Today’s Hot Pants Underwear Bomber stack of stuff.

(1)  I hear a lot of people asking why, among other things, the obvious information was ignored, and that the American embassy in Lagos did nothing when his father warned them of his son’s terrorist leanings.  The answer is that UFA (I’ll use his initials going forward) had two PC points going for him:  (1) Black, and (2) Muslim.  Also, it’s not like the State Department in a given country is going to do anything to hinder a citizen of the host country.  In case you’re wondering, State is all about good foreign relations.

(2)  Evidently, there’s a lot of UFA types being trained in Yemen.  You can partially thank Bill Clinton and that goofy broad he had for an ambassador to Yemem, what’s her face Bodine.  They’re the ones that let the genie out of the bottle, by “democratizing” Yemen.  When a team of FBI agents went there to hunt for evidence after the USS Cole bombing, another Clinton and Bodine caused tragedy, IMHO, Bodine pretty much handcuffed the FBI into uselessness.

(3)  Which is greater?  AQ’s desire to succeed, or our desire to fail?  Is OBL that zealous, or is Janet Incompitano that hapless?  Truthfully, I can’t tell.

(4)  I am hardly what you call pro-black, but I’m not blaming Nigeria, its people or its government, for UFA’s attempts at terrorism.  He was radicalized in London, (where there are already good roads NOT engineered and built by Osama bin Laden, Patty Murray), which is another nail in the “poverty causes terrorism” coffin.  But if Nigeria is in the news for something, it can’t be good, for Nigeria is usually known as the e-mail scam haven of the world.

(5)  Sorry, Miss Incompitano.  Luck is what worked.  Next time, we might not be so lucky.  Remember, we need to be right every time, they only need to be right every once in awhile.

(6)  In somewhat related news, it is said that President Obama is changing the “harsh” immigration policy President Bush enacted after 9/11.

LOL.

If letting in 150,000 people legally from countries on the State Department’s list of terrorist sponsors or havens is “harsh,” then what is this sonofabitch in the White House gonna do?  I hate to imagine.

Most of the rest of this indicates to me that Obama is essentially opening the border, and granting a form of amnesty to illegal aliens already here.  I’ve thought for a long time that the formal debate on an immigration amnesty bill is sort of a moot point, when the President has the power of enforcement, and s/he can simply refuse to enforce immigration law, ipso facto amnesty.

(7)  MSNBC taking heat for barely covering UFA on C*******s Day, while Fox and CNN went almost wall-to-wall for awhile.  That’s because MSNBC has a President to protect.  And, pray tell, how would anyone know what MSNBC did or didn’t do on Christmas Day anyway?  It’s not like anyone was watching.

There was a riot of about a hundred “young people” at a Bridgeport, People’s Republic of Connecticut shopping mall on Saturday.  It got so bad that the Bridgeport P.D. and the Connecticut State Bears had to intervene.

Of course, the news article didn’t mention the most obvious common characteristic of the rioters save their age.  But I read some of the comments, and it looks like people are finally catching on, and asking some taboo questions about race.

Responding to a current rash of smash-and-grab car break-ins in St. Louis City, the Mayor’s Office says, in essence:

(1) It’s too bad that whites are victims, because we can’t sweep it under the rug as a black-on-black no honest people involved thing.

(2) It’s the white driver’s fault for leaving valuables in plain sight.

Do you see how it’s a little bit contradictory?

My response to (1) is that a place where black-on-black crime is high will also be a place where black-on-white crime is high, too. Former Chief Joe Mokwa tried this excuse early this decade, by saying that, essentially, white people shouldn’t worry about murders in the City b/c 75% of them are black thug on black thug. (Note: Neither Slay here nor Mokwa in the past used explicitly racial language, but that’s the message they sent.) My response then was to calculate the city’s murder rate of it only had 25% of the murders it did, i.e. the ones Mokwa said we should worry about. And that still yielded a murder rate that was 2.75 times higher than St. Louis County, and dozens of times higher than either St. Charles or Jefferson Counties. So even giving Mokwa the benefit of the doubt, it still didn’t bode well for the City.

As for (2), leaving valuables in sight isn’t a crime or a sin. Car burglary and vandalism is. I hear this way too often, that it’s the victim’s fault for not being more careful. I agree that people should be more careful, but I agree more that criminals shouldn’t commit crime.

