill women". Get hysterical much?

Nevada's curse on the country, Sen. Harry Reid, said, "Republicans want to shut down the government because they think there's nothing more important than keeping women from getting cancer screenings. This is indefensible and everyone should be outraged." Srsly, Harry? That was stupider and more hysterical than Congresswoman Slaughter. He also took a shot at the Tea Party, saying, "[T]he Tea Party...is trying to push its extreme social agenda, issues that have nothing to do with funding the bill." Extreme? Really, Harry? This from the guy selling "Republicans support cancer in women"?

And, as carefully choreographed as it always is, professional protesters appeared on the scene, complete with hysterical signs like, "Republicans! Stay away from my vagina!

You can't make this stuff up.

The Elephants were more restrained, but still managed to underwhelm. House Majority Leader Boehner haughtily sniffed that the Donkeys weren't serious about cutting spending. Various members of Congress sniped at the idea of our troops not getting paid. Uh, whose fault would THAT be, exactly?

To the Elephants' credit, Sen. Paul Ryan presented a serious budget plan that would result in eliminating the debt. This plan, of course, was met with hysteria by none other than the former Air Force 3, Nancy Pelosi, who called the plan "a path to poverty for America's seniors [and] children and a road to riches for big oil". Damn, Nancy! You hit two hot button moonbat issues in one fell swoop.

For the record, Sen. Ryan's plan has a snowball's chance on the plains of Hell of passing.

Bottom line, nothing real was accomplished. The Elephants and their sycophants at Fox News are trumpeting a GOP victory. Victory? Srsly? You reduced spending by $31 billion in a budget whose deficit alone is $1,500 billion! That's a victory?

No, that's sad.

Coming soon: the rematch, as the Elephants and the Donkeys renew their kabuki dance with the looming debt ceiling brawl. Hilarity will ensue. Sadly, hilarity will ensue.

The looming government shutdown - what to fear

2011-04-07T11:28:00.001-04:00

I'm sure that most people who read my blog are rooting for the government to shut down, preferably for a long, long time. But there is a very real risk to a government shutdown, one that scares the living crap out of me.

From The Smoking Gun.

With a possible shutdown of the U.S. government looming, it is helpful to remember what happened the last time federal workers received a forced furlough.

According to an FBI interview report:

• Unable to begin a new paying job, a 22-year-old female intern continued to work at the White House.

• Said intern’s “personal relationship” with President Bill Clinton began on November 15, 1995, the day after the government shutdown began.

• On that Wednesday evening, the intern, seizing the moment, told Clinton she “had a crush on him.” The 42nd President responded by accompanying the intern to a back study behind the Oval Office, where he kissed her.

• “Unclothed genital contact” would later occur, along with “kissing, hugging, touching, and oral sex on the person of the President, but not intercourse.”

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm baaaaaaack

2011-04-06T12:42:00.000-04:00

Just like a case of herpes, I have returned. My vacation was refreshing and invigorating. But now I'm back and it's time to address the "big issues of the day".

As if!

Nah, I'm going to dedicate my first post-vacation post to saying, "I told you so!"

Did I not tell you? DID I NOT TELL YOU?!?!?!?

When Il Duce named Jeffrey Immelt as his "jobs czar" back in January, I said that Immelt was a repugnant slug who represented the very worst in crony capitalism. I said that the company he chairs, General Electric, is "the #1 looter corporation".

Seems there are those who agree with me.

The New York Times reported last month that General Electric earned $14.2 billion in international profits, including, $5.1 billion in the United States. Yet GE did not pay a dime in federal income taxes last year. Oddly, President Obama chose GE Chairman and chief executive Jeffrey Immelt to head his President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

According to the Associated Press, Immelt's compensation package doubled to $15.2 million last year, while this year, GE is seeking major concessions from the unions that represent its shrinking American workforce. That makes Immelt the wrong guy for the job of jobs czar.

Or as former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold wrote, "Someone like Immelt, who has helped his company evade taxes on its huge profits -- and is now looking to workers to take major pay cuts after his compensation was doubled -- should not lead the administration's effort to create jobs."

I almost wish I could just paste the whole essay, written masterfully by Debra Saunders, into this post. But in the interest of giving credit where credit is due, you should go to RealClearPolitics and read the whole thing yourself. You'll be glad you did.

One last quote from the opinion piece.

When Obama appointed Immelt to his jobs and competitiveness council, the president said that Immelt "understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy."

Unfortunately, Immelt seems to have learned that the best way to increase GE's profits was to eliminate a fifth of its American workforce, ship jobs overseas and hire a small army of tax attorneys.

A generous person might argue that GE's experience makes Immelt the smart choice to reform the tax code.

But Immelt can't be in charge of GE and reform a tax system it helped pervert. Obama must know that. Obama must not care.

Away from it all

2011-03-31T14:38:00.000-04:00

As you may have guessed from the dearth of posts over the past week, your friendly neighborhood Vulture is away from it all. By "it all", I mean the job, the presures, the foul weather, etc.

Deadeye and I have taken a much-needed vacation to the great Southwest, leaving our attack Yorkies in the capable hands of our boys.

Regular blogging - whatever that means - will resume next week.

AMF, ya'll.

Who to believe?

2011-03-23T20:02:00.000-04:00

There is a debate tactic called 'appeal to authority'. This tactic is used quite frequently by the Gaia crowd or other credulous types when discussing AGW. "So-and-so the climate scientist from XYZ university says..." is supposed to make whatever so-and-so said gospel, because so-and-so has all of the right credentials from the right school(s) and is in the business of studying climate.

It is my opinion that the LAST person you ever want to believe with regards to AGW is the guy who makes his living studying it.

Think I'm nuts? Think again.

Who are you more likely to believe when a discussion of poverty in America comes up? The Director of HHS, whose livelihood depends on the existence of American poverty? Or an independent party without a dog in the fight?

Likewise the guy who has a choice between declaring that the sky is falling and collecting a fat paycheck vs. saying that nothing is amiss and having to go find some other way to make a living might, shall we say, tend to - how to put this delicately? - shade his findings somewhat.

It's not like science has the best track record when it comes to honesty. From the alchemists of ancient times to the Cold Fusion fraud 30 years ago to the Tobacco Lobby "scientists" who insisted that there was no link between cigarettes and cancer in the face of ever-mounting evidence, "science" has hardly distinguished itself. For every Isaac Newton there is a Michael Mann, with his ridiculous climate hockey stick graph that was risible on its face. For every Albert Einstein there is a clutch of grifters like the IPCC crowd.

You get my point. An 'appeal to authority' argument is the work of a lazy mind. And lazy minds tend to believe in AGW.

A retraction of sorts

2011-03-21T12:21:00.000-04:00

CAJim seems to think I owe him a retraction. It seems that the quote I cited in my last post, which I got second-hand from the Tizona Group, is misleading, and that both Tizona and I have misused the quote to misrepresent the meaning of the AGW-worshiper's words.

Ignore for the time being that the inclusion of "let's fight global warming" in an alleged expression of condolences to the Japanese people is a de facto piggy-backing of two unrelated calamities and leads to the impression that the warming-worshiper is linking the two. CAJim says I owe a retraction, and, by God, a retraction I'll give.

Okay, CAJim, Nilsson's comment doesn't link the earthquake and tsunami to global warming. But these "scientists" do link earthquakes and tsunamis to AGW.

Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and landslides are some of the additional catastrophes that climate change and its rising sea levels and melting glaciers could bring, a geologist says.

Note the weasel word "could". That's so that the "scientist" has plausible deniability when his patently ridiculous premise is dismissed by real scientists.

And, lest you think that the preceding comment was cherry-picked, there's this one.

Scientists are to outline dramatic evidence that global warming threatens the planet in a new and unexpected way – by triggering earthquakes, tsunamis, avalanches and volcanic eruptions.

Reports by international groups of researchers – to be presented at a London conference next week – will show that climate change, caused by rising outputs of carbon dioxide from vehicles, factories and power stations, will not only affect the atmosphere and the sea but will alter the geology of the Earth.

Of course, you have to read on to get to the part where the polar ice caps have to disappear and the glaciers melt away for this to happen...

But the question wasn't "Do AGW quack scientists attribute earthquakes and tsunamis to AGW?" It was, "Does this particular AGW quack scientist attribute a particular earthquake and tsunami to AGW?" The answer is, apparently, no.

So CAJim has his retraction. Who is CAJim, and why is he so adamant in seeking a retraction from your friendly, neighborhood Vulture?

CAJim is a common troll. He is a habitue of that den of bigotry, FLDS Texas. He wants to discredit the Vulture because I have written some extraordinarily mean (but true) things about his boyfriend, the Caput a Palos (hereinafter referred to as The Prickette). CAJim thinks that by discrediting anything I say he discredits the factual things I wrote about his butt buddy.

Sorry Jim. You lose. Nobody who reads this blog on a regular basis is going to believe you or your fellow FLDS Texas bigots over me.

Nobody.

A pseudo-religion self-parodies

2011-03-14T13:18:00.000-04:00

Okay, Tizona Group beat me to this item. But that doesn't mean I can't add my $0.02.

Hours after a massive earthquake rattled Japan, environmental advocates connected the natural disaster to global warming. The president of the European Economic and Social Committee, Staffan Nilsson, issued a statement calling for solidarity in tackling the global warming problem.

“Some islands affected by climate change have been hit,” said Nilsson. “Has not the time come to demonstrate on solidarity — not least solidarity in combating and adapting to climate change and global warming?”

“Mother Nature has again given us a sign that that is what we need to do,” he added.

