Random Photos

I finally got my camera back from the shop about 2 weeks ago after having dropped it off the day after Xmas. I found that my stick had a couple photos.

This first one is of pan roasted peppers stuffed with shrimp, water chestnut, onion, et al.



I also found this one of some funky napkins that my mom bought for me. Perhaps the ultimate in Wisconsin dining accessories.

Cheese Is Keeping Him Alive

Dave Nunley may live in the United Kingdom but I'd like to nominate him to be an honorary Wisconsonian. This is because he has eaten nothing but cheese since he was a toddler.

A FOOD phobia has left a Wyton man unable to eat anything apart from mild Cheddar cheese ever since he was a toddler.

Dave Nunley, 29, eats about 16st of Cheddar, preferably grated, each year and has never consumed a hot meal in his life - not even hot cheese.

The BMW panel beater explained that, while his diet may seem to be unhealthy, the cheese was actually keeping him alive.

Hottest Chili Pepper. Ever.

Guinness has recognized the Bhut Jolokia as the hottest pepper in the world.



These babies weigh in at 1,001,304 Scoville units! I'm not sure what you'd do with them exactly - perhaps spice up a 55 gallon drum of chili.

Presidents' Day?

I have discovered that there is no such thing as Presidents' Day. Yesterday was, in fact, Washington's Birthday.

Ever since 1968, when, in one of the last gasps of Great Society reformism, holidays were rejiggered to create more three-day weekends, federal law has decreed the third Monday in February to be Washington’s Birthday. And Presidents’/’s/s Day? According to Prologue, the magazine of the National Archives, it was a local department-store promotion that went national when retailers discovered that, mysteriously, generic Presidents clear more inventory than particular ones, even the Father of His Country. Now everybody thinks it’s official, but it’s not. (Note to Fox News: could be a War on Washington’s Birthday angle here, similar to the War on Christmas. Over to you, Bill.)

On the Gramophone

This week at my podcast I wind up Jethro Tull's 1984 performance here in Madison and throw in a trio of tunes from the Fatherland.

Three-Letter Relationship Problem

My relationship with The Dulcinea is in jeopardy. She has brought a third party into the mix and the results have proven deleterious. The other day we were lying in bed together. Without our clothes, we lay there caressing each other as we peered into one another's eyes. It was a beautiful, tender moment until my hand wandered…

Me: Is it OK if I touch you there?
The D: Yeah.
Me: But you didn't like it last time I tried to touch you there.
The D: Yeah, I know.

My hand continues its circuitous route until…"Don't like it."

The problem was that she was speaking like Andy from the BBC Comedy Little Britain.



That's Andy on the right. If you've never watched the show, head here and watch Andy & Lou visit the park. Then tell me that your significant other's obsession with a BBC comedy character isn't bad for a relationship.

Unfortunately, the show is set to be remade here in the States.

To make relationship matters worse, she's got me hooked on another BBC programme, Life on Mars. It got an airing on BBC America last year but I've only gotten into it the past week or so after The Dulcinea suggested it. The show concerns this guy, Sam:



He's a cop (Detective Chief Inspector) in Manchester, UK who is accidentally hit by a car and wakes up only to find himself in 1973. Sam was not paying attention to his surroundings after the kidnapping of his girlfriend/colleague.) Neither Sam nor viewers know if he's gone crazy, traveled back in time, or is in a coma. Much has changed in Manchester since 1973 and part of the charm of the show is the whole politically correct stranger in a strange land aspect. Everyone is smoking and smoking at work. In these days before the impact of feminism, misogyny is rampant. To top things off, Sam is the new guy who has to prove himself to his new co-workers.



That's Gene Hunt (DCI) on the right, Sam's boss. Hunt is an archetypal western gunslinger (he's a big Sergio Leone fan) who drinks, smokes, and shows little, if any, respect, for women. While he enforces the law, he also bends it, if not outright breaks it, despite Sam's pleas to follow procedure, in order to make the streets safe. Hunt's Archie Bunker-like quips and Sam's occasional forgetfulness of when he is make for good humor. Each episode involves the pair either working their way towards a truce or male bonding, if you prefer, as they investigate a crime. Along the way Sam hears the sounds of a hospital in addition to the voices of family as they talk to him knowing he cannot respond. This lends credence to the notion that he's in a coma. (A bit like The Singing Detective but without the singing.) Plus there's the girl from the BBC's off-air picture that visits Sam at night.

