1143 Intellectual Welfare
Just ask them: Corporations and multi-billionaires are today’s Aristotles and Einsteins. They are the intellectual centers of the modern American universe and they are the source of all meaningful thought.
And the ordinary people who echo their meaningful thoughts are today’s intellectual welfare recipients.
Welfare = pay for no work for those who need it or those who can game the system. Intellectual welfare = thoughts for the thought-free who don’t want to think or can’t.
Welfare, of course, doesn’t really exist. It originally was called “Home Relief,” and was meant to help depression era families stay afloat until they could swim through the economic morass of the 1930s.
Then they changed the name to “welfare,” which was a much broader concept, covering more people for more reasons. And finally, it became “Human Services,” which covered everyone human.
Intellectual welfare circumvents all those twists and turns of name and goes to the heart of the matter: some people can’t or won’t think and they need to think because that’s the way the brain works. So they take welfare and echo the party line put forward by the Koch brothers, Rush Limbaugh and all the rest of the fonts of wisdom we have available.
Who do you think is funding the NRA, “right to work” laws (how Orwellian is that phrase!) Who do you think is funding the push for “austerity” that has ruined the already terrible economies of Britain, France, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal?
We have this thing about “it failed over there, so let’s try it here.”
This brings to mind the definition of insanity attributed to the real Einstein: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. (Big Al didn’t really say that. But he endorsed the idea.)
So now we have the sequester. Watch the job losses pile up. Watch the glacial economic recovery melt before your very eyes.
While we’re in a quoting mood, let’s quote Aunt Rant, grandmama of the modern conservative movement (which she emphatically and repeatedly slammed.) Well, not a quote but a paraphrase from one of her Los Angeles Times columns: (They) feed people poison as food and poison as the antidote.
In today’s world, intellectual welfare and austerity are both the food and the antidote.
Shrapnel:
--Call the movers and cancel, would ya’ honey? The whole state of Florida is built on limestone and clay, and you never know when a giant sinkhole will open and eat you alive. We have to find a safer place... like maybe Staten Island.
--Who to hire as a lawyer from hours of watching the Jodi Arias trial: If you’re a crime victim, you’ll want Juan Martinez as prosecutor. If you’re accused of a crime, you’ll want Joey Jackson.
--You know we’re in trouble when the President of the United States, in search of a budget chief, turns to Wal-mart, which he has in budget director nominee Sylvia Burwell, head of the store chain’s foundation. Expect the budget office to be open 24 hours and have greeters in the office suite to make sure no one steals anything. All employees will be part time, get no benefits and will be forbidden from joining a union.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013
Monday, March 04, 2013
Friday, March 01, 2013
1142 Confessions of a Pen Nut
1142 Confessions of a Pen Nut
The collection isn’t what you’d call “vast,” but it’s not small, either. Can’t walk past a showcase, though, without at least looking and considering an addition or two.
Of course, there are displays and then there are Displays. There’s a wall of these things in every Staples and in each of its staple-mates. There’s another wall of them in Wal-mart, Target and every supermarket in America.
But the one you want is never there.
Like the transparent Bics. They still make them. They’re still inexpensive, though not cheap. But try and find one. One. Two, maybe. Not a package of a dozen.
Go into one of those stationery places and ask where the ink is. They send you to the computer aisle. No, no. REAL ink. Like for a fountain pen not a printer. Maybe they have one dusty bottle of black crammed into a corner near the ball point, roller ball and gel refills. Probably not. Gotta get those at a “specialty supplier” like Levenger or the Fountain Pen Hospital or Arthur Brown.
Who hand-writes these days, anyway? Especially with a fountain pen!
Well... in the age of digital insecurity, writing checks in actual ink is a safety precaution. No one has a way of altering them because no one has real ink.
Pen makers are not sitting on their Victorian sofas and tut-tutting while the world passes them by. No, sir! They’re innovating, innovating, innovating.
See the commercial for Paper Mate’s “World’s most stolen pen?” It’s called “Inkjoy” and it’s a dog. It’s both inexpensive and cheap in three different but equally ugly colors.
Parker has introduced “Fifth Mode,” and the “Innovation.” The former is a small rollerball-y kind of thing with refills that go for eight bucks a pop. It’s a rollerball, fer cryin’ out loud. But with a high priced fountain pen-like housing that costs way too much.
