Curious

Why, oh why, is it never the hot guys at Packer games who stand shirtless in the stands when it is 25º?  Do the fit never get drunk and have the need to strip off their shirts in appreciation of the greatness that is the Green Bay Packers?  Are only the hubbies moved by their team’s winning ways?  Oh, how I long to see a hot guy with his shirt off.

Pics courtesy SilentE.

Three Out of Four al-Qaeda Terrorists in Iraq Are Dead

Outstanding.

Three-quarters of al-Qaeda in Iraq has been destroyed over the last year, the Interior Ministry in Baghdad has said. Iraqi and American commanders said the improvement in security in the country over 2007 had been remarkable. But top US commander Gen David Petraeus warned al-Qaeda remained the greatest threat facing the country and security gains could easily reverse.

We get such good news from this branch of the government. It makes our jobs as citizens so much easier to know they're doing their job unquestionably well, and that they're so frugal in their spending, and that we've all been asked to sacrifice to make our war possible.

Either that, or maybe he meant that all the al-Qaeda are out of the country at the moment on Christmas break.

Refocus

hsgbdmama has a good idea for all of us.

As I was driving home from church on Sunday, the Lord put this word in front of me:

Refocus

And it really does describe what all of us in our family needs to do. Refocus. These are the areas which my husband and I have deemed necessary for refocusing:

- Finances (things have gotten kind of loose again and I need to tighten them up)
- Stewardship (of time and things)
- Honoring & respectful words, thoughts, attitudes and actions
- Diet & exercise (dh and I need to keep working on our cholesterol ... mine has gone down, but my “good” cholesterol needs to go up)
- Responsibilities and contributing to the family

For example, I blame Governor Doyle on the slippage on our family budget. My policy of "no increase" must stand. It's worked before.

As for stewardship, I promise to blog more often throughout the day, even while I'm "working". This Blackberry is so handy, regularly sending me coded messages from the state Republican leadership and their office workers.

I am inspired by the mighty Texas Hold Em Blogger, who seems to have written several new brilliant posts every time I visit his blog. He's such a chattering chihuahua! He's always got something new to say.

As for respectful words, I promise to be more careful and considerate, except when it comes to Democrats and schools and terrrists, because some things are just evil. And stripper poles, the little birds known as "tits," and retards, because some things are just funny.

As for diet and exercise, I will continue to use that college photo on my newspaper columns. Who needs to know?

Water Here!  Get Your Ice Cold Water Here!

Exactly.

Yet as millions of new residents flock to the Sun Belt, settling in the suburbs rather than the wilderness, the debate over who gets Mother Nature’s lifeblood is only intensifying. Water issues are a political hot potato, pitting community against community and state against state. And as those pressures mount, more attention is turning toward the Great Lakes.

As I sit here in my armchair, I declare that we could easily pump out some of the lakes every year to arid areas of the country and charge top dollar for it.  Easily, I say! Heck, perhaps if we’re selling that water, it might even have the added side-effect of encouraging people to keep it clean, sort of like the way the free market brought us the zebra mussel for free to help keep the water clear.  Everybody wins!  Heck! I might even ship a truckful myself. Or maybe we could screw together a bunch of garden hoses, end to end.

Yes, I know that the environmental goofs will never let this happen.  They are happy to import natural resources from other states like crops, oil, silver, copper, coal, etc., but that water is off limits, right?  They'll probably try to raise some objection based on the laws of physics to show it would be impractical to pump that water any farther than our cities are willing to pump it now. Or maybe they'll say it endangers some retard owls. Or that it would cost too much. Wouldn’t it be better to start selling it now when we can exercise some control over the flow instead of waiting for the Feds to overrule the states and pump it out? 

We better start sucking Lake Michigan before Illinois, Michigan and all the other states get wind of our plan. And we'll need to get started on eminent domain proceedings to capture the land we'll need for the pipes. Those environmental goofs better not stand in the way of my plan. If we suck enough water from Lake Michigan, it would increase the amount of valuable shoreline, and that could lower our tax burden, too, as well as attract tourists who like European-style rocky beaches. Win, win, win.

