- Now THAT is how legislating should be done. The Turkish
parliament should be very proud after literally going to battle over anti-corruption
measures. Rather than go the lazy route and assume that they should behave
civilly just because they wear suits and make a lot of money, these legislative
commandos staged a loud and violent showdown that landed a lawmaker in the
hospital and ultimately resulted in a 210-28 vote to approve the measure. The
actual voting took place one day after lawmakers turned their rings around,
took off their chains and got after it during a debate over changes to an
administrative body overseeing judges and prosecutors. Although the fight was
the most visible chapter in the battle, the dispute traces back to the filing
of corruption charges against the sons of three cabinet ministers in a
high-profile graft case that began in December. Things kicked up a notch when
the ruling Justice and Development Party then proposed a series of measures
that would change the administrative body that oversees judges and prosecutors.
That inspired a lively debate in which a parliamentarian from the main
opposition Republican Peoples' Party, or CHP, was hospitalized after being
struck in the nose. As everyone knows, it’s not really a debate until someone
drops a haymaker on another person who has an opposing point of view. The spark
for the actual brawl was a CHP member speaking in parliament who called Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan a dictator and overstayed his turn at the podium. When members
of the opposition Justice and Development Party, or AKP, tried to remove him
from the podium by force, the brawl erupted. Punches were thrown, kicked were
delivered and tridents may or may not have been thrown through men’s hearts. The
debate over the issue is clearly not over, but at least now everyone knows the
stakes………
- Carmelo
Anthony doesn’t know what he wants. One day, he’s looking to test the free
agent market and become the next NBA star to score a max contract that will
make him even more ridiculously rich than he already is. The next, he’s making
outlandish claims like being willing to accept less money to re-sign with the New
York Knicks if it helps the team attract big-name free agents. "Without a
doubt,'' Anthony said Friday while in New Orleans for All-Star Weekend.
"Any opportunity I have to build that up in New York, I'd do it. I told
people all the time, always say, 'If it takes me taking a pay cut, I'll be the
first one on [Knicks owner] Mr. [James] Dolan's steps saying take my money and
let's build something strong over here.'" Those are bold words for a man
who has previously said he plans to opt out of the final year of his contract
and test free agency this summer. Then again, stating that his first priority
is to re-sign with the Knicks is virtually meaningless because those words
carry little weight in the real world. The team is mired in the latter third of
the league, 12 games under .500 at the All-Star break and expected to fire
embattled head coach Mike Woodson sooner rather than later. Anthony noted that
he is set financially and therefore doesn’t need a max deal, but not needing it
rarely stops professional athletes from grabbing the best available contract
from a fiscal perspective. Oh, and given that he could re-sign for the maximum
allowed under the current rules of the collective bargaining agreement and
receive $129 million over five seasons, a discount to something like $100
million for five seasons wouldn’t exactly be a massive sacrifice. Even if he
does leave money on the table, it won't do the Knicks much good this offseason.
With the bloated salaries of Amar'e Stoudemire ($23.4 million), Tyson Chandler
($14.6 million) and Andrea Bargnani ($11.5 million) on their ledger, the Knicks
would still be over the salary cap. It could help them chase top free agents
like such as Rajon Rondo and Kevin Love the following summer……….
- Have you ever heard of obscure Los Angeles rockers
Fishbone? If not, don’t expect to have them around for much longer. As little
money as aspiring rock stars make, it’s going to be awfully difficult for the quarter to survive if the $1.4 million court-ordered judgment they were hit with
late last week stands up on appeal. Fishbone were ordered to pay that amount to a fan who was
injured when the band's frontman stage-dived into the crowd during a show at
Philadelphia's World Cafe Live in 2010. Lead singer Angelo Moore went human
projectile off the stage, landing on fan Kimberly Myers and breaking her skull
and collarbone. Myers was knocked to the floor and lost consciousness when she
was knocked to the floor, yet the band "continued to perform as if nothing
had happened," U.S. District Judge Jan DuBois wrote in her ruling. DuBois
noted that Moore, who goes by the stage name Dr. Madd Vibe, vibed a little too
much after the incident and showed little remorse or concern for Myers after
the incident. The band went on with the show and as the judge wrote, members
have continued to stage-dive at gigs despite frequent injuries to concert goers.
