Also noted.

April 4th, 2014

There’s an article in today’s WP by Sage Santangelo that I really like.

(Edited to add: Actually, it looks like it was originally published on March 28th, and I missed it then. But an update was added today.)

Ms. Santangelo is a Marine officer. She recently went through the Marine Infantry Officer course. She didn’t make it through. Neither did the three other female Marines who went through the course with her.

But Lt. Santangelo isn’t whining about not making it through the course.

So what’s held women back in the Marines Corps Infantry Officer Course? I absolutely agree that we shouldn’t reduce qualifications. For Marine infantry officers, mistakes mean risking the lives of the troops you are charged to protect. But I believe that I could pass, and that other women could pass, if the standards for men and women were equal from the beginning of their time with the Marines, if endurance and strength training started earlier than the current practice for people interested in going into the infantry, and if women were allowed a second try, as men are.

In other words, she’s asking that women be treated just like men are. That seems fair.

I like this, too:

I’ve always been taught that failure provides the greatest learning opportunities. My failed effort at Quantico has helped me better understand the needs of the Marines on the ground and will allow me to better support them in the future. At the same time, I love the Marine Corps philosophy that failure should never be viewed as permanent or representative; it is an opportunity to remediate. Marines cannot meet standards all the time. What do we do? We train until every Marine is competent. “No Marine joins the Corps to be a failure,” Gen. James F. Amos has said. “We don’t raise them up that way.”

(And another recommendation for a really swell book: Nathaniel Fick’s One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer.)

Posted in Books, Clippings | Comments Closed

Quote of the day.

April 4th, 2014

As the crucial special session neared, the Times began to resemble a Democratic house organ.

–Robert Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, page 198 in the paperback edition (Chapter 11, “The Majesty of the Law”, discussing the legal and legislative battles over Moses’ parks plan).

Posted in Books, History, Media, Politics | Comments Closed

Welcome to Hell.

April 3rd, 2014

Back in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, Los Angeles had a well-established accordion ecosystem.

I have no joke here, I just like saying “accordion ecosystem”.

(Subject line hattip.)

Posted in Clippings, Music | Comments Closed

Art, damn it, art! watch. (#44 in a series)

April 3rd, 2014

Good news out of Palm Springs this week: Work has begun on dismantling “Forever Marilyn,” the grotesque colossus fabricated with typical ham-handedness by sculptor J. Seward Johnson, which has been marring an already vacant lot at a prominent downtown corner for the last two years.

Gee, Christopher Knight, why don’t you tell us how you really feel?

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FAQ 2.

April 2nd, 2014

“Who’s Packing What: The Weapons in the Leland Yee Scandal”

Or, as we’ve taken to calling him, indicted California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee.

By way of Mike the Musicologist, who observes that indicted California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee and his friends have bad taste in weapons.

“Chow described how he like to carry two 9mm and a .45 caliber [pistols],” the affidavit reads. “Chow described that a .22 caliber is an assassin’s gun, but he liked carrying something that had real power and would stop someone if you had to use it on the street.”

Two 9s and a .45? I wonder how loud the clank was as he walked.

Also. (By way of Robb Allen.)

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, Law, Leland "Uncle" Yee, Politics | Comments Closed

Random notes: April 2, 2014.

April 2nd, 2014

Flames! Flames!

Whether Gray directed the scheme that has resulted in five of his top aides going to prison, or, as he contends, was ignorant of what was being done in his name, Democratic voters punished the mayor for the scandal, choosing instead a relatively unknown D.C. Council member, Muriel Bowser (Ward 4).

Obit watch: Charles Keating, of S&L scandal fame.

More flames!

…an uncommon sequence of events, including a cabinet appointment, an election and a corruption inquiry, has led Charlotte [NC] to the point where it will soon have its fourth mayor in less than a year.

The most recent mayor, Patrick D. Cannon, was arrested last week on public corruption charges and resigned.

In Ms. McCabe’s 15 years as an ambassador of the deuce, she has been flatly rejected at a bowling alley on Staten Island, was told to pay with something else at a bar in the East Village and is constantly solicited by people who want to buy her bills.

But has Ms. McCabe ever tried to use a $2 bill at a Taco Bell?

I wanted to link to, and comment on, the latest entries into the National Recording Registry, but the LOC didn’t have them up when I was working on this post earlier today. Now that they are up…well, I’m kind of curious about “Only Visiting This Planet” and “Copland Conducts Copland: Appalachian Spring” (I have recordings of “Appalachian Spring” but not that one). I think the original cast recording of “Sweeney Todd” is probably a good choice, and, yes, even though I think it has been overplayed, I can see putting Jeff Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah” on the list.