There's no doubt that some stuff is lost on me – English cultural references, things having to do with Manchester, as well as the early 1970s. Hooligan fans of the Manchester United football (soccer) team, various BBC TV shows from the period, and the exact roles of women in the workforce at the time in the UK are unfamiliar territory but watching cops running around with big, bulky walkie-talkies has universal comedy appeal. On another note, folks interested in gender studies can have a field day here.

I just finished series (season) 1 this afternoon and am attempting to get the first episode of the 2nd series. This will be the final series of the show and it seems odd that producers would limit themselves with such a popular program. It's unthinkable here in the States where every TV show is milked long after it has jumped the shark.

There's a rumor floating around that John Simm, who plays Sam, is going to portray The Master in the upcoming season of Doctor Who. As best I can tell, it remains just that, a rumor.

Speaking of Doctor Who, Chris Eccleston, who played the 9th Doctor, has been added to the cast of Heroes on NBC. I guess he plays a reclusive guy that only one character can see. I caught a few minutes of a recent episode and Eccleston was quite good, unlike my opinion of the show itself. I'll try watching it from the beginning but, from what I've caught so far, it is really bad. Also on the Eccleston front is The Dark is Rising, a film adaptation of Susan Cooper's fantasy series. He is to play the villain, The Rider and apparently the film will modernize the plot for greater "relevance".

Has anyone caught The Dresden Files on the SciFi Channel? It's based on the books by Jim Butcher which chronicle the adventures of Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, Chicago's first (and only) Wizard P.I. I've read things about the books but not the books themselves. While I'd like to check out the TV series, I am weary. Although I've not watched it, I am not pleased with what the SciFi Channel did to my beloved Riverworld series.

Any other LOST fans around? Will the recent dip in ratings doom the show? Hopefully the producers have come to an agreement for an end date for the series with ABC. I think next week's episode will be the last, for a time anyway, that takes place mostly on the island of The Others. The 7 March episode, Enter 77", looks to be good. Locke, Sayid, and Kate investigate the Flame Hatch and meetup with Mr. Patchy. It also heralds the return of Dr. Candle, presumably in the form of another orientation film. "Enter 77" will supposedly reveal the link between The Others and the Dharma Project. Other reveals look to include the history of Jack's tattoos, how Locke ended up in a wheelchair, and thusly his motivation for wanting to remain a castaway. Personally, I'm in no hurry to get back to the beach as The Others and the mysteries of the island hold more interest for me than the Claire-Charlie saga and Hurley's unique ability to stay overweight while stranded on an island. Still, I am interested in more about Sun's pregnancy and to see what the show's creators do with Nikki and Paulo.

OK, I'm off to concoct a meal containing Polish sausage.

Peppers Before Pottery

As someone who owns a t-shirt portraying the chemical composition of the capsaicin molecule, I found this article to be interesting. It describes how chili peppers were used in cooking here in the Americans as far back at 6,100 years ago.

How do you trace a pepper, which leaves no husk or other easily fossilized evidence? A dozen researchers at seven sites around Latin America kept finding microscopic starch grains on grindstones and cooking vessels and in trash heaps. Finally Perry identified these microfossils as residue from domesticated, not wild, chili species that in some spots even predated the invention of pottery.

I am pleased to know that my addiction prediliction for things spicy is an ancient one and that I'm keeping up a grand tradition.

"One Cranky Asian during Oscar Season"

Ang Lee made history in 2006 as the first non-white person to win Best Director for Brokeback Mountain (why isn’t anyone talking about this?!), though that revelatory film lost Best Picture to the far inferior Crash, a film about race relations in LA made by white people that taught Asians that, if your father has a convenience store, make sure to fill his gun with blanks in case he decides to assassinate his locksmith – and the answer to human trafficking is Ludacris.

Read the rest.

Even Peter Singer Could Eat This

Vegetarian haggis!

(Peter Singer)

Arabian Beauty

Last week my Moroccan co-worker, Sid, expounded upon his love of Middle Eastern women. He opined that Lebanese women were the most beautiful of the bunch and offered a video in support of this featuring Haifa Wehbe.

New Wisconsin Vodka

Wheat from up on Washington Island has proven to be an enormously successful ingredient in Capital's Island Wheat and folks up nort are hoping for a repeat. Only now it's with Death's Door Vodka. This comes on the heels introduction of Rehorst Vodka from the Great Lakes Distillery in Milwaukee.

