I respectfully dissent

The past 10 days have shown the weird side of local politics here.

First, the Greensboro News and Record, revealed that Guilford County District Court Judge William Daisy sent at least 36 e-mail jokes that included racial or ethnic stereotypes. The mysterious Mr. Sun takes the judge to task for this. To me the jokes referred to in the N&R seemed both offensive and not funny. Kind of like the jokes some blowhard corners you and forces you to listen to while you try to figure out an excuse to go elsewhere. The local news here is reporting that Daisy is stepping down as Chief District Court Judge, but will remain a judge until his term ends in 2004. I wonder how the paper got ahold of his personal e-mail. I got the impression from the article that it was not a recipient (although the e-mails were widely distributed). If it wasn't a recipient then somebody must have intercepted or copied his email. While it is fair game for a recipient to dislcose the contents of e-mail, is it fair to record and make public any e-mails of a particular individual? If that is OK then why not a recording of all phone calls made from the judge's office? I'm sure if someone copied every e-mail I have sent, there would be plenty of stuff there that would offend. But then again, I am not an elected official.
Second, self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff"Gerald Hege can also adopt the moniker of "alleged small-time criminal." The sheriff was indicted on 15 counts including embezzlement. The news reports suggest that the sheriff faces sentences of 6-8 months on each charge. I haven't seen the indictments, but the 6-8 month range suggests that they are all "Class I" felonies. Class I felonies almost never result in active prison or jail times for offenders without serious criminal records. Expect to hear that Hege is being treated "just like everyone else." If you believe that I'd like to show you a Chevy Impala Spider Special I have for sale, I'll even throw in a dozen "Team 101" hats. Hege may get treated better in some ways and worse in some others than low-profile defendants, but it won't be the same. For one thing, most defendants are charged by a warrant, then indicted later. Hege was indicted and for some reason the indictments were sealed until Sept. 15.
Third, local legislator Mike Decker re-joined the GOP after a few months as a Democrat. He says it was part of the plan all along. I met Decker a few years ago at a polling place where I and some others were campaigning. I've usually enjoyed talking with others out there during slow times even if I don't support their candidates. Decker struck me as one of the dimmest bulbs I've ever met. The party switches are either some brilliant strategy whose point is not clear or Decker is a nut. I'm leaning toward nut.

On this day in 1977 the last person to be executed in the guillotine was killed in France, according to The Paper Chase. I was shocked it was that recent. Death by guillotine was quick according to a web guillotine historian,

The person guillotined becomes unconscious very quickly and dies from shock and anoxia due to haemorrhage and loss of blood pressure within less than 60 seconds. It has often been reported that the eyes and mouths of people beheaded have shown signs of movement. It has been calculated that the human brain has enough oxygen stored for metabolism to persist about seven seconds after the supply is cut off. As in hanging the heart continues to beat for some time after decapitation.

Comic artist Berkeley Breathed suggested in a Washington Post online forum that it is time to trim some dead ink from the comic pages. Amen. Exhibit A: Family Damn Circus. The fact that someone can justify cutting a tree and killing innocent soybeans for the ink and paper needed to create that tripe is a travesty. It is a capital crime when those plant products are sacrificed for a classic "guest drawing" by 7-year-old Billy.

The forum host, columnist Gene Weingarten, was frank about why newspapers keep boring, trite, unfunny crap,

The main reason some wonderful, new, edgy voices are not out there on the comics pages is not that these people do not exist: They can't get their foot in the door, because newspaper editors are candy-asses. They are afraid that if they drop Garfield six little old ladies will end their subscriptions

Years ago I was a newpaperman. I remember one managing editor who was arrogant, foul-mouthed, abrasive, and did not care what anyone thought. The paper took on politicians, local power brokers etc. However the tough guys crumbled into sniveling lumps of Jello when they got 25 calls from old ladies when bridge column was left out. Newspaper circulation was about 120,000. Ari Fleischer would give up his first born to have the media stranglehold that the "Septegenarian Six" wield so fiercely.

How can journalists be willing to take a bullet for story or to go to jail to protect an anonymous source be so scared of the Tuesday Morning Contract Bridge Society?

