Saturday, August 25, 2007

I want my Mike Vick fix

If you haven't caught my tongue and cheek posts about America's favorite dog trainer, Michael Vick, I think it's time to explain myself.

First, the media coverage of this is down right deplorable. With each and every 24 hour news cycle, a new twist on the case seem to arise. Except that there was actually nothing to report.

You see in the tax business, we use the terminology "taxable event". What that means is something happens that justifies a certain tax treatment. For instance, if I transfer money from my savings to my checking account, it is not a taxable event. If you pay me for accounting services, a "taxable event" just occurred.

Journalism needs the same terminology.... call it a "news event". People meeting behind closed doors discussing something is not a "news event". Speculation and hear say are not "news events". Actually being charged with a crime qualifies as a "news event". A conviction also qualifies.

In addition to the terminology, news outlets need to actually report what event just occurred. In the Vick case, when an actual "news event" actually occurred, the media totally misreported it. All day yesterday, it was reported by all the media outlets that Michael Vick agreed to a plea bargain but did not and would not admit to any gambling or killing of dogs. His actual plea agreement did no such thing.

But the media let Vick's attorney's play them because they are all dumb asses. They really don't have the ability to read a legal document and report on it so they allow the attorney's to feed them more lies and speculation about the deal. Is it any wonder the profession is dominated by liberals?

This is why the American population places the media right next to car salesmen in terms of trustworthiness.

They can't discern what is actually news and they can't, or won't, report the news that actually occurs....... accurately.

Now where the hell is Natalie Holloway?

Friday, August 24, 2007

So Long Cincinnati

Since 1989, I have lived in the city of Cincinnati. I've lived in Corryville, Oakley, Pleasant Ridge, and Madisonville.

For years I rejected the suburbs; just wasn't for me, too vanilla. However, now that me and the future Mrs. Gekko will be in marital bliss soon I decided it was time to get the hell out of town.

I could have tried to talk the future Mrs. Gekko into moving into the city; perhaps a nice quiet place in Hyde Park or Mount Lookout. But why? Why should I try talk someone that lives in the 'burbs to move back to the city. The increased crime? Oh, I know, the higher taxes? No no, it's the horrible schools?

The city worked fine for me, I can take care of myself. But I'll be damned if I would ever take on the responsibility of having a loved one move into the city with all the things that can go wrong there.

So instead, I'm heading out where I don't have to worry about the safety of my wife getting into her car or stopping by an ATM machine.

I'm sure some city leader is probably going, who is he? He's just one person in a city of 350,000. His leaving is of no consequence to us.

Except that I'm just one of 650,000 people who have left the city for a life in the city's suburbs. One of those 650,000 who's taken his tax dollars, a sense of community, and his crime free life style to a place where he's actually wanted.

So Cincinnati, you can keep the cars with the booming bass, auto glass all over downtown streets and pan handlers, I'm going to a place where the major concern is how bright the flashing red light at the intersection should be.

Evaluating credit

Check out the five C's of credit at Valentine Tax Tips.

Calling all Bengals

We all want a full Bengal roster for the season opener.

So if you are a Bengal, stay away from Route 4 in Butler County tonight. They are profiling drunk drivers with a DUI checkpoint so stay away.

No word yet on where the next dog fight check point is going to be. As soon as we find out, we'll let you know.

Does anyone else find this ironic...

Many local schools are cancelling or shortening classes due to the high temperatures but apparently don't think it's hot enough to cancel football games and other sporting events. Come on... you can't tell me it's more dangerous to sit in a fan cooled classroom listening to a history lecture than it is to play football in this weather? Where's their priorities?

Continued Michael Vick Coverage

taxmanblog this morning has learned that nothing official has occurred in the Michael Vick case today.

While other networks continue to report speculation and hearsay regarding the details of a potential plea bargain, the fact is, nothing has happened to date.

Keep in tuned to taxmanblog for your 24/7 coverage of nothing happening in the Vick case.

Unbelieveable

How can this happen?

How busy, stressed, air-headed, overworked, dim-witted or scatterbrained must a person be to forget their child and leave them in a parked car, regardless of the outdoor temperature? I left my wallet in the car by mistake, I've left groceries in the car, I've even left my keys in it once... but I can't imagine ever being so preoccupied with something else that I would leave my child. They should lock Brenda up for just being stupid, if nothing else.

A 2-year-old girl was found dead Thursday afternoon inside her mother's car parked outside Glen Este Middle School.

Thursday's temperature hit a record 100 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. School officials declined to comment on why the girl, Cecilia Slaby, might have been left in her mother's Mercedes.

Her mother, Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby, is the school's assistant principal.
Union Township police said the girl was strapped in a car seat in the rear of the vehicle for several hours before she was noticed.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Yeah.... She's an American

Elvira Arellano, the illegal immigrant who hid out in a church until she was deported this week, blamed the US government for her illegal crossing of the border.

She breaks the law and then blames the government? Is she a Clinton relative?

