I heard about this 'lucky find' on NPR the other day, but seems the story wasn't entirely accurate (Update via Jonah).
A group of men who made national headlines by claiming they found a buried treasure in a Methuen back yard were charged Friday with stealing the collection of old currency from a house where they were doing roofing work.....Police said Crebase confessed to finding the money in the gutter of a barn they were hired to repair in Newbury. But lawyers for Billcliff and Crebase said the men were sticking to their story of finding the box under a tree in the back yard of a house Crebase rented from Kozak.
The treasure has an estimated worth of around $100K.
You know, if you're gonna be stupid enough to steal something, you ought to at least be smart enough to keep your mouth shut.
I understand that if not for the medical profession, I would've been dead years ago. Like when I got appendicitis at 16. But you know, there are times when I get so frustrated dealing with doctors and their staff that I could just spit.
Like today.
I'm still having the same problems with my arm & hand, among other things. As my regular readers will remember, I had nerve conductivity tests run on the 18th. And the neurologist thought I was probably having a lupus flare-up, which he said needed to be treated before it did any serious damage. It has since become (literally) painfully obvious to me that he's probably right.
Ok.
So this Tuesday, when I still hadn't heard from my regular doctor, I talked to his nurse, who said my test results were in my file, and she would check with my doctor to see what he wanted to do next. She would call me back that afternoon.
Guess what? I called again today since I still hadn't heard from her. She calls me back & tells me that I'm to be sent to a Pain Management specialist.
WTF?
I don't need no steekin' pain management. I need some freakin' steriods, lady.
She got rather snide with me, insisting in effect that Doctor knows best.
That's bullshit I thought as I hung up the phone. I'm getting a second opinion.
A few minutes later, I got a rather sheepish phone call from formerly snide nurse. Seems that once she actually looked at my chart, my doctor had faxed a referral to a rheumatologist. On the 19th. Yet neither doctor had bothered to call me.
Jesus wept.
I called the rheumatologist's office to schedule an appointment. Yes, the lady said. We definitely need to schedule an appointment for you. But she was on another line and could she call me back?
That was 30 minutes ago.
Oh, yeah. You can bet your ass I'm gonna be calling back. Repeatedly if necessary.
I take back what I said earlier. If it weren't for my jackass-like stubborn streak, I'd have been dead a long time ago.
Perserverance pays.
Lawren notes with disgust that "Entertainment Tonight" will be televising the wedding of convicted rapist Mary Kay Letoureau and her victim.
What exactly is entertaining about that?
Do you think for one minute that if she were a male, this would be 'entertainment'? (Ok, there's that Woody Allen thing, but that was because of who he was.)
A child molester is a child molester, regardless of whether they're male or female. I don't think either should get a pass from society. Their victims suffer the same damage, after all. And for all you men out there from whom I've seen comments like "Wow, wish I'd had a teacher like that", I've got a news flash for you. Your school-boy fantasies were nothing like the reality of being molested by your teacher. Nothing. If you knew what that was really like, you'd be thanking your lucky stars that you weren't.
Just the fact that the perpetrator and her victim are still together after all that's happened should give you some clue as to how seriously sick and f*cked up that relationship is.
And I for one am beyond disgusted that I live in a society which deliberately chooses to glamorize such a relationship.
You should be too.
The jury in a local murder trial has reached a verdict.
After five weeks of trial, more than 100 witnesses and 395 pieces of evidence, the jury spent a little more than five hours deliberating before presenting a double guilty verdict to Benton County Circuit Judge Tom Keith.
Capital murder carries an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole. The jury added 40 years for the kidnapping.
This was the trial I'd previously posted about in which the police mishandled the computer evidence.
I was kinda surprised by the verdict, as it appeared the prosecution only had circumstantial evidence against the defendent. But then, all I knew about the trial was what was published in the local media. Not always the most reliable sources. If the jury only deliberated 5 hrs. in a capital case, obviously they thought the prosecution had presented some pretty compelling evidence.
Just goes to show that old legal axiom is still true:
One can never reliably predict what a jury will do.
Because all the kewl kids are doing it:
These are my URL ABCs:
Wow. Wasn't that exciting?
Researchers have finally stumbled across an ivory-billed woodpecker in Southern Arkansas. (Link via Fark) You can view the video of the sighting here
Pretty exciting news, since the ivory-bill has been thought to be extinct for over 60 years.....even though there'd been repeated 'unconfirmed' sightings.
Next them boys need to start tramping around the wild woods up here in the hills so they could stumble across some of those mountain lions that supposedly aren't here as well.
No telling what else they'd find.
Thanks to Matt for the best laugh I've had all day:
International Respect for Chickens Day
Karen Davis, the founder and president of United Poultry Concerns, describes May 4 as a day to "celebrate the dignity, beauty and life of chickens and to protest against the bleakness of their lives in farming operations."
"Chickens are lively birds who have been torn from the leafy world in which they evolved. We want chickens to be restored to their green world and not be eaten," Davis said in a press release.
*rolls eyes* Good grief. Yeah, let's let them roam free as Nature intended. And be eaten by foxes and hawks and every other carnivore, like Nature intended. But for humans to eat them, that's just wrong man.
In a Feb. 12, 2005 Letter to the Editor of the Washington Post, Karen Davis noted she spends her days with chickens and turkeys and she praised their intelligence: "The day may come when to be called a 'chicken' or a 'turkey' will be rightly regarded as a salute to a person's intelligence," she wrote.
I hope I never live long enough to see that day. Because as we all know, Chickens Is Stupid.
If you practice in the Oklahoma Juvenile system, there's new jury instructions that will take effect July, 2005. Of course they're downloadable from OSCN.......in MS Word, WordPerfect or PDF.
If you don't practice in Oklahoma, go see how a state does it right. I found out about this & other law updates from the OBA monthly e-newsletter, which also included instructions & a link to an anti-spyware program. How cool is that?
Oklahoma rocks.
Everyone's buzzing about the Drudge report on this Airhead America spot:
Government officials are reviewing a skit which aired on the network Monday evening -- a skit featuring an apparent gunshot warning to the president!
The announcer: "A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn't safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for us. Well, here's your answer, you ungrateful whelp: [audio sound of 4 gunshots being fired.] Just try it, you little bastard. [audio of gun being cocked]."
Apparently the Secret Service (and everyone else with an IQ higher than their shoe size) doesn't think that's very funny.
