The 50 Most Loathsome People In America

Every year, the venerable Buffalo Beast releases a ranked list of the most loathsome people in America .  Yearly I wait with bated breath to find out which of my favorites have made the list; this year, being the beginning of election season, was a shoo-in to be a fun read.   Some of the highlights this year include Larry Craig (he of the Wide Stance fame), Brittney Spears (famous for being... what?  Previously attractive?), Hillary Clinton (famous for failed heath care plan, being married to Bill) and Fred Phelps (infamous gay basher, all around pathetic scumbag). 

Take a look at the article and laugh.  Bonus:  you don't have to click on ten different pages to get the whole list.  50 cretinous individuals, one handy page.  America.  What a country.

Cloverfield

I don't know what the heck it is yet, but I'm definitely going to go see it.  I do know that someone I know is actually in the movie, and pretty much everything that I've seen has made me more apt to see it in the theater, if just to figure out what the blank is going on in the movie.

I didn't see 30 Days Of Night (yet), but I will see it on video most definitely.

I did see Into the Wild, and I might just do a review for a friend online so that you can see it.  We will see.

But I am seeing Cloverfield.  Hi, TJ!

Oh, How Far We've Come

I so enjoy discussing race relations.

An Arapahoe County employee was arrested Tuesday and faces a charge of misdemeanor harassment on allegations that he left two nooses — one holding a dead squirrel — where a black county employee could see them.

The suspect, Peter Lee Massaglia, 51, is employed in the weatherization department for Arapahoe County, the same department where David Frazier works.

Frazier said he found a noose placed around the rearview mirror in an unassigned work truck in late September. A month later, he found a dead squirrel with a noose around its neck in a workshed.

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said he could not talk about specifics of the arrest because the arrest warrant affidavit was sealed by the district attorney's office.

But Robinson said Massaglia was taken into custody Tuesday and arrested on a $1,750 bond.

Massaglia faces a charge of harassment, a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by six to 18 months in jail. The charge was bumped from a Class 3 to a Class 1 misdemeanor because the harassment was race-related.

Denver Post, stand up and be counted.

My girlfriend, an astute thinker on hate crime, wondered aloud to me today exactly how someone gets the idea to start hanging nooses with dead squirrels around the workplace.  Is that something that someone goes home and brags about to their wife or friends?  "I sure showed that guy!"

Funny, but in a way, not.

Sadly, this is the kind of mentality that Senator Obama is going to run into in the south during his run for the presidency.  Nobody will say it, but I will.  I hope that I'm wrong.  I doubt that I will be, though.

The Wide World Of Sports: The Thrill Of Victory, And The Agony Of Disclosure

Victory!

The grandfather of Kevin Everett, Junior Nico, told 2 On Your Side's Scott Levin Wednesday night that Kevin is planning on returning to Buffalo to walk out on the field for the December 23rd game.

On Tuesday, we learned that Kevin's story is being told by Sports Illustrated.

Via WGRZ Buffalo.

The doctor that probably saved Everett's life is a guy named Dr. Andrew Cappuccino.  He saved him using a bizarre method that involved partial hypothermia.
God, I hope they call that method the Frozen Cappuccino (I'm claiming that, right now) in the future.  They really should.

Now, the agony of disclosure.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens and Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte were the first names to emerge Thursday from the Mitchell report.

ESPN.com reported Brian McNamee, a former trainer for the Yankees and Clemens, told investigators he supplied Clemens and Pettitte with steroids and that information is in the report. The Web site cited an unidentified source close to the trainer.

"After we read the report, we will have something to say," said Randy Hendricks, the agent for Clemens and Pettitte.

The Los Angeles Times reported in 2006 that Clemens and Pettitte were among the players former major league pitcher Jason Grimsley accused of using performance-enhancing drugs, according to a federal agent's affidavit. Clemens and Pettitte have denied the allegations. On Wednesday, Pettitte said "I've not heard a word from anyone" about former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell's investigation.

Citing two lawyers familiar with the investigation, The New York Times reported McNamee also provided information about retired first baseman David Segui. On Monday, Segui admitted he used steroids and purchased shipments from former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski.

That's via Yahoo, and that's brilliant.  Brilliant.

And... baseball loses.  Again.  Except for the Colorado Rockies.

A Definitive Response To 6 Sneaky Ways to a Better-Looking Partner

Many years ago, I knew a woman that I'll call Jill.  Jill was an attractive woman, more intelligent than most, who was at heart, a nice and relatively well meaning person with an interesting personality and a decent person.  She was a good cook, a loyal individual, and a snappy dresser.  In short, she was a great catch for just about anyone.

Unfortunately, she had one major flaw. 

I'll call it "The Cosmo Factor".

Everything that she knew about men she seemed to cull from the pages of women's magazines.  Cosmopolitan, Elle, and others were a continual staple of her reading diet.  If she wanted to know how to impress a man?  Cosmo had an article with the goods.  Why did men leave their girlfriends?  The answer was in Allure.  Any and all answers to all of the burning questions surrounding the classic, awesome, and continual Battle Of The Sexes could be found in a pop culture magazine geared towards women.  Each magazine contained to the gospel to her.  None of her male friends had the courage to tell her how wrong those periodicals were, though... much to our detriment.

Eventually, we drifted apart.

Enter 2007.  To my horror, I read an Internet article titled 6 Sneaky Ways to a Better-Looking Partner , and God help me, the first person that I thought of was her.  Here's the intro, via Yahoo.

