Accusing Didier Drogba, Adele + Drake and Rhode Island's Dancing Cop revived

- Cats: They’re what will bring the visitors back to one of Europe’s best cities. You may not feel that way, but officials in Brussels are banking on felines to send out the clarion call for travelers who may have been scared away by images of soldiers armed with machine guns in the capital's deserted streets. Following a five-day lockdown prompted by the maximum security alert, Brussels officials are desperate for ways to jump-start tourism in the wake of a shutdown of the city’s subways and schools that came with a request to stay away from public places because they might be targeted by extremists in a Paris-style attack. Tourism officials are seeking to capitalize on the fact that cats became an unofficial mascot of the Brussels lockdown when residents flooded social media with hundreds of feline photos this week following a police request not to share information about ongoing raids. Instead, wacky Belgians tweeted images of cats, including with their paws up, disguised as police snipers and even wearing a bowler hat, the trademark of Rene Magritte, Belgium's greatest surrealist painter. Police responded by tweeting a picture of a bowl of cat food to thank people for their help and tourism officials chased that with images of cats at famous Brussels landmarks in a cheeky attempt to encourage visitors to come for the chocolate, waffles, parks and culture. Crowds have so far been much smaller than normal at Brussels' Atomium, a nine-sphere structure of an iron crystal that is one of the city's biggest draws. Patrick Bontick, head of Brussels' tourism office, noted a 20 percent drop in bookings this week. "Even in a bad situation, we can also have some humor in Brussels," he said. "We're a surrealistic country.” Surrealism and cats … you can't go wrong with that combo……..

- Adele is the sh*t in music right now. So much so that one of the biggest names in the industry is openly pining for the chance to take his latest hit song and remix it with the addition of the British songstress’ dulcet tones. After Adele expressed an appreciation for “Hotline Bling,” it seems Drake is eager to take up her good-natured offer. "I really want us to do an official remix. I love Drake. I love Drake so much. I even got the coat that's in the video – I got it delivered the other day, I ordered it…the red one,” Adele said. “I had a drink like three weeks ago [with] my best friends – in fact, it was to celebrate ‘Hello’. And I was off my face because I don't really drink anymore, and they've got a video of me dancing to it on a coffee table as well.” As could be expected, that comment didn’t take long to work its way back to Drake and after attending a Toronto Raptors game last week, the singer addressed the idea of collaborating with one of the best voices in music. "I’d do anything with Adele. I’d literally go to Adele’s house right now and do laundry for her,” Drake said. Adele’s latest numerically titled album, “25,” dropped on Nov. 20 and has been a smash hit on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United Kingdom, it sold the most copies of any album during its first week of sale, topping 800,000 copies to break the previous record, held by Oasis for its 1997 debut album “Be Here Now,” which sold 696,000 copies in its first week of release. Putting together massive, single-named musical powers like Drake and Adele is a definite recipe to both break the Internet with a music video and sell a whole lot of digital copies to loyal fans of both, so this one is going to happen at some point………

- Welcome back, "Dancing Cop." Retired Providence (R.I.) police officer Tony Lepore enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame a few decades ago with his wacky dance routines while directing traffic, a practice he began back in 1984. However, officials in Rhode Island's capital city let him know he wouldn’t be used to help direct holiday traffic this year after he organized a protest last month outside a Dunkin' Donuts where a worker wrote the "blacklivesmatter" hashtag on another officer's coffee cup. Officials determined that Lepore wrongly gave the impression he was speaking for the department, leaving the 68-year-old former officer sidelined during the holiday season. However, where Providence swung and missed, others saw an opportunity and as it turns out, Lepore won't be sitting on his Yule log watching the world go by in the weeks ahead. He revealed recently that he's been hired by the city of East Providence to conduct traffic this holiday season and while his stint back on the streets will be a short one, a little bit of time with the Dancing Cop is better than none at all. Lepore will be posted in front of City Hall in East Providence from December 10 through Christmas Eve, trying to ward off the cold while keeping frustrated holiday shoppers, revelers and travelers both entertained and properly directed by channeling his inner Usher, Fred Astaire and Jason Derulo……..

- You shut your mouth, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho. How dare you suggest that critical comments made about you by one of your former stars, current Major League Soccer star Didier Drogba, were nothing more than a shameless attempt to promote a book Drogba recently released? Mourinho was asked about Drogba speaking negatively about Chelsea - the defending English Premier League champion, currently languishing in the 15th position in the Premier League standings, saying that the team’s younger players must develop their mental strength in order to reverse its recent slide. The comment was an indirect shot at Mourinho, who fired back by saying he wouldn’t comment and doing so by commenting about what he refused to comment on. "When you speak because you want to sell books, I don't read. I don't read," the veteran Portuguese coach said. “I like good interviews. I like interviews from big guys like Didier with good journalists, newspapers or television. But this is not an interview. It was to sell books. It doesn't disappoint me. It was just the reality. It was just to sell books. I can analyze Didier's interview with pleasure, but not Didier selling books." Drogba, now playing in MLS with the Montreal Impact, called for the Chelsea squad to show more leadership and suggested that even with veteran leader John Terry still on the roster, it was incumbent on the next generation of Chelsea stars to assume that leadership mantle. "Yes, JT [John Terry] is still there but on your own it is very difficult," he said. "Other players have to come up with this mentality, you are not born with it. You build it. Maybe you have it in you but you build it." Hmm, that doesn’t sound like a controversial remark made simply to sell a few more copies of your book………..

76ers street fights, Waffle House smoking murders and Riot Watch! Kosovo

- As always, at least when a person is dead at a Waffle House at 1:11 a.m. on a weekday morning, there’s a good reason. In this case, the reason is that an employee making less than minimum wage plus tips had the gall to inform a fat, IQ-deprived, tobacco-addicted customer that he couldn’t burn his lung darts inside the eatery. Johnny Max Mount - actual name, amazingly - is the tool at the center of this tragedy. He’s the Mississippi Waffle House customer who shot and killed an employee early in the morning because she rolled up on him and told him to stop lighting up cancer sticks. According to police, Mount argued with that employee after being told that he couldn’t smoke and proving why it might be time to drop a concealed carry ban on all low-end, 24/7 breakfast eateries, Mount didn’t respond well.  "He pulled out a handgun and shot her in the head," Biloxi police Sgt. Donnie Dobbs said. The victim died on the way to the hospital and by the time police arrived, Mount was outside the restaurant and surrendered without incident. He now faces a charge of first-degree murder and is being held on $2 million bond at the Harrison County Adult Detention Center, while the  victim's name has not been released as authorities try to locate her next of kin. Mount resided in Biloxi but clearly will be calling a state correctional facility home for a long time in the future. The best part of this is that the Waffle House restaurant in Biloxi has a nonsmoking policy, so it’s not as if Mount didn’t know going in that he couldn’t smoke or that the waitress was being a battle axe trying to enforce some unwritten rule on him. But smoking isn't addictive and you can quit any time you want, right smokers……..