I'm not a big vodka guy so I'm looking forward some local gin.

Wet Spots & Peach Pies

Walking into the High Noon Saloon last night, The Dulcinea and I found it heavily populated with folks eager to indulge themselves in disproportionate measures of music and titillation, many clutching lagniappes of Liquid Silk person lube courtesy of sponsor A Woman's Touch. We were there for a performance by The Wet Spots.

Hailing from Canada, The Wet Spots are Cass King & John Woods who perform songs on the bawdy side with titles such as "Labia Limbo" and "I'd Like to Come". Armed with just a guitar and their voices, they put on a fun show which invited the audience to sing along and one lucky listener to (ahem) come onstage and do a little spanking. (I believe it was Randi O'Toole from Madison's Cherry Pop Burlesque.) Banter between songs was friendly and funny with a crowd that seemed to consist mostly of kinky folks. My erotic writing group was there to celebrate a member's birthday so I can vouch for the kinkiness of several of us in the audience. Although the occasional song featured a backing track, most were just Woods on guitar. This didn't really seem detrimental because it was the lyrics that were the focus. With a lyrical interrogative like "Do you take it in the bottom?", a minimal melody is all that's really needed. And the ukulele on "Labia Limbo" proved an oddly appropriate accompaniment for King's oral gesticulations.

Opening was the local burlesque outfit Foxy Veronica's Peach Pies. We got to the High Noon in the middle of their routine and thusly weren't privy to all of it but what I caught was fun. It seemed that maybe 3 or 4 of the women were true performers or, at least, more well-rehearsed than the rest. The belly dancing routine was great, though. The shakiness of some performances can easily be forgiven but the emcee cannot. Parading around the stage with his feathered hat, The Reverend (Jim?) looked like a pale Kid Rock imitation and was just as annoying as the real thing. Instead of attempting to rally the crowd, his near-constant berating of it for their subdued cheering dampened the enthusiasm of the Peach Pies. The Dulcinea noted that one of the troupe works at an MATC coffee stand so, if you see her, do be sure to inquire as to their next performance.

Matthew LaClair: Standing Up Against Religious Proselytizing

Perhaps you've heard the story of Matthew LaClair, a New Jersey high school student who was forced to endure the proselytizing of teacher David Paszkiewicz.

Shortly after school began in September, the teacher told his sixth-period students at Kearny High School that evolution and the Big Bang were not scientific, that dinosaurs were aboard Noah’s ark, and that only Christians had a place in heaven, according to audio recordings made by a student whose family is now considering a lawsuit claiming Mr. Paszkiewicz broke the church-state boundary.

The student, Matthew LaClair, said that he felt uncomfortable with Mr. Paszkiewicz’s statements in the first week, and taped eight classes starting Sept. 13 out of fear that officials would not believe the teacher had made the comments.

Sadly, the community has generally lined-up behind the teacher:

In this tale of the teacher who preached in class and the pupil he offended, students and the larger community have mostly lined up with Mr. Paszkiewicz, not with Matthew, who has received a death threat handled by the police, as well as critical comments from classmates.

Greice Coelho, who took Mr. Paszkiewicz’s class and is a member of his youth group, said in a letter to The Observer, the local weekly newspaper, that Matthew was “ignoring the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gives every citizen the freedom of religion.” Some anonymous posters on the town’s electronic bulletin board, Kearnyontheweb.com, called for Matthew’s suspension.

The main component of the school's response was to ban the taping of classes.

LaClair appeared on Freethought Radio last weekend and it was great to hear a 16 year-old who has stood up against the intrusion of religious bullshit in the classroom. It's harrowing to hear him talk about how the school system is whitewashing the whole incident and allowing a man who compares scientists who offer evidence for global warming to Nazi propagandists. I hope to meet him this fall at the FFRF National Convention.

Mad Rollin' Dolls: Race & Feminism

Madison's roller derby league, the Mad Rollin' Dolls grace the cover of this week's Isthmus. Having attended several bouts, I eagerly read the story written by one of the newest Dolls, Melissa Faliveno, hoping for a glimpse behind the scenes. While I learned quite a bit about how the league works, I found a couple other elements to be even more fascinating.