Are you effing kidding me? Seriously? Do these imbeciles understand that earthquakes are caused by plate tectonics, NOT by the weather? Attributing an earthquake to climate makes about as much sense as attributing an asteroid collision with Earth to climate.

As if there was ever any doubt, this is the final proof that Global Warming has absolutely nothing to do with science and everything to do with religion. Just as a believer in the Almighty sees God in all things, so an AGW believer sees warming in everything. Drought = warming. Flooding = warming. Severe weather = warming. Balmy weather = warming. Heat = warming. Cold = warming.

These AGW fetishists are so caught up in their superstition that no amount of evidence can convince them that there are things that happen whose occurrence has absolutely nothing to do with climate.

I recommend checking out the Tizona post. It's got some good stuff in it. The best part for me was this quote.

Global warming alarmists are to natural disasters what the Westboro Baptist Church is to military funerals.

You got THAT right.

The circus is in town

2011-03-11T11:18:00.000-05:00

The execrable Rep. Peter King (R-NY) is holding hearings ostensibly to discuss how the US can mitigate the terrorism threat emanating from radical Islam. This is the same Peter King who for decades was an open supporter of the terrorist organization, Sinn Fein.

A periodic perversion of America's ideals, regrettably witnessed at the U.S. Capitol, is an "investigation" in which Congress labels people as unAmerican because of ethnicity, religious belief or conviction.

Rep. Peter King, R-New York, used to defend the Irish Republican Army as a "legitimate force" and once declared: "The British government is a murder machine."

Now, as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, King is staging hearings on ""Muslim radicalization" aimed at exposing what he calls a "violent enemy from overseas . . . which is recruiting people from a community living in our country."

William Grigg details King's hypocrisy much better than I can in this meager post (see here).

Let's put this whole thing in its proper perspective. King isn't seeking a solution to radical Islam. King is seeking to stoke the fires of intolerance in order to fuel the war machine.

In my opinion it is King who should be subjected to hearings and jailed for his support of a terrorist organization. Let us not forget that the IRA was blowing innocent men, women, and children to smithereens long before Al Qaeda existed. Peter King has the blood of those innocents on his hands. It is the height of absurdity that this terrorist-supporting thug can hold hearings of this nature.

And yet, so-called "conservatives" are all gung-ho for the hearings and stand foursquare behind King. Last night on the drive home, I heard Spencer Hughes of Fox News Radio defending the hearings. He actually uttered this ridiculous line, "If you're Islamic and you're not involved in terrorist activities, you have nothing to be afraid of." Uh huh. Just like the innocents in Waco who didn't shoot at the ATF had nothing to be afraid of.

I'm becoming more convinced every day that the vast majority of "conservatives" are complete morons dancing to whatever tune Fox News is currently playing. In that aspect, they're every bit as dangerous to the survival of this country as the radical Left they so despise.

And just as stupid.

The wisdom of Fred Reed

2011-03-08T11:39:00.000-05:00

Fred Reed is a favorite of mine. He's half blind. He's powered by Padre Kino, which, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is a Mexican wine. And he's among the most insightful people on the planet.

Fred's latest column has a description of our government, taxes, and the law, that I don't think can be topped.

What happens is that a government needs money, typically to do badly what it shouldn’t be doing in the first place, so Congress passes tax laws. These may at first inadvertently be simple, comprehensible, and tolerably light. Then the unscrupulous, and bureaucrats, who would be unscrupulous if they had the intelligence, discover that it is easier to have the government drain money from the people and give it to the sharpers than it is to work for a living. Taxes grow heavier to feed the growing number of trough-feeders.

The people who actually pay the taxes grow weary of playing udder to innumerable ticks and invent ingenious ways to avoid the taxation. Each new dodge inspires Congress to pass a new and more complex law to prevent people from keeping their money. Humans are ingenious when they feel someone else’s hand in their pockets. Thus regulations grow like kudzu on a Georgia road cut until you have three hundred shelf-feet of impenetrable law that no one understands, even the government. This is good for the ticks because when law metamorphoses into mysticism, the shifty can find loopholes. Meanwhile every special interest on the planet bribes Congress, which amounts to an inexplicably exalted garage-sale, to pass laws exempting the special interest. The result is an unworkable thicket infested with vipers, leeches, and hag fish. Hello.

There you have it. I can't think of a more apt description of the MCF that is Washington than Fred's vivid description.

But it's his last couple of paragraphs that put the exclamation mark on it.

These bureaucracies, like gunch plugging a coronary artery, like filth occluding a drain, get thicker and denser with time. The problems they were supposed to solve go away, but the bureaucrats remain, and hire more equally pointless crats so they can feel important, and the forms we have to fill multiply, and the administrative burden grows, and money and business leave the country.

More cosmetic bureaucracies spring up. We now have TSA, which couldn’t catch cholera in a sewage outfall in Mumbai, but it has a huge payroll and a degree of corruption that would make the sewage outfall a cause for nostalgia. And it will never go away. Nothing does in government.

I figure that what we need is to tear the whole sorry system down and see what comes next. The best hope is that a patriot will learn how to impel some unused interplanetary object, Phobos or Deimos or Ganymede maybe, into Washington at ninety percent of the speed of light. This would eliminate the teachers unions, the Pentagon, AIPAC, Fox News, Langley, the Washington Post, lobbies, and my mother-in-law. Cockroaches would doubtless survive, that being what they do best, and evolve into a civilization less degraded than ours, briefly.

Amen, brother. Amen.

Let the punishment fit the crime

2011-03-03T15:30:00.000-05:00

There are numerous - far too numerous - cases where the punishment flat out doesn't fit the crime. Murderers who get 8 years. The guy who sells a bag of weed with just over an ounce in it gets 15 years.

But this is clearly a case where the proposed punishment is more than appropriate.

Lawmakers and residents engaged in heated debate Tuesday over a bill that would make random airport security pat-downs and body scans criminal in New Hampshire.

The bill (HB628-FN) "makes the touching or viewing with a technological device of a person’s breasts or genitals by a government security agent without probable cause a sexual assault," according to the introductory text of the bill.

"Let's put their name on the sex offender registry, and maybe that will tell them New Hampshire means business," said bill co-sponsor Rep. Andrew Manuse, R-Derry.

"That is a crime in this state, and we should charge them every single time," said bill co-sponsor Rep. George Lambert, R-Litchfield.

Yes! Let's brand those TSSA* perverts with the scarlet 'S' for 'sex offender'! Let's make sure that those trolls understand that "No means no"!

* You can't abbreviate Schutzstaffel without the double 'S'

Pot and kettle

2011-02-28T07:54:00.001-05:00

In an interview that can only be characterized as the pot calling the kettle black, Bernie Madoff compares his crimes with those of our government.

Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff said in a magazine interview published Sunday that new regulatory reform enacted after the recent national financial crisis is laughable and that the federal government is a Ponzi scheme.

"The whole new regulatory reform is a joke," Madoff said during a telephone interview with New York magazine in which he discussed his disdain for the financial industry and for its regulators.

Ponzi scheme? I guess it takes a Ponzi-schemer to know one.

And who can argue with him? Social Security is a total Ponzi scheme. The same can be said of virtually all of our "entitlement" programs.

The current direction our government is taking us in leads to financial meltdown and will leave this once-proud nation in ruins. Don't take my word for it. Read Vox Popoli on a daily basis and you'll come away as pessimistic about the future as I am.

The American experiment is not going to end well.

Justifiable discrimination

2011-02-25T12:01:00.001-05:00

Anyone who has read this blog more than about 5 times knows that schadenfreude is one of my favorite things. Forget raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. I want to see despicable people suffer!

And speaking of despicable people, who among us wouldn't include the TSSA* in that category.

A Seattle area restaurant certainly does.

Fed up with what he views as crappy treatment from the TSA, the owner of a restaurant near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has decided to put all TSA agents on his No-Eat List.

"We have posted signs on our doors basically saying that they aren't allowed to come into our business," one employee tells travel journalist Christopher Elliott. "We have the right to refuse service to anyone."

She says that whenever a TSA agent attempts to dine at the restaurant, "we turn our backs and completely ignore them, and tell them to leave... Their kind aren't welcomed in our establishment."

The restaurant claims that 90% of its patrons are in agreement with their stance and that the local police have actually helped escort TSA workers off the premises.

"Until TSA agents start treating us with the respect and dignity that we deserve, then things will change for them in the private sector," says the employee.

Is that awesome, or what? "Their kind aren't welcomed in our establishment."

Let's hope more businesses pick up on this and start to do likewise. There's no one more deserving than the TSSA's goon squad. No one.

* You can't abbreviate Schutzstaffel without the double 'S'

Dripping with irony

2011-02-23T11:37:00.000-05:00

Senator ~~John Kerry~~ Lurch made an appearance this past weekend. The reception he got was the sweetest type of schadenfreude imaginable, and for all of the right reasons.

A loud and angry crowd in Northampton confronted Sen. John Kerry over his support for the war in Afghanistan, the government’s response to the recession and other issues.

Anti-war protesters interrupted Kerry numerous times Saturday as he met with constituents.

OMG, is that the best or what? Mr. Vietnam Veterans against the war. Mr. Winter Soldiers investigation. And he gets heckled for what? Supporting an unpopular war!!!

It just doesn't get any better than this. Seriously.

A thought for today

2011-02-22T19:17:00.000-05:00

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

— C. S. Lewis

Couldn't have said it any better.

