Looks like it's bride number 5 for Drew Peterson. "Yeah, he proposed and she accepted," Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, said of his client's impending nuptials. Hope she don't plan on sleeping much. I wouldn't spend any time bathing, either. Don't start reading War and Peace ...
But Brodsky added, "I guess he's got to get divorced." Peterson's current wife, Stacy, has been missing since last year. Does that mean he'll have to dig her up?
Peterson said he does not believe his marital status should prevent him from becoming engaged. "I was married to Kathleen when I was engaged to Stacy," he said.
Kathleen -- Kathleen Savio, wife number 3 -- was the victim of an unsolved March 2004 homicide. Stacy -- wife number 4 -- vanished in October 2007. State police say she is the victim of a potential homicide and have named Drew Peterson their sole suspect.
Peterson's publicist, Glenn Selig, said Drew's betrothed is a 23-year-old woman from the Bolingbrook area, making her even younger than Stacy, who would be 24. Homicide suspects have publicists? Is this a great country, or what?
A sleepy Peterson on Wednesday morning seemed perturbed that news of his engagement had leaked. "I can't believe this is happening," he said. "How the f--- did this get out?"
Peterson said he wants to keep details of his new love under wraps. "Last time I had a relationship, you guys screwed it all up," he said of 22-year-old tanning salon worker Kim Matuska. "The police had her, the grand jury had her. I'm not putting her through all that." ...and they say chivalry is dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"How the f--- did this get out?"
Uh, because you have a publicist?
A better question would be "why the f--- would she do it?"
Drew Peterson, under a cloud of suspicion since his 23-year-old fourth wife vanished more than a year ago, has popped the question to another young woman -- drawing anguished pleas from a Chicago father convinced his daughter is the one.
"That ain't going to happen," Ernie Raines said. "I'm doing everything I can to try to get her away from him. . . . I'd like to say to him: Stay away from my daughter, take his ring back and look for his wife before he's out trying to get another young girl."
Raines said his daughter told him about Peterson's proposal when he spotted a ring on her finger Friday. "I said, 'You need to take that back. If you don't want to, I will,' " said Raines, 53. "I said, why would you want to marry someone like that anyway? He's my age for Christ's sake."
Christina Raines said her dad's got it wrong -- it was just a friendship ring from someone else. She said she doesn't know who Peterson plans to marry.
Raines said he and his daughter met Peterson at a Bolingbrook laundromat years ago, and that she has been friendly with him for months. Peterson has brought her roses, taken her to "Blue Man Group," promised to buy her a car and even autographed a book for him, Raines said.
Concerned about Peterson -- "I don't want a third one to come up missing" -- Raines said he drove to Peterson's house last month to "let him know that I'm here, that I'm around, that I know where he lives."
He said Peterson asked him, "Did you get my book?"
"We talked, I said, 'You know me, I'd kill for my kids, you know that,' " Raines said. "He told me: 'I will never do nothing to hurt your daughter, that's why I didn't put her name out.' "
Raines thinks his daughter sees security with Peterson. "He's got a house. He's got money."
But, as a father, he sees troubles."I said, if you don't answer your [cell] phone, don't worry about it," Raines said. "I'll drive my Cadillac right through his house."
A rare winter storm in the desert left inches of snow on the palm trees and marquees of the Las Vegas Strip, as forecasters predicted up to 3 inches could accumulate overnight. The storm tangled traffic on slick highways and grounded many flights in and out of the tourist hub. Snow piled up around the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign on the south end of the Strip, as visitors parked and posed for pictures wearing hooded jackets.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Andrew Gorelow said 3 inches of accumulation on the Strip would break the December record of two inches set in 1967, but wouldn't match the Las Vegas winter record of nine inches set in 1974.
Gorelow said up to 10 inches could fall in the suburbs in the western foothills of the Spring Mountains. A powerful wet Pacific storm with an Arctic chill was to blame for the conditions that left parts of Las Vegas looking more like Wisconsin than a desert vacation destination.