A MacArthur Foundation front is celebrating a change in IL law that takes effect at the Stroke of Midnight.  What it means is that 17-year olds charged with misdemeanors won’t go to adult court, it’ll be sent to juv.  However, the same does not apply for felony charges — they will still go to adult court.

However, their reasoning is screwy.  For instance:

For the thousands of 17-year-olds arrested on misdemeanor charges each year in Illinois, this reform is the difference between going through life with a criminal record and having an opportunity to be rehabilitated and begin adulthood with a clean slate.

Except that an adult misdemeanor conviction doesn’t prohibit you from much.  Potential employers are only allowed to ask about a job applicant’s felony record.  Most of the things that people associate with not being allowed to do/have with a rap sheet only applies to felonies.  Only a few sensitive callings will take into account misdemeanors, and with most young adults and misdemeanors, they’re sunsetted at a certain point, i.e. don’t commit another crime in a certain amount of years, and the misdemeanor is erased. The Armed Forces have gotten so desperate for recruits that the only kind of conviction they can’t tolerate is adult felony. Used to be that even juvenile misdemeanors were turned away.

“Keeping 17-year-olds out of adult court and away from hardened criminals is the best chance – and possibly the last chance – for many of them to turn their lives around,” said Elizabeth Clarke, President of the Juvenile Justice Initiative (JJI). “It also is best for the safety of their home communities and can prevent increased crime in the future.”

How does being in “adult court” for a misdemeanor put you around “hardened criminals?”  A misdemeanor conviction can’t send you to state prison.  It might send you to the county can for a few months, and there, you might encounter a murder suspect being confined until/through trial, but if he pleads or is found guilty, then he’s off to state prison or death row.  Otherwise, you’ll be around a lot of other minor criminals, perhaps a few convicted felons who are doing time in county b/c their felony wasn’t severe, and those arrested who haven’t bonded out of the hoosegow, plus some drunk tankers.  Those are hardly “hardened criminals.”  And how is this supposed to “prevent increased crime in the future?”  However “bad” they think adult county jail is, then juvenile jail is almost as bad.  And, in juvie jail, you do have both felonies and misdemeanors in the same can.  It seems to me that that would be putting them around “hardened criminals,” though not quite as hard, yet.  On top of this, most adult misdemeanors, especially a first time one (presumably, most 17-year olds who are hauled into court on a misdemeanor haven’t yet committed any other crimes, and are therefore considered, b/c they are, first time offenders) are disposed with probation, community service, a fine, SIS, or anything but actual incarceration.  To the extent that an adult is made to serve time in county for a misdemeanor is if he: (1) Has a long sheet, felony or misdemeanor, and/or (2) The person was charged with multiple misdemeanors or maybe a felony, but it was bargained down to pleading guilty to one or more serious misdemeanors, in exchange you agree to do time in county.  In other words, many people doing misdemeanor stints in county really committed a non-major felony, but the prosecutor didn’t want to hassle with it, or didn’t want to risky a picky jury, and bargained.  The 17-year old who is doing time in county for a misdemeanor probably fits under the “really committed a felony” category, in which case neither I nor the organization lauding the IL law changes should have any sympathy with.  It’s just a matter of take your lumps, consider yourself lucky that you’re not a felon, and don’t do it again, young man.

Also, remember that whey they say “Illinois,” they essentially mean Chicago.  The Crook County jurisdiction is, as you can guess, a rather busy one.  Those young adults in Crook County accused of misdemeanors have an even easier row to hoe, because of the lenient judges and the cynical and overworked State’s Attorneys.  Even first-time felons don’t always get prison time.

Whether it was finding an experienced judge from another state to talk to legislators or putting research results about brain development and juveniles at our fingertips, MacArthur has always been there for us.”

If the “brain development” isn’t enough for a 17-year old misdemeanor suspect to be charged in adult court and possibly go to adult lockup in county, then it shouldn’t be enough for a 17-year old felony suspect to go to adult court and adult prison.  BTW, these “brain development” studies show that the brain isn’t entirely hard-wired until age 25 (Note:  Your car insurance rates go way down when you turn 25.  The actuaries have known this for decades).  To be consistent with these studies, then 25 should be the crossover between juvie and adult.

Forty years old today.

I remember when 40 seemed old.  Now, it’s the next tens digit rollover on the odometer for me.   Just yesterday, it seemed, 30 was old.  But I’m already well past that exit.

My average this year was so bad that I sent myself to the showers.

1. A major MSM top three market (NYC, Chi, LA) newspaper goes out of business.

The biggest market where a paper went out of biz in ‘09 was Denver.  Bonk.

