Media, schmedia. You know we’re in good shape when even the rock band who once sang this:

Handguns are made for killing
They ain’t no good for nothing else
And if you like to drink your whiskey
You might even shoot yourself
So why don’t we dump them people
To the bottom of the sea
Before some ole fool come around here
Wanna shoot either you or me

Now sings this:

Oh, there was a time we ain’t forgot
You could rest all night with the doors unlocked
But there ain’t nobody safe no more
So you say your prayers and you thank the Lord
For that peace-maker in the dresser drawer.

Amen. I like to think that Ronnie himself would have come around if he’d lived another 30+ years, but if Johnnie has Ronnie spinning in his grave, so be it.

UPDATE: While we win, they whine.

Steve Irwin makes a compelling case for intolerance in response to those sicko Liberian parents in Phoenix who blame their eight year old daughter for being assaulted by four juvenile monsters earlier this week. Money quote:

We teach tolerance in this country, and respect for those who might disagree with us. Yet I can’t imagine anyone who isn’t disgusted and appalled by the very notion of blaming a victim, a child no less, for her own rape.

If there is such a belief system, anywhere in the world, our message to them should be unyielding and clear. If you seek refuge here; If you seek the freedoms and benefits of a democracy, then you must cast aside the barbarism which you might label tradition or faith.

There can be no compromise in this, for if we can’t unite behind the cause of a child’s safety and well-being, then our own lives don’t rise to the level of anything resembling culture.

Amen.

Daily Pundits San Francisco Real-Estate Blog notes that Al Gore is moving to the City. Here’s some real-estate guy’s press release on the subject:

“Ever since people learned that Al and Tipper Gore were moving into the St. Regis, I’ve had three times as many inquiries about the place,” says Damion Matthews, a realtor specializing in San Francisco’s luxury condo market.

“There’s something about living near a person so powerful and important that really excites folks,” he says.

Maybe there is something about living near powerful and important folks, but what does that have to do with Al Gore?

John McCain wants to be president. And he’s a Republican. This, therefore, represents a problem for him in that he won’t be nominated by the Republicans as their presidential candidate. Nevertheless, let’s see what he had to say to my generation while appearing on MTV:

“If you don’t have the education and the training, then the risk of being left behind is greater than every before,” he continued. “My generation believed that you could join General Motors or IBM, work for 30 years or so and retire with a comfortable pension. That isn’t the case today. We’ve got to spend more money on education but we also need to reform education. We can’t choke off the ability of young Americans to receive an education. There’s great uncertainty out there. We have to provide a lot more certainty for young Americans. That’s my job.”

I see. But how much confidence can McCain think he instills with this gem about whether or not Intelligent Design should be taught in schools:

Let the student decide.

Yeah, let’s just let children decide what they should and should not be learning in school. Whatever your position on the matter of this Design, can’t all of us agree that McCain is a fool?

(links via Professor Bainbridge)

According to magic that for some reason has the veneer of legitimacy in our society, the address numbering system in the San Fransisco Bay area is unlucky:

Under a numbering system established by Alameda County in the 1950s, addresses are assigned based on how far the homes are from downtown Oakland, a method that puts five digits on almost every mailbox in Hayward and other cities in the county.

The numbers have always been hard to remember, but home builders recently raised concerns that they may decrease property values because the odds are greater that an address will carry a number considered unlucky by feng shui practitioners.

Feng shui holds that the way dwellings are designed can affect the fortunes and health of inhabitants.

So, this seems a good built-in mechanism for keeping the population, and thus housing prices, low in the area. But some rich hippies don’t like it:

Real estate agent Lisa Coen, of nearby Pleasanton, who also runs a feng shui consulting firm [her firm's website is here], said she has advised developers on how to make homes attractive to buyers who would not want to live at the end of a cul-de-sac or where a door opens onto a staircase.

“It does matter to some people. It really does matter,” Coen said. “They won’t buy a house … if the number’s not right.”

I’d tell them to move someplace else. But that’s just me.

Three days ago, I mentioned the story of Ted Hayes’ homeless shelter being shut down by the ultra-partisan Democrat Milton Sidley. (It was also blogged about here and here, and reported by Newsmax.) Now in an unsigned dispatch, the Associated Press has picked up and spun the story in favor of Sidley and his heartless Democrat cohorts:

Hayes said the village did not have a major impact on the city’s homeless problem because the overheated real estate market made alternative housing less affordable.

“No matter what we do to rehabilitate people, there’s no place for them to live,” he said.

Unbelievable! The AP has gone so far as to make it seem Hayes is on the side of Sidley! And — HELLO! — the reason that “there’s no place for them to live” is because Sidley and his heartless Democrat cohorts are taking away their shelter to no doubt build an “overheated real estate” project!

According to Haye’s group, Justiceville/Homeless, USA, Sidley told them his reason for shutting down the shelter is because,

“This Democrat [Sidley] is tired of supporting Ted and his Dome Village.”

You see, Ted Haye’s is a Republican. Milton Sidley is a Democrat. It’s really that simple, isn’t it? A partisan Democrat would gladly screw the homeless for some BS political reason and to make a buck.

