Bearly A Crime

A gas station in Connecticut displays and sells some chainsaw bear statues produced by a New York artist. This little sideline has been satisfactory for both parties for a while now. The artist sells bears, the gas station owners makes a few bucks (and even buys one of the bears for himself). There hasn't been a problem until recently. Someone drove up, loaded up a bear and drove away. Without paying.

Not to be confused with the tale of the three bears, Westport has recently become the locale of another story — that of the stolen bear.

Exactly four weeks ago, an unidentified person, described as a white male in his 20s or early 30s, was seen at about 10 p.m. loading a 4-foot-tall wooden bear from in front of the BP gas station at 1510 Post Road E. into a white Jeep Cherokee and driving off with it.

After footage of the theft from a surveillance camera was aired Aug. 27 on a local news station, someone reportedly called the gas station at 11:45 that night and said there was an envelope on a bench outside the place and said, "That's for the bear," before hanging up.

Ken Kronberg, who has owned the gas station with his wife, Helene, for the past 22 years, said that is the first time one of the bears, which have been selling outside the store for the past eight months, has been taken, not to mention voluntarily paid for after being pilfered from his place.

"I can't say this has ever happened," he said.

The Kronbergs notified the police of the theft the next morning and gave them the surveillance tape, but decided not to press charges after receiving the money for the bear, which weighs about 200 pounds.

"We were like, 'No harm, no foul,'" said Kronberg, who has bought five of the statues himself. "We were hoping something good would come out of this. Perhaps he'd think twice about doing a bad deed."

Well, at least it ended well. The bear was paid for, no charges were filed and that's that. But the artist, Chuck Jennett (misidentified in the story as Chuck Gennett) has a website. And he is very, very good. No, I mean seriously good at this. I have seen any number of so-so chainsaw artists. Mr. Jennett is one of the best I have seen. A lot of his work is really unusual - it is not all bears. He has pictures here. I wonder if he does armadillos?

A Letter From General Petraeus

General David Petraeus has written a letter to the troops serving in Iraq:

Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and Civilians of Multi-National Force-Iraq:

We are now over two-and-a-half months into the surge of offensive operations made possible by the surge of forces, and I want to share with you my view of how I think we're doing. This letter is a bit longer than previous ones, since I feel you deserve a detailed description of what I believe we have and have not - accomplished, as Ambassador Crocker and I finalize the assessment we will provide shortly to Congress.

Up front my sense is that we have achieved tactical momentum and wrested the initiative from our enemies in a number of areas of Iraq. The result has been progress in the security arena although it has, as you know, been uneven. Additionally, as you all appreciate very well, innumerable tasks remain and much hard work lies ahead. We are, in short a long way from the goal line, but we do have the ball and we are driving down the field.

That momentum is important. Please read the whole thing. It really is not all that long, but I think General Petraeus is giving a clear assessment, warts and all, of where things stand.

La Doncella

This is amazing but very sad at the same time. The perfectly preserved, frozen body of a 15-year old Incan girl has been put on display in a museum in Argentina. She died more than 500 years ago, but the hairs on her arms are still intact. She is called La Doncella.

She died over 500 years ago yet, with her hands resting on her lap and head falling forward so that her finely braided hair slips across her eyes, this 15-year-old girl looks as peaceful as if she has just fallen into a sleep from which she might wake at any moment.

Her frozen body has been hailed as one of the best preserved Incan mummies ever found and, this week, she went on public display for the first time in the High Mountain Archaeological Museum in Argentina.

Visitors to the museum have been peering at the downy hairs still visible on her arms, the perfectly intact skin on her face and the lice that must have been scurrying through her hair when she died and are still lodged there.

Along with the remains of two younger children, the teenager was plucked from the slopes of a cloudswept volcano in 1999 by a team who battled for three days through driving blizzards and 70mph winds to reach the summit 22,000ft above sea level.

There, the archaeologists spotted a rectangular walled area, dug down through five feet of rocks and soil and finally uncovered an Incan burial platform.

One of the team was lowered headfirst into the icy pit, his colleagues hanging onto his ankles, so that he could scrape away the soil and pull the dead children out with his hands.

She looks as though she just fell asleep in an awkward position but could wake up at any moment and pick up her life where she left off. The pictures are stunning. But her body is displayed in a special case that keeps her forever at -20° C.

Democrats Are Against Big Business, Right?

That's the meme. The Democrats are the brave resistance against the big, mean, nasty corporations. We get treated regularly to that particular meme. So why did a lot of them just vote for a huge benefit for some of the wealthiest companies in the world. Like, you know, Microsoft?