2. Mayor Slay loses his bid for re-election; the black body politic will close ranks and unify behind someone credible, and as Lewis Reed and Barack Obama have proven, white St. Louis City voters aren’t the same types who once gave 80+% to an anti-deseg school board. Reed got enough white votes in 2007 to topple the white Aldermanic President, and Obama got 84% of the vote in the city, McCain only got 40% in his best ward, one in lilly white south city. The city’s economy is going south in a hurry, and if InBev pulls the rug out of A-B a little more, or there are some other rounds of job cuts, the incumbent will be blamed.

Even it takes some black voter fraud, it will happen, and by the time of the March primaries, the new U.S. Attorney for St. Louis will work for a black President and a black Attorney General, so they won’t prosecute that kind of fraud.

Bonk.  Big time.  BTW, Irene Smith is becoming what they call a “perennial candidate.”

3. Ballpark Village falls apart. The grass farm you see today is what you’ll see at the end of 2009.

I’ll give myself a ding, even though they created a “temporary” parking lot and softball diamond, to keep up appearances for the All-Star Game.

4. The eastern end of the Highway 40 closure will be noticeably more painful than the western end.

From what I understand, bonk.

5. There will be a serious push for secession in some American territory, probably some kind of non-state territory (e.g. Guam), but maybe an actual state.

I don’t know how serious you want to take Rick Perry’s rhetoric.  I dismiss it as campaign year fluff, to head off KBH.  Therefore, bonk.

6. A fast food joint you’ve heard of will go out of business.

Bonk, AFAIK.

7. Some outbreak of an infectious disease will cause casualties in at least the six figures.

H1N1 wasn’t that deadly.  Bonk.

8. Microsoft posts a financial loss for at least one quarter of 2009.

Though they had their first year-over-year quarterly profit decline ever, they were profitable for all four quarters of this year.  Bonk.

9. Since many illegal aliens from Mexico in the U.S. are returning back to Mexico, plus the rapidly increasing corruption scandals, the Mexican government will do one of two things: (1) Become insanely dictatorial, or (2) Fall.

I’ll give myself half a ding, because it paradoxically got more of both 1 and 2.

10. Some form of alternate energy will become affordable, economical and practical for the masses.

Bonk.

11. Sub-$100 Blu-Ray player for Christmas shopping season 2009.

Lowest I saw was $129.  Bonk.

12. Some European nationalist party will either win control of their country’s government, or come close enough, either way causing a media panic.

Vlaams Belang, Jobbik and the BNP’s success in Euro Parliament elections in June did cause a media panic, but they weren’t winning a national parliament.  Bonk.

1.5 out of 12 makes for a .125 batting average for 2009.  Last year, I hit .500, but for 2007, the first year for which I made predictions, I did just as badly as I did this year.  Combining the three, my career average is .257, so I’m only slightly over the Mendoza Line.

2010 Predictions coming some time this week.

Guy White. Probably the best right wing blog out there not an official organ of an organization, outside of mine, of course.  Just for starters, take a gander of his “You Might Be a Liberal If…“

Stuff White People Like and Stuff Black People Don’t Like.  Because I can!

And there’s a lot to wrap up.

(1)  I watched the last few minutes of  This Week on ABC this morning, mainly for the Sunday Funnies.  As they were rolling the credits, I noticed one of the camera engineers name is Rick Roller.

(2)  Various Chicago city services weren’t open on Christmas Eve, in order to save money for the city.  Among the closed institutions were libraries.  Though who on the South Side noticed?

(3)  ESR has two one-liners for the ages.

(4)  A self-identified “transgendered anarchist” was hauled in for vandalizing a Democrat Party office in Denver.  He can’t self-identify as transgendered too much, because he didn’t change his name to Pat.  They can certainly cross from their biological gender to a pretend one, but they can’t seem to cross from the insane to the sane.

(5)  Michael Vick was his team’s choice for the Ed Block Courage Award.  What exactly did he do in the 2009 season that was so courageous?  I suppose an ex-con not committing any more felonies is the essence of courage.  Since the team voted for the award winner, this must mean that you could add the IQs of all the members of the Philadelphia Eagles, and that still wouldn’t be enough for two average people.

To their credit, PETA denounced the selection.  But they weren’t exactly a conspicuous presence outside the Eagles stadium this season.  I’ll give you one guess to why.