Contrasting Presidents

2011-02-21T12:16:00.000-05:00

Today is Presidents Day. This means that mattresses are discounted. That, and Federal employees get the day off. Hey, how 'bout that? [/sarcasm]

But February 21st used to mean something. It was the celebration of George Washington's birthday. It was Nixon (figures!) who combined GW's birthday with Abraham Lincoln's birthday, which falls just 9 days prior, to form Presidents Day.

It's a safe bet that no one born after 1980 has the remotest clue as to what Presidents Day is. That is, aside from the mattress sales.

Nixon did more than make two holidays into one when he combined Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays. He obscured what the two men meant to this nation at the crossroads of history at which they stood.

Washington: first in war, first in peace, and last in the National League. Okay, that's a lame and dated line. But does anyone remember WHY Washington was referred to as "first in war, first in peace"? General Washington was a gigantic figure in the creation of this country. He lead the armies. He secured the terms of British surrender. And he was the first president.

There were those who wanted to crown Washington as King following the revolution. He would have no part in it.

To fully appreciate the times in which Washington lived, you have to understand that the idea of a ruler who voluntarily steps down after a period of time and turns over power to another in a peaceful transition was something well outside of the norm. That Washington would serve two terms, handing over power to the newly elected President Adams at the end of his second term, and simply go home to Virginia was astounding for the times in which he lived.

That was the greatness of Washington.

Contrast that with the evil that was Lincoln. I wrote extensively about what Lincoln was (vice the "history" we're taught in government schools) two years ago. There's no point to elaborate on what I wrote then. It would just be piling on.

To lump Lincoln and Washington into a sort of equivalence (which is what Nixon effectively did) is to disrepect the greatness of Washington and whitewash the atrocities of Lincoln.

It's not right. It's just not right.

Once again, NWA was right

2011-02-17T11:22:00.000-05:00

'cause a cop think a badge give him the authority to kill a minority.
NWA, F*** tha police

Some time back, I referenced a tragic shooting in the Seattle area of a Native American man by a ~~police officer~~ donut-eating self-important bully. John T. Williams is still dead. And the tax-fed waste of oxygen who killed him is still a free man, as per standard procedure in this type of case.

“If you’re going to prosecute a cop for excessive force amounting to manslaughter or homicide, you have to prove that the officer acted with malice,” says Strait. “(The standard requires proof) that (the officer) acted with intent to harm (the victim). You have to prove he really wanted to get the guy.” Birk has presented the shooting as an act of self-defense.

The inquest brought out the cloudy nature of some of the aspects of the case. Witnesses and Birk presented several different versions of the afternoon’s events — Birk believed that Williams presented a threat to passers-by, while civilian witnesses perceived Williams as a normal pedestrian.

The jury leaned somewhat toward the witnesses’ version of events. Four jurors out of eight believed that Williams “pose(d no) imminent threat of serious physical harm to Officer Birk.” Three jury members were undecided and one agreed that Williams was a serious threat.

Several other key points of the incident are in dispute: Jurors were split on whether or not Williams was facing Birk when he was shot, if Williams was able to put down his knife before he was shot, and whether or not Williams’s knife blade was open or closed.

With a demanding burden of proof, Washington prosecutors are often loath to pursue prosecutions of police officers who have fired on citizens.

Often loath? OFTEN?!?!?! How about 'virtually never'. Cops literally get away with murder in over 90% of these cases. Why? Because cops and prosecutors are on the same "team", and it's bad form to throw a member of your "team" under the bus.

The reactions of citizens and local officials to the decision not to prosecute are telling. The few private citizens quoted are foursquare in the Williams camp. The tax feeders and union hacks are foursquare behind Birk. And the prosecutor does his best Pilate.

The policy of this state is to give police officers this special protection. The underlying policy, passed 25 years ago, is a sound one. My first and foremost responsibility is to follow the laws in the state of Washington. I had to look and see, 'Is there malice, is there a lack of good faith?'

Translation from lawyer-speak: Cops get special treatment. Go pound sand if you don't like it.

I, for one, don't like it.

Apparently, a badge DOES give a cop the authority to kill a minority...or anyone else...and will continue to do so until right-minded people demand that policies like the Seattle area "the cop is innocent unless we say so...and we won't say so" policy are abolished and cops are treated the same as ordinary citizens who commit acts of violence.

So-called conservative comments on CPAC

2011-02-14T12:38:00.001-05:00

In case you missed it, Ron Paul won the straw poll at CPAC, with Hairdo Healthcare finishing second. The indignity of this result was too much for one of Fox News' legion of Neocons to bear.

The top three winners of this weekend's CPAC straw poll will not win the 2012 presidential nomination. And if any of the top three do break through to prove that prediction wrong, none of them will go on to win the White House in 2012.

This year's top three placeholders in the poll were Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Gary Johnson. Ron Paul and Mitt Romney repeat their standing from the 2010 poll as No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.

If the results of this straw poll do not sufficiently demonstrate the bizarre nature and overall oddity of this year's gathering of "conservatives," nothing else can.

Ron Paul, though technically still a Republican, has given up his GOP identity to embrace the chance to be the poster child for the more libertarian streak that has run rampant through CPAC, largely unabated for the past two years. Mitt Romney, the virtual author of Obamacare, and 2008's third-place finisher for the GOP nomination, is weighed down by the fact that his universal health care mandate in Massachusetts has largely failed – with the exception being the $50 state-subsidized abortions. Gary Johnson was only added to the lineup at the last minute, his presence stoking the flame of immoral libertarianism that actually advocated for legalized pot and the redefinition of marriage to include homosexual unions.

In other words, this year's CPAC wasn't about advancing conservatism. Rather, it exposed the radically disrespectful element of the libertine.

It has been the inclusion of the libertarian aspects of the past two years that has thrown the message of conservatism askew in a widely disproportional way.

It is the libertarian in attendance that produced the free pornographic calendar passed out to attendees in 2010. It is the libertarians in attendance who openly promote the inclusion of groups like GOProud, largely as an attempt to silence groups who would speak in strong support of traditional moral values. It is the libertarian in attendance who slandered President George Bush, by claiming his appreciation for the Constitution was best summed up as a "damn piece of paper." It is the libertarian in attendance that proclaimed the war to prevent terrorists from regathering strength and coming after our homeland as "illegal." And it is the libertarian in attendance that eschewed, booed, cajoled and screamed "war criminal" to Vice President Dick Cheney, a man who served his country with commitment and still attempts to help the world understand the threat of the radical Islamic element devising plans to eliminate us and our allies.

Now the libertarians stuffed the ballot box of the CPAC straw poll, and for the second year in a row made it the laughingstock poll in the eyes of the voters. (This year's voters are perhaps more engaged, more aware and more plugged in than ever before.)

In head-to-head polling going back a full year to last year's CPAC, neither Ron Paul nor Mitt Romney has consistently topped a head-to-head match-up against a greatly weakened President Obama. Romney has only topped the sitting president once in that 12-month period. Gov. Mike Huckabee, a no-show at CPAC for the past years, has beaten the president head-to-head in nearly every poll taken.

David Keene, the American Conservative Union’s outgoing president, gave a lengthy discounting of this year's poll in the lead up to it. That should serve as a very clear indicator that next year's CPAC needs some significant changes if it is to become the great conference it has been in past years.

Libertarians and Conservatives are as different as Libertarians and Liberals. The truth is libertarians are the worst form of political affiliation in the nation. Combining the desire of economic greed, with the amoral desire to promote any behavior regardless of its cost to our culture is a stark departure from the intent of the Founding Fathers.

And it is not consistent with the average conservative voter in America.

Libertine? Legalized pot? Advocating behaviors? Not consistent with the average conservative voter in America? How extraordinarily rich! But my favorite part of his meltdown was this.

Libertarians and Conservatives are as different as Libertarians and Liberals. The truth is libertarians are the worst form of political affiliation in the nation. Combining the desire of economic greed, with the amoral desire to promote any behavior regardless of its cost to our culture is a stark departure from the intent of the Founding Fathers.

Seriously? "Amoral desire to promote any behavior"? Where does this jerk get THAT from? No libertarian is actively promoting ANYTHING except freedom from government.

His whole article is an attack against liberty-loving people everywhere. His thesis is predictable, because it's the Team Elephant establishment and Neocommie platform: war without end, big government in our image, and "you're either with us or against us".

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if you're a conservative, Team Elephant is NOT your friend. And Fox News is NOT conservative: it's nothing but the organ of propaganda for the Neocommies.

The Super Bowl was super

2011-02-08T11:21:00.000-05:00

Hey, how 'bout that? The Vulture got one right! The Green Bay Packers are Super Bowl champions. The game was every bit as close as the score (31-25) would indicate.

What a great game! Clearly the two best teams in the league (sorry, New England!) faced off in what turned out to be one of the better Super Bowls. Pittsburgh clawed back to within 3 points of Green Bay after being down by 18 just before halftime. But the Pack put together one last long drive for a field goal, then made a clutch defensive stand to ice the game.

Aaron Rodgers had a great game (Brett who?). The Packers defense shined.

Pittsburgh has nothing to be ashamed of. Three turnovers killed them. Killed. Them. Otherwise, it might be the Black and Gold celebrating victory instead of the Green and Gold.

There will be one more post on the NFL before I drop that bone. I'm going to compare the Vulture's preseason picks against the preseason picks of the so-called experts. Should be worthy of a chuckle or two.

Super Bowl XLV prediction

2011-02-06T11:13:00.000-05:00

The Vulture presents his fourth annual Super Bowl prediction.

