Archive for April 8th, 2008
A powerful think ad from MTV?
I’m as surprised as anyone, but I like this ad a lot.
Eight people are lucky that’s not my little sister
If you want to make me snap, do dumb crap like this. 8-on-1 is the scumbag way of doing anything. I’m sorry if I forget all about Gandhi when scumbags mess with my loved ones.
I truly hope anyone who hit the girl be tried as an adult. All of the parents of anyone too young to charge as an adult should be tried as accomplices. This is absolutely absurd, and all I can think is that they are truly just lucky she’s not anyone I know, the little sister of anyone I know, or anyone related to me. My hope is that someone in her family is just like me.
I will link the story, but you’ll have to click through to watch the video…I don’t want that crap on my blog.
MySpace war sparks morons to think they can be a YouTube sensation
The suspects were identified as 17-year-old Mercades Nichols, 17-year-old Brittini Hardcastle, 14-year-old April Cooper, 16-year-old Cara Murphy, 17-year-old Britney Mayes and 15-year-old Kayla Hassell. Zachary Ashley, 17, and Stephen Schumaker, 18, were identified by deputies as the lookouts.
One of the parents of the accused, Christina Garcia wondered why the victim talked crap on MySpace if “she didn’t have the nerve to back it up.” That parent is more than pathetic, and the Cops-style white trash interview on the news gives that away. Try them as you would if it were boys doing the same thing. Equality means equal justice, not just equal pay.
UPDATE 04/10/08: They are being tried as adults according to the Ledger. Dan Abrams makes this issue out to be a hot topic, but trying these young women who were acting in a very adult manner as adults is justified. I hope they get their due, and the victim recovers fully and lives an amazing life.
UPDATE 04/11/08: The judge has issued a gag order on the request of Zachary Ashley’s lawyer, urging the trial out of the media. My problem is that he argues the “inflammatory” comments. This is ridiculous, the girls did it to post on YouTube. They wanted people to see them acting like this. It’s absurd to say that information surfacing is somehow inflammatory.
UPDATE 04/12/08: One of the parents, Bob Schumaker was being interviewed and blames the county sheriff for “making a mountain out of a mole-hill” and added that it was one-on-one at all times. He is the father of one of the boys who acted as a lookout.
He’s about to find out what it’s like for an innocent kid who got a call to drive his drunk, rowdy friends home only to find out they planned a drive-by on the way. In that case, he got 13 years in prison. Let’s see if justice is served in this case.
Eight people make it easier to keep one person locked in a house (kidnapping). The man was staggering and stammering drunk, which I am not against on principle. I would just be sober and aware if interviewed about my wreckless child taking part in the kidnapping and assault of a younger girl. It’s pathetic as an excuse and an example for your children.
UPDATE 04/13/08: Isn’t it funny how it’s been two days now since the gag order and I’m still getting things directly from the mainstream media? I guess Geraldo Rivera got half an interview before an interested party came over and informed her of what a gag order meant. This is pretty reprehensible on both Geraldo and the woman’s account. Christina Garcia, one of the mothers said “I don’t think she’s going to do jail time, there’s too much evidence saying she didn’t hit her.” She should soon realize that everyone(at least anyone darker than a paper bag) is tried as an accomplice to a crime that they could have potentially stopped at any point in time.
Friends and classmates seem to be lining up to defend the everyday personalities of the accused. I feel for them, the same way I’ve felt for a lot of people I know who are or were in prison. Like they will pay for what they have done. They shouldn’t get life, but the threat should loom so they don’t feel like it’s ever a slap on the wrist. They also need to prove there will be no retaliatory attacks, since there would be a lot of people to watch. The lookouts are not deserving of as much time, but some time. I’ve seen this all the time, with people who at least seemed to be more innocently in the wrong place at the wrong time. The travesty is that they got exactly what they wanted, 15 minutes of fame.
UPDATE 04/14/08: I feel obligated to add that Dr. Phil came under fire after one of his staff members posted bail for Mercedes Nichols. The unlicensed doctor drew fire earlier in the year for visiting Britney Spears at the UCLA medical center and essentially calling for her to seek serious help. She may need serious help, but Dr. Phil may as well. Coping with falling from stardom must be difficult. Dr. Phil released a statement saying that staff member crossed a line, and the show was scrapped. It’s only right, after they bail out the girl accused of luring the victim to the house. YouTube sensation was their goal, I guess it was only the beginning.
CURIOSITY: I am very curious what the victim thinks is fair. This was a savage beating and it churns my stomach every time I see it. I wonder if I am getting a fair interpretation from the camera (I think so), but it would be interesting to know if the victim wants a longer or lighter sentence for her attackers.
UPDATE 04/15/08: The 911 call made by the victim was played on CNN today, and really tells me a lot about her parents versus my collective impression of the parenting of the accused. This story has been both gut-wrenching and gut-checking to me. The shenanigans of my youth were probably more destructive to property but never, ever this harmful to people. In the call the victim addresses the 911 dispatcher by saying “Yes, ma’am” maintaining a level of composure I wouldn’t have ever expected. It’s easy to see why she was no longer friends with the girls who attacked her.
