Kenny ://

A case of mistaken identity?

Far be it from me to make light of a serious situation, but I think it bears saying that Arizona-ans (whatever a resident of Arizona is called) are thinking, "Why couldn't this have been in Arkansas, the other state that start with AR?"  A boy shot his mom over household chores. Seriously, is life so invaluable?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7810192.stm

I'm not sure what's more troubling.  I give you statements from the article:

• "Mr Munoz, who helped raise the boy, said he had taught him how to use the weapon for emergencies and self-defence."
• "Prosecutors wanted the child tried as an adult, but the judge  [. . . ]"   

- all quotes from the article listed above (author unidentified)

Now, the reason both of these are troubling is a) why should a 12 year old need to know how to use a gun for emergencies and self-defence? Shouldn't parental guidance be in place during emergencies and what kind of state is AZ in when a child needs to be able to use a firearm for self-defence? I'm liberal, but I'm not a bleeding heart by any stretch of the imagination. I think this is a situation where society, i.e.- the kids parents, should have been more present in this kid's life. Come on, he "needed" a gun to protect himself? I didn't realize that 'rural Cochise' county was the inner city ghetto.  B), prosecutors wanted to try a 12 year old as an adult. Do I really need to put my own stamp on this one to point out the lunacy in that?  

This kid can't see a movie with the eff-bomb in it without parental supervision but he can sure as hell sit through a trial as an adult, expected to have a fully formed vocabulary and educated view of the world as well as the concept of the good.  Puh leeze.

Wow, I guess that's the most liberal thing I've ever said on here. Maybe I wanted to make it an issue because I got this post from a foreign news source instead of a domestic one. I mean, seriously, doesn't America already look bad enough to the rest of the world? 

Two news items that caught my attention

Just a quick note on two things that came through my reliable RSS today.

The first is the vote count on the bailout plan. Looks like the Bush and McCain backed bailout plan wasn't fully vetted (and really was there any time to do that at all?) within their own party. Notice the apparent disparity between Reps and Dems voting (link to full roll call on the vote) on the package:

And the 2nd thing to catch my attention was the story of the bodies of two children found in a freezer in Maryland. That's not the only thing that caught my attention. At first I was disgusted that this sort of thing happens and then the rest of the header really made me go "huh??".  "The frozen bodies of two children are found in a house in Maryland, US by police investigating reports of child abuse."  Way to handle that child abuse case Department of Children's Services. If the police are involved in an investigation, that leads me to believe there were past complaints. If not, wouldn't social services be showing up at the house first?  I suppose the other side of this coin is that without proof someone is innocent but if little johnny or jane keeps showing up to daycare with a broken jaw, isn't that more a case of "where there's smoke there's fire"? 

Story here

To how many local fairs do I have to go?

A few weeks ago I went to the Delta Fair with Zack and Gary, and this past weekend I went to the Cooper Young festival. The first was because we wanted to see a demolition derby. We were late for that and instead saw wrasslin'. Yeah, that's spelled phonetically according to how it's pronounced by 98% of the people there. Had you been ringside, as we were, you would think you had stepped into a crowd at a debate challenging Darwin's theory of evolution, and all of these folks were on the side of creationism. The toothless wonder next to me thought everything was absolutely real and I think he came to the matches with things to offer the wrestlers during the bouts. Things like chains and switchblades. I didn't see evidence of any of those but I have a hunch. Sometimes that's all I need - a hunch.

Oh, and also? The Delta Fair? It's Memphis' largest collection of 15-year-old-moms and backfat.

This past weekend was the Cooper Young festival. While it's closer to home and promises to at least give me the chance to see some of my friends I don't normally hang out with, the crowd is pretty similar to the one at the Delta Fair, minus all the young moms, that is.  Instead, someone opened the gates to North Memphis and let those people flow into midtown. The funnest part of any of these festivals has and always will be the people watching as evidenced by this dude - he was at the Cooper Young 4-miler waving those flowing locks around. It was awesome.

A quote

Here's a quote that came through RSS this morning:

"A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election."
-    Bill Vaughn (an American columnist and author)

Not this year, buddy. I have a feeling there will be record turnouts this year. There's never been such a rockstar or polarizing ticket and 2k8 will be historic not just because Americans will have either elected the first African American president or the first female Vice President, but because the election turnout will rival anything anywhere in voter participation.

People who don't follow politics will vote because their favorite artist, model, talk show host, morning news person, or political pundit on Sunday morning is espousing the benefit of a particular candidate. People who have personal grudges against either blacks or women will vote to keep the person they hate because of their chromosomes out of office, and people who are politically charged are looking forward to making their voice heard. 

I actually fall into two of those categories. I'm extremely interested in the election and the future of our nation but I'm also holding out to see who Thom Yorke (radiohead/solo) says I should vote for. Hang on, scratch that, when Radiohead was on SNL and Nader was being kept out of debates, Yorke held up a sign at the end that said "Let Nader Debate." Uh, voting for Nader was paramount to putting gas in a broken car.  You just wasted $3.60 a gallon.   Good thing Radiohead made up for it with Hail to the Thief.

