Focused on Sharon Tate

We're off!

Item:

Roman Polanski is a rapist.  We don't care if he is a great director.  We don't care if he's a really nice guy.  We don't care if he's lived in out-in-the-open-life-of-a-millionaire "hiding" for decades.  Dude drugged and raped a 13 year old girl. 

We don't care if she looked older.  We don't care if she acted older.  We don't care if she says the media has been worse to her than Polanski was. 

While we do care that Polanski was in Poland when the Nazis rolled through, ending up in the Krakow Ghetto, it has no bearing on the fact that he confessed to giving alcohol and drugs to a child and sodomizing her.  He was convicted in a court of law -- he did it.  And he needs to go to prison. 

We understand plea bargains and how they can get someone to take a guilty verdict to get a lighter sentence, but there is no way in hell someone confesses to raping a little girl unless he did it.  But even that is immaterial.  The conviction is the only thing that matters.  As far as the court is concerned, he is guilty.  That's all there is to it. 

He also needs to get the extra seven years the rest of us would get for skipping bail. 

And he needs to be in GenPop.

~~~
Reason 847,612 we hate Texas:

On 23 December 1991, a house in Corsicana, Texas burned down.  Three children died in the fire.  Their father, Todd Willingham,  was charged with murder and arson in connection.  He was offered a life sentence in exchange for a confession and declined.  He went to trial, was convicted and sentenced to death.  After Willingham exhausted all of his appeals, the execution was carried out on 17 February 2004.

Since the execution, nine different fire investigators, in three separate reports, have reviewed the Willingham fire -- one of these was commissioned by the State to do so.  Each found that there was no evidence of arson.  In fact, Dr. Craig Beyler, hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission to review the case, wrote in his report that, "a finding of arson could not be sustained". He went on to say the evidence at trial was, "hardly consistent with a scientific mind-set and is more characteristic of mystics or psychics".

Clearly an innocent man was murdered by the State of Texas.  Clearly, despite all the appeals Willingham had at his disposal, the system failed to get it right.  How then, can anyone justify the practice of capital punishment?

One would think the State would want to do anything it can to prevent this from ever happening again.  In that vein, the Texas Forensic Science Commission was scheduled to meet on 2 October 2009 to discuss the Beyer Report, in preparation for presentation to the Governor. 

On 30 September -- two days before the scheduled meeting -- Governor Rick Perry replaced the chair and two of the other seven members of the commission.  The new chair, John Bradley, promptly cancelled the meeting.  When asked why, he responded that he needed, "to get up to speed on what the Forensic Science Commission does", before proceeding.  When asked when the commission would be meeting next, Bradley responded, "oh, I couldn't even begin to guess when."

So the Governor of Texas replaced damned-near half of a commission, on the eve of a critical meeting, putting a man in charge who doesn't even know what the commission does and has no idea when they will reconvene.  Lovely.

Did we mention that Perry faces a primary challenge in March?  We're sure it's totally unrelated to his not wanting a commission to find a man was executed in error, almost assuredly leading to a moratorium on the practice.

~~~
Fare thee well, Susan Atkins, enjoy Hell.  You died exactly where you should have.

~~~
Quote of the Week:

“Problems that go away on their own come back on their own."
--Chuck Sullivan, 2009

~~~
Internet Video of the Week:

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Ridiculous Story That Actually Appeared in a Publication of the Week:

Here.

Wow.  He wins custody, she kidnaps the kids and he ends up in jail. 

And we thought the US courts were screwed.

~~~
Idiot of the Week:

Whoopi Goldberg. 

According to Goldberg, what Roman Polanski did was not rape.  Getting a 13 year old girl drunk, slipping her some ludes, some lube and some dude is apparently ok in the world 'o Whoopi. 

When discussing the Polanski case on The View, she displayed her heretofore unknown legal prowess, by stating, "I know it wasn't rape-rape. It was something else but I don't believe it was rape-rape. He went to jail and when they let him out he was like, 'You know what, this guy's going to give me a hundred years in jail. I'm not staying.' So that's why he left."

Hmm.  First, Whoopi, he was not in jail.  He was in a psychiatric facility for evaluation.  Second, there is no crime called "rape-rape".  It's pretty much rape or not rape.  Third, that "guy" was the judge in the case.  And yes, just-plain-rapists go to jail.  Just like rapist-rapists.

And in an apparent attempt to leave absolutely no doubt that she is an idiot, she went on to say, "would I want my 14-year-old having sex with somebody? Not necessarily, no."

Not necessarily?!?!?!? 

~~~

Vintage Album Review of the Week:

Peter Cetera

Solitude/Solitaire

1986

-Big Mistake (5:39)*

-They Don't Make em Like They Used To (4:04)

-Glory of Love (4:20)*
-Queen of the Masquerade Ball (3:50)
-Daddy's Girl (3:46)
-The Next Time I Fall (3:43)*
-Wake Up to Love (4:29)
-Solitude/Solitaire (4:58)
-Only Love Knows Why (4:29)*
* - singles

Now, we told you some of these albums would be embarrassing.  This would be an example of that.  But in our defense, Chicago 17 was the definitive album of our time and Karate Kid the epitome of great cinema. 

Right?

Ok, ok.  We had shit taste in music.  Happy? 

Still, we owned it and actually paid iTunes to reacquire it, so we need to review it.

When this album came out, we loved it.  It had all the cool new gadgetry of the late 80's -- synthesized drums, synthesized horns, strange sounds of unknown origin -- hell we're not sure a single acoustic instrument was actually used in its creation.  What sounded fresh and new in 1986 though, sounds really dated in 2009.

The formula is pretty simple: take Chicago, get rid of the horns, lean a little more toward Stay the Night than Hard Habit to Break, keep Cetera and add a touch of the horns back in -- but synthesized.  Overproduce the hell out of it and you get Solitude/Solitaire.

Cetera's voice alone gets the album a couple of points.  It's distinctive, if a tad limited in range but we like it.  The lyrics are solid, if not stunning.  The production, while it ruins some songs that might have been pretty good, stole right from the David Foster playbook when it came to the two biggest hits, Glory of Love, which rocketed up the charts once Karate Kid went the 1980's version of viral and The Next Time I Fall, featuring Amy Grant, who took a break from Christian music to make the record (which is probably a good idea, since she would soon be banging a man who was not her husband -- and no longer is).  The two songs, along with Only Love Knows Why all sound like they were probably originally written for Chicago 18, before Cetera bolted.  And honestly, they're really the only three songs that hold up.  Be it because of quality or familiarity, we're not quite sure.  But since these songs are all available on a Greatest Hits album, there is no real reason to buy this one.

Music: 2 (of 5)
Lyrics: 2 (of 5)
Authorship: 2 (of 4)
Production: 1 (of 3)
Packaging: 1 (of 2)
First Blush: 2 (of 2)
Aging: 1 (of 3)
Videos: 1 (of 1)
Total: 12
Stars: 2.4 (of 5)

~~~
Parting shots:  Real AP headline this week: "Saturn Dealers, Owners Shocked Over End of Brand". Umm, how?...The results of last weeks' poll: 66% want minimal givernment intervention in healthcare, 33% want none.  This week's poll is at the bottom of the page...Congratulations to the 2009 National League Eastern Division Champion Philadelphia Phillies.  Let the Playoff Beard flow...Speaking of the MLB playoff scene, we pick PHI over COL, StL over LAD, NYY over MIN and BOS over LAA.

And with that, we bid you adieu.

Until next time,

Keep the Faith