Idol’s Dozen

1. Whatever you do, even if one of the performers has a historically good performance, DO NOT vote after the April 24 show. That is, unless you want the “African Idol” nonsense to continue.

2. Probably the only reason Sanjaya stayed is because all our call centers in Bangalore and New Delhi made calls in the opposite direction this week. Somebody agrees with my theory.  (Note to those who have come here through the link on Mr. Malakar’s Wikipedia article, I have a follow-up.)

3. I was pleasantly surprised at Jared’s early departure. Yeah, the arousal gappers might have been excited, but he wasn’t that good.

4. I also thought Haley was doomed. I actually think that, in time, we will realize how right the voters were to keep her there. And I’m not just saying that because she’s my favorite.

With that having been said, here are my unbiased rankings of the top twelve, separated by gender, on pure talent:

WOMEN

1. Melinda
2. Haley
3. Stephanie
4. LaKisha
5. Jordin
6. Gina
7. Sanjaya

MEN

1. Blake
2. Chris R.
3. Brandon
4. Chris S.
5. Phil

Washington State Boo Birds, Rejoice

There will be no “boo ban” at high school athletic events in the state.

In contrast with school classrooms, it’s the only place on school property where those who perform poorly will get the implicit message that they stink and that they’re no good.

Take a Hint: Feds Abused Power Even Before PatRiot Act and 9/11

This is why I can’t get too excited about Democrats and liberal Republicans complaining about PatRiot act abuses. All these people didn’t say boo when Clinton was President.

The irony here is that most of these abuses are technical and involve the FBI’s improper queries of phone conversations. Don’t forget that the Clinton White House illegally stole nearly a thousand top secret FBI files of political opponents as a hedge against criticism of its own scandals, or for blackmail.

Three Reasons

AFP:

Violent crime is on the rise in big cities across America with some experiencing a triple-digit jump in homicides and other violence since 2004, according to a report released Friday.

The report by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), a Washington-based law enforcement think tank, said the murder rate in 56 large metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Detroit, has jumped overall by 10 percent between 2004 and 2006.

“The 24-month trend toward increasing violence is disturbing news, because the United States enjoyed astonishing declines in crime during the mid- to late-1990s, followed by a leveling-off in the early 2000s,” Chuck Wexler, executive director of PERF, said in a statement.

He warned that a recent summit on violent crime held by law enforcement officials from across the country concluded that there was a “gathering storm” of increasing violence in America.

My three reasons:

1. Immigration

2. Increasingly strident state and Federal laws on mandatory prison sentences clears out black and Hispanic neighborhoods of drug dealers, but that only begs wars over the reformatting of drug gang distribution territory

3. We’re at a point where there is a higher than usual number of prisoners getting paroled or finishing their sentences

Meanwhile, Mayor Slay’s three reasons:

1. Poverty

2. Guns

3. Not enough Federal pork

You figure out who makes more sense.

One More Consequence of the Ethanol Hustle

AP:

Strong demand for corn from ethanol plants is driving up the cost of livestock and will raise prices for beef, pork and chicken, the Agriculture Department said Friday.

Meat and poultry production will fall as producers face higher feed costs, the department said in its monthly crop report. Ethanol fuel, which is blended with gasoline, is consuming 20 percent of last year’s corn crop and is expected to gobble up more than 25 percent of this year’s crop.

The price of corn, the main feed for livestock, has driven the cost of feeding chickens up 40 percent, according to the National Chicken Council. The council says that chicken, the most popular meat with consumers, will soon cost more at the grocery store. The industry worries the competition from ethanol could cause a shortage of corn.

So, ethanol-blended gas is more expensive, and won’t give you worse mileage. Corn will be more expensive. Meat will be more expensive. You pay, agribusiness wins.

That’s One Way to Settle a Divorce

Reuters:

A 43-year-old German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chainsawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift truck.

Police in the eastern town of Sonneberg said on Friday the trained mason measured the single-storey summer house — which was some 8 meters (26 feet) long and 6 meters wide — before chainsawing through the wooden roof and walls.

“The man said he was just taking his due,” said a police spokesman. “But I don’t think his wife was too pleased.”

