• Man convicted of killing 10 women, 1 fetus, sentenced to death
  

  
  LOS ANGELES – A one-time pizza deliveryman was sentenced Tuesday to die for the slayings of 10 women and an unborn fetus over an 11-year period in areas plagued by a crack cocaine epidemic …
  
  (Chester) Turner was convicted April 30 of 10 counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder in the death of a 6½-month old fetus …

  
  
  I'm sure I've mentioned this observation before, so forgive me if I'm being repetitive. The thing that strikes me about this story and others like it is that the killer in question has been convicted and punished for the murder of a fetus. Why do the courts recognize that killing a fetus is murder if the mother (presumably) wanted the child, but killing a fetus is a legal medical procedure if the mother doesn't want the child? Is that what makes the difference between being a human being or not? Being loved by your mother?
  
  Another thing that strikes me about this particular case is that the murderer happens to be a black guy. How long until Hollywood's ultra-leftist, self-hating, guilt-wallowing, wealthy, white goof troop is making movies, writing songs and campaigning hard for this man to be released? It's what we should expect, after all, since that's what Hollywood leftists do.



• Man gets a year in reporter attack
  

  A man who was caught on tape attacking a television news reporter was sentenced Friday to a year in jail and ordered to complete anger management classes.
  
  Assad "Sam" Suleiman, 37, pleaded guilty in April to assaulting Fox 6 News San Diego reporter John Mattes in the upscale La Jolla area last September.
  
  Mattes, who was investigating a suspected real estate scam, suffered cracked ribs, bite wounds and cuts to his face.
  
  At his sentencing hearing, Suleiman apologized to Mattes but criticized the reporter for being too invasive.
  
  "There is no stopping this man," said Suleiman, who said his family and business had been destroyed in the aftermath of the episode.

  
  I remember this story. It's pretty grotesque, but here's the video if you want to see it:

  
  After all that, after making it clear that he blames the reporter for his own actions, Suleiman still only got a year in jail.




• Fred check
  
  Checking in with Fred Thompson's not-yet-a-campaign:
  
  Wasn't Fred supposed to maybe announce officially around July 4? What's up with that? Facing South, a liberal southern politics blog, thinks it knows:
  
  

  With the McCain campaign circling the drain, there is speculation that Thompson's announcement, which earlier rumors said would happen on the 4th of July, may have been delayed to coincide with McCain's withdrawal.

  
  
  Granted, Facing South has been out for Thompson's blood all along (example one, example two), but that's fine because attacks from leftists actually increases Thompson's credibility among his base. If the lefties ain't after you, you ain't living right. Nonetheless, the idea that Thompson is waiting for McCain to abandon his sinking campaign rings true with me. It makes sense.
  
  Chuck Muth points out that many (most) of the attacks on Thompson have been paper thin:
  
  

  Just last week the Los Angeles Times ran a BS story about how Thompson supposedly lobbied for an abortion group some 15 years ago - an accusation denied by Thompson - in an effort to undermine his support among social conservatives. The charge was so thin and ultimately meaningless - Thompson had a stellar pro-life record during his time in the Senate - that it’s hard to see how the Times justified the ink needed to print it.
  
  That slop was followed on Monday by a lengthy New York Times story attempting to slime Thompson for having a “trophy wife,” musing in the headline whether or not Jeri Thompson would be an “albatross” around the neck of the former senator’s expected presidential campaign.

  
  
  I'm having a hard time figuring out why so many people are attacking Jeri Thompson for having committed the horrible crime of being easy on the eye. The New York Times has branded her a trophy wife. MSNBC's Joe Scarborough has compared Mrs. Thompson to "a stripper." An AOL News Blogger identified as "Scott" points out the double standard:
  
  

  Jeri Kehn Thompson is a wife, mother and a highly successful professional woman. That would seem to meet the criteria set forth by the womens liberation movement the NY Times continually forces down our throats …
  
  You may recall that the media was painstakingly restrained in not reporting anything about Chelsea Clinton. They, of course, couldn't wait to report about the drinking habits of the Bush twins but that's a post for another day. Jeri Thompson doesn't seem greatly involved in Thompsons campaign, she doesn't call talk shows and defend her husband from pundits like Elizabeth Edwards has done …

  
  
  Nor, for that matter, is she likely to take on the shrill, brow-beating role of a Teresa Ketchup Kerry.
  
  According to Robert J. Elisberg at The Huffington Post (which is the political blog equivalent of Perez Hilton), the problem is that Republicans are scandalized by Mrs. Thompson. To which I say, wha? The conservatives and Republican voters I happen to know who've mentioned Mrs. Thompson at all have said two things: One, she'd sure be the prettiest First Lady ever. Two, it's a shame that the media has behaved so unseemly toward her.
  
  I think that all of this comes down to media fears that Jeri Thompson's good looks will create a prurient emphasis on the fact that Hillary Clinton is easily the most hideous thing that ever crawled out of an Arkansas sewer. But that's just me.
  
