How to Ruin Your Life, Part II

In which WRM describes an anti-plan for a happy, prosperous, productive life.

In the meantime, young people, here's some more advice on how to ruin your life: Enroll in a college you can't afford. Take really easy, fun courses. Don't worry about marketable skills. Blame society for the consequences (unemployment) of your attitude problem. Then demand the government (or your parents) bail you out.

...If you follow this recipe faithfully, Via Meadia promises that you will achieve all the unhappiness you want.  And don't worry; anytime you feel sad and blue, just read some "lifestyle" journalism in the Boston Globe.  It will be sure to cheer you up.

The Irish National Sport: Fighting Hurling

And it seems to be what soccer could have been before they decided that using your hands in any way might lead to scoring and be unfair to sissies.

Hurling! The Irish national game. No protective gear, except a helmet. Then again, the helmet has only been mandatory since 2010. No names on the shirts. Played for pride only; no professional Hurling teams exist. The pitch is huge; about 150 yards by 100.  It's an ancient game, predating Christianity by as many as 1000 years. You try to strike the ball through the goal posts to score. Over the crossbar is a point; under the bar where the goalie lurks is worth three. You can't pick the ball off the ground, carry it in your hand for more than four strides, or throw the ball for a score. You can't pull on a jersey, trip, or push your opponent.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:48 PM | Comments (729)
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Maet is laet. more...

Posted by: Ace at 06:45 PM | Comments (32)
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After I goofed up the sports thread pretty bad last time, the guys promised I could take another turn but they made me wait for a really long time. Two years!

But finally they said it was okay to try again. YAY ME! Ace gave the go-ahead just this morning. So I have been absolutely scouring the news sites for information about the big upcoming foot-ball meets, but it looks like they must be cancelled on account of the snowstorm.

No one is reporting this yet, but it is likely that the teams could not make it to the foot-ball rinks because of all the closed highways and stuff.

I emailed Ace about this and he seemed surprised but told me to 'go for it' anyway and that he totally trusted me.

Which is awesome and actually quite deeply touching. So I am not going to screw it up this time.

You will probably only read this here because none of the other news sites are reporting it:

FOOT-BALL HAS BEEN CANCELLED FOR TOMORROW.

NO FOOT-BALL on Friday, February 14, on account of bad weather.

I'm sorry. There was nothing we could do.

Cheerleaders below the fold, as usual. more...

Posted by: LauraW at 05:17 PM | Comments (290)
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This is what bothers me.

If a political rival wishes me to join him in condemning racism, I'll gladly do so.

But that's not how talk about racism is usually expressed. It's usually formulated in this way: It's racism that makes you think that, and therefore you're wrong.

This is not an expression of condemnation of racism. This is simply a venomous and demagogic political attack. And this attack causes me to say "No I'm not," and the attacker then says, "See? And now you're defending racism."

How about you just tell me in which ways you disagree with my policies instead of resorting to cheap demagoguery?

Posted by: Ace at 03:47 PM | Comments (472)
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Incredible.

Let me explain what happened. Under pressure to solve a brutal murder quickly -- in a sleepy college town where such things were rare -- Italian prosecutors fixated early upon Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Rafael Sollecito as Meredith Kercher's murderers. They also thought a third man, a black nightclub owner with no criminal history, was involved, because Amanda had texted "See you later" to him on the night of the murder, but in Italian. Amanda worked at this guy's bar, and the night wasn't busy, so he had told her not to bother coming in, and she said "See you later," literally translating the English phrase.

They thought this literally meant "see you later," rather than "Until next time." Or as the Italians would say it, arriverdercci.

I say he's black because it's relevant. I'll explain later.

They interrogated Knox almost nonstop for three days, telling her that the killer was this black nightclub owner and they knew it, and that she was a coconspirator so why didn't she just admit it before she went to jail for life?

Finally, they asked her to envision what it would have been like to see this black nightclub owner at the murder scene, and she wrote out a statement speaking of herself "having a vision" of the man at the scene.

Case closed, they say in a dramatic press conference, in which very high ranking members of the Italian prosecutor corps and police are all flanking the main prosecutor. They then drive Amanda and Rafael around the town of Perugia, doing laps with them in the back of the squad car like Achilles dragging Hector behind his chariot, as the town cheers.

And bonus, they can lock up this black nightclub owner with no possible motive to kill Kercher and no history indicating he'd be interested in killing anyone at all.

Yeah one problem with that: The black nightclub owner was at his bar all night and at least nine witnesses could put him there all night.

So, the prosecutors decide their theory is still sound, but now they just need a different third man.

See, their theory has just been completely refuted, but no sweat, it just needs to be tweaked.

Well, after a few days, the DNA results from the crime scene come in. It turns out there's lots and lots of DNA at the crime scene. Unfortunately, not a speck of it is Knox's or her boyfriend's. Not. A. Speck.

However, there is a ton of DNA material identified as that of one Rudy Guede, a drifter with a prior background of breaking into homes for petty theft while armed with a knife (on a previous burglary, he merely warned the startled occupant of the home away with the knife, rather than killing him).

