Who doesn’t love mandatory minimums and the Sentencing Guidelines, amirite? Except for the fact that they’ve proven unduly Draconian, inflexible and too often produce absurd outcomes. But as hard as we’ve fought against rubrics that make criminal punishment clear, transparent and certain, there remains a bone in our heads that compels us to make the same mistakes again because, as much as we know the outcomes are terrible, they satisfy our desire for clarity.

So New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has come up with his own brand of matrix, this time for the officers of the NYPD.

“We want discipline to be a straightforward matter,” de Blasio said at a press conference. “We want it to be clear that when certain actions are taken, when certain mistakes are made, that there will be accountability.”
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Forget the tu quoque comparisons to Trump, who did exactly what one would expect him to do.

“The violence is fueled by dangerous rhetoric from far-left politicians that demonize our nation and demonize our police,” Mr. Trump said Monday at a news conference. “The violent rioters share Biden’s same talking points, and they share his same agenda for our nation,” he added. “The rioters and Joe Biden have a side — they’re both on the side of the radical left.”

To suggest that Biden has given solace to rioters is clearly false. But then, Biden’s policy goals are far more aligned with the protesters than Trump’s, and while Trump has grossly overstated the case, has Biden been left to thread the needle between condemning violence without offending the violent? Continue reading →

There was only one full-time black journalist at the Kenosha News. Why that was the case is unknown, and any attempt to “explain” it would be nothing less than outright fabrication born of bias. Now, there are none. To his credit, the one black reporter, Daniel Thompson, saw something he couldn’t tolerate. After attempting to fix it, and being rebuffed, he did the only honorable thing he could do. He quit.

The headline, which appeared on the Kenosha News website on Saturday, highlighted a remark from one rally participant: “Kenosha speaker: ‘If you kill one of us, it’s time for us to kill one of yours.’” The online version of the article included a 59-second video showing the person who spoke those words, a Black man who was not identified by name.

The story was otherwise fine. It was the headline that offended Thompson. Continue reading →

I hate Mark Rothko.

A few years ago, I was visiting the Tate Modern in London, a beautiful museum housed in a decommissioned 19th-century power station that thrusts into the sky like the Tower of Mordor. The effect was stark on that winter evening, and I felt a little overawed, but the weather was so blustery that I would’ve been happy to duck inside even if I hadn’t wanted to look at the art.

I soon discovered that the museum has a “Rothko Room,” meant to let the viewer appreciate the artist’s work in a setting close to the one he would’ve wanted. From the Tate website:

In the late 1950s, Rothko was commissioned to paint a series of murals for the fashionable Four Seasons restaurant, in the Seagram Building on Park Avenue, New York. […] However, the murals were darker in mood than his previous work. The bright and intense colours [sic – Britain] of his earlier paintings shifted to maroon, dark red and black. […] Recognising [sic – more Britain] that the worldly setting of a restaurant would not be the ideal location for such a work, Rothko withdrew from the commission. […] This installation includes all nine of the paintings owned by Tate. Perceived, as the artist intended, in reduced light and in a compact space, the subtlety of the layered surfaces slowly emerges, revealing their solemn and meditative character.

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Too deep in the morass of news ranging from bad to awful to make the cut, there was a stabbing at an AutoZone in Columbus, Georgia. Had it been at a protest or riot in Portland or Kenosha, it might be the subject of infinite discussion on social media, but it was off the map and few noticed it. But it’s worthy of notice.

Columbus Police are looking for the person responsible for attacking an AutoZone employee with a knife Tuesday morning.

The incident happened on at the AutoZone located on 32nd Street at around 8:26 a.m. According to police the suspect entered the store and attacked the employee with a knife in an unprovoked incident. Continue reading →

As much as I abhor Trump for being a vulgar, amoral, lying ignoramus, neither one more voice saying it nor one more person harping on his every word, every move, every act, is going to change anything. Trump lied? Oh no, it’s another Tuesday at 10 a.m. So what? Who expected otherwise? And so if it goes without saying, don’t say it. There’s no reason.

It’s also bad tactics, despite the Trump-hating obsession so many carry, to exhaust any utility to challenging the president. People are so inured to attacks that they mean nothing, and nothing he says or does has much of an impact. One lie is an outrage. A million is a statistic. Things that would have toppled any administration before just roll off his back, both because he does such wildly inappropriate stuff so regularly and there is so much screeching that it’s just background noise at this point. No outrage lasts longer than a few hours, tops, before the next comes along and captures the moment. Continue reading →

The contrast is jarring. Videos were everywhere showing Kyle Rittenhouse shooting his rifle. Yet, there was a killing in Portland, a bullet to the chest that left one man dead, and the only piece of information about it is the hat.

The man who was shot and killed was wearing a hat with the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a far-right group based in Portland that has clashed with protesters in the past.

There may be video, but it’s not offered, no link, no embedded video. And apparently it doesn’t really do much to illuminate what happened. Continue reading →

National media’s attention focused on Tennessee about a week ago when Governor Bill Lee signed into law a bill potentially stripping protesters of their ability to vote. At least that was the attention-grabbing narrative during an election season rife with incessant screeching about voter suppression. The context of SB 8005 adds no shine to the law and blunts that narrative’s credibility.

As interest and energy waned in Seattle’s “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” talk of establishing a similar community in Nashville started briefly on social media. Governor Lee wasn’t keen on a similar “summer of love” in Music City, warning protesters Nashville would never allow a Volunteer State version of CHAZ. Continue reading →

The looting and rioting was the outgrowth of the news that police had killed yet another man, except the man was a killer himself, and then killed himself as the police were about to arrest him. It doesn’t take much to light a tinder box, especially one where you get free stuff. Well, free for looters. Whoever had it before had to pay for it, but if you make up stuff about how people you don’t know are undeserving or evil, it all becomes magically fine.

Then the Minneapolis police came and someone in the crowd decided to engage in mostly peaceful protest. Continue reading →

This week I’m telling you my all-time favorite “crazy but true” story. It’s about the time “The Tennessee Stud,” Ron Fuller, wrestled in the Bahamas.* I first heard Ron tell it a couple of years ago and this unbelievable yarn still tickles me to this day. My problem is any written version of this won’t nearly do it as much justice as if you heard it from the man himself. Check the link at the bottom of the post to remedy that.

“Dynasty” is an excellent term to describe the Fuller/Welch family’s impact on the wrestling world. Their influence spans 90 years across four generations. Countless grapplers learned the business from the family.** Ron’s grandfather, Roy Welch,*** was a master promoter with a knack for turning a dying town into a cash cow for the wrestling business.**** Continue reading →