Fishbone has been sued at least once before over similar injuries and Moore
testified during the trial that an ambulance is called to one of the band’s
shows at least every few months. When asked why the band doesn’t issue warnings
to fans about possible stage-diving injuries, Moore told DuBois that they do
not do so because it detracts from the group's "theatrics.” "People
want to be on the edge when they go to a Fishbone show," Moore said,
according to the ruling. Maybe, but not as much as being broke and
forced to sell everything you own to pay off a lawsuit hurts your ability to
continue recording or performing……..
- Many Americans would love to hear the words “kill switch”
and “United States Senate” in the same sentence. Sadly, there is no way to
terminate the term of any of the 100 inefficient, inept senators currently
holding court in Washington, D.C. – at least not legally. In this case, the
kill switch is one a few senators want to make mandatory for all smartphones.
One week after California state Sen. Mark Leno proposed a bill requiring
a kill switch for smartphones sold in the state, federal
lawmakers have parroted his idea on a national level. Senators Amy Klobuchar
(D-Min.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Mazie
Hirono (D-Hi.) introduced legislation to require a way to
disable smartphones remotely. Theoretically, the goal is to deter theft and
protect consumers, but introducing a new way to access a phone remotely
simultaneously builds another back door for hackers to exploit. Phone thefts
account for 30-40 percent of all robberies in major cities nationwide, according
to the FCC, and the number reaches as high as 50 percent in some major cities.
A whopping 1.6 million Americans were victimized by
smartphone thieves in 2012 and those numbers have senators seeing a golden
chance to slap their name on a piece of legislation they clearly believe will
curry favor and earn votes back home. "Cell phone theft has become a big
business for thieves looking to cash in on these devices and any valuable
information they contain, costing consumers more than $30 billion every year
and endangering countless theft victims," Sen. Klobuchar said in a
statement. "This legislation will help eliminate the incentives for
criminals to target smartphones by empowering victims to take steps to keep
their information private, protect their identity and finances, and render the
phone inoperable to the thieves." The Smartphone Theft Protection
Act still a work in progress, but law enforcement officials nationwide
have been pushing phone makers to adopt kill switches since last year. Mobile
carriers have held out because one of the biggest chunks of their business is
gouging customers for costly theft insurance. This situation reeks of a long,
drawn-out fight choked by bureaucratic red tape……..
- Life has been hard for New Yorkers this winter. One brutal
winter storm has smacked Manhattan, dumping piles of snow on the city and
sparking controversy over Mayor Bill DiBlasio’s decision to keep schools open despite
the putrid conditions outside. That animosity is bad enough without the men and
women who are supposed to be cleaning up the city’s winter mess and making the
island livable compounding the problem as they did late Thursday night. That’s
when a bizarre snow plow accident hurled a massive avalanche of ice and debris into
a Queens restaurant, shattering windows and sending patrons scrambling for
safety. Several patrons were injured in the incident and according to the New
York City Department of Sanitation and New York
Police Department, the truck hit a garbage can full of ice, which was propelled
into the restaurant’s vestibule. “It kind of sounded like a bomb went off. It
was the loudest noise I ever heard in my life and I was typing in an order,”
said employee Blane Boyd, who saw glass flying across the Exo Café restaurant on
Austin Street in Forest Hills. Either completely ignorant or a total coward,
the e plow operator left the scene of the accident, but was immediately
located, police said. “You see in the video how much water how much force
actually came inside here,” said restaurant owner Peter
Kambitsis. ”There’s no excuse.” Security footage shows the plow driving
past the restaurant and striking the barrel, causing a chain reaction that sent
a male and female patron to North Shore LIJ hospital with minor injuries. Approximately
40 people were in the restaurant when the accident occurred shortly before 11
p.m. Hang in, NYC, because winter is winding down………
No comments:
Post a Comment