1980 was a long time ago: Lost Innocence

Many years take on a life of their own.  1980 is one of those years – just mention the year and the feelings come rushing in.  The first thing I think of, when I hear 1980, is large conditioned hair and tight pants.  It was 1980 that Ronald Reagan replaced Jimmy Carter as U.S. president, and the United States Government built a tax-supported army led by Osama Bin Laden, to fight off the Russian invasion of Afgahnistan.   It was1980 that we lost John Lennon, John Bonham, and Bon Scott too early.  John Belushi was still alive, though.

Great movies like the Shining and Raging Bull were released, as was Tess and the Empire Strikes Back, Ordinary People, and 9 to 5.  The Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series with Pete Rose and Nino Espinosa.   And Bobby Cox was managing the Atlanta Braves.  Magic Johnson was rookie winning the NBA championship, and Michael Jordan was in high school.  U2, Iron Maiden, the Circle Jerks, and Huey Lewis and the News all had debut albums.  Kool and the Gang and Blondie were pumping out hits.

We all have our own strong memories from 1980.  For James Lee Woodard, that memory is of the last year of freedom from prison, before he was arrested for a rape and murder he did not commit.  A judge ruled that DNA evidence cleared Mr. Woodard of the crime he was convicted.  Yesterday, James Lee Woodard walked out of prison for the first time in over 27 years.  Like many worngful convictions, this one was based on eye-witness testimony – which is significantly unreliable.

Also upsettingly familiar is the way the prosecutor and police fought against his release and justice.  At one point Prosecutors claims of no pohysical evidence whatsoever got the case thrown out.  That turned out to be completely false.   “That was a lie, we discovered there was evidence to test. This proves that the callous and cavalier attitude of the court of criminal appeals and other courts in this state toward these kind of claims should come to an end.”  said Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas.

Much of the credit for this recent overturned wrongful conviction has been given to Dallas DA (District Attorney), Craig Watkins, who started the program of using law students to review potential wrongful convictions.  In a country where prosecutors and DA’s run amok, imprisoning as many as possible, regardless of innocence or guilt – this program is refreshing.  As refreshing as freedom is to James Lee Woodard.

Yo Mama is so fat, she didn’t get the job for which she was over-qualified

Massachusetts has a bill to make it illegal to discriminate against people based on height or weight.  If this bill passes to law, I plan to go to Massachusetts immediately – to apply for a job as fat lady in a circus, for which I am fully qualified, except for weight.

Clearly, obese people have had to face severe discrimination in America.   There is an inverse correlation between obesity and income – the fatter you are, the less you earn.  Only a few states currently have specific laws regarding discrimination in this area, so as of now you can legally lose a job based solely on your weight.

The 2 main arguments against passing this law are: 1) it would “be a ‘green light’ to be fat”; and 2) it will cost the public more for insurance.  These are, of course, poor arguments, but let’s look closer.

1) news reports that say this would be a bad law, because it is a “green light for being fat”.  Not true, it is in fact a bill to reduce discrimination.  This argument is actually stating that discrimination based on appearance or health is needed to avoid those issues.  No, surprisingly there are ways to solve problems without hurting people.  Starting social clubs around hikes and physical activity is one way.

2) Insurance prices are too high.  Obese people should not be the target of these claims.  Insurance costs have skyrocketed because those insurance companies have been making higher profits.  Everybody engages in risky activity, from driving cars to scuba diving to smoking and eating cake.  Our taxes should be paying for social causes like health, education, elderly and children, weak and disabled.  Instead that money goes to large rich corporations at the expense of health care and social programs. Even the bloated Military budget includes money to cake makers like Sara Lee.  If you care about health costs, tell your government representatives to stop giving that money to insurance and military companies.

There is less healthy food in America because unhealthy food is cheaper to produce. Stop blaming fat women and start blaming fat cats.

