Prosecutors have filed indecent exposure charges against a West Seattle man accused of sending an explicit — and unappreciated — photo of himself to a woman he met through Facebook.

“He sent unsolicited pictures of his exposed penis to a woman he had recently met through Facebook, without any prior conversations involving sexual content or suggesting that she might be receptive to such photographs,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Carol Spoor told the court.

You mean I can have people who send me unsolicited photos of various naked bits charged with indecent exposure? Who knew? My inbox alone could keep the American court system busy for years!^†

1. † One of the hazards of being a female blogger is, in fact, people sending me photos of themselves naked which I didn’t ask for. I have yet to determine what possesses strangers (or friends) to do such a thing. [↩]

A Hampton woman is suing Bank of America, saying one of its contractors wrongly repossessed her home, padlocked the doors, shut off the utilities, damaged the furniture and confiscated a pet parrot, though her mortgage payments were on time.

She returned home to find her locks had been changed, her furniture and carpets had been damaged, her belongings had been scattered and the bird missing. A notice on her door told her to contact Bank of America, which “initially falsely denied responsibility or knowledge of the invasion and refused” to help her, the suit said. The bank also acknowledged they knew the parrot’s whereabouts, it said.

In further calls, Bank of America representatives told Ms. Iannelli they couldn’t help her, told her to stop calling, said they were “tired of hearing from her” and put her on hold, told her to call back later and hung up on her, the suit said.

About a week later, Bank of America told her it had “made a mistake” and told her where she could find her parrot, but said she would have to travel to Ebensburg to retrieve it.

This isn’t the first or only instance I’ve heard of recently concerning Bank of America either foreclosing on the wrong house –once even a house they didn’t have a mortgage on– or a house that wasn’t being paid for on time. I hope she takes them to the bank with her lawsuit. Not that it will make much difference to their bottom line, since they are one of the banks sucking on the government teat.

Sarah Palin drew a straight line from Alaska to Alberta as she told a sold-out, largely adoring crowd in Calgary that the province gets her message of less government, lower taxes and development of natural resources.

The vocal opponent of health-care reform in the U.S. steered largely clear of the topic except to reveal a tidbit about her life growing up not far from Whitehorse.

“We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada,” she said. “And I think now, isn’t that ironic?”

I don’t think “ironic” is the word Ms. Palin is looking for. I believe the word is “hypocritical” … as in Canada’s health care system is good enough for Sara, but heaven forbid any other American have access to anything like that. You know, what with those Canadian “death panels” and everything. Can’t have that here in the good old USA!

Most schools have a no-tolerance policy when it comes to weapons in school, but an incident in Ionia County has some wondering just where to draw the line. A six year old got suspended for a gesture.
via WLNS TV 6 Lansing Jackson Michigan News and Weather

More zero-tolerance idiocy. Actually, it’s not even zero-tolerance idiocy. It’s just plain old idiocy. Yes, fingers are deadly weapons! Don’t point at someone and say “Pew! Pew!” You might hurt them!!!

Jammer says she doesn’t know where her six old got the gesture from. She feels it’s a part his imagination, which is something she can’t control, but can try to correct.

Children (and adults) have been making the “gun gesture” with their fingers since –most likely– there have been guns in existence. I’d say her son got the gesture from general human culture. And as far as needing to correct her son’s imagination, no she does not need to do any such thing. It’s the school that needs correcting, because it’s pretty obvious to me that he was not, as the school insists, playing with guns.

We are raising a generation of pussies. Sorry, that had to be said. If any child was actually made uncomfortable by a classmate pointing their finger at them and saying “Pew! Pew! they are, in fact, pussies … and they will never survive out here in the real world. Being pointed at will be the least of their worries. Seriously.

We’ve had a huge murder trial going on recently here in Austin. Some pretty ugly stuff, and I haven’t been following it too closely, though it did get more interesting when he started trying to say he was defending himself from the woman and her five year old son. Yes, defending himself from someone he tied up and stabbed 107 times (the woman) and her small son, who was stabbed four times. As one can imagine, this defense didn’t fly with the jury, and he was found guilty.

The punishment stage of the trial began a day or so ago, and this is where it’s really gotten interesting. Probably not surprising, but Gobert has a history of violence, especially against women. That’s not the interesting bit though. Nope, what’s interesting is that not one but two female jail guards were found to have had romantic relationships with him while he was sitting in jail charged with stabbing a woman 107 times. One of them even went so far as to sneak a cell phone to him, for which she is now sitting in the prison she used to guard and facing a third degree felony herself.