The Federal Aviation Administration barred flights bound for Las Vegas from departing from airports nationwide. McCarran International Airport did not immediately close, although many flights had been diverted and delayed. KLAS-TV reported Southwest Airlines had canceled all flights. "The issue is visibility," Airport spokeswoman Elaine Sanchez said. The airport has no deicing equipment.
The Nevada Highway Patrol and Las Vegas police reported fender-benders as vehicles spun out and lost control on slippery roads. No serious injuries were immediately reported. U.S. 95 between Las Vegas and Hoover Dam was closed at Railroad Pass, as well as the Interstate 15 between Primm and Baker, Calif., closing the road from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.
The near whiteout conditions had school officials considering a snow day for Las Vegas students. Clark County School District spokesman Craig Kadlub said the district was watching the developments closely would announce any cancellations early Thursday morning.
The National Weather Service observation did record 3" of snow on the 17th.
Snow was widespread in the southwest US. Palmdale, CA (4k') had about 9"; the hills in Malibu Beach had a dusting about about the 2k'level, Lancaster, CA (2.5k') had about 3".
Over two dozen new record low maxima in San Diego and Imperial counties.
Quite an event.
Another cold/snow/rain event is possible early next week.
#2
You guys don't understand. All these record lows are just further proof of global warming. If you don't believe me just ask Gore.
Over two dozen new record low maxima in San Diego and Imperial counties.
It's been getting into the 40's in coastal San Diego County. I know you people think we're all candy ass out here but, when you're used to having 70 degrees all the time, 48 degrees is frickin' cold.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/18/2008 11:48 Comments ||
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#3
Frigid Storm Closes California Freeways, Drops Snow in Malibu
#4
Predicted here last week on the 'Burg. Nothing but josh'n from here Abu; if house and wardrobe ain't rigged for it 40s is plenty cold. I have seen what flurries do to Dallas traffic so I can only imagine your highway scene (goes double for airports).
Maybe y'all need something like the hurricane party and call it a Donner Party with theme food - Swedish Meatballs, Long Johns, Sloppy Joes, Oysters Rockefeller, Bloody Mary...
#1
There was a brilliant reprobate of a Buddhist monk, who embarrassed the heck out of his prudish and snobbish monastery with his drunken, belligerent antics, but was their key to fame.
They were thrilled when he died, and decided to have an elaborate, ornate and snooty funeral inviting all sorts of dignitaries, the sort of thing he would have despised.
All went according to plan, until they lit his funeral pyre, to discover his disciples had filled his ceremonial robes full of fireworks.
This should be fun to sort out
A LESBIAN Asian bus driver was fired by Brisbane City Council after she wrote a note referring to commuters as "spear chuckers with prams" .
But Lillian Tam - who said she has fought discrimination all her life - said the note was not meant to be malicious or racist.
I'd tell her not to quit her day job but ...
She claimed the phrase was used by bus drivers to describe the 110 bus route after a group of Sudanese, Tongan, Samoan and Caucasian passengers wearing face masks and carrying spears were picked up one day. Ms Tam said other routes were dubbed the Orient Express, the Bombay Express and the Granny Run.
The full bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission this week rejected Ms Tam's appeal against an earlier decision of Senior Deputy President Peter Richards, who found her dismissal was fair.
Ms Tam, 47, of Parkinson, had been a casual trainee bus driver at the Richlands Bus Depot for two and a half years, when she left the note requesting a particular bus for a friend and colleague at the refuelling station on April 6, 2007. It stated: "Could you please not give a 2506 merc (sic) tomorrow coz (sic) I'm taking over and I'm doing all the 110s - I do not want to pick up all those spear chuckers with prams!!!"
Bus route 110 travels through Inala, Acacia Ridge, Salisbury, Moorooka and Annerley. The commission was told that if Ms Tam drove a high-floor bus, as she requested, many passengers would not get on because of the lack of space to manoeuvre their prams.