After finishing the job, the man picked up his half with the forklift truck and drove to his brother’s house where he has since been staying.

I wonder if there were any automobiles in this marriage.

He Should Have Thought of This Beforehand

Fire extinguishers are only useful if you have one before a fire starts, dumbarse

AP:

A man who started a small fire while cooking methamphetamine drove to a Wal-Mart to buy a fire extinguisher when he couldn’t put out the flames, sheriff’s deputies said.

Jonathan Zaletel, 19, was greeted by Maricopa County deputies when he returned to his condominium late Tuesday, Lt. Paul Chagolla said.

The flames had been extinguished by a sprinkler system, and arriving firefighters found a small meth lab in the closet. A toaster being used to cook the drug had caught fire, Chagolla said, and Zalatel had tried putting it out using water and window cleaner before deciding to go buy the fire extinguisher.

Of course, save the condo’s sprinkler system, the condo would have burned down by the time he could have gotten back with the extinguisher. Perhaps she should have thought of this idea before he turned his joint into an illegal speed mill.

Admittedly, I don’t know much about meth. But what good would a toaster do it?

When a Diamond Isn’t Worth the Otherwise Easy Effort to Retrieve It

AP:

A $25,000 diamond was found stuck in a shower drain at the prison housing the man accused of stealing it two years ago. Bret Allen Langford, 39, allegedly asked the owner of a Jewelry Express store to show him a 2-carat colorless diamond in April 2005. Langford then grabbed the diamond and sped away, said sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino.

I wonder if any of the inmates would risk bending over to pick up the diamond.

Meet the Rams New Tight End

Randy McMichael, late of the Miami Dolphins.

Several years ago, he was alleged to have beaten up his pregnant wife. Initially, there were criminal charges, but they were dropped. If he did it, and got convicted for it, he would be in a place where his end certainly wouldn’t be tight.

Then again, he’s coming to the same team that continues to heap praise on the drunkard manslaughterist Leonard Little. Mrs. McMichael is perhaps lucky that she was never Susan Gutweiler.

David Obey Is Not an Idiot Liberal

In fact, he seems to oppose them.

I feel sorry now for making a joke about his name back in November.

Perhaps They’ll Next Come Out For That Border Wall

WaPo via Modern Tribalist:

“That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture,” Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders, said Thursday.

Bush’s seven-day tour of Latin America includes a stopover beginning late Sunday in Guatemala. On Monday morning he is scheduled to visit the archaeological site Iximche on the high western plateau in a region of the Central American country populated mostly by Mayans.

Tiney said the “spirit guides of the Mayan community” decided it would be necessary to cleanse the sacred site of “bad spirits” after Bush’s visit so that their ancestors could rest in peace. He also said the rites _ which entail chanting and burning incense, herbs and candles _ would prepare the site for the third summit of Latin American Indians March 26-30.

If they’re really afraid of gringo’s bad spirits, they should come out for that border wall, to keep both gringo’s corporeal persons and their bad spirits out of the Enlightened Mayan Lands. Though they better enjoy their pure paradise while they can; December 21, 2012 is approaching quickly.

Schizophrenic Neos

American Thinker blog has a story about the “powder keg” situation on America’s southern border.  They rightly blame Mexican drug gangs, and bemoan the impotence of the American government.  And they praise the Minuteman Project.

These same neo-cons are Bush worshipers.

Confusion Sends Liberals to the Dogs

California’s legislators are considering a ban on breeding of mutts.

The rationale is to prevent dog overpopulation and abandonment. However, the good California liberal who is proposing this law hasn’t caught up with the liberal times yet.

If mutts can’t be bred, then this gives the reproductive advantage to purebreds. And liberals don’t like purebred dogs, because in their mind, breed husbandry and refinement leads to canine eugenics, and canine eugenics leads to eugenics and general, and that leads to Adolf Hitler, and that leads to holocausts.

Obviously, that line of thinking is so replete with slippery slope and faulty causation logical errors that it would take the length of a dissertation to explain them all.

Good News For (and From) D.C.

Federal Appeals Court strikes down D.C’s gun ban, rejecting the “collective right” bromide of the left.  New York, Chicago, et al. are next.