Unfortunate Pictures

This is why I would hate to be a politician.

Pretty much every picture of me would look that stupid. 

Wisconsin Unemployment Rate Rises

Looks like a tough Christmas for some folks.

Wisconsin continued to add jobs last month, but not briskly enough for the growing number of out-of-work job hunters. As a result, the state unemployment rate in November climbed to 4.8%, up from 4.3% in November 2006 and the highest rate for November since 2003.

According to preliminary estimates that the state Department of Workforce Development released Thursday, the number of Wisconsin residents reporting that they’re employed increased 4,600 in the last 12 months, but the number of unemployed - without work but actively seeking it - grew 14,900 to the highest level in four years.

Everything seems to be OK here on my cul-de-sac, though! Ho-ho-ho! We prepare for Christmas by setting aside a little extra money every month.These poor unemployed folk should've been doing the same thing. If you don't do that, there's no way you can afford the Barbie Dream Car or the pink rifle or the 52" television, even if they're on sale.

In the spirit of the season, I'm going to the cupboard to find some food to donate to the local food pantry. There's a can of black olives that I personally know has been in there for ages!

West Bend School Board Chairman Will Not Run For Reelection

That’s a shame. 

West Bend School Board President Charles Hillman will not seek re-election this spring.

Hillman’s business, GrandCare Systems, will require more of his time in the next year and he can no longer commit enough hours in a week to be a productive school board member, he said.

His decision not to run for another 3-year term was made prior to last month’s defeat of a $119.3 million school building referendum, Hillman said.

Charlie is a good influence on the board.  He’ll be missed.

I do wish that he had given a bit more warning.  Wendy and I are very concerned with the public school board, not to mention the board of the school where we actually send our kids. (Hint! It's not the public schools!) There are only 15 days until the filing deadline and that is through the holidays.  It will make it hard for people to get ready to run for the seat. Not like there's been anything else happening in West Bend that might not want to make people run for the school board. Gosh, darn. If the decision was made months ago, why couldn’t he let people know so that potential candidates would have time to prepare a run?  Like someone we'd like to elect? Huh? Or was this information communicated a while ago and the MJS just finally caught on?

What gives, Charlie? I mean, it's not like I did anything to make your job more difficult. Please tell me, so we can get back to the work of reducing the size of the school district to a form that makes it convenient and possible for it to be strangled in the bathtub, so that we can redirect those public funds to our private religious schools.

No Charges

West Bend - Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens has decided not to charge Oak Creek high school teacher James Buss for online comments he made on Nov. 16, facetiously saying the 1999 Columbine High School killers “knew how to deal with overpaid teacher union thugs” when they opened fire on students and staff.

And we find out who made the complaint.  No surprise there:  West Bend School District Superintendent Patricia Herdrich.

Aw, shuckey darn. She brought this on herself. She wanted to make Boots & Kittens look bad, but instead it backfired. Apparently, this is what Jesus wanted. Those darn overpaid teachers and superintendents! Normally I'd applaud such zealousness in applying any sort of "post-9/11" or "post-Columbine" thinking, but not now, not when it makes her look bad. It's a happy day for free speech, but a sad day for the West Bend superintendent, so I guess it's a good day overall! Off to the park!

Krazy B&S Kommenter Kinda Arrested

Would you like to know more about this Kommenter's Krazy Komments?

We normally only use 'KKK' in certain circumstances, but this one seemed OK.

An Oak Creek High School teacher who allegedly praised the actions of the Columbine School shooters and threatened local teachers on a Web site blog was arrested Thursday. The 46-year-old Cudahy man was arrested with the assistance of Oak Creek and Cudahy police departments after West Bend police were notified of a threatening post on Nov. 16. 