Idiocracy, fact or fiction: baseball bans water

In Idiocracy, a film parody of today’s American consumer corporate culture, future civilization cannot sustain vegetation due to the replacement of all water with a Gatorade like substance.  Apparently Bud Selig, MLB, and Gatorade are taking a major step in that direction, according to a news report. The New Jersey Star Ledger is reporting that Major League Baseball has banned all bottled water from the dugout, and threatened to extend the ban to the clubhouse if there is any violation.  Gatorade has neither sugar-free nor any ‘natural’ product.

When asked for a comment, baseball’s commissioner Bud Selig said, ‘uh it’s got like electrolytes or something.  Hey!  Whycome you no got tattoo?’

New York Knicks have opportunity to fill their need for a new head basketball coach, and restore image

The New York Knicks finally removed Isiah Thomas as their head coach and President after 4.5 years of dreadfully embarrassing performance.  They now have an excellent opportunity to recover the good image they once owned, and that opportunity is to hire a woman head basketball coach, like Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, to coach their team.

For those of us that recall the prestige of the Knicks from the 1970′s, Isiah’s reign was the most destructive.  It is no accident that intellectual artists like Woody Allen and Spike Lee are Knickerbocker fans, as the old image encompassed dignity, intellectualism, togetherness, and spiritualism.  The Knicks of that time won with high level intellectual discussions from the likes of Bill Bradley and Phil Jackson about politics, philosophy, and deep books.  Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier had an air of smooth yet flashy dignity in the way he dressed and spoke.  The team’s coach, Red Holzman, was a quiet dignified man, who rode the train home after games, and drank a glass of tea with his wife before he went to bed.  Those Knicks teams won because they played together selflessly, for the good of the team, without losing their love of each other and individualism.

Those days are gone, and the Isiah reign gave the Knicks an image of shame, sexism, and racism.  Not only did Isiah’s teams lose, but they also sacrificed the future to do so – by adding large long-term contracts.  Isiah was sued and found guilty of sexual discrimination, in a trial that revealed apparent rampant sexist corruption in MSG.   Isiah, in deposition, claimed that it is less offensive when a Black man calls a woman a ‘bitch’.

The Knicks fans, obviously bitter about the state of the team, demanded Isiah be removed from his position.  Instead, Isiah was given a new long term contract and the fans were attacked by Knicks representatives.  Fans were abused by the team for posting signs of ‘Fire Isiah’.  Right now, the Knicks have a horrible image that they need to address with more than just an attempt to improve the team’s won/loss record. It will take tremendous effort to bring back their image, but I think it can be done.

The best and only way for the Knicks to retrieve their image would be to hire a top female head coach, like Pat Summitt from Tennessee.  Here are the benefits to such a move:

1. The Knicks will go from appearing as the most sexist team, to the team working hardest and most honestly for woman’s rights
2. All women, and men like me, who are intolerant of sexism will be able to root for the Knicks.
3. Woman will finally be able to get their reasonable chance to move into the NBA
4. Even the most sexist Knicks fans will stay Knicks fans, if they were stubborn enough to remain through Isiah’s reign.
5. If the players do not want to play for a woman (not an issue IMO), these current ones are expendable.
6. David Stern claims to want to expand the NBA market.  Let’s see how serious he is.
7. The NBA and MSG’s market and profit will increase tremendously.  This decision will make money and dollars, to put it in crude business terms.
8. No doubt the press of hiring the first female basketball coach will make people forget Isiah’s horrible actions very quickly.
9. There is absolutely NO reason why a female cannot coach as well as a man.  If one of the best female coaches is chosen, the Knicks could have a real find.
10. Pat Summitt and any other top level female coach would presumably jump at the chance to help their sport and gender in such a way

I see no downside to such an action for the Knicks or the NBA.  If the Knicks do not move in this direction, but instead hire someone like Mark Jackson or some old coach, they are not serious about winning back the fans – and they deserve to continue to be boo’d, boycotted and criticized.  In fact, it would underscore their blatant sexist behavior.

Jim Dolan and Donnie Walsh – do the right thing for your company, shareholders, the people, and for the fans, hire Pat Summitt to be your next head coach.  It is the only way.