- Philadelphia 76ers rookie Jahlil Okafor needs to realize the parameters of the situation in which he finds himself. He’s the top draft pick and best player for a team that is 0-17 and has lost 26 straight games dating to last season, in the process becoming the first team in NBA history to start 0-16 in consecutive seasons. The perpetual tanking strategy should theoretically be designed to net score of high draft picks to help revive a moribund franchise, but several years of this non-strategy strategy have produced no tangible evidence of progress or success. When that’s your reality, you have to expect that there will be trolls and haters most any public place you go, looking to talk junk and bait you into doing or saying something regrettable if only because they can. Okafor has to know he cannot react to any of these ass hats or give them what they want because even if he’s totally justified in his response, it’s going to look bad for him. As exhibit A, look at what went down this week following a come-from-ahead road loss to Boston. After the game, Okafor and some of his crew rolled out for a night on the town and it didn’t go well. According to sources close to the situation, a man rolled up on Okafor’s group and told the rookie center that his team sucks and would “never win a game.” Video soon emerged online in which a man identified as Okafor first traded verbal barbs with the heckler and then exchanged fists to the face, with the footage later showing Okafor seeking to cave in his adversary’s face. Heckling a guy who goes 6-foot-11, 270 pounds is rarely a good idea and although the heckler can revel in his 15 minutes of ignominy, it’s hard to feel bad for this tool. As for Okafor, he’s averaging a team-high 18.4 points with 8.1 rebounds per game and making a sh*t ton of money to lose every game, so you can’t really feel bad for him either…………

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! The rage is real in Kosovo, where tens of thousands of Kosovo opposition supporters have held a protest against recent agreements with Serbia and Montenegro. Sadly, the uprising was a peaceful one, not what everyone was expecting - or hoping for - in the aftermath of a recent disruption of parliament. According to organizers of Saturday's rally, on the national Independence Day, there were some 35,000 participants at the Zahir Pajaziti Square downtown Pristina and it was a noteworthy day in at least one respect because in spite of a police arrest warrant out for him, Abin Kurti, a leader of the opposition Self-Determination Movement, spoke against the government's deals. There was a disappointing lack of confrontation during the gather, but one opposition lawmaker has been arrested and three others, including Kurti, are wanted by police over the disruption of the Parliament work during the last three months with tear gas, pepper spray, whistles and water bottles. Could nobody mix up a satisfactory Molotov cocktail for the day? Not a single tire fire or empty liquor bottle to throw? These opposition members are demanding that the government renounce a deal with Serbia giving more powers to ethnic-Serb communities in Kosovo and another with Montenegro on border demarcation, something the government has shown an unwillingness to do thus far. But hell, getting together in the town square, holding hands and saying things in a serious tone of voice rather than taking real action should change all of that in no time………

- Noel Gallagher can see the future and it’s not a positive forecast for hipsters with shelves full of vinyl albums from obscure indie rock bands that are used to impress fellow hipsters at their hipster parties. Gallagher, whose feud with brother and former bandmate Liam Gallagher has finally faded a bit and who now fronts Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, doesn’t buy into the recent resurgence in vinyl's popularity and recently prognosticated that the revival will come to an end by 2020. Vinyl sales in the United States and United Kingdom have been up for some time and in January, vinyl sales in the U.K. topped 1.3 million for the first time since 1995. Gallagher’s new band’s most recent album, “Chasing Yesterday,” has been named the best-selling vinyl album of 2015 so far in Britain and yet, he’s nonplussed. "Yeah I know, unbelievable isn't it? For the people who still want to buy and own music, for me to be sat at the top of that list really is great,” Gallagher said. “Until you look at how many people are actually buying it and it's like a thousand albums! Fucking hell, I've probably got more than a thousand sat in my office right now. But it's the streaming thing, there will be no record sales by the end of the decade, I think." He then flew in the face of “true” music fans who prefer old-school methods by admitting that  he downloads music rather than buying albums from a record shop. His reasoning is that he doesn’t want his visits to the record store to turn into a messy autograph session because he’s famous and clearly awesome. But vinyl has shown persistence so far, so don’t count it out……….

Letters for possible prostitution solicitors, fighting groping at concerts and Blaine Gabbert gets ignore

- 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……..

The "Gremlins" remake/reboot, hoboes with arsenals and the battle for the South China Sea

- The accusations are a-flyin’ at the United Nations tribunal hearing to decide control of a disputed portion of the South China Sea. The Philippine delegation presenting the southeast Asian nation's case against China fired some big salvos this week, denouncing China’s nine-dash line claim ''hopeless and indefensible." Deputy President Spokesperson Abigail Valte said the Philippine delegation used its arguments on the second day of the hearing to lock in on how China's actions prevent the Philippines from exploring its living and non-living resources in the contested waters. A bulletin for the Nov. 25 hearing featured Valte quoting counsel lawyer Andrew Loewenstein as saying that none of the three conditions to establish historic rights is present in China's case, making its claim "hopeless and indefensible." The arbitral tribunal will decide the outcome of the case lodged by the Philippines against China after ruling that it has jurisdiction over it and that isn't sitting well with China, which has acted in extremely shady fashion by quickly constructing artificial islands over South China Sea reefs it claims to control. According to these communist a-holes, it  has finished its reclamation activities and is now in the process of building structures on it. The best part of the tribunal process is that China is refusing to take part, arguing that the proper way to address the dispute is through bilateral talks. Yes, a massive and powerful nation wants to sit down alone with a smaller, much poorer nation and bully that smaller nation to get what it wants, which should surprise no one. During the second day of the hearing, Professor Philippe Sands argued that China cannot claim sovereignty over the reefs it controls. These cleverly named locations include Mischief Reef, Second Thomas Shoal, Subi Reef, Mckennan Reef and Gaven Reef and according to Sands, these reefs are all low-tide elevations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and as such, cannot generate its own territorial sea, exclusive economic zone or continental shelf. Like that’s going to stop China……….

- Life has not turned out the way Boston Celtics 2015 draft pick Marcus Thornton wanted in recent months. For starters, he’s not playing for the Celtics and is instead toiling Down Under for the Sydney Kings in the National Basketball League. But hooping it up for the other Kings - not even the mediocre outfit that calls Sacramento home - and playing a game against the Illawarra Hawks in Wollongong isn't the major indignity Thornton is coping with right now. No, that would be having an elderly fan lean out of his private box at the game and pour some of his wildly overpriced arena beer onto Thornton’s head. That elderly basketball fan has been banned for the rest of the Australian season for the beer shower, which happened after Thornton drove to the basket during the third quarter, absorbed contact from a defender and fell to the floor on the edge of the court. That’s when the old-timer leaned over the front edge of his private box and poured his drink on Thornton while the fan’s female companion talked a ridiculous amount of junk. These two ass hats were escorted from Wollongong's WIN Stadium a short time later and NBL general manager Jeremy Loeliger made a grand understatement by describing the situation as "unfortunate.'' The spectator had been in sitting a box owned by Figtree Private Hospital, which apologized in a rather lame statement. "The 83-year-old father of a long-term, valued employee has some cognitive impairment and does not recall the incident,'' the hospital said in a statement. "His family are very regretful of the incident and have indicated they will be making a formal apology on his behalf.'' A “cognitive impairment” means what exactly? Very vague and cryptic of you, Figtree……..