I'll bet you dollars to donuts what the left's response is going to be. "Jeez, I was just kidding. Can't you take a joke?" Or something along that line. Because that's how passive/aggressives operate. They use 'humor' to get in their nasty little digs that they don't have the balls to come out & say to your face. And when you call them on it, they try to weasel out by attempting to put you on the defense.
IMO, the best response to that is to ask them what about their statement was supposed to be funny, because no one who wasn't a complete & total moron would think what they said was funny. And get in their face a little. They hate that.
I don't recommend smacking them, though.
Shit splatters.
Stolen from Sue:
American Cities That Best Fit You: |
| 70% Miami |
| 60% Atlanta |
| 60% Honolulu |
| 55% Austin |
| 55% Seattle |
Hmmm. I don't drive near badly enough to live in Miami.
I've been to Atlanta. I don't think so.
Honolulu, nah. Too far away & too expensive.
And I'm way too conservative to live in Seattle or Austin.
Guess I'll stay here for now.
If you love Oreos, better dunk 'em if you got 'em, because they're going to be changed.
Kraft is altering the recipe of its classic cream-sandwich cookie in coming months to make it healthier, the company revealed yesterday.
The cookie-maker is making the change to get rid of trans fat, a widely used food ingredient that gives delicious flavor and texture to baked goods, but has lately become Public Enemy No. 1 to health and diet gurus.
Kraft claims the 'new & improved' Oreos will taste just like the old ones. I've heard that one before. No, they won't.
Here's an idea. How about you let me worry about the state of my arteries?
Kraft decided on the makeover because its cookie sales began plunging in recent years due to low-carb diet crazes.
Little late to be jumping on that bandwagon, isn't it? Besides, eliminating trans-fat isn't going to make Oreos low-carb because they're mostly sugar. And a little flour.
Once a childhood favorite, now just another victim of the food police.
Another busy day (will this semester ever end?) so here's some links for your entertainment:
--I'm sure this was cause of great rejoicing for some of my family.
--It's the Year of the Nerd!
--That's gonna leave a knot.
--I missed my one chance to get a payout from my life insurance.
*sigh*
Back to work.
A couple of weekends ago, Mike & I were going grocery shopping when we noticed two groups of kids standing on opposite street corners.....attempting to sell boxes of donuts to drivers trapped at the stop lights for some organization or another. Now bear in mind the streets at that particular intersection are 6-8 lanes wide, and the intersection has one of the highest rates of auto accidents in the entire county.
As we carefully drove past them, I muttered "I can't believe their parents are letting them do that. Damn kids are a traffic hazard."
A few seconds later it hit me, and I buried my head in my hands. "Oh no!" I cried. "I can't believe I just said that. I AM SO OLD!"
Mike cackled and replied "Damn kids! Get off my lawn!"
I'm starting to think my sister was right. The older we get, the more we're both becoming like our mother.
NNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
If you'll excuse me, I'll go start looking for a nursing home.
I bet it's really annoying if you're a crow, and a blue jay starts following you around, loudly announcing to the world your every move.
Damn bird paparazzi.
Ever since Moussaoui changed his plea to guilty, we've been pondering what he's up to now. Either he's trying to avoid the death penalty, or he's trying to stir up more trouble. Or maybe both.
"Seeking the death penalty in the Moussaoui case always was going to be a very dicey choice," former federal prosecutor Larry Barcella said. In addition to Europe, the Muslim world "would basically view his being put to death as a public spectacle."
Perhaps we should stone him to death or behead him instead.
Regardless of the EU or the dreaded 'Arab street', he's not likely to avoid the death penalty......barring some legal shenanigans.
Legal experts say he can highlight what he regards as the unfairness of it all, including his inability to call Sept. 11 planners as witnesses on his behalf in the proceeding that will determine whether he lives or dies.
Since he can use "written summaries of interviews with those witnesses", that issue shouldn't go too far. His remaining ace in the hole is the Manson defense.
While admitting he was part of a conspiracy, Moussaoui can argue that his role sets him apart from others on Sept. 11. He did not hijack the planes and he did not direct the suicide crews.
"Everything about this case is different, it's a crime unlike any other in very significant ways and Moussaoui's involvement is different from any other death penalty case: He didn't kill anyone," former federal prosecutor Pete White said.
Hey it's kept Chuckie alive all these years. Though in Moussaoui's case, it's more a case of lack of opportunity than a lack of intent. I'm sure whatever the judge's ruling, the case will be fast tracked to the Supremes. Then we'll see if Kennedy is foolish enough to cite 'international law' in his dissent. Should be interesting.
Whatever his new strategy is, he seems to be intent on attracting publicity and becoming a 'martyr' for his cause.
We should deny him the former and quickly grant him the latter.
I picked up WildChild yesterday afternoon. He's been sick with a spring cold, and since his throat was still pretty raw from coughing (he sounded like a 4 yr. old Tom Wait) I suggested that we stop for chocolate milkshakes instead of our usual candy & pop. Which he thought was an excellent idea, and soon he was happily slurping down his milkshake as we headed back to Fayetteville.
I started to make the sharp turn off the street onto the on-ramp when a raspy voice piped up from the back seat.
"Ma! Slow down! You not drive fast! You drive slooooooow! Slow down right now!" Now it's not like I was speeding. We'd been sitting at a stoplight before I turned, and I was doing maybe 40 mph up the on-ramp when he started complaining.
I looked in the mirror and he was clutching his milkshake for dear life with both hands. I giggled and said "Yes sir!" I knew what he was thinking. He'd went on a field trip with his headstart class not too long ago, and had dropped his rootbeer on the bus.....which spilled everywhere of course. He wasn't taking any chances with his precious chocolate milkshake.
Usually he's griping at me for driving too slow. "Go faster Ma. Drive like a race car! Drive crazy!!" Or insists I should pass the car in front of me because it's going too slow. And when we're stuck in traffic, he tries to convince me that my car is an airplane car & we can just fly home.
Just what I needed.
A 4 yr. old backseat driver.
You know, there's some people out there who are just pretty damn sorry.
Earlier this year, a calf wandered onto Mobley’s property. His wife, Julie, said Friday that her husband had recognized it as belonging to James Lindsey, a Clay County deputy sheriff. "He told James not to worry about the calf, he’d take care of it until he took the other cattle to sale," Julie Mobley said.
But on Feb. 21, Mike Mobley saw the same calf up for sale at the Paragould Livestock Auction.
