On the local front

Some thoughts on a few local stories:

– An enterprising young fellow at California University of Pennsylvania are firing up a website designed to allow students interested in “hooking up” with other students to avail themselves of a sort of online free love clearinghouse. It bills itself as “safer than Craigslist and cheaper than bars.” My guess is that the vast, vast majority of those signing up will be horny male students doing some wishful thinking.

– Police in Charleroi have charged a local man with cruelty to animals after finding two pit bulls that had starved to death in cages in a home the man formerly lived in. One can only imagine the suffering those animals went through before they mercifully died. I'm hoping that a judge will make an example of 24-year-old Stanley McDonald and give him as much jail time as the charge allows, provided he is found guilty. I saw a friend or relative of McDonald's on TV claiming that McDonald thought a friend was going to take care of the dogs. Count me among those who think that is bull@#$%.

– I'm rarely surprised by anything Washington City Council does, but I was still puzzled by the story about the hiring of Ron McIntyre, a city police officer disabled in a fall during the 2006 fire at the George Washington Hotel, as the new city code enforcement officer. It's not that I have doubts about McIntyre's ability to do the job. It's the rate of pay for the duties being performed. The old code enforcement officer, Mike Behrens, made $41,000 a year. McIntyre will be making $35,000, but city solicitor Lane Turturice says his duties will only be about half that of Behrens. The solicitor says McIntyre will primarily be involved with rental registrations, while the action code enforcement will be done by fire Chief Linn Brookman and someone from North Strabane Township. Can someone explain to me why McIntyre will be paid nearly the same as Behrens for only half the work? That's a great job if you can get it.

Catching up

It's good to be busy, but it's frustrating to be too busy to blog. Finally, I can unload some of the "stuff" that has been rattling around in my head:

– To some people, the "big news" today is where LeBron James will be continuing his basketball career. I couldn't care less. If James were making his big announcement in my backyard, I'd pull the drapes closed. But if the rumblings are true, and James is planning to abandon his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers to play with his boys D Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, isn't it a huge slap in the face and a major FU to the fans in Cleveland for James to hold a primetime, look-at-me egofest on ESPN to announce he's bailing?

– The folks at http://2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com do a consistently great job of opening a window on local, state and federal politics and issues. Today, they have a nice follow-up piece on the "mysterious" vehicle with W&J plates parked in the garage at a Capitol office building. Check it out.

– I don't expect TV commercials to be as literate and cerebral as a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, but a couple of area car dealers are driving me nuts with their ads. The folks on the commercials loudly tout their "oh-ten" models. Wrong. It is NOT "oh-ten." It's two-thousand-ten or, if you prefer, twenty-ten. It was OK to say "oh-seven" or "oh-eight," but "oh-ten" is just wrong. If it isn't, then they should have been saying "oh-oh-seven" and "oh-oh-eight."

– Sen. John McCain felt the need to announce that he's going to vote against Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court. Wow. What a shock. McCain is running comfortable ahead in his primary race against a right-wing loon, and he's clearly not going to upset the applecart now by even giving minimal consideration to Kagan's nomination. Sonia Sotomayor got nine Republican backers when her nomination came up for a vote, but she wasn't nominated in a mid-term election year. And let's be honest. Kagan doesn't have the advantage of being Hispanic. It will be interesting to see if any Republicans vote for Kagan. The ladies from Maine might do so, but that could be it. In recent confirmation history, Justice Alito received only four Democratic votes, but Chief Justice Roberts attracted 22 votes from the Dems.

– It sounds as if West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin is chomping at the bit to grab the U.S. Senate seat just vacated by the death of Robert Byrd. Some believe that state code calls for Manchin to appoint an interim senator who would serve until the 2012 election, but Manchin is asking the state’s attorney general to determine if they might be able to have a special election for the seat this year. And Manchin, of course, would run in it. Manchin said it "doesn't make sense" for him to appoint somebody to "replace this giant" for two and a half years. Why not? If you select a good person who would represent the state's interests well, what harm is there in that? Oh, wait, that person wouldn't be Joe Manchin. Actually, Manchin could appoint himself but says he wouldn't do that. I guess he has some limits about how self-serving he's willing to appear.

– There was a story last week out of central Pennsylvania about a woman who was bitten and scratched when she had a too-close encounter with a black bear while walking her dog in a wooded area near her home. Black bears are not the most aggressive animals, so the attack was a bit unusual. But what caught my attention was this line in the AP story: "Officials said the woman's dog ran away and was uninjured." Nice. My dogs have their negative points, unexpected "gas attacks" and the occasional roll in some other animal's "droppings" among them, but I know damn well that if any kind of animal attacks me, those dogs would fight it to their deaths. I'm guessing the central Pennsylvania woman's dog must've been a Bichon Frise. You know how good the French are at running from a fight.

– You might be wondering about the photo at the top of this post. I think I might've seen those guys when I stopped at a local gas station this morning. And I'm pretty sure the lady behind me who was hacking up a lung has tuberculosis. The things you see when you go out and about. ;-)
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Weird world of crime and the courts

When it comes to crime, the court system and people's greed and stupidity, if you think you've seen everything, just wait a little bit. Some examples:

– You've probably heard by now about the Michigan woman who claims she was asleep on a plane when she was left behind and locked in the United Express airplane for several hours on the tarmac in Philadelphia. Of course, Ginger McGuire (shown above) is suing. Her attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, the guy who came to fame by representing Jack Kevorkian, will be bringing a suit alleging false imprisonment, emotional distress and negligence. This whole story smells funny to me. How does one stay asleep through the landing of the aircraft and the resulting hubbub of people banging their luggage out of overhead bins and deplaning? And this woman didn’t stir for four hours after the plane was empty? I have my doubts.

