If you see this face in a personal ad, do what she did — run away!

     In case you were dead between April 26th and May 13th of 2005, I’ll recap.

     Duluth, Georgia resident, Jennifer “Deer in Headlights” Wilbanks (pictured above), was about to get married to her fiance, John Mason, in a lavish wedding of nearly seven hundred guests and attendants.
     However, shortly before she was to make the final leap to becoming Jennifer “Dear in Headlights” Mason, she decided to put on some sweats and go for a jog. By the way, do you know that some people are having a problem with excessive sweat? Good thing, there’s an Ultrasound therapy for it.   When she didn’t come back, everyone was worried.
     It made headlines immediately, the picture above being plastered all over every Newspaper, television channel and telephone pole in the continental United States.  Some Media asshats even went so far as to attempt to turn John Mason into another Scott Peterson — viciously accusing him of foul play in the disappearance.  
     The exhaustive search by authorities, family, friends and concerned citizens turned up nothing.  But four days later on April 30th, Jennifer called from a pay phone at a 7-11 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  She claimed to have been abducted against her will by a man and woman in a van, and that she had been sexually assaulted by the couple.
     Of course, none of that was true, as it turned out.  She’d simply run away, citing that she “needed some time alone.”  She also expressed amazement, saying she didn’t think anyone would be looking for her.

     As a fitting retort, Fox News had a nice little tidbit…

Ryan Kelly, owner of the Park Cafe, an eatery a few blocks from Wilbanks’ house that gave out coffee and sandwiches to searchers, said he was glad Wilbanks was alive and healthy.

“But that being said, this is one of the most selfish and self-centered acts I’ve ever seen. We saw her parents, and you could see the anguish in their eyes. It was terrible,” he said.

“I don’t care where you are — unless you’re in the Amazon rain forest, you’d know everybody was out looking for you.”

     Aside from ruining a wedding of nearly seven hundred people, Wilbanks exhausted State and Federal resources looking for her.  She caused her fiance considerable pain and suffering not only in disappearing and his fearing the worst, but he also had to put up with a Media Hell-bent on trying to pin him as a murderer.  The poor guy also ended up looking a fool for his tearful plea for her safe return.  She exhausted the time, money and resources of citizens groups who assisted in the search.  She wasted the Media’s time, in fact, and we all know what they charge to run a commercial.

     John Mason, however, stayed with her.  Well, for another year, anyway.  They finally broke up in May 2006.

     But in an interesting twist, it was revealed publicly yesterday that Wilbanks was suing Mr. Mason for $500,000.  Regan Media, who bought the rights to the “Runaway Bride” story, gave Mason $500,000.  He bought a house with it.  And, of course, in May, he kicked her out.
     But why did he get the money from Reagan Media instead of her?  Well, while Wilbanks was undergoing therapy (for being — in addition to stupid, selfish and a witch with a capital B — clinically nutso), she made another idiotic move — she made Mason, the guy whose life she turned upside down, her Power of Attorney.
     So now she’s suing for half the money, and another “$250,000 in punitive damages.”  She was even brazen enough to call Mason “overly litigous.”  And still complaining that he hasn’t returned a few wedding gifts — which she apparently used.

     Maybe I’m just mean … but at least $250,000 of that seems entirely frivolous.  As for the other half, there’s a bit of an argument for, too.
     Quite honestly, a ruined wedding of nearly seven hundred people isn’t cheap.  Neither is getting your story front page all over the country.  Nor stopping your entire life.  Nor hiring private investigators.  Nor him paying for her “medical care” over the last year.  Nor…
     And in the long run, surely there’s a cost for him … I mean, the mental anguish of it, being accused of murder, made to look like a fool, putting up with her dumb ass for the next year…
     Get the idea?

     “Overly litigous,” indeed …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD5ikU6-mDA

     Media has reported over and over that the Flag Protection Amendment passed by the House and faces an “uphill battle in the Senate.”  They’ve claimed that this bill seeks to amend the Constitution and ban the burning of the US Flag.
     This is yet another load of horse-puckey by a media who are too stupid and lazy to investigate facts or give fair and balanced opinion about anything.

     Senate Joint Resolution 12 is a very simple, seventeen word statement:

The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.

     This amendment only gets rid of the Constitutional hurdle which has prevented Congress from passing anti-Flag Burning legislation before.  It doesn’t make anything illegal.
     Senators and Legislators who have come on Television decrying the Resolution simply have not read it.
     There is also a widespread belief that this is a Republican supported bill, which also cannot be further from the truth.  As it stands, it is a purely bipartisan measure, with as many people decrying it on either side of the political fence.