- Life on the streets in Los Angeles is rough. In the City of Angels, trying to survive on the street isn't the same shallow, superficial, BMW-and-Chanel-flavored experience that the city’s wealthy residents enjoy and a homeless person has a lot on their plate when it comes to getting by day to day. As such, maybe the long arm of the law wants to relinquish its firm grip around the throat - legally speaking - out Richard Cunningham, a homeless man who was arrested this holiday week for possession of five firearms, including two operable World War II-era machine guns. Police arrested Cunningham while they were patrolling a homeless camp in Harbor City. Sheriff’s Detective Dennis Elmore said deputies picked up the well-armed vagrant, who was in possession of high-capacity magazines and ammunition for the M3 machine guns, which are also known as “grease guns.” The idea of a homeless man, possibly dealing with emotional and psychological problems, having not only this impressive arsenal but also two makeshift silencers is scary on some level, but you can bet no one else is trying to thieve his preferred spot under a bridge or the ideal alley way slot behind a bakery that affords the best chance at semi-stale bagels once the place closes in the evening. Deputies were patrolling Doble Avenue and Lomita Boulevard when they found the homeless camp on private property and began to inspect it. Unfortunately for Cunningham, being prepared to wage literal war for that brand new discarded refrigerator box to expand your current box home to a two-room luxury dwelling doesn’t sit well with The Man and he now faces charges including possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of a large-capacity magazine and possession of a machine gun. No one is sure what his previous criminal conviction was or how he was able to obtain such an arsenal of weapons, but give the guy credit for being prepared for whatever life sends his way……….

- Nice spin job, Zach Galligan. Galligan, who starred in the cult classic 1984 comedic horror movie “Gremlins,” is trying to sell the world on the fact that a revival of the film is neither a remake or reboot. He played Billy Peltzer in the original film and its 1990 sequel, both of which featured an adorable furry creature called Gizmo who cannot be fed or get wet after midnight lest he spawn a brood of evil relatives hell bent on chaos and destruction. The news of a possible reboot/remake/shameless rip-off to avoid having to be original first broke earlier this year with the rumor that screenwriter Carl Ellsworth (“Disturbia”) had been hired to write a new “Gremlins” script. Two men who were a heavy part of the original fim, writer Chris Columbus and executive producer Steven Spielberg, will reportedly be involved in the new project, which Galligan is trying to separate from the two projects it is so clearly predicated upon. "It's not going to be a reboot. It will not be a remake in any way, shape, or form. Chris Columbus has come out and said that the first film is very near and dear to his heart and as long as he is alive it will never be remade," Galligan said during a special screening of “Gremlins” in London. "So the only thing they will be, and apparently are going to be doing, is something along the lines of like Jurassic World, where it will be 30 years later." Whatever you say, Z. This guy doesn’t even know if he’ll appear in the new movie, but said it was likely because he’s one of the few actors from the movie who are still living and/or acting. Hoyt Axton, who played the father of Galligan's character, died in 1999, and Phoebe Cates retired from acting in 1994. Both Corey Feldman and Howie Mandel - who provided the voice of Gizmo - are still alive and acting, so they could definitely be a part of this remake/reboot/sequel……….

MLB gift swapping, making Neil Armstrong super handsome and Army cadet pillow fight drama

- Neil Armstrong is about to get a hell of a lot more handsome. The man who remains one of the true icons of the rapidly shrinking American space program after becoming the first man to walk on the moon on July 21, 1969 will soon be the subject of a biopic sharing his life story of growing up in Ohio and going on to utter the famed words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." When that movie finally hits theaters, it could very well see its titular character played by none other than Ryan Gosling, who is reportedly the top target for producers of “First Man: A Life Of Neil A. Armstrong.” The project will be helmed by “Whiplash” director Damien Chazelle and based on  a script by “The Fifth Estate” screenwriter Josh Singer. Technically, the film will be based on James Hansen's biography of the legendary astronaut, who died in August 2012 at the age of 82 from complications arising after coronary artery bypass surgery. Chazelle is reportedly very high on Gosling for the lead role and given the actor’s devoted following among the ladies and the fact that a biopic could be a bit bland or boring if not star-studded and heavily produced, it’s a sensible choice. However, getting Gosling to sign on the line that is dotted may not be so easy. Gosling  recently confirmed that he is set to star in the long-planned sequel to “Blade Runner.” “There's a chip in me and if I say anything more, I'll explode,” Gosling joked when asked about his role in the wholly unnecessary sequel. Yes, but what better way to follow up such a project than playing a true American hero who may or may not have walked on the moon/a sound stage in Los Angeles heavily doctored to make it appear to be the moon…………

- When you’re a well-trained fighting machine, even a pillow is a lethal weapon. Because of that disturbing fact, U.S. Military Academy officials say they will ban cadet pillow fights in order to prevent future disasters like the bloody one that left 30 injured this summer. The annual pillow fight is a fun “get to beat the hell out of you” event organized annually by first-year students, known as "plebes," who put the pillow fight together as a way to build camaraderie after a grueling summer of training. However, the pillow fight went to a full-on pillow assault on Aug. 20, ending with multiple injuries, including a broken nose and 24 diagnosed concussions. That led the powers that be to both ban future pillow fights and pursue action against many of those involved. Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen, West Point's superintendent, said in a written release that this fun, dangerous and high-thread count event has "no place in the future" in an academy developing Army officers. Caslen is wrong because clearly, staring down a guy with a loaded pillowcase is an excellent way to get yourself ready mentally for enemy combatants in a war when those enemy combatants are looking to kill you with bullets, IEDs or bombs. Sadly, Caslen claimed an investigation showed "ineffective communication" between cadet leadership and senior military personnel before the pillow fight. Yes, a possible pillow fight planning meeting sounds mildly ridiculous for the men and women tasked with defending this nation from all threats of violence, but meetings can save lives, avert disaster AND put people to sleep with their mind-numbing boredom……….

