Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Miracle in Ohio

So three women were held for more than ten years (on average) as prisoners in a random house.  Now they've been freed and the home's owner and his two brothers are under arrest.  Buried in the details of the story is that police also found a 6 year old girl in the house, believed to be the daughter of one of the kidnapping victims.  Rape, kidnapping and more...these guys are going to be behind bars for a long time.

Joe Francis, founder of Girls Gone Wild is probably going to jail as well, but not for as long.  I hope he makes some really good friends there.  He is a scumbag.

It is raining and we need the rain.  I just wish my fellow Southern Californians were better at driving in the rain. Most of them don't know how.  Or they don't understand the physics of hydroplaning and how to break a skid.  I can still hear the voice of my driver's training instructor, the legendary John Obusek echoing in my mind saying "you turn into the skid and break it."  I've only had to use that lesson once and it worked perfectly.

I'm now all caught up on "Southland", which I think is one of the two best cop shows currently airing on TV.  The other is "Blue Bloods", which is more about family values and right/wrong than Southland's gritty, realistic presentation of what life is like for the real cops who wear the shield of the LAPD.  Love both shows.

We have a budget deficit that's running wild at the federal level.  But we're still subsidizing and artificially inflating milk and sugar prices.  We're allowing thousands of federal buildings to sit empty and unused.  We subsidize little-used airports (one in particular named after a member of Congress).  Balancing the budget would be a lot easier if these sacred cows could be sacrificed once and for all.

The Air Force has egg on its face after the man in command of its unit designed to prevent sexual assault was himself arrested and charged with grabbing a woman's buttocks and breasts in a parking lot.  That's one lieutenant colonel whose career is now in the toilet.

The effort to save a one-year old beagle in Florida is the latest petition on Change.org.  The pet bit a four year old child and officials say it must now be put down.  The family says no.  What say you?  The child did need stitches, but the family says it was his fault for surprising the dog from behind when it was eating wet dogfood for the first time.  I'd hate to say "okay, one more chance" and then find out the dog did some more serious damage to the kid.  But it is a tough call.

We've heard all about CEO compensation excess.  The worst example ever (maybe) has now come to light right here in L.A.  Ray Irani was "fired" by the Board of Directors of Occidental Petroleum.  As a result, instead of the $20 million golden parachute he would have received at retirement, he got $50 million under the termination terms in his contract.  He's been grossly overpaid for decades.  Shareholders have no one to blame but themselves.

This Date in History:

On this date in 1429, Joan of Arc pulled an arrow from her own shoulder and returned to the battle that would end the Siege of Orleans.
On this date in 1824, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony had its world premiere.
On this date in 1847, the American Medical Association was founded.
On this date in 1915, the RMS Lusitania is sunk by a German submarine, killing 1,198 passengers.
On this date in 1945, General Alfred Jodl signs the unconditional surrender document, ending Germany's participation in WWII.
On this date in 1954, the French were defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
On this date in 1960, Krushchev announces that the Soviet Union is holding U.S. U-2 pilot Gary Powers.  He would die in a helicopter crash in 1977.
On this date in 1964, Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 crashed, killing all 44 aboard.  The investigation revealed that a suicidal passenger had shot the pilot and co-pilot.

Famous Folk Born On This Date:

Robert Browning
Johannes Brahms
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
George "Gabby" Hayes
Gary Cooper
Eva Peron
Darren McGavin
Anne Baxter
Ruth Prawer Jhablava
Dick Williams
Totie Fields
Pete Domenici
Johnny Unitas
Robin Strasser
Jerry Nolan
Thelma Houston
Randall "Tex" Cobb (source of today's Movie Quote of the Day)
Robert Hegyes (RIP) (he had a note from his mother)
Amy Heckerling
Ray "Hercules" Fernandez
Owen Hart
Nicole Sheridan

Movie quote of the day comes from 1983's "Uncommon Valor":

Sailor:  Boy, you usin' that oriental martial bullshit on me's gonna get real expensive.

Tax tip of the day:  If you have to drive as part of your work, or due to your self-employment and you use street parking with these new, smart-meters, pay with your credit card.  That way you'll have a clear paper trail for the expense.