• Media

    Firing Hunter S. Thompson

    In a tribute to Hunter S. Thompson, actor Johnny Depp has facilitated one of his last wishes – to be shot out of a canyon over his Colorado homestead. Read the story here and here:

    Organizers of a memorial for Hunter S. Thompson plan to erect a 150-foot structure _ courtesy of actor Johnny Depp _ to shoot the gonzo journalist’s ashes onto his ranch near here.

    Friends and acquaintances gathered Thursday to discuss the Aug. 20 invitation-only service, which will be six months after Thompson shot himself in his Woody Creek home.

    “Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men’s reality. Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of the rat race is not yet final.”

    Indeed!

    H/T Huffington Post

  • Criminals,  Morons

    DETROIT BANK ROBBERY: Female Bandit Wears Tinfoil on Teeth

    NB This is not the perp!

    What a moron!

    This Perp used a wonderful disguise for her bank robbery – tinfoil on her teeth.

    Read the story here:

    The person who robbed a Charter One bank in Detroit on Thursday had a typical disguise: dark cap and scarf to cover the hair, glasses to shield the eyes, and a black hoodie with pockets to stash the cash.

    But this robber was different. It was a woman. And she had tinfoil covering her upper teeth.

    “It’s an unusual disguise, to say the least,” said FBI Agent Terry Booth of the Detroit office.

    Booth has dubbed the woman the Tinfoil Bandit.

    Perhaps she was trying to cover a gold tooth. Or just really bad teeth. But in his 20 years, Booth said he hasn’t seen anything like it.

    By the way, she did not keep the money to use….

    The woman walked into the Charter One, 7401 Woodward, around 10:45 a.m. Thursday and gave a teller a note demanding cash, Booth said Friday. She had no weapon, and didn’t indicate she had one, but the teller, fearful for the safety of customers, handed over the cash in her drawer with a dye pack. The robber stuffed it into her pockets.

    She fled the bank, crossed Woodward and was headed down Lothrop when the dye pack exploded, according to witnesses interviewed by the FBI.

    “When the smoke cleared, they saw her down on the ground scraping around,” for the money. “Which is kind of desperate, because it will be useless with the red stains,” Booth said.

    The FBI and Detroit Police are looking for a woman in her 30s, about 5 feet, 2 inches tall, with a medium build.

    Is this her?

    NB this is not the perp either!

  • Law,  Morons,  Politics

    Watch Sideshow Driving: Go to Jail?

    Mayor Jerry Brown, former Calfironia Governor and current candidate for California Attorney General wants to criminalize being a spectactor. Read the story in the Los Angeles Times (free registration required) here:

    Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown proposed tougher laws Friday to curb nightly displays of reckless driving called “sideshow” that have resulted in eight deaths and hundreds of arrests over the last year.

    At a news conference, Brown said he had introduced a “spectator ordinance” that would criminalize sideshow attendance.

    “If no one was watching, there wouldn’t be a sideshow,” he said. “We have to get the dangerous drivers — and the dangerous spectators who cheer on their violence and mayhem.”

    The City Council is expected to consider the ordinance June 7. If it is adopted, convicted sideshow spectators could face a fine of $500 for a first offense. A third offense could result in a $1,000 fine or six months in jail.

    Sideshow is a uniquely Oakland phenomenon — a chance for drivers, almost exclusively young men, to perform elaborate stunts in their cars, often with hip-hop music blaring from their stereos.

    The events start out as late-night caravans of up to 100 cars that speed through major thoroughfares, picking up participants along the way.

    From midnight to dawn, spectators gather at intersections to watch the exhibitions of driving maneuvers, such as spinning in circles while passengers — and sometimes drivers — hang out of open car doors.

    “It’s a bizarre ritual that became a part of the night culture, and it’s hard to root out,” Brown said.

    I wonder what the Moonbat Mayor Brown wants to outlaw next – in his era of limits?

    At his request, the Alameda County district attorney’s office has begun imposing a special driving curfew on people convicted of sideshow-related crimes. Under its terms, those people are barred from driving city streets Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

    The strategies are a response to mounting demands for more protection from residents of neighborhoods that sideshow activity has hit hard.

    Flap smells a First Amendment abridgement here: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

    “Nothing is going to stop sideshow in Oakland; it’s a whole culture,” Zazaboi said. “Are these new laws going to stop it? No. Are they going to put a lot of people in jail? Yes.”

    Most communities do not tolerate this type of stunt driving on city streets from 2-6 AM in the morning.

    Earth to Moonbat Mayor Jerry, just have the police enforce the traffic laws, other California statutes and your local ordinances……DUH!

    Watch a video showing the Sideshow Here.

  • Politics

    Republicans: Bobbling the Majority – Redux

    Senator John McCain signaled his support on Friday for a compromise in which the White House might allow Senate leaders access to highly classified documents in return for a final vote early next month on Mr. Bolton’s nomination as United Nations ambassador. Read the story here.

    McCain is really taking it to Senate Majority leader Bill Frist. Frist has been bobbling the Republican Senate Majority as reported by Flap here.

    Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters weighs in here:

    Just as with the judicial confirmations, it has nothing to do with John Bolton as a nominee, but instead amounts to nothing less than a usurpation of power — not just between the Senate and the Presidency, but a usurpation of majority rule. The Democrats have stopped pretending it has any other purpose.

    That message has yet to reach John McCain, or he simply doesn’t care. It gives him another opportunity to stick a white hat and ride a donkey to the rescue of the Democrats, whooping and hollering all along the way in order to make sure that every newspaper sees how reasonable he is. In his own way, he has become the Jimmy Carter and/or the Neville Chamberlain of the Senate: he jumps into disagreements and surrenders almost everything he can in order to wave a piece of paper over his head and claim victory.