- Jed Lowrie has been re-gifted. Like the Nurti Ninja blender that has been passed around your family for years at holiday gift exchanges and birthday parties, the veteran infielder is being swapped back and forth between the Oakland Athletics and Houston Astros for a second time. Lowrie is returning to Oakland after a one-year stay in Houston after he was acquired for minor league right-hander Brendan McCurry less than a year after leaving Oakland to sign a three-year deal with Houston. "Jed is a very good player," A's general manager David Forst said. "He was very good here; he had a good year in Houston. It was a good opportunity for us."  Lowrie smacked nine homers and had 30 RBIs in 69 games for Houston this year, but was sidelined for more than three months by a torn ligament in his right thumb. His exit from Oakland was lucrative one, as he inked  a $23 million, three-year contract with the Astros that called for salaries of $8 million in 2015, $7.5 million in 2016 and $6.5 million in 2017. What’s interesting about this trade is that it marks the second time Lowrie was part of a deal with these two teams, having been sent from Houston to Oakland before the 2013 season in a deal that sent slugger Chris Carter to the Astros. The A’s wanted Lowrie back because he helped them make the playoffs in two straight seasons, batting .271 with 21 homers and 125 RBIs in 290 games. He played mostly shortstop during his time in Oakland, but is versatile enough to play almost any infield position. "We acquired Jed to play," Forst said. "Exactly where, we have some time to figure that out. He's too good an offensive player not to be in there somewhere." The real question is whether Oakland will find a way to swap him back to Houston during the season so he can be the gift that keeps on being given………

- Is abusing and assaulting its own people no longer enough for Egypt? Clearly not, at least if you believe Sudanese officials who have accused Egyptian authorities of unlawfully detaining and beating 16 Sudanese over the past six weeks. The Sudanese Embassy in Cairo has levied those serious charges, which were subsequently denied by Egypt. Embassy spokesman Mohamed Gebara said Wednesday that the 16 were also "psychologically tortured," although he was a bit cryptic in refusing to provide any actual detail on the nature of said psychological torture. Perhaps the torture consisted of being forced to listen to the newest Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus albums on an infinite loop, which would definitely be cruel and unusual punishment. The claims came as Gebara expanded on an earlier report by the Sudanese state-run news agency SUNA, which quoted Khartoum's foreign minister, Ibrahim Ghandour, as saying he had proof of unspecified abuses. It took Egypt’s Foreign Ministry all of five seconds to issue a rote and wholly unbelievable denial of the charges, though to Gebara’s credit, he did a creditable job of pretending to be surprised by Cairo's denial. He went on to claim that the two countries previously agreed to investigate the matter, which came weeks after 20 Sudanese migrants were shot dead in separate incidents this month along the Egyptian border as they tried to cross into Israel during shootouts between Egyptian forces and smugglers. It’s a wholly ugly situation and bizarre in that anyone is trying to get into Egypt given that the country was at the heart of some of the worst and most deadly violence in the era of the Arab Spring uprisings. If Egypt is willing to literally and figuratively trample the rights - and bodies - of its own people, then of course it will be more than willing to stomp a mud hole in foreigners and walk it dry as the desert sands……….

Drones v. sharks, John Frusciante's free music and Facebook murder photo posts

- Student-led uprisings are a thing in the world of American colleges and universities these days. But not every uprising is one built around major social issues such as racism and hate. Sometimes, these small revolts are about the firing of a longtime coach who’s lost his gig in a dispute with his school over a dispute over a facility rental fee for a basketball camp he runs. Such is life at William Paterson, a Division III school in New Jersey, where the men's basketball team forfeited a game to protest of the recent firing of its longtime coach. Players weren't down with the dismissal of coach Jose Rebimbas by walking off the floor shortly before tipoff of their home matchup against Ramapo. A video from the game was posted on Instagram, showing the players leaving their warm-up shirts in a pile on the court and exiting stage right. The school's athletic department later confirmed that the team forfeited the game, which was supposed to be played with assistant coach Brian Chapman serving as the acting head coach. Rembimbas addressed the situation in a Facebook post. "It is with great sadness and extreme frustration that after today I will not be coaching the basketball team at William Paterson University," Rebimbas wrote. "WP has been my home and family for more than 20 years and yet the University has taken action to remove me from the service I love. People I have trusted and served with have defied logic and are pursing my termination because of a misunderstanding over a facility rental fee for a camp that I run.” It’s an ugly exit for a man who is 384-168 at the school, guiding it to six conference titles and nine NCAA tournament berths. There is clearly more to this situation and odds are it’s going to get much nastier before it’s resolved……….

- There are certain subjects social media was never designed to be used to share. For example, let’s say you murder your wife and are trying to decide what to do in the aftermath of a terrible crime. There are many options, most of which center on trying to not get caught and sent to prison for the rest of your life, but one of them should not be busting out your iPhone so you can post a Facebook pic of your deceased lady’s body. Yet that’s exactly what Derek Medina did when he offed his wife, Jennifer Alfonso, two years ago. It’s also a big part of why the South Florida man was convicted of second-degree murder this week as jurors came to a verdict in the third week of the trial. Medina claimed he shot his wife in self-defense during a fight and quickly went online to post the photo with a caption explaining that he expected to go to prison but had to kill her because of years of physical abuse. Medina admitted to police in a videotaped statement that he shot his wife during a fight in which she threatened him with a knife. He’s now staring down life in prison and odds are it won't help his case that he also admitted in the statement taking a cellphone photo of his dead wife's body and uploading it on Facebook. Prosecutors argued that Medina had vowed to kill Alfonso if she tried to leave him, which she told friends she planned to do. "He planned to execute Jen, and he executed his plan," prosecutor Leah Klein told jurors in his closing argument. "He was angry and he wanted her dead." Testimony during the trial detailed a fight that began in their upstairs bedroom because Medina had failed to wake up his wife early that morning to watch a movie as he had promised to do, followed by Alfonso hurling  mascara containers and towels at Medina. She later fired off a text to a friend in which she said she "felt like ripping his face off" and was "about to explode,” but in the end it was Medina who exploded and made a decision that pretty much ruined the rest of his life……….

- Free music is always good. When that music comes from a former member of one of the best rock bands of the past few decades, even better. Big ups to former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante for dishing out an early Christmas gift for fans by releasing a boatload of free music after setting up Bandcamp and Soundcloud pages. The new tunes came as a surprise for fans, especially the collaboration with Omar Rodríguez-López of The Mars Volta. Frusciante released 18 tracks, among them eight electronic tracks recorded between 2009 and 2011, along with a letter explaining why he decided to pass out a few freebies to the masses. "Giving people music for free online being so common these days is a good reminder that artistic expression is always a matter of giving, not taking, or selling," Frusciante wrote. "Selling is the making money part, and artistic expression, creation, is the giving part. They are distinct from one another, and it is my conviction that music should always be made because one loves music, regardless of whether one plans on selling it or not." The reason this project came as such a surprise is that Frusciante claimed earlier this year that he had stopped making music for other people and was simply tinkering in the studio for the sake of making music despite having "no intention of releasing" the finished product. The idea of toiling away for hours and hours with no one ever hearing his would-be musical masterpieces must have gotten to Frusciante, because he reversed field in the end and came up with a solution that says both, “I’m a musician and my works are meant to be heard,” and, “I’m so f*cking rich and successful that I can spend tons of money recording a new project without needing to make a single cent from it.” It’s a rock star move by a man who clearly isn't done making tunes just yet……….