Update: The Knicks GM Donnie Walsh was asked about Pat Summitt as new head coach, if she contacted him: “would she stand a realistic chance of actually getting the job?

“No,” he said without elaborating”

Edited to correct spelling of Red Holzman.  Also note: Although there are references to Walt Frazier’s nickname ‘Clyde the Glide’, he was commonly referred to as simply ‘Clyde’ during his playing career.  Text has been updated to reflect the more commonly used nickname.  (thanks to anonymous reader who pointed these out in a different forum)

Internet users have reasonable expectation of privacy, holds New Jersey Supreme Court

All personal information on the internet, no matter how trivial, is protected from warrant less search and seizure, says the New Jersey Supreme court.

The Supreme Court of New Jersey, in a unanimous 7 judge decision, ruled that internet users have the same expectation of privacy. “just as New Jersey citizens have a privacy interest in their bank records stored by banks and telephone billing records kept by phone companies.”  Quote from Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, writing for the court.

The ruling can be found here (PDF format).  The ruling referenced both U.S. Constitution fourth amendment, and New Jersey Constitution in making this ruling.  The case dealt initially with IP addresses and other private and/or personal information necessarily sent to a 3rd party (ISP, in this case Comcast).  However, the ruling was much more broad, encompassing ‘all information, no matter how trivial’.  The ruling quoted from a law review article on the laws,

“[informational privacy] encompasses any
information that is identifiable to an
individual. This includes both assigned
information, such as a name, address, or
social security number, and generated
information, such as financial or credit
card records, medical records, and phone
logs . . . . [P]ersonal information will be
defined as any information, no matter how
trivial, that can be traced or linked to an
identifiable individual.”

This ruling was expected, as “Federal case law interpreting the Fourth Amendment has
found no expectation of privacy in Internet subscriber information.”

In the case at hand, “The trial court properly suppressed the subscriber information obtained.”

Children are the Niggers of the World

I recently realized that it many ways I feel the same about children now as White racist southerners used (?) to feel about Black people.  You may also feel this way about kids.  Consider:

1. I don’t want them to sit next to me in a restaurant or bus.  They are loud, messy, and smell bad.
2. If they are in my family, I will reluctantly accept them, but expect them to be polite and courteous – and always refer to me as ‘sir’.  What I say goes.  No, I don’t want an argument, it’s curfew!
3. No way would I let them vote!
4. Sometimes they really need to be spanked, even if that isn’t much allowed anymore.
5. They are always stealing my cookies.
6. Women love them, and give them all their attention.  Occasionally they will take them into the next room and put a diaper on them.
7. I want to send them to schools far away.
8. They are always jumping around, playing ball, and dancing for no reason.
9. Never had a job.  They all expect hand-outs.  Lazy bastards.
10. I don’t understand a word they are saying.  It is like they make up their own language.
11. No you can’t have a gun, but here’s a mop.
12. I don’t understand their music.  It’s too loud and repetitive, but they seem to like jumping around to it.
13. If I come home early, I catch my wife bathing with them.

Every child is our child, and all people are us.  We are all in this together.

Title refers to the famous John Lennon song, ‘Woman is the Nigger of the World‘.

Texas Prisoner Keith Russell Judd Gets His Name Listed On Idaho Democratic Primary Ballot With Obama, Clinton

CBS reported that a prisoner in Texas, Keith Russell Judd, “conned” his way into the Idaho Democratic Primary Ballot by following the applicable law and legally applying for the ballot.  Judd used the same method as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama but I can find no citation of their filings being a ‘con’.  Apparently CBS and the other news organizations consider this legal filing a con based on who did the filing, and not the action itself.

This article was repeated almost verbatim in other newspapers like the New York Times, providing a hint of the way current mainstream news is created.

