It seems Kansas legislatures are back at insulting minorities again. On Monday, Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro suggested during a committee talking about feral swine that illegal immigrants could be dealt with similarly. This meant shooting them from helicopters. Virgil claimed at first that it was just a joke and he was speaking like a person from southeast and that there would be no controversy.
Of course on Tuesday he issued an apology, but it’s hard to take it seriously after his initial response. Also, it’s hard to believe his sincerity given the fact that the apology only came after heavy criticism from state party leaders and Governor Brownback.
Virgil Peck...? Did his parents go to central casting to pick up his name?
Wonder what else Virgil possesses to contribute to the stereotype of rural Republicans being knuckle-dragging troglodytes from the shallow end of the gene pool.
The NCAA men's basketball tournament concluded half of its ridiculous "play-in" games last night with seemingly everybody's favorite whipping boy, UAB (the University of Alabama at Birmingham... like you'll need that explanation again) getting thumped by Clemson by 18.
We finally found this tru.TV upon which the games were televised. It's Channel 44 here on our local cable system, as in, not channel 744 - as in, not Hi-Def.
TNT's Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith were in studio with their straight-man Ernie Johnson along with CBS's Greg Gumbel and Seth Davis as well as ESPN's Greg Anthony. That all worked out pretty much as you would expect for a buffet style approach to these play-in games. The attempt to import some of TNT's schtick fell flat and any chemistry was forced and had a stilted feel especially with Gumbel, the Tiffany Network's company man, presiding over the whole affair. Grade: C- .
Punting on Lybia and entitlement reform is one thing but not filling out an NCAA bracket to be revealed on national television would represent an abject failure of leadership, no?
What was once hip in an everyman sort of way is now tired, played out, self-absorbed and self-caricaturizing.
Honestly, sir - at this point, we don't think America gives a damn who you have going to the Final Four.
UPDATE #1: The grand unveiling.
"Diversion"
The 4 #1 seeds in the Final Four? Un-imaginative, perhaps, but we're not blaming the man for going chalk. The four #1s are arguably the best teams in the nation so if you like their match-ups, why not? And aside from some gripes we may have with where this team or that has been slotted, the tournament selection committee usually does a pretty good job with their seedings. There's a reason why they're called "upsets".
OK, one more day of these ridiculous play-in games this evening where USC takes on VCU and Texas-San Antonio plays Alabama St. in Dayton. Tomorrow, the tournamment actually starts. Doug Gottlieb, on ESPN Radio this afternoon, likened it to receiving a party invite with a start time of 6 in the evening. Yeah, right. You and everybody else knows that no one, no one is showing up at 6. People will start arriving at 8 or 8:30, hence the party does not actually start until that time.
We hesitated in posting the following video as we try to hold postings of two kids knocking each other around with one ultimately getting the better of it to only one or two a month.
The video first and then the accompanying story. (If embed no worky, please go to the link provided below)
THE virus-like spread of a video showing a bullying attack and retaliation in a western Sydney middle school may be glorifying and even encouraging violence in the schoolyard, a leading bullying expert has warned.
The video, watched by thousands of people on Facebook and YouTube, shows a slightly built 12-year-old student antagonising a larger 16-year-old, punching him in the face as a friend records it on his mobile phone and at least four other students watch.
Advertisement: Story continues below Suddenly the 16-year-old grabs the other boy and throws him head-first on to the concrete. There is a cracking sound as the 12-year-old's ankle connects with a timber bench.
The school, Chifley College's Dunheved campus at St Marys North, has suspended both students and called police after seeing footage of the fight, which took place on school grounds about 10.30am on Monday.
(italics, ours)
How is that going to encourage bullying? That would appear to be the ulimate PSA against bullying as agree or not with the retaliation tactics, we imagine the bully will be thinking long and hard before he starts smacking around anyone ever again.
Before our round of questions, while watching this we had a confirming observation. While back at Seminary, our roommate for 3 years there was a wrestler and often we would work out with him serving as a sparring partner. Besting him by a good 30 pounds and about 5 inches, it was a great workout for him and an absolutely grueling workout for us. We've at least tried them all and there are no more gut-wrenching, cookie toss-inducing sports than wrestling and boxing (OK, never tried rowing but we've heard stories).
