Hawks surprise Celtics again 97-92

ATLANTA - Forget about a Boston sweep. The Hawks are headed back to Beantown all tied up with the mighty Celtics scored 35 points - 20 in the fourth quarter...

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Happy 4/20 from all of us at MPR!

Someday after the revolution comes, 4/20 will be an official holiday. Today a mostly informal observation of the world's favorite illegal narcotic, MPR sees a future on the horizon not too far from now when stoners will await the Magic Rastafari to manifest himself through bong smoke in living rooms throughout the world, exchanging good tidings and good stuff before settling down to a huge dinner. At about 10:30 a.m.

Someday after the revolution comes, 4/20 will be an official holiday. Today a mostly informal observation of the world's favorite illegal narcotic, MPR sees a future on the horizon not too far from now when stoners will await the Magic Rastafari to manifest himself through bong smoke in living rooms throughout the world, exchanging good tidings and good stuff before settling down to a huge dinner. At about 10:30 a.m.

Put this down on your shopping list: Captain Joint, an officially recognized High Times freedom fighter, has lent his likeness to the John C. Bunn Trust's prospective "Legalize Marijuana Bobblehead Dolls." Under the guideline of the Captain's ethos "Learn whle you burn," the bobbleheads are touted as educational, as the "Colorful Collector Box comes decorated with Educational Web Sites and Drug War Facts."

Proclaimed Captain Joint triumphantly, "If Tommy Chong could make millions on making stoners look stupid, I should do OK making us look smart! It is time to break free of that stupid stoner stereotype and show the world what we got!"

Advance orders ($25 US, $30 Can.) are now being accepted at CaptainJoint@yahoo.com or by calling 207.965.2341.

Also of note on this holiest of holy days is a nice piece over at a website called G4TV.com. Entitled "The Highest People of All-Time," this might be a nice little traffic-grabber today; a funny bit despite the cheesy choice at no. 1.

O, partiers, take note: Surely the fuzz is wise to the, ahem, rituals undertaken on the holiday. So drive carefully - and by "drive," MPR means, "stow your bag." The, 4/20 T.J. Hooker Discreet Criminal of the Month award goes to fuzzy-headed Johnny Lerma of Mandan, N.D.

County police pulled Lerma's vehicle over because of visible overheating. Turns out Lerma had "a bag of marijuana shoved against the vehicle's air intake, which was causing the car to overheat." Though the amount on Lerma was undisclosed, he is charged with felony possession with intent to deliver. Dude...

So while you're enjoying the company of like-minded mellow friends at this festive time, spare a thought for the less fortunate souls like Lerma, would you?

Happy holidays!

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Organobit: Danny Federici

The man who played organ and accordion for Bruce Springsteen, has died.

Danny started playing the accordion at the age of seven, encouraged by a mother who would book him out for parties playing classical and polka tunes. Federici would recall later that:

“I had ‘Danny’ written on my accordion in rhinestones. It was really a corny existence for awhile there. Thank god for rock & roll.”

Rock arrived for Danny in the form of the British Invasion - and, while many of his age group were taking up guitars, Danny decided to put his squeeze box on one side in favour of keyboards. It was a good choice - he joined Child, a band in which his mate Vinnie Lopez was a drummer, and so was behind the right keyboards at the right time when Child took on a new singer, Bruce Springsteen, and started to morph into the E Street Band.

Federici's organ would thus wind up driving Born In The USA and Born To Run, and Danny would spend forty years backing Bruce. But if polka and classical were his initiation, and rock his fortune, it was jazz that would be his life-long love. In 1997, he released Flemington, a solo jazz album and, in 2004, self-released Sweet. V2 eventually picked the record up and gave it a formal release as Out Of A Dream.

For the past three years, Danny had been battling melanoma, a battle he lost yesterday. Bruce Springsteen led the tributes, cancelling his weekend gigs and posting a message on his website:

"Danny and I worked together for 40 years - he was the most wonderfully fluid keyboard player and a pure natural musician. I loved him very much...we grew up together."

A Melanoma Fund is being established in his memory.
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Islam's New Contributions to the World: Litter and Late Tax Filings

I Just Love That Religion of Peace

God bless Florida Power and Light. They do a real service, making other utilities look so good. My power went out today--first time in maybe three weeks--and I got to spend a good long time living without technology.