Idaho state Secretary of State Ben Ysursa said, “We did some checking,” Ysursa said. “There was nothing legally to keep him off.”  Ysursa does not say if they then tried illegal means to try and keep him off.  Ysursa continued, “We may rethink how we get on our presidential ballot next time,” Ysursa said. “We’ll take a look at it. We’ve got four years to think about it.”  I am glad they are working hard to get those pesky non-corporate backed candidates off the ballot.  Why they consider Judd an issue when he has no chance to win, and they do not fix the well known problems in the voting system that got Bush to President, is a mystery.

The article states, as if mocking Orwell, “No matter how many votes he gets this time, he won’t get any national convention delegates. Idaho’s delegates are chosen at party caucuses.   “The good thing is the Democratic presidential primary has absolutely no legal significance,” Ysursa said.  Oh thank God for the reassurance that we don’t have to worry that any of our votes for a legally qualified candidate will be counted.

Summarizing the article: a person desiring to enter the presidential primary ballot in multiple states, conforms to all legal requirements, and is rejected by most states.   A state that does accidentally accept his ballot now regrets it and will do more in the future to find ways to keep ordinary citizens off the ballot.  But do not worry, your vote won’t count anyway, so no cause for alarm.  I commend CBS and other news organizations, and representatives for the Democratic Party and Idaho government for being so honest about how they are trying to subvert the Amercian democratic voting system.  Meanwhile, the public is more concerned with how Geore Bush stole the last 2 elections.

Who is Keith Russell Judd?  The articles’ only background is “Keith Russell Judd is serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas for making threats at the University of New Mexico in 1999. He’s scheduled for release in 2013″  Fourteen years in federal prison for making a threat?  I started digging (news reporter word that means typing into Google and calling friends).

Most court records involving Judd have been sealed or unpublished, other than rejected appeals that do not mention details of the original case or cause of imprisonment.  The courts specifically reject Judd’s lawsuits due to multiple defective filings.  Could Judd be imprisoned for making multiple court filings against the University and other large organizations?   Through Google I found the earliest reference to Judd and University of New Mexico is from 1995, “Judd v. University of N.M., No. 94-2236, 1995 WL 228234″.  This rejection of appeal mentions “the United States Secret Service was voluntarily dismissed from this case on May 16, 1994″.

I did find, in the text of a book ‘The American Dictionary of Criminal Justice’ that Judd was barred by judicial order in Texas to not file any non-criminal complaints, due to his many ‘frivolous’ filings.  Probably, it appears, his imprisonment deals with a threat of lawsuit, also based on this text from a court proceeding:

“On September 27, 1999, the petitioner was convicted by a jury of two
counts of mailing a threatening communication with intent to extort money or
something of value in violation of 18 U.S.C.§ 876. See United States v. Judd,
252 F.3d 435 (5th Cir. 2001) (per curiam) (not published) (affirming conviction
and sentence). Because of various aggravating factors that increased the
offense level by a total of eighteen and the criminal history category from one
to four, the petitioner was sentenced to 210 months’ imprisonment. “

Multiple frivilous court filings is the status quo for large corporate entities like the RIAA and the Democratic party (when trying to keep third party candidates off the ballot).  The surprising success of Judd in getting his name on the Idaho ballot could provide us with insight on how the United States surpresses political speech in individual non-corporate sponsors and treats the mentally ill.  If enough people in Idaho that vote for Judd it will do more to shine light on the issues in our voting system that need to be addressed for American democracy.

For more information on this candidate, see the informative site Project Vote Smart.  Among their information on Judd is his coloful nicknames (Mr. President, Dark Priest, W.D., Rusty), religion (Rastafarian-Christian), and his general background helping homeless people vote or producing music.

“Don’t hate the media, become the media” -Jello Biafra-

NASA: Is your $17 billion space program smarter than a 7th grader?

NASA, the United States space program with a projected 2008 budget of $17.3 Billion, had their published math corrected by a 13 year old.  NASA had calculated a 1 in 45,000 chance that an asteroid would hit the earth in 2029.  The German schoolboy re-performed the calculations himself, finding that the chances were better estimated at 1 in 450, off by a factor of 100!  After more ‘careful’ consideration, NASA fully agreed with the German boy’s correction, but stand by their estimate of $19 million for a toilet.

