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That's true. I would never ask my roommate's ex husband's (Now a former riimate after last night) grandma for parenting advice; he's going to prison (again) and both his brothers are in prison, one for murder and one for aggrivated battery (Amy's ex beat her so badly she had to get reconstructive surgery, this was ten years ago).

If your family is a mess, ask someone's grandma whose family is ok.

Actually, yes. Although I haven't seen my roommate since I dropped her off at work Friday morning at the taxi company she drives for. She may have tried to call me last night about midnight; my phone rang, but it's out of minutes.

The Chinese have a curse "may you live in interesting times." I have an interesting life.

Her ex-husband (I never met the guy, thankfully) led the police on a high speed chase through Springfield a couple of weeks ago, sideswiping a couple of cars and almost hitting a couple of police detectives. When they caught him he had a loaded gun and marijuana in tha car. It made the front page of the local daily (link)

He had previously spent time in prison for trying to kill her. His parents told her that they found out he was on his way to murder them. I suppose he'll be behind bars for quite some time.

No newsletter, but I have a slashdot journal. I used to keep a diary at K5. It was pretty popular.

Feel free to copy your rejection letter to the local media. They love a good story.

The media are corporate. They are not going to print any letter that would receive an "insightful" or "interesting" mod at slashdot (check my comment history). The same people who own your newspaper own Sony and Universal and BP.

-mcgrew
(you may find that link amusing... it's a search of the Illinois Times' for my name (the last story listed quotes my daughter). They are an independant weekly here and almost every letter I've written them has been published. The Copely paper, the State Journal Register, has never printed any letter I ever wrote them.

You might also find it amusing that the linked S-JR story is about my roommate's ex-husband, who was on his way to kill his parents when the cops stopped him (yes I have an interesting life.

The incident began about noon, when a Springfield police officer sitting a Fifth and Carpenter streets saw a green Chevrolet Cavalier speeding south on Fifth. The driver, allegedly Britz, slammed on his brakes at the intersection but almost didn't make the red light, police said.

As the saying goes, "don't fix it if it ain't broke". Last I heard, there were still suppliers around making replacement parts for PDP's since they still used at power plants among other places.

I wonder if Springfield's power plant uses antique computers? I'm thinking it must be an old computer from a 1960s science fiction movie or TV show, since the thing BLEW UP Saturday night!

Its neither funny or a troll, and the mods did indeed fix it; it's now a "5, insightful". The only way a rich powerful man goes to jail in America is if a richer, more powerful man wants him in jail.

Look how long Illinois' last Governor, George Ryan has stayed out of prison for the "professional drivers' licence bribery" scandal, where whole families died horrible burning deaths because Ryan (as Secretary of State at eth time) was selling CDL's (professional drivers licenses; what you need to drive a semi) to people who couldn't even speak or read English, let alone pass a CDL exam.

Or look at OJ Simpson (I wonder if Springfield's alderman is related to OJ or Homer? Does Bart call Ward 2 alderman Simpson "Aunt Gail?")

-mcgrew

It's supposed to be a list of dangerous criminals. Now it's not.

Yes it is. All peace activists are dangerous - to the chickenhawk sleazebags running our government. Look at Nixon's Vice President. The hippies were right! They still are.

-mcgrew

Only one? Bothe Bush and Cheney have DUIs on their records. It's sad whan an old criminal like me has a better police record (IE, "none") than both the President and Vice President.

Of course, our previous Governor is headed for prison, as is some clown (Klutzo the Clown, in fact) who used to be a policeman but who is now knows ans "Klutzo the Child Molester".

My elected officials and law enforcement officials are such wonderful people! At least I don't live in Chicago!

-mcgrew

Only one? Bothe Bush and Cheney have DUIs on their records. It's sad whan an old criminal like me has a better police record (IE, "none") than both the President and Vice President.

Of course, our previous Governor is headed for prison, as is some clown (Klutzo the Clown, in fact) who used to be a policeman but who is now knows ans "Klutzo the Child Molester".