The actual blog, posted at 6:50 p.m. and provided in a release by the West Bend Police Department, states: “Looking at those teacher salary numbers in West Bend made me sick. $60,000 for a part time job were you ‘work’ maybe 5 hours per day and sit in the teachers lounge and smoke the rest of the time. Thanks God we won on the referendum. But whining here doesn’t stop the problem. We’ve got to get in back of the kids who have had enough of lazy, no good teachers and are fighting back. Kids like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold members of the Young Republicans club at Columbine. They knew how to deal with the overpaid teacher union thugs. One shot at a time! Too bad the liberals rip them; they were heroes and should be remembered that way.”

The man, who admitted to posting the message, was arrested and a search warrant was served at his home. He is in custody at the Washington County Jail and charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful use of computerized communication systems will be referred to the Washington County District Attorney’s office. The Cudahy man has no previous arrest record that the police department is aware of, according to a statement.

Yes, the comment in question was posted in a comment thread on B&K.  Let me fill in the details…

Late on the evening of Friday, November 16th, Jed and I received an email from a detective with the West Bend Police Department asking me about the above comment.  Do you remember what was happening that weekend?  Yep.  Gun deer season.  We were out in the woods. As opposed to bow and arrow season. If it was bow and arrow season, we'd be out in the woods in the city park where the best deerses is.

I saw the email at about 7:30 AM on the 17th while I was sitting in my deer stand.  A sentence from now I'll tell you I wasn't anywhere near a computer, so please forget what you just read. I promptly called the detective and consequently woke him up.  He asked if we would provide the IP address of the commenter.  Sure, I said, we do that all the time. We hold all the strings here, and pull them when necessary. No warrants needed! We're all about the law and freedom and evidence to support allegations and all that, except when we're proving a point. Since I wasn’t anywhere near a computer and wouldn’t be for some time, I emailed Jed who sent the information in a matter of minutes.  I guess Jed was let out of the bunker for a while.

The next week the detective called and we spoke about it.  At no time did the detective even so much as hint that the proprietors of B&K were at fault. He said we'd come "dangerously close" in the referendum, but not now!   He asked us to remove the comment if we could preserve a permanent record.  He also revealed that the complaint was filed by a member of the West Bend school administration.  We did everything he asked, because we're all about supplying info like this when people request it and the reputation of an innocent man is at stake. We do it all the time!

The next thing I knew about this was when I read this news story saying that the commenter had been arrested. 

Boy, this blogging stuff is fun. One minute you're in the news, the next minute you're making the news, the next it's like you're doing "The Wave" at the stadium with the other handsome guys from the Milwaukee Conservative Chorus and you're repeating the trumped-up talking points of the day (like a bumpersticker) and then you're in the news again. Anything to keep the newspaper reporters busy and away from the big stories, I guess!

In case you were wondering, you are not anonymous on the internet. Except when we blog-runners let you be anonymous, or even encourage anonymity, or when we don't feel like outing you for something you've said. After all, we have outed a few commenters when they've disagreed with what we've said! Or when there's a point to be made, like pointing out that a comment was posted from a governmental IP address. Ever heard of the Greater Internet F*ckwad Theory? I have received several calls from reporters with various news organizations seeking comment.  I haven’t returned any calls yet, because I wanted to write out the story in full form before somebody misquoted me.

This evening I called and spoke to the detective.  He did confirm that no other evidence was found at the man’s home and that the charges are based on the comment he left here at B&K. It’s an ongoing investigation, so he couldn’t say much, but between him and some other sources, I think I have the majority of this story put together. If you know what I mean, wink, wink. I'm very connected, but I won't come right out and say so. The police won't say who tipped them off to this liberal's violation, if you know what I mean. The paperwork for the investigation was finished this afternoon and it will likely be referred to the District Attorney as soon as tonight (which probably means Monday, in reality). 

What do I think? 

At first blush, I think it’s a gross overreaction for a comment left on a blog.  Yes, the comment was idiotic and over the top and therefore indistinguishable from dozens of comments left here every week by people who aren't posting under anonymity, but it hardly constitutes a direct threat to anyone.  Take Peter "Texas Hold 'Em" for example. He's just a bit high-strung when he gets to writing, you know? He's much more sullen in person. We really hope he doesn't shoot someone someday, if you know what I mean. It was explained to me that it was not believed that the commenter had any intent to harm anyone, but that the mere presence of a comment appearing to condone such violence had to be punished because it might encourage someone else to engage in violence against schools.  I don’t buy that argument.  In fact, let’s put it in context with the commenter’s next comment on that thread.

