POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

The PoliBlog Metacritique of Blog Coverage of UAH Slayings . . . Coverage . . . Covered

A couple of days ago, I mentioned that I thought there was insufficient evidence to state whether any putative ideological orientation on the part of the shooter had anything to do with the shootings. I still think that's true. Over at PoliBlog, though, Steven L. Taylor wants to take matters a little further:

This is, by the way, the very definition of what I asserted over the weekend: the using of a triple homicide to score cheap political points. How can it be seen as anything else? They claim that the MSM is known for unfairly harping on the right-wing nature of some criminals, and so to make that point they think it proper to jump on the UAH tragedy as a vehicle for their position. This is true of their actions, by the way, even if (like Reynolds) they only allude to the potential that her politics are leftish, without actually making an accusation that the murders were politically driven.

To put the matter as succinctly as possible: this is using multiple murders as a vehicle for making a partisan/ideological critique of the mainstream media, and it isn’t a critique about how they are covering the homicides in question, but rather a point about how they have covered other crimes.

This strikes me as unseemly and inappropriate and trivializes a heinous crime.

I agree that attempting to attach a political dimension to this crime does trivialize it, and does violence, as Mr. Taylor writes elsewhere, to the facts as they are presented to us. However, the way they are presented in the media does matter, and matters quite a bit. I think that it is fair to say, as William Jacobson in effect does, that had the shooter been portrayed by a family member as a particularly avid supporter of George Bush the Younger (or fierce opponent of Barack Obama), the fact that all of the slain, to this point at least, were minorities would be one of the most remarked aspects of the case in the media. To point the bias out is an indictment of the media rather than of liberalism per se, whatever shape it may have taken (or not) in Amy Bishop Anderson's case.

Turning the trivialization around, one can say that it's also conversely true that there's a tendency to criminalize political orientation. It's a practice that too many people engage in, no matter where in the political spectrum they are situated. Its societal corrosiveness is similar to that of racism, or the imputation of racism where it is not. Would the heinousness of this sickening slaughter have been magnified at all had Bishop hurled epithets as she discharged her pistol? I don't think so, but I know people who would. We make fetishes of our signs, and it blinds us to reason.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Round-Up of Amy Bishop Information

Nothing about Amy Bishop & her husband adds up. Now, husband claims he hasn't bothered to learn the identities of the victims.

Missing Braintree Police report and associated documentation located, suggest charges could have been brought at time of Seth Bishop's death in 1986. Correction: Contrary to what my sources indicated earlier, it appears that Judy Bishop, Amy's mother, did not serve on any board associated with the local police, but was one of 240 citizens selected to attend Town Meeting.

In 2002, Amy Bishop assaulted another woman at IHOP over a booster seat, shouting, "I am Dr. Amy Bishop!"

One-time Ipswich neighbors, police recall creepiness.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Kicked Out of Vegas . . .

Strippermobile prowls Tampa. I'm sure it's never contributed to any fender benders.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Annals of Crime Sentencing: Assaulting a Human vs. a Tree

In the UK, a former Playboy model assaults another woman in a nightclub bathroom, smacking her head repeatedly on a toilet seat, in a jealous row over her then-husband. She receives a suspended sentence:

While all three women were inside the cubicle, Glover - who was dressed in a pink Santa outfit - spilt an alcopop drink down Miss Stillwell's dress.

She left to dry her dress on a hand-dryer, leaving Glover and Miss Hardcastle alone inside.

But the court heard Glover quickly turned angry again, prompting Miss Hardcastle to try to placate her by telling her they would talk matters over when she was sober.

Miss Hardcastle broke down at points during her evidence as she said the trigger for the attack came after she told Glover: "This is all messed up."

At that point, she said Glover lifted up her arm and forcefully brought it down on her nose, causing her to hit her head on the back of the cubicle.

Miss Hardcastle said she "pleaded" with Glover to stop but she continued her attack.

Holding her by her neck, Glover repeatedly hit her head against the rim of the lavatory and afterwards tried to force her head down the toilet bowl.

