Fun With Headlines

IHT:  Nationalism at core of China’s angry reaction to Tibetan protests

Since “nationalism” comes from the Latin “nasci” (to be born), and since Tibetians aren’t Chinese, then the headline is lying.

Reuters:  McCain takes a walk down memory lane

He has a lot of lanes to choose from.

Time:  Whatever Happened to the IRA?

Largely supplanted by the 401-K.

Reuters:  Apple has biggest impact on world consumers: survey

On their wallets.

AP:  Yahoo launches site focused on women

The first order to business is not to call them yahoos.

WSB-ABC-2 Atlanta:  Judge Orders Whites Out Of Atlanta Court

He wanted to talk to the defendants exclusively.

CSM:  Antigang group turns New York thugs into college students

“College” isn’t what it used to be.

10

The official release of the Netscape source code came ten years ago today. That would eventually beget the Firefox browser and the Thunderbird e-mail client.

The Mozilla Foundation reviews the decade in a Mitchell Baker blog post today. I’m going to take the opportunity to pour a little bit of cold water on the self-congrats: Had the Mozilla Organization (then Foundation) had its way, their featured product would still be the Mozilla Application Suite (which lives on today as SeaMonkey). They were initially opposed to the forking of the Mozilla codebase to create Firefox (and then Thunderbird) — it took about two years for Blake Ross and Co. to convince the higher-ups to make Firefox front-and-center. Even though the Suite was far better than IE (and SeaMonkey is still is), it never got more than 2% user share. Firefox, meanwhile, has around 20% of the worldwide user share, and a third to the mid-forties in Eastern Europe.

Also, Mozilla’s birthday is a not-so-subtle reminder that someone else has a birthday today, one that this someone else would rather not be reminded of starting at this juncture.

Fun With Headlines

Lake Sun Leader:  Jetton ruled right

A broken clock is right twice a day.

WND:  McDonald’s sign onto ‘gay’ agenda

(1)  Ronald comes out, finally.

(2)  Gives a whole new meaning to “The Good Times and the Great Tastes”

(3)  You’re lovin’ what?

(4)  Premering on Bravo:  Queer Eye for the Straight Fry

(5)  Is that ketchup coming out of the dispenser, or K-Y?

CQ Politics:  Minnesota GOP Backs Physician for Competitive Seat

The GOP would have done well to back a physician for President.

PC World:  Is Microsoft Losing Credibility?

And the dollar is losing value for the same reason — people are gradually approaching the truth.

AP:  Colo. town closer to drinkable tap water

Not until they perfect indoor plumbing.

CSM:  Be prepared to help Zimbabwe

The new motto is “help those that hurt themselves.”

“It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than That”

The P-D profiles Old Hickory Pits of Cape Girardeau, and the overall American fascination with barbecue.  I agree with the last quote in the article.   And that Real BBQ is smoked in these contraptions.

Frick and Frack

No letting theology get in the way of a good left-wing Chicagograd confab.

Fun With Headlines

AP:   Sydney goes dark for Earth Hour

The lights are going out in Johannesburg, too, but not voluntarily.

AP:   Mayor’s scandal hurts Detroit’s image

Actually, since Double-K isn’t accused of any real physical violence, the scandal actually raises Detroit’s average slightly.

Politico:   GOP looks to ‘McCain Democrats’

Because there aren’t too many “McCain Republicans.”

AP:   Ricky Martin fights human trafficking

Because you should only live La Vida Loca if you want to.

Fun With Headlines

NPR:  Report Rips Credit Card Companies’ Campus Tactics

“You’re an adult now.  Go into debt like one.”

AP:  Dean says attacks getting too personal

Hillary and Obama agree on just about everything, so how can they attack each other on ideas?

AP:  Pennsylvania senator to endorse Obama

Sounds like something Arlen Specter would do.

AP:  Raul Castro: Cubans can have cell phones

But must have them turned off while kissing the dictator’s ring.