Mobley talked to the auction owner and discovered a check for $383 made out to Wesley Poole, Julie Mobley said, repeating what she had earlier told sheriff’s office investigators. Her husband told Poole he wanted him to return the check to Lindsey and own up to the theft, Mobley said. "He wanted to give [Poole] another chance," she said. "He didn’t want to ruin his life."
Unfortunately, Mr. Mobley had a heart attack & died before he could pass the check on to the calf's rightful owner. Not knowing what had happened, the family returned the check to Poole.....who cashed it.
But it gets worse.
On the day of Mike Mobley’s funeral, Cole said, Poole and Causey took 10 of Mobley’s cattle and later sold them at the Cord-Charlotte Livestock Auction in Independence County for $6,177.
Doesn't get much lower than that, does it?
If that weren't bad enough, the boys came back about 2 weeks later and stole 14 more cattle & sold them.
They ought to be horsewhipped.
To whomever came here looking for "Buffalo River water temp", lemme help you out. The high today in Fayetteville was 61. There's been a 20 mph wind blowing most of the day. There's a freeze warning for Saturday night. So I'm guessing the current water temp on the Buffalo is, what's that phrase?
F*cking cold.
But it didn't stop my idiot daughter, who just left for a float trip on the Buffalo Saturday. Because hey, let's not let reality interfere with "The Plan".
Sometimes that child ain't got good sense.
My mom says that one of her nephews has some research on my grandmother's family that's she trying to get for me. I'm particularly interested because I don't know much about that branch of the family....except a finer collection of outlaws & reprobates you'd never meet.
Supposedly, this branch of the family originated in Germany....and were so mean & lawless that they were given a coat of arms in exchange for their promise to behave themselves. Didn't work too well and eventually they were run out of Germany, immigrating to the US. Or that's Mom's story anyway. Now Mom has a tendency to get things all mixed up, so all or part of it may or may not be true. But it fits pretty well, all things considered. At least the mean & lawless part. Heh.
So I guess all my cousins who are in prison or dead from their illicit activities are just carrying on the family tradition.
What I'm really curious about is how this family ended up married into my grandpa's predominately Lutheran minister straitlaced family. Someone decided to take a walk on the wild side, I suspect.
Like a son of a preacher man.
Last year it was sharks. This year, it's the attack of the killer wild turkeys. (Link via Fark) Latest victims: the town of Cranford, N.J.
In one instance, a letter carrier killed a bird with a stick after a group of the aggressive gobblers surrounded his truck and wouldn't let him out.
.....
Officials say adult wild turkeys can grow as tall as four feet and can fly as fast as 55 miles per hour.
You know, some #4 shot will calm them right down.
Judiciously applied, of course.
Here's a hypothetical conundrum for my lawyer readers:
Arkansas recently adopted new Model Rules (our ethical guidelines for my non-legal readers). Among the new Rules is Rule 1.8(j) which states:
A lawyer shall not have sexual relations with a client unless a consensual sexual relationship existed between them when the client-lawyer relationship commenced.
A good rule I thought, though it doesn't really affect me....until I read the notes.
Note 19 says:
When the client is an organization, paragraph (j) of this Rule prohibits a lawyer for the organization (whether inside counsel or outside counsel) from having a sexual relationship with a constituent of the organization who supervises, directs or regularly consults with that lawyer concerning the organization's legal matters.
I see a potential problem here. Let's say, hypothetically, that in the coming months I get a job as a corporate regulatory compliance attorney. And this job is at the same corporation Mike works. If part of Mike's job duties involves regulatory compliance, it's probably that he would "regularly consult" with me. And since regulatory compliance issues would probably qualify as "legal matters", because the regs are state/federal laws........you see where I'm going here?
Maybe I'm misreading this, but I think I'll be looking for a definite answer before I apply for a job there.
What do y'all think?
This makes me sad.
The sale papers for the Washington County Courts Building were signed Wednesday, four years after the county put the building on the real estate market.
The building is at the corner of College Avenue and Center Street, directly north of the former Mountain Inn. Fayetteville bought the building Wednesday for $413,000 as part of the Mountain Inn redevelopment project.
It will be torn down, along with several adjacent buildings, and replaced with a hotel. And I will miss it. I spent a lot of happy (and frantically busy) hours in that rickety old building during the 3 months I filled in for a friend as juvenile prosecutor. The office was on the ground floor; the court on the third. And most every time as I paused after climbing the 3 flights of stairs (the elevator was prone to getting stuck between floors), I would hear my name called by the judge's case coordinator.
"RRRRRRRRRRita!"
And I would answer "Marrrrrrrrria!"
It was sort of a running joke between us that I was one of the few white people she knew who could properly trill 'r's. Maria was Hispanic, you see. And as warped as I, so we hit it off famously. And if it was Friday afternoon, I always took a few minutes to fuss over her tiny teacup poodle, Violet, that she kept stashed behind her desk. Violet had a standing Friday appointment at the groomer's, so she got to spend the remainder of the day at the office. Because the Judge was a nice guy.
I miss working with him, as well as the court reporter who would give me a thumbs-up signal whenever I forgot to project my voice sufficiently during court. And the case workers and other staff.
I even miss working in that building. Built during the 1930s, it sat astride the corner like a determined, yet dignified grand dame. But like many old ladies, it is well past its prime. I don't miss the nauseating smell, said to come from some funky mold growing in the walls because of the leaky roof. Or the smell from a nearby drain that was for some reason, a favorite place for illicit grease dumping. Or the creaky old elevator that only worked sporadically and that had a tendency to get stuck between floors. Or the way the heating/air conditioning system seemed to only work at full blast or not at all. Or the Day-glo orange carpeting.
Iknow it's time for her to go. Yet it makes me sad, because she contains so many good memories. I got my first real courtroom experience there.....sink or swim courtroom experience. Eventually, I swam. And it was there I first discovered my passion for children's law. So many memories.
It's like saying goodbye forever to an old friend.
My daughter & I did a little shopping Monday afternoon, and I mildly chided her for spending $60 on a pair of jeans. Good thing she didn't see any of these brands.
Far from being rarities, jeans with price tags of $200 are now everywhere, the retail equivalent of dandelions after spring rain. And it no exaggeration to say that a pair these days can easily cost as much as an iPod (Tsubi, $319), a Motorola Razr (Levi's vintage, $325), or a desktop computer with the printer thrown in. (Nudie vegetable dye jeans, $428.)
Or how about a pair of Evisus for $635?
