From Pine View Farm

April, 2014 archive

“Round Up the Usual Suspects” 0

Emphasis added:

Culpepper was arrested because she had the same first name as another woman wanted by authorities in an aggravated assault case, even though Culpepper provided officers with her driver’s license that showed she did not have the same name and was not the same age as the real suspect. She also did not have a gold tooth that police were told the real suspect had.

She called to report that her truck had been stolen and spent fifty-three days in jail awaiting trial; her suit was dismissed because the police have immunity.

No brains, just immunity.

Afterthought:

I cannot keep myself from thinking that the cops just rounded up the first black lady named “Teresa” that they saw.

After all, this happened in Georgia, where they all look alike.

Pah!

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CBBT 0

The other local rag has a fantastic slide show depicting the building of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Follow the link.

Northbound view of the entrance to the Thimble Shoals Tunnen

H/T to my brother for the link.

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Misdirection Play, Republican Family Values Dept. 0

After reeling off a list of paragons of Republican Family Values (David “Diaper Me” Vitter, Mark “Appalachian Trail” Sanford, Dr. Scott “Let’s Have an Affair” DesJarlais, Vic “Child Support Schmild Support” Sprouse), Tina Dupuy explains how Republican Family Values work. A nugget:

If homosexuality ceased to be considered a sin and all Americans were judged by the content of their character instead of whom they love, it’d be hard for Republicans to find people to be morally superior to. We’d go back to being scandalized by the way people treat one another . . . .

Do read the rest.

Via Progressive Populist (the print edition).

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QOTD 0

Russell Baker:

The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately defeat him.

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Break Time 0

Off to drink liberally.

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Hacked Off 1

Via Raw Story.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Be polite in a crowd.

Deputies received a report about 9:05 p.m. of a shooting at a home on the 1300 block of Lobelia Road, a Sheriff’s Office release said.

They arrived to find three people, two women and a man, with injuries, the release said.

Investigators determined that a gun belonging to the unidentified homeowner accidentally discharged into the concrete floor resulting in the injuries, the release said.

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The New Secesh 0

And this surprises you how?

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Drinking Liberally Virginia Beach Tonight 0

(Date corrected–copy and paste pasted me one.)

Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us and talk about anything in a relaxed atmosphere.

When: Thursday, April 24th, 6 p.

Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)

More here.

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Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0

Back up a bit.

Jobless claims increased by 24,000 to 329,000 in the week ended April 19, the most in a month, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington.

(snip)

The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, climbed to 316,750 from 312,000 the week before, the lowest since 2007.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits dropped by 61,000 to 2.68 million in the week ended April 12, the fewest since December 2007.

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Hole in the Head One 0

Reg Henry is taken aback that golf is waning in popularity. He tells us that golf gurus are concerned that there are 5,000,000 fewer golfers than there were a decade ago.

I live next to a golf course, and I see few young golfers, except for youngsters being set on a path of corruption by their fathers, and members of the golf team from a local college, just down the road a piece.

Remedies are being considered. Here’s a nugget from his column:

Now it is suggested that these forlorn, disappointed people might be lured back to the game by gimmicks. The Times story came with a picture of a tour professional putting into a 15-inch-wide hole, which looked like a bucket.

What an appalling prospect if this should catch on. You could go play Pebble Beach because it’s on your bucket list and find a bucket being used for the hole.

Golf is an expensive sport. Other than freakish “xtreme sports,” it is probably the most expensive sport short of skiing. One wonders whether the destruction of the middle class, depriving many of the ability to pay for club memberships, not to mention golf clubs, may have something to do with its waning popularity.

Whatever, it’s still golf, a good walk spoiled.

Golf is pool on an extra-large table, with added membership and greens fees and without heat in the winter or AC in the summer.

Get a pool table. It’s cheaper, more comfortable, just as frustrating, and lacks the built-in mosquitoes.

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Shoot First, Ask Questions Later 0

Philly cops stand their ground and an innocent pizza delivery guy is shot for being.

The 20-year-old from Upper Darby had been running orders two nights a week for Slices & More for a few weeks. That was on top of another job at an airport restaurant.

Maybe he had heard the gunshots two blocks away – the ones two plainclothes officers were responding to – when they attempted to stop him just before 10 p.m. Moments later, they riddled the Taurus with 14 shots.

He was guilty of wearing a hooded sweatshirt (that’s what we used to call them in the olden days, when I was a young ‘un) and being visible.

I think the cops have been watching too many cop shows on the telly vision, where everyone is a mope and the cops are always right.

More pointless bloodshed at the link.

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QOTD 0

Rita Mae Brown:

Morals are private. Decency is public.

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Think Spring 0

Cardinal on window box

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Best Left Unsaid 0

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Politeness proliferates.

Des Moines police say a 4-year-old girl died after an apparent accidental shooting in her family’s apartment.

(snip)

Sgt. Jason Halifax said the investigation was continuing, but it appeared that “safe weapons handling practices were not followed.”

They seldom are, are they?

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If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0

Via C&L.

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Spill Here, Spill Now, Punish the Victims Dept. 0

It is good to be a Duke.

Dukes can can exercise droit du seigneur.

Duke Energy’s top North Carolina executive told state lawmakers Tuesday that digging up coal ash from disposal sites across the state and trucking the industrial waste to modern landfills, as critics are demanding, could cost as much as $10 billion.

A cheaper option, which leaves the coal ash in place at most sites, would cost at least $2 billion.

Duke officials are keeping a low profile about who will pay that cost, but a state regulator estimated the higher price tag cited Tuesday could cost North Carolina households more than $20 a month.

The story explains that Duke is claiming that the ponds were legal when they were built, so pffftttt!

Who cares that said ponds had a history of problems and poor maintenance?

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All That Was Old Is New Again 0

Plessy v. Ferguson rises from the grave, a href=”http://crooksandliars.com/2014/04/justice-sonia-sotomayor-blasts-john”>reanimated by Republicans.

My disgust is boundless, but my surprise is nil.

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Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0

It hasn’t gone away; it’s just relocated north from Floida to New Jersey.

Early this year, banking and real-estate analysts concluded that New Jersey had achieved a dubious distinction, passing Florida to become the state with the highest percentage of foreclosure among mortgaged homes, 6.2 percent as calculated by CoreLogic, a leader in real-estate analytics. (That percentage was actually an improvement from a year earlier.)

(snip)

New Jersey courts closed 12,639 foreclosure cases by entering default judgments against the borrowers in 2013. But CoreLogic found only 5,888 homes actually went to sheriff’s sale in that time. The borrowers or tenants might still occupy some foreclosed properties, but many stand vacant, “zombie foreclosures.” Even after obtaining foreclosure judgments, banks do not have to maintain a property until taking possession at a sheriff’s sale.

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