Fat, drunk, and escorting nuclear weapons is no way to go through life, son.
(I haven’t checked FARK to see if they used that headline. If they didn’t, they should have.)
Anne Dick and The Search for Philip K. Dick in the NYT.
Archive for the ‘Clippings’ Category
Random notes: November 23, 2010.
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010Pager duty?
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010The City of Austin is paying a police officer – not just any police officer, but one of Art Acevedo’s fired/reinstated by an arbitrator officers – $98,000 a year.
Now, $98,000 a year is good money, especially in Austin. “But,” you may say to yourself, “I don’t want to get shot at, even for $98,000 a year.”
No worries, mate.
Interestingly, the whole thing appears to stem from a domestic dispute:
Correct me if I’m wrong, someone, but doesn’t the fact that he was convicted of a crime of domestic violence mean that he can’t own or carry a gun in any case?
The Washington Post makes me testy. (Part VI)
Monday, November 22nd, 2010Oh, look! The WP‘s “Hidden Life of Guns” is back! Unleash the dagron, as they say on FARK!
I am rapidly coming to the belief that the most dangerous things in the world, in order, are:
- a software guy with a soldering iron.
- a hardware guy with a programming language.
- a journalist with a database.
- and a government employee with an idea.
Obit watch: But what about Thumper?
Monday, November 22nd, 2010One of my tipsters pointed out that Lawrencia “Bambi” Bembenek has died.
For those of you who don’t remember the bizarre saga of the Bembenek case: Ms. Bembenek was a former waitress in a Playboy Club who became an officer with the Milwaukee PD. Shortly after that, she married a Milwaukee PD detective. Shortly after that, the detective’s ex-wife was capped.
Ms. Bembenek was arrested and charged with the murder, but claimed she had been framed by members of the Milwaukee PD, as retaliation for her cooperation in a federal investigation of the department. In spite of this, Ms. Bembenek was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Eight years after her conviction, Ms. Bembenek escaped from prison and fled to Canada. She was recaptured within three months, but in the meantime had gained a substantial amount of support in Milwaukee.
Edited to add: slightly more detailed WP obit here. Somehow, I missed the whole “lawsuit against Dr. Phil” thing.
Riverbats?
Friday, November 19th, 2010Austin Community College has a new mascot.
I want to provide some more substantial comment on this story, but I can’t; I’m laughing too hard.
Fashonistas.
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010I wanted to link to this article on the Old Fashioned (hattip: Daring Fireball); I actually think this is a pretty well done take, and I was previously unfamiliar with the American Drink website.
The problem I have, though, is that the American Drink site seems to me to be annoyingly laid out and far more difficult to read than it should be.
I’m wondering if it might be time to revive the Society for the Preservation and Restoration of Classic Cocktails, in blog format; possibly even as a group blog. Glen? Mike? RoadRich? Would you guys be interested if I fired something like that up?
Your loser update: week 10.
Monday, November 15th, 2010It was a lousy week in the NFL, at least from my perspective.
Dallas won (what the heck? Was dumping Wade really all they needed?), Houston lost (what is this I don’t even), and sadly…
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
None.
Count on the Lions to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Bright spot: Minnesota got stomped, so I’m still holding out hope for another coach firing, and possibly even the benching of Brett Favre.
Quote of the day.
Friday, November 12th, 2010Other business owners were able to open BBB accounts for Hamas and the white supremacist website Stormfront with “A” grades by paying membership fees. To be fair, those organizations are top-notch at providing customer service, so long as the service you are looking for is getting murdered or reviled based on your race.
—Ken @ Popehat. Context here.
Head. Splody.
Friday, November 12th, 2010So let me see if I understand this NYT article correctly:
The “SoHo” district of NYC has a rule that allows people to live in lofts in SoHo, provided that they are “artists”.
Saying that you’re an “artist” isn’t good enough: there’s actually a city certification process for artists. For example, Jon Bon Jovi is a city certified artist.