     Basically what we’ve ended up with is yet another bullshit stall tactic, where Congress is attempting to give itself a little more power, and wasting a lot of money and air time, when they’re not actually doing anything.  They’ve just secured their seats, and given themselves the power to debate another hot-button issue, which will most assuredly fail over and over again anyway.

     Swanky pointed out two polarized views about the flag.  Some people see it as a symbol of our Freedom and Democracy.  Others see it as reminder of the people who died to protect our Freedom and Democracy.  It’s both: Thirteen stripes representing the original colonies, alternating White for our innocence and purity and Red for the blood of those fought defending it, and a field of Blue with Stars to represent our fifty states in a night-time constellation.  I don’t foresee myself ever burning a flag.  But it’s good to live in a country that would allow me to do it.

     But… all this talk about Flag Burning is secondary to the real issue.
     This is a test case, where Congress is attempting to remove a legal barrier mandated by the Supreme Court and see if anyone will notice.  If successful, it opens the door for them to do it a few more times for good measure!
     Thus, I am firmly against the Resolution.  I’m firmly against Congress dictating its own power, and have nothing but contempt when they attempt to pass legislation for no other reason than to give themselves more things to do in the future.  It’s a waste of time and money that could be better spent fixing things that are actually wrong.

Former Tennessee Highway Patrol Lieutenant C. B. Farmer’s story, alleging that he was fired in 2004 due to his family supporting Republican candidates, has finally hit the spotlight.

“The gist of my story was I was run out of the highway patrol,” former THP Lt. Charles B. Farmer said.

Appearing with his representative from one of the law offices in Slidell LA, Farmer presented supporting documents to the committee which is investigating claims of cronyism in the department. Among them were contribution disclosures showing how much Farmer’s wife and father-in-law had donated to Republican candidates in the 2002 statewide election.

State Sen. Jamie Woodson, R-Knoxville, asked Farmer about a transcript of a recorded conversation the former trooper had with a superior. According to the transcript, Farmer allegedly asked the superior if Farmer should have given $1,000 to a Democrat.

“Maybe you should have,” Woodson read from the transcript.

“Obviously, this conversation is disturbing to me. This is infuriating,” the senator said.

Farmer told the committee he had never received a low score on any of his performance evaluations in 20 years, but in 2003 the same superior officer who he alleges berated him for his political contributions gave him a low score.

Prior to his termination, he was assigned permanently to the midnight shift, Farmer told the committee.

“It was harassment,” said Farmer’s attorney, Arthur Knight of Knoxville.

Farmer, now working for a Knoxville mortgage company, said his dismissal from the THP was a blow that has left him teetering on bankruptcy and has weakened his marriage. He said the state must find a way to remove politics from trooper selections and promotions.

This is after repeated uproar within the THP over the last few months, as Governor Phil Bredesen crusades to end cronyism and corruption within this, and many other, departments of the state government. In recent month all over Tennessee, Police Departments have felt the sharp slap of the upper hand, with many long-time public figures being precipitately replaced.

From the Tennesseean:

Two-thirds of Tennessee Highway Patrol officers tapped for promotion under Gov. Phil Bredesen gave money to his campaign or had family or political patrons who did, a Tennessean investigation has found.

Among those with such connections, more than half were promoted over troopers who scored better on impartial exams or rankings, according to an analysis by the newspaper of three years of the patrol’s promotions and proposed promotions.

Of course, with Governor Bredesen being a Democrat, and his new regime inside the THP having a habit of giving people poor evaluations for being Republicans, it certainly seems to throw a few rocks at the glass house of “ethical government,” doesn’t it?

A Nashville-area man was arrested for felony reckless endangerment, but not because he was intoxicated:

A Rutherford County deputy says he stopped a man who was driving erratically on Route 840 and may have found the reason for his distraction.

The officer says David Kennedy of Old Hickory in neighboring Davidson County had several pornographic magazines on the seat next to him. He charged the 33-year-old Kennedy with felony reckless endangerment.

A woman who reported Kennedy nearly ran her off the road several times Friday called police, then followed Kennedy to the Rutherford-Wilson County line where Deputy Tony Hall arrested him.

The old drinking rule definitely applies: if you can’t walk, definitely don’t get behind the wheel.

This incident makes it clear that there are other things unsafe to do while driving than talking on a cell phone…

According to a Reuters news report from early this morning, a 20-year-old German child-porn offender surrendered to Police after getting one of those annoying, fake e-mails from the Sober.Y virus. The message clearly stated that he was being investigated by the German Federal Criminal Police Office, and scared him badly enough that he decided to just go ahead, confess, and turn himself in.

Quoth a spokesman from the Paderborn police: “It just goes to show that computer worms aren’t always destructive … Here it helped us to uncover a crime which would otherwise probably have gone undetected.”

Of course, he failed to mention that blatent stupidity and severe paranoia played the biggest part. Yay!