Thar be whales here

“Thar be whales here” – Engineer Montgomery Scott in ‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”

Actually I’m not so much concerned with whales today as I am with morons.  A specific group of big morons, so the whale analogy seemed appropriate.  I’m talking about the morons who are trying to put at least some of the blame on the young teen girl victim in the Steubenville, OH rape case.  They’re claiming that because she allowed herself to get that drunk she is “culpable” in the case.

Culpable is a very specific term.  Let’s define it:

Culpable - meriting condemnation or blame especially as wrong or harmful

So does the victim merit condemnation for having caused her rape?  No.  Of course not.  Does she merit blame for being raped, or for being so drunk as to make herself an easier target?  No.  Of course not.

Is it dumb to get so drunk that you aren’t in control of your faculties?   Yes. I see it all the time.  People so drunk they can barely dismount the barstool to try to walk to the door.  When and if they get behind the wheel in such a state, then they are criminals themselves.  But not before that moment.

If I’m dumb enough to go to an ATM in the highest crime area of town late at night, intending to make a very large withdrawal, am I culpable if I get robbed?  No.  Dumb, yes.  Culpable, no.  Sadly, this large group of morons just can’t grasp this very simple concept.

Other things worth of pondering on a Friday:

There’s this guy who six or seven years ago decided to use his face as a human billboard.  He had product names tattooed on his face and he got money for it.  Now the money is gone and he wants the tattoos gone.  His brilliant plan to raise the money to pay for the tattoo removal is to sell ad space on his hands, arms, chest and legs.  Not so brilliant after all.

Should we be worried that a man wearing a bad fake of a pilot’s ID managed to get into the cockpit of a plane before takeoff?  Yes, we should.

How many push-ups can you do?  If you can’t do at least 20, then an 80 year old female U.S. Supreme Court Justice can do more than you.  Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg has been working with a personal trainer and does two sets of ten push-ups at the end of each workout.  They aren’t “girly” push-ups either.

In the first day of the NCAA basketball tournament, I picked two #12 versus #5 upsets, went 13-3 for the day and I still suck, since almost 300,000 people did better than I did in this contest I’m in.  I should have been 14-2 but I forgot to change one game back the way I had it originally. 

Publicity stunt or reality?  There’s a billboard that’s gone viral in North Carolina.  It reads:  “Michael - GPS Tracker - $250, Nikon camera with zoom lens - $1600, Catching my LYING HUSBAND and buying this billboard with our investment account - Priceless. – Jennifer” Then it ends with “Tell Jessica you’re moving in.”  So is it really an angry wife, or is it clever marketing by Nikon?

Add this guy to the moron file.  He “staged” an attack to impress a woman he was out on a date with.  Only she reacted by fleeing and summoning the police.  They eventually uncovered the truth and when she learned what had really happened, she was less than impressed.

Whatever possessed two men who’d pulled off a successful robbery of a check-cashing store to write a thank-you note to the company that supplied the masks they used?  The two men are black, but thanks to some great masks, appeared to be white to their victims.  That thank-you note led to their arrest.  Great etiquette but lousy common sense.

This Date in History:

On this date in 1508, Amerigo Vespucci is named Chief Navigator of the Spanish Empire.
On this date in 1622, Algonquian Indians massacre 347 English settlers at Jamestown, VA.
On this date in 1765, Great Britain passes the Stamp Act.
On this date in 1871, William Woods Holden, Governor of North Carolina becomes the first sitting U.S. governor to be impeached and removed from office.
On this date in 1945, the Arab League is founded.
On this date in 1963, “Please Please Me”, the Beatles first album is released in the UK.
On this date in 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Eisenstadt versus Baird, rules that unmarried persons have the right to possess contraceptives.
On this date in 1978, Karl Wallenda (the Flying Wallendas) dies when he falls from a high-wire between two hotel buildings in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

 

Famous Folk Born This Date:

Emperor Go-Horikawa of Japan.
Chico Marx
Louis L’Amour
Karl Malden
Lew Wasserman
Werner Klemperer (RIP, Colonel Klink)
Ross Martin (perfect sidekick for Robert Conrad on “The Wild Wild West”)
Marcel Marceau
Pat Robertson (no, his birth did not take 700 hours)
Stephen Sondheim
Larry Evans (great writer on chess)
Orrin Hatch
M. Emmet Walsh
Haing S. Ngor
Wolf Blitzer
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Bob Costas
Lena Olin
Matthew Modine
Brian Shaw
Cole Hauser