Fortunately, due to the incredible progress of global warming, it's fifteen degrees below the average temperature here, so I was able to use the power outage as an excuse to open doors and windows and let fresh air in. Generally when you open a door or window in Miami, the cockroaches and mosquitoes stampede through your house like Vikings in a Bank of America commercial. But I have poisoned everything near me, and the cool, dry air isn't to the bugs' liking, so I was safe.

I had a pile of administrative things to do today, like convincing the Florida DMV once again that I really do have insurance. They forget once a year, minimum. And I didn't know until this weekend that I was going to file a tax extension, and the juice went out at about the time I planned to print the form out and mail it, so I ended up in a line of fools at the Post Office, trying to get my postmark. And I did other crap even more boring than all this.

I want to thank the Religion of Peace once again, for one of its many blessings. There used to be a mailbox on every corner. Ever wonder what happened to them? The government took the damn things away to minimize the likelihood that Muslims would put bombs in them. Do I know this for a fact? No, but I'm not stupid, either. The boxes started disappearing after 911, and it cost the government a lot of money to do it, so it's pretty clear what the reason was. It's like the thick cast iron public trash receptacles in Israel, or the crazy trash containers they have in airports now. Thank you Muslims, for these wonderful advances.

In other news, you will be glad to know that Marv is finally accepting his new ceramic perch, after a week of pretending to hate it. I figured he needed a new perch higher in his cage, because he kept sitting on a steel ring intended to hold a food dish. It looked uncomfortable, but he sat there all the time, and finally I realized it was higher than his regular perch.

I bought him a "calcium perch," which is some sort of calcium-based material dyed red. And for a week, he sat directly UNDER it. On the uncomfortable steel ring. But last night I realized things were working out, because one side of his head was pink. He had clearly been mashing his head against the perch, which indicates acceptance. He was probably trying to make the perch pet him. He does that with my computer mouse.

I thought it might be a black eye. African greys are among the few birds that fall down, and Marv was beating the hell out of his toys yesterday, and every so often he manages to give himself a shiner doing this. But it turned out to be perch dye.

Have you ever seen a bird fall down? Marv does it all the time. He'll be hanging by his feet from a bird toy, screaming and cursing, and you'll turn your head away, and suddenly you'll hear a noise like "BUNG!"

That's Marv, hitting the heavy wire poop grate. It rings for quite some time after he smacks it. He gets up and walks around, muttering "Are you okay?" He learned that from me. When he flies into a wall or dives into the toilet, I pick him up and ask him if he's okay. He seems to appreciate it.

"I love your head," Marv says. He's upset because Maynard is walking around on me while I type. Maynard was whining for attention, and I ignored him, and when I looked toward his cage, he was sitting on the perch, looking at me while petting himself on the head. Cheap trick. It got him some out time.

Mike is supposedly in town this week on business. I haven't heard from him. I hope he drops by for pizza and a trip to the range. If not, I'm going anyway.

I better put Maynard away before Marv loses his voice.

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News Scan

Rape and the Death Penalty. Wednesday the United States Supreme Court will determine if a state law which allowed a child rapist to receive a death sentence is constitutional. The case of Kennedy v. Louisiana, (see blog scan April 10), involves the death sentence that Patrick Kennedy received for raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter. Robert Barnes from the Washington Post notes that while supporters demand retribution for those that harm the most vulnerable, child advocacy experts say if the death penalty is utilized for child rapists, it might encourage the rapist to kill the victim.

Cameras for speeders. Steve Hymon of the L.A. Times reports on the new idea that Beverly Hills police have for speed demons. They want the Legislature to allow cameras to capture the faces and license plates of motorists that speed along residential roads. Since similar cameras have been used on roadways in Arizona, the average speed has dropped about 9 mph. While the subject is somewhat controversial, residents and officials think the cameras would focus the attention of motorists.

U.S Supreme Court denied Teen Killer appeal
A story by CNN’s Bill Mears reports that the Court has rejected 12-year-old's appeal of his 30-year prison sentence. Pittman killed both of his grandparents with a shotgun and was tried as an adult. His lawyer wanted to argue that the sentence was cruel and unusual because there is no other inmate serving as severe a sentence for a crime committed at such a young age.

National Crime Victims' Rights Week
April 13th through the 19th is the week when the nation recognizes crime victims, with rallies, candlelight vigils, and other events to honor victims and those who advocate for them. To get more information about what you can do this week go to the National Center for Victims of Crime website.