Time:  Is Al Gore the Answer?

Only if the question is stupid.

Politico:  Urban issues get short shrift

Democrats only paying attention to black voters 98% of the time unlike the 99% of the time they used to.

LiveScience:  Teenage Dinosaurs Might Have Butted Heads

Thankfully teenage dinosaurs didn’t have gun

Reuters:  U.S. experts find oldest voice recording, from 1860

It was of some politician running for President named Lincoln saying that he was for slavery before he was against it.

Reuters:  Mariah Carey set to rule singles chart

How?  It seems like she has released the same song over and over again since 1992.

E!Online:  Lindsay Lines Up for Manson Girls

With her substance abuse problems, she settled into character long ago.

AP:  Runaway SUV knocks man off his toilet

That’s about the only way to get some men off the john.

Daily Mail:  Labour plan for all-black shortlists to find ‘Britain’s Barack Obama’ is political apartheid, say Asian MPs

“Because we can say ‘hope’ and ‘change’ eloquently, too.”

CNS News:  Liberal Group Urges Media to Provide Balanced Coverage

In order to give equal time between socialists and communists.

P-D:  Optimism, doubt about future of Ballpark Village

And also of Bigfoot’s longevity, the Tooth Fairy’s finances, Santa Claus’s manufacturing base, the Loch Ness Monster’s appetite, Jim Oberweis’s political prospects…

Hendersonville (N.C.) Times-News:  Shuler: McCain blocked immigration bill

As this is the same Heath Shuler who couldn’t grasp the danger of oncoming linebackers during his last job, this tells you how obvious John McCain’s perfidy is.

Michelle Malkin:  A “music tax” to bail out the dying record industry? Hell, no!

“Hell, yes!”  </Conservatism, Inc. shills for the RIAA-MPAA and their copyright extremism>

Fun With Headlines

Slashdot:  Safari 3.1 For Windows Violates Its Own EULA, Vulnerable To Hacks

And renders even uglier than InterNut Exploiter.

AP:   Court: Mumia deserves new [penalty phase] hearing

He’ll die naturally in prison at this rate.

NPR:  Why Kids Curse

Because their parents tell them not to but do it themselves in front of the kids.

AFP:  UN raises alarm on AIDS epidemic in Asia

And then passes the hat.

AP:  Census: Texas is the hot place to live

They meant the “caliente” place.

Reuters:  Dr Pepper issues challenge to Guns N’ Roses

If they’re not fazed, then maybe Dr. Pepper can get Knives N’ Carnations.

Reuters:  Mugabe could hang on despite challenge

His challengers will hang.

AFP:  DNA paternity testing kit goes on sale for 30 dollars

The production costs of the Maury Povich show have just gone way down.

CQ Politics:  N.J. Republicans Say Lautenberg Planted Story About His Opponent

There’s a grammar error here.  You can’t use a plural word to describe a singular concept.

AP:  Free [trial] Web version of Photoshop launches

The free full desktop version of the Gimp has been available for a long time.

ZDNet:  Is open source anti-American?

Because Microsoft owns about half of the American government, the answer is probably yes.

CNS News:  Unions Blast Government Effort to Stop Hiring of Illegal Aliens

In a more sane time and place, “praise” would have been where “blast” is.

Perspective

Tech Crunch:

Save the Developers! Stop Using Internet Explorer 6

There is a scourge on the Web. It is called Internet Explorer 6. Even though the more recent version of Microsoft’s browser, IE7, has been around for more than two years, IE6 still represents 31 percent of all browsers out there (versus only 22 percent for IE7 and 36.5 percent for Firefox). This upgrade lag is simply unacceptable—to programmers, that is, who find it a real pain to make sure their Web apps work on five different browsers. Not only that, but IE6 supports some non-standard features and functions that are not compatible with other browsers. The security vulnerabilities aren’t too much fun either.

