Archive for March 3rd, 2022

Tweets of the day.

Thursday, March 3rd, 2022

I have to ask you to trust me: this Dan Hon thread gets funnier and funnier to me as it rolls along, but I don’t want to spoil his best punch lines.

Also:

On the flip side, interesting thread from eigenrobot on the Cape Town Convention and seizures of Russian commercial aircraft:

Useful phrases in Russian. Use them at work when discussing projects.

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NRA news.

Thursday, March 3rd, 2022

I have said before that I’ve avoided covering the NRA’s issues. I do not trust anybody (except a very small handful of people) to report on those issues accurately and fairly. The small handful of people I do trust, I do not have permission to quote here.

That being said:

A judge Tuesday tossed out New York Attorney General Letitia James’ bid to break up the National Rifle Association, while allowing much of the remainder of her lawsuit to go forward.

…

But on Wednesday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joel Cohen tossed the claim to dissolve the NRA, finding that there were ways to reform it — such as potentially removing the top executives.
“In short, the complaint does not allege the type of public harm that is the legal linchpin for imposing the ‘corporate death penalty,’” Cohen’s decision reads. “Moreover, dissolving the NRA could impinge, at least indirectly, on the free speech and assembly rights of its millions of members.”
“The remedy of dissolution is, in the court’s view, disproportionate and not narrowly tailored to address the financial malfeasance alleged in the complaint, which is amply covered by the Attorney General’s other claims,” the decision reads.

I think this is the right decision, for the right reasons. If the NRA leadership is committing fraud against the membership, there are remedies for this that don’t involve dissolving the organization, as the judge said. My only disappointment is that the judge did not start the process of disbarring New York Attorney General Letitia James for malicious prosecution and overreach.

I sent this around yesterday to a small group, including two bloggers I know. One blogger agreed with me that it was shocking to see a sensible gun-related ruling from a judge in New York.

The other blogger commented that they had just sent back their NRA board election ballot: they voted for Frank Tait, wrote “Wayne Must Go” in four out of five write in slots, and “Fire Wayne Now” in the fifth.

(If those bloggers want to out themselves in comments, they’re welcome to.)

On a semi-related note:

A Nassau County politician wants Long Islanders to donate guns so he can ship them to Ukraine for use in the ongoing conflict with Russia.

…

[Bruce] Blakeman hopes to collect hunting rifles and civilianized military-style semiautomatic weapons, like AR-15s.

But wait! I thought “military-style semiautomatic weapons” were illegal in New York!

Also:

…he admitted that he had not yet identified a way to get the guns halfway around the world and would likely need federal agencies to sign off on the shipment.

…

Blakeman told The Post he’s setting up a four-day gun collection to run Friday through next Monday, even though he has yet to find a way to ship the guns overseas to the war-torn country.
He said he’s asking individuals to drop off or buy and then donate firearms at a licensed gun store, SP Firearms Unlimited, in Franklin Square, New York.
He said he’s also raised around $20,000 for the effort, as of Wednesday.
“I will be the first to buy a gun and donate it to the Ukrainian people.”

This sounds like a giant sting operation, whether intentional by Blakeman or unintentional but inadvertent.

Also, how is this going to work? Is it like a Lend Lease thing? Will people get their guns back after the war?

(I know this didn’t happen with most of the Lend Lease guns. But I have a very vivid memory – which I can’t back up now – of seeing a target rifle that a prominent marksman sent to the UK during WWII. It had a brass plaque attached to the stock with his name and a short explanation on it: after the war, the rifle found its way back to him. It may be in the NRA museum in Springfield, but again, I’m not sure.)

Posted in Guns, Law | Comments Closed

Obit watch: March 3, 2022.

Thursday, March 3rd, 2022

Farrah Forke, actress. Credits include a recurring role as “Alex Lambert” on “Wings”, and also a recurring role on “Lois & Clark” as “Mayson Drake”.

She was a good Texan, and died at 54.

Alan Ladd Jr. He was a big deal Hollywood producer. Among his credits:

During his tenure, Fox produced some of its most successful films, including Star Wars (1977), which he optioned after Universal rejected it. He championed George Lucas’ movie against the wishes of his board of directors, and the film became one of the most profitable in history.
“The only meeting I had with Laddie about the script, … he said, ‘Look, it doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever, but I trust you. Go ahead and make it.’ That was just honest,” Lucas once said. “I mean, it was a crazy movie. Now you can see it, know what it is, but before you could see it, there wasn’t anything like it. You couldn’t explain it. You know, … it was like this furry dog driving a spaceship. I mean, what is that?”