    John McCain is for John McCain. How many times have we seen unanticipated and disastrous political results with his obsession for publicity stained marks on them: his Republican primary campaign agsinst President Bush, campaign finance reform with Russ Feingold, appointments to the Federal Election Commission, judicial filibusters – nuclear option and now John Bolton.

    I blame Bill Frist for this debacle more than John McCain, however. McCain is an unprincipled glory hound who stands ever ready to sell out the Constitution in order to get the attention he craves. It’s Bill Frist’s job to keep him on a short leash. If he’s not up for that job, then he needs to turn it over to someone else — someone who would have been bright enough not to bring Bolton’s nomination to the floor this week in the first place.

    Well said Captain Ed.

    With the judicial filibuster debacle Frist has already pissed away his chance for the presidency. It was a poor deal and Frist showed no leadership.

    Frist should be able to count and miscalculated by bringing Bolton’s nomination to the floor. Republicans deserve more than a bobbler with their majority.

    Frist should step down.

    H/T Huffington Post

  • Blogosphere

    Blogosphere: Reality Check

    Thanks to Michelle Malkin for this excellent piece that humbles even the best of us. Read her post here:

    ComScore Media Metrix estimates that Daily Kos had 212,000 unique visitors in April, compared to almost 30 million unique visitors to the New York Times web site. If so, that means nytimes.com had 140 times as many readers as Kos, the most heavily-trafficked political blog. It also suggests that the number of visits at a blog is an extremely poor proxy for the number of visitors, since many people visit the same blog over and over again. (According to SiteMeter, Kos got about 11.5 million visits in April.)

    No one disputes that blogs are growing fast in both traffic and influence. But bloggers and even the MSM have a tendency to greatly inflate the size of the blogosphere’s audience. The comScore analysis offers a helpful reality check.

    (Hat tip: Truth Laid Bear.)

    All of us are a small cog in the information revolution that is occurring. No matter how small (for us hobbyists) or large (commercial, make your living by writing or media types) we all contribute.

    MSM has taken notice and are adapting, including more contributors and are evolving into a more balanced medium.

  • Media,  Politics

    L.A Times: Perhaps O’Reilly Is Wrong – Redux

    Patterico has his take on a Newsmax piece on the whole affair. Read it here:

    I guess I’m going to have to be the one to explain Michael Kinsley’s joke to the guys at NewsMax.

    They have this silly article up on their web page:

    LA Times Threatens O’Reilly With Secret Service

    The Los Angeles Times is slamming Bill O’Reilly – for slamming the Los Angeles Times.

    The newspaper has warned the “telephilosopher” to stop his “decapitation fantasies” involving Times editorial page editor Michael Kinsley – or face trouble from the Secret Service.

    Flap previously reported the entire matter here and Michael Kinsley’s sarcastic response to O’Reilly.

    Patterico is correct:

    Get it? Kinsley was saying that Bush has said the very same things that O’Reilly had criticized Kinsley for saying. Ergo, if O’Reilly was that critical of Kinsley, he would presumably be equally critical of Bush — which could make Bush the next subject of an O’Reilly decapitation fantasy. And that would mean the Secret Service would be involved.

    Jokes are never that funny when you have to explain them — but clearly, this one needs to be explained to the guys at NewsMax.

    Duh!

  • Blogging Matters

    The “Five Questions” Meme from Patterico

    Flap hopes he is doing this in the correct format and manner so will post the “Five Questions” MeMe answers here and under Patterico’s Blog comments section.

    The “Five Questions” can be found here:

    I have these five questions for Flap:

    1) 4 out of 5 dentists recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum. What does the 5th recommend?

    2) Why do you guys always try to talk to us when we have that tube in our mouth?

    3) Do you think the current filibuster deal has any teeth to it? Also, do you have any canines?

    4) Do you enjoy it when people make bad puns about teeth? Also, do you mind if I combine two questions into one, if the two questions are really lame?

    5) What the heck does “Fullosseous” mean?

    Number 1

    Jolt Cola – if the sugar doesn’t rot your teeth then the caffeine will make you clench them uncontrollably and a fractured tooth needs to be repaired too.
    Well, you have to make up for the other 4.

    Number 2

    So, our patients cannot talk back to us. Willie Brown, the former Assembly Speaker and Mayor of San Francisco once told me that whenever his dentist talks he listens (especially when the dentist has that 3 inch needle in his mouth – he is all ears).

    Number 3

    The Filibuster DEAL sucks(while it lasted) and still sucks. Read about it here and here.

    No, Canines at this time but I like Snoopy


    Number 4

    No! Be true to your teeth or they will be FALSE to you.

    And why are your teeth like stars?………………………………………..because they come out at night.

    Are those two lame enough?

    Number 5

    Fullosseousflap = A derived dental term nickname

    Full = Full

    Osseous = Osseous \Os”se*ous\, a. [L. osseus, from os, ossis bone; akin to
    Gr. ‘oste`on, Skr. asthi. Cf. Oyster.]
    Composed of bone; resembling bone; capable of forming bone;
    bony; ossific.
    [1913 Webster]

    Flap = a movable piece of tissue partly connected to the body or……an excited state of agitation; “he was in a dither”; “there was a terrible flap about the theft” [syn: dither, pother,
    fuss, tizzy]

    Thanks Patrick for the opportunity to respond. Anyone else?