Kong's Bestest Girl

Took my kids to see the overwrought, overlong, overdone King Kong remake. It wasn't bad, until physics and logic and common sense and continuity and character consistency went completely out the window, about 30 minutes into it. I gotta admit, those Skull Island natives were some really, really well-done scary-creepy natives. That was the most intense part of the entire movie, both for me and the kids.

But the love interest, the over-young, over-thin Naomi Watts just didn't do it for me. The good-hearted girl from outta town who just wants to make good on the Great White Way and yadda yadda sugary garbage? And then she does that dumbass schtick on the prehistoric bat cliff for Kong's amusement? It was beyond stupid; it was sad. So, she was no Faye Wray.

But Faye Wray never did it for me. Maybe it was because even when I was 12 and saw the 1933 classic for the first time, in my mind she was already pushing 70. That and everything was so dark in that film, it was hard to really even tell what she looked like. She reminded me of pictures of my grandmother when she was young, fuzzy around the edges, in ridiculous clothing; after all, they were contemporaries.













For my money, the gratuitously sexist, racist, and gory 1975 King Kong has got Kong's bestest girl. Without a doubt, it's Jessica Lange. I'd cling to a 1000-foot building for her.

Yeah, the film is just an interconnected series of ridiculoulsy lingering shots of Lange. The at-sea find in the launch, wet and in a sexy evening gown, the half-t-shirt at the beach landing, even this cheeky shot from the jaunt (through Kauai) to the natives' pallisade.

The she meets Kong and things really get hot. I love this photo of Ms. Lange. That body is just about as perfect as they come. Look at that absolutely magnificent swell of calf and thigh. Of course, today she'd be called a fat cow by her contemporaries and the press. Our current magnificent examples of female form are the grotesquely thin Paris Hiltons and Lindsay Lohans, the dead-trashbag-walking, impossibly, unattractively thin. But this look, pure magic, absolute radiance.

And then Kong "got her wet" and pulled her top off.  And she seemed to enjoy it.  Cheeky monkeys.

Pol-Deb Kathy

First things first: So it's Kathleen, er, ah, Katherine, er maybe Kathryn . . . maybe Kathlyn, eh? It's over six years since this grimacing idiot was crammed down our political, judicial and social throats, and respectable news outlets still can't get her name right. It's Katherine, thank you.

That being said, let's press on, shall we?

The phenomenon that is Kathleen Harris just fascinates me. She came to meteoric prominence during the historically disgraceful, disgracefully historic 2000 Bush-Gore electoral debacle in Florida, where it was proven without the slightest shadow of a doubt within just a few days that she, as the Florida secretary of state, was a dabbling, clueless, criminally incompetent figurehead leader in a department that had no idea what it was doing. She stumbled her way through the mess until the far more cerebrally horsepowered national GOP studs got there, got her to shut up and disappear, and then just steamrolled the opposition, the Constitution, the public will, whatever got in their way. And now we're stuck with the idiot who prevailed, and his economy, and his wars, and his trampling of constitutaionally protected privacy statutes and prisoners' rights, the cabal of lies and corruption, all of that fun stuff.

But enough of Dubya the Clueless, and Back to Kathy. Just how did she get to be the secretary of state in Florida? Certainly not on the back of an informed electorate, as the position is not an elected one. Rather, the Florida Secretary of State serves at the pleasure of the Governor, so it's an appointed position. It's pretty clear to me that it was done as a reward for just having lots of personal wealth, having lots of positive pubic social and electoral contact and support to the GOP, the kind of thing that middle-aged folks who have a lot of money tend to get involved with, to make things they way they want, to make themselves feel good about themselves, to create the fiction that they somehow are "serving" the great (non-monied, non-Republican) unwashed, that their somehow giving back.