Are you people smoking crack? $600 for a pair of jeans? I wouldn't pay that for a pair of jeans even if I had money.....or even if they did fit. Which I'd bet they wouldn't, because those kind of jeans seem to be designed for pre-pubescent boys. I'm a woman, not a toothpick. Baby got back. And legs too (34" inseam). Which is why I usually buy men's pants. It's the easiest & cheapest way to find some that fit.
Does that make me a cross-dresser?
The U of A is discussing a tuition hike.
The average University of Arkansas student will pay $300 more next year in tuition and fees if the Board of Trustees approves a proposed tuition hike.
UA officials will ask for a 6 percent increase in tuition, the lowest request since 2001. Tuition has increased 66 percent since the 1997-1998 school year.
Interesting, but not very you say?
Ah yes, but this comes on the heels of a rather successful fund raiser.....which having met its goal of $900 million, has set a new goal of $1 billion. A goal they expect to reach by the end of June.
It's for the students, after all. Students who will now have higher tuition. Pretty neat trick, fund raising & tuition raising all at the same time.
All this explains all the solicitations for 'alumni contributions' I've been getting lately. Solicitations that go straight to the trash because frankly I think they should make do with the billion they have.
No sense them being a pig about it.
The CDC made a little oopsie.
As recently as January, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated obesity as being responsible for 365,000 deaths per year in the United States. But the new estimate, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), puts the annual death toll at only 25,814 -- the earlier estimate was about 14 times greater.
Just a wee difference there. Another surprising result from the new study: a little extra weight is good for you.
The study, led by Katherine M. Flegal of the National Center for Health Statistics, a branch of the CDC, analyzed mortality according a person's to BMI, or body mass index, which measures weight and height. It determined that being modestly overweight, but not obese, "was not associated with excess mortality" or a shorter life expectancy. In fact, the research shows that being overweight is actually less of a mortality risk factor than being of normal weight.
Makes sense. Your body's healthier when not kept in a perpetual state of semi-starvation. Freaking duh. Not that it'll make any difference to those who have a vested interest in 'fighting' obesity.
But George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf III, who has led the effort in supporting obesity-related litigation, said the new death statistic is irrelevant and would not affect obesity litigation.
"Any time a study comes from an organization, which is basically beholden to industry studying the case, one is suspicious," he said.
....
CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said the CDC doesn't plan to use the much-lower obesity mortality figure in its public-awareness campaign, nor does it plan to reduce its fight against obesity.
Never let the facts stand in the way of your pet project, eh?
Every now & then, I get a little reminder why I moved.
Rep. Roy Ragland, R-Marshall, who is a minister, said he thinks most people in Arkansas have religious convictions and that the legislation introduced this session is simply a reflection of that.
Legislators’ calling their church groups or ministers for advice is no different from calling their local officials or the Arkansas Farm Bureau, he said. "If I’m going to be a kook, I’d just as soon be a religious kook," he said.
IMO, that wish was granted a long time ago.
I've been looking at getting satellite radio, since most of the local stations have been bought out by Clear Channel. I hate Clear Channel's programming, or the lack thereof, and have pretty much stopped listening to the radio entirely.
But I'd had trouble deciding between XM & Sirius....both have programs I like. Now Sirius has made my choice much easier.
Martha Stewart, six weeks out of federal prison and still largely restricted to her home, signed another major deal yesterday, this time with Sirius Satellite Radio to broadcast a 24-hour channel featuring lifestyle reports aimed at women.
Howard Stern was bad enough, but Howard Stern AND Martha Stewart?
Not just no, but hell no.
The 2003 Child Maltreatment statistics are out, and it ain't pretty.
In 2003, state child protective services reported 2.9 million reports of neglect or abuse, of which 906,000 were substantiated. The 2003 "victimization rate" of 12.4 victims per 1,000 U.S. children is comparable to those of previous years.
Bear in mind that 'substantiated' only means that the report was received & investigated properly, and that there was enough evidence of abuse found to start some type of proceedings. It does not mean that all of the unsubstantiated reports weren't abuse.
The breakdown of the types of abuse are similar to what I've seen in my practice:
About 63 percent of child victims suffered neglect, 19 percent were abused physically, and 10 percent were abused sexually. Infants and toddlers had the highest victimization rates.
Those figures aren't broken down further, but it's been my experience that the majority of the first two types are directly correlated to drug/alcohol addiction of the parent(s). Some enterprising person in the field should do a statistical study of the correlation between meth use & incidents of child abuse. I suspect the results would be quite shocking.
Shocking too are the results which show an increase in deaths from abuse.
The new maltreatment report shows that the number of child fatalities has grown from 1,100 in 1999 to 1,500 in 2003. Almost 79 percent of these deaths occurred before a child's third birthday.
This number has been steadily increasing over 4 years. It is unknown if this is because of better reporting by doctors or an actual increase in deaths.
Makes you wonder why funding for children's services, which is woefully inadequate at best, is always one of the first affected when states' governments need to make funding cuts, doesn't it? Or even worse, why a state privatizes its children's services instead of reforming its own agency.
It would almost make you think that politicians say one thing and do another.
After being zapped repeatedly with around 330 volts for close to an hour, we now know 3 things:
1) I have a high tolerance for pain. Duh.
2) I don't have any major nerve damage or injury. Which was good news.
3) I don't have carpal tunnel. Double Duh.
The next suspect we'll likely be testing is Mr. Lupus Flare-up. If it's that, and I'm guessing it will be, I'll prolly get steroids (again). Which make me so buff I can't fit through the door.....and so grouchy I'll just rip the bastard off the hinges for getting in my way. Or not, depending on the dosage. But it should fix me right up after a month or so.
Poor Mike. I hope he survives that long.
I've had a request for more spring photos, the results are here.
And Sue, hope you're up & around soon.
Mike's posted an abstract of something we've been working on, if you'd like to give it a look.
Let me know what you think.
There's a big murder trial going on in adjacent Benton County right now, and files found on the defendent's computer is a big part of the state's evidence. Small problem.....police accessed the computer after it was seized. And, according to an expert called by the defense, they didn't just look for evidence.
A murdered man's computer was used to access dozens of Internet pornography Web sites after being seized by police in September 1999, a computer forensic expert testified Friday.
They also allegedly deleted some files.
If these allegations are true, I can't even begin to describe how incredibly stupid that was. It could very well cost them a murder conviction.
Properly preserving computer evidence isn't that hard. You walk into a room, unplug (not shut down) the computer, put it in a box and seal it with evidence tape. Do all the chain of custody stuff. Then you don't touch the damn thing until you turn it over to someone trained in computer forensics.