On a related note, the mexican senate also blamed the US for a poor immigration policy. The head of mexican senate must be a democratic weasel named Alejandro Reid.

Finally, nothing happened in the Michael Vick case today. As always, stay tuned for the most recent coverage of nothing happening in the Michael Vick case.

Ouch

A woman set fire to her ex-husband's penis as he sat naked watching television and drinking vodka, Moscow police said on Wednesday.

Asked if the man would make a full recovery, a police spokeswoman said it was "difficult to predict".

More...

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

I never would have thunk it

Can you believe this?


Most US adults in the dark about world politics


No way, you mean the same US population that can't name a Senator? The same population that can't name the secretary of state? The same US population that almost made Al Gore president doesn't have a clue about world politics?

The next Harris survey..... most people believe water is wet.

ALERT According to sources, nothing has happened in the Michael Vick case.... Keep coming here for the latest on nothing happening in the Michael Vick case.

Alert

This just in.

Michael Vick is or has accepted a plea bargain from federal prosecutors.

We'll keep you posted when or if this event actually happens.

Let's protect our children

From the article

A Mason mother worried about the safety of her daughters walking past the home of registered sex offender to their school bus stop complained Monday the school system should have acted quicker to change bus stops.

“A school bus stop is like a candy store for sex offenders,” said Morie Mortashed of the Pine Hill Estates in Mason.


So you're probably thinking. The sex offender is one of these perverts who goes and kidnaps kids off of school bus stops and rapes and kills them.


But here is the crime committed by this offender

Brian Owens, 22, was arrested and convicted in 2003 in connection with allegations that he took nude photographs of two teen-aged girls between 13 and 16 and that he had sex with one of them. A felony charge of unlawful sex with a minor and another charge of illegal use of a minor in nudity oriented material were dismissed after Owens pleaded guilty to a second count of the latter charge, Warren County court records show.

Now let's break this down. Convicted in 2003, four years ago. He would have been 18 at the time of conviction, maybe younger on the day he committed the offenses.

The article doesn't say which of the girls he had sex with but does this sound like a guy who's going to troll school bus stops looking for victims?

We've now created an entire fear business in this country. To the point of insanity. I've been more than critical of school districts but how are school districts supposed to deal with each and every one of these complaints.

What's it going to take for people to get a grip.


What's a child's life worth?

Ohio recently passed Jarod's law, inspired by the death of a six year old boy who had a 290 lb table collapse on him.

It requires inspections of health, sanitary and safety conditions of all public and non public schools.

I truly feel for the family of this boy. It has to tug at the heart of any family to lose a child.

But this was the part of the article that caught my attention.

Many school districts have gotten a look at the draft rules, which they describe as extensive and potentially costly. Jim Bennett understands that districts worry about the costs.


"It's a very valid point that they raise. However, I would say that a child's health or a child's life ... you cannot put a price on the life of a child."



Actually Jim, we put a price on the life of a child each and every day.

Do your remaining children wear helmets all day? I don't see them on the children in the article. What if a brick fell off your house on to one of their heads. Do you drive on the freeway with your children in the car? Do your kids play any sports? Those are all prices we're willing to pay in the form of risk.

The fact is living is risky because death is always a possibility as soon as you get out of bed. But to pass laws in order to legislate each and every potential possibility is ridiculous. Who could have predicted that a ball hit off a kids bat would kill a kid at a little league game? Yet New York passes a law outlawing aluminum bats.

It seems to me all this stuff started with the "Baby on Board" signs. Somehow, we're all supposed Slooooooowwww way down because you have a kid in your car. As if we're going to play demolition derby on the freeway if you don't.

Adults are allowing their fears to take over their sensibilities and we continue to place all these barriers to make kids safer and then we wonder why our kids are fatter then ever. Kids are picking up on this collective neuroses.

I was at a family outing a few months ago and a kid got a nose bleed from bumping heads with another kid. I never saw so many people freaking out over a nose bleed. It's just one of the risks of being a child and sometimes we just can't legislate all the things kids get into.

It seems to me like we all need to take a collective deep breath and trust that God has all the risk associated with our children handled.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Another development

Under the leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Harry "the weasel" Reid, congressional approval ratings continued their robust decline to 18%.

According to Reid, "after we read Bob Taft's memoirs we thought we could incorporate his management style into Congress and it's working fabulously".

Breaking News

Breaking news from a reader...

Michael Vick polishes up his resume for The Bengals, loses Alpo endorsement.

Hat Tip to Urlacher

Garafolo on 24

Tell me she's going to play a terrorist.

Sowell again

Thomas Sowell, a man who gets to the heart with laser beam precision, nails one in his piece titled An Investment in Failure.

The democratic party's slogan should be "Creating victims, then placating them since 1932"

Real News

In follow up to my banging on the Buckeyeville Dispatch about the news they report. Let me show you the news fit to report...

Man hit by Train while texting.

Who need news about the QB competition for the football team when you've got these kinds of stories.