I can't help but notice just how proud Florida is of her, from the very special listing at , which offers only her name and the fact that she was Secretary of State 1999-2002, and currently serves as a state representative, since 2003. (Yeah, this is a University of Florida site, and it's grossly incomplete, but then again the entire state doesn't even offer a listing of past state-level political leaders and appointees--the state's web site link to the historical listing of governor's doesn't even work.) Not a single word about what she did, nothing at all. No mention--go figure--of the 2000 election, but not even the most lame catch-all blurb about how she "improved processes" or "created synergistic effects" or "synchronized operations" or maybe even "came to work on time and in the right outfit on a semi-consistent basis." Absolutley nothing about her work for 3 years, which goes a long way to clueing you in as to the kind of performance she gave; even the Republican shills can't keep a straight face and make something good up--give it to Karl Rove for some wordsmithing.

And somehow, through some incredible magical process, she actually was elected to the US Congress as a representative of the State of Florida. That's blue-state intelligence and voter competence for you there, eh? That's saying a lot about the voting public of her Florida district, that, despite her unquestionable partisan leanings and arguably criminally corrupt actions while the Florida Secretary of State (does that make her the "FLASOS?"), they still thought she was a good enough person to send to Washington to make sure the three elements of government were balanced, that taxes and defense and all of the truly national issues were taken care of responsibly. This painfully grinning deb was going to do all of this? Puh-leeze.

I mean, just look at the pictures of her. Just look in those eyes, those worried, unfocused, frightened eyes. It's the same with Dubya, of course, except he's taught himself to squint to look like he's a deep thinker, to keep folks from seeing the abject terror and lack of confidence in his eyes when it comes to everything that's going on, especially public speaking.

Yeah, she's made noises about how pictures of her were doctored, and she was just trashed in every liberal outlet--and the comedians had a go at her, too--over what appeared to be a very seriously non-spin-doctored approach to applying make-up. Yeah, I'd have to agree. I can't imagine any fat, cigar-chomping political consultant worth his suitcase full of hundred-dollar bills would allow her to go out in public like that. But she sure did, and lots of folks noticed. I can't help but point out that the unadvised amount of make-up is just another clear indication of the lack of self-confidence, the need to hide while in the public eye, to make them all think that you're something you're not, that is pretty and young and acceptable. What a horrible unstated admission of personal lack of confidence. A strong and confident lady wouldn't slather it on like that, with that lipstick tending toward making you the natural successor to Tammy Fae Bakker as the next Ultimate Drag Queen Icon.

But wait, apparently there's been some kind of magical makeover. Compare these two photos:

This is a change that's taken place just in the past five years or so. How has she managed to get younger and more attractive? Well, surgery is almost certainly one of the answers. That, and someone who finally got her attention about makeup. And an image consultant, all of that happy stuff. Hell, now she looks (to me) like the mom in Donnie Darko, actress Mary McDonnell.

And now she wants to be a senator. Yeah, a senator. Hell, she's got the money to act properly as a senator, at least 30 million dollars of personal fortune, probably a lot more. So that qualifies her as a GOP candidate right there. The good news is that even her party has wised up to her, but luckily they don't have to tel her to go; the public is doing that. There apparently is a more qualified Republican who is more electable than she is, and that's the guy who will get the effort and the money. So she's out, and hopefully that'll be that for her Senate aspirations. And hopefully soon enough she'll depart the Congress all together, and we can concentrate on getting rid of some more incompetent morons who are there working for themselves and not the US citizens.

Get On With It

Lawyers: Obese Ohio Inmate Faces 'Torturous' Death

Sep 18, 2012 3:40 AM (ET)

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A condemned Ohio inmate who weighs 480 pounds and has a history of difficulty losing weight argues he would face a "torturous and lingering death" if executed in January.

Yes, at that weight his punishment may in fact prove to be greater than that of a convicted premeditated murderer half his weight.  Oh, well.  Them’s the breaks, you worthless killer.  Let’s proceed; I'm all for a tortuous and lingering death for you, Mr. Post.

