Happy Thanksgiving

A Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. Here are some links from previous years:

1. Don't deep-fry your turkey. (video)

2. Don't mention God near a public school in Maryland.

3. If you do mention God, say Psalm 100.

4. Watch out for turkeys if you take the train in New Jersey.

5. If tofurky is fake turkey and toficken is fake chicken, have I got a business idea! It involves fake duck.

6. Speaking of turkey, I sometimes wish, purely for the sake of entertainment, that our congressmen were more like the Turkish.

Click here to read more . . .

A quick thought about slots

Usually I'm in favor of having stupid people pay taxes instead of me, as if having slots in Maryland would actually reduce taxes for the rest of us, which of course is not the case in this high-tax dystopia. But this slots issue in Maryland leaves me with one sickening thought:

After the subprime mortgage fiasco, haven't we learned what happens when the government encourages people to spend money they can't afford to spend?

Seriously. And the thing is, the proponents of slots don't even follow through on their own logic. If slots and gambling more generally can save us taxes -- I've received two mailings making such claims -- why not try the Pillage Idiot Plan (PIP) instead?

Under PIP, you abolish the individual state income tax and instead sell $100 tickets for a chance at winning huge payouts from an expected pool of $1 billion. The first prize payout would be $500 million, with four $100 million prizes, four $20 million prizes, three $5 million prizes, and five $1 million prizes. (I think that adds up.)

Even the working poor could afford those tickets, especially if they didn't have to pay state income taxes. Wouldn't you buy one -- or ten -- or even more? I never play the lottery, but even I would have to think about it if I didn't have to pay state income taxes.

The beauty part is that this would raise a huge amount of money for the legislature to blow on its usual moronic spending programs. (All you need is 10 million tickets -- tickets, not people -- to break even, and once people aren't paying thousands in state income taxes, they'd surely be willing to buy a whole bunch of tickets) It would also encourage businesses to relocate to Maryland, because there would be no income tax and its employees could play the PIP lottery.

On the other hand, who knows? Maybe the justifications for my proposal are just as foolish as the arguments for slots.

Click here to read more . . .

From the Pillage Idiot "Spam Period"

In Peter Schickele's hilarious biography of P.D.Q. Bach, the author divides the composer's work into three periods -- the "Initial Plunge," the "Soused Period," and "Contrition."

I thought it was the least I could do to create a period for myself called the "Spam Period," the roughly 48-hour period when Pillage Idiot was shut down by Blogger as a potential spam blog. I'm going to post some junk I was unable to post during that period. And I'd like to make it clear that I have not yet reached "contrition," if I ever do.

Kool-Aid party over at Rabbi Jack Moline's place

I'm relieved to see that nothing, nothing can shake the Jews out of their politika mi-sinai (my bastardized Hebrew approximately meaning "politics given at Mount Sinai"). According to the Washington Jewish Week, Northern Virginia Jews are mobilizing to support Obama. Isn't that special?

Rabbi Moline is actually a pretty sensible guy in general (but see), so it's even worse for him to be trying to sell undecided Jews like this:

Moline assured his listeners that Obama's record on Israel is "stellar," and that there is "nothing in the senator's record to indicate that he would make any other concessions than the current president" would make.

Questions about Obama's support for Israel are a cover, Moline said, for underlying prejudice.

"We have to own up to the prejudice in our own community. There are plenty of people who say they're ambivalent about him because he's black, he has a middle name that sounds like the deposed president of Iraq, that he's the son of a single mother," Moline told the gathering. "Those prejudices in our community generally don't get spoken. They get expressed in questions about Israel."

I guess Rabbi Moline thinks Jews can't legitimately be concerned about Obama's associations with folks like Rashid Khalidi or his 20-year association with Jeremiah Wright, whom he disowned for calculating political reasons, or his association with William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, two domestic terrorists, whom he's never disowned, or an ever-emerging cast of characters. No, it's got to be prejudice, because what right-thinking Jewish person could not want to place hope in someone like him? Did the Children of Israel doubt Moses himself? And when the Torah said (Deut. 34:10), v'lo kam navi od b'yisrael k'moshe, could it possibly have meant to exclude Obama?

