Archive for the ‘Schadenfreude’ Category

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Random notes: April 3, 2013.

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013

Some notes from the legal beat to get things started:

Javaris Crittenton is being charged with murder and “gang activity”. Crittenton is a former NBA player with the Lakers, Wizards, and Grizzlies. You may remember him as “that guy who got into a locker room altercation with Gilbert Arenas that ended with guns being pulled and a 38-game suspension”.

Meanwhile, in Arizona, Louis C. Taylor has been freed from prison. Mr. Taylor served 42 years before his release: he was convicted of starting a hotel fire in 1970, when he was 16, and sentenced to 28 life terms. However, it looks like the evidence used to convict Mr. Taylor was questionable, and (if I read the article correctly) the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence.

Mr. Taylor’s release offered him only a small measure of redemption. Under an agreement with prosecutors in Pima County, he entered a no-contest plea during an hourlong court hearing, which set aside his original conviction and gave him credit for the time he had spent behind bars. The arrangement means that he did not admit guilt, but because he did not contest the charges, he is effectively barred from suing anyone who had a role in his conviction.

And:

Prosecutors, in filings and at Tuesday’s hearing, said they still believed Mr. Taylor was guilty, but chose to accept the agreement because they would not have been able to pursue a new trial. The evidence is too old and scarce, and there are not enough living witnesses, they said.

Of course they believe Mr. Taylor was guilty. God forbid they should admit someone served 42 years for what may not have even been a crime.

On Tuesday, [New York State Senator Malcolm A. Smith], Councilman [Daniel J.] Halloran and the Republican Party leaders were charged with wire fraud and bribery. The senator was also charged with extortion.

Senator Smith is accused of trying to bribe his way onto the ballot for the mayor’s race in New York City.

The complaint described envelopes of cash trading hands in Manhattan hotel rooms and restaurants, payments of thousands of dollars to persuade Republican leaders in New York to put Senator Smith, from Queens, on the Republican ballot in November. The bribes were to be paid to obtain certificates authorizing him to run for mayor as a Republican even though he was a registered Democrat.

Wait. What?

In case you were wondering, Robert “Ratso” Rizzo’s trial on corruption charges is scheduled for September. Ratso’s former assistant, Angela Spaccia, is asking for a separate trial.

From the department of things that suck: noted SF author Ian Banks is dying. Many of my friends, including Lawrence, are big Banks fans. I never got into his work, personally: the only Banks book I own is Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram, his non-fiction book about touring Scotland in search of single-malts. But I know that Banks was a hugely important SF writer, and this is just a damn shame.

Firing watch: Mike Rice out as basketball coach of Rutgers after video of him acting like an a–hole becomes public.

Posted in Books, California Über Alles, Clippings, Firings, Law, Obits, Politics, Schadenfreude, Sports | Comments Closed

Oh, the things you learn…

Monday, April 1st, 2013

…reading the newspaper.

A couple of local idiots blew up their apartment last week, and now face “third-degree felony arson charges” to go with their third-degree burns. (I kid: apparently, their burns were only second-degree.)

How did they manage this? They were making BHO.

No, not “Barack Hussain Obama”, but “Butane Honey Oil”. I’d never heard of BHO before (not being a stoner), but the Statesman goes into an astounding level of detail about the process. Apparently, you put pot in a pipe with coffee filters at one end, screw a drilled cap on to the other end, and spray butane through it. The butane supposedly extracts the THC, and the butane/THC mix drips out through the coffee filter into a catch vessel (like a Pyrex pie plate). Then you can evaporate off the liquid butane, and viola!

What’s left is a concentrated oil, which can have a THC content of 40 percent or more, he said.

Back in the bad old days, when I was young, I would have had to do much more painful research to figure out the few details of the process that the Statesman left out. (Not that I was a stoner: I didn’t smoke then and I don’t smoke now.) Kids today have it easy: they can go watch idiots do it on YouTube.

(I got a kick out of the YouTube commenter who pointed out that that mask will do sweet FA for inhaled butane. I also got a kick out of the suggestions to use glass instead of PVC. Of course, if something does go wrong and these South Austin engineered rigs do explode in your hands, it won’t make any difference: the doctors will still have to dig fragments out of you.)

The Statesman does not detail, but I assume that something went wrong in the process of evaporating off the butane. Probably “didn’t do it outside, away from ignition sources like pilot lights”.

In related stories, “Using butane to extract THC from pot risky, experts say“. Gee, you think so?

This year, authorities said a man and a woman were critically injured in an Ocean Beach, Calif., motel room trying to extract hash oil from marijuana using butane when the man lit a cigarette, causing an explosion, according to the Los Angeles Times. It took 45 firefighters half an hour to get the fire under control, the newspaper reported.