- Drones are an embattled species. Their existence and use is a subject of extreme contention in countries around the world, but not everyone is down on these unmanned flying vehicles. Australia is keeping an open mind to what drones can do and using them to battle one of its biggest environmental hazards: sharks. The Australian government plans to utilize drones to fight off shark attacks following a trial of the unmanned aerial vehicles in New South Wales. A surge of attacks on humans by the marine predators this year has already yielded one fatality and authorities are determined to keep that number from rising. The drones will funnel live images back to an operator, including GPS coordinates, allowing wildlife officials to warn the public of where the toothy killers are lurking. It’s the same technology already being used by lifeguards in California to monitor Great Whites in an attempt to keep beaches safe. New South Wales is setting up two "listening stations" located on the far north coast of the state to provide real-time tracking data of tagged sharks caught and released by "smart" drum lines which send out an alert to authorities who are then able to  tag and release the animals. The state government insists the drum lines are more humane than those used to capture sharks in Western Australia in 2014. That controversial catch-and-kill policy was later abandoned after objections from the state's environmental agency, but Niall Blair, a minister in the NSW government, is adamant that this time will be different. "They will then tag and release the sharks that are caught on those. So they're very different to the traditional drum lines which could have sharks sitting on them for days before they're checked,” Blair said. With drones, helicopter surveillance and those drum lines, odds are that swimmers and surfers will still be terrified of DBS (death by shark), but it’s nice of the government to make an effort………..

Jack White's Detroit charity, Macedonian border rage and NHL vacation time

- Mosquitoes are unwelcome pests at every party they attend. They’re like your annoying friend Kevin, who gets invited to your cookout because you live with the guy and it would just be awkward around the apartment for weeks if you tried to cut him out of the fun just because he’s an irritating pest who’s a drain on every room he walks into. But unlike Kevin, mosquitoes may have a useful purpose when it comes to battling one of the planet’s most dangerous illnesses. As malaria continues to attack in a world where more than 40 percent of the global population lives in areas where there is the risk of contracting the disease, an estimated 500,000 people died from it in 2013. These flying pests are part of the problem, as the disease is spread via infected mosquito, yet researchers at the University of California -- including Anthony James, a professor of molecular biology and biochemistry -- are attempting to turn part of the problem into the core of the solution. James and his team have developed a possibly groundbreaking new tool in the fight to eradicate the disease, a tool they detail in a paper published in the scientific journal PNAS. This riveting read details their attempt at introducing malaria-blocking genes into the DNA of disease-transmitting mosquitoes. James has spent nearly two decades in the riveting business of seeking ways to alter mosquito populations, but this one is uniquely ambitions. It uses CRISPR, the recently discovered gene-editing technique that is cheaper, faster, more flexible and in many ways more precise than alternative methods. Theoretically, this method is able to alter both dominant and recessive marker genes with big results. In this research, when malaria-blocking genes were inserted into a population of Anapheles mosquitoes using CRISPR, the modification could be copied to the partner chromosome and thus passed down in every generation and inheritance rates rose to 99.5 percent. If successfully implemented on a global scale, this could help mosquitoes shed their stigma as the Kevins of the insect world………..

- No industry wants any part of Detroit at this point. The city is bankrupt, its neighborhoods are abandoned hell holes to uninhabitable that the zombies in “The Walking Dead” would take one look and say, “Nah, I think we can do better.” Packs of rabid dogs roam the streets, the infrastructure is crumbling and the last thing any business wants is to get sucked into the giant black hole that is the Motor City. Well, except Jack White, who has strong ties to Detroit and whose record label Third Man Records is set to open its own vinyl pressing plant in Detroit, the first new pressing plant in the city since the mid-1960s. The label has released music from a diverse range of artists, including Alabama Shakes, The Shins, Beck, Tom Jones, Insane Clown Posse, Johnny Cash and Jack Johnson since its founding in 2001. The overwhelming majority of those releases have come on vinyl and while this plant will largely focus on its own releases, Third Man is also interested in opening their plant up to smaller local acts. “Part of the concern in this world is that vinyl can very easily turn into an exclusionary thing… But this is going to make it easier for a little punk band to make 300 copies of a 7” label co-founder Ben Blackwell said. Right now, the plant is just an idea, as there is no confirmed date for its opening. In the meantime, White will have to stay busy with his solo career, his role as a member of both The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather and cultivating that maudlin, slightly creepy undertaker/hipster vibe he’s ridden to so much success as he listens to student sections at college sporting events nationwide mindlessly hum along to “Seven Nation Army” by his initial claim to fame, The White Stripes……….

- So things are a bit tense at the Macedonian border right now. Migrants are flooding into the region in ever-increasing numbers, affected governments are struggling to find answers on dealing with them and every decision made by those in power seems to be the wrong one. That’s probably why several migrants have blocked rail traffic and sewn their lips together with cord to protest a decision to only allow Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis to cross there from Greece. Some of these enraged border crashers have declared a hunger strike and they followed that by sitting down in front of lines of Macedonian riot police. Literally hundreds of thousands of migrants, many of them Syrians fleeing war, have already crossed into northern Europe from the Balkans after passing through Turkey. Many have seen their path take them through Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia as they head to the EU's more affluent countries, such as Germany and Sweden. Slovenia exacerbated the problem last week when its government declared it would only grant passage to those fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The rest will be classified as  "economic migrants" who would be sent right back from whence they came and this action inspired Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia - countries on what is known as the Balkan corridor - to do the same. In the wake of this decision, thousands of migrants have been stuck on the Macedonian border with temperatures starting to fall and human rights groups have ripped the stance, including Rados Djurovic, director of the Belgrade-based Asylum Protection Centre. "To classify a whole nation as economic migrants is not a principle recognized in international law,” Djurovic said. The Macedonian-Greek border remains a powder keg of rage, with migrants from countries including Iran, Morocco and Pakistan blocking the railway line running between the two countries, stopping at least one train………

- Who doesn’t want more time off from work and a chance for a five-day golf trip to Turks and Caicos in the middle of the winter? NHL players will have this welcome benefit next season as the league institutes a five-day "bye week" next season as part of the negotiation with the NHL Players' Association to sign off on the All-Star format changes announced this week. It’s a big step forward for the players and one they earned using the relatively cheap bargaining token of accepting the three-on-three All-Star Game format. Given that the ASG doesn’t matter and it’s a meaningless exhibition game, the format could not matter less and if giving in on that subject means the league will build in a five-day bye week for each team into their schedule between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28 next season, then the players struck themselves a winner of a deal. The week off is literally a week off, as players will be completely off with no practice during this break and teams will only be permitted to practice after 4 p.m. local time on the fifth day if there is a game on the sixth day. This extra time off comes as the league and NHLPA are staging a World Cup of Hockey next season, which is going to pile even more work on for those top players who take part in the event. Still, the break will benefit stars and role players alike, giving them some time to catch their breath and count how many teeth they’ve lost each season before getting back to the grind and trying to skate their way to a Stanley Cup title……….