I've got a perfect record in these predictions. In each of the three previous years, the team I selected as my rooting interest/pick to win -- the Patriots, ~~Cardinals~~ 49ers' bitches, and Colts -- have all lost.

I apologize in advance to this year's pick.

This year I'm going with the Green Bay Packers. There's a number of reasons for this pick. First, it's a direct "in your face!" to the junk-slinger, Brett Favre, who had the worst year of his career, got in trouble for sending pictures of his junk to random women, and appears to be washed-up. Second, I'm sick of the Steelers and their legion of fans in this region. I suspect that there are as many Steelers fans in Frederick County as there are Redskins or Ravens fans. And they're arrogant. And annoying. The fans, I mean; the Steelers, as a team, seem to be about team. There aren't any Deion Sanders types prancing around saying, "Look at me! Look at me!" They are workmanlike and professional. And they're winners.

Both teams are extremely good. Both teams peaked at the right time. Both teams have quality QBs. Both teams have exceptional defenses. So why pick the Packers over the Steelers? Because the effing Steelers already have one more SB championship than my 49ers! Enough already!

I'll post after the game regarding the success of my pick. Hopefully this will be the year that I get one right.

Science scare tactics

2011-02-02T12:27:00.004-05:00

I for one am sick and tired of science and its over-hyped, overblown, overly dramatic "findings". At the heart of each of those "findings" is the need for a "solution" that will require massive amounts of funding for more "science" or bigger government.

Here's a recent sampling.

World is 'one poor harvest' from chaos, new book warns
Summary: overpopulation and global warming are going to wipe us out if we don't do something. "Something" isn't defined exactly, but more science funding is the implied "solution".

If Quakes Weren’t Enough, Enter the ‘Superstorm’
Summary: a superstorm could hit California, dumping up to 10 feet of rain on the state in a short span of time. This would result in the Sacramento valley becoming an inland sea. Considering that this "study" was funded by FEMA and CEMA, I'll leave it to you to figure out if there was any ulterior agenda in the "findings".

Smoking Damages DNA Within Minutes, Research Shows
Summary: Okay, setting aside the utter absurdity of the premise, that you're doing life-threatening damage to your body the instant you smoke your first cigarette, the study aims to scare smokers and those who might consider starting to smoke by claiming that your DNA is damaged and your risk of short-term cancers increased within minutes of your first puff. Chemicals called PAHs are to blame. Obviously, more money must be spent in researching these all-powerful and lethal carcinogens.

Is it any wonder that no one outside of the collectivists who wish to herd us all together into sheeplehood believes in AGW any more? All of science's "solutions" involve increased taxation and more power to the almighty Staat. Science is coming dangerously close to losing its credibility.

Hmm. Maybe that's not such a bad thing.

The TSSA wants its monopoly back

2011-01-31T13:09:00.000-05:00

In the wake of all of the hubbub regarding the TSSA*'s "gate rape" pat downs, a number of airports invoked a little-known provision in the enabling legislation that created the TSSA which allows for individual airports to "opt out" of having their security provided exclusively by the TSSA. Apparently, there were so many airports opting out that TSSA had to put the brakes on.

A program that allows airports to replace government screeners with private screeners is being brought to a standstill, just a month after the Transportation Security Administration said it was "neutral" on the program.

TSA chief John Pistole said Friday he has decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports, saying he does not see any advantage to it.
[...]
But on Friday, the TSA denied an application by Springfield-Branson Airport in Missouri to privatize its checkpoint workforce, and in a statement, Pistole indicated other applications likewise will be denied.

The government HATES to cede its authority over anything to anybody. I believe that the original "permission" to the 16 airports was a diversion to take some of the heat off of the TSSA for the "grope down" tactics it was forcing on the public. There was never any intent to honor the opt-out provision. There was only the intent to divert our focus away from their abuses.

On the subject of the TSSA, a reader named Lauren sent me a link to this info-graphic. It is a highly informative look into how airline security progressed over time to the totalitarian nightmare we endure now. I highly recommend it to all

*You can't abbreviate Schutzstaffel without the double 'S'

We're #1! We're #1!

2011-01-29T23:05:00.000-05:00

States, cities, and regions are known to promote things for which they are predominant. Idaho potatoes. Maryland crabs. New Orleans' Bourbon St. attractions. Chicago Style pizza. Memphis blues. New England chowders.

Notwithstanding that trend, there's a very low likelihood that the greater DC region will be proclaiming their number one status in this area.

Bad, but perhaps unsurprising news for area commuters: A new report indicates drivers in the Washington region lead the country in time, money and gas wasted in traffic.

D.C. drivers spend about 70 hours every year in road congestion, according to the 2010 Urban Mobility Report, considered the authority on traffic rankings.

This is the worst delay in the country.

We're #1! We're #1! Ah, crap!

By the way, this is the second time in the past three years DC has achieved #1 status.

As someone who has endured this hell on Earth for over 23 years, I have say that Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia are absolutely guilty of economic malfeasance in their inattention to regional highway construction.

"Vulture! Highways are expensive!" So is gridlock. How many billions of dollars are lost to this region every year because of our grossly inadequate highway system?

"You should take mass transit!" Really? Mass transit in this reason is designed under the paradigm of traffic filtering into the District in the morning and out to Maryland and Virginia in the evening. So how, exactly, does that help someone like me, who lives in Maryland but works in Virginia? I'll tell you how: not at all!

This is NOT a region where mass transit can be the only solution to the problem. There are too may consultants, contractors, and other non-traditional employment types for that to work.

But it's not going to the change. Highways will never be a high priority in People's Republics like Maryland and the District of Columbia. And Richmond absolutely HATES Northern Virginia, considering its citizens to be yankees. Getting money out of Richmond for NoVa is like getting child support from a rapper. It COULD happen. It's just not likely.

But hey! It's nice for DC to be famous for something besides government waste and corruption, right?

He was pushed

2011-01-28T11:15:00.000-05:00

When Sgt. Gregory Prickett (pictured at left), hereinafter referred to as The Prickette, left his position as campus cop at UNT-Dallas, no one could say for sure if he jumped or was pushed. Now, the as the Modern Pharisee first reported, the UNT student newspaper has provided the answer to that question: he was pushed.

A veteran UNT police officer has filed an appeal after he was fired in December on accusations that he violated the university’s computer-use policy.

UNT Dallas Police Coordinator Gregory J. Prickett, a 20-year member of the department, was placed on administrative leave in October while investigators looked into complaints that he had blogged and edited Wikipedia articles at work.

Fired. Now it's out. Now we know.

My first reaction to this is that my fellow bloggers and allied persons have been vindicated. The Prickette IS the vile TxBluesMan. The Prickette DID use university computers for his campaign of slanderous hatred.

As Hugh noted in his post, "They don't fire you for blogging from work when you've been there for 20 years." That would lead one to believe that The Prickette went well beyond blogging to activities that quite possibly put the university at risk, or at least violated the university's code of ethics. There's more to his dismissal than just blogging at work. I, for one, am left with the hanging question: what ELSE did The Prickette do using university computers and other resources? I would like answers. (YOU WANT ANSWERS? I WANT THE TRUTH!!! YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!)

Sorry. Got a little carried away there.

Never look a gift horse('s ass) in the mouth, that's what I say. I can't say that I'm pleased that The Prickette lost his job. But I am pleased that his vile internet presence has been quashed, hopefully for good.

Yer finished, Prickette! Time to take your sorry, tired act and head home to wherever subhumans like you live.

Meet the new boss

2011-01-27T13:32:00.000-05:00

Most Republicans were extremely pleased when RINO Michael Steele was unable to retain his position as RNC Chairman. Steele was unpopular with the Team Elephant elites. He was even more unpopular with the Tea Party.

But is the new RNC Chairman, Reince Priebus, any better? Eh, not so much.

While Priebus boasted, during his campaign for RNC chairman, of his good relations with Wisconsin tea party groups, the leaders of those groups give his tenure mixed reviews, with some accusing him of giving only lip service to the movement while stacking the deck against its candidates, shutting them out of the process or working to absorb them into the GOP.

“Priebus will do whatever it takes to co-opt the tea party movement,” said Mike Murphy, chairman of a tea party-allied 527 group called The Republican Liberty Caucus of Wisconsin, founded in late 2009.

In the midterm elections, Murphy’s group supported tea party candidates, including some who were undercut by the state GOP, which largely ignored long-shot tea party candidates and endorsed the primary rivals of others at its May convention — months before the primary election.

As The Who famously sang, "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss."

I wrote yesterday that the Tea Party made a gargantuan mistake by not forming a third party or joining forces with one of the existing third parties. Their movement was co-opted by Team Elephant, just as I said it would be. The new Chairman is further proof that I'm right.

But Mike Murphy isn't going to just roll over and let the elitists roll the Tea Party. He's starting to see things my way.

“He didn’t allow for conservative voices that didn’t jibe with the establishment view and if he charges down that course (at the RNC), the tea party people will wake up and it may very well split up the Republican Party” coalition that powered the GOP’s 2010 landslide, said Murphy.

Let's hope for the future viability of the Tea Party that he's right.

Il Duce sets a trap

2011-01-26T11:28:00.001-05:00

Il Duce gave his State of the Union speech last night. Deadeye watched the speech. I went to bed - 4:30 AM comes early, ya know. She said Il Duce did a good job. Good for him. [/sarcasm]

I read the transcript. It's the best way with these kinds of speeches. It's just so easy to get caught up in the applause lines and rhetorical flourishes otherwise.