– There’s a hearing going on in Ohio for a chief master sergeant who has been accused of sexually harassing nine female subordinates. William Gurney, who once was the top enlisted man at the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base but has been reassigned since the allegations cropped up, was accused by one of the women of having sex with her against her will. But here again, this story has some odd twists. The woman claims she was afraid of Gurney because he was a “powerful man.” But she testified that they had kissed in previous meetings, and she admitted that Gurney never made any threats or used force as they had sex. Gurney’s lead defense attorney, Maj. Gwendolyn Beitz, said the woman had never described the sex as anything but consensual until she was faced with telling her husband that she might be demoted for having an affair. Gurney also is married. I certainly don't condone forcing someone to have sex, or engaging in any sort of sexual harassment, but weak accusations like this one hurt the cases of women who really have been wronged.

– There’s some really nasty video circulating on the Web that was disseminated by a group called Mercy for Animals. The video purportedly shows cows at Conklin Dairy Farms Inc. near Marysville, Ohio, being punched, kicked and poked with pitchforks. And those are the nicer things. Also shown are workers holding down newborn calves and taking their boots to the calves’ heads. Another snippet depicts a cow’s nose being wired to a metal bar close to the ground while another metal bar is used to beat the animal bloody. Just lovely. One worker faces a host of criminal charges in the case. Conklin Farms says it does not condone animal abuse, and it fired the worker facing charges. But the farm doesn’t do itself any favors when it announces that it wants veterinarians to independently review the video. For what purpose? Are they planning to defend some of these actions? And according to an Associated Press story, Conklin also said the undercover video fails to include “context of how the farm is operated responsibly.” Doesn’t that seem almost the same as saying, “Yeah, some animals were tortured, but we’re usually not that mean”? Conklin would do better to just quit trying to engage in damage control and do everything it can to help authorities identify and prosecute each and every farm worker guilty of cruelty and abuse.

– Speaking of digging a bigger hole for oneself, Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, who never has come off as the sharpest tool in the shed, made the mistake of going on “Oprah” in an attempt to explain how she ended up being secretly videotaped by an undercover tabloid reporter while offering to sell access to her ex-husband, Prince Andrew, for about three-quarters of a million dollars. Ferguson attempted to explain her influence peddling by saying it started as an attempt to get $40,000 for a friend in need. How did that escalate to $724,000? Well, she really wasn’t too sure about that. She also told Oprah that she proceeded with her dealings with the “businessman” even though she had her suspicions that he was an undercover reporter. That's about as dumb as the guys who got nabbed on “To Catch a Predator” and admitted seeing previous installments of the anti-pedophile program. As for Ferguson’s future plans, she says bankruptcy is a possibility. I have to assume that it’s fiscal bankruptcy, since she’s clearly already morally bankrupt, and dumb as a box of rocks, to boot.

Weir-do

Figure skater Johnny Weir is a strange bird. No. Wait. Let's be honest. He's a walking, talking freak show of a human being. The latest strange story involving Weir centers on a small piece of white fox fur that he had his "designer" attach to his costume at the recent U.S. Figure Skating Championships. That's the "garment" shown above. Well, the costume caused the fur to fly as animal rights groups took Weir to task. Friends of Animals wrote an open letter to Weir and contacted his designer, Stephanie Handler. Initially, Weir wasn't fazed a bit, saying, "I totally get the dirtiness of the fur industry and how terrible it is to animals. But it's not something that's the No. 1 priority in my life. There are humans dying every day. There are thousands, if not millions, of homeless people in New York City. Look at what just happened in Haiti. I tend to focus my energy, if there is a cause, on humans. While that may be callous and bad of me, it's my choice." Flash forward a couple of days, and Weir decided to change his choice, announcing that his costume will henceforth be decorated with fake fur. Weir's agent says the decision was made because the skater feared that animal-rights groups might try to disrupt his performances in the upcoming Winter Olympics. Weir made it clear that it was all about him and the "dream I have had since I was a kid." He added, "I hope these activists can understand that my decision to change my costume is in no way a victory for them. I am not changing in order to appease them, but to protect my integrity and the integrity of the Olympic Games." Weir also has pointed out that all his fellow competitors are wearing skates made of cowhide. Perhaps he doesn't understand this, but there's a difference between utilitarian items such as skates and a piece of frivolous fringe on his outfit. I think these animal-rights groups go way overboard with some of their criticisms. I'm not going to give up steak dinners and ham sandwiches because an outfit like PETA doesn't like my lifestyle. But I believe they have a point when it comes to fur. Do a whole bunch of animals really need to die, and be killed in a horrific fashion, just so some rich lady can sport a floor-length mink coat? Do rabbits need to be killed so somebody can have a fancy fringe around the hood of their winter coat? And does Johnny Weir really need that stupid-looking tuft of fur on the shoulder of his goofy-looking costume? If Johnny doesn't have a problem with taking advantage of a smaller animal to make his outfit look more fabulous, I understand. But then I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I scalp him and dangle his pelt from my key ring. Hey, heterosexual guys can accessorize, too.