Sunday, June 30, 2013

The World Turned On Its Ear

Somethings will never change, you think.
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Inglewood California is (was) one of those things.  I was born in this town under the LAX flight path.  I lived there once of twice, but in general we fled - as soon as possible.
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Inglewood was synonymous with gangs and crime and girt and asphalt.  Either the bloods or crips started there.  People moved to South Central to get OUT of Inglewood.
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And now - well Ladies and Germs - it is the new hip ARTs district of LA.
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Amazing!
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My grandparents are still there... albeit at Inglewood Cemetery.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Took the Citibike to Soho

So we rode then down to Soho and parked them. This was after riding home from wok yesterday. I like hem

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Scalia Can't Be Consistent Tuesday to Wednesday

I admit, I am gleeful at the result of the court today on gay marriage.

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If a state approves it, the Federal Government has to recognize it like any other marriage.

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And in California, the people who raised the objection to the Proposition’s Court Ruling do not have the “standing” to challenge it.  That is, they are caused no harm, and the state chose not to defend the law.

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In California, thank you to Jerry Brown (then Secretary of State) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (then Governor) for their work on this.

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And in the DOMA ruling, can I point out that Justice Scalia is funny.  After striking down the Voter Act yesterday (legally passed by Congress) today he says:

Scalia, in his dissent, wrote: “We have no power to decide this case. And even if we did, we have no power under the Constitution to invalidate this democratically adopted legislation. The Court’s errors on both points spring forth from the same diseased root: an exalted conception of the role of this institution in America.”

I love consistent outlook and an open mind.

 



The Real Culprit

So yesterday was the essentially good news / bad news for left and right.
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The Supreme Court struck down part of the Voting Rights Act in an absurtist ruling that the act is okay, but the map of where it is applied is, not just bad, but unConstitutionally bad.  And the Right realized the an activist court isn't all that bad when it is on your side.
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President Obama used the power of the Executive to begin actions on Climate Change and the Left decided that dictatorial powers in the Executive branch are just fine, when wielding by someone not named Bush.
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Most everyone agreed it was a day of steady use of judgement by one branch and massive overstep by another branch of government.  Which was which... well that is less easy to discerne - and impossible to agree on.
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May I offer a theory.
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Congress has created this clusterfuck.
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If they wanted, they could redefine the Voting Rights Map.  If they wanted, they could override Obama's rules.  But Congress is the broken engine in the heart of our government.  Money, ideas, plans, hopes, dreams.. they all go in...  churn around... and exit as farts of outrage and obsefucation.
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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Look Over Here!! Look Over Here!!

You would think, with the release of millions of hours and hundreds of millions of wire taps - the lies that the government has told about it, including the assistant head of the CIA lying to Congress under Oath!, that we might be having a discussion regarding the place of privacy in American in 2013.
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But instead we are treated to the White Bronco flying from Hong Kong to Moscow.  Where might it land next?
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Like our right to privacy is less important than an episode of "Cops!".

The Old Guy Comes Through

Lleyton Hewitt, at 32, was given a tough draw at Wimbledon.  Ley Ley, 10 years removed from his #1 ranking, was set to play Stan Wawrinka (#11 in the world).  They have played a few times inthe past 12 months, with Wawrinka winning most in 5 sets.
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It was a tough draw and portended yet another early exit from Wimbledon for our boy Lleyton.
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And yet.. and yet.. Lleyton won in 3.  For a day, at least, experience and cute-ness prevails!

Monday, June 24, 2013

Creepola Show

Well, Eddie and I went to the Park Ave. Armory yesterday to see "White, Snow".
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It is a giant immersive art installation (with a capital A for ART) that was impressive in it's presentation and kind of annoying in its literalism.
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Okay, the artist (the well known Paul McCarthy - not the Beatle) has created a tableau of the Snow White story by Walt Disney.  Even given the (not so original) thought that princess worship conveys all the wrong ideals to little girls - and taking the allegory of forced housework and the good love of a man forced on an unconscious woman to it's logical extreme... Even given that, you need extra helpings of bitter man to come up with this show.
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It was amazing, immersive and impressive - but creepy.
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They essentially built any entire set, including a ranch house based on the artist's parent's house, where they reenacted Snow White with a  huge helping of bitterness.  It includes a number (like 10) video vignettes that last over 90 minutes.  In many of them the artist plays Walt Disney (named Walt Paul) as a seriously deranged pornography producer.
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No children were allowed in - I kind of think they should have been - nothing would scare a kid off sex as quickly as this show.
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Some things were cleaver for a moment.  Like Prince Charming graphically copulating with an hairless sex doll - to question the idea that Prince Charming falls in love with the physical beauty of Snow White, without even knowing her.  But in general, as Ed said, "We get it.  You grew up with issues with Disney.  That's a lot of money to say that."
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Saying that though, the dioramas were cool.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Chris Kluwe: Gentlemen Reader

