Reuters reports that "Angry Tourist Breaks Mugger's Neck":
A group of U.S. tourists, including a former Marine, killed a Costa Rican mugger by breaking his neck after he pulled a gun on them in a Caribbean port, a local police official said on Thursday.* * * "One of the tourists was a former Marine and he was probably the one who broke [the mugger's] neck," Hernandez said. "His neck was completely snapped."
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: don't mess with the Marines.
Most of us have heard that Saddam Hussein went on a hunger strike. What most of us haven't heard is that he ended it after skipping only one meal. Way to stick to your guns, Saddam.
By now, everyone has heard that scientists have found that hops, a primary component of beer, contain xanthohumol, a chemical that inhibits a protein in prostate cells that leads to prostate cancer. "The trouble is," the article explains, "you'd theoretically have to drink about 17 beers a day for any potential benefit." 17 beers a day and you fight prostate cancer? Sounds like a no-lose scenario to me! The article goes on to say that Dr. Richard N. Atkins, CEO of the National Prostate Cancer Coalition, "noted that drinking 17 beers a day can lead to alcoholism and cirrhosis of the liver."
Well, no problem, Doc, because another study has found that drinking coffee can counteract alcohol's negative effects on the liver. One cup a day, the study suggests, lowers the risk of cirrhosis by twenty percent, and four cups of coffee lowers the risk by eighty percent.
So all you need to do is chase those seventeen beers with four cups of coffee. And, apparently, according to Dr. Atkins (not THE Dr. Atkins, of course), if you throw in four large pizzas a day, you get enough lycopene from the tomatoes to help further reduce the prostate cancer risk.
So four large pizzas, seventeen beers, and four cups of coffee per day. The sound you just heard is the head of my friend Heather, the vegan cardiologist, exploding.
Seriously, though, if she were blogging here, Heather would point out that consuming four cups of coffee, four large pizzas, and seventeen beers a day would definitely reduce prostate cancer risks, because you'd likely die of a heart attack long before any prostate cancer had a chance to take hold. And, dammit, she'd be right. So I guess I'm stuck drinking beer and eating pizza rarely and in moderation. Plus, I don't even like coffee. On the plus side, I can console myself with studies that show that men who ejaculate more frequently also have lower risk of prostate cancer. That's a "treatment regimen" I think I can follow.
Reid Kerr, a fellow Top Five List contributor, has noted that these beer, pizza, and coffee findings are clearly the work of lazy, gluttonous men. Reid has a list of several humorous "other scientific advances compiled by guy scientists," such as "Having sex with overweight men reduces the risk of breast cancer by 87%," and "Weekly intake of BBQ increases SAT scores." I'd also add, "Sitting on your ass watching football lowers stress." And really, it does in my case. Unless I'm watching the Lions.
CNN.com reports a "Former Marine Fends off Robbers, kills 1":
Thomas Autry, who authorities said will not be charged, was walking home from his job waiting tables Monday night when four people got out of a car and chased him, Atlanta police detective Danny Stephens said. One attacker had a shotgun, and another had a pistol.
And how did one man fend off four people armed with a shotgun and a pistol? With a pocket knife and a swift kick or two, that's how.
The Detroit News has reported that my old boss, Judge Henry William Saad of the Michigan Court of Appeals has asked to have his name withdrawn from consideration for an open seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
In the article, Judge Saad said that "it made sense for me to step aside." Maybe. I rather think it makes no sense that it came to that. It has become convenient, politically speaking, for some to label Judge Saad as a right-wing extremist who is biased against "workers" and "the little guy." As I learned while serving a judicial clerkship with him, I know that nothing could be further from the truth. And lest one think me biased, I'll remind everyone that such bastions of right-wing extremism as the Michigan Education Association (the state teacher's union), the AFL-CIO, and the UAW endorsed his elections to the Michigan Court of Appeals. In case anyone missed the dripping irony, these are typically quite left-wing organizations that would typically prefer to endorse a ham sandwich as opposed to someone who was truly a "right-wing extremist."
Sadly, partisan politics have won again, and the federal appellate bench has been deprived of a good man and a well-respected jurist.
A few stupid kids are doing stupid things with MySpace.com, and now they're starting to write stories with headlines like this one from the Detroit Free Press: "Dearborn Threat Shows Blog Danger." Apparently, two dweebs at Dearborn High School decided to make some threats about shooting the school up. Which is pretty disturbing, because the school's principal is the mother of a good friend of mine. But anyway, things like this are starting to percolate a little hysteria movement about how "dangerous" blogs are because a few stupod kids have gone and done stupid things like posting fake (or real) threats, or posting too much information about themselves that leads to them being victimized.
MySpace is not exactly a "blog" per se. I finally broke down and signed up for a MySpace page (here, if you're curious) out of curiousity. For some reason it has become pretty popular, despite the somewhat garish web design, and the total lack of server capacity to handle busy traffic. But I admit that there is a sort of novelty to seeing which of your friends and acquaintances can be found there, and it has become quite popular with the kids. And like most things that kids do, parents don't quite understand it, so the first time a couple of people do something bad/stupid with it, they panic, and news stories like the one in the Free Press get written about how "dangerous" it is.
One parent said "kids put stuff on the Internet without thinking it through." While this is true, a lot of people put stuff on the Internet without thinking it through (some would say this blog is a perfect example). I'm not sure that makes the Internet dangerous. I'm also not sure that this makes MySpace the culprit. MySpace doesn't raise the kind of kids who would threaten their fellow students, or fail to keep tabs on them so that they are able to post those threats (indeed, were it not for MySpace and the stupidity of these kids, the folks at Dearborn High might not have found out about this until it was too late).
So maybe it's not the blogs that are dangerous for kids, but rather, the lack of parental involvement.
Guess WDIV was right.
WDIV-TV in Detroit reports that federal Judge John G. Roberts, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court is often considered a feeder for Supreme Court justices. Judge Roberts also has the distinction of not being one of the judges discussed as a possible nominee lately.
My old boss's nomination still languishes in the limbo of the Senate judicial confirmation debate, and the recent compromise that left him in the dust, together with the recent retirement of United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, don't make it look very promising for Judge Saad. However, the Detroit Free Press reports that "Republicans Seek to Revive Mich. Judge's Nomination."
The article describes the pressure being brought to bear upon Republican Senator John McCain (R-AZ), likely 2008 presidential hopeful and architect of the recent judicial compromise that put two of the "Michigan Four" on the Sixth Circuit. Some Republican leaders here are warning Senator McCain that he might face trouble at the next primary if Judge Saad is not confirmed.
I find the whole thing quite interesting given that many of the judges confirmed under the recent compromise were considered to be quite "extremist," whatever that means, while Judge Saad (any potential biases I might have toward him aside) is arguably one of the least controversial, in terms of his legal acumen and judicial opinions.
While I am not one to endorse threats or blackmail, I do hope that Senator McCain will use his considerable influence to help move this whole mess along.
The Detroit Free Press ran a very interesting article about my former boss, Judge Henry Saad of the Michigan Court of Appeals, one of President Bush's nominees to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Until my very recent transition to private practice, I had the honor and privilege of serving as Judge Saad's law clerk.
As the article points out, Judge Saad has been stuck in the limbo that is the Senate judicial nomination filibuster debate since he was first nominated in 2001, and through his two renominations in 2003, and earlier this year. Indeed, way back in 1992, the first President Bush nominated Judge Saad to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, and that nomination died in committee with the election of President Clinton.
The local NBC affilate just reported that the Senate has reached a compromise with respect to judicial nominations -- hopefully Judge Saad will finally see the resolution of this long, long process.
