Protecting the neighborhood

by M. Stewart
As the Trayvon Martin case continues to pick up steam, new information has been released by Sanford, Fla. police. The shooter, George Zimmerman, told police that the teenager came up behind him while he was walking back to his car, punched him, jumped on him and began banged his head on a sidewalk, and that's when he decided to pull out his gun and shoot the 17-year-old in the chest.

But let's not forget the most significant new information: Trayvon Martin had been suspended from school at some point when school officials discovered "traces" of marijuana in his backpack. For right-thinking, reasonable people, that settles it. Martin was the aggressor, and Zimmerman merely was defending himself against the attack of a teenager hopped up on weed and sugar.

As all the media talking heads bob up and down discussing this case, the one who made the most sense to me was a guy representing the National Rifle Association, who was interviewed Saturday on the radio. I didn't catch his name, so I can't give any more information about him, but I have not heard his comment since.

The NRA representative noted that the 9-1-1 tapes reveal that Zimmerman clearly was stalking Martin even after the operator told him not to. As such, the "stand-your-ground" law does not apply. You can't claim you were standing your ground when you were the one stalking the victim, he said. Obviously, his interest was more in defending the stand-your-ground law than defending the shooter's actions.

Had the Sanford police department done its job, Zimmerman's claim that he was "beaten" by Martin could have been validated by physical evidence. After all, if someone is pounding your head into a sidewalk, you're going to have wounds, but the Sanford police didn't see the need to look for any such evidence supporting Zimmerman's claim. As it stands (or so it seems), we have only the killer's word to go on, and he expects us to believe that he allowed this unprovoked savage beating to occur before he decided to pull out his gun and shoot his assailant in the chest.

Since the story went national last week with the release of the 9-1-1 audio, it has become about race, and perhaps rightly so. This case looks very much like one of those 1950s things where the white cops back up the story of the white assailant, no matter how ridiculous it is. One thing seems different, though. In the 1950s, the cops would have gone through the charade of arresting and perhaps even charging Zimmerman, knowing full well that a white jury would find him not guilty.

In the 21st-century South, the cops don't even arrest the guy. If he says he was defending himself against an unarmed black teenager, that's good enough for them. End of story.

NFL off-season drama

by M. Stewart

So it turns out that Tim Tebow is going to play with Rex Ryan and the New York Jets, a move that hall-of-famer QB Joe Namath called a "publicity stunt." Any way you cut it, I have a feeling 2012 is going to be a weird year for the Jets. Coach Ryan must have been looking for a prophet to counteract the demons in his locker room. What else could it be?

Not sure whether the Steelers play the Jets this year, but if they do, Ryan should start Tebow at quarterback. After all, the Steelers are the only team he's ever really picked apart during his brief career. Ask Ike Taylor. I'm sure he's still having nightmares about it.  

I've got to hand it to Denver's John Elway. He didn't like Tebow from the start, and he made it pretty clear that he wasn't buying into Tebowmania. The first chance he had to unload him, he did. Of course, it remains to be seen if Peyton Manning has anything left after his serious neck injury, but surely we can assume that the Broncos checked Manning out thoroughly before handing him a five-year, $90 million contract. I don't know if Manning will bring Denver a Super Bowl, but as of now, they certainly are a contender.

Then there is the case of New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, who will be sitting out the 2012 season without pay due to his team's bounty system. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell brought the hammer down on Payton and the Saints for offering financial incentives to injure opposing players. I don't think Goodell went far enough. He should have fired the entire coaching staff--not for a year, but forever.

The stink that will follow Payton and any team he coaches will not wash off. I can't think of a more despicable act in sports than inspiring players to purposely injure other players. All of the players who practiced Payton's injury-for-money game should be thrown out of the league as well. Why not? These guys conspired to possibly end the careers of other players around the league. It's time the NFL ends their careers before they have chance to hurt anyone else.   

Springing forward

by M. Stewart
It's only March, so technically there is still time for a Republican presidential candidate to tell the truth about at least one issue. One thing that Rupert Murdoch and Fox News have taught conservative politicians is that facts and truth are unnecessary elements in American politics. Murdoch's lesson is that whatever your position, if you say it enough times on TV, it becomes true--at least when you're preaching to the choir.