It’s too much work and, quite frankly, it is driving some programmers batty. Which is why a group of them have created SaveTheDevelopers.org, an organization dedicated to making the Web a better place for developers (and thus for users as well). Web developers can grab a piece of code to put on their Websites which will detect if a visitor is using an outmoded browser (IE6, cough). When the offending browser is detected, a pop-down window will appear (assuming those aren’t blocked) which will direct the user to a page where they can upgrade to IE7, or the latest version of Firefox or Safari.

More campaigns are planned for the future to whip those laggard Web surfers into shape, and once again make the Web safe for developers.

The reason is that IE6 was around for so long that corporate intranets got used to it, wrote markup and web applications (especially ActiveX) around it, and now they’re stuck with it.  As of February 2008, IE6 is used more often than IE7.  For perspective, consider that IE6 was released in October 2001, six years and four months before February 2008.  Six years and four months before IE6 was released was June 1995 — Internet Explorer didn’t even exist then.

There’s a Fine Line Between Wannabe and Delusional

Smoking Gun:

MARCH 26–Last week’s bombshell Los Angeles Times report claiming that the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur in the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio was carried out by associates of Sean “Diddy” Combs and that the rap impresario knew of the plot beforehand was based largely on fabricated FBI reports, The Smoking Gun has learned.

The Times appears to have been hoaxed by an imprisoned con man and accomplished document forger, an audacious swindler who has created a fantasy world in which he managed hip-hop luminaries, conducted business with Combs, Shakur, Busta Rhymes, and The Notorious B.I.G., and even served as Combs’s trusted emissary to Death Row Records boss Marion “Suge” Knight during the outset of hostilities in the bloody East Coast-West Coast rap feud.

The con man, James Sabatino, 31, has long sought to insinuate himself, after the fact, in a series of important hip-hop events, from Shakur’s shooting to the murder of The Notorious B.I.G.. In fact, however, Sabatino was little more than a rap devotee, a wildly impulsive, overweight white kid from Florida whose own father once described him in a letter to a federal judge as “a disturbed young man who needed attention like a drug.” Sabatino is pictured in the above mug shot.

And Mr. Sabatino will be heading to the dippy farm after he finishes his prison sentence, after being convicted of First Degree Not Growing Up.

Role Model

He’ll be going there for real, and afterwards he’ll have to log some community service hours, and we’re told that the service will entail talking to youth groups.

Among many other reasons, I think I know why some kids are turning out so badly — the American justice system somehow thinks that convicted felons are good role models.

Pie in the Sky (Actually, a Hole in the Ground)

Forget about this.  Ain’t happenin’.

Slay’s Ravine is staying for awhile.  Though just as I predicted at the beginning of this year (and last) that The Deal would fall through, I added this year that the city will eventually have to do something with it, because the MLB* All-Star Game will be played here in July 2009.  Look for city hall to turn this into green space.

Fun With Headlines, Race to November Edition

AP:  McGovern: Hard to elect female president

But I bet she can get at least 18 electoral votes.

P-D:  Younger and black — but not Democrats

Before you get excited, Stupid Party:  Not Republicans either.

WND:  Top Obama adviser: NYC, Miami Jews ‘the problem’

Also a big part of the Democrat Party’s establishment, dumbass.

CNN:  Smugglers’ deadly cargo [from U.S. to Mexico]:  Cop-killing guns

Gosh, I’m straining my brain trying to come up with a solution.

AP:  NASA: Mars rovers will continue to run

Designed for three months, but running for four years — when is NASA going to start making cars, computer parts, consumer electronics and undergarments?

Daily Mail:   Muslim leader accuses police of being ‘over cautious’ in stopping Asian gangs pimping white girls

That’s because diversity is more important than preventing prostitution, and everything else for that matter.

Simonized

I wrote in this space reviewing the new “Knight Rider,” regarding the notion that a Bugatti Veyron could have been used as KITT, that it wouldn’t work because “you don’t know anyone who owns a Veryon.”