Not exactly quantum physics here.
Don't have a heart attack, but for once I agree with Sen. Feinstein.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told FOX News on Thursday that she agreed that the "Amber Alert has been amazingly successful," but added that Lunde's disappearance, the fourth missing girl in such a short period of time, "points out a big problem and we need to take a look at it. There are clearly people out there who shouldn't be out there and we need to find out why."
Good question, Senator. Why indeed. Congress is proposing a national registry for sexual offenders, with increased monitoring of those released. A good step forward. But I frankly don't think it goes far enough.
Why are these predators being released into society to begin with? Any therapist who works with these people will tell you, the honest ones anyway, that rehabilitative therapy rarely works. That there is a high likelihood that they will re-offend.....some with increasing levels of violence. So why the hell are they out in society?
And don't give me that tired old argument about "they've paid their debt to society". Bullshit. The few months or years they actually serve don't even begin to pay for the lives they've destroyed. Besides, the problem isn't the debt they've paid, it's the fact that more likely than not, they are going right out and run up another substantial debt. Much like an alcoholic with an limitless bar tab.
But they have a compulsion they can't control, you might say. Absolutely. No argument there. They do. And some of them, the ones that haven't completely gone over to the Dark Side, are as disgusted by what they do as you or I. They are just as mentally ill as Ted Bundy or any other serial killer. But you know, we don't pat serial killers on the wrist and let them move into our neighborhoods. The fact that they can't help it doesn't mean we should let them back out into the world to do it again.
A national registery and improved tracking is fine for lower level, less likely to re-offend sexual offenders. But the Level 3 & Level 4 ones should never be allowed to draw another breath of free air. Ever. Lock 'em up & throw away the key. Put them away where they will never have the opportunity to re-offend. And if a child is killed as the direct result of their crime, automatic death penalty.
Harsh? Maybe. But I happen to think our children are worth protecting....that their right to not be molested, tortured or murdered trumps the right of some sick bastard to get out of prison & go trolling for his/her next victim(s).
And that it's about damn time we made our government do something about it.
And please don't toss out that old canard about how they should be castrated. One, that is barbaric. Two, and more importantly, it doesn't work. (Trust me, if it did, I'd be first in line with rusty scissors.) Their compulsion has nothing at all to do with sexual organs. The things these people do to children (and adults) with things other than a penis would make you vomit. Repeatedly.
Short of a pre-frontal lobotomy, which I'm told is cruel & unusual punishment, the only sure way to keep a sexual offender from re-offending is to keep them away from the victims. Permanently.
So I went back to the doctor yesterday because my hand/arm nerve thing isn't any better....in fact, in some respects it's worse. Apparently, I'm a winner in this month's Stump the Staff game, as they have no idea what's causing my problems. Seems there's two separate & distinct nerves involved.....and since I don't play any sports, don't do repetitive motion activities and haven't had an injury of any kind, no one has any idea what the hell is going on.
Not exactly what you want to hear in my situation. Because, you know, pain freaking hurts and I'm ready for this to go away yesterday. Imagine feeling like you've hit your funny bone really hard on something sharp.....24/7. Yeah. Not fun.
Now I'm to be sent to a neurologist to get Tasered nerve conductivity tests to determine the extent and possible origin of the damage so my doc can (hopefully) figure out how to treat this.
Doesn't that sound like a party in your pants?
I just can't freaking wait.
UPDATE: Wow, that was fast. I'd been told it could take up to a month to get an appointment. Nope. They just called. Monday @ 1 o'clock. Zzzzap! Zing! Zowie!
Word of Warning:
If you ever decide to install MS Visual Studio Pro 2003 (trial version), make sure you type in the correct product key. Because if you, say, happen to look at the wrong package because there's too much crap all over your desk......it will take several annoying hours to uninstall & reinstall the program. Especially when you don't notice the incorrect product key until you try to run the program and it won't freaking run because it has the wrong product key.
Don't even ask how I know that.
Don't even ask.
The government's stupid ban on lighters goes into effect today. Thanks a lot Richard Reid, you moron. And thanks for nothing Senators Dorgan & Wyden for proposing this ridiculous bill. Idiots. Does anyone really think this will stop a determined bomber? Or do anything but further inconvience those of us who smoke?
And how long do you think it will take for enterprising airport vendors to start selling cheap disposable lighters for $10 each?
Yet another reason to stay at the house.
One of the things I hate most about job hunting is writing a resume. The basic parts aren't that bad, but I hate trying to write an "Objective:" statement. Much like a company's Mission Statement, they're about as useless as teats on a boar hog.
The way I look at it, my 'Objective' is to get a damn job. And if you're too stupid to look at my resume and figure out whether or not I'm right for a position with your company, well, I prolly don't want to work for you.
And when I'm trying to write the stupid things, I have these almost uncontrollable urges to write something silly just to see if anyone reads them. Like:
Objective: To work as a liasion between legal & IT departments and force them to become my evil minions.
Objective: The same thing we do every day Pinky. Try to take over the world.
Or my personal favorite:
Objective: Burma!
See what I mean?
Now it's your turn. What's the dumbest/silliest Objective statement you've ever seen on a resume? Or, what's the dumbest/silliest one you can think of?
Let 'er rip.
Oy. My feet hurt. Invested most of the day in the career equivalent of hawking my wares on the street corner. In other words, it was Career Fair day at my community college. So seeing as how I'm allegedly graduating next month, I dusted off my resume and spent some time visiting with recruiters from various businesses. Rather interesting really....much more so than I expected. And of course there was the invitable "Oh My God, you mean your family's from Marshall too" moment. A very nice lady who was recruiting for one of the local hospitals, who seemed surprised to meet someone from 'down home'. It was fun to meet another distant cousin, which I'm sure she was. As I told her, just about everyone from that county is related in one way or another.
As you might imagine, the recruiters were all rather surprised to meet an attorney at a community college job fair. Not exactly the employee for which they were looking....but that's ok. Unusual is good. That way they'll remember me. And they all promised to pass my resume on to their company's legal recruiter. Some of them may even do it. One even said that she would talk to their legal recruiter when she got back to their office because she knew they were about to hire several attorneys & she thought they'd want to call me.
Who knows? I may actually get a job interview out of this.
Hee hee hee. This is going to be interesting.
Wal-Mart officials are looking to build one the company’s members-only wholesale storefronts near land in Fayetteville that produced former disputes regarding wildlife impact.
