Despite the fact that I still don’t have my college degree and that I struggled to make ends meet for most of my life working various low paying blue collar jobs, I suspect I could never pass myself off as "a man of the people", were it not for the shot of "Bartender’s Special" a very foxy bartender gave me once at Larry’s Lounge in D.C..
To run for president, you need to drink a lot…
I think it had Southern Comfort in it, which automatically gives me extra bonus populist points. Which is good, because I wouldn’t have touched that glass with a ten foot pool if I hadn’t been completely twitterpated by the guy who handed it to me, and having a drink with a cute guy in a gay bar penalizes me severely on populist points.
Three Cheers For Heterosexuality. Oh Come On Now…Cheer!
Via Pam’s House Blend… Brian Blair is the opponent of Kevin Beckner, the openly gay man running for the Hillsborough County Commission in Florida. The county is holding its Day of Silence in honor of 15-year-old hate crime victim Lawrence King this year, and naturally, as Pam puts it, "…the idea of kids engaging in a silent, passive act against violence, harassment and prejudice during the school day is just too much to bear for these people of apparently weak faith." Here’s what Blair has to say about it:
"I have always believed that all citizens are equal and should be treated accordingly. On the other hand, no group of citizens should be given government sanction and support to promote their social and sexual agenda upon the rest of us and especially, on our children."
"Considering the fact that the same school system does not want to allow just one Minute of Silence in the classroom for God, this is preposterous."
"Can you imagine asking for a ‘Day of Cheer for Heterosexuality?’ If no action is taken to change this policy, then perhaps it is time for another surgical strike from the majority; ‘A Day of Abstention’ from school participation might be considered."
Brian Blair brings a high degree of seriousness to American politics, and Florida politics especially, not simply because he is a defender of heterosexuality against the militant gay agenda, but also because he was once a WWE professional wrestler. Here’s a photo of Mr. Blair (on the left) in his role as part of the WWE "Killer Bees" team…
Can you imagine asking for a ‘Day of Cheer for Heterosexuality?
Cumberland County Commissioner Bruce Barclay resigned this afternoon, hours after it became public that he is the focus of a state police investigation of an allegation of rape
County President Judge Edgar Bayley said he received the resignation of Barclay, 48, a Monroe Twp. Republican, around 3 p.m. The county’s five judges will choose a replacement, who must be a Republican, Bayley said
Well of course he Must Be A Republican. You wouldn’t want one of those godless secular hedonistic democrats in government would you???
No charges have been filed against Barclay. His attorney, Matthew Gover, called the rape allegation "ludicrous."
Ludicrous did you say? Well…yes…it’s not rape if the other person involved is an adult who consented to the act…er…for a fee…
Former commissioner’s attorney: Footage shows rape charge unfounded
State police say former Cumberland County commissioner Bruce Barclay videotaped hundreds of sexual encounters — many with male escorts — using cameras hidden throughout his Monroe Township home.
Police say the sexual encounters were videotaped without the knowledge of the participants, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed Tuesday with Magisterial District Judge Susan Day. Court documents say cameras were installed in January of 2007.
Investigators are searching items seized from Barclay’s residence a second time in relation to a rape investigation.
Reading a prepared statement, Barclay’s attorney, Matthew Gover, said although he and Barclay do not agree with everything in the affidavit, “It is clear in my client’s private life he has made an error of judgment. What is striking is this very same lack of judgment exonerates him from a rape allegation that wasn’t going anywhere.”
…
According to court documents, Trooper Bryan R. Henneman said he “received information prior to the search warrant that Barclay had been involved in the hiring of prostitutes.”
During a subsequent interview, Henneman said Barclay admitted to hiring prostitutes on a weekly basis at his residence in Monroe Twp.”
The affidavit describes several such encounters with an Internet escort service known as “harrisburgfratboys.com.” Court documents indicate Barclay twice flew a 19-year-old man referred to as “W.M.” to his West Palm Beach home. During a trip last month, “W.M” told investigators that Barclay flew a male prostitute from Binghamton, N.Y., and paid that man $1,500.
Wow. This is the second one and half grand escort I’ve read about in the past few weeks. And you thought the price of gasoline was skyrocketing…
Hidden camera network
The affidavit describes a hidden camera network that included cameras hidden in a bathroom, bedrooms and “indoor recreational areas.” Cameras were hidden inside AM/FM radios, motion detectors and intercom speaker systems, court documents say.
During an interview with Barclay, Henneman said he “admitted to using the cameras to record sexual encounters.” Police say Barclay saved between 100 and 500 encounters on his computer system.
