Halt! Hammer-Zeit!

February 25th, 2013

…Jones returned to the apartment about 7 p.m. He attacked the resident with a hammer, hitting him several times in the head.
The resident wrapped Jones in a bear hug and the pair fell onto the floor. Jones hit the man with the hammer again. The man choked Jones.

Spoiler: things did not end well for the guy with the hammer. And no guns were involved.

This also gives me a chance to note the arrest of M.C. Hammer, who “became very argumentative” when the police asked him to get out of the car he was driving (“…that had expired registration and that was not registered to him”).

Every time I hear “U Can’t Touch This” on the radio, I want to call the station’s request line and ask them to play Rick James’ “Super Freak”. Then I want to say, “Oh, wait. You just did”, cackle maniacally, and hang up the phone.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law, Music | Comments Closed

We’re the only ones competent enough to have radios.

February 25th, 2013

Ever since police officers started carrying radios, there have been radio related problems. One problem is “keying the microphone”: basically, pushing the talk button on the microphone and blocking other people from using the channel, or stepping on other people’s transmissions.

Sometimes this is an accident; you shift a little in the seat of your squad car and accidentally hit the button. Sometimes, though, especially in the New York Police Department, it isn’t an accident:

At least six officers have been punished since 2012 for such conduct. The department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, described one case in Brooklyn in which two officers “who keyed over their sergeant” in the last year were each docked 30 vacation days and put on disciplinary probation. “That got their attention and others’ too.”

Officers have also been known to “whistle or quack like a duck to show their disdain for whoever preceded them on the airwaves.”

The NYPD’s radios are assigned to individual officers, and transmissions can be associated with a specific radio, but this hasn’t deterred the conduct. To be fair, some of it could, possibly, maybe be user interface issues:

“I showed them my memo book,” Mr. Padilla said. “I was in traffic court. Maybe it happened while I was turning the radio off. Sometimes you press the key while turning it off.”

Mr. Padilla works in the 33rd Precinct, under Inspector Joseph Dowling.

The inspector has a reputation of being a hands-on boss who is a frequent presence on the radio, often directing resources from the streets himself.
“He comes on the radio and people start clicking,” Mr. Padilla said.

But other than open disrespect for commanding officers, does this matter? Yes, it does:

Sometimes it happens during car chases, when officers have been known to try to drown out any supervisor who might call off the pursuit after concluding it is too dangerous. A number of microphones were keyed on an April night in 2008, for instance, as police officers chased a gunman in a stolen Consolidated Edison van near Yankee Stadium, one police officer recalled.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law, Radio | Comments Closed

The most dangerous job.

February 23rd, 2013

Any bets on when “aspiring rapper” is going to pass “commercial fisherman” as the most dangerous job in America?

And, by the way, you shouldn’t assert facts that can easily be checked, unless you know they’re true:

“He didn’t have a [criminal] record or a history. He was just a good kid trying to make it and be a good father.” Cherry had two children, [Vicki Greco, attorney for the aspiring rapper in question] said.

….

The [Oakland Tribune] reported that [Kenneth] Cherry [aka “Kenny Clutch”, the aspiring rapper] had several arrests in Oakland and Berkeley, many for gun charges. He was convicted on a gun charge in 2007, stemming from an arrest in Berkeley, sources told the Tribune, although details on that conviction weren’t immediately available.

Posted in Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Banana republicans on trial: February 22, 2013.

February 22nd, 2013

It isn’t that I’ve gotten bored with the Bell trial. It’s just that things have been slow and repetitive over the past few days.

The defense has wrapped up closing arguments. I’d go into detail, but you’ve heard it before: it was all “Ratso” Rizzo’s fault.

“We’re here for Mr. Rizzo’s sins, ladies and gentlemen,” [George] Mgdesyan [attorney for councilman Luis Artiga] said. “We’re here because Mr. Rizzo became financially greedy.”

Also, the prosecution failed to prove their case, why wasn’t the city attorney called, and the whole case is political anyway:

[Leo] Moriarty [attorney for councilman Victor Bello] also hinted that the case against the council members was brought because then-Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley was running for attorney general. He said that if the prosecution put a mirror in front of itself, nothing would appear.