I have avoided the subject of Chris Kluwe.  He is a straight married football player who made a huge name for himself as a supporter of gay rights.  He is, of course, an ex UCLA Bruin with a double major in Poli Sci and History - AND and ex-Viking.
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So he has 2 connections to the Mitchell / Neppl clan.
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To praise him, up to this point, would be gilding the lily.
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But in this past issue of "The Week" he got to chose his favorite books.
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And, goodness, I love the ones he has chosen and everything he has said about each.  I cannot find it online so I will have to retype his comments, because he is SO right.  I say this having read 4 of them (all but Neuromancer & Air Force Gator) before ebooks.  And I loved them.  Particularly Sh 5.
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Ender's Game - by Orson Scott Card.
Card's novel about children trained for space combat is an amazing story about childhood and what it means to truly understand others and oneself.  It's unfortunate that the author, who's been vocal about his anti-gay views, appears in real life to  have entirely missed the points about empathy he made here, but his book is still well worth reading.
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Use of Weapons by Iain Banks
And engrossing meditation on love, relationships, betrayal and the true price of winning at all costs.  Banks uses well-drawn characters to make his science-fiction fantasy worlds completing and believable.  All of his books are excellent; this just happens to be my favorite. (I would add Iain M. Banks' science fiction is great, but a slog.  It uses made up terms galore and is often told from a non-human perspective.  I have always found them best in print on a long flight, where you have a few hours with nothing to do but get started in them.  Then you can't stop.)
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Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Hilarious, insightful and profound, Good Omens is my go-to book when I need to feel better about the absolute absurdity of our world.  Where else are you going to find bikers of the apocalyopse named Death and Grievous Bodily Harm.
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Neuromancer by William Gibson
This 1984 novel, which deftly weaves together intensely evocative passages with stunning insights into what the future holds, should be required reading for everyone.  We haven't completely arrived at Gibson's cyberpunk future, but were well on our way. (Scott - I know, this is the book I have been told to read forever.  I guess I will now.)
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Slaugtherhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
There are many great Vonnegut lines, but none quite so unforgettable as that three-word mantra, "So it goes."  Babies are born, men die, tragedies and triumphs occur, and yet the world keeps spinning.  It's a lesson we could all use now and them (Scott - This is my favorite book, but my favorite line is from another book when a vistor walks into a researcher's office.  It is awash with papers lying everywhere, half read notes and bit of flotsam.  The researcher turns to the vistor and says, "You think it's messy in here, you should see up here!" and points at his head.)
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Air Force Gator by Dan Ryckert
Proof that no matter how much time you spend agonizing over the perfect word choice, no matter how much literature you cram into your head, no matter how seriously you take yourself, there will always be someone who thinks up a story about a secret-agent aligator while watching pro-wrestling and then publishes it. And it's good our world lets that happen.
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I am so buying his book...

Simplified Arguments Annoy Me

I get annoyed by simplified arguments.
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Especially annoyed when used to sell outrage.  As if outrage is something to be bottled and marketed like toothpaste or soap.
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Particularly and especially when these simplified arguments, used to sell outrage, have the ability to truly harm others - who don't have the recourse to respond.
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Take this "Front Page" graphic from NBCNEWS(dot)com (I refuse to give them even a marginal LINK for this).  This is selling outrage.
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You see, this paints a picture of evil by Goodwill preying on the poor mentally disabled.
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Which is BULLSHIT.
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Perchance I an overly invested, since my aunt was Down's Syndrome.  But give me a second to explain what you are not seeing here.
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My Aunt Martha went to a school until she was an "adult".  The city and state stopped supporting schools for the mentally disabled after they hit 18 or 21.  After that they were expected to live at home (or in a group home) until they died at a reasonably young age.
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But my Grandmother moved to Orange County, where a pioneering Republican Congressman had set up a "workshop".  It was in an old factory and the kids (to my Grandmother, Martha and her friends were always "the kids") went daily to work.  They did piece meal projects with a lot of supervision.  Things like, cleaning and reloading loading airline earsbuds, or packing the smal "business" class giveaways into the bags.  And they made small change on each piece.
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Now... if you or I did this on a piece meal basis we would make plenty of money per hour.  But the "workshop" was, in many ways, both a job and adult day care.  It provided meals, supervision and growth.  Some weeks Martha would make over $50, and some weeks less than $1.00.  But it gave her a purpose and a set of friends.  In the 1970s, this was amazing for the mentally handicapped.
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It also provided training for a "real job" if they could do it.  Martha eventually got a job busing tables at Carl's Junior for minimum wage.  She quickly tired of both working and missing her friends, she went back to the workshop.
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BUT if you really close the options for some disabled people to make less than minimum wage, what you are doing if removing their ability work at all.  To feel self-worth.  If a charity is going to pay minimum wage at least, then there are better candidates.  Instead of employing 5 or 6 mentally challenged, who take a long time - they can employ 1 able skilled worker to do more.
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And make no mistake, employing the handicapped requires patience and love and oversite.  They can get confused or flustered and don't always respond to stress well.  Employing them is costly in more ways that $/hour.
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Or maybe the non-profit can't afford any workers if they pay minimum wage.  So mentally handicapped lose a sense of self-worth,  and we once again expect them to sit home and die.
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I am not saying the critics of this law are evil.  They are making a simple mistake and discussions could change their (or my) mind.
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But I am saying that NBCNEWS(dot)com, who probably has the skills and time to investigate, is a packaging up real problems, concerning real people and marketing it like Scope.
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Shame on them.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Guest Update from our Roving Reporter in White Plains