Maybe you don’t know anyone personally, but now you know of someone who does:

The car has been simonized, in more ways than one.

Fun With Headlines and Photos, McDs Edition

Think of the heart attack or stroke that won’t happen now.   (Photo KSDK)

Daily Mail:  Millionaire lottery winner goes back to job at McDonald’s… because he misses his workmates

At today’s prices in England, his jackpot is only good for about a month’s worth of McDonald’s food.

Boston Globe:   Seeking a kinder word for failure

Let’s just call it success paucity syndrome.

AP:   France may boycott opening of Olympics

A major country wants to boycott part of the Beijing Games.  I wonder who predicted that.

Politico:  Dems to hammer McCain for ‘100 years’

Because Hillary and Obama only want to be in Iraq for 50 years.

Examiner:  Students rally for in-state tuition for illegal immigrants

So they you won’t have to pay as much for their higher education.

KC Star:  2010 NAACP convention coming to Kansas City [after all]

Kansas City today must feel like that condemned murderer at 11:59 PM who isn’t hearing that Red Phone from the Governor’s Office ring.

AP:  Casino Queen says smoking ban hurt business

No packs of 20 while playing 21.

WND:  After sucking city dry, ACLU ‘hate machine’ to be honored?

It must be a Republican-run city.

WND:  Does affirmative action hurt kids?

It hurts certain adults even more.

Reuters:   Raising that ‘07 baby will cost $204,060 in U.S. [for middle-income families]

By the time those ‘07 babies are adults, there will be no more middle-income families.

Reuters:   U.S. jaguars threatened by Mexico border fence

And Mexican jaguars aren’t?

AP:   Czech far-right backs anti-Quran film

Giving a whole new meaning to “Czechs and Balances.”

AP:   Man accused of stalking Tyra Banks

He is also charged with first-degree bad taste.

AP:   Spears goes for laughs on CBS’ `[How I Met Your] Mother’

She should have waited a half hour.

How Barbara Got Her Groove Back (But Then Lost Her Life)

You can probably deduce the plot;  all you need are the proper names.  Curiously, British idiom reverses the American compound word “boytoy” and calls it a “toyboy.”

Rap Sheet

I’m sure most of you receive a few spam e-mails a week offering you a great job with a lofty-sounding title.  The e-mail, with its pitiful English grammar, promises you that you will be paid a certain amount per day or per month (never per week), that you will only have to work a few hours every day, and that you can work from home, but need internet access and a cell phone.

Hopefully, you’re aware that it’s a scam, and ignore them.  The particular scam is that someone wants to use you to launder ill-gotten money (usually from stolen credit cards and bank accounts cracked through phishing scams), or items purchased thereof, across international borders.  Money mule is the colloquial term.

I got one of those spams a half hour ago that requires that you don’t have a criminal record.  The irony is that your “job” will involve violating the laws of just about every civilized country on Earth.  My bet is that if these scam artists really don’t want you to have a criminal record, (i.e. they might be requesting a clean rap sheet just to make the “job” seem legit), the reason is that Interpol, in an effort to crack down on money muleism, is cross-checking international money transfers against criminal conviction databases, e.g. NCIC in the U.S.  So the con artists need their mules to have a clean sheet.

Esctacy With Headlines

This stack of headlines is bigger than pancakes at Uncle Bill’s on any given morning.

Quad City Times: Truckers ‘going broke’ and threatening to strike

With NAFTA and $4/gallon diesel, their “strike” won’t be voluntary.

Slashdot: Seagate May Sue if Solid State Disks Get Popular

I think lawsuits bought by buggy manufacturers in 1902 are still pending.

P-D: Overall US death toll in Iraq hits 4,000

Keep the faith. One of these days, far into the future, Iraq might have democracy.

Detroit Free Press: Kilpatrick, Beatty face felony charges

America’s first hip-hop mayor soon to go where all good hip-hoppers wind up going.