Between the article itself and the sidebar, it was mentioned a few times that women from all walks of life are members of the Mad Rollin' Dolls. Chemists, daycare workers, and all women in between are welcome. But noticeably absent from any of the accompanying photos were women of color. Thinking back to the matches I attended, I can recall only one non-white woman in the league. And looking at the team photos at the league's webpage, I see all pale faces. Perhaps no women of color have tried out for the team recently.

I don't mean to take anything away from the Dolls. It's just that I've dated a bi-racial woman for about two and a half years now so I've learned to look for the presence of colored people wherever I go. If you've poked around this blog or listened to my podcast, then you know that I'm positively pasty and many of my interests are as white as Wonder Bread. Progressive rock, Dungeons & Dragons, art film – these realms are dominated by pale faces. (And male ones at that.)

Still, I can't help but feel there's something wrong with describing the league as "Boasting women from all walks of life…" when there appear to be no women of color. The hue of the mass of people at a Mad Rollin' Dolls match is virtually identical to that at a Jethro Tull concert, gaming convention, or a screening of a David Lynch film – white. There is certainly an egalitarian spirit to the Mad Rollin' Dolls but I must ask: why are there no women of color? This is a question and not an accusation. I'm genuinely curious to know. Is roller derby "white"? Perhaps it is. Take a look at Chicago's roller derby league, the Windy City Rollers or the Gotham Girls Roller Derby league in New York City. In large cities that are vastly more diverse than Madison, the leagues have only two or three women of color.

Like the league itself, the article is focused on gender. The Dolls are described as strong, sexy women who flex their muscles on the track but also flex their muscles of independence and empowerment. The notion that short skirts, fishnet stockings, and the signs of fans describing "various bodily functions" might the objectification of women is addressed towards the end of the article. One of the players, Crackerjack, dismisses this idea by saying, "It's about owning what we do" and "This isn't my mom's feminism".

This is a good example of something I've been reading a bit about lately – "choice feminism". As defined by Katha Pollitt: "women have learned to describe everything they do, no matter how apparently conformist, submissive, self-destructive or humiliating, as a personal choice that cannot be criticized because personal choice is what feminism is all about." Or "I'm a free agent. I'm making my own choices, so we don't have to talk about them. In fact, it's insulting if you want to talk about them. Don't judge me." I encountered an interesting debate about this at I Blame the Patriarchy, in a post entitled "Do It Till You're Satisfied" in which the blog's proprietor, Twisty, states "BDSM is patriarchy, the whole patriarchy, and nothin’ but the patriarchy, in a black latex nutshell." This prompted responses by a handful of women who were into kink and essentially espoused a choice feminist ideology. (Curiously enough, Faliveno has also written a piece for Isthmus about kink in Madison's clubs.)

Faliveno notes that the women in Mad Rollin' Dolls, "have come together to play this sport and to make friends; and for some, to gain a sense of strength and self-esteem that they perhaps previously never had." While it's unfair to deny the positive aspects of the sport and the impact on the players, it is fair to ask what it says about our society when some women can only find strength and self-esteem in a short skirt and fishnets. And exactly how empowering it is for a fairly scantily clad woman to draw the attention of young men with a PBR silo in one hand and a placard describing a bodily function in the other is debatable. I suppose on which side of this feminist divide you fall is a function not only of age but also of gender and whether you're a participant or a spectator. My favorite Doll is Jewels of DeNile and I'm sure what this self-described "roller derby bitch" gets out of playing and what I get out of watching are wholly separate things. Personally, I'm ambivalent on this intra-feminist debate. Choice and freedom are important to feminism and to American life generally. But sacrificing quality for quantity has its downsides.

From the article:

Mad Rollin’ Dolls roller-derby bouts take place at Fast Forward Skate Center, 4649 Verona Rd. (271-6222). Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Bouts sell out.

The last regular bout of the season is March 3; semifinals are March 31, and league finals April 28.

For more information, go to www.madrollindolls.com, or call 271-6222, extension 150.

What Have I Ever Done to S.J. Barlament?

S.J. Barlament made a post yesterday up at his blog on Madison.com's Post which linked to something I'd written. Mr. Barlament described the post in question as being speculative of whether or not the Post section has "enough quality content to fill a print edition". I just want to say that Mr. Barlament is wrong. At no point in my words to which he refers do I speculate on the Post's ability to fill a print edition with quality material. I quote Bill Lueders who seems to think not but his thoughts are his own.