The attack stopped after Glover's husband was heard outside the cubicle, telling her to calm down. But Glover replied: "Tell her to get off me first."

I love the pink Santa Claus outfit. Despite her confrontational and defiant demeanor in court, the judge seemed swayed by this tragic consequence:

Mr Hunt said Glover, whose last UK address was Audley Gardens, Loughton, Essex, had recently attempted to establish herself as a model in the US, but this would not now be possible due to her criminal record.

"She has been abandoned by several commercial sponsors who were interested in working with her, including the Playboy brand," he said, adding that her career was now "in tatters".

In the dock, Glover looked down at her feet as she said: "My career is over now."

Judge Kemp said he would make no order for compensation or costs, but also sentenced her to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work in the community and ordered her to have no contact with Miss Hardcastle for the next 10 years.

On the other hand, there's this sad bastard, who gets five months in the slammer:

A MAN who was banned from a park after it was alleged he tried to have sex with a tree in broad daylight has been jailed for five months and put on the Sex Offenders' Register for seven years.

William Shaw, 22, of Airdrie, was ordered by a sheriff not to enter Central Park, Airdrie, after it was claimed he dropped his trousers and underpants, exposed himself, and while his trousers were around his ankles, simulated having sex with a tree.

In broad daylight? Egad. Was it consensual?

The Crown prosecutor told the court how Shaw was first spotted by a man looking from a window of a house overlooking the park, who contacted police.

The prosecutor said: "His trousers and underpants were at his ankles, he was standing at a park bench and his arms were at his side. A woman, walking her dog, was just five to ten yards away. She went over to two children who were playing and stopped them from looking. She also contacted police. There were trees in the vicinity and a football match was going on at the same time. There were numerous people in the park."

Defence lawyer Tony Linden added: "It has been a case of extreme embarrassment. He had been drinking the night before and continued on throughout the day. Police recovered a bottle of orange 20/20 Mad Dog he'd been drinking."

Sheriff Robert Dickson told Shaw: "Drink is not an excuse.

This was an offence of disgusting behaviour and a lady was endured the sight of you exposing yourself. I accept you have suffered public humiliation, but drunkenness is no excuse."

Surely the humiliation of being labelled a public treefucker for life, not to mention having it revealed that one has consumed Orange MD 20/20, is a sufficient punishment in and of itself.

Perhaps it is indelicate of me to admit that I'd rather endure the sight of a tree-bugger-er than have my head pounded repeatedly against a toilet seat by some lunatic pink Santa, no matter how hawt, but there you have it.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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The Feel Good Story of the Day

Via Gregory of Yardale:

Teachers in Central Falls, Rhode Island earn an average wage of $78,000 per year in a town where the median income is $22,000. The superintendent of schools wanted these teachers to work an extra 25 minutes a day. The Teacher's Union balked. So, she fired them. All of them.

Gallo blamed the union's "callous disregard" for the situation, saying union leaders "knew full well what would happen" if they rejected the six conditions Gallo said were crucial to improving the school. The conditions are adding 25 minutes to the school day, providing tutoring on a rotating schedule before and after school, eating lunch with students once a week, submitting to more rigorous evaluations, attending weekly after-school planning sessions with other teachers and participating in two weeks of training in the summer.

More Please.

I was going to blog about this, yesterday, but I was under the impression that there would be a B-Cast, and I'd passed it along to them. In related news, Utah is considering making 12th grade in high school optional, to save money.

Warner Todd Huston doesn't expect it to stick, though.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Hoo, Boy. More on Amy Bishop Anderson

Husband not very believable.

The husband of an Alabama professor accused of fatally shooting three colleagues said Monday that he'd gone with her to a shooting range recently but that he didn't know where she got the gun she used for practice that day.

James Anderson told The Associated Press that his wife, Amy Bishop, didn't do anything unusual in the days before Friday's shooting. Bishop, a Harvard-educated neurobiologist, is accused of pulling a gun at a faculty meeting and shooting six people, three fatally. Two of the survivors remained in critical condition Monday.

Anderson said he knew his wife had a gun, but didn't know when or how she got it.