The corporation is under contract to purchase land off Arkansas 112 west of I-540 for a possibly 130,000-square-foot Sam’s Club, said Bob McAdam, vice president of corporate affairs.
Now the exact location hasn't been released, but it's speculated that it will be some property that the Sierra Club claims is wetland "containing rare species". And we all know what that means.
Which puts the leaders of Fayetteville, a/k/a "The Tree-Hugging Capital of NW Arkansas", in an interesting dilemma.
Past reports have indicated Sam’s Club could bring up to $1 million in sales tax revenue to the city. Bill Ramsey, president of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, hadn’t heard a precise figure but said it would be a substantial amount.
That's money that Fayetteville desperately needs for its various 'improvement' projects. And the proposed site is in the area to which most crass commerical operations have been relocated. Because you know, evil capitalism is ok as long as we don't have to actually look at it when we step outside of Rainbow's House of Tofu.
So. Which will win, principles or greed?
I know which my money's on, but I'm not saying. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the spectacle of the self-delusional justifications necessary for them to get their hands on all those lovely tax dollars.
LMAO the whole time, of course.
All hail the power of persistent Googling. I saw this movie when I was in law school, and have been trying for the last several years to remember the name. I finally found it today.
I loved this movie. Not so much for the plot, which is your basic law exam question, but for the best exposition of the differences between formalist & modern jurisprudence I've ever seen.
See, this judge murders his wife, who's dying from a painful illness and he wants to spare her any more pain. Now. He's old school, so he wants to plead guilty because, hey, he did it. But his lawyer is new school, and tries to get him to plead temporary insanity caused from intense emotional distress or some such. And the judge is all like WTF? It doesn't matter why I did it. I did it. I'm guilty. His lawyer's like no, no. It does matter because if not for that, you wouldn't have killed her.
So there's all this back & forth all during the trial over which theory of law is correct....interesting to me because that's what was the big debate in the legal community at the time. And because I'd written a couple of papers on the topic back in undergrad.
Anyway, there's a plot twist at the end (remember your first criminal law class? If you shoot someone who's jumped out of the window, did you commit murder?), and everyone lives happily ever after. Sorta.
Great movie, if you're interested in that type of thing.
Now if I can just get my hands on a copy.
Our neighbor has some good news, and thanks everyone for their prayers & support during the wait for test results.
Glad to know everything turned out well for him and his family.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Sister Neutron Bomb of Looking at All Sides of the Question.
(Via Kehaar)Actually that's pretty accurate. I have an annoying tendency to over-analyze every possible answer to any question. Great skill for a lawyer; impractical in every day life.
Which is why Mike usually decides to which restaurant we're going. And which route we're taking. And whose car we're driving.
Otherwise, we'd starve to death.
Drudge has linked to a rather rude t-shirt which says something really stupid about Tom DeLay. CafePress has apparently removed the item, so there's no direct link. However, if you scroll down a bit, it's the fifth t-shirt on display.
The artist has now apologized.....though if you'll scan through his posts, this certainly isn't the first time he's expressed himself this way. Comes with being an artiste I reckon.
Just remember, opinions are like assholes. Everybody's got one, and has the right to express themselves within reason.
Though it's generally considered rude to deliberately shit your pants in public.
Someone needs to Read the Damn Constitution.
"This Week" host George Stephanopoulos asked Mr. Santorum whether Congress having authority over the courts "is a new interpretation of the separation of powers doctrine."
Yeah, George, guess you didn't get the memo, hmmm?
The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office. (Art. III, Sect.1)
I'm starting to see remarks like this around.....like people are shocked to find that Congress can limit federal courts' jurisdiction as well as expand it. Like duh.
And 'good Behavior' is such a nice fuzzy term isn't it? It just bristles with all kinds of penumbras and flexible interpretations. I should think it wouldn't be difficult to expand its definition to include judges who refuse to do their job and instead legislate from the bench. After all, like judicial activists are so found of quoting,
"Words are not crystal, transparent and unchanged; they are the skin of living thoughts and may vary greatly in colour and content according to the circumstances and time in which they are used." --Oliver Wendell Holmes
Cuts both ways, my friends.
The leftist moonbats have been all over Sen. DeLay for his alleged 'threat' against federal judges.
The Texas Republican led the fight in Congress for a full federal court review of the case of the brain-damaged Mrs. Schiavo, who a Florida court ruled would have wanted her feeding tube removed. The day she died, Mr. DeLay said, "the time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."
Mr. DeLay's statement has become a lightning rod for Democratic leaders.
Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, New Jersey Democrat, sent Mr. DeLay a letter arguing he might even have broken federal law if his remarks were considered a threat.
Read Sen. Lautenberg's letter here.
First, let's put Sen. DeLay's quote back into context, shall we, and see what he really said.
"This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change," DeLay said. "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another."
Now I'm no fan of DeLay's, but it seems to me pretty clear what he was saying. Congress may take action against the federal judiciary.
In a letter back to Mr. Lautenberg, dated April 6 and obtained yesterday by The Washington Times, Mr. DeLay said Mr. Lautenberg "misinterpreted" him.
"Mischaracterizing a call for the judiciary to publicly explain its reasons for taking an innocent woman's life as threatening to 'our fundamental democracy' reveals either ignorance of or contempt for the framework of checks and balances that makes our constitutional republic possible," Mr. DeLay wrote.
False dichotomy alert. It's more like both ignorance and contempt. IMHO
But Mr. Lautenberg, in a statement yesterday, said Mr. DeLay has a history of threatening impeachment of judges and was quoted in 1997 as saying judges needed "to be intimidated" to uphold the Constitution.
Even if that's true, it's not criminal. It is, in fact, Congress' duty to oversee the judiciary.
Dork.
The WildChild is here, playing with his toys & watching cartoons. Right now he's singing "SuperHero WildChild! The Best! The Best! The Best! Yeah!" over and over.
And I'm hiding in the kitchen quietly LMAO.
Well the school traffic has cleared enough that I think I can actually get out on the street so I'm off to the seminar from hell. One thing my forced immersion back in the legal world has done is show me the drastic differences between GeekWorld and LawyerLand.....and made me think seriously about whether I'm ever going to return to the latter.
More later.
Once more into the breach.
In yet another example of PC run amok, U of A football players will no longer be required to wear pink jerseys when caught loafing at practice.
Arkansas coach Houston Nutt has decided that his players who are caught loafing will no longer wear pink jerseys during practices in an effort to avoid offending breast cancer survivors.