Death Row inmate Challenges Alabama Lethal Injection Process
The Birmingham News reports that serial murderer Daniel Lee Siebert is challenging the state’s death penalty procedures. Siebert was convicted of killing five people and has confessed to killing more across the country. Alabama's protocol requires that after administering anesthesia to a murderer, a prison officer must call the inmates name, pinch his arm and brush his eyelashes to ensure he is unconscious, before the other two other drugs are injected. Siebert’s argument is that the officer who will test the inmates’ response has no medical background and could make a mistake.

A Nebraska inmate is a "sewer"
According to the AP story, jail Inmate Eric Lewis, awaiting trial for second degree murder, has filed 149 lawsuits since January, 2007. Lewis' lawsuits have sought protection orders against jail employees. All six Lancaster County District Judges signed an order that would limit him to six lawsuits a year unless he can show he is in immediate danger. The judges stated in the order that “Lewis has flagrantly and repeatedly abused the judicial process.”

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Wind Leaps To Fore As Masters Tournament Reaches Toward Conclusion

One four-letter word dominated interviews as the 3rd day of The Masters reached its conclusion: wind. A meteorological factor recognized as important and unpredictable, but never dominant. Never, perhaps, until Sunday. Players in and out of contention all had more to say on the impact of the wind than ever before at Augusta. For example…

Stuart Appleby:
” Q. It’s supposed to gust tomorrow pretty high, what’s the strategy on that? Can you hit knock down shots here and get them to the green?
STUART APPLEBY: It’s just very, very difficult. At least the course won’t be dry. So the greens should be pretty soft. So that will help. But compared to last year they were very dry and fast and windy. So that was probably as hard as it’s going to play. So we should have – it should be – and it’s not going be to be as cold. So it will be probably the most difficult day I would suggest if the weather’s correct.”

Tiger Woods:
” Q. Having won here four times, knowing the conditions will be difficult tomorrow, what’s it going to take?
TIGER WOODS: Depends what the conditions are tomorrow. It could be, if it’s calm like this today then obviously it helps. You know what to do. But if it’s blowing all over the place it all depends on your timing whether you can time the gusts correctly or not.”

Padraig Harrington:
” Q. All those years of hitting balls on windy days in Stackstown, a windy day here on the final day would probably suit you more than others, and you might need it with the lead at the moment, in that 9-, 10-under par category.
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: I think anybody who’s chasing would like a windy day just because it makes it awkward. If I don’t get the breaks tomorrow, no big deal, so be it. But if the guy leading the tournament has a windy day and he gets a few gusts of wind, it’s a tough day for him. Definitely everybody chasing would always look for an awkward day, tricky conditions, and hope that they get the breaks.”

Interesting point: the only player to make no mention of the influence of the vespers was the leader himself. Why hex yourself, right? If the wind truly dominates, then the wolf’s suggestion of a foreign-born champion might come to pass.

RIP, George Truscott.

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Time for flustered Phil Mickelson to ask Brandt Snedeker how to play a major like a veteran at Masters

After Brandt Snedeker’s third consecutive bogey on the 13th hole, I pronounced him toast, banishing him to the land of Masters pretenders with Justin Rose and Ian Poulter.

His bounce back, notching two consecutive birdies on 14 and 15, followed by an even more impressive 3 on 18 has him in the final group going into Sunday.

This turnaround was nothing short of remarkable. Snedeker is a true master at damage control. If golf doesn’t work out for him, I’m sure he’d make a fine White House Press Secretary.

You’d never think he had it in him. He has this goofy, sheepish smile and it seems like he rushes all of his shots. Apparently if you play a around of golf with his brother, you can see beyond this boyish facade.

Then there is “veteran” Phil Mickelson. You could string a row of Christmas lights with all his red and green ticks this afternoon. When he hit his approach on 15 to about ten feet below the hole for birdie, setting himself up for a third birdie in as many holes, he appeared to be back in the mix.

We were all thinking a possible dream Tiger-Phil pairing on Sunday.

Instead, he hit a brutal putt that never had a chance. But the worst part was his next shot. He hit his tee shot on 16 into the worst possible place that every pro knows not to go: the shortside bunker that puts you in total jail. Fitting how it was only Mickelson and 20-year old Andres Romero among the contenders who made this bonehead play. Both double bogeyed and put themselves out of contention.

Phil could have just as easily done what Snedeker did and he’d be back in the tournament. Snedeker is playing well beyond his years while Mickelson is playing like he’s never been there before. I can’t understand how a two-time winner could have such a lack of composure.

