You Do Not Talk About Fight Club:

This year, authorities in Texas, New Jersey, Washington state and Alaska have discovered more than a half-dozen teen fight rings operating for fun — or profit. These illegal, violent, often bloody bouts pit boys and girls, some as young as 12, in hand-to-hand combat. Some ringleaders capture these staged fights with video or cellphone cameras, set them to rap music, then peddle homemade DVDs on the Internet. Other fight videos are posted on popular teen websites such as MySpace.com and YouTube.com.

Do we have a new BrewHaHa tradition?

BrewHaHa time is coming up once again. The August event will be held Friday, August 11 at 6:00 p.m.

But where? Leave your suggestions in the comments, and I’ll announce the location sometime tomorrow.

Busted:

A Harris County grand jury indicted former Texas Southern University President Priscilla Slade today on two charges of criminally misusing university money for her private benefit, officials said.

A recent audit also found that Slade spent nearly $650,000 over the past seven years on personal purchases not allowed under her contract. She has denied any wrongdoing.

Slade used school funds for $86,467 in home furnishings, $138,159 in landscaping services and $56,000 in security-related equipment. After regents questioned the expenses, she reimbursed TSU for the landscaping bill, which includes a security gate, masonry and tree removal at her 17,675-square-foot property.

If she’s got any sense, she’ll plea out, because the trial would be a slam dunk for the DA.

Althor and Richard over at Hyscience are starting to wonder about the timing of all this:

In a recent post on Hyscience by Richard, he couldn’t help but wonder how come barely a few hours after the Qana attack by Israeli forces, which we have been told in the media left fifty four civilians dead - most of them women and children, a giant 30 foot high banner with the professionally rendered painting of the image of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, with the suggestively conspicuous addition of a smaller one of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to her right in the background, decked with inflammatory slogans in Arabic about the Qana incident, was unfurled in Beirut just in time for the violent demonstration that took place just a few hours later in the day in Beirut and Gaza.

Richard points out at the obvious professional quality of the banner, and along with John of “Power Line” and others, wondered:

“I have no idea what kind of facility it takes to produce a 30-foot-high banner like this one. It is obviously professionally done. It would be interesting to know where this banner was produced; who designed and paid for it; and how its production was expedited so that it was ready for use, on the street, within hours after the event being protested. For example, was the image of Rice produced in advance, awaiting a pretext for its use, with only the script added at the last minute? I’ve often been curious about the logistics of pro-terrorist demonstrations, and this seems like an especially curious example.”

One does wonder doesn’t one….

UPDATE: Clayton Cramer  has some more peices of the puzzle that just don’t fit.

You’ve got to love the editors of the Houston Chronicle — they’re such happy, optimistic people:

Perhaps Texans are growing weary of living in a state at the bottom of the barrel for almost every measurement of quality of life.

Replace “life” with “journalism” and that sentence makes a lot more sense.

Illegal immigration has been an issue which has divided Republicans thanks to President Bush’s unflagging support for his absurd “Trust me, it’s not amnesty!” guest worker program. This approach has clashed with those in his party who rightly seek to secure the border before talk of what to do with current illegals begins. The end result has been a political logjam on the issue, and the Chron tells us that our own Senator Cornyn has called for leadership.

WASHINGTON - Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Monday that President Bush must make a “bold and dramatic move” to revive the prospect of major immigration legislation becoming law this year.

“To some extent the president’s got some proving himself to do when it comes to his commitment” to immigration reform, said Cornyn, whose longtime allegiance to Bush has been strained over the issue.

What kind of move could the President make? Senator Cornyn offers that a gesture towards border enforcement might show that the President actually believes in the concept.

Cornyn said that such a dramatic move would be for the president to embrace the senator’s recommendation that the White House send Congress a $3.6 billion emergency spending request to pay for border control measures such as more fencing and detention beds.

In that way, the senator said, the public would be assured that Congress is committed to tough border enforcement before it considers other aspects of comprehensive immigration reform such as a guest-worker program.

Whether or not you support a guest-worker program, securing the border should make sense to you. That our current efforts are pathetic and ineffectual should also be obvious. Unfortunately, time marches on, whether our representatives act or not.

“Right now as each day goes by, there is less and less chance we will fix the immigration issue,” Cornyn said.

In offering his parting shot, the Senator calls for leadership from the top.

“It is time for some adult supervision and for somebody to say, ‘OK, this isn’t productive’ and have everybody sit down and talk to each other,” he said.

Perhaps we can add “adult supervision” to the list of jobs an American just won’t do.

While we are on the subject of Homicidal maniacs…

In 1996, 19 year old Kenneth Lee Pierott of Beaumont, after smoking “wet” (Marijuana soaked in embalming fluid) believed he was God and that his older sister, who was bedridden with Cerebral Palsy had been posessed by evil, so he took a metal dumbell and bludgeoned his sister’s head to a pulp. He was also diagnosed with Paranoid Schitzophrenia.

In his 1998 trial, he was found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity and in July was sent to Vernon State hospital for Initial Evaluation and then in August transferred to Rusk State Hospital.

In October of that year, it was deemed by his doctors at Rusk that in-patient treatment was no longer required and he was released to an out-patient program.

Fast forward to April 2004.

Mr. Pierott stuffed his girlfriend’s 5 year old son into a gas oven (registration required), and turned the knob to broil and went to bed. The oven’s pilot light had malfunctioned, so instead of being baked to death, the child merely asphixiated. I suppose that was a blessing of sorts. Thankfully, this time, he was found guilty and must serve 30 years before being considered for parole.
Anyone who thinks that Andrea Yates will never see the outside of a mental hospital is sadly mistaken.

(Hat Tip LawDog )

A new group has formed in Cy-Fair ISD to act as a tax watchdog group. They are the Cy-Fair Citizens. They are not taking an adversarial stance with Cy-Fair ISD. They want to work with Cy-Fair to try to keep tax rates fair and to ensure that the citizens of Cy-Fair get the most bang for thier buck.

(Hat Tip DigitalDon)

 

… it’s lonely down here, Fidel!

Little Havana live-blogging courtesy Babalu Blog.