Nutt said that he had received negative reaction from people when they saw the players in the pink jerseys. Pink is often the color associated with breast cancer survivors. Nutt said that offending cancer survivors is the last thing that he wanted to do.
Frankly I'm offended that they were offended.
Predictably, there's been some backlash, and now Coach Nutt is attempting damage control.
“Since that came out, the Foundation and the Ozark Race for the Cure have received calls from people saying they would no longer support them because they thought someone from those offices called us. The Foundation and the Race for the Cure people were not offended by the jerseys and did not call. The people who were offended apparently are not associated in an official capacity with either one of those two great causes and the work they do.
“Several of our players have worked the race as volunteers the last few years. I have a tremendous amount of respect for what the Foundation does and for anyone who has to go through that treatment. I want to encourage everyone who was supporting them to continue to do so and to not be discouraged by a few individuals who were acting on their own.”
So if they weren't 'officially' associated with either group, why not tell them to piss off and grow up?
Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous?
Perhaps Coach Nutt should get some jerseys in a nice shade of mauve. Or has that color been co-opted by some easily offended group members?
Good grief.
You know what's worse than spending a day in a roomful of lawyers?
Spending the day in a roomful of labor/employment lawyers.
No offense, I'm sure some of you are intelligent, interesting people with whom I might enjoy spending the day. But you damn sure don't live around here. I had to keep looking at the title of the handouts because I kept thinking I'd stumbled into a personal injury/ambulance chasing/frivolous lawsuits against corporations seminar by mistake.
Sheesh.
What a bunch of obnoxious jerks.
It got so bad that by late afternoon I'd written a PHP program that would print out "I wanna go back to GeekWorld" a zillion times....and was working on an algorithm to compute the correct number of bathroom breaks based on the number of sodas that had been consumed.
And I have to go back tomorrow. At least tomorrow I won't be late (b/c of my real class) and have to sit in the front of the freaking room.
I have such a headache.
The source for the 'Schiavo memo' is reportedly Brian Darling, a Republican senator's staffer. Sen. Martinez has disavowed all knowledge of the memo, and says he accidentally gave it to Sen. Harkin.
Uh-hmm.
Color me skeptical.
Ward Churchill's attorney just invoked Godwin's Law.
A lawyer for the professor whose remarks about Sept. 11 victims touched off a firestorm wants officials to clarify how they intend to prove he is an American Indian, asking if they plan to use ''the Nazi standard for racial purity.''
.....
''Do you wish to employ the Nazi standard for racial purity? Do you wish to employ the standard adopted by the United States government for determining Japanese ancestry in order to qualify for internment?'' attorney David Lane asked in a letter dated Monday to acting chancellor Philip DiStefano.
Now there's some history behind that remark. One of Churchill's, et al, claims is that the General Allotment Act of 1887 & the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 imposes a 'eugenics' code by requiring proof of quantum of blood. In other words, one has to prove a certain percentage of Indian blood to be covered/protected by these Acts. I'm not sufficiently familiar with either Act to comment, but other scholars have said that he's incorrect.
What I am more familiar with is the requirements to become a Cherokee tribal member, which Churchill claims to be. And so far, my opinion is that Churchill is full of shit.
Churchill's relationship to a claimed Cherokee ancestor is somewhat tenuous.
Churchill has cited a possible Indian ancestor six generations back on his mother's side named Joshua Tyner, born in 1767. According to the Rocky Mountain News, Tyner's mother Abigail and several siblings, said to be European, were killed and scalped by Creek Indians in an apparent family feud. His father Richard later remarried to a Cherokee woman.
First of all, having an ancestor with a Cherokee stepmother does not make one eligible for tribal membership. Nor does it make one of Indian descent. It's like claiming you're an Indian cuz you saw one once. On tv.
Even if he were directly descended from this woman, it's unlikely that he would be eligible for tribal membership. There are three recognized Cherokee tribes: Eastern Band, Cherokee Nation and the Keetoowahs. Membership requirements for the Keetoowahs, of which Churchill claims to be a member, are:
Membership requires a blood quantum of 1/4 or higher and is limited to persons on the list of members identified by a resolution dated April 19, 1949, and certified by the Superintendent of the Five Civilized Tribes Agency and their descendants.
Apparently he got some kind of honorary membership once, as did Bill Clinton. Which is kind of ironic, since he's about as Indian as Clinton is black.
Membership in the Eastern Band is similarly restrictive, requiring a direct ancestor on the Baker Roll (a 1924 tribal census of a sort) and a minimum of 1/16 blood. Membership in the Cherokee Nation involves getting a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (commonly referred to as a CDIB card) and proving a direct lineal ancestor on the Dawes Roll. (It's my understanding that the amount of blood isn't as important as having a Dawes Roll ancestor.)
Providing proof of tribal membership should be pretty easy, since there's a membership application process, complete with relevant documentation, before a true tribal membership is granted. Even if, for some reason, you no longer had the documentation, you can bet your ass the tribe would have records.
So far no such records have been found or produced. Churchill continues to claim that he's Indian because he says so....and any efforts to prove otherwise is just another example of The Man trying to keep the Red Man down.
In other words, pure and unadulterated bullshit.
Aw, shuckie darn. I'll be in a legal seminar Friday and I'll miss this.
First he'll go to Little Rock, then over to Blue Ball....up to Hogeye....Devil's Den....Marble. Then down to Snowball....Point Peter....then over to Oil Trough...Possum Grape.....and finally, Hooker.
YEEAARGH!
Sorry. I just had to do that.
Google Maps has a new feature. Find any address, then click on the satellite link to see an satellite photo of that address. Pretty cool.
Finding our house was easy. Finding my parents' house and our nearby property was a wee bit more difficult. There's not exactly any street addresses out in the boonies you know. But I did find it eventually. Looks like the photo was taken late last summer, judging from the green trees and the brown fields.
I think this would be very helpful if you were say, considering buying property. Sure would've saved me a lot of driving a couple of months ago when we were looking at houses. I'd find one that looked like it met our criteria from the map (close to town, but not in a subdivision). Then I'd drive there only to find it was sitting on 5 acres out in the country along with 6-8 other houses all crammed together.
This'll be as handy as pockets on a shirt.
This isn't getting much publicity yet, but it has the potential to get big & nasty fast.