(6)  The reason Ghandi-style and “Freedom Rider”-style civil disobedience won’t work when it comes to ObamaCare is because, this time, the libs are on Obama’s side.

(7)  There’s hope for loser gamer guys to get some tail after all.

(8)  When a Daley thinks you’re going too far to the left, you really know you’ve jumped the shark.

(9)  I fully expect Bernie Madoff to “fall out of bed” quite of bit over the next few years, until he finally “falls out” a little too far and for the last time.  In other words, they put him in the only Federal hoosegow where there are victims of his perfidy.

(10)  There’s no element to human sexuality, freaky or otherwise, that a lib doesn’t want a teenager to know about.  So let’s see how they react when the NRA gives those same teenagers knowledge about an element of the document that is in every civics textbook.

(11)  Two-thirds of France’s imams are on welfare.  Real comforting to know.  I suppose provoking people to blow up busloads of Jewish children isn’t as lucrative as it used to be.  Recession and all.

(12)  ElizWright crowns the SPLC, and certainly not king.  I found out something I did not know — the Poverty Palace has added that noted right-wing extremist Carol Swain to its hit list.  Didn’t I say something about jumping the shark earlier?

(13)  Aside from its six usual divisional opponents, we know for sure the other ten NFL teams who will have extra bye weeks in 2010.  Question:  After which loss will Steve Spagnuolo be fired?

(14)  A typical AP writer and a typical NBA player are somehow involved in a story about guns.  Did you honestly think that either one of them would get it right?  Duh and duhher.

(15)  I have no problem with John Kerry making a diplomatic visit to Iran.  But I would have a problem with him coming back.

(16)  Mike Anderson compares new FCC proposals and WebTV from the late 1990s.  WebTV only reminds me of one of the most arrogant knaves ever to speak into a radio microphone, and that is Jim White, the Big Dumper.  He was on in the late evenings, and by then, KMOX’s signal was heard throughout most of the eastern two-thirds of the country, with its clear channel position.  I remember one night in 1998 that I was listening, and a woman from Indiana called in.  The Big Dumper was doing tech talk, and she called to complain that Microsoft had removed Usenet Newsgroup functionality from WebTV.  The Big Dumper’s response?  Essentially it was, “Oh you stupid bitch.  Why don’t you just use an abacus if you’re that backward?”  How or why KMOX or CBS or Bob Hyland ever put up with that shit is beyond me.  Doesn’t matter, I liked Roger Fredinburg and the Right At Night better anyway.

(17)  Stephens College in Columbia?  I haven’t even heard of it.  But they’re evidently influential enough to start a fad.

(18)  Jacques Rogge:  Disappointed in Tiger Woods, but hearts the Jamaican drug testing program.

(19)  Repubs feeling their oats b/c redistricting after the 2010 census will probably mean that reddish states gain House seats while blueish states lose.  Don’t count your elections before they hatch, Rs — The reason a lot of those reddish states are growing in population is because of Hispanics, both immigration and procreation.  I predict at least half of these new seats will be won by Hispanics or white liberals.

(20)  Wealthy, privileged and educated.  Yet, still became an AQ terrorist.  What say you, Patty Murray?

***

And a few headlines.

Slashdot:  Patrolling the US Border Via Webcam

I wonder what would happen if they show us that Mexicans are sneaking across the border.

Slashdot:  TSA Wants You To Keep Your Seat, and Your Hands In Sight

That’s because you’re suspected of first degree taking an airline flight in a country that won’t do racial profiling.

UK Telegraph:  Main parties have failed to prevent BNP gains, warns Michael Howard

I didn’t even have to wait but a month for the next “what are gonna do about the BNP” stories from the liblabcon media.  I tell you what you can do — Either adopt the BNP agenda, or disband.

To each and one of you.  Including to those of you who like to write me snide and insulting e-mails.  Though for most of you, me wishing you a Merry Christmas is my biggest insult of all.

I’ll return to blogging on Sunday.

Houston Chronicle:  Report says 225,000 Haiti children work as slaves

You think they’ll ask for reparations if they ever freed?

2:  Metro East Club Destroyed By Fire – Club was known for violence

You can probably deduce where in the Metro East this club was.  I’ll give you a hint:  Violence.  I’ll give you another hint:  Not Belleville.

CNS:  White House Doesn’t Know If Obama Will Attend Church on Christmas

It’s just as well, he doesn’t listen in church anyway.

P-D:  New queen crowned at VP Ball

I didn’t even know the VP Ball was still going on.

