The Evil Eyebrow

Category: News

  • Useless News Sites

    I used to live in Lubbock Texas. You may have heard about it last night on Heroes wherein our chirpy protagonista Claire is supposedly skipping school to visit the aquarium there (Aquarium? Lubbock? Bobby Knight must have brought it with him).

    Apparently, there’s been some excitement recently. Enough hit the AP wires at least. A man has been setting traps on the bike trails around town to deter bicyclists from riding in environmentally sensitive areas. As one of my friends might say, “Freaking Hippies!” Not that I don’t applaud this man’s goal, but his methods seem a bit…ummmm, felonius.

    If you click on the previous link, you’ll notice that it is a google search page. As of 6 Feb 07, there were tons and tons of hits to this story, most from news organizations. But if you search within the local Lubbock Avalanche Journal’s website you get…nothing.

    It’s good to see that the citizens of West Texas are being well served by their news companies. “If you don’t know about it, ask a neighbor,” while true in Lubbock, doesn’t help anyone who wants to research the archives.

  • Georgia Tourism = Thumbs Down

    Georgia isn’t doing so hot in the tourist attraction business these last few days. First we had a british professor allegedly mauled on Courtland Street, now we have blind people being denied access in Savannah.

  • Southern Hospitality III

    Professor Felipe Fernandez-Arnesto has weighed in(registration required) concerning the stories of his alleged abuse during a routine encounter with a police officer in Atlanta. In this opinion piece in the AJC, he outlines his side of the encounter and his opinions about his treatment both by the officer and the rest of the legal process in Atlanta.

    Unfortunately, he is relating this incident in what he perceives as a larger context of executive privilege and abuse promulgated by the Bush Administration. I think that he’s going a bit far with his perceived parallels. It would be difficult to discern effects that the Bush Administration would have had on a local city police officer. He’s only been in office 6 years after all. That’s a lot of trickle-down in a short time period, even if Bush believed in that philosophy.

    As I noted in previous posts, the british historian was arrested for jaywalking after allegedly refusing to obey police directives. There are two sides to this story, of course, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution finds it just as intriguing as I do.

  • Southern Hospitality II

    Like wikipedia articles, breaking news stories are best left to sit and smoulder until the facts come out.

    Yesterday, I passed along quotes from an AJC article concerning the arrest of a British historian for jaywalking.

    Well, there’s another story today, with the officer insisting that he used an “excessive amount of discretion.” Here’s the link to the story (registration required). To sum up, the professor claims abuse, the officer claims snootiness, and given the statement from the police department, “He is an oustanding officer,” said Maj. James Sellers. “We’ve never had a complaint about him before,” I’m inclined to go with the officer on this one.

    But wait! There’s a nail in this coffin that I can personally attest to! One of the professor’s original claims was that the officer was not in uniform. However, he was working part time directing pedestrian traffic across a busy downtown street at the Hilton. I’ve seen many officers working this same duty, and they are always in uniform. Take that, British historian! Hah!

    Still, not good publicity for Atlanta, which retains the title of “Most Tacky Olympics.”

  • Southern Hospitality

    Atlanta Police handcuffed and jailed a British author in town for a conference. His crime? Jaywalking.

    Here are some choice quotes from the AJC article (registration required).

    Fernandez-Armesto said. “I asked him what his authority was because I didn’t see a badge. Where I’m from you don’t associate young gentlemen in bomber jackets with the police. But he was extremely upset I had questioned his bona fides.”

    and

    Fernandez-Armesto was taken into custody, where he spent the next eight hours along with “extremely unfortunate members of the underclass.” He was fingerprinted and mug shots were taken. “It was an extremely traumatic experience,” he said. “I was in a state of paralytic fear,” he said. “My livelihood is dependent on coming over to the U.S., and any record would’ve ruined my way of life.”

    and

    “That was my first morning here,” he said. “I must say I didn’t get to experience the Southern hospitality I’d heard so much about.”

    I love “extremely unfortunate members of the underclass.”

  • Eating FrankenCows

    The FDA has released its draft assesment of the safety of cloned animals entering the human food supply. They are inviting public comment for the next 90 (89, today) days.

    I don’t intend to read this thing, but I will skim it. If only to see what people are concerned about. How can an animal that is born from a mother-animal, grow, eat, and evetually die, be unsafe when it comes to eating it? That’s not a rhetorical question. What are the risks? I’m very curious.

  • Cobb less Anti-Evolutionary Today

    According to the AJC, the Cobb County, GA, biology-book sticker case has been settled.

    In an agreement announced today, Cobb school officials said they will not order the placement of any “stickers, labels, stamps, inscriptions, or other warnings or disclaimers bearing language substantially similar to that used on the sticker that is the subject of this action.” School officials also agreed not to take other actions that would undermine the teaching of evolution in biology classes.

    Three cheers for my school system! I no longer feel bad about paying taxes into it.

  • Internet to the Rescue!

    A man watches his house being burglarized from across the globe. Alerts police. Laughs hysterically…

    Gacked from Back 80 Loop.

  • Day of Quotes

    I love reading news stories and finding some gem of a quote deep inside. For example, with respect to the French Goverment’s policy of selling various historical properties to reduce maintenance budgets and pay down the national debt: (gacked from the NY Times)

    Many investors buy with only a vague idea of how they will use the property, and the finance ministry says the government does not care.

    “They won’t have the right to destroy it, or paint it red, or build a tower in the garden,” said one official at the Ministry of Finance, who could not be named because of ministry rules. “But they can use it for a bordello as long as they obey zoning laws.”

    Zoning laws rule!

  • Requeim for a Civil Defense Logo

    The Old and New American civil defense (emergency management) logos

    FEMA et al have released a brand new logo to replace the old Civil Defense logo initially adopted in 1939.

    Quoting the NY Times:

    The CD insignia, which the association called “a relic from the cold war,” was eulogized by Richard Grefé, the executive director of the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

    “The old mark fits in the same category of simplicity and impact occupied by the London Underground map,” Mr. Grefé said.

    I must be missing a historical allusion. Is a map of the London Underground a simple and impactful object?

    Please, if I’m missing what this means, inform me…