July 12, 2013

Trayvon Martin's Dead Body Splashed On Gawker, MSNBC!

I am shaking right now, and trying not to cry. I was making the round of my feed this morning, and clicked on www.gawker.com. I was greeted with a blown up. full color photo of Trayvon Martin dead on their freaking front page! There was no way to unsee it. Apparently, MSNBC has been running Mr. Martin's death photo on their site too. I am outraged that they need for page clicks has completely overrun the need to respect the wishes of the parents in these situations.
I am not weighing in on the criminal case against Mr. Zimmerman here. I am just asking what standards should we hold to when photos of dead kids are involved?

I will post the link to the Gawker article here, but I will not post the actual picture out of respect for the deceased's parents.
http://gawker.com/this-courtesy-of-msnbc-is-trayvon-martins-dead-body-753370712

February 26, 2013

Help the RiffTrax/MST3K guys get TWILIGHT to riff for their next nationwide simulcast live!

Source: www.kickstarter.com

RiffTrax recently did a poll of the Worst Movies of All Time. The clear winner: the dopey, sappy, sparkly vampire-and-werewolf romance known as... the TWILIGHT saga.

And what does TWILIGHT need more than anything else?

A good Riffing, LIVE, before a massive audience in a one-night event in movie theaters nationwide.

We want to do our Mystery Science Theater 3000-style funny commentary for TWILIGHT, broadcast LIVE over hundreds of movie screens in August 2013. This Kickstarter is to help obtain the rights to TWILIGHT for that event!
We have already written and performed a great Riff for Twilight and it's our best seller, but the only way you can currently watch it, is by syncing our MP3 of the riff, with the DVD of Twilight. If we want to perform the RiffTrax LIVE for you in theaters nationwide this August, we need the rights for the movie itself.

Read more: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/90538351/rifftrax-wants-to-riff-twilight-live-in-theaters-n

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These guys are exceptional! We should laud the news that thry are taking on this project today, as an indication that humor is not dead in this country. If you watched Mystery Science Theater 3000 in the 90's. or if you like the audio riffs they do of current movies, or if you just like making fun of Twilight...then this project is for you!
www.rifftrax.com

February 20, 2013

John Boehner: Sequester Is Product Of Obama's 'Failed Leadership'

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

"Most Americans are just hearing about this Washington creation for the first time: the sequester," Boehner writes. "What they might not realize from Mr. Obama's statements is that it is a product of the president's own failed leadership."

Boehner continues, "There is nothing wrong with cutting spending that much -- we should be cutting even more -- but the sequester is an ugly and dangerous way to do it."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/john-boehner-sequester_n_2721608.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008

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WTF? Is Day night in his world? Only the House can put forth these kind of bills, but to listen to the comments on this story online King Obama wrote it, passed it, and signed it into law without any Republican help whatsoever. I swear, now they are just making stuff up!

February 15, 2013

Redlands man watches childhood mountain home go up in smoke. (Dorner Cabin).

I thought this was an interesting perspective on the whole Dorner situation. I feel for this fellow, who watched his childhood memories burn.


"That was home. I've got a lot of memories there," he said. "It was startling to see the old homestead go up in flames. Boy what a story."

"The press keeps calling it a cabin," Bill Glass said Wednesday. "To me it was a house."

Originally the camp was called Seven Oaks Housekeeping Cabins. Subsequent owners dropped `Housekeeping' from the name.

"My father started that camp in the '20s after World War I was over, and that was my home until March of '38," Bill Glass said, "and then the camp was still in the family until 1958, so it was kind of odd to watch that thing burn last night. That one right there, that was home."

Bill moved to Redlands in 1938 but continued to spend summers and holidays in the Seven Oaks camp, mostly working, until 1951.

"In the '30s it was a big deal to come up and rent a cabin for a few weeks and get away from things," he said.

For him it was not an escape: "Billy, the light bulb in No. 3 needs to be replaced. The sewer in No. 7's clogged up."

He also remembers celebrating the end of World War II there.

Now he also remembers the aerial view of his father's work going up in smoke.

"I was downstairs and my girlfriend said, `Turn on the TV' around 2:30 (p.m.). I started watching it solid for about eight hours. I watched it all."

Bill relived watching the footage in a phone interview on Wednesday. There's the recreation hall, the tennis court, the croquet court, he said.

"I probably know that area as well as anybody living today."