But the note was found by indigenous co-worker Katherine Jennings, who told the commission she felt angry, humiliated and frustrated by the "extremely derogatory" and "disrespectful" language. "It conveyed to me that dark-skinned people are primitive," Ms Jennings said. "The note was an ugly reminder to me that old attitudes towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people persisted in the workplace."
CINCINNATI -- An Ohio agency director resigned Wednesday in the wake of a finding that she improperly used state computers to access personal information on the man who became known as "Joe the Plumber" during the presidential campaign. Two other officials who were suspended from their positions for their role in the computer search will not be returning to their jobs, an agency spokeswoman said.
Department of Job and Family Services Director Helen Jones-Kelley said in a statement accompanying her resignation that she won't allow her reputation to be disparaged and that she is concerned for her family's safety.
And the newspapers allow her to say that without challenge. What tools. Her reputation is in tatters precisely because of what she did and no one has threatened her family.
"This decision comes after a time of pause, in which I realize that I continue to be used as a political postscript, providing a distraction from urgent state priorities," she said in her statement.
Just shut up and get under the bus.
Gov. Ted Strickland suspended Jones-Kelley for a month without pay after the Ohio Inspector General's office found in November that she improperly used state computers to find personal information on Samuel Wurzelbacher. The investigation also found that she conducted improper political fundraising activity for now President-elect Barack Obama. Investigators could not confirm that Jones-Kelley accessed the records of Wurzelbacher with political gain in mind. His report did indicate that she had used her personal Blackberry to send the Obama fundraising requests -- though it was synched up to state equipment.
Nope, no clue at all as to why she accessed those records ...
Two top-level members of Jones-Kelley's staff also will be leaving the department, said agency spokeswoman Scarlett Bouder. Fred Williams, the department's assistant director, will resign effective Jan. 31 and the agency is revoking Doug Thompson's position as deputy director of child support effective Dec. 22, she said. Both had been suspended from their positions after being implicated in the computer records search.
Good riddance. I'm sure Move.on or Think Progress will have jobs for you ...
#2
Too bad, Helen. A perfectly good no heavy lifting government hack job at a good wage down the tubes.
But I'm sure Barry's Boys will find a spot to hide you on the federal tit. It's only fair...
A former Marine sergeant acquitted by a civilian jury in August in the killing of four Iraqi prisoners in 2004 is trying to rejoin the Riverside Police Department. Jose Luis Nazario was dismissed as a probationary officer when charges were levied by the U.S. attorney's office. Now he has reapplied to the Riverside department and some others.
As a probationary employee, Nazario had no civil service protection.
His application has to start from the beginning, meaning he will compete with other applicants, said Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach. That process is currently in the background-check stage.
Nazario may or not have an advantage. Leach was 20 years in the Marine Reserves and has several former Marines in his department. "I have a soft spot for Marines," he said.
Well, that's because the MSM of the time didn't work for the victory of the enemy. Read the books Army at Dawn and Day of Battle, there were enough screw ups and failures to drown any administration by today's standards of intolerance and hate that consumes the MSM. That was when journalism was a trade and not a papered profession. A lot of the culture's pussification can be directly tied to academia and its monopoly in certify competency granted to it by lazy and ineffective personnel shops.
#9
P2K is right: I've also read both books, and Rick Atkinson, the WaPo reporter who wrote the books, has a tone of amazement and disbelief throughout. For each situation, the narrative is something like this: "the Americans screw up planning, the Brits bungle logistics, the two fail to coordinate, the general staffs plot intrigue at the expense of the situation, incompetent officers put their men into terrible positions ... ... ... then the Germans get hammered and are forced to retreat."
And Mr. Atkinson never figures out why.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2008 10:38 Comments ||
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#10
He's right. And for some reason that's who the 'people' have chosen to run our country for the last 20 years.
#11
You can thank the baby boomers for the current mess.
I've joined in Boomer bashing with the best, but in this case the current mess is not their doing, it's that of FDR and his generation. The system they put in place has run to its logical conclusion and is breaking down. A new design has to be put in place.