Now, when we were out doing, um, community outreach in town or in Queens or in the City itself, one of the things you were always mindful of in these scenarios was what you were going to do if things went south and the locals turned against you. It was never at the forefront of your mind but a spilled drink or a cross look might turn the evening's proceedings towards some unseemly outcomes and if it did go down, you were looking for the most obvious and efficient way of defending yourself. And a handful of times, it did go down and for the most part it was a lot of pushing and shoving or a few wild haymakers that were strewn about. None of this ever scared us but the one person that we never, never... wanted to have to deal with in a situation like this was a wrestler. In a close quarter scenario, where if you got yourself off-balance and were left vulnerable, we cringed at the thought of getting "fireman"-ed and tossed onto a table or the floor like a rag doll not in an unsimilar fashion to the lad above. Those are the memories that came flooding back to us while watching this video.
O.K. Now for the questions? Bullying is pretty much the "it" topic of the day and just recently the President made some strong remarks regarding bullying so unlike unrest in the Mideast, a flagging economy and an incoherent energy policy in wake of $100+/barrel oil prices, we know it must be a big deal.
As a parent, what are you supposed to do when you know your child is the object of bullying?
Do you go to the school administration to get them to step in? Now, that would seem like an invitation for more ass-kickings.
Do you tell your child to restrain himself and act in the best of Christ-like passiveness? Or do you teach your child proper self-defense techniques so that the bully will know your child is no longer an easy mark without having to necessarily resort to the nuclear option as the boy did so in the video above.
We'd love to read everyone's opinions in the the comment section. And, please, no CW - we want to hear what you would do or did do and how it turned out.
And do remember... stay away from those wrestlers.
If anything untoward were to happen to Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, any of his friends or family or any of the Wisconsin GOP lawmakers and any of their friends or family, we will know exactly who to blame.
The Wisconsin State Capitol had taken on an eerie quiet by late Friday. Gone were the throngs of protesters who had occupied its marble floors like it were a summer campground. The midnight honking of cars circling the white building had ceased. The chalk outlines around fake dead bodies etched with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's name remained in dismembered parts, not yet completely washed away by hoses.
We wonder if the school children dragged to the state capitol to um, protest saw any of those chalk outlines? A teachable moment indeed!
We're curious if the lack of vigor in the childrens' chanting has anything to do with the fact they have no earthly clue as to why they're there except that their teachers told them Scott Walker was a bad person and quite possibly a dead man walking.
They do get it going, though, if only to get that nag in the red beanie to shut the hell up.
So, how do you get people to show up to your union demonstration in Indianapolis? Take an ad out with the promise to pay whoever shows up.
'Cause there ain't no demonstration like a Craig's List demonstration.
Stand, Walk, Chant, Protest (Downtown)
Date: 2011-03-01, 11:03AM EST
Reply to: gigs-5rcwm-2240867280@craigslist.org
We need more men to protest this coming week. We will call in the morning on when we will need you. We pay $7.50. You will be helping out middle class workers in our State. This job is only for 4 - 6 hours at a time, usually between 3:00 PM till 7:00 PM Please send a picture when you e-mail."
But that $7.50 doesn't sound very union-y, now does it? And what's with wanting pictures of a bunch of dudes?
... and where your local bar will not be over-run by black horn-rimmed glasses and skinny jeans-wearing hipsters.
Alright sports fans, the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament field is set. The bracket can be found here.
Some quick observations:
- We've got no problems with the #1 seeds: Ohio State, Duke, Kansas and Pitt though Pitt was a mild surprise with their early exit from the Big East Conference tournament.
- San Diego St., with their big win against BYU in the finals of the Mountain West Conference tournament on Saturday, earned themselves a #2 seed in the West region where they will play Northern Colorado in Tucson on Thursday afternoon. Some locals were whining that they deserved a #1 seed which is non-sense. Besides, it doesn't matter: If they win two in Tucson then they play the regional games right up the road in Anaheim. This really is a best-case scenario for State.
- CBS will be farming-out some of their early round games to TBS, TNT and something called tru.tv. CBS will probably select from their usual stable of announcers for all the games regardless of what network is carrying them but the wild card here is the inclusion of Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley part of the best studio show on television (NBA on TNT) and who took part in CBS' selection show special yesterday. The big question of course is how Kenny and Sir Charles' "pro game" will translate to the "college game" they will be asked to analyze. Much like how Fox just doesn't quite "get" college football when they broadcast a few BCS bowl games at the end of the season, we're skeptical of this arrangement but on the flip side, hoops is hoops and both Smith (North Carolina) and Barkley (Auburn) enjoyed extremely successful 4-year college careers so college ball is not exactly virgin territory for these guys.