It’s amazing how we’re praising Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson’s incredible scrambles for par, while Snedeker and leader played perfect finishers resulting in easy birdie putts.

It looks like the Green Jacket is going to be put on another first time major winner tomorrow.

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Naval Officer is a Disgrace to the Service

A female Naval officer that worked as a prostitute in the Washington, D.C. area for a California-based call girl service, testified today after being granted immunity from prosecution.

A Navy supply officer and former Naval Academy instructor testified Thursday that she moonlighted as a prostitute for the D.C. Madam, a California woman accused of running an escort service that prosecutors say netted her several million dollars over a 13-year period.

told federal prosecutors at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that she had sex with nearly every client she met while working for Deborah Jeane Palfrey from October 2005 until April 2006.

[...]

A Navy lawyer familiar with the case said that the Navy can not prosecute Dickinson under the Uniform Code of Military Justice based on anything that she said during the trial because she had been granted immunity by federal prosecutors. She still could be prosecuted, they said, but only if they uncover evidence independent from her testimony. Also, Dickinson’s immunity does not extend to administrative actions, which could include removing her from the military.

Dickinson joined the Navy in 1986 and served as an aviation electronics technician for three years before attending Auburn University. After she was commissioned in 2003, Dickinson attended Naval Supply Corps School and then served aboard the cruiser Bunker Hill, the fast combat support ship Camden and the ammunition supply ship Santa Barbara.

Sad but true.

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Indiana Pacer Sitting Out to Watch Brother

As if things couldn't get any worse for the Indiana Pacers, the team was told that shooting guard Kareem Rush would rather watch his younger brother, Brandon Rush of Kansas, play in the Monday night than be with the team.

Kareem Rush, now a reserve on the Pacers, was once a rising star after playing his college basketball career at the University of Missouri. He was drafted in the first round, number 20 overall, by the Toronto Raptors. He also made it clear to the team that he is willing to pay any fine handed down.

The crazy part of all this is that other players have missed the birth of their children to be with their teams, but Rush thought it would be more important to live vicariously through his younger brother.

I guess this is similar to when Pittsburgh Steelers safety Tyrone Carter's brother skipped reporting to jail on time to see his brother play in the Super Bowl. Maybe Rush thinks playing for the Pacers is like a jail sentence.

www.rawsportsblog.com

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Books That Changed My Life

Courage to Write wrote here about the books that have changed her life.

Here's my (partial) list:

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Love, Death & the Changing of the Seasons by Marilyn Hacker
Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton
Crime & Punishment by Fydor Doestoyevsky
Egalia's Daughters by Gerd Brantenberg
Housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Orlando by Virginia Woolf

Perhaps later I'll write about the significance to me of some of these books.

I'd love to hear your lists of books that changed your life. (I don't have to meme youyou, do I-I?)
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ATA Airlines Shuts Down

has bellied up, shutting down operations, canceling all its flights and leaving passengers holding their bags. Literally.

On its Web site, the airline advises:

ATA customers who purchased tickets using a credit card should contact their credit card company or travel agency directly for information about how to obtain a refund for unused tickets.

Sound familiar? Yeah, that's pretty much what Aloha Airlines said when it closed up shop Monday. If you're holding a ticket, call your credit card company and dispute that charge RIGHT NOW.

Paid cash? Good luck with the bankruptcy court.

ATA flew about 50 flights a day, mainly between Hawaii and the West Coast, and carried passengers on a code share with Southwest Airlines. That means many of its passengers are stranded right now in Hawaii, struggling to find an airplane seat off the island, not an easy task in the aftermath of Aloha's collapse.

There are worse places to be stuck, but stuck is still stuck. And it's not as if Southwest can fly the passengers home. Its 737s don't have the range to make flights between Hawaii and the mainland.

ATA was flying some longer-range 737s and some larger aircraft to Hawaii. It also had two of the only remaining L-1011s in passenger service (my favorites, sniff).

Its demise is going to put more pressure on airfares to Hawaii. Even after the stranded passenger backlog is cleared out and the other airlines expand (Hawaiian is working on more routes to the mainland) it's unlikely the seat inventory will be fully restored any time soon. These long-haul flights are fuel hogs, and that's not an inviting proposition for any airline right now.

And it's unlikely, too, that the airline collapses are over.

