Life Of Crime Flushed

Johnny Snodgrass, budding criminal mastermind from West Virginia, is has had his life of crime flushed. Dumped. Swirled down the drain. Quite literally. Yes, Johnny was captured - in all his glory - in a Port-A-Potty.

"A Port-A-Potty is not a good place to hide," police Chief James Kudlak said Wednesday. "There's only one way out."

Johnny Snodgrass, 21, apparently matched the description of a man caught on videotape at a store where an 89-year-old woman's purse was stolen in March and from a nearby video poker establishment where her wallet was found, police said.

The thief got away with about $45.

Acting on a tip, police went to a construction site where Snodgrass was working on Monday to question him, but he ran into the portable restroom. Officers yelled for him to come out and he soon complied, police said.

We're real sorry the whole life of crime thingee didn't work out, Johnny. But really, don't worry. You'll always be number two in our book!

Kurt Vonnegut Dies At Age 84

When I was growing up, reading Kurt Vonnegut was the subversive thing to do. I read a lot of his writings for a number of years. Although I came to disagree with a lot of his ideas, it is still with regret that I note his passing today.

Vonnegut, who often marveled that he had lived so long despite his lifelong smoking habit, had suffered brain injuries after a fall at his Manhattan home weeks ago, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz.

The author of at least 19 novels, many of them best-sellers, as well as dozens of short stories, essays and plays, Vonnegut relished the role of a social critic. He lectured regularly, exhorting audiences to think for themselves and delighting in barbed commentary against the institutions he felt were dehumanizing people.

"I will say anything to be funny, often in the most horrible situations," Vonnegut, whose watery, heavy-lidded eyes and unruly hair made him seem to be in existential pain, once told a gathering of psychiatrists.

A self-described religious skeptic and freethinking humanist, Vonnegut used protagonists such as Billy Pilgrim and Eliot Rosewater as transparent vehicles for his points of view. He also filled his novels with satirical commentary and even drawings that were only loosely connected to the plot. In "Slaughterhouse-Five," he drew a headstone with the epitaph: "Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."

But much in his life was traumatic, and left him in pain.

Rest in peace, Kurt. May your journey to Tralfamadore ease your pain at last.

UPDATE: NYT coverage here.

Trial Balloon Confirmed

Ed Morrisey reports that Fred Thompson appeared on Sean Hannity's show and confirmed what I thought earlier today. The announcement of his illness was a trial balloon to make sure it would not be a problem if he decides to enter the race for the nomination.

FURTHER UPDATE: Thompson's appearance with Hannity is over now. He went on to say that his announcement about his medical issue is part of the process of deciding whether to run for president. He doesn't think it should affect any such bid, but wants to see what the reaction of others is. He also is still trying to determine whether he's "the guy for these times." I get the impression he thinks he probably is.

Fred, if you're reading this, stay healthy — and jump in whenever you're ready. We'd love to see what you can offer.

Ed got that from Powerline. I think Thompson would shake the entire process up in a very big way. (Here's some information on the form of cancer Thompson revealed that he is in remission from today, indolent lymphoma.)

“….Innocent Of These Charges.”

The full statement of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper on the dismissal of all charges against the three Duke lacrosse players who were nifonged includes those word:

The result of our review and investigation shows clearly that there is insufficient evidence to proceed on any of the charges. Today we are filing notices of dismissal for all charges against Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans.

The result is that these cases are over, and no more criminal proceedings will occur.

We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations. Based on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges.

Not that the charges could not be sustained. Not insufficient evidence. Not found "not guilty" - which is not exactly the same as "innocent". The AG flat out states the "crime" never happened at all. Got that? No crime whatsoever. And some of the people who pushed and prodded and screeched and wailed to railroad these young men need to answer for what they did to try to lynch innocent people. Because they were nothing more than a lynch mob seeking vigilante justice and they did not care one whit that they were ruining the lives of three young men.

A Brit Looks At Anti-Americanism

This is a very, very interesting article from the Guardian that should be worth a full read. Justin Webb, the BBC Radio's chief Washington correspondent, writes about the large number of people he has been interviewing about their views on America and Americans. He reaches a number of conclusions that will, frankly, shock a lot of people. Because he does not sound at all like what many, myself included, expect from someone from the BBC or Europe in general. And a lot of knee-jerk America-bashers - even those who live here in the US should take a careful look at what he is saying.