The man presumed to be Dorner fled Highway 38 on foot to Glass Road and went left on Seven Oaks Road, Glass said. The suspect went into the first building he came to, which was vacant, a house that sits about 45 feet back from the road, Glass said.

"I wish this guy had gone further down and held up in one of the cabins," Bill said. "He would have been more hidden, and they would have torched that instead of the house."

Six of the rental cabins remain today. His father had wanted to build 20."
http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_22582978

February 13, 2013

Sheriff’s School Security Posse Has Guns and a Pedophile. (Arpiao)

"Let's take a look at some posse members' rap sheets. Member Dominic Boulter was convicted for crimes against children:

"Boulter began using an online service called Phonezoo.com in early 2005 to meet young girls between 13 and 17 years old. Boulter ultimately exchanged nude photos and text messages with at least eight underage girls from around the country. Boulter also suggested that he meet the girls in person to engage in sex acts and to get married, according to court documents.

During the encounters, Boulter told the girls he was 15 years old, 27 years old and 32 years old, according to the document.

Boulter admitted to detectives that he had sent harmful images to one underage girl and that he chatted with another via text message and Web cam as he encouraged the child to masturbate, according to court documents."

Member Jacob Cutler was charged with domestic violence:

"According to a Flagstaff police report, Cutler threw his girlfriend to the ground and choked her while trying to sexually assault her in 2008. When she didn't cooperate, he allegedly threatened to call police and said they would side with him, because he ‘has a badge.'"
http://jezebel.com/5984018/sheriffs-school-security-posse-has-guns-and-a-pedophile

February 13, 2013

Gun battle with wanted ex-cop - caught on video: Dorner.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50140947n
http://gawker.com/5983931/terrifying-video-of-killer-cop-gun-battle-caught-by-reporter

The gun battle and standoff between San Bernadino sheriff's deputies and alleged "killer cop" Christopher Jordan Dorner that dominated yesterday's news was captured by CBS reporter Carter Evans, who was directly outside the now-burned cabin that authorities believe Dorner had holed up in.

Audio of Evans' experience had already been broadcast on KCAL, the Los Angeles CBS affiliate; now, CBS has published video. Evans, who was told to "get the fuck out of here" by the cops, is okay and unharmed.

February 13, 2013

Alleged Police Scanner Recording of Dorner Shootout: "Seven burners deployed and we have a fire."

http://gawker.com/5983900/cops-accused-of-starting-fire-as-charred-body-found-in-dorner-cabin?post=57349867

Still a mystery: how did the fire that consumed the cabin start? Most accounts shrug their shoulders—"It was unclear how the fire at the cabin began," The New York Times writes—but The Guardian's Paul Owen has marshalled a pile of circumstantial evidence that police may have started it, including a purported recording of a police scanner in which police can be heard seeming to discuss a plan to burn Dorner out: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-news-blog/2013/feb/13/did-the-police-start-fire-that-killed-christopher-dorner

"All right, Steve, we're gonna go, er, we're gonna go forward with the plan, with, er, with the burn. We want it, er, like we talked about. [...] Seven burners deployed and we have a fire."

Here's the alleged recording, which journalist Max Blumenthal—who was listening to the scanner and live-tweeting at the time—says is legitimate:
https://soundcloud.com/gawker/alleged-police-scanner

February 13, 2013

Here's video of police shouting "burn that motherfucker" and "burn him out" as Dorner was trapped.

Here's video of police reportedly shouting "burn that motherfucker" and "burn him out" as Dorner was surrounded inside the cabin.

11:50 PM EST: San Bernardino County Sheriff spokesperson Cindy Bachman said it's believed the suspected shooter's body is still inside of the burned cabin, although she refused to confirm Dorner as the shooter. Bachman also said investigators may not be able to enter the cabin until Wednesday morning because of the heat and live ammunition inside.

www.gawker.com

February 13, 2013

CNN reporting Dorner not dead, not in cabin in headline.

So is he dead and buried in the cabin, or is he on the loose? CNN is having problems. LAPD is saying no body was found. Cnn says no body in breaking news headline, and that he is dead on the page that links to.
Mistake?

January 30, 2013

Ironic that Justice Scalia was for video games as free speech.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/us/28scotus.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

"Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for five justices in the majority in the video games decision, Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, No. 08-1448, said video games were subject to full First Amendment protection.

“Like the protected books, plays and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas — and even social messages — through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player’s interaction with the virtual world),” Justice Scalia wrote. “That suffices to confer First Amendment protection.”