The lawyer for former Sebastian County prosecutor Ron Fields says Fields is under investigation by the FBI, accused of dealing drugs and ordering a woman's slaying. Fields' lawyer, Eddie Christian of Fort Smith, said, quote, "it's the biggest witch hunt I've ever seen."
What's the big deal? Fields worked under Asa Hutchinson at the DEA and later at the office of Homeland Security. And now Asa's running for Governor. Hmm. I'm sure that's just a coincidence. Right?
If alleged skeltons are getting dragged out of the closet now, just imagine what next year will be like when the Governor's race really starts.
Gonna get interesting.
Is it just me, or is anyone else enjoying the delicious irony of all those left-wingers who claimed they wanted to move to Canada, partly because they were allegedly being censored.........Canada, where the government really does censor the news. Or do they want to move there because the liberal government controls the media like it controls most everything else?
Irony or natural affinity?
That is the question.
That's all we have, according to this. (Link via The Corner)
A thorough analysis of the Koran reveals that the US will cease to exist in the year 2007, according to research published by Palestinian scholar Ziad Silwadi.
The study, which has caught the attention of millions of Muslims worldwide, is based on in-depth interpretations of various verses in the Koran. It predicts that the US will be hit by a tsunami larger than that which recently struck southeast Asia.
Hear that honey? We'll get some beach front property after all.
And no more worries about Hillary in '08. Sweet. Now if I could just get back all those years when Bill was Gov. & she was Arkansas' Evita.
I don't know why the media is so clueless about wild turkey attacks. (link via James Taranto). If you've ever been attacked, it's not that funny. In fact, wild turkeys can hurt you. We raised them occasionally when I still lived with my parents. I know from experience. They've got these great big beaks and nasty sharp spurs....uh anyway. Unlike domesticated turkeys who mostly just stand around & look stupid, wild turkeys are smart, aggressive....and can fly short distances BTW.
Imagine for a moment the wing power required to lift a 20+ lb. turkey up into the top branches of a big white oak tree. Now imagine a turkey using those wings to beat you away from his flock of hens. Yeah. It's kinda like getting hit by a hard-thrown basketball. Now add to that his inch or so long sharp spurs on his legs raking your skin, and his powerful beak plucking chunks of meat out of your legs or arms. Not so funny is it? And the more you try to fight them off, the madder they get. You pretty much have to either beat them senseless, or outrun them. And they can run pretty damn fast.
See, this time of year a tom turkey only has two things on his mind: fighting off competition and...um, loving. Humans are usually viewed as competition, though my mom had this one pair of peach houseslippers that she couldn't wear outside because it made all our male turkeys act like the wolf in a Tex Avery cartoon. Which was pretty funny as long as you weren't her.
But that's another story.
Happy Birthday to Matt! Live long & prosper, neighbor.
We hateses nasty Daylight Savings Time we does. *hiss*
Its only redeeming feature is that for about a week I get to wake the dogs up before they're ready to get up instead of the other way around.
It's still not worth it.
While the official selection process for the new Pope won't begin for a couple of weeks, there's already speculation about likely candidates. Several European, Latin American and a Nigerian cardinal are currently thought to be in the running for consideration.
Whomever is chosen will have some mighty big shoes to fill. The late John Paul II was respected and admired even among non-Catholics like myself for his staunch fight against Communism and his strong moral leadership.
He was indeed a 'hero for the ages'.
Former U of A quarterback Matt "I Only Choke During the Big Games" Jones is being touted by some as the best player in this year's draft. As a wide receiver, maybe so. Some pretty impressive stats for a big guy, especially his SEC career record 2,545 yards rushing.
Maybe I should've gotten his autograph when he was appearing at one of our local stores recently.
Nah. I don't like football all that much. But those of you who do might want to keep your eyes on him.
He might surprise everyone.
Barnum was right, there is a sucker born every minute. And apparently a whole bunch of them live in Fayetteville.
At 7:11 A.M. Jon and Jen on the radio hit the air with some breaking news.
With the help of Jon`s friend, they announced over the air that the space shuttle was coming in to the tiny Drake airport for an emergency landing.
According to Greenland police, over a hundred cars were parked along the road hoping to catch a glimpse of the shuttle during its descent.
More details here.
"Tiny Drake airport" is right. Here's a photo. See that hill in the background? The airport is surrounded by hills like that on all four sides. It has one open asphalt runway that's 6,006 ft. long & 100 ft. wide. They supposedly used it to train WWII fighter pilots because the approach is so steep & short.
Never mind the fact that there hasn't been a space shuttle flight since 2003. Anyone who'd ever seen Drake field should've known a shuttle couldn't land there. And why would the shuttle go there instead of XNA, which is much larger?
Jeez Louise, I can't believe anyone fell for that.
I've been up to my ass in C++ STL vectors & templates for most of the day, what did I miss?
--Rumors of the Pope's death I saw on my lunch break were incorrect.
--Someone got fired at Whizbang....or did they? UPDATE: Yeah, that's what I thought.
--Steve ate two more pork sandwiches. And to think I missed that. Wow.
--Matt writes alternate history that's waaaaay too close to what's being taught these days.
--Tony's self-employed again. The Lord works in mysterious ways, his miracles to perform.
--Da Goddess, who's still a bit under the weather, has some beautiful photos that put mine to shame.
--And Zendo Deb reminds us that April 15th is Buy a Gun Day. You know what they say Deb, get two. They're small.
Now I'm going to go rest my brain.
I happen to check my logs this morning, and was happy to see that Mr. Comment Spammer is being blocked daily by MT-Blacklist. Ha! Take that you slimy bastard.
I have to say that not only is the Blacklist much easier to install than I thought, it also works much better than I expected. And I haven't heard of any commenting problems from legitimate readers either. So far, anyway. So I'm very happy with it overall, and thanks again to Jim for recommending it.
Speaking of referral logs, some of you are some sick puppies. You wouldn't believe some of the searches I've seen this morning. I couldn't even read them out loud for fear Sollie would be embarrassed. Y'all ought to be ashamed.
BTW, for whomever came here looking for "how to medicate an oppositional defiant child", my mother always used a peach tree switch. Worked pretty well, but man! Did it ever sting! Uhhh....or so I'm told. *ahem*
A home-grown remedy, you might say.
When I was a kid, April Fool's was one of my favorite holidays. I loved playing tricks and having tricks played on me. Then I grew up and discovered life plays more than enough tricks on you. It's not necessary to add more.
Therefore, this will be an April Fool's free zone for the entire day.
Unless of course this entire post is an April Fool's prank.