Drive-Bys

This'll put a smile on your face:


_____

For all you GRRM/Game of Thrones fan-geeks like me, Maureen Ryan (whose column I miss in the Chicago Tribune, dammit) has Part 1 of her interview with him here and Part 2 is here. Good stuff.
_____

Ooooh! And you can now stream Season One of Game of Thrones on your computer. Sweet!
_____

Just how bad is the economy here in Illinois? We're going back to burying our indigent dead in potter's fields. That's just sad.
_____

Wholly crap! The Dems are losing their union support:

About a dozen trade unions plan to sit out the 2012 Democratic convention because they're angry that it's being held in a right-to-work state and frustrated that Democrats haven't done enough to create jobs.

The move could pose a larger problem for President Barack Obama next year if an increasingly dispirited base of labor activists becomes so discouraged that it doesn't get the rank-and-file to the polls in the usual strong numbers.

Did you spot the flying pig that just whizzed by?
_____

For those that think all the looters in the UK are poor, down-trodden folks on the dole who think they are taking their bit back, think again:

The middle class 'rioters' revealed: The millionaire's daughter, the aspiring musician and the organic chef all in the dock

It's an eye-opener, no?

Justice is being handled very swiftly:

Two-thirds of those who have come before magistrates have been remanded in custody and a large number have been sent to Crown Courts, which have powers to hand down prison sentences of longer than six months.

Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly said: 'Yesterday and today I met court staff and judges who had worked 30 hours straight.

'We will continue to provide all necessary support to the police to ensure anyone involved in this kind of criminal activity is brought to justice as swiftly as possible.'

A Ministry of Justice spokesman added: 'We have enough prison places for those that are sentenced to custody after these incidents. There is substantial capacity in the prison and youth justice system.'

In addition, the papers are shaming by naming names. LOTS of names. Well done.

Also, I love this purple rain idea:

In addition to shutting down Twitter and BlackBerry messaging during civil disturbances, the government is suggesting rioters be sprayed with dye....

Other governments have used brightly colored dye to mark and arrest people. The tactic has been used in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, Hungary, Bangladesh, Uganda, South Korea and Indonesia.

_____

Are there really no good new story lines, for cripe's sake??? Now they're bringing the Munster's back... and making them... edgier... darker. It was a comedy! It's not supposed to be "dark" dammit.

Leave. Well. Enough. Alone.
_____

Gross-Out Alert:

If there’s a warrant out for your arrest, perhaps you should think twice about popping your pimples in a public place.

That’s what police in Florida said when they arrested Owen Lemire Kato outside a Cape Coral McDonald’s in an incident that would make the Hamburglar blush.

As Mr Kato, 23, reached behind him to pop zits on his back for 10 minutes, customers demanded that he leave the restaurant.

The popping of zits is disgusting, on his back is even grosser, doing it in a public restaurant is appalling.

But the thing that really blows my mind is that he had enough back zits that he could take ten whole minutes to pop them and still not be done. *Shudder*

I don't know about you, but I feel like I need to shower in Lysol now.
_____