Time weighs on the decade that was the first of the third millennium of Christianity.  (Yeah, yeah, I know.  No year zero.  AFAIK, I just shorten the first decade A.D.)

Reading what they had to say made me weaken the world, i.e. think.

For my money, this decade was a noticeably phony one.  From phony WMDs in Iraq, to the current phony in the White House and his phony image, to the well-crafted, er propagandized image of Tiger Woods that has fallen apart like a house built with tongue depressers, to phony subprime mortgages, phony global warming data, phony pusedo-moralists (Yes, Bill Bennett, I’m thinking about you), phony leaders of supposedly conservative organizations, astroturfing, home run sluggers on steroids, Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme, Enron accounting, overprocessed pop tart “singers” (read: Jessica and Ashlee Simpson), Dan Rather’s attempt to use phony documents to bring down George W. Bush, phony political images, John Kerry asking “where can I get me a huntin license” in that backwoods Massachusetts accent, balloon boy hoaxes, a phony 9/11 investigation, phony ministers, and everything else, I can conclude this much:

This was not the decade that was, it was the decade that seemed.

In a related note, Emma, my maternal grandmother’s name, was the most popular name for girls in the past decade.  Aiden was the most popular boy’s name, so I suppose that there’ll be a spate of Aidens in college at the end of the 2020s, and in politics by the end of the 2030s.  Matt used to be sort of a young name, but they came of age when Matt Salmon almost won Governor of Arizona in 2002, and Matt Blunt did become Missouri Governor in 2004.

…Is none other than DiFi.

Then again, I already told you about all that n’stuff.

Eleven middle and high schoolers, including at least one Hispanic who threw the first punch, beat up a fellow Hispanic 8th grader so badly that he needed facial reconstructive surgery, and may go permanently blind in one eye.  This happened in New Jersey.

The whole thing involved a supposed diss on a girl.  He evidently hit a girl with a basketball by accident.  Later, the girl sicked the gang of 11 on him, and she’s also facing charges.

UPDATE 12/27: Hold the presses on this one.  The gang might have been “Hispanic,” but in reality Afro-Caribbean Hispanic, not Mexican/Chicano.  And the victim seems to be more Mediterranean Caucasian than Hispanic.

Peoria, Illnois wants to do a trial run for CCW in Illinois.  Of course, we all know how it’s gonna turn out, because we know how it’s turned out in most states:  The libs, both in and outside of Peoria, will bitch and moan.  A few percent of people will get permits, and the typical permit holder will be a white early middle aged man.  Certain violent crimes will be reduced, and almost all the crimes they prevent and deter will happen from the permit holder merely displaying his gun to his assailant, while not having to fire it.  What will be interesting in Peoria, if they get to do it, is the businesses where the Peoria city limits run through it, the suburbs presumably won’t participate.  I think if they try it, it should be the entire county.

We also know that it’ll make life a lot harder for Peoria’s civil rights-endowed black thugs.  That is why the Land of Lenin will never get CCW as long as IL includes Crook County.

The father for 30 hard and 60 soft days in the county’s involuntary asshole-widening service, and the mother for 20 soft days in a presumably less hostile counterpart after he’s done.  Evidently, the judge wanted (not) balloon boi to have his parents free for C*******s, and to have one out and one in so (not) balloon boi has one of his parents to take care of him.  Like they’ve been such great parents in the recent past.

The judge is also going to keep an eye on their bank accounts so they don’t benefit from the made-for-TV movie that will air some time this May on some network desperate for ratings.

New York Post:  32-year-olds don’t simply drop dead, doctors say

That sound you hear is yours truly breathing the world’s biggest sigh of relief.

New York Daily News:  Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani expected to announce Tuesday he will not run for U.S. Senate

RIP, Rudy Giuliani’s Political Ambitions.  Sept. 11, 2001-Sept. 11, 2001.

CNS:  White House Picks New Cyber Coordinator After Months of Delay

He’s formerly of eBay.  There’s a joke in there somewhere.  I just can’t find it.

CNS:  Fort Hood Suspect Prevented From Praying in Arabic, Lawyer Complains

It’s not that anyone is preventing him from praying in Arabic, it’s just that “I hope to God these asshole infidel rednecks don’t string me up on a tree” doesn’t translate well.

CNS:  Black Advocates Want More Help for the Unemployed

They’re doing something for white people.  A Christmas Kwanzaa miracle, I tell ya.

