insignificant thoughts

A black Long Island homeowner convicted of killing a white teenager during a group confrontation has surrendered to begin his prison term.

John White, 56, was convicted of manslaughter for killing Daniel Cicciaro Jr. in 2006 in front of White’s Miller Place home.

White said his gun went off by accident. He said a mob of white teens showed up in his driveway, spewing racial epithets.

The teens had been feuding with White’s son and believed a false Internet claim that he had threatened to rape a girl they knew.

Authorities said White should have stayed inside and called 911.

I don’t know about you, but if a mob of people showed up on my driveway, I don’t think I’d hesitate much with my trigger finger. White says it was an accident, but I wouldn’t even defend it as such. I’d take my lumps for shooting the pricks trying to intimidate me.

Authorities say he should’ve called 911? Yeah. Right.

Authorities don’t live in the real world.

The 2010 Idols Live Tour only launched last week, on July 1, but apparently the tour is already in serious trouble. While last year’s Idols Live Tour with the Season 8 cast was considered a coast-to-coast success, with sold-out stadium dates in most markets, several shows on this year’s trek have been rescheduled (“Idol” fans in Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Bridgeport, Connecticut better recheck their calendars) or even canceled altogether (“Idol” fans in Cleveland, Toronto, Winnipeg, Omaha, Kansas City, and Portland, Maine are just flat out of luck). And yet other dates remain up in the air; for instance, the Live Nation website says tickets for Buffalo’s September 10 concert are “currently not available for sale.” And rumors abound that some existing shows will be downsized to more “intimate” venues.

So, are poor sales for the Idols Live Tour just an extension of what was widely considered to be a disappointing “American Idol” season, or are they symptomatic of a sluggish concert industry overall? Well, probably a little of both.

That’s pretty scary… Maybe we’ve hit the point where Idol has worn out its welcome?

A well-known Roman Catholic priest who stole $1.3 million from the Sacred Heart parish over seven years said he “had grown to hate being a priest” because the Archdiocese had given him the “worst church assignments” where he would “have to fix problems made by the previous priests,” according to his arrest warrant.

The Rev. Kevin J. Gray, 64, was charged with first-degree larceny. Police said he used church funds to pay for hotels, restaurant meals, clothing and male escorts. Gray turned himself in to authorities Tuesday morning and was to be arraigned in Waterbury Superior Court.

Male Escorts, huh? What is it with these guys and the male escorts?

Jeez…

I guess I should be grateful he wasn’t trafficking in 10 year old boys.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is blocking certain websites from the federal agency’s computers, including halting access by staffers to any Internet pages that contain a “controversial opinion,” according to an internal email obtained by CBS News.

The email was sent to all TSA employees from the Office of Information Technology on Friday afternoon.

This oughta be good…

I have never been big on the Fourth of July. Most years, I took great pleasure in reading the powerful Frederick Douglass speech, ” The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” Though delivered in 1852 during slavery, the words have rich meaning for me, even today.

“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July,” he thundered to a crowd in Rochester, N.Y. “I answer, a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity … your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery.”

The speech is a scathing indictment of U.S. hypocrisy. If you called me on July 4, I would probably read you some of its rich and powerful passages.

Just don’t question her patriotism, ok?

Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana, sensed that a chart showing 140 oil skimmers at work — a chart given to him by BP and the Coast Guard — was “somewhat inaccurate.” So, Nungesser asked to fly over the spill to verify the number.

The flyover was cancelled three times before those officials admitted that just 31 of the 140 skimmers were actually deployed.

The incident is detailed in a report released Thursday by Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Republicans say the report provides evidence that the Obama administration misrepresented the assets devoted to the cleanup, misrepresented the timing of when government officials knew there was an oil spill and misrepresented the level of control the government had over the matter. It also claims the Obama administration seemed more interested in public relations than cleaning the mess and plugging the hole.

I’m sure our “journalists” in the mainstream media will be investigating this story with the fervor it deserves.

*cough*

Two weeks ago I attempted to purchase a 2010 Hyundai Elantra SE from Long Island City Hyundai in [redacted], NY.

Hmmm… I wonder where Long Island City Hyundai is…

What is up with these people who get on public transportation and just behave like such low class citizens!? Just because it’s public, doesn’t mean its a place for you to groom yourself or expose your filth, or a forum for you to behave like an animal.

God that made me laugh… Ask anyone who’s ridden the NYC subway and I can guarantee you they’ve seen exactly this.

To no one’s surprise, all except Senor parroted the administration’s position that we desperately need more stimulus. Stimulus Maximus called the first stimulus bill—nearly a trillion dollars—a “half measure” (!) and says it’s time to double-down. Tucker, in a beautifully-timed fourth-of-July display of disdain for the muddle-headed hoi polloi (you and me), empathized about how “the people” were “confused” by the word “stimulus,” and praised Democrats for rightly rebranding the next handout as a “jobs bill.” To her, we’re too stupid to understand what “stimulus” means yet stupid enough to be fooled by the new marketing campaign.

Because, as you all know, if you throw money you don’t have at a problem it won’t solve, it’ll solve it.

The current issue of Vanity Fair has an inspirational interview with Sean Penn in which he begrudgingly opens up about his charity work in Haiti, where he’s lived for the past 5 months.

It’s inspirational because it proves you can just lie your ass off in interviews with major magazines and no one will fact check anything or call you on your bullshit if you’re a celebrity (more here). Penn goes back and forth to Haiti every few weeks, but so do drug mules, and he only does it for the attention.

As WWTDD points out, he was, in fact, home in Malibu this weekend.

Roughin’ it.