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Attack of the 60 Year Old Dolls

What’s the deal with the attack of the sexy sexagenarians on TV’s most popular shows?

Priscilla Presley, 62, is the second ranking competitor on "Dancing with the Stars," thanks to judges scores. And on "American Idol," the first mentor of the season is, 60, exuding the same blonde plasticity she clearly embraces on the title of her new album, "Backwoods Barbie."

Both women are almost unnaturally youthful looking. And unnatural is the word.

Under their dyed hair and carefully painted makeup the faces have taken on the contours of their multiple plastic surgeries.

The mask of the former Mrs. Elvis is as unmoving as if she were a member of the JabberWockeez dance crew. Dolly’s been as open about her own facial work as Phyllis Diller.

But an errant wrinkle on either would be preferable to the botched work that’s been splattered all over the internet as evidence of overwork.

Because these are both the most popular shows on TV and share a family audience, what message is all this sending to kids? That grandma’s some kind of freak for aging naturally?

I’d think the tightness of layers of bad plastic surgery might hinder the kind of expression either would need to convey a modicum of feeling in dancing, singing or acting.

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April Fools @ The Newsistan

By Debbie Schlussel

Though most of you, dear readers, don't live in the Detroit area or even in Michigan, I think you will enjoy the two that The Detroit Newsistan is serving up, today. This is a taste of the usual drivel Detroit's more evil of the two lesser major nespapers gives us on a daily basis, but in honor of their fave namesake holiday, they decided to be twice as nice.

* First up is Shikha Dalmia. Dalmia a/k/a S.D. Melzer has two different names and aliases and regularly tries to pretend she's two different people . . . just like illegal aliens, whom she wants to be able to legally work here through a guest worker program.

Yet, she is upset that Congressmen Heath Shuler and Tom Tancredo are trying to get a house floor vote on the Secure American Through Employment (SAVE) Act, which would require all employers to take part in the E-verify program that checks the immigration status and work eligibility of all employees seeking work. The purpose is to, once and for all, stop employers from getting away with hiring illegal aliens because the aliens presented fake IDs. Currently, employers only need show that they made copies of two valid IDs from the worker, even if they are fake.

Many of these aliens, just like the dishonest Ms. Dalmia, also try to deceive the rest of us in America, using multiple names and aliases.

When writing op-eds in places like the Wall Street Journal, this woman writes as "S.D. Melzer, a staffer for the Mackinac Public Policy Center" of Michigan. When she writes elsewhere, as with her former employer, The Detroit Newsistan (where she regularly wrote misinformed BS about the "success" of Democracy throughout the Muslim world), she is suddenly "Shikha Dalmia of Metro Detroit, a senior analyst at the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation."

So, to sum up, this woman, like many illegal aliens seeking work here, is employing multiple names and fake personalities to deceive others and put out her silly points of view. But, she can't, for the life of her, understand, why it's necessary for us to require employers to verify the real identity of illegal aliens who engage in the same deceptions as Ms. Dalmia in order to obtain jobs that should go to Americans.

Ms. Dalmia is upset that, under the SAVE Act, "workers--not their employers--would have to clear things with Uncle Sam when their credentials are thrown into question." Imagine if an employer will actually have to clear up why a woman wanting to write for the employer has two different names and personas. I guess if Dalmia can do it, why not illegal aliens?

* Next is Mekeisha Madden Toby. This woman is The Detroit Newsistan's sub-rate "TV critic". Problem is, she's pretending to be a Detroiter from Los Angeles. She's one of those people with the group think ethos that "you can't tell the truth about Detroit."

She's miffed that Al Roker and his Spike TV reality show, "DEA," shows the decrepit Detroit neighborhoods and narrates how Detroit has the highest murder rate in the country and lots of illegal guns on the street. All true. But, this woman who won't live in Detroit and lives in LOS ANGELES, is mad that the show disses and doesn't capture the "true" Detroit. And she knows this because she's experiencing the "real Detroit". . . in Sunny Los Angeles:

While the narrator spends a great deal of time at the beginning of this Al Roker-produced series telling viewers how dangerous Detroit is, how it has the highest murder rate in the country and how many hundreds of thousands of illegal guns there are on the street, Roker and his producers fail to establish a sense of place. Our Motown is so much more than a list of frightening statistics.

"Our Motown" as written from the beaches of Santa Monica? Puh-leeze. What a fraud.

Happy Day--which is every day at this "newspaper--from The Detroit Newsistan.

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