Archive for the ‘Clippings’ Category

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‘Tis a mystery indeed.

Friday, May 20th, 2011

To paraphrase something Hunter S. Thompson never said, “The restaurant business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”

Take, for example, the strange case of Eric Farber.

Mr. Farber owns (owned?) a place called Plus Four Dining in Georgetown (now closed). Plus Four was on the first floor of a building; the second floor of the building is occupied by the Landmark Tavern, and Landmark’s owner also owns the building itself.

The owner was also trying to evict Mr. Farber, charging default of the lease, insufficient property insurance, and breach of an agreement not to disrupt Landmark’s business…

…according to the letter, which claimed that Farber had climbed a tree next to the upstairs balcony “and encouraged the patrons on the balcony to come downstairs for better prices.”

Farber had stopped people entering the building and encouraged them to go to his restaurant rather than the Tavern, according to the letter.

Farber was appealing the eviction, claiming that Landmark’s customers were too loud for his customers and that the ceiling insulation was inadequate, as well as water leaks and drainage problems in the building. Farber also claims that the owner refused to make repairs and “fabricated the claim that Tenant owed Landlord money for the electric bill.” Farber also apparently filed complaints against the Landmark with TABC.

Sounds like a fairly standard dispute, right? Up until 3:30 AM last week, when Farber was found on the street with a bloody face and no pants.

In a curious coincidence, the police were also called out to a criminal complaint at the Landmark…

“Someone had gone on the roof of the building and apparently taken some lights and satellite dishes and thrown them off the building,” [Georgetown PD Captain Kevin] Stofle said. “We haven’t come into contact with anyone who knows for sure what happened. We don’t know if Farber was up there and fell off.”

Curious. Curious, indeed.

(Hattip: Mom.)

Posted in Clippings, Food | 1 Comment »

Random notes: May 19, 2011.

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

Things have been kind of slow the past couple of days. Please accept this random collection of crap in lieu of actual content.

Today’s update from our “the street finds its own uses for things” file: “Mexican organized crime groups are using ultralight aircraft to drop marijuana bundles in agricultural fields and desert scrub across the U.S. border.”

Speaking of Neuromancer, there’s more talk about it finally becoming a film, with Vincenzo Natali (“Splice”) directing. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Back at the ranch, the City of Austin

…must retest more than 2,000 firefighter applicants amid concerns that some of them could have obtained confidential questions that they were asked in oral interviews.

I’m a little surprised that they had over 2,000 applicants in this most recent batch. I’m also wondering exactly what those questions were…

I also wanted to touch briefly on our fun city council elections. Yes, we had city council elections last weekend. Three seats (out of a total of six) were up this year. Two of those seats were retained by the incumbents (Chris Riley in place 1, and Laura Morrison in place 4) by pretty large percentages (66 and 73 percent of the votes, respectively.)

Place 3 is held by Randi Shade, who is finishing up her first term on the city council. Shade was initially a favorite to win re-election, but there was a controversy over some emails she sent, one thing led to another…and Shade got her butt kicked, badly, finishing second in a four-way race. Shade just barely managed to get into a runoff with the first-place candiate, Kathie Tovo; Tovo pulled in 46 percent of the vote, and it seems unlikely that the supporters of the other two candidates (former city council member Max Nofziger and Kris Bailey) are going to throw their votes to Shade.

(Tovo was also endorsed by the local alternative weekly; the way I read their endorsement, though, it was a close decision between Tovo and Shade. I’ve been unable to find endorsements from the last election on the alt-weekly’s crummy web site, so I don’t know if they endorsed Shade last time around.)

Tovo’s supporters are already calling on Shade to concede and spare everyone the cost of a runoff. Shade’s response? She’s filed an ethics complaint against Tovo. I’m looking forward to watching this one play out. Note to self: vote early.

This just in: remember the SWAT officer who flipped his cop car and was charged with drunk driving? Yeah, he’s out, pending the decision of the arbitrator. Our buddy Art also suspended six other cops who were supposedly at the party with him. Unclear from the current Statesman article is what the grounds for suspension were, or how long the suspensions were for.

Edited to add 5/20: Here’s a better Statesman article with more details on who was suspended for how long and why.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Cops, Law, Movies, Planes, Politics | 2 Comments »

Chutzpah.