In all seriousness, I'm sure that when Obama says he supports Israel, he's as sincere as he is about anything. But really, why should Jews who are concerned about Israel not have the right to doubt a guy who wants to scale back American power? Without American power, Israel is doomed, no matter what nice things a political candidate says.

But it sure is easy to dismiss the concerns that some Jews have about him as purely based on prejudice. Thanks a bunch, Rabbi Moline.

Economics 101 -- tax policy

I thought everyone knew that when you cut taxes your revenue dropped and vice versa, so that when you doubled taxes, your revenue would double. It's called "static revenue analysis."

Apparently not.

The Washington Post reports: "Cigarette sales have dropped by nearly 25 percent in Maryland since the state's tobacco tax doubled in January, as sticker shock apparently has curtailed some residents' smoking and sent others across the border for better deals."

And of course, the folks who think government exists to change human behavior often have a totalitarian mentality -- when people react rationally to your policies, you try to squash them:

Maryland law seeks to limit out-of-state cigarette purchases. It is illegal for Maryland residents to be in possession of more than two packs of cigarettes lacking stamps showing that taxes were paid in the state.

We're not crashing into people's homes to see if they've purchased a pack or two more than they should out of the state, but we have a very aggressive effort concentrated on larger smugglers," said Joseph Shapiro, a spokesman for the Maryland Comptroller's Office.

So this is the way it works: Try to increase revenue by raising cigarette taxes. People reduce smoking or shop elsewhere. Tax revenues go down. So you call these smokers smugglers and threaten prosecution. Brilliant.

Miscellaneous

Pillage Idiot appears 4,000 years ago in Sumer: "Flatulence joke is world's oldest"

Say what you want about the President, but he's a really decent guy: The Party Crasher

Click here to read more . . .

Stacking the deck against the death penalty

Governor O'Malley has firm views on what's wrong with the death penalty, but he apparently lacks the guts (and the votes) to push for its abolition.

So instead, he's set up a commission to "study" it, and has stacked the deck with a chairman who's on record against it. Another day in Maryland politics.

Benjamin Civiletti, a prominent Baltimore lawyer and former U.S. attorney general who once called for a national moratorium on capital punishment, will head a state commission studying the death penalty in Maryland, Gov. Martin O'Malley announced Thursday.

The commission begins its deliberations as O'Malley, a staunch death-penalty opponent, has moved toward ending Maryland's de facto moratorium on executions by ordering the drafting of procedures for the use of lethal injection. O'Malley, a Democrat, made that decision on the advice of legal counsel after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky's use of lethal injection protocols that are virtually identical to Maryland's.

Established this year by the General Assembly, the commission is charged with examining a number of issues including disparities in the application of the death penalty, the cost differential between litigating prolonged capital punishment cases and life imprisonment, and the impact of DNA evidence.

O'Malley appointed 13 of the 23 commission members, and death penalty proponents had raised concerns that the governor would stack the panel with like-minded opponents. Civiletti, who was attorney general during the Carter administration and now focuses on commercial litigation and white-collar crime, said he hasn't represented anyone charged with a capital offense. He declined to share his personal opinion on the subject Thursday.

Oh, sure, there are members who support the death penalty, like the Baltimore County state's attorney, but we all know where this is headed. Why go through this elaborate ruse of impartial inquiry?

Click here to read more . . .

Fourth of July linkfest

For the Fourth of July, instead of re-posting old July 4 posts, I'm going to bring you a linkfest. OK, I'll re-post one old post, too, but here's the linkfest.

1. While we're appreciating our independence and our freedom, some of our fellow Americans are not. Two years ago, I wrote about one such individual. And this week, a peculiarly repellent column out of the City of Brudderly Lub by a dude named Chris Satullo, who wants to cancel the celebration because "we have sinned." (via Stop the ACLU, via Ace) You already know the rest. No reason to read the column.

2. From last week: At the Seattle Mariners' ballpark, love is dead. (via Baseball Crank)

3. Mars, Saturn, and Regulus are converging in the evening sky.

4. "Police suspect giraffe in circus breakout."