According to court documents “Barclay stated that no one else was aware of the hidden cameras and also that no one else was aware that the sexual encounters were videotaped or gave him permission to videotape the encounters.”
Business camera
Henneman said Barclay also admitted to having a camera installed at his business along the 500 block of North York Street in Mechanicsburg. According to court documents, Barclay told Henneman that one sexual encounter was filmed on that camera, which also fed into his home computer network.
Barclay told Henneman that “at least” five additional males were filmed having sex “who were unaware that they were being filmed.”
How much you want to bet this jackass is completely onboard with the drive to write an anti-same sex marriage amendment into the Pennsylvania constitution? Gotta defend those family values…
And in other news…
News 8 has obtained the complete search warrant request and affidavit of probable cause. You can read it in its entirety here, however, please note that some of it is graphic.
No…This Is Not Going To Get Detroit Back In The Game
Picasso said, a poor artist copies…a great artist steals.
A friend of mine, who owns a simply lovely Acura TL, (which simply lovely Acura TL motivated me to finally buy my own dream car) said somewhat bemusedly a few weeks ago that the TL had become the new "It" car…at least around our neck of the woods. And it’s true in a way. You see a more of them then you do the Lexus ES or the Infinity G, or any of the other "entry level" luxury cars. There’s at least two of them living in my little Baltimore neighborhood. Honda hit a really nice sweet spot with that car, price and feature wise. And it’s a Honda, which means it’s reliability isn’t in question, unlike my Mercedes which has to prove itself.
But if my friend is bothered by not having such a unique dream car as he thought when he first bought it…he should count his blessings. Here’s what I’m going to have to put up with in the not too distant future…
Oh…did you think that was a ‘C’ class? I sure did when I first laid eyes on that photo. But look at the bumper…it’s a goddamned Chevy. And a Caprice at that. Caprice. Caprice. That used to be American for River Barge On Four Wheels. Here’s another view…
All that’s missing on that one is the hood ornament. Just for comparison…here’s one of my shots of Traveler shortly after I bought it…
They even copied the wheel design, and the black plastic at the base of the sideview mirrors. GM is currently selling it’s ‘C’ class Caprice in the Middle East. But don’t worry…they’re marketing a Buick version in China right now, that should be coming to our shores real soon too…
…possibly to be sold by WalMart, along with all the other Chinese knock-offs coming into this country. The Koreans apparently didn’t want to be left out of the new design paradigm either. So here’s the new Daewoo…
Joe…at least all those other cars on the road that look like yours, really Are Acura TLs.
Why complain? Ford started doing this back in the 70s, when they came out with the Granada right around the time American consumers started getting fed up with Detroit’s lackadaisical interest in quality, and started looking more seriously at imports. People started noticing that Mercedes’ tended to stay on the road a hell of a lot longer then Fords. So in typical Detroit fashion, Ford brought out a car that looked (kinda) like one. It even had a hood ornament. GM later set its sights higher, and brought out the Cadillac Seville, which tried to look like a Rolls. But the problem wasn’t one of style, but substance. It still is. Decades after the Japanese started kicking their asses on quality And Price they still don’t get it.
A poor artist copies…a great artist steals… It’s not that beauty is only skin deep, it’s that to see only the skin is to miss the soul. That applies to humans, and as it happens, it also applies to the things humans make. It is all art. If Detroit invested the effort in duplicating Mercedes passenger safety engineering that they’re investing in simply copying the appearance of their automobiles I might actually applaud. But I don’t expect the same industry that dragged its feet putting seat belts in cars at the same time Mercedes was busy engineering crumble zones into theirs to do that, let alone the industry that has been selling people the same cars for decades with only different "skin jobs" applied, year after year after year. I didn’t buy an empty status symbol. No, your Caprice is not a Mercedes-Benz, and you’ll find that out, regrettably, if you’re ever in an accident.
You can tell a lot about the people in the boardroom by how well they treat the workers who are the public face of their business. I think I just learned today everything I need to know about Starbucks: they steal tip money from their servers.
Thousands of Starbucks employees got a personal message from their upset boss, who said the company was being “grossly mischaracterized” in the media over a recent tip pool controversy that could cost the company more than $100 million.
Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Schultz, in a voice-mail message to employees Wednesday night, called last week’s ruling by a California judge "extremely unfair and beyond reason" and said he wanted employees to know the truth.
"I want to personally let you know that we would never condone any type of behavior that would lead anyone to conclude that we would take money from our people," he said.