You can have your Tiger Woods, we’ve got Sen. McCain
“Former Army Staff Sergeant David Bellavia, who introduced the Arizona senator at a Vets For Freedom rally, sought to contrast McCain’s “lifetime of service to our nation” against thelack of resolve of his political opponents. And while he never addressed Obama by name, he did offer this nugget. “Rest assured,” he told the crowd, “that men like Senator McCain will be the goal and the men that my two young boys will emulate and admire. You can have your Tiger Woods, we’ve got Senator McCain.”
Are you kidding me? I feel bad for his kids if he thinks Tiger Woods isn’t someone to look up to and admire. Senator McCain has served this country admirably, but being a veteran does not qualify anyone to be President. If this were a justifiable argument General Wesley Clark would have become our president in 2004. I wouldn’t ever tell my kids not to look up to John McCain, but I’d never tell them not to admire Tiger Woods. Instead I’ll tell them to find the good in everyone and look up to that, collectively, become something better than all of your heroes.
Honestly, I hate the media over-analysis of words, so I refuse to talk about this tomorrow…but I’ve got to address it while it’s fresh. Huffington Post and Keith Olbermann on Countdown, both this afternoon brought up the obvious: Tiger Woods is pure badass. There’s no lose or quit in him. In that way, maybe it makes the argument that withdrawal of troops is not losing or quitting on the war. That McCain wasn’t a man about it or at least on the ball and able to call this out shouldn’t necessarily draw him anymore fire, but I should never hear another word about former Army Staff Sergeant David Bellavia, Randi Rhodes, Reverend Wright or Jerry Falwell for that matter.
Can the media take this and say “for the sake of this country, let’s just agree to not mince words anymore.” Maybe Congress might even hear that and GET SOMETHING DONE! Many hard working Americans in this country have given up on our government’s ability to get anything accomplished. If Congress were truly building a more perfect Union, the government should regularly make the news for good things. Not for paying people’s bills or handing out welfare, but by making life in this country head-and-shoulders above life in any other country, and quite frankly we’re slipping. Seriously, we don’t have adequate disaster coverage in the heartland or the coast. Our rappers sport euros instead of the dollar.
You should make the news by making the news shut up about immigration being a problem, by doing your job and solving this one. In good times we have quotas, we let people in, we enjoy culture more. Make them shut up about a war of which even Sen. McCain said “success will be fairly easy” before he was proven terribly wrong. Trust We the People, ring it to an end or set goals to bring it to an end. Make them shut up about our economy going into recession by re-examining the documents upon which the world’s greatest nation was built. We hired you to fix the problem, not to hire the Fed to fix the problem.
What started as a rant on speech became a rant on media became a rant on inactivity in Congress. I should stop wandering and finish an idea, but there’s just so much to address.
Modern music, the new industry and the big losers
This is my take on the music industry, shaped by the events of the last decade. My thoughts on the RIAA, the big winners, the changing tides, and the digital format. A big mouthful and at the same time, we’re really dancing around one issue piracy.
The recording industry includes: A&R reps, management and public relations, sound engineers, producers, advertising and anyone else lifting a finger for the band. I’ve seen bands get stupid amounts of advance money, and spend it on stupid things without retaining enough to stay an active band. Granted, the bands doing this were dumb, not friends but local bands I watched and wondered why their following continued to grow. But even dumb people deserve a fair shake, and the easiest way to ensure a dumb response is to flash an absurd amount of money around, or at least an absurd amount for the area.
The internet gives everyone a fair shake, and a chance to let the music speak for itself. No advertising campaigns, no major banner play, just a plan and free sites on web. For less than $200 you can press 50 copies of a demo or limited edition CD (and depending on predicted sales up to 1000 CDs for under $500), print album art and submit the album to every major digital retailer (iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, walmart.com). Sign up on AmieStreet, Last.fm and theSixtyOne as an artist and upload a few songs for some more opportunities to let your music speak, and establish communication with listeners.
The problem with all of this is that it cuts out a lot of that first equation. Now you only have the issue of recording/studio time. In any metropolitan area, you will find a boatload of recent recording arts graduates working for a fair price. I also describe on this site how to build a home studio, or the general direction to take. My tutorial is for beginners thinking about building something that works and works well, it is in no way a “best of” compilation of gear.
That is what all of these RIAA lawsuits and issues are about; the loss of many middlemen, the industry shedding it’s skin and the good ol’ American chase for the dollar sign. Recently the accusation was made that some artists represented by RIAA lawyers hadn’t seen a dime of the money from settlements reached. These are the last breaths of a slain dragon. The world is better off with too much music than filtered crap music, and it’s much better off if we filter our own crap. Pandora can pay the artists what you used to, go re-train in Green energy.
KANSAS WINS NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP!! – I’m shocked and awed
“One of the greatest comebacks in history to beat Memphis 75-68″
As a product of Kansas, and a kid who saw Jacque Vaughan, Rex Walters, Scot Pollard and Greg Ostertag play in the Barnstorming Scrimmages, I’m so ecstatic about this. I’ve lived through countless great teams, but we finally won, this is the first time since I was 5. An incredible win and a great story for a state without much more than Jayhawk basketball. I’m seriously more shocked than anything tonight.
GO KU!
