Yearly Archives: 2003

Nutjobs write to Judge in Kobe Bryant Case

The Smoking Gun: The People Speak: Letters To Kobe Judge

AUGUST 22–Everyone seems to have an opinion about the Kobe Bryant matter–and some people have decided to share theirs with the Colorado judge presiding over the NBA star’s case. Below you’ll find several kooky letters sent to Eagle County District Court Judge Frederick Gannett. TSG’s favorite is a missive from a Texas man pleading for the judge’s autograph–we’re guessing that’ll leave him just two clerks and a bailiff short of a complete set. (5 pages)

I’m so frightened at some of the ideas floating around in people’s heads. But it doesn’t surprise me, I guess. Rape is the only crime in this country where the victim is put on trial instead of the perpetrator. Imagine if you got mugged downtown, and during the trial for your mugger, you had to get up on the stand and explain why you were walking on that street at that time.

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Selections from the Oprah Book Club or Episodes of Magnum P.I.?

1. Death of the Flowers
2. River, Cross My Heart
3. The Arrow That Is Not Aimed
4. Songs in Ordinary Time
5. Going Home
6. Stones from the River
7. Echoes Of The Mind
8. A Lesson Before Dying
9. Let Me Hear The Music
10. The Pilot’s Wife
11. Did You See the Sunrise?
12. Drowning Ruth
13. Open House
14. Autumn Warrior
15. Back Roads

Continue ReadingSelections from the Oprah Book Club or Episodes of Magnum P.I.?

New York Overheard Yahoo Group

A yahoo group for New Yorkers to post conversations they’ve overheard on the street. My favorite message so far:

Pooh-bah: “No, I don’t believe we’ve met”
Japanese woman: (quietly) “Oh yes we have. On 9/11 when we were all trying to get away, you took my cab outside of Grand Central Station.”
Pooh-bah: Uncomfortable silence

UPDATE: I have to say, I like this conversation, too, though. “I’m like reading Ecclesiastices right now, man; it’s like not even a book it’s so interesting.”

Hmm. It’s so interesting that it’s not even like reading a book at all. Because reading just sucks so much, you know. And then they go on to pray to God to fill their heads with knowledge. Um, kids, THAT’S WHAT THE BOOKS ARE FOR. Knowledge isn’t going to magically appear in your heads, you actually have to go out and get it. Oh, nevermind.

span class=”hilightyellow”>2005 Update: This email groupbecame a blog.

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Power Point is Evil – By Edward Tufte

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  • Post category:Art

For those who don’t know who Edward Tufte is, he’s the god of design, and the pre-eminent scholar of graphical representation. He’s written some amazing books which are very expensive but must-owns for designers:
– The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
– Envisioning Information
– Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative
Tutfe, it turns out, is not a fan of PowerPoint presentations.

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Current Fate of Women in Iraq

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  • Post category:Politics

From Iraqi blogger Riverbend:
“Females can no longer leave their homes alone. Each time I go out, E. and either a father, uncle or cousin has to accompany me. It feels like we�ve gone back 50 years ever since the beginning of the occupation …
“We are seeing an increase of fundamentalism in Iraq which is terrifying.”
From Yanar Mohammed, director of the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq:
More than 400 Iraqi women have been kidnapped and raped amid the lawlessness gripping the country since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the Organisation of Women�s Freedom in Iraq said Sunday.
�This violence is still a daily occurrence, especially on the streets of Baghdad, without attracting the least attention of the (US) soldiers.�
From Hanna Megally of Human Rights Watch:
“Women and girls today in Baghdad are scared, and many are not going to schools or jobs or looking for work. If Iraqi women are to participate in postwar society, their physical security needs to be an urgent priority.”
From Jerry Bremer, Presidential Envoy to Iraq:
“Life in Iraq will be more open, with each Iraqi free to choose his or her own path. This is the real meaning of the coalition�s military victory: A new Iraq means new freedom.”

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Dante’s Inferno

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  • Post category:What Am I?

DISCLAIMER: The only reason I’m in the seventh level is because that is where Dante stuck all the gay people, and I answered all the gay questions correctly. I have no idea why he considered gay people “violent”.
The Dante’s Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers) Very Low
Level 1 – Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers) Low
Level 2 (Lustful) High
Level 3 (Gluttonous) High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious) Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy) High
Level 6 – The City of Dis (Heretics) Moderate
Level 7 (Violent) Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers) High
Level 9 – Cocytus (Treacherous) Low

Take the Dante’s Inferno Hell Test

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We did say “major.” I swear we did.

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  • Post category:Politics

In his May 1 speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln, Bush declared: “Combat operations in Iraq have ended.” The white house posted a transcript of the speech stating this with the headline “President Bush Announces Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.”

Now, however, the White House is backing off that statement, saying that they meant “major” combat operations are ended, but there is still combat going on in Iraq, and they’re editing the website to insert the word “major” before the word combat throughout the site. Unfortunately there are records of the original wording on the website. Revisionist historians, indeed. Someone explain Caching to our poor confused president.

Continue ReadingWe did say “major.” I swear we did.