Welcome to Massachusetts...

...our political process is a joke.

If you didn't hear (because you're deaf) Senator Ted Kennedy died a few weeks ago. After his wake and funeral were treated with more ostentation than a Papal visit, a debate was sparked around who would temporarily fill the Senator's seat in Congress. In most other states, the Governor appoints an interim Senator, which is fine, we had that rule until there was a (gasp) Republican governor and the possibility of a Senate seat opening up due to Senator Kerry's presidential run. The state legislature scrambled to change the rule so the seat was filled through a special election instead of Gubernatorial appointment. Then, a Senate seat actually did open up, but (thankfully) there was a Democratic governor, so they changed the rule back.

...and this is why Massachusetts is backwards and why the government should never be involved in any decision ever. What we are dealing with is a cadre of power brokers determined to keep Mass. in a liberal backwoods. A state legislature that would strip the people of a power it granted to them because it was convenient for their ideological goals is both unbelievable and unsurprising at the same time. I think there is a saying that goes something like what is the difference between politicians and mobsters; mobsters do their business in private.

This situation is travesty on many levels. Not only did we elect people who would counter- intuitively take more of your money in a down economy (they raised the sales tax), but would grant and deny people voting rights at their political whim. If that isn't bad enough, the complete lack of shame at their blatantly obvious lack of respect for precedent, principals, or the will of the people is appalling. It would sicken me more if I weren't adrift on a sea of apathy with a strong Democratic current which we call Massachusetts.

But, nobody cares, I'm tired of screaming at people that they should be pissed at this. Hopefully one day I will wake up and people will realize the best politician is the one who doesn't want to be one. F'n Mass, New Hampshire looks better everyday.

-K

P.S. Ted Kennedy drove a car over a bridge with a female passenger in it (that he was probably trying to bang), he escaped, she didn't. He didn't tell the police about it until the next morning.

Billy Bulger's brother, Whitey, lead a life of crime that ultimately landed him on the FBI's 10 most wanted list (at one point higher than Bin Laden).

Both of these men were re-elected for decades in Massachusetts.

This is what I am dealing with. Both of these men had their demons, but tried to do a lot of good with their positions, which is laudable, but multi-decade appointments. WAKE UP MASS! Do you want to live in a country where an incumbent Senator has f'n die to be replaced.

Traffic

If your cardiovascular system was designed the way the Greater Boston area's roads were, you would have had the sweet release of death you crave while waiting in traffic many years ago.


Seriously Boston, all of the highways bottleneck coming into the city; that's the opposite of sense. Why would you try to clog all of the roadways that lead to the central hub of the region? Route 93 goes down to 2(!) lanes - if you exclude exit only lanes - in the middle of the god damn city and the speed limit drops to 35 at one point in the Ted Williams tunnel. Thirty f'n five, what kind of major thruway is two lanes with a 35 mph speed limit. If your Aorta was designed this way you would drop dead from an aneurysm.

Your argument could be they are making the most with what they have, but after $22 Billion for the Big Dig, I would like to traverse 93 at highway speed all the way through the city.

Side Note: If I see one more story in the Metro about bicycle advocates trying make Boston more bike friendly, I am going to take a bulldozer to any bike rack I see. We need to get these people off the streets. It is already bad enough cyclists have a day each year where they can ride around mob style and motorists don't have a day where they can run them over.

-K

It's Official...

We have murdered Italian food.

Dunkin' Donuts has released a chicken parmesan flatbread sandwich that has completed the recipe's journey from classic Italian cuisine to pure unadulterated American bastardization. If a real Italian person saw this, I think he would spit on it before breaking down into tears. I imagine him having a feeling reminiscent of the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He sees the chicken parm as a shell of its former shelf and buys one just to throw it out and then hurls a water fountain through the wall to escape DDs.

RIP Chicken Parm

-K

Triple Your Money In 90 Days!

Silly Mormons. You got tricked by a Nigerian-born confidence man...and it wasn't even the Prince who is in jail. I mean who wouldn't believe that a record producer from California needs millions of dollars to broker a deal of 20,000 tons of gold (more than double the US reserve, the biggest in the world) between a group of Israelis and some Arab buyers.

Oh it gets better:

Jones was more flamboyant than either Simburg, who lived in a bungalow near the Los Angeles airport, or Jennings, who had a small house in Perris, 70 miles east of the city. He used investor money to buy a $1.5 million home in Marina del Rey and a $277,000 Ferrari Spider for his wife, according to court- appointed receiver Richard Weissman.

He showed up for meetings in a chauffeur-driven limousine wearing loud, custom-made suits and a bowler hat, at times bringing his wife, Yekaterina Jones, an aspiring singer and Russian model, says a person who met with him on several occasions.

So, the Mormons finally smarten up and confront the scam artist Mormon-style:

Several of them, angry about the repeated delays, confronted Simburg and Jones in Los Angeles on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 1, 2004, according to Craig Mason, the lead FBI agent on the case. Jones had told them he couldn’t meet because he was in Europe, Mason says. When they went to the office of his music company, Marina Investors Group Inc., they found him hiding under a desk.

Three days later, Jones said on a conference call, according to a transcript of the meeting, that he had concealed his whereabouts because he was being shadowed by “men in white trousers circling the building in odd hours of the night.” If investors gave him a little more time, Jones said on the call, he would provide proof that the gold deal was about to succeed.

“So we only have to wait another few hours for the documentation?” asked one investor, who wasn’t identified. “I think it’s worth our while to do that.”

You don't have to be so nice all the time Mormons. I keep picturing those Church of Latter Day Saints commercials with the little boy holding a sign that says, "That's my sister." This man is going to get me some more money so I can do the work of the Lord like when he showed up in Nevada, gee willikers. Stop falling for gold scams Mormons. First, there was Joseph Smith and his gold plates, and now Henry Jones and his gold deal. You are all so nice and naive, I don't know how you haven't been wiped off the planet yet.

Oh, the capper was when one of the guys who invested his life savings killed himself because he finally realized he got conned and Jones, the guy who conned him, asked the guy's brother to invest some more money at the funeral. He did.

-K