Randy Savage: Dead At 58

"Wrestler Randy 'Macho Man' Savage, the Slim Jim pitchman known for his raspy-voiced "Ohh yeah" catch phrase, died in a car accident today in Seminole, Fla., possibly after suffering a heart attack, WTSP reports."

Read the rest here.

Thor and Other Things

Finally saw the movie Thor last night.  As a comic book reader and fan I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.  Sure it had a couple of rough spots here and there but they were few and far between.  Add a couple of winks and nods to the source material and cameos of other characters; I must say I enjoyed myself.  If you didn’t know Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America and a few other movie characters will combine in the movie Avengers in 2012.  All of those movies lead up to that one.  Should be a lot of  fun.

But me being me I got to point out a little nonsense that came along with the movie.  Maybe you heard about it, maybe not.  I won’t name the group because you can look them up for yourself.  They have been called a hate group by others.  Well by a lot of others.  Apparently there is a group out there that is calling for a boycott of the movie.

Their reasoning is that one of the fictional characters, Heimdall, is played by Idris Elba, a black actor born in England.   Since Thor is loosely based on Nordic mythology, they feel that this is an insult to the white race. 

Or something.

In an industry where there are hardly any minority/ethnic characters of substance at all you would think they’d let this one slide.  You just can’t please some people.  They must have really been ticked when they found out that Nick Fury, a white character for decades, is being played by Samuel L. Jackson.  Hope, haven’t heard a thing about that.  Perhaps they will really get upset when they find out that Anthony Hopkins who played Odin in the movie actually played a black man in The Human Stain.

Somebody should tell them about the character Hogun being played by Tadanobu Asano an obviously non white guy. 

I haven’t heard them complain about that yet.  Must it's only a certain group they are concerned with.

Figures.

It's Always President Obama's Fault Somehow

Let me introduce you to Republican candidate for governor Larry Faircloth of West Virginia.  Also a candidate for the Obama Derangement Syndrome (ODS) award.  Why bother as he shouldn't be in the public eye for much longer, but here it goes.

According to The Matinsburg's Journal, Mr. Faircloth:

"Faircloth, who referred to President Barack Obama as a "sambo" and U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as a "bimbo" during comments at a public forum in Hampshire County on April 29, has apologized this week to the West Virginia NAACP and anyone else he offended by his statements."

Faircloth apologized for his remarks (if it offended anyone).  And then promptly placed his foot back in his mouth.

According to the Herald-Mail Faircloth claimed:

"Faircloth said some people in West Virginia think President Obama has tried to punish the state. And he said if it takes a joke to bring attention to that issue, "I don't mind doing it.""

Now unless I'm reading that entirely wrong, this must be Obama's fault.   That man sure gets around.

Fifty Years Ago Today

From Colbert King in todays Washington Post:

"On this date in America 50 years ago, two buses arrived in Anniston, Ala. It was Sunday, May 14, 1961. The Lord must have been in his Holy Temple. His presence wasn’t in evidence when those buses carrying Freedom Riders rolled into Anniston’s Greyhound and Trailways bus terminals."

Raymond Arsenault, who is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, described that day in detail in his book, “Freedom Riders.”

You can read the rest here.

Let's thank the many Freedom Riders for their sacrifice and bravery.

God Bless.

A Man's Home...

What do you think?

You get a phone call from your son saying someone is on your property that you do not know. You tell your son to ask the person to leave. The person in turn refuses to do so and starts to argue with your son. You happen to hear this arguing as the phone is still on. You recognize the voice of the trespasser as a former contractor who is not supposed to be on your property.

As the arguing continues your son (later testifies) that the contractor pulls out a utility knife and ask, “Why don’t you make me leave?” The son tells his father what happened and you tell him to get in the house. Then you call the police. Then you head for home.

You arrive before the police. You see the contractor next door, he was working over there, reach into his truck and put something into his pocket. Then the man comes rushing towards your driveway. You get your gun out of your glove compartment and show it to the contractor. The contractor does not stop but moves quickly towards you even though you show him the gun. You jump out of the car and tell the man to back up. The contractor keeps going causing you to back up. Finally you fire a warning shot into the ground all the while still backing up. It does nothing to slow the progress of the trespasser; in fact he quickens his pace towards you. You then shoot the man dead.

The police decide not to arrest you. They determine that it was self defense as the contractor was the aggressor and trespasser in this situation.

All’s well, huh? Well No.

Nine months later (if my memory serves me right) the District Attorney in town indicts you for felony murder despite a police investigation that found the shooting to be self defense, eye witnesses that collaborate your story and a pattern of behavior from the contractor that cause many of your neighbors to be fearful of him. You are found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Life is prison.

An appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court in 2008 does not gain you your freedom. However, the Chief Justice dissents saying:

“I share the majority’s reluctance to overturn a jury verdict. However, I conclude that no rational trier of fact could find, based on the evidence presented at trial, that the State disproved (your) claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt. Accordingly, I must dissent.”

Such is the life of Mr. John McNeil as this happened to him in 2006. He has been in jail five years for defending his property.

Two things bother me about this particular injustice. The first is the overall all wrongness of this whole thing. It used to be that you could protect your home against this sort of thing. There are scores of stories out there about other homeowners protecting themselves and never going to jail for life much less any amount of time. Joe Horn comes to mind and it wasn’t even his home.

The second is that I wonder where all the gun advocates are in this case. It would seem perfect for them to rally around and make a fuss. I mean who wouldn’t want to make Mr. McNeil the poster child for the cause? In fact, you can’t really find a lot on this story at all.

I am still trying to figure out wonder why.

One source