The AP doesn’t even mention this Sidley, but instead quotes another one:

“The economics of the time now do not allow them to support this organization any longer,” said Mike Sidley [another partisan-Democrat] an attorney for the partnership that owns the land, and one of the property owners.

The AP doesn’t even delve into the political angle of this story, but instead states matter-of-factly, “Rising property values downtown led to the increase [in rent of $2,500/mo plus property taxes to $18,333/mo plus property taxes], which will likely force the village to find a new home.”

Even if rising property values are the genuine reason for the eviction, still not answered is the question, Why now? Why not two years ago when the real estate boom was in full swing? Or seven years ago when the boom was just beginning?

The Associated Press doesn’t care to find the answers to these questions. Could the timing somehow be related to a Los Angeles Times story from earlier this month that mentioned Ted Hayes’ Republican politics? I guess that’s just not relevant.

And here are more questions I’m sure the AP thinks irrelevant:

If non-Democrat landlords forced a long-time homeless shelter to close because of “rising property values” that actually began their rise 7 years ago would the landlords be covered sympathetically by the press? Aren’t Republicans continually called fascists and racists for allegedly not caring about the poor? What’s the difference when a Democrat evicts poor people?

Via LIBERTAS and Brain-Terminal, here’s a fun story about homeless people effectively being evicted from their temporary shelter by a multi-millionaire partisan Democrat named Milton Sidley, who contributed $4,000 to the 2004 Kerry campaign. Some years back, long-time Los Angeles homeless activist Ted Hayes (a big Rastafarian-looking Republican) erected a “Dome Village” to house the homeless in an ongoing effort to help them get back on their feet (or at least get them off the street). Now there’s this:

After learning that Ted Hayes visited a Republican women’s group, landlord and retired attorney Milton Sidley wrote a one-line letter informing Justiceville/Homeless, USA (JHUSA) that he will raise the rent from $2,500/mo plus property taxes to $18,333/mo plus property taxes in late 2006. When asked why he raised the rent, Sidley replied, “This Democrat is tired of supporting Ted and his Dome Village.”

Sidley, knows that Justiceville/Homeless USA cannot survive this punitive increase. The multi-millionaire sent the rent-increase notice two days after reading a Los Angeles Times article that referenced Ted Hayes’ support for President Bush. Sidley, has retaliated against Hayes in a way that will displace 32 men, women, and children.

That’s the spirit! Now, of course, this “Dome Village” may be an effort in futility, and I know I wouldn’t want a homeless village on my property. But, when an apparent member of the much vaunted “we care about people” party does this, and when he apparently does it merely for politically partisan reasons, I think it is fair to criticize him.

Yesterday’s Ass. Press headline and the intro to the story, both of which are still available via RSS feeds, say the following:

Three Runners Gored by Bulls in Pamplona

PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) — At least three people were gored and several others suffered scrapes and cuts on Saturday in Spain’s running of the bulls….

Follow the link to the actual site, however, and you’ll find this story in its place:

No One Gored at Running of the Bulls
PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) — Despite a big crowd of runners on the streets of Pamplona Sunday nobody was gored in the fourth bull run at the annual San Fermin festival.

Nice to know that yesterday’s three gorings have been upgraded (downgraded?) to non-gorings. You will learn, however, that one of those three is aptly named “Hans Hurt.” Call me superstitious, but if I had a name like that, I’d probably avoid places like Pamplona this time of year.

Oops, make that four. But this appears to be a story on a later run, so it doesn’t really contradict the prior stories; it just sounds like it does.

If you’re not familiar with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, I’d encourage you to check them out. They do punk covers of familiar songs that you wouldn’t think punkable. Even Mrs. X likes them, and she hates hard rock. I recently bought Are a Drag, and can vouch for Ruin Johnny’s Bar Mitzvah and Blow in the Wind, but I’m sure the rest are good too.

The City of Barcelona has recently voted to ban bull fighting. Good for them. Cruelty to animals is cruelty to animals; there is no reason we should condone that barbaric practice solely because it is someone else’s “culture.” Slavery, ritual human sacrifice, dogfighting and even disco music have all been part of American culture at one time or another, but that doesn’t mean any of them should be condoned. Neither should bull “fighting,” which is really just the ritualized torture of an animal in front of a huge, sadistic audience.

Molly worries that this is a sign that Spain is continuing to go wimpy. I disagree. Bull “fights” are every bit as rigged as professional wresting matches, so they don’t require all that much courage on the part of the matador, who is all but guaranteed to win. They basically admit as much, by calling him the “matador” from the start. If the playing field were anywhere close to even, whoever survived the ordeal would be called th “matador,” and as often as not, that would be the bull.

Like I said, bull fighting should be banned everywhere, but if not, then let’s at least reform the rules to make it worthy of the faux machismo currently associated with it. Any matador with the stones to fight a bull on roughly equal terms would get all the machismo points he deserves. Everyone else is just a poseur.

UPDATE: Aphrael provides a link for info on bloodless bullfighting in California.