The “Innovation” is similar, but with a felt tip covered by something resembling a nib. Kind of like a Sharpie in a pen suit. (Isn’t there some law against impersonating a fountain pen?)
People who use fountain pens buy them for a lifetime. Go see if you can find refills for either of these things in a year or two without having to do a major internet search.
Mont Blanc: fanciest of the fancy with some models that cost four figures.
Customer walks into a jewelry store with a week-old Mont Blanc for which he paid three figures, tells the clerk “hey I just bought this and it leaks."
The clerk replies “yeah, they do that.”
THEY DO THAT? A five hundred dollar pen and “they DO that?”
Yes, they do. So much for “German engineering.”
Gotta stick with the trusty old 1947 Parker 51.
Anyone know where they sell fuchsia ink?
Book Note and blatant promotion: Friend and colleague Ellis Henican wrote a new book with Rorke Denver, a trainer of Navy Seals in the post 9/11 era. I am in the process of reading it, but it starts out strong and so far continues stronger. The book is called “DAMN FEW, Making the Modern Seal Warrior” the publisher is Hyperion and it’s available everywhere.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013
The collection isn’t what you’d call “vast,” but it’s not small, either. Can’t walk past a showcase, though, without at least looking and considering an addition or two.
Of course, there are displays and then there are Displays. There’s a wall of these things in every Staples and in each of its staple-mates. There’s another wall of them in Wal-mart, Target and every supermarket in America.
But the one you want is never there.
Like the transparent Bics. They still make them. They’re still inexpensive, though not cheap. But try and find one. One. Two, maybe. Not a package of a dozen.
Go into one of those stationery places and ask where the ink is. They send you to the computer aisle. No, no. REAL ink. Like for a fountain pen not a printer. Maybe they have one dusty bottle of black crammed into a corner near the ball point, roller ball and gel refills. Probably not. Gotta get those at a “specialty supplier” like Levenger or the Fountain Pen Hospital or Arthur Brown.
Who hand-writes these days, anyway? Especially with a fountain pen!
Well... in the age of digital insecurity, writing checks in actual ink is a safety precaution. No one has a way of altering them because no one has real ink.
Pen makers are not sitting on their Victorian sofas and tut-tutting while the world passes them by. No, sir! They’re innovating, innovating, innovating.
See the commercial for Paper Mate’s “World’s most stolen pen?” It’s called “Inkjoy” and it’s a dog. It’s both inexpensive and cheap in three different but equally ugly colors.
Parker has introduced “Fifth Mode,” and the “Innovation.” The former is a small rollerball-y kind of thing with refills that go for eight bucks a pop. It’s a rollerball, fer cryin’ out loud. But with a high priced fountain pen-like housing that costs way too much.
The “Innovation” is similar, but with a felt tip covered by something resembling a nib. Kind of like a Sharpie in a pen suit. (Isn’t there some law against impersonating a fountain pen?)
People who use fountain pens buy them for a lifetime. Go see if you can find refills for either of these things in a year or two without having to do a major internet search.
Mont Blanc: fanciest of the fancy with some models that cost four figures.
Customer walks into a jewelry store with a week-old Mont Blanc for which he paid three figures, tells the clerk “hey I just bought this and it leaks."
The clerk replies “yeah, they do that.”
THEY DO THAT? A five hundred dollar pen and “they DO that?”
Yes, they do. So much for “German engineering.”
Gotta stick with the trusty old 1947 Parker 51.
Anyone know where they sell fuchsia ink?
Book Note and blatant promotion: Friend and colleague Ellis Henican wrote a new book with Rorke Denver, a trainer of Navy Seals in the post 9/11 era. I am in the process of reading it, but it starts out strong and so far continues stronger. The book is called “DAMN FEW, Making the Modern Seal Warrior” the publisher is Hyperion and it’s available everywhere.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
1141 Throwing the Chinatown Bus Under the Bus
1141 Throwing the Chinatown Bus Under the Bus
News Item: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has ordered the Fung Wah Transportation of New York and Massachusetts to suspend operations until after complete safety inspections of all 28 of its buses.
Massachusetts transit people urged that and thus put the brakes on the largest of the discount carriers running between Chinatown in New York and Boston.
More than 150 safety violations found on 21 of the 28 rolling sardine cans.