(Isn’t Moriarty a great name for a defense lawyer?)

“Almost like being a vampire, almost like being an evil — they can’t see the reflection because there’s nothing there.”
Moriarty likened himself to Don Quixote, “a man who wanted to fight injustice,” and his client to Sancho Panza.

Yeah. Somehow, I don’t think defending the right of city council members to pillage the city treasury is the kind of windmill Don Quixote would charge at.

And Bello does not strike me as being a convincing Sancho Panza. But he might be able to carry off Don Quixote. Terry Gilliam, call your office, please.

At this point, the case is in the hands of the jury, and we’re just waiting on a verdict.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Things you might want to think about.

February 22nd, 2013

Today’s LAT has a longish article on the decline and fall of the Jewish deli.

The article gives some reasons why the traditional deli is disappearing: health concerns, growing popularity and availability of ethnic food, the recession, and rising rents.

Art’s Deli owner Harold Ginsburg, 52, said he’s had to cut back on non-food items at the Studio City store: having fewer employees on call, trimming insurance costs and sending delivery cars to the cheapest gas stations.

What, was he sending cars to the most expensive gas stations when business was good?

But here’s what gets me: the second and third paragraphs of the article, describing customers lining up at the now closed Junior’s Deli:

…Brian Won’s main reaction was “meh.”
“The food was unremarkable,” said the West Los Angeles IT specialist, 32, who visited to use up a Groupon voucher. “Given that there are so many good places to eat in L.A., I have a really hard time saying yes to that.”

Wow, who would have thought selling unremarkable food in 2013 is no longer a license to print money?

And there’s a previous article about Junior’s linked from the sidebar of today’s:

The imminent closure of Junior’s Deli, a longtime Jewish eatery on the Westside, was the result of inexperienced ownership that exacerbated a rent dispute, according to the business’ landlord.

Apparently, the original owner died in 2011, and left the business to his two sons. The landlord claims that they had a good relationship with the original owner, and gave the deli ” several rent concessions during the recession”, even after the owner’s death.

The attorney said negotiations ground to a halt after the brothers made a “well-below market proposal” lower than their father’s rate.

Wow, who would have thought that wouldn’t be a successful negotiating strategy?

Posted in Clippings, Food | Comments Closed

Banana republicans on trial: February 21, 2013.

February 21st, 2013

Closing arguments have begun in the Bell trial. The LAT has your summary. Since we’re talking about the closing arguments, it basically amounts to “same s–t, different day”.

[Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward] Miller lambasted the defendants’ work on four city authorities, and said the dozens of documents shown throughout the trial — including resolutions for pay raises — were “the instruments by which they stole $1.3 million from the citizens of Bell — proof that the pen is mightier than the sword when it comes to white-collar crime.”

The big question: why didn’t anybody call Edward Lee, the former City Attorney for Bell and the guy who supposedly signed off on all of this? He was listed as a witness for the prosecution, but was never called.

Oh, yeah, by the way: it was all the fault of “Ratso” Rizzo, “a vindictive control freak”.

And:

Talking about [indicted council member George] Cole, who testified that he had voted for a 12% annual raise because he feared then-City Administrator Robert Rizzo, Miller said: “Boy, I sure wish my boss would threaten me with a raise.”

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Surprise of the day.

February 20th, 2013

The Statesman ran a positive profile of the Austin Sure Shots women’s pistol league.

The Sure Shots, one of the country’s largest and fastest growing pistol clubs for women, started in Austin a little more than two years ago and holds weekly practices at indoor ranges in the Austin area.

More:

A few members have even built AR-15 rifles from scratch, often spending weeks or months painstakingly assembling them. Some are custom painted — bright pink, blue, white — or decorated with hearts or skulls and are instantly recognizable on the range and at competitions.

Take that, Joe Biden, you clueless wart on the ass of the body politic.

“As a society I think we tend to be afraid of things we don’t know,” Sackett said. “Fear of the unknown is age-old and universal. I’m already less afraid because I know how to operate (a gun). Then, rather than the gun having power over you, you have power over the gun.”

