Apropos to the comment in this week’s TMQ Watch, “Huts Spencer”, one of our awesome readers, sent us a link to local news coverage of this year’s Packers shareholders meeting.
Thank you, sir!
Archive for the ‘Clippings’ Category
The Pack is back, baby.
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011TMQ watch: December 13, 2011.
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011Before we start in on this week’s TMQ, we wanted to throw up a link to this fine article on the University of Alaska Fairbanks rifle team. Shall Not Be Questioned linked this yesterday, but we didn’t get around to reading the article until we started prepping this week’s TMQ Watch. Now that we have, we commend it to your attention.
And now the jump…
Grind that axe, NYT.
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011Stipulated: the death of a police officer doing the right thing is tragic.
But there’s some odd stuff going on in the NYT coverage. For example,
“the sort of firearm that continues to vex the city”? Are there a lot of folks getting shot with semi-automatic Ruger pistols? Would it somehow have been better if the officer had been shot with a Smith and Wesson revolver? And doesn’t NYC have strict gun control laws?
I realize I’m probably expecting a little much from the NYT, but I’d like more details on how this unloaded revolver was “jammed”.
And:
Isn’t that interesting? I expect we’ll be hearing more about it in the next few days.
How politics works.
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011We have previously noted the attempt to revoke the city charter of Vernon, a notoriously corrupt city in California.
The most recent attempt, sadly, failed.
Why did it fail? One reason might be that the city agreed to some governmental reforms in lieu of disincorporation.
Another reason might be that a state senator asked Vernon to give $60 million dollars to fund “community projects” in the cities around Vernon. Vernon agreed, the senator and one of the cities that would get the money reversed their position on disincorporation, and low and behold, the legislation got defeated.
The punchline? Now Vernon has to come up with $60 million, and doesn’t know where they’re going to get it.
Heh. Heh. Heh.
We are amused…
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011…by this NYT article about Indian tribes in California that are disenrolling “inauthentic” members of the tribe. After all, the more people you throw out, the less of a split you have for that lovely casino money. ($15,000 a month?!)
I found this quote particularly striking:
Blogroll addition.
Monday, December 12th, 2011By way of Insta, Great But Forgotten.
I was more than a little skeptical when I saw his entry. But when I clicked over and saw that they had covered
- The film version of A Simple Plan.
- The works of John Brunner, including The Shockwave Rider.
- Bedazzled (the original)
And all on the first page of the site, I pretty much said to myself, “Yeah, these guys are worth keeping an eye on.”
Then I kept clicking. Screaming Yellow Zonkers! Ellery Queen! And Tom freakin’ Reamy! (I haven’t read Blind Voices, but I have read San Diego Lightfoot Sue and Other Stories.) Yeah, if these guys are willing to go that deep, I’ll trust them on a lot of stuff. (Okay, I do have a quibble or two. I don’t think Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was all that and a bag of chips, though I agree it wasn’t horrible.)
I could waste hours here. Indeed, I think I already have. But, you know, when someone singles out Night of the Comet, attention must be paid.
The bloodbath continues.
Monday, December 12th, 2011Rough day for coaches.
Terry Murray out as coach of the Los Angeles Kings. This is a hockey team, by the way.
Also, for the benefit of the Texas Tech fans in my audience (both of them), Lawrence sent along this link to turnover in the coaching ranks.
Trolling, trolling, trolling…
Monday, December 12th, 20117-10 split.
Monday, December 12th, 2011Miami Dolphins drop Tony Sparano, at least according to speculation. We should be about 30 minutes into that 4:15 press conference.
No longer the Chief.
Monday, December 12th, 2011This is intended to enrage you. (Part 4)
Friday, December 9th, 2011Texas Law.
Friday, December 9th, 2011Lawrence is on top of the UT Law School dean resignation story, but there’s one aspect of this story that troubles me.
From the Statesman:
Mmmmmkay. The Statesman goes on to quote officials with the Law School as saying that “Every member of the faculty with a named professorship or chair gets summer support and/or a salary supplement from the foundation,” and “Sometimes we help people with mortgage loans and things of that sort.” How many people does this amount to? And where does the foundation get funds?
But here’s the thing that makes me go “Hmmmmm”:
Settlements?
So was the Law School underpaying people and engaging in discriminatory behavior (or at least, giving people reason to believe such a thing was going on)? And were they using money from this fund to pay off people who otherwise would have sued? Because that’s sure the implication I get from the word “settlement”; that this money was going to folks who otherwise would have gone to court.
If my reading of this isn’t too far off base, it strikes me as being even sleazier than the forgivable $500,000 loan to the dean.
Mumia.
Thursday, December 8th, 2011I’ve been following the case of Officer Daniel Faulkner for years.
I believe, along with such notoriously conservative sources as Vanity Fair and Salon, that Mumia Abu-Jamal killed Officer Faulkner. I believe that anyone who maintains otherwise, in the face of all the evidence against Abu-Jamal, is delusional. I can respect the people who said “Mumia Abu-Jamal shouldn’t be executed because nobody should be executed.” I understand that position, and respect the intellectual consistency of it. I can’t respect anyone who says “Mumia Abu-Jamal shouldn’t be executed because he should be walking around free because he didn’t do the crime.” The evidence is too overwhelming.
The district attorney in Philadelphia has decided that he’s not going to seek a new sentencing hearing for Abu-Jamal. He will remain in prison for the rest of his life, instead of being executed for killing Officer Faulkner.
I’m torn by this. I believe Abu-Jamal deserves to be executed. I know I’ve threatened to write a longer post about my views on the death penalty (and I will do that some day). People I respect a great deal argue against the death penalty. I’ve given a lot of thought to their arguments, and I’ll admit I’m about 51% in favor, 49% against.
What it comes down to for me is that I believe some people do things so awful to other people that they deserve to die. I believe Ted Bundy deserved to die. I believe Ronald Clark O’Bryan deserved to die. And I think Abu-Jamal deserves to die.
But Officer Faulkner’s widow supports the decision not to pursue the death penalty again. Good enough for me. May Abu-Jamal vanish back into well deserved obscurity, and may he die alone, unmourned and unloved.
This is intended to enrage you. (#3 in a series)
Thursday, December 8th, 2011Ice, ice, baby.
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011Since I have been slightly involved with the profession, I am compelled to call attention to Popehat’s post about Homeland Security funds being used to purchase snow-cone machines. (Edited to add: Just to clarify, that is the snow cone/shaved ice profession, not the Homeland Security profession.)
There are several things that bother me about the coverage of this:
- “…the snow cone machines can make ice to prevent heat-related illnesses during emergencies”. No. Snow cone and shaved ice machines do not “make ice”, at least in the sense of producing it from liquid water. These machines require a supply of ice, generally in blocks.
- Are they snow cone machines or shaved ice machines? The article linked from Popehat uses both terms. But there is a difference: snow cones are generally composed of larger ice particles, and are a little more grainy. Shaved ices are composed of finer ice particles, closer to snow in texture, and are generally smoother.