- The
San Francisco 49ers’ season has officially reached DGRA status. That’s Don’t
Give A Rat’s Ass for the uninitiated and it’s the perfect way to describe a
scenario in which an NFL starting quarterback has a weekly press conference
before a game that will be watched by millions of people around the world and
no one - not a staffer, not a media member and not a family member - bothers to
show up to ask questions or hear what said NFL signal caller has to say. It was
Wednesday when Gabbert rolled into his regular media gathering only to find
that no one had actually done the whole gathering part of the equation. Gabbert
lingered and waited for someone to show up, but sadly, no one did. He largely
took the disappointing turnout in stride, even taking a seat in the front row
of the audience as if he was going to ask a question of himself and then sprint
up to the podium to give a thoughtful answer to his own query. It’s been that
sort of season for the 49ers, who enter the weekend 3-7 and in last place in
the NFC West. They’re 1-1 with Gabbert as the starter since he took over for
the ineffective and now injured-and-out-for-the-year Colin Kaepernick, with the
well-traveled veteran out of the University of Missouri going 37 of 59 for 449
yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. On Sunday, San Francisco
will get b*tch-slapped by the division-leading Arizona Cardinals and at least
Cardinals defensive back Tyrann Mathieu was complimentary of Gabbert during his
media conference call, one for which actual people showed up and asked questions.
The good news for Gabbert and his team is that they have but six games left to
toil in the face of anonymity and indifference……..
- Where
is number two in North Korea? Yes, crap abounds in the communist hell hole
where forced labor camps enslave thousands while the government denies the
camps’ existence and hollow threats of unleashing hell on all who oppose its
evil ways are thrown around like free buffet tickets to high rollers in Las
Vegas, but the question in this case pertains to dictator Kim Jong Un’s second
in command, Choe Ryong Hae. The diminutive despot is believed to have banished his
presumed number two from Pyongyang for "re-education," although the
reasons for the alleged exile are unclear. South Korea's National Intelligence
Service informed its parliament during a briefing this week that they believed
Choe was sent to a farm in the North Korean countryside in early November,
possibly due to differences of opinion with Kim because of the poor quality of
construction of the Baekdusan Power Plant, said to be part of Choe's sphere of
influence. Most don’t believe the banishment is deadly serious, mostly because
if the problem were truly severe, Choe would have been killed rather than sent
to a farm upstate. North Korea has used re-education for less serious crimes
since the late 1950s and while that sounds über-creepy and Stepford-ish, having
a communist regime attempt to brainwash or coerce you is generally preferable
to having them gun you down using a firing squad. Typically, if the punished
person goes along with their excommunication and continues to proclaim loyalty
to the government and the world's greatest leader, they get to return to
society much like Kim's uncle, Jang Song Taek, who fell from grace a number of
times before being re-instated. Choe is relatively powerful, as he is North
Korea's point person on China and even made a surprise visit to South Korea
last October. Whether he will live to see another trip to Seoul remains to be
seen……….
- The
movement to allow women and girls to attend shows without having some drunken,
lecherous ass hat cop a feel in the middle of the mosh pit is gaining steam.
The Girls Against campaign was launched by five
teenagers in attempt to raise awareness of and to stop harassment of women and
girls at live shows and this worthwhile movement added British rockers Slaves
to its cause this week. The duo posted a statement on their Facebook page in
which they pointed out something that should already have been painfully
obvious to everyone with either a soul or an IQ above that of a wooden plank. "Putting
your hands all over any woman without her permission is not on at any sort of
concert." Now, the band have spoken
about the issue, saying: "You're not welcome at our shows if you're one of
these blokes," Isaac Holman wrote in the post. "Have you not had a
mother or a sister? What are you doing? It's not acceptable and I just think
it's important there's an awareness around it. Our security are getting briefed
about it now before our shows. When a girl is trying to say something to a
security man he might not be taking it too seriously. It might fall on deaf
ears so we thought by having a female member of security in the pit as well it
would make the girls feel a bit more safe." A recent groping incident at a
concert in Cardiff, Wales is the latest to draw attention to the issue, which
can be tough to address for the simple fact that when you have thousands of
people packed into any venue, especially an outdoor festival, it is nearly
impossible to see what’s going on below eye level in a mass of humanity. Having
people willing to speak up and stand up if they see a female being accosted will
definitely help, but the question is how much…….
- What
is an appropriate level of violation of the privacy of sleazebags who frequent
practitioners of the world’s oldest profession? That’s the question being
raised by a Los Angeles City Hall proposal to send "john letters" to
the owners of cars seen in areas known for prostitution. The city council voted
to have the city attorney's office analyze the proposal to use license numbers
to determine who owns the vehicles, which is the first step in what will
undoubtedly be an unnecessarily long and complicated bureaucratic process that
reaches no actual conclusion but wastes lots of money doing so. In theory, the
letters would discourage those who were soliciting prostitutes from returning
to the area while posing no harm to those who were there for legitimate
reasons, according to Councilwoman Nury Martinez. "If you aren't
soliciting, you have no reason to worry about finding one of these letters in
your mailbox," Martinez said. However, the measure has already drawn sharp
criticism from the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, a California civil
liberties group which argues that the collection of license plate data is a
major privacy violation. The San Francisco-based foundation has an ongoing
lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department in an effort to stop the proposal from moving forward. "What
happens if you have legitimate reason to be in a neighborhood?" asked Dave
Mass, an investigative researcher with EFF. Other cities have tried a similar approach,
while a few encourage locals to record the license plate numbers of cars they
suspect of being involved in suspicious activity. But hey, a cordial letter from
city hall that makes it clear that police do not assume the owner of the
vehicle was the person driving it could in no way cause major and wholly unjust
problems for many men who simply have the misfortune of hitting up a convenience
store for a gallon of milk when said store happens to be near a street corner
where skanks in fishnet stockings and corsets are plying their trade……..
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