No worries, travelers, there are more competitors than there are fortune cookies on Mott St. Someone will fill the Boston/New York run before you finish reading this page.
And each of them is iffy. Alert transit folk picked the biggest and one of the oldest for its first swing at life-saving. But each of those cookies will be cracked open and the data read eventually. And it’s about time.
The Chinatown bus from State College PA to New York takes four hours and costs $25. That’s about half the time and half the price of the corresponding Greyhound.
Rail and airplane fares are much higher and no faster when you include the time you use getting to the train station or the airport and then on to your final destination.
So this being America, it’s natural there would be competitors galore.
And in Chinatown, you don’t make reservations, you walk down the street and the first driver standing outside his bus that sees even a hint you want to travel (like maybe you’re carrying or pulling a suitcase) will cut you off in mid-walk to get you on board.
Every state has strict maintenance standards, strict documentation and strict driver training laws. But also, every state has less than half the inspectors it needs. So if Bus #27 hasn’t been inspected in awhile, who’ll notice? Unless of course it crashes into a guardrail somewhere on the Massachusetts Turnpike.
Long distance bus drivers are overworked and under rested no matter who they drive for. Sometimes they have “assistants” like international pilots. Most times those assistants are perfectly capable and in most cases have actual and legitimate licenses to drive.
But these guys are paid by the trip or by the mile. And when there aren’t enough of them, everyone stretches the miles and the hours.
Data collection? What office has time for data collection. If they kept figures accurately, how could they stiff their employees? And what fun would it be if your gambling trip to Atlantic City didn’t start the moment you boarded the $12 dollar ride?
Shrapnel:
--First it was Maker’s Mark, now it’s Bud. Are they watering it down their beers to save a buck? Several lawsuits in several states say “yes” but offshore owners of this once great American brew deny it.
--At some point, someone is going to water down their water. How are they going to do that? Probably with air.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013
News Item: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has ordered the Fung Wah Transportation of New York and Massachusetts to suspend operations until after complete safety inspections of all 28 of its buses.
Massachusetts transit people urged that and thus put the brakes on the largest of the discount carriers running between Chinatown in New York and Boston.
More than 150 safety violations found on 21 of the 28 rolling sardine cans.
No worries, travelers, there are more competitors than there are fortune cookies on Mott St. Someone will fill the Boston/New York run before you finish reading this page.
And each of them is iffy. Alert transit folk picked the biggest and one of the oldest for its first swing at life-saving. But each of those cookies will be cracked open and the data read eventually. And it’s about time.
The Chinatown bus from State College PA to New York takes four hours and costs $25. That’s about half the time and half the price of the corresponding Greyhound.
Rail and airplane fares are much higher and no faster when you include the time you use getting to the train station or the airport and then on to your final destination.
So this being America, it’s natural there would be competitors galore.
And in Chinatown, you don’t make reservations, you walk down the street and the first driver standing outside his bus that sees even a hint you want to travel (like maybe you’re carrying or pulling a suitcase) will cut you off in mid-walk to get you on board.
Every state has strict maintenance standards, strict documentation and strict driver training laws. But also, every state has less than half the inspectors it needs. So if Bus #27 hasn’t been inspected in awhile, who’ll notice? Unless of course it crashes into a guardrail somewhere on the Massachusetts Turnpike.
Long distance bus drivers are overworked and under rested no matter who they drive for. Sometimes they have “assistants” like international pilots. Most times those assistants are perfectly capable and in most cases have actual and legitimate licenses to drive.
But these guys are paid by the trip or by the mile. And when there aren’t enough of them, everyone stretches the miles and the hours.
Data collection? What office has time for data collection. If they kept figures accurately, how could they stiff their employees? And what fun would it be if your gambling trip to Atlantic City didn’t start the moment you boarded the $12 dollar ride?
Shrapnel:
--First it was Maker’s Mark, now it’s Bud. Are they watering it down their beers to save a buck? Several lawsuits in several states say “yes” but offshore owners of this once great American brew deny it.
--At some point, someone is going to water down their water. How are they going to do that? Probably with air.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
1140 That Old Gang of Mine
1140 That Old Gang of Mine
Shlomo Tzedaka, the last Bronx Jew and Bernard Weinstein, the other last Bronx Jew are at Moishy’s Bakery on Lydig Ave. It’s mid-afternoon.