Sacramento's $1 million dog hotel, L.A.'s lame Olympic push and Portuguese political hijinks

- Being a weeping, bitter mess doesn’t suit an aspiring rock star. Tossing around conspiracy theories in the process isn't much better and Scottish songstress Sandi Thom should probably stop her complaining because it just looks back. Thom, who has a quasi-hit in 2006 with “I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair),” hasn’t done much in the past decade, but there she was in a tearful video she posted this week  after finding out the news that her latest single 'Earthquake,’ which drops in two weeks, had been rejected by the BBC. An extremely emotional Thom said that she is "done with this industry" following the decision and claimed that BBC Radio 2 refused to playlist her new single because of anti-Scottish bias. Yes, there is apparently intra-United Kingdom racism and discrimination going on, maybe as lingering payback for Scotland’s referendum on independence last year. After taking heat for the video in which she told the BBC it could, “Shove it up your ass,” she claimed to be "speaking out for millions of indie artists.” As part of his conspiracy theory, Thom tried to illustrate just how poorly Scotland’s musicians are being treated. "This week on the Radio 2 playlist, there are no Scottish artists," she said. "This is not due to a lack of talent from Scotland or a lack of artists looking to be put on the playlist. I don't know if you think that's fair or not but I certainly don't." Unfortunately, she doesn’t back up her theory with an specific reasons why there is anti-Scottish musical bias, which could simply be because Scottish music sucks right now and there aren’t any artists releasing legitimately great music………..

- It’s wonderful to see a city revitalized by businesses investing in things that will better the lives of the people who live there. That has nothing to do with one of Sacramento’s well-known hotels undergoing a major new $1 million addition. This posh place of temporary residence is now complete with a pool with sparkling blue waters, a beach-themed entry way and a generally placid atmosphere of escape and calm. It’s a business brought to another level by seven figures’ worth of upgrades and yet, it’s not going to serve a single person. That’s because this hotel is a pet hotel, specifically the Animal Den, owned by Lisa Chafee. Chafee is, by all appearances, a hard-working entrepreneur who has put her whole life into her business and even opened a second facility next door to the first, with indoor dog rooms, outdoor dog runs for big and small dogs and a massive swimming pool. “It was about a two-year journey—18 months to acquire city permits, a very patient process,” she said. All of that money has turned the business into a popular place for ass has with no friends who dote on their dogs and treat Fido like a human being because they lack common sense and a decent perspective on life to drop off their dogs for a short stay. The hotel offers boarding, grooming or simply a day of laying by the pool, licking yourself and licking up your own vomit because you’re a f*cking dog and that’s the kind of thing you do as a member of the animal kingdom……….

- Los Angeles still doesn’t get it. The next great hope for America’s chance to host a sporting event that Americans actually want no part of is putting its ducks in a row and trying to make itself look presentable for the International Olympic Committee in the bidding process to lure the 2024 Olympic Games to Los Angeles. It’s a feeble effort to redeem the United States in the IOC’s eyes after Boston brilliantly balked at its chance to host the games because the city’s leaders correctly refused to foot the massive bill sure to come with cost overruns in putting on the Games. In its quest to impress, L.A. has named Hall of Famer and former Olympian Magic Johnson chairman of the group trying to lock down the 2024 Summer Olympics and the sports star turned business icon said in a statement that Los Angeles is "the best sports town in America." It’s a lie, of course, unless showing up a quarter of the way through a game and leaving three quarters of the way through it, being the biggest bunch of bandwagoners imaginable and caring more about the results of your latest Botox-ing than you do about what your team does at the trade deadline make a town a great sports city. Along with Johnson, the prominent labor leader Maria Elena Durazo is on board as vice chairwoman of the board and four-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Janet Evans was named a vice chairwoman in September. It’s a little sad because these members have expertise in sports, business and labor relations, but no one in L.A. is going to give a damn if their bid doesn’t win. They’ll just go back to the beach or boutique, or hit up their cocaine dealer on their way to the organic food market while Paris, Rome, Hamburg, Germany or Budapest, Hungary perform hosting duties in nine years……….

- If life doesn’t turn out the way you want, just demand that your country alter its constitution in order to get the results you’re after. No one needs to tell outgoing Portuguese center-right Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, who is desperately calling for changes to the constitution to allow an early general election on his way out the door. Believe it or not, Socialist leader Antonio Costa, the man who is strong-arming Passos out of power, is having none of it. Costa rejected the idea that a new ballot would remove any suspicion of misrepresentation in Passos’ dismissal from power by a leftist alliance of anti-austerity lawmakers led by the Socialist Party. This has been a tenuous alliance at best since it was formed after an Oct. 4 general election and that alliance used its parliamentary majority to unseat the government in a vote Tuesday. After that all went down, it fell to the Portuguese president to decide whether to invite to take power or install a caretaker government, but the bottom line here is that the constitution is what rules all and the Portuguese Constitution says a new ballot cannot be held for six months. It’s funny in a sense to see a panicked Passos trying to grasp at any straws around him when he has no power and no cards left to play, but give the guy credit for going down flailing rather than just going away quietly. As the alcoholic, depressed and iconic poet Dylan Thomas once wrote, “Do not go quiet into that dark night while your party gets bent over and f*cked by its opposition, rage, rage against the dying of the light by trying to rewriter your nation’s governing document even though it makes you look pathetic, weak and desperate.” Yes, that Dylan Thomas knew what he was talking about………

Treating the homeless like stray dogs, reviving Jeff Buckley and MLB ace chicken

- It’s the immovable object stuck in last place due to ineptitude and fire sale tendencies versus the unstoppable force of arrogance and greed demanding outrageous contracts and preferential treatment for his prized clients. In other words, the Miami Marlins' feud with agent Scott Boras kicked up a notch this week when team president David Samson - i.e. the loser voted off the island first in his season of “Survivor” - threw down the gauntlet by saying the team will exclude agent Scott “Blowhard” Boras from any future talks regarding ace Jose Fernandez's workload after Boras b*tched about the Marlins' handling of another one of his clients, outfielder Marcell Ozuna. Most observers expected their was little chance the Marlins would sign Fernandez to a long-term contract, but pissing off the most powerful agent in baseball further dims those chances. This all stems from the Marlins demoting Ozuna to Triple-A last season when he was in a 1-for-36 slump and Boras complaining about the move. Samson, who works for a team steeped in dubious business practices by gutting its roster on a semi-annual basis and failing to put a competitive product on the field after getting taxpayers to build them a stadium/party palace costing hundreds of millions of dollars, was having none of Boras’ ‘tude.  "My strong suggestion to Mr. Boras is that instead of resting on his 5 percent that he collects from his stable of players, he write a check and buy a team," Samson said. "Then he would have the opportunity to run a team that he claims to be so able to do. Until that time, he is in no position to comment how any Major League Baseball team is operated." Bam. Straight fire, Dave-O. Fernandez, who came back from Tommy John surgery this season, just happens to be a pawn in this power struggle and he’ll still get a ton of money when he becomes a free agent………..

- Third World nations are rife for smugglers looking for lax security and a lack of law enforcement resources who want an easier way to get their illicit product to the rest of the world. Those products are often white, powdery and highly illegal… and very rarely can they be used to sweeten up that batch of brownies your grandma is making for her neighbors for watering her plants while she was on vacation. That’s not the case in Kenya, where a local watchdog group claims Kenyan troops in Somalia are heavily involved in the smuggling of about 150,000 tons of sugar a year into Kenya. Yes, smuggling sugar. We’re not talking just a few packets of Sweet N’ Low, either. The group has released a report which says pro-government militia make $13 million a year from taxing the illegal sugar imports, completing a circle of shady dealings that could actually have a further and far more sinister implication than one might think. Sugar smuggling is also financing activities of Islamic extremist group al-Shabab that the Kenya military went to fight in Somalia and if this report is accurate, the Kenyan military is also illegally selling charcoal in Somalia. It sounds like a recipe for one hell of a barbecue, all of this illegal sugar and grill filler being thrown around, and this all matters because Al-Shabab has launched attacks in Kenya, killing hundreds, in retaliation to the Kenyan military presence in Somalia. Granulated sugar has never been such a point of contention, at least not since New York City attempted to ban oversized sugary drinks……….

