Can PA’s Liquor Control Board Get Any Sillier?

The Onion is dead. They just can’t make up stuff any dumber than real life in Harrisburg. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

HARRISBURG – For many, the future of buying wine in Pennsylvania could soon look something like this: your arm on a biometric sensor that will determine whether you’re old enough – and sober enough – to get your favorite bottle from a machine.

This is the part (or at least one of the parts) that kills me:

The machines would carry about a dozen different wines and hold up to 500 bottles, and the opaque windows would prevent minors from viewing the bottles.

Opaque window? Doesn’t that sound a bit oxymoronic? Or maybe just moronic. Or perhaps that just doesn’t seem the least little bit ridiculous from and organization that should have been abolished along with prohibition. That’s right, kids. Don’t even think of looking at wine!

When will I get to stop apologizing for my home state’s arcane liquor laws to people from just about anywhere else in the world?

A Victimless Crime…Until the Government Steps In

She never harmed anyone by supplying willing female companions to willing clients. But the feds force her to commit suicide anyway.

[Deborah] Palfrey, 52, was free while awaiting sentencing June 25 on federal racketeering charges. A federal jury convicted her April 15 of running a Washington area call-girl ring in the guise of “a high-end erotic fantasy service,” rejecting her argument that she was unaware for 13 years that female escorts she employed were performing sex acts with clients for money.

Writers Dan Moldea, who interviewed Palfrey several times for a possible book about her experiences, said today that Palfrey told him three times that she would kill herself rather than return to prison. She had served an 18-month term in California in the early 1990s for running a prostitution service and told Moldea that it was “just a horrible, horrible period for her,” the writer said.

So, by providing a win-win transaction for money, she’s forced to be a prom date for murders in prison. It’s just a shame that her scumbag, inside-the-beltway clientele don’t feel quite so compelled to take the easy (only?) way out as did Deborah. I guess now the feds can claim that prostitution does indeed claim victims.

Do We Need a Megan’s Law for Politicians?

A while back I knew a girl who worked a summer off from college as a White House page in the Clinton administration. As she told us her stories, she would hint of the personality quirks of those she was supposed to be serving. It was then I wondered if parents knew what they were sending their kids into as they proudly shipped them off to Washington. Apparently, I was right.

CNN apologized today for getting on-air analysis of Gov. Spitzer’s legal options from a former U.S. Attorney who resigned after being accused of biting a stripper.

Washington is an oozing sore of depravity. If the US government wasn’t the biggest bunch of perverts in the country, then why do so many prostitutes take up residence there? With this said, would you still trust your kids to these degenerates?

Reported by Boing Boing.

Foreign Policy for Kids…and Neocon Apologists

Pirates and Emperors

Anyone old enough to remember Schoolhouse Rock will appreciate the video. Safe for kids, too. Oh, and don’t expect Obama to change this any time soon.

Chester PA – A Police State Before Police States Were Popular

From the Delaware County Daily Times, Feb 6, 1958:

Teen-agers attending Chester schools are carrying identification cards that police have been instructed to demand to see “if they feel the boy or girl is acting suspiciously.”

Amerika’s Funniest Home Videos

Now THIS is funny! I’m not even done watching Walter Block’s second appearance on “”Our Story”" (a local teevee show in the New Orleans area) but I already felt compelled to post a link to it.

The piece is intended to be a debate on the legalization of drugs and if that would decrease violence in New Orleans. But it starts off with a 10-minute vitriol that needs to be sen to be believed. Again, I haven’t even finished watching it, yet, but if this episode degenerates as the last one did, laughter will surely be the end-product!

Ugh! I Give Up.

Actually, I gave up web design and database programming a while back because the workload and the hackers were getting way ahead of me. I was previously using my own home-grown blog and it served me well for a couple years. But I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a photographer and not a web geek so here I am at a hosted blog. We will eventually get around to posting some of the more popular articles. Meanwhile, gotta go check out all the customizable options!