 |
||
Berman’s Bits Volume 12, Number 3, January 20, 2007
(Well, I needed to finally see for myself what “American Idol” is all about. I have heard it mentioned for years, but it’s not the same, so I watched it - twice. Yes, much of the alleged “talent” was terrible with many deluded people aiming to become the next "American Idol," but what bothered me was when criticism slipped into personal attacks. There was one particularly nasty comment, which can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDXPNL4wMuA . Greetings, and thanks for joining me for another week. Starting us off are a few news stories you may have missed. First, “Hello, right hand….” From Chicago’s WLS-TV, John Beacham of the Anti-War Coalition in Chicago said he has suspected for some time that law enforcement had been spying on his group, but he was obviously proved wrong when the coalition canceled, well in advance, a planned Oct. 28 demonstration downtown. Unaware of the cancellation, hundreds of police officers lined the streets around the protest area, hoping to prevent the repetition of a wild demonstration back in 2003. Deputy police superintendent Charles Williams blamed the coalition for not keeping the department informed. Next, bravo to great strides in equality! CNN reported that federal judge Fernando Gaitan Jr. has ordered Missouri to suspend executions until significant changes are made in its procedures, including specifying exactly which lethal drugs are to be used and in what quantity. Gaitan also pointed out that the doctor overseeing the state's executions is dyslexic and may inadvertently be transposing the dosage numbers. Yup, we’re all totally equal and we can do and be whatever we want. (Vonnegut was right in “Harrison Bergeron.”) Finally, politics shouldn’t be a popularity test. The Shreveport Times reported that the Monroe Chamber of Commerce has apologized to Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco after auctioning off a dinner with her at the governor's mansion. "This was not a reflection of the chamber's or the business community's attitude toward the governor," said Chamber president Sue Edmunds. It's not that they didn't have permission to do the auction as a fund-raiser; the problem was that the bidding only reached $1. Aw, shoot! The AP carried a lengthy Bit, but because it is so heartwarming (in a way), I felt it was deserving of a place here. In the same vein of the helicopter that used rotor wash to blow a deer off thin ice onto the shore (e-mail me if you want a link to the video), this time it’s a bald eagle that owes its life to the sharp-shooting skills of an Iowa conservation officer. The bird had apparently caught a talon in a knothole in a branch on a cliff. The bird tried to take off, lost its balance and ended up hanging from the talon, upside down. Because the eagle was hanging out over a cliff and high in the air, ropes and ladders seemed improbable rescue tools, and many thought a mercy killing was the best option. Jason Sandholdt, who works for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, asked for a chance to free the bird with his rifle, figuring at best the bird would fall into the lake and have to be rescued for rehabilitation at a clinic. Fellow rescuers doubted his accuracy, but Sandholdt bent a tree sapling over to use as a brace. He used the muzzleloader's scope to take aim, and the bullet traveled 60 to 70 feet, cleanly through the edge of the knothole. Sandholdt figures he must have hit the talon, too. The eagle flew away. Officers waited for it to collapse. Instead, the bird kept flying, disappearing over the horizon. The Chicago Sun-Times carried another heartwarming Bit about a student who really wants to learn. After the 40-year-old GED student became frustrated with being unable to grasp a math problem, she did manage to grasp a small steak knife and stab the 51-year-old Malcolm X College instructor in the back. The veteran instructor, who was teaching a GED class, was taken to a hospital, where she was stitched and was released. Before the stabbing the student repeatedly said: "I don't understand. . . . Explain to me' (if a student said that to me, I’d know I was in the wrong classroom)' At least one student stepped in to help the instructor. Charges were pending against the suspect, who has an arrest record that includes 27 misdemeanors (and now a felony). No good deed goes unpunished. The AP ran a Bit about how the principal of Rio Grande High School could be in trouble for taking one of his students to a barber shop without permission of the pupil's parents. Principal Al Sanchez said he thought the youth's hair style with the number "505" and a Zia sun symbol shaved into the back of his head was a gang haircut. Sanchez said he thought he was doing the boy a favor by taking him to a barber instead of suspending him. "I said, 'Do you want to just go to the barber and cut it off?' He said, 'Yeah.' I said, 'Let's go,'" Sanchez said. Time for a few uncredited quotes of note: (1) Doctors can be frustrating. You wait a month-and-a-half for an appointment, and he says, "I wish you'd come to me sooner." (2) Every teenager should get a high school education - even if they already know everything. (3) There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. (4) Have you noticed that a slight tax increase costs you two hundred dollars, and a substantial tax cut saves you thirty cents? (5) Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again. (6) According to a recent survey, men say the first thing they notice about a woman is their eyes, and women say the first thing the notice about men is they're a bunch of liars. Finally, from Reuters, family values…. An Eldon, Oklahoma, woman has been charged with shooting and killing her husband after an argument over who should feed the couple's goats. Sheriff's deputies responded to a domestic disturbance call at the couple's rural eastern Oklahoma home and found the husband dead, shot once through the chest. "We were told that what prompted this disagreement was her failure to feed the goats," according to a Cherokee County Undersheriff. He said the wife pointed a 9 mm pistol at her husband and demanded that he go feed the goats. Thomas Smith then dared his wife to shoot him. When he took a step toward Pearl, she killed him with a single shot, Garber added. Sigh. Later.
|
|