- It’s difficult to see how this one ended badly. Former Pleasant
Hill, Calif. city clerk Kim Lehmkuhl and her ex-employer sound like such a
wonderful match that it’s difficult to imagine either side not thriving in such
a symbiotic relationship. Lehmkuhl has become an icon for disenchanted
employees everywhere thanks to a biting, relentless resignation letter in which
she wished the city "best of luck in finding some schmuck" to fill
her position. "This has been an atrocious, incredibly depressing, and mindnumbingly
inane experience I would not wish on anyone," Lehmkuhl wrote in her
resignation letter. "I wish the City the best of luck in finding some
schmuck eager to transcribe every last misogynistic joke, self-indulgent
anecdote, and pathetic pandering attempt by Council, and every tinfoil hat
conspiracy theory, racist aside, and NIMBY asshattery from the lovely Council
meeting frequent flyers, without which, surely our democracy could not
flourish. June, also best of luck with your imminent unfunded pensions scandal,
that is going to be a rough one." Bonus points for jamming “asshattery”
into the mix, especially in a letter addressed to Mayor Tim Flaherty and City
Manager June Catalano. Thankfully, this gem went worldwide after it was
admitted into the record
during a council meeting Monday. "At least her
resignation demonstrated her ability to craft a full
sentence with colorful language," Flaherty snarked
while noting that there was a recall effort under way to remove Lehmkuhl. The
mayor claimed that every council member had called for Lehmkuhl’s resignation
and said others had to be asked to do her job because she did not perform it
well enough. The good news is that the public service hero said she is
“committed to helping Pleasant Hill residents stay engaged in our community,
and to keeping City Hall accountable, ethical and transparent." In other
words, she and her good friends in the city’s administration will see a lot of
each other in the future. City officials have also accused Lehmkuhl of writing offensive
tweets during council meetings and said she never fully explain why she was
quitting before doing so. Thank God she got around to it in written form………..
- Being tasked with saving rock ‘n roll is a heady
proposition. Kasabian
may not be widely known outside the indie rock world, but that has somehow
become the British rockers’ (self-bestowed) mission in life and the quest begins
with their new album, “48:13,” which drops on June 9. Kasabian guitarist Serge
Pizzorno said he wants the bands new album to inspire a new generation of rock
'n roll bands because in his world view, the genre is dying out. As Pizzorno
sees it, there are precious few true rock bands left in the music industry and
the supposedly earth-shaking experimentation on his group's new album will help
push new bands to look to the future. "It's weird to think of ourselves as
one of the last rock 'n' roll bands around," Pizzorno said. "But it's
important because there just don't seem to be many left. "This new record
we've done is important because it's our best work yet. It's so much a
forward-thinking record. It's a new and futuristic version of a rock band,
which is important for kids starting bands, going 'Ah we don't just have to do
that…we can experiment.’” Every band will say publicly that their new album is
their best yet, so take those words very lightly. Factor in the reality that
Kasabian have put out some music with as much of a rock ‘n roll edge as Hanson
in recent years and all of this begins to sound like a whole lot of bluster
from an artist looking to drum up publicity for his band’s newest release.
Perhaps “48:13” will live up to that hype and deliver on its auteur’s
bravado….and if so, music will be better for it……….
- The French are not known for their whimsical nature –
because they don’t actually have one. That dour disposition was on full display
Wednesday as hundreds
of migrants were evicted from three makeshift camps on Wednesday at the port of
Calais from where they hope to reach Britain. Police officers giving them the
boot cited concerns over an outbreak of scabies and increasing violence, both
of which are possibly legitimate reasons. According to The Man, the cleared
areas needed to be razed because of "deplorable hygiene" conditions.
