Sunday, June 17, 2012

RODNEY KING, 47

Can't we all just get along?

Not now.

From Gawker:
Rodney King, who was at the center of a police brutality trial after a vicious 1991 beating, has died at 47. 
The officers who attacked King were acquitted in 1992, leading to the Los Angeles riots. 
According to TMZ's sources, King's fiancée found him dead at the bottom of a pool, but there are few other details at this time.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

COPS: "A MIND-ALTERING DRUG SUCH AS BATH SALTS"

The Drug War hysteria continues. Remember crack cocaine and how every baby born to a crack addict would be a worthless throw-away to society? Or how anyone who used methamphetamines would be hopelessly, immediately addicted?

"Bath salts" is the new hype. In Pulaski County, Mo., this fella — Devon Michael Cardin, 20 — is charged with felony resisting arrest, and it's all because of evil, evil, bath salts. From a sheriff's office news release:

(The) subject who had failed to appear in court on a felony charge of receiving stolen property. Since he had failed to appear the warrant was a no bond allowed warrant. The additional officers were included because he had fled into the woods behind the home the first time the deputies attempted to serve the warrant. At approximately 7:33am on June 8, 2012, the deputies and Troopers confronted the suspect inside the home and the suspect immediately assaulted the officers. He was subdued with the aid of a Taser unit. The suspect appeared to be under the influence of a mind altering drug such as Bath Salts. During the fight one Trooper sustained a minor wound to his arm.
Cardin's being held on $50,000 bond. Surprised he didn't eat someone's face.

Friday, June 08, 2012

HELLO, DUMMY

While working on a story about the theft of a simulation doll from the medical examiner's ride, a reporter turned us on to this website and its panoply of weird-ass wickedness.

Want a naked woman with third-degree burns? Or a fat, headless dude? This is the NSFW place for you. You have been warned.

MAN: THAT WAS NO ROBBERY, THAT WAS ME SLEEPWALKING

Winston Riley, 27, robbed a woman in the elevator of a Connecticut casino. After being caught, he confessed to cops.

But the waking Riley didn't do it, or so he attorney says. According to the Norwich Bulletin:
(Defense attorney Nicholas) D’Amato said he has prepared a “medical defense” that relies on Riley’s history of sleepwalking. D’Amato, of the Bridgeport-based firm Tina Sypek D’Amato LLC, said he has already spoken to Riley’s family to confirm he has been sleepwalking since he was a child. 
“It is the first time we’ve encountered this,” D’Amato said. “This is a legitimate medical condition." 
D’Amato plans to argue that Riley wasn’t feeling well and had napped in his car on the morning of the incident. Riley was actually woken up by the woman in the elevator, running away in confusion and fright, he said. 
D’Amato said while he has anecdotal evidence, he is in the early stages of gathering medical records in his attempt to gather proof and convince prosecutors they should take the claim seriously. 
“This is not going to be an easy defense to present,” D’Amato admits. “We really have the burden to prove this. The prosecutors are not going to drop the case because we say so.”
Riley has no priors and he's married.

Monday, June 04, 2012

SUN DAMAGE? WHAT SUN DAMAGE?

This is enough to make us want to stay in the dark for the rest of our lives. From the New York Daily News:

The New England Journal of Medicine has published a shocking photo of a 69 year-old man with unilateral dermatoheliosis -- severe damage from ultraviolet rays on one side of his face. 
The unnamed man, who gave permission for his photo to be used in new stories, told researchers that had driven a delivery truck for 28 years. 
Ultraviolet A (UVA) had penetrated the window glass, damaging the outermost layers and sublayers of his skin.
Yeah, that's gonna leave a mark.

Sunday, June 03, 2012

FEDS: NO ZOMBIE VIRUS

A guy in New Jersey guts himself and throws his intestines at cops. And, of course, there's the dude in Miami who decided to snack on someone's face.

Of course it's not zombies — or we'd like to think so, except the government is now telling us it's not zombies. Which makes us wonder: zombies?

The Associated Press gets in on the action:
The Centers for Disease Control (used) the "apocalypse" as the teaser for its emergency preparedness blog. It worked, attracting younger people who might not otherwise have read the agency's guidance on planning evacuation routes and storing water and food. 
(Now) chatter had become so rampant that CDC spokesman David Daigle sent an email to the Huffington Post, answering questions about the possibility of the undead walking among us. 
"CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead," he wrote, adding: "(or one that would present zombie-like symptoms.)"
That's it. If the feds say there is no zombie virus, there is a zombie virus. We are so hosed. We're moving here.

