Jeff Soyer at Alphecca points out a truly bad segue from a local news broadcast.  Having grown up in East Texas, I can attest to the inexperience of most of the news crews at these local stations.  If you really want to see raw inexperience in action, try watching the 6:00pm newscast on Saturday.

It looks like the administrators at The University of Arizona just don’t get it.

A UA graduation tradition has come under heat in recent years, but this year, President Pete Likins is serious when he says no tortillas at the ceremony.

Last year, Likins asked graduates not to throw tortillas. However, since many ignored the request, Likins sent out a formal letter to the class of 2003 stating reasons why tortilla flinging is inappropriate for the 128th commencement ceremony.

Both Likins and Provost George Davis have said tortilla throwing harbors undertones of racism, and can be offensive to not only some students, but to guests as well.

“More than being a safety issue, this behavior is disrespectful to many of our Hispanic and American Indian community members, who feel that throwing tortillas is offensive to their cultures,” Likins stated in the letter.

Offensive?  What do Hispanic people think about this?

Both e-mails have received criticism from students who believe that a ban on tortillas is also a ban on an innocent tradition that is not meant to send racist or violent signals.

Carlos Ramirez, a Hispanic graduating history student, called Likins’ e-mail “ridiculous.”

“It’s like saying you can’t throw sandwiches because they represent Caucasians,” he said. “You can’t throw Frisbees, so you throw tortillas because no one can get hurt.”

Members of Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs said they know that the tortillas are not tossed to offend, but rather, as a celebratory representation of the community.

Marisol Diaz, a CHSA retention specialist, said that although the tortillas might seem offensive to the administration, she has heard no complaints about it from any students, faculty or staff.

“They do it everywhere,” she said. “I have gone to a lot of high school graduations where they throw tortillas, and most of the people doing it were Hispanic.”

Like so much politically correct crapola, this oily concern for the feelings of others simply masks their real agenda, which is that they don’t want to be embarassed in front of the governor and a senator.

Likins said he also fears the tortilla throwing could get out control, causing someone, namely Gov. Janet Napolitano or Sen. Jon Kyl, who are both speaking at graduation, to be hit.

This sounds like it’s a long-standing tradition that is going to be hard to kill.  And the administration doesn’t have much traction on this one.  It just makes them look silly.  But these are probably people who piss into the wind and wonder why it’s raining when there are no clouds in the sky…

When I heard about this asinine Oreo lawsuit I was appalled.  Apparently, I’m not the only one.  Jeff Soyer has a few choice words for the bottom feeding scum sucking lawyer who initiated the suit.

I would never condone violence against anyone, and I certainly would not encourage anyone to do same. But in my opinion, that is, just speculating—fantasizing as all of us do—on what would make this a better world, and in excercising my First Amendment rights to speak on someone who has through his own actions become a public figure, I hope Stephen Joseph trips on a clump of dirt somewhere and falls into a bottomless pit.

But he also has some important things to say about the whiny baby culture that we seem to be turning into.

If that’s what our society has come down to (and apparently that is what most liberals would like) then life isn’t worth living. We will never explore the stars because no agency could possibly afford the liability insurance for such a project. We will never again become strong as a species because no lawyer or politician (aren’t they both one and the same) will allow us to. If we now need to ban Oreos cookies because they represent a threat to us, we will never amount to anything.

This is something that’s been bothering me as well.  Only if you’re hurt through no fault of your own should you be able to sue, and then only for whatever is needed to make you whole again (or the equivalent, if it’s not possible to do so).  Otherwise, shut the hell up and deal with it.  The world is a dangerous place and to try to make it otherwise will turn it into a lifeless dull hell of endless regulation and prying nannies.

Update:  Little Green Footballs has picked up on this, and Laurence Simon left this in the comments.  That St. Claire safety sign maker comes in pretty handy.

This guy can’t seem to understand the whole personal boundary thing.

Raymond C. Dublin rejected a deal yesterday to spend another six months behind bars for allegations he sneaked up behind a Woonsocket, R.I., woman last year at Save-A-Lot supermarket in Bellingham and licked her toes, court papers show.

At first, I was mildly amused, but then I read this:

In 1991, he was convicted of first-degree sexual assault and sentenced to 15 years with 10 to serve; in 1998 he was convicted of second-degree sexual assault and sentenced to 15 years with five to serve.

He’s quite vividly demonstrated that he can’t be trusted to live in free society.  Why is this guy still running around on the streets?

This is so very wrong.

A 73-year-old man who used an air raid siren to stun his wife into submission has had it confiscated by German police.

“My wife never lets me get a word in edgeways,” the man identified as Vladimir R. told Mannheim police. “So I crank up the siren and let it rip for a few minutes. It works every time. Afterwards, it’s real quiet again.”

Link via Pejman Yousefzadeh.