- The ESPN studio crew was as critical of the selection process as we have ever heard. Jay Bilas, in particular, slammed the selection committee's exclusion of Virginia Tech (beat Duke) and Colorado (beat Texas, Missouri and Kansas State three times) in favor of granting admission to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).
- The tournament expanded the field from 64 to 68 this year and we're not sure quite how it works or more precisely why they are doing it. There are four games in what they are now calling the "first round", playing for 2 #16 seeds and a #11 seed and a #12 seed, respectively. The #11 seed and #12 seed "play-in" games are particularly baffling as these games would appear to be designed for letting the tournament selection committee off the hook with respect to making tough choices on bubble teams - in this case, USC, UAB, VCU and Clemson. Very strange.
No matter. We're looking forward to the games and the new broadcast arrangements.
Today Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent letters to the Director of Enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan to share records CREW obtained through its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against Education. These documents show high-level Education officials colluded with Wall Street short-sellers, improperly leaking the contents of highly controversial gainful employment regulations in advance of their publication. Click here to read the letters.
“These new documents, combined with others previously uncovered by CREW raise troubling questions about the actions of high-level Education officials, the fairness of the agency’s regulatory process, and investors’ efforts to manipulate Education regulations for their own personal gain,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. “It is incumbent on the SEC to fully investigate this matter.”
Remind us again of what the DOE brings to the party.
High school contest to determine where the President will speak at the graduation ceremony not going all that well.
President Obama yesterday formalized indefinite detention for dozens of men held at Guantanamo Bay and announced that the Pentagon would move ahead with military trials for a handful of other detainees.
In an executive order [1], which we first reported on in June 2009 [2], the White House created a board to periodically review the dangerousness of prisoners being held without charge or trial. The order says the new process will allow detainees -- some in custody for nearly a decade -- to challenge the government's determination that they pose a threat if released.
While the order is new, most of the ideas [3] it contains are not. This is the third time such a board has been created for nearly the same purpose. Two similar processes to review detainee cases were in place during the Bush administration. Like its predecessors, the Obama administration's review process will operate outside the courts and will be subject to no independent review. Also like the Bush White House, the Obama administration alone will choose all members of the review board and appoint a "personal representative" to advocate on behalf of the detainees.
And the howls of outrage we should be hearing from "betrayed" lefties?
/sound of crickets.
The Mtn. Network's Marty Fletcher makes a stunning confession after San Diego St.'s last-second victory over UNLV in the semis of the Mountain West Conference Tournament on Friday night.
And this guy feels free to opine because...?
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told an audience at MIT on Thursday that he thought the Defense Department's treatment of alleged WikiLeaks source Private Bradley Manning was "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid."
Blogger Philippa Thomas first reported Crowley's remarks, which she said were part of a lecture on "the benefits of new media as it relates to foreign policy" at an event organized by MIT's Center for Future Civic Media.
"One young man said he wanted to address ‘the elephant in the room'. What did Crowley think, he asked, about Wikileaks? About the United States, in [the questioner's] words, ‘torturing a prisoner in a military brig'? Crowley didn't stop to think. What's being done to Bradley Manning by my colleagues at the Department of Defense ‘is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.' He paused. ‘None the less Bradley Manning is in the right place'. And he went on lengthening his answer, explaining why in Washington's view, ‘there is sometimes a need for secrets... for diplomatic progress to be made'," Thomas wrote.
B-Daddy on Japan, nuclear reactors and the inherent advantages of a de-centralized power grid.
One in a series that takes a look at some of the zany and madcap things said by Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin came out against Republican-proposed budget cuts to the National Institute of Health because, as you may not be aware, government agencies have the "biblical power to cure".
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Woops. That wasn't Sarah Palin but rather that glittering jewel of collossal ignorance, Nancy Pelosi who shows up rather consistently in our Sarah Sez features.
As ridiculous as Pelosi sounds to reasonable people, one can understand where a pro-abortion Catholic who scoffed at the notion of the constitutionality of the individual mandate of ObamaCare, might come up with something like that.
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