by Ethan Johnson
October 5, 2006

Apropos of nothing, but submitted for your amusement nonetheless:

Guilty Guilty Guilty!

After reading Stephen King's poison pill column about CNN's Nancy Grace in a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly, I decided to tune in tonight and check it out for myself. I have not heard anything positive about the show, ever, but I don't like the idea of holding on to an opinion that was created for me, rather than by me. Tonight there was a guest host, and if guest hosts are selected who best reflect the nature of the host, yeah, don't think I'll be back. Tonight's breaking news (as seen on cnn.com):

SANTA ROSA, California (AP) -- A judge dismissed child pornography charges Thursday against former JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Mark Karr after prosecutors said they didn't have enough evidence to take the case to trial.

The host emphasized that the ONLY REASON why JOHN MARK KARR "got off" was because the uh, prosecutors didn't have enough evidence. So he WALKED! WALKED, I tell you! I was surprised that they didn't provide a live feed of his whereabouts and directions to the nearest torch and pitchfork supply store.

Hmmm, back on September 10, 2001, I lived in a country where evidence was kind of a "big rock" on the to-do list of the prosecutors of any case. Guess times have changed.

And to be clear, if Karr indeed is/was a child molester, and has not faced justice, that's bad. But no evidence = no conviction. May sound sucky on the surface, but this is what keeps jack-booted thugs from deciding to haul you off in the dead of night. FYI only.

First, Fire All of the Marketers

Interesting quote over at lefty blog This Modern World:

The contemporary Republican party seems brilliantly suited to the modern age, for it has perfected the art of maintaining political power in the midst of democratic decay.

As men of commerce, Republicans naturally understood marketing better than Democrats, and they applied what they knew about selling products to politics.

The conduct of contemporary electoral politics is like what would happen if an automobile company decided to fire its engineers and let the advertising guys design the new model. The car they package might sell. It just wouldn’t run very well.

And funny thing, true thing: Some of those marketing types write books about how to run your business. Funnier thing: They never actually run off to run a business, short of managing their individual careers. Grain of salt, you, mix.

Men Don't Cook, They Fix Dinner

Online pal Beth Kujawski uncovers a deep secret of the Ancient Order of the Tighty Whiteys:

My mom is a phenomenal cook. She and I poke around housewares sections like he and my brother would poke around a hardware store. Dad finally came to understand that kitchen gadgets are our tools.

I saw an effective ad for some cleaning gizmo that was aimed at women, but with the intent of influencing male behavior. In short, the message was, "if you want a man to clean, give him the right tools." (Thus, the cleaning gizmo.) Heck yes. My testosterone-soaked brain was diverted from the latest issue of Guns and Hot Rods on Football Fields Featuring Models With Huge Bazongas With Bonus Prostate Health Updates and told me that I had to have the cleaning gizmo. I haven't bought one yet, partly because my Spock-ish brain says that I can clean just fine with paper towel. But then I don't clean, what with all of the guns, hot rods, bazongas, and prostate health to keep informed about. Dilemma.

More seriously, I totally get what Beth is saying, and it's not a "woman thing". When I got into cooking, I wanted every fookin' gadget imaginable. As I became more proficient at cooking, I started to thin the herd a little bit because lots of that stuff is window dressing, really. If you learn some semblance of knife skills, you don't need chopping and slicing doo-dads. We have a cool mandoline for the one time a year that we decide we need to use it. I stopped using "bam cups" when I learned that most, if not all of my ingredients could go into ONE bowl, and then into the pot. I'm working my way up to going direct from the cutting board to the pot.

But yes, we do have a "Zyliss" (twirly cheese grater).

Spammity Spam

Finally, not sure why this site is a major spam magnet but we're getting plastered. If you see a repeating string of obvious spam in our "10 most recent comments" list, fear not, I'm batch deleting as fast as I can. And kicking our alleged "learning filter". Hopefully the storm passes, soon. Apologies for the crapola in the meantime, as it sneaks through. Trackback functionality has already been permanently taken offline due to a) no trackbacks and b) millions (!) of spam trackbacks that I couldn't easily batch delete. Whee. <EM>