More Local Douchebaggery

Burglars strike three schools and don't really steal too much, they just broke some windows, sprayed fire extinquishers and drank a bunch of soda. They did steal a computer from a reading resource room though so it wasn't all fun and games.

The thing of it is, these schools are already way underwater in terms of budget and they really don't have a spare chunk of cash to repair the damage and buy a replacement computer.

I would guess this was perpetrated by some teenagers just looking to cause some trouble but I don't really care, you break into a school and vandalize it or steal from it and you might as well get "LOSER" tattooed on your forehead. You're a walking turd and the sooner you get caught for some crime and sentenced to a long stay in the pokey, the better. They probably won't get busted for this annoying and lame crime but its a pretty good bet that they commit other limp crimes in addition to these.

The upside is that some of the employees in the district are looking into ways to get them a replacement computer from some of the other schools, mine included. I've requested permission to send over one of our spares that has been in the lab awaiting re-imaging and am hopeful that they will get more than just the one or two from my school.

Crime Reports and Google Maps Mashup

Are you curious about the incidence of crime near your house or place of business? Do you want to be depressed?

Check out SpotCrime and go to your state and select your city. Like, oh I don't know, let's look at Oakland and you can even select the crimes you want to see represented on the map. There have been 53 shootings in Oakland and 300 assaults, 180 acts of vandalism and that's just in the last two months.

The site doesn't include smaller cities and towns but I hope they are working to add them as I'd like to get a sense of the real level of crime near my house. And I will certainly be making use of this site when we do get to a point where we can relocate to a new house.

You can even pop in an address to see how close it is to see crime "hubs" for an extra-depressing reality.

Two Years for Dogfighting

Vick Gets 23 Months for Dogfighting

That feels about right. He'll probably get let out early and will start his comeback to the NFL as quickly as he can. Which makes sense since he's lost a pretty amazing amount of money over this really stupid and cruel dogfighting ring he bankrolled.

Do I ever want to see Michael Vick on the football field again? Nope. I'd just as soon he never appeared in the public eye again but it isn't up to me. I just hope neither of the Bay Area teams are dumb/desperate enough to sign him because I will make it a point to go and protest it.

Sexual Deviants Posing as Teachers In Our Schools

Sexual Misconduct Plagues US Schools

One report mandated by Congress estimated that as many as 4.5 million students, out of roughly 50 million in American schools, are subject to sexual misconduct by an employee of a school sometime between kindergarten and 12th grade. That figure includes verbal harassment that's sexual in nature.

These are people who are hired to care for, instruct and educate our children but are instead groping, molesting and even raping them. And when they are accused by their victims, the victims are, more often than not, called liars and the charges dismissed.

In case after case the AP examined, accusations of inappropriate behavior were dismissed. One girl in Mansfield, Ohio, complained about a sexual assault by teacher Donald Coots and got expelled. It was only when a second girl, years later, brought a similar complaint against the same teacher that he was punished.

And that second girl also was ostracized by the school community and ultimately left town.

This is a system that excuses criminal sexual misconduct and allows it to continue unchecked. Do you know what sexual misconduct can do to a child? Neither do I but I don't expect it makes them better in any way.

And the schools don't want to embarrass themselves (or open themselves up to massive lawsuits) so they don't open investigations and the molesting teacher is allowed to leave quietly with their teaching license so they can go teach and molest more children somewhere else.

The article is scary, awful and makes me want to perform personal background checks on each of my children's teachers.

Luckily, in this day of the internets and high speed information transmission and blogs, teachers who grope are less and less likely to get away with it. But how many kid's lives are turned upside down by sick bastards (9 of 10 educational molesters are men) getting their sick rocks off by ruining our children.

I'm pretty thoroughly disgusted by all of this. And fearful for my own children as they start to enter the educational system.

Three Arrests in PC World Editor's Murder

Suspects in killing of PC World editor could face death penalty

Rex Farrance was a tech editor and a gentleman I had some dealings with as a high tech publicist. Among a sea of brusque replies and curt rejections, he took the time to actually listen to me, hear what I was trying to offer him and gave it real thought. That he was interested and wanted to meet but we had a scheduling problem is irrelevant. Unlike the majority of editors I've spoken to and worked with, I didn't mind giving him a call.

He definitely did not deserve to die in such a cold and callous manner. He was not a drug dealer, he was a father allowing his medical marijuana prescription holding son to grow pot at his house. An activity that is legal under California law, both the possession and cultivation, regardless of your personal beliefs on the utility of marijuana for medicinal use.

And the three men who murdered him for weed and a safe full of guns now face the death penalty for the extenuating circumstances of the crimes they committed. These were bad people who targeted, invaded, assaulted, robbed and murdered a good and decent man. And all because his son happened to be talking about the garden without regard for who might overhear him and that's a pretty hefty cross to bear no matter what happens to the criminals.

I'm glad that it appears that justice will be served. I'd be gladder if justice didn't have to be served. But that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

The Juice Isn't Loose

O.J. Simpson accused in Las Vegas robbery over sports memorabilia

Boy, talk about living inside a bubble. How could this double murdering moron not know that his every move was going to be scrutinized and that committing (allegedly) a strong arm robbery wouldn't come back to bite him in his double murdering ass?

