Is Harry Hardon the DJ?

Pirates take over small-town radio signal

Residents of San Mateo County, California are hearing an unusual sound on the 89.3 frequency of their FM radios these days. Commercial-free radio programmed by real, local people.

Pirate Cat Radio founder Daniel Roberts and his crew took over the radio frequency May 8, after years of defying the Federal Communications Commission by broadcasting without a license. Roberts was recently fined by the FCC for just that, as Jennifer Waits writes in Spinning Indie.

New Documents Obtained In Arpaio Money-Use Case

PHOENIX — CBS 5 obtained some new information about how much money the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe may have misused.

According to those documents, MCSO’s Chief Financial Officer, Loretta Barkell, provided information showing nearly $500,000 of misspending in just a two-week period.

Gee, who coulda seen this coming, right? Sheriff Above The Law, a crook?

After keeping us waiting for a century, Mark Twain will finally reveal all

Exactly a century after rumours of his death turned out to be entirely accurate, one of Mark Twain’s dying wishes is at last coming true: an extensive, outspoken and revelatory autobiography which he devoted the last decade of his life to writing is finally going to be published.

The creator of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and some of the most frequently misquoted catchphrases in the English language
left behind 5,000 unedited pages of memoirs when he died in 1910, together with handwritten notes saying that he did not want them to hit bookshops for at least a century.

To Muslims, Mohammed is the last Prophet of God – a particularly singular figure in Islam. He is the epitome of all the virtues one sees in the Quran, the model of a perfect human being. Volumes have been written compiling his words and actions, which along with the Quran, form the foundation of Islam. He is, in short, an intensely revered figure.

Imagine Martin Luther King Jr. portrayed as a monkey and you begin to understand the depth of Muslims’ revulsion to such images.

I fully intended to put an image of Mohammad on the blog yesterday, and then completely forgot about it. I also joined the infamous Facebook page as well, but quit once it became a mecca for every half-wit American racist and Muslim intolerant on the internet.

But to the writer of the CSM piece, yes, I would be offended if someone portrayed King as a monkey. I’m offended when my fellow citizens do it to images of Obama.

Difference is, I don’t physically attack the artists.

Miss Haq, you and your fellow Muslims are free to believe anything you wish, anywhere in the world. Just as there are those who believe in Jesus, Santa, or that we were attacked on 9/11 by forces unknown. Believe all you want. But what you believe has nothing to do with me. I happen to not believe in Mohammad, or Jesus, or whatever FSM of choice you might happen to follow.

What I do believe was articulated long ago by Rousseau:

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

Your “belief” that drawing a stick figure and calling it Mohammad injures you is not only ridiculous, it is yet another chain. I was born with the freedom to draw or write anything I fucking wish to. You were born with the freedom to either be offended, or be a rational being. You chose the former. A regretful choice that will continue to keep Muslims stuck in the 15th century for eternity…and part of why your faith is openly hated around the world.

Your choice. You have the freedom to object, we have the freedom to draw. You don’t have the freedom to stop us by force, only by suggestion. If you wish to be a member of the rational world, you best learn the difference between private belief and public action. Scribbled words in a book written by men with agendas- be it Muslim, Christian, or L. Ron fucking Hubbard are nothing more than that-words. They aren’t “proof” of anything. My freedoms as a man trump whatever fiction you choose to live your life by.

Your life, not mine.

Gee, no abuse of power here…

Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate takes on Twitter

Tom Corbett, who just became the Republican gubernatorial nominee in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, is trying to crack the IDs of two Twitter account holders who have used the short messaging service to criticize him, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting.

Corbett’s Democratic opponent for governor, Dan Onorato, isn’t buying it. He says the AG is misusing his office.

Boo hoo, somebody said something mean about me. Boo hoo, I’m a public figure. And a republican. That should open you up to scads of invective. Boo hoo.

By Davis’s estimate, it took 12-15 minutes to get from the rig to the work boat, but it would take another 36-40 hours before they were to return to shore – even though there were dozens of boats in the area and Coast Guard helicopters airlifting the most severely injured to hospital.

Davis had been awake nonstop for about 50 hours by that point. He signed. Buzbee says most of the men did.

Obama, nationalize BP in the US, Transocean too. Cap the spill, and shut ‘em down. They are a criminal enterprise who actually think they will still see a profit from this disaster. Shut them down. No more ocean drilling- ever.

Who woulda thunk it: Fact-checking is popular!

Has anyone else noticed that the Associated Press has been doing some strong fact-checking work lately, aggressively debunking all kinds of nonsense, in an authoritative way, without any of the usual he-said-she-said crap that often mars political reporting?

“What we tend to forget in journalism is that we got in the business to check facts,” Fournier says. “Not just to tell people what Obama said and what Gingrich said. It is groundless to say that Kagan is anti-military. So why not call it groundless? This is badly needed when people are being flooded with information.”

Doubt this will matter much to those who in live in the comforting bliss of Truthiness, i.e. the right wing in this country, but for the rest of us, the salient beings, we say it’s about time.

Plummeting Marijuana Prices Create A Panic In Calif.

For decades, illegal marijuana cultivation has been an economic lifeblood for three counties in northern California known as the Emerald Triangle.

He says the drop in pot prices is in part the result of more growers and a more tolerant legal landscape. But he says another factor is quality. Indoor-grown marijuana is increasingly favored by dispensaries and consumers for its looks, consistence and potency. It costs more to produce than pot grown under the sun, but commands as much as double the price. That’s one reason retail prices haven’t hit the skids.

I can think of worse things to occur.

L.A. Mayor Dismisses Warning That Arizona Could Cut Off Power Over Boycott

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Wednesday defiantly rejected a warning by a top Arizona utilities official that the state could cut off power to Los Angeles should the city proceed with its boycott of all things Arizona.

That was after Gary Pierce, a commissioner on the five-member Arizona Corporation Commission, wrote a letter to Villaraigosa slamming his City Council’s decision to boycott the Grand Canyon State — in protest of its immigration law — by suspending official travel there and ending future contracts with state businesses.

Elvis Costello cancels Israel concerts

Singer Elvis Costello has pulled out of two gigs in Israel due to concerns over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I am also keenly aware of the sensitivity of these themes in the wake of so many despicable acts of violence perpetrated in the name of liberation.”