I am NOT advcting shootng teachrs. I agree with Mark belling when he said that theese kids were pushed into doing this by the stupid union teachrs at Colmbine. belling said that to bad only one teachr got it and lots of kids. shuld have been the other way. belling hates teachrs I like belling

It appears to me that the commenter is attempting to do one of two things.  Option 1: the commenter is a right wing whack job that isn’t violent, but likes to engage in outlandish rhetoric.  Option 2: the commenter is a liberal who is trying to discredit conservatives by spelling poorly and in general acting just like option 1. (Did I just say that "right wing whack jobs" engage in outlandish rhetoric?) Option 3, this commenter is obviously a member of Governor Doyle's staff and he probably flew to Indiana with the others, as described in a story from a few weeks ago that we were once in a tizzy about, but now we're on to other matters. In no way, shape or form would B&K have been the ones who tipped off the cops to this liberal teacher who offended us.

As you can see from the story, the commenter is actually a union teacher from Oak Creek, but it gets more interesting than that.  The commenter was also once the president of his local teachers’ union. Not that we know much about him, but we won't name him here. This leads me to believe that Option 2 is the truth.  This commenter is just a liberal union teacher who was trying to make conservatives look bad by pretending to be one and acting like an imbecile. Liberal, liberal, liberal. See, all bad stuff comes from liberals, or people we declare to be liberals. There's no in-between and we're quite proud of that. That sort of thing goes on all the time around here on Boots and Kittens. Polish the boots, lick the kittens, call them liberals and then step on them. Meow!

That being said, I still believe that the arrest was unwarranted. By "un-warranted," I mean we rolled right over and gave the cops what they wanted without a warrant, even if we didn't know what it was all about, as mentioned above.. I don't see why they didn't taser him for resisting arrest, too. I realize that in a post-Columbine world that everyone is hypersensitive about any mention of Columbine or school shootings. In case you don't know, "post-Columbine" means to teachers what "post-9/11" means to us conservatives. Push that button and they'll arrest and detain just about anybody for the slightest thing. "No Evidence Makes Us Free" is the slogan above the gate at Gitmo, you know? Did someone say 9/11? Heaven knows they're spending too much on schools. We need that money for fighting terrorists! But this comment was clearly just talk, just like talk radio. I mean, Charlie Sykes rants all day long and someone pays him to do it!  When I gave the detective the IP address, I assumed that they would find him, chew him out a bit for being an idiot, and leave it alone. I know I said earlier that Jed's to blame for handing over the IP address, but I don't want to be misquoted, so I wrote this all down. The fact that the West Bend Police decided to actually arrest him in the absence of any additional evidence of this guy being a threat is out of line. They should've tasered him, too. Darn liberals.

I encourage the District Attorney’s office to promptly no bill this matter.  Yes, we need to be concerned with statements like this and it was appropriate for the police to look into it. By the way, the police are holding a fundraiser selling lightbulbs and garbage bags, and I just bought $200 worth. But once they found out that he was no threat and once the comment had been removed, thus eliminating the likelihood that the comment would encourage anyone else to commit violence, they should have dropped it after he woke up from the tasering. 

I guess I’ll call those reporters back now…

Coming In at Number Two

From Mother Teresa breath spray to a screaming rubber chicken, manufacturers come up with stockings full of stupid gifts in time for the holidays with one Web site dedicated to finding the most idiotic.

Web site Stupid.com, which claims finding a truly stupid gift is an art form, on Monday unveiled its list of the top 10 “stupidest” holiday gifts for 2007.

“These gifts are so ridiculously stupid that everyone will want them,” said Stupid.com’s founder Gary Apple in a statement.

No, I don’t want one.  Don't need it. Already got one. Get it? Hillary's a nut-cracker.