5. Drink to Obama's victory? The tee-shirt.

6. Speaking of Obama, Jennifer Rubin explains his problem with Jewish voters in a single word, er, number: 1973.

7. If you're a white dude in England, whatever you do, don't call a white security guard "Honky!" (via HotAir)

8. Finally: A definition of torture.

9. It's hard to believe, but Maryland is only the 19th most corrupt state in the union. Should be higher.

10. David Wissing says you are what you Google. Anyone who's read my "Visitor of the day" series would have to agree.

11. New York dude moves to Atlanta and finds that "New York style" pizza in the South exemplifies major suckitude, so he returns to New York to "reverse engineer" real New York pizza. (via Fark)

12. Last but not least, for the woman concerned about "pelvic fitness," your own spa. (via HotAir) In case you don't understand, the New York Times article explains: "And now comes the first medi spa in Manhattan wholly dedicated to strengthening and grooming a woman’s genital area."

Click here to read more . . .

Ending the moratorium on the death penalty

Capital punishment in Maryland has been on a see-saw of late. With Governor O'Malley in Annapolis, it's tended to be a little more saw than see.

Kenny Burns writes that Governor O'Malley is about to take steps to restore the death penalty. O'Malley is not enthusiatic about it, but he's proceeding, anyway, which is far more than I expected.

Kenny cites a report on WBAL that explains:

Governor Martin O'Malley says he will reluctantly move forward with getting Maryland's execution protocol approved.

Maryland's highest court ruled in late 2006 that the state could not hold another lethal injection until a legislative committee gives proper approval to the rules about how executions are carried out.

O'Malley is adamantly opposed to capital punishment, and has waited to see how legislation to repeal the death penalty fared in the General Assembly. Repeal legislation has failed two years in a row.

O'Malley says he won't stand in the way of the law and will direct the state's corrections agency to start developing the new protocols.

Of course, actually carrying out the punishment is all somewhat theoretical, because Maryland has few inmates on death row, and the largest jurisdictions in the state are reluctant to bring capital cases. There have been only two executions in Maryland since 1998 (and one in November 1998).

Click here to read more . . .

Ball four

Good news for the Orioles: Governor O'Malley has signed a bill declaring that walking is the official state exercise of Maryland.

Bonus question: Is the official "state" exercise of Ontario jay-walking?

Bonus question number two: After you've partaken of the official state dessert of Maryland, don't you need a somewhat more strenuous form of official state exercise to work it off?

Bonus question number three: Shouldn't corruption be the official state exercise?

Bonus question number four: If the Maryland legislature spent more time passing bills like this, and less time raising our taxes and interfering with our lives, wouldn't we all be better off?

Click here to read more . . .

A new plan for reforming government

Any of you getting cranky about a bloated government unable to be reformed? Feeling frustrated with your inability to do anything about it? Losing hope because your efforts to bring government back down to a reasonable size have failed?

Consider this idea:

It was a highly public version of a drama that has touched many families. Former Maryland governor William Donald Schaefer, 86, famously stubborn and growing increasingly frail, refused to move out of his Pasadena townhouse.

After a fall in March, some friends and associates worried that he was no longer safe living on his own.

So longtime aide Lainy LeBow-Sachs devised a ruse. While she kept Schaefer busy over a long lunch at a restaurant last month, movers descended on the townhouse, packed up all his belongings and reinstalled them in an apartment at the Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville.

Has anyone got John McCain's phone number? And no, I was thinking of giving him advice, not of moving him to a retirement home. (We'll do that after the election.)

Note: Schaefer's friends must have read Christopher Buckley's The White House Mess.

Click here to read more . . .

Peter James chats with Ron Paul's cocker spaniel

"Peter James is our Republican candidate in Maryland's 4th Congressional District. Peter faces a special election on June 17, which provides a unique opportunity for us to pick up this seat. There will likely be low voter turn out, so it is absolutely essential that Republicans, and liberty-loving independents and Democrats, go out to vote for Peter. Time is short and this election is rapidly approaching, please do what you can to help Peter today."