Dude, I’m sorry. I don’t wish burns and hospital stays on anyone. But if you’re lighting a smoke while messing around with butane? Think of it as evolution in action.

Posted in Clippings, Law, Schadenfreude, Stupid | Comments Closed

Gales of derisive laughter, Bruce.

Friday, March 8th, 2013

Beyond.com has been sending me emails with “recent opportunities and information”. Here’s a screen shot of one I got yesterday:

scooter

(Click to enbiggen.)

What’s so funny about this? Note the subject line, and the bottom listing. (I cut off the rest, as it wasn’t relevant.)

Note that the Scooter Store was raided by Federal agents on February 20th.

Late Friday afternoon, The Scooter Store’s chief executive notified employees that — effective immediately, but “with certain exceptions” — they’d been placed on unpaid furlough.
In an email, CEO Martin “Marty” Landon told employees not to return to work unless they receive notice from the company’s human resources department.

I wonder if they’re still looking for a sysadmin. (Not that I would apply; I’m not all that interested in working for a company that’s been raided by the Feds. Even if I was, San Antonio/New Braunfels is too far for me to commute.)

Posted in Clippings, Law, Schadenfreude | Comments Closed

Random notes: February 1, 2013.

Friday, February 1st, 2013

Nobody needs a high-capacity assault snowmobile. Actually, I’m not even sure the general public should be allowed snowmobiles; perhaps we need to limit those to the police and military, people who have had special snowmobile training.

This is intended to enrage you:

At the 11th hour of its deadline to do so, Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration on Thursday asked a judge to allow it to withdraw from a federal consent decree aimed at implementing sweeping reforms in the New Orleans Police Department.

The request is based on three factors:

  1. The consent decree “failed to disclose costs to fix Orleans Parish Prison until after the NOPD consent decree was executed”.
  2. Former prosecutor Sal Perricone and the NOLA.com comments scandal.
  3. There are questions about whether the consent decree’s provisions regulating secondary employment for police officers are compliant with federal labor law.

Previously. I am still unable to find an execution date for Antoinette Frank.

Over the past several weeks, dozens of other sheriffs from across the country have reacted with similar public opposition to Mr. Obama’s call for stiffer gun laws, releasing a deluge of letters, position papers and statements laying out their arguments in stark terms. Their jurisdictions largely include rural areas, and stand in sharp contrast to those of urban police chiefs, who have historically supported tougher gun regulations.

“C’est un Nagra. C’est suisse, et tres, tres precis.” (I’m surprised that quote, or the English translation, isn’t on the IMDB page for “Diva”.)

Heh. Heh. Heh.

Nine current and former Philadelphia Traffic Court judges were charged with conspiracy and fraud Thursday, capping a three-year FBI probe into what authorities said was rampant ticket-fixing and pervasive corruption on the bench.

The judges are being accused of pretty much what you’d expect: taking bribes to fix tickets.

According to the indictment, [Fortunato] Perri [one of the indicted judges – DB] got free landscaping and a patio for assisting one unnamed contractor with “dozens of Traffic Court citations.” He also is accused of accepting free auto services, towing, and a load of shrimp and crab cakes from Alfano, whose company, Century Motors, ran a towing service.

You know, I like shrimp. I like crab cakes. I wouldn’t go to prison for them, though.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Obits, Rage, Sarcasm, Schadenfreude, Sports | Comments Closed

Random notes: January 31, 2013.

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

Obit watch: Patty Andrews, the last surviving Andrews Sister. (NYT. A/V Club.)

If a publisher is reissuing a non-fiction book, do they have an obligation to go back and do fact checking? What if the facts have been called into question since the book was issued? What if the book is “38 Witnesses” by A.M. Rosenthal of the New York Times?

In the years since, however, as court records have been examined and witnesses reinterviewed, some facts of both the coverage and the book have been challenged on many fronts, including the element at the center of the indictment: 38 silent witnesses. Yet none of the weighty counter-evidence was acknowledged when Mr. Rosenthal’s book was reissued in digital form by Melville — raising questions of what, if any, obligation a publisher has to account for updated versions of events featured in nonfiction titles. Dennis Johnson, the publisher of Melville House, said he knew about the controversy but decided to stand behind Mr. Rosenthal’s account. “There are, notably, works of fraud where revising or withdrawing the book is possible or even recommended, but this is not one of those cases,” he said. “This is a matter of historical record. This is a reprint of reporting done for The New York Times by one the great journalists of the 20th century. We understand there are people taking issue with it, but this is not something we think needs to be corrected.”

What is there to correct?