They were going to split a blintz to go with their glasses of tea, but ‘Mo wanted cherry and Bernie wanted potato and, as usual, compromise would mean defeat. So each ordered his own and blamed the other for forcing up the cost.
‘Mo pops a sugar cube in his cheek takes a first sip of tea. Bernie opens a packet of Splenda, pours it into his drink and then goes for a spoon, which isn’t there.
‘Mo says “how can you eat that dreck? Use a cube like everyone else.” Bernie doesn’t hear because (1) he don’t hear so good no more and (2) he’s off to find a spoon, which he does.
Bernie: I miss the evening papers, used to come out about now.
Mo: Speaking of that, you see the story about Khan the Deli King?
Bernie: Khan? A new Jewish Deli?
Mo: Nah, some A-rab. Saheeb Khan or Sasquatch or something, owns a bunch of stores in Staten Island, got knocked for a loop by Sandy and wrote 82 million dollars in bad checks to cover his losses.
Bernie: No! I guess I’d better start reading the stuff from Jersey.
Papers say Khan is Pakistani, comes from a prominent family (doesn’t everyone) was a doctor in the old country (wasn’t everyone?) comes here starts doing business with the mob. Make that The Mob.
Anything left of the five families? The Feds want you to think “no.” The five families want you to think “no.” The Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Colombian, Mexican, Nicaraguan, social clubbers want you to think “no.”
And yet, every now and then, an Italian name surfaces. In this case it’s Fat Johnny Bull, who was arrested in 2006 on one of those vague federal laws that prohibits Italian Americans in business attire from loitering on street corners in the middle of a weekday afternoon.
‘Mo and Bernie don’t agree on much. But they’re both history buffs. They miss the evening papers. The black and white TV sets, phonograph records and the mob. Make that The Mob.
Somehow it seems fair that every once in awhile some guy with a name that ends in a vowel gets busted for something like watering down cement or selling protection. It brings comfort and stability to the hearts of guys like Shlomo and Bernie, nearing the end of their journeys.
Shrapnel (Self-congratulators’ edition):
--The Oscar for best picture went to “Argo” which is a movie about a fake movie... the announcement made by the 21st century version of the Huntley Brinkley Report... Jack Nicholson in Los Angeles and Michelle Obama in Washington... only there was no “good night Goodnight Chet, Goodnight David. It was, of course, not night anymore... it was Monday morning but the Academy Awards telecast has never... ever... ever... ended on time.
--The Daytona 500 winner turned out to be one of the regular good ole boys, Jimmie Johnson. But most of the attention was on Danica Patrick, the first woman to win the pole position and later the first woman to lead the race. It didn’t last... she finished 8th... but you can bet attendance and viewership was up -- maybe way up -- because of her.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013
Shlomo Tzedaka, the last Bronx Jew and Bernard Weinstein, the other last Bronx Jew are at Moishy’s Bakery on Lydig Ave. It’s mid-afternoon.
They were going to split a blintz to go with their glasses of tea, but ‘Mo wanted cherry and Bernie wanted potato and, as usual, compromise would mean defeat. So each ordered his own and blamed the other for forcing up the cost.
‘Mo pops a sugar cube in his cheek takes a first sip of tea. Bernie opens a packet of Splenda, pours it into his drink and then goes for a spoon, which isn’t there.
‘Mo says “how can you eat that dreck? Use a cube like everyone else.” Bernie doesn’t hear because (1) he don’t hear so good no more and (2) he’s off to find a spoon, which he does.
Bernie: I miss the evening papers, used to come out about now.
Mo: Speaking of that, you see the story about Khan the Deli King?
Bernie: Khan? A new Jewish Deli?
Mo: Nah, some A-rab. Saheeb Khan or Sasquatch or something, owns a bunch of stores in Staten Island, got knocked for a loop by Sandy and wrote 82 million dollars in bad checks to cover his losses.
Bernie: No! I guess I’d better start reading the stuff from Jersey.
Papers say Khan is Pakistani, comes from a prominent family (doesn’t everyone) was a doctor in the old country (wasn’t everyone?) comes here starts doing business with the mob. Make that The Mob.
Anything left of the five families? The Feds want you to think “no.” The five families want you to think “no.” The Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Colombian, Mexican, Nicaraguan, social clubbers want you to think “no.”