-- Ron Paul

Peter James: I can't tell you how tickled I am to get Dr. Paul's endorsement.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: You know, this is big. Really big.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: Because there's no one in the world more highly regarded by the voters in Maryland's Fourth Congressional District than Dr. Paul.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: I mean, just the other day, I went into a grocery store in District 4, and all they could talk about was monetary policy and the private banking monopoly.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: It was in District Heights. You know the store I'm thinking of, right?

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: They just love Dr. Paul.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: They agreed with me that it was outrageous how Dr. Paul was blamed for the things someone else wrote in Dr. Paul's newsletter under his name.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: It was just like the way people are punishing Barack Obama now for belonging to Jeremiah Wright's church.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: You can't expect a man to know what his pastor has been saying for 20 years, and you sure can't expect a man to know what's being written in his name in his own newsletter.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: Because Dr. Paul's a busy man.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: Fighting efforts to cover up the answers to what happened on September 11.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: Not that he believes that George Bush personally ordered the destruction of the World Trade Center.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: Just that questions have been raised, and if you can't trust the government to tell the truth about monetary policy, how can you be sure it's telling the truth about controlled demolition?

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: And all of the liberties we've lost since that day are nothing but attempts to provide an unattainable security for us.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: Because the only way for us to have complete security is to build a maximum-security prison for all of us.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: And if we can't have complete security, then we should surely have none.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: At least if it interferes with our liberties.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: Like our God-given right to use controlled substances.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: And our right to sacrifice animals.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: Only kidding about that. Because, you know, Santeria was the official state religion of Maryland for five years.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: Google it.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: You'll find it on my official campaign website.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: So it's obviously true.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James: I'm sure Dr. Paul would agree with me.

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel:

Peter James:

"Dr. Paul's" Cocker Spaniel: Yeah, I'll bet. The man probably paid as much attention to your endorsement as he did to what appeared in his newsletter. You beat that Zionist Likudnik "Moshe" in the primary, which was more than enough for him. And it's my considered opinion that you have as much chance of joining the man in Congress as you have of seeing over 4000 vaginas, like the man himself.


UPDATE (5/13): In my previous update below, I said that I didn't take a screenshot of the Peter James campaign website before it was redesigned and the Santeria statement removed. But upon checking one of my other computers, I discovered that I actually did take a screenshot. Click on the image below to see a larger version.




UPDATE (5/10): Pillage Idiot gets results? I'm not sure, but...

Sadly, I didn't take a screenshot of James' website, because James's re-designed site now leaves out his claim that Santeria was once the official state religion. But I can leave you with this, from the site of Steve Schulin, the District 4 candidate of the Maryland Independent Party, whatever that may be:

Congratulations to Peter James for removing Santeria story from his web page

My opponent has removed the Santeria story discussed below from his web page. He has also removed his disclosure of how he intends to spend most of his time if elected to be our Representative. I don't know if he has changed his mind about his priorities. I hope he'll publicly elaborate on the matter.

Schulin's entry (the "story discussed below") is this:

A call to Peter James to back up what he says about the Santeria story

As part of trying to verify the interesting story offered by my opponent (as highlighted here a couple of days ago), I called up the Library and Legislative Services librarians at the state Department of Legislative Services in Annapolis. A very nice librarian named Anette found no evidence for the specific claim about the 1987 rider or the 1992 repeal. She also looked through the entire record of who had served in the state legislature and there is no Charles Highweather amongst them. She also searched her Department's clippings during the alleged repeal timeframe from Baltimore paper the The Sun. No mention. So I respectfully ask Peter James to back up the story or stop spreading it as if it were fact.

And here's a small screenshot from Schulin's site (in case that gets re-designed) quoting James's claim about Santeria. I've outlined the key part in red:




Previous:

Ron Paul chats with his cocker spaniel, Part 4

Ron Paul chats with his cocker spaniel, Part 3

Ron Paul chats with his cocker spaniel, Part 2

Ron Paul chats with his cocker spaniel

Click here to read more . . .

