- Is it wrong to express admiration for those who smuggle massive quantities of the hippie lettuce into the United States? I say no and it’s not simply because I am an avowed friend of stoners of all shapes, sizes, colors and creeds. Yes, I believe that stoners are a valuable addition to our society, giving very little but taking even less. However, appreciating ganja lovers doesn’t begin to explain why I’m impressed with a "sophisticated" tunnel between a Mexican eat-in kitchen and two Southern California warehouses used to smuggle huge supplies of the chronic across the border. Authorities discovered the tunnel on Thanksgiving Day and its unearthing led authorities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to arrest at least nine suspects and seize between 20 and 30 tons of marijuana. The find came after an eight-month investigation and about three weeks after authorities discovered a similar drug tunnel in another warehouse in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego. Between these two huge setbacks to the pot head community, agents in the United States and Mexico seized roughly the equivalent of one marijuana cigarette for each of California's nearly 37 million residents. "This is obviously not a Mom and Pop operation," San Diego-based Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Miguel Unzueta said Friday. "This is a major, significant drug cartel working." The tunnel itself measured nearly one-half mile long and in some spots, was as deep as 90 feet. On the southern end, drug traffickers entered through the kitchen of a stucco Tijuana, Mexico, home, which had a garage attached big enough for tractor-trailer trucks. All they had to do was remove a 2-foot by 4-foot piece of flooring in that house and traipse down an 80-foot-long a cinder-block-lined stretch into the tunnel. Below ground, the tunnel sported lighting, ventilation, wood and cinder-block supports, wood floors and rail carts. Near the border, it split to lead into two separate warehouses in San Diego. San Diego Tunnel Task Force agents got the big break in the case Thursday morning after spotting a tractor-trailer arriving at one of the warehouses. They followed the truck to a border patrol checkpoint in Temecula, California, about 60 miles north of San Diego and there, authorities who had been tracking the shipment found the truck filled "top to bottom, front to back" with 27,000 600-pound packages of marijuana. I also love the fact that authorities initially could not get through the tunnel from the California side because it was blocked by huge packages of pot. Just smoke your way through it, fellas, it’s all good. Instead, these squares formed a human chain to lug out what amounted to 3 to 4 tons of marijuana. All told, the marijuana seized Thursday could have sold wholesale for $17 million to $20 million. That’s a whole lot of fatties and bong hits, y’all. A truly sad day for my stoner pals and I am bummed alongside all of you………
- Sometimes, people get what they deserve in life. When the person in question is dumb enough to loan $114,000 worth of jewelry to the walking disaster/camera whore that is Courtney Love, the deserved result is getting screwed out of $114,000 worth of jewelry. That is the fate celebrity jeweler Jacob & Co. is looking to avoid. The company filed a lawsuit this week claiming that Love hasn't returned nearly $114,000 worth of borrowed jewelry loaned to her for an awards show. According to the suit, Love borrowed two white gold and diamond chains, a white gold, floral-design mesh bracelet and a pair of white gold and diamond pave hoop earrings on Sept. 21. She allegedly returned only the bracelet despite demands for the other pieces and claimed that she had lost the other items. The company countered that she was responsible for them "regardless of loss or damage," said the its lawyer, Jeffrey Klarsfeld. The lawsuit seeks the gems or their $113,700 value, neither of which Jacob and Co. - founded by "Jacob the Jeweler" Arabov, who became known as the "King of Bling" among Hollywood’s elite before going to federal prison in 2008 for lying to investigators looking into a multistate drug ring - seems likely to receive. After all, we’re talking about Courtney Love here, the same Courtney Love who was sentenced in 2005 to 180 days at a drug treatment facility for violating probation in misdemeanor drug and assault cases and who still hasn’t returned the media spotlight she hijacked by marrying Kurt Cobain and riding his rising star into the public eye. Trying to thieve, er, um, losing more than $100,000 in borrowed jewelry sounds like exactly the sort of classless, ridiculous and despicable act that you could expect from a woman with no class, dignity or concept of what it means to be a decent human being……..
- So I guess not everyone had a nice Thanksgiving in Detroit. Lions quarterback Shaun Hill certainly didn’t, not after being on the wrong end of a 45-24 Turkey Day beatdown by the New England Patriots and especially not after (allegedly) having a New England defensive player attempt to break re-break his left arm during a sneak play near the goal line. During the second quarter, Hill ran a quarterback sneak from the Pats' 2-yard line and reached toward the goal line for the touchdown. He didn’t make it and a pileup ensued, a pileup in which Hill claims he felt someone trying to injure his non-throwing forearm, which he suffered a fracture in against the Giants five weeks ago. That's why I eventually gave up the ball," Hill said. "Somebody was down there [in the pile] literally trying to break my arm, which is already broken. Literally, trying. And, uh, y'know, I guess [it] wasn't seen [by officials]." Predictably, the Patriots had no comment on the accusation, a given for a team that pretty much never has anything to say about anything at all. For what it’s worth, the Lions scored a touchdown on the next play en route to a loss. That someone would engage in such dirty tactics in a pile during an NFL game is completely believable, as some of the nastiest, dirtiest things you will ever see in any fight, anywhere occur on the bottom of piles when guys are fighting for the ball or extra yardage. Still, Hill had no problem with the sneak and actually approved of the play call. "I loved the call," he stated. "I loved the call. Absolutely loved it. I have no qualms about running that play -- one-armed or whatever. I loved the call." He loved the call, but clearly did not love an opposing player trying to snap one of his arm bones in half……….
- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, he doesn’t just fight on behalf of endangered species like wild tigers. In his spare time, Bad Vlad also likes to lash out at new European Union laws aimed at liberalizing the continent’s energy market. Coming from a Communist, any claims of economic unfairness or impropriety are especially rich, so when Putin slams a law as hindering investment and amounting to “robbery,” it’s hard to tell whether to laugh or take him seriously. Putin made the remarks while in Berlin for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel. He demanded that the European Union consult Moscow when drafting such important legislation because of the impact it would have on the Russian state-controlled gas giant, Gazprom. Should the new laws go into effect, Putin theorized, they would devalue Gazprom’s assets in Europe. “Our companies, together with German partners, legally acquired distribution assets in Lithuania,” Putin said. “Now, they are being thrown out there with reference to the Third Energy Package. What is this? What is this robbery?” For the record, the European Union agreed in March 2009 to split giant utilities, ensuring that small gas suppliers can get unhindered access to European infrastructure and compete with the major players in the market. As for Putin’s complaints…..sorry, bro-seph. You aren’t a part of the group but want to do business in their backyard, then you have to play by their rules and accept whatever arrangement they decide upon. I don’t see European nations whining about the asinine rules and measures your Commie regime puts in place………
- Big Brother is at it again. No, not the crappy, voyeuristic CBS reality show where a bunch of attention-desperate losers and rejects agree to live on a sound stage masquerading as a house for weeks on end and have their lives filmed for the world to see. In this case, Big Brother is the original Big Brother, as in the U.S. government and he is shutting down websites suspected of copyrighted infringement or selling counterfeit goods as Congress debates a bill that would give feds even more authority to do so. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency within the Homeland Security Department, has already taken possession of more than 70 websites in recent days and in their place, left a notice saying that the domain name has been seized by ICE through court-ordered warrants. The notice also lays out potential penalties for willful copyright infringement and trafficking in counterfeit goods. The agency has refused to say anything other than to confirm the seizure of the sites. Tech media outlets first began reporting the seizures on Thursday when ICE agents raided facilities operated by a music file-sharing site called RapGodFathers. Other seized sites that share music or sell goods include torrent-finder.com, timberlandlike.com, dvdsetsonline.com and handbagspop.com, along with dozens of other sites whose owners claim that they were given no warning whatsoever about the seizures. On the side of those opposing the expanded powers for The Man is Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who has promised to block an online copyright enforcement bill that was unanimously approved last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee. This overreaching bill would allow the Justice Department to seek expedited court orders blacklisting websites suspected of piracy. Nothing like ripping fair legal procedures and rights from people just because you suspect that they may have violated the law. Supporters of the bill ass-hattedly argue that it will help put an end to Web sites that steal intellectual property, which is estimated to cost the U.S. economy more than $100 billion every year and results in the loss of thousands of jobs. "The Internet serves as the glue of international commerce in today's global economy. But it's also been turned into a tool for online thieves to sell counterfeit and pirated goods, making hundreds of millions of dollars off of stolen American intellectual property," Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said in a written statement. What you and your cohorts forget, Orrin, is that cyberspace is the freaking Wild West circa 1870. You take down a site and in a day, five more pop up in its place. Actually, it’s more like trying to kill the hydra, a beast in ancient Greek mythology that grew two heads back in place of one that was cut off. Hatch was backed by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the chairman of the committee, who said if "rogue websites" existed in the physical world, the store would be shuttered immediately and the proprietors would be arrested. "We cannot excuse the behavior because it happens online and the owners operate overseas," he said in a written statement. "The Internet needs to be free – not lawless." Lining up to oppose these two senatorial clowns is Wyden, who insisted that the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, or COICA, is excessive. "Deploying this statue to combat online copyright infringement seems almost like using a bunker-busting cluster bomb, when what you need is a precision-guided missile," he said during a hearing on digital trade. "If you don't think this thing through carefully, the collateral damage would be American innovation, American jobs, and a secure Internet." Now, while the analogy using weapons of mass destruction (they do exist, eh W.?) might be a tad over the top, Wyden's opposition essentially dooms the bill in this Congress and would force the next Congress convening in January to start anew on the issue. Consumer-rights groups also oppose the bill and some argue that if the bill had passed a few years ago, YouTube might not exist today. Thankfully, Ron Wyden was standing in the gap on this one and fighting for Americans’ rights to pirate and share intellectual property more liberally than the government would prefer them to……….
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