In a separate statement, the company also said, "Contrary to some reports, Starbucks has not taken money from any of its partners, and nor is there money to be refunded or returned from Starbucks." A spokeswoman said Thursday that Starbucks Corp. has no intention of ending the practice of sharing tips among baristas and shift supervisors in California while it seeks an injunction.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett, in her ruling last week, said there was "uncontroverted testimony that Starbucks continues to utilize the distribution of tips from the tip pool to compensate shift supervisors as well as baristas." Cowett ordered Starbucks to pay thousands of California baristas $86.7 million plus interest for breaking the law.
Now…read that again, particularly that second to last paragraph. Starbucks is saying that "contrary to some reports" they don’t take money from their "partners"…and then in the next breath they insist they’ll keep on doing it. The weasel word there is "partners". Starbucks doesn’t take any money from its "partners". But "partners" isn’t the issue, however Starbucks chooses to define who is and who is not a "partner". The issue is, are they taking tip money from their servers. And…yes as a matter of fact, they are. That’s what, specifically, they were found guilty of doing, and that’s what, specifically, they’re insisting they’ll keep right on doing.
The tips belong to the servers. Customers aren’t tipping the business, they’re tipping their servers. In most cases, the tips are what the servers depend on for a decent income. Taking their tip money is not only immoral, it also happens to be illegal in many states, including California. Now…it’s one thing to insist you weren’t breaking the law. It’s another to insist that the law is unconstitutional and you’ll fight it all the way to the supreme court. And it’s another still to insist that you didn’t do it, in the same breath as you assert that you’re going to keep right on doing it. Starbucks isn’t just giving the finger to it’s servers and customers here, it’s laughing in the face of anyone who can read plan English.
A dear friend of mine works as a waiter, but that’s not the only reason this behavior makes me angry. I never worked for tips in my life…I’m just not outgoing enough to make a go of that kind of work. You have to have a bit of the stage in you I think to be good at that and I am more stage crew then stage. But I know very well what it’s like to work in the service sector and it’s many hours of of hard, thankless work for mostly uncaring, rude and overbearing bosses, usually for not enough money to make ends meet. From what I hear, most folks who work service sector jobs these days need two jobs to earn a bare bones living. And a lot of those businesses nowadays do their damndest to avoid having to pay their service people a decent wage…from limiting their hours so they don’t qualify for full time benefits (and federal protections), to creatively placing them into pseudo-management positions so they don’t have to pay them overtime.
I guess stealing your employee’s tip money is just another way of lining your pockets being a successful businessman in Republican Party Of Moral Values America. How Howard Schultz can live as well as he does and take his servers’ tip money and still look at himself in a mirror every morning and think he sees a decent man looking back at him and not a slimeball is beyond me. Thankfully.
A New Zealand man who claimed he was raped by a wombat and that the experience left him speaking with an Australian accent has been found guilty of wasting police time.
Right. Now, I’ve noticed a tendency for this precinct to get rather silly. Now I do my best to keep things moving along, but I’m not having things getting silly. Those last two reports I received were very silly indeed, and that last one about the wombat was even sillier. Now, nobody likes a good laugh more than I do. Except perhaps my wife. And some of her friends. Oh yes, and Captain Johnson… Come to think of it, most people like a good laugh more than I do, but that’s beside the point! Now! Let’s have a good clean healthy outdoor crime report. Get some air into your lungs. Ten nine eight and all that.
Apple doesn’t want folks running it’s OS and most of its software applications on non-Apple hardware. iTunes being the only exception I know of, and that probably only because they wanted to take the online music marketplace away from Bill. Off the top of my head I know of no other Apple software products that run on any other platform, but MacOS…and MacOS doesn’t run on any other hardware but Apple’s.
They’re very strict about that. Very strict. Very. Very.
In using Apple Software Update to slip his Safari browser onto millions of Windows PCs, Steve Jobs didn’t just undermine "the security of the whole Web". He’s made a mockery of end user licensing agreements.
As spotted by our Italian friends at setteB.IT, Apple’s Safari license says that users are permitted to install the browser on no more than "a single Apple-labeled computer at a time." This means that if you install Safari for Windows on a Windows PC, you’re violating the license.
There’s an adorable little screen capture of the license agreement on The Register’s site. They say one of the hallmarks of cult behavior is an all consuming paranoia of the outside world…
Man…You Really Don’t Like Them Brown-Skinned Spanish Speaking Folks Do You…?
