NEW YORK - Gunmen hijacked a FedEx delivery truck loaded with Christmas presents early Friday on a Manhattan street, officials said.
The truck was headed to a company facility in Newark after midnight when two men brandishing a gun confronted the driver at a traffic light, police said. The driver was forced out of the truck and into a car. He was found about four hours earlier in Brooklyn, police said.
Frank Zappa, 1940 - 1993
I can’t help it! I know obesity is wrong, but dammit,
7 years for “losing it”?
NORRISTOWN, Pennsylvania (AP) — A former Ivy League professor pleaded guilty Monday to voluntary manslaughter for killing his wife as she wrapped Christmas presents last year.
Rafael Robb says he “lost it” during an argument with his wife.
Rafael Robb, once a tenured economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, faces a prison sentence of no more than seven years for bludgeoning his wife, Ellen, on December 22. Robb, 57, said Monday that he got into an argument with his wife about a trip she was taking with their daughter and whether they would be returning in time for the daughter to return to school.
“We started a discussion about that. The discussion was tense,” Robb said. “We were both anxious about it. We both got angry. At one point, Ellen pushed me. … I just lost it.”
Ellen Robb, 49, described as a stay-at-home mother who doted on their only child, died in the kitchen of their home in Upper Merion Township, outside Philadelphia.
Detectives believed the scene had been staged to look like a burglary. The murder weapon, which Robb described as an exercise bar, was not found. The couple married in 1990 but had long been estranged, keeping separate bedrooms.
Rafael Robb apologized to his daughter and family in court Monday.
“I know she liked her mother. … And now she doesn’t have a mother,” he said, stifling tears.
To put it mildly. And with a father like you …
“They took the bar, the whole fucking bar.”
In what can only be described as a crime against nature, hundreds of bottles of — some of it a century old — might be poured down the drain.
Here’s a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel’s whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license.
Officials seized 2,400 bottles late last month during warehouse raids in Nashville and Lynchburg, the southern Tennessee town where the whiskey is distilled.
“Punish the person, not the whiskey,” said an outraged Kyle MacDonald, 28, a Jack Daniel’s drinker from British Columbia who promotes the whiskey on his blog. “Jack never did anything wrong, and the whiskey itself is innocent.”
Indeed, Mr. MacDonald, the whiskey is innocent.
The whiskey never hurt anyone.
In fact, it may be argued that the whiskey has life-sustaining powers more powerful than any herb, vitamin or elixir.
Issues of health aside, the disposing of century-old Jack Daniels that never hurt anyone and exists only to bring a little light into our otherwise bleak lives is a sin. I liken it to burning perfectly good weed, just because someone was selling it illegally.
Think of the good work that could be done with the whiskey. Think of the money that could be raised by auctioning it off. Think of the spirits that could be lifted simply by letting bloggers in L.A. drink it.
I’ve got a friend with Kansas City connections. And every time he returns from the Midwest, he brings me a bottle of Jack, from a vintage not available easily in Los Angeles. How I look forward to that first, smooth sip … it’s mother’s milk.
Tonight, I’ll go home and pour myself a few fingers of the amber liquid. And I’ll lift the glass to my lips and drink, slowly to savor the smooth taste. And as I roll my friend Jack around my mouth before swallowing, I’ll say a little prayer for innocent whiskey wasted.
Of course we did, goddammit!
From the
?Even growing up around it, little shards of the language stayed alive in our mouths and came out as slang,? he said, spouting a string of words that sounded straight out of a James Cagney movie.
?Snazzy? comes from ?snasach,? which means polished, glossy or elegant.*
The word ?scram? comes from ?scaraim,? meaning ?I get away.? The word ?swell? comes from ?sóúil,? meaning luxurious, rich and prosperous, and ?sucker? comes from ?sách úr,? or, loosely, fat cat.
There is ?Say uncle!? (?anacal? means mercy), ?razzmatazz,? and ?malarkey,? and even expressions like ?gee whiz? and ?holy cow? and ?holy mackerel? are Anglicized versions of Irish expressions, he said. So are ?doozy,? ?hokum,? ?humdinger,? ?jerk,? ?punk,? ?swanky,? ?grifter,? ?bailiwick,? ?sap,? ?mug,? ?wallop,? ?helter-skelter,? ?shack,? ?shanty,? ?slob,? ?slacker? and ?knack.?
*ahem.
or, “They’ll bond with anything! Film at 11!”
Then again, there’s always the terrifying, “Robots can take us over and we’re just fine with it,” theory, too.
today I got to tell her that she was my hero!
Barack bin Osama Obama Laden sends Colbert A baby believed to be the is a blessing, but is still getting some limbs pruned. Over in my work world, the are out and about. A little late for day of the dead, turned up alive after his mum cremated him. I like how they said he was “living rough.” Back in my old hometown, a lawyer is being prosecuted for “moonlighting” Not exactly the term I would use. He broke probation (!) to go see the Pats play the Dolphins, and moonlighted over Miami. Pope Benedict and discusses fall fashions. Maybe Colbert can help him since he’s not working and A friend of mine is in Bulgaria and I’m thinking of asking him to pick me up the latest issue (No. 107) of the Maybe can help them with fundraising?
Ugh! I’m ready to curl up with some hot cocoa and tivo’d Green Acres.
PS. I don’t plug my own blog, that’s tacky. But I should have covered this story here on MRev … and considering the it’s getting quite interesting.
Over on Altercation, LTC. Robert Bateman of Right Blogostan’s favorite historian, Victor Davis Hanson, who specializes in the twisting of history to fit political convenience.
Well, completely contrary to Hanson’s thesis about how Western armies seek battle, hold ground, and strive for short and sharp shock conflicts, the reality was that the Romans, for the next 14 years, deliberately avoided shock and pitched battles with Hannibal. (Remember these Hanson lines? “All armies engage in mass confrontations at times; few prefer to do so in horrendous collisions of shock and eschew fighting at a distance or through stealth when there is at least the opportunity for decisive battle…” and “Foot soldiers are common in every culture, but infantrymen, fighting en masse, who take and hold ground and fight face-to-face, are a uniquely Western specialty…” (pg. 445))
What the Romans actually did was exactly the opposite of the Hanson thesis. They broke up their armies into smaller forces and harassed Hannibal indirectly. They gave ground, regularly, and lived to maneuver another day. They sought to wear him down, while preserving their own forces. They avoided pitched battles on any large scale. In short, they followed the direct advice of one of the other most famous generals of all time, one who is only mentioned by name a single time in the entire chapter (and then without noting his actions). That man was Quintus Fabius Maximus, called “Cunctator” (The Delayer), and it is from him that we have the term “Fabian Strategy,” which was so magnificently put into play by a fellow named George Washington a couple of millennia later.
How Hanson missed that extra 14-year part where the Romans avoided major pitched battles in Italy is curious.
Click on the link and .