  Anyway, here's where I am with regard to Thompson right now. I think it's time for him to announce. Fish or cut bait. Poop or get off the pot. Campaign in earnest or stop campaigning for free with your ABC News job. Give us some political red meat so those of us who've hung our hopes on you will be able to feel that we know if we're fooling ourselves or not.



• Charges set in Erie collar-bomb case
  
  Remember this bizarre case from August, 2003?
  
  

  Brian Douglas Wells was a pizza delivery man who was killed by a time bomb explosive fastened to his neck, purportedly under duress from the maker of the bomb. After he was apprehended by the police for robbing a bank, the bomb exploded. The bizarre affair was subject to much attention in the mass media.
  
  …On the afternoon of August 28, 2003 Wells received a call to deliver two pizzas to an address a few miles from the Erie, Pennsylvania "Mamma Mia Pizzeria", where he worked. It was later found that the address was that of an unmanned radio tower at the end of a dirt road.
  
  Within an hour of leaving for the delivery, Wells had entered a bank with a sophisticated home-made shotgun disguised as a cane and demanded $250,000. When police intervened, Wells claimed that three unnamed people had placed a bomb around his neck, provided him with the shotgun, and told him that he had to commit the robbery and several other tasks, otherwise he would be killed …
  
  At first, the police made no attempt to disarm the device. The bomb squad were finally called at 3:04 PM, at least 30 minutes after the first 9-1-1 call. At 3:18 PM, it exploded, blasting a fist-sized hole in Wells' chest just three minutes before the bomb squad arrived …

  
  
  (More details are here).
  
  Anyway, after almost four years, it looks like there may finally be some resolution in the case:
  
  

  An imprisoned former teacher learned Tuesday she will face federal charges in the bizarre 2003 collar-bomb death of an Erie pizza delivery man.
  
  Lawrence D'Ambrosio, a lawyer for Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, said his client told him federal authorities delivered a detainer listing the charges she would face related to the death of Brian Wells.
  
  Diehl-Armstrong, 58, a former Erie resident in state prison, is expected to be charged with conspiracy, bank robbery and a weapons violation.
  
  Kenneth Barnes, 53, who is in the Erie County Jail, is expected to be charged with the same crimes, the Erie County Times reported on its Web site yesterday.

  
  
  I've thought about this case from time to time over the last four years. The video of Brian Wells sitting in the road and begging the police for help really bothered me, and I've always discounted those who think that Wells may have been in on the plot. Well, it turns out that there may be forthcoming evidence that Wells really was part of the plot. It's an ugly, troubling story. I hope that the authorities really have solved this matter.



• One of these things is not like the others. One of these things does not belong.
  
  What's wrong with this group of pictures?
  
  

  

  
  
  If you answered that the picture of Jimi is backwards, consider yourself virtually slapped on the wrist. Jimi was left handed and played his guitar upside down.
  
  No, that's not what's wrong. What's wrong is that after something like 25 years as a pop star, Madonna has started doing GUITAR SOLOS. For real:
  
  

  Debate is raging on internet message boards over whether Madonna's "rocking" Live Earth performance owed more to technical wizadry (sic) than musical talent.
  
  Millions of people around the world saw the American singer, not known for her strumming skills, wrap a guitar strap around her neck and play along to her hit Ray of Light on Saturday night.

  
  
  OK, look … up until now I've been fine with Madonna's expert-at-everything confidence. Pop star? Fine. Actress? Check. Author? Whatever. Pornographer? I'd imagine so. Religious leader? Go for it. Anything Madonna wants to try to do is fine with me since I don't pay much attention to her. The only things she's ever done that I've enjoyed is the song Live To Tell, but with a career as prolific as Madonna's, it's a given that she'll eventually do something for everyone.
  
  But this is where I draw the line.
  
  Madonna is NOT a guitarist. I'm a HUGE fan of rock guitar and I resent Madonna's parading around with a guitar in her hand, aping solos and trying to look like a guitar hero. Get REAL, lady.
  
  And don't accuse me of sexism, either. I can name a long, long list of capable female guitarists. Bonnie Raitt, for example. And then there's …. Well, there's Bonnie Raitt. It's not a gender issue. It's a Madonna issue. Why can't she stick to Kabbalah, pop songs and pornography? Does she have to taint everything?
  
  Besides, her guitar playing is as vulgar, as showy, as unnecessary and as ultimately forgettable as the last fifteen years of her career. Can you even hear her in this clip?
  

  
  Did you see that little feedback amp trick at the end of the video? If so, did you want to puke, too? Who does she think she is? Neil Young?
  
  Now, you may asking yourself if, in a world full of war, murder, rape, starvation and plague, Darrell is really more upset about Madonna playing guitarist than anything else.
  
  Yes, I am. There are tons of people trying to save the world. I settle for saving Rock and Roll. Bring me Madonna's head in a cardboard box.

Labels: Entertainment, News, Politics, Thompson 08, You Tube

Permalink -- Posted by Darrell at 08:27