More:

As a studio executive and producer, Ladd — the son of screen idol Alan Ladd (This Gun for Hire, Shane) — had a hand in 14 best picture nominees. His imprint can be found on such touchstone films as Young Frankenstein (1974), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), The Omen (1976), Breaking Away (1979), Body Heat (1981), Chariots of Fire (1981), Blade Runner (1982) and Moonstruck (1987).
Before it was fashionable, Ladd supported films with strong female-centric themes, including Robert Altman’s 3 Women (1977); Julia (1977), starring Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave; 11-time Academy Award nominee The Turning Point (1977); Paul Mazursky’s An Unmarried Woman (1978), starring Jill Clayburgh; Norma Rae (1979), which earned Sally Field an Oscar for best actress; and the Bette Midler-starring The Rose (1979).
Ladd upped the ante by making a woman the main protagonist in a big-budget action film with Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), starring Sigourney Weaver, and he greenlighted Thelma & Louise (1991), the icon of feminist cinema toplined by Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis.

He won an Oscar for “Braveheart”.

Kirk Baily, voice actor. Lawrence sent me this obit, but I don’t have a source I am willing to link to.

Lawrence also sent over an obit for Katie Meyer, Stanford soccer goalie, who died too young at 22.

Posted in Movies, Obits, Sports, TV | Comments Closed

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#81 and #82 in a series)

Thursday, March 3rd, 2022

I’m running a little bit behind due to Ash Wednesday. My apologies.

Number one on the hit parade: Michael Madigan, the former Speaker of the Illinois House, indicted on 22 counts of racketeering.

The 22-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury comes after a yearslong federal investigation and alleges Madigan participated in an array of bribery and extortion schemes from 2011 to 2019 aimed at using the power of his office for personal gain.
The long-awaited charges punctuate a stunning downfall for Madigan, the longest serving leader of any legislative chamber in the nation who held an ironclad grip on the state legislature as well as the Democratic party and its political spoils. He was dethroned as speaker in early 2021 as the investigation swirled around him, and soon after resigned the House seat he’d held since 1971.

…

Also charged in the indictment was Madigan’s longtime confidant, Michael McClain, a former state legislator and lobbyist who is facing separate charges alleging he orchestrated an alleged bribery scheme by Commonwealth Edison.
That same alleged scheme forms the backbone of the indictment returned Wednesday, outlining a plan by the utility giant to pay thousands of dollars to lobbyists favored by Madigan in order to win his influence over legislation the company wanted passed in Springfield.

There’s also some stuff involving a land deal in Chinatown, Jake.

At a news conference Wednesday at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, U.S. Attorney John Lausch said the indictment was yet another sign of the state’s seemingly intractable issue of public corruption.

I haven’t laughed this hard since the hogs et my kid brother.

The indictment was the culmination of a long-running federal probe of Madigan that broke wide open in summer 2020, when prosecutors identified him as “Public Official A” in bribery charges against ComEd.
Four people, including McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former lobbyist John Hooker, and Jay Doherty, a consultant and longtime leader of the City Club of Chicago, were charged that November with bribery conspiracy and are awaiting trial. A fifth, former ComEd Vice President Fidel Marquez, has pleaded guilty to his role and is cooperating with investigators.

Someone asked me yesterday if it counts as a flaming hyena if the politician is out of office. My answer in this case is:

1. Yes, because the alleged conduct took place while he was in office.
II. I have the distinct impression that Madigan, while out of office, probably still wields a lot of power behind the scenes.
C. I’m not going to pass up a chance to kick an Illinois politician.

Number two is a bit more local story, but it has received national attention.

Van Taylor, who represents the 3rd Congressional District (in the Plano area) got 49% of the vote in Tuesday’s primary, and was in a runoff.

At least, until yesterday, when he dropped out.

Why? Well, he was married and having an affair. He paid the woman $5,000 to not say anything but the story came out anyway.

The affair part isn’t so bad, I guess. Consenting adults, between him and his wife, etc. I don’t know where the $5K came from, or if there’s a crime involved with that.

The bizarre part is who he was having the affair with: a woman who became somewhat famous as “ISIS Bride”.

From another source:

[Tania] Joya was born in London and is a UK citizen. In 2003, at 19 years old, she met John Thomas Georgelas, an American-born convert to Islam, jihadist, and supporter of the Islamic State. In September 2013, she moved to Syria and “hated” living there for how they treated women, she told Breitbart News.
“They will kill you or enslave you,” she said of ISIS. “They [Muslim fundamentalists] have medieval ideas,” she added.
Joya later informed American authorities on Georgelas, and afterward worked on counter-terrorism for three years “so we could drone him,” she said of Georgelas.

So I gather she wasn’t married, and got a divorce the old-fashioned way: by informing on her husband, so US drones could turn him into something that looked like tomato paste.

Taylor has until March 16 to remove his name from the runoff ballot, which he plans to do, according to a spokesperson. After he does that, [Keith] Self is automatically the Republican nominee for the district. There is a Democratic nominee for the seat, Sandeep Srivastava, but he faces long odds after the district was redrawn last year to favor Republicans.

I rather liked this Twitter thread:

I think that qualifies as an important safety tip for all of us dudes: have at least one friend who you can trust to tell you “banging an ISIS chick isn’t a good idea, especially if you’re already married”.

Edited to add: Battleswarm has their own take on this, which you should really go read as well.

Posted in Law, Politics, Safety, Texas | Comments Closed