Author: Brian J. Noggle

And crony capitalists taketh away:

The Washington County Board has refused to pay a $4 million subsidy to Cabela’s Inc., the world’s largest direct marketer of outdoor gear, for construction of a store that opened in Richfield in September.

A slim majority of supervisors Tuesday voted against borrowing the funds that the board had pledged to Cabela’s in September 2005 as an incentive for building the store in the county.

I know, I rail on crony capitalism in the form of governments giving incentives to certain developers or corporations for selection of one municipality over another, but I’m even more disturbed that governments are becoming brazen in not holding to their words, resolutions, promises, writs, and whatnot.

Pardon me while I synchronize my watch with the continuing countdown to the end of our Western civilization.

The layering of charges to get around that nasty prohibition against double jeopardy continues unabated. Within this terrible story, note how a death through negligence becomes mass murder:

The couple were found guilty May 2 of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children. A jury deliberated about seven hours before returning the guilty verdicts.

That’s three charges for the death of one individual.

Recognizing the possibility of prosecutorial overreach might have been the only thing preventing additional charges of child abuse, battery, and assault with intent to kill negligently.

Seen in the current issue of Leatherneck:

Click for full size

“No other aircraft gets Marines into and out of danger like the V-22.”

That’s just climbing into the aircraft.

So apparently Paris Hilton is going to jail, and here’s the New York Daily News reveling in the brutality behind bars:

Hotel heiress Paris Hilton better watch her back in the Century Regional Detention Facility, visitors who were at the jail yesterday warned.

“If you act like you’re all high-class and uppity,” Denise Chavis said, “you’re done.”

The paper goes on to describe the deplorable nature of life in jail. With glee and a slight taunt. Finally, we’ve brought her down low.

How pathetic. However Paris Hilton emerges from prison, she’ll still be Paris Hilton, and the mean-spirited Daily News West Coast Bureau Chief will still be only that.

Convicted killer fears his last moments:

Workman said he doesn’t feel much like a person anymore. He has become a pile of legal briefs, appeals, depositions.

And he is angry, sorry, scared and depressed.

Of the officer who was killed, Workman says: “Any loss of life is a tragedy.”

No, sir; the loss of the officer was tragic, but the result of another man’s actions. When that life is lost, it will be justice, not tragedy.

The dead cop didn’t get 25 years to build up a good set of anger, fear, or depression. He doesn’t feel like a person any more, either, because Workman killed him in a Wendy’s parking lot. Poor bastard is nothing but a footnote in a CNN cause célèbre.

Meanwhile, pliable proletariat reader, feel sympathy for some poor soul who’s had 25 years to reflect on what he’s done, and the best he can do is a sideways sorry amid his own turmoil for his punishment.

I’d say shame on CNN and shame on Workman, but there’s no shame any more. Some people have moved beyond it.

One routinely says things that don’t make sense, and the other is Yogi Berra.

Not really, but come on, we all know who this object will vote for, don’t we?

In some ways, Hiasl is like any other Viennese: He indulges a weakness for pastry, likes to paint and enjoys chilling out watching TV.

But he doesn’t care for coffee, and he isn’t actually a person—at least not yet.

In a case that could set a global legal precedent for granting basic rights to apes, animal rights advocates are seeking to get the 26- year-old male chimpanzee legally declared a “person.”

Remarkable. Even better, look at this splitting of hairs:

“Our main argument is that Hiasl is a person and has basic legal rights,” said Eberhart Theuer, a lawyer leading the challenge on behalf of the Association Against Animal Factories, a Vienna animal rights group.

“We mean the right to life, the right to not be tortured, the right to freedom under certain conditions,” Theuer said.

“We’re not talking about the right to vote here.”

Where have I seen that before? Oh, yes: All animals are equal. But some are more equal than others.

(Another link seen on Boots and Sabers.)

Apparently, some guy in Arkansas wrote a letter that got printed in the local paper:

You may have noticed that March of this year was particularly hot. As a matter of fact, I understand that it was the hottest March since the beginning of the last century….

This should come as no surprise to any reasonable person. As you know, Daylight Saving time started almost a month early this year. You would think that members of Congress would ave considered the warming effect that an extra hour of daylight would have on our climate. Or did they?

Perhaps this is another plot by a liberal Congress to make us believe that global warming is a real threat. Perhaps the next time there should be serious tudies before Congress passes laws with such far-reaching effects.

CONNIE M. MESKIMEN
Hot Springs

Ace of Ace of Spades HQ says:

How could someone be this dumb, and how could a letters-page editor then be dumb enough on top of that to publish it? The hoax warning bells are sounding.

Are the letters page editors dumb? I don’t think so. However, if you read many of them, you’ll notice that they often contain poorly-reasoned flights of fancy that doesn’t elevate the discourse about the subject. As a matter of fact, some papers were apparently not satisfied with the depths of idiocy letter writers could produce and actually started publishing phoned-in comments to up the inanity.

I have to wonder why smaller local newspapers include these little tirades in their pages. After all, printing the paper is expensive and they are supposed to keep the gates to ensure quality or something. Instead, we’re treated to idiocy (and the occasional satire masked as idiocy, as this letter was).

Something in me whispers that papers publish this sort of thing because it reflects what the acolytes of the Fourth Estate Church believe of the unwashed masses who read instead of writing the paper. Because they can crack up about the simpletons who believe what they print when standing over the coffeepot in the kitchenette of the paper. Because journalists are different from and better than the common man whose voice they’ve made heard.