It is important to focus on the large waste of key finances by a large inept agency….  wait, 1 in 450 chance?  WE ARE DOOMED! PANIC!  SUCK ON LOOSE CHANGE FOR SUSTENANCE! USE YOUR SEAT AS A FLOTATION DEVICE!  DON”T DRINK FROM THE CHOCOLATE RIVER!

Update: The answer to the title question “Is your $17 billion space program smarter than a 7th grader?” is quite possibly the obvious choice.  A European Space Agency (ESA) spokesperson has since stated that NASA was correct and the annoying German kid was mistaken.

For those of you that do not recognize the gentleman in the suit in the lowest photo, it is the actor who played Augustus Gloop in the original 1971 Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  The photo above it is of the same actor in his famous role.  If you think I will make a ‘fatty sucked up the old chocolate pipe’ joke, you are mistaken.  Well ok if you ask for it, I haven’t seen something that fat going up a chocolate tube since they declassified a CIA torture training film.

United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) poster to bring awareness of the bad water urgency

United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) poster to bring awareness of the bad water urgency.  “Bad water kills more children than war”.

MLB and MLBPA revise performance enhancing drug testing policy agreement

Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Player’s Association (MLBPA) announced an agreement on an update to their drug policy.  The agreements include some provacative aspects:

a) The increase of the number of drug tests in the agreement includes people represented by neither the monopoly, MLB nor the Player’s Assn.  Specifically, 200 players each year eligible for the amateur baseball draft will be asked to take a drug test.  If they refuse, they will be barred from MLB.

b) MLB is assuring that all drug test results, inlcuding positive ones, will be kept confidential until punishment is announced.  Since MLB has broken similar confidentiality promises in the past, leading to public knowledge of test results, such as Barry Bonds’ – the presumption is that the new independent program administrator will have this reposnibility.

c) No player from the Mitchell Report will be disciplined.  The suspensions handed out to a couple players have been removed.  Additionally, all players who are to be punished will have an opportunity to have their case heard by an independent arbitrator.  How this will affect Barry Bonds, who it is widely speculated to have been blackballed from MLB for past association with steroid allegations, is unknown.

A few more notes on Bonds: It is a reasonable assumption that Barry Bonds has been blackballed this season.  Actually, I know of no more reasonable explanation for why Barry Bonds is not playing baseball now.  Consider:

1) Barry Bonds is still one of the best offensive players in baseball.  Last season, he created over 10 runs per 27 outs last season, leading the major leagues.

2) Barry Bonds has shown a desire to play, has said he is in shape, and he and his agent implied that salary is not an issue.

3) His age is not an issue for a single year contract.  The top 10 players at the same age as Bonds was last year all played the next season, except for Bonds and Stan Musial – who retired.  The Toronto Blue Jays currently have 2 40 year old hitters on their roster.

4) Other arguments just do not seem reasonable.  Let’s go through some, and see how they fit with Seattle Mariners as an example, because they have a weaker hitting DH, Jose Vidro (currently hitting .128).  Personality: they signed Carl Everett to be their DH in 2006.  Defense is irrelevant at DH. The unfounded perjury charges have been dropped against Bonds, so no concerns there for this season.

Additionally, it was the CEO of the Mariners (Howard Lincoln) who emphatically stated he would not sign Barry Bonds in any scenario he could imagine, “No, no, no!”  In prior baseball decisions, he deflected to his GM Bill Bavasi.  Example: when asked about heated internal discussions about Freddie Garcia between the manager and GM, Lincoln stated, “I’m not really the baseball guy on that. My cloudy recollection was that there was a debate on the baseball side about Garcia. A healthy debate. In the end, Bill made the right decision, by involving a number of people, including Melvin.”   This states very clearly that Lincoln does not make the baseball decisions, the baseball people do that.  So when he makes a strong decision on Barry Bonds, I guess it isn’t a baseball decision to Lincoln.

Let’s hope MLB lives up to the agreement they just signed and allows Barry Bonds a fair chance to play baseball in this country.