This seems to happen with a reasonable regularity, the Depression/WWII of 1940, the Civil War of 1860, the Revolution/Constitution of 1780 King Philip's War, the Glorious Revolution and the Salem Witch Trials in 1690 and the Pilgrims in 1620.
Every 80 years, the length of a human life, we seem to need to reconnect our social framework to deal with new challenges. And it lasts until it finally falls about a life time later. We are in one of those transitions and the future of America depends on how well we do the work before us.
So you can thank whomever you wish for the current mess, but the Boomers are no more deserving than anyone else. And the Boomers will be the key to the solution.
By the time this is over, I suspect they will be the ones to pay big time for the abrogation of the promises of Medicare and Social Security, which they will accept as the price for seeing the country's future assured. Pussies? They will be the first generation to see wide spread poverty since, oh, the 1940's. And they will do it for the future. Or the American experiment will end.
#12
I'd have to say that it is a baby-boomer redux going on right now. For every screwball neohippy out there, there is a person who does get it. It is just that the neohippy gets the face time via msm and yawn stewart. The major difference is that with the veterans from Vietnam were able to see it all happening again and put a stop to it; ie Gathering of Eagles, Patriot Guards, and many other fine organizations who without we would have seen the widespread acceptance of spitting on troops normal. There is a good core of kids out there who are exceptional; that is nobody notices the kids helping mom at the grocery store but everyone knows about the one kid who throws a fit in the candy aisle. I have a serious disagreement with the baby boomers - but the ones who are completely selfish and without structure, there are the baby boomers who did volunteer to fight during Vietnam and there are the boomers who have ushered in the greatest technological advancements since the steam engine. Unfortunately its the first set which gets all the attention.
And as for Mr. Atkinson, I have to admit I liked his first two books of the liberation trilogy but I also have the benifit of Ambrose and VDH in my background for a couple examples. The Shaaras and Atkinson are in the same category for me in that if that is all you have read then you are not getting the complete story. Army at Dawn got into some detail that I have not read in any other North Africa books, and I did have to put Day of Battle down a couple times because it was depressing to read but again covered Sicily/Italy details like no other book I had read. It was then that I had to sit back and remember via Ambrose/VDH that in spite of everything it was the soldier who carried on and pressed victory in spite of the difficulties.
If I were to suggest a reading list for someone who knows nothing about Torch/N. Africa (and this is where Mr. Eastwood is right) Carnage and Culture (at least last 1/3), Citizen Soldier, (watch first part of Patton), Rising Tide, Army at Dawn.
*using authors accessable to the average reader (Atkinson can be argued as to this point, the abridged audio gets the point across just fine).
#17
Clint started out as a macho man. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is one of my all time favorite movies. Harry Callahan was a great character too. But some of the movies he's made lately are pretty darn wussified. Bridges of Madison County was pathetic. It wasn't romantic. It was squalid and pathetic. Then there was Mysty River where he hired Milk star Sean Penn. How can I forgive him for that? Clint is a part of the MSM that led us astray, or at least tried to lead us astray and is still trying, just like so many Pied Pipers. Clint is a part of the problem.
Boomers are a product of our time and the time was heavily influenced by the likes of Franklin Roosevelt who, as far as I'm concerned, damn near ruined this country.
The other day I was criticized for whining about the boomer bashing of Victor Davis Hanson. Maybe I got a little strident, or even whiny if you will. But I didn't have to read very far into Hanson's article to determine that he is a moron. Each generation faces its own unique challenges and it's just silly to say one generation was the greatest ever but the next was rotten. Sorry, I didn't have to contend with the Great Depression or WWII so we'll never know how I would have responded to those situations. I try to do the best I can with what I have and that's all any of us can do.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/18/2008 12:24 Comments ||
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#18
I wouldn't go so far as to call VDH a moron, but he does get outside his expertise as historian. In C&C epilogue he writes how he does not want to do a chapter concerning the 9/11 attacks and predictions yet puts out opinions about current situations. The other month he put out a deal about his 10 rants, one was, "don't become a farmer" even though he spends many pages in his books that farmers were the core of civic responsibility for the Greeks. Even those we respect we must still remain critical thinkers of, else we become blind followers.
