Friday, July 05, 2013

Lots of arrests on July 4th as celebrations get out of hand.

I wonder how many people woke up in jail on Friday morning.  How many of them will have a financial problem because the fine for having an open container in Hermosa Beach was raised to $1,500?  That's one expensive can of beer.  They have an eight person jail was full before the first fireworks were set off.

Over 100 people were arrested in Newport Beach.

In this day and age where getting a job is becoming more and more difficult, having an arrest isn't a good thing to have to disclose to a potential employer.  They almost all do background checks now, and lying about an arrest is almost certainly going to result in your application going onto the TBNT (Thanks, But No Thanks) pile.  A conviction is going to make it extremely hard to get a job, depending on what it is for.  I have a friend who managed to get a second DUI and it's causing him an incredible amount of difficulty in landing a new job (his former employer went bankrupt just before that second bust).

I totally understand the urge to party, and all that.  While I don't drink alcohol now, I used to consume vast quantities (as Beldar Conehead would say).  I get it.  I'm just saying that maybe people should be a little smarter about when and where they're going to do it.  There are a ton of bars in Hermosa Beach.  Drink in the bar.  Go outside and have fun.  Go back in and drink more.  Taking a beer outside is asking to be cited and fined.  Hermosa has to pay for the 50 extra cops they hired to work there over the weekend.  The money for that is going to come from open container fines.

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If you think that it's amazing for Joey Chestnut to be able to eat 69 hot dogs in ten minutes, catch his performance on an episode of "Man versus Food" on the Travel Channel.  He inhales a burrito that weighs over five pounds in three minutes and a few seconds.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVlvQMXQQAw

That's just amazing.  I'm not sure it should be regarded as a desirable skill, but it is definitely a skill.

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L.A. Lakers center Dwight Howard may no longer be a Laker after today.  Insiders are saying this is the day he will announce which of the teams that are pursuing him in free agency won the "sweepstakes" that he represents.  Only one of the five teams will be happy after he announces his choice.  Ironically, it is the Lakers who have the most to lose, if he doesn't opt to re-sign with them.  It won't hurt the other four teams chasing him nearly as much.

It also looks like whatever happens with Howard, it will be Metta World Peace who gets the amnesty "boot" to clear contract money.  With Kobe starting next season still rehabbing his torn Achilles tendon, it won't be Steve Nash.  And if Howard doesn't sign, it won't be Pau Gasol.  Nash is the smart choice, it clears more salary over the next two seasons, and means the Lakers will begin 2013/14 with no player under contract for 2014/15.  That gives them flexibility depending on what Kobe ends up deciding to do after next season.

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Since March, I've had an angiogram, a cardioversion (attempt to shock the heart into a normal rhythm), a trans esophageal echo cardiogram (they slide a tube down your throat) and a standard trans thoracic echocardiogram.  So why am I going in today for a stress test echo?  I have no idea.

But my blog and my mind are the only places I second-guess my cardiologist.  In the socialized type of medicine the VA delivers, when you find a great doctor like the cardiologist I see, you take advantage of your good fortune.  This guy is really interested in my care and it shows in how he does what he does.  He's willing to ask questions and I ask a lot of them.  If he wants more tests, I'll drag my lazy butt to the VA and have more tests.  Guess I'll see "The Lone Ranger" tomorrow instead of this morning.

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Friday's random ponderings:

I understand that people are upset by the shooting death of Max, the two year old Rottweiler by the cops from Hawthorne PD.  But why in the world would anyone be stupid enough to threaten those cops with bodily harm?  I'm a dog lover and I think the cops were almost completely responsible for this tragedy.  But threatening those cops does nothing productive to address the situation.

It's a smart business move for the guy who did it in terms of name recognition, but Kim Dotcom as a legal name?  And did he really become the #1 player in the world among players of Modern Warfare 3 on his own?  He is a master computer hacker and gamer, but he was kind of busy running his business.

Megyn Kelly and Greta Van Susteren are both hosts of Fox News Channel programs.  Both were lawyers before joining Fox.  Van Susteren has been hosting in primetime for over a decade.  She will turn 60 next year.  Kelly is over 16 years younger.  Does age have something to do with the choice of Fox to have Kelly take over Van Susteren's time slot on the network?  Nothing official has been announced, but that's the most likely time slot that Kelly will move into following her maternity leave.

Does Amanda Bynes make you wish you could block certain people from your life entirely instead of just on Twitter?

Does the promise from Britney Spears that her next album will be her most personal ever mean it will have songs about melting down, shaving your head, being declared incompetent to administer your business and professional life, marrying a moron, being married for 55 hours, and goodness knows what else?

Was the "upset" loss by Serena Williams at Wimbledon really an upset, or just the arrival of Sabine Lisicki, who is in the women's final?

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This Date In History:

On this date in 1775, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition.
On this date in 1811, Venezuela declared independence from Spain.
On this date in 1884, Germany took possession of Cameroon (Eddie Murphy moved to Cameroon in 1983).
On this date in 1934, "Bloody Thursday" took place in San Francisco as police fired on striking longshoremen there.
On this date in 1935, the National Labor Relations Act was signed by FDR.
On this date in 1937, Spam, the luncheon meat, was introduced.
On this date in 1945, the Philippines were declared liberated.
On this date in 1946, the bikini went on sale (future Hooter's Girls everywhere rejoiced).
On this date in 1950, the Knesset (Israel's parliament) passed the Law of Return, giving every Jew the right to live in Israel.
On this date in 1954, the BBC broadcast the first television news bulletin.
On this date in 1964, Algeria became independent from France.
On this date in 1971, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution was certified by President Richard M. Nixon.
On this date in 1975, Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win a Wimbledon singles title.
On this date in 1989, Lt Col Oliver North was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended, two years probation and $150,000 in fines.  His conviction was later overturned.
On this date in 1996, Dolly the sheep became the first mammal to be successfully cloned.

Famous Folk Born On This Date:

Mary Walcott
David Farragut
P.T. Barnum (this way to the egress)
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Georges Pompidou
Katherine Helmond
Shirley Knight
Robbie Robertson
Huey Lewis
Goose Gossage
Marc Cohn
RZA
Amelie Mauresmo

Movie quotes of the day today come from "The Man With The Iron Fists", directed by, co-written by and starring RZA:

The Blacksmith: When you forge a weapon, you need three things: the right metal, temperatures over fourteen hundred degrees... and someone who wants to kill. Here in this village, we got all three.

#2

Madame Blossom: [to her students] Power belongs to no one, until it is seized through sex or violence.

#3

The Blacksmith: When it comes to money, things get funny.