He only casually knew Amanda Knox because he occasionally played basketball with Knox's downstairs neighbors, some Italian boys. They had merely been present in the same room when the girls and Guede were watching tv with the downstairs boys.

Guede had murdered Kercher with a frenzied attack with the knife, and had cut himself on the hand with the blade (as happens). He had a cut on his hand when arrested. In addition, he apparently began to violate Kercher's body post-mortem, but was so put off by what a bloody ruin he had made of her he stopped. His skin cells were found inside of her, but no semen.

By the way, he fled Italy the day after the murder, before the murder was even known to have taken place.

While hiding out in Italy, and while being sought by police, someone asked him in a chat about Knox, who had been accused of the crime by then. "Amanda wasn't there," he had told this person. This chat was being monitored by the police, so they knew about it.

Now, when Guede was arrested, he claimed this story: That he had been having consensual sex with Kercher (thus explaining his DNA inside of her) when an intruder suddenly burst in and killed Kercher. Why Guede was not more wounded, I'm not sure. But as this white intruder left, according to Guede, he said something like "Ha ha, you're black, they'll pin this on you," and then this unidentified blitz-killer left, evaporating like a ghost, never to be seen from or heard of again.

He did not at this point claim Knox or Sollecito were present. Just this Racist guy who shows up to murder random women and then frame black guys for the crime. (And, by the way, who does not leave any physical evidence of his existence at the scene of a ferociously bloody attack-- only Guede's DNA was found there).

Now, if you're a rational person, at this point you understand that your original theory was flawed, and that only one man killed Kercher, and that man is the one who admits to having sexual contact with Kercher (but consensual, as of course he'd claim) and who has presented a fairly implausible scenario to explain why his blood is mixed in with Kercher's.

And then you'd apologize to Knox and Sollecito, and set them free.

But that's not what they did here. Here, they offered the actual killer a fast-track trial with a short sentence in exchange for his testimony claiming that Knox and Sollecito put him up to it.

And basically you'd just swap out this new black suspect, who is guilty, for the old black suspect, who was 100% innocent, as if your only problem in this case was misidentifying the black conspirator.

One black guy is as good as another, you know. I mean, come on. Who can tell them apart? Perfectly understandable mistake. It's barely even a mistake, really, when you think about it.

And then the actual killer would get sentenced to 16 years. And then he'd be release after just six years in prison.

Meanwhile, Knox and Sollecito have themselves already served four years in prison for a crime they had nothing at all to do with, and the Italian prosecutors and courts are hoping to put them into jail for longer.

So, the actual killer was just released; and two innocents continue to by hounded by a huge chunk of Italy's criminal justice resources.

And there you have it.

Incidentally... Douglas Preston and his writing partner and a gang of others including famed FBI profiler John Douglas have put out a short Kindle "single" on the case. It's 81 pages long, costs two bucks, or is free to borrow for Prime customers.

It's called "The Forgotten Killer." Their idea is that finally, after so much ink has been written about a girl who didn't commit the murder, perhaps someone should write a book about the man who did.

As far as "is it worth it:" I still think that the definitive work on this case hasn't been written. There are two good books about it: "Murder in Italy," by Candace Dempsey, which is a fairly straight true-crime account. Dempsey attempts to remain objective, and mostly succeeds, but she does sort of begin to signal, "What the hell is going on here?" She tries to remain reporterishly objective, but one can sense her increasingly strong skepticism about the case against Knox and Sollecito.

The other book isn't about Knox per se but is required reading because you'll find out so, so much about Italian justice in general and the prosecutor in this case in particular. That book is "Monster of Florence," by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi, and is probably the best true-crime book I've ever read.

This new book, the one on Kindle, is called "The Forgotten Killer," and it's decent, but basic. I really liked John Douglas' (the famed FBI profiler) explaining what he'd think of the evidence of the crime, and what sort of suspect it would point to. (A Guede-like suspect, it turns out.) But Douglas' analysis is actually retro-fitted, because he knows Guede did it (and Knox and Sollecito didn't).

Still, it was a great chapter.

I guess I'd recommend it to a newcomer to the case, who wants a short precis on it, but if anyone's really interested I'd suggest the double feature of first Monster of Florence, so the scene is properly set, and then Dempsey's Murder in Italy, to see what happens when two innocent people get fixated on by a crew of imbeciles who are willing to put innocent people in jail rather than just admitting something so easy to admit: Our initial hunches were wrong.

Well, I guess there's another reason they don't want to admit that: Amanda Knox says she was physically intimidated during her interrogation, which is why, she says, she broke down and wrote the "I have a vision of seeing" statement.

I suppose it might be dicey to concede she's entirely innocent, because then that raises some questions about how, exactly, that statement was procured.

Monster of Florence should be read on general principle, whether you care about any of this or not. I reviewed it here.

Both Murder in Italy and Monster of Florence also succeed in another area: conveying a sense of place. I like travelogue-ish books, and both deliver as far as giving you a feeling of what their respective settings are like.

Especially Monster of Florence.