The speech was actually quite good. Give credit where credit is due. But he also set a trap for the Republicans, a trap they'd be wise to avoid.

Now, I have heard rumors that a few of you still have concerns about our new health care law. (Laughter.) So let me be the first to say that anything can be improved. If you have ideas about how to improve this law by making care better or more affordable, I am eager to work with you. We can start right now by correcting a flaw in the legislation that has placed an unnecessary bookkeeping burden on small businesses. (Applause.)

What I'm not willing to do — what I'm not willing to do is go back to the days when insurance companies could deny someone coverage because of a preexisting condition. (Applause.)

I'm not willing to tell James Howard, a brain cancer patient from Texas, that his treatment might not be covered. I'm not willing to tell Jim Houser, a small business man from Oregon, that he has to go back to paying $5,000 more to cover his employees. As we speak, this law is making prescription drugs cheaper for seniors and giving uninsured students a chance to stay on their patients' — parents' coverage. (Applause.)

So I say to this chamber tonight, instead of re-fighting the battles of the last two years, let's fix what needs fixing and let's move forward. (Applause.)

Let's fix what needs fixing and let's move forward. Yeah.....

If Team Elephant's so-called leadership falls for this "please don't throw me in the brier patch!" tactic, they deserve the electoral slaughter they'll incur in 2012.

Il Duce is trying to set up a situation where the abortion that is Obamacare becomes associated with Republicans as well as Democrats. If he gives a little here and there but keeps the essential structure of Obamacare intact, he reasons, when people face the nightmare that health care will become, their ire will be bipartisan.

Of course, the RINO leadership in Congress is just stupid enough to fall for this transparent ruse.

I said some time ago that the Tea Party made a gargantuan mistake by not forming a third party or joining forces with one of the existing third parties. When I'm right, I'm right.

Epic Karma

2011-01-25T11:39:00.001-05:00

Karma: action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation.
from Dictionary.com

As a Christian, I don't believe in Karma per se. That is, I don't believe in it the way the Buddhists do. I do believe that our actions have consequences. The Bible says, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A person reaps what he sows." (Gal. 6:7)

So call it what you will. Karma. Payback. Just desserts. What goes around comes around. It's all the same thing. And for a schadenfreude junkie like me, it's like crack, baby. Especially when it happens to Limousine Liberals like Alec Baldwin.

Actor Alec Baldwin has joined a list of elite New Yorkers targeted by tax collectors who think they're fibbing about where they really live to dodge New York City income taxes.

In recent years, auditors have confronted hundreds of super-wealthy New Yorkers over the residency rules - including star Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter.

Facing shrinking revenues, the state has ramped up its pursuit of suspected tax dodgers, hiring 189 new auditors and - for the first time - making filers swear under oath on tax forms as to how many days they "spend in New York City."

If it's more than 183 days and the filer has a residence in the city, the tax bill goes up.

Baldwin, star of NBC's "30 Rock," owns a three-bedroom co-op on Central Park West, a house in the Hamptons and a pad near his daughter in Los Angeles.

He spends lots of time in the city doing the show, but claims the Hamptons as home base. That made him one of hundreds of people slapped with an audit in 2009.

"The moment you start working regularly [in the city], the city finance people come after you," Baldwin recently told an audience at City College.

Hmmmm. How 'bout that? If you work and achieve success in New York, the fruits of your success are subject to confiscation [/sarcasm].

How did such a thing ever come to pass? Follow along with me.

Limousine Liberals like Alec Baldwin demand government solutions to problems. Limousine Liberals like Alec Baldwin raise a ruckus about the rich "paying their fair share". And then, Limousine Liberals like Alec Baldwin skip off to the Hamptons to avoid the high taxes they've inflicted on everyone else!

By their fruits you shall know them. Alec Baldwin, like all Limousine Liberals, is a big, fat phony.

On the subject of karma, I think I've get some coming my way for my rather mean post in which I postulated that a police officer had died "in hot pursuit of a dozen donuts".

It turns out the the officer in question was an undercover cop who was killed by...wait for it...the police. Yeah, you read that right. By the police.

Police say he was shot and killed by other officers who responded to the scene to break up a fight.

I'd like to know how the "internal investigation" turns out. It's fairly obvious when the cops kill a mundane* that it the "investigation" will determine that the cops did nothing wrong. But when it's one of them, you can't be so sure.

In any regard, I apologize to the family of the fallen officer for my unkindness.

*Will Grigg's term for those of us who aren't part of the political elite or the police state apparatus.

The Looter Czar

2011-01-23T19:44:00.001-05:00

Il Duce, the Amerikan President, likes czars. He's appointed so may of them that I honestly can't even hazard an estimate as to how many there actually are. While Chairmanship of the President's Council on Jobs and Competiveness doesn't technically qualify as a "czarship", the new Chairman of that Council certainly merits some sort of Czar-like title. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you - Jeffery Immelt.

President Obama today will name General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt chairman of the new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, the White House announced overnight.

Why is this any more noteworthy than any other Il Duce appointment? Because General Electric is the #1 looter corporation, and GE Chairman Jeffery Imelt is The King of Looters.

When Democrats said President Obama was “pro-business,” we didn’t know they meant one business in particular.

There are a few companies on the Obama corporate A List – Democratic patrons Google and Goldman Sachs both turn up again and again at White House functions and for special recognition – but no company seems to get the VIP treatment that General Electric receives.
[...]

Whether it is pushing the president’s plan for global warming fees in order to create demand for his “Ecomagination” line of windmills, solar panels, etc., boosting the president’s national health-care law as part of an effort to sell more medical equipment, or enthusing over the Obama strategy of making loans available for industrial exporters, Immelt has been an Obama stalwart all along. Immelt has also consistently argued to shareholders that there is big money to be made in advancing the Democratic agenda.

The fact is that no company has more riding on AGW than GE, and no company is more involved in lobbying for crap legislation to lock out its competition than GE. The bill that outlawed incandescent light bulbs? GE was behind that. All the crap legislation making our nation's "energy policy" completely reliant on wind, sun, and unicorn farts? GE was behind that. GE is crony capitalism at its worst.

Il Duce is all about rewarding his supporters and punishing those who oppose him. This is a bald-faced example of unmerited political payback.

But then, "unmerited" is a looter's middle name.

Police Story

2011-01-23T10:55:00.000-05:00

I was driving to Columbia to see the chiropractor last week when I espied one of the People's Republic of Maryland message boards that have sprung up over the state's highways in the past several years. The message on it read:

Slow traffic warning
Police funeral - 12 PM to 4 PM

I had to reread the message to make sure I understood. You're telling me that traffic is going to be FUBAR for 4 hours just because a cop died?

This isn't an unusual occurrence. This past year a Frederick County Sheriffs Deputy died "in the line of duty" and was given one of these lavish traffic-nightmare taxpayer-funded funerals. He died during a high-speed chase when the perp was able to negotiate a left turn and he wasn't. He died because he couldn't drive. Heroic.

Then there's this tool, who died "in the line of duty" when he learned first-hand that giving a "halt" hand signal won't stop a vehicle going 70-MPH. Heroic.

There's no telling how the officer whose passing was going to cause a 4 hour traffic nightmare died. Perhaps he was in high-speed pursuit of a dozen donuts.

"Damn, Vulture! That's harsh! Why do you hate on the cops so much?"

Why? Because NWA was right. And because of cops like this.

The sentencing hearing for former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge recessed for the day after a University of Chicago professor testified that torture allegations against Burge are unlike any other police misconduct in the city's history.

“This is an unprecedented instance,’’ said Adam Green, who specializes in African-American history. “What happened at Area 2 is really a singular chapter.’’

Green said abuse by police strikes at entire communities, but a sense of worth and respect can be restored if the misconduct is addressed.

Earlier today, one of Burge's alleged victims took the stand and asked Burge, “Why would you do this? … You were supposed to be the law.”

Before a packed courtroom, Anthony Holmes told how he still dreams he is inside the now infamous room at the Area 2 station on the South Side where Burge allegedly used electric shock and suffocation to coerce confessions from suspects.

Holmes, saying it was difficult for him to testify about the abuse, took a deep breath before he started. He said his wrongful imprisonment shattered family relationships and caused constant fear of police and re-arrest.

Officer Burge tortured young black men who may or may not have been involved in any crime in order to extract a "confession". He then turned the young man over to the grasping, politically ambitious Prosecutor, the one person less concerned with guilt or innocence than Officer Burge. What's the big deal, right? It's just one more po' nigga in the system.

Except that an innocent person has their life and freedom robbed from them just so law enforcement can bump their statistics. With the exception of murder and perhaps rape, there is no more heinous crime than that.

I'd love to attend the taxpayer-funded police funeral for Officer Burge. What I'd leave on his grave site wouldn't pass for flowers.

The PG County "solution"

2011-01-21T11:18:00.001-05:00

I've said it before. There are only two things government does well: growth, and coercion. So who can be surprised that PG County's "solution" to their obscene murder rate problem is coercion.

Some residents tell 9NEWS NOW that the increased police patrols following the murder spike in Prince George's County has led to some questionable activity.

"The yanked me out of the car, put a knee on my back, and checked my rectum several times," said a 20 year old man who did not want to use his name.

Checked his rectum several times. Is this a gay bath house, or police work? Has The Prickette found work in PG County?

Seriously, who can be surprised? The Police State is upon us, in varying degrees depending on locale. You might not notice it in the affluent suburbs like Potomac. But if you live in HURTing Seat Pleasant or Anacostia, you're living it. Up close and personal.

