Gee, Christopher Knight, why don’t you tell us how you really feel?
Archive for the ‘Clippings’ Category
Art, damn it, art! watch. (#44 in a series)
Thursday, April 3rd, 2014FAQ 2.
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014“Who’s Packing What: The Weapons in the Leland Yee Scandal”
Or, as we’ve taken to calling him, indicted California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee.
By way of Mike the Musicologist, who observes that indicted California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee and his friends have bad taste in weapons.
Two 9s and a .45? I wonder how loud the clank was as he walked.
Also. (By way of Robb Allen.)
Random notes: April 2, 2014.
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014Flames! Flames!
Obit watch: Charles Keating, of S&L scandal fame.
More flames!
The most recent mayor, Patrick D. Cannon, was arrested last week on public corruption charges and resigned.
But has Ms. McCabe ever tried to use a $2 bill at a Taco Bell?
I wanted to link to, and comment on, the latest entries into the National Recording Registry, but the LOC didn’t have them up when I was working on this post earlier today. Now that they are up…well, I’m kind of curious about “Only Visiting This Planet” and “Copland Conducts Copland: Appalachian Spring” (I have recordings of “Appalachian Spring” but not that one). I think the original cast recording of “Sweeney Todd” is probably a good choice, and, yes, even though I think it has been overplayed, I can see putting Jeff Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah” on the list.
Also: Shaft!
The only one that I really boggle at is “The First Family”. Not that I have anything against comedy, but is that album really memorable or significant? Especially when compared against some of the other comedy entries? Or is this just folks feeling bad (and perhaps rightly so) for poor Vaughn Meader?
Obit watch: March 29, 2014.
Saturday, March 29th, 2014Jeremiah A. Denton Jr., retired from the Navy as a rear admiral and a former US senator from Alabama.
He was also a war hero.
And:
The North Vietnamese, who lost face, were even more outraged when they learned that Commander Denton, in the Japanese-taped interview broadcast on American television on May 17, 1966, had blinked out “T-O-R-T-U-R-E.” It was the first confirmation that American prisoners of war were being subjected to atrocities during the Vietnam War.
The commander was beaten all night.
FAQ.
Friday, March 28th, 2014In case you’re coming into the Leland Yee/Raymond “Shrimp Boy” scandal late, and haven’t been reading this blog or Battleswarm, the LAT has a handy guide to the affair, which answers many of the burning questions (such as “why is he called ‘Shrimp Boy’?”).
(I cannot tell a lie: I enjoy typing Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow. Almost as much as – no, strike that, I enjoy it even more than typing Robert “Ratso” Rizzo.)
Also, in case you were wondering, the California state Senate has suspended Sen. Yee without pay. The same august body has also suspended Sen. Roderick White, who was convicted of perjury and voter fraud, and Sen. Ronald Calderon, indicted on bribery and corruption charges.
Random notes: March 28, 2014.
Friday, March 28th, 2014Man is released from death row after 46 years, after courts rule that his confession was coerced and evidence against him was fabricated.
Williamson County? No. Texas? No. Japan.
More on Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow. And more. Since I made the observation the other day:
(And you should also be reading Battleswarm: Lawrence has been able to devote a little more time to his coverage than I have.)
I stumbled across this while looking for “Shrimp Boy” links:
I have nothing to say about this story, I just want to insert an obscure reference here:
(Perhaps they could give her a job: maybe keeping people from hanging around the food court.)
(Previously. WP article also contains yet another photo of the bishop’s residence that looks like a Thomas Kinkade painting, but at least this one wasn’t taken with a fish-eye lens.)
It just gets better and better.
Thursday, March 27th, 2014More information about the charges against Leland Yee is trickling out.
As you may recall from yesterday’s post, Senator Yee advocated “tighter restrictions” on “semi-automatic weapons”. Well, guess what? The charges against Senator Yee include “conspiracy to traffic in firearms”.
The full complaint is available from the SFGate site. By way of Overlawyered, we found a summary from San Francisco Magazine (complete with bonus “The Wire” references!):
…he offered to set up an arms deal with Islamic rebels for $2 million in cash.
Tell me about the rockets, George Leland!
I single that out because Keith Jackson is apparently a well known “political consultant” and political figure. And he was a former president of the San Francisco Board of Education. And the charges against him, other than gun trafficking and “wire fraud of honest services”, include involvement in a “murder for hire” conspiracy.
I didn’t link to Overlawyered earlier because I wanted to save the best part for last: Yee was named to the “Gun Violence Prevention Honor Roll” by the Brady Campaign. Seriously, I am not making this stuff up.
Flames! Flames!
Wednesday, March 26th, 2014Of course, these are just charges, and Senator Yee hasn’t been convicted yet. But I wanted to make note of this arrest, and:
I didn’t insert “Shrimp Boy”; that’s in the actual LAT article.
I’d really like to know how he got that nickname.
More from the SFChron, which describes “Shrimp Boy” as “a notorious former San Francisco gangster”.
In 1992, the Hong Kong-born Chow was indicted with two dozen others on racketeering charges for their alleged involvement in everything from underage prostitution to the international heroin trade.
Chow was subsequently convicted of gun charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 2003, however, he was released after he cut a deal with the government to testify against a high-ranking associate.
So “Shrimp Boy” served time on gun charges, and is apparently a close friend of Senator Yee. By the way:
Heh. Heh. Heh.
You don’t say (part 2)
Wednesday, March 26th, 2014You don’t say.
Tuesday, March 25th, 2014Yes, I suppose “not having a license” would qualify as “a significant hurdle”. More:
Dear Prudence…
Monday, March 24th, 2014This will almost be worth $5 a month to watch.
Random notes: March 24, 2014.
Monday, March 24th, 2014What does the fox say?
“I resign.”
Rhode Island Speaker of the House Gordon D. Fox, enveloped by an apparent criminal investigation, announced Saturday that he has resigned his leadership post.
He fell in a lightning-quick series of events that began Friday with investigators, armed with search warrants in a probe of an undisclosed matter, taking boxes of evidence from his State House office and his East Side home.
The paper of record describes agents “carting out boxes and bags labeled ‘evidence.'” This raises some questions, at least for me: did they write “evidence” on the side with a Sharpie? Or do these boxes and bags come pre-labeled as “evidence”? Can you buy “evidence” boxes and bags from your local law enforcement supply store?
(Isn’t it kind of cartoonish when you think about it? Sort of like Scrooge McDuck carrying around a big bag with a “$” on it, only instead you’ve got a neatly attired IRS agent with a bag that says “Evidence”?)
So much for that. Looks like I owe Lawrence $5. See if I buy one of your damn t-shirts now, Gonzaga.
(Still hopeful for those Cubs, though.)
“Squandered Baseball”? Well, I suppose that’s one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is that the Expos made unreasonable demands after the 1995 baseball strike and drove fans away.