Sunday evening linkfest

Passover has (finally) ended, and now, once again, it's time for a linkfest of links that have been forming plaque on the walls of my intertubes for the past two weeks or so. Some of them are seriously OLD, but I want you to have them, anyway. Please stay with me till the end, because way at the bottom of this post, I have a couple of future classics from the Sunday New York Times that are almost worth the price of the paper.

1. In the past couple of weeks, the biggest issue in politics, in case you're a Japanese World War II fighter who's been holed up in the Pacific until yesterday, has been whether Obama flipped the bird at Hillary while speaking to his supporters following the final debate in Pennsylvania. The Hillarosphere demands to know. And Baseball Crank has another photo that may provide circumstantial evidence.

2. The Democrats' Nightmare Scenario (via Instapundit)

3. More popcorn, please!

4. McCain goes to NOLA, and an African-American participant at a town-hall meeting says this: "I want to inform you that everybody in the camp here is not a Republican." Does he mean (a) literally no one is a Republican, or (b) colloquially, not everyone is a Republican? Who cares, anyway, besides anal-retentive grammar wackos like me?

5. As Warner Wolf might have said, if you studied math in school since about 1961 . . . YOU LOST! On a related topic, Hillary Clinton does some math trolling for delegates and votes from Michigan.

6. Gov. O'Malley calls a special session of the legislature to pass a law declaring the official state dessert of Maryland. (Only kidding about the special session. Beats the hell out of raising our taxes, though.)

7. The man-cave: "Like most stories that end up with a man mowing his friend's lawn in a dress, it started out innocently enough." (via Fark, of course)

8. Sometimes it pays to test your personal machinery before reporting its theft by voodoo to police. As the police chief himself put it: "'I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke,' Oleko said.
'But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, "How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it",' he said."

9. Public Service Announcement: Be careful when eating in Canadian restaurants.

10. "Le Petit Singly is a farm that specializes in making cheese from women's breast milk." (via Ace)

11. This one's so old, it's already been overtaken by events. You remember the McLean school that banned tag in the schoolyard? Well, tag's back, but not before a week of "reorientation lessons on playground safety." I swear I'm not making that term up.

12. Patch (for women) aims to make you (not you, you) feel sexy. (via Ace)

13. Rick Monday saves the flag. In 1976. But now, there's a video.

14. American expat in Paris whines about the falling dollar. My heart bleeds.

15. False advertising from Moron Pundit: a very non-moronic defense of the tax deduction for child dependents.

16. Doubleplusundead on more misery with McCain. For me, if you want to know why McCain hasn't sealed the deal with conservatives -- I'm going to vote for him, anyway -- read George Will's column this morning. Two words: campaign finance.

17. The Children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt by a Pharaoh who took great pleasure in persecuting gays, who were brutally forced to arrange flowers for the Egyptians. Hence, the orange on the seder plate. Funny, I had always heard that it was supposed to represent Pharaoh's fear of the vagina.

18. And finally, the moment you've been waiting for -- the two classics from today's New York Times: (a) In the travel section: "In 2007, nude recreation represented a $440 million industry — up from $400 million in 2001 and $200 million in 1992." (b) In Sunday Styles: A family adjusts to the father's sex change -- "Through Sickness, Health and Sex Change."

Click here to read more . . .

Er, make that a FOURTH World city

From the Department of Can't Possibly Be True:

The "Mayor" of Baltimore doesn't have the paperwork to be mayor, because she asked Gov. O'Malley to swear her in, instead of the Circuit Court Clerk, who traditionally performs the honors. So the Clerk, a fellow named Frank Conaway, won't place his seal on the "certificate of incumbency" that attests to "Mayor" Dixon's status. After all:

"The only way I'm going to attest to anything like that is if she comes in and I swear her in," Conaway said. "I can't attest to something I didn't do."

Just a little fracas, you say? Not really. "Mayor" Dixon can't sign off on a bond deal, because she can't really prove she's "Mayor."

If she's not "Mayor," then we need to cut off all state funding STAT, I would say.

And a bonus story: "In an unrelated story (or not), Conaway’s home has been burglarized three times since October."

Click here to read more . . .