It is a historical fact that anti-Americanism predates the US. It was not invented in reaction to the Monroe Doctrine or the use of marines to pacify Latin America or McDonald's or Hollywood or Bush. It was invented by European biologists who wrote of the New World, shortly after it had been discovered, that nothing good could come of it. It was ghastly. It stank. One cultured scientist, the Dutchman Cornelius de Pauw, put it thus: "Everything found there is degenerate or monstrous." A lot has happened since then, but some people have not noticed, or do not want to.

The French writer Bernard Henri Lévy points out that the impetus for much of the European disdain for the US came from the right; from "a fascist tendency in French thought based on fear and hatred of democracy". Part of that hatred lives on in our friends' question about our children's accents: it is a deeply held belief among Europeans that US democracy leads to a coarsening of culture. They think our children sound crass. It does not matter how many Nobel laureates live in the US, or how many novelists or musicians; in the end, the taste America leaves in the mouth is of hamburger, not foie gras.

John Bolton looks to me like a hamburger man. The least diplomatic of any recent American diplomat, Bolton, lately of the UN, is the living embodiment of what anti-Americans mean when they say "It's the policies, stupid!". When Bolton growls that "the legitimacy of the US comes from ourselves, we do not require any external validation", you can feel the anti-Americans of the world unite and punch the air with delight; they have their cause and, lo, it is reasonable.

So Hubert Védrine, the former French foreign minister, tells me with a sigh that "the Americans are a colonising people with a mission to convert the world". They have forgotten the lessons of history, he says, and it is Europe's job to remind them. I asked John Bolton to comment on this lofty French vision. "Good luck," he chuckled.

I really recommend reading this one - it is well worth the time. Much of what Webb has found he attributes to an unreasoned mind-set - a knee-jerk. It really doesn't matter what the US does or says - the reaction would be the same. A dislike based not on any reason, just on a feeling of cultural superiority or a visceral aversion to America. So those who think we can change the world's opinion of us may find that no matter what they try to do, it will not work.

And you know what? I am really glad someone from the BBC wrote this.

Nerds Come Of Age

Here's an interesting article on a subject both loved and hated around here at times: old computers. More specifically, the collecting of old computers. Which, believe it or not, is becoming quite a hot item.

CALIFORNIA: In the first purchase of his collection, Sellam Ismail loaded the trunk of his car with old computers he stumbled upon at a flea market for $5 apiece. Soon he had filled his three-car garage with what others would consider obsolete junk.

Years later, his collection of early computers, printers, and related parts is piled high across shelves and in chaotic heaps in a 4,500-square-foot warehouse near Silicon Valley. And it is worth real money.

Even as the power and speed of today's computers make their forerunners look ever punier, a growing band of collectors are gathering retro computers, considering them important relics and even good investments.

"There has been a real steep upward trend in prices in the last year, year and a half," said Ismail, 38. "It seems it's become like the new collectible to moneyed people. Before it was just nerds and hobbyists."

He states his own affiliation clearly: he wears a black T shirt with the word "nerd" on the front. He recently brought a quarter-century old Xerox Star computer back to life to be used as evidence in a patent lawsuit.

The pride of his collection is an Apple Lisa, one of the first computers (introduced in 1983) with a now standard graphical interface. Such items sell for more than $10,000.

PIGS

In an old barn in Northern California that also houses pigs, Bruce Damer, 45, keeps a collection that includes a Cray 1 supercomputer, a Xerox Alto (an early microcomputer introduced in 1973) and early Apple prototypes.

"For me the fascination with these artifacts are that they are living histories — especially if they can be kept running — and that they are the key innovations that affect all of our lives more than anything else here in the 21st Century," Damer said.

Makes me wish I'd kept some of the old stuff I used to have. Like the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A that was the first one I owned. I think it was garaged saled years ago - I think it still worked, too. Collecting old hardware. Think of them as comic books with microchips!

Smuggling In The News

Chinese authorities have announced a crackdown on smuggling in Shanghai. The budding entrepreneurs had discovered a lucrative market for their smuggled goods. The report does not explain is how these just managed to sneak the merchandise into the country. After all, pianos aren't exactly easy to disguise.

Police discovered a cache of nearly 5,000 unsold pianos, the China Daily said Wednesday. The smugglers are suspected of being instrumental in making tens of millions of yuan selling the contraband, giving the illegal ivory trade a whole new meaning.

"Customs officials said the smugglers had probably managed to dodge some 10 million yuan ($1.3 million) worth of taxes and seriously disrupted the piano market in Shanghai," the paper said.