Anyway, in other news, now that I'm selling my house I've started to use parts of it I never did. I'm using the breakfast table, for example, to eat, drink coffee, read the news and write this up. It's nice, I have a great side yard the window next to me overlooks. In the next few days I'm going to be out around town taking pictures of the things in Memphis I love the most.  Keep your eyes out for a post on that topic. And if you'd like to give me ideas of your favorite things about Memphis, lemme know.

Then, when I make the move I plan on recording the move in photo and maybe funny captions and a few Poe and Gumby pictures. 

I still don't know what I think about this

I still don't know what I think about McCain picking Palin as his running mate. I mean, if he's banking on the Obama camp to run a dirty campaign by slinging mud about her past all over the place, he's done something horribly wrong. She's bringing up all her dirty past indiscretions from her shotgun wedding 8 months before her first child was born, to her association with a group of extremists in AK who want to secede from the nation, to her daughter's news.  I'm sure you know about that already.  And let's not forget about her firing her sister's ex-husband from the AK state patrol. Maybe he was bad at his job, right?  Maybe not.  It's kind of pointless for the Obama campaign to even mention anything about her past - she's doing a good job of that herself.

Why is the McCain/Palin campaign manager "leaking" all this dirt? Is it to take attention away from her lack of national AND international experience? Is it to avoid having people ask how being mayor of a town of 9,000, and then governor of a state of 670k residents (some of whom aren't even full time residents) can possibly be qualified to be second in command of an international government? 

I, frankly, feel insulted by this choice.  Am I to believe that I'm dumb enough to vote for someone who is clearly not as qualified as many others? I mean, I wouldn't vote for the party anyway, but this is kind of a slap in the face. 

It's almost as if someone read Being There by Jerzey Kozinski (sp?) and decided to script real-life that way.  If you haven't read Being There, do yourself a favor and pick it up.

Anyway - I've started back to the pool and the weight room. I forgot how sleepy swimming makes me.  Time for me to shower and put the dogs to bed.

peas out

I know I complain a lot about my hometown, but . . .

Turns out Memphis might be on its way to being forward thinking in terms of making this city a more outdoor friendly place to live. 

A friend (who recently relocated to San Fran) and I were talking a few weeks ago about the difference in his quality of life since moving and he offered a valid point. For most people, having fun in Memphis involves driving somewhere, potentially paying to get in, and then spending money on a movie, food and/or drink, video games, shopping, etc.

There are some fantastic parks here, but Memphis is just too reliant on cars as necessity instead of creating a more commuter/cyclist/pedestrian-friendly environment. It's tough to utilize alternative forms of transportation and it's tough to find something fun to do outside that doesn't cost to either get to that fun thing or to actually participate in that fun thing.

The zoo here rules, but it's expensive to park, get in, eat, blah blah blah. It may as well be an airport gift shop with animals.  The park surrounding the zoo is pretty damn amazing, too, considering its history and all the rallying around it that has happened in the past 40 years.  It's in the middle of the city and is probably one of the only places in America that I-40 comes to an end and has to re-start about 5 or 6 miles away. 

Shelby Farms has some badge of honor as being the largest greenspace inside a city in all of America or something and has some pretty cool things going for it, namely a great dog-park and a good network of trails for mountain bikers, hikers, runners, horses, etc. But there's NO WAY to get to it without driving. It's basically bordered by highways and interstates though none of the roads surrounding it are classified as such. That's just the nature of the auto-traffic on those roads.

Mike (aforementioned friend) leaves his crib in San Mateo either on foot or on his bicycle and is minutes from beautiful views, parks, outdoor venues for relaxing or exercising, etc.  Memphis? Meh, not so much.

Until now, maybe.  If you are an outdoor lover, tree-hugger, or enthusiast, and live in Memphis you've probably heard a lot about the rails-to-trails effort for some of the old, out-of-use (as of 2k3) CSX rail line. Looks like there's progress on moving forward to actually making it a multi-use trail. I'm excited for Memphis, I'll be honest.

Story here

Officials: Baby Dies Every 43 Hours in Rural Tennessee County

What's that rural Tennessee county, you ask? Why, it's my very own. Yet again, Memphis makes the top of the heap when it comes to poor social services. Actually, I don't think this is quite a "ranking" as it is a damning condemnation of the state of social services in Shelby County.

Read it here

What Memphis needs now is accountable politicians who work together for the common good, not just for the good of their group of cronies (A.C. Wharton excluded, I love A.C. and would vote for him if I lived in the county).

Perception is reality - can you change someone's reality?

Embarrassingly, I just started reading my latest issue of the New Yorker last night even though it was in my mailbox last Friday, as usual.  This is the one with the "controversial" cover that depicts a caricature of Barack Obama as militant, "bumping it" with a caricature of his wife. I sometimes wish I had militant camo to wear while bumping it with my homeslices.