Safer in Afghanistan

2011-01-17T11:37:00.000-05:00

For those of you unfamiliar with the Washington metropolitan area, here's a brief geography lesson. Washington DC is surrounded by the state of Maryland (or, as the Vulture refers to the state in which he lives, the People's Republic of Maryland). There are two PRM counties surrounding DC: affluent Montgomery County to the West, and HURTing Prince Georges County to the East.

PG County has always been a high crime place. But now it's achieved the kind of milestone that has heretofore never been approached by any stateside jurisdiction - EVER!

Federal agents are embedding with homicide investigators in Prince George's County starting this week in a rare move as authorities scramble to react to a string of 13 killings that have occurred already in 2011.

"It is very unusual for us to bring in agents and embed them in our homicide division," said police spokesman Maj. Andy Ellis. "I can't remember us doing that since probably the mid-to-late '90s."

The county has been rocked by news of a homicide spike since New Year's Day. The county's 13 killings exceed the 12 U.S. military deaths that have occurred this year in Afghanistan as of Friday morning.

Yes, you read that right. There have been more shooting deaths in PG County in 2011 than fatalities in Afghanistan.

Please, explain to me again how the Great Society welfare state, gun control, and the War on Drugs have made our lives so much better. 'Cause I ain't seein' it.

Conservatives and law enforcement

2011-01-13T13:15:00.000-05:00

One of the things about so-called Conservatives that really chafes my bottom is their adoration for law enforcement. Cops are all heroes who accepted a calling from God to be protectors of the citizenry. Prosecutors are all heroes who eschewed the Siren call of lucrative jobs with prestigious law firms to fight crime and see to it that the guilty are punished.

As has been witnessed by anyone who has read more than a handful of Will Grigg's posts, the reality doesn't match the fantasy.

Prosecutors tend to be bastions of corruption, more concerned with their won-lost record than whether they've sent an innocent man to prison (because it was easy) or let a guilty man walk free (because the case was too hard to win). On multiple occasions it has been discovered that exculpatory evidence has been hidden by prosecutors to assure the "win"! (See here for one example). Why do they do this? What's in it for them? Why, they have political aspirations, of course! A prosecutor with a tremendous won-lost record makes an excellent candidate for state or federal office. Bastards.

Think I'm wrong? See here, here, and here. Again, William Grigg has MANY more examples than that.

Cops tend to be fatass bullies, quick to anger, quick to shoot those who don't react immediately to their commands. Examples of this are legion - particularly on Will Grigg's site, but I've documented a few myself, here, here, here, and especially here.

A prime example of "quick to anger, quick to shoot" is the case of John T. Williams (H/T to Debra Farver).

The police shooting of a talented, aging Native totem carver has sparked anger and outrage in Seattle’s Native community, and beyond.

John T. Williams, long time Seattle resident and a Ditidaht member of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations of Canada’s Vancouver Island, was shot four times and killed Aug. 30 by police officer Ian D. Birk, a two-year veteran of the Seattle Police Department.

Police said Williams advanced towards Birk when the officer spotted him sitting on a ledge with a knife and shouted three commands at him to drop it.

As eyewitnesses came forward with a different version of events police then said Williams was crossing an intersection with a knife and piece of wood in his hands, refused to drop the knife and advanced towards the officer.

“His body stance did not look threatening at all,” an eyewitness told The Seattle Times. “I could only see the gentleman’s back, and he didn’t look aggressive at all. He didn’t even look up at the officer.”

Williams died between 1811 Eastlake, a private nonprofit home for chronic drinkers where he’d lived off and on, and the Pike Street Market in downtown Seattle, where he sold his carvings.

Williams was crippled with arthritis and hobbled more than he walked, Randy Lewis, a leader of the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation said. He was capable at most of turning towards the officer when he heard him shouting, to show him what he had in his hands.

That’s if he heard him shouting. Williams’ friends say he was deaf in his left ear from an infection eight years ago.

To summarize:

A cop orders a man walking down the street minding his own business to drop the knife he's carrying. Never mind that the block of wood he's carrying is what's known as "a clue" as to what said person's intention is for said knife.

The cop doesn't get the response he desires; that is, the person in question doesn't immediately comply like a cowering sheep to John Law's demand. He most likely didn't comply because he couldn't hear him. This matters not one whit to the man in blue.

The cop shoots him 4 times. In broad daylight. Like a dog.

What do you think of your "hero" cop, Conservatives? You think he's in law enforcement because he's been called by God to protect the masses? Or is it because he's hung like a thimble and needs a license to throw his weight around, that license being the sanction of the State in the form of a badge?

Season wrap-up

2011-01-11T11:09:00.000-05:00

Since I last wrote about the 49ers and the sorry POS that was their season, a lot has happened.

The Niners are nothing if not consistent. They lost -- badly! -- to the Chargers, 34-7, and, to quote a familiar refrain written multiple times throughout this season, it wasn't as close as the score would indicate.

So what did Coach Singletary do to fix the myriad of problems, particularly with the offensive line, that made that Thursday night so cringe-worthy? Why, he benched Alex Smith, of course! It's ALWAYS the QB's fault when he's sacked, don't you know? [/sarcasm]

Troy Smith was given the start against the Rams. How'd that work out? Worse than expected. The 49ers lost to the Rams 25-17. Both touchdowns scored by the Niners were flukes: a 60-yard pass-and-run to Michael Crabtree, and a 78-yard punt return by Ted Ginn.

Aside from the pass to Crabtree, Troy Smith was absolutely putrid: 7-19, 153 yards, 1 TD, 1 pick. Alex Smith came in in the 4th quarter and led a drive that ended in a field goal, but by then it was too late. The 49ers were officially eliminated from the playoffs with the loss.

The 49ers "brain trust" (and BOY do I use THAT term loosely) finally performed the mercy killing and fired Coach Singletary with one game left to play. It figures that the 49ers would choose that game to get something going. Whether it was Singletary being gone, or the fact that it was ~~the Arizona Cardinals~~ our bitch, I don't know...but the 49ers won by a score of 38-7. Naturally, it wasn't as close as the score would indicate.

So the Niners finished at 6-10, the exact opposite of the 10-6 I had predicted for the season. *sigh*

The team is in a major transition period now. Trent Balke was named as General Manager, and Jim Harbaugh was hired as the new Head Coach. Normally I would be giddy with optimism with the Niners landing a hot coaching candidate like Harbaugh...but there so much wrong with this team, and, no matter how good Harbaugh is, the team is STILL going to suck next year.

Let's start with the quarterback, shall we? Who is it? No one knows. Alex Smith will be a free agent this off season, and he's pretty much made it known that he's done in SF. Who could blame him? The booing. The "we want Carr" chants. All he did was overcome a horrendous start (3 touchdowns and 7 picks after 4 games, 6 touchdowns and 9 picks after 5 games) to throw for 8 touchdowns and 1 pick the last part of the season. He ended up with a passer rating of 82.1. It's not good, but it's better than 10 other starting quarterbacks including Donovan McNabb and Matt Hasselsuck. And it was certainly better than what Troy Smith ended up doing (5 TD, 4 picks, 78.8).

Apparently the plan is to draft a quarterback and trust the combination of David Carr and Troy Smith to server as the stopgap until the new quarterback is ready. *groan* This is a sure guarantee of 6-10 seasons as far as the eye can see.

Oh well...it's the playoffs, and hockey season beckons as well. Great season, Niners! You broke my heart yet again!.

Demagoging tragedy

2011-01-10T12:20:00.000-05:00

Frankly, I don't know which sickens me more: the abhorrent mass murder committed by a sicko-psycho in Arizona that also left Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords critically wounded, or the reaction to her wounding in the media.

Big Media (the BM for short) -- the same BM that demanded that we "not rush to judgment" following the Ft. Hood mass murder by a sicko-psycho -- rushed to judgment bigtime this time. "Right-wing rhetoric" was blamed by some, an ironic claim, it turns out. The shooter was described as "quite liberal" and a "political radical" by classmates.

Turns out when it comes to hateful rhetoric, the left doesn't fare too poorly itself. Caribou Barbie hung in effigy. Il Duce quoted as saying, "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun". Ironic.

~~Sarah Palin~~ Caribou Barbie was blamed for "putting a bulls-eye on Rep. Giffords", an ironic claim, it turns out. A Daily Kos blogger said that Giffords was "dead to me" just two days prior to the attack. Not quite a bulls-eye, but ugly nonetheless.

Of course, Faux News came out all in defense of Caribou Barbie. What? You expected differently? Regardless of where you get your news, children, you're gonna get spin.

Naturally, the Tea Party was blamed as well. Yeah, all of that "hateful rhetoric" about sticking to the Constitution really makes folks want to kill their Congress-critter [/sarcasm].

Naturally, the Succubus of State had to weigh in, calling the shooter, "an extremist". Takes one to know one, I suppose...

But the simple fact is that the shooter is mentally unbalanced. How unbalanced? Enough to where his college classmates were scared of him.

No one is blaming Caribou Barbie, or the Tea Party, or even Calvin Klein for this kook who castrated a journalist. Not the right political angle, I suppose.

Look, it's no secret that I hate Team Donkey and Team Elephant equally. Anyone who thinks that either of them is "the good guys" is drinking the Kool Aid. But the partisan demagoguery on display the past two days has been nauseating. And frankly, you have to ask, if the wounded Representative had an 'R' after her name, would there be all of this finger pointing and whining about "hateful political rhetoric"?

I think you know the answer to that question...