And yet, every now and then, an Italian name surfaces. In this case it’s Fat Johnny Bull, who was arrested in 2006 on one of those vague federal laws that prohibits Italian Americans in business attire from loitering on street corners in the middle of a weekday afternoon.
‘Mo and Bernie don’t agree on much. But they’re both history buffs. They miss the evening papers. The black and white TV sets, phonograph records and the mob. Make that The Mob.
Somehow it seems fair that every once in awhile some guy with a name that ends in a vowel gets busted for something like watering down cement or selling protection. It brings comfort and stability to the hearts of guys like Shlomo and Bernie, nearing the end of their journeys.
Shrapnel (Self-congratulators’ edition):
--The Oscar for best picture went to “Argo” which is a movie about a fake movie... the announcement made by the 21st century version of the Huntley Brinkley Report... Jack Nicholson in Los Angeles and Michelle Obama in Washington... only there was no “good night Goodnight Chet, Goodnight David. It was, of course, not night anymore... it was Monday morning but the Academy Awards telecast has never... ever... ever... ended on time.
--The Daytona 500 winner turned out to be one of the regular good ole boys, Jimmie Johnson. But most of the attention was on Danica Patrick, the first woman to win the pole position and later the first woman to lead the race. It didn’t last... she finished 8th... but you can bet attendance and viewership was up -- maybe way up -- because of her.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
1139 Algorithm and Blues (Ad Nauseam)
1139 Algorithm and Blues Ad Nauseam
The computer age has brought us yet another form of ad-noction. First it was just advertising. Then came pop ups. We all made quick work of them. Now, it’s the nag-a-tive advertising.
They email you constantly. There even are companies that help business nag you to death. Turnoff. How many emails can one take from one source before marking them spam and letting Google heave this stuff over the side of the ship for you. No heavy lifting.
No more popups. Now we have “pop-throughs” You’re on a page. You click on a link and instead of the link, you get a pop-through that takes up most but not all of your screen. Brilliant. There’s a solution. Tell ya later, keep reading.
Newer animated ads or ads with sound are hard to ignore. And many of them want to panic you into buying home security systems or computer security systems … “YOUR COMPUTER MAY BE AT RISK!!!!” “WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU CAME HOME AND YOUR LITTLE BABY AND HIS BABY SITTER WERE KIDNAPPED????”
Along with pop-throughs, favorites of the newspaper websites that charge you for page views: drop-downs. They fall like a theater curtain. Sometimes you can’t raise them until they have their way with you. And sometimes they keep coming back, no matter what.
But here’s some praise for one form of advertising, the little things in the right margin of G-mail. Why praise? Well, two reasons. First, they’re usually based on some Google algorithm that scans your searches and emails and puts in related advertising. But that’s not the best and here comes that solution. You can use these ads to train your sense of selective blindness. After awhile, you’ll find yourself focusing on the middle of the screen, completely ignoring the ads.
This will lead you to the next stage, which is reflexive selective blindness. When the pop-throughs pop through, you can X them out before you even know what they’re for. Training, friends, training. And self discipline.
Do this with Youtube ads, too. “Skip this ad in five seconds.... four... three...” start clicking on it when the countdown box reaches “two.” Since these ads tend to be long, they generally introduce themselves slowly and by the time the first five seconds pass and you click “skip ad” they haven’t gotten around to telling you what the ad is trying to sell.
Constant Contact trains business to nag you. You can strike back. Write and give them hell.
Ad-nauseam, ad-nausiciam. The algorithms give us all of us the blues.
Shrapnel:
--NBC showed up fifth in the ratings, behind CBS, ABC, Fox and Univision. How the mighty have fallen. But ratings are cyclical and everyone eventually gets a shot at number one.
--Admitted killer Jodi Arias is giving the prosecutor in her Arizona murder trial a run for his money. He’s nasty and angry while she’s cool-headed and zings him quietly. But in the end, it won’t matter because the jury will find her guilty of... something.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013, AD
The computer age has brought us yet another form of ad-noction. First it was just advertising. Then came pop ups. We all made quick work of them. Now, it’s the nag-a-tive advertising.
They email you constantly. There even are companies that help business nag you to death. Turnoff. How many emails can one take from one source before marking them spam and letting Google heave this stuff over the side of the ship for you. No heavy lifting.