- It’s time for the latest instance of a beloved, deceased recording artist who has been gone for years amazingly having left behind a treasure trove of unreleased music that his label can cash in on, er, share with his or her adoring fans by releasing. Usually, it’s a hip-hop artist, but this time it’s singer/songwriter Jeff Buckley, who passed way in 1997 but will nonetheless have an album of his unreleased material released on March 11 next year. The official story is that the tracks on 'You and I' were discovered in the Sony Music archives while staff at the label researched the 20th anniversary edition of Buckley's iconic album “Grace.” The majority of the tracks were recorded in February 1993 at Steve Addabbo's Shelter Island Sound studio and among their number are several covers, including songs by The Smiths, Led Zeppelin and Bob Marley. And as with bands who release greatest hits albums but expect their fans to still buy them despite owning 98 percent of the songs on them, this one will feature two pieces of original music: the first-ever studio recording of “Grace” and “Dream of You and I,” the latter described as "mysterious and haunting" by the label. The rest of the 10-track album includes Buckley's take on 'Just Like A Woman' by Bob Dylan and  'I Know It's Over' and 'The Boy with the Thorn in His Side' by The Smiths. Buckley’s haunting ballads, especially “Hallelujah,” have been staples of TV and movie soundtracks for years and he was clearly a skilled artist, so this project - shameless cash grab it might be - still has the potential to be pretty damn cool…….

- Game on, New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. You want to talk about the homeless, itinerant people who sleep on your city’s streets and live under its bridges and overpasses as if they’re stray dogs begging for food at the back door, then prepare to have a spotlight shone on those vagrants with results that probably weren't what you were hoping for. A day after Bratton’s comments, stories of just who is on the streets and how they’re doing with the panhandling operations began circulating. There’s the heartwarming tale of a panhandler outside Grand Central Terminal who claims to pull in up to $200 an hour from tourists and bleeding heart locals, a man who goes by the name Will Andersen. Anderson, a former theater stagehand, hangs out in the area around East 42nd Street between Vanderbilt and Madison avenues with his dog, Rizzo, and said that on especially busy mornings, he takes in as much as $400 in two hours. That’s barely enough for a decent hotel room in Manhattan, but one of his beggar buddies boasted of being given three meat-filled breakfast sammitches in a single morning. These are the kinds of tales that undoubtedly make Bratton’s stomach turn and his cold-hearted comments clearly ignore the fact that even if the homeless aren’t fed or funded, they’re still people who will be alive and in need of help. Guess the commish doesn’t have any great solutions for how to get the down-and-out back on track, but a police leader can't possibly do everything when his officers are busy illegally stopping and frisking minorities all the time……..

The hot mess of UAB athletics, Serbia throws $$$ at mass murder victims and Snoop Dogg's keef corporation

- Whoever finds a missing white 2015 Lamborghini Aventador Convertible last seen on the streets of New York City on October 28 is going to have a difficult decision to make. On one hand, that person could cash in on the $100,000 reward the legendary private detective agency is offering for information leading to the recovery of the vehicle. That seems like a sweet deal, right up to the point where you realize that this is a badass whip worth $450,000. The car was spotted in Flushing, Queens, before it disappeared and authorities believe could be parked hidden in some sort of shipping container, headed to an overseas buyer. Further thickening the plot, NYPD officials said they have no report of a stolen Lamborghini fitting the description. Whoever stole it either wanted to add it to their collection or plans to send it overseas because rolling that sort of heat on American streets would be far too conspicuous. The owner of the car hasn’t been identified, but the vehicle was parked near the Al Oerter Recreation Complex, a facility named for the legendary Olympic discus thrower. One possible place to look for suspects is a luxury car theft ring known to have been operating in the New York and New Jersey area in recent months, stealing Bentleys, Land Rovers and Maseratis. A total of 21 suspects have been charged in conjunction with that ring, according to the New Jersey State Police and Attorney General's office. Cars like this brand-new Lamborghini are extremely distinctive and owning it is almost a bigger deal than driving it for the rich, pompous pricks who tend to own such vehicles……..

- The inevitable has happened. Snoop Dogg has been deep in a giant pile of ganja for most of his life and has bought/been given/passed along so much of the hippie lettuce that he’s practically been running his own pot business for years. If anyone can be called a sticky icky aficionado, it’s Snoop. It’s a mere formality that the rapper and television personality has launched his own cannabis brand he has dubbed Leafs By Snoop. Because pot is legal in Colorado, that’s where the company will sell "the finest quality cannabis one could imagine," according to a release. "Wherever my musical journey has taken me around the world, it’s beautiful to see how chronic leafs are a common source of peace, love and soul that connects us all," Snoop wrote on the company’s website. "Since I’ve been at the forefront of this movement for over 20 years now, I’m a master of marijuana. Leafs By Snoop is truly the first mainstream cannabis brand in the world and proud to be a pioneer." What’s amazing here - aside from the fact that Snoop can't actually own the company because he is not a resident of Colorado - is the fact that he’s willing to get rid of any dank instead of keeping it all for himself. In the end, there are only so many bowls one can pack and so many bongs to fill, so when the state of Colorado legalized both medical and recreational use of marijuana in 2012, this day was inevitable. Hopefully CEO Dogg will be the chief keef product tester, bringing his vast expertise to the process of selecting only the best weed for his customers……….

- Hey residents of Srebrenica, remember those 8,000 Muslim men and boys of yours who wartime Serbs slaughtered 20 years ago and have shown far too little contrition for over the years? How about the Serbian government chips you off a paltry sum of money as a far-too-late, far-too-little apology for that massacre? The number is $5.4 million, money the government will to rejuvenate the Bosnian town. That amount of money may seem like a lot when you see it at first glance, but when you consider the prevalence of government waste and how quickly 5 million euros can go from an impressive sum to, “Where the hell did all of that money go and how did we only get a couple of new sidewalks and a park bench out of it?” that number is much less impressive. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic announced the blood money payment at an investment conference in the eastern town, promising that the first 2 million euros will arrive by Monday and that Srebrenica should become a bridge of cooperation between Serbia and Bosnia. However, that bridge has been (allegedly) in the process of being built with hollow gesture after hollow gesture. If any of those gestures meant anything, they wouldn’t keep coming and coming. Anyone who thinks these gestures men anything clearly wasn’t paying attention back in July, when Vucic had to flee events in Srebrenica marking the killings' 20th anniversary because enraged demonstrators blasted he and his entourage with rocks during the funeral of 136 massacre victims found in nearby mass graves. One inalienable truth the whole world ‘round is that when all else fails, you throw a massive pile of money at the problem and hope it goes away……….