The obvious, stated

2011-01-07T11:23:00.002-05:00

It appears that someone FINALLY gets it. Anne Applebaum of Foreign Policy magazine says in a mainstream publication what I've been saying for years on my little blog.

HOMELAND SECURITY HASN'T MADE US SAFER

Hardly anyone has seriously scrutinized either the priorities or the spending patterns of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its junior partner, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), since their hurried creation in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Sure, they get criticized plenty. But year in, year out, they continue to grow faster and cost more -- presumably because Americans think they are being protected from terrorism by all that spending. Yet there is no evidence whatsoever that the agencies are making Americans any safer.

DHS serves only one clear purpose: to provide unimaginable bonanzas for favored congressional districts around the United States, most of which face no statistically significant security threat at all. One thinks of the $436,504 that the Blackfeet Nation of Montana received in fiscal 2010 "to help strengthen the nation against risks associated with potential terrorist attacks"; the $1,000,000 that the village of Poynette, Wisconsin (pop. 2,266) received in fiscal 2009 for an "emergency operations center"; or the $67,000 worth of surveillance equipment purchased by Marin County, California, and discovered, still in its original packaging, four years later. And indeed, every U.S. state, no matter how landlocked or underpopulated, receives, by law, a fixed percentage of homeland security spending every year.

As for the TSA, I am not aware of a single bomber or bomb plot stopped by its time-wasting procedures. In fact, TSA screeners consistently fail to spot the majority of fake "bombs" and bomb parts the agency periodically plants to test their skills. In Los Angeles, whose airport was targeted by the "millennium plot" on New Year's 2000, screeners failed some 75 percent of these tests.

Terrorists have been stopped since 2001 and plots prevented, but always by other means. After the Nigerian "underwear bomber" of Christmas Day 2009 was foiled, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano claimed "the system worked" -- but the bomber was caught by a passenger, not the feds. Richard Reid, the 2001 shoe bomber, was undone by an alert stewardess who smelled something funny. The 2006 Heathrow Airport plot was uncovered by an intelligence tip. Al Qaeda's recent attempt to explode cargo planes was caught by a human intelligence source, not an X-ray machine. Yet the TSA responds to these events by placing restrictions on shoes, liquids, and now perhaps printer cartridges.

Given this reality -- and given that 9/11 was, above all, a massive intelligence failure -- wouldn't we be safer if the vast budgets of TSA and its partners around the world were diverted away from confiscating nail scissors and toward creating better information systems and better intelligence?

Amen, sister!

Now that it's been said out loud in the mainstream, can we PLEASE have a rational debate about this colossal monstrosity Washington has created?

Keep in mind that the REAL purpose of DHSS* isn't to protect us. The real purpose of DHSS is to convince the American people to forfeit their freedoms in exchange for purported protection and safety. As Ms. Applebaum has appropriately noted, we haven't gained a lick of enhanced security from the agencies of oppression, DHSS, and its bastard stepchild, TSSA*.

Isn't it time to stop pretending and put an end to this mindless charade?

* You can't abbreviate Schutzstaffel without the double 'S'

Two-bit terrorism in the PRM

2011-01-07T08:33:00.003-05:00

Terrorism has hit in the ~~Great State~~ People's Republic of Maryland! Call the National Guard! Call DHSS*! Call Janet Napolitano!

Terrorism in the PRM? Uh, yeah....about that...

State and federal officials are investigating small incendiary devices that "flared up" at the Maryland Department of Transportation's headquarters in Hanover and a state government building in Annapolis on Thursday.

What do you mean "small incendiary devices"? Who's behind it? What kind of damage did the devices cause? The answers:

A disgruntled "lone wolf" is believed to be behind incendiary devices sent to Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley, investigators believe.

The two devices burned the fingers of two employees when they were opened in Annapolis and Hanover 15 minutes apart Thursday.
[...]
When the worker opened the package that had five holiday postage stamps on it, it produced a "puff of smoke and a sulphur-type smell, like if you would strike a match."

That's it? A stink bomb that resulted in some burned fingers? C'mon, are you kidding me? I've had camping trips that resulted in more carnage than that!

Yes, one of the packages was address to Governor Martin O' Owe-Malley...hey, how 'bout that [/sarcasm]. Old Marty was unharmed by the "attack". He can go on taxing and spending with impunity.

Of course, you just KNOW that law enforcement and the DHSS are going to WAAAAAAY overreact to this little prank. Are we going to be subjected to TSSA* groping when we go to the post office?

Kinda adds new meaning to the phrase, "Let me inspect that package, sir!"

* You can't abbreviate Schutzstaffel without the double 'S'

Message to the looter class

2011-01-06T15:58:00.001-05:00

How can you tell when your society is destined for ruin? Easy.

"Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion -- when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing -- when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors -- when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you -- when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice -- you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that it does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.

"Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it becomes, marked: 'Account overdrawn.'

"When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, 'Who is destroying the world?' You are.

An excerpt from Atlas Shrugged by Ain Rand.

How valid is Rand's assessment. Pretty spot on, if you ask me. Pretty spot on.

A hearty welcome to the 112th Congress of the United States. Loot on!

What anonymity really means

2011-01-04T10:11:00.002-05:00

There once was a blog called Coram Non Judice (known to regular readers of this fine blog as Caput Penitus Culus). The blog was purported to present valid legal opinions on issues related to the FLDS raid in Texas. The blog was run pseudonymously by a fellow identifying himself as TxBluesMan. No one knew his real name. No one knew what his credentials were to opine on legal matters. No one.

When asked how he justified writing anonymously what essentially amounted to hate-filled propaganda in the guise of legal opinion -- citing precedent often, of course -- TxBluesMan compared himself to the Founders, who at times wrote anonymous tracts against the colonial government and the King.

This, of course, was complete horse hockey. There was nothing remotely similar to what the Founders did in anything TxBluesMan wrote. The Founders hid behind anonymity to avoid arrest for sedition. TxBluesMan wrote anonymously for a far different reason.

Anonymity, Martha Nussbaum, a professor of law and philosophy at the University of Chicago observes, allows Internet bloggers “to create for themselves a shame-free zone in which they can inflict shame on others.” The power of the bloggers, she continues, “depends on their ability to insulate their Internet selves from responsibility in the real world, while ensuring real-world consequences” for those they injure.

As the tipster who passed this story on to me wrote, "That, boys and girls, is the story of TxBluesman."

100% true and accurate. Think I'm kidding? I was accused by TxBluesMan of being pro-polygamy and pro-pedophilia for simply opining that 4th Amendment protections were violated during the Texas Stoßtruppen's raid!

TxBluesMan is an intolerant bully. He desperately needed to be outed. And he was.

TxBluesMan turned out to be Sgt. Gregory Prickett, AKA the Caput a Palos, AKA The Prickette.

Once he was outed, The Prickette immediately shut down his odious blog to try to bury the evidence. You see, now his real self was linked to his Internet self -- and real consequences awaited.

It's not pleasant when the curtain is parted and the Great and Powerful Oz is revealed to be a two-bit loser with a penchant for throwing his weight around and playing the big shot. At least, not for Oz.

UPDATE: The same tipster who passed on the NY Times article adds the following:

Just FYI: while online at any sites controlled by Google, your "anonymity" is subject to their selective authority that may or may not conceal it.

Wiener of the Year

2011-01-02T17:26:00.001-05:00

Prior to 2010 I awarded the Wiener of the Week award and the Wiener of the Month award every week/month. I discontinued that practice this year because it constrained my flexibility with regard to subject-matter selection. It was a decision I'm glad I made, given that the past year I've had significantly less opportunity to post than in past years.

But at the time I announced the discontinuation of the Wieners of the Week and Month, I stated that the Wiener of the Year award would still be given out to the person or persons most deserving of that dishonor.

In past years I solicited nominations for the WotY. Not this year. There was no need for that. The winner (wiener?) was decided months ago. There aren't even any candidates for the runner-up spots. Nope, for 2010 there's just one, and he may be the most deserving recipient yet.

Ladies and gentlemen, your Wiener of the Year for 2010 is: Sgt. Gregory Prickett (hereinafter referred to as The Prickette).

It's ironic, but The Prickette is a two-time Wiener. Last year I picked co-Wieners when I awarded the WotY to two blogs noted for their anti-FLDS bigotry. At that time the identity of the person behind the execrable Coram Non Judice (known by regulars here as Caput Penitus Culus - Head Inside Ass) was unknown. Thanks to the efforts of The Pharisee and others, the identity of the Caput a Palos was revealed. Rather than bore you with the history of what transpired in the wake of that revelation, you can read up on it here. Suffice it to say that The Prickette has paid dearly for playing lawyer and accusing innocent persons of pedophilia.

What makes The Prickette Wiener-worthy? Let me count the ways.

He shut down his blog once he was outed. It's gone for good, deleted by its owner. Note that The Prickette has never at any time denied that he is TxBluesMan, the sorry excuse for a human being who proudly used his purported legal "expertise" to espouse bigotry and hatred.
He presented himself to his blog readers as a legal expert. He not only isn't a lawyer, he wasn't even a real law enforcement professional (campus cop does NOT count as law enforcement).
He lost his job as a campus cop. It would be purely speculative on my part to posit a theory as to why he is no longer employed by UNT, but it is likely related to alleged misuse of university resources in furtherance of his malignant campaign of pure bigotry against the FLDS.
Now that he's been "outed", his relationship with Natalie Malonis has become fodder for speculation. I wonder how Mrs. Prickette feels about the coziness between her pompous-ass husband and Ms. Malonis.
He has attempted to sue those responsible for outing him for "damages", yet, as noted earlier, he has NEVER denied being the cowardly subhuman behind Caput Penitus Culus. Never. Kinda hard to prove damages when the "damage" is the result of the revelation of the truth.

