TinyMUD Classic is up for Brigadoon Day 34, yay. Sorry, still trying to get a consistent working web interface up and going, chaos on my end has caused no end of problems. For now you'll have to connect the old-fashioned way by pointing a mudclient at muds.toccobrator.com 4201.
It's August 20 again which means it's time to bring up TinyMUD Classic for Brigadoon Day 31: Not Canceled By COVID. New this year is an experimental web interface, so you don't need anything but your browser to come check in on Classic: http://adrick.dynu.net:8000/classic
Almost forgot: I managed to get through jury duty last week and the week before without getting called. In these trying times of crisis and universal brouhaha, to quote Mr. Lehrer, we need to celebrate the small victories.
Courtesy of reason.com come these three tales of complete idiocy:
First, in Iowa, a room-temperature IQ prosecutor has charged a 14-year-old girl with sexual exploitation for taking pictures of herself-- pictures that would be able to be broadcast on TV:
A 14-year-old Iowa girl, "Nancy Doe," is facing sexual exploitation charges for taking two sexy pictures of a minor and texting them to a boy at school.
The minor in question is Doe, which means the Marion County prosecutor has essentially threatened to brand her a sex offender for taking and sending pictures of her own body.
Making matters significantly worse, the pictures in question can hardly be described as child pornography, Doe's family argues in its lawsuit against Marion County Attorney Ed Bull. In one photo, she was wearing boy shorts and a sports bra. In the other, she had removed the bra but her hair was fully covering her breasts.
Doe's own parents described the pictures as "less 'racy' than photographs they see in fashion magazines and on television every day." They wonder if she could have been prosecuted for taking a picture of herself in her swimsuit—such a picture would have probably been even more revealing than the alleged 'sexts.'
At least the parents are standing up against this and suing the douchebag.
Second, in North Carolina a black man was arrested for the horrific crime of sitting on his mother's porch:
The encounter between Travis Cole, a white police officer, and Dejuan Yourse, a black man sitting on the porch of his mother's house in Greensboro, North Carolina, starts calm and friendly but ends with Yourse lying face down on the front lawn, restrained by handcuffs and Cole's knee on his shoulder, complaining that "you tried to beat my ass for real." The senseless escalation of the interaction between Cole and Yourse illustrates how even seemingly mild-mannered cops can be clueless about the indignities they are inflicting on innocent people yet supersensitive to any perceived questioning of their authority. That double standard is compounded by a legal system that fails to hold cops responsible for the crimes they commit when they make bogus arrests.
In the 16-minute body camera video of the incident, which happened last June, it is easy to identify the point at which things start to go south: about eight minutes after Cole arrives with another officer, C.N. Jackson, in response to a report of a possible attempted burglary. That is when Cole pokes Yourse in the chest and orders him to sit back down. Yourse, who has repeatedly suggested that a neighbor named Charlie can verify his identity, is heading for Charlie's house when Cole makes it clear he is not free to go.
Yourse has not done anything illegal, and at no point during the encounter does Cole or Jackson seem to think he might actually be a burglar. "Usually if someone is trying to break into a house, they're not gonna sit on the porch" in broad daylight, Cole notes, and as Yourse points out, "the address is on my ID." Cole says he believes Yourse when he says he is "just sitting here, chillin', waiting on my Moms," who has the key to the house. Cole even speculates that "somebody outside the cul-de-sac" must have called the police, since anyone who lived nearby would have recognized Yourse. Although Yourse's mother is not answering her cellphone, Cole says it's not necessary to bother the neighbors. "I believe you," he says. "You have your ID. You told me your name. It matches up."
Yet Cole stays and continues to grill Yourse—about his prison tattoos, his possible outstanding warrants (Yourse says he has none), even the pronunciation of his last name. Yourse tolerates it all with a smile. But after Cole prevents him from leaving the porch, he starts to show his irritation. "Why are you doing this?" he asks. "Why are you talking to me like that?" Cole seems genuinely puzzled by Yourse's anger at being treated like an intruder on the porch of the house where he grew up. "Dejuan, relax," he says. "What's going on? I didn't do nothing." Yourse responds, "I didn't do nothing either." Cole wonders why "you seem a little animated," as if there must be some explanation other than the treatment he is receiving from Cole. "I'm just trying to prove to you I live here," Yourse says, "and you start looking at me like I'm lying." He says he is upset because "a cop is on me in my own house, and I ain't did nothing."
All the charges were dropped, because the prosecutor actually had spare neurons to rub together.
Third, a Columbia University student, now that he has graduated, tells the story about how he was reported to the university's "Gender-Based Misconduct Office" for the horribly offensive crime of calling himself handsome:
You would think students instructed to report to the Gender-Based Misconduct Office had committed serious transgressions. Its name conjures images of creepy guys harassing and violating women.