I will, however, take time right now and tell y'all what I think about this latest publication by Capital Newspapers – I don't think much of it because it hasn't been published yet. The last such venture was CoreWeekly and I have to admit that I thought relatively little of it. Every other issue had something of interest to me. Then again, CoreWeekly wasn't aimed at me, it was aimed at hipsters 10-15 years younger. It's like when I go to Chicago and grab a Red Eye. I'll shuffle through a few pages and wish I'd bought a Tribune. With CoreWeekly, I'd page through an issue and wish Madison had a decent newspaper. I mean, we've got a world-class university here and half the cab drivers in town have PhDs, so why can't we have a newspaper written at something beyond the 4th grade level? And why does the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have superior coverage of state politics when it all goes down right in the backyard of the WSJ and TCT? At least that philistine Sunny Schubert is gone.

As soon as the rumors of this new publication started floating around, the aforementioned Bill Lueders of Isthmus fired the first volley (scroll down) and now folks at Isthmus and Post are engaged in a pissing match over who can wield the better blogger. Post, The Dailypage, and Dane101 are the main blog aggregators for the Madison area and each has its strengths and weaknesses and each has bloggers who write for the webpage in addition to listings of unaffiliated bloggers. Here's my quick take on each:

Post – I read 2 or 3 folks there on a fairly regular basis but, for the most part, the blogs there just don't interest me.

The Dailypage – Some interesting stuff here too but not in abundance, for my taste. The blog aggregator, Madison Miscellany, is nice but all-too often bogged down with press releases from the Madison Police Department and the UW.

Dane101 – Dane101 is quite egalitarian as, if you live in Dane county and have a blog, you're welcome there. But the name should probably be Madison101 as folks in places like Cambridge and Paoli are likely to feel left out.

The one thing that all three pages could work on, in my humble opinion, is in recognizing good blogging even if a post isn't about Madison. I have read many a great post by a local that doesn't get listed at the above because Madison is not the focus. It would be nice if good writing by locals was given recognition regardless of the subject matter.

We'll have to wait until next week to see if this new publication is any good. If it's just going to be blogs in print, then I have to ask what the point is. The immediacy of the Internet is lost. Two of the defining features of blogs are gone: the ability to comment and use hyperlinks. But, if it is to feature Post bloggers and others writing longer pieces, then there's potential.

On the Grammophone

This week at my podcast I feature Jethro Tull. It's the first part of their show here in Madison on 2 November 1984 at the Dane County Colisuem.

Happy Darwin Day!

Happy Darwin Day to one and all! I don't have anything fancy planned to celebrate. I'll probably make me some supper and sit back and relax as I indulge myself in Doctor Who and Darwin.



Bloodtide finds The Doctor and Evelyn on the Galapagos Islands where they meet up with a young natural philosopher by the name of Charles Darwin and the Silurians as well. What more can you ask for?

The Darwin Day activities here in Madison took place on Saturday but there's plenty to do on the internets:

Read some Darwin at The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online. You can also download Darwin audio books.

Not quite ready to read Origin of Species? Then head to the UC-Berkeley site Understanding Evolution.

Involve your children as well. Head to the library or to your local purveyor of books and check out Darwin and Evolution for Kids.

PBS has a neat website devoted to evolution as well. Check out the library which as interactive multimedia activities.

For more reading, check out the Talk Origins Archive and the blog Panda's Thumb.

Marcotte & McEwan Capitulate

There has been some hoopla recently over the hiring of Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan as official bloggers for the John Edwards campaign. This article up at CBCNews.com gives a concise account of the story. The two women were hired and then folks went to look at their personal blogs only to find many contentious statements. (Ms. Marcotte blogs at Pandagon and Ms. McEwan at Shakepeare's Sister.) Both women and Edwards received a lot of heat with William Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights labeling the pair "anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash-talking bigots". Apolgies were issued and Marcotte & McEwan were allowed to continue their roles within the Edwards campaign. A post by Ms. Marcotte about the Duke rape case was singled out by many and it was eventually deleted. (Of course, it is still in Google's cache and has been reprinted by many a blogger.)

Reading that she'd deleted a post only added to my disappointment upon reading her apology.

My intention is never to offend anyone for his or her personal beliefs, and I am sorry if anyone was personally offended by writings meant only as criticisms of public politics.

