Archive for February 12th, 2013

Banana republicans on trial: February 12, 2013.

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

Teresa Jacobo wrapped up her testimony yesterday in the Bell trial, and indicted former council member George Mirabal is testifying now.

Mirabel is pretty much echoing Jacobo: I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong, I thought it was okay because the city attorney said so, and I did a lot of work outside of meetings for the city.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Miller questioned Mirabal about the day shortly after his 2010 arrest that he voluntarily told prosecutors that no work was done on authorities outside of meetings.
Mirabal said that if he had made such a statement, it was incorrect. He said he couldn’t remember what was said back then and “might have heed and hawed.”
“So it’s easy to remember now?” Miller asked.
“Yes, actually.”
“More than two years after charges have been filed, it’s easier for you to remember now that you did work outside of the meetings for the Public Finance Authority?”
“Yes, sir.”

Random notes: February 12, 2013.

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

This Statesman story is notable because it avoids answering the key question: how does it smell?

Followup on the Tesla story: Elon Musk claims that the story is fake, and that the vehicle logs show something different than the NYT writer claims. The NYT vigorously denies this claim. Summary of the back and forth, with links, at Jimbo’s site.

The International Olympic Committee has decided to keep modern pentathlon in the 2020 Olympics. This makes me happy, as I have a fondness for modern pentathlon, the sport George S. Patton competed in. It strikes me as being a true test of all-around athleticism; the sort of sport true gentlemen compete in.

But wait, there’s more to the story: the IOC is keeping modern pentathlon…and dropping wrestling as a “core sport”. Yes, wrestling, a sport that was part of the first modern Olympics in 1896, and one that dates back to the ancient Greeks. I’m not a big wrestling fan, but this decision seems strange to me. Especially since the 2020 Olympics are also keeping taekwondo and field hockey.

The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history, continued:

Since arriving in Los Angeles from Japan in 1962, the Buddhist teacher Joshu Sasaki, who is 105 years old, has taught thousands of Americans at his two Zen centers in the area and one in New Mexico. He has influenced thousands more enlightenment seekers through a chain of some 30 affiliated Zen centers from the Puget Sound to Princeton to Berlin. And he is known as a Buddhist teacher of Leonard Cohen, the poet and songwriter.

Sounds like a great guy, right? 105 years old, charismatic teacher, hangs with Leonard Cohen?

Mr. Sasaki has also, according to an investigation by an independent council of Buddhist leaders, released in January, groped and sexually harassed female students for decades, taking advantage of their loyalty to a famously charismatic roshi, or master.

More:

When the report was posted to SweepingZen, Mr. Sasaki’s senior priests wrote in a post that their group “has struggled with our teacher Joshu Sasaki Roshi’s sexual misconduct for a significant portion of his career in the United States” — their first such admission.

Kübelwagen!

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

kubel

(I have a short list of cars that I wouldn’t want as a primary daily driver, but would love to have as a second car just to knock around in. On that list: a VW Thing. Which I know isn’t strictly the same thing as the Kübelwagen, but close enough for a Nobel Peace Prize winner to order a drone strike.)