The Coalition for Patent Fairness and the Business Software Alliance, whose members include high-tech titans such as Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp., lauded the decision as a boon for inventors and consumers.

Co-sponsored by Reps. Howard Berman, D-Calif., and Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the bill seeks to improve patent quality and reduce patent litigation, which can be a costly and time-consuming exercise for firms of all sizes.

The legislation would limit damage awards for patent infringement and grant patents to the first inventor to file an application, a switch from current law in which the patent goes to the first person to develop the innovation.

The bill also increase information available to patent examiners and creates a post-approval patent re-evaluation process.

Opponents of the bill included pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, such as Johnson & Johnson and Amgen Inc., who say it weakens patent protection by reducing infringement penalties and permitting post-approval challenges to patents.

Manufacturing companies, including General Electric Co. and Caterpillar Inc., and technology companies that rely heavily on patent licensing, such as semiconductor-maker Qualcomm Inc., also opposed the bill.

The Innovation Alliance, a group representing Qualcomm and many smaller technology companies, said Friday before the vote that it would "radically alter" the patent system "to mitigate the potential litigation costs of the few wealthiest companies in the world."

Did you catch that one line I highlighted? "The legislation would limit damage awards for patent infringement and grant patents to the first inventor to file an application." That sounds like a huge gimme for the giant companies with huge resources, doesn't it? Here's the vote tally. 160 Democrats and 60 Republicans voted for it.

Digital Cameras And Squeaky-Clean Images…..

…..Don't mix well. A young actress who has been doing rather well in the Disney "High School Musical" franchise is in a spot of bother after nude photographs of her surfaced on the internet. Vanessa Hudgens, who is 18 years old, has admitted that the nude photos are genuine. They were supposed to be private.

NEW YORK - Brainy Gabriella of "High School Musical" would no doubt blush at the idea that a nude picture of young actress Vanessa Hudgens was circulating on the Internet. The problem for the Walt Disney Co. is that Hudgens plays Gabriella.

Hudgens' publicist confirmed Friday that the photograph is indeed the 18-year-old star of Disney Channel's wildly successful "High School Musical" franchise. It shows a coquettishly smiling Hudgens posing naked in a bedroom with a red curtain behind her.

"This was a photo which was taken privately," said Jill Fritzo, Hudgens' publicist. "It is a personal matter and it is unfortunate that this has become public."

She wouldn't say anything about who took the picture and how it slipped out onto the Internet.

Celebrities should know better, frankly. The moment they hit it big (or big enough) they are considered fair game by the vampires - er - celebrity sites. The Disney studios are denying a report that Hudgens will be dropped from the cast of the next installment of High School Musical. (Which probably means she actually has been or will be at any moment.)

DWI As A Team Sport

Well, this is a novel defense. Two men were picked up and charged with drunken driving in Marshfield, Wisconsin. What's odd about that, you ask. Well, they were driving the same pickup truck. At the same time.

MARSHFIELD, Wis. - How do you become a celebrity? How about being charged with drunken driving while you and a friend are trying to drive the same pickup truck home. It worked for two men, Harvey Miller, 43, and Edwin Marzinske, 55.

"I always thought I'd be famous, just not this way," said Miller, a paraplegic who was steering a pickup truck with Marzinske on the gas pedal and brakes when they were stopped on a Friday night in August.

"Pretty much everywhere we go it's people coming up, 'Hey, can we get our pictures with you? Can we get your autograph?'" he said Wednesday. "We never expected this to escalate."

The news also got twisted somewhat, the men said, blaming it in part on a Colby-Abbotsford police report said Miller had no legs. He has his legs but a logging accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. A message left for the police department wasn't immediately returned Thursday.

The novel defense? Since neither had control of the vehicle, neither one was driving. (I'm guessing that this defense will not be a hit with the judge.) Miller's blood alcohol was 0.16, Marzinske was at 0.09. The only thing that could be said in their favor is that they were driving slowly, 35 in a 55.

Who Are You? Hsu, Hsu, Hsu, Hsu?

It would appear that Democratic fundraiser, international man of mystery and two-time fugitive from justice Norman Hsu is even more of a mystery. ABC News cannot get a handle on this guy at all, just more questions.

The latest puzzle: Despite funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into Democratic coffers, Norman Hsu is not a member of the Democratic party. In fact, records appear to reflect he isn't even registered to vote.

Hsu's name does not appear on voter rolls in either California, where Hsu lived in the 1980s and early 1990s, or in New York, where he lived more recently, according to documents and state officials…….