Via Media Matters… Lou Dobbs digs in a little deeper…
Dobbs asked if Obama is "pandering to ethnocentric special interests again" by accepting Richardson’s endorsement
Summary: Lou Dobbs introduced the March 21 edition of CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight by announcing: "Tonight, Senator [Barack] Obama wins the endorsement of the nation’s only Hispanic governor, Bill Richardson. Is Obama pandering to ethnocentric special interests again? We’ll have complete coverage." The subsequent report included no discussion of whether Obama is "pandering to ethnocentric special interests."
When The Day endorsed Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman for re-election in November 2006 it was supporting a candidate who demonstrated a history of pragmatic leadership and a willingness to seek bipartisan solutions.
We wonder what happened to that senator.
He never existed, that’s what happened to him. He was a figment of your imagination, and your contempt for democratic primary voters, and in particular your contempt for all those dirty hippies who waged a campaign to deny him the nomination after they got sick and tired of watching that pompous self-absorbed nitwit kissing George Bush’s ass over and over again like he was Narcissus and it was his reflection.
You didn’t see the man he was because you didn’t want to, because then you’d have had to admit that the dirty hippies were right all along and you’d rather drink turpentine then admit that. So you endorsed a Bush republican, who Karl Rove and the republican party supported with their money and their propaganda machine, and lo and behold you got a Bush republican who is now courting John McCain for a spot on his ticket. Will wonders never cease. You endorsed a Bush republican, and you got a Bush republican. And now you’re trying to wash, wash your hands of him, and your responsibility for ignoring all the flaming neon red warning signs about the kind of man he was, and ushering him back into the senate, because it was better that then admit the dirty hippies were right. Bite Me. You got Exactly the man you endorsed. Wear him proudly.
The Adrenalin Sound Of Squealing Brakes Right Behind You
I got rear ended last night on the way back home to Baltimore from a friend’s house. Luckily, no one was hurt, and the damage to Traveler was only a couple minor cosmetic dings to the rear bumper. I think. I have to have my Mercedes dealer thoroughly check it out just to be sure. But he hit me hard enough that I was certain when I got out of the car that I’d see a bent up rear bumper and some damage to the sheet metal back there. But it looks like the bumper took it and just popped right back into place. I was pretty impressed with the design of that bumper after I got under the car once to study it a bit, shortly after buying it. I’m a lot more impressed now.
The scary part was the driver admitted to me when he got out of his car that he had drifted off to sleep for a second. I’ve no way of knowing if he was drunk or not, he wasn’t staggering or anything but he did look very tired, which could have been drunkenness or it could have really been he was too goddamned tired to be behind the wheel. I told him if he was that tired he needed to get off the road.
Assuming he really was that tired it’s a good thing he saw he was about to run into me in time to slam on his brakes, because if he hadn’t it would have been a lot worse. His tire marks were probably three or four feet long. I had nowhere to go. I was about two feet behind the car in front of me at a stop light, and there just wasn’t any time to get out of his way when I heard him slam on the brakes. He hit my car hard, but not hard enough that the headrests deployed. The C300s headrests will pop forward in a rear end collision to keep your head and neck steady. These are the accidents you fear the most…the ones that just come at you all of a sudden and it doesn’t matter how careful a driver you are and there is nothing you can do but brace yourself.
While we were exchanging information two Arlington county police cruisers came up and we had to exchange information with them too but there was no question who was at fault and after making sure I was okay and I had all the other guy’s information they let me drive on. I suspect they asked the other guy to do a sobriety test after I was gone, but as I said I’ve no idea if he was drunk or really just too damn tired to be on the road.
I have routine scheduled maintenance coming up on Traveler anyway but probably Monday I’m going to have to take it into Valley Motors and have them give it a thorough going over. If there is no structural damage I’ll try to finesse the little ding on the bumper where the other car’s license plate screw punched into it myself. It would cost hundreds, if not well over a thousand dollars to repair or replace that bumper just to get rid of the ding, and even though it’s the other guy’s insurance company that would be paying for it, it isn’t worth the hassle. They’ll want one of their own approved shops to do it and I’d probably have to sue to make them pay Mercedes to do it. If there is hidden structural damage though…yeah…I’ll go through that hassle if I have to. With relish. Nobody touches that car but Mercedes-Benz.