I suggest the reader head to Pandagon and check it out for him- or herself because, frankly, I find that statement to be utter bullshit. She spends copious amounts of time responding to statements and actions by misogynists, right-wingers that she calls "wingnuts", religious people who would ban abortion, et al and it is patently obvious that she is offended by what these people say and do. In turn, she lashes out fighting fire with fire and now she is to be found backpedaling. I find it especially irritating that she apologizes for offending religious people, as if belief in a misogynistic, war-mongering deity is supposed to shield you from being offended by others. While I don't always agree with what Ms. Marcotte says at Pandagon, I have always respected that she speaks her mind and lets her passion on serious issues spill over into her words. No more, apparently.

This is exactly the kind of double standard that people like Sam Harris speak out against. God forbid (pun intended) that religious people go through life having to hear criticism of their silly beliefs and certain among them having to hear that their pernicious actions in the public realm should be fought. I mentioned William Donohue above and would direct readers to this page at Media Matters which details what a bigoted, homophobic, anti-Semetic, hypocritical asshole he is.

If Abolitionists tip-toed around for fear of offending Christians who quoted the Bible in support of slavery, who knows how long that peculiar institution would have been with us. The whole Marcotte-McEwan saga is an allegory for the Left in 21st century America. Some lefty will say that gay people ought to be treated fairly which causes a righty to cry that he's offended. The lefty then retreats and cowers lest a homophobe be offended with being called such. The Left doesn't really stand up for what it believes much anymore. Instead it sugar-coats its beliefs and struggles to keep them in the purview of voters. To be sure, political expediency is an issue with Marcotte-McEwan but the Left or progressives or whatever label you want to use will never be able to advance an agenda of equality and social justice if it engages in a strategic advance to the rear every time power that has just had truth spoken to it gets on TV and says that its offended.

Pat Robertson Orders a Hit?

Pat Robertson is in trouble. A complaint has been made against him in which it is claimed that he threatenedPhillip Busch. (Busch is suing Robertson.) Robertson allegedly told Busch, "I am going to kill you and your family." I wouldn't put this past the rich prognosticator and the story wouldn't have made me bat an eye if it weren't for the first sentence: "One of Hampton Roads' highest-profile Christians stands accused of a not-so-Christian act."

Give me a break. Since when have Christians stopped invoking their deity when killing? Let us not forget what a third of the Holy Trinity said in Deuteronomy 20:17 - Where the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizites, Hivites, and Yebusites are involved, you must wipe them out completely, as God your Lord commanded you. Yes Moses, go commit genocide. There are countless tales of cruelty and violence in the Bible. Of course, no one should really believe that Robertson would actually kill Busch and his family. He'd have someone else to do it. Robertson is just imitating his lord. Even if Robertson made the threat merely to intimidate, you'd think he wouldn't need to. After all, Yahweh talks to him and gives revelation every January. Surely Yahweh would have given his buddy the scoop on the lawsuit.

The Jury of Orange County

Last month Salon had an interview with Chris Hedges as he has a new book out called American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. At one point he says of the Christian right:

For me, the engine of the movement is deep economic and personal despair. A terrible distortion and deformation of American society, where tens of millions of people in this country feel completely disenfranchised, where their physical communities have been obliterated, whether that's in the Rust Belt in Ohio or these monstrous exurbs like Orange County, where there is no community. There are no community rituals, no community centers, often there are no sidewalks. People live in empty soulless houses and drive big empty cars on freeways to Los Angeles and sit in vast offices and then come home again.

I've never been to Orange County and have only heard things about it – things like what Mr. Hedges said. And now I read this:

No one disputes that an on-duty Irvine police officer got an erection and ejaculated on a motorist during an early-morning traffic stop in Laguna Beach. The female driver reported it, DNA testing confirmed it and officer David Alex Park finally admitted it.

A nude dancer gets stalked by a cop and then, one night in December 2004, the cop decided to get into the Christmas spirit of giving so he pulls her over and jacks off onto her. And the jurors of Orange County let him get away with it. Why? The defense attorney said that the woman was "one of those 'girls who have learned the art of the tease, getting what they want . . . they’ve learned to separate men from their money.'" In other words, the woman was a siren straight out of Greek mythology. The poor police officer heard her song and was immediately struck helpless. Under the spell of the evil, salacious stripper the hapless officer "fingered her vagina and fondled her breasts before he ejaculated on her."

Who the hell were these jurors? "A jury of one woman and 11 men—many white and in their 50s or 60s."