There is no question
Case in point (one of many): Appearing on Fox over the weekend, Mitt Romney said that "there is no question" that President Obama is to blame for higher gasoline prices. "He has selected three people to help him implement that program," he said. According to Romney, the president and his gas-hike team have been working on a way to raise gas prices for the last three and a half years.

Yes, Mitt. I'm sure the president has been planning this all along. In fact, he and his gas-hike team have been holed up in Washington just waiting for the 2012 election to cause a spike in gasoline prices. As one might expect, Romney failed to bring forward any facts to support his claim, but then why bother with facts when you're on Fox?

By the way, y'all like grits? Do you want a Cadillac in every pot? Do you too believe that God lives on a planet named Kolob? Or is it a star?

Excuse me; I digress.

Newt Gingrich has guaranteed Republicans lower gas prices. When he is president ; ) gasoline will be $2.50 per gallon. Why? How? Because Newt says so. Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus claimed that President Obama "has shut down everything when it comes to energy independence in this country," which is, well, a flat-out lie. But that's ok.

We all remember, don't we, when Republican oil man George W. Bush was president? America didn't need no stinkin' foreign oil. George tapped into America's vast oil reserves and filled our gas tanks for free. Oh, those were the days! The economy was booming, and big banks were helping us all live the American dream. If we could only get back to the days of Republican rule, we could get this economy rolling again and everything would be good.

For his part, Rick Santorum apparently still thinks he's running for pope. His crack team of political strategists have decided its time to stomp out pornography in America. Naturally, if he ever ends up in the White House ; ) Santorum would be reminded that the very same constitutional amendment that protects his right to worship the god of his choice also protects the right of people to shoot video of themselves having sex and post it on the Internet. Weird but true.

More poop on big banks
Moving on from the Republican Comedy Central, I'm sure you all heard about former Goldman Sachs employee Greg Smith's New York Times op-ed piece that alleges a "toxic and destructive" culture the huge investment bank. Wow, what a surprise!

Those of us who live in the real world think of banks as places to store our money and get loans when we need them. We expect our local bank to deliver these services without a whole lot of fuss, and most do. As such, we can relax. I doubt if too many people from the Tri-State Area have to worry about unscrupulous Wall Street vampires. Or do we?

Corruption and the states
Lastly, a new study has revealed that the state of Ohio gets a grade of D when it comes to corruption. The State Integrity Investigation ranks Ohio 34th among the 50 states. No state received an A. Those that were awarded an F are Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina, Maine, Virginia, Wyoming, and Georgia. [Georgia came in dead last, and wears the crown as the most corrupt state in the union.

One eye opener in this study is that the least corrupt state is New Jersey. Hey, wait just a minute there! I've seen every episode of The Sopranos, so I know this can't be true.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste

Culture clash

by M. Stewart
The story of the U.S. Army sergeant who allegedly murdered 16 men, women, and children in two Afghan villages over the weekend is another good reason to pull our troops out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. Added to YouTube videos of troops urinating on dead Afghans and the recent burning of Korans at an Afghan military base, the incident symbolizes a moral degradation of U.S. military culture that can no longer be ignored or tolerated. Any chance of convincing the local citizenry that we are the good guys is gone.

I do find it interesting that the Koran burning incident elicited immediate violent demonstrations from Afghan citizens, but so far the slaughter of innocent people has not. If nothing else, this lack of a visceral response to the murders indicates a twisted set of priorities in Afghan Islamic culture. Apparently the lives of innocent people are worth less than a pile of books.

Speaking of Muslims, a recent poll reveals that over half of the Republican voters in Mississippi--America's most ignorant state--believe that President Obama is a Muslim. Now that Ohio is a Southern state, we can assume the percentage isn't too far off the Mississippi Republican mark.

Turning to the positive . . .

Let me be among the first to thank the group of young people who came out Saturday to clean up the trash on St. Clair Avenue. You did a great job! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The art of offense

This newspaper comic elicited a big response from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette readers, several of whom wrote the newspaper to announce that they (and their wives) were "offended" by it. 