Pride may be one of the Seven Deadly Sins, but your lover's lack of pride in how he looks can be even deadlier - to your love life, that is.

Sure, dedication, intelligence, and a sense of humor are what really stir the chemistry between you, but that doesn't mean you don't want your partner to feel like they're on top of their game, looks-wise.

After all, a confident partner is a sexually motivated partner, and sometimes an extra dose of sensuality is all a relationship needs to go to the next level. But beware: Goosing your loved one into taking better care of himself can be dicey territory, and even the most polite suggestion that "maybe you need to lose a few pounds" can lead to somebody sleeping on the couch for a week.

The solution? Sneaky partner upgrades, the kind that are good for his or her health, as well as their libido. So if you want to motivate your partner to dress sharper, eat better, and get their butt down to the gym, you need to take a stealth approach. Here's how to save their ego - and perhaps your love life.

As I read this, I stifled a scream.  Please, not the return of women again trying to change their men.  Aren't divorce rates high enough in this country and others?  Isn't the level of resentment, among men and women, high enough, finally?  Doesn't anyone believe that men can read?

So, for this article, I award this comment on the article 6 Sneaky Ways to a Better-Looking Partner:

You have failed.

At no time in recent memory, has an article failed more than this one.

Please, never do this again.

Surely Not All Australian Judges Are This Stupid

...but frankly, I have no idea.  Apparently, 10 years old is old enough to consent to sex in northern Queensland.

A judge's decision not to jail nine men guilty of raping a 10-year-old girl in an Aboriginal community has triggered outrage in Australia.

The offenders were either placed on probation or given suspended sentences for the 2005 rape in the Aurukun settlement, in northern Queensland.

In her ruling, Judge Sarah Bradley told them that the victim "probably agreed to have sex with all of you".

BBC News spreads foreign news, word.

Don't care if she agreed to have sex with all of them or not; that's one of the more stupid stories I've seen this year.  How can a 10 year old know the difference between right, wrong, and sex at her age, anyway?  I'm sure that she'll grow up to have a perfectly balanced personality.  Nice.  What a system.

Landlord Tenant Law FYI

Because I'm always interested in passing on invaluable information, Consumerist has posted a list linking to the landlord/tenant law for every state in the union .

Worth a bookmark, people, especially in light of present real estate economics.

Sean Taylor

Can anyone explain the murder of professional football players this year?  First Darrent Williams, then Sean Taylor.  Well, at least in Sean's case, the police have found who they think are the murders and are acting accordingly.

MIAMI (AP) -- Three men charged with murdering Sean Taylor were denied bail Tuesday, a day after thousands of mourners attended the funeral for the Washington Redskins safety.

Charles Wardlow, 18, Jason Mitchell, 19, and Venjah Hunte, 20, all face charges of unpremeditated murder, home invasion with a firearm or another deadly weapon and armed burglary. They will remain in Miami-Dade County jail.

A fourth suspect, Eric Rivera, 17, is being processed at a juvenile detention center in Miami-Dade County, jail officials said. He faces the same charges as the others, and a lawyer said there is a fifth suspect that police are seeking.

Taylor, 24, died Nov. 27, barely 24 hours after he was shot in the bedroom of his home a few miles from where he grew up. Police say he was a victim of a botched burglary by the suspects.

Probable cause affidavits for Mitchell and Rivera said the two confessed to participating in armed burglary. According to the reports, Mitchell and Rivera admitted entering the home and said someone had a gun and shot Taylor, but they didn't identify who. Police and attorneys also have said some of the young men confessed, though they wouldn't elaborate.

Via Yahoo.

I guess that this wouldn't be a bad time to once again bring up Darrent, and mention that it would be nice to find the guys that gunned down the football player in the neighborhood shockingly close to where I live, thanks.  I know it's hard, but for God's sake, they were at a club.  There's must have been a brazillion witnesses.  Seriously, now.

Absolute Proof That Not All Americans Are Stupid

Figures that the latest proof that Americans are not all completely ridiculous comes from a librarian.

Storytime ceased abruptly when the picture book Eileen Issa was reading her 2 1/2-year-old son surprisingly ended with two men marrying and smooching.

The tale about a disgruntled queen who demanded that her son marry a princess looked like the average children's book to the mother of two when she scooped it up along with about nine others at the Lower Macungie Library. She had no idea the book has been the subject of a federal lawsuit and controversy in other parts of the country.

''I saw them at the altar and I said, 'This can't be what I'm thinking,''' Eileen Issa said, recalling illustrations of the prince holding hands with and kissing his new husband. ''I was sick.''

Since that day, Issa and her husband, Jeff, have demanded that the library take it out of circulation.

Wait.  You haven't read the good part yet.

Kathee Rhode, the library's director, said censoring books based on subject matter is the duty of parents, not the library. She said the library strives to provide material representing a spectrum of views and ways of life.

''That's what a public library does, and you make the choice,'' Rhode said. ''We certainly want parents to make that decision for their children -- not one parent making that decision for all children.''

Hold on.  Maybe I misread that.

Kathee Rhode, the library's director, said censoring books based on subject matter is the duty of parents, not the library. She said the library strives to provide material representing a spectrum of views and ways of life.

''That's what a public library does, and you make the choice,'' Rhode said. ''We certainly want parents to make that decision for their children -- not one parent making that decision for all children.''

What?!

I can't believe that I saw that.  We certainly want parents to make that decision for their children -- not one parent making that decision for all children?  That looks suspiciously like common sense.

I applaud. 

Lower Macungie Library.  Today, you win at being the quintessential American institution.