Eddie is playing tennis after work every Wednesday in his league.  He was the Match of the Day yesterday!
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Match of the Day
‘Mean’ Eugene and Jake From State Farm ‘Formerly Julios Intern but More Accurately Michelle Sheehan's Intern’ vs Ed ‘Money in the Bank’ and Gary ‘Who Does Many Things for the NTC’.

After suffering an injury at the One Point tournament, Eugene made his return to action in a riveting battle that featured close scores and a heart breaker of a loss. The first two sets were mirror images of each other with scores being 3-5, 5-3. What isn’t seen, are the countless games that went to deuce. The tiebreaker made the match. Eugene and Jake were down by six points; they rallied back to take the lead 7-6. The comeback fell just short as Ed and Gary finished their gallant opponents off in the next three points with a 9-7 victory. No shame in losing a game like this, especially if your paychecks are counting on it.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Bullshit.

Look, we all know that the government is watching everything, it isn't news.  But you have to take the crap they are feeding us with a ton of salt.
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I mean these were the same exact guys that a month ago were saying they weren't gathering wholesale information on Americans.  So we know you were lying then (with the fabu answer "I told the truth as best I could" - which was not at all).  Why do we believe you now?
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Listen, don't listen, you will do what you want (you big liar, President Obama), but don't try to explain it away - because we KNOW you are lying.  You lied before, you lied about getting caught, you are lying now.
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I particularly like the latest line, "If we had this ability before 9/11 we might have stopped it."  Excuse me, you had the plans to use planes, you had a big special warning to watch out for AlQueda and you did diddle shit.  How would watching my mail or phone calls change that.  THAT would have been the piece of information that caused Bush to listen to his security briefings?
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As for handling data "confidentially" you gave it to a high-school drop out you paid $200,000 a year to train to be an analyst.  Just do what you want and ignore us, don't insult us on top of it.

Ed comes home today

Well, Ed ends his swing through the Golden State today and heads home.  It will be great to see him, but I think Trevor will be happiest.
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T-Bone, watching the door and waiting
Trevor enjoys me, but when Ed is away he does stare at the door a lot.
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I come home and there is a big bound to the door, a little peak around me to see if you-know-who is with me and then Trevor's "well, it's still nice to see you" look.
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You know, that same look a little kid gets when you bring home a nice ice-cream sandwich, but my mom had promised him a big Root Beer Float.  Don't get me wrong, Trevor likes the Ice Cream Sandwich, but in his mind - that Root Beer Float might be coming around the corner any minute.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Geography Fail

Remember when I said I can see a geographic fail a million miles away.
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Well, I was scanning this and noticed the problem and it annoyed me.  See if you can spot it.
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Delaware is shaded incorrectly.  It is shaded one way on the map and a different way in the call out.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Who Wore It Better?

Now we have all seen the tacky magazines with the "Who Wore The Outfit Better?" sections.  Even if it was just in the waiting room and you didn't buy it (sure).  I have always thought, where did they get those pictures.
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Then I was running through my pictures of Croatia, and I have a picture of some random tourist wearing the same outfit as Jane.  Same day, same tourist town.
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Who Wore It Better?
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A) Wandering Miss in Korcula?
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Or
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B) Random stranger in Korcula?

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And the Winner of course is out lovely friend Jane.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

One Last Uplifting Crap

This song always makes me fell better.  Because, you are rarely as alone as you think.
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What my Honey sent to brighten my day

Nice.
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Ducks outside of Ed's Hotel Room

Sometimes it is a combination of things

Sometimes it is a combination of things that put you in a better mode.  The jet-lag wears off, the boyfriend sends you a great picture to make you happy, your mother writes to cheer you up and then, to push you finally off your perch.
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Laura (who's birthday it is today - Happy Birthday), send me a card just to be nice that made me laugh out loud.  I think she probably gets it because her sister is as crazy as I am (in the same way).
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Anyway, a grateful Scooter thanks you.
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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Well, I have taken a deep breath and I am probably ready to stat blogging again.  I am working and, while I will never be the corporate drone that so many aspire to, I have come to terms with (shudder) working -  and have moved on from belligerent and hateful to simply cranky and annoyed.  As those of you who know me will attest, this is probably the best that can be hoped for in the short term.