Visitor of the day -- 3/13

Yesterday's visitor of the day comes from the Naval Academy, which apparently is looking for housekeeping help.

Click here to read more . . .

Primary Tuesday linkfest

You may have heard that the Maryland primary was held today (as were the primaries in Virginia and the District of Columbia). I showed up at 7:00 in the morning as the polls opened. Why I bothered I'll never understand. It was down to a decision between my fourth and my fifth choices for the nomination. (I registered a protest vote by voting for my first, who was already out of the race.) But I did vote for the Mission Impossible guy to run against our Democratic congressman in November, and I voted for school board, too.

Although I declined it, the election judges foisted an "I voted" sticker on me. I tried to convince my 16-year-old son to wear it to school today, but he doesn't like his father's sense of humor.

Anyway, here's tonight's linkfest, starting with the political:

1. In last week's linkfest, I pointed you to a video of Obama supporters in a Luntz focus group being asked to name a single accomplishment for Obama. Today, we have the second installment in the same quest. Not as good as the first one, but one member tries to "pass," as if this were law school, and another says Obama's accomplishment was being the only black senator.

2. From a few days ago . . . Mickey Kaus: "Marion Barry to endorse Obama: Isn't there something Obama can do to stop this?"

3. The Republican Jewish Coalition begins an ad campaign that hits home for Jews on the most sensitive issue ever: "I Used To Be A Democrat." Truly hitting below the belt. At this rate, within no more than 50 years, the Republicans will increase their share of the Jewish vote to 30 percent.

4. The BBC: "With Valentine's Day around the corner, don't trust your instincts when it comes to selecting a mate." No, you should choose mathematically. Yes, mathematically. Or, to quote the Brits, you should use "maths." (In America, we can't even do math in the singular, let alone the plural.) Here is the formula, in case you were wondering:

Putting this into an equation, we could come up with the following (W=Witty, G=Aggressive, Ay=Your Attractiveness, AH=Her Attractiveness, R=Her "Amount" of Current Relationship; all variables from 1-10 with 10 being high):


You would, of course, have to evaluate the results on some type of scale, like the one here:

If ASK is less than zero you should lower your standards
If ASK is between zero and 1, you have exactly a snowball's chance in hell with her
If ASK is between 1 and 10, game on!
If ASK is greater than 10, consider her more attractive friend instead

(via Fark)

5. Don't hit the "Reply to All" button. And don't reply to a message where the settings are borked and any reply is treated AS IF it were "Reply to All." That's the lesson from a Department of Homeland Security contractor's experience, related in The Belmont Club. Bonus: The distribution list for this intelligence report somehow included a fellow in the defense industry of Iran. Yes, that Iran. (hat tip: fee simple)

6. If you've been dissatisfied with the current generation of composting toilets, I have good news for you: "The Next Generation of Composting Toilet Technology is Here." (hat tip: Son of the Right Hand) But if this toilet won't dispose of the dead bodies I have lying around, I'll just have to wait until the next generation after that.

Click here to read more . . .

Gov. O'Malley's to-do list

On O'Malley's To-Do List: Rebuild Public Image

Headline, Wash. Post, Jan. 23, 2008

(Click to enlarge)


Story: "Hey, sexy."

(Note: Item 5 modified shortly after original posting.)

Click here to read more . . .

Spinning crime figures in Prince George's

If I lived in Prince George's County, I'd be livid about this.

This report in The Examiner says that the number of murders in the county increased by 4.5% from last year from 134 in 2006 to 140 in 2007 (through yesterday).

And this is how the county police have reacted:

Police downplayed the increase.

"Our numbers are still down compared to the District and Baltimore, though," said Officer Henry Tippett, a spokesman for the Prince George's Police Department. "We haven't seen a significant increase."

We're supposed to believe that the numbers are "down" because they're not as far up as those in Baltimore and Washington. That's totally nuts. The numbers aren't down at all; they're up. Sure, things are worse in Washington, and much, much worse in Baltimore, but apparently you folks who live in Prince George's -- you taxpayers who fund the county police -- shouldn't worry because your murder total is up only 4.5%.