Bengals Notes


From Bengals Notes in today's Enquirer:


Bengals players and coaches participated in a 90-minute session Monday afternoon on DUI laws and traffic stop etiquette. Two Ohio State Troopers led the session.


Shouldn't these clowns already know this stuff?

Monday, August 20, 2007

Another Endorsement for Hill

Joining Jenna Jameson, another quality endorsement for Hillary, Heidi Fleiss.

She's probably hoping to open a branch office on Pennsylvania Ave.

Ohio Workers Comp

The state's $21 billion system for handling claims from injured workers and setting the premiums their employers pay is "pretty broken," and it may take years of work before public trust is restored, the new director of Ohio's insurance fund for injured workers said Wednesday.


The premiums employers pay are unstable and some workers face inappropriately long waiting periods after filing claims, Marsha Ryan, administrator of the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, said in an interview with The Associated Press.



We in the real world didn't need for Marsha to tell us what we already know. Ohio worker's comp system is the worst in the nation. For injured workers as well as employers.

It's not unusual for an employer's annual premiums to double despite the lack of a claim history. I currently have a day care provider with a $6000 annual workers comp bill. It's ridiculous.

I know someone that waited almost six years to get the approval for a back surgery.

What I want to know is why this article is in the Houston Chronicle and not the Buckeyeville Dispatch. Oh, I guess new turf on the football field is more important than a collapsing workers comp system.

Hat tip to Right Angle Blog.

College football polls

While I'm bitching about Buckeyeville, let's take a shot at college football in general.

Here is the AP "preseason" college football poll.


1 Southern California
2 LSU
3 West Virginia
4 Texas
5 Michigan
6 Florida
7 Wisconsin
8 Oklahoma
9 Virginia Tech
10 Louisville
11 Ohio State
12 California
13 Georgia
14 UCLA
15 Tennessee
16 Rutgers
17 Penn State
18 Auburn
19 Florida State
20 Nebraska
21 Arkansas
22 TCU
23 Hawaii
24 Boise State
25 Texas A&M



How do you know USC is number 1? Are they the returning national champs? No. It's totally arbitrary and loaded to the big programs. Let's assume USC played Hawaii in week one and Hawaii pulled off an upset. I would expect that Hawaii should be ranked higher than USC. But what will happen is USC will drop to about 4th and Hawaii will move up to 19th.

If both teams finish the rest of their seasons undefeated, USC's going to be in the BCS and Hawaii will be watching on TV with the rest of us schleps.

So the whole thing is rigged for bigger programs already. Not to mention the four plus non conference home games the bigger programs already play against the likes of Florida International, Eastern Illinois, New Mexico State, Youngstown State.

My question for Big Ten football fans is this. If Kent State goes undefeated in their Big Ten Schedule, do they get the Rose Bowl bid?

Buckeyeville

People often wonder what it is about Columbus (aka Buckeyeville) that I can't take. After all, I did live in Dayton for crying out loud and I've spent plenty of time in Cleveland, Toledo, Marietta, Canton, Akron to have a pretty good sense of what life is in those cities.

Here's what I couldn't take about Buckeyeville straight from the Columbus Dispatch...

According to the Dispatch, today's Top Ten stories in today's paper


So in Buckeyeville, one of the top stories today is the installation of new turf in the stadium? Four of the top ten stories is about OSU football? At least here in the 'nati, we've got murders at peace rallies, development of large piles of dirt on the river, a Bengal being arrested, Red's losing, etc.

It just always occurred to me that there was an apparent poison in the water up there that can only have you talking about Buckeye football. No thanks.

So it appears I will be in perpetual exile from Buckeye City, until I can name my kid Tressel, Archie or Woody.

Another News Alert

If you haven't heard already, there was a report last week that the news staff of the Seattle Times erupted in applause when news of Karl Rove's resignation hit the wire. News Alert.... News rooms are overwhelmingly liberal.

Nicole Brodeur, a columnist for the paper, has a piece here about the incident. Hat Tip Darth Dilbert

Here, every morning, some 20 smart, educated, well-read and diverse people.....


Yeah, I bet they're diverse, I bet there's at least 10 conservatives represented in that 20.

That's her spin. See, in Nicole's world, a "conservative" couldn't be educated, well read and diverse.

What I've come to question is that if liberalism is soooo smart & intelligent, why is it that it can only exist in the vacuum of accountability?

Think about it. This news room erupted in applause. These people are totally insulated from public scrutiny because they are a paper of record.

University Professors, private foundations employees, government employees, union reps, etc. are all insulated from public scrutiny of their beliefs. It's why liberal talk radio will never succeed. As soon as light exposes the mold of liberalism, it starts to dry up. Liberalism can only succeed in the darkness of group think.

As far as Karl Rove goes.... I think it's hilarious that he became a lightning rod for all liberal hate (See liberal projection syndrome). Do you think that maybe that's how he played them the whole time?

News Alert

Breaking News.................

According to the news Michael Vick still has not agreed to a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. Stay tuned for up to the minute updates on this non story story............