As early as 1984 The Daily News published an article pointing to flaws in the reporting. In 2004 The Times did its own summation of the critical research, showing that since Ms. Genovese crawled around to the back of the building after she was stabbed the first time (her assailant fled and returned) very few people would have seen anything.
The article quoted among others Charles E. Skoller, the former Queens assistant district attorney who helped prosecute the case and who also has written a book on it. “I don’t think 38 people witnessed it,” said Mr. Skoller, who had retired by the time of the interview. “I don’t know where that came from, the 38. I didn’t count 38. We only found half a dozen that saw what was going on, that we could use.” There were other mitigating factors as well; it was a cold night, and most people had their windows closed.

This 2009 NPR interview goes into more detail about the many problems with the popular narrative of the case.

This lead made me giggle:

George Ryan was released from a federal prison in the dark on Wednesday morning, and Illinois became a state with only one former governor behind bars.

Hey, as long as we’re talking about crooked governors:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s approval rating has fallen sharply among New York voters since he pushed restrictive gun laws through the Legislature, a poll released on Wednesday said.

And lying politicians:

…it is also curious that the White House refuses to provide any documentary evidence that he actually used the shooting range at Camp David, since he claims he uses it “all the time,” or that a presidential friend has not come forward to confirm the president’s comments.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Guns, Law, Media, Music, Obits, Schadenfreude | Comments Closed

Instant karma’s going to get you.

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

The Poynter Institute for Media Studies lost $109,206 in 2010.

They lost $3,815,144 during 2011, the same year their falling-out with Jim Romenesko began.

(Hattip: Jim Romenesko.)

Posted in Clippings, Media, Schadenfreude | Comments Closed

TMQ Watch: January 15, 2013.

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

Hey, we’re converging ever closer to doing these on Tuesday again. Frankly, we just forgot last night, and were tied up most of the day today.

Anyway, this week’s TMQ after the jump…

(more…)

Posted in Cars, NFL, Politics, Schadenfreude, Sports, TMQ watch | 1 Comment »

What can Brown do for you?

Friday, November 9th, 2012

Apparently, coaching the Lakers is not one of those things.

The Lakers were 41-25 in Brown’s first season, losing to Oklahoma City in the second round of the playoffs.

The team is 1-4 so far this season. (And, BTW, Washington and Detroit still have a shot at going 0-82.)

Posted in Clippings, Firings, Loser, Schadenfreude, Sports | Comments Closed

More losers.

Monday, November 5th, 2012

NBA teams that still have a chance to go 0-82:

Detroit Pistons
Washington Wizards
Denver Nuggets
Sacramento Kings

Posted in Loser, Schadenfreude, Sports | Comments Closed

Continuing the NBA loser update…

Saturday, November 3rd, 2012

Still inspired by Lawrence, NBA teams that have a chance to go 0-82:

Toronto Raptors
Boston Celtics
Brooklyn Nets
Detroit Pistons
Washington Wizards
Atlanta Hawks
Denver Nuggets
Los Angeles Lakers
Sacramento Kings

Posted in Loser, Schadenfreude, Sports | Comments Closed

I’m not snickering. I’m experiencing schadenfreude.

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

I would have sworn I had written about the Virginia Samuelson murder case last year, but I can’t find it. Maybe I sent it to Weer’d Beard for the “Gun Death” files instead.

Short version: Shaun Samuelson got into an argument with his mother, Virginia, and hit her several times. EMS was called, and while Mrs. Samuelson was on a stretcher, being loaded into the ambulance, Mr. Samuelson drove his pickup into the group (including Mrs. Samuelson, the EMTs, and an APD officer) killing her. (APD and the EMTs apparently ducked out of the way and avoided serious injury.)

The jury in Mr. Samuelson’s trial took 30 minutes to return a “guilty” verdict on capital murder charges.

Mr. Samuelson will serve a life sentence, as the prosecution did not seek the death penalty.

Posted in Clippings, Law, Schadenfreude | Comments Closed

“You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena!” watch.

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

I thought I’d start a thread covering results of last night’s primaries. Specifically, the ones that amuse me.

To start (hattip Lawrence) Harris County DA Pat Lykos, who you may remember from such hits as the BAT vans and the grand jury investigation, lost the primary election to Mike Anderson.

(If you don’t remember Ms. Lykos and her antics, the “HCDA” tag will provide you with a summary.)

I am getting a slow start to the morning, so watch this space for possible updates as I wade through the coverage.

Edited to add: I did not know this, but the winner of the Democratic primary election for HCDA was “once indicted for illegal lawyering”. To which I say: Huh?

ETA2: “In 2010, he ran as a Democrat while under indictment for barratry, a charge that later was dropped.” Ah, barratry.

Posted in Clippings, HCDA, Law, Politics, Schadenfreude | Comments Closed

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