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…
Archive for the ‘Schadenfreude’ Category
TMQ Watch: January 15, 2013.
Wednesday, January 16th, 2013What can Brown do for you?
Friday, November 9th, 2012Apparently, coaching the Lakers is not one of those things.
The team is 1-4 so far this season. (And, BTW, Washington and Detroit still have a shot at going 0-82.)
More losers.
Monday, November 5th, 2012NBA teams that still have a chance to go 0-82:
Detroit Pistons
Washington Wizards
Denver Nuggets
Sacramento Kings
Continuing the NBA loser update…
Saturday, November 3rd, 2012Still 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
I’m not snickering. I’m experiencing schadenfreude.
Wednesday, September 19th, 2012I 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.)
Mr. Samuelson will serve a life sentence, as the prosecution did not seek the death penalty.
“You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena!” watch.
Wednesday, May 30th, 2012I 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.
TMQ watch: April 24, 2012.
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012TMQ is back temporarily, for the first of his two yearly draft columns. We were actually kind of wondering about this; ESPN dropped “Page 2” a couple of weeks ago, and we were unsure if TMQ would stay or go.
Anyway, we are glad to see Easterbrook back, and, after the jump, we will mock his mockery…
Random notes: April 5, 2012.
Friday, April 6th, 2012Remember Greg Mortenson and the whole “Three Cups of Tea”/”Three Cups of Deceit” controversy? If you don’t, here’s some background.
Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute agreed to a settlement yesterday with the Montana Attorney General. Here’s the entire NYT story.
And here’s the entire LAT story. One paragraph in the NYT, two pages in the LAT. (To be fair, the LAT does bring in some non-CAI related issues, like Kony 2012.)
Summarizing: Mortenson will reimburse $1 million to CAI, CAI’s two remaining board members will leave and a new seven-member board will take over, and Mortenson will no longer be on that board.
The article states that the settlement will “toss Mortenson out of his own charity’, but quotes the “interim executive director” saying:
…that Mortenson would remain a paid employee of the charity but would not serve on the new board.
More parking problems at the Long Center over the weekend.
The notoriously corrupt California city of Vernon is holding city council elections next Tuesday. Hilarity has ensued.
Amen, brother. I don’t get people knocking on my door for elections, thank Ghu, but the phone calls really make me angry.
Worth noting: recent reforms (adopted in an attempt to keep the state from disincorporating Vernon) cut council salaries from $70,000 a year to $25,000 a year, eliminated subsidized rent for council members, and imposed term limits.
“I haven’t laughed so much over anything since the hogs ate my kid brother.”
Friday, March 30th, 2012Current TV fires Keith Olbermann.
Raise your hand if you didn’t see this coming the moment his hiring was announced. Oh, wait: Ray Charles could have seen this coming.
But it gets better. Would you like to know who is replacing Keith Olbermann? Why, none other than Eliot “Client Number 9” Spitzer himself!
And if you’d like to read Olbermann’s response, you can find it here.
(And subject line hattip here.)
Instant karma’s gonna get you…
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012About two months ago, a class action suit was filed against Yassine Enterprises. The company was accused of not paying wages to employees who received tips: they own a long list of clubs in downtown Austin.
Earlier today, the FBI, IRS, and TABC raided the offices of Yassine Enterprises. 11 people involved with the company have been charged with an interesting assortment of federal crimes, including money laundering, cocaine trafficking, and “transferring a firearm knowing it is to be used in a drug trafficking crime”.
To which all I can say is “Wow”. And possibly “don’t f–k with the bartender”. It’ll be interesting to watch these cases play out.
Edited to add: Second day coverage from the Statesman here.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Two Coffee Travelers for my office: $28.04 with tax.
Receipt: free with purchase.
Sending a clear message to the gun banners: priceless.
There are some things money can’t buy. Like schadenfreude. People have to earn that. And in this case, the gun grabbers have.
Morning roundup for February 7, 2012.
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012Bunch of stuff from the NYT this morning. Sorry, but that’s how things roll sometimes.