RICHARD DAWSON, 79

The once-ubiquitous television personality died in Los Angeles on Saturday night. He was 79.

From The Associated Press:
Dawson won a daytime Emmy Award in 1978 as best TV game show host. Tom Shales of The Washington Post called him "the fastest, brightest and most beguilingly caustic interlocutor since the late great Groucho bantered and parried on 'You Bet Your Life.'" The show was so popular it was released as both daytime and syndicated evening versions.
He was known for kissing each woman contestant, and at the time the show bowed out in 1985, executive producer Howard Felsher estimated that Dawson had kissed "somewhere in the vicinity of 20,000."

"I kissed them for luck and love, that's all," Dawson said at the time.

He reprised his game show character in a much darker mood in the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film "The Running Man," playing the host of a deadly TV show set in a totalitarian future, where convicts try to escape as their executioners stalk them. "Saturday Night Live" mocked him in the 1970s, with Bill Murray portraying him as leering and nasty, even slapping one contestant (John Belushi) for getting too fresh.
Plus Dawson was part of the whole "Hogan's Heroes" bunch in the 1960s, making it OK to laugh at Nazis.

Saturday, June 02, 2012

BUGG VS. BEEBS

We have Justin Bieber, by way of Canada (don't get us wrong — we think "Baby" is one of the great pop tunes of the past decade).

They have Jake Bugg.

Damn you, UK, for trumping us once again. And thank you, Missie, for turning us on to this.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

OBSCENE GESTURE LEADS TO SHOOTING

Tracey Grissom and her ex-husband, Hunter Grissom, were not the perfect couple. Less than two years ago she accused him of raping her.

Earlier this month the 30-year-old Grissom was driving to work when she saw the ex at a boat landing. She got out of her car to take a picture "for litigation related to their divorce."

And according to the Georgia Daily News, that's when things went bad:

(The sheriff) says several witnesses watched as the man made an obscene gesture and the woman opened fire around 8 a.m. (on May 15).
Authorities say the woman called 911 after using all her ammunition and told them she shot her ex-husband.
All her ammunition. She apparently made sure.

The couple have a four-year-old daughter.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

WORTH YOUR EYEBALLS

"Ah," as Ed Peaco is known to say — something good to read. Ed's blog, The Wine-Jazz Nexus, is outstanding. Give it a whirl and see if you don't concur.

And when you do, don't forget to yell "Bem!" Ed would approve.

NOM NOM NOM, FACE

A follow to our post about the face-eating naked guy in Miami who refused to stop munching and was shot dead by cops.

Our friends at Gawker have published what may be some photos of the victim. Given that much of his face became a snack for a wack, it isn't pretty. But God, so graphic!

Click at your own peril.

HUCKABEE AS ROMNEY'S VEEP?

So goes the speculation among some Republican faithful, who think Mitt Romney needs Mike Huckabee, the preacher from Arkansas, to help sway social conservatives from hating on the Mormon.

As RCP opines:
(Huckabee), the winner of the 2008 Iowa caucuses, remains one of the most popular and well-recognized conservatives nationwide, and his decision not to launch a second presidential run removed what might have been Romney’s toughest competitor on the road to the Republican nomination. 
Thus far, most GOP strategists assume that the urgency to defeat President Obama will negate any conservatives’ thoughts about staying home in November. Romney’s primary concern over the next five months, this dominant line of thinking goes, is to make headway with the narrow slice of the electorate who can be won by either candidate. 
With that in mind, Huckabee backers are quick to draw attention to the former Arkansas governor’s affable demeanor, lack of pretention, and his up-from-the-bootstraps personal story, all of which might soften Romney’s image and make the GOP ticket more relatable to blue-collar independents.
Or it could just piss off social conservatives who already think Romney is nothing but a light-skinned Barack Obama (the people who run Free Republic have long been anti-Romney and keep making noises about leaving the top of the ticket blank come Election Day).

We don't think it will come to that — the Freepers' hatred of Obama runs deep — but watch out for Mike Huckabee. We were struck by the fact that in 2008 he never mouthed off about Bill or Hillary Clinton. Maybe it was the Arkansas connection writ large.