WKMG-CBS-6 Orlando: London-Like ‘Crime’ Cams To Watch Orlando

Because they’re working so well to prevent crime in London.

MissouriNet: FEMA reminds Missourians of the importance of flood insurance

Good luck buying flood insurance if you live in a floodplain.

KSDK: Person Hurt in North St. Louis Shooting

Gunshots hurt? No kidding.

AP: World’s tallest man struggles to fit in

Walking around on bended knee gets old and painful after awhile.

McPaper: After deportation, migrants are determined to return

With no border fence, and no hopes of one, and a retreating National Guard, migrants needn’t be that determined.

McPaper: Food program brings together schools, farmers

A farm is a good place to start if you’re looking for food.

McClatchy: Mexico now the 2nd fattest country, after U.S.

The U.S. will soon slip to 2nd place.

CSM: Taiwan president-elect’s bold mandate: improve ties with China, U.S.

A “tie” with China means that Beijing fashions a tie into a noose and chokes your neck with it.

AP: Existing home sales rise in February [as prices fall]

It’s the first time in the economic history of the world that something sells more as its cost decreases. (?)

LiveScience: Study: Higher Gas Prices Save Lives

Let’s raise the cost of gas to infinity, so nobody will die.

Health Day: Health Tip: Sports Safety for Kids

They eerily read a lot like sports safety tips for adults.

AFP: Viagra: still going strong 10 years on

I know Viagra makes a lot of lofty promises, but “strong” and “10 years” is a little much.

Diversified out of Existence

P-D:

Obama’s fellow congregation fights back

CHICAGO — Members of Barack Obama’s South Side church are fighting back.

Inflammatory comments from their former pastor have recently blasted across the Internet, often via YouTube, and their most famous member has been forced to justify his allegiance to them.

But the 8,000-member Trinity United Church of Christ is fighting fire with fire, including by launching a YouTube channel of its own and a blog to spread its “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian” message.

“People are messing with the wrong church to think that this is just going to be something that goes away,” said member Linda Thomas, a theology and anthropology professor at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

Remember, the United Church of Christ (UCC) started as a conglomeration of disparate German-American Reformed (Calvinist) churches.  Of course, Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinist were once the big three denominations among Germans and German-Americans.  However, the UCC, which was already liberal, attracted liberal Christians, which made the UCC even more liberal, which served as a magnet for even more liberals, and the vicious cycle means that the UCC today bears almost no resemblance to its German Calvinist roots — it’s the epitome of the Christian Left.  Therefore, we’re now at a point where a black parishioner at a black UCC congregation can be a theo prof at a Lutheran college.  Maybe that also tells you how far down the Lutheran church has stooped.

(Full disclosure:  This writer was bapitsed a Missouri Synod Lutheran.)

Fun With Headlines, One Piece At A Time

Drudge (at the time of this writing):  OBAMA: DON’T LABEL ME LIBERAL…

Fine.  Let’s go with socialist.

Drudge (at the time of this writing):  Ryan Seacrest plots to be ‘Dick Clark, Merv Griffin, Larry King’ of generation…

Cross the first name off the list.  Seacrest already looks older than Dick Clark.

UK Independent:  Dalai Lama and his allies are out to destroy Olympics, says China

In related news, Mr. Smith’s Pharmacy on the corner is out to destroy Walgreens.

KSDK:  Five-Year-old Reports to Army Duty for a Day

If they let him stay, he could use the G.I. Bill at 9, or even retire with full pension at 25.

Slashdot:  IT Workers Split For McCain, Obama

The Indians tend to like Obama, the Filipinos like McCain, and the Chinese prefer Hillary.

Ars Technica:  Evidence mounting: Windows 7 going modular, subscription

Why is One Piece at a Time by Johnny Cash reverberating through my head?

Fun With Headlines

Drudge (at the time of this writing): Carville Compares [Bill Richardson] to Judas!