Also: Shaft!

The only one that I really boggle at is “The First Family”. Not that I have anything against comedy, but is that album really memorable or significant? Especially when compared against some of the other comedy entries? Or is this just folks feeling bad (and perhaps rightly so) for poor Vaughn Meader?

Posted in Clippings, Food, Music, Obits, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: March 29, 2014.

March 29th, 2014

Jeremiah A. Denton Jr., retired from the Navy as a rear admiral and a former US senator from Alabama.

He was also a war hero.

Over the next seven years and seven months, Commander Denton was held in various prison camps, including the notorious “Hanoi Hilton,” and endured beatings, starvation, torture and more than four years of solitary confinement, including periodic detentions in coffinlike boxes. He and other officers nevertheless maintained a chain of command and a measure of discipline among the prisoners.

And:

The North Vietnamese, who lost face, were even more outraged when they learned that Commander Denton, in the Japanese-taped interview broadcast on American television on May 17, 1966, had blinked out “T-O-R-T-U-R-E.” It was the first confirmation that American prisoners of war were being subjected to atrocities during the Vietnam War.
The commander was beaten all night.

Posted in Clippings, Heroism, History | Comments Closed

FAQ.

March 28th, 2014

In case you’re coming into the Leland Yee/Raymond “Shrimp Boy” scandal late, and haven’t been reading this blog or Battleswarm, the LAT has a handy guide to the affair, which answers many of the burning questions (such as “why is he called ‘Shrimp Boy’?”).

(I cannot tell a lie: I enjoy typing Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow. Almost as much as – no, strike that, I enjoy it even more than typing Robert “Ratso” Rizzo.)

Also, in case you were wondering, the California state Senate has suspended Sen. Yee without pay. The same august body has also suspended Sen. Roderick White, who was convicted of perjury and voter fraud, and Sen. Ronald Calderon, indicted on bribery and corruption charges.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, Law, Leland "Uncle" Yee | Comments Closed

Random notes: March 28, 2014.

March 28th, 2014

Man is released from death row after 46 years, after courts rule that his confession was coerced and evidence against him was fabricated.

Williamson County? No. Texas? No. Japan.

More on Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow. And more. Since I made the observation the other day:

His grandmother coined the “Shrimp Boy” nickname on account of his small stature. Clocking in at 5’5 today, the name stuck.

(And you should also be reading Battleswarm: Lawrence has been able to devote a little more time to his coverage than I have.)

I stumbled across this while looking for “Shrimp Boy” links:

Marilyn Hartman, the 62-year-old woman busted three times for trying to sneak onto a plane at San Francisco International Airport — and arrested another time for hanging around the food court — is back in custody yet again.

I have nothing to say about this story, I just want to insert an obscure reference here:

(Perhaps they could give her a job: maybe keeping people from hanging around the food court.)

Item: Bronze window frames. Bill: $2.38 million. Fun fact: The cost was supposed to be half that. But Tebartz-van Elst, the report shows, really wanted his window frames to be bronze.

(Previously. WP article also contains yet another photo of the bishop’s residence that looks like a Thomas Kinkade painting, but at least this one wasn’t taken with a fish-eye lens.)

Posted in Clippings, Law, Leland "Uncle" Yee | Comments Closed

It just gets better and better.

March 27th, 2014

More information about the charges against Leland Yee is trickling out.

As you may recall from yesterday’s post, Senator Yee advocated “tighter restrictions” on “semi-automatic weapons”. Well, guess what? The charges against Senator Yee include “conspiracy to traffic in firearms”.

The full complaint is available from the SFGate site. By way of Overlawyered, we found a summary from San Francisco Magazine (complete with bonus “The Wire” references!):

…he offered to set up an arms deal with Islamic rebels for $2 million in cash.

[The agent] asked about the availability of shoulder fire missiles or rockets. Senator Yee responded ‘I told him about the rockets and things like that.'”

Tell me about the rockets, George Leland!

“In addition to his relationship with Chow and the Chee Kung Tong, Jackson is also a close associate with, and has a long-time relationship with, Senator Yee. Keith Jackson owns and runs a business called ‘Jackson Consultancy,’ a San Francisco based consulting firm. During the time frame from at least May 2011 through the present, Keith Jackson has been involved in raising campaign funds for Senator Yee.”