My candidates for immediate elimination:

Family Damn Circus: Not funny. Never was. Not only should newspapers stop running it, but every trace that it ever existed should be scrubbed from the culture. Burn the microfilms that archive it and scatter the ashes to the four winds. If we don't do this, imagine what could happen. Centuries after the collapse of our civilizations the mongrel hordes discover a collection of Family Circus cartoons and decide that it must contain the wisdom of the ancients. The could decide to base their entire civilization on the Family Circus. Their spiritual side could consist of some weird "Not Me" and "Ida Know" cosmology. Their philosophy could consist entirely of Dolly-isms. Their notion of the afterlife would be Grandpa on the cloud. We could stop this, we can and we must.

Beetle Bailey: Include Camp Swampy in the next round of base closings. The addition of the geeky tech guy who re-treads tired computer gags is a death rattle if I ever heard one.

Dennis the Menace

Hi & Lois

Mary Worth: For those of you who do not read Mary Worth, let me summarize the activity in the last 55 years: Mary got up, had breakfast with her neighbor where they talked about a new tenant, and then she walked outside and saw the gardener planting some flowers. As promising as that premise sounds, I say evict her.

Hagar the Horrible

Judge Parker: Yank the bench out from under him when no one is looking

Rex Morgan

Comment

Employees at an Arkansas Taco Bell were so horrified by a customer's Speedo that they called the cops and he was charged with indecent exposure, according to the AP. An Arkansas statute defines "indecent exposure" as display of a sex organ under circumstances "in which the person knows the conduct is likely to cause affront or alarm." The Speedo-clad man was photographed. The story does not mention whether "crime scene" tape was used to encircle the man during the evidence processing phase of the investigation.

The man may have a defense if the state can't prove that the sex organ the Speedo exposed was exposed "with purpose to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of the person or of any other person," as the statute requires.

Maybe the guy should get his Speedo supersized.

(the photo above is a random Speedo shot, not the Arkansas Speedo Man)

Comment

Actual "Jail Cam" warning for the Anderson County Sheriff's Dept.

DISCLAIMER This is a real life transmission of the Anderson County Sheriff's Department. Instances of violence or sexually inappropriate behavior by detainees during the booking process may occur. Viewer discretion is advised. This is a Jail not a simulation. The persons in this transmission are either employees of the Anderson County Sheriff's Department or arrestees.

The warning should also mention that it is about as interesting as C-SPAN.

You can watch the proceedings here. I'll stick to Andy Griffith reruns when I want insight into the workings of sheriffs and jails.

A motocyclist is spotted driving recklessly and the police attempt to pull him over. He points to his T-shirt with the word "POLICE" on the front and back and keeps going. Anyone who has watched those police chase videos knows how this ended. Among other things the motorcyclist is charged with wearing unauthorized indicia of law enforcement, based on the T-thirt. On appeal a Florida appellate court threw out the conviction calling the unauthorized indicia law "overbroad" meaning that the statute could include conduct that conduct that was protected by the First Amendment. The statute as written applied whether or not the wearer intended to trick anyone into believing he was a police officer.

The prohibited words were: Police, Patrolman, Agent, Sheriff, Deputy, Trooper, Highway Patrol, Wildlife Officer, Marine Patrol Officer, State Attorney, Public Defender, Constable or Bailiff.

I found it funny that State Attorney and Public Defender were prohibited words. Was there really a market for T-shirts that read "Public Defender"?.

The court opinion is here.

NYT columnist Nikolas Kristof is getting a first-hand view of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by camping there. He is writing about the government's effort to open the area up to oil drilling. Kristof cites one argument that drilling supporters offer: almost none of those who insist on protecting this refuge have ever seen it or ever will. I understand that is is impossible to put a value on just knowing that it is there, but I don't see how the fact that I'm not likely to go there makes me somehow not qualified to offer an opinion on what should be done with it. I've never been to Venice and I'll probably never go, but I don't think it should be drained I've never been to the Grand Canyon, but that is no reason to fill it in.

Maybe one day we'll be so adept at oil drilling that we can do it without disturbing the surface at all. The oil isn't going anywhere.

Kristof also mentioned that he is packing "bear spray," but he has doubts about its effectiveness. I don't carry it because I am 500 times more likely to accidentally spray myself than I am to being bothered by a bear. A story in Backpacker magazine a few years ago said testers sprayed some on bushes to test the effect on bears. They later saw the bears licking the bushes. Bears may regard the pepper spray as some sort of spice.