This means HRC was crucified on Friday and rose from the dead this morning.

P-D: Panel wants answers on sadist

The masochists on the panel want to ask the first questions.

Reuters:  Comprehensive action needed to fight obesity

If it’s anything like comprehensive immigration reform, then the solution will be to buy a bigger pair of pants, based on the reality that you can’t deport 10-12 trillion fat cells.

CNN: Mugabe accused of election-rigging plan

In related news, sewage dumps accused of smelling, sunburns accused of being painful, cake icing accused of being sugary.

LiveScience: Clueless Guys Can’t Read Women

Any guy who thinks he can truly figure out women is clueless.

Bloomberg: Obama Adviser Likens Bill Clinton Comments to Joseph McCarthy

I knew Joe McCarthy. (Actually, not.) Joe McCarthy was a friend of mine. (Ibid.) Bill Clinton, you’re no Joe McCarthy. (That one’s true.)

PC World: Microsoft Buys Security Firm

And then brags about security innovation.

AP: Dolly Parton releases album on own label

Is it a double album?

Missouri Loves Company

Son-of-a-Mel sent me a “dear constituent” e-mail today.  Among the lowlights:

Constituents have been telling me that they want relief from record oil and gas prices. Legislation passed earlier this year will reinvest taxpayer subsidies to oil companies into clean renewable energy. This will make America less dependent on foreign oil.

Translation:  Ethanol.  Translation:  $5-a-loaf bread, and a trip to Schnucks seeming like a trip to Neiman-Marcus.

Last week when questioning Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft Corporation, he reminded the Science and Technology Committee of the importance of fully funding the America COMPETES Act, legislation I cosponsored. This law helps keep American jobs on our shores by making sure we have the most skilled workforce in the world.

If Bill Gates wants it, I’m automatically suspicious.  But you don’t have to rely purely on instinct to know that there’s a raw deal here.  This Act means more H-1-B visas.  So it merely keeps jobs within the real estate known as the United States of America, but the jobs won’t be done by traditional Americans.  It’s outsourcing without actually having to move “out.”  Instead of actually moving the work to eastern and southern Asia, this Act merely brings eastern and southern Asia here.  Meanwhile, dipstick politicians get to brag about saving “American” jobs.

The H-1-B visa program, for the most part, has pretty much ensured that the information technology field is off-limits to white Americans, and will soon do the same for the accounting, consulting and finance fields, and has health care and medicine in its sights.

Fun With Headlines

New American:  Two More States Take a Stand on the North American Union

Because they want to remain American states, and not become Mexican ones.

P-D:  Justice Department comes to Kirkwood, St. Louis

Kirkwood’s liberal whites not confident in their own ability to pander, and thus need Federal help to do so.

Fun With Headlines

Daily Mail:  Two of Britain’s most dangerous Islamic terrorists moved to new prison – because they complained fellow inmates were ‘too white’

And if their plans to set off a bomb at a shopping center in Kent would have been successful, the same could have been said about the victims.

AP:  Gov. Richardson Endorsing Obama

Now six people know whom to vote for.

Citizens Voice:  McCain rejects Barletta invite

Don’t look this gift horse in the mouth, Lou.

Reuters:  Dozens of children in U.S. face life in prison

Rather, “babies,” in Lizz Brown parlance.

John Lott:  Sometimes 911 just isn’t fast enough

And the gated community and surveillance cameras everywhere didn’t help much, either.

Fun With Headlines

AP:  Judge: T.I. can attend Easter services

T.I celebrates the rising of J.C.

P-D:   Robbery suspect arrested after commandeering Amish buggy

What was the weapon?  A trebuchet?

Canada Free Press:  California Should Celebrate March 31 as Dr. Michael Savage Day!

I wish I were important enough to have my birthday of March 31 celebrated as a state holiday.