My elected officials and law enforcement officials are such wonderful people! At least I don't live in Chicago!

-mcgrew

This is only slightly on-topic but I have karma to burn so wtf, someone might think it interesting or amusing.

I used to be a Quake addict, ad my ISP offered "unlimited internet access" and he wasn't kidding. They gave free web hosting with internet service, so I proceeded to start the "Springfield Fragfest" (note that the link is NOT to the Springfield Fragfest, it is to an article in Springfield's local paper that succinctly illustrates the fact that the real Springfield, which has an alderman named Gail Simpson, is sicker and funnier than the cartoon Springfield. The article is about "Klutzo the Clown", a former police officer, being arrested for being a pedophile).

Anyway, a series of freak accidents got my site popular, and I finally registered thefragfest.com and continued the site there. A few readers jokingly pestered me to host porn on it (one fellow whose online name was "Dopey Smurf" is now a medical doctor in Canada, he's probably reading this now). After a few years I got tired of the sirte, let it grow cobwebs, and finally let the domain lapse.

Well, Dopey got his wish. thefragfest.com was, last time I looked, a porn site.

-mcgrew

And I must suppress those regions that get optimistic when I submit a New Scientest article (yesterday morning) and expect it to get posted, instead of someone else's submission of the decidedly unnerdishly AP's geekless take on the matter.

The optimist says "the glass is half full". The pessimist says "the glass is half empty". The scientist says there is .314159 litres. The realist says "it's .00237 litres shy of what we need." Klutzo the Clown squirts it in your face.

(link text is a real newspaper article about Klutzo the Clown, former police officer and Christian minister arrested for child porn. I thought you guys might be amused.)

-mcgrew

I read the comments and can't believe nobody linked to the patch!

Of course, maybve somebody will by the time this comment actually gets posted, I'm not logged on so I'm getting the slowdown cowboys REAL BAD, it takes a fucking HOUR before I can post. I guess I should hunt down my password or just make a new account...

=(

-mcgrew

On a lighter (and completely off-topic) note, this is Springfield, stranger than the cartoon Springfield. Pawnee is a couple of miles south, the first exit on I-55. Enjoy!)

Here in Springfield, where Gail Simpson is an alderman, Klutzo the Clown was arrested for child porn.

It's true- Springfield, IL lost out on the bid to host the premier to the Simpsons movie because it's wierder than the cartoon Springfield!

-mcgrew

AT&T has scuttled plans it had to deploy wireless Internet with some free access throughout Springfield, according to Mayor Tim Davlin's top aide.

"They just made a business decision not to pursue these types of ventures," executive assistant Jim Donelan said Tuesday.
Other companies are still welcome to make proposals for citywide wireless access, Donelan said, but there are no active negotiations.

A spokesman for AT&T was contacted but did not provided a statement from the company.

Meatspace criminals worry me a lot more.

Last year I had my car, cell phone, debit card (and pin) and checks stolen by a meatspace woman I was trying to help. At least they can't kill you or injure you over the internet!

I'm in central Illinois, and they grow a LOT of corn here. So there is a high interest in e85, which is 85% corn-produced alcohol and 15% gasoline. Just this morning there was an article in the local (Springfield) paper about how adoption of e85 has stalled. The article mentioned that thanks to state government subsidies, e85 was twenty cents per gallon cheaper than regular gasoline.

So I googled a bit and discovered that to run this stuff you need a kit that costs $400-$600, and that alcohol is only 80% as efficient as gasoline, meaning your mileage will take a hit. So you lose the twenty cents per gallon cost advantage AND you can't go as far without filling up!

You're not really doing anything for the environment, since it takes a lot of fuel (diesel and gasoline) to grow corn. Plus corn that goes in your car can't go on your plate, or in the cows and hogs that are fed by it, so the prices of these foods rises. In short, the only two reasons to use e85 is 1) sticking it to the Arabs and 2) if you are a corn farmer.

Using used cooking oil to produce diesel makes a LOT of sense, though, especially since real diesel fuel and its exhaust stink so badly. I wonder about the hemp car's efficiency?

