Fun With Cracka Cars

Ben Maller:  U.S. Senator thinks caring about sports a lot is “just plain stupid”

Before you get too excited, it’s Al Franken.

AFP:  China ‘scared to death’ of Pelosi: leaked cable

The rest of us just laugh at her.

P-D:  Two dead in shooting outside St. Louis funeral home

How ’bout that.  Skipping the middleman.

CNS:  Scientists Trick Cells into Switching Identities

Using the same techniques perfected by illegal aliens.

CNS:  Cracker Barrel to Offer Electric Vehicle Chargers

I knew it would take a restaurant named “cracker” to make things easier for those who own the quintessential SWPL car.

I’d Like to Know

This describes one Timothy Herring, Jr., 19, of Chicago, as a “recent parolee.”  Herring is accused of assassinating CPD Officer Michael Flisk and former Chicago Housing Authority officer Stephen Peters.  The deed happened last week, as Flisk was in an alley on Chicago’s South Side gathering evidence that would have showed that Herring committed an armed robbery just days before — Evidently, Herring returned to the scene of his first crime looking to destroy evidence to avoid the inconvenience of having to return to prison, and when he got there, he overheard Officer Flisk telling Peters that he’s got a clean set of fingerprints, presumably Herring’s.  So Herring, not wanting to return to prison, murders them both, giving the state yet another reason to send him back to prison, and in theory, execute him.  (I say “in theory” because this is Illinois.  A bill is moving quickly through the State Legislature which would do away with the death penalty altogether — As it is, death sentences are currently under moratorium that George Ryan enacted and both Rod Blagojevich and Pat Quinn continued).

What I want to know is if Mr. Herring is one of Pat Quinn’s infamous parolees.

If he was, I can imagine that there are a lot of people in Illinois who want a mulligan in the election for Governor.

Truth In Crisis

P-D:

Boy, 8, injured in St. Louis shooting

An 8-year-old boy was shot in the back Monday night as he was riding in a car near the intersection of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, police said.

A bullet also grazed the boy’s 31-year-old father, who was driving the car.

Police say it appears that boy’s father was the intended target.

The shots were fired from an assailant in a passing car at about 6:40 p.m. Monday as the father and son drove south in the 2900 block of Spring Avenue. The father drove to the 3800 block of Enright Avenue to report the shooting and get medical care for his son.

What they don’t tell you here is what is on the 3800 block of Enright that the boy’s father was so interested in.  Turns out it was St. Louis City’s juvenile hall.  Someone there called for an ambulance to take the boy to the ER at Children’s, which is where the father should have driven the boy in the first place.

Psychologists tell us that a human mind reveals its true nature in times of crisis.  What is interesting to me here is that in a time of obvious crisis, his son getting shot, this father’s mind immediately defaults to the St. Louis City Juvenile Detention Center.  Why?  Did the boy ever spend time there?  Or rather, and more likely, did he ever spend time there?  Since he was the target of the shooting, this means he’s probably in some sort of racket himself, gang or otherwise  and therefore he probably has been for quite a long time.  I’m guessing he did a couple of tours in the 3800 block of Enright before the law considered him to be grown up enough for him to start doing time Downtown.

Two Women, Troubles Innumerable

I’ve been following this story for quite awhile, but this is the first time I’m bringing it up here.  It’s the Brian Aitken saga in New Jersey.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is now starting to cover it.  I’ll link to it even though it contains the name of the now former state trial level judge who is relevant to this story.  I usually don’t link to stories with the names of all but the highest level judges, even if they are former judges, but the story is too long just to re-hash it here just for the sake of not naming a former judge.

What the story doesn’t say is that Aitken wrote and received a letter from the New Jersey State Highway Patrol while he was still living on Colorado, on how to transport all of his firearms and ammunition legally within the state.  He specifically asked about hollow point bullets and large capacity magazines, the two items that seems to have gotten him in the most trouble afterward.  The letter he got back acknowledged that but stated how he can transport them legally, even though they’re otherwise illegal within the state.  Aitken’s lawyers tried to introduce that letter as evidence at trial, but the judge blocked it.