"I really don't know how she got it, or where she got it from," he said.

Police have previously said Bishop had no permit for the gun they believe she used in the shooting, and investigators said they didn't know where she got it. It's not clear if that was the same gun that her husband knew about.

Bishop's husband said nothing unusual happened on their trip to the shooting range, and that she didn't reveal why she took an interest in target practice. Nothing in her behavior before the shooting foreshadowed the violence last week, either, he said.

"She was just a normal professor," he said.

Hey, hon . . . when did you get the gun? Where'd you get it? What for? Careful: remember last time? Did you get a permit? You want to go to the shooting range? Well, all right, I guess. Don't leave it where the kids can get at it, though.

Really, I know they're supposed to be odd ducks and all, but this guy's story doesn't seem plausible to me.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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President Demonsheep

Serr8d has a notable post up about Obama's leftism, and a 'chop that's gone viral, thanks to @demonsheep:

A Serr8d Joint

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Christendom – Naked

I don't really know what to say about this topic, except that it demonstrates exactly how perverted we are as a nation. It is, in fact, a perfect example of everything that is wrong about America in this day and age.

On the topic of Airport Body Scans...

"It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women," reads the fatwa. "Islam highly emphasizes haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts."

Where to begin? I have said it time and time again: the beauty of the Islamo-Fascist attacks on America is the elegance demonstrated by the terrorists... sure, it is brutal and destructive. But Islam's assault on America is elegant in that through hijacking the very institutions and sentiments that they seek to destroy, they employ our own power against us - strengthening their ability to do real damage - and to destroy at will. The blades they are holding to our necks were forged of American Steel and ingenuity, and tempered with the Blood of Patriots. I am reminded of the planes - our planes - that were hijacked and turned against us. Trapped by our own devotion to freedom, we watched in horror as the Pentagon smoldered and the Twin Towers came down... a real live snuff film produced and funded by a religion we are told time and again (by the more intelligent among us) is all about love and compassion.

Now, forced to protect ourselves, and incapable of accepting the practicality and effectiveness of profiling when it counts most, we are treated to this salt-rubbing. While the rest of our society is forced, regardless of probability of hijacking a plane, to cast off our shoes, take off our watches, wait in massive lines, place ourselves under scrutiny, and now subject ourselves to body scans... those we seek least to offend... those historically responsible for planes crashing, burning, and charring children and elderly vets alike... those who will be responsible for the next and the next and the next attacks on us... those who I here and now predict will have names which include Muhammad in them and come from places lost to Christianity when we report on future attacks... these very same people seek to be exempted from being scrutinized?

I have 2 words for them which I believe need to be heard loud and clear: Verily I say unto thee - Go F*ck Yourselves, you insincere, double-talking, mal-educated, mis-guided, plagued-among-all-Mankind, Liberty-hating, misanthropic, homophobic, ethnocentric, hate-filled scumbags... a pox be on all counted among your House of ill-repute.

Or, if you prefer instead, "suck it".

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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Rasmussen Retort

President Obama this week called for a televised bipartisan summit to get his health care reform plan back on track, but 61% of U.S. voters say Congress should scrap that plan and start all over again.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds just 28% who think it is better to build on the health care plan that has been working its way through the House and Senate.

Support for and opposition to the existing plan remain at the same levels they’ve been at since just after Thanksgiving.

Only 35% of voters believe Congress should pass health care reform before the upcoming midterm elections anyway. Fifty-four percent (54%) say Congress should wait until voters select new congressional representatives in November.

It’s interesting to note that in a separate survey earlier this week 63% of voters said, generally speaking, it would be better for the country if most incumbents in Congress were defeated this November. Just 27% now believe their current congressman is the best person for the job.

Contrary to his position during the election, Obama's now saying he'll use once-unconstitutional signing statements to try to get legislation through. And of course Harkin's saying that they're going to try to use reconciliation for a purpose for which it was never intended. Then there are those people who'd like to do away with the filibuster.

And it seems that Evan Bayh's residence in Indiana may be an accountant's office.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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