I’m pretty much WTF?! The most beautiful man or woman on the planet could be coming on to me, but the fact they were doing so from the other side of heavy metal bars in a jail cell would be pretty much an instant turn off. The fact the person has been charged with stabbing someone 107 times and has a history of violence, would have me running away at top speed. What kind of mojo must this guy have to get women supposedly in a position of power to submit to him and fall in “love” with him?! It’s just insane. He must be some kind of smooth operator, that’s all I can say.

Anyway, that’s been in the news lately, and I’ve been trying to figure out what would possess anyone to get involved with this guy while he’s sitting around waiting to find out whether the jury will decide he’s someone who just needs killing or whether he will rot in prison for the rest of his life instead. I have to think he might have been able to pull off a life sentence, but the fact that he’s been able to manipulate two guards already isn’t going to go well for him during the punishment phase of the trial. I mean, not only did that one woman get him a cell phone, she let him out of his cell to help her clean the prison. I can’t imagine the jury isn’t going to be wondering if he wouldn’t also be able to manipulate some other totally weak-willed and stupid female guard into bringing him a weapon or just freaking letting him out of jail. I know I would wonder about that, just about as much as I would wonder what kind of woman gets involved with someone like Gobert while he’s sitting in prison charged with such an awful crime.

What looked like a possible plan for a Columbine style attack at a Westchester County school district has turned out to be nothing more than a Facebook misunderstanding.

Late last night a parent in the Ardsley School District noticed a posting on her daughter’s Facebook page that used the words “combine” and “revenge” scheduled for Monday at the high school.

After reading a few other stories about this, turns out the two words were in two totally different Facebook posts on top of it just being a parent with low reading comprehension. I mean, no kidding “combine” isn’t an abbreviation of Columbine (as the parent and school both thought it was). And whatever happened to parents asking their kids about things the kids or their friends are saying or doing? The post was about a football combine (look it up, if you want to know what that is), and who knows what the other post mentioning “revenge” was about. Must have been nothing, since no news stories bothered to mention. Anyway, more ridiculous panicking over nothing at all.

A local business owner is flabbergasted after a shipment of 30 toy [Airsoft BB] guns for his store was confiscated by ATF agents in Tacoma.

Special Agent Kelvin Crenshaw said the toys can be easily retro-fitted into dangerous weapons. “With minimal work it could be converted to a machine gun,” Crenshaw said.

All I’d like to know is in what universe an air-pump BB gun can be “easily” converted into a machine gun. Seriously.

Nothing succeeds in the travel industry like a bad idea. The latest hidden mandatory add-on is a “health” charge added to restaurant bills. As far as I know, this scam cropped up first in San Francisco, but you can count on it to spread.

The restaurants’ excuse for assessing this charge separately is to let customers know how much they’re paying for employees’ health coverage. That’s the same excuse hotels use when they add “resort” or “housekeeping” fees to unsuspecting guests’ room bills. It’s the same excuse airlines would use to exclude fuel surcharges from their advertised fares if the Department of Transportation would allow them. And it’s sheer nonsense.

Naturally, there is outrage among those persons who eat out and are inclined to being outraged about things not worthy of even raising an eyebrow over. At least they are stating clearly why the bill is larger than it used to be. I certainly wouldn’t have bothered. I’d have just raised the prices of everything and let them gripe about that. And what’s the easiest way to not pay for some poor waiter’s health care? Learn to cook and stay home. Probably takes less energy than what the complainers have been expending complaining.

Meals approved by Weight Watchers are going on sale at McDonald’s in New Zealand under a deal trumpeted as an enjoyable way to lose weight but that nutritionists criticise as a marketing ploy that doesn’t promote healthy eating.

Really?! Pure insanity. Aside from the fact that the quality of the foodstuffs sold at McDonald’s barely qualifies it to be called food, the chicken nuggets, fish sandwiches, and chili chicken wraps aren’t in any way healthy or diet foods. If the fat content doesn’t kill you, the sodium levels surely will.

Meanwhile, back in Clay County, Kentucky, where election officials (including the county clerk, a district court judge, and the school superintendent) were arrested last year, and are now on trial, accused of having “fix[ed] elections for decades,” a “precinct worker testified…that top election officers in the county taught her how to change people’s choices on voting machines to steal votes in the May 2006 primary.” The vote stealing was accomplished on ES&S touch-screen electronic voting machines, without the knowledge of legitimate voters, after they’d left the booth thinking they had cast their votes.