Shanghai piano dealers had noticed that second-hand pianos from abroad with low marked prices had been dominating the market "leading customs to suspect that the whole industry was in collusion with smugglers," the paper said.

Believe it or not, that isn't even the strange smuggling story of the day, either. Closer to home, the US Border Patrol discovered a shipment of stolen wedding dresses. 1,000 wedding dresses, in fact. Which, in and of itself is bad enough, but the dresses were stolen from a breast cancer foundation.

The donated dresses were on their way to Los Angeles to a fundraiser for the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation in November when they were stolen in Scottsdale, Arizona, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said.

Inspectors in southern Arizona recovered the dresses late last week when they inspected a tractor trailer that had been denied entry to Nogales, Mexico, by Mexican customs officials.

Police discovered the gowns, which have an estimated value of $3 million, and arrested the driver. It was not immediately clear if the driver was a U.S. or Mexican citizen.

Pretty low thing to do.

Well, That Explains A Lot

Fred Thompson announced that he is in remission for a type of cancer known as "Indolent lymphoma", a very slow-growing and treatable form of cancer. The cancer was diagnosed in 2004 and Thompson is no longer getting treatments. But I imagine that this explains a lot of his hesitancy to enter the race for the Republican nomination.

Indolent lymphoma is slow-growing type of cancer expected to see about 63,000 new cases this year, according to the American Cancer Society.

Thompson has a favorable prognosis and is no longer in treatment, said Dr. Bruce Cheson of Georgetown University Hospital.

Thompson recently told FOX News last month that he was considering making a bid for president. Candidates typically release information about health issues before announcing campaign plans.

"I'm going to wait and see what happens," Thompson said. "I want to see my colleagues on the campaign trial, what they say, what they emphasize, whether they can carry the ball next November."

At one time, this would have been an insurmountable hurdle for a candidate. But things have become a little less restrictive than they used to be. I'm sure that this is a trial balloon to see how the news is taken by the public.

Making Mistakes, Part 2

Ouch. Yesterday, the Opinion Journal blasted the decision by Democratic presidential hopefuls to pull out of a debate that was set to run on Fox News. Today, the Chicago Tribune, not exactly a hotbed of rabid conservative thought, reams them yet again. And they come to the same conclusion that I did: this does not make the candidates look presidential. Instead it makes them look fearful and easily led - or pushed - around. Not exactly what the voters look for in a president.

But let's be clear here. Clinton, Obama and Edwards weren't going to be debating Fox News journalists. They would have been debating each other.

Candidates often feed scoops to favored reporters. They crave the friendly questions and the soft focus that help them appear to be commander-in-chief material. But here's what candidates look like when they attempt to choose which reporters are worthy to question them: fragile, egocentric and frightened of tough questions.

That's not how a prospective president of the United States wants to come across.

Are there unfair questions? Sure. Do journalists on Fox — and elsewhere — get stories wrong? Of course. But Clinton, Obama and Edwards aren't running for board seats at the Mosquito Abatement District. They're running to be the most powerful leader in the world. They shouldn't dodge questioners who aren't handpicked and pre-adoring.

Ouch. You have not heard the last of this issue, I suspect. The media is getting a bit tired of the hard left the Democrats are taking and are beginning to push back - hard. A few more "victories" like this for the left may be more than the Democratic party can recover from.

Nifonged No More

Surprise. Once Mike Nifong turned the case of the three Duke lacrosse players over to the state, the folks doing the new investigation have determined that all charges should be dropped.

 April 10, 2007 — The office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper will announce that he is dismissing all charges against three Duke Lacrosse players, ABC News has learned from sources close to the case.

The three players, Reade Seligmann, David Evans and Collin Finnerty, were facing charges of first degree kidnapping and first degree forcible sexual offense. The charges stem from an off-campus party on the night of March 13, 2006.

In the hours after the party, one of two dancers hired to perform for the players claimed she had been violently raped in a bathroom by members of the lacrosse team. The players had also been indicted for first degree rape, but that charge was dismissed on Dec. 22, 2006.

Special prosecutors from the Attorney General's office took over the case after Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong recused himself in January, citing charges of unethical conduct filed against him by the North Carolina Bar. Since then, Jim Coman and Mary Winstead have examined the case from scratch, interviewing key witnesses and working through reams of evidence.

Now, how are the authorities going to give these three young men their lives back? Who among those who agitated for these wrongful charges to be brought will apologize for the scurrilous way they behaved? (And who do you think is going to get hit with the first lawsuit - because that is surely coming.)