No more popups. Now we have “pop-throughs” You’re on a page. You click on a link and instead of the link, you get a pop-through that takes up most but not all of your screen. Brilliant. There’s a solution. Tell ya later, keep reading.
Newer animated ads or ads with sound are hard to ignore. And many of them want to panic you into buying home security systems or computer security systems … “YOUR COMPUTER MAY BE AT RISK!!!!” “WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU CAME HOME AND YOUR LITTLE BABY AND HIS BABY SITTER WERE KIDNAPPED????”
Along with pop-throughs, favorites of the newspaper websites that charge you for page views: drop-downs. They fall like a theater curtain. Sometimes you can’t raise them until they have their way with you. And sometimes they keep coming back, no matter what.
But here’s some praise for one form of advertising, the little things in the right margin of G-mail. Why praise? Well, two reasons. First, they’re usually based on some Google algorithm that scans your searches and emails and puts in related advertising. But that’s not the best and here comes that solution. You can use these ads to train your sense of selective blindness. After awhile, you’ll find yourself focusing on the middle of the screen, completely ignoring the ads.
This will lead you to the next stage, which is reflexive selective blindness. When the pop-throughs pop through, you can X them out before you even know what they’re for. Training, friends, training. And self discipline.
Do this with Youtube ads, too. “Skip this ad in five seconds.... four... three...” start clicking on it when the countdown box reaches “two.” Since these ads tend to be long, they generally introduce themselves slowly and by the time the first five seconds pass and you click “skip ad” they haven’t gotten around to telling you what the ad is trying to sell.
Constant Contact trains business to nag you. You can strike back. Write and give them hell.
Ad-nauseam, ad-nausiciam. The algorithms give us all of us the blues.
Shrapnel:
--NBC showed up fifth in the ratings, behind CBS, ABC, Fox and Univision. How the mighty have fallen. But ratings are cyclical and everyone eventually gets a shot at number one.
--Admitted killer Jodi Arias is giving the prosecutor in her Arizona murder trial a run for his money. He’s nasty and angry while she’s cool-headed and zings him quietly. But in the end, it won’t matter because the jury will find her guilty of... something.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013, AD
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
1138 Neo-Loony Crime
1138 Neo-Loony Crime
Who do we blame for the latest spate of crazy crimes, some of them deadly? Climate change? Post traumatic stress syndrome? The socialist monster eating America? The fascist monster eating America? High taxes? High unemployment? Just getting high? Too much sugar? Brain distortions from artificial sweeteners? The Devil?
The latest but not the greatest is the yutz who slapped a 19 month old on a plane (which he denies) and hurled a racial epithet at him (which he denies.) The guy got fired. He’s had temper troubles before, at least according to the Smoking Gun website.
Ranking far above that is the case of Oscar Pistorius, the legless runner and South African national hero charged with shooting his girlfriend dead. Pistorius, like the accused baby beater, Joe Hundley, has lost his jobs... in this case endorsement deals with Nike and Oakley.
Going up the list, another jobless cuckoo, Christopher Dorner, the fired ex-LAPD cop who went on a killing spree and then up smoked in a little house which the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office vociferously denies have started intentionally.
Newtown. Aurora. And...
Jodi Arias, on trial in Arizona, charged with murdering her boyfriend by stabbing him almost 30 times, then cutting his throat ear to ear down to the bone and for dessert, shooting him in the face. Self defense, she says.
And who can forget that blast from the recent past, accused but not found guilty Casey Anthony, and that blast from the future, George Zimmerman, who shot a teenaged boy for the crime of wearing a hoodie while black.
Are these crimes really strange? In the context of the age-old history of criminality, not really. But there’s an anecdotal update in progress now, and while it’s hard to define “crazy,” modern technology has helped create the unofficial neo-loonies.
Was ex-officer Dorner’s “manifesto” any more intense than that of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski’s? No. Ted just had a longer run.
Does baby slapper Hundley’s baby slap rise to the level of Dina and Markiece Palmer’s beating to death her seven year old son because he refused to read the Bible? Certainly not. But everyone has heard about Hundley and you probably never heard about the Palmers.
Again, who do we blame? Let’s consider CNN founder Ted Turner. If he hadn’t sold his TV channels, Nancy “verdict overturned” Grace might still be an ordinary angry high-decibel continuously outraged prosecutor in a Georgia courtroom and the crime lessons she helps teach each evening on national television would be confined to a single venue, thus eliminating most of the students.