…..Strange details abound in Hsu's biography. Before his trial, Hsu was the victim of a kidnapping reportedly tied to a Chinese gang in the San Francisco bay area. After dodging his 1992 hearing, Hsu is believed to have returned to his native Hong Kong for several years.

Details of his businesses remain sketchy. Upon investigation, many of his recent business addresses appear to be little more than mail drops, despite the thousands of dollars those companies reportedly helped generate for Hsu that bankrolled his donations.

Many donations Hsu harvested for his Democratic politician friends came from people who, like himself, were not registered to vote. Some political finance experts have noted the families did not appear wealthy enough to afford the big-money checks they reportedly wrote to Clinton and others.

This story has all the makings of a media feeding frenzy. It is too big and too stinky to ignore.

New Osama Video

Well, there's supposed to be a new Osama video coming out. All the stories are reporting the miraculous change in appearance, with Osama looking younger than ever.

The jihadist Web site announced the tape with a banner, showing a still picture of bin Laden, now 50 years old, looking fit with a full beard of dark black hair, no gray at all.

"It does look oddly like he is wearing a false beard," Richard Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism official and now ABC News consultant, said. "If we go back to the tape three years, he had a very white beard. This looks like a phony beard that has been passed on."

The "phony beard" may be an important clue as to where bin Laden is hiding, according to Clarke.

Well, ok, we've never used that hair dye trick, but then, we never wanted to, either. The beard thing doesn't really bother us so much, but the rest of the things old Osama has done to appear younger and more hip kind of do. Where's the dignity, man?

Update: Others: Power Line, Stop The ACLU, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Right Wing Nut House, Club for Growth, NewsBusters, Cold Fury, Sister Toldjah, small dead animals, Wake up America, Classical Values, Sweetness & Light, The Gun Toting Liberal, Atlas Shrugs, the new editor, Counterterrorism Blog, Wizbang, The American Pundit, Dr. Sanity, bRight & Early, Redstate, QandO, Roger L. Simon, Weasel Zippers, Don Surber, Gay Patriot,  Jules Crittenden,  Daimnation!, Captain's Quarters, Macsmind, Liberty Pundit, Jihad Watch, JammieWearingFool, The Belmont Club, Don Surber, The Strata-Sphere, Maggie's Farm, Classical Values, Gateway Pundit,

Derangement

Well, this is a sign of the times, isn't it?

KIRKLAND — Are you still fans of Matt Hasselbeck and Mack Strong after they visited President Bush last week in Bellevue? Or have their political leanings turned you against them?

The Seahawks quarterback and fullback gave the 43rd president a No. 43 jersey with his name on it at a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for Rep. Dave Reichert at the Hyatt.

At the time, Hasselbeck called it a thrill and said it was a win-win, this opportunity to meet the president and get out of a team meeting.

But as soon as he saw the picture of the two players with Bush, Gary Wright, the team's vice president of administration, said he was concerned about negative reaction.

Maybe in really red Republican states, it would not have been a big deal. But Washington is a blue state, and deep, deep Democratic blue in King County. So objections were raised, and Hasselbeck heard them and read them. He got nasty voice mails, e-mails and text messages.

"I had no idea," Hasselbeck said.

One guy told him: "I hate you, I'll never wear your jersey, I'll never like the Seahawks again."

"Huh?" Hasselbeck thought. "Seriously?"

"Politics can be very mean and dirty," he said. "The things politicians say about each other, and what activists say, I had a brief glimpse of that for a couple of days.

"If I ever had any questions about whether I wanted to run for office, I now know the answer — I don't."

Everything is used as a reason for an attack on Bush these days. Anything. Even a typical photo-op that happens all the time with professional athletes. I suppose Hasselbeck can look on the bright side here. There was no ketchup involved. (I suppose that should be qualified with a "yet.")

Free Speech For Me, Ketchup For You

Yep. You gotta love left-wing protesters. They are all about free speech. Unless you oppose their point of view. Then you need to be silenced - or garnished with condiments.

POLICE have arrested a man at a rally in Sydney's Hyde Park during a clash between supporters of George W Bush and 'No-to-APEC' protesters.

About a dozen members of Aussies 4 ANZUS walked their pro-Bush banner among the protesters, where they were quickly met by jeers and flying tomato sauce.

“They tried to rip down our banner,” Aussies 4 ANZUS organiser John Ruddick said.

“We didn't want President Bush to come to Australia and think the only people who get out of bed are these people in opposition (to him).

“We are sick of left-wing protesters being the only ones who get on TV.”