Posted by: Ace at 01:28 PM | Comments (478)
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In this case, the Representative making this statement is a Democrat. He's also black. He said he didn't like Clarence Thomas because he's married to a white woman.

He's claim he was misquoted:

Yeah, I'm not sure I buy that. Who starts a sentence with "Some might say I don't like him because he's married to a white woman?" Who thinks this way, except for people who object to a black guy marrying a white woman?

This country needs to grow up about race. There is real racism in this country. And racism is as poisonous a thing as liberals say it is.

But if liberals wish to their campaign against racism to be principled rather than a simple partisan attack, they have to call out racism whenever they see it -- not just when they find it, conveniently, amongst their political enemies.

Which really seems to be their preferred mode of operation, unfortunately.

I really wish liberals could decide if it's racism they most hate, or simply Republicans. Because I am tired of them taking the latter to be the former, and ignoring or covering up racism when they see it in their own midst.

Posted by: Ace at 12:44 PM | Comments (360)
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Sigh.

I searched. The word "Democrat" does not appear in the article.

The former mayor of New Orleans – once the public face of a city battered by Hurricane Katrina – could be headed to prison.

A jury has just returned guilty verdicts on 20 of the 21 counts of corruption and bribery that Ray Nagin faced in a nine-day trial.

Barring a favorable appeal, Nagin, 57, could be sentenced to as much as two decades in a federal penitentiary. Prosecutors used 26 witnesses and reams of documents to detail how Nagin accepted more than $500,000 in payouts, including first-class trips to Jamaica and Manhattan, in exchange for millions of dollars in city contracts.

His age is relevant. His party affiliation, not.

Nagin's spectacular plunge from upstart politician and post-storm persona to convicted felon is more than just another case study in public service gone awry. American history – Louisiana's in particular – is littered with similar cases of politicians on the take.

Everybody does it.

...
Prosecutors say Nagin's personal-enrichment schemes at City Hall began before Katrina hit, continued through the storm's bumpy aftermath and persevered through his second term and even beyond. As people dug out from under the rubble and wrestled with how to rebuild their city, Nagin was soliciting large checks for himself and his sons' granite countertop business from those wishing to do business with the city.

Early in the storm's aftermath, Nagin showed signs of becoming the leader the city needed, admonishing the federal government for its slow response and giving impassioned national TV interviews..... He was out of town a lot. Prosecutors showed that many of those trips — to New York City, Las Vegas and Jamaica — were funded by businessmen hoping to land big contracts with the city.

...

All that changed today, when a jury decided Nagin would be the first mayor in the city's 296-year history to be convicted of corruption.

They simply refuse to offer party affiliations for convicted Democrats. They flat-out refuse. They just will not do it.

Posted by: Ace at 11:21 AM | Comments (516)
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Apparently they won't be exactly running on Obamacare after all.

Now, it is true that Garcia doesn’t call for repeal. Indeed, the ad boasts that the candidate is “working to fix” the law, and it praises him both for holding “insurance companies accountable” and for defending the provision that prevents insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions. But it is fascinating to watch a Political Action Committee associated with Nancy “we’re going to run on Obamacare” Pelosi slamming the White House for “the disastrous healthcare website” and boasting — without any time qualification, it should be said — that its man “voted to let you keep your existing health plan.”

Posted by: Ace at 10:39 AM | Comments (294)
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@benk84 covered this, of course, but: Filner out, Faulconer in.

CAC, who is temporarily not the Meatball, kept track of the votes as they came in and was able to make a very early call:

Posted by: Ace at 08:45 AM | Comments (287)
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A little DOOM to darken your day, my groovy babies. Monty's DOOM is like Monty's love: hard and fast and unexpected and unsatisfying and kind of sad.

Actual headline: "ObamaCare both sucks and blows." I'm sensing some hostility here. I dunno. Maybe it's just me.

Democrats to Obama: "Hit me again, Ike! And this time put some stank on it!"

HAW HAW HAW HAW.

...[T]hey seem to have arbitrarily picked a weekend to take the website down, without considering itÂ’s probably the most important enrollment day of the month.

How do you know when you're DOOMed? When every choice ends in disaster, despair, or insolvency.

To Teh Krugman: Welcome to the supply-side!

Your chart-fu of the day.

What do people do when their unemployment insurance runs out? Shockingly, they find work. It may not be high-paying work; it may not be the traditional 9-5 work; it may not be an actual "job" in the normal sense. But necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention and keeping body and soul together is one of the greatest motivators there is. The real problem is that the Federal Government's definition of "employed" is both politically warped and very archaic.

ZOMG STOCKS ARE DOWN 5% FOR THE YEAR! Except...it's only February. The stock market is volatile these days; we all know that. I'll wait until late summer or early fall before I start to be concerned.

It is natural for markets to go up and down. This year is no different, and there is little in the market that warrants changing your long-term strategic plan with which you entered the year.

It turns out that Obama's "MyRA" intiative is a really bad idea. Just like every other idea His Majesty the King has had since taking office.
more...

Posted by: Monty at 02:56 PM | Comments (254)
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