Lindsay Lohan Sentenced to 90 Days

It’s a bit refreshing to see a Hollywood starlet actually get punished for bad behavior. 

Lindsay Lohan was sentenced to 90 days in jail on Tuesday after a Beverly Hills judge ruled that she had violated her probation by missing a string of alcohol education classes imposed for a 2007 drunk driving arrest.

Beverly Hills Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel ordered the “Mean Girls” movie star to report for jail on July 20. She also ordered Lohan to attend a 90-day residential substance abuse program once she has completed her sentence.

Lohan, 24, sobbed bitterly on hearing the sentence. She had earlier tearfully begged the judge for forgiveness, saying she was taking her alcohol education classes seriously.

“I am not taking this as a joke. This is my life. It is my career. It is something I have worked for all my life,” Lohan said.

The court heard that Lohan had missed seven alcohol education classes over a period of 27 weeks and had not attended once a week as instructed by the judge.

“I couldn’t have been more clear, and it wasn’t done,” said Revel, before sentencing her.

West Digs Deeper

Ummmm… riiiiiiightt...

Milwaukee County Supervisor Peggy West, who drew a tidal wave of reaction when she said last month that Arizona had no border with Mexico, attributes that remark to distractions of other issues being heard by the board.

“Of course, Arizona is on the border with Mexico and I made a speaking error that many people have been unable to forgive,” West said during a radio interview that aired Monday on WISN-AM (1130).

She said Arizona had no border with Mexico during a debate on a resolution calling for the county to boycott doing business with Arizona over its new immigration law.  Other issues before the County Board at its June meeting—censuring Supervisor Lynne De Bruin and state-ordered repairs to the Mental Health Compex—distracted her, West said on the County Board-produced radio show.

“I should have better organized my comments,” she said. She intended to make the point that it would have been more understandable if a state like Texas with several populous cities on the Mexico border had passed an immigration law like Arizona, West said.

She meant to say that “the large population centers of Arizona are much further from the border” than Texas cities, according to West.

Hmmmm… let’s look at the 5 biggest cities in Texas and their distance from the Mexican border (measured as the crow flies on Google Earth).

Houston - 300 miles from border
Dallas - 350 miles from border
San Antonio - 130 miles from border
Austin - 200 miles from border
El Paso - ON the border

And Arizona:

Phoenix - 110 miles from border
Tucson - 65 miles from border
Mesa - 120 miles from border
Glendale - 120 miles from border
Scottsdale - 118 miles from border

So… Texas has precisely one of its top 5 cities that is closer to the border than ALL of Arizona’s top 5 cities.  What was West’s alleged point?

Bye Bye Booster!

Tomorrow our baby boy turns eight. Eight! As a result, our family will finally be free of the car booster seat in which our state requires him to sit. Yes, The Boy is halfway to driving a car, and he still has to be in a car seat.

No one is more excited about this day than The Boy.

Tonight we are going to take one last car-seated ride around the block, and tomorrow we’re going to find some way to (legally) destroy the booster seats.

Jackson Residents Seek to Recall Village President and Trustee

This is not a good idea. 

Village President Scott Mittelsteadt and Trustee Jeffery Brandner will face a recall election on Aug. 17, Clerk Susan Rank said Tuesday.

Rank will ask the Village Board at a special meeting Tuesday to schedule the Aug. 17 recall election.

On Tuesday, Rank certified sufficient signatures on recall petitions targeting the two officials to force the election. The petitions state that Mittelsteadt and Brandner should be removed from office for “not abiding by the will of the people” when they voted last October to dismantle the Police Department.

On Oct. 27, the Village Board voted 5-2 to keep its police department intact rather than contracting with the Washington County Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement services. Mittelsteadt and Brandner voted to start negotiations with the Sheriff’s Department at that time.

Both the President and the Trustee took action on what they thought were the best interests of the village.  That’s what they are elected to do.  It appears that a majority of the people disagreed with them and it was voted down.  That’s how it works.  They didn’t do anything illegal or unethical.  This appears to be an abuse of the recall process for the purpose of retribution.

Preserving patriotism

My column for the Daily News in online.  It’s called, “Preserving patriotism.”  Here’s a bit:

America has a rich history and many institutions of which we can all be proud. Yes, there are terrible atrocities and blunders in our past, but there are also triumphs unequaled in the annals of mankind. There is a reason that the 20th century saw the spread of American ideals — many of which are enshrined in the very Declaration of Independence that we celebrated on Sunday — throughout much of the world. Liberty, the rule of law, and the subjugation of government to the citizens are the sole path to human progress.

   America is truly exceptional and Americans should have no qualms about celebrating their love of country. But, as Reagan pointed out, we can’t celebrate that which we don’t know. We should reinvigorate our teaching of American history and civics. An informed citizenry is patriotic and free. An ignorant one is teetering on losing the precious gift that our forefathers bestowed upon us: the great United States of America.

Sporcle of the Day, 6 Jul 10

8 minutes to name the 30 largest cities, by population, in the Central Time Zone.  I got 27.