-mcgrew

Damn, today's local paper has a story about four people getting busted for child porn. One lives two blocks away from me, right down the street!

Even thoiugh the internet was involved, had there been no internet these sick perverted excuses for human beings would still be trafficing in child porn. Don't blame the internet; you might as well have a "mall danger month."

As the father of two now-grown girls, I can tell you that "think of the children" goes straight to any parent's heart, and the politicians know it and pander to it.

-mcgrew

Scenario 1: A house down the block from you is known or strongly suspected to be used for drug trafficking. To gather information about the drug trade and investigate individuals the police (or in Verizon's case, you and your friends) stop and search every car that travels down your block, and fourth amendment be damned. Those searches are then used to identify the individuals and possibly obtain warrants for the already performed searches.

There, fixed that for ya.

-mcgrew

PS- Nothing in the Constitution gives government the right to pass laws against drugs. That's why they needed a constitutional amendment for prohibition. Why is marijuana different than whiskey in this respect? get rid of laws against dugs, gambling, prostitution, consentual sodomy, and the other victimless crimes and you'll find it's easier for the police to escape corruption.

The deadliest, most addictive substance known to man is legal. More people die from cigarettes than all other drugs combined, both legal and illegal. Why is sale and posession of tobacco not a felony? Could these laws be the rootkit for the Constitution?

[State's Attorney John] Schmidt on Friday dropped drug charges against Larry "Hollywood" Washington, who was arrested in 2005 after authorities raided his house and allegedly found a half-kilo of cocaine hidden inside a graham cracker box.

Washington's attorney, Jon Gray Noll, asked earlier this month for a hearing into [now fired arresting cops] Graham and Carpenter's collection of evidence in the case. Tests by an Illinois State Police crime lab had found no traces of cocaine in baggies used as a basis for a search warrant.

According to a search warrant affidavit filed by Graham, he and Carpenter had conducted a search of garbage - also know as a "trash rip" - at Washington's house in the 1400 block of Guemes Court and found several plastic bags that the two detectives said contained cocaine residue.

Because of that evidence, a judge issued a search warrant that resulted in the raid.

However, testing done last summer on bags retrieved from the raid showed no sign that cocaine had been in them. Washington's waste hauler also said there were no trash cans outside Washington's house the day the "trash rip" supposedly occurred.

Wow, I didn't realise my provider (Insight) was so good! They emailed me a couple of weeks ago apologising that they were upgrading their mail service and service would be unavailable for two hours in the middle of the night!

I had to call them after the tornado last March to find out why my internet service was still down (2 weeks after the power came back on) and they apologised profusely; somebody goofed and unhooked me by mistake. They not only apologized, they gave me a month free!

Now they're talking about AT&T's giving us free wireless (note: the link will die tomorrow). I think I'll stick to my broadband though, I doubt the wifi will be very fast.

Like the Chicago Tribune and the Springfield State Journal-Register. Both these papers have forums; the Tribune on some editorial pages (forum linked) and the S-JR on every single story posted online (story about 2 stupid politicians linked). I wonder how Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-ILLINOIS) is going to vote on this?

They should be charged with TREASON and either kicked out of the country or executed.
---
The FBI should turn them over to the NTSB or NASA. They could be used in place of crash test dummies or strapped to the exterior of the space shuttle on the next mission.

We have two newspapers, one "free" (paid for by advertisers) and one that costs fifty cents per copy.

Oddly, the paper that is only supported by ads cover stories that the mainstream "for pay" paper won't touch, and even gets stories from Alternet.

Yes, both local papers go into much more depth than the TV stations. But you are equating paper with "paid" and TV with "free." The fact is, as I have cable, I am NOT getting it for "free." I pay my cable company, who pays the cable networks (CNN, MSNBC, etc).

But oddly, the "free" paper goes much farther in depth than the "paid for" paper.

The two papers I am referring to are Springfield IL's State Journal Register and the "free" Illinois Times.

A local newspaper's website started getting popups through firefox sometime during the last couple months. http://www.sj-r.com/