And having a gun, and the power over it, is a lot better than pissing or shitting yourself.

(I see why my friend Andrew likes Gutfeld so much: I am so stealing “Guns: it’s like yoga but useful.”)

Posted in Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed

The things you learn wandering the Internet.

February 20th, 2013

A comment over here led me to the official website (are there many unofficial ones?) of Ern Malley, who I had never heard of previously.

Malley was an Australian poet who died at the age of 25 of Graves disease. His sister discovered his poetry in his personal effects, and sent it to Max Harris, the editor of a literary magazine called “Angry Penguins” (really, I am not making that up) for evaluation. Harris loved the poetry, and published it in the magazine, and in a book called “The Darkening Ecliptic”.

And none of what I’ve told you about Malley was true. He was actually the creation of two other poets, Harold Stewart and James McAuley:

Stewart and McAuley thought modernist poetry was pretentious nonsense. They likened it to “a free association test”. They agreed with A.D. Hope that it would be a good idea to “get Maxy” and to debunk what they called the “Angry Pungwungs”.

So they created Malley and his poetry (they claimed all the poems were written “in one grand burst on a wet afternoon in their barracks”) and sent it to Harris in an attempt to puncture what they saw as the pretense of modernist poetry. Hilarity ensued…

…until Harris and “Angry Penguins” became the subject of an obscenity trial over the Malley poems. (Harris ended up being fined 5 pounds and had to pick up the garbage.)

Lawrence would probably enjoy this story, as it reminds me a lot of the “Social Text” affair. As for myself, I think “the black swan of trespass on alien waters” is a neat turn of phrase.

Posted in Art, Law | Comments Closed

Random notes: February 20, 2013.

February 20th, 2013

We must ban the deadly killer backboards!

Former Texas basketball player Gary Johnson was in stable condition Wednesday morning after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured skull he suffered during a game in Israel, his friend and marketing representative said.

I don’t have much to offer as a Bell trial update. I am assuming the court took Monday off, and there doesn’t seem to have been any reported activity on Tuesday. The LAT does have a story datelined today, but it is just a summary of the past week of testimony, focusing on the whole “it was all Rizzo!” defense strategy.

Obit watch: Donald Richie, “prominent American critic and writer on Japan who helped introduce much of the English-speaking world to the golden age of Japanese cinema in 1959”. Among Richie’s works was The Films of Akira Kurosawa, a book I recommend to anyone interested in Kurosawa’s films.

Posted in Books, California Über Alles, Clippings, Law, Movies, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

All Tesla, all the time.

February 19th, 2013

Could be worse. Could be “all poop cruise”.

Anyway, the NYT public editor has weighed in on the Tesla story.

In my opinion, she’s done so in a rather half-assed fashion. Much of her blog entry is actually a quote from one reader’s letter, making the standard arguments:

  • the writer should have used the “Max Range” setting
  • the writer should have used the “Range Mode” setting
  • the writer should have read the section of the owner’s manual, “Driving Tips for Maximum Range”
  • and he should have left it plugged in overnight

Quoth the public editor:

My own findings are not dissimilar to the reader I quote above, although I do not believe Mr. Broder hoped the drive would end badly. I am convinced that he took on the test drive in good faith, and told the story as he experienced it.
Did he use good judgment along the way? Not especially. In particular, decisions he made at a crucial juncture – when he recharged the Model S in Norwich, Conn., a stop forced by the unexpected loss of charge overnight – were certainly instrumental in this saga’s high-drama ending.

But she fails to give any examples of what she (as opposed to the letter writer) considers to be his alleged “not good” judgment.

If the public editor wishes to take the items above as examples, there are some questions worth asking:

  • Doesn’t using the “Max Range” setting shorten the lifetime of the Tesla batteries? Isn’t it a legitimate decision to trade longer battery life for an additional “20-30 miles” of range?
  • The writer was on the phone with Tesla throughout the entire drive, and followed the advice they gave him to maximize range. Wouldn’t they have given him the same advice as far as the “Range Mode” settings and what’s in the owner’s manual?
  • Are there many hotels that have outside power outlets, in their parking areas, accessible to the public? That’s a serious question: I stay in maybe two hotels a year, if I’m lucky, and I don’t recall seeing power outlets at the ones I’ve stayed at in Vegas.