Or Helicopters. Helicopters cause crazy crimes. Everyone’s riveted by searches in snowy mountains and chases on California highways.
Shrapnel:
--Okay, conspiracy fans, here’s one that hasn’t happened... yet... that we know of. That cute lab tech at the clinic taking your “routine” blood samples may be taking a little more so they can send your DNA to the insurance company. If you have the gene for Dread Gonk or some other horrible disease, they’ll find a way to drop you or raise your rates, and not by a little.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013
Who do we blame for the latest spate of crazy crimes, some of them deadly? Climate change? Post traumatic stress syndrome? The socialist monster eating America? The fascist monster eating America? High taxes? High unemployment? Just getting high? Too much sugar? Brain distortions from artificial sweeteners? The Devil?
The latest but not the greatest is the yutz who slapped a 19 month old on a plane (which he denies) and hurled a racial epithet at him (which he denies.) The guy got fired. He’s had temper troubles before, at least according to the Smoking Gun website.
Ranking far above that is the case of Oscar Pistorius, the legless runner and South African national hero charged with shooting his girlfriend dead. Pistorius, like the accused baby beater, Joe Hundley, has lost his jobs... in this case endorsement deals with Nike and Oakley.
Going up the list, another jobless cuckoo, Christopher Dorner, the fired ex-LAPD cop who went on a killing spree and then up smoked in a little house which the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office vociferously denies have started intentionally.
Newtown. Aurora. And...
Jodi Arias, on trial in Arizona, charged with murdering her boyfriend by stabbing him almost 30 times, then cutting his throat ear to ear down to the bone and for dessert, shooting him in the face. Self defense, she says.
And who can forget that blast from the recent past, accused but not found guilty Casey Anthony, and that blast from the future, George Zimmerman, who shot a teenaged boy for the crime of wearing a hoodie while black.
Are these crimes really strange? In the context of the age-old history of criminality, not really. But there’s an anecdotal update in progress now, and while it’s hard to define “crazy,” modern technology has helped create the unofficial neo-loonies.
Was ex-officer Dorner’s “manifesto” any more intense than that of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski’s? No. Ted just had a longer run.
Does baby slapper Hundley’s baby slap rise to the level of Dina and Markiece Palmer’s beating to death her seven year old son because he refused to read the Bible? Certainly not. But everyone has heard about Hundley and you probably never heard about the Palmers.
Again, who do we blame? Let’s consider CNN founder Ted Turner. If he hadn’t sold his TV channels, Nancy “verdict overturned” Grace might still be an ordinary angry high-decibel continuously outraged prosecutor in a Georgia courtroom and the crime lessons she helps teach each evening on national television would be confined to a single venue, thus eliminating most of the students.
Or Helicopters. Helicopters cause crazy crimes. Everyone’s riveted by searches in snowy mountains and chases on California highways.
Shrapnel:
--Okay, conspiracy fans, here’s one that hasn’t happened... yet... that we know of. That cute lab tech at the clinic taking your “routine” blood samples may be taking a little more so they can send your DNA to the insurance company. If you have the gene for Dread Gonk or some other horrible disease, they’ll find a way to drop you or raise your rates, and not by a little.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
1137 Three Coins in a Cesspool
1137 Three Coins in a Cesspool
So Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Robert Menendez may soon be sharing a cell somewhere. It’s unlikely. But it is possible. Jackson, (D-Ill.) is charged with taking three quarters of a million dollars from his campaign funds to buy some little doodads, like a hat that belonged to Michael Jackson and a wristwatch worth five figures, among other things.
Three quarters of a million also figures in the case of Menendez (D-NJ.) He received something like that from a contributor, then turned around and did some nice little favors for the guy’s business, favors that put the contributor well ahead of his competitors.
News reports say the Menendez thing was started by a right wing hit group with good research and includes allegations he engaged with underage girls in the Dominican Republic. All this is accusation. It hasn’t been proven. Yet.
Some supporters are in a quandary. If the hit squad research hadn’t pushed and pushed and pushed the charges would never have been noticed. But they have been. And no matter the source, if the allegations are true, off with his head, and the sooner the better. Let him join the ranks of the corrupt, the wide of stance and guys who jump into the water after drunken strippers.