Monday, May 28, 2012

WANTED: OBAMA'S COLLEGE TRANSCRIPTS

President Obama's detractors have tried to smear him as a Kenya-born interloper. Failing that, they've now turned their sights on what they think is another weak front: Obama's college transcripts.

According to The Los Angeles Times:
Last week, a website that already had offered a $10,000 reward for Obama's transcripts from Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard Law School, increased the bounty to $20,000.

About a year ago, Donald Trump, among the highest-profile "birthers," helped get the mini-movement started. After the president released his long-form birth certificate, Trump abruptly changed subjects:
 
"The word is, according to what I’ve read," said Trump, "that he was a terrible student when he went to Occidental. He then gets into Columbia; he then gets to Harvard. ... How do you get into Harvard if you’re not a good student? Now maybe that's right or maybe it’s wrong, but I don't know why he doesn’t release his records."
Of course, he was editor of the Harvard Law Review. Not bad for a guy who allegedly faked his way through school.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE BEGINS IN MIAMI

So this is how it begins.

Police in Miami, Fla., shot and killed a man who was eating the face of another man on a causeway ramp.

Yeah. Seriously. According to the Miami Herald:
"A road ranger saw a naked man chewing on another man’s face and shouted on his loud speaker for him to back away.Meanwhile, a woman also saw the incident and flagged down a police officer who was in the area. 
The officer, who has not been identified, approached and, seeing what was happening, also ordered the naked man to back away. When he continued the assault, the officer shot him, police sources said. The attacker failed to stop after being shot, forcing the officer to continue firing. Witnesses said they heard at least a half dozen shots."
The coppers are blaming cocaine, of course, because they don't want us to know the truth.

31 YEARS ON THE LAM

Weird-ass story of the day, out of Rhode Island: man escaped from a prison in South Carolina on Christmas Day 1980. He is arrested in Rhode Island.

His crime:
He was sentenced to 11 months in prison in November 1980 for domestic non-payment of child support.
This scofflaw had to be taken down by "members of the state police violent fugitive task force."

Armin Christian, 65, is being extradited to South Carolina to face the consequences. You can breathe easier now. A very bad, bad man is back behind bars.

Friday, May 25, 2012

LED ZEPPELIN II, 64


He was born George Blackburn, but he changed his name after a divorce last year to honor the band, and to get a fresh start.

Wasn't much of a start. Blackburn died in Illinois of a heart attack. He was 64.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

EMBROIDERED KANYE


Two words: FREAKING FABULOUS. Get your favorite Kanye West tweet embroidered. Hat tip to Carrie, so follow her on Twitter (you'll find her @tatgalqueencity). The CHATTER Fourth of July (screw waiting for Christmas) wish list is now complete.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

THE MORNING NEWS MEETING

The KSPR brains trust meets to plot the news agenda. This is your vast media conspiracy, kids.

EUGENE POLLEY, 96


The man who made us lazy is dead.

Eugene Polley invented a little thing called the remote control back in 1955 for Zenith. Before his gadget became the norm, people actually had to get their asses out of the chair or off the couch to change the channel (back in L.A. in the pre-cable days, we had five, count 'em, five channels to enjoy).

As a result, asses weren't so gargantuan, and channel-flipping wasn't so fun.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND EAT FROM IT


Addie brought cupcakes from the Cake Pop Company, so all is good with the world. First day back at the Paragraph Factory and people have been nice. Terra brought roses and clematis from her garden. Even got a hug from Joel, the Man Known As Gridiron. What have I done to deserve this?

Monday, May 21, 2012

AS SEEN FROM SPACE


Not many people get to hang out on Bouganville Island in Papau, New Guinea. Bagana, the volcano, is active.

And apparently spewing, according to NASA. This new satellite photo shows it happening.

HOW TIME FLIES

Stumbled across this post from June 2007 about the 15th anniversary of the Three Missing Women. "The next time we hear about (them) ... will be June 2012," we wrote back then.

And here we are.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

ROBIN GIBB, 62

Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees, dead at 62. There goes that Bee Gees reunion.

INCESTUOUS BLOGGING

Act Your Old Age disses CHATTER. I love me. We hate us. Huh?

PAGING BONNIE TYLER

The partial solar eclipse is Sunday. We lucky few in the Ozarks get clouds and a peak that happens after sunset, so ... meh.

Console yourself with some Bonnie Tyler and those weird kids with glowing eyes. Further proof that the 1980s spawned some fucked-up ideas. Turn around, bright eyes.