Police numbers at the park quickly increased after the confrontation, forming a buffer between the corner of Prince Albert Road and Macquarie Street, where the pro-Bush group gathered.

Mr Ruddick said the group had a police permit for their rally and police had been notified more than a month ago.

He estimated about 20 people joined his cause today.

“None of us work in politics, we are all private citizens wanting to make President Bush feel welcome,” Mr Ruddick said.

A witness said riot squad officers arrested a man who squirted tomato sauce at the pro-Bush banner.

The man tried to break through a police barrier of bicycle officers when he was “taken down”, the witness said.

There are pictures on the front page of The Australian, but not linked in the article for some reason. The bearded ketchup man starts his approach in a black hoodie pulled up over his head.

Taking Temperatures

The Gallup Poll has released their "Feeling Thermometer" rankings of candidates for President in 2008. It's actually an interesting way of ranking them.

PRINCETON, NJ — Using a "feeling thermometer" rating scale, Gallup recently tested the public images of several of the Republican and Democratic candidates running for president in their respective parties. Of these, only one — Barack Obama — stirs up warm feelings in a majority of Americans. However, Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and John McCain are all close to Obama in favorability. Clinton's image is the most polarized of this group: nearly as many Americans say she leaves them cold as say they feel warmly toward her.

This feeling thermometer question, utilized regularly by the National Election Studies, gives respondents a 0 to 100 scale to rate the candidates, where 0 is the coldest score, 100 is the warmest, and 50 is neither warm nor cold. Thus, it not only shows whether a respondent views a candidate positively or negatively, but also the degree to which he or she does so.

The high negatives are Clinton's biggest weakness, I suspect. But farther down the in the analysis is the breakdown by party affiliation. That casts an interesting light on things. Clinton's got very strong positives in that ranking, more so than any of the Republicans have among their voters. But Gallup's analysis comes to this conclusion:

All this suggests that Obama, Edwards, Giuliani, and McCain are slightly better positioned than Clinton to win the fall election and to earn popular support from Americans should they be elected president. Thompson technically falls into this auspicious group given his warm mean thermometer score; however, he is not widely known enough to project these figures onto the public.

That is very interesting. It is still too far from the election to really pay a lot of attention to polls in general - and I have pointed out repeatedly that drawing absolute conclusions from one snapshot poll is really foolish. So take all of this with a grain of salt. But it does make for some interesting reading if you're so inclined. (Not everyone really cares about polls, believe it or not.)

Casting Some Light

KC Johnson provided the best and most thorough coverage of the case of the false prosecution of the Duke lacrosse players. The Durham in Wonderland website always had very detailed information, I linked it a number of times. Well, Johnson, along with co-author Stuart Taylor Jr., have just written a book about the entire mess that the now-disgraced (and disbarred) Mike Nifong caused. Along the way, Taylor and Johnson are merciless on the people who helped Nifong in the legal lynching.

Privileged, rowdy white jocks at an elite, Southern college, a poor, young black stripper, and an alleged rape: It was a juicy, made-for-the-media story of race, class and sex, and it was told and retold for months with a ferocious, moralistic intensity. Reporters and pundits ripped into Duke University, the white race and the young lacrosse players at the center of the episode, and the local justice system quickly handed up indictments. But as Stuart Taylor Jr. and KC Johnson show in "Until Proven Innocent"–and as the facts themselves would show when they finally came to light–it was a false story, a toxic controversy built on lies and bad faith.

There was plenty of wrongdoing, of course, but it had very little to do with Duke's lacrosse players. It was perpetrated instead by a rogue district attorney determined to win re-election in a racially divided, town-gown city; ideologically driven reporters and their pseudo-expert sources; censorious faculty members driven by the imperatives of political correctness; a craven university president; and black community leaders seemingly ready to believe any charge of black victimization.

"Until Proven Innocent" is a stunning book. It recounts the Duke lacrosse case in fascinating detail and offers, along the way, a damning portrait of the institutions–legal, educational and journalistic–that do so much to shape contemporary American culture. Messrs. Taylor and Johnson make it clear that the Duke affair–the rabid prosecution, the skewed commentary, the distorted media storyline–was not some odd, outlier incident but the product of an elite culture's most treasured assumptions about American life, not least about America's supposed racial divide.

Most of the people who helped or enabled Nifong in the persecution of three innocent young men have never been held accountable for their words and actions. In fact, they haven't even apologized. Hopefully, Taylor and Johnson's new book will at least cast light on the ones who tried their best to get these men railroaded into prison.

Congratulations on the new book, KC. I hope its a best seller.