And with Eastwood, there have been headscratchers like Midnight in the Garden but also defends his flick Flags against spoke lee and rightfully so.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/18/2008 13:34 Comments ||
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#21
Did he have a cigar clenched in his teeth?
Posted by: Caesar Omung5273 ||
12/18/2008 21:39 Comments ||
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#22
Clint is a part of the MSM that led us astray, or at least tried to lead us astray and is still trying, just like so many Pied Pipers. Clint is a part of the problem.
Crock of crap if I may say so. Two words: William Munny
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2008 22:14 Comments ||
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Damn! Looks like Adolph Hitler Campbell is screwed for the Class of 2027...
Yale University's president sent a letter to faculty and staff Tuesday saying that as a result of the recession, the university's estimated $23 billion endowment fund has lost 25 percent of its value since June, dropping to $17 billion. President Richard C. Levin said the 25 percent loss would have a significant impact on operations, including delaying the start of new construction projects and cutting spending in a variety of areas.
Levin said, however, that Yale would "maintain our commitment to the improvements in financial aid for students in Yale College" meant to support low- and middle-income families that were announced last year. The school will also continue to recruit faculty while being "judicious in authorizing new positions" and filling vacancies, he said.
"It is important to recognize that $17 billion is still a very large endowment," Levin said. "This was where the endowment stood as recently as January 2006. Still, the 25 percent decline we have experienced has a very significant impact on our operations because income from the endowment supports 44 percent of the university's annual expense base of $2.7 billion."
Universities typically spend 4 to 4.5 percent of an endowment each year. They plan to generate 6 to 7 percent in returns on average, thus allowing the endowment to grow over time while harvesting some of the return to fund current operations. A 25 percent cut in total endowment, therefore, means a similar amount to be cut in the funds provided to operations. That's going to hurt.
Levin's announcement comes weeks after Harvard University said its $36.9 billion endowment dropped 22 percent and could decline as much as 30 percent by June 30, 2009, the end of the fiscal year. Levin ended his letter urging those with ideas on how to cut costs to e-mail them to suggestions@yale.edu.
#8
Let's see, Yale has 11,000 students and had has a 23B 17B endowment. That's $21.M $1.5M per student and Yale still charges $35K/year tuition? I guess Yale has to when they spend $245K/year per student. (WTF!)
Posted by: ed ||
12/18/2008 8:35 Comments ||
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#9
OK, some of those universities have been rich and a lot are currently infested with lefties including a bunch of older profs who are starting to draw retirement.
But unless you think the US can maintain scientific and technical progress using highschool beakers and bunson burners, facilities for research are needed. And when we're talking nano-level engineering, or gene splicing, or the advanced materials research that has direct military and commercial applications, we're also talking expensive labs supported by technicians and consuming supplies.
Over the last decade the US has started to slip with regard to new patents and useful breakthroughs compared to other countries. Universities aren't the only source for those but they are the key starting place. We ate a lot of our intellectual property seed corn in the last 15 years as the .com boom under Clinton encouraged invesment in quickly commercializable research rather than the longer term research that was the basis for our prosperity in the 60s-80s. And since 9/11 there's been an understandable focus on getting things to the troops rather than on broader and more basic research.
But it's that basic research that underpins economic competitiveness It takes time for the decay of that research infrastructure to become obvious, just as it takes time for clogged arteries to kill people. Both are unconducive to health and a good future, tho. Having top universities doing expensive, cutting edge science isn't a luxury, it's an important investment.
And it's an investment with direct military and economic security payoffs, too.
#10
Having top universities doing expensive, cutting edge science isn't a luxury, it's an important investment.
That's where I get off the train. Yes, we need expensive, cutting edge science [research]. No, we don't need it done at universities. Especially anti-American universities that at the least refuse to align themselves with the US at best, and ally themselves with our enemies.