Face it, Prickette. Your life is a colossal fail. Epic. You sat in judgment of others, flinging baseless accusations from behind the cloak of anonymity like an ape throwing feces at the zoo (a fitting mental picture of who you really are). And you've proved to be a fraud, a loser, a nothing.

Congratulations, Prickette. You're the Wiener of the Year.

Pictured: the Caput a Palos himself

Back in the saddle again

2011-01-02T15:37:00.000-05:00

OMG! One week without wireless capability and I'm jonesing like a junkie for crack. It just goes to show you how much some of us have become reliant on technology. By "some of us" I certainly mean me.

So now I can resume my rightful place at the keyboard, lurking.

Home Sweet Wireless Home!

Going through internet withdrawls

2010-12-28T15:41:00.002-05:00

I'm in internet limbo. My in-laws don't have a wireless router and I don't want to sit and tie up their computer all day like a rude guest.

I'm going bananas! I need a fix!!!! I need those bits and bytes and whatnots (especially the whatnots!).

My boys, sitting at home, are probably laughing at my situation. They're home with laptops and desktops and tablets and smart phones. My phone couldn't be any dumber. All it does is dial numbers!

Technology is both a blessing and a curse. I'm living the "curse" part right now.

Speaking of getting fired...

2010-12-23T12:47:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I wrote about ~~Steven~~ Screamin' A. Smith losing his gig as the Fox Sports Radio morning drive host. Today I wish to write about a different individual losing a different type of job.

The Pharisee reported on Monday that the Caput a Palos, AKA TxBluesMan, AKA Sgt. Gregory Prickett, AKA The Prickette (pictured at left), has left the employ of UNT-Dallas. It is unknown at this time if he jumped or was pushed. Regardless of how or why, he is no longer employed by UNT.

I'm an empathetic person at heart, so I have a certain feeling of sadness for the Caput a Palos. There is nothing more damaging to a man's self esteem than the loss of his employment. Most of us feel somewhat defined by our occupation ("I'm a doctor", or "I'm a lawyer", or "I'm a glorified mall cop", for example).

That stated, I have to admit to a certain schadenfruede over the news. After all, Mr. Bigshot has wrongfully maligned me and blogger friends of mine with the vilest of accusations, and did so under cover of anonymity. That his cover has been blown and his shady acts of cowardice exposed is a satisfaction ranking right up there with a 49ers Super Bowl victory for me.

When The Prickette was outed, he lashed out against those most prominent in the exposure of his identity by filing a bogus lawsuit against them. The Pharisee reported on Tuesday that the lawsuit is effectively kaput. Given that it was strictly an intimidation ploy by The Prickette all along, Hugh has filed a criminal complaint against him. It seems that in Texas -- and pretty much nowhere else -- it is a felony crime to engage in Barratry - the act or practice of bringing legal action solely to harass. The complaint also details The Prickette's harassment of Hugh's daughter, an innocent bystander in this particular pissing contest.

Hey, if this is a pissing contest, has Hugh succeeded in making it halfway up the 30' pole (as compared to The Prickette's measly 2 feet)? I always suspected that The Prickette was a little...uh...lacking...in the man-plumbing department.

I hear that every time a cop gets fired a member of NWA gets his wings. Could be. All I know is there's one less goon out there busting teeth today than there was last week at this time.

One and done

2010-12-22T10:33:00.001-05:00

It was just over one year ago that the programming geniuses at Fox Sports Radio fired long-time morning host Steve Czaban and crew. My thoughts on the matter were, shall we say, not positive.

I simply couldn't believe that FSR would drop a successful morning drive show and replace it with ~~Steven~~ Screamin' A. Smith. It was beyond counter-intuitive to me. Smith's act had gotten tired at ESPN, being that it is a one-pony trick: express an opinion, and express it more loudly than those with whom you disagree. WHY would FSR think that he would succeed as a morning drive host?

Apparently the Screamin' A. Smith show was...how shall I put this?...somewhat less than successful.

"Zack and Jack" will take over morning drive from 6-9 a.m. on WOFX-AM (980). The show replaces the "Stephen A. Smith Show." Smith will be moving into the roll of NBA analyst for all of Fox Sports Radio's shows. Smith's last show is Dec. 31.

One year. One solitary year. Yeah........how'd that work out for you, FSR?

Naturally, Czaban wasn't exactly crying about this development. And who could blame him? His show ran 7 years at FSR. Seven. Now he's back on morning drive with Sporting News Radio, which XM has FINALLY added to their lineup, albeit on channel 242, WAAAAAAY out past the traffic report stations.

No matter. The story has a happy ending.

FSR dumped a popular host in search of....what exactly? That lucrative Black urban professional demographic (approximately 1% of the population)? That lucrative Black urban 18-34 demographic (approximately 4% of the population)?

In return they got one lousy year of Screamin' A., affiliate cancellations, and yet another lineup change. Meanwhile, Czaban is right back in prime time, better than ever.

Suck on it, FSR.

Neutral? Hardly.

2010-12-21T12:12:00.001-05:00

The lame duck (with heavy emphasis on the "lame") Congress is trying to force through all manner of ill-conceived legislation. Gays in the military. The DREAM act. The START treaty.

But that stuff is merely a distraction. There's something more sinister afoot than any of that. Matt Drudge is posting one, after another, after another, after another, link to stories that identify a threat far more dangerous to our freedoms than anything else in the news right now.

The Federal Communications Commission will vote on Dec. 21 on whether to adopt regulations that ban the blocking of lawful traffic but allow Internet service providers to ration Web traffic on their networks.

So? What's the big deal? This is.

The fixers here are pursuing something called "net neutrality," which will change the way certain Internet providers pay for privileged rights to the Web and charge their customers accordingly. "Net neutrality" sounds good to anyone not paying attention, but it must be accomplished by a seizure of authority to do so, a seizure not by Congress (which would be scary enough), but by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Here's the skinny. The Internet is currently the last bastion of freedom. It exists, for the most part, free from interference from government or regulators. It is the one place where an American citizen can still speak his or her mind unfiltered.

While the Internet is pooh-poohed as being frivolous and "experts" insist that it is not subject to the protections in place for Big Media (the BM for short), the fact is that a number of extremely important news stories, including Matt Drudge's breaking of the Monica Lewinsky story, have had as their mode of conveyance the "frivolous" Internet.

An authoritarian government seeks to restrict freedom of the press at all costs. Ours is becoming increasingly authoritarian. The BM is already working under the thumb of government regulation. They are also tied to corporate masters whose survival hinges on government's selective picking of winners and losers. The BM is no threat to the government. The Internet is.

If you understand government, you'll understand that the FCC won't be content with setting "fairness" rules. They'll also want to regulate content. Politically charged speech would most surely be restricted ("We have to stamp out hate speech!"). The writings of this particular blogger, fond of referring to the past two Presidents as King George the Dim and Il Duce, would most certainly fall under their definition of hate speech.

But, hey. You go right on sweating gays in the military, the DREAM act, and the START treaty. Nothing to see here. Move along now.

Horrible and ironic ways to die

2010-12-16T12:07:00.000-05:00

This item speaks for itself.

A 33-year-old man who was part of a crew renovating an apartment on Milwaukee's west side was killed Tuesday when he was struck by a refrigerator his co-workers threw from the building, a Milwaukee police spokeswoman said.

Initial reports indicated the refrigerator fell from a fourth-floor porch to the ground, where the man was struck.

Weekend wrapup: a tale of two weekends

2010-12-14T13:52:00.001-05:00

After last week's spanking by the Green Bay Packers (34-16, and it wasn't as close as the score would indicate), I was ready to sign off for the season. After all, who wants to hear me bitch about my mediocre, under-achieving team?

Then Sunday the heavens opened and all was right with the world again. The 49ers delivered a beatdown on the hated Seahawks (40-21, and it wasn't as close as the score would indicate).

Sadly, "...and it wasn't as close as the score would indicate" has become the modus operandi for the 49ers for the past 4 games. Blown out by Tampa Bay. Dominated ~~the Cardinals~~ our bitch. Humiliated by the Packers. Dominated the Seabags.

Alex Smith made his triumphal return to the starting lineup, and, although his numbers weren't spectacular (255 yards passing), he threw for 3 touchdowns and didn't turn the ball over at all.

Matt Hasselsuck lived up to the name, throwing 4 picks and losing a fumble. One interception was in the end zone, killing a productive drive. One interception was a pick-six.

So, at 5-8, the 49ers are still alive in the abysmal NFC Worst. The Seabags loss, coupled with the Rams humiliating loss to the Saints, puts the 49ers one game out of first place in the Worst. Fortune smiles: the 49ers have only one really tough game left, in San Diego on Thursday. The 49ers could conceivably go 7-9 (which I predicted two weeks ago as being their final record) and win the division. OY!

I'm not sure if I'm happy about this or not. Winning a Division title with a losing record (and then, in all likelihood, getting pummeled by a real playoff team) isn't what I had in mind for this year. I thought we'd be so much better than that.

There's another aspect to this. The team most likely to be left on the outside looking in as the 49ers enter the playoffs with their losing record is Tampa Bay. Youngest son is a die-hard Bucs fan. I hate seeing his team sitting at home for the post season with a significantly better record (and significantly better chance of advancing) than my boys.

In the immortal words of Dennis Leary, "Life isn't fair. Get a f***ing helmet".