And people continue to wonder why I am not a fan of the electronic voting machines. Some form of actual paper record of each vote needs to exist. If a system can be cheated, and these boxes can, it will be.

You are aware by now that a 12,000 pound killer whale at SeaWorld Orlando killed his trainer Dawn Brancheau yesterday by pulling her into a pool and dragging her around until she drowned, in front of a crowd of stunned guests.

Chalk another death up to animal rights insanity and to the ongoing failure of the West to take counsel on practical matters from the Scripture

The American Family Association suggests the whale be stoned to death according to the “ancient civil code of Israel.” The whale doesn’t need to be killed. The whale needs to be released back into its native environment instead of being kept in tanks too small for it for the purposes of amusing humans and breeding more killer whales. The whale was doing what killer whales do. I mean, did no one ever wonder why they are called KILLER whales?

Since I’ve been busy doing things that keep me away from the computer for the most part, I have been consuming my news in the more American way … listening to the talking heads on the TV. The level of stupid on all the channels remains excessively high.

One thing that is particularly peeving me at the moment is talking heads of all manner (including “experts” and elected officials) referring to the process of reconciliation in congress as the Nuclear Option. It is completely incorrect to apply that particular term to reconciliation.

In U.S. politics, the nuclear option is an attempt by a majority of the United States Senate to end a filibuster by invoking a point of order to essentially declare the filibuster unconstitutional which can be decided by a simple majority, rather than seeking formal cloture with a supermajority of 60 senators. Although it is not provided for in the formal rules of the Senate, the procedure is the subject of a 1957 parliamentary opinion and has been used on several occasions since. Senator Trent Lott (Republican of Mississippi) first called the option “nuclear” in March 2003.

During the 111th congress, opponents of Democratic legislative initiatives incorrectly began to refer to the budget reconciliation process as the nuclear option. For a discussion of the legislatively-enacted reconciliation process, which only requires a majority vote, but which – unlike the nuclear option – does not alter Senate rules, see Reconciliation (United States Congress).

It’s bad enough everyone seems to constantly feel the need to come up with new cutesy terms to describe things that already have terms to describe that work perfectly well, but applying the same term to more than one completely different thing is just stupidity … or, more likely, manipulation of the masses who can’t keep up with all the newly created terms and catch phrases.

I am looking forward to sitting at the computer at some point and catching up on some real news. The television appears to be worthless to me as a news gathering device. Boob tube, indeed.

Jim Bunning is senile, isn’t he? Or is he just crazy? What the hell is this guy’s problem?! Thanks to his zeal in obstructing the will of the other 99 senators two thousand federal employees are now on unpaid furlough, doctors will be reimbursed for Medicare fees twenty-one percent less, many road and construction projects across the country have been put on hold, and an estimated 1.2 million people on the unemployment rolls will cease to have unemployment checks and COBRA extensions. One senator has done this, and that one senator is Jim Bunning.

The Daily Show did a bit on it last night which is worth seeing, as Daily Show clips usually are. Though it’s really hard to laugh at anything about this situation.

Bunning’s fellow Republicans seem more than happy to have a fall guy to stand in front of cameras screaming “no” as loudly as he can, so they don’t have to do so. None of them have suggested that perhaps now is not the time or the place to insist the budget be balanced before any more spending is done to keep people from becoming unemployed or going hungry once they are. Not a one has had anything to say about his nonstop objections to something every one of them has agreed needs to be done. Now why would that be?

Most likely because the current crop of Republicans enjoy clogging up the works in some kind of vain attempt to make Obama look like the worst president the US has ever had. They seem to care very little about Americans. If they did, they would be pointing out to Mr. Bunning that every last one of them has agreed to passing this measure, to keep people employed and to keep the unemployed people on unemployment, and they would be putting pressure on him to pipe down and stop what he is doing. Yet, they don’t. Must be nice for them to be able to obstruct something they claim to support by pointing at the crazy guy and saying “Hey, it’s not us! It’s that guy over there!”

And no one senator should have so much power. No one person should ever have so much power. This seems to be a flaw in the process, and it needs to be fixed.

