- Load those muskets, Utah, because a bygone era is coming
back. Your state is looking to turn back the clock in a big way by moving toward
the return of executions by firing squad. A vote by Utah lawmakers to bring
back the outdated means of offing convicted criminals is proof of just how much
states are wary of botching an execution by other means and concerned about shortages
of lethal-injection drugs. Utah and several other states are rushing to tweak
their laws after Oklahoma and Arizona both staged botched executions that left
the condemned teetering on the edge of death for an extended period of time. Texas
is down to its second-to-last dosage of drugs and Utah’s legislature is not
waiting around to see what’s going to happen to the people it is waiting to
send shuffling off this mortal coil. Utah Republican Gov. Gary Herbert has
declined to say if he will sign the firing-squad bill, but that decision isn't likely
to come for a week or so. Activist outfits such as the Washington, D.C.-based
Death Penalty Information Center are largely against the firing squad bill, but
Utah may not be the last state to seek creative, anachronistic alternatives as
their drug inventories dwindle because European manufacturers opposed to
capital punishment refuse to sell the components of lethal injections to U.S.
prisons. Republican Rep. Paul Ray is leading the charge on this bill and his
argument is that a team of trained marksmen is faster and more humane than
injecting a condemned man or woman with a lethal cocktail of drugs and watching
them stop breathing – should the execution go awry. Opponents have denounced
the plan as an antiquated method of killing folks and point to the fact that
the state stopped offering inmates the choice of firing squad in 2004, saying
the method attracted intense media interest and took attention away from
victims. Utah has a curious fascination with the practice as the only state in
the past 40 years to kill someone by pumping them full of lead……….
- Note to anyone expecting a few months to make a real
difference for Iggy Azalea’s Great Escape Tour….it won't. The
overproduced pop singer was supposed to set out in the next few weeks to tour
North America with her repertoire of crappy pop music, but a statement from her
label, Def Jam, informed the world that Azalea has postponed her g tour in
order to further develop her live show. What….you couldn’t just throw more
lights and more pyrotechnics at that mess, auto tune the hell out of her subpar
voice and make sure that the volume is cranked up higher and keep things on
schedule? "To accommodate for creative team availability and tour
productions, it was determined that the tour will not be ready this
spring," the label said in its statement. "It's important to Iggy
that she delivers the show she envisaged to share with her fans and that
requires more time in development." Bonus points for using the word envisaged
in a statement for an artist who is as lyrically intelligent as a third grader,
but the idea that Azalea is such a prima donna that she can't go out on the
road with her abysmal music until the tour is perfect is simply hilarious. If
only she waited to release an album until it no longer totally sucked….she
would have released zero albums to date. Then again, she’s been on a diva
tirade of late, having hit the eject button on running her Instagram account and
abandoning her 6.6 million followers, along with her Twitter peeps, because social
media was making her so angry it was affecting the recording of her new album.
Hey Iggs, no offense, but good artists are supposed to be able to take their
rage and channel it into their music rather than letting it get inside their
heads. It’s the essence of the early days of punk rock, but overinflated senses
of self-importance seem to be the hallmarks of the Iggy Azalea regime………
- Slovenian police may be grasping at straws at
this point. The government is feverishly pressing forward with its case against
former Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek, who is being investigated on suspicion
of abuse of power after her government unsuccessfully nominated her for the
European Commission last year, but so far there have been zero arrests made and
The Man seems to be reaching desperately in all directions at this point. Its
most recent move was a full search of Bratusek’s home, but her lawyer says it
is not clear what police were looking for and claimed that all documents have
already been given to the anti-corruption commission. Bratusek led the
government from March 2013 to May 2014 but of late, she’s been making headlines
because she is under investigation by Slovenian anti-graft authorities after the
nomination that critics denounced as an unlawful self-appointment. The European
Parliament overwhelmingly rejected Bratusek's bid for the flimsy reason that she
was not qualified to become a commissioner, but that simply ignores the fact
that people are appointed all the time to political posts for which they are
not qualified; in a sense, it’s how the political world works. Not only did
police search Bratusek’s home, but they also scoured four other locations
linked to her political party. Maybe they received an anonymous tip and maybe
they’re just flipping over every couch cushion in the hopes of finding some
spare change/evidence to bolster their subpar case, but actually finding a
smoking gun – literal or metaphorical – would be very helpful at this point,
lest another (allegedly) corrupt politician go free on account of a bungled
investigation and/or prosecution……..
- Some athletes embrace the idea of the grind, of playing
through the pain and battling to be on the field for their teammates and the
team paying them millions of dollars. Philadelphia
Phillies pitcher Cliff Lee is not that guy, at least not at this point in his
career. The 36-year-old left-hander
is dealing with some ailments in his left elbow even though renowned orthopedic
surgeon Dr. James Andrews and team officials are both adamant that an MRI of
Lee's torn common flexor tendon shows no apparent change. Lee has been fighting
discomfort in the elbow and even though he was medically cleared to resume a
throwing program, he insists that he’s not going to be on the mound if the pain
in his elbow returns. "There's no timeline [to make a decision on
surgery]," Lee said. "I'm just going to keep doing what I've been
doing and do it as long as I can. I'm not going to go out there in pain to
where something bad can potentially happen. That doesn't make sense to me. So
I'm going to play as long as I comfortably can.” General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said the team is "not
terribly optimistic" that the veteran left-hander can avoid surgery and
Lee doesn’t seem any more positive about the chances of ducking the knife after
twice trying to rehab the injury since last May and experiencing the same
discomfort on both occasions. "It's not a good sign, obviously," Lee
said. "It's not good. At this point in my career, it's hard to find a
problem with going out there and just continuing to try and do it to see what
happens.” In Major League Baseball, where contracts are guaranteed and Lee will
be making the remaining $25 million on his current deal regardless of whether
he pitches or not, there’s little anyone can do to compel him to grit his teeth
and throw innings for a team expected to be among the National League’s worst
this season. Ain’t sports grand………
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