Re-invigorate the industrial labs. I'd rather see the research contracts going to GE, AT&T and DuPont than Harvard, Chicago and Stanford. That's the way it was before WWII and there is no reason it or another variant won't work if the resources are directed there. A shift in the locus for scientific research is overdue and a probable outcome of the transformation we have begun.
But America's "top universities" need to take twixt the knees, just like the auto industry. If it makes them limp for a couple of decades, so much the better.
#12
I hear you, NS, but those industrial labs had the benefit of unquestioned US economic leadership plus the national research policies / investments promulgated by Vannevar Bush. That was Cold War mil investment, by and large, paid for in part by the fact that we had little manufacturing competition from Europe (still recovering from WWII) and Asia.
Today there is no shared consensus about investing to fight a common enemy as there was when the Soviets boasted nascent space and atomic programs. And there is a huge increase in personally managed investment portfolios which results in pressure on business for short term profits vs. longer term research support.
Not to mention the fact that those companies are now internationally traded (i.e. owned).
#13
The science and engineering departments aren't the usual haunts of the lefties in university land. This is where the sane ones are. Cut the soft bs, not the hard science.
#14
Agree, lotp. That is why I expect some other structure to arise, possibly like the think tanks. But the current model is wearing out, for sure.
remoteman, the problem is the research generates lots of "overhead" that the universities have billed in a manner bordering on fraud to bring in money that ends up supporting the structure for the softies. Something should have been done about this when Draper Labs et al were taking it in the pants in the '60s, but I guess the fraud wasn't as bad then and it wasn't clear how wacko the universities would become.
#15
#9 Come on lotp, you know perfectly well research is done on outside grants. And, places like Yale take a much higher overhead % than less prestigious institutions.
#16
I do indeed know all about overhead rates and what goes into them. Research done on grants uses capital equipment and facilities built out of the endowment or specific bequests. And large research universities with strong research track records got there in most cases because of that investment, which influences overhead rates. (And yeah, there's other stuff in there too, some of it fat. But - my point - not all of it by any means.)
Re: the think tank model, maybe. I've done some consulting to two of the public/private research consortia that were popular in the 90s. That model is heavily flawed in part because the private partners had no real incentive to put their best research and people into them.
The DOD labs model works, some, but these days they award and oversee grants as much as they do direct research. Their expertise these days is most heavily on the application needs, not the science to meet those needs. And the Los Alamos etc. labs flourished most when we had a common commitment to defense and the self confidence to consider it justified.
#21
Since science & engineering grant overhead assessments are used to fund worthless counterproductive liberal programs, and since a healthy academic science and engineering structure is highly desirable, I suggest the answer is (re)focus science and engineering in universities dedicated to just those programs. Like MIT, Texas A&M, Cal Tech, etc. Let the abused programs at places like Stanford, Yale etc. fade away by luring their good people to less liberally burdened places.
#22
GB, that's just wrong. I was trying to read a very interesting discussion between NS and lotp, with what I thought was a very sage comment thrown in by remoteman, and then you post that...that...unfortunate belt tightening example.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/18/2008 19:22 Comments ||
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#23
A U:
Had to disinfect my mouse pointer after cutting and pasting that picture. (I'm assuming your are talking about the visible picture and not the linked picture in the comment before it.)
#24
nice bruises....one would hope there's a low enough polyester content in those "shorts" that spontaneous combustion odds would be only average
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2008 20:20 Comments ||
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#25
That picture demonstrates why one always matches one's underthings to one's overthings. Also why sports clothes should be reserved for sporting events. The anchor tattoo discussion will be reserved for another time.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Looks like it's bride number 5 for Drew Peterson. "Yeah, he proposed and she accepted," Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, said of his client's impending nuptials.
A rare winter storm in the desert left inches of snow on the palm trees and marquees of the Las Vegas Strip, as forecasters predicted up to 3 inches could accumulate overnight. The storm tangled traffic on slick highways and grounded many flights in and out of the tourist hub. Snow piled up around the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign on the south end of the Strip, as visitors parked and posed for pictures wearing hooded jackets.