Great. And I thought things were bad in Montgomery County.

Click here to read more . . .

Looking around for a bargain, perhaps?

The Baltimore Sun headline says it: "Wife shopped around for killer, court papers say." (via Fark)

This took place in Kevin Dayhoff's neck of the woods -- Westminster, Maryland.

For weeks, Kevin Gates lived with the fear that his wife was trying to have him killed.

But he feigned ignorance.

"I did my very best to make her think I had no clue, because I wanted to catch her in this," said Gates, 43, of Westminster. "Any fear that I would have had was just [overridden] by anger."

The pretense ended Tuesday, when state police arrested Mary L. Gates, 46, saying she offered to pay an undercover trooper $6,000 to kill her husband.

She had provided a photograph of Kevin Gates, as well as a handwritten note with the UPS deliveryman's schedule and route to work, according to court documents.

The odd thing is that he was still living with the woman, but at least he had a good sense of the person.

Although he hadn't anticipated she would go so far, Kevin Gates said, he wasn't "extremely surprised" by his wife's alleged plotting.

"She's greedy, she's very self-centered, and when she doesn't get her way, she becomes very vindictive," he said. "She's like a little spoiled child."

Here's my marriage tip of the day: If it wouldn't surprise you that your wife was considering hiring a hit man to bump you off, you may be married to Ruthann Aron.

Only kidding. But you have to admit that the guy's got a really large issue in his marriage that counseling probably wouldn't help.

Now, I hope you'll click through to the article, because it begins with a large photo of a large and very scary woman.

And the L. in her name stands for Lucretia, which is perhaps a very apt middle name.

Click here to read more . . .

Carnival of Maryland -- 21st edition

It seems like just yesterday that I last hosted the Carnival of Maryland, but it actually was back in September (the 15th edition). Hello, again, and welcome.

This edition is just chock full of good stuff contributed mostly by members of the Maryland Blogger Alliance.

Although Maryland is a very blue state, and we have some liberal members in the Alliance, still a lot of our political writing tends to the right. There's a good deal of it this week, so I'm going to tackle the other subject matters first, to make sure they don't get lost in the blizzard of political writing.

So, without further introduction, let us proceed to the good stuff. We'll start with Miscellany for $200, Alex.

Miscellany

Chester Peake at the Maryland Chesapeake Blog defends the folks who hit the stores early on "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving. He sees it as sort of an "event" and manages to have a good time. Me, I'd rather click away at deals on my computer, but then again, I'm a socially defective person.

Meanwhile, mad anthony, on the same subject, blasts an editorialist who attacks people who take advantage of "Black Friday" to get bargains.

Joyce Dowling of Creating a Jubilee County offers some important tips to help you avoiding falling victim to scams and theft, and if that were not enough, provides some links to charities that you can donate to. Joyce thinks the "Happy Thanksgiving" is a little late, but it's never too late to be thankful.

PG Chic says the time has come to have more high-end retail in Prince George's County -- "we want, need, and deserve more!"

Jen says: "Show Your Support to Our Troops Through Text Messaging" at That's What I Think.

Sports

At Oriole Post, Maryland Orioles' Fan writes about football, specifically about the murder of Redskins' player Sean Taylor, and is highly critical of Post columnist Michael Wilbon for dismissing Taylor as one who "up in a violent world, embraced it, claimed it, loved to run in it and refused to divorce himself from it." MOF gives a personal account of his own brother's problems and decision to get his life in order.

Local Events

Kevin Dayhoff, former mayor of Westminster, writes at Soundtrack Division of Old Silent Movies about the "Shop with a Cop" event at the Westminster Walmart, which helps needy families enjoy Christmas. Kevin even has a video posted.

Nature

The Ridger entices us at The Greenbelt with a series of beautiful photos that show that fall is really here. ("About time, too," she says.) The contrast between the first two photos is amazing.

Local Politics

The Patriot Sharpshooter discusses the need for term limits in his blog Common Sense. I've put this entry in local politics, but it applies to all offices at all levels, I would think. The Supreme Court, unfortunately, has put the kibosh on congressional term limits, even though the Arkansas law it was considering was really a ballot-access measure, not strictly a term limit.