In addition, Mr. Broder left himself open to valid criticism by taking what seem to be casual and imprecise notes along the journey, unaware that his every move was being monitored. A little red notebook in the front seat is no match for digitally recorded driving logs, which Mr. Musk has used, in the most damaging (and sometimes quite misleading) ways possible, as he defended his vehicle’s reputation.

I agree somewhat with the public editor here. But, as she notes, the writer was “unaware that his every move was being monitored”. Elsewhere, I have seen Musk state that the Tesla has the capacity to do these kind of detailed logs, that it does not do them by default on consumer vehicles, but that Tesla automatically turns on the detailed logging for any vehicle they send out for review. Question: isn’t this just a little bit creepy and disturbing? I wouldn’t have a problem if Tesla had told the NYT and their writer in advance that they were going to have the car maintain a detailed trip log, especially if they shared that data with the NYT. But Musk kept this a secret from the paper, and from the reviewer, until he disputed the review. Yes, he has a right to do that, and yes, I can understand why you’d want your own logs to compare with the paper’s reporting. If Musk can do that to the NYT, though, he can do that to you, Joe Tesla Driver, too.

(So how does this differ from the “black box” in newer cars? Not sure. Need to think about that. My understanding is that the “black box” only collects the last few minutes of data from the car, as opposed to the detailed multi-day logs from the Tesla. But I’m not an auto mechanic, and I have no “black box” in my car.)

Posted in Cars, Clippings, Media | Comments Closed

Random notes: February 19, 2013.

February 19th, 2013

Well, isn’t this special. Julie Roe Lach, the NCAA’s chief enforcement officer, has been fired. You may remember Ms. Lach from such hits as “my people totally f–ked up the Miami investigation”.

Is Sherlock Holmes in the public domain? Or is he under copyright?

…according to a civil complaint filed on Thursday in federal court in Illinois by a leading Holmes scholar, many licensing fees paid to the Arthur Conan Doyle estate have been unnecessary, since the main characters and elements of their story derived from materials published before Jan. 1, 1923, are no longer covered by United States copyright law.

The scholar in question is Leslie S. Klinger, the man behind the recent Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Klinger and the mystery writer Laurie R. King are planning a collection of “Holmes-related” stories by various authors, but the Conan Doyle estate is demanding a licensing fee. Klinger and King did a previous collection of Holmes-related stories in 2011, and paid a $5,000 licensing fee.

The complaint asks that the court make a declaratory judgment establishing that the basic “Sherlock Holmes story elements” are in the public domain, a point that some have previously argued, if not in court.

What can you say about the only college Greco-Roman wrestling program in the country? What are they going to do if wrestling is no longer an Olympic sport? I don’t know, and I wasn’t going to say anything until I read this:

After losing its federal funding last year, the program relies on USA Wrestling and the university for financial support.

Wait. The Federal Government was funding a wrestling program? On the God-forsaken Upper Peninsula of Michigan?

Hermann always has recruits visit the campus during the summer, which he acknowledges is a bit of subterfuge. When they arrive as freshmen, just as the cold winds are beginning to blow, Hermann instructs their parents to wait in the parking lot for a few minute
“I’ve actually had recruits turn around and go back home the same day,” he said.

Competition tractor restoration. No snark here: I think this is nifty. (And, really, it isn’t any different than car shows, is it? Indeed, thinking about it some more, this might also be worth noting as an example of how the mass media is out of touch with the rest of the country.)

In addition to the Delo, which is sponsored by Chevron’s brand of oil and lubricants and is considered a Super Bowl of tractor restoration, there’s also a tractor restoration Web series (“Tractor Fanatic,” with episodes available in a two-DVD set) and Midwest tractor shows that draw thousands of fans each summer.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Banana republicans on trial: February 18, 2013.