Columbia University graduate Benjamin Sweetwood claims he did nothing of the sort. He got in trouble for doing something completely inoffensive: he referred to himself as handsome in a class.
"Now I've graduated from Columbia University, I am finally ready to reveal a dark and shameful secret I have kept buried for almost two years," writes Sweetwood in a recent article about his experience. "I, Ben Sweetwood, committed 'gender misconduct' while a student at the above mentioned institution of higher learning."
According to Sweetwood, the incident happened in his Chinese class. He was supposed to say something in Chinese, and that's what he picked. The professor later told him she thought it was a funny remark, but one student had complained. That was just the beginning:
Later that day, my advising dean emailed me to say, "The University's Gender-Based Misconduct Office contacted us because they received a complaint about your behavior towards your Elementary Chinese II professor. It is important we meet to discuss this as soon as possible." I responded in a defiant tone, denying any wrongdoing, though I agreed to meet the next day.
Then again, Columbia is where Mattress Girl was able to slander another student with impunity, so they're a known offender of logic and rationality.
So I bought a used cd off amazon, listed in "good" condition, mostly because no new ones were listed. Total cost: $4.20, including free prime shipping.
What arrives in the mail? A cd still in its original intact shrinkwrapping.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a piece of fiction. All attributed quotes are fabricated, and this should not be interpreted as any type of threat whatsoever.
July 8 (AP) -- The Presidential race is in a state of chaos just weeks before the Republican and Democratic National Conventions after the deaths this week of both parties' presumptive nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Hillary Clinton died this morning in a Miami hospital after suffering a stroke following a fundraising speech Wednesday night in Fort Lauderdale. Yesterday evening, paramedics were called to the Trump Tower after Donald Trump collapsed due to a heart attack. He was pronounced dead two hours later at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Funeral services have not been announced for either.
In a press conference this afternoon, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said, "This is why we hold conventions, to handle contingencies such as this. I have confidence that our delegates will choose a candidate that represents the Republican Party well and is capable of winning in November." Earlier, he called several former candidates to gauge their interest in the now-wide open convention, including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, and Jeb Bush.
On the GOP side, all of the former candidates have been tight-lipped about their prospects and the death of Donald Trump; not surprisingly since all of them are interested in gaining the support of Trump's supporters, and Donald Trump had insulted all of them on the campaign trail at one point or another. Ted Cruz tweeted a simple "Rest in peace, Donald Trump.", while Marco Rubio tweeted "Sympathies to Donald Trump's family in this dark hour for them."
Pundits, however, were all too eager to fill up that space. Charles Krauthammer opined "You have to think that Ted Cruz is the favorite at the GOP convention; he spent a lot of effort to get delegates favorable to him selected for the convention, back when it looked like he might be able to hold Trump to less than 1237", while Bill Kristol said "You can't really blame Ted Cruz for not having a lot to say about Donald Trump's death; the man insulted his wife and said his father helped kill JFK. It's not his style, but he would have been well within his rights to tweet out the clip of Jack Nicholson's Joker saying 'I'm glad he's dead'."
In comparison, Donald Trump's final tweet yesterday afternoon, just a couple of hours before his death, read "It won't matter which loser the Democrats run against me, I'm going to Win and we'll MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!".
On the Democratic side, President Obama released a statement this morning: "Hillary Clinton broke down barriers all her life. No other First Lady has ever been elected to Congress or served as a Secretary in the Executive branch. She will be missed." Rumors have been swirling of Vice President Joe Biden hastily trying to assemble a campaign team together, even before Hillary Clinton's passing this morning. Bernie Sanders released a brief statement saying "Given that I'm the only candidate to have been voted on through all the primaries, it would not be fair to the millions of voters that voted for me for the party to pick someone that hasn't been part of the nomination process." Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz refused to take sides, saying "I don't know what's going to happen. We'll figure it out at the convention."
The reaction of the pundits to the situation that the Democrats are in has been mixed. Juan Williams said "Joe Biden needs to start making the case right away that he's the best option for the Democrats to win in November. The delegates don't want to go full Bernie, but if Joe doesn't make his case, they may feel they have no choice." James Carville said "It will be interesting to see if Elizabeth Warren tries to step into the ring now with Hillary's absence; she's the only one other than Biden and Sanders that has enough national stature to make a case to the delegates for the nomination."
One delegate to the Democratic National Convention, who agreed to go on the record as long as their name was not used, was less optimistic. "Most of the delegates don't want to go full Bern, but what's our other option? The Democratic version of Jerry Ford?", referring to Vice-President Biden. In contrast, a Republican delegate, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said "It's a good thing that Trump died before the convention instead of after. Can you imagine us all trying to support the presidential campaign of Bob Corker? It would have been a bigger disaster than Trump's campaign was."