Continued paralysis

by M. Stewart
Living in East Liverpool can be frustrating. Citizens complain constantly about the streets, yet they are unwilling to pay for their maintenance. At least it was close this time around, but voters rejected the streets levy again on Tuesday.

The problem is obvious, as it has been for many years: Citizen mistrust of the street department is so intense that voters won't support any levy that has the word "streets" in it. As if to ensure the levy's defeat, the street department and city hall conspired to demonstrate their paralysis for all to see.

A couple months ago, the street light at the corner of Broadway and Fifth Street was removed. In its place, two stop signs planted in buckets were placed on Fifth Street, and Broadway traffic no longer has to stop. No signs indicating a new configuration were erected, motorists and pedestrians remain confused, and chances are the city will consider the stop signs in buckets a permanent fix. Even The Review criticized city hall for its negligence, which elicited a handful of excuses from city hall, but no action.

The conclusion is clear: Neither city hall nor the street department thinks that driver and pedestrian safety is important enough to get off their asses and fix the equipment. To people who work for a living and are judged by their performance, this institutionalized paralysis is unacceptable. Even those who don't work for a living are offended. It's no wonder that the city can't solve big problems when it can't even manage a couple of traffic traffic lights.

By the way, have you noticed that Booth Tire is still standing two years after it was ordered razed? City officials have told me that the only reason for it is that the law director refuses to follow through on it. End of story. Meanwhile, the number of burned out structures continues to rise. I'm told there is no money to tear them down. Apparently, no one owns these properties, and no one in East Liverpool can force anybody to do anything.

Our city should become the adopted home of the Republican Tea Party. It is the perfect example of a municipality operating with no tax base and little hope for change.But the truth is that all of this can change in a day if people would only start taking pride in and responsibility for their work. That's all it takes. Really, that's all it takes.

NOTE: I just read in the Morning Journal that many votes have yet to be counted, which means that the street levy still has a chance to pass. We'll have to wait and see if this has any bearing on whether these intersections are repaired.

Suicide--Republican style

by M. Stewart
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has issued an internet apology to Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University law student he referred to as a "slut" and a "prostitute" on his program last week. Limbaugh also said that Fluke should post sex videos of herself so we can all see them. I'm sure you've heard the details.

Limbaugh is a grotesque symbol of a debased and depraved political ideology that should embarrass decent Americans everywhere. Surely we are better than this.

For his part, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney attacked President Obama this weekend with a series of statements that were all demonstrably false. Romney expects his audience to disrespect and hate the president so much that he can get away with saying anything--including reckless fabrications. I'm not talking about differences of opinion, but outright lies.

According to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, Romney "has regained the lead in the Republican presidential contest thanks to new support from conservatives, while evidence emerges that the bitter nomination fight has damaged the GOP candidates' standing among the wider public."

It appears that Romney and the other candidates simply are unable to participate in honest political discourse. I've never seen anything like this. Day after day, Republicans go out of their way to be viewed as nasty, vicious, self-righteous, misogynists who respect nothing but unbridled greed and fraud. It's hard to imagine, but they're banking on the assumption that most Americans identify with those qualities. Surely we are better than this.

Romney's Mormon church issued a statement this weekend forbidding the widespread practice of baptizing dead people, particularly Jews who died in the Holocaust. Compared to other Mormon beliefs, this isn't even strange.

On Tuesday, Ohio's Republicans will vote to support one of these guys. The polls say it will be Rick Santorum. If the polls pan out, our state's Republicans are poised to throw their weight behind the most unelectable candidate in the race. Even in Ohio, we are better than this. 

Oh well, try to make it to November. Relax. Everything will be ok.

The suns of the gods

Movie stills II

From Faust: Eine deutsche Volkssage (1926)

Another from Faust (1926)

Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander, in Man som Hatar Kvinnor [Men who Hate Women], known to the English-speaking world as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009). An American version of Dragon Tattoo was released last Christmas. It should be out on DVD soon.