The one part of this story I wanted to respond to was this bit:

Separated from his wife, the entrepreneur and media consultant, now 27, had moved back home to New Jersey from Colorado toward the end of 2008 to be closer to their young son.

In between jobs, his well-oiled life was running ragged, and on Jan. 2, 2009, when his ex canceled his visit with their son, he became distraught, muttered something to his mother, and left his parents’ home in Mount Laurel, N.J.

“He said something that scared her, things that a guy will only say to his mom, like . . . ‘Life’s not worth living anymore,’ ” said Larry Aitken, Brian’s father.

Sue Aitken, a trained social worker, decided to play it safe and called police, but she hung up before the 9-1-1 dispatcher could answer. Police traced the call and showed up anyway, and found two handguns in the trunk of Brian’s car. And now Brian, her middle child, a graduate student with no prior criminal record, is serving a seven-year prison sentence for weapons charges.

No one blames Sue Aitken for Brian’s arrest, except herself maybe, but his father and attorney claim that the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office and the former Superior Court judge who tried the case ignored evidence that proved Brian had the guns legally. The family has asked New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for clemency and has garnered a great deal of support on a “Free Brian Aitken” Facebook page and among gun-rights advocates.

“No one blames” Sue Aitken?  Fuck that.  I blame her.  A “trained social worker” in a state like New Jersey should have known better.  And all this was a fallout from a failed marriage.

His case is in front of the State Court of Appeals, and it is thought that either they or the State Supreme Court will finally deliver justice.  (The article says that Gov. Chris Christie is considering “clemency,” which is misnomer because Aitken did nothing wrong.  Be that as it may, it won’t happen, because I know the kind of rat fink Christie is, on guns, immigration, Ground Zero Mosque, Hal Turnergate, etc. even as I want to pull all my hair out of my head after every neo-con and lamer talking head on Fox has already anointed him the 45th President of the United States.)  And when that happens, the first thing Brian Aitken should do is swear off women like the plague, and disown his mother.  (Since he’s in a woman-free environment for the time being, he’s got a good running head start on that.)  Save his mother giving birth to him and his wife giving birth to his son, two women in his life have brought him nothing but trouble.  Second thing he should do is sue the state for everything it’s got.

Anything Is Possible

But not everything is desirable.

CNS:

Missouri Officials Back More Restrictions Aimed at Meth

Jefferson City, Mo. (AP) – The Missouri governor and attorney general want to make Missouri the third state to require a doctor’s prescription to buy cold and allergy medicines that can be used to make the illegal drug methamphetamine.

Gov. Jay Nixon and Attorney General Chris Koster announced their support on Tuesday for legislation imposing a prescription mandate on medicines containing pseudoephedrine, which is sold under brands such as Sudafed, Claritin-D and Aleve Cold & Sinus.

Missouri for years has led the nation in busts of methamphetamine labs, even while enacting increasingly stricter laws.

Proposals to require prescriptions for the medication have been rejected in the past by the Missouri Legislature and face opposition from the pharmaceutical industry. But Nixon and Koster say more safeguards are needed.

Sure, if you want government to stop the production and use of meth, and assuming you have the Mexican border 100% sealed to prevent meth from Mexico coming in country, then of course you can do it.  But there is always an opportunity cost to everything — Should Nixon and Koster get what they want, then curing a common cold with pseudoephedrine will go from a several dollar OTC medication purchase to a several hundred dollar doctor visit yielding a script to get a bottle of pills that will cost you several tens of dollars.  I don’t know why big pharma is so opposed to this bill — Seems like they would benefit in the long run.

On the other end of the spectrum, the easier you make it to get pseudoephedrine, the more likely it is that meth labs and meth use will increase.

Therefore, the trick is to find the right balance between squelching the illicit meth industry and ensuring inexpensive ways for people to mitigate common cold symptoms.  The system we have in place, limiting sales to a certain amount per month per person, using centralized logging to prevent store hopping, is ideal.