POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Ex-Olympic Skier Bill Johnson & a Dallas Tale of Woe

By the way, that post below isn't a bleg.

Here's a guy who needs a lot more help.

But in June of 2010 tragedy would visit Johnson once again.

He suffered a severe stroke, which caused him to fall and injure his brain again. He can no longer live in his Oregon home because the man who conquered the world's steepest, iciest slopes can no longer care for himself.

Prayers also help.

Meanwhile, Dallas businessmen are disappointed that this year's Super Bowl won't feature the New York Jets and Chicago Bears:

An appearance by the Bears would also summon President Barack Obama, and he’d bring even more attention to North Texas.

But let’s take a New York minute to realize that the fans whom merchants are savoring the most are Empire State folks. The kind who, when asked if they have change for a $20 bill, would reply “Twenty is change.”

That’d be a boon for area restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues.

“Getting New Yorkers here would just make all the difference,” said Eric Langan, chief executive of Rick’s Cabaret International Inc. He owns seven gentlemen’s clubs in the region, including one that opened this week just south of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

Having New Yorkers and Chicagoans vs. the smaller-market fans from Green Bay or Pittsburgh could mean $750,000 to $1 million in additional revenue for Rick’s properties for the week, said Langan, who also owns one of the largest strip clubs in New York City.

“It’s not that they’re not all great fans — but for every Steeler fan out there, there’s nine New Yorkers who might see us,” Langan said. “It’s just numbers.”

New York and Chicago are the nation’s No. 1 and No. 3 cities by population. Pittsburgh ranks 61st and Green Bay 268th, though the teams from both cities have big national fan bases that have proved they’ll travel to Super Bowls.

Or, as Heather Radish might say:

Dan Collins

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

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A Programming Note

I'm waiting on a few thousand dollars that I'm owed for various kinds of work that should have arrived some time ago.

If I go dark here for a bit, it's going to be because I wasn't able to pay the internet/phone bill before they cut me off.

Just so you know. I'm sure my co-bloggers will carry on.

Dan Collins

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

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So Far, US Taxpayer Has Paid $132 Million To Defend Fannie/Freddie Malefactors

Hope. Change.

Since the government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, taxpayers have spent more than $160 million defending the mortgage finance companies and their former top executives in civil lawsuits accusing them of fraud. The cost was a closely guarded secret until last week, when the companies and their regulator produced an accounting at the request of Congress.

The bulk of those expenditures — $132 million — went to defend Fannie Mae and its officials in various securities suits and government investigations into accounting irregularities that occurred years before the subprime lending crisis erupted. The legal payments show no sign of abating.

Documents reviewed by The New York Times indicate that taxpayers have paid $24.2 million to law firms defending three of Fannie’s former top executives: Franklin D. Raines, its former chief executive; Timothy Howard, its former chief financial officer; and Leanne Spencer, the former controller.

As Byron York pointed out on Twitter, the only reason that we have this information now is that Republicans control the House.

It's not an exaggeration to say that they used Enron-style accounting to boost their own payouts, while driving the housing market off a cliff. The difference is, the government went after Lay and his Enron posse, whereas they're defending the people who stole mega-millions while employed in the public trust.

The clawback of part of Franklin Raines' ill-gotten gains has always been ridiculous. It's the moral equivalent of cops catching a bank robber and telling him he'll have to give up part of what he stole because it looks bad.

Dan Collins

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

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Sunday Morning Reads, 1-23-11

Lots of important stuff out there, beginning with Zombie's piece on "human rights imperialism":

Kinzer has freshly arrived at the blinding and quite correct realization that the “human rights movement” and “Western imperialism” are one and the same. And having become aware of this, you’d think that as a human rights activist, he’d have a life-altering epiphany: Perhaps I’ve been wrong about what I call “imperialism” this whole time. Maybe it is a force for good after all.

But no. Standing on the brink of a psychological breakthrough, Kinzer turned the other way and instead had a breakdown. Pinioned by the idée fixe that America and imperialism and Western values are always and irrevocably wrong, when faced with the fact that human rights are a subset of Western values, Kinzer felt he had no choice but to discard his belief in human rights. Which must have been quite difficult for someone who formerly regarded himself as a human rights activist, but hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

I really do mean important, so please read the whole thing. Zombie doesn't go far enough back to mention it, but the destruction of the worldwide slave trade was also an act of cultural imperialism.

You probably weren't aware that property owners prefer to keep their holdings empty, so as to raise the cost of renting for other property owners, but David Thompson will be happy to supply the details. Why is it that so many things that are "great in (leftist) theory" do not survive first contact with reality?

Nice Deb considers the New York Times' defense of radical violence monger Frances Fox Piven, who's just a little old lady from Pasadena. And by Pasadena, I mean Chicago.

Speaking of which, Chicago's in the news this time for enforcing the state's draconian laws regarding the recording of police. As you may be unaware, former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge was finally sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison in a civil court, for having lied about participating in and condoning the torture of mostly minority suspects in police custody in order to extract "confessions." Meanwhile, a backyard mechanic from Southern Illinois faces up to 75 years in prison for the Class 1 Felony of recording an encounter with police, and a Chicago artist faces up to 15 years.

Lots about Kermit Gosnell's Little Shop of Horrors, including this from Pundit and Pundette and this from Snark&boobs, not to mention my entirely ignored masterpiece below. Jay Tea is on the same page.

Go check out Kill Truck's new digs, and keep her family in your prayers. Obviously, we're thrilled about BJ's condition. Add any other intentions in comments below.

And after all of that seriousness, don't forget to have fun. I recommend that you check out William Teach's Sorta Blogless Sunday Pin-Ups. Stacy's analysis of the decline of LGF will also bring a smile, even though he's not aware that we link there, because, apparently, our trackbacks don't register. And a follow-up.

I'm pretty sure, too, that Meep will get a kick out of this example of disingenuous lefty innumeracy from Geoff at AoSHQ.

The Las Vegas vacation that led to breach of contract and tragedy.

More delicious Olby schadenfreude.

With respect to Johanna's most recent post here, Lisa Graas notes that the Vatican wants American Catholics to understand that social justice is about relationships, not socialism.

Dan Collins

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

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ABC Exposes Real Reason for Olbermann Firing

Ivory Wave and Bliss: Officials fear bath salts causing hallucinations are emerging drug

Dan Collins

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

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Changes on my home site

Short version:

I'd like to do more general interest topics and someday make some money, so I've moved my blog here, and I'm using my real name.  Cat Fancy is really uptight about not publishing articles by someone named Kill Truck.

*I threw in my maiden name because so as not to be confused with Jennifer Waite the Australian pop singer or scrapbooking guru.  Disaster avoided.

Kill Truck

KillTruck is a wife, mother, blogger and native midwesterner now living in Eastern Washington state. She writes about politics, pop culture, parenting, wifing and a few other subjects she has no authority to write about. She has macabre fascinations with prostitution and/or cannibalism. In her free time she enjoys eating and/or drinking her feelings, liveblogging Lifetime movies, thinking about Scott Brown and mocking things she doesn’t understand.

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