Locals complained to police about the sanitation of the area and the unsavory
presence of human traffickers trying to move the migrants. Conspiracy theorists
can point to the fact that the operation took place just three days after the
far-Right anti-immigration Front National caused a political uproar by coming
first in European elections in France, but police insisted it was all a
coincidence. Coincidence or not, 200 riot police encircled the camps and corralled
an estimated 550 migrants from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Pakistan, Somalia and
Syria after a deadline to leave expired. Once the migrants were out, the camps
were bulldozed. Medical officials estimated that as many as 25 percent of the
850 migrants in the area had scabies. The camps have been a nuisance a since
the French authorities closed down the infamous Sangatte immigrant detention
centre in 2002, which housed around 2,000 people at one point. Migrants in
Calais erected makeshift barricades to fend off police, but it was all for
naught. Denis Robin, the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region, defended the
operation as necessary on the basis of the alleged scabies epidemic. He
promised no arrests of the migrants as long as they don’t get violent. Residents
of the camp argued that the scabies story was fabricated as an excuse to
dislodge them. Humanitarian organizations supported those claims, but they aren’t
the ones who have to tolerate smelly migrants camping out in their port city……….
- Alien-loving kooks, here is some fuel for your
delusional arguments. Last week, the Senate Committee on Science, Space and Technology held a hearing to check in on the
search for intelligent life in places it has never been found…like Detroit.
Just kidding, Detroit. You’re an easy target these days, but sorry. The
committee chatted about the current state of the science related to the search
for life in the universe and as part of that discussion, committee members
asked the question: “What is the likelihood of finding life in the universe?”
They heard from two experts on the search for alien life, Dan Werthimer
and Seth Shostak, and came away thinking that humanity might be closer to
connecting with aliens than previously thought after every viewing of a Gary
Busey commercial. Werthimer, the director of the University of California
at Berkeley’s new SETI Research Center, referenced NASA’s Keplar mission, which
has shown that the Milky Way Galaxy alone has a trillion planets. “Billions of
these planets are Earth sized and in the ‘habitable’ or so called ‘Goldilocks’
zone – not too distant from their host star, and not too close to their star,”
Werthimer said. “There are billions of other galaxies outside our Milky Way
galaxy – plenty of places where life could emerge and evolve.” Space nuts have
long asked if there have ever been habitable conditions on Mars and Shostak
tossed kerosene on that smoldering blaze with his remarks. “At least a
half-dozen other worlds that might have life are in our solar system. The
chances of finding it, I think, are good, and if that happens, it’ll happen in
the next 20 years, depending on the financing,” he said. Werthimer and his SETI
colleagues have embarked upon a new project they call eavesdropping
SETI, where they listen only when two planets in a distant system are aligned
with Earth and try to intercept signals. Best of success with that, dorks……..
- Florida coach
Will Muschamp says the right thing, but his recent handiwork suggests
otherwise. Muschamp, whose Gators lost to Football Championship Subdivision foe
Georgia Southern last year, claims that he wants to avoid playing FCS teams. In
a questionable soliloquy at the Southeastern Conference's annual spring
meetings, Muschamp postulated about his preference for a 12-game schedule that
features eight league teams, in-state rival Florida State and three more teams
from the Football Bowl Subdivision. "We're probably going to move forward
without playing FCS opponents," Muschamp said. “And I think our fan base
wants to see better opponents.” Actually, your fan base wants more wins and
they don’t really give a damn if they come against Alabama or Alabama A&M,
Will. If the Gators are 13-0 and win the SEC championship game in December,
then it’s all good. Of course, saying you want to rid your schedule of
overmatched FCS teams you pay $600,000 to come to your house and take a 70-3
beating so bad your walk-ons are light years better than the opposition sounds
good for fans and media members. Many coaches would say such a thing and have
no intention of following through, even if a few of Muschamp’s peers aren’t
willing to go that far. "At this point, I believe it's best for us to
continue doing that," Mississippi coach Hugh Freeze said. "I just
find it hard to believe that one game like that ... over the totality of the
season would really hinder you if you perform well in those other games."
Points for honesty and admitting that you have neither the balls to tackle nor
the confidence in your team’s ability to win out against a schedule full of
opponents who could actually play you on level footing. Don’t think for one
second that any SEC coach has forgotten that Georgia Southern shocked Florida 26-20 in Gainesville last season to
cement a losing season for the Gators, nor have coaches nationwide forgotten
Appalachian State's stunner at Michigan in 2007. More than any sense of fair
play and competitive integrity, each and every last one of these guys values
job security above all else and there is no surer way to keep your job than
winning games – regardless of the opposition………
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