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

The classic definition is, of course, the guy who murders his parents and then asks the court for mercy because he’s an orphan.

I think we may have a new one: the Fiesta Bowl wants their illegal campaign contributions refunded.

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

Man, that’s hardcore.

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Writing about this makes me a little uncomfortable, but the weird factor supersedes. I’m not mocking the crucifixion of Christ here, for those of my readers of a religious bent.

A South Korean taxi driver found dead and nailed to a cross in an apparent re-creation of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ probably carried out the ordeal on his own, police said Wednesday.

Now, you’re probably asking yourself the same question I did (and the same question that came up during a recent dinner). I can see how you’d nail your feet, assuming you’re sufficiently limber, and one hand, but how do you get the other hand?

Kim is believed to have nailed his feet to the cross, tied his neck to it and stabbed himself in the side. He is then believed to have drilled holes in his hands and slipped them over nails on the cross, Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency officers said, describing the death under condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the press.

Uh, yeah.

I’m reminded of a story a certain individual used to tell when he was doing stand-up comedy about the late Henry Marshall. Mr. Marshall was a peripheral figure in the Billie Sol Estes scandal who was found dead one day next to his pickup truck. He’d been shot. Five times. In the chest. With a bolt-action .22 rifle. His death was ruled a suicide.

You’ve really got to want to kill yourself to shoot yourself five times in the chest with a bolt-action .22, or to drill holes in your hands and slip them over nails you’ve already put into the cross. I’d probably be rethinking my strategy shortly after driving a freaking nail through my feet, and certainly long before running a power drill through my hand.

Posted in Clippings | 2 Comments »

The end of the Sahara.

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Covered by the Las Vegas Sun. (To the best of my knowledge, it is only the Las Vegas Review-Journal that’s a Righthaven paper. If I’m mistaken, please correct me in comments.)

Hattip: Daring Fireball.

Posted in Clippings, Obits, Travel | Comments Closed

Pour out a fifth for the fourth.

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

First, the Indiana Supreme Court ignores hundreds of years of common law and asserts that there is no right to resist illegal entry by the police. I didn’t write about that decision because it’s been well written about here, here, and here, all by people much smarter than I am.

Next, the United States Supreme Court decides, 8-1 (!), that the police can basically create their own “exigent circumstances” in order to justify entering anyone’s home without a warrant.

And now, the RIAA is pushing for legislation that would allow warrantless searches of CD and DVD manufacturing plants. Apparently, if the police actually had to go to the trouble of getting a warrant, people making bootleg discs would flush them down the toilet…

The American Civil Liberties Union questioned the constitutionality of the bill but so far has not opposed the measure because it said the bill appeared to be narrowly drawn.

Say what?

The RIAA argued that courts had carved out 4th Amendment exceptions already. So far, it said, warrantless searches have been allowed at such businesses as automobile junkyards and repair shops, mines, gun and liquor stores, nursing homes, massage parlors, pawn shops and wholesale fish dealers.

“wholesale fish dealers”?

 

Posted in Clippings, Law, Stupid | Comments Closed

Obit watch: May 17, 2011.

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Harmon Killebrew. (What a great name. Why don’t parents give their kids names like “Harmon” any more?)

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political ambitions.

Posted in Clippings, Politics, Sports | 2 Comments »

Yet another public service announcement.

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Once again, our friends at TXDOT are closing I-35 at Ben White this weekend.

Fortunately, we’ve already picked our SDC venue, and it is almost as far away from that mess as we could get.

Posted in Clippings, Roads | Comments Closed

Sold!

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

The Houston Astros, that is.

Sorry, not really much to say beyond that.

Posted in Clippings, Sports | Comments Closed

How many bags of Tostitos will a million dollars buy?

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

The BCS oversight committee has rendered their decision in the case of the Fiesta Bowl. (See previous blog posts here, here, and here.)

And the decision is…the Fiesta Bowl stays in the BCS, but pays a one million dollar fine.

Also, there’s a bunch of happy horses–t about hiring outside auditors, doing an annual audit, “cut[ing] ties with board members who engaged in inappropriate behavior”. You know, the usual load of crap.