Reuters:  Bin Laden threatens grave punishment over cartoons

An Acme pipe bomb, endorsed by Wile E. Coyote.

Lew Rockwell:  Ron Paul on the 10th Anniversary of the War on Iraq

At this rate, at some point in the future, Congressman Ron Paul VI will mark the 100th Anniversary of the War on Iraq.

St. Louis American:  Exodus of black talent from the Post-Dispatch

Why does it seem that the word “talent” is out of place?

P-D:  Clinton schedules are released

If it’s Bill they’re talking about then it goes something like this:  10 PM:  Strip Club.  1 AM:  Cigar Shop.   3 AM:  Oral at the Oval.

WND:  Calling all criminals: Come to Detroit!

I think Detroit has an ample supply already.

Rasmussen:  Just 8% Have Favorable Opinion of Pastor Jeremiah Wright

Which puts him slightly above George W. Bush and Nancy Pelosi.

Reuters:  Mozilla says Firefox 3 ready for prime-time

Before now, you couldn’t use it between 7 and 11 PM.

P-D:  Durbin says U.S. needs new leadership

Especially in the U.S. Senate from Illinois.

Fight Club

Now when the teachers get into it, you know something is amiss.

Fun With Headlines

Bob Barr:  Wary eye on South America: Simmering tensions on a vital continent should concern us

Sorry, not worth the bones of one single Pomeranian grenadier.

CDT:  Southwest Showdown [Between Steelman and Hulshof]

To find out who finishes second to Jim Guest.

This Time, It’s For Real

She got married last weekend, for sure.

I wanted her to do time in prison, and do as much time as legally possible for her crime.  The reason is that she made up a story that she was kidnapped and raped by a group of Hispanics.  There’s too much real Hispanic crime for things like this runaway bride to make up stories about it.  Incidents like these only give moral energy to the egalitarian and open borders crowd.  “See, the Hispanics aren’t doing any crime, it’s just white people making it up” — these were the kinds of cat calls I remember hearing from the open borders lobby.

Gang Initiation

Santa Cruz (Calif.) Sentinel:

Two teens arrested in drive-by shooting of Soquel High basketball star

SOQUEL — Deputies arrested two teens early Saturday on suspicion they shot a 17-year-old Soquel High basketball star in a gang-motivated drive-by Friday afternoon.

The victim, Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League co-MVP Daniel Cross, is recovering from his injuries. Cross was shot twice in the right leg, flown to a San Jose-area hospital for treatment and sent home late Friday, according his mother, Rachel Cross.

“He’s doing well,” she said. “He’s in a lot of pain. He’s just got to heal.”

Cross was a standout basketball player at Soquel this season, helping the Knights to the co-championship in the SCCAL. Cross, a 6-foot-4 forward, led the team in scoring and was named co-MVP along with teammate Felipe Mendez.

It’s unclear if the teens arrested knew Cross. Detectives did not say if they’ve been students at Soquel High and the Cross family said they don’t know why the basketball player was targeted.

“It’s just a random thing,” Rachel Cross said. “We haven’t had any issues with this.”

(snip)

The suspected shooter, Abisai Natanel Elisondo, 18, was arrested at his Aptos home around 3 a.m. and detectives arrested the suspected driver, Luis Alfredo Ocegueda, 19, around 8 a.m. when they served a search warrant at his home in Capitola, according to Sgt. Mario Sulay.

(snip)

Detectives reported the drive-by followed a fight between two gangs in Soquel Village that occurred just after 3 p.m. Friday. Cross and two of his friends were allegedly involved in the clash, though detectives did not say what role they played in the fight. Deputies did not say Cross is a gang member.

Sorry, I’m not buying this.  The version I believe is that Mr. Cross is mostly an innocent bystander, and his involvement in the initial “fight” and in the later drive-by was because he was a human punching bag, a white man that gang recruits had to bang around as an initiation ritual.

Cubit

Much more of this, and I’ll have to figure out how long one is.