The first article in The Talk of the Town section of the issue is a comment titled "Flip-Flop-Flap." Given the time of year, this year, we're in, what do you think that article is about? I'll give you a hint, it's not your comfortable summer-time slappers, though admittedly, that's what I was hoping for - an article telling me that flip flops are deadly and should be outlawed. Mine always rub me the wrong way when I wear them to actually walk anywhere. Physically, not mentally.

This commentary, by Hendrik Hertzberg, then examines a few different things the media has tried to spin as horrendous flip-flopping by one particular candidate and addresses them by defining them. He looks at them in 3 or 4 different lights.  They are that some "changes" highlighted in the MSM (main stream media) are merely shifts in emphasis, marginal tweaks to existing ideals/standards, ". . . and a few are either substantive or nonexistent." 

Here's an example:

Obama also wrote that "certain faith-based programs" could offer "a uniquely powerful way of solving problems and hence merit carefully tailored support." Yet his recent call for an expansion of President Bush's program came as a shock to some, including theTimes, which called the program a violation of the separation of church and state.  If it is, it's a minor one, like grants to religiously affiliated colleges; in any event, this isn't a new position for Obama. Flip-flop category: shift of emphasis.

It's nice to finally see someone debunk others declarations of flip-flopping through the application of common sense, but it raises a question.  How large is the install base of New Yorker readers? Arguably MUCH smaller than the install base of other types of news delivery services.  Fox News, for example, probably has an exponentially larger media impression than any print media, regardless of title. 

The point is that MSM news does create a perception that the masses take on as reality.  It's nice that someone is putting these perceptions to the test by deconstructing them and defining them, but not everyone will read this small 6 columns of print. 

At what point does MSM cross-pollinate and take content from it's siblings in other channels?  I don't think you'll see any tv shows or websites issue a retraction because of something someone wrote in another delivery vehicle (newspaper or magazine) but shouldn't we, the bloggers who listen to each other, kind of do that?

My $.02.

BTW - if you haven't picked up the latest issue of the New Yorker, it's still available through this week. See if you can see what all the fuss about the cover is about. It's creating a perception that some people will take as their reality and vote based on that.

Former Memphian puts us on the map. Yay Memphis (not)

Seriously news outlets. Why is it that there's no parity between postings about celebretards doing stupid things. Why haven't you cited where Britney is originally from everytime she does something stupid, thereby embarrassing her hometown, too? Oh, I guess that would require you to run that same sentence about 80x a day, right? 

Anyway, read on beetchez:

<snip>
Former UFC champ Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was arrested yesterday after hitting a whole bunch of cars while attempting to allude police in Costa Mesa, Calif. In case you missed the headline, Rampage was driving a massive camoflauged Ford F-250 that kind of sort of had his face plastered on both driver AND passenger-side doors. I guess he was trying to compete with the Joker's smile mobile; I have no fucking clue. SI.com reports:

A Costa Mesa patrol officer attempted to pull Jackson over after he was seen weaving in and out of traffic with a flat front left tire, according to a release issued by the Costa Mesa Police Department. Jackson, 30, continued driving to avoid being stopped. Losing control of the truck, Jackson drove up onto a sidewalk. He continued on, colliding with a vehicle in an intersection and running several red lights.
Eventually, the truck came to a stop and Jackson, originally of Memphis, Tenn., was arrested without incident at gunpoint.

I'm going to assume that, somewhere after he hopped a curb then ran a couple of red lights, the following thought went through Rampage Jackson's head: "And my face is on the car isn't it? Super duper. Should've gone with Mr. T punching a tiger, Rampage. Oh, wow, that's a gun."

Photo: Splash News
</snip>

Strange items in the news today

So I was going through RSSeseses today and thought this was kind of interesting. Apparently Pavarotti faked his last performance of the song that practically made him and certainly did make Paul Potts famous - Nessun Dorma, from Turandot. He was performing at the Turin Olympics in 2k6 and a live performance would have been too dangerous for the chanteur. I have to admit, when I first read the headline I was a little disgusted. Then I read the first few paragraphs of the story and felt a little shame.

______________________________
Conductor Leone Magiera has revealed the singer's rendition of Nessun Dorma was pre-recorded, as a live performance would have been "too dangerous".
Pavarotti, who died in September, was already suffering pain months before being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Magiera said: "The orchestra pretended to play, I pretended to conduct and Luciano pretended to sing."
He added: "It came off beautifully, no one was aware of the technical tricks."
______________________________

I can't think of anyone who would begrudge an icon due to the fact that he mimed his performance because of health reasons. At first, I thought, "Damn, pop stars are one thing but Pava faking it? You gotta be kidding me!!"

Shame on me.

If you don't know the song, you should really check it out - it's one of the most widely circulated and loveliest songs for a tenor I can think of. I got to see Turandot in Memphis last year and while the tenor was no Pavarotti, he certainly filled the Orpheum during that song.