- The University of Alabama-Birmingham is a hot fiscal mess right now. The school best known for shuttering its football program last year with its administration claiming it lacked the finances to keep the team alive only to face a massive backlash and an investigation that revealed its fiscal claims were bogus, then have to double back and revive the program when a grassroots campaign raised money to bring football back. Now, UAB is an the awkward position of not being able to cover the full cost of attendance for its student-athletes this year and if not for men’s basketball coach Jerod Haase, this situation could have taken an ugly turn. Haase stepped in to donate $46,000, or $23,000 to the men's and women's basketball teams, to make sure athletes on both squads had their tuition covered. The coach decided to pay the bulk of players' stipends out of his own pocket and did so while drawing no attention to himself and being reticent to even talk about it. He later addressed it and while a guy who makes $1 million annually, $46,000 is a relatively minor sum, but he explained that for the goals the university has for its programs, covering the full cost of attendance was vital. "Jerod's generosity is appreciated. To make that type of commitment shows what type of person he is,” women's coach Randy Norton said. UAB athletic director Mark Ingram said that the school will pay for the cost of attendance for all student-athletes beginning in the next budget cycle, but came up short  because the budget already had been determined when the NCAA passed the cost of attendance -- money given to players to help pay for college attendance, travel and other expenses. Given the way the university treated the football team and its issues financing scholarships for basketball - its two biggest sports - its other, lower-profile teams should probably keep their eyes peeled for a giant ax being swung at their budgets going forward……….

Guatemala's anti-crime tax, NFLers taunting police dogs and "LEGO Movie" gender-bending

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- Ray-Ray needs to dial-dial down his stupidity. Ray-Ray would be Oakland Raiders linebacker Ray-Ray Armstrong, who is being investigated by the Allegheny County Sheriff's Office for allegedly taunting a K-9 service dog before Oakland's game Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The idea of an NFLer talking junk or otherwise deliberately antagonizing a police dog when that player should be worried about getting ready for a game is equal parts idiocy and ridiculousness, but the best part of this entire mess is that the alleged crime would be considered a third-degree felony in Pennsylvania. Armstrong could face charges by the end of the week for allegedly barking at the dog, lifting up his shirt and pounding his chest between exiting the locker room and entering the field area for warm-ups, according to police. Bro, what the hell are you doing? Are you 12 years old or an NFL veteran? The dog was reportedly extremely agitated and the deputy handling it was doing her best to keep the canine from going off completely and making Armstrong feel the toothy consequences of his moronic actions. The sheriff's office notified the Steelers, the NFL and the Raiders of the investigation and has already interviewed witnesses and obtained video surveillance, which captured a portion of the incident. Armstrong was not interviewed before he left town and has refused to comment on the story, but he could still face league discipline if arrested. Believe it or not, the reason he’s even in Oakland is because the St. Louis Rams cut him last season for committing an excessive number of penalties. It’s hard to imagine such a disciplined guy doing something silly like racking up too many penalties………

- The fact that about 95 percent of crimes go unpunished in Guatemala is sad. That the government is weighing a temporary anti-crime tax to strengthen domestic prosecutors' offices seems a little desperate, but given the state of affairs in the Central American nation, perhaps worthwhile. The proposal to institute such a tax was put forth by a U.N. anti-impunity commission that’s involved because the United Nations feels so bad for poor, downtrodden Guatemala that it’s lending a hand trying to fix what’s broken with the country’s judicial system. Ivan Velasquez is the head of the U.N. commission and noted that  a similar tax was imposed to finance the 1996 peace accords that ended 36 years of civil war. The proposal has drawn mixed results, including by a man who just happens to head up the country's leading industry association.  Javier Zepeda leads that organization and you might be stunned to know that he opposes any new taxes right now. But hell, maybe Guatemala feels like it doesn’t need any stinking help these days because its anti-crime and anti-corruption forces are riding high after forcing the resignation of former president Otto Perez Molina for his links to a corruption scandal. Still, when ONLY 5 PERCENT OF CRIMES IN YOUR COUNTRY ARE ACTUALLY PROSECUTED, maybe it’s time to consider doing something new, lest your country devolve into even more of an unregulated cesspool of evil and violence where no one wants to visit and those who live there stay mostly because they’re too poor to get the hell out and find a country to live where at least half of the criminals are punished………

- Gender-bending in “The LEGO Batman Movie?” What the hell is going on here? It’s fine that the children’s building block toys originally wants to lampoon one of the most iconic superhero franchises of all-time and turn it into an animated children’s movie….but you cannot freak with the gender identities of key players in the story. Even though Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale have both said they’re done with the Batman franchise and it’s therefore available to be picked up and run with by someone else, it’s just not cool that Commissioner Gordon, a character who has traditionally been portrayed as male in all Batman projects and yet now has aging pop star Mariah Carey attached to it for the upcoming “Lego Batman Movie.” Carey is reportedly in talks to provide the voice of Gotham's police chief, which could make life confusing for fans of Fox’s current Batman prequel-style drama “Gotham,” which features Benjamin McKenzie in the James Gordon role. Gary Oldman took on the role in Nolan's “Dark Knight” trilogy and yet, here we have an overly sexualized female pop singer potentially poised to join a growing cast led by Will Arnett, who is reprising his role as Batman from “The Lego Movie,” as well as Michael Cera, who is voicing Robin, and Rosario Dawson, who is voicing Batgirl. Add in Ralph Fiennes as Batman's butler Albert Pennyworth and Zach Galifianakis portraying the Joker and you have yourself quite a star-voiced group. “The LEGO Batman Movie” will be the first of three Lego-based films in the works and is tentatively slated for release in February 2017………

- The stress of the holiday seasons can be too much for some to bear. The constant hustle and bustle, the added demands on time, the push to get so much done before a given holiday arrives, the financial constraints gift-giving puts on a person’s wallet….it can be an awful lot. It’s a good thing, then, that an unidentified United States Postal Service employee didn’t even make it to the heart of the holiday season before she got her ass fired. This slacker, whose name will eventually come out because the Internet, was out making deliveries recently when she had a package containing expensive electronic equipment that was supposed to be delivered to the door of one Hassan Hamze. It should have been a simple, fast delivery in part because it was one freaking package and secondly because Hamze was not home at the time. Taking that box to the door, knocking and then leaving it tucked behind a potted plant next to the door should have taken less than a minute, but a minute was something the delivery woman did not have. Rather than do her freaking job, she did as little as possible, pulling up outside Hamze's house in Greensboro, North Carolina and giving the package containing a high-tech lock worth $199 for Hamze’s front door a nice, two-handed toss out the side of her ride. She might have gotten away with her slacker-tastic display of incompetence if not for a motion-activated camera on Hamze's doorstep that captured the haphazard treatment of his package and amazingly, he wasn’t down with what went down. He contacted the post office, showed them the video and next thing you know, a person who most certainly would have blown a gasket if asked to deliver a truck full of Christmas packages now has plenty of free time on her hands to get some anger management counseling………