Ronald Post, who shot and killed a hotel clerk in northern Ohio almost 30 years ago, said his weight, vein access, scar tissue, depression and other medical problems raise the likelihood his executioners would encounter severe problems.  He's also so big that the execution gurney might not hold him, lawyers for Post said in federal court papers filed Friday.

Why are we concerned about him or the executioners experiencing “severe problems?”  In fact, if the executioners are paid by the hour, this is a better deal for them.  I think the hotel clerk Post murdered experienced some severe problems, too, and the clerk’s family and friends did as well, and are living those problems to this day.  Why are we even listening to what he has to say about the punishment directed by the state?  Why does he have a any kind of say in this?

Who cares about a gurney?  Let’s get some carpenters to build a makeshift table, stout and sturdy enough to hold him.  That shouldn’t be too difficult.  Some 4x4 posts and stout 2x6’s ought to do it.  Or he can just be made to lie on the floor, where his victim ended up after he murdered her.  The floor sounds like a fine additional aspect of his punishment.

"Indeed, given his unique physical and medical condition there is a substantial risk that any attempt to execute him will result in serious physical and psychological pain to him, as well as an execution involving a torturous and lingering death," the filing said.

Well, his unique physical condition requires unique physical adjustments to his execution—no big deal.  As for serious physical and psychological pain, that’s exactly what he deserves, a distinct and in my opinion intentional aspect of his punishment, for the premeditated murder of a person in furtherance of theft.  He should be made to suffer.

Post, 53, is scheduled to die Jan. 16 for the 1983 shooting death of Helen Vantz in Elyria.

A spokeswoman for the prisons department had no comment on the pending litigation.

Post's attorneys also want more time to pursue arguments that claims of a full confession by the inmate to several people have been falsely exaggerated.

So it sounds like he’s in prison and has been telling people of his crime.  Well, that has nothing to do with his trial and conviction—the issue was decided then, and he is guilty of the murder and was sentenced accordingly.  This discussion has nothing to do with this.

"Post's case is about more than his weight, and his life should be spared for reasons wholly unrelated to his obesity," his federal public defender, Joseph Wilhelm, said in a statement.

His obesity has nothing to do with his pending execution.  He is still the same person who committed the murder and was convicted and sentenced for it.  Simple workarounds need to be found and put into action to carry out the sentence directed by the court.  He was tried, convicted and sentenced, and the sentence must be carried out.  The death penalty—no penalty, from a traffic ticket to death—has no power of deterrence when the punishment comes decades after the crime.

Inmates' weight has come up previously in death penalty cases in Ohio and elsewhere.

In 2008, federal courts rejected arguments by condemned double-killer Richard Cooey that he was too obese to die by injection. Cooey's attorneys had argued that prison food and limited opportunities to exercise contributed to a weight problem that would make it difficult for the execution team to find a viable vein for lethal injection.  Cooey, who was 5-foot-7 and weighed 267 pounds, was executed Oct. 14, 2008.

Good riddance to a convicted murderer.

In 2007, it took Ohio executioners about two hours to insert IVs into the veins of condemned inmate Christopher Newton, who weighed about 265 pounds. A prison spokeswoman at the time said his size was an issue.

So did poor Christopher have an extra two hours to consider his fate, question his actions, regret the decisions in his life, and wallow in 120 minutes of terror while his execution slowly took shape?  Well, then, good.  It’s what he earned, and deserved.

In 1994 in Washington state, a federal judge upheld the conviction of Mitchell Rupe, but agreed with Rupe's contention that at more than 400 pounds, he was too heavy to hang because of the risk of decapitation. Rupe argued that hanging would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

No, sorry, Mitch.  You were a convicted and sentenced murderer.  Decapitation is just fine for guys like you.

After numerous court rulings and a third trial, Rupe was eventually sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2006.

So this waste got an additional 12 years of life?  Did his victims get an additional 12 years of life?  No.  Then why is he afforded this luxury?