P-D:  Missouri golf course owner pleads guilty to water theft

That’s par for a course where everyone who plays it takes eight shots per hole but finish with a 74.  Golf scores are the rich man’s big fish story.

P-D:  Police: Teen stabbed man with ice pick to get parking spot

The parking spot was at a parking mall.  That’s how you can tell the doer is woman.  Hell hath no fury…

KSDK:  Court: Microsoft violated patent; can’t sell Word

Oh boy, that means we can pirate it now.

WND:  Yahoo is spying on you

Oh rats, now they know my family’s pork sausage recipe.  That was supposed to be a secret that I only intended to blab to ten other people.

AP:  Keep IRS auditors away: Earn less than $200,000

Next year, I’ll make only $199,999.  You think that won’t raise any suspicions?

Rakes in the honoraria like it would be illegal tomorrow.  Other RNC chairmen are crying foul, wondering why they aren’t raking in the bucks.  Gee, Sherlock, do I have to paint you the picture?  You can see in this blog post the reason.  Of course, since said former RNC chairmen include the likes of Jim Nicholson, Happy Gilmore, Melamnesty Martinez and Ed Gillespie, perhaps I’ve given them too much benefit of the doubt when it comes to gray matter.  If I have, here’s an easy hint for you:  Look at the picture.

Isn’t it really profitable to be black and feign a little conservatism every once in awhile?  Hell, you don’t even have to win a public office on your own accord.

But it’s not just his fault.  One of the looniest things about modern American society is why some people think that certain current or former dignitaries deserve five or six figures to give a speech.  I mean, what do they say in their big money speeches that’s so profound that they don’t say anywhere else for free?  You think if you dump a half million in Bill Clinton’s lap (get the lady out of the way first), that he’ll admit to every other woman save his wife he boinked while he was President?  Is George W. Bush going to say that he made up the part about WMDs in Iraq?  Will Jimmy Carter outline a cancer cure that involves peanuts?  I get the feeling that post-Presidential “speaking tours” is how the establishment rewards its good little shills once they’re earning any of your money anymore.

CNS:

Pittsburgh Backs Away From Plan to Tax Tuition in Exchange for ‘Donations’ to City

Pittsburgh officials shelved an idea for a first-of-its-kind tax on college tuition after two universities and a nonprofit health insurer agreed on Monday to make large contributions to the city.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl hopes the contributions from the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University or Highmark Inc. will serve as a catalyst to get other nonprofits to help the city financially.

Ravenstahl had called for the 1 percent tuition tax on the city’s 65,000 college students as a way of getting money to help pay for some $15 million a year for the city’s pension obligations.

Nonprofits are exempt from most taxes, but represent many of Pittsburgh’s major employers and hold about one-third of the city’s property value.

This means that Mayor Steelerstahl hoisted the city’s universities up on their own petard, and the poor widdle babies didn’t like it.  Awwww, don’t your heart just pump purple piss?

I say it’s just about time.  Many of these “non-profit” institutions, such as universities and hospitals, are raking in so much money that it’s not funny.  Mainly because higher education is the youth auxiliary of the Democrat Party, so when the Democrats are in power, they do everything they can (lower student loan rates so that students can get bigger loans, more grants, etc.) to let colleges raise tuition to funnel more money through academia, to engineer more Democrats.

But you what the fruit part about this thing in Pittsburgh will be?  Pitt, Mellon and the others will raise their tuition in order to fund the “donations” they made to the city.  And I bet it will be a lot more than a 1% hike.  It would have been better off just to enact the original tax.  It was all a setup/scam between Steelerstahl and the city’s universities.

Methinks Francis Slay is paying close attention.  But he might not try it with SLU, b/c both he and it are Catholic.

Pay close attention.  Whenever there is a murder of a very young child, i.e. under 2, it is almost always at the hands of the child’s mother’s new boyfriend.

Wherever there are masses of homeless teenagers, i.e. not yet 18 and almost always young men, there are mothers who have kicked their sons out of the house at the behest of her new boyfriend.

That’s the way it works with lions.  A new male takes over the pride, then (1) Drives the adolescent males out to clear away competition, and (2) Kills the young cubs sired by the previous pride leader, so that the mothers won’t have the distraction when the new pride leader wants to romp.

Boston Herald:

The 911 on video game obsession

Frazzled Roxbury mom calls the cops on teen gamer

It’s game over for a 14-year-old Roxbury boy, whose overwhelmed mother was so exasperated with his incessant video game playing that she called the cops on him.