“No Wall Street executives should profit from taxpayer dollars … The senior leaders of any firm that is bailed out should not be making more than the highest paid government official.”
–McCain before TARP passed

“We were all misled. We were all misled. I mean, he said that they were going after the toxic assets. The toxic asset– for– is– were with the housing market. He testified– that. I mean, we were all misled. So, what did he do then? They started pumpin’ money into the financial institutions. Now, the financial institutions are fine. Wall Street’s doin’ great. Main Street is in deep trouble.”
–McCain now

McCain knew what TARP was going to do before he voted on it, but now he insists he didn’t know it was going to be money headed to the banks to keep them solvent. He’s either becoming senile or he’s lying in order to pander to his base.

The [Texas] Department of Public Safety said, as of Monday, applicants between the ages of 18 and 24 must complete an approved driver education course and a driving skills test to get a license.

I am opposed. You’d think I wouldn’t be opposed to this new law, considering how much I complain about bad drivers, but I have a very good reason to be opposed. These required courses aren’t free. I called the only three driving schools in all of Austin that are approved by the state, and the course is going to cost in the neighborhood of $100. They aren’t even free if one takes them while still in high school. Those courses cost anywhere from $100-$400.^† I can find no mention anywhere of waivers or subsidies to help persons with lower incomes (or no incomes). This is producing a barrier to getting a license to drive that seems like it’s going to be somewhat high.^††

This feels less like a good method to lower the rate of young people having accidents –they cause 20% of all accidents in Texas– and more like a giveaway to driver education schools. While there will likely be an uptick in the number of 18-24 years old persons signing up for these classes, I suspect there will also be an uptick in the number of persons driving without a license until they are 25 or if they are of the law-abiding sort, just not driving. I don’t see either of these things as being especially helpful to anyone.

The other question I have is what if one happens to live in a town where there isn’t an approved driver education school? I’ve looked at the list of approved schools. I assure you, there isn’t a school in every town in Texas. There are only three in Austin, and look at how large a city we are! That’s going to add even more expense and hassle to 18-24 year old persons living in small town out in the middle of nowhere. Now they will have to find a way to get to a town that has a course, which means someone will have to drive them as well, and these courses do not seem to be one day events, at least not at the schools I called.

So yes, I am opposed to making the cost associated with getting a drivers license higher. It’s hard enough for people on limited incomes to provide the requirements of life in the modern age for themselves and their kids, why add one more hidden tax to getting a license, which is almost necessary these days in order to be employed and is most definitely necessary if one doesn’t live somewhere that has decent public transportation?^††† Like small towns.

I’d like drivers to drive better too, but I don’t think this new law is really going to achieve that. After all, statistically speaking, many of the morons I encounter every time I get out on the streets did have driver education in high school, and they still can’t drive. Oh, I’m sure they have the knowledge in their heads, but they are usually too busy talking on their phones, putting on makeup, eating a burger, or generally just not paying attention, at least until they perceive someone has cut them off or in some other way slighted them, then they wake up and break out with the road rage.

If the State of Texas demands everyone must have a driver education course before getting a license, then the classes in high school need to be free as well as the ones offered to young adults. Or there at least need to be waivers or subsidies for low income persons. The system they have in place now just isn’t fair.

And does anyone actually believe that 6 hours of driver education is really going to make all that much difference in how well a young adult drives? I’m guessing not, but I suppose we shall just have to wait a year or two to see the statistics and if there’s been any improvement in that 20% accident stat. I personally don’t hold out much hope of it improving. In fact, it may get worse.

I keep up with all the political goings on in my state, and somehow this one was quietly passed without any mention of it anywhere. If I didn’t hear about it, considering I do try to keep up with things, how many other people who don’t visit the Texas Legislature web site regularly as I do won’t have heard about this until now? Or might not even hear about it until they go apply for a license? Something smells in Texas, as as usual, it’s the inhabitants of our state capitol.

1. † They do have a parent taught driver ed course available for teenagers they started in 1997, but it too costs $20 and is stringent enough that many parents find it difficult to help their teen complete, not to mention the time involved does, well, take up time in a working parent’s life. [↩]
2. †† Want to know why I didn’t get my license until I was an adult? I couldn’t afford the drivers education when I was a teenager. If you didn’t have the money to take drivers ed in school, you just didn’t get your license until you were over 18. I used the loophole they have now closed with this new law. [↩]
3. ††† I don’t even count Austin has having decent public transportation. It’s not the worst, and at least there is some, but the buses never seem to get close enough to the places a lot of people need to travel too. Always seems I end up walking almost a mile after getting off the excruciatingly long bus ride that has taken ten times longer than it would have taken had I driven. [↩]