Ohio executes inmates with a single dose of pentobarbital, usually injected through the arms.

Why can’t convicted murderers be injected through the eye?  That sounds like good punishment.

Medical personnel have had a hard time inserting IVs into Post's arms, according to the court filing. Four years ago, an Ohio State University medical center nurse needed three attempts to insert an IV into Post's left arm, the lawyers wrote.

So what?  So it takes a while and/or may take multiple attempts.  So what?  This is the nature of the operation, given his unique physical situation, so poor Post is just going to have to sit still and let them sort it out, so the state can carry out the punishment it decided upon, the one he earned through his actions. 

A good three hours for him to sit there, fully conscious and awake, would be time well spent in the course of his execution.  Let him contemplate his actions for just a few hours more.  If I were running the event, I’d have a court officer read family testimonials and key details of his trial and sentencing hearing, just to reinforce to him what all the fuss is about.

Post has tried losing weight, but knee and back problems have made it difficult to exercise, according to his court filing.

Okay, sure, I don’t think he needs to be forced to exercise, although that sounds like good punishment, too.  I ask the simple question: does the hotel clerk he shot have any current knee and back problems?

Post's request for gastric bypass surgery has been denied, he's been encouraged not to walk because he's at risk for falling, and severe depression has contributed to his inability to limit how much he eats, his filing said.

Good—no elective surgery for any inmate, anywhere, any time.  If he’s at risk of falling, then he can walk, or not, that’s up to him.

Depression affecting his inability to limit his eating?  What?  Uh, he’s in a prison, a relatively closely controlled environment.  Why can’t they limit his intake?  That would tend to affect how much he eats.  Exercise or not, if the prison takes charge of his intake, he’ll lose weight.  So what if he’s hungry?  Let him be hungry night after night, and remind him why he’s being compelled to lose weight.

While at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, Post "used that prison's exercise bike until it broke under his weight," according to the filing.

Why was he given a bike to begin with?  Why is the state spending this kind of money on worthless dogs like him?

Adult Decisions, and Adult Consequences

Penn St. riot ends aspiring Army officer's dream

Incorrect: he's not an officer, never was, and now never will be. This is incorrect usage, inflating something close to true for the purpose of drama--it's lame. This guy was a cadet, never an officer. So it should be:

Penn St. Riot Ends Army Officer Aspirant's Dream

Aug 27, 11:04 AM (ET) By MICHAEL RUBINKAM

Stints in jail. Hefty fines and restitution. Clouded futures. The consequences of their bad behavior have been steep for the Penn State students who took to the streets and rioted in the chaotic aftermath of Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno's firing last November.

That's it: "who took to the streets and rioted." If you were in the mob, and took an active part, that's you.

Perhaps none have learned a harder lesson than Justin Strine, a young man from central Pennsylvania whose planned career as an Army officer is over before it began - the casualty of his own split-second decision to put his hands on a news van, and a judicial system that considered him as guilty as classmates who did far worse that dark night in State College.

Split-second decision...well, maybe. He chose to get there, chose to get to the front, chose to get involved, and finally chose to take part. Those are the facts.  Yeah, others did worse, but he took part in the action. He's an adult, and made a series of stupid decisions. He could have stopped and asked himself, "Do I really want to be here now, and do this?" But he didn't.

As the fall semester gets under way Monday, Strine has returned to campus, along with 15 other students found to have taken part in a nationally televised riot that caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage and embarrassed Penn State.

As he resumes his studies, nothing's the same for the 21-year-old from Hummelstown. He spent part of his summer in jail. Far worse: He's been kicked out of ROTC, his dream of carrying on his family's proud military tradition now out of reach

"I'm losing everything I worked my entire life for," Strine said. Strine's father, a career soldier, questions whether that's a just result.