The final straw for Angela Mejia snapped at 2:30 a.m. Saturday when, “I woke up in the middle of the night and saw the light on in his bedroom,” hours after she had told him to go to sleep.

“Sometimes I want to run away, too,” Mejia said, breaking down in tears in her immaculate apartment. “I have support from my church, but I’m alone. I want to help my son, but I can’t find a way.”

Mejia is among thousands of parents struggling with today’s video-game obsessed youth. The Entertainment Software Association reports the popularity of video games is skyrocketing, with 42 percent of adults intending to give, or hoping to find one in their Christmas stocking this week.

Mejia’s son – one of four children the 49-year-old is raising alone – was playing “Grand Theft Auto,” an exceedingly violent video in which the gamer assumes the role of ladder-climbing criminal.

An argument ensued as Mejia unplugged her son’s PlayStation. Then, this mad-as-hell mother dialed 911. Police responded and managed to talk the boy into shutting off the game and going to sleep.

“They (police) were just like, ‘Chill out. Go to bed,’ ” the boy told the Herald.

Mejia said she approves of athletic-themed videos, but as for “Grand Theft Auto,” she said, “I would never buy that kind of video. No way. I called (police) because if you don’t respect your mother, what are you going to do in your life?”

I had the first Nintendo (8-bit), when I was about 11 to 14.  After I started high school, I got too busy, and gave it away to the grandson of a friend of my mother’s.  I toyed around with the Super Nintendo (16-bit) in an electronics store after it came out, just before after I gave my NES away.  And, with its implied three dimensions and two extra controller buttons, it confused the hell out of me.  Therefore, that’s when my gaming stage of my life ended.  I couldn’t imagine how lost I’d be today with a PS3 or X360.

I can tell you one thing, though — There was no way in hell that I would have even thought about playing it at 2:30 in the morning, even if it was the weekend.  If I did, my mother would have either started a bonfire in the backyard, or gotten the axe out of the basement — either way, her $50 investment (I paid for half of the original system and almost the whole price of most new games I got, save a few Christmas presents) would have been either gone up in smoke or chopped apart in teeny little pieces.  That’s precisely why I only fooled around with the Nintendo when all the homework and projects were done, all the chores were done, and during normal waking hours.  Hell, I even remember at one point when it was a nice Saturday afternoon outside, a friend and I were about three hours into Super Mario 3, which was a 4 hour plus game to beat, my mother got frustrated that we were keeping ourselves indoors on such a nice day, that she came by and unplugged the damned thing while we weren’t looking, then chased us outside.  (In spite of my friend being the better gamer, I actually beat SMB3 before he did, and actually walked him through levels 7 and 8.)  NES really didn’t have any gorey or mature games, that I know of, but she would have burned a CD/DVD or cartridge (NES used those buggy plastic cartridges) of a game like GTA if I dared sneak it in the house, then burned or chopped up the NES and all the other games as a punishment for my acquiring that kind of game.  She certainly wouldn’t buy, or countenance me buying, a game like GTA.

If I were Miss Mejia, my kid wouldn’t have even thought about it.  But knowing the fix she got herself in, she did the right thing, the only thing she could to discipline him.  These systems and games are too expensive nowadays to destroy on a whim, so I’d pack it all up and hide it over at a friend’s or relative’s house, or let him keep it, but if he pulls this again, have the cops take him to some sort of pretend jail.

Oh, and Miss Mejia:  Your kids don’t automatically respect you.  You have to earn it by forcing them to respect you.  And you won’t get that respect by being a pushover.

Even though it’s early, Rand Paul has a lead in the polls over establishmentarian Trey Grayson.  This is for the Republican Primary to replace the retiring Jim Bunning.  Paul’s lead over Grayson is bigger among those who think the party is getting too liberal, and those who are unhappy with current Republican lassitude, but he also has a lead among those who are happy with the current party and its current representatives.

I still have problems with the Pauls, both Rand and Ron, and their failure to recognize the race issue, and that big corporations and their anti-white race hate will disparately benefit from the Pauls’ libertarian ideology.  However, I’d far rather have Rand Paul than Trey Grayson, another Mitch McConnell type.  And I’d rather have Marko Rubio than Charlie NAACP Crist.  Rubio has opened up a lead in Florida, too – That’s for the Republican nomination to replace “Republican” Melamnesty Martinez.  Unlike Kentucky, there is apparently no credible Democrat running in FL, so Rubio-Crist IS the election.

