Don’t want to go through the TSA’s full body scan or porn-o-scan? The TSA has an alternative: “enhanced” pat-downs. These pat-downs gropings have one objective – coerce you into going through the body scanner.
T-shirts with the logo on the left are available here.
I’m in Orlando attending the annual convention of the National Council of Teachers of English. I was a presenter at two sessions on Friday. I was so busy for several days preparing for my presentations that I didn’t have time to research stories and write-up posts about them for the Turley Blawg this weekend. I decided to dust off an old case that I found in my Fairy Tale Crimebusters File. It’s a tale of a horrible crime against humanity committed by a dastardly lupine villain who enjoyed preying on Homo sapiens of all ages. Fortunately, the two crime victims in this case were rescued and the gluttonous perpetrator of the evil deed was swiftly—and capitally—punished.
In the Case of Little Red Riding Hood:
A wily wolf waited in the wood.
He coaxed sweet Red to pick wildflowers,
Then sneaked away and GULP! devoured
Dear old Granny, jumped in bed
With Granny’s bonnet on his head.
Continue reading “Crime & Punishment: Cross-Dressing Criminal Meets His Maker!”
Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been the right-wing poster boy for tough law enforcement. Subjecting his prisoners to spoiled food, tent villages in scorching heat, pink underwear, and then launching criminal investigations against public officials who challenged him just added to his “Walking Tall,” tough-cop credentials among his backers. He also is the moving force behind Arizona’s tough anti-immigration law backing Governor Jan Brewer in her “Show Me Ze Papers” campaign against Mexican immigrants. Now it seems the worm has turned, and Maricopa County officials are wondering why Arpaio needs to keep two sets of books.
Earlier this week, Professor Turley wrote a post about the “Twinkie Diet.” That story inspired me to pen a silly poem on the subject of Mark Haub’s junk food regimen for losing weight.
Eating junk food every day
Can melt your excess pounds away.
Count calories—it’s simple as that—
And you’ll be able to shed your fat.
Here is Mark Haub’s Twinkie diet—
Go on. I recommend you try it.
Here’s how to begin:
Pop a vitamin.
Drink a protein shake.
Eat a cream-filled cake.
Chew a brownie too.
Chug a Mountain Dew.
Carolee Bildsten (left), 56, of Gurnee Illinois, has been charged with aggravated assault for threatening a Chicago police officer with a “rigid female pleasure device.” The officer was unharmed as he deftly deflected the devilish device.
John Boehner, the presumptive next Speaker of the House, is standing firm on his call for extending the Bush tax cuts, for everyone, permanently. Compare that with David Axelrod who said that the Obama Administration, in order to get tax cuts for the middle-class, would accept an across-the-board tax cut, temporarily.
What happened to the Obama position of not extending the tax cuts for the billionaires? POOF!
Here’s a Sunday morning crime story for you:
Scene of Crime: Dorchester, Massachusetts
Date: Saturday, November 6, 2010
Time: Approximately 1:30 p.m.
Perpetrator of Crime: Unknown
Description of Crime: A man wielding a hammer carjacked a limousine that was parked outside the Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta at St. Margaret’s Church on Columbia Road. The carjacker allegedly whacked a window…and the limo driver. He forced the chauffeur and the bridesmaids out of the vehicle. At the time, the bride and bridegroom were inside the church and unaware of what was transpiring outside.
Note: it’s Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time. You can impress your friends with that bit of trivia.
Although Ben Franklin gets credit for inventing DST, we give a shout-out to G. V. Hudson (left) who proposed modern DST in 1895.
I have six clocks to change. Haven’t figured out how to change my body clock.
-David Drumm (Nal)
This dog has great table manners.
Consider this an open thread to post your favorite animal videos.
-David Durmm (Nal)
Colorado State Representative and Assemblies of God pastor Ken Summers, who oversees the Teen Challenge addiction centers, has some unusual methods to “cure” people of homosexuality. He envisions homosexuality as a demonic possession requiring an exorcism to “get the gay out.”
An isolated incident? Think again …
I have developed an even deeper respect for Jonathan Turley over the past week. Here I am a little old retired lady with not all that much to do and yet I found that it wasn’t all that easy to choose stories/issues to write about for this blog—and to write about them. I had at least half a dozen stories selected last weekend that I had planned to post about—and I didn’t get around to writing about any of them. Searching for and selecting stories, reading them, condensing them to provide blog readers with the heart of the matter takes time and a lot of concentration. I was disappointed with myself for not being able to come up with clever titles for all of my posts. Sometimes inspiration takes a vacation when I need her most.
I want to thank JT for entrusting me with the responsibility of being one of his three guest bloggers. I felt it was an honor—especially considering the company I was in. Nal and Mespo, I enjoyed reading all of your posts. I’d also like to thank all of you who took time to read and to respond to my posts.
“We must teach students about their First Amendment rights rather than restrict their use of particular books and materials. As educators, we must encourage students to express their own opinions while respecting the views of others.”—Protect Our Freedom of Speech, Teach It, Pat Scales
“Damn all expurgated books; the dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book.”—Walt Whitman
In early 2007, there was a BIG kerfuffle over The Higher Power of Lucky, the children’s book that had recently won the coveted Newbery Medal—which is considered by many to be the most prestigious annual award bestowed upon a work of children’s literature.
Why the kerfuffle? Well, author Susan Patron included one word on the very first page of her award-winning book that shocked many people—even some librarians. That one word was “scrotum.” One little word and the book was banned from a number of school libraries.
In her New York Times article With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar (February 18, 2007), Julie Bosman wrote:
Pat Scales, a former chairwoman of the Newbery Award committee, said that declining to stock the book in libraries was nothing short of censorship.
“The people who are reacting to that word are not reading the book as a whole,” she said. “That’s what censors do — they pick out words and don’t look at the total merit of the book.”
Continue reading “On the Banning, Censorship, and Challenging of Books”
A man from Rockport, Massachusetts, has been charged with rape and released on $25,000 bail after a “dangerousness” assessment hearing. Michaels S. Burbank has been ordered to have no contact with his victim, to undergo random alcohol and drug testing, and to wear a location tracking bracelet.
Rockport police arrested Burbank in the early morning hours of October 23rd after receiving a call from the victim who claimed that Burbank had sexually assaulted her in her bed in her Granite Street home.
“According to police, at approximately 1:34 a.m. Saturday, Burbank entered the woman’s home, went upstairs into her bedroom, and began kissing her and engaging in a sex act as she slept in a bed she was sharing at the time with an Essex man.”
Continue reading “Woman Sexually Assaulted By Intruder While Asleep In Bed With Another Man”