February 18th, 2013

Friday’s Bell update…wasn’t much of one. Testimony has wrapped up, and the case should go to the jury this week.

There was some bickering between the prosecution and indicted council member George Cole. Cole claimed that Bell needed to pay high salaries “to bring more Latinos onto the council of the low-income, largely immigrant city”, and that’s why he voted for a pay increase. The prosecution pointed out that Victor Bello, Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal, all of whom were also indicted, were already on the council when Cole voted for the increase.

When [Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward] Miller presented a document that ensured no employee hired or elected after June 30, 2005, would be eligible for the city’s supplemental retirement plan, he asked Cole: “Wouldn’t taking away that benefit adversely affect Latino representation on the City Council?”
Cole replied that it would.
“Did you vote for this because your friends on the City Council and yourself would be covered?” Miller asked.
“It looks like I did.”

When Miller pushed the point that the resolutions Cole and the other council members voted for would allow them a salary of $100,000 a year…

Cole then pointed out that Los Angeles City Council members had a driver, car and staff. “I never had any of those,” he said.
“Did you feel you needed a driver and a chauffeur to get around a 2½-square-mile city?” Miller asked.

Other than that, Rizzo got thrown under the bus again.

Former City Manager Robert Rizzo was depicted as a vengeful strongman, beginning with the opening statements from defense attorneys — one of whom called the former administrator “the thief, the fraud, the destructor of the city.”

Sunday’s LAT ran a story on what council meetings in Bell are like these days. Answer: much calmer. Oddly enough, however, it appears that Rebecca “testified against the other council members in return for immunity” Valdez is still the city clerk.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Obit watch: February 18, 2013.

February 18th, 2013

Barnaby Conrad Jr. — bullfighter, bon vivant, portrait artist, saloonkeeper to the stars, author of 36 books, and founder of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, led a life that was anything but boring. Ninety years old, he died Tuesday in his Carpinteria home after a battle with congestive heart disease.

Conrad wrote two books that I liked very much: The Martini: An Illustrated History of an American Classic and Absinthe: History in a Bottle.

I have very little to say about Mindy McCready except this: the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Mixology, Music, Obits | Comments Closed

Bread blogging: Shiner Bock Cheddar and King Arthur Flour.

February 17th, 2013

This time, another bread from Laurence Simon, Shiner Bock Cheddar. And another recipe closely adhered to, even to the point of brushing the bread with butter and sprinkling in jalapenos and sesame seeds.

How did it come out?

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Bread, Endorsements, Food | 1 Comment »

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! watch. (Part 1 of what I hope will be a more than infrequent series)

February 16th, 2013

Jessie Jackson, Jr. has been charged with…

… one count of conspiracy to commit false statements, mail fraud and wire fraud in the misuse of approximately $750,000 in campaign funds…

Yes, this is just an indictment; he hasn’t been convicted yet, but all the reporting I’ve seen is stating the indictment was the first step towards a plea deal, and Jackson does plan to plead guilty to at least some of the charges.

The allegations include:

According to the WP, while the co-conspirator was not named, “the description makes clear that [Mrs. Jackson] was the co-conspirator”. She hasn’t been charged in this case, but:

Jackson’s wife was charged with filing false income-tax returns from 2006 through 2011, according to a separate criminal information in her case. That charge has a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

The reporting I’ve seen provides some additional context for Jackson Jr.’s spending. This wasn’t “I needed to pay the house payment, so I took money out of campaign funds” spending:

I remember reading the stories that Jackson Jr. was absent from Congress and out of touch, and the eventual announcements he was being treated for depression, but I did not associate those with an on-going criminal investigation:

Jackson eventually fled Washington for psychological treatment, abandoning Capitol Hill for several weeks without telling congressional leaders why he was absent. Later in the summer of 2012, his office announced that he was being treated for depression at the Mayo Clinic, whose doctors issued a more detailed statement in mid-August saying he suffered from bipolar disorder. Despite his months-long absence from the District, Jackson won reelection Nov. 6 with 71 percent of the vote.

Posted in Clippings, Law, Politics | 1 Comment »

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