When Two Stupid Parties Join Forces, The Result Is Synergetic:  More Than Twice the Stupidity.

The British Stupid Party is leaning on the American Stupid Party to pass cap-and-tax.  What the former stupid party doesn’t realize is that the latter stupid party doesn’t have control of either American legislative body.  But, as the Times states, The President and Vice-President of the Media are both on board, and you can bet Snowe and Collins will run back to the plantation.  If anything’s gonna stop it, it’ll be hesitant Democrats.  Harry Reid all you’ll ever need pretty much emptied out his bribery chest to get HCR votes, so he won’t have any capital to spend to Cap-and-Tax.  I would expect a lot of Democrat defections, if Reid brings up it.  2010 being en election year, he probably won’t.

Started 20 years ago this month.

Twenty years.  Where’d they go in such a hurry?  This has to be just about the longest-running network show outside of the Sunday morning gabbers.

I’m just old enough to know that The Simpsons started as animated shorts on the Tracey Ullman Show.  (Most everyone younger who knows that must spend too much time on Wikipedia, and musn’t have a life otherwise.)  I actually watched that show on a regular basis, if you can believe it.  In fact, I watched Fox’s Sunday night lineup almost every week.  (Go figure, I was a big In Living Color fan. ["You do yo' best girl, I spent my last food stamp on bus fare."]  For the Wayans brothers, that was their funniest and best work; it was all downhill from there.  Jim Carrey’s career shot up after he left ILC.)  Hell, I’m still old enough to remember when Fox didn’t have prime time network programming every night of the week.

IIRC, The Simpsons first show was a Christmas special a few weeks before Christmas in 1989.  Bart gets a “Mother” tattoo, and Marge has to pull a jar of change out of her hair and use that to pay for the tat removal.  Homer blows his Christmas bonus on a slow dog at the track, and he brings that dog home as the kids’ present.  It’s 20 years later:  I’m not surprised Bart is still in the fourth grade, but I expected better from Lisa :)

UK Daily Mail:  Tories’ licence to kill a burglar: Homeowners using self-defence should escape prosecution, says shadow minister

But nobody has yet bothered to figure out how this affects the civil rights of thugs.

AP:  Israel: First Jesus-Era House Found in Nazareth

Among documents found in the rubble was that a few years after its construction, it was foreclosed upon because it was under a Roman subprime mortgage.

Slashdot:  Microsoft Sued Over Bing Trademark

Endangering the deal that the Mayor of Detroit has with Microsoft to help ease the city’s budget woes.

Media Bistro:  Would Geraldo Rivera Really Quit if FOX Hires Lou Dobbs?

If he does, he’ll go to CNN.  And therefore, he’ll never bee seen or heard from again.

Newark (Ohio) Advocate:  Liberal amnesty bill is dead on arrival

Ross Perot told a anti-NAFTA Teamsters’ rally three weeks before NAFTA passed that it was “dead on arrival.”  The more accurate phrase is “them that got is them that get.”

KSDK:  Kirkwood Taco Bell robbed

Bob McCulloch will be able to take advantage of a little-known provision of MO law that makes it a felony to jack up restaurants that make fake Mexican food given fake Spanish names.

Washington Examiner:  Who’s responsible for the Senate’s middle-of-the-night vote?

You know, if Harry Reid keeps the Senate working 23 hours a day just so ole B. Hussein can have an “accomplishment” before Kwanzaa, Senators will technically be making less than minimum wage.

UK Daily Mail:  Priest outrages police by telling congregation: ‘My advice to poor is to shoplift’

Must be one of Michael Pfleger’s long lost relatives.

WND:  China warns Obama deficit spending must stop

And therefore, deficit spending will stop.  He who pays the piper…

AP:  Top Cuban official says Obama lied in Copenhagen

Obama responds by accusing him of projection.

What they’re telling you now about boys and men with the “gang gene” is all that they’re going to tell you.  The reason is that future research might show racial differences in this gene’s distribution.

But I do predict that newborn baby boys will be tested for this gene, and if they have it, they will be automatically admitted into the FFA (Future Felons of America).

All kidding aside, here is the ready made excuse for hard core gang bangers to get out of the death penalty, at the very least.

Then there’s the more fundamental question.  You just took your two-year old to the doctor so that he can draw blood for a genetic sequencing test.  He has the gene.  What can you do to keep him out of the state pen?  Answer:  Legal, structured violence.