One of the Few Things I Have in Common With Angelina Jolie

Back when I was in high school in the early 90s, I had some dress shoes that had a Nike sole.  Yes, Nike Air dress shoes.  They were the most expensive and most comfortable shoes I had owned.  When they wore out, I looked for more, but I was told that they were no longer made. 

Thankfully, they’re back.  But they are more expensive now.

Says Ms. Jolie, “ “I’m going to do a shoe ad right now—Cole Haan makes a shoe with a Nike sole, so I have a low heel with a Nike sole.”

Queer Bridezillas of Orange County

Rachel Lucas has correctly identified the biggest ripple effect of the court ruling in California striking down the ban on gay marriage. 

All I know is, it’s only a matter of time before there’s a new reality show called Queer Bridezillas of Orange County.

Indeed.

CNN’s Potty Mouth

Since when is it acceptable for a news site to cuss in a headline?

Beavis and Butthead Movie

Breaking news!

MTV’s animated 90’s show Beavis and Butthead could be making its way to the big screen as a live-action feature, according to creator Mike Judge.

In further news, Jed and I scored the lead roles! 

Chicago Repeals Ban on Foie Gras

Perhaps there’s a bit of common sense left in Chicago’s government. 

With Mayor Richard Daley running the vote, the Chicago City Council on Wednesday repealed its controversial ban on foie gras.

Hat tip Nick.

Very Similar, I Must Say

I finally figured out who David Archuleta from American Idol sounds like when he talks.

That’s a pain that’s going to linger…

Empty Chairs and Empty Tables

Mom Suffocates Son

Horrific.

Brenda M. Thiel, 27, killed her son Caleb by covering his mouth and nose with her hands while he slept the morning of May 5.

Neenah police officers who were called to Thiel’s house that morning found Caleb on a bed in a second-floor bedroom. An officer tried to revive Caleb, but he was pronounced dead at Theda Clark Medical Center.

Thiel told police she had a nightmare about tornadoes a few days before killing her son. While she slept, Thiel said, she heard a voice telling her to kill Caleb.

The night before she killed Caleb, Thiel began thinking about her nightmare while reading the Bible.

Thiel also told police that she wanted to suffocate Caleb, but did not know why she wanted to do so.

Que Sera Sera

I’ve always loved this song. 

When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother, what will I be
Will I be pretty, will I be rich
Here’s what she said to me.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

When I was young, I fell in love
I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead
Will we have rainbows, day after day
Here’s what my sweetheart said.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

Now I have children of my own
They ask their mother, what will I be
Will I be handsome, will I be rich
I tell them tenderly.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

New Orleans Dumps Teachers’ Union.  Student Performance Rises.

Nick noticed this telling story. 

Good news in The Big Easy where over a year ago they broke the teachers union and basically started over with publicly financed but privately board run charter schools.  This year, testing of fourth and eighth graders have shown improvements by 12% and 4% respectively, in only a year.  They still have a long way to go, but this is real progress from a completely failed school system in a short turnaround time.  The major reason being given for this success is the quality of teachers they were able to attract.

Nick tips the ol’ hat to Megan.

In the comments of Nick’s post, Folkbum hypothesizes that the gains are due to the change in population.  I disagree with that.  While the population has changed, it is more likely that the criminal class would stick around.  Think about it.  Abandoned property.  Desperate people.  Depleted police force.  It’s ripe territory for crooks.  Furthermore, crooks tend to have fewer means to move and set up life elsewhere. 

In fact, the crime statistics are showing that New Orleans may be more violent than it was before Katrina. 

As of New Year’s Eve, the city’s murder total sat at 209, making it again a top contender for the country’s highest per-capita murder rate, a dubious title New Orleans held in 2006. A definitive per-capita rate for murders and all crimes remains elusive, because of varying estimates of the post-flood city’s still-changing population. But even by the most generous estimate, preferred by the New Orleans Police Department, the city’s murder rate is 67 murders per 100,000 people. Using another, lower population estimate cited by the city, the rate would be 71.

Compared with the nine other cities with the highest per-capita murder rates last year, New Orleans remains at or near the highest rate in 2007.

[...]

Complete fourth-quarter crime statistics won’t be made available for another month, but if trends from the first three quarters hold steady, then violent crime has increased, drastically in some categories. Indeed, the rate of reported assaults—a category that includes all nonfatal shootings—in the first three quarters of the year was on pace to equal or surpass the number of assaults in each of the two years before Hurricane Katrina, when the city’s population was far larger.

I think it’s safe to assume that crime rates would be a good indicator of the raw quality of the students who are attending the schools.  Yes, there are other factors, but generally speaking, kids who grow up in broken crime-ridden homes tend to do poorly at school. 

Yet, they are doing better than before.  Surely Nick is wrong and New Orleans’ new public school model is having no impact whatsoever on student achievement. 

Top Ten Interview Mistakes

This is ill-advised for a job interview. 

Candidate answered cell phone and asked the interviewer to leave her own office because it was a “private” conversation.

This too:

Candidate told the interviewer he was fired for beating up his last boss.

Battery-Powered Devices in the Bedroom

Good to know.

According to a recent Solutions Research Group study of nearly 5,000 Americans, more than 63 percent of BlackBerry users take the device into the bathroom. And 37 percent of laptop owners “frequently” use their computers in the bedroom.

Probation for Child Porn

Shameful.

Most child pornography cases result in jail or prison time, but a Madison man who everybody agreed has a good chance of rehabilitation escaped that Monday when he was put on probation for six years.

Brian Riha, who at the time was residing in Sun Prairie, was arrested late last year after a break-up with his girlfriend. As she was going through various CDs and DVDs to take her own with her when she left the home, she discovered child pornography on several discs and informed police of her discovery.

Riha was subsequently arrested and charged with three counts of possession of child pornography, counts which can carry a maximum sentence of up to 25 years in prison and have a presumptive minimum sentence of three years behind bars.

But neither a pre-sentence report prepared by the Department of Corrections nor a psychological report prepared by Dr. Patricia Coffey recommended that Riha be incarcerated.

JetBlue’s Planes Apparently Have Comfortable Potties

Assuming this guy’s story is true, I’d be peeved too. 

A New York City man is suing JetBlue Airways Corp. for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California.

Gokhan Mutlu, of Manhattan’s Inwood section, says in court papers the pilot told him to “go ‘hang out’ in the bathroom” about 90 minutes into the San Diego to New York flight because the flight attendant complained that the “jump seat” she was assigned was uncomfortable, the lawsuit said.

[...]

Initially, Mutlu was told a flight attendant had taken the last seat on the plane, but then he was advised she would sit in the employee “jump seat,” meaning he could have the last seat, the lawsuit said.

The pilot told him 1 1/2 hours into the five-hour flight that he would have to relinquish the seat to the flight attendant, court papers say. But the pilot said that Mutlu could not sit in the jump seat because only JetBlue employees were permitted to sit there, the lawsuit said.

When Mutlu expressed reluctance to go sit in the bathroom, the pilot, who was not named in the lawsuit, told him that “he was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command that (Mutlu) should be grateful for being on board,” the lawsuit said.

Personal Protection

Heh.

On the weekend after Zimmermann’s death, Maternowski’s father drove over from Milwaukee and brought his daughter three items for personal protection inside her apartment: a black Louisville Slugger baseball bat, a 2 1/2 -foot metal pipe and a can of industrial-strength wasp killer.

You know what would work better?  A gun.  A good gun coupled with a lot of range time and training is far more effective than a bat and a can of bug spray.  For those of you who think that a gun would be “uncivilized” or something, please explain to me how bludgeoning an attacker with a bat is more civilized.