Because They All Played Their Part In It, That’s Why…
Via Talking Points Memo… We’re on the brink of the worse recession in decades, if not since the great depression, and none of the presidential candidates are talking about how we got here. Not the republicans, for obvious reason, but also not the democrats. And even more disgustingly, not the news media. They seem strikingly…uncurious…about what caused the financial crisis the United States has blithly plunged the rest of the world into. Oh…the candidates are busy making the usual promises to help mortgage holders (read:voters) weather the storm. But what they’re not talking about, for pretty damn obvious reasons, is what they’ll do to correct the problem that made it possible in the first place. And that’s because, as this commenter on TPM points out, they’re all part of that problem…
I am appalled, though not surprised, at the complete silence by the candidates on the last few days’ events on Wall Street and the world’s stock, bond and currency markets. This has far more effect on all of our futures than racist comments by the oxygen deprived brains of some old political or spiritual leaders. I know why Clinton and McCain are not talking about it: too many of their biggest supporters had too much to do with what happened, and benefited from the deregulation of the past twenty years for which both (and their allies) had a great deal of responsibility. (Remember that Hillary stood by while her colleague Chick Schumer killed the bill to tax hedge fund managers, who ear scores of millions every year, at income, rather than capital gains, rates.) What about Obama? Is he not up to the task of educating people about what the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act did to the markets many Americans poured their retirement and college savings into? Does he know that the Federal Reserve is about to bail out bankers, investors, and outright thieves who helped drive down the dollar, and brought the credit markets to a near standstill? Does he understand the problem? I wouldn’t know.
Seventy years ago Franklin Roosevelt was able to explain this country’s and the world’s financial crises to a far less educated, and less accessible, American public. That today’s candidates are unwiling, or unable to do so, is alarming. Maybe if the media first tried to understand the problems, then asked the proper questions until answers were forthcoming or it was clear the candidates are afraid to ask them, political coverage would be more than the extreme sports coverage it has turned into.
White. At Least Mostly. I Think. Mostly English, Some German, Some Irish, Possibly Some Native American…
That’s me. Basically a white guy. The English is on both sides of my family tree. The Irish and German are on one, and may possibly be on both sides of the family tree, but more distantly. For a while I thought there was some Scot in there too, but that as it turns out was down another branch of the family tree that I’m not descended from. I’m still trying to verify the Native American part, which would be on dad’s side. If it’s as the family says it is, then I’m 1/8th Native American, a fact I find hard to believe considering the white boy face that stares back at me in the mirror. But some people have told me it’s plausible even so. There’s a blood test out there that may confirm it, but it’s about four-hundred bucks.
I’m thinking about all this as I view the site: Stuff White People Like. Here’s a typical entry…
One thing prized by white people is making the most of situations. They like to maximize opportunities for all that they are worth. It applies to jobs, vacations, investments, books, education, and perhaps most importantly, warm days.
After a prolonged cold snap, white people are very excited at the first hint of a warm day. It is their opportunity to go back outside, to enjoy nature and thrive.
In order to get the most possible enjoyment out of these days, white people turn to one of their most trusted allies: shorts.
It is a known fact that white people believe that they can bring spring early by wearing a pair of shorts on any day that is above seasonal temperatures. This myth runs so deep that they will often wear shorts the following day when temperatures drop, at which point they will refuse to recognize that it is cold.
When you encounter a cold white person in shorts it’s best to say “I can’t wait until it’s warm enough to go windsurfing.” They will likely give you a high five.
It is their opportunity to go back outside, to enjoy nature and thrive… Right…as though there are no white people in Vail and Aspen every year taking obsessive delight in all that powdery white crystallized dihydrogen oxide stuff that precipitates out of the very air we breath when the temperatures drop below freezing and sane people are lounging by the fireplace with a nice drink. But wait…as it turns out #31 is Snowboarding.
I can see the joke here, and some of these are brutally funny. But just picture English and German humor side-by-side, and French cooking and American cooking side-by-side, and American attitudes toward sex verses Scandinavian, verses English, verses German, verses Russian, verses French and so on and so on and eventually you begin to realize there is no such thing as White People.
…which may also lead you to realize that there is no such thing as black people or yellow or red people either, but only different shades of skin that really don’t say anything at all about the person within. Which may be this person’s point after all. But on the other hand, he (or she, I’ve no idea…) seems to be aiming most of this at a particular target, which makes me wonder if they’re trying to make a point abut racism, or just venting at a group of white people they really don’t like. The butt of the jokes here are mostly urban upper middle class white yuppies and gen-x’ers, and even that target is missed as often as it’s hit.
And so on… Where’s the white redneck stuff? Where’s the white blue collar stuff. Where’s the white Office droid stuff? And none of this resembles anything I see in white Bal’mer Hon. What…no beehive hair… no plastic yard Virgin Marys… no Formstone… no Old Bay… no screen door painting??? Oh…wait…
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