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You may ask what prompts this… (or you may not – but if you are bored enough to read this far, suffer through)…

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Well, at work (work!) I get headlines from around the world and I found one strangely touching.  The Age mentions that “cute” animals are hogging p all the wildlife funds.  Pandas and Tigers and such (although anyone who has actually seen a Californian Condor might disagree on the “cute” part).  This is an old, and not entirely untrue problem.  Usually brought up in reference to spiders, snakes and rodentia that, frankly, we all might be better off without.  In this particular case it was brought up in reference to the Australian Flying Foxes.

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Ah, the Flying Fox.  It is not a fox, but rather a very very large bat that flapped around Sydney scaring Ed and I on a train platform.  As all the Aussie calmed sat by as they blotted out the sun, Eddie and I ducked and feared that the Wicked Witch of the West has set some devilish pox on us.  It is amazing how quickly your adrenaline will race when confronted by a bat the size of Trevor, with wings!  But the funny thing…

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After that trip, whenever we have journey to Australia we have sought out those denizens of death.  Once you realize they aren’t after you, it is fun to watch a virtual pack of dogs take to wing.  They don’t attack people, so I liked them.  I can see how they aren’t “cute”, but they are cool.

 


Saturday, June 08, 2013

Time For A Break

There comes a time when what once seemed charmingly silly, or laughable is no longer.  I need a break.
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I thought this first when I didn't understand National Park vandalism, but then I thought, "You just had a bad day Scott.  The world can't be getting that bad."
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I was wrong.
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This is Ezekiel Gilbert.  Ezekiel hired (what he assumed was) a prostitute from Craig's List in San Antonio - although she was listed as "escort".  She arrived and he paid her $150 to be "escorted".  She left after 20 minutes without providing sex, despite Mr. Gilbert's charming entreats to perform any number of various sexual acts upon his person.  She said she had to give the $150 to her driver (Ezekiel believes it was her pimp).
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Well, Ezekiel was not about to let some woman walk away with his money unearned, as it were.  So he went out with a gun to get sex or his money.
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Getting neither quickly enough, Ezekiel shot the woman which he assumed to be whore.  And on June 6th he was acquitted of any crime. Not just murder, or even solicitation (which it appears he admitted to), but acquitted.  As in "Not Guilty".  You see Texas allows the use of deadly force if you think you are being robbed.
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My best guess is that the law was written so that if someone was trying to rob you - by say - calling out "hands up" or "this is a hold up", you are allowed deadly force to protect yourself.  I would assume it wasn't written to be used by a man who though his $150 should, at the very least, provide a hummer and a smile.  And when the non-hooker left, chasing the unarmed woman out into the street and shooting her to death.
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Of maybe it was - who knows what the fuck Texans are capable of doing.  Apparently 12 of them agreed that because fatty couldn't get laid he deserved to kill the bitch who refused.  How is that even possible?
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And you see, I don't know how to function in an age and place - where murder like this is legal.  Call me old fashioned.  I know I can't be funny about it.  I so I think it's time for Scooter take a little break.  You know, for sanity's sake.
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You can read the story on the Daily Mail,  the New York Post, or watch the Fox Video.
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Last one to notice civilization's final gasp, turn the lights out.

Wednesday, June 05, 2013

I do not understand.

I don't understand this.  It isn't an isolated incident, you can read the article - if you see that it is happening a lot in National Monuments, National Parks etc. (LINK)
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I don't get it.  The fact they do it and post it on Facebook is odd to me.  I mean, I get that people are inconsiderate, but this is just crazy.  The beauty of these places stuns me, I don't get why someone would do this.
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Really, just don't get it - and I am not a stupid person.
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Monday, June 03, 2013

Fun day at Ed's Work

We traveled to Roland Garros (as the French Open wants to be known as) with Eddie's boss.
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We saw Tommy Hass, Novan Djokivitc, Rafi Nadal all win and Bethany Mattek-Sands lose.
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And had a great outdoor lunch!







Sunday, June 02, 2013

Watched a little Roger Federer tonight

So watched a little Roger Federer tonight. Lovely.





Welcome to Paris

Had a nice breakfast and then took a bus tour of the city for the first time.
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Different view than normal.






Saturday, June 01, 2013

Today was Dubrovnik walls, tonight Paris

We walked the walls of Dubrovnik today. It vacillated between cloudy and sunny.
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Right now laying over in Frankfurt before the flight to Paris and the French Open
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By the by, that is a Titian over the Alter at the Dubrovnik Cathedral. A Titan just hanging there like it wasn't worth a gazillion dollars!