Paul Foer, who runs Annapolis Capital Punishment, describes a meeting about local transportation options at which he spoke from the audience.

State Politics

Dave Wissing at The Hedgehog Report examines one cute little legislative change our friends in the General Assembly were trying to pass in the special session: a bill that would have designated unused gift certificates as abandoned property that would escheat to the state. As Dave says: "So in other words, if you don’t use your gift cards as fast as the State of Maryland would like you to, then as far as the State of Maryland is concerned, you should be forced to give an unsolicited donation of that that money to the State of Maryland."

Mark Newgent, a/k/a The Main Adversary, looks at Gov. O'Malley's Maryland Commission on Climate Change and the web of related organizations behind the Center for Climate Strategies, which the Commission has brought in for policy guidance and management help.

Bruce Godfrey, at Legal Contact, a part of the Crablaw empire, has some comments on the sentencing of former State Senator Thomas L. Bromwell following a guilty plea on corruption charges.

Brian Gill, at Annapolis Politics, regales us with his account of the presentations of Delegates Steve Schuh and James King at the Wednesday Morning Republican Breakfast Club, defending their actions in the special session.

National Politics

Cheryl at The Spewker, one of our Democratic members, writes at length about why she can't support Hillary for President. You really have to click through to the site where she originally posted her piece just to see how hostile the comments were. (Cheryl, I kind of like being called "Idiot" myself, but I guess I can understand why that would bother you.)

Soccer Dad writes about stem cells, and particularly about Charles Krauthammer's column on the announcement that stem cells can be created from ordinary adult skin cells. He notes that a politically charged issue has now become a success for the President.

David at abolitionofman.com writes about the 60th anniversary of the partition of Palestine and connects the history preceding and following the partition with the current peace efforts, which were going on this week in Annapolis.

Maryland Conservatarian notes that the renegade Republican congressman from Maryland, Wayne Gilchrest, is becoming a national story, with the Club for Growth now taking him on.

At Brian Griffiths, the eponymous author writes about the Second Amendment ("Misfiring on All Cylinders"), and takes on Professor Kenneth Lasson, who considered the topic in the Baltimore Sun.

Rachel, of Tinkerty Tonk fame, discusses the federal employee health benefit plan, which the major Democratic candidates for President all seem to love. She says it's been called the "Rolls Royce" of health plans, but she cites a source that says it's more like a well appointed family sedan. Go Chevrolet!

Mike, at Mike's Nether Land, wonders if people have lost sight of how to deal with the spouse of a possible woman president. Why not just "First Gentleman," to correspond to "First Lady"?

David K. Kyle, who writes at The Candid Truth, wonders where Congress gets the power to dictate what food is served at local public schools. Not to mention why Congress thinks this is an important enough subject matter for it to consider.

Matt Johnston, at Going to the Mat, says that, while he's not a fan of Barack Obama, he respects what Obama says about bare-knuckled politics.

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The 22nd edition of the Carnival of Maryland, on Sunday, December 16, is being hosted at Mike's Nether Land. Please submit your articles through the Blog Carnival form here.

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Question of the day (yesterday)

From the Washington Post's letters to the editor yesterday:

Instead of the Maryland General Assembly giving us a $1.4 billion tax increase and a referendum on slot machines [front page, Nov. 19], why don't lawmakers just give us the slots and let us vote on the tax increase?

DOUGLAS E. McNEIL

Baltimore

This question answers itself.

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Keeping an eye on the scoundrels

I just want to give a shout-out to several members of the Maryland Blogger Alliance who have been doing a great job of covering the special session of the General Assembly. I hope I'm not missing anyone here, but I'm thinking specifically of Red Maryland, Annapolis Politics, and The Main Adversary.

I also want to congratulate Mark Newgent, of The Main Adversary, for drawing 196 votes in a race for Baltimore City Council as a Republican. The Democrat incumbent received 3,356 votes in what Mark admitted was an "ass kicking," but he holds his head up high.

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Gov. O'Malley's budget math

(Click to enlarge.)

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