Elmo breaks guy's two fingers...

OK, OK, I spun the story in the opposite direction... Got you.


Read the full story at http://us.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/28/florida.crime.fighting.elmo/index.html?hpt=T2

Nick Adenhart was a promising young pitcher for the California Angels. Unfortunately when he came face to face with Andrew Gallo, his career was cut short.
If only Andrew Gallo was a grizzled MLB veteran who took the youngsters pitch out of the park.
Andrew Gallo is another repeat drunk driver offender, who killed Andrew Gallo and two of his mates. Thankfully, he was just convicted of 3 counts of 2nd degree murder. So he should not be threatening anyone else's life for the foreseeable future....
More on the story and here for the original details.

Whats the best excuse you ever heard someone get out of jury duty with?
Well it sure is not having NFL season tickets.
Yup someone actually told a judge they could not be on a jury because they had season tickets.
I guess the Judge is not a fan of the local team....
Read on at http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2010/09/nfl-season-tickets-wont-get-you-out-of-jury-duty/1

A couple of interesting and fun sports bits today:

An Italian Team has a novel idea of how to deal with low attendance at their games....
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575503821229703834.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLESixthNews

How creative. The only thing missing is to pump fake crowd noise over the loud speakers, just like various NFL teams have done in the past...

Secondly, the new version of the famous Simon and Garfunkel song Mrs Robinson, dedicated to Denard Robinson....

Nice Heisman Pose Denard!

In the news recently, we had two very interesting murder defenses presented by our fellow lawyers:
- In the case of Shelley Malil, an actor famous for his role in 40 year old virgin, the defense was he could not see and assumed he was being attacked, so he repeatedly stabbed his "attacker" who was his girlfriend. OK, maybe once or twice, but 20 times?
- In another lower profile murder case, the defense tried to claim the perpetrator was insane by virtue of having too much caffeine.... WOW. I guess Starbucks could be charged with conspiracy or assisting in a crime.

Robert Wright of the New York Times last week put together a wonderful piece on the scriptures and the controversial passages in each. He stressed the importance of contextual interpretation vs superficial biased quotations to demonize, which can be directed at any one of the religious scriptures in our world. I found it highly enlightening and urge everyone to take a look at it:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/the-meaning-of-the-koran/

The headlines have it "FBI Stings man who allegedly had backpack with fake bomb"

What does that mean? Are we safe? Is another terrorist off the street?

hmm....

So the FBI gave the guy a backpack, told him it was a bomb, and told him to place it somewhere, then arrested him for it?

What is especially comical in the story is the motive of the culprit "Hassoun explained he saw attacking Chicago as a means of creating chaos to gain political control of the city and its sources of revenue,"

WOW
What logic... What intelligence...
I guess when they handed out the brains, he slept in. The guy obviously has a few screws loose. And I guess the FBI seized the opportunity.

The story of Park51 and the "outrage" of building a mosque on hallowed ground is a story that has been drummed up by hate mongers who tend to miss a very important point, one that I always harp on when discussing terrorism being linked to any religion:
The victims of 9/11 came from all faiths, colors, ages, etc.
Including Muslims.

Michael Theodoridis was a co-worker of my brother's who had converted to Islam. He and his pregnant Muslim wife were on American Flight 11. 3 Muslim victims. Tragically, her family were placed on a no fly list and prevented from attending the memorial.

CAIR has prepared a simple document introducing at least 30 of the Muslim victims. There are definitely others too. Their stories are touching and tragic, and no different from those heroes portrayed in United 93 and World Trade Center. They include the stories of first responders like Salman Hamdani, a NYPD cadet and paramedic, who died while off duty rushing to assist at the scene. Tragically he was even suspected of being involved in the time until the pieces of his body were found and identified.

http://www.cair.com/Portals/0/pdf/Muslim-Victims-of-911.pdf


Take a look for yourself. That hallowed ground is a special place for all of humanity. No one should be excluded or blamed because of the ethnic or religious affiliations of the perpetrators. We humanity are all victims, some more than others.

Another sad tragedy today.
A man shot and killed his three children.
The father attempted suicide but survived.
What is wrong with our world today?
The greatest irony from the story is that the perpetrator's co-worker mentioned that he(the perpetrator) was distraught over the custody battle with the children's mother, and that '"everyone was lying" about him having a violent temper'. Sheesh. He sure proved everyone wrong. Very very sad.

In being an avid and unusual basketball player, I distinguished myself for, among other things, having a three point layup. Which means running and jumping from behind the three point line, and prior to landing very close to the basket, laying it up. Effectively a three point layup. The person I always attribute it to (and I could be wrong) is the late Malik Sealy, who as I recall made such a layup at the end of the first half in the NCAA tourney.

Malik tragically died in a car accident 10 years ago. What is even more tragic is how he died and what has ensued since.

His car was hit by a car driven in the wrong direction on the freeway by Souksangouane Phengsene, who survived the accident, to the dismay of humanity. Mr. Phengsene was drunk out of his mind(blood alcohol of 0.19, almost double the Minnesota limit of 0.1). The image of that accident:

And it was not his first drunk driving incident. He would serve three years of a four year prison sentence, and was released in 2003. He was convicted of at least his third such offense in 2006. And again in 2008, for which he was sentenced to 8 years in prison. And when he gets out in 3-5 years, isn't it perfectly reasonable to expect another offence within a year or two?

How is this guy allowed to be in the general public, let alone behind the wheel of a car? In my book, he deserves the death penalty, or at least incarceration for life.
He already took one life, and has jeopardized so many others repeatedly.

Support your local SADD and MADD chapters. And don't let yourself or your friends drink and drive. The whole "think before you drink" campaign is not enough (especially once you consider it is sponsored by the liquor industry). How many lives have to be lost so tragically?

Today's Dilbert is delicious

And one more from the neighborhood of my birth, Dearborn, Michigan....

Who better than the Onion to highlight the situation of anti Islamic hysteria we are observing today, in light of the Park 51 mosque project.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/man-already-knows-everything-he-needs-to-know-abou,17990/

The deliberate attempts by those who hate to stoke other's emotions ignorantly against one faith and its followers is a modern tragedy, especially in the information age. The hate crimes that have taken place since, including the stabbing of a NYC cab driver, numerous attacks on mosques, and intimidation and harassment of Muslims across the country are the direct result of giving legitimacy to such hatred. Bravo to those who have stood up for truth and stood against hate. Bravo to Mayor Bloomberg, John Stewart, Keith Olbermann. The President backed off of such a stance for political reasons. Shame on the media and the republicans for making an issue of hate one to ride on. Everyone of you will look back on this episode with regret.

Amazing story....