Apparently, Charlie Brown works for Streets and San now.
All-around funny man and Person of Interest, Drew Peterson!Big Drew was arrested for felony unlawful use of a weapon. The Will County state's attorney's office claimed he, "knowingly possessed a rifle, namely a Colt model Sporter Lightweight, 223 Remington rifle . . . with a barrel less than 16 inches in length" - a violation of state law. Peterson's attorney claims that the weapon in question was registered as one of Drew's 2 service weapons allowed him as part of the SWAT team and that he had carried it for ten years. Peterson was still on the police force when his 11 guns, including the rifle, were seized.Mind you, these guns have been in the possession of police since November 1, 2007. Presumably, the police are just busting his balls. However, this is the kind of thing the jovial Peterson seems to enjoy. He was seen joking with officers at his arrest and yelling "I love you" to the press.In case you missed his other recent run about with the law. Peterson was pulled over for speeding in Naperville, IL while on the way to help a 22-year-old female friend at 2:30 am earlier this month. Helluva a guy, that Drew. Who can blame a young lass for falling into the web?Get a look at Drew on Larry King or some of his earlier moments with Matt Lauer.The footage of this guy is astounding. He lives in another world. A world where being a suspect in the demise of two wives is a good way to make friends, find a new young broad to hang out with, and to get some well deserved exposure for a budding stand-up comic routine. He's a one-man wrecking crew. Daddies, lock up your daughters tonight, Drew is back on the prowl...after posting the required ten percent of his $75,000 bond.
What do you do if you had a brain cramp and forgot to comply with Chicago's yearly registration requirement for your cache of weapons?If you are an Alderman, you simple have the law changed to create an amnesty period during which you can reregister without penalty.You may think the case of Alderman Dick Mell is another case of Chicago Politicians Gone Wild, but you would be sorely mistaken. In fact, Mell is doing this for all the people out there that might have forgotten or didn't know the requirements of the Chicago gun laws. Mell is nothing if not a man of the people.After coming to grips with the horrifying thought that his appeal to the Department of Administrative Hearings would not win, Mell did the only thing he could do. And if you don't like it, you may find you are facing the serious end of a barrel, punk.
Back in April of 2006, Chicago Alderman Joe Moore managed to get the rest of his cronies to vote on a ban of foie gras in Chicago. The measure was passed by a 48-1 vote. A pretty lopsided victory for anything being voted on by these fellows.Yesterday, those same gents reversed their stance, making foie gras legal once again. Of course, this upset a number of people. PETA for instance. I'm not going to get into the ethical debate here. You can see the anti-foie gras sentiment or arguments on the other side of cruelty, such as this clip of Bourdain all over the place. There's even a Spainish company (Pateria de Sousa) producing "free range foie gras" that eliminates the force feeding aspect by using the natural inclination of geese to be greedy eaters. This certainly won't satisfy the hardcore anti-cruelty element, as ultimately the bird gets the axe.I really don't care to argue these points with anyone, even to the level of overall eating habits and the need for sustainability and efficiency. Really, I bring this up as an exercise in political analysis.I'll start out by pointing out that the ban was not effective. People could still buy foie gras, restaurants outside the city limits still served it openly and restaurants within the city limits worked angles to get it on diner's plates or flat out flaunted the law and paid the resulting fines.The reversal of Chicago's foie gras ban came due to some deft paperwork maneuvering by Alderman Thomas Tunney, who just happens to be a restaurant owner. Now, this seems a bit sketchy and propenents of the ban were hopping man, but Tunney used his knowledge of the system to force a vote. There shouldn't be anything devilishly wrong in that. The problem for organizations like PETA is that the Chicago ban was used as a shining example of "moving in the right direction". From a purely strategic view, this would be a blow to their efforts in more ways than just the situation in Chicago.Moore was not allowed much in the way of debate by our Great Leader the Grand Poobah, Richard M. Daley. This was taken by Moore to be a political muscle job harkening back to the "glory" days of The Mayor's father. While this may be so, I can't help but agree with the point that this issue has been debated ad nauseam locally and nationally. Not to mention that the original vote was just two years ago. How much more is going to be accomplished by more tongue wagging.Now, I never really got behind the ban in the first place, and it didn't seem to matter anyway (one of The Mayor's points). Nonetheless, the Chicago Tribune reported, "many aldermen who voted for repeal said they changed their minds because they agree with Daley's assertion that they have better things to do." This chapped me a bit. The concept that they had better things to do than deal with this the first time somehow leaves me wondering how that equates to forcing another vote on it. A vote with drastically different results than one year ago. The reversal was passed with a 37-6 vote.I know these people are addle-brained, that's not at issue. The real question is which mental misfire caused this great shift in attitude. Did they suddenly realize they voted previously without the facts? Did they hear whispering in the hallways of goverment? Is The Poobah really trying to make a heavy point about opposing his plans for the proposed Chicago Children's Museum? Did the gang of shitting geese on the local golf course finally cross the line and steal beer from someone's cart? Whatever the reason, nothing in this episode increases my opinion of the players or the political landscape of my fair city.Only those privy to the smoky back rooms of Chicago's politicians, lobbyists and restaurateurs know for sure. I suppose they aren't smoky any more, but who knows what parliamentary magic may change that.
I've got some things to do and I need some background so I ran down the list of movies on the dish. Nothing jumped out at me, but Aliens vs Predator: (Uncut) starts soon, so I popped over to IMDB to see the plot synopsis since I couldn't recall what the hell the story was.
Yeah, I know, who the fuck looks at the plot synopsis for a movie like this? I do. It is pretty much would you might have guessed. Aliens versus a Predator, with some people thrown in for collateral damage. In Colorado.
All of the reviews are screaming at me to run away and forget I ever heard of this movie before I suffer the full brunt of awfulness that will blast through my TV. Naturally, that elevated me from "not sure" to "well, god damn, I have to see it now".
If you don't hear from me. Assume the worst.
I have had an unfortunate confluence of events involving deveining hot peppers and itching.
I want my mommy.
If you noticed at all, recently Representative Mark Kirk (IL-R) was spouting off about virtual worlds, children and the upcoming death of civilization as we know it. Unfortunately, Mr. Kirk is severely lacking any foundation in reality for which to launch his attack on all things virtual and the mega-threat posed to our young Americans.After his rant about Second Life, The Lab replied in typical fashion. I think they probably just use the same boilerplate for all similar empty-headed do-gooders.Now, Kirk has appeared on NBC Chicago to further assure anyone in the know, that he is...well...not. If you are similarly in the dark as to what all this dangerous stuff is, I suggest you go find out for yourself rather than taking my word or the word of "informed" people like Mark Kirk. Besides, learning is fundamental.One thing I can assure you, THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GETTING PUBLICITY FOR THE UPCOMING NOV 4, 2008 ELECTIONS.For those of you that want to give Kirk a piece of your mind, just drop him an email and let him know what you think.
Scientific American put up an article poking about some of the issues with the movie Expelled.I don't really care to comment on the movie too much. There's plenty of that going around.I do want to mention that any article touching on the movie will have a joyous and fertile comment section. I keep reading these comments because I know one of these days The Truth will be revealed.If anyone adds comments to this post, I will edit them to make them more interesting. I can only hope to live up to any of the glorious Expelled comments.
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