“I hope this turns a new page for the Fiesta Bowl, but as far as this being a credible review or process, I don’t think it is,” said Matthew Sanderson, co-founder of Playoff PAC, a group critical of the BCS. “They (BCS task force) didn’t recuse members who accepted gifts from the Fiesta Bowl, and they didn’t review the other bowls when there are documented irregularities of the same nature at the Orange and Sugar bowls.”

In other news, Captain Renault is shocked, shocked to find out that gambling is going on.

(Hattip: NRO‘s “Right Field” blog.)

 

Posted in Clippings, Sports | Comments Closed

Why we should worry about the Chinese.

Monday, May 9th, 2011

One word: diversification.

The first person indicted in a plot to smuggle anti-aircraft missiles into the United States after the 9/11 attacks was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles federal court to 25 years in prison.

More:

A federal jury convicted [Yi Qing] Chen last October of five felony charges: conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine; distribution of cocaine; trafficking in counterfeit cigarettes (about 800,000 cases); trafficking in contraband cigarettes; and conspiracy to import missile systems designed to destroy aircraft.

Meth, coke, cigarettes, and missile systems? Most crooks specialize in one or two areas, but not Mr. Chen; he apparently wanted to be the Wal-Mart of smugglers. You’ve got to give the guy props for ambition.

Edited to add: Darn it, I just realized; if he had done something with booze (untaxed maotai?) he could have had the trifecta.

Posted in Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Captain Cranky wakes up and checks the newspaper.

Monday, May 9th, 2011

On Friday, the Statesman was pushing a Sunday profile of Maurice Pierce.

“Who is Maurice Pierce?” you ask. You may remember him from this blog entry back in December, but if you don’t: Pierce was one of four men charged in the “yogurt shop” murders, had the charges against him dropped, and resurfaced back in December when he cut a cop’s throat and was shot dead.

Oddly enough, the promised profile never showed up either online or in the print editions of Sunday’s paper. I shall be keeping my eyes open; perhaps they decided to push it out a week for some reason.

In the meantime, our local paper brings us the happy news that SB905 passed the Texas Senate by a vote of 25-6. What would SB905 do?

…would allow legislators, statewide elected officials, some former legislators and some state employees to carry their concealed weapons in bars, churches and hospitals and at sporting events and other places they are currently prohibited — including businesses that post signs outside saying concealed handguns are prohibited.

As Lawrence said when I sent him this link, “Some animals are more equal than others.”

(I’m a wee bit skeptical about relying on the Speciman for coverage of this bill, but I can’t find anything on the TSRA web site.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns | 2 Comments »

Jumping Jack Flash…

Friday, May 6th, 2011

I’m as concerned about high gas prices as the next guy. Here’s an interesting story for you involving Internet sock puppetry by an oil company, plus out-of-control spending on expensive booze.

“How can the price of gas not go up when they indulge in such extreme luxury?” asked an angry online commentary by the person who posted the invoices under a pseudonym.

BP? No, Sinopec, the Chinese oil company.

Posted in Clippings | 1 Comment »

What is it with people?

Friday, May 6th, 2011

They always want to focus on the worst-case scenario.

Sure, if you get wolf pups for your kids, there’s a chance that the wolves will eat your children. But that’s the worst case scenario. Anyway, the wolves are unlikely to eat more than one of the kids.

And, hey, what’s the best-case scenario? Your kids will go on to found Rome. Weighted against that possibility, don’t your worries about kids being eaten seem kind of trivial?

Posted in Clippings, Hysteria | 4 Comments »

We could fly a helicopter, nothing left to talk about.

Friday, May 6th, 2011

The NYT, the WP, Wired, and Aviation Leak are all over the stealth helicopter beat. (Note: that WP link is a video, and will play a commercial before the video starts.)

I don’t have much to say about this at the moment, but I did think it’d be useful to provide a roundup of the coverage. If anyone has any additional reliable links (not bar speculation from people who claim to be former members of SEAL Team 6) please feel free to drop them in comments.

Edited to add: Here’s something else interesting from the WP: a summary of Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice, or, as the Posties put it “The book the SEALs read”. We were previously unaware of Admiral McRaven’s book, but plan to order a copy today.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Planes | Comments Closed

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