Jackson left congress for medical reasons, and they apparently are legit. He’s smart enough to know that if he did siphon off that ton of cash, he’d be charged whether a sitting congressman or not.
The former mayor of San Diego ran up a one-billion dollar gambling bill. She’s a Democrat, too. And she’s not charged with any political shenanigans, just bilking her late husband’s big bucks foundation of all kinds of money.
She, like Jackson, has a medical condition that combined with her gambling addiction. But unlike Jackson, she IS blaming illness for her current woes. It’s entirely possible that a brain tumor (alleged) was responsible for her major league heist. So what.
Ahah! you say. Treacherous Democrats. Nah. The Republicans have their own sleazeballs. It’s treacherous politicians.
Scarce few people leave office poorer than they entered. And Henry Kissinger’s quote is truer today than ever: Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
Shrapnel:
--That hotshot reactionary from Texas, Cruz? Fine to oppose the president’s proposed cabinet members. But not with venom and unsubstantiated charges that would be considered libelous if made off the floor of the Senate.
--Can someone teach pedestrians who walk four abreast on a one lane sidewalk that they’re in the way? Same story on subway platforms. You don’t need eyes in the back of your head to know that there’s someone behind you.
--Update: Makers Mark Bourbon has recanted (is that a pun?) and will not cut the amount of alcohol in its booze, after all. We’d like to take credit for starting the protest that overturned that stupid decision, but won’t. Also, bet you didn’t know Kentucky produces 95% of the world’s bourbon with 4.9 million barrels aging right now... which is more barrels than people (currently 4.3 million) also aging right now.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013
So Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Robert Menendez may soon be sharing a cell somewhere. It’s unlikely. But it is possible. Jackson, (D-Ill.) is charged with taking three quarters of a million dollars from his campaign funds to buy some little doodads, like a hat that belonged to Michael Jackson and a wristwatch worth five figures, among other things.
Three quarters of a million also figures in the case of Menendez (D-NJ.) He received something like that from a contributor, then turned around and did some nice little favors for the guy’s business, favors that put the contributor well ahead of his competitors.
News reports say the Menendez thing was started by a right wing hit group with good research and includes allegations he engaged with underage girls in the Dominican Republic. All this is accusation. It hasn’t been proven. Yet.
Some supporters are in a quandary. If the hit squad research hadn’t pushed and pushed and pushed the charges would never have been noticed. But they have been. And no matter the source, if the allegations are true, off with his head, and the sooner the better. Let him join the ranks of the corrupt, the wide of stance and guys who jump into the water after drunken strippers.
Jackson left congress for medical reasons, and they apparently are legit. He’s smart enough to know that if he did siphon off that ton of cash, he’d be charged whether a sitting congressman or not.
The former mayor of San Diego ran up a one-billion dollar gambling bill. She’s a Democrat, too. And she’s not charged with any political shenanigans, just bilking her late husband’s big bucks foundation of all kinds of money.
She, like Jackson, has a medical condition that combined with her gambling addiction. But unlike Jackson, she IS blaming illness for her current woes. It’s entirely possible that a brain tumor (alleged) was responsible for her major league heist. So what.
Ahah! you say. Treacherous Democrats. Nah. The Republicans have their own sleazeballs. It’s treacherous politicians.
Scarce few people leave office poorer than they entered. And Henry Kissinger’s quote is truer today than ever: Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.
Shrapnel:
--That hotshot reactionary from Texas, Cruz? Fine to oppose the president’s proposed cabinet members. But not with venom and unsubstantiated charges that would be considered libelous if made off the floor of the Senate.
--Can someone teach pedestrians who walk four abreast on a one lane sidewalk that they’re in the way? Same story on subway platforms. You don’t need eyes in the back of your head to know that there’s someone behind you.
--Update: Makers Mark Bourbon has recanted (is that a pun?) and will not cut the amount of alcohol in its booze, after all. We’d like to take credit for starting the protest that overturned that stupid decision, but won’t. Also, bet you didn’t know Kentucky produces 95% of the world’s bourbon with 4.9 million barrels aging right now... which is more barrels than people (currently 4.3 million) also aging right now.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013
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4759 The Supreme Court
C’mon, guys, we all know what you’re doing. You’re hiding behind nonsense so a black woman is not the next Associate Justice of the U.S....
