Drive-Bys

Ear Worm of the Day:



(Via europopped.) It's wedged firmly between my ears and won't go away!
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"The donkey screamed and children cried" is not a line from American Pie. Although it could have been...

Poor thing.
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Ghetto parenting at it's very best:

Two men who both have children with a young woman who was also on the scene began arguing, according to police Lt. Ted Roberts, who was assigned to the Gresham District the night of the incident.

The altercation was between the victim’s mother’s current and former boyfriends, according to the police release.

The argument started because both men were trying to visit with their children at separate times and during one of the visits, one man disciplined the child of the other man, sending that man into a rage, according to Roberts.

The angry man pulled out a gun and fired at the other man and didn’t hit him but accidentally struck the child in the cheek instead. The bullet also pierced her shoulder, the lieutenant said.

Even more confusing,

The wounded baby is the child of either a sister or an aunt of the mother who has children with the fighting fathers, according to the lieutenant.

Got all that straight? (I sure don't.) According to the beginning of the article, the wounded baby's mother is the woman with the battling exes. By the end of the story, it's unclear whose baby was shot.

But that a baby was shot at all, let alone for these reasons, is horrifying.
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Remember when I said that the Blagoviator likes to pick his own audience? He may not have testified in court, but he certainly couldn't wait to try his cause in the court of public opinion again!

I've got to admit that while most of his blathering was more of the same old same old, this little gem is priceless:

At his media conference, Blagojevich also admitted he had learned from the case.

“I’ve learned a lot of lessons from this whole experience and probably the biggest . . . is that I talk too much. Thank you.’’

I don't believe that lesson will stick.

And I do believe John Kass is correct:

Our former governor had a lot to say awhile ago, but now, apparently, he doesn't have the — what did he used to call it? — the testicular virility to take the stand in his own defense, as he promised about a gazillion times.

Weenie.

Yes, Officer?

When I was a kid we had Band-Aid brand bandages that were size tiny and useless -- about 1/4 inch wide and about an inch long. We also had those little round dots (3/4" diameter) that dads used to stick over their shaving nicks. (Kind of like these, which apparently are good for "insect bites, zits, etc.")

Seems Mayor Shortshanks has decided to apply one of those dinky band-aid dots to the giant sucking chest wound that is the police officer shortage in Chicago.

He's hiring a whopping 100 more officers... when we're understaffed by more than 2,000.

We've got a problem here, in that a good chunk of the population here no longer fears the CPD. We've had not one, but two officers in uniform killed recently, and the last one by three thugs who walked up and robbed and killed him in daylight when there was no mistaking the fact that he was in uniform.

Yes, this last killing is different. But I fear there'll be a lot more where that one came from.

I don't care what it takes -- Daley needs to find the money and hire the manpower needed to police our streets, not make a symbolic, but useless, gesture for the media.

I truly do fear for this city.

Drive-Bys

For my cheese-obsessed friend... a peek at Pastoral's shop in the French Market at Ogilvie Transportation Center:

I ended up buying three -- Chevre Noir aged cheddar from Quebec (yes, a goats milk cheddar), Bridgid's Abbey Trappist Monastery-Style Cheese from Colchester, CT and Nancy's Camembert from New York, along with a freshly baked baguette. Yum, yum, YUM!
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Giggle of the Day:


see more Lolcats and funny pictures
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One day I'll figure out how to get a completely focused shot at night... from a position on a bouncing bridge... with my Canon Power Shot. (I really, really, really want to upgrade to a DSLR, but won't do it until I get this one mastered first.)

In the meantime, here's my latest effort:

I swear one day I'll figure out how to get the logo on the Sun Times building in clear focus under these conditions!

I never tire of this view.
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Apparently nobody ever told this guy you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar:

Joliet police say Lovelee L. Walker, 29, of the 900 block of Lois Place, Joliet, spit at one emergency room nurse, hit another and broke medical equipment Wednesday because he felt they were treating his gunshot wound to the arm too slowly.

His mother did, however, give him the perfect name to be said with great sarcasm -- "Lovelee. Juuuuuuuuuust freakin' Lovelee."
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And here we have three brilliant and innovative thinkers who display the proper thanks and respect to a child's rescuers:

Three police officers rescued a 5-year-old boy who accidentally fell 10 feet into a hole and a man was Tased after allegedly punching the officer who scooped the child up after being lowered into the hole by his ankles Thursday night on the Northwest Side....