First up: I didn’t know there were plans for an Eisenhower memorial. I like Ike, and the artist’s conception doesn’t strike me as being too awful. However, I’m skeptical of the need for yet another memorial in DC. The big news here is that Eisenhower’s family is now raising “concerns” about the design.
Extra bonus points: the memorial designer is WCD’s (and Lawrence’s) favorite architect.
And this is why they do it:
Lecture mode on:
And finally:
I commend to the attention of Mayor Bloomberg and “Mumbles” Menino Matthew 7:5. Better yet, I commend to both gentlemen and the other members of the criminal organization Mayors Against Illegal Guns the simple strategy of shutting the f–k up.
Edited to add: Oh, drat. I forgot that I wanted to make note of Alberto Contador being stripped of his 2010 Tour de France win. Congrats to Andy Schleck.
Obit watch and more randomness for February 3, 2012.
Saturday, February 4th, 2012Obit watch: prominent spy novelist Dorothy Gilman.
Ben Gazzara. I’m glad to see “Run For Your Life” get some mention in his obit; that’s another series RTN was re-running, and that I wish someone would bring out a full DVD set of. (And I’d also like to see “Anatomy of a Murder” sometime; I’ve read the book, but haven’t seen the movie.)
Hey, how about that lengthy Federal investigation into Lance Armstrong’s alleged doping? The Feds took their best shot…and turned up nothing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the guy has been tested so often that either he’s telling the truth and is totally clean, or his doping technologists are not only ahead of the curve, you can’t even see the curve from where they are.
Finally, I wanted to make note of a developing local story. Early Friday morning, a guy wrecked his car near a railroad crossing in the Avery Ranch area of Northwest Austin. The guy walked away from the wreck. A little while later, the wife of a homeowner in the area heard voices outside and saw a man (the same guy) lying under her car. Her husband went out to investigate, and apparently attempted to hold the man at gunpoint. The homeowner ended up shooting the intruder three times, killing him.
And the homeowner has now been charged with murder.
There are too many unknowns in the current press coverage to make me feel comfortable passing judgment in this case. I know the article quotes the homeowner as saying, “If you flee, I’m going to shoot you,” and then firing on the intruder as he tried to flee. But we don’t know what else the intruder did at this point; did he display a weapon? Was there a disparity of force involved (23 year old intruder, 47 year old homeowner)?
I think there is one thing we can say for sure:
Use your gun defensively, and even if it is a good shoot, your life is going to change; probably not for the better. Commvault Bryan and I were talking the other day about having an attorney on “retainer” and the various groups that offer that service for a small monthly fee; I need to get with Karl and get the name of the organization he recommends.
It tastes so sweet.
Thursday, January 19th, 2012Terrell Owens has signed with Dallas.
Well, technically, Allen.
The Allen Wranglers, that is, of the Indoor Football League.
In the FARK thread on this, I suggested that the Wranglers should also seek out Tiki Barber. But I’m going to throw it open to you, good people; what other notorious team cancers can the Allen Wranglers sign? And if they sign enough of them, will the suburbs of Dallas collapse into a black hole?
Someone is about to start a new chapter in their life.
Tuesday, December 27th, 2011Chapter 7, that is.
There’s a rapper who calls himself “Young Buck” (real name David Darnell Brown). He owes money to people. People like the IRS. People like his baby mama. And people like 50 Cent and the G-Unit record label; according to the LAT, he owes them “more than $10 million”.
“Young Buck” originally filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11, which, as you know Bob, allows one to reorganize their debts. But now the Chapter 11 has been turned into a Chapter 7, aka “total liquidation”.
The fun part? The name “Young Buck” (which is also trademarked) is an asset that will be sold off in the liquidation.
A couple of notes:
- How did he get that far in debt to G-Unit Records? According to the LAT, there’s some sort of contract dispute involved, but I’d really like to know more about what’s going on here. In a way, it is kind of reminiscent of Steve Wyrick: how do you get that far in the hole before someone pulls the trigger?
- Can we all agree that the phrase “peep the mad flow” does not belong anywhere in an article on a major daily newspaper’s website (except maybe as a direct quotation, in quotation marks)?