I saw this dumb law (scroll down to Seattle) as a quote at Slashdot this morning, and it amused me greatly.

Seattle

• You may not carry a concealed weapon that is over six feet in length.

I will admit that I’m easily amused, though.

A man was sentenced to jail in Pontiac, Michigan for performing a castration on his kitchen table.

Man jailed for home castration

A judge has jailed a Taiwanese man who performed a castration in his kitchen.

Suo-Shan Wang, 29, was arrested in June after the willing victim of the castration became unwell outside his home.

Wang was convicted of practising medicine without a licence and sentenced to 14 months to four years.

Willing victim?!  So just what motivated this step?

The man who underwent the castration did so because he wanted to curb his sex drive as he had a sexually transmitted disease, prosecutors said.

Man, that’s a bit drastic.  Hasn’t this guy ever heard of condoms?

So where did the enterprising pseudo-surgeon learn this skill?

Wang told police he learned the skill from his grandparents. He performed his first surgery on a dog and then on the dog’s owner and three of the owner’s friends in Australia, prosecutors said.

Hmmm…  Those are some really impressive credentials.

Another interesting tidbit turned up in this article.

Authorities say that after the procedure, the men shared a slice of pie at the same table on which the castration was performed.

I certainly wouldn’t share anything with someone who did that to me, but then I’d never willingly do something that freakin’ stupid.  I cringe just thinking about it.  Ugh.

Some Denton-area teenagers were out playing with a potato gun over the weekend and the episode ended badly for one of them: (Denton Record-Chronicle, registration may be required)

A Denton teen is in critical condition after being shot in the face with a frog exploding from a potato gun, and his mother wants to know why the illegal weapons are available on the Internet.

Daniel Benjamin Berry, 17, was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth early Sunday after he looked down the PVC pipe barrel and was struck in the face by a frog.

“He is going to be blind in both eyes,” said his mother, Lisa Berry, from her vigil in the critical care waiting room. “Some other kid ordered one [potato gun] over the Internet. They thought it was a toy. It’s not a toy. It’s a dangerous weapon.”

The accident occurred about 1 a.m. near the Old Alton Bridge in the Copper Canyon area. Denton County Sheriff’s spokesman Kevin Patton said three teens took the homemade mechanism, which is considered an illegal weapon, to the bridge along with a supply of potatoes to fire for recreation.

“At some point, someone decided to fire frogs from the gun,” Mr. Patton said. “And at some point, the gun misfired.”

A crowd of teens had gathered to watch, the sheriff’s spokesman said.

“Mr. Berry was a spectator. He walked over to try to help with the misfire. He looked down the barrel and the gun fired on a delayed reaction. The frog struck him in the face.”

…

Ms. Berry said she doesn’t blame the other boys for her son’s injuries. They did not know the destructive power of the weapon they bought, she said. Once her son is past the critical phase, she plans to find out more about how such weapons can be sold, she said.

Daniel wanted to join the Air Force but she would not sign for him, she said. She encouraged him to go to college until he was old enough to join without parental consent. So he has been attending the International Business School in Denton.

“All he ever wanted to do was be an Air Force pilot,” she said. “That isn’t going to happen now.”

This whole incident leaves me with several rather intemperate thoughts:

• Where was the parental surpervision?  They may be teenagers, but they’re still underage and need guidance.
• Why didn’t the parents of the other teen who ordered the gun know about it?  It’s not like it’s a popgun you can hide under a shirt or something.  It’s a freaking potato gun.
• I don’t understand how they thought this kid would be able to become a pilot.  If he doesn’t have enough sense not to look down the barrel of an explosive device, he doesn’t have enough smarts to be a pilot
• What kind of sadistic bastard puts a frog in a potato gun?  I know that young kids can be somewhat cruel, but these were teenagers.  They’re supposed to know better.

Of course the mother wants to hunt down the potato gun supplier, but why didn’t she raise her son with enough sense to avoid looking down the barrel of a gun?

Am I just an insensitive prick for thinking that a bit of personal responsibility is needed here?  Frankly, at this point, I don’t care anymore.  I’m tired of things being made against the law because some irresponsible people don’t have enough sense not to get themselves hurt doing something stupid.  (I didn’t put that bit about “something to offend everyone” up there in the top left corner for nothing.)

I just saw this (Washington Post registration required) over at The Command Post.  Apparently, Mohamed ElBaradei thinks that any tests for WMD in Iraq will need the to be done by the U.N. to have credibility.

My initial reaction to such a statement is to wonder if he’s been smoking the same crack as the Iraqi Minister of (dis)Information.

I must be somewhat obtuse, because I received a one-line email with no subject that has me scratching my head:

America!  Love it or leave it!  We have 15 pets!

Is that directed at me?  What’s the deal with the pets?  I’m confused….