Up until recently, the “artist” requirement seems to have been honored on a “wink and a nudge” basis. But now, banks, co-op boards, and the city have started cracking down.
And the process for become a NYC certified artist is somewhat mysterious:
…
…
Am I missing something?
Sigh.
Thursday, November 11th, 2010There are two things I generally avoid.
- Reading articles linked from the FARK politics tab, and the FARK comment threads on those articles. I don’t need more rage in my life.
- Blogging about health care, and health care reform. Look, I think the system has major problems. I wish I knew how to fix it. I don’t. I think things are too deeply intertwingled for there to be a single easy fix, or even a series of easy fixes. I’m worried that once you start tugging on the pieces, the entire thing will collapse like a giant game of Jenga.
I do think there’s been a handful of sane voices in the debate: I was really impressed with David Goldhill’s “How American Health Care Killed My Father“, for example.
That being said, Lawrence sent me over to that territory I usually don’t tread in (for this link about what TV shows are popular among Republicans and Democrats) and I stumbled across another Atlantic article there: “God Help You. You’re on Dialysis.”
I’m having trouble finding my way into writing about that, because there’s still some raw emotions involved. Also, what I saw involves the lives of some other people, who may not want their personal business spread all over the Internets.
That being said, much of what’s in that article rings a giant freaking bell. Infection control issues? Yes. “When patients do take on the system, they can pay a heavy price.” Oh, my, yes. Clinics pushing medication that they could charge Medicare for? You betcha. “The expanding grip of DaVita and Fresenius.” Yes, though to be fair, what else would you expect? If the Government is paying 100% of the cost for dialysis, they have an incentive to drive costs down as much as possible. If they drive down costs, the people who can even afford to provide the service in the first place are the ones who can cut costs and consolidate operations.
While I was composing this post, Instapundit linked to the article as well. The comments from the person who works in the industry are particularly interesting, I think.
Obit watch.
Thursday, November 11th, 2010Noted film producer Dino De Laurentiis has passed away.
In his honor, let’s look back at one of the high points of his career:
Art, damn it, art! watch (#18 in a series).
Thursday, November 11th, 2010The LAT has a piece on the “Small Gift Los Angeles” exhibition in Santa Monica.
The link is worth checking out, especially for the included pictures. I find “Hello Topiary” a little scary, to be honest, but “Fishy Greetings” is kind of nifty.
Rotating 180 degrees away from Sanrio, the Guardian has an article on an exhibition in Berlin of sculptures confiscated by the Nazis. The sculptures in question were considered lost after the war, but were recently dug up during excavation for a new building.
These particular sculptures were apparently part of the Nazi campaign against “degenerate art”, and were included in the infamous “Entartete Kunst” exhibition. I’ve been fascinated by that exhibition since I first read about it in (of all places) Charles Willeford’s The Burnt Orange Heresy
Those thin lines.
Thursday, November 11th, 2010I don’t really like just throwing up links to other people’s posts, at least without adding some commentary here.
But Matt G.’s post on the concept of “The Thin Blue Line” deserves highlighting, and I really can’t add anything to it except: this!
Joel, am I tripping?
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010The NYT – our nation’s national newspaper of record – sees fit to run an article about…wait for it…The Onion‘s Joe Biden parody articles.
I am not making this up.
I would mock this some more, but the article’s actually worth reading, if only for the caption associated with this photo.
Art (Acevedo), damn it! watch. (#M of a series)
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010Continuing the ongoing saga of Officer Quintana:
He was arrested yesterday and charged with four misdemeanors related to the alleged domestic violence incident. Yes, the one he was fired over. Yes, the one that happened over a year ago.
Look, I’m not in favor of cops thumping on their women, or thumping on other folks for that matter. But something stinks about this story; either the Leander PD covered for Quintana, or someone put pressure on them to press charges over a year after the fact, and in spite of the victim’s initial statement that no assault had occurred. (And, yes, I’m aware that’s not uncommon in domestic violence situations, and probably even more common when the perp is a police officer. On the other hand, the victim is a police officer, too.)