While patrolling the area, plainclothes officers Pinal, Guzman and Morrison were flagged down by the mother of the 5-year-old and other citizens saying that boy had fallen into a manhole next to a restaurant. Officers ran to the hole and saw the boy -- who was crying and visibly injured -- lying at the bottom of the hole, about 8-10 feet below, according to a police report.

The officers called for an ambulance as Pinal and Guzman lowered Morrison by his ankles down the hole and Morrison was able to grab hold of the boy, while Guzman and Pinal pulled him both up, the report said.

The officers then carried the child to ambulance that eventually transported him to Children’s Memorial Hospital where he was in “stable” condition....

But while paramedics were trying to render aid to the child, a 17-year-old relative of the boy allegedly became “very belligerent,’’ and tried to climb into the ambulance. When medics called for police assistance, the relative allegedly punched Morrison in the chest, the report said.

While the relative was placed in handcuffs, another man on the scene -- 29-year-old Pedro Bahena -- allegedly became irate, and was yelling and swearing at the officers. Pinal tried to calm him down but Bahena then allegedly punched Pinal, who Tased Bahena and subdued him, the report said.

Bahena was taken to Our Lady of Resurrection Medical Center to have the Taser prongs removed, but as Bahena was being placed into custody Uriel Banuelos, who is related to the teen -- possibly brothers -- tried to stop his arrest and he was also placed into custody.

Do you think idiocy is coded in this family's DNA? Future Darwin Award winners, I'm betting.
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Quote of the Day:

"There just aren't enough cougars to go around."

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahaha!

Even though it's relatively close to where I live, I definitely won't be attending this event. Ick.
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Drive-Bys

Going to the Dogs:


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Quote of the Day, Part 1:

You can't just walk up to the first person you see on the street and ask: "Would you like to blow my vuvuzela?"

That sort of thing could get you punched or arrested.

Somewhere in my box of photos, wherever I've hidden it from myself this time, I have a photo of Darling Daddy sitting cross-legged under the kitchen table with an aqua plastic colander on his head and tooting on a bright blue vuvuzela, much to the amusement of my nephew and his cousin. His employees would never have believed it in a million years, even with the evidence in hand. Must find....
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If you haven't seen the video of the policeman punching the teenaged girl, here you go:



If she was a he, there would be no uproar. As it is...

The American Civil Liberties Union, citing Seattle Police Office of Professional Accountability reports, said Seattle police have a long history of escalating jaywalking citations into force situations.

But O'Neill said the officer reacted the way he was trained, and the only reason the situation escalated was because of the alleged violators' actions. He repeated one question: Why didn't they comply?

"Let's put the accountability where it needs to be: They escalated the situation.

"You escalate a situation when you put your hands on a uniformed officer -- you have no reason to do that," O'Neill said. "There's no justification to ever do that. And when you make that decision to go down that road then the officer is going to resort to their training."

It's not appropriate for officers to just walk away when someone is assaulting them because the assailants are clearly a threat to others as well, O'Neill said. In the video, the alleged violators use explicit language insulting the officer.

I'm with the officer. There was no police brutality here, and no racism -- only pig-headed stupidity on the part of a couple of stupid kids. Being female doesn't give you a free pass, either.
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Quote of the Day, Part 2:

The next thing you know, they will be requiring the farmer to put pants on the male sheep after they are sheared, because everyone can see their balls.

The MeezerMom makes me laugh!

I Can Dig It

Seems there's some action on the finding Stacy Peterson front.

Bad boy Drew apparently couldn't keep his mouth shut and shared heartwarming stories with another inmate.

I hope they found her.

And I hope he fries for it.

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Update: Digging is done for the day, and they've found nada. That's a shame.

Sunday Schedule

I had another nocturnal visitation last night. This time, my spirit guide was this old friend. The dream again involved water and a journey. And Diana wasn't blind, but she was still as delightfully sunny and outgoing as I remember her, and she chattered away as she led me to where she wanted me to go. Where was that? I don't know. It was more about the journey than the destination.

Two days in a row, I've awakened refreshed and happy.