I single that out because Keith Jackson is apparently a well known “political consultant” and political figure. And he was a former president of the San Francisco Board of Education. And the charges against him, other than gun trafficking and “wire fraud of honest services”, include involvement in a “murder for hire” conspiracy.

I didn’t link to Overlawyered earlier because I wanted to save the best part for last: Yee was named to the “Gun Violence Prevention Honor Roll” by the Brady Campaign. Seriously, I am not making this stuff up.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, Law, Leland "Uncle" Yee | Comments Closed

Flames! Flames!

March 26th, 2014

State Sen. Leland Yee of San Francisco was arrested Wednesday as part of a public corruption probe after a series of raids by FBI and gang task force officials Wednesday, a law enforcement official told The Times.

Of course, these are just charges, and Senator Yee hasn’t been convicted yet. But I wanted to make note of this arrest, and:

Dan Lieberman, Yee’s press secretary, told The Times his office would not comment on the FBI raids, which were reportedly linked to the arrest Wednesday morning of Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.

I didn’t insert “Shrimp Boy”; that’s in the actual LAT article.

I’d really like to know how he got that nickname.

More from the SFChron, which describes “Shrimp Boy” as “a notorious former San Francisco gangster”.

In 1992, the Hong Kong-born Chow was indicted with two dozen others on racketeering charges for their alleged involvement in everything from underage prostitution to the international heroin trade.
Chow was subsequently convicted of gun charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 2003, however, he was released after he cut a deal with the government to testify against a high-ranking associate.

So “Shrimp Boy” served time on gun charges, and is apparently a close friend of Senator Yee. By the way:

Yee has drawn both praise and controversy for his efforts to tighten restrictions on semiautomatic rifles.

Heh. Heh. Heh.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, Law, Leland "Uncle" Yee | Comments Closed

You don’t say (part 2)

March 26th, 2014

The rent is too damn high.

Rising rents in Manhattan have forced out many retailers, from pizza joints to flower shops. But the rapidly escalating cost of doing business there is also driving out bookstores, threatening the city’s sense of self as the center of the literary universe, the home of the publishing industry and a place that lures and nurtures authors and avid readers.

Posted in Books, Clippings | Comments Closed

You don’t say.

March 25th, 2014

Five bidders have come forward with proposals to keep the distressed Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn running as a hospital, but none of them have licenses to run hospitals in New York, which could prove a significant hurdle, hospital experts said Monday.

Yes, I suppose “not having a license” would qualify as “a significant hurdle”. More:

Only one of the five, Prime Healthcare Foundation, the nonprofit arm of a for-profit hospital turnaround company, actually runs hospitals. But those hospitals are in other states, so Prime would have to go through the same process of applying for a New York license as the others.

(Previously. Previously.)

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Dear Prudence…

March 24th, 2014

A Slate Plus membership will give readers special access to the site’s editors and writers, as well as members-only discussions with Emily Yoffe, Slate’s Dear Prudence advice columnist. Members will also be invited to give advice on which politicians or entertainers they would like to see profiled.

This will almost be worth $5 a month to watch.

Posted in Clippings, Media | Comments Closed

Random notes: March 24, 2014.

March 24th, 2014

What does the fox say?

“I resign.”

Rhode Island Speaker of the House Gordon D. Fox, enveloped by an apparent criminal investigation, announced Saturday that he has resigned his leadership post.
He fell in a lightning-quick series of events that began Friday with investigators, armed with search warrants in a probe of an undisclosed matter, taking boxes of evidence from his State House office and his East Side home.

The paper of record describes agents “carting out boxes and bags labeled ‘evidence.'” This raises some questions, at least for me: did they write “evidence” on the side with a Sharpie? Or do these boxes and bags come pre-labeled as “evidence”? Can you buy “evidence” boxes and bags from your local law enforcement supply store?

(Isn’t it kind of cartoonish when you think about it? Sort of like Scrooge McDuck carrying around a big bag with a “$” on it, only instead you’ve got a neatly attired IRS agent with a bag that says “Evidence”?)

So much for that. Looks like I owe Lawrence $5. See if I buy one of your damn t-shirts now, Gonzaga.

(Still hopeful for those Cubs, though.)

City That Squandered Baseball Relishes Brief Return

“Squandered Baseball”? Well, I suppose that’s one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is that the Expos made unreasonable demands after the 1995 baseball strike and drove fans away.

Posted in Clippings, Law, Politics, Rhode Island, Sports | Comments Closed

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