BMBS

Police in Mississippi say a woman meaning to kill a pit bull named “Cocaine” shot her husband instead.

Cocaine reportedly lunged at some children and tried to attack them on Friday. Betty Walker’s husband picked the dog up as the children hustled indoors, but Betty went ahead and fired twice, hitting the dog once and her husband once in the chest.

Jackson police spokeswoman Colendula Green says the death of 53-year-old Robert Walker appears to have been accidental.  Animal control officers have taken the dog, and its owner — unlike Betty — could face charges.

House Republicans (and their presidential candidates) are proud of their legislative accomplishment on Friday — passing a measure that prohibits the Energy Department from implementing the phaseout of incandescent light bulbs to new technology.

The Republicans say the fight isn’t over energy efficiency but over the government’s control in society.

The Texas Republican who authored measure, Michael Burgess, said: “This is about the consumer driving the market, not the federal government deciding the market.”

As growing evidence shows that the Libyan rebels are divided, are incompetent, and are using the struggle against Qaddafi as cover for tribal retribution and other human rights violations, the Obama Administration has gone ahead and recognized their “Transitional National Council” as the legitimate government of Libya and given it access to $30 billion in Libyan assets int he United States.

Fear of being accused of being soft on Qaddafi apparently has muted any criticism of the move.

Who has the leverage in this relationship?

A young British writer, Owen Jones, has just published a book that makes observatins that have become largely off-limits there and here since the Thatcher-Reagan era. It’s called “Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class.”

The word “chavs” refers to working-class people, as in the dinner-table observation: “It’s sad that Woolworth’s is closing. Where will all the chavs buy their Christmas presents?” The New York Times’s review of the book on July 12 further defines the word as “’ugly prole’: loutish, tacky, probably drunken and possibly violent.”

Jones is dismayed by how blatantly the well-off display their disdain for working-class people – who before being systematically trashed in recent decades were honored as salt of the earth; heart and soul of society; a group who made our countries great.

He attributes this to a number of factors, including attacks on unions and the separation elites have put between themselves and the rest of society. He points out that Prime Minister Cameron had such a pampered upbringing that “at the precocious age of 11 he traveled by Concorde to the U.S. with four classmates to celebrate the birthday of Peter Getty, the grandson of oil billionaire John Paul Getty.”

Can they provide the empathy of inspired leadership?

Reuters reporter/columnist David Cay Johnston has done some great research into the subsidies that Rupert Murdoch’s “News Corp” has been receiving from the United States government (the same government his political allies here love to attack).

Based on the company’s $10.4 billion profits during the past four years, the company would have been expected to pay $3.6 billion at the 35 percent corporate tax rate. But instead the company managed to collect $4.8 billion in income tax refunds, “all or nearly all from the U.S. government.”  This magic was achieved through “aggressive use” of intra-company transactions that move profits to global tax-free locations (outside the United States) and losses to heavily taxed areas (guess-where); buying companies with tax losses; and by maximizing the benefits of tax deferrals.

It is all probably legal (i.e., using legal tax loopholes the GOP has provided corporations), but taking billions in subsidies from government while leading efforts to cut off much more modest support to the poor and middle class defines cynicism.

It’s always good to maintain a little perspective as we discuss things like deficits, budgets and … taxes. For a variety of reasons, about 46 percent of all people with incomes will pay ZERO income tax on 2011 earnings. Most of them are poor and middle-class, but among those not paying a nickel in income taxes are:

78,000 tax filers with incomes of $211,000 to $533,000.
24,000 households with incomes of $533,000 to $2.2 million.
3,000 tax filers with incomes above $2.2 million.

And who bleats loudest as Washington try to get people to cough up a little dough?

This data are well-documented by tax experts and summarized by New York Times analyst Bruce Bartlett, who’s held senior policy roles in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and served on the staffs of Representatives Jack Kemp and Ron Paul.

PCWorld magazine has a fun on-line display of people trying to leave a lasting impression for the Google Street camera as it’s driven by. Seems that some have exhibitionist tendencies; women like lifting their shirts and men like dropping their pants. One of the most convincing is this woman in Worcester, England.

Continue reading →

An Army Veteran was killed on a roller coaster at an amusement park — Darien Lake Theme Park Resort — about 30 miles east of Buffalo last Friday.  He was ejected from the 208-foot ride during an outing with friends and family.

The victim, Sergeant James Hackemer, was 29 years old.  He had lost both legs and part of his hip when an armor-penetrating round blew up his vehicle in Iraq in 2008.

And no one had the presence of mind to determine one needs legs to stay inside a roller coaster?

A man died while riding his motorcycle … during a protest against helmet laws near Syracuse, New York, this week.  His bike flipped and he hit his head on the pavement and died.

The 55-year-old motorcyclist — Philip Contos of Parish, New York — was driving his 1983 Harley Davidson with a group of bikers who were protesting a law requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets.  Police say Contos’s bike spun out of control after braking and Contos fell over the handlebars.

New York is one of 20 states that require all motorcycle riders to wear helmets. Troopers said afterward that Contos would have likely survived if he had been wearing a helmet.

I paid no attention to the trial of the Florida mother, Casey Anthony, who allegedly killed her two-year-old daughter — until the jury reached a Not Guilty verdict on the key charges this week.  She was found Not Guilty on counts of first degree murder, aggravated child abuse and manslaughter.

Some are now claiming the prosecutors overextended or were over-zealous.  But it’s hard, if not impossible, to believe that Ms. Anthony didn’t do something pretty atrocious to that little girl.  Anthony didn’t even report her daughter missing until a month after she died, and then it was with some bizarre story.  Then the poor girl’s body wasn’t discovered for another couple months in a marsh that, ummmm, was near Anthony’s parents’ house.  The defense’s key argument was that cause of death could not be conclusively determined — a difficult challenge for a cadaver abandoned in a Florida marsh for several months.

Does any of this pass even a basic laugh test?