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I sure wish I could pass a little bit of that peace I'm feeling onto the Wortham family, who laid a truly good man to rest yesterday:

While serving in Iraq, Wortham led soldiers over dangerous routes and worked with his mother to get school supplies for Iraqi children. In Englewood, he policed an impoverished and at times desperate place on the busy night shift. And in Chatham, his neighborhood, he defended the safe and loving environment where he was raised against encroaching violence by leading a community group.

On Friday, from those who hold the highest offices in this state to the sister who played with him on those Chatham streets, a promise was made in Wortham's name: Nobody is giving up.

I sure hope not, for his memory's sake.

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There's another special group that honors Memorial Day here in Chicago, and it's not who you think -- it's circus veterans. Go here for the whole cool story.

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Shhhhhhhhhhh!

I'm working on it frantically behind the scenes, but if this is true...



... Auntie Omnibus will be earning her wings very soon.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed, and an ear tuned for wedding bells!

And if you hadn't guessed...

Bump in the Road

Remember Densey and Mary Cole and the dream wedding contest at Crate & Barrel?

Apparently having far and away the most votes of any of the couples entered didn't count, and they ended up with an honorable mention.

So... I reached out to Nicola at Tropical Casablanca Hotel, who offered, if the Coles didn't win at C&B, to make their dreams come true anyway.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and sending up a LOT of prayers. Please do the same, will you?

I'm a die-hard romantic, and I really do want to see this story have a happy ending for the Coles.

Rules of the Road

If you do this, you, my friend, are such an addict that it's freaking sad:

Healless, a certified nurse's assistant at Fair Oaks Health Care Center in Crystal Lake, allegedly would enter the patient's room, roll her on her side, then poke holes in her fentanyl patch with a safety pin, Crystal Lake Deputy Police Chief Eugene Lowery said. The woman, who was mentally and physically incapacitated, didn't realize what he was doing, police said.

Healless would allegedly squeeze the fentanyl patch so the drug, a narcotic painkiller given to people in constant pain, would ooze out of the patch, and then he'd lick it off his fingers.

Eeew.
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If you must be addicted to something, make it reading blogs by really, really funny writers... like Momma Fargo, and not like her perp-of-the-day, DOODOO:

DOODOO: This takes a long time.

ME: Tell me about it.

DOODOO: doo..doo...doo...doo. [swayed back and forth]

ME: Jeopardy?

DOODOO: Yep. Help me out.

DOODOO: doo..doo...doo...doo.

ME: doo..doo...doo...doo

We swayed in unison. Pretty soon...

INTERCOM: [male voice] What are you guys doing?

ME: Jeopardy.

INTERCOM: This is jail. Be serious. Does he know where he is? Bubba's waiting for him.[laughing]

DOODOO: [whispers to me]Who is that?

ME: [whispered back] The Man.

DOODOO: Oh. How did he know what we were doing?

ME: The Man knows everything.

DOODOO: Oh.

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Why don't I drive anymore? I dunno. Maybe because...

A Tribune investigation at the time found that Cook County judges routinely granted supervisions to drivers who already had a dozen or more. In response, judges formed a committee to study limiting supervisions, but nothing came of it. New judges were trained to take traffic cases seriously, including a trip to meet people paralyzed from crashes, but they were given no limit on discretion.

Area courts kept issuing supervisions to chronic offenders, often wrapped in quick plea deals negotiated by harried prosecutors. The deal remained the norm for offenders such as Michael Walt.

He bragged online about all the tickets he'd gotten, including seven for speeding and three for crashes. He eventually garnered three convictions close enough together to trigger a license suspension, but his lawyer got a Kane County judge to turn two of them into supervisions.

Walt got his license back and in March 2004 was speeding nearly 70 mph in a 45-mph zone when he slammed into a car driven by Brant's 17-year-old daughter Krista at Ogden Avenue and 75th Street in Aurora. The crash killed Walt's girlfriend, Lindsey Kelber, and Brant's 15-year-old son, Matt. Krista Brant was seriously injured but recovered.

Walt was later convicted of speeding, fined $1,200, ordered to do 160 hours of community service and had his license revoked....

Walt told licensing officials he was a changed man, got his license back in 2007 and moved to Florida. He hasn't had any tickets since. He declined to comment.

Sorry. I don't feel safe on the road any more.

The police are doing their jobs, but the courts are falling down --WAY down -- on this.
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