Author: Brian J. Noggle

For months, people watching the Illinois Senate race have wondered what was sealed in Jack Ryan’s divorce papers. Opponents sniffed at the locked documents and speculated that they contained something dark and evil, such as the mark of the beast on Jack Ryan’s, um, well, something, anyway. Now, the papers are a-coming out, and they contain some dudshells:

Republican Senate candidate Jack Ryan pressured his wife, actress Jeri Lynn Ryan, to have sex in clubs while others watched, she charged in divorce documents released Monday.

The “Boston Public” and “Star Trek: Voyager” actress said she angered Ryan by refusing. She did acknowledge infidelity on her part, which she said took place after their marriage was irretrievably broken.

See the difference? Sex in public with your spouse, bad. Adulterous sex in private, okay. Well, I am not here to cast aspersions on either, hem, alternate lifestyle (although I will acknowledge that one is immoral and the other inaesthetic), I will ask:

Is that it?

Perhaps I am just a product of Generation X, who grew up with Kevin Smith films and with vampire movies mainstreaming the S&M club into tomorrow’s kitsch. I’m not shocked, and I’m not sure how his particular pecadillos would impact his governing ability. He’s not violated any law, and as far as I know, he would not want to have sex with her in the Senate (although it would certainly boost CSPAN ratings). Heck, it just might be the crossover appeal needed to get Democrats to vote for him.

(Link seen on Drudge.)

Sure, it won’t make you feel superior to your workplace like Dilbert does, but Mrs. du Toit offers some reminders about what it means to be a worker bee.

The working world: like it, or vote Democrat.

You know, on weekends and, well, weekdays, I don’t catch much television coverage of the news and I dodge radio coverage when I can.

That must explain why I haven’t heard the stories covering declining gas prices. You know, the video that depicts the jubilant American street dancing under the gas station canopy, with gushing men and women on the street thanking government inappropriately for the partially-free market working and explaining that since gas prices have fallen thirty cents, they can afford to feed their children (expensive preprocessed food) and can once again afford to commute ninety minutes to work.

Because undoubtedly the media covered the what comes down portion of the cycle with the same alack!rity that they covered the what goes up story.

I just must have missed it.

Instapundit links to an AP story about John Kerry’s campaign receiving a bothersome campaign contribution:

John Kerry’s campaign collected a maximum $2,000 check from the recently arrested son of South Korea’s disgraced former president, and some of its fund-raisers met several times with a South Korean government official who was trying to organize a Korean-American political group.

Kerry’s going to give it back, of course, since it’s now public.

But the ad dished up with the story is amusing:

Click for full size

Click to send your own questionable campaign contribution.

Hooray for this bit of moral equivalence:

ABC News reports investigators have tied the man to a terrorist cell set to carry out a series of bombings and assassinations in London.

The man, a naturalized citizen from Pakistan, was secretly taken into custody in April.

He is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan and is said to be cooperating offering investigators significant information about Al Qaeda’s plans.

He is being held as a material witness and his family is now under federal protection.

The man has told investigators that Al Qaeda is planning more attacks in the United States. He has also revealed a scheme to smuggle terrorists across the Mexican border.

The suspect’s assertions were part of the intelligence that led to recent warnings about a summer threat from Al Qaeda.

Another man being held today is kidnapped American Paul Johnson.

Got that? A material witness in the custody of the United States is the same as Paul Johnson.

Rage, rage against the dying of the schnucking moral insight that would tell ABC News or its affiliate’s writers that these things are not the same, and Paul Johnson is not another man being held in the same way as a material witness.

Link seen on Hugh Hewitt, who doesn’t comment on this blatant idiocy.)

• Frank W. Abagnale identifies 10 ways to stop identity theft cold. Slow down, Iceman. It won’t make you a superhero capable of stopping any or all identity theft in the world, but it will remind you ways to make it harder for the badmen to get your identity. Best line:
  

  Only amateurs hack into computers; pros hack into people.

  For you damn kids out there, Frank Abagnale is the guy depicted in Catch Me If You Can. He makes Mitnick look like a script kiddie in meatspace.

• Challenged by a department store honcho, this guy goes into a store and walks out with $3500 in computers without paying.

  (Link seen on IMAO.)

Be careful out there, my students, and remember to trust no one, especially your shidoshi of paranoia.

For Brian J. Noggle agrees with Eugene Kane of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, who saith:

That’s my concern as well. With dozens – or hundreds – of young black people driving at the same time, it’s hard to pick and choose who’s breaking the law and who isn’t.

I don’t have any solutions to stop cruising, but there are plenty of answers for what to do about young people vandalizing homes, assaulting gas station employees and stealing merchandise.

Arrest them and charge them accordingly. Because that kind of behavior is a crime; it’s not cruising.

Even though we all want to get more sleep and less nuisance, it’s important to remember there’s a difference.

Cracking down on cruising, or conspiracy, or obstruction, or possession, or regulatory “crimes”, or the various other strict liability offenses that divorce mens rea from actus reus in our criminal system.

Of course, that’s easy for me to say now because advocating changing this particular law is not yet a crime–although the concept is not inconceivable.