And then we find out that one of his own goons taped the incident and we might as well skip to the sentencing phase.

OJ now faces up to 30 years in prison for his actions and I'd imagine that a judge would be hard pressed to not bring the heaviest smackdown he could on him. Call it karmic backlash, call it justice, call it whatever you want but it appears that OJ is going to prison.

And that's fine by me and, very likely, the majority of this country that was outraged when he was found not guilty that bloody double murder of his ex-wife and Ron Goldman.

Maybe Now is a Good Time to Wipe That Smug Look Off?

NFL suspends Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick indefinitely after he files plea

And the plea deal tries to misrepresent Vick as just part of the gang and not the ringleader and bankroll. Good on Roger Goddell for bringing the hammer down hard on this miscreant scumbag.

You know what would go a long, long way to starting to repair your public image, Michael? Actually looking like you realize how fucking wrong and guilty you are. The smug look you carry may just be a survival mechanism but it makes me and every other dog lover in the world want to strap you down and beat you with a lead pipe. But I'm not holding my breath since you continue to give the impression that you think all of this is ridiculous and people are up in arms over nothing. It isn't nothing. You are a cruel and reprehensible man who gets his jollies from watching dogs forced to fight each other to the death. That's sickening!

I hope the suspension is permanent. I hope you are barred from playing in the NFL for the rest of your life. Or maybe they let you back after you've gotten old and slow just to watch the young studs bury you again and again?

Nah, that would be cruel, not unlike you hanging "sub-standard" dogs. Or drowning them. Or fucking electrocuting them, you disgusting shitbag.

I hope the judge in your case gives you the maximum sentence of five years and I hope each state that can prosecute you, does to the fullest extent of the law. I hope you emerge from the other side of this disgusting case a contrite man with just a tiny bit of understanding how thoroughly disgusting a human being you really are.

Goodbye salary, goodbye Nike endorsements, goodbye lavish house in the boonies. Hello, six by eight cell.

Vick is Done

NFL: Vick accepts U.S. plea offer in dogfighting case

And he should, if there is even a tiny bit of justice in the universe, never set foot on a professional football field as a player again.

Actually, he should never be allowed to walk the streets as a freeman again but I am not holding my breath since he's got alot of money.

The deeply disgusting nature of his crimes and just how graphic his involvement has, allegedly, been pretty much makes him scum. He could get fed into a chipper/shredder feet first and I might be inclined to think he got off easy.

I can't even think straight because of how disgusting and infuriated this story makes me.

I hope he goes to prison for a long time and suffers as much as all those dogs he forced to fight and die (and be killed) for his grotesque entertainment.

[Update: The Grammer Police stopped by and informed me in the most smart alecky way possible that I meant "infuriated" above and not "infuriatingly" as I'd originally written. I can't wait to catch Rhodes in a moment of grammatical weakness! The payback shall be swift and merciless! And I might just write a post full of grammatical mistakes just to cause him editorial pain. How ya like me now?]

Scroll Down - They Are Everywhere

I'm a regular reader of the Santa Cruz Sentinel's Cops and Courts section.

Partly out of curiosity (the morbid kind most likely) but also because I want to keep an eye on what crimes are being reported around my house.

Stabbing season seems to have died down for the time being but we are, apparently, entering DUI season so be careful out there.

The story I am referring to is the gang fight that got broken up at the intersection of Main Street and Green Valley Road. Yeah, yeah, whatever, right? Except this gangfight got broken up by some FBI agents who just happened to be nearby.

That's right, the FBI broke up a fight. And it's about four blocks from my house. Makes me feel tingly all over to know that there's something "interesting" enough right here in my neighborhood to warrant the FBI investigating it. I hope it isn't a dirty bomb or something awful like that.

And, you know, tingly isn't really the right word, I suppose its more like "fearful" that the police state is already here, it just has a great big Wal-Mart smiley face on it.

Banging Patients and Getting Away With It

Crimes Reported To State Not Forwarded For Prosecution

A psychiatrist who has admitted to having sex with female patients will never be prosecuted for his crime.When Dr. Kim Nagel surrendered his medical license in 2004, he admitted to having sex with at least two of his female patients, 7NEWS reported.

Yet since neither the medical board nor the attorney general's office reported Nagel's apparent criminal behavior to the local district attorney, it is now too late for prosecution.

Which is, of course, ridiculously insane. He's admitted to his crimes but, because someone in the AG's office and another in the medical board office was too lazy or incompetent to file the charges, he gets off (yes, pun intended) scot free.

The deeply wrong nature of this situation irks me in ways that make it hard to sit up straight (no, that might not make sense).

Whoever was negligent in filing the charges should be held accountable for their inaction. How many other criminals got a Get-Out-of-Trouble-Free card from the office? Any murderers? Rapists? Child molesters?

This is a serious breach of the process of law and an affront to justice.

Dr. Kim Nagel is free to reapply for a license to practice medicine anywhere in this country and that is grotesquely wrong. People in positions of authority who abuse that authority should most definitely be tried and punished for abusing that authority. Anything else condones thier activity and sends the wrong message to victims and potential perpetrators of similar crimes.