Your "entire life" is really what you've worked for since maybe age 12, but more likely age 15 or 16, when you started to realize your future, and started making an effort to shape it. So, the loss is at most about nine years, not your entire life, since you weren't keen on being an Army officer as a toddler, or as a grade-schooler.  Stop with the hyperbole, as it doesn't apply.  It's an effort to make your plight looks worse than it is, and it doesn't hold up.

"I had to stand by and watch my son plead guilty to something he didn't do," said Jim Strine.
Penn State sanctioned 32 students for their involvement in the riot, suspending 10 of them from one to three semesters and giving probation to the rest, university spokeswoman Lisa Powers said. Dozens of students were criminally charged, as well, and the guilty pleas have piled up over the last several months.

No, Dad, sorry, but he did do it. He was there, in the front, and took direct part. He DID do it.

An estimated 4,000 to 5,000 people poured into downtown State College on Nov. 9 after the Penn State board of trustees abruptly and unexpectedly fired Paterno - the beloved football coach who led Penn State for nearly 46 seasons - and removed President Graham Spanier over the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal.

What began as a peaceful protest of Paterno's unceremonious dismissal quickly turned ugly as a "riotous mob," as State College police would later call it, threw bottles and rocks, damaged cars, and tore down light posts and street signs.

Much like the idiots who poured into downtown DC and rallied like Led Zep concertgoers when UBL got his sweet reward...nothing like having an excuse, a cool, different, this-is-new reason to go out, roll with the kids, and act like an idiot.

Strine was in his off-campus apartment when he learned of Paterno's firing.  He and a few friends decided to head downtown.

Step 1: he was off-campus, and decided to go down to the action.

It was a rare misstep in what had been a slow, steady climb toward the officer ranks.
Strine's father is a helicopter pilot and instructor whose 28-year career has taken him to Iraq and Afghanistan. His grandfather is a retired Air Force flight surgeon. His brother and sister, aunt and uncle, cousins - all serve or have served. So it wasn't a surprise when Strine began plotting his own military career as an adolescent, reading the autobiographies of famed Army officers like Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell.

At Penn State, Strine threw himself into ROTC as well as his studies, making the dean's list and spending the summer at Fort Benning, Ga., learning to jump out of airplanes. His goal: to be a pilot like his father.

"He was a good cadet," Jim Strine said.

A good cadet who made a bad decision the night of Nov. 9.

No, a series of bad decisions. This wasn't just one, single, fleeting, momentary snap decision to do something, it was a series of decisions that led him directly to where he got himself into trouble.  Do not characterize this is a single moment in time where everything went off the rails for this young man, a full three years now on the plus side of adulthood.  Adult status means adult responsibilities...and consequences.

Strine had driven himself and a couple friends to the State College commercial district, where they joined thousands of other protesters. At one point Strine and his friend, Christina Assainte, found themselves in a large crowd moving toward a WTAJ-TV news van, where vandals were pelting it with rocks.

Step 2: So, he was driving. That's a leadership role. He wasn't just along for the ride, he provided it.

Step 3: He allowed himself to be in the crowd and moving toward vandals actively involved in mob activities.  Time to bail, but he didn’t.

To the rippling chants of "Flip it! Flip it!" two young men approached the side of the van, motioning others to join them, a video recording shows. That set off a frenzied rush toward the van, and within seconds a large group started to push.

A second wave of spectators then pressed toward the front of the van, perhaps to get a better view. Strine and Assainte were in the front of that group.

With the vehicle already on two wheels and going over, Strine placed his palms on the hood. Four seconds later, the van was on its side. But that's all it took for police and prosecutors to charge him with felony counts of riot and criminal mischief - the same charges filed against students who did the actual pushing.

He was there, he took part.  Solid case.  He could have backed out, backed away, dropped to the ground and rolled away, but he didn’t.

"I always felt I was on a good path, and all the sudden I'm being made into a criminal. It was shocking to me they wouldn't even hear me out and let me explain that yes, I was there and shouldn't have been, but I wasn't this person they are making me out to be," Strine said. "No one ever looked at me as an individual. They looked at me as 5,000 Penn State rioters."

Of course they didn’t listen to you.  The nation is watching Penn State and shaking its head as its beloved coach is shown to have sold out the safety of a series of boys, over the course of years, all for Penn State football brand solidity.  That’s an ugly fact, and what do you think Penn State and the local authorities are going to do with anyone who is making this horrible situation worse?  They’re going to crucify you, classic transference.  Welcome to truly adult realities, chief.

Terrified of being branded a felon, Strine agreed to plead guilty to reduced misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and criminal mischief. He served 30 days in jail - getting out Aug. 4 - and will either be on parole or probation until 2015.

The consequences didn't end there. Penn State suspended Strine for a semester, and he was booted from ROTC and will have to repay every dime of his scholarship money, a total of $34,000. He also owes $8,500 in court costs, fines and restitution.

Ouch.

Strine said he knows he never should have left his apartment that night, never should have been in the vicinity of the van, never should have laid a finger on its hood.

But he did.  That’s a fact, and he got busted for it.

"The van was already going over. It was so crazy, it was mayhem, and in that moment you stop thinking," Strine said. "I know I wasn't completely blameless. I was there, I touched the van and that was wrong. That's why I was happy to do community service for Penn State. But the criminal justice system went overboard."

No, they made an example out of you and the others.  They took out their impotence in the face of Sandusky’s and Paterno’s and the university’s undeniable crimes on you and the others.  This was the only way they could hit back, and hit they have.

His father said he's not seeking to minimize or excuse Justin's involvement, but contended the district attorney's office was far too aggressive - and his son's punishment far too severe.
"He owns something in this," Jim Strine said. "He just doesn't own what he's got."

No, he owns it completely.

Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller did not return multiple calls and emails seeking information about her office's handling of Strine's case or the other riot cases.
Messages left with State College police Chief Tom King were not returned.

Lt. Col. Ken Weiland, commander of Penn State's Army ROTC program, declined to comment Monday on Strine's removal from the program but cited military regulations that list a multitude of reasons why a cadet could be kicked out.

I was an ROTC scholarship student, way back in the 80s, and it was always clear to me what you could do and couldn’t do.  And getting involved in a riot was a pretty clear no-no.

Powers, the Penn State spokeswoman, said any student who goes through the university disciplinary process can contest the charges or sanctions.

"Justin accepted responsibility and the sanctions in the disciplinary conference, and did not contest them through either avenue that was afforded to him," she said, adding that Penn State carefully assessed each student's culpability, the impact of the crime on the community, and other factors before imposing punishment.

Strine said he didn't contest the charges because he wouldn't have been permitted an attorney, and his testimony before the school could have been used against him in the criminal courts. He didn't challenge the sanctions because Penn State warned him that if he did, he could wind up being penalized more severely. And he said he was never told that a suspension would cost him his spot in ROTC.

Yeah, it sounds like a raw deal, and likely was set up intentionally to be a raw deal, to boof him either way he went.  That’s life, though, and Justin made decisions.  Them’s the breaks.  Don’t complain about decisions you made after the fact.

Assainte, who was with Strine during the riot, said he had no criminal intent that night. She said he got a raw deal.

Sure, he didn’t intend to get involved in a riot, but left his home, drove his own car with others, and worked his way to the front of the group.  He did that.

"I remember him saying, 'All I wanted to do was serve my country, and now I can't because of one little mistake that was caught on tape.' One lapse of judgment and he gets all this thrown at him? I felt so awful," she said. "I just think what happened was really, really unfair."

One little mistake is tripping and breaking a chair at a house party.  This was a very large, very public mistake, which took place in the context of a national scandal involving massive institutions and hundreds of millions of